MAB

Iraq Inquiry bombshell: Secret letter to reveal new Blair war lies

2009-12-02T02:26:00.001+01:00

Iraq Inquiry bombshell: Secret letter to reveal new Blair war lies

By Simon Walters, Mail on Sunday Political Editor
Last updated at 1:48 AM on 29th November 2009

An explosive secret letter that exposes how Tony Blair lied over the legality of the Iraq War can be revealed.

The Chilcot Inquiry into the war will interrogate the former Prime Minister over the devastating 'smoking gun' memo, which warned him in the starkest terms the war was illegal.

The Mail on Sunday can disclose that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith wrote the letter to Mr Blair in July 2002 - a full eight months before the war - telling him that deposing Saddam Hussein was a blatant breach of international law.

It was intended to make Mr Blair call off the invasion, but he ignored it. Instead, a panicking Mr Blair issued instructions to gag Lord Goldsmith, banned him from attending Cabinet meetings and ordered a cover-up to stop the public finding out.

He even concealed the bombshell information from his own Cabinet, fearing it would spark an anti-war revolt. The only people he told were a handful of cronies who were sworn to secrecy.

Lord Goldsmith was so furious at his treatment he threatened to resign - and lost three stone as Mr Blair and his cronies bullied him into backing down.

Sources close to the peer say he was 'more or less pinned to the wall' in a Downing Street showdown with two of Mr Blair's most loyal aides, Lord Falconer and Baroness Morgan.

The revelations follow a series of testimonies by key figures at the Chilcot Inquiry who have questioned Mr Blair's judgment and honesty, and the legality of the war.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that the inquiry has been given Lord Goldsmith's explosive letter, and that Mr Blair and the peer are likely to be interrogated about it when they give evidence in the New Year.

Lord Goldsmith gave qualified legal backing to the conflict days before the war broke out in March 2003 in a brief, carefully drafted statement. As The Mail on Sunday disclosed three years ago, even that was a distortion as Lord Goldsmith had told Mr Blair a week earlier he could be breaking international law.

But today's revelations show that Lord Goldsmith told Mr Blair at the outset, and in writing, that military action against Iraq was totally illegal.

The disclosures deal a massive blow to Mr Blair's hopes of proving he acted in good faith when he and George Bush declared war on Iraq. And they are likely to fuel further calls for Mr Blair to be charged with war crimes.

Lord Goldsmith's 'smoking gun' letter came six days after a Cabinet meeting on July 23, 2002, at which Ministers were secretly told that the US and UK were set on 'regime change' in Iraq.

The peer, who attended the meeting, was horrified. On July 29, he wrote to Mr Blair on a single side of A4 headed notepaper from his office.

Friends say it was no easy thing for him to do. He was a close friend of Mr Blair, who gave him his peerage and Cabinet post. The typed letter was addressed by hand, 'Dear Tony', and signed by hand, 'Yours, Peter'.

In it, Lord Goldsmith set out in uncompromising terms why he believed war was illegal. He pointed out that:

* War could not be justified purely on the grounds of 'regime change'.
* Although United Nations rules permitted 'military intervention on the basis of self-defence', they did not apply in this case because Britain was not under threat from Iraq.
* While the UN allowed 'humanitarian intervention' in certain instances, that too was not relevant to Iraq.
* It would be very hard to rely on earlier UN resolutions in the Nineties approving the use of force against Saddam.

Lord Goldsmith ended his letter by saying 'the situation might change' - although in legal terms, it never did.

The letter caused pandemonium in Downing Street. Mr Blair was furious. No10 told Lord Goldsmith he should never have put his views on paper, and he was not to do so again unless told to by Mr Blair.

The reason was simple: if it became public, Lord Goldsmith's letter could make it impossible for Mr Blair to fulfil his secret pledge to back Mr Bush in any circumstances. More importantly, it could never be expunged from the record as copies were stored in No10 and in the Attorney General's office.

Although Lord Goldsmith had Cabinet status, he attended meetings only when asked. After his letter, he barely attended another meeting until the eve of the war. Mr Blair kept him out to reduce the chance of him blurting out his views to other Ministers.

When Mr Blair is quizzed by the Chilcot Inquiry, he will be asked why he never admitted he was told from the start that the war was illegal.

Equally ominously for Mr Blair, a defiant Lord Goldsmith is ready to defend the letter when he appears before the inquiry. Friends of the peer, widely derided for his role in the Iraq War, believe it will vindicate him.

A source close to Lord Goldsmith said: 'He assumed, perhaps naively, that Blair wanted a proper legal assessment. No10 went berserk because they knew that once he had put it in writing, it could not be unsaid.

'They liked to do things with no note-takers, and often no officials, present. That way, there was no record. Everything could be denied.

'Goldsmith threatened to resign at least once. He lost three stone in that period. He is an honourable man and it was a terribly stressful experience.'

Lord Goldsmith's wife Joy, a prominent figure in New Labour dining circles, played a crucial role in talking him out of quitting.

'Joy was always very ambitious on Peter's behalf and did not want to see him throw it all away,' said a source.

Lord Goldsmith's letter contradicts Mr Blair's repeated statements, before, during and after the war on its legality.

In April 2005, the BBC's Jeremy Paxman repeatedly asked him if he had seen confidential Foreign Office advice that the war would be illegal without specific UN support.

Mr Blair said: 'No. I had the Attorney General's advice to guide me.' At best, it was dissembling. At worst, it was a blatant lie.

Mr Blair knew all along that Lord Goldsmith had told him the war was illegal, and that when the peer finally gave it his cautious backing, he did so only under extreme duress.

The Mail on Sunday has also obtained new evidence about the way Lord Goldsmith was bullied into backing the war at the 11th hour.

He was summoned to a No10 meeting with Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Baroness Sally Morgan, Mr Blair's senior Labour 'fixer' in Downing Street. No officials were present.

A source said: 'Falconer and Morgan performed a pincer movement on Goldsmith. They more or less pinned him up against the wall and told him to do what Blair wanted.'

After the meeting, Lord Goldsmith issued his brief statement stating the war was lawful.

Lord Falconer said in response to the latest revelations: 'This version of events is totally false. The meeting was Lord Goldsmith's suggestion and he told us what his view was.'

Baroness Morgan has also denied trying to pressure Lord Goldsmith.

The legal row came to a head days before the war, when the UN refused to approve military action. Stranded, Mr Blair had to win Lord Goldsmith's legal backing, not least because British military chiefs refused to send troops into action without it.

On March 17, three days before the conflict started, Lord Goldsmith said the war was legal on the basis of previous UN resolutions threatening action against Saddam - even though in his secret letter of July 2002, he had ruled out this argument.

A spokesman for Lord Goldsmith said: 'This letter is probably in the bundle that has been supplied to the inquiry by the Attorney General's department. It is presumed they will want to discuss it with him. If so, Lord Goldsmith is content to do so.

'His focus is on the legality of the war, its morality is for others.'

A spokesman for the Chilcot Inquiry said: 'We are content we have obtained all the relevant documents.'

A spokesman for Mr Blair refused to say why the former Prime Minister had not disclosed Lord Goldsmith's July 2002 letter.

'The Attorney General set out the legal basis for action in Iraq in March 2003,' he said. 'Beyond that, we are not getting into a running commentary before Mr Blair appears in front of the Chilcot committee.'

Leading international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands said: 'The Chilcot Inquiry must make Lord Goldsmith's note of 29 July, 2002, publicly available to restore public confidence in the Government.'

Diary of deceit ... and how the Attorney General lost three stone

2002

April 6: Blair meets Bush at Crawford, Texas. They secretly agree 'regime change' war against Iraq.

July 23: Blair tells secret Cabinet meeting of war plan. Goldsmith is asked to check legal position.

July 24: Blair tells MPs: 'We have not got to the stage of military action...or point of decision.'

July 29: Goldsmith secretly writes to Blair to tell him war is illegal.

July 30: No10 rebukes Goldsmith. He is excluded from most War Cabinet meetings.

November 8: UN urges Saddam to disarm, but stops short of backing war.

2003

March 7: Despite duress from No10, Goldsmith tells Blair war could be unlawful.

March 13: Goldsmith is allegedly 'pinned against wall' by Blair cronies Charlie Falconer and Sally Morgan.

March 17: UN rules out backing war.

March 17: Goldsmith U-turn. In carefully worded brief 'summary', he says war is lawful.

March 20: War begins.

2005

April 21: Jeremy Paxman asks Blair if he saw Foreign Office advice saying war was illegal. Blair says: 'No. I had Lord Goldsmith's advice to guide me.'

April 24: Mail on Sunday reveals Goldsmith told Blair two weeks before war that it could be illegal.

2009

November 24: Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry begins.

Today: Mail on Sunday reveals Goldsmith's 'smoking gun' letter to Blair in July 2002.

Blair 'knew WMD claim was false'

By the time Tony Blair led Britain to attack Iraq, he had stopped believing his own lurid claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, according to an unpublished interview with the late Robin Cook, the former Leader of the Commons who resigned from the Cabinet just before the invasion in March 2003.

In the interview, which Cook gave me in 2004, the year before his death, he described Blair's actions as 'a scandalous manipulation of the British constitution', adding that if the then Prime Minister had revealed his doubts, they would have rendered the war illegal.

Cook, who was in almost daily contact with Blair in the months before his resignation, said that in September 2002, when the Government published its infamous dossier claiming Saddam had tried to buy uranium for nuclear weapons and could deploy WMDs within 45 minutes, Blair did believe these claims were true. But he added:

'By February or March, he knew it was wrong. As far as I know, at no point after the end of 2002 did he ever repeat those claims.'

On March 18, Blair had to face the Commons to ask it to vote for war but he knew, Cook added, 'that if he now publicly withdrew the dossier's claims, his position would be lost'.

Therefore Blair kept silent and so secured the war resolution, though 139 Labour MPs voted against him.

Cook added that if Blair had revealed his doubts, this would also have made it impossible for Lord Goldsmith to issue the fateful legal advice that Britain's Service chiefs had been demanding: that war would be lawful.

'What I've never seen satisfactorily defended by the Government is whether that opinion still stands up if the premise on which it was based - the claims in the dossier - turn out to be false,' Cook said.

'Tony didn't focus on WMDs only for political reasons, but for legal reasons. He knew he was not going to get the Attorney General on side on any basis other than that Saddam had illegal weapons and could not be disarmed by any means other than war.'

Cook's is not the only bombshell that remains unpublished. Last week, Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, told the Chilcot Inquiry that though Blair kept insisting almost to the end that 'nothing was decided' on Iraq, his decision to support the invasion actually went back to April 2002, when he visited President Bush's Texas ranch.

However, both Meyer and other British and American officials told me in 2004 that Blair made up his mind even before April and that even then, Blair was saying in private that Britain would join the attack as long as Bush got UN backing. That meant proving Saddam had active WMDs, as the UN would not authorise an attack on any other basis.

Meyer told me: 'Some time during the first quarter of 2002, Blair had become resigned to war.'

Having committed himself to war, Blair believed he had to get military action approved by the UN to make the invasion legal, and to get the support of his own party back home. But leading figures close to Bush were deeply hostile to this idea, and would have much preferred to attack unilaterally.

Perhaps the most shocking disclosures concerned Blair's propensity to bend the truth. For example, on July 26, 2002, Clare Short, then International Development Secretary, asked Blair whether war was looming.

His response was that she should go on holiday untroubled, because 'nothing had been decided, and would not be over the summer'.

In fact, at that very moment, his adviser Sir David Manning was engaged in feverish diplomacy in Washington - because although Blair thought Bush had promised to go to the UN, he seemed to be changing his mind. Manning even had a personal audience with Bush.

A few days later, Bush and Blair spoke by telephone. A senior White House official who read the transcript told me: 'The way it read was that, come what may, they were going to take out the regime. I remember reading it and thinking, "OK, now I know what we're going to be doing for the next year."'

Later, both leaders would state repeatedly that they had not decided to go to war. But the official said: 'War was avoidable only if Saddam ceased to be president of Iraq. It was a done deal.'

Yet the hawkish neo-conservatives at the Pentagon were still fighting hard to avoid the UN route, which would require a narrowing of focus on to WMDs. The crunch came at a summit at Camp David on September 7, 2002, when, most unusually, not only Bush but the neo-con vice president Dick Cheney met Blair. Cheney's role, Meyer said, was solely to try to persuade Bush not to go to the UN.

In desperation, Blair, according to another White House official, told Bush and Cheney that he could be ousted at the Labour conference later that month if Bush ignored the UN. Afterwards, the official said, he and his colleagues pored over the party's constitution, discovering that it was most unlikely that this threat would materialise.

But by then it was too late: a week after the summit, Bush spoke at the UN General Assembly, and announced America would be seeking what became Resolution 1442 - the resolution that, in Lord Goldsmith's eyes, allowed British soldiers to kill Iraqis without being prosecuted for murder.

But not all who once saw Blair as a friend have forgiven him. 'Blair was absolutely the reason why we went to the UN, because it was believed that his political fortunes absolutely demanded it,' said David Wurmser, formerly Cheney's chief Middle East adviser. 'It really was a political concession to Blair - and also a disastrous misjudgment.'

source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231746/Secret-letter-reveal-new-Blair-war-lies.html

Attack at Complex Nightclub in St. Louis

2009-12-01T22:28:00.001+01:00

Attack at Complex Nightclub in St. Louis
By 365gay Newswire

11.30.2009 11:45am EST

KSDK reported that three gay men were attacked early Saturday morning when leaving The Complex Nightclub in St. Louis.

One of the men attacked, Jacob Piwowarczyk said, “I have a soft tissue bruise on my elbow. I have six stitches in my eye and I have a mild concussion.”

Piwowarczyk recalled there were four attackers. “They came up out of the car and they start calling us faggots.”

He continued, “We kept telling them please leave us alone, we’re fine. From there, the one kid didn’t like what we told them and decided to punch me in the eye and I fell to the ground. And at that time my friend was laying on the ground and they started kicking him in the face.”

Gay rights advocates say existing state and new federal laws on hate crimes could mean harsh penalties for the attackers.

According to the Vital Voice, Missouri was one of the first states to include both sexual orientation and gender identity protections in its 1999 Hate Crimes Law.

Piwowarczyk said, “Health-wise we’re all fine. We’re just lucky to be alive. Could have turned out worse.”

KSDK also reported that the other two victims suffered a broken nose and fractured cheekbone.

The police department is still investigating.

Are We Going to Let John Die?

2009-11-29T20:01:00.000+01:00

Are We Going to Let John Die?

Health Care Reform

Unfortunately, an emergency room won’t help — indeed, the closest E.R. has told him not to come back, he says. So, for those members of Congress who are wavering on health reform, listen to John’s story.

John is a sawmill worker from Yamhill County, Ore., where I grew up. He was a foreman at a mill, he felt strong and healthy, and he had very basic insurance coverage through his job. On April 18, he was married, at age 23, and life was looking up.

Ten days after the wedding, he was walking in his backyard carrying a neighbor’s dog — and he suddenly blacked out. That led, after rounds of CAT scans, M.R.I.’s and other tests, to the discovery that the left parietal lobe of his brain has a cavernous hemangioma. That’s an abnormal growth of blood vessels, and in John’s case it is chronically leaking blood into his brain.

John began to have trouble walking and would sometimes collapse. He developed spasms and restless leg syndrome, he began to use a cane, and his mind suffered.

“He forgets stuff a lot, he bumps into things,” said his new wife, Esther Brodniak. “But he keeps things light. He jokes about it.”

Perhaps the worst is the pain — blinding, incapacitating headaches that have left him able to sleep only in short intervals. He vomits daily when the pain surges.

“The pain is constant,” John said. “It’s a 7 or 8 on a scale of 10, and then it hits the high peaks and makes me vomit.”

With John unable to work, he lost his job — and his insurance coverage. Esther had insurance for herself and for her two children (from a previous marriage) through her job building manufactured homes. But she couldn’t add John to her plan because of his pre-existing condition.

Without insurance, John has been unable to get surgery or even help managing the pain. When he collapses or suffers particularly excruciating headaches, Esther rushes him to the emergency room of one hospital or another, but an E.R. can’t do much for him. One hospital has told them not to come back unless he gets insurance, they say.

Esther used up her family leave time to look after her new husband. “Then I went back to work, and he fell several times,” she said. “I told my boss that I had to quit. Taking care of John was more important than building someone else’s house.”

That meant that the couple had no income — and no insurance for anyone in the family, including the children. Neighbors have helped, and a community program has paid the rent so that they are not homeless. But bills are piling up, and John and Esther don’t know how they will cope.

The doctors warn that pressure from the growth could lead a major blood vessel nearby to burst, killing him. “They tell me I’m a time bomb,” John said. With a touch of bitterness, he adds, “It sort of feels as if they’re playing for time to see if it bursts, to save them from doing anything.”

I’m not a physician, and I certainly can’t speak to the medical issues here. But I have examined John’s medical records, and they appear to confirm his story.

John says the principal obstacle to treatment appears to be simply his lack of insurance. In August, he qualified for an Oregon Medicaid program, but he hasn’t been able to find a doctor who will accept him as a patient for surgery, apparently because the reimbursements are so low. Doctors tell him that his condition is operable — but that they can’t accept him without conventional insurance. He is increasingly frustrated as he watches his family crushed by the burden of his illness.

“The mill won’t let me go back to work until a doctor gives me a note saying I can go back,” he said. “I tried with several doctors. I said, ‘Just give me a note. ... I’ve got to do something for my family. But they won’t.” John and Esther agreed to tell me their story in hopes that somehow it would lead to medical help.

John’s story is not so unusual. A Harvard study, to be published next month in the American Journal of Public Health, suggests that almost 45,000 Americans die prematurely each year as a consequence of not having insurance. John may become one of them.

If a senator strolled indifferently by as John retched in pain, we would think that person pitiless. But isn’t it just as monstrous for politicians to avert their eyes, make excuses and deny coverage to innumerable Americans just like John?

I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/opinion/29kristof.html?ref=opinion

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When It Comes to Enabling the Terrorism of Gun Deaths in America, No One Beats the NRA

2009-11-29T19:50:00.000+01:00

When It Comes to Enabling the Terrorism of Gun Deaths in America, No One Beats the NRA

By Mark Karlin

Did you know that the shooter at Fort Hood did not use an army issued gun? No, he bought his weapon legally at a firearms store with the name of "Guns Galore":

Law enforcement officials say a 5.7-millimeter pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting rampage was purchased legally at a Texas gun store.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5.7 at store called “Guns Galore” in Killeen, Texas, well before the attack that left 13 people dead. The pistol has been dubbed a “cop killer” by those who have tried to stop its use.

The most powerful type of ammunition for the gun is available only to law enforcement and military personnel. Gun control advocates call it a “cop killer” weapon because that ammo can pierce bulletproof vests, and its use by Mexican drug cartels worries police.

The National Rifle Association has made all this possible, including using its nearly omnipotent clout to forbid the FBI from stopping suspected terrorists from buying guns. That's right, the NRA believes people believed to possibly be terrorists have a "2nd Amendment" right to own guns!

While the right wing nut jubs revel in the politics of paraonia against anyone who is Islamic, the NRA is enabling around 10,000 gun homicides a year in the United States by good 'ole Americans. Now, that's a far larger death toll than 9/11 or Fort Hood.

The NRA represents a fanatical philosophy that is akin to the fundamentalism underlying terrorism, and -- as a result -- is our chief domestic enabler of terrorism (along with the right wing media) by making sure that guns are readily available to just about anyone with the cash to pay for them.

We have become so numb to everyday shooting deaths in America that we focus on tragic and sensational losses, such as Fort Hood, but can't see the forest through the trees. The NRA is so extremist, it even has kept a military sniper rifle on the market that can assassinate a person (public official) from nearly a mile away with accuracy. Given the heightened number of death threats against President Obama, you would think a .50 caliber sniper rifle would be banned for civilian purchase, but not with the NRA around to champion terrorist weapons. (Only the State of California bans civlians from purchasing the .50 caliber sniper rifle.)

Over Thanksgiving, I read of numerous shootings -- as is daily the case in America. There's always one or two that especially stick out, such as this massacre in Florida in which 4 members of a family were shot dead, allegedly by a cousin: "Six-year-old Makayla Sitton didn't get to act in The Nutcracker Ballet. The night before she was to go on stage, she was shot to death with three others in a home in Jupiter, Florida."

There could be effective regulation of firearms in the United States, but the NRA is more dangerous in terms of yearly homicides by resisting logical legislation than any terrorist acts we have experienced thus far in the United States.

The NRA ensures that there is a ready supply of guns that kill about 100,000 Americans in a decade in homicides, and many more in suicides and accidents.

No terrorists can match that figure, and if they tried, they would likely buy arms in the U.S., as the Fort Hood shooter did, not meant for civilian use and capable of either mass murder or an assassination.

When it comes to the terrorist watch list, the NRA -- which fans the flames of armed militia and white male paranoia in the U.S. -- should be at the top of the list.

They are primarily responsible -- along with the gun manufcaturers -- for turning America into a shooting gallery, with a mind-boggling death toll.
More:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/9917

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Facing a sixth trial for the same crime

2009-11-29T19:14:00.001+01:00

Facing a sixth trial for the same crime

By Tom Mangold
Radio 4, Crossing Continents

Curtis Flowers, a 39-year-old African-American is to stand trial for an unprecedented sixth time for the murder of four people in Mississippi in 1996. So far, two of his trials have resulted in mistrials and three in convictions that were later overturned.

James Bibbs, also an African-American, was a juror in Mr Flowers's 2008 trial, which ended in a mistrial. He was the only one of the 12 to vote against a conviction.

At the end of the trial, Mr Bibbs was hauled in front of the judge, harangued, threatened, arrested in court, led away in handcuffs, charged with perjury and spent the night in prison.

Mr Bibbs is in his early 60s. He's a retired school teacher, a Vietnam veteran, a local football referee - a patently decent man who was shocked by what had happened.

"The judge got real loud, and he said 'you are lying, you committed perjury'. I was disappointed, all these years you do all these things for the community, then you are called a liar like that out in the public, it was degrading."

The judge's outburst (the perjury charge has since been quietly dropped) came in a case that is extraordinary for many reasons.

Unprecedented

The prosecution of Curtis Flowers casts a sharp light on racial attitudes in America's South one year after the election of the nation's first black president.

He has been sentenced to death three times, only for each verdict to be overturned on appeal because of what the Mississippi Supreme Court described as prosecutorial misconduct. In one further trial, the jury failed to agree after dividing broadly on racial lines.

In the fifth trial, James Bibbs voted for acquittal, and a unanimous verdict was required.

Mr Flowers has spent 13 years on remand in prison.

The local district attorney, desperate to score a conviction in such a high-profile case, has played it dirty to win.

One of his tricks, exposed by a refreshingly impartial Mississippi Supreme Court, was to fiddle the jury selection to exclude black jurors.

Paradoxically, the DA is not generally held to be a racist himself.

Just to complicate matters even further, Curtis Flowers does have a strong case to answer.

He had a motive.

Mr Flowers had been employed by the owner of a furniture store who sacked him. There was a dispute about money owing.

Subsequently someone walked into the store, shot the owner and then coldly massacred three other employees. Mr Flowers has never produced an alibi for that terrible morning.

For his defence, the forensic evidence against him is wafer thin, and some witness evidence is contentious.

Post-racial society

The murders took place in the small town of Winona, in the heart of a state with the worst civil rights record in the US.

Winona is not far from Philadelphia, where three civil rights workers were infamously murdered in the early 60s - a story captured in the film Mississippi Burning.

The lynchings, the cross burnings, the overt violence and discrimination have long since disappeared.

But even one year after Barack Obama and the dream of a post-racial society, the Flowers case shows how short the march away from old attitudes has been.

The local state senator, Lydia Chassaniol has won few African-American hearts by introducing a bill that would widen the jury pool in such a way that critics say would make it easier to select an all-white jury.

She has joined a local chapter of the right-wing Council for Conservative Citizens and addressed their annual conference.

"I'll talk to anyone who wants me to talk to them," the senator told me, stressing her role as official tourist booster for the state.

But meet members of the council, as I did, in a modest motel outside Winona, and the nature of this rump of the red-neck, good 'ole white boys, confederate-flag-wavers is striking.

Their hatred of inter-racial marriage, homosexuals, liberals (aka communists) identifies an atavistic streak that still remains 150 years after slavery.

As one of them told me: "It's all right for them (non-whites) to practise their culture but they should not take ours away from us. We are probably the most discriminated race in the country."

Mr Flowers faces a sixth trial next June. In Britain, natural justice would have made it likely that the prosecution would be dropped after the second mistrial.

But this is Winona, Mississippi and a black man accused of a quadruple murder will not be allowed to walk away.

Black president or not, the state and its judicial servants are not ready for that yet.

Crossing Continents: Mississippi Smouldering is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, 26 November 2009 at 1100 GMT and repeated on Monday, at 2030 GMT.

You can also listen to Crossing Continents on the
or subscribe to the
.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8377236.stm

Published: 2009/11/26 13:03:46 GMT

Hitting the Brakes on Afghanistan

2009-11-29T04:04:00.001+01:00

http://www.fpif. org/fpifzines/ wb/6599

Hitting the Brakes on Afghanistan

By John Feffer
Foreign Policy in Focus: 11/23/09

Imagine finding yourself in the driver's seat of a car heading directly at a
brick wall. You panic: What to do?

Fortunately, there are three people in the car with you, and they all have
very firm advice. The person in the passenger seat tells you to push the
pedal to the metal. Right behind you in the back seat, your friend is urging
you to accelerate only modestly. And the fourth person in the car recommends
that you maintain your current speed.

You might be thinking: These are my only choices? I'll hit the brick wall
either really quickly, rather quickly, or pretty darn soon. The end result
will be the same. The car will be destroyed and all four of you will be in
the hospital.

Since these are the choices now being presented to President Barack Obama
for his Afghanistan policy, who can blame him for being slow to make up his
mind? His top general is telling him to send 40,000 troops. His vice
president is telling him to send 10-15,000 troops. And his secretary of
state and Pentagon chief are urging the middle course of 30,000 troops.

Isn't anyone out there telling the president that he has more levers at his
disposal than simply the gas pedal? Isn't anyone pointing out the obvious?

The brake, Mr. President, the brake!

Frankly, the car metaphor isn't precise. It's actually a bus heading toward
that brick wall. A really, really big bus. And we're all on board, the
entire U.S. population. The president's advisors are all clustered up at the
front. Their voices are pretty loud. But we can all make our voices heard if
we all shout together from the back of the bus.Call the White House at
202-456-1111 and keep the message simple: Don't send more troops to
Afghanistan, Mr. President.

Peace groups around the country are coordinating this call-in campaign in
these few days before Thanksgiving so that the president knows, before the
expected announcement of his Afghanistan policy next week, that there are
other choices. Here's a link to some additional talking points about
different congressional options.

"It is unlikely that we will soon have another president with the moral and
rhetorical force to talk us out of a foolish commitment that cannot be
sustained without shame and defeat," writes Garry Wills in The New York
Review of Books. "If it costs him his presidency, what other achievement can
match it? During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama said he would
rather be a one-term president than give up on his goals. Here is a goal no
other president we can imagine would have a possibility of reaching.
Presidents who just kick the can down the road are easy to come by. Lost
lives and limbs are not."

The crash can be avoided. But we must call the White House and let the
driver-in-chief know that we're here, we're clear, and we don't want this
war no more.

***

Irish Priest Admits Abusing 100 Kids

2009-11-29T03:15:00.001+01:00

Irish Priest Admits Abusing 100 Kids
By Daniel Florien on November 28, 2009

The Pope Looking EvilA new report is out showing the Most Holy Chaste Catholic Church has been covering up child sex abuse for decades:

Following a three-year investigation in the Dublin Archdiocese, the country’s largest, the report concluded that four archbishops routinely protected abusers and failed to inform police of the allegations. One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another confessed that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.

“The volume of revelations of child sexual abuse by clergy over the past 35 years or so has been described by a Church source as a ‘tsunami’ of sexual abuse,” said the report….

The judicial probe discovered that the archbishops did not report abuse to police until the 1990s as part of a culture of secrecy and to try and avoid damaging the reputation of the Church.

The report said: “All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities”.

It found children who complained “were often met with denial, arrogance and cover-up and with incompetence and incomprehension in some cases. Suspicions were rarely acted on”.

Some of my Catholic friends boycott large companies because they have donated to gay rights or pro-choice organizations. Yet they give their money and loyalty to an organization that has been abusing children and covering it up for decades (though it’s probably been more like 1,700 years). It’s mind-boggling.

source:

BBC - Prisoners Of Katrina

2009-11-29T02:51:00.000+01:00

BBC - Prisoners Of Katrina

The shot of thousands of orange-clad prisoners, murderers and rapists among them, crouching on a broken bridge, held at bay, at gunpoint by a few overstretched guards, was one of the iconic images of the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina. But who were those prisoners? ‘What about the prisoners in the jail?’ the Sheriff had been asked as city leaders ordered the people of New Orleans to flee the hurricane heading their way. “The prisoners will stay where they belong” he decided.

This is the untold story of almost 7,000 inmates, some never even charged, who found themselves in Orleans Parish Prison as it flooded. A year after the hurricane, find out what happened inside the jail as panicked inmates, left without food or water, rioted and broke out. Olenka Frenkiel reports on a justice system, already near to collapse - and on its final tipping point - Katrina.

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/313563503/Prisoners.Of.Katrina.XviD.avi.001
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UN DAILY NEWS from the UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE 28 November, 2008

2008-11-29T01:32:00.000+01:00

UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
28 November, 2008 =========================================================================

DOHA FORUM CRUCIAL TO CRAFTING GLOBAL RESPONSE TO FINANCIAL CRISIS – BAN

A United Nations conference set to begin tomorrow in Doha provides a vital opportunity to plan a globally coordinated response to the financial crisis to ensure the well-being of millions worldwide, especially the poor, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today.

Such a response “can protect developing countries, underpin our drive to a green economy, and stimulate a commitment to a renewed multilateralism,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in the Qatari capital on the eve of the Review Conference on Financing for Development.

The four-day meeting will focus on ensuring sufficient financing to meet key development goals amid mounting concern about the impact of the current global economic slowdown on poor nations.

“The Doha conference is crucially important for the well-being of people everywhere,” added the Secretary-General, who held a closed discussion attended by about 30 delegations, including 10 Heads of State, government and international agencies, on the implications of the financial crisis.

“It is also very timely, falling just two weeks after the emergency G-20 summit on the financial crisis,” he said, referring to the meeting in Washington on 15 November of the leaders of the so-called Group of 20 nations, aimed at promoting dialogue between advanced and emerging countries on key issues regarding economic growth and stability of the financial system.

One of the main goals of today’s discussion, and of the conference beginning tomorrow, is “to build a bridge between the G-20 and the rest of the world – the full community of nations,” he noted.

A summary of today’s discussion points out that leaders agreed that the Doha conference offers an opportunity “to listen to the perspectives and concerns of a larger group of countries. Broad participation in and support for the designs of reforms will make them more effective and sustainable.”

Mr. Ban told reporters that the financial crisis is not the only crisis the world faces. “We also confront a development emergency and accelerating climate change. These threats are inextricably linked. They must be dealt with as one.”

He emphasized the need for a truly global stimulus plan that meets the needs of emerging economies and developing countries. This includes protecting the poorest, as well as not reneging on commitments regarding official development assistance (ODA), which remains a crucial part of development finance for many countries.

It also includes ensuring resources to help countries meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

Also vital is to promote development that is sustainable and the fight against climate change. “Investments in green technologies will produce pay-offs in the long-term, in terms of a safer environment and more sustainable growth,” said the Secretary-General. “But the record already shows that green investment can produce jobs and spur growth in the here-and-now.”

He added that reform begins with the financial markets but it cannot stop there. “We also need fresh thinking about our food and energy systems, about financing for development and about our institutions.” This means giving a greater voice in global financial institutions to emerging economies and developing countries.

Ahead of the conference, World Bank President Robert Zoellick called on developed countries to boost aid to developing countries, which are facing a “perfect storm” of slowing world growth, higher interest rates, and a withdrawal of equity and lending from the private sector.

In a paper prepared for the conference, the World Bank says it is imperative that donors meet their previous commitments to debt relief and scaled-up aid.

Representatives of the World Bank will join those of governments, business and civil society at the forum, which is a follow-up to the International Conference on Financing for Development that took place in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, and resulted in the adoption of a landmark partnership agreement for global development.

Known as the Monterrey Consensus, the agreement covered a number of topics, including domestic resource mobilization, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, ODA, debt relief and systemic issues.

* * *

SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS ‘REPREHENSIBLE’ TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that started on 26 November, which included the taking of hostages and caused numerous deaths and injuries in India’s financial capital.

“The members of the Security Council expressed their condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of India,” the 15-member body said in a statement issued to the press last night.

The attacks, which have now stretched into their third day, targeted two major hotel complexes and several other locations in India’s largest city, leaving at least 140 people dead and more than 300 wounded. Rescue operations are still ongoing to try to free the remaining hostages.

Council members “underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice” and urged all States to cooperate with the Indian authorities in this regard.

“All acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation,” the Council reiterated in its statement.

The Mumbai attacks are just the latest in a series of acts of terrorism to strike the South Asian nation over the course of the past year. The north-eastern state of Assam and the cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Delhi have all fallen victim to the scourge.

* * *

NEARLY 10,000 CHOLERA CASES NOW REPORTED IN ZIMBABWE, UN SAYS

Almost 10,000 cases and over 400 deaths due to cholera have now been reported in Zimbabwe since the current outbreak of the disease began in August, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Nearly 500 new cases and 23 additional deaths have been reported since yesterday, with the largest increase in cases found in Budiriro and Beitbridge in the country’s south.

The UN continues to support the Government respond to the outbreak through water deliveries, education programmes, procurement of medical supplies and constructing latrines.

OCHA noted that more health professionals are needed to respond, given the scale of the outbreak, and that poor hygiene awareness and solid waste removal are propelling the increase in cholera infections.

Cases of the illness – an acute intestinal infection caused by contaminated food or water – have also been reported in neighbouring Botswana and South Africa, and the health ministries of these two countries and of Zimbabwe have been working with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to address the spread.

WHO and its partners are responding to cases and supporting treatment centres in 26 districts, and the agency has airlifted emergency supplies from its Dubai warehouse.

The agency has identified several areas where there are gaps, including detection, response organization and surveillance.

It is also planning to dispatch a team – comprising epidemiologists and water and sanitation specialists, among others – to investigate and respond to the outbreak.

For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has over 50 staff dedicated solely to tackling Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak. The agency is working closely with authorities and along with its partners, has asked for $9 million as part of the UN Consolidated Appeal to address water and sanitation issues.

* * *

SOME SUDANESE REGIONS RIFE WITH ARBITRARY ARREST AND DETENTION, SAYS UN REPORT

Arbitrary arrest and detention are rife in many parts of Sudan, and are often linked to further serious violations such as torture, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says in a report released today.

The 51-page report covers the capital Khartoum and other parts of northern Sudan, southern Sudan, and the three central areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile state. It does not cover the western region of Darfur, which has been the focus of previous OHCHR reports.

According to the report, intelligence and security services, police, and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the country’s south, have all committed violations of Sudanese and international law in the form of arbitrary arrests of civilians, in the length and manner of their detention, and in the physical treatment of detainees.

“In Khartoum and other parts of northern Sudan, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) systematically use arbitrary arrest and detention against political dissidents,” states the report. The NISS has reportedly been responsible for a large number of cases involving ill-treatment and torture, including attempts to intimidate detainees, punish them, extract information or force them to incriminate themselves or others.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) explicitly limits NISS’ mandate to an advisory role, focusing on information and analysis.

The report also notes that UN human rights officers have encountered many cases in which SPLA soldiers illegally arrested and detained civilians. Some prisoners have been detained for prolonged periods without charge, denied family visits or legal help, and kept in very poor living conditions, with insufficient or inadequate supplies of food, water and medical supplies.

The OHCHR report found “disturbing” patterns of arbitrary arrest and detention by police forces in the South including arrests of family members of suspects to pressure fugitives to turn themselves in.

The report also cites cases of women and children detained as a means of forcing their families to pay compensation in civil disputes, or in relation to dowry payments – especially in Southern Sudan, and cites examples of a 17-year-old girl sentenced to one year in jail in Yei for leaving her husband, and a 16-year old Dinka girl jailed for two months in Bor for running away from a forced marriage.

Impunity was an overarching concern in all of the areas covered by the report. “Even blatantly unlawful arrests rarely result in criminal or disciplinary actions against the officials involved.” However, it also says the problems “are not necessarily intractable,” adding that “reforming institutions is as important as changing individual attitudes.”

At the same time, the report also notes there have been “positive examples of judges, prosecutors, parliamentarians and police officers who have taken effective action against arbitrary arrest and detention.” The report cites cases where judges disregarded written confession statements that had allegedly been obtained under torture and acquitted defendants who had retracted their confessions in court.

OHCHR adds that the Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan have taken some positive steps to address the human rights concerns in the report. The Government of National Unity, for example, has announced its intention to table legislation to establish an independent human rights commission.

Meanwhile, the Government of Southern Sudan has established a human rights commission and is in the process of enacting legislation linked to its proposed functions.

OHCHR provides 28 specific recommendations designed to assist the authorities in their efforts to address the concerns identified in the report.

* * *

‘WE ARE GOING WHERE OTHERS DO NOT WANT TO GO’ – UN PEACEKEEPING CHIEF

The 18 United Nations peacekeeping operations worldwide are carrying out their work well under circumstances that are often extremely difficult and in areas where no other major organizations or countries are prepared to be involved, the head of the world body’s missions says.

“We are going where others do not want to go,” Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy says in an extended interview with the UN News Centre to mark the first of its Newsmaker profile series. “Sometimes we are easy scapegoats. [But] on the contrary, on my field visits I see missions that in the vast majority of cases are being executed well.”

Mr. Le Roy, who took up his post in August, last month visited the Darfur region of western Sudan – now home to the joint UN-African Union mission known as UNAMID – and then this month travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the UN mission known as MONUC is responding to fierce recent fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.

In the interview he notes the scale of the task facing UN peacekeeping missions, which collectively have about 110,000 personnel and a budget of more than $7 billion.

“That is huge. There has been a very great increase in our engagements in recent years. Some think that we have perhaps reached the limits. Of course, it is the Security Council that decides on the missions and troop levels it gives us.”

Mr. Le Roy says the recent decision by the Security Council to boost MONUC’s numbers by another 3,000 troops and police officers “is clearly very important to help us fulfil our mandate,” especially in North Kivu province, the scene of much of the recent fighting.

But he adds that the mission’s current total of blue helmets – about 17,000 – is comparatively small given the sheer size of the DRC, one of Africa’s largest countries.

In Darfur, the Under-Secretary-General says the administrative problems experienced by UNAMID, which replaced an under-resourced AU-only monitoring mission at the start of the year, are in the process of being resolved.

“On the other hand, the logistical aspect remains extremely complicated: the region is 2,500 kilometres from its nearest port and there are very few access roads.”

He adds that the mission is still waiting on 18 transport helicopters and six attack helicopters from Member States, despite earlier authorization for the craft from the Security Council.

“The States we have asked say they don’t have any available. It’s very damaging because that diminishes the effectiveness of the force. We sincerely hope that certain countries will supply us with these helicopters.”

* * *

INFRASTRUCTURE SHARING IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEEDED TO OFFSET INVESTMENT DROUGHT – UN

Strategies for sharing among telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) providers are needed to offset an investment drought stemming from the deepening global financial crisis, according to a new United Nations report.

“Sharing strategies are increasingly necessary to ensure that operators can deploy their networks at low cost while guaranteeing that consumers have access to affordable services,” UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Sami Al Basheer said on the release of the agency’s annual report.

“Now, more than ever, sharing strategies make sense as operators are forced to reduce the costs of network deployment as they compete for scarce investment funds. This is a forward-looking perspective in light of the current financial and economic uncertainty.”

Such strategies include sharing civil engineering costs in deploying networks, promoting open access to network support infrastructure (poles, ducts, conduits), essential facilities (submarine cable landing stations and international gateways), and access to radio-frequency spectrum and end-user devices.

The report – Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2008: Six Degrees of Sharing – details a set of regulatory strategies designed to lower the costs of network rollout. It notes that 2008 has been marked by unparalleled numbers of voice and Internet consumers in both the developing and developed world, the result of network growth and expansion.

The “Six Degrees of Sharing” theme was first discussed in Thailand during the ITU’s 2008 Global Symposium for Regulators last March. Few observers could then have anticipated the rough ride that would be in store for financial markets later this year.

Yet, the guidelines announced in March seem almost prophetic in today’s circumstances. Taking a broad and innovative view of sharing, the world’s regulators sought to capture the productivity of global networks and use it to expand the scope of opportunities for service and content providers and, ultimately, consumers.

Developing countries embraced sharing to make more affordable the expansion of ICT networks to rural and under-served areas. Many developed countries are looking at sharing to reduce the cost of rolling out ultra high-speed broadband networks that reach customers’ homes and apartment buildings.

What had been foreseen as ideal strategies to extend broadband network access in developing markets may now be viewed as a prescription for the entire world. If the sources of capital for network investment suffer a temporary drought, policymakers could take steps to make their markets more amenable to the shrinking pool of investment.

Such measures could include lowering investment barriers that inhibit capital flows from one country to another, reducing regulatory barriers (high licence fees or market-entry bans) that represent hostile environments for capital investment and market growth, and sharing essential facilities, such as cable landing stations, local switching centres or fibre backbone networks.

Other steps are: adopting rules to provide for infrastructure sharing, particularly “passive” sharing of towers, ducts, rights-of-way and other support facilities; overhauling and streamlining cross-agency processes to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for various network-related authorizations, such as land management, port access, environmental and safety permits; and adding innovative spectrum management mechanisms that promote increased sharing and efficient use of spectrum.

Regulatory frameworks could be amended to eliminate discriminatory rules that favour one company or industry over another in a converged services market and government policies and rules would be to ensure maximum ability for incumbents and market entrants to choose between different opportunities for business plans and long-term strategies, including resale, wholesale, and niche markets.

* * *

VOTER REGISTRATION FOR CôTE D’IVOIRE POLL PROCEEDING WITHOUT MAJOR INCIDENT, UN REPORTS

Identification and voter registration in Côte d’Ivoire is progressing without major incident for long-delayed elections, a key element in resolving a political crisis that in 2002 divided the West African country into a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south, the United Nations has reported.

The operation is attracting large crowds in Abidjan, the country’s largest city, in the south and in Bouaké, the former rebel stronghold, the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said.

UNOCI hopes the population will participate just as eagerly when the operation spreads to other parts of the country in line with the deployment of identification teams, spokesman Hamadoun Touré told a news conference in Abidjan yesterday.

The mission will continue with its electoral assistance and logistical and material support by “making its vehicles and staff available in order to accelerate the identification and voter registration operation so that it takes place under the best possible conditions,” he said.

He urged the Ivorian authorities to continue along the right track and remain focused on the remaining stages so that they should lead to a definitive end to the crisis.

The identification and registration processes were launched in mid-September in preparation for the elections then slated for 30 November but the polls have now been delayed again for the third time since the signing of the north-south peace pact last year.

* * *

UNDERSTANDING MOST RECENT HIV INFECTIONS CRUCIAL FOR FURTHER PREVENTION, UN REPORT SAYS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today called on countries to realign their prevention programmes by better understanding how the most recent infections were transmitted and the reasons why they occurred.

“Not only will this approach help prevent the next 1,000 infections in each community, but it will also make money for AIDS work more effectively and help put forward a long-term and sustainable AIDS response,” UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a report issued to mark the 20th anniversary of the first observance of World AIDS Day.

Findings from countries that have conducted studies on the modes of transmission and developed incidence estimates have highlighted three broad trends. First, patterns of epidemics can change over time and therefore such analyses must be undertaken at regular intervals.

Second, in many sub-Saharan African countries with high HIV prevalence, new infections occur mainly as a result of having multiple sex partners and among discordant couples – that is where one partner is HIV positive and one is HIV negative.

Third, in many countries, even with high HIV prevalence among the general population, substantial numbers of new infections might also occur in populations at higher risk of exposure to HIV, including sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users, and men who have sex with men, groups who often receive little attention in prevention initiatives.

“There is no single magic bullet for HIV prevention, but we can choose wisely from the known prevention options available so that they can reinforce and complement each other and cut back the wave of ongoing new HIV infections that is stripping away gains in treatment,” Dr. Piot said.

Even though the number of new HIV infections has fallen in several countries, there are five new HIV infections for every two people put on treatment. As reported earlier in 2008, some 3 million people are now receiving antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries.

The global financial crisis could lead to funding cutbacks, which, in turn, will have harmful impacts throughout the developing world generally and in the AIDS response in particular.

* * *

UN AID AGENCIES BRING RELIEF TO FLOOD-HIT NORTHERN SRI LANKA

Three United Nations agencies are offering relief to tens of thousands of Sri Lankans who have been displaced from their homes after floods struck at least five districts in the north of the island nation this week.

Aid agencies held a coordination meeting in the town of Jaffna today to plan their response to the floods, which follow several days of heavy rains, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

Sufficient stocks of relief items, including food and shelter materials, are available across the Jaffna peninsula to help affected families for the next few days. The region is already affected by the conflict between Government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is coordinating the distribution of non-food relief items and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is providing dry rations at the request of local authorities. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is assisting with water and sanitation services.

OCHA reports that the floods are worst in five districts: Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in Northern province, and Trincomalee in Eastern province. Three reservoirs are at risk of overflowing, and vehicle movements across the north are being obstructed by flood waters and bad road conditions, thus hampering the progress of humanitarian convoys.

* * *

UN-BACKED FORUM URGES COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY TO FIGHT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN

A United Nations-backed forum to combat the sexual exploitation of children today called for a comprehensive strategy comprising laws, policies, regulations and services across all social sectors as well as a shift in social attitudes and practices, such as child marriage.

“There is no single intervention that protects children from sexual exploitation,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Nils Kastberg said at the end of World Congress III Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio de Janeiro. “Building and strengthening child protection systems is critical and requires action from all actors to provide children with the protection they deserve.”

Representatives of 137 governments, meeting with children, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector companies, conceded that ending the scourge is a long and difficult battle, but the Congress organizers said countries are in a better position now to win the fight as a result of days of work in developing a blueprint for action.

The Rio Declaration and Action Plan to Prevent and Stop the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents calls on governments to enact laws that protect all children in their jurisdiction, including undocumented migrants or those who have been trafficked so that every child is provided protection under the law. Governments are also asked to pass laws that do not criminalize children for crimes they have committed as a result of their sexual exploitation.

On prevention, the Rio Action Plan stresses the need for a comprehensive strategy and the involvement of all social sectors, especially social welfare, education, health, security and justice, to support prevention and respond to risks.

Unlike previous World Congresses, where the recommendations of young participants were prepared separately, in Rio de Janeiro the young people participated fully in the drafting of the action plan.

Studies indicate an increase in the sexual exploitation of the young and UNICEF noted that predators continue to use new tools to target children, including cyberspace and new generation mobile phone technologies, with adults preying on children in chat rooms and using the Internet to post or download pornography.

The gathering was co-sponsored by UNICEF, the Brazilian Government, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), a global non-profit network of organizations and individuals set up in 1991, and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Seven years after the last World Congress in Yokohama, Japan, which focused exclusively on commercial sexual exploitation of children, the current Congress also discussed strategies for combating non-commercial forms of child sexual exploitation, including the sexual exploitation of children in their homes, by religious leaders, teachers, peacekeepers and armed groups in war zones.

The First World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children took place in Stockholm in 1996, resulting in the ‘Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action,’ which was adopted by 122 countries. This committed countries to develop strategies and plans of action with agreed-upon guidelines and 161 countries have now signed on.

* * *

MINISTERS AT UN MEETING URGE NATIONS NOT TO SLASH EDUCATION BUDGETS AMID FINANCIAL CRISIS

With hundreds of millions of people around the world with little or no access to education, participants at a United Nations conference in Geneva urged governments not to cut funding for this critical sector amid the current financial turmoil.

Participants at the week-long International Conference on Education, which ended today, voiced concern at the impact of the global financial crisis, warning that it “will have a disproportionate impact on the poor – those who carry the least responsibility for these events.”

According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which organized the conference, the hundreds of millions around the world with little or no access to education include 75 million out-of-school children – more than half of whom are girls and one third are disabled.

Many of these children are working and many belong to indigenous groups and linguistic minorities, or are living in conflict and post-conflict situations. There are also some 776 million adults who lack basic literacy skills.

In the current economic environment, providing quality education was all the more important since education was crucial to reducing poverty and improving health and livelihoods, stressed the participants, which included ministers, education experts and civil society representatives.

“Funding for education should be a top priority and… the financial crisis should not serve as a justification for a reduction in the allocation of resources to education at both the national and international levels,” they stated.

The conference recommended a number of steps that governments could take to improve their education systems and ensure more inclusive education. These include equipping teachers with the skills and materials they need to teach diverse populations, and promoting the greater participation of those concerned in decision-making.

* * *

IN NORTHERN KYRGYZSTAN, UN REFUGEE AGENCY FUNDS SCHOOL AND SANITATION PROJECTS

The United Nations refugee agency is supporting school and sanitation projects in rural areas of northern Kyrgyzstan that have served as home to former refugees from neighbouring Tajikistan.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that it has recently expanded a pre-school and opened a public bathhouse in the district of Ivanovka, which is located in Chui province.

The projects are part of UNHCR’s support to the local community, which has taken in the former Tajik refugees – despite limited resources – and is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz returnees and local villagers.

UNHCR representative Hans Schodder said about $100,000 was spent by the agency on the projects as part of a wider effort to support the greater integration of refugees in the poor Central Asian country.

More than 20,000 Tajiks fled to Kyrgyzstan after civil war erupted in their homeland in the early 1990s. Most eventually returned home, but about 9,500 have been successfully naturalized by the Kyrgyz Government.

Ivanovka is also home to Kayrlyrmans, ethnic Kyrgyz who returned to the region after the country declared independence in 1991, as well as numerous stateless people following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

UNHCR estimates that Kyrgyzstan is also host to at least 1,000 asylum-seekers and refugees, mainly from Afghanistan.

* * *

JUSTICE ESSENTIAL TO BREAKING CYCLE OF CONFLICT IN DR CONGO, UN RIGHTS CHIEF SAYS

Outbreaks of bloodshed will continue to occur in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where in the past few months escalating conflict has uprooted a quarter of a million people, unless impunity is ended for those guilty of the worst violations, the top United Nations human rights official said today in Geneva.

“The DRC runs the risk of becoming a case study in how peace processes can go awry without the will to make justice and accountability an integral part of these processes,” Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a special session on the human rights situation in the east of the vast African nation.

The DRC has been trying to consolidate stability following a brutal six-year civil war – widely considered the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II – that ended earlier this decade and cost 4 million lives in fighting and attendant hunger and disease. Serious unrest has continued sporadically in recent years, despite the official end of the war.

Fighting has stepped up in recent weeks between Government forces (FARDC) and a rebel militia known as the Congress in Defence of the People (CNDP), led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, mainly in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda. Other armed groups, including the Mayi Mayi, have also been involved in deadly clashes, some of which have been along ethnic lines.

Ms. Pillay told the 47-member Council today that her office has documented a worsening human rights situation in North Kivu, with executions, kidnappings and looting occurring daily.

“The prevailing culture of impunity contributes to this wide range of serious human rights violations,” she said, adding that “unparalleled violence” against women continues, with rape being a particular concern.

The High Commissioner said Government forces had been involved in pillaging, rapes and killings in Goma, North Kivu’s capital. But such acts are not confined to North and South Kivu provinces, she underscored, pointing to the violations committed by other “brutal forces” in the region, including Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

“Past peace agreements have enabled well-known perpetrators of atrocities to be integrated into the army and police,” Ms. Pillay said. “This has exacerbated the current climate of impunity in the DRC, empowered human rights violators and further endangered the Congolese population.”

Four UN human rights experts today voiced their serious concern over violations in the country’s east, calling on warring parties to respect human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as abide by ceasefire commitments and allow aid workers access to the vulnerable.

“The international community has a responsibility to protect and should provide MONUC, the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations in the DRC, with the capacity to protect civilians at risk, where and when State authorities fail to do so,” according to a statement by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative on the human rights of IDPs.

In a related development, former Nigerian president and the Secretary-General’s envoy Olusegun Obasanjo will be returning to the region today to resume diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the DRC’s east.

It was announced today that he is slated to visit Kinshasa tomorrow and Goma on Sunday, with other regional stops planned along the way.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that it has begun the voluntary transfer of displaced Congolese from camps in Kibati, on Goma’s northern outskirts.

The agency’s vehicles will take the first group of people with special needs such as disabilities and chronic illnesses will be transported to Muganga I camp, one of four sites in the area.

This is the first of several movements which will continue through the weekend, UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told reporters in Geneva, and about 1,000 are expected to be moved to the camp by next week.

Shelter and basic services will be provided at the camp, and the new arrivals will join 25,000 other IDPs who have been sheltering there since 2006.

Ground has been broken on construction at Mugunga III, a new site proposed for voluntary relocation of the displaced who will travel from Kibati on foot.

Mr. Spindler also said that thousands of Congolese refugees have fled across the border to Uganda in the past two days to escape a new round of fighting and attacks by armed assailants in Rutshuru in North Kivu.

UNHCR staff have reported that 13,000 IDPs had entered the south-west Uganda border town of Ishasha, while 10,000 people crossed into the country today. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that the new arrivals may be carrying diseases, such as cholera, with them, and has been distributing clean water there.

After the latest influx, there are now 150,000 refugees in Uganda, one-third of them from the DRC, Mr. Spindler said.

For its part, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that relief has been reaching South Lubero, nearly 200 kilometres north of Goma, but cautioned that inaccessibility in certain areas could lead to an increase in malnutrition cases.

* * *

UPSURGE OF FIGHTING IN SOMALIA AMONG HEAVIEST IN RECENT MONTHS, UN REPORTS

The past week has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in recent months, with at least 55 civilians estimated to have been killed and more than 80 others wounded, according to local hospital records cited by United Nations humanitarian officials.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 100,000 additional people have been forced to flee Mogadishu since 1 September in upsurge of fighting in a country that has been riven by factional conflicts and has not had a functioning central government since 1991.

Some 45,000 of those recently displaced moved to relatively safer areas in Mogadishu itself, while others sought safety along the Afgooye corridor, adding to a population of more than 360,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who live in appalling conditions there, UNHCR said. An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced from Mogadishu this year alone.

During the past week, NATO and Dutch naval frigates successfully escorted three vessels through pirate-infested waters with 18,730 metric tons of UN World Food Programme (WFP) shipments to Mogadishu and the coastal town of Marka. WFP distributed food to nearly 360,000 people in various parts of the Horn of Africa country.

The agency has found that large areas of cultivated farms in the Lower and Middle Juba regions have been flooded and crops damaged. Food reserves stored in underground pits were also destroyed.

But the outlook for the ongoing short rainy season (September-December) is promising and expected to be normal throughout Somalia, according to a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) analysis. Grazing and water availability has improved countrywide and the cereal crop harvest is expected to be good in the main producing areas of the south.

Depending on the outcome of the cereal harvest and prices in areas of good crop production, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance could decline over the coming six months.

On the political front, UN officials have welcomed the signing of a power-sharing decision in neighbouring Djibouti between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and one of its Islamist opponents, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), to set up an inclusive and enlarged government and Unity Government.

“We are pleased to be supporting this initiative,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said. The UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) is facilitating a three-day workshop in Djibouti ending today to flesh out the decision.

“This is the first of many dialogues on a long journey gathering various stakeholders in the complex process of bringing peace and stability to Somalia, UN Development Programme (UNDP) country director Bruno Lenmarquis said.

The Independent Expert on human rights in Somalia Shamsul Bari also welcomed the power-sharing decision as well as one on the establishment of a commission of inquiry and an international court to address gross human rights and international humanitarian law violations.

* * *

SOUTHERN SUDAN NEEDS MORE HELP TO REBUILD EDUCATION, ROADS, HEALTH CARE – UN AID CHIEF

The United Nations relief chief today wrapped up a two-day visit to southern Sudan by calling on international donors to help the region develop basic education and health-care services and quickly build up its road system as it recovers after two decades of civil war.

John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, met President Salva Kiir and other senior officials in the Government of Southern Sudan, which was set up as a result of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended the north-south civil war.

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir – who met in Juba – discussed the scale of the south’s continuing development needs, as well as mutual concerns about the full implementation of the peace deal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Mr. Holmes – who is also the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator – also assured southern Sudanese officials of the UN’s ongoing humanitarian support and urged donors to get behind construction and development initiatives.

Southern Sudan is lacking in basic infrastructure as a result of the prolonged civil war, and Mr. Holmes stressed that the capacity of the Government in the region must be built up so it can take over health-care, education and other services.

“A lot of has been achieved since I was last in Juba less than two years ago, but a huge amount remains to be done,” he said. “The UN must be here for the long haul, to support Government leadership, while the international community as a whole has to keep up its spending. Too much rests on the development of the south and the continued health of the north-south relationship for there to be any other option.”

Health care is a particular concern, with southern Sudan experiencing some of the worst child and maternal health indicators in the world, due in part to exceptionally low immunization rates. One in seven women, for instance, dies as a result of causes related to childbirth.

“It is simply unacceptable in the 21st century that women continue to die in childbirth at such rates, and that children and adults die needlessly of preventable diseases like malaria.

“Distributing mosquito nets to all the population, training enough staff and qualified midwives, and getting them out to the rural communities who are in dire need of primary health care: these must be top priorities.”

Mr. Holmes visited Agok, home to some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Abyei, a town in an oil-rich area of central Sudan that remains in contention between the north and south despite the peace accord.

During their discussions the Under-Secretary-General and Mr. Kiir also emphasized the importance of a rapid solution to the separate conflict still engulfing the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious rebel group that has waged war against Ugandan Government forces since the mid-1980s and is accused of recruiting children to serve as soldiers or sexual slaves, have long operated out of southern Sudan, which borders Uganda.

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir strongly urged the leadership of the LRA to follow through on promises to sign a peace agreement tomorrow.

The UN relief chief is now in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, for meetings with Government officials, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He has already visited Darfur and neighbouring Chad on this visit.

* * *

UNICEF RAISES ALARM ABOUT CONDITIONS IN NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is voicing concern that security in the strife-torn north of the Central African Republic (CAR) has started to worsen, with fresh fighting between Government forces and rebels uprooting thousands more civilians in the deeply impoverished country.

Two separate attacks took place last week between the military and rebels, and one of the clashes led to half of a town’s population escaping into the nearby bush, UNICEF reported in a press release on Wednesday.

The agency warned that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) – already estimated to be more than 200,000 – could swell even higher because of the recent security incidents.

This will further strain the capacity of aid agencies in the CAR, one of the poorest countries in the world, to reach and support IDPs and other conflict-affected civilians.

The Government and rebels are slated to hold two weeks of peace talks in the capital, Bangui, starting next Friday, and UNICEF said it is concerned that the latest insecurity could jeopardize those talks as well as the release and reintegration of child soldiers serving with rebels.

“UNICEF hopes the CAR’s ongoing political dialogue will pave the way for peace and recovery, but right now the country is on the edge,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF’s representative in the CAR.

“Since the beginning of the peace dialogue, many positive developments for women and children have flourished. More fighting can only undermine this progress. It is time for the international community to pressure all the parties to show restraint.”

Last year the Security Council authorized the establishment of a multi-dimensional UN presence (known as MINURCAT) in the CAR’s north and in eastern Chad, where related fighting and instability has uprooted hundreds of thousands of civilians.

* * *

MALAWI’S PRESIDENT AWARDED UN PRIZE FOR ENHANCING NATION’S FOOD SECURITY

The President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, has been honoured by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for his efforts in achieving food security and in transforming the economy of his nation, among the poorest in Africa.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf presented President wa Mutharika with the Agricola Medal – the agency’s highest award – yesterday during a ceremony in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe.

Mr. Diouf noted that in 2005, thanks in a large part to the adoption of an Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme piloted by the Government of President wa Mutharika, Malawi was able to restore national food security by increasing access to fertilizers and improved seeds by poor farmers and other vulnerable population groups.

In addition, despite sharply rising food and energy prices earlier in the year, and the negative impact of climate change, Malawi has been able to contain food prices to the extent that economic growth for this year is expected to be around 8 per cent.

Malawi was also one of the few countries to have surpassed the agreement reached among ministers at the 2003 Maputo African heads of State and government conference for a minimum budget allocation of 10 per cent for agriculture, by allocating as much as 16 per cent to the sector, said the Director-General.

Agriculture is crucial to the population of 13.2 million in Malawi, a largely rural and landlocked country in Southern Africa, where some 35 per cent of the population was undernourished in 2004.

Previous recipients of the Agricola Medal include Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, former French president Jacques Chirac, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Pope John Paul II, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German ex-president Johannes Rau of Germany.

* * *

WORLD’S FASTEST ANIMAL, IN RACE FOR SURVIVAL, TO GET ADDED UN-BACKED PROTECTION

The critically endangered cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal, is set to obtain added international protection next week at a United Nations-backed conference seeking to strengthen conservation of species that often cross national borders.

The cheetah, which reaches speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour but is now racing against extinction with only about 10,000 adults surviving, is among some 30 endangered land and marine animals on the agenda of the 9th conference of parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

“Species that migrate across countries and continents are facing ever greater hurdles from loss of habitat and feeding grounds to unsustainable use and the unfolding and often complex threats emerging from climate change,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which administers the CMS.

“Indeed the world is currently facing a sixth wave of extinctions mainly as a result of human impacts. Urgent and accelerated action is needed to ensure that a healthy, productive and functioning planet is handed on to the next generation,” he added.

More than 100 government representatives at the five-day conference, beginning Monday in Rome, will consider proposals to strengthen conservation by putting the animals on CMS appendix I, listing them as in danger of extinction, or appendix II, listing them as suffering from unfavourable conservation status and in need of international cooperation. Some of these animals are important economically, providing a significant source of tourism revenue.

Proposed steps range from tackling over-hunting to removing physical obstacles on the animals’ migratory paths such as border fences to calling for regional agreements for protection.

Migratory animals to be considered include:

The cheetah, which has suffered a dramatic 90 per cent decline over the past century, becoming extinct in 18 countries of its original range, with less than 10,000 adults surviving in Africa and a meagre 50 in Asia, mainly around Iran's Kavir desert, due to severe habitat loss, over-hunting and poor breeding in captivity.
The Saiga antelope, which used to roam the Eurasian steppes but is now on the brink of extinction for the second time in just 100 years. After being nearly exterminated in the 1920s, numbers went up to 2 million thanks to Soviet conservation efforts, but have now shrunk to just 50,000 due to hunting and obstacles on migration routes. Today they are confined to isolated pockets in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
Barbary sheep, agile climbers of the Sahara and Sahel region of Africa, are now also threatened by unsustainable and illegal hunting. The species is proposed for appendix I, committing all parties to prohibit hunting and removing obstacles to their migration like fences or habitat conversion.
The African Wild Dog has been eradicated from Western and most of Central Africa, with fewer than 8,000 estimated to survive due to conflict with humans and other animals, as well as infectious diseases. Fences on migration paths also endanger them. The proposed Appendix II listing would call on nations to establish regional agreements for their protection.
Other animals include seven species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, such as the reclusive Irrawaddy dolphins which used to inhabit coastal areas and estuaries throughout south-east Asia. Today, habitat loss, live capture, entanglement in fishing nets, electrocution and boat collisions put the survival of the remaining small populations at risk.

The Black Sea Bottlenose Dolphin, unique to one of the most degraded marine environments in the world, has also suffered from uncontrolled hunting and by-catch, despite the ban on cetacean fishery in the sea since 1983, while the West African Manatee, one of the world’s most camera-shy species, has been endangered by their only significant threat, humankind, due to poaching, habitat loss and other environmental impacts.

Other animals on the agenda include three shark species, spiny dogfish, and seven birds, such as the Saker falcon, prized as hunting companions by royalty and the aristocracy in Central Asia; the Egyptian vulture, poisoned by feeding on carcasses of feral animals laced with pesticides; and the Peruvian tern, threatened by disturbance in its breeding grounds from human activity.

“The Convention on Migratory Species is an important part of our international cooperative response to such challenges. It reflects the shared responsibility of nations for these species as each year they attempt their epic journeys across continents and oceans,” Mr. Steiner said.

Robert Hepworth, Executive Secretary of UNEP-CMS, added: “Many migratory species are now important parts of the local and international economy, generating income and supporting livelihoods via industries such as tourism. For example, an estimated 150,000 people visit the Serengeti (in Tanzania and Kenya) annually in order to see its famous wildlife. Based on 2003 figures, the park generates income of $5.5 million from tourists.”

* * *

PANAMA: UN FOOD AGENCY PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO THOUSANDS OF FLOOD VICTIMS

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing assistance to about 15,000 people along Panama’s Caribbean coast, where floods following a week of heavy rains have destroyed homes, roads and other infrastructure and left locals in urgent need of help.

The number of Panamanians affected by the floods could rise to 25,000, WFP reported yesterday, as aid agencies struggle to reach more isolated indigenous communities along the coast. The national Government has declared a state of emergency in all affected areas along the coast.

WFP is distributing enough high-energy biscuits from its Central American emergency response hub in El Salvador to feed up to 15,000 people for a period of four to five days.

The biscuits, which require no cooking or other preparation, contain fortified food of a high nutritional value and have been made specifically to feed people caught up in emergencies, many of whom have lost their crops and animals, as well as access to kitchens and clean water.

* * *

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Click here for a PDF version of the UN Daily News: http://www.un.org/News/dh/pdf/english/2008/28112008.pdf
For more details go to UN News Centre at: http://www.un.org/news
To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/

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UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 27 Nov 2008

2008-11-29T00:48:00.001+01:00

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 27 Nov 2008
Obliterating Iraq
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Blog
Pakistan Daily published a list of Iraqi academics assassinated in Iraq during the US-led occupation. This is a particularly meaningful aspect of the Iraq genocide, the extermination of its intellectual classes. It wasn't enough to invade and occupy what was once the most advanced country in the Middle East and destroy its economy. Iraq had to be obliterated, its history re-written and its future denied. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative Roger Wright said in the October 2004 report: "Iraq used to have one of the finest school systems in the Middle East." Who remembers now that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was awarded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) prize for eradicating illiteracy in 1982!....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49121
From fast death to slow death: Palestinian refugees from Iraq trapped on the Syria-Iraq border
ReliefWeb
Having fled killings, kidnappings, torture, and death threats, about 3,000 Palestinian refugees from Iraq are currently stranded in three camps along the border between Syria and Iraq. Denied asylum and refugee rights, they are extremely vulnerable in poorly situated camps. The Syrian government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are both open to third country resettlement on humanitarian grounds and on the basis of individual choice. Therefore, the challenge now lies with both traditional and emerging resettlement countries, in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to accept these Palestinian refugees from Iraq for resettlement, allowing the inhospitable camps to be closed...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49124
Muthana Harith al-Dari: "The Resistance will continue till the exit of the occupiers"
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
The responsible for Information Department of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) Dr Muthana Harith al-Dari clarified that the resistance in Iraq will continue until the exit of the occupiers from the land of Mesopotamia. Dr. Muthanna Hareth al Dari told in a news conference held in the Yemeni city of Hadeidah after attending the opening of Salih Mosque which the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) founded as a cultural and humanitarian project to resist and prevent the occupation through the written, audio-visual media. In addition to the efforts undertaken by AMSI, Muthanna al Dari informed the participant about the relief campaigns of AMSI to the victims of the sons of Iraq both living in their country or in exile...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49131
Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
Sonja Karkar
What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights -- that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity? What kind of government imposes draconian sanctions on another people for democratically electing a government not to its liking? What kind of government seals a heavily populated territory of 1.5 million people so that no person can enter or leave without permission, fishermen cannot fish in their own waters, and world food aid cannot be delivered to the starving population? What kind of government shuts off fuel, water and electricity and then rains down on the people, bombs and artillery fire?....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49130
A whoring, lying state
Khaled Amayreh
Israel routinely claims to be "civilized, and democratic." However, in truth, Israel is neither civilized nor democratic. In fact, one can safely claim that Israel is actually a criminal, barbarian and utterly uncivilized state that lives and thrives on murder, theft and mendacity. The following observations are an irrefutable proof showing that Israel differs very little from criminal states throughout history, past and present. Take, for example, the ongoing daily rampages by Jewish thugs, otherwise known as settlers, against Palestinians and their property in the southern West Bank town of Hebron...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49132
Iran in about-turn towards security agreement
Najmeh Bozorgmehr
The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has been unusually silent about the Iraqi government’s approval of the security pact with the US. But that may be because it has been loathe to publicise its dramatic change of attitude towards the agreement. People close to the government in Tehran said that after initially opposing it – and asking its Shia allies in the Baghdad government to resist it – Tehran has been relatively satisfied with the last-minute changes demanded, and won, by Iraq. Analysts see an additional reason for the about-turn: the election of Barack Obama as US president...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49133
Thank You America, For Killing Us
RickB
I assume that was a rejected headline for this AP report, instead they went with- Iraqi parliament OKs US troops for 3 more years- yeah they okayed it, real casual like- sure fellas you stick around for a while longer, it’s cool. But, it gets worse- (...) i>The war has claimed more than 4,200 American lives and killed a far greater, untold number of Iraqis, consumed huge reserves of money and resources and eroded the global stature of the United States, even among its closest allies.... But really 'untold number of Iraqis' well yes it is untold by you because you refuse to use the figures from peer reviewed scientific studies that in all other conflicts are accepted methodology, nor the survey results and extrapolation that tell us the untold truth it’s over a million dead. At this point pulling that kind of shit is basically Holocaust denial motherfucker...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49137
The Broken State
Nir Rosen
The situation in Afghanistan is not as bad as you've heard – its worse. Nir Rosen reports from Kabul and its surrounding provinces as the Taliban attempt to wrest control from Hamid Karzai's government. (...) As I saw on the road to Ghazni, the Taliban have succeeded in essentially cutting off Kabul from the rest of the country. The road southwest to Kandahar was lethal. "The Kabul to Ghazni road is gone," a British intelligence officer told me, "the Ghazni to Gardez road is exceedingly bad, the Wardak road is sh***, the Jalalabad road is sliding. The ambushes have become routine."...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49136
Kristallnacht in Hebron
Khaled Amayreh
Unconcerned about arrest by the police or prosecution by the Israeli justice system, fanatical Jewish settlers in the Palestinian town of Hebron (Al-Khalil) have been attacking Palestinians, damaging and ransacking their property, exactly like Nazi thugs did to Jewish-owned property in Germany 80 years ago.
The settlers, who claim to be acting in the name of true Judaism, espouse a messianic doctrine advocating violence and terror against non- Jews in Israel-Palestine for the purpose of creating a pure Jewish kingdom that would be ruled by Halacha, or Jewish religious law. The settlers, who represent the core of religious Zionism, believe that the ethnic cleansing of non-Jews in the Holy Land will eventually usher the messianic age and accelerate the appearance of the Jewish Messiah, or Redeemer, who would bring about redemption for Jews and rule the entire world from Jerusalem...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49138
Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 47/2008 (20 - 26 Nov. 2008)
PCHR - Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting period (20 – 26 November 2008): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 7 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On 21 November 2008, 5 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were wounded when IOF troops opened fire at dozens of civilians who organized a peaceful demonstration in protest to attempts of settlers to re-establish their presence in the evacuated "Homesh" settlement, northwest of Nablus. On 26 November 2008, a Palestinian child was seriously wounded during clashes between dozens of Palestinian civilians and IOF at the entrance of Qalandya refugee camp, south of Ramallah. During the reporting period, a Palestinian civilian was wounded when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall west of Ramallah....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49127
Mullahs Regional Hegemons, Code Pink in Iran
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
This one's a good one! Found it on Anti-War, who got it from Middle East Times (Nov. 26, 2008). I love this because now I, and thousands more like me, don't have to spell it out for the western leftists anymore. The ayatollahs in Iran now boast about the fact that they have become a regional hegemon. Congratulations, and I couldn't have said it better! Now ... a note to the uninitiated ... you don't become a power, be it a regional one, by playing nice all the time. But, things like that seem to have lost their ability to cause outrage, or even concern these days, among those that should be most offended by it....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49125
Iraq parliament passes U.S. security pact
Ahmed Rasheed and Khalid al-Ansary, Reuters
Iraq's parliament on Thursday approved a landmark security pact with the United States that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011, taking the country a big step closer to full sovereignty. The deal, which parliament linked after days of fractious negotiations to a series of promised political reforms and a public referendum next year, brings in sight an end to the U.S. military presence that began with the 2003 invasion...Lawmakers in Iraq's 275 seat parliament passed the deal with a majority of 149 out of 198 present, Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49120
Israeli Crimes Under Observation of I.P.O
Kawther Salam
Ambassador Norma Giocochea Estenoz, the permanent representative of Cuba before the UN in Vienna, and Dr. Hans Koechler, President of the International Progress Organization, delivered the strongest speeches among other participants representing NGOs as well as international organizations and governments of various countries, among them many Arabs, during the special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Dr. Hans Koechler exposed the Israeli violations of the International treaties and UN resolutions which must be implemented under the observance of the International community...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49129
Gaza: A Human Tragedy under Siege
Hany Ramadan
The Gaza Strip has been living under an Israeli 16-month-old despicable siege, which is now reaching its most harshly shocking pinnacle. In addition to blocking the flow of food, medical supplies, and basic needs, Israel has recently barred the fuel supplies from reaching the impoverished strip. As a result, wide blackouts have reigned over the besieged city of about 1.6 million civilians. The majority of Gazans are now using candles to light up their homes and streets...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49128
Petition for Palestine Directed to the UN Secretary General
Kawther Salam
Today I went to the United Nations in Vienna, to take part in an event with occasion of the "Annual Observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People". The representatives of many countries and international organizations assisted to this event. Some of them gave speeches. The speech of the chairwoman of the session, the representative of Cuba, called my attention because her reference to international treaties and how she characterized the occupation. She stated clearly that the occupation is a crime against humanity. Other persons who called my attention were the representative of the "International Progress Organization", who presented an outline of the treaties and international laws violated by Israel...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49134
The US-Iraq Deal Doesn't Bode Well
Robert Dreyfuss
... The ruling alliance of Shiite religious parties and Kurds, who moved forward with the tacit support of Iran, steamrollered opposition to the accord, which passed with at least 144 votes out of 198 members of parliament in attendance. "A huge number of members left the country, supposedly on hajj [to Mecca] or for other reasons," said a leading Iraqi insider. But, although the vote is a victory for Maliki, it says little about the future stability and security of the Iraqi state. And it says even less about the future of US-Iraq relations...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49126
Gaza Christians without Sunday mass
Yusef Daher, Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre - JIC
On Sunday, November 23rd -The Israeli authorities banned the Papal Nuncio in Israel Archbishop Antonio Franco from entering Gaza and celebrating mass there, despite previous coordination with relevant parties at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and senior Israeli Army command since last Tuesday. Papal Nuncio Archbishop Franco arrived this morning to Erez Crossing at about 8:15 AM, accompanied by Latin Patriarchate priests Fr. Shawqi Baterian and Fr. Humam Khzouz as well with the Nunciature secretary, but was banned to enter to Gaza...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49123
The Attack in Mumbai II
Moon of Alabama
...From asking "Qui bono?" I arrive at the BJP's door. The attack, designed to created fight-outs with police, killed the man who was the biggest danger for the BJP as he was revealing Hindu terrorism and made the BJP campaign against Muslim terrorism seem bigot. The current attack, which will reliably be charged on some Muslim entity, will help the BJP win against the Congress party. But me arriving at that door does not mean that the BJP really is responsible here, I only find it possible to likely...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49135
The struggle is not over: Remembering Mohammed al-Kurd
Pam Rasmussen writing from the United States, Live from Palestine
The saying that a man's home is his castle goes back to the 1500s. Whether it is a mansion or a mud hut, a home to which you can retreat and be safe is a basic human need. But since 2001, Abu Kamel (Mohammed al-Kurd), his wife and five children were forced to fight every day for the right to stay in the East Jerusalem home his family had lived in for decades. And although the Jewish settlers who tried to push them out -- literally -- didn't put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, they might as well have. Two weeks after the al-Kurds were finally evicted from their home on 9 November, Abu Kamel suffered a fatal heart attack. Now, Um Kamel (his wife, Fawzieh) who I grew to admire and respect while I camped on their patio as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) must wage the fight alone...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49122
Aide: Iraqi government rejects Sunni pact demands
AP
An aide to Iraq's prime minister says the government's Shiite bloc has rejected two conditions set by mostly Sunni lawmakers for their support of a security pact with the United States. The dispute is delaying a vote on the pact, which is now scheduled for Thursday. The deal would allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for three more years. Sami al-Askari, an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, says the lawmakers have demanded the repeal of a law designed to weed out senior members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath Party from government agencies...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49119
THIS IS GAZA ~~ A REPORT BY AMIRA HASS
Desertpeace
If it`s not the power getting cut, leaving entire neighborhoods in darkness, then it`s the water not reaching the top floors or the cooking gas running out. If you have an electric generator, some small part of it is bound to be broken and unfixable, because even before the hermetic three-week siege, Israel prohibited bringing in any spare parts for cars, machines and household electric appliances. And if you somehow manage to find the money for a generator that was smuggled through the tunnels (its price has doubled or tripled since last month), it`s at the expense of buying a heater (not electric, of course), English lessons, clothes for the children and visits to the doctor. This is Gaza in November 2008...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49118

www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 28, 2008 ~

2008-11-28T16:36:00.000+01:00

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 28, 2008 ~

Weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory 20-26 Nov 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-7LSFAN?OpenDocument

PCHR Weekly Report: 7 Palestinians injured, 32 abducted by Israeli forces; 2 dead due to occupation
In its weekly summary of Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of November 20-26, 2008, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights has reported a number of human rights violations. An elderly Palestinian man died of a heart attack when Israeli forces forced him from his home. A patient in Gaza died after being denied exit from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, because he refused to act as an informant for the Israeli military.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57835

Exceptions in the prosecution of Israeli occupation soldiers. Prosecution of IDF soldiers during and after the Second Intifada, 2000-2007 Full text.
http://www.yesh-din.org/sys/images/File/Exceptions%5BEng%5D%5B1%5D.pdf

Israeli troops wound three in Gaza: medics
Three Palestinians were wounded when Israeli troops backed by tanks mounted an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, shelling suspected militants, medics and witnesses said. "The three wounded were evacuated," said Muawiya Hassanein, who heads the emergency services in Gaza.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h9vW7rs5kfD8MHonde1qzfa2T5ZA

Four Palestinians injured at Ni'lin anti-wall demonstration
Four Palestinians were reportedly shot by Israeli forces at an anti-wall march in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, near Ramallah, on Friday. After Friday prayers, demonstrators gathered near lands threatened with confiscation, shouting slogans and demanding help for 120 families whose lands are to be confiscated. As protesters neared the construction site, Israeli forces opened fire "from close range" with tear-gas canisters "fired directly at protesters," as well as rubber-coated bullets, according to a statement received by Ma'an. Four injured Palestinians were taken to a hospital in Ramallah, the statement added. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33577

International, local and Israeli activists tear-gassed in Bil'in demonstration
Israeli soldiers fired teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets and sound bombs at a group of Bil'in residents, Israeli and international activists on Friday as the group marched to the site of the separation wall in an anti-occupation protest. The protesters raised Palestinian flags and banners calling for the guarantee of Palestinian's right to Jerusalem, the right of return, Palestinian controlled borders, access to water, the release of all Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons and the removal of the separation wall and Israeli settlements from the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33579

Two Palestinians injured by Israeli soldiers during Jayous anti-wall demonstration
Two Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets shot by Israeli soldiers as they participated in the peaceful demonstration against the wall in the village of Jayous west of Qalqiliya on Friday. Those injured were identified as Muhamad Abdel Walid Salim and Muhamad Abdel Rahman Salim. Villagers demonstrated with activists and toured the streets of the village calling for the end of settlement construction. When the group reached what has been designated a military area Israeli troops prevented their progress and clashes ignited. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33575

Israel attempts to avoid court challenge by returning stolen Palestinian fishing boats
Three Palestinian trawling vessels confiscated by Israeli naval forces were returned today almost immediately following yesterdays announcement that three Human Rights Groups had filed an appeal against Ehud Barak and the commander of the Israeli navy. The vessels were stolen from Gazan waters on 18th November while fishing in Palestinian territorial water.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/27/israel-attempts-to-avoid-court-challenge-by-returning-
stolen-palestinian-fishing-boats/

Palestinian Journalists Bloc condemns PA arrest of reporter
The Palestinian Journalists Bloc condemned on Thursday the arrest by Palestinian security forces of Nae'l Nakhlah, a reporter for the Al-Quds newspaper in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh. The organization noted an "increase of the number of journalists arrested in the West Bank to nine in addition to three who were arrested in the Gaza Strip."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33562

Palestinian Water Authority pressed Israel to ship water purification chemicals to Gaza
The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) said on Thursday that it succeeded in pressuring Israel to allow chemicals used to purify water into the blockaded Gaza Strip. The deputy director of the PWA, Rebhi Ash-Sheikh, said Israel had blocked delivery of 100 cubic meters of Chlorine and dozens of tons of acids used to purify water for over a year. He said the authority was concerned that shortages of these chemicals would threaten the health of Gaza residents.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33561

Al-Khudari predicts Gaza power plant to shut down before midnight; fuel supplies exhausted
Gaza's power plant will shut-down again Friday night after the area exhausts the limited fuel transferred in on Wednesday. The black-out prediction was announced by Head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza, Jamal Al-Khudari at a press conference in Gaza City.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33580

Israeli administration continues to ban imports to Gaza Strip
ImageGaza /PNN – The occupying Israeli authority claims it they had intended to lift the ban on 45 trucks of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Thursday, but reneged because of the launch of two projectiles at Sderot. However, no armed resistance faction claimed responsibility for any such launching and no damages were reported. The truckloads were said to include chlorine to disinfect the water supply which is contaminated. The fuel necessary to run the power plant, which in turn feeds the water and sewage treatment facilities, is also banned.
http://english.pnn.ps/index. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4088&Itemid=28

Israel resumes starvation of Gaza after rocket attack
Israel on Thursday again prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished Gaza Strip in what the Jewish state said was a response to a rocket attack by Palestinian militants. The rocket hit an empty field in southern Israel and caused no injuries or damage, police said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98074

Another Arab ship from Qatar to sail from Cyprus to Gaza in the coming days
Palestinian legislator, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Jamal El Khodary, stated on Thursday that a new Arab ship from Qatar will sail from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57830

Qatari relief vessel to sail to Gaza soon; Libyan vessel to arrive Gaza Monday
The chairman of the Popular Committee against the Siege on Gaza MP Jamal Al-Khudari has declared the start of the "vessel peaceful uprising" to break the unjust siege on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
Palestinians wait to fix their old portable "primus" stoves which burn diesel fuel at a shop in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, 25 November 2008. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)
What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights--that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity? What kind of government imposes draconian sanctions on another people for democratically electing a government not to its liking? What kind of government seals a heavily populated territory of 1.5 million people so that no person can enter or leave without permission, fishermen cannot fish in their own waters, and world food aid cannot be delivered to the starving population?
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9997.shtml

Gaza: Salvation in a News Broadcast
When Gaza's electricity is in working order, most Palestinians in the impoverished and overcrowded Strip huddle around their television screens. It's neither "American Idol" nor "Dancing with the Stars" that brings them together. It's the news.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14427

Gaza: A Human Tragedy under Siege
The Gaza Strip has been living under an Israeli 16-month-old despicable siege, which is now reaching its most harshly shocking pinnacle. In addition to blocking the flow of food, medical supplies, and basic needs, Israel has recently barred the fuel supplies from reaching the impoverished strip.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14426

Hamas rips Arab League for backing Abbas
The Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza rejected Thursday a call by Arab states for Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office until unity has been restored, insisting this is a decision for Palestinian voters. "Legitimacy does not flow from any outside party but comes from the ballot box in accordance with the law.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98050

Hamas to Arab States: Keep Out of Row over Abbas
The Hamas movement rejected on Thursday a call by Arab states for Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas to stay in office until unity has been restored, insisting this is a decision for Palestinian voters. "Legitimacy does not flow from any outside party but comes from the ballot box in accordance with the law and with the constitution," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=65441&language=en

Abbas says Israeli should seize Arab world's rare peace offer
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The Palestinian president says Israel should seize the Arab world's peace initiative as a rare opportunity. The 2002 plan offers Israel full Arab recognition if it withdraws from all the lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast War, including east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hDgGmW_wF8J-WLBChV1uBrj87-Hg

Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts
The Christian Science Monitor-An Israeli government effort to make good on a five-year-old commitment to the US and Palestinians to rein in settlement expansion in the West Bank is coming under legal fire at home.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081128/wl_csm/ooutposts

Gaza dispute may cancel pilgrimage procedures
Egypt gave permission Thursday for Palestinians to exit the Gaza Strip into Egypt to perform the annual pilgrimage in Mecca but it was unclear whether they would be able to because of registration disputes between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions. The Palestinian embassy in Cairo said it was informed by the General Egyptian Intelligence (GEI) of the government's plans to open the Rafah crossing to allow pilgrims to enter Egypt, proceed to Jordan and finally enter Saudi Arabia.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#drafts/11de173748acf7f7

Egypt to reopen Rafah for Palestinian pilgrims
Egypt will reopen the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip for three days from Saturday to allow Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory for the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. "Egypt has announced the reopening of the Rafah border for three days from Saturday... to allow the passage of some 3,000 Palestinian pilgrims who hold visas for Saudi Arabia," the official said on Friday.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/28/60994.html

Death of Annapolis Defines Bush Failure
The imminent departure of America's leader from the White House, signals the end of eight disastrous years under the Bush administration. As biographers and others prepare to document a comprehensive list of the failures of George W Bush, they certainly will not be able to ignore his Middle East policies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14425

A new role for Mohamad Dahlan
"...a new role for Mohammad Dahlan, or his rehabilitation so that he enters the front lines of Fatah, after his exit from Gaza. Dahlan has fervent supporters, just as he has equally ardent opponents and rivals. There are Arab and non-Arab states that support him. He is bold and intelligent and personally I do not rule out Abbas getting angry one day and resigning, leaving a vacuum...."
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-role-for-mohamad-dahlan.html

Lebanon to establish ties with 'Palestine'
Lebanon has decided for the first time to establish diplomatic relations with the "state of Palestine," and has approved the opening of an embassy in Beirut. "The cabinet has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said following a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i40Qp3j0K_U0EIYXi_ f62M86CbKg

Norwegian ex-premier counters anti-Semitism accusations, slams Israel
Ex-Norwegian prime minister Kåre Willoch spoke out Thursday against Israel and a group of Israeli scholars who earlier this week held a symposium in Jerusalem devoted to accusing the Scandinavian countries of racism, anti-Semitism and Israel-hatred. "It's a traditional deflection tactic aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, which is Israel's well-documented and incontestable abuse of Palestinians," Willoch, who presided as Norway's prime minister in the 1980s, told a Norwegian daily. Willoch, a long-time critic of Israel, was reacting to accusations leveled at an event hosted on Tuesday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which, as reported by Haaretz, is described by the organizers as "probably Israel's first comprehensive discussion into Scandinavia's approach to the Jewish people and state."
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041724.html

Trapped in Gaza with a Fulbright scholarship
University students in the Gaza Strip who want to study abroad have been facing severe restrictions since Israel imposed a blockade on the territory two years ago. Israel took the measure after the militant Hamas movement won elections in Gaza and took over control of the territory. Listen to the storyEvery year, one thousand or so Gazan students are accepted by foreign universities. But since the blockade was imposed, fewer than half of them have been able to go study abroad. One of them is Zohair Abu Shahan. This is his story.
http://www.radionetherlands. nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/081129-tswi-student-Gaza

For Gazans, one abundant resource: ingenuity
Coping with lengthy power cuts has become one of the biggest challenges for 1.4 million Gaza residents as Israel's tight blockade of the territory enters its fourth week. The closure, imposed Nov. 5 to force Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt rocket fire on Israeli border communities, comes after 19 months of sharply restricted access to the territory. The isolation has taken its toll, causing rolling blackouts and shortages of fuel and cooking gas.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzBAjH9S_ 7l7BdaawqwoB8cwqFtwD94NTTDO1

Olive harvest suffers under the blockade
Oxfam's Mohammed Ali Abu Najela reports on the impact of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip on the territory's olive oil industry.
The agricultural sector in Gaza has been severely affected by the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000, 112,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the Gaza Strip by the conflict and Israeli military incursions. Also, one third of agricultural land-thousands of dunums (1 dunum=.25 acre) along the border with Israel-has been inaccessible to Palestinian farmers since Israeli settlements were dismantled in 2005. Israel then carved out a security zone that included valuable Gazan farming land. Farmers have been killed and injured trying to access and cultivate these lands.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7LTN8E?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Gaza is Having it, its Way
In apparent shift in strategy, the Israeli government today issued two permits for new franchises in the Gaza Strip. Some are questioning whether this indicates the end of Israel's crushing embargo, or is just another generous humanitarian move by Israel. In response to greater international calls for more aid and assistance to Gazans, many of whom suffer from mal nutrition, Israel granted two popular food chains, Krispy Kreme doughnuts (KKD) and Burger King (BKC), permission to open franchises in the Gaza Strip. This move was warmly received by the teenagers, prospective Big and Tall shop owners, cardiologists and dermatologists of Gaza. On the same day, the Israelis denied three trucks of fresh produce at the Rafah crossing. An Israeli statement linked the two as acts of solidarity with Gaza's children.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/11/gaza-is-having-it-its-way.html

Zionism in Leeds University Campus
Leeds University Union to vote on a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. For immediate release: Leeds University Union agreed last week, by a vote of 12 to 11, to send a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. The motion, shrouded in the language of combating anti-Semitism, is a reversal of a motion passed 2 years ago which gave Palestinian activists at Leeds University the rights enjoyed by their counterparts throughout the country. If passed, organisations which have an anti-Zionist platform, such as the Socialist Workers Party and the Palestine Solidarity Group will be prevented from receiving funding from the union and prevented from holding many of their events.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/11/28/zionism-in-leeds-university-campus/

Cartoon: Gaza Ghetto by Carlos Latuff
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ ZxKAf8oOwtI/SS7SQuDHLJI/AAAAAAAARNA/IwfD-JHkB1s/s1600-h/carlos.jpg

Thursday: 8 Iraqis Killed; 43 Wounded
Excerpt: Updated at 6:55 p.m. EST, Nov. 27, 2008 Parliament today approved a contentious U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that will allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for three more years. Meanwhile, at least eight Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, the European Union has promised to take-in 10,000 Iraqis. No Coaltion deaths were reported, but a U.S. soldier who deserted his unit has applied for asylum in Germany. He had served in Iraq but refused to return, calling the war illegal.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13825

Suicide bomber kills 12 in Iraqi Shi'ite mosque
A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shi'ite mosque south of Baghdad at prayer time on Friday, police said. The U.S. military said initial reports indicated a suicide bomber killed seven worshippers and wounded 30. The attack took place a day after Iraq's parliament passed a security pact with Washington that allows U.S. troops to remain for another three years and puts them under the control of the Baghdad government from 2009.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LS523567.htm

Iraqi Parliament approves 'historic' security pact with US
Iraq's Parliament on Thursday approved a landmark military pact that will see all US troops withdraw by the end of 2011, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and plunged the country into chaos. After 11 months of negotiations with Washington and a flurry of domestic political horse-trading leading up to the vote.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98073

US hails approval of Iraq accord, but referendum looms
AFP-The United States on Thursday hailed the Iraqi parliament's approval of a landmark accord for US troops to leave the country in three years, but a referendum on the deal next year could complicate withdrawal plans for the next US president.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081127/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary

With Iraqi parliament approving pact, Maliki's stature grows
BAGHDAD _ In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation's history as the man who ended the American occupation.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56610.html

We respect those who opposed the pact – PM
BAGHDAD /Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday said that he respects those who opposed the Iraqi-U.S. security pact, passed earlier today by Iraq's Parliament, noting that the pact is a step on the way to giving sovereignty back to Iraq. "We respect those who opposed the pact on a [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103815

Iraq: from SOFA to resistance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwseJPac-oA

Sofa so disastrous
The status of forces agreement has been hailed as the end of the neocon dream in Iraq. If only that were true.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/28/iraq-middleeast

Iraq: Cleric al-Sadr calls for peaceful protests
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for peaceful protests after the passage of a security pact that will let U.S. forces stay in Iraq through 2011. The cleric's spokesman says al-Sadr also wants his followers to close his offices and affiliated institutions for three days "to show the tragedy that has befallen us."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/28/news/ML-Iraq-Al-Sadr.php

Sadr orders to raise black flags in mourning for signing agreement
NAJAF /Aswat al-Iraq: Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday ordered his followers to raise black flags of mourning and to close his offices for three days throughout Iraq because of approving the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement, two Sadrist officials said. Sheikh Muhanad al-Gharawi said at a press conference, attended by Lewaa Smiesim, "Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103822

Security agreement puts 16,000 Iraqi detainees at risk of torture
Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces are at risk of torture or even execution, following the ratification of a security agreement between the US and Iraqi governments. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which will take effect on 31 December, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody. Those at particular risk include former Ba'ath party officials or those who held posts under Saddam Hussain's government.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/security-agreement-puts-16000-iraqi-detainees
-risk-torture-20081128

EU countries to accept 10,000 Iraqi refugees
In Brussels, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble said European Union countries agreed to accept 10,000 Iraqi refugees of whom Berlin was ready to accept 2,500. On the sidelines of European Union Interior Ministers meeting, the German Minister said no conditions will be imposed on European countries in this concern. "This has to be done on a voluntary basis and in light of the reception capacities of member states," he said. The decision has been made by EU interior ministers on Thursday and includes Iraqis inside the Union's countries.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-25056-EU-countries-to-accept-10%2C000-Iraqi-refugees.html

Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress
War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill earlier this year to testify before Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war. Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, "Winter Soldier on the Hill" was designed to drive home the human cost of the war and occupation—this time, to the very people in charge of doing something about it. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/28/winter_soldier_on_ the_hill_war

US Jews urge Obama to move embassy to Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AFP) — A group of American Jews urged president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the international community does not recognise as the capital of the Jewish state.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4jGf3zi7RLEmJJM9b2XyeI1kQxA

--
www.TheHeadlines.org

Palestinian expert says Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners is ‘routine’

2008-11-24T07:41:00.000+01:00

Palestinian expert says Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners is ‘routine’

Written by www.daily.pk

Sunday, 23 November 2008 21:16

It came as no surprise to Abdun-Nasser Farawna when the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot published a report about a "top secret" Israeli intelligence document authorizing the use of torture against Palestinian prisoners.
Farawna, a former prisoner and an expert in prisoners’ affairs, said torture "began in 1967 as a policy which later got legal coverage and judicial immunity. It aims at destroying Palestinian and Arab prisoners both physically and psychologically."

To Farawna, Israel’s use of torture is neither secret nor new.

Farawna said the legalization of torture in Israel dates back at least to the report of a government commission headed by Supreme Court President Moshe Landau in 1987. Landau was charged with examining government interrogation techniques. His committee came up with a two-part report. One half of the report was kept secret and contained a list of permissible interrogation tactics.

According to Farawna, the Landau document protected Israeli intelligence officers from prosecution for torturing Palestinian prisoners. The recommendations in the document were approved by the Israeli Knesset, and have been amended since.

The central conclusion of the report, that "the exertion of a moderate degree of physical pressure cannot be avoided," has not been changed.

Farwana explains that the newly revealed Israeli document allows interrogators to use non-traditional techniques of physical and psychological torture, including slapping, violent shaking, hunger, sleep deprivation and forcing prisoners to stand for long periods.

According to the document, officers can also exert psychological pressure by accusing the prisoner of collaboration in front of other prisoners, or revealing confidential information about him. Interrogators can also arrest family members, including women, to place further pressure, or they can threaten to demolish his family home or deport him.

Farwana asserted that Israeli interrogators are still torturing Palestinian prisoners "on a daily basis."

According to Farawna’s own research, 95% of Palestinians who have been imprisoned in Israel have been beaten; 89% were deprived of sleep for long times; 82% were forced to stand in difficult positions for long periods; 55% were subjected to extreme hot and cold temperatures; 50% had pressure applied to their testicles.

Furthermore, Farawna said that since 1967, 70 prisoners have died in Israeli custody as a result of torture.

Judge Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo

2008-11-20T22:57:00.001+01:00

November 21, 2008
Judge Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON

In the first hearing on the government’s justification for holding detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, a federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years and ordered their release.

The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in Washington, also ruled that a sixth Algerian man was being lawfully detained because he had provided support to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.

The case was an important test of the Bush administration’s detention policies, which critics have long argued swept up innocent men and low-level foot soldiers along with high-level and hardened terrorists.

The six men are among a group of Guantánamo inmates who won a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have constitutional rights and can seek release in federal court. The 5-4 decision said a 2006 law unconstitutionally stripped the prisoners of their right to contest their imprisonment in habeas corpus lawsuits.

The hearings for the Algerian men, in which all of the evidence was heard in proceedings that were closed to the public, were the first in which the Justice Department presented its full justification for holding specific detainees since the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Judge Leon, in a ruling from the bench, said that the information gathered on the men had been sufficient to hold them for intelligence purposes, but was not strong enough in court.

“To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court’s obligation,” he said. He directed that the five men be released “forthwith” and urged the government not to appeal.

Judge Leon, who was appointed by President Bush, had been expected to be sympathetic to the government. In 2005, he ruled that the men had no habeas corpus rights.

Lawyers said the decision was likely to be seen as a repudiation of the Bush administration’s effort to use the detention center at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a way to avoid scrutiny by American judges. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison.

“The decision by Judge Leon lays bare the scandalous basis on which Guantánamo has been based — slim evidence of dubious quality,” said Zachary Katznelson, legal director at Reprieve, a British legal group that represents many of the detainees. “This is a tough, no-nonsense judge.”

Because of the Bush administration’s claims that most of the evidence against the men was classified, Judge Leon ordered the entire case to be heard in a closed courtroom after brief opening statements on Nov. 5.

The government argued that the six Algerians, who were residents of Bosnia when they were first detained in 2001, were planning to go to Afghanistan to fight the United States and that one of them was a member of Al Qaeda.

The five men who were ordered freed on Thursday include Lakhdar Boumediene, for whom the landmark Supreme Court ruling in June was named. The one detainee Judge Leon found to be lawfully held, Bensayah Belkacem, has been described by intelligence agencies as a leading Al Qaeda operative in Bosnia.

It was not immediately clear whether the government would appeal, but some lawyers said they considered an appeal likely.

The case has become an example of the Bush administration’s pattern of changing strategy in its long legal war over Guantánamo as the courts have scrutinized the government’s justification for its detention policies in general and its reasons for holding individual detainees.

In 2002, President Bush made the government’s allegations against the men a showcase of his administration’s approach to dealing with terrorists. He said in his State of the Union address that the six men had been planning a bomb attack on the United States Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Last month, however, Justice Department lawyers said they were no longer relying on those accusations to justify the men’s detention.

The habeas corpus cases have moved slowly despite the Supreme Court decision that directed federal judges in Washington to act quickly after nearly seven years of detention for many of the 250 men still held in Guantánamo.

Detainees’ lawyers said Thursday’s ruling by Judge Leon would be a signal to other judges that they should be skeptical of the government’s efforts to delay hearings.

P. Sabin Willett, a lawyer for the Uighurs, said that Judge Leon’s decision “sends a powerful message to all the other judges to get these cases moving.”

J. Wells Dixon, a detainees’ lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the ruling made clear that Guantánamo Bay had failed. But, he said, “Justice comes too late for these five men.”

Earlier this week, the Justice Department filed legal motions seeking to stop more than 100 of the other Guantánamo habeas corpus cases from proceeding, a move that lawyers for detainees said was a government effort to avoid further court scrutiny.

The Justice Department lawyers argued in motions filed Tuesday that there were flaws in the ground rules of other judges for the Guantánamo cases that would require the government to reveal classified evidence.

Last month, another district court judge in Washington, Ricardo M. Urbina, ordered the release of 17 other detainees, all ethnic Uighurs from western China. The judge did not hold a hearing on the evidence in that case because the government conceded that the men were not enemy combatants.

The Justice Department won a stay of Judge Urbina’s release order and is appealing. Arguments are scheduled for Monday in the United States Courts of Appeals in Washington.
Bernie Becker contributed reporting from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/us/21guantanamo.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 20, 2008 ~

2008-11-20T22:49:00.001+01:00

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 20, 2008 ~

Israeli forces raid north Tulkarem, storm Palestinian home
Israeli forces raided the neighborhood of Qaffin in northern Tulkarem at dawn on Thursday, according to witnesses. Local sources reported that 15 military vehicles stormed the northern West Bank village, an operation conducted under "intensive shooting of bullets and sound bombs."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33366

Israeli forces seize two Tamoun residents
Israeli military forces detained two residents of the West Bank town of Tamoun early on Thursday morning, according to witnesses.
Local Palestinian sources told Ma'an that "Israeli troops invaded the town at dawn, broke into several homes and arrested Akram Bani A'udah and Ahmad Bsharat."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33378

Palestinian forces arrest 12 Hamas members in West Bank
Security forces loyalty to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrested 12 Hamas members in West Bank during a crackdown against the Islamic movement, Hamas said Thursday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/20/content_ 10388172.htm

Israeli army detains several Palestinians in the West Bank
Israeli military detained late on Wednesday night more than 20 Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank, as it dismantled a sit-in tent in the occupied east Jerusalem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57732

Israeli prosecutors charge Islamic leader over Syrian flag
Israeli prosecutors charged the head of an Islamic organization in Israel over his waving of a Syrian flag at a demonstration in Jerusalem on Thursday, according to a news release from the Islamic Movement. Israeli prosecutors charged Sheikh Raed Salah, who is the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, with "lifting the Syrian flag" at a Jerusalem march, the organization said. The Israeli prosecution reportedly upheld the charge on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33373

Evicted settlers vandalise West Bank mosque
A group of Jewish settlers have graffitied messages insulting the prophet Mohammed on a mosque in the West Bank. Recently around 150 settlers were ordered to leave a fortified building in Hebron where they had been living since last year.
http://www.euronews.net/en/article/20/11/2008/evicted-settlers-vandalise-west-bank-mosque/

Dichter: Disputed Hebron house will be evacuated
In meeting with senior police, Shin Bet and IDF officials, internal security minister says High Court's decision to evacuate disputed Hebron House will be carried out in full. IDF soldiers spent morning painting over anti-Muslim graffiti sprayed by settlers on Hebron mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3626098,00. html

Settlers spray inflammatory graffiti on mosque
AP-Jewish settlers on Thursday spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ settler_standoff

Hebron: Rightists injure soldier, desecrate graves
Tensions surrounding disputed Hebron house continue to run high as settlers clash with local Palestinians, pour turpentine on soldier, spray 'Muhammad the pig' graffiti on mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625869,00. html

Report on Israeli settlement in the occupied territories Nov-Dec 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-7LJ56L?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

Another Palestinian family expelled from their home in East Jerusalem and hundreds of houses demolished. Israel's colonial policies kill any chance for a peace process!
Israeli police recently expelled the Al–Kurd family from its house, in the dark of night, in the Sheikh Jarrah area in East Jerusalem. The family includes Umm Kamal, the mother, her husband – who is partially paralysed and suffering from chronic heart disease – and their 5 children. Already refugees in 1948, when they were displaced from West Jerusalem, the family has once again been dispossessed of its home, where it has been living since 1956.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/19/another-palestinian-family-expelled-from-their-home-in-east-
jerusalem-and-hundreds-of-houses-demolished-israels-colonial-policies-kill-any-chance-for-a-peace-process/

IOA demolishes sit-in tent pitched by owners of usurped home
Large numbers of Israeli occupation policemen on Wednesday tore down the tent pitched by an old Palestinian couple who were evicted from their home by force in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Insult added to injury as Israelis tear down tent of family evicted from Jerusalem home
Israeli security forces on Wednesday tore down a tent in which an Occupied Jerusalem Palestinian family had been living since being evicted from their nearby house earlier this month. The tent housed Fawzia al-Kurd and her ailing husband since their November 9 expulsion from their home of 52 years.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=97825

'Gaza closure has no effect on Hamas'
Israel's decision to keep the crossings into Gaza closed will remain in effect until the end of the week, defense officials said Wednesday, despite an official IDF assessment submitted to Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the restriction is not having an effect on Hamas.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404781584& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle% 2FShowFull

Essential health facilities at the Al Shifa medical center stopped functioning
Dr. Hussein Ashour, head of the Al Shifa medical center in Gaza, one of the biggest medical centers in the Gaza Strip, stated that main facilities at the center stopped functioning due to the lack of fundamental equipment and tools.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57725

Gaza: Responding to urgent medical needs of choked-off Strip
As a result of the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip since 5 November, medical facilities are once more running out of essential supplies. This has dire consequences for the health of the Palestinian population. Katharina Ritz, the ICRC's head of mission for the occupied Palestinian territories, talks about the humanitarian situation and the organization's efforts to respond to the most urgent needs.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-7LJLNU?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

Health ministry: Dozens of patients may die in case of a power outage
The health ministry warned that dozens of Palestinian patients might die within half an hour if there was any power outage in the units of intensive care, heart and preterm infants in Gaza hospitals.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

UNRWA suspends financial assistance to refugees in Gaza
UNRWA has announced that it would be forced to suspend its financial assistance to refugees in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of Israeli currency in Gaza banks.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Holmes: Gaza situation desperate, unacceptable, presents collective punishment
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said Wednesday that the situation in Gaza is desperate, unacceptable and the Israeli blockade is continuing, a scene which was described before as a collective punishment.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1954474&Language=en

Hamas's agriculture ministry warns of a nutrition crisis due to the Israeli blockade
The Hamas-run agriculture ministry warned today of a nutrition setback in the coastal Strip, unless the commercial crossings are reopened.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57731

Gazans cook on wood fires because of power cuts
AP-While an Israeli cutoff in fuel shipments has closed down a dozen of his competitors, baker Khalil Awad stays in business thanks to a little creativity and dirty black oil drained from car engines. The cutoff in fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant started a week ago in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_ palestinians_gaza_notebook

European campaign warns of Israeli attempts to dupe the world on Gaza
The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza has warned of an Israeli attempt to draw the world's attention away from the oppressive siege imposed on the Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Palestinian rights group warns of humanitarian disaster in Gaza
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) warned in a report on Thursday that the Gaza Strip is facing "disaster" as a result of the "endless siege." PCHR also blamed Israel for the ongoing clashes in Gaza. According to the center's weekly report, Israeli troops made 30 incursions into the West Bank and Gaza, where 44 Palestinians were seized. Among them were two children from the West Bank, 15 fisherman off the coast of Gaza and three solidarity activists onboard a ship, the center claimed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33376

Gaza voices
Palestinians describe life under the Israeli blockade.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7735852.stm

Barghouthi: IOA measures against Gaza war crime
MP Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi has charged that IOA measures against Gaza constituted a war crime and a blatant violation of the international laws and the Geneva Convention.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Free Gaza Organisation meets Dr Mustapha Bargouti
So is Abbass just a tool of the Israelis? The Free Gaza Organisation meets Dr Mustapha Bargouti.
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=dd066910361233d04c9fab24f1ce92 17&offset=

Al Hindy: Hamas will declare a new president after January 9
Senior Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammad Al Hindy stated in an interview with the Maan News Agency that the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, will most likely declare a new Palestinian president replacing Mahmoud Abbas after January 9 of 2009 which marks the end of Abbas' term in office.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57727

Hamas slams PA marketing of the "Arab initiative" minus "the right of return"
Hamas strongly denounced the PA in Ramallah for intending to publish advertisements in Israeli newspapers in order to market the Arab peace initiative without mentioning the right of return.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Abbas mad at head of Arab League, decides to boycott foreign ministers' meeting
Official Fatah sources revealed that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas was indignant at the Arab League secretary-general because of his refrainment from holding Hamas responsible for thwarting the dialog.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Iner-Palestinian dialogue to resume next month
Well-informed Palestinian sources revealed on Wednesday that Egypt would invite the Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah and Hamas, to Cairo on early December to resume the national dialogue.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_ 10382743.htm

Prospects of Palestinian reconciliation 'darker than ever'
Palestinian resistance factions were roundly blamed in the mainstream media for their last-minute decision to boycott last week's Egypt-sponsored "comprehensive dialogue" summit, ostensibly aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation. But some independent commentators say the move, led by Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas, was justified.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=97839

Sources: Arabs tending to find a mediator other than Egypt
Palestinian political sources revealed a tendency among Arab political leaders active in the Palestinian issue to find an alternative mediator in the inter-Palestinian dialog instead of Egypt.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

ANALYSIS /Which peace initiative will Obama back?
So who's right, Netanyahu or Peres?Apparently neither. Obama was here in July, when winning the election seemed very far away and his main goal was not to screw up or ire anyone. Presumably he was polite, and told his hosts their proposals were "very interesting"-they leave satisfied and he hasn't promised a thing.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038959.html

Obama Tells Abbas He'll Work for Peace
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has received a courtesy phone call from President-elect Barack Obama, who confirmed that he would work for peace, a Palestinian official said Wednesday. The conversation took place Tuesday. The official, Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said Mr. Obama had thanked Mr. Abbas for the congratulations he had extended after the Nov. 4 election. Mr. Erekat added that the two men had "reiterated their commitment to continue to work" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-state solution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20mideast.html?ref=world

Abdullah holds secret summit with Olmert, Barak
King Abdullah summons Israeli PM, defense minister to his palace in Amman, implores them not to launch operation in Gaza, stresses peace between Israel, Palestinians also a strategic interest of Jordan.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625818,00. html

Israeli leaders make secret journey to Jordan
AP-Israeli leaders made a secret journey to neighboring Jordan earlier this week, listening to pleas from King Abdullah II to avert a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Jordan officials confirmed Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ jordan

Poll indicates Likud Party preference among Israeli voters
If general elections were held today, the Israeli Likud Party would win 32 Knesset seats, while Kadima would gain just 26, according to a survey published in the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33368

Israel calls UK stance on settlements "painful"
Israel accused Britain of a "painful attitude" on Wednesday for urging the European Union to make sure that goods made in Jewish settlements are not allowed into the bloc on preferential terms.
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnTRE4AI5D1.html

Hamas' armed wing will 'blow up the truce' if Israel kills leaders
The armed wing of Hamas threatened on Wednesday to "blow up" the truce agreement with Israel if it kills Hamas leaders has threatened by certain Israeli leaders. Abu Ubaidah the spokesperson of Al-Qassam Brigades said: "Israeli threats and calls to carry out wide-scale aggressive operations in Gaza Strip are nothing but an attempt to console themselves after the projectile attacks they received from resistance factions especially Al-Qassam."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33350

Gazans say denied right to make pilgrimage
RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Hundreds of Palestinians protested at the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday, saying they've been denied the right to go to Mecca for the upcoming Muslim pilgrimage. Led by seven men in the white robes worn by Muslim pilgrims, they waved Palestinian flags and carried banners reading in Arabic, "We want to perform our religious duty away from politics. The pilgrimage must not be the subject of conflict."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/19/news/ML-Palestinians-Pilgrims-Protest. php

Gaza pilgrims rally at Rafah crossing, call for allowing them to travel to Makka
Hundreds of Gaza pilgrims marched to the Rafah crossing to demand the Arab countries to expedite the opening of the crossing and facilitate the procedures necessary to perform the pilgrimage rituals.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Waqf minister calls on Hamas to respect Hajj pilgrimage
Sheikh Jamal Bawatneh, the Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs within the Palestinian Authority (PA), said on Thursday that the ministry hopes to overcome obstacles related to the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The minister called for Hamas to "return under the umbrella of Palestinian legitimacy," adding that the pilgrimage "should be respected."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33371

Peres: Settlement evacuation may lead to civil war
LONDON-President Shimon Peres told members of the British Parliament Wednesday that Israel would have difficulty dismantling West Bank settlements without causing a civil war in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038961.html

Global media executives protest Gaza press ban
Leaders of the world's biggest media organizations filed a protest with Israel's prime minister Wednesday criticizing the government's decision to ban journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for the last two weeks. The protest was the latest in a chorus of international criticism of Israel's Gaza closure, tightened after a five-month truce began unraveling about two weeks ago in a flurry of Israeli airstrikes against militants and Palestinian rocket barrages targeting Israeli towns.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-aRJnbPLC5ZcAuDIM5RBX-tX42wD94I84T83

Jordanian protesters urge Israel to end blockade against Gaza
Hundreds of Jordanians have held a demonstration in the capital Amman in protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza, urging for an end to the worsening humanitarian conditions in the coastal enclave, daily The Jordan Times reported on Thursday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/20/content_ 10387352.htm

The price of resisting the occupation in Israel: "leftists aren't allowed..."
The level of repression against activists in Israel is multi-faceted, violent, and effective. There are so many examples that it is hard to choose only a few, but consider just a handful of examples from recent months.
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1140.shtml

Activist opposes Gaza deportation
A human rights activist who was arrested while accompanying Palestinian fishermen on a trip is appealing against his deportation from Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_ news/scotland/highlands_and_ islands/7738179.stm

Free Gaza Movement call for aiding Gaza through the sea
The Free Gaza Movement issued on Wednesday this open letter to all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57721

Albawaba: Despite Ban, Leviev to Sell Jewelry at Grand Opening of Atlantis Hotel in Duba
Adalah NY has learned that the jewelry of Israeli billionaire and settlement-builder Lev Leviev will be on sale at this week's gala opening of the luxury hotel Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai. Despite Leviev's on-going construction of Israeli settlements and claims by United Arab Emirates officials that Leviev would receive no license to sell his jewelry there, the New York-based human rights coalition Adalah-NY has confirmed that Leviev's jewelry will be on sale at the Atlantis branch of the Levant Jewelry chain on the fabled Palm Jumeirah island.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/20/albawaba-despite-ban-leviev-to-sell-jewelry-at-grand-opening
-of-atlantis-hotel-in-dubai/

Second Saudi food aid shipment arrives in Gaza Strip
A convoy of food aid donated by the Saudi Arabian monarchy arrived in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, loaded with hundreds of tons of rice. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) received a previous convoy of flour last week, also from the Saudis.
UNRWA's director of aid programs, Kathy Heward, praised Saudi Arabia's role in delivering aid, particularly "its continued efforts to alleviate poverty among the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33374

Who Will Stop the Settlers?
The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians. Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11192008.html

Peres at Oxford
http://www.thejc.com/node/8345

Gaza: a Dire Life Zone Still Clings to Hope
Gaza Strip, 20, Nov, 2008-Following Israeli raids that killed around 15 Palestinians within one week, many rockets were fired into Israel in a reprisal of Israeli's provocation. As usual Israel started to blame Palestinians despite it was the one who initiated with violence again. The Israeli assault was an obvious breach of an agreed calm held with Palestinian fighting groups 5 months ago. It has provoked some Palestinians to fire some light rockets into Israel. Afterwards, Israel started a new phase of collective punishment and began more violent prevocational measures against 1.5 million people.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/20/sameh-habeeb-gaza-a-dire-life-zone-still-clings-to-hope/

Israel launches Arabic YouTube channel to bypass Arab media
The Foreign Ministry has launched a YouTube channel in Arabic which is meant to bypass Arab media and give Israel's version of current events directly to Arab viewers, Haaretz has learned.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038936.html

PA to publish first-ever ads in Hebrew explaining Arab peace plan
The Palestinian Authority is publishing for the first time on Thursday advertisements in the Hebrew-language Israeli press that present the details of the Arab peace plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038963.html

Another Showdown in Gaza?
Gaza is bracing itself for a harsh winter. Less than a week has passed since Israel slammed shut doors to all land crossings, leaving a million-and-half hapless Palestinians to a miserable fate. We have seen the images before; long queues at petrol stations, Gaza city engulfed in an eerie darkness, children huddled together around a kitchen table doing their homework and trying to make use of little light from a burning candle.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14403

Issuance of building licenses down 0.2% in West Bank
The total number of building licenses issued in the West Bank decreased by 0.2 percent in the third quarter 2008 compared to the second quarter, according to a report released Thursday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). But the total number of licensed dwellings increased 3.8 percent, compared with the second quarter 2008, when total licensed areas decreased by 14.9 percent, again compared to the second quarter, PCBS reported.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33370

Ben White: Economy first in Palestine?
Ben White: For some, reviving the Palestinian economiy is the route to peace. For others, it's the route to fragmentation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/20/israelandthepalestinians-middleeast

The Shooting of Brian Avery, and the Israeli Cover Up
While the Israeli military's investigation into the 2003 shooting of the American human rights worker Brian Avery did little to nothing in actually investigating the near-fatal injury, it was highly effective in covering up Israeli soldiers' involvement, thereby sheltering them from criminal charges. That became clear some time ago when, in a Jerusalem court, none other than the soldier who pulled the trigger and his commander severely incriminated the official account of the shooting on critical points.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14404

The Israeli Left: Yesterday's Traitors
In the crucial battle over the national consciousness, we are experiencing great success. Let us pause to recall: In the aftermath of the 1948 war, when we said there is a Palestinian people and that peace should be made with it, there were not 100 people in Israel and the entire world who agreed. When we said a Palestinian state should be established alongside Israel, we were deemed national enemies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14406

Palestinians to hand over wanted militant to LAF
Palestinian officials and Islamist figures in the southern city of Sidon reportedly started efforts on Wednesday aimed at handing over six wanted militants to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Among the wanted is Abdel al-Rahman Awad, who is believed the successor of the militant group Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker al-Abssi.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=2&article_id=97849

Interview: Palestinians in Europe
On November 16, delegations representing Palestinian communities in EU countries gathered in Stockholm, Sweden to pave the way for a conference to be held in a European capital in May 2009. Zaid Tayem, the head of the cultural division of the Union of Palestinian Minorities in Europe and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), says the May meeting will solidify Palestinian ranks and push for political representation in European parliaments.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/11/200811191638980749.html

Palestinian Oscar hope
Take the sexiest man of the year, team him up with a statuesque Palestinian-American spoken word muse, add a fiery filmmaker who sets out to make her first feature movie and you end up with "Salt of This Sea," this year's official Palestinian Academy Award entry.
http://www.kansascity.com/451/story/899314.html

In Gaza coffee shops, men and women break strict taboos
GAZA CITY-A womens association celebrating the end of a management course, combined with a party for the 20th anniversary of the Palestinian declaration of independence is no big deal in itself.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039082.html

US to lower Israeli airport's safety ranking
FAA issues report listing various security defects in Ben Gurion International Airport, Transportation Ministry says Mofaz has been attempting to repair dangerous situation for a year.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625774,00. html

Israel to hold talks with UN over IDF pullout from northern border town
Israel will commence negotiations with the United Nations over a withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the northern section of the village of Ghajar, which sits along the border with Lebanon, the government decided on Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038930.html

Ghajar residents irate over possible IDF pullout
Residents of divided village outraged over Jerusalem's decision to launch talks on ceding control of its northern section to UNIFIL. 'We will not accept any decision that will separate families and violate our rights,' council secretary says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625697,00. html

Wednesday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 17 Wounded
Excerpt: At least nine Iraqis were killed and another 17 were wounded in today's attacks. Also, the Iraqi governent reported that they had discovered a mass grave three months ago near Najaf. The grave contained 150 bodies killed during the Saddam era. Meanwhile, debate in parliament over a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement turned hostile and was postponed until tomorrow. Elsewhere in Baghdad, U.S. and Turkish officials joined the Iraqis for talks on the situation with Kurdistan Workers Party rebels.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13787

U.S. military: 8 bodies found in Baghdad
The U.S. military says the remains of at least eight people have been unearthed in a mass grave in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-11-19-iraq-bodies_N.htm

US will withdraw troops if Iraq does not sign security deal
The US will withdraw its troops from Iraq if the security pact between the two governments is not signed, Iraqi media quoted a senior United States official as saying Wednesday.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1443803.php

Iraqi parliament's debate on US pact disrupted
Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday disrupted a parliamentary debate ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani adjourned the session until Thursday after Sadrist lawmaker Ahmed al-Massoudi aggressively approached a lawmaker from the ruling coalition who was reading aloud the text of the agreement. Al-Massoudi appeared to be on the verge of grabbing the document as lawmaker Hassan al-Sineid read it. Personal guards of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, seated next to al-Sineid, stopped al-Massoudi from reaching the bench.
http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/iraqi-parliaments-debate-on-us-pact-disrupted

Hardline Iraqi MPs shout down US pact in parliament
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Lawmakers loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr shouted down the Iraqi parliament's second reading on Wednesday of a military pact allowing US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. The agreement, approved by the cabinet on Sunday, has been fiercely criticised by the Sadrists, who oppose any deal with the US "occupier" and have vowed to derail it with legislative manoeuvres and mass demonstrations.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusmilitaryparliament

Iraqi Lawmakers Brawl Over Security Pact
A session of Iraq's Parliament collapsed in chaos on Wednesday, as a discussion among lawmakers about a three-year security agreement with the Americans boiled over into shouting and physical confrontation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20iraq. html?ref=world

Defense officials highly critical of U.S.-Iraq troop accord
McClatchy Newspapers-WASHINGTON — Although the Pentagon officially has welcomed the new accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, senior military officials are privately criticizing President Bush for giving Iraq more control over U.S. military operations for the next three years than the U.S. had ever contemplated.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081120/wl_mcclatchy/3105096

Mosul Christians Reluctant to Return
Christians from Mosul are hesitant about returning home despite cash offerings and pledges of stronger security in and around the volatile northern city. The Iraqi government has boosted the number of security forces and troops in Mosul to 35,000 and is offering displaced Christian families up to 1.5 million Iraqi dinars (1,300 US dollars) to return to their homes. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani also earlier this month pledged 900,000 dollars to support and protect the community. An estimated 2,000 families – approximately half of Mosul's Christian population – fled Mosul and its surrounding areas following the killings of Christians there last month.
http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=l=EN&p=icr&s=f&o=347913

Iraq world's third most corrupt country
Iraq is perceived as being the world's third most corrupt country, with only failed state Somalia and Myanmar's military junta below it, according to the Transparency International index measuring perceptions of graft in 180 nations.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-24809-Iraq-world% 27s-third-most-corrupt-country.html

Iraq's 'Mulla Omars'
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan wants to bring peace to his war-torn country. For the peace to become a reality he will need to come to terms with the fugitive Talaban leader Mulla Omar. Karzai is reported to be holding serious negotiation with Mulla Omar to persuade him to lay down arms in return for safety and other so far undeclared privileges.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\ 2008-11-19\kurd.htm

Iranians urged to increase investments in Iraq
Iran is holding a trade fair in Baghdad, exhibiting its latest industries in a bid to increase volume of its exports to the country. It is the second running exhibition in the country. The Iranians are holding another fair in the northern Kurdish Province of Dahouk, which has traditionally relied on Turkish imports.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\ 2008-11-20\kurd.htm

Jennifer Utz: From Baghdad to Brooklyn: My Journey with an Iraqi Refugee
"That one sounds like mortar fire," Mohamed said to me. "And that was definitely a sniper." My Iraqi friend and I were in Coney Island for the Friday night summer fireworks. Listening to the thunderous explosions over the water as we rode the Wonder Wheel, memories of life in war-torn Iraq inevitably came to mind. I wondered what else must be going through his head. Just two weeks ago, he had been a refugee living in the slums of Damascus, Syria.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-utz/from-baghdad-to-brooklyn_b_145062.html

Lawmaker accuses Bush of secrecy over Iraq deal
The U.S. government is refusing to make public the security pact it has signed with Iraq, even though it has already been published in full in an Iraqi newspaper, a congressional hearing was told on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were holding a closed briefing for U.S. House of Representatives members on the pact signed on Monday that sets a 2011 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AI8OT20081119

Docs: US relied on faulty assurance before shipping prisoners to countries with history of torture
Hundreds of pages of documents released this week show the US government relied on dubious assurances before shipping detainees to countries with a history of torture. The documents reveal for the first time the contents of a "diplomatic assurance" exchanged between the US and a foreign government. Such assurances are issued when the US is asked to extradite an individual charged with a crime to a country that has a history of torturing prisoners. The requesting country essentially promises that it will not torture the extradited individual.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Docs_US_relied_on_faulty_ assurance_1119.html

Why Would Obama Proffer State Gig to Clinton?
"Her top, top, top advisers told me, 'Steve, she will animate things in the Middle East—she will deliver a Palestinian state. Gold-plated,'" said Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington. Mr. Clemons also noted the irony that Mrs. Clinton potentially would be tasked with preparing the road for the direct negotiations with antagonistic foreign leaders that she excoriated Mr. Obama over during the primary. "She criticized him so much for going to meet foreign leaders without preconditions; now she is the one who is going to have to go and get all the preconditions sorted out."
http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/why-did-obama-proffer-state-gig-clinton

The limits of American racism, and the Arab exception
The electoral silly season is over and it is time for a serious discussion removed from partisan passions and manipulation. Racism, the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room, has shrunk and is now no bigger than a jackass. In his eloquent endorsement of Barack Obama, another African-American statesman, Colin Powell, took direct aim at racism and pulled the trigger: "It is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is?" He went on to describe a photo of a Muslim American mother grieving at the tomb of her soldier son at Arlington Cemetery.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=5&article_id=97846

Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales Indicted in Private Prison Case in Texas
A Texas judge has set an arraignment date for Friday for Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They were indicted this week by a Texas grand jury on state charges accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a privately-run federal jail. We speak with Willacy County district attorney Juan Angel Guerra.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/20/dick_cheney_and_ alberto_gonzales_indicted

--
www.TheHeadlines.org

30, 000 signatures for gay marriage

2008-11-20T15:39:00.001+01:00

30, 000 signatures for gay marriage
Written by Rachel Cook

The National Union of Students (NUS) will rally in Melbourne this Saturday in support of same-sex marriage.

The rally, which takes place at 1pm at the State Library, will culminate in the handing over of signatures, collected as part of the NUS petition supporting gay marriage, to Greens’ Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Hanson-Young will take the petition to Canberra, where they will be tabled in the Senate.

The petition, Equal Rights for All: Support Same Sex Marriage, End Legal Discrimination, has attracted over 30,000 signatures since January.

James Vigus, queer male officer with the NUS, told MCV support for same-sex marriage covers a wide demographic.

“The signatures show that it’s not just a narrow range that supports same-sex marriage. To get so many signatures from so many different places, whether it was regional or inner city, shows that there is a large sentiment for equal rights beyond the gay ghettoes.

“We have signatures collected from as far away as Townsville.”

Vigus said the response to the petition was in line with opinion polls that have shown the majority of Australians support the right for same-sex couples to marry.

In May this year, 79 per cent of respondents to The Age readers poll, ‘Should gay couples be allowed to marry?’ said yes, while only 21 per cent said no.

Last week before the Senate the Greens asked the Liberal and Labor parties to permit their senators to exercise a conscience vote on the issue of same-sex marriage.

The vote was not granted, with the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, once again stating that the Labor Party stance on marriage is that it is between a man and woman.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Labor and the Liberals had both “trumpeted” their commitment to removing discrimination against same-sex couples in Commonwealth law.

“However, the Marriage Act has been a glaring omission from the suite of bills that will bring us into a new age of equality for same-sex couples.

“[The Greens] are hopeful that, with a conscience vote, the issue will be debated fully, and party lines will be overridden by the understanding that true equality in law for same-sex couples includes the right to marry.”

Halley Conway, co-convenor of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, is one of the speakers at this weekend’s rally. She told MCV the NUS petition sends a strong message to politicians.

“If people are willing to put their name and contact details on a petition it shows elected officials that this is something they believe in,” Conway said.

“Petitions are an effective way of communicating what people think en masse and NUS has done this particularly well.”

Conway said she will be addressing the issue of future strategies needed to push legalising same-sex marriage.

“I will be talking about where we go from here, why there is a need for concerted and multi-pronged activities across the board to see change.”

In related news, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, which will allow for lesbians and single women to access fertility treatments and broaden surrogacy laws, last week passed a second reading in the state’s Upper House.

The bill has now been referred to the seven-member Legislative Committee, which will report back to the Upper House on December 2.

http://mcv.e-p.net.au/news/30-000-signatures-for-gay-marriage-4512.html

TUC Calls for End to Discrimination Against Transgender People

2008-11-20T15:29:00.001+01:00

TUC Calls for End to Discrimination Against Transgender People
Brendan Barber speaks out on International Trans Memorial Day

LONDON, November 20, 2008 – The TUC is today calling on employers to stop discriminating against transgender people in the workplace on International Trans Memorial Day.

Violent attacks on gay men and women because of their sexuality are well documented – much less well known are the murderous assaults committed against transgender people.

In September 2008, at least 25 transgender people were murdered across the world, for no other reason than the fact that they were different. (source: ILGA)

International Trans Memorial Day will remember ‘trans’ people across the world who have been the victims of such crimes, and aims to bring them to public attention.

In Britain the trans community continues to face violent physical attacks, alongside prejudice and discrimination in communities and at work.

The TUC has worked with transgender union members and with representatives of the trans community to campaign for Britain’s equality laws to provide comprehensive protection from discrimination for trans people.

Although there have been improvements to the law, there remain gaps and widespread exemptions that leave trans people without full protection.

“Discrimination, hatred and violence are part of the daily lives of far too many in Britain, and employers need to make sure all their employees are working in safe environments free from discrimination.,” TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said last night.

“Unions need to step up campaigning for equality for trans people in the UK.

“We will shortly have a new Equality Act and the TUC will be pressing for complete protection for those people who identify with the opposite gender to the one that they were born.

“The murderous attacks on trans people worldwide – and the assaults we know take place in Britain – show that this community faces prejudice and bigotry.

“If Britain is to be a truly equal and inclusive society we need to understand the issues facing trans people, and develop practical steps to end discrimination in workplaces, and in society at large.”

http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/Nov/2002.htm

Belarusians More Tolerant to Sexual Minorities than Russians?

2008-11-20T12:50:00.000+01:00

Belarusians More Tolerant to Sexual Minorities than Russians?
Slavic Gay Pride movement opens public discussion on the rights of gays and lesbians in Belarus

MOSCOW, November 20, 2008 (GayRussia.ru) – The ‘unification seminar’ between Russian and Belarusian gay activists in Minsk last weekend – and the announcement of the creation of the Slavic Gay Pride movement with its first march on May 16 next year in Moscow – has provoked reaction not only in Russia but also in Belarus.

And the support for rights for gay men and women appears to be stronger than in Russia.

According to the website Gay.By, the Belarusian Internet radio TUT has shown interest in the concept of the Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow on Eurovision Song Contest final day.

A reporter from TUT went into the streets for some vox pops with ordinary people, asking about their attitude towards homosexual people.

The replies they go – and broadcast – were mixed, but generally supportive of gay rights. They include:

Let them marry, of course, let them have children, if they can. If they have conditions then let them do it.

● Yes, really, they should be given liberty probably
● Just that they do not propagate this massively and the issue of children should be thought out…
● Same-sex marriages? This should be thought out…
● The response to gays is the following. Kill yourself, faggots…
● If they are trying, let them try…
● Same-sex marriages are too much for our country.
● Gays are the same humans as all.
● After all they are a minority, let them gather and go to Holland, to create something together there but not here. We are rooted Slavic people and we are not destined to be gays.
● We should deal with it in a more tolerant way.
● We should have the same attitude here as in all open world.
● I think our head of state does not respond to all letters, and to this specially will not. I think they don't have big chances… Let them write letters…

TUT.By radio reported that “Belarusian gays demand equality. They decided to send a letter to President Alexander Lukashenko, trying to attract attention to the problems of sexual minorities in this country. Moreover, Belarusian gays are going to unite in the fight for their rights with Russian gays and stage Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow during Eurovision final.”

The results of the poll conducted on TUT.By site show that around 13% have positive attitude towards homosexual people, around 25% are neutral. 38% expressed their negative attitude to gays and lesbians while 24% chose the answer “I have no connection with them”.

At the end of the radio news report the journalist suggested that “as we can see out of the responses that we got, everything is not so bad in our country.”

“I was pleasantly surprised by the responses of Belarusian respondents during the poll on the streets,” chief organiser of Moscow Pride, Nikolai Alekseev, said last night.

“They showed higher tolerance towards sexual minorities in the society. But I am glad that the movement of Slavic Gay Pride that we created less than a week ago has already lead to the start of the discussions in the society – and the media – about the rights of gays and lesbians in Belarus. This is only the beginning but it is a foundation.”

http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/Nov/2001.htm

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 18 Nov 2008

2008-11-20T01:38:00.001+01:00

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 18 Nov 2008

Will The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military Ever Be Reported?
Michael Schwartz
Will The US Government And Media Finally Report The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military? I recently received a set of questions from Le Monde Diplomatique reporter Kim Bredesen about the 2007 Project Censored story about 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The questions and answers are, I think, useful in framing both the untold story of the slaughter in Iraq and the failure of the U.S. media to report on its extent or on U.S. culpability for the deaths of 4% of the Iraqi population....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48874
"Iraq out of Iraq" and other Mousetraps...
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
...I was watching with Mom - God bless her - Al Jazeera program "Itijah al Muakess" - Opposite Directions or Views. One of the guests was an "Iraqi" Kurd, the other a Lebanese. Why on earth did Al-Jazeera feel the need to bring in a Lebanese to talk about SOFA when there are plenty of Iraqis who are opposed to the DUAL occupation ? The Kurd dismissed the question when asked about the persecution of the Iraqi Christians and literally ducked it. When grilled about American detention camps - he said " The AMERICANS NEVER ARREST ANYONE". Kamel and Omar, my close relatives are STILL IN DETENTION. As for Omar, we are not quite sure if he is alive or not. And Kamel is over 67 years old. If he ever makes out alive, that in itself would be a miracle. They are both detained by the Americans with NO CHARGES. At that point, Mom who was busy cleaning the Bamia - Okra or Ladies Fingers-said in her typical Iraqi fashion, "Nchab, kalb ibn al kalb." - Shut up, dog son of a dog. My Mom is polite...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48870
"From them the sin, and from them the forgiveness. From them the killing, and the tears. From them the massacres, and the justice of the courts."
AL-AWDA, via Annie's letters
Below is a letter from one of the young women attacked by on the Berkeley campus while standing in silent protest (because of anti-Arab sentiments expressed at a concert) with a Palestinian flag. The way the incident has been addressed by the university is perpetuating the racism experienced by these Palestinian students. Please support these students & help the authorities on the campus figure out who the 'bad guys' were in this incident. We will not stand by while those attacked are revictimized by being blamed for taking a (legal) stand against the dehumanization of Palestinians & all Arabs. This was handled badly by the school administration & we can't let this go by without response. Please send an email to the Chancellor & student affairs...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48878
James Zogby and the Politics of Perception
Remi Kanazi
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a well known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions" is so disturbing. In the piece, Zogby tries to calm the fears of Arab Americans about Barack Obama's first appointment, Rahm Emanuel, to White House Chief of Staff. Zogby expressed shock and dismay that his constituency, once euphoric over the election of Obama, was now sending him angry and cynical letters. Zogby described the emails and calls to his office as "troubled and troubling—because much of the reaction was based on misinformation and because of what the entire episode reveals about the larger political dynamic."...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48879
Obama advisers: Harsh interrogators will walk
Stephen C. Webster
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture. Speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, the advisers said that the plan is to put a stop to current interrogation methods and to "look forward" as opposed to focusing on prior transgressions....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48884
Methinks they do protest too much
William Bowles
- I’m coming across quite a few essays by lefties bemoaning the fact that Barack Obama has somehow 'let us down’. For example there’s a piece by Dave Lindorff 'Obama's First Big Mistake on the Job - Rescuing Joe Lieberman’. Mistake? There is no mistake. The gist of the piece is about the "treacherous" Joe Lieberman, former Dem, who when he lost the race for nomination as Democratic Senator for Connecticut, turned around and joined the Republicans and got elected. Okay, the guy is as Lindorff says, "…a wretched example of a man without principle—a back-stabbing slimeball of a politician whose only allegi[a]nce, apparently, besides to himself, is to Israel", something else I object to in Lindorff’s piece is his qualification of his reference to Lieberman’s Zionist 'credentials’, "Now I don’t want anyone to think I’m some rabid anti-semite. My wife and kids are Jewish, we have good friends who are Israeli, and no, I don’t think the Jews run the media or the country. I do, however, think that Joe Lieberman thinks more about what, in his warped and shriveled worldview, is good for Israel, than about what is good for America." Come on Dave, 'some of my best friends are Jews’? There’s no need to apologize for attacking Zionism, you’ll be branded as an anti-semite no matter how much you protest that you ain’t. Get used to it...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48881
Iran and the US-Iraq SOFA
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
... Some have argued with some justification that the Iranians are sending a signal to the president-elect Barak Obama by persuading their Iraqi brethren to go along with the SOFA deal, while others have called the SOFA deal a defeat for the Iranians. Personally, I agree somewhat with the first take, while I think the SOFA agreement in and of itself is neither a threat to the Iranians nor a boon. What the Iranians want in the region is a recognized role assigned to them by the Americans as an indispensable 'partner' in the workings of the major issues concerning the long-term fate of the region. And in playing a key role in the Iraqi regime signing onto the SOFA deal, they have made a showcase of their 'indispensable' role to the Americans. This in turn should gain them some favor in other areas of their dealings with the Americans. This, again, should show to the U.S. Leftists who think the Iranian regime has some deep-seated anti-imperialist bent that no such thing will be exhibited by the Iranian state in its current setup. They want regional hegemony and the only power that can guarantee them such a status is the U.S...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48862
The Era of Magical Thinking: SOFA Smokescreens and Presidential Power
Chris Floyd
The American media is by and large swallowing the propaganda line that the Iraqi cabinet's acquiescence to a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) with the U.S. occupation force means that the Iraq War will be over in 2011. This will further cement the conventional wisdom that the suppurating war crime in Iraq is now behind us, and the topic will be moved even further off the radar of public scrutiny. But as usual, there is a wide, yawning abyss between the packaged, freeze-dried pabulum for public consumption and the gritty, blood-flecked truth on the ground. As Jason Ditz reports at Antiwar.com, the so-called "deadline" in 2011 for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces remains, as ever, an "aspiration," not an iron-clad guarantee....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48868
Video: Taliban's increasing clout in Kandahar
AlJazeeraEnglish
The Canadians have lost a higher percentage of their troops killed in action in Afghanistan than any other country in the multinational force. Meanwhile, as Al Jazeera's David Chater reports, the Taliban are in full control again in many areas of Kandahar, where the group was born....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48864
UN human rights chief calls for end to Israeli blockade of Gaza Strip
UN News Centre
The top United Nations human rights official called today for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which she said contravened international law and had deprived those living there of their most basic human rights for months. "By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "This is in direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now," she said....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48875
Caught in Bed with Evil
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank
Crossing points into Gaza have been shut down for almost two weeks, forcing the only power plant there to stop functioning, due to the lack of fuel. Last week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ran out of food and stopped rations’ deliveries to 750,000 residents of Gaza. Though the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now immanent, Western media refrains from reporting about the emerging disaster. Apparently, there are far more interesting things to write about, much more interesting than millions of Palestinians who are being starved by the Jewish state. However the press was kind enough to report that British foreign minister David Miliband spent some time in Israel this week....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48872
Rendered homeless, East Jerusalem's Al Kurd family now targeted in tent
Maisa Abu Ghazaleh, PNN
Director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights, Ziad Hammouri told PNN today that Israeli forces have demolished 51 houses in East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2008. He said, "The delivery of demolition orders, the destruction or confiscation of houses and the construction of settlements are all being conducted frantically by the Israelis before any solution on the issue of Jerusalem can be implemented." Hammouri added, "The new realities on the ground will be imposed de facto." This year’s demolitions are focused on East Jerusalem's Silwan and Beit Hanina. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's advisor is referring to an "open battle on Jerusalem."...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48877
From Kurdistan to K Street
Inside Washington's covert foreign policy apparatus, middlemen like Shlomi Michaels are key.
Laura Rozen, Mother Jones
The routine of Washington foreign policymaking is straightforward and, well, a little boring. Presidents and secretaries of state issue pronouncements in speeches. Diplomats have discussions in ornate ceremonial rooms. That's the official version, anyhow, and even if we're well aware that reality departs from the C-Span, Foreign Affairs version of things, the rhythm, pomp, and ceremony shape our understanding of how countries relate to each other. This is a story of the other world, the one whose real power players never show up in the CNN headline crawl...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48883
Index on Past, Present and Future
Sarah Meyer, Index Research
Heimat means 'Homeland.' A boxed edition of Edgar Reitz's 1982 film, Heimat, just arrived. 6 disks (english subtitles) with an introductory booklet by David Parkinson. I would like to share Edgar Reitz's outline in his press notes on Heimat, quoted by Mr. Parkinson in "Reactions and Responses." Why? Because what seemed relevant in Germany then is now also relevant to the United States today, as the U.S. president and his retinue are getting ready to leave the White House. Hopefully there will be no more home-made disasters before this becomes an actuality...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48871
Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?
Perils of Pakistan
GEORGE C. WILSON
President-elect Obama has committed himself to stepping up the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is not an overstatement to say that he will risk his whole presidency, and perhaps even unwittingly put nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists who might use them to attack the United States, if he leaps too far into neighboring Pakistan in pursuit of elusive victory. The rub, as the Vietnam and Iraq wars showed us all, is unintended consequences. Our military leaders can, and almost certainly will, make a strong case to Obama that there is no way to defeat the Taliban and their allied tribes in Afghanistan without cleaning out their sanctuaries just over the Afghan border in Pakistan...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48869
President-elect Obama and the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace
for Israeli-Palestinian peace
United States President-elect Barack Obama's election victory has revived hopes that stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations could finally lead to a two-state solution. Few new presidents have been greeted with such optimism and associated high expectations. However, the chances for progress depend on more than a new American president. There are several interrelated factors: US engagement, the availability of a viable peace agreement, Israeli and Palestinian internal politics and the broader international situation. An examination of these factors indicates that the optimism is unjustified...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48867
URGENT: Kidnapped by the Israeli Navy
FreeGaza.org
Fifteen Palestinian fishermen along with three internationals have been kidnapped in Palestinian waters by the Israeli Navy. They were fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah, clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994. The fishermen and the human right's observers were transferred from 3 separate boats to the Israeli warships. Other Palestinian fishermen reported that the 3 boats were seen being taken north by the Israeli Navy...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48866
Obama’s “seamless transition” to endless war
Bill Van Auken
President-elect Barack Obama appeared Sunday on the CBS program "60 Minutes" for his first televised interview since his November 4 election victory. He covered a wide range of subjects with a lack of specificity and a placid tone that suggested someone who had read through stacks of briefing books, but had few defined positions of his own and was above all anxious to offend no one. When asked what he had been "concentrating on" in the past week, however, his answer was unhesitating: "Number one, I think it’s important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. We want to make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible."...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48863
Israeli military invades Rafah city in southern Gaza
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC
Israeli military bulldozers, backed by armored vehicles, swept early on Tuesday morning into the eastern borders of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said that the Israeli bulldozers began razing farm lands just 50 to 100 meters depth into Palestinian areas, mainly in the Alnahda neighborhood. Witnesses added that the Israeli armored vehicles moved towards the Gaza international airport, and that they also razed farm lands in the area...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48865
Democrats Cover Up Bush Era War Crimes
George Washington's Blog
The Associated Press writes: "Two Obama advisers said there's little—if any—chance that the incoming president's Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations that provoked worldwide outrage." And when Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked if Bush officials could face war crimes, he responded: "In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen." This is not entirely surprising, given that Democratic congress members Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman and John D. Rockefeller were secretly briefed on torture many, many years ago, and yet did nothing to stop those unlawful programs...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48873
Iraqi Sunnis Push for Referendum on Security Pact
Democracy Now!
In Iraq, the head of the Accordance Front, Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc, said on Monday that the Sunni bloc still has reservations about a security pact that would let US troops stay in Iraq for another three years. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc, told reporters that the Sunnis wanted a referendum on the pact which has yet to be approved by parliament...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48876

www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

uruknetgif

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 19, 2008 ~

2008-11-20T01:26:00.001+01:00

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 19, 2008 ~

Israeli Authorities demolish a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem
The Israeli Authorities demolished on Tuesday a Palestinian home in Al Esawiyya town, in east Jerusalem, arrested three residents and attacked seven others including a number of women.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57709

Abdul-Qader: Israel is launching an open war against the Palestinians in Jerusalem
Hatim Abdul-Qader, Jerusalem Affairs advisor to the Palestinian President, stated on Tuesday that Israel is waging an open war against the Palestinians and their homes in Jerusalem, and is encouraging hostile activities against the Palestinians in order to force them out of city.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57710

Settlers block road near Nablus, stone Palestinian cars
Israeli settlers blocked the bypass road linking the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilia, near the village of Madama on Tuesday night, witnesses said. Hassan Zyadeh a municipal council member in Madama said the settlers prevented Palestinian vehicles from passing into the village and pelted their cars with stones.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33334

Israeli army stands by while settlers attack in Burin
In the village of Burin on Tuesday November 18th, armed settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar attacked Palestinian villagers, throwing rocks and shooting in the air. At 8:40 pm, the houses of Khalib Kasam and his extended family, near Route 60, were assaulted by approximately twenty settlers. Shortly after, the mayor of Burin called the DCO (District Coordination Office) who sent the Israeli army. The army set up a checkpoint, stopping Israeli and Palestinian cars, then telling the drivers to keep going. Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, settlers hid in the bushes and trees 50 meters away and threw rocks at several Palestinian cars, which as a result of the checkpoint, were easy, slow-moving targets. Although the army was present during the violence, no settlers were held accountable.
http://www.palsolidarity..org/main/2008/11/19/israeli-army-stands-by-while-settlers-attack-in-burin/

Israel arrests Fatah leader for possession of hunting rifle
Israeli forces arrested a Fatah leader in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday for possession of a hunting rifle. Palestinian sources told Ma'an that Israeli troops seized 22-year-old Jamal Thabet, a member of the local Fatah committee, from his house in the village of Azmut. Israeli troops in eight military vehicles also attacked a student's house within the same area.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33336

Five seized at East Jerusalem house demolition protest
A Palestinian and four internationals were taken into Israeli police custody at a protest in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to a statement. The five were demonstrating against the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in Sheikh Jarrah, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, where the house was demolished by Israeli forces on 9 November. The home, which belonged to the Al-Kurd family, was built on private Palestinian property, the statement claimed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33351

Israeli forces hold dozens of youths in raid south of Bethlehem
Israeli forces raided the village of Tuqu, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem at dawn on Wednesday and imposed a curfew. Witnesses said that dozens of military vehicles raided the village. Israeli soldiers rounded dozens of young men into a school, where they are being interrogated. Witnesses added that Israeli troops stormed houses and damaged property. In enforcing the curfew they used a public address system to order students not to go to school and residents not to attend the morning prayer.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index..php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33337

Hamas: Fateh forces in the arrested 17 Hamas supporters in the West Bank
Hamas movement stated on Tuesday that Fateh security forces arrested 17 members and supporters of the movement in several West Bank areas.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57708

Israel arrests 14 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli troops arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank in a continued crackdown against what the Jewish state called as wanted Palestinian activists, Palestinian sources said Wednesday. The arrests took place during raids into the cities of Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Hebron, according to the sources.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_ 10382095.htm

Israeli military detains four residents from Nablus City
Israeli military detained on Wednesday four Palestinian residents from the West Bank city of Nablus, as the soldiers ransacked the detainees' houses.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57714

Israeli forces arrest Gaza fishermen and solidarity activists
At around 9am on Tuesday, 18 November 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacked Palestinian fishing boats off the central Gaza Strip's shore. IOF continued to seal off the Gaza Strip for the thirteenth day in a row, allowing only a limited number of trucks loaded with commodities and food to enter the Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9971.shtml

Fifteen Palestinian fishermen released
19th November Update: The fifteen Palestinian fishermen who were abducted from Palestinian waters by the Israeli navy on the 18th November have been released. Their boats, however, have yet to be returned.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/fifteen-palestinian-fishermen-released/

Israeli military continues rampage in the Taqou' village
Israeli military continued on Wednesday rampage throughout the West Bank village of Taqou, detaining dozens of youth after ransacking many houses.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57713

Israeli army imposes curfew in West Bank village
AFP-The Israeli army imposed a curfew on a Palestinian village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, questioning dozens of men, security sources and witnesses said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbank

Israeli court holds hearing on the file of Maghareba gate events
The Israeli court in Jerusalem held Tuesday a hearing on the file of the Maghareba gate events and the indictment charge leveled against Sheikh Ra'ed Salah and four of his colleagues.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Two Palestinian lawmakers sentenced to prison terms
Two Palestinian members of parliament were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and fined by an Israeli military court on Tuesday. Lawmaker Samir Al-Qadi was sentenced to 42 months in prison and a 7,500 shekel fine. Al-Qadi was originally sentenced to just 28 months. Bassem Az-Za'arir was sentenced to 26 months in prison and 9 months probation. Both men are members of Hamas' Change and Reform Bloc, and are from the West Bank city of Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33345

Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade
AP-Israel stood fast Wednesday by its decision to clamp shut cargo crossings at the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
http://news.yahoo..com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ palestinians

UNRWA facing "grave and imminent financial crisis"
The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is facing "a grave and imminent crisis," a senior official announced on Wednesday. The Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Karen AbuZayd said the agency's General Fund, which funds UNRWA's core services will suffer an 87 million US dollar shortfall beginning next year.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33355

UN envoy urges Gaza blockade end
Aid was allowed in to Gaza on Monday but Israel then shut the crossings. The UN's top human rights official has said Israel's blockade of Gaza deprives Palestinians of the "most basic human rights" and should end immediately.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7735945.stm

UN: Israel Violating Law in Gaza
The U.N.'s top human rights official says the Israeli blockade of Gaza is depriving Palestinians of their most basic human rights.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-18-voa8.cfm

Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings
Reuters-Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/wl_nm/us_israel_palestinians

Egypt court says aid must be allowed into Gaza
Presently, Egypt has limited humanitarian trucks from entering Gaza as part of its border crackdown in line with Israeli policies.
http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/egypt-court-says-aid-must-be-allowed-into-gaza-2008111415989.html

Statements of UN High Commissioner regarding the siege anger Israel
Israeli was "angered" by the statements of Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; as she called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade over the Gaza Strip as this siege violates the international and humanitarian law.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57712

Many sections of Shifa hospital closed because of fuel depletion
Several wards and medical equipment in the compound of Shifa hospital, one of the biggest medical institutions in Gaza, stopped operating as a result of power outages and the depletion of fuel.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Zahhar: Truce isn't given for gratis, and those who need it should abide by it
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar has asserted Tuesday that the calm with the Israeli occupation couldn't be given for gratis.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Hamas: The truce does not mean the resistance cannot protect its people
The Hamas Movement stated Tuesday that the truce does not mean that the Palestinian resistance is not supposed to protect the Gaza people from the Israeli aggression.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Bashour: RoR of Palestinian refugees couldn't be compromised
Ma'en Bashour has affirmed Tuesday that the RoR was a personal, national, popular, and human right that couldn't be compromised.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Abu Marzouk: Hamas will attend the meeting of Arab foreign ministers
Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, stated that Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, understood Hamas's request to participate in the meeting of Arab foreign ministers to be held in Cairo on the 26th of this month.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/

Hamas denies reports on its acceptance to extend Abbas' term
Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Wednesday denied reports that it had accepted to extend President Mahmoud Abbas' term in exchange for joining the presidency's institutions.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_10382741.htm

Islamic Jihad: Hamas will appoint own president if Abbas refuses to step down
Hamas will likely appoint its own president if Mahmoud Abbas does not step down at the end of his term on 9 January, a senior Islamic Jihad leader predicted on Wednesday. In an interview in Cairo, Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Al-Hindi predicted "more exchange of blame, and president Abbas will find a legal [justification to stay], and he will gain Arab and European support. However, Hamas will appoint its own president, and that might be the PLC speaker.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33353

PA: 'Hamas is staging Gaza blackouts'
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah accused Hamas on Tuesday of staging the latest blackouts in the Gaza Strip in a bid to win sympathy and incite the Palestinian public against Israel and the PA. The officials said that contrary to Hamas's claim, there is no shortage of basic goods, medicine and fuel in the Gaza Strip, largely thanks to the many underground tunnels along the border with Egypt.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404771503& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Ramallah Palestinian Authority blocks website reporting on corruption
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah has blocked access to a popular news website because of the site's reporting on widespread corruption among the entourage of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. For several days, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been unable to view the website Donia al-Watan ( http://www.alwatanvoice.com) as access has been blocked through the PA-controlled telecom company. Readers outside Palestine and a few inside the country using proxies are still able to access the site. The Electronic Intifada confirmed that several users attempting to access the website in Ramallah and other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank could not do so and instead saw a message in English stating "We are sorry, the site was blocked based on attorney General instructions [sic]."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9972.shtml

University workers protest at prime minister's office in Ramallah
Palestinian university workers and legislators staged a sti-in in front of the Prime Ministers' Office in the West Bank city of Ramallah to bring attention to their fight for increased pay. Unions at universities in the West Bank and Gaza have waged a series of strikes, saying that the Palestinian Authority's Council on Higher Education, has not addressed their concerns. Another two-day strike began on Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33331

Who stole Palestinian prisoners' money?
Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs allots millions of shekels every year for residents held in Israeli prisons. Ynet learns PA has launched investigation into disappearance of inmates' canteen allowance; senior official arrested.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625306,00.html

Miliband says 2009 'year of change' in Mideast
AFP-Visiting Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hoped 2009 would see a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement given changes in the US and Israeli administrations and elections in the region.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonbritaindiplomacy

Peres: Obama 'very impressed' by Arab League peace plan
LONDON-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama proclaimed himself "very impressed" with the Arab League's peace plan when he discussed it with President Shimon Peres during a brief visit to Israel four months ago, Peres said Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038636.html

Obama calls Abbas, promises to back peace talks: official
AFP-US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and vowed to continue pushing Middle East peace efforts, a senior official said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/pl_afp/mideastusdiplomacyobama

PA negotiator: Obama told Abbas he'd spare no effort to see Mideast peace
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has called the Palestinian president and told him that peace is a vital interest for Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038898.html

Israel ex-army chief to stand for opposition in February poll
AFP-Israel's former army chief Reserve General Moshe Yaalon announced on Tuesday that he will be a candidate for the right-wing opposition Likud in February general elections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraelpoliticslikud

Yaalon: Withdrawals must end
Newest addition to Likud holds press conference with Netanyahu, says decision to enter politics followed lengthy deliberation, but he 'couldn't just sit idly by'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625081,00.html

Palestinian PM nixes Netanyahu plan for Mideast peace
AFP-Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad rejected proposals by Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu for an economic solution to the Middle East conflict, in comments published on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictpalestinianfayy ad

Foreign Reporters' Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza
JERUSALEM — An association representing international news organizations is campaigning for an end to an unusual Israeli policy barring foreign reporters from entering Gaza that has lasted for almost two weeks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/middleeast/19gaza. html?_r=1&ref=world

Israel MP moves into settler house despite evacuation order
AFP-A right-wing Israeli MP on Tuesday joined a group of Jewish settlers living in a controversial house in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron which the High Court ordered them to evict.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbanksettler court

Jewish West Bank settlers defy evacuation order
AFP-About 100 Jewish settlers on Wednesday defied a High Court order to evacuate a house in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, and braced for possible confrontation with police.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictsettlercourt

MIDEAST: On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, A News Blackout
Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete closure of Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news. asp?idnews=44745

Foreign Reporters' Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza
Israel has almost entirely sealed crossing points along its border with Gaza since a five-month cease-fire with Hamas began to unravel on Nov. 4.
http://www..nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/middleeast/19gaza.html

Khudari warns: Gaza population might march towards crossings
Alarm sirens wailed in northern Gaza on Tuesday as the anti siege committee members and foreign solidarity activists marched near Beit Hanun crossing to protest the IOA closure of all Gaza crossings.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

NY-Rights groups protest Hebron settlement fundraiser
Adalah-NY, Brooklyn for Peace rally outside Marriott Marquis hotel against fundraiser held there by settlement group, chant 'Hebron's settlers, Klu Klux Klan, racist groups go hand in hand'.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/ynet-ny-rights-groups-protest-hebron-settlement-fundraiser/

UK protestors call Peres 'war criminal'
President's address in front of 1,000 Oxford University students interrupted by small group of demonstrators claiming Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians, calling for end to Gaza siege. Peres: We don't need your permission to stay alive.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625214,00.html

A London demonstration protesting at Israel's president visit to the region
Scores of British Palestinians and some solidarity campaigners staged today noon a demonstration in front of the UK parliament premises , in protest against the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres, to the region.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57718

Comments from the Angry Arab
"I am an avid reader of your blog and I have a story for you from Oxford. Tonight, on 18th November 2008, Balliol College of Oxford University hosted Israeli President Shimon Peres in our university's most prestigious venue, the Old Sheldonian Theatre. They honoured him not only with this platform, to speak on the topic 'The Globalisation of Peace'(!), but also with the announcement that this would constitute the first in a lecture series entitled 'Peace Lectures: Inaugurated by Shimon Peres'. We, the Oxford Arab Cultural Society and the Oxford Students' Palestine Society, alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and concerned members of the public, held a demonstration outside starting over an hour before the talk, and lasting-audibly-throughout Peres' speech. Some of us attended the lecture and, at intervals, nine students got up and made loud statements beginning 'I represent all the Palestinians who...' One such student was bundled out of the lecture hall. Peres was visiblyfazed by these interruptions and the sound of the protestors outside, while the audience were thus made aware of the point of view being stifled by Peres' presence today in Oxford, and every day in Palestine. Several letters of opposition have been presented to the Master of Balliol, Andrew Graham, among which was one from a prominent group of South African anti-apartheid activists (attached below). We hope that there will be publicity for this opposition, and for the events of today, as part of our ongoing protest to show that the head of the Israeli state is not welcome here..." [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-palestinian-protestors-interrupted.html

2 arrested at Gaza protest outside Ministry of Defense
Approximately 200 people held a vigil outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, protesting the recent flare-up of violence in the Gaza Strip and what they called the "occupation, suffocation, and liquidation" of the Palestinian people. Police arrested two protesters for disturbing the peace, but the vigil, which lasted for over an hour, was otherwise peaceful.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404770059& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty: Boymelgreen out of Toronto, Brooklyn and Palestine!
On November 15, as part of the International Week Against the Apartheid Wall, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) erected a reinforced cement wall in front of the Toronto building '50 On the Park' at 50 Portland Street. This building is owned by wealthy real estate developer Leviev-Boymelgreen, which has projects in Toronto and Brooklyn, and which also builds illegal settlements in the West Bank.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1780.shtml

Cyclers against the Wall tear down the Apartheid Wall
On November 16, Forum Palestina and Palestinian solidarity activists in Rome built a mock wall across the main street, Via dei Fori Imperiali, in the center of Rome to protest the Apartheid Wall being built in Palestine. A critical mass group called Cyclers Against the Wall participated in the event, and with the wave of the "starting" flag – a Palestinian flag – the cyclists drove at the mock wall, and broke it down.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1781.shtml

'Palestinian banks are better than Israeli banks'
Jihad al-Wazir, governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, was 25 years old when his father, Khalil al-Wazir-better known as Abu Jihad was assassinated. It happened in their Tunis home in April 1988.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038831.html

PNA to publish advertisement first time on Israeli media
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will publish its first advertisement on Israeli media this week, calling on Israelis to support a Saudi-proposed peace plan, Israeli news service Ynet reported Tuesday. The public statement will appear on Israeli newspapers as of Thursday, marking the first time that the PNA uses this channel to communicate with the Israeli public, said the report, adding that similar advertisement will be published in American and European newspapers as well.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_10378084.htm

Israel to boycott Durban II anti-racism conference
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced Wednesday that Israel has made a final decision to boycott the United Nations "Durban II" conference on human rights this spring, fearing it would be used once again as a forum for anti-Israeli sentiment..
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038897.html

Target Practice in Gaza
What came first: the chicken or the egg? And who started the latest round of clashes in Gaza: the Israelis or the Palestinians? Depending on whom one asks, the answer will be different every time-the Israelis, the Palestinians, both are guilty, it depends… On November 5, Israeli forces entered Gaza, killing six Palestinians in the process. Since then, Palestinian fighters have been clashing with Israeli troops and dodging Israeli missiles.. In response to every Israeli action, they play their only card-they fire homemade rockets into Israel. To date, 16 Palestinians have been killed, with zero Israeli fatalities recorded. Palestinians say Israel made the first move by entering Gaza in an unwarranted and aggressive manner. Israel, on the other hand, says it was responding to rumors of possible kidnapping attempts against Israeli soldiers and the threat of more rocket attacks. But debating who started the latest round of violence is an unproductive pastime. Instead, considering the timing and the consequences of these hostilities yields a much more interesting though sad tale.
http://www.miftah.org/Display. cfm?DocId=18207&CategoryId=3

…

Extrajudicial Assassinations As Official Israeli Policy
Extra-judicial killings are indefensible, morally abhorrent, and illegal under international laws and norms. Article 23b of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits "assassination, proscription, or outlawry of an enemy, or putting a price upon an enemy's head, as well as offering a reward for any enemy 'dead or alive.' " Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." UDHR also recognizes the "inherent dignity (and the) equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family."
http://globalresearch..ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11041

Crossing the Line looks at Obama's "change" for Palestine
This week on Crossing The Line: With a resounding victory, United States President-elect Barrack Hussein Obama made history on the evening of 4 November 2008. Running on the slogan "Change You Can Believe In," many are hoping that after eight years of the Bush administration, change has finally arrived. But what about change for the Palestinians and their untenable situation? What change can Obama bring to the world's longest-standing refugee population? We'll speak to Kathleen and Bill Christison both formerly with the US Central Intelligence Agency about this issue.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9970.shtml

Settler rabbi: State of Israel is an enemy of the people
"The state of Israel has become the enemy of the people and the land of Israel," settler rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe said Tuesday during an emergency meeting on the state's plan to evacuate a house in Hebron whose ownership has been at the center of a bitter dispute for over a year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038565.html

Alperon's sister: Whoever killed Ya'akov, the same will be done to his children
At around 1 P.M. Tuesday afternoon the funeral procession of underworld kingpin Ya'akov Alperon, who was killed in a car bombing in Tel Aviv Monday morning, set out from his home in Ra'anana. Hundreds of people accompanied his coffin to the cemetery at Kfar Nahman.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038513.html

Israeli mob swears vengeance as it buries boss
For a moment, as the first few of the hundreds of mourners came up the cypress-lined avenue to the main cemetery on the edge of this prosperous satellite town outside Tel Aviv, the menfolk donning kippas, you could have mistaken it for any Israeli funeral.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-mob-swears-vengeance-as-it-buries-boss-
1024601.html

Meir Porush's son beaten as haredi confrontations continue
In another incident demonstrating the escalating tensions between rival camps within the haredi community, the son of United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush was beaten and knocked to the ground Monday. Yisrael Porush confirmed that he had been attacked but added that he did not want to provide details of the incident for fear it would lead to the desecration of God's name.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404770681& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A secular mayor for Jerusalem
THE hollowness of Israel's rhetoric about "united Jerusalem" is never starker than on local election day, when the city's 537,000 adults, together with the rest of Israel, can go to the polls to pick their new mayor. Among Jerusalem's Palestinians, who make up some 30% of the citizenry, hardly anyone bothers to vote. In East Jerusalem, the mainly Arab part of the city captured and annexed by Israel in 1967, polling stations in schools and public buildings stay yawningly empty, apart from a trickle of municipal employees and their families.
http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12609920

Britain resumes high-level intelligence links with Syria: report
AFP-Britain re-established high-level intelligence links with the Syrian authorities as Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Damascus, the Times newspaper said Wednesday citing senior Syrian officials.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_afp/mideastsyriabritaindiplomacyintelligence

Peres: Withdrawal from the Golan will only be under Israeli conditions
Israeli President, Shimon Peres, said that if Syria wants the Golan Heights back it must proof that it is ready for peace, and must change its policies, such as its relation with Iran and Hezbollah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57707

Israel may cede control of Lebanon village to UN
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to call several senior defense officials Wednesday to discuss the possibility of pulling out of the northern part of the border village of Ghajar and relinquishing control to UN forces.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038579.html

Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon?
Northwest of Ghajar Village, South Lebanon : "We, as Lebanese, are here to confirm that we cling to freeing every grain of our soil. We will not abandon the great national cause, which is the continuation of the liberation of our land. The resistance looks forward to hoisting the flags of victory again over the Kfarshuba hills, Shebaa Farms, Ghajar and Abbasieh where 80 percent of the land is still occupied" -- Sheik Nabil Qwork, Hezbollah leader addressing villagers at Abbasieh Village, 10/2008
http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb11182008.html

Tuesday: 23 Iraqis Killed, 35 Wounded
At least 23 Iraqis were killed and 35 more were wounded in the latest reports of violence. In political news, elections have been set for Jan. 31 in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. The top Iraqi cleric gave tacit support to a U..S.-Iraqi security agreement now being debated in parliament. Meanwhile, Corruption watchdog group, Transparency International, has called Iraq the third most corrupt country in the world, and demonstrators are moving their vigil for an Iranian dissident group living in Iraq from New York to Washington.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13784

IRAQ: At long last, an election date
Amid the drama over the Iraqi Cabinet's decision to approve a security pact giving American forces another three years on the ground here, it was easy to miss another milestone. The Cabinet has formally announced the date for provincial elections: Jan. 31, 2009. The decision, announced Tuesday, is the first time a date has been declared. The provincial election law passed by Parliament in September only said that the vote should be held by Jan. 31 but left in the air exactly when it would happen. This gives the country's political groups time to get ready for the official two-month campaigning period, which will begin Dec. 1. With luck and organization, it will give election officials time to arrange what is sure to be a massive undertaking.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/11/iraq-at-long-la.html

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story-Iraq security pact-Nov 17
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2008/11/al-jazeera-video-inside-story-iraq.html

2011 US Iraq withdrawal depends on conditions on the ground, says Admiral Mullen
US military leaders are comfortable with a 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq but it should depend on conditions on the ground, the US military chief has said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/3474933/2011-US-Iraq-withdrawal-depends-on-conditions
-on-the-ground-says-Admiral-Mullen.html

Under Iraq troop pact, U.S. can't leave any forces behind
BAGHDAD — The status of forces of agreement between the United States and Iraq is now called the withdrawal agreement, and that's exactly what it is: an ultimate end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
http://www.mcclatchydc..com/iraq/story/56110.html

Unofficial Translation of U.S.-Iraq Troop Agreement from the Arabic Text
Translated from the Arabic by Sahar Issa, Jenan Hussein and Hussein Kadhim of the McClatchy Baghdad Bureau.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56116.html

Maliki defends troop pact; Sadr demands its rejection
McClatchy Newspapers-BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Tuesday urged the Iraqi public to support the new pact that calls for withdrawing American forces as his most determined opponent, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, once again urged the parliament to vote down the agreement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081118/wl_mcclatchy/3103860

Small Iraqi party says it will not support US pact
A small Shiite party said Wednesday that a U..S.-Iraqi security pact allowing American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years infringes on Iraqi sovereignty, and vowed to vote against the deal in parliament. Even without the support of the Fadhila party's 15 lawmakers, the agreement is likely to be approved when the 275-seat parliament votes Nov. 24. The political parties that comprise Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ruling coalition dominate the legislature, and his Cabinet approved the deal with Washington on Sunday.
http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/small-iraqi-party-says-it-will-not-support-us-pact

Iraq bids farewell to US arms
The security pact between the United States and Iraq closes the door to a further US military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the US military that appears to be irreversible. What was supposed to be a client regime was instead waiting for the right moment to assert real control.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK20Ak02.html

Iraq arrests senior Iranian commando at airport
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The military said they suspected the man of "involvement in facilitating Iranian weapons.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/19/60406.html

US arrests suspected Iranian agent in Iraq
AP-The U.S. military says it has arrested an alleged senior member of the Iranian security forces suspected of funneling weapons into Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_ iranian_arrested

Iraq discovers remains of 150 Kurds in south Iraq
Reuters-Iraqi officials flew the remains of 150 Kurds found in a mass grave home to Kurdistan on Wednesday, after a moving ceremony that paid tribute to victims of repression under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/wl_nm/us_iraq_graves

Iraqis accused of killing soldiers at risk of torture, court told
Two Iraqis accused of killing British soldiers risk being tortured and executed, in violation of their human rights, if they are tried in Iraq for war crimes, the high court was told yesterday. Faisal Al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Mufdhi, 58, who are being held by British forces in Basra, are accused of murdering Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/19/iraq-human-rights

Straw defends his role in Iraq war after ex-law lord brands conflict 'illegal'
Lord Goldsmith and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw defended their actions after Lord Bingham, the former senior law lord and one of Britain's most respected judicial experts, described the military action by Britain and the US as a " serious violation of international law".
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086902/Straw-defends-role-Iraq-war-ex-law-lord-brands-conflict-
illegal.html?ITO=1490

Will The US Government And Media Finally Report The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military?
I recently received a set of questions from Le Monde Diplomatique reporter Kim Bredesen about the 2007 Project Censored story about 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The questions and answers are, I think, useful in framing both the untold story of the slaughter in Iraq and the failure of the U.S. media to report on its extent or on U.S. culpability for the deaths of 4% of the Iraqi population.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-schwartz/will-the-slaughter-of-ira_b_143503.html

Steve Fainaru on "Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq"
Top Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly reviewing a draft indictment against six Blackwater security guards who opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square more than a year ago killing seventeen Iraqi civilians. The indictments would mark the first time armed private contractors from the United States face justice. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post correspondent Steve Fainaru about his new book Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/steve_fainaru_on_ big_boy_rules

Urgent International Push for Pollard
With Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scheduled to leave in a few days for a parting visit with U.S. President George W. Bush – who will leave office in two months' time, just a few weeks before Olmert is to be replaced –massive pressure is being exerted on Olmert to ask Bush for a pardon.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128444

On Rahm Emanuel
There's been a lot of speculation about the foreign-policy implications of Rep.. Rahm Emanuel serving as Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, much of which, of course, is …speculation. Below are two of the less fevered and somewhat more reassuring analyses of Emanuel and his views on the Middle East — one by Jim Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), the other by Lara Friedman, the policy and government relations director of Americans for Peace Now (APN). Both groups, of course, worked with the Clinton administration on the Oslo process and are strongly committed to a two-state solution, etc.
http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=203#more-203

NO FREE PASS FOR RAHM EMANUEL
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute, a well-known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions,"
published by The Huffington Post, is so disturbing. Remi Kanazi comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9974.shtml

Obama advisers: Harsh interrogators will walk
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_admin_wont_prosecure_ Bush_war_1117.html

Essential Reading for Obama
In the weeks until his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be focusing on the most immediate tasks of assembling a new administration and familiarizing himself with the depth of domestic and foreign crises confronting the Unites States. Once in the White House, President Obama will have to grapple with the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their manifestations in the area of human rights and law. But the catalogue of failures of the outgoing administration of George W Bush is long. If President Obama is to succeed in delivering on the promises raised by his victory, he may find it useful to read some of the pages from the catalogue of failures of his predecessor. They shed light on the blunders that made America's crises.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14401

Al Qaida No. 2: Obama guilty of betraying Muslim roots in backing Israel
Al Qaeda's second-in-command urged Muslims to continue attacks on "criminal" America and slammed U.S. president-elect Barack Obama for vowing to back Israel during his campaign.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038917.html

Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama: "I Hope He Is a Progressive Lincoln, I Aspire to Be the Frederick Douglass to Put Pressure on Him"
Princeton University professor of religion and African American studies, Cornel West, speaks about the election of Barack Obama, his selection of Eric Holder to be Attorney General, the possible selection of Lawrence Summers to be Treasury Secretary and the role of the progressive left to push Obama. West is the author of the new book Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/cornel_west_on_the_ election_of

The Koran, punk rock and lots of questions
This much Hiba Siddiqui knows: She is a Muslim teenager living in America. But what does that mean for her? The front door shuts with a thud, and Hiba Siddiqui heeds her father's footsteps, heavy from a day at work, plodding across the foyer downstairs.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/457493688/la-na-muslimteen19-2008nov19,0,975087.story

--
www.TheHeadlines.org

India Considers Decriminalizing Being Gay

2008-11-19T19:14:00.000+01:00

India Considers Decriminalizing Being Gay
By On Top Magazine Staff
Published: November 19, 2008

A verdict that could decriminalize being gay is expected before the end of the year by one of India's high courts.

Being gay is illegal in the world's biggest democracy. India offers a harsh judgment for gays and lesbians – ten years to life in prison, longer than most rape or murder sentences. But a case before the New Delhi High Court seeks to reverse a holdover law instituted by the British in 1860.

Many Indian leaders reject being gay on moral or religious grounds. Gay advocates, however, say India is ready for the change, arguing that the constitution is on their side.

Seismic shifts in demographics may also help gay activists prevail. Three-quarters (75%) of the country's 1.1 billion people are under 35 years-old. Many young Indians have become accustomed to the notion of gay acceptance while working for Western-based multinational companies that protect employees from discrimination based on sexual preference. This generation is more likely to embrace Western-style love marriages over India's culture of arranged marriages.

The United Nations is urging India to reverse the law and decriminalize being gay, saying it would help fight against HIV/AIDS.

New infections of HIV in India among men who have sex with men continue to climb. The United Nations argues such laws hinder prevention efforts aimed at gay men.

“Countries which protect men who have sex with men ... have double the rate of coverage of HIV prevention services – as much as 60 percent,” Jeffrey O'Malley, director of the United Nations Development Program on HIV/AIDS, told AFP.

“In China, male homosexuality has never been illegal. So there aren't any of these legal barriers to HIV prevention work,” he said. “It's easier to do this [prevention] work in China.”

Naz India, along with the Alternative Law Forum, filed the lawsuit challenging section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, or the “Anti-sodomy law,” in December 2002.

“There's real hope that the growing freedom in love and in career mobility for new India's young generation can start to dissolve boundaries for gay and lesbian Indians, too,” Arvind Narrain, an attorney with the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, told the Washington Post.

http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=2747&Category=24&MediaType=1

UN Calls For End To Israeli Blockade Of Gaza Strip

2008-11-19T19:10:00.001+01:00

UN Calls For End To Israeli Blockade Of Gaza Strip

Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 10:45 am

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0811/S00287.htm

18 November 2008 – The top United Nations human rights official
called today for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of the
Gaza Strip, which she said contravened international law and had
deprived those living there of their most basic human rights for
months.

"By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women
and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human
rights for months," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights. "This is in direct contravention of international
human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now," she said.

Ms. Pillay called on the Israeli authorities to facilitate the
urgent passage of essential humanitarian goods into Gaza, including
food, medical supplies and fuel, to allow the immediate restoration
of electricity, water and other essential services, and to lift
restrictions on the movement of civilians for medical, educational
and religious purposes.

"Decisive steps must be taken to preserve the dignity and basic
welfare of the civilian population, more than half of which are
children," she said.

Ms. Pillay welcomed the decision by Israel to allow a limited number
of trucks to enter Gaza on 17 November, but recalled its obligation
to refrain from all measures that contravene international law.

"Only a full lifting of the blockade followed by a strong
humanitarian response will be adequate to relieve the massive
humanitarian suffering evident in Gaza today," she said.

The High Commissioner also appealed for a complete cessation of
Israeli air strikes and incursions, and of rocket fire by
Palestinian groups.

Israel bans foreign journalists from entering besieged Gaza

2008-11-19T19:08:00.001+01:00

Israel bans foreign journalists from entering besieged Gaza

Cherrie Heywood, The Electronic Intifada, 18 November 2008

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9973.shtml

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Israel has imposed a virtual
news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign
journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report
on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete
closure of Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.

Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel's
Foreign Press Association, said that he personally "knows of no
foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week."

Gutkin said that "while Israel has barred foreign press from
entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it
unprecedented." He added that he has received no "plausible or
acceptable" explanation for the ban from the Israeli government.

AP has relied on reports from two of its journalists who were able
to enter Gaza days before the closure began and are currently stuck
there.

A delegation of European Union parliamentarians was also prevented
from entering Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold
talks with Hamas leaders. They subsequently broke the naval siege of
Gaza by entering the coast's territorial waters from Cyprus by boat,
defying the Israeli navy.

During talks held with Hamas, the EU parliamentarians were able to
get a historic commitment from the Islamic organization to recognize
Israel's "right to exist" within the internationally-recognized 1967
borders. Hamas further offered a long-term ceasefire in return for
Israel legitimizing Palestinian rights.

Israel also prevented twenty EU consul-generals from entering Gaza
on Thursday. On Sunday Israeli border police prevented 15 trucks
loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip.

EU commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood
policy, Bentita Ferrero-Waldner, has expressed strong
reservations. "I am profoundly concerned about the consequences for
the Gazan population of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings
for deliveries of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance," Ferrero-
Waldner said in a statement Friday.

Karen AbuZayd, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees,
added that it was unusual for Israel not to let basic food and
medicines in. "This has alarmed us more than usual because it's
never been quite so long and so bad, and there has never been so
much negative response on what we need," she said.

Israel closed the borders following a barrage of rockets fired by
Palestinian resistance fighters at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza
Strip. [sic – Israel military incursions preceded the rockets. The rockets are aimed at civilian populations rather than in military defence though. – JPLO]

The tit-for-tat violence began on 4 November when the Israeli army
launched a cross-border raid into Gaza, breaking a shaky five-month
ceasefire with Hamas. The purpose was ostensibly to destroy a tunnel
built by Palestinians allegedly to smuggle captured Israeli soldiers.

More than twenty Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids. Two
Israelis were lightly injured in the subsequent rocket attacks.

The timing of Israel's breach of the ceasefire is curious in that
hundreds of these smuggling tunnels have existed ever since Hamas
took over the strip in June last year. They have been used to
smuggle everyday necessities as well as arms because the territory
is hermetically sealed by Israel.

John Ging, director of UNRWA in Gaza, who has lived there for the
past three years, questioned the alleged security reasoning behind
the closure. Since the ceasefire went into place this summer, Ging
said, fewer supplies have passed through the crossing than in the
beginning of 2006, when the western Negev in Israel suffered
incessant rocket fire from Gaza.

At that time the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is supported by
Israel and the United States, EU and several other states, was
ruling Gaza in a unity government with Hamas.

"Last week we were unable to feed 60,000 of Gaza's neediest refugees
due to our warehouses running out of food. UNRWA supplies half of
Gaza's population of 1.5 million people with emergency rations, and
20,000 people are fed per day when there are adequate supplies,"
Ging told IPS.

Seventy percent of Gaza experienced electricity blackouts after
Israel prevented deliveries of diesel fuel, forcing Gaza's main
power plant to close down.

"The Israelis were only allowing 2.2 to 2.5 million liters of fuel
in per week prior to the closure, which was the minimum required to
operate the power plant. The plant has a capacity for 20 million
liters and this would last two months under normal circumstances and
tide over emergency periods. But this has all run out," Ging said.

Kanan Ubeid, deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said
at a press conference in Gaza that in addition to the shutdown of
the diesel-fueled power plant, the electric network bringing in
power from Israel collapsed due to increased pressure on the system.

Gazans also ran out of cooking gas while Gaza's Coastal
Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) was forced to pump tons of
untreated sewage into the ocean due to fuel shortages and the lack
of spare parts for equipment in need of repairs and new parts.

Much of this will flow back into Gaza's underground water table, and
the threat of contaminated drinking water spreading diseases has
increased.

Meanwhile, the emergency and ambulance services director-general,
Muawiyya Hassanein, says Gaza's health ministry is short of more
than 300 types of necessary medication.

Sammy Hassan, a spokesman from Gaza city's main Shifa hospital said
only urgent surgery was being carried out. "We have delayed all non-
urgent surgery as our small generator has stopped working, as we
can't import a vital spare part.

"We are down to 30,000 liters of fuel left to run the larger
generator which is used when electricity is cut. Under the current
circumstances with no electricity we require 10,000 liters per day,"
Hassan told IPS.

Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle
East program, said that Israel's latest tightening of the blockade
had "made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse.
This is nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian
population, and it must stop immediately."

Following international pressure and protests from the EU, Israel
allowed thirty trucks of humanitarian aid to enter the strip
Monday. "It will last a matter of days," said UNRWA spokesman
Christopher Gunness. "But then what?"

Oxfam's spokesman in Jerusalem Michael Bailey, who coordinates a
number of humanitarian projects in Gaza, said this response was
entirely inadequate.

"Thirty trucks of aid after a closure of ten days is insufficient.
What we need is a complete revision of the embargo on Gaza. Dialogue
with the relevant political leaders is the only way forward," Bailey
told IPS.

"Both Israel and Gaza's other neighbors need to put the human rights
and essential needs of Gazans above all considerations if there is
to be a way out of this quagmire."

._,___

Chronic Malnutrition in Gaza Blamed on Israel

2008-11-19T13:17:00.000+01:00

Chronic Malnutrition in Gaza Blamed on Israel

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21248.htm

Donald Macintyre reveals the contents of an explosive report by the
Red Cross on a humanitarian tragedy
By Donald Macintyre

November 17, 2008 "The Independent" -- - November 13, 2008 - - The
Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to a steady rise in chronic
malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the strip,
according to a leaked report from the Red Cross.

It chronicles the "devastating" effect of the siege that Israel
imposed after Hamas seized control in June 2007 and notes that the
dramatic fall in living standards has triggered a shift in diet that
will damage the long-term health of those living in Gaza and has led
to alarming deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and vitamin D.

The 46-page report from the International Committee of the Red
Cross – seen by The Independent – is the most authoritative yet on
the impact that Israel's closure of crossings to commercial goods
has had on Gazan families and their diets.

The report says the heavy restrictions on all major sectors of
Gaza's economy, compounded by a cost of living increase of at least
40 per cent, is causing "progressive deterioration in food security
for up to 70 per cent of Gaza's population". That in turn is forcing
people to cut household expenditures down to "survival levels".

"Chronic malnutrition is on a steadily rising trend and
micronutrient deficiencies are of great concern," it said.

Since last year, the report found, there had been a switch to "low
cost/high energy" cereals, sugar and oil, away from higher-cost
animal products and fresh fruit and vegetables. Such a
shift "increases exposure to micronutrient deficiencies which in
turn will affect their health and wellbeing in the long term."

Israel has often said that it will not allow a humanitarian crisis
to develop in Gaza and the report says that the groups surveyed
had "accessed their annual nutritional energy needs". But it warned
governments, including Israel's, that "food insecurity and
undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies" were occurring
in the absence of "overt food shortages".

A 2001 Food and Agriculture Organisation definition classifies "food
security" as when "all people, at all times, have physical, social
and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that
meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
healthy life."

The Red Cross report says that "the embargo has had a devastating
effect for a large proportion of households who have had to make
major changes on the composition of their food basket." Households
were now obtaining 80 per cent of their calories from cereals, sugar
and oil. "The actual food basket is considered to be insufficient
from a nutritional perspective." The report paints a bleak picture
of an increasingly impoverished and indebted lower-income
population. People are selling assets, slashing the quality and
quantity of meals, cutting back on clothing and children's
education, scavenging for discarded materials – and even grass for
animal fodder – that they can sell and are depending on dwindling
loans and handouts from slightly better-off relatives.

In the urban sector, in which about 106,000 employees lost their
jobs after the June 2007 shutdown, about 40 per cent are now
classified as "very poor", earning less than 500 shekels (£87) a
month to provide for an average household of seven to nine people.

The report quotes a former owner of a small, home-based sewing
factory, who said he had laid off his 10 workers in July
2007. "Since then I earn no more than 300 shekels per month by
sewing from time to time neighbours' and relatives' clothes. I sold
my wife's jewellery and my brother is transferring 250 shekels every
month ... I do not really know what to say to my children." Others
said they were not able to give their children pocket money.

In agriculture, on which 27 percent of Gaza's population depends,
exports are at a halt and, like fisheries, the sector has seen a 50
per cent fall in incomes since the siege began. Among the two-fifths
classified as "very poor", average per capita spending is down to
50p a day. In the fisheries sector, which has been hit by fuel
shortages and narrow, Israeli-imposed fishing limits, "People's
coping mechanisms are very limited and those households that still
have jewellery and even non-essential appliances sell them".

The report says that if the Israeli-imposed embargo is
maintained, "economic disintegration will continue and wider
segments of the Gaza population will become food insecure".

Arguing that the removal of restrictions on trade "can reverse the
trend of impoverishment", the Red Cross warns that "the prolongation
of the restrictions risks permanently damaging households' capacity
to recover and undermines their ability to attain food security in
the long term."

The detailed Gaza fieldwork for the report was carried out between
May and July. An International Monetary Fund report confirmed in
late September that the Gaza economy "continued to weaken".

Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
said that, contrary to hopes when Israel pulled out of Gaza, the
Gazan people were being "held hostage" to Hamas's "extremist and
nihilist" ideology which was causing undoubted suffering. If Hamas
focused resources on the "diet of the people" instead of on "Qassam
rockets and violent jihadism" then "this sort of problem would not
exist", he said.

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 18, 2008 ~

2008-11-18T13:16:00.000+01:00

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 18, 2008 ~

Report: Israel demolished 90 Palestinian houses since Annapolis
The applied research institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) reported that Israel, since the Annapolis conference, has demolished 90 Palestinian houses at the pretext of illegal construction.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Negev Bedouin mosque facing imminent demolition by Israeli government
The Israeli government is planning to demolish a recently built environmentally-sustainable Bedouin mosque in the Negev desert in the coming days. The Israeli Ministry of the Interior delivered the demolition order for the mud and straw bale structure in the village of Wadi Al-Na'am on Monday. A stop-construction order was issued in August.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33299

East Jerusalem home demolished; Israel to build new road in its place
Israeli forces demolished the home of Jamal Dahoud Abu Sneineh in the Al-Isawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Troops of Israeli police and military border guards descended on the area in the early afternoon and closed off the streets. A number of armed guards entered the home and threatened the Abu Sneineh family at gunpoint to leave the home or they would be shot.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33327

Israeli tanks move into Gaza, level farmland
AP - Israeli tanks forged into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a tenuous cease-fire.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Israeli Authorities Order Evacuation of al-Kurd Family from Protest Tent in East Jerusalem
The al-Kurd family, who were evacuated from their home in East Jerusalem on 9 November erected a protest tent on their neighbor's land. Israeli authorities have ordered the al-Kurd family to evacuate the protest tent in which they have been residing since being evacuated from their home (occupation-watch/occupation-watch/israel-evicts-al-kurd-family-from-home-in-east-jerusalem-20081109.html) in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on 9 November.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1418/494/

IDF officials: Settlers unlikely to quit Hebron home unless forced
Settlers have three days to evacuate a disputed building in the West Bank town of Hebron, the High Court ruled Sunday. IDF officials predicted, however that settlers would not voluntarily vacate within the designated time and that forced would most likely be used to implement the evacuation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037791.html

ISRAEL EXECUTES FOUR IN GAZA; SIEGE AFFECTS ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued to seal off the Gaza Strip for the eleventh day in a row, in an escalation of the collective punishment of Gaza's population imposed since 2000. The IOF resumed its military attacks and killed four Palestinians this morning
in an air strike in east Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9963.shtml

Israeli military invades Rafah city in southern Gaza
Israeli military bulldozers, backed by armored vehicles, swept early on Tuesday morning into the eastern borders of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57702

IOF Arrests 8 Citizens in West Bank
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Arrested, Monday, eight Palestinian citizens, from the West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin and Hebron. Israeli special units attacked the Old City of Nablus and arrested Mohamed abu shaweesh.
http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=12319

Israeli military detains scores of Palestinians from the various West Bank areas
The Israeli military detained on Tuesday 32 Palestinian residents from different parts of the occupied West Bank, media sources and witnesses reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57704

In night of mass arrests Israeli forces detain at least 30 across West Bank
Israeli forces launched a wide-scale arrest campaign against Palestinian youth in the West Bank before sunrise on Tuesday. More than 30 individuals were taken, mostly from the Al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, and mostly men under thirty.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33313

ISM: Israeli Navy kidnapped 14 Palestinians, 3 Internationals in Gaza Strip
The International Solidarity Movement, (ISM) issued a press release in which it indicated that the Israeli naval vessels have kidnapped 14 Palestinian fishermen and 3 international peace activists from the Gaza shore Tuesday morning.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57706

Israeli marine arrests int'l activists, Palestinian fishermen in Gaza waters
Israeli naval forces on Tuesday held 15 Palestinian fishermen and three international activists offshore to the west of Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. The three campaigners, Andrew Muncie from Scotland, Vittorio Arrigoni from Italy and Dalin Gulack from the United States, are members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to the sources. Fedaa Qastal, ISM coordinator in Gaza, confirmed that the Israeli gunboats intercepted the Palestinian fishing boats at 7 mile offshore and ordered the boats' engines to turn off before arresting the campaigners and the fishermen.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/18/content_10376914.htm

Christian Peace Keeping Team-Hebron
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian shepherds and international accompaniers with large rocks. They manage to steal a donkey and stab it to death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFPaPaURfI0

Hamas: Egypt detained nine Palestinian patients
Egyptian security forces detailed nine Palestinian patients on Monday who traveled to Cairo for treatment, taking them to an unknown location, Hamas-affiliated media reported. According to Hamas' Al-Aqsa satellite channel, Egyptian forces arrested the patients during a raid. A Three-year-old girl is reportedly among the detainees.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33293

Families of Gaza patients: Egypt besieges Gaza for the third year in a row
The family committee of Gaza patients stated Sunday that Egypt along with Israel besieges the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive year and bar the patients from receiving medical treatment abroad.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Collaborator in Gaza sentenced to 15 years in prison
A suspected collaborator in the Gaza Strip was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the de facto government's Court of First Instance.
According to the court decision, 12 years were given for "contacting security affiliated to a foreign entity" and 3 years for "weakening resistance morale."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33315

Israeli Tanks Move Into Gaza Strip
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli tanks have moved into the Gaza Strip, further threatening a fragile cease-fire Israel signed with Hamas militants in June. The witnesses say the tanks leveled lands Tuesday along the southern Gaza border east of the city of Rafah.
http://voanews.com/english/2008-11-18-voa11.cfm

Olmert orders plans drawn up for massive offensive against Gaza
Interim Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert accused Hamas on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, which the Jewish state followed with an air strike that killed four Palestinian resistance fighters. However, Olmert, who made the comments at a weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, did not mention the initial Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on November 5 that killed seven Hamas members.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97756

Hamas: Abbas-Olmert meeting, a mockery
Fawzi Barhoum, spokesperson of the Hamas movement, slammed the meeting which took place on Monday between the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and described the meeting as a mockery and a cover-up to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57699

Abbas' absence from Cairo meeting, political arrests caused Hamas to boycott talks
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to participate in meetings at the aborted Cairo Palestinian reconciliation meeting contributed to Hamas' decision to boycott the summit, informed sources told Ma'an. This revelation is contributing to an emerging picture of Hamas' reasons for withdrawing from the meeting, which contributed to its premature collapse.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33305

Abbas: No partial agreements with Israel
President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his rejection of any peace agreement that does not settle the core issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, and borders, in his negotiations with Israel. During a press conference in Ramallah with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Abbas said that he would not settle for half measures. He said the issues of water and security would also have to be settled, along with the release of Palestinian prisoners.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33307

Caretaker government lashes out at Hamas
The West Bank-based Palestinian government accused the rival Hamas movement of resisting newly deployed Palestinian security forces on Monday. Riad Al-Maliki, the spokesperson of the Fatah-dominated government said that a current security campaign in the West Bank is nonetheless "going well." "All the threats by Hamas to control the West Bank are worthless threats," said Al-Maliki.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33302

What is Mahmoud Abbas waiting for?
It appears clear to all but the Palestinian president that resistance, not supine collaboration, is the only strategic option, writes Ghada Karmi* With the appalling death toll in Gaza, relentless assaults on the West Bank (in which negotiations chief Ahmed Qurei's own bodyguard was killed), and Israel's blatant settlement expansion, one must wonder what Israeli atrocity, if any, would make the Palestinian president change course. True, last week he raised with his colleagues the possibility of suspending peace talks with Israel if it persisted in its assaults, but he has not acted. Why not?
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/881/op133.htm

The PA is cheating the Palestinian people
With fanfare, fireworks, military parades and a lot of rhetorical overindulgence, the American-backed Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas has been celebrating "Independence Day."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Is Israel Deliberately Strengthening Hamas?
The extraordinary conditions of the extreme siege and the disconnection between Gaza and the West Bank (another intentional Israeli policy) have made the possibility of holding new Palestinian general elections a very distant one. Hamas can thus bolster its rule with coercion, wages, charity and the consoling power of religion. And perhaps that is exactly what the Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces and government want?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037879.html

Abbas said to ask Olmert to free Barghouti as goodwill gesture
Ramallah-based paper Al-Ayyam reported Tuesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday to release Fatah militant leader Marwan Barghouti a goodwill gesture.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038468.html

"Half truce" the latest in regional lexicon - By Nasser Lahham
Israeli television's Channel Two described the relationship between Gaza and Israel as one of a "half truce." This is a new term in the regional dictionary, with a complicated definition and characteristic argument over which half is the truce, and what the other half consists of. Putting a name to the phenomena was Israeli political analyst Audi Segal who summed up his thoughts on the Israeli cabinet's refusal to take military action in Gaza by explaining, "there is a half truce that Israel does not want to spiral up into a military operation in the Gaza Strip at this time … [however] it does not want to keep silent as the firing of homemade shells by the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza continues."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33242

Top Obama aide denies report president-elect will back Arab peace plan
The Times cited a senior adviser who quoted Obama as telling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: "The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative. It would give them peace with the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037578.html

Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings
Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday citing continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel supplies in the coastal territory. Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LI315361.htm

Gaza Expecting The Worst
Last Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the Israeli government to keep in mind its legal responsibility to deliver urgent and steady supply of sufficient fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip. The Israelis have blocked fuel delivery and turned away trucks with food distributed by UNRWA. Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he is deeply concerned about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the risk of a possible humanitarian disaster.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14390

Israel lets "few days" of food supplies into Gaza; UN: "but then what?"
Delivery of an unspecified number of aid and food trucks to UNRWA and Gaza Strip commercial dealers was confirmed on Monday after Israel threatened to withhold the supplies "depending" on the actions of resistance groups, who launched projectiles at the Negev Monday afternoon. Thirty-three trucks filled with frozen meat, dairy products, medicines and UNRWA food aid waited at the Gaza border since Sunday, when they were turned back on the orders of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33284

Siege up close: desperate father declares hunger strike "until something changes"
Fatima Ayaad is five-years-old, she lives in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza city and on Saturday she asked her mother what chicken tasted like, because she had forgotten. Fatima has eleven brothers and sisters; her father Jumaa has been unemployed since the first Intifadah in 1987. He wanders the streets of Gaza City night and day looking for work, odd jobs, anything to put food in front of his family.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33301

Humanitarian aid boosts troubled Gaza truce
Israel's decision to allow a limited supply of aid into the Gaza Strip may strengthen the fragile ceasefire.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081117/FOREIGN/754481444/1040/rss

Supplies will soon run out
Food distribution to half the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population resumed amid UN warnings that supplies will run out.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081118/FOREIGN/68310612/1042/rss

Gaza will run out of wheat Thursday; handful of mills working to process remaining grain
Flour mills in Gaza will shut down on Thursday because there is no more wheat in the Strip with which to make flower. Gaza has experienced wheat shortages since June 2007, said Fattouh, but said shipments of wheat were totally stopped two weeks ago. He said that there was a signed agreement with Israel to allow 450 tons of wheat daily into the Strip. For most of the siege there were 300 tons a day shipped into the area. "No ton is shipped now," Fattouh lamented.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33326

Day in Photos: Gaza Strip
A Palestinian smuggler climbs a tunnel in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt. Hoses that run through the tunnel are used to transport fuel from Egypt into Gaza. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have been engaged in fighting for the last two weeks, and Israel has closed the territory's border crossings, halting shipments of food, fuel and other basic supplies. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)
http://www.latimes.com/la-1117-day08_kahkbanc,0,3370721.photo

Palestinian PM: Construction in settlements will destroy the peace process
Palestinian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad called on the international community to up the pressure on Israel to suspend all construction in the settlements and implied that the Palestinian Authority could apply to the International Court of Justice in this regard, adopting the example of the separation fence.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038419.html

Livni: "Settlements issue, over exaggerated"
During her meeting with the British Foreign Minister, David Miliband, Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Linvi, claimed that the issue of settlements in the occupied territories is "an over exaggerated thing" and demanded the UK to lift the restrictions on importing products manufactured in Israeli settlements, in addition to voiding arrest warrants against a number of Israeli military officials.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57701

Gaza media blackout an unprecedented violation of press freedom, say journalists
Israel has continued to bar international journalists from the besieged Gaza Strip for at least a week in what media condemned on Monday as an unprecedented violation of press freedom. Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and the head of the Foreign Press Association told Ma'an that he knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33306

Putting a final end to the Israeli soldiers' arbitrary humiliations on our people
Ramallah, 18-11-08: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, strongly condemns the public humiliation carried out by the Israeli army on a Palestinian youth this Tuesday. The young man was arrested and stripped publicly at Beit Iba checkpoint, West of the city of Nablus. Dozens of soldiers surrounded the boy and searched him, while he was standing naked in the eye of the crowd. The Israeli army claimed he was in possession of explosive devices.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article701

Dershowitz: I helped keep Carter silent
Why didn't Jimmy Carter speak from the podium at the Democratic National Convention? Alan Dershowitz said he had something to do with it. In an interview with Shalom TV, the Harvard Law School professor says he "pushed" Barack Obama "very hard to make that decision," Dershowitz said in an interview with Shalom TV. "Barack Obama had to make a choice between his Jewish supporters and his anti-Israel supporters like Jimmy Carter, and he did not choose Jimmy Carter. And that was an embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a show of disrespect." "It was a good decision, a wise decision, a moral decision," Dershowitz added.
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2008/11/13/1000960/ders

President Obama and the Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian Peace: An Analysis
President-elect Barack Obama's election victory has revived hopes that stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations could finally lead to a two-state solution. Few new presidents have been greeted with such optimism and associated high expectations. However, the chances for progress depend on more than a new American president. There are several interrelated factors: U.S. engagement, the availability of a viable peace agreement, Israeli and Palestinian internal politics and the broader international situation.
http://zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/19669

FEATURE-Israelis and Palestinians find peace on the playground
Israeli and Palestinian youngsters are finding some common ground on a school playground. Basketball games, hosted in Jerusalem by Hand in Hand, one of the few Israeli public schools where Jews and Arabs study together, are giving youths aged 10 to 16 a chance to try to bridge a wide political and religious divide.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LD524884.htm

Open Appeal to Australian Prime Minister: Help Gaza
I am writing to you about the situation in Gaza and the urgent need for the world community – including Australia – to require Israel to relieve the immediate humanitarian crisis. It may be objected that Gazans are, in some way, to blame for their own appalling plight. That is false for several reasons.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14388

Choice for Obama lies on the road to Jerusalem
The challenge for a US president rests in separating the urgent from the important. I once heard an official in George W. Bush's National Security Council describe the dilemma. Such is the pressure of events, he observed, that for the White House, the long term usually means "later this afternoon". Most presidents wind up imprisoned by the immediate.
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10260591.html

Family's eviction draws global outrage
The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians. Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081117/FOREIGN/258586645/1011/ART

No man's land: Iraqi-Palestinians in Al Tanf camp
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 18:20 - Al Tanf camp for Palestinian refugees from Iraq has to be in the top five of worst situated refugee camps in the world. It violates every principle of proper camp siting. In the no man's land between Syria and Iraq, it is within the border zone itself. It is completely exposed on one side to a highway, where trucks alternately speed by or sit idle for hours at a time waiting to make the border crossing. A 20-foot high concrete wall forms a second boundary. The site itself is in a culvert about 10 feet below the highway, making it a flood plain when it rains heavily. Refugees live in tents in the exposed area, forced to endure summer temperatures that climb well over 100 degrees and winter weather that drops near zero. Last winter, tents collapsed under a heavy snow fall.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/RMOI-7LH3QN?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Two thousand angry protesters cut electricity and build road blocks at Beit Fajjar Stone Factory
Two thousand workers in the Beit Fajjar Stone factories staged aggressive strike action south of Bethlehem on Saturday and 1,000 participated Sunday, calling for better wages and regular pay, as well as strict adherence to the Palestinian Labor Law. Workers erected barriers around the factories, preventing trucks from delivering supplies or exporting stone products. Large numbers of strikers were posted around the several compounds to prevent the use of alternative entry or exit points. Some said the electricity in some factories was also cut off.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33289

Lloyds TSB Tells IBB to Ceases Dealings with Interpal
No reason at all is given for this draconian and punitive measure, taken without any consideration for the thousands of contributors who have placed their faith in us to assist the needy of Palestine – and who want to continue to do so." Hewitt added that "it will be an administrative nightmare to transfer the thousands of standing orders that we have, etc. By acting in this way, Lloyds TSB has treated IBB with contempt. Their action sends a signal to other Muslim charities – as well as the bank's 50,000 Muslim account holders – that their accounts can be closed down without warning or explanation at any time. It is, at the very least, an example of the utter lack of respect faced by the Muslim community from some hostile quarters in this country."
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=63939&language=en

Worried West Bank settlers try wine and a bus tour
Israel's West Bank settlers have been ratcheting up their violence, defying their own government and flouting international public opinion. But on Monday a settler group tried another tack — wooing foreign journalists with a bus tour featuring a glass of merlot and a visit to a home overlooking the site where the biblical Israelites housed Moses' stone tablets.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlU7SDe1CnYMLgKqDeXByRSeSpogD94GSUR81

Israel wants more Palestinians to join army
The Israeli government has begun to actively promote voluntary army service for Palestinian-Israelis. The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, is meanwhile considering plans to make civil service compulsory for all Israeli citizens, including Palestinian-Israelis. The Palestinian community in Israel - the remnants of the indigenous population who were not ousted or fled from their land in the face of a Jewish terror campaign that preceded the creation of Israel - is opposing the plans. Leaders say the proposals are only a way of getting rid of Palestinian identity.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97774

How did IDF gain control over half of the country?
Some countries have an army, and some armies, like the Israel Defense Forces,have a country. According to a recent study on the defense establishment and land in Israel, various defense bodies lord over half the land. The army tops the list, but they all largely do as they please with respect to planning and development. The result is that while the rest of the country adopts orderly processes, starting from national and regional master plans, much of the state land remains managed separately. The existence of this kingdom may be essential, but its size and management methods have yet to face serious public scrutiny.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037876.html

Turkey donates 15 fully equipped ambulances to Palestinians
Turkey has donated 15 fully equipped ambulances to the Palestinians on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
The ambulances, which are worth approximately 1 million U.S. dollars, have been presented to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah by the Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TIKA), said the report.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/18/content_10378036.htm

Free Gaza to Aid Agencies: "Deliver it by Sea?"
The Free Gaza Movement today issued this open letter to all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Israel's closure of its land borders with Gaza, and Egypt's submission to Israeli pressure to close the Rafah border is a humanitarian disaster for 1.5 million Palestinians. The United Nations announced last Thursday that inside Gaza it had run out of the food essentials to supply 750,000 desperately needy citizens. "This has become a blockade against the United Nations itself," a spokesman said.
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=cae912fc1df16109c557b2b9b12201e2&offset=

UN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MEMBER COMPANY TIED TO SETTLEMENTS
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A company that is a member of the UN Global Compact for corporate social responsibility has ties to production in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank considered illegal by the United Nations. A spokesperson for the company, Vileda said he was unaware of the contract with a manufacturer in the West Bank. However, a representative of Plasto confirmed that the
company was a subcontractor for Vileda.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9960.shtml

GROUPS PROTEST SETTLEMENT FUNDRAISER AT NEW YORK HOTEL
Eight groups representing tens of thousands of people in the United States, Palestine and Israel have called on the Marriott Marquis hotel in Manhattan to cancel the 17 November dinner for the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund aiming to raise money for Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron. In a 7 November letter the groups stated: "The Marriot Marquis will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and US foreign policy, actively promote racial discrimination, and, at least indirectly, support brutal Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian civilians and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Hebron."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9964.shtml

Norwegian groups demand apology for government cooperation seminar with Israeli partners
Norwegian civil society groups were outraged that their government went ahead with a seminar on trade and research aimed at enhancing Norwegian cooperation with Israel. The seminar was held on 3 November and hosted by State Secretary of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Raymond Johansen in Oslo amidst protests from The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the Socialist Youth League of Norway and several Norwegian unions.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33320

Trade fair to showcase handicrafts of UNRWA's cash-for-work beneficiaries in Jenin, West Bank
East Jerusalem, 17 November 2008 - Under the auspices of the Jenin Governorate and Municipality – and in cooperation with UNRWA's Cash-for-Work Project – the Refugee Affairs Committee will be holding a Palestinian handicrafts fair on 18 – 20 November 2008 in Jenin.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7LGNVQ?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

"Occupied Space 2008" adds Palestinian color to London's art world
Using what they call the "simplest language," the Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art seeks to challenge the harsh obstacles of life in their native Gaza: "we color life for the others." In the past month some of their work has reached London as part of a new exhibition organized by the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign in association with the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Occupied Space 2008: Art for Palestine brought together over 100 works not only from Palestinian artists, but from those across the globe from Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan to the UK to China. Isabelle Humphries reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9965.shtml

Disinvestment From West Bank Settlements Gains Momentum
JERUSALEM -- In an endeavor to breathe some life back into the moribund Israeli-Palestinian conflict the British government is taking steps to encourage disinvestment from illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank by labeling all produce manufactured and produced by settlers.
http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/11/18/disinvestment_from_west_bank_settlements_gains_
momentum/6762/

Movie Review: Waltz With Bashir
Waltz With Bashir is a breath-taking new Israeli film, an animated documentary directed by Ari Folman. In 1982 (First Lebanon War), Folman was a 19-year-old IDF infantry soldier. Twenty-four years later, in 2006, Folman is surprised to find out that he does not remember a thing from that war or the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. The film is a journey into Folman's lost past.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14393

Palestinan film wins silver at 14th Cairo Arab Media Festival
The Palestinian film Kaffa! won silver this week at the Fourteenth annual Cairo Festival for Arab Media in the category of short film, in a pool of 33 films. Kaffa!, which means "enough" in Arabic, was produced by the Ma'an TV Network in 2008 and tells the story of internal political division through the lens of a Palestinian family whose sons are affiliated with different political factions. The tragic-comic film calls to action all sides and begs for an effort to heal the rift between brothers.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33298

Arab culture conference highlights importance of advancing Arabic language
Arab culture ministers issued a statement on advancing the Arabic language at the end of their two-day conference here Monday, Syria's official SANA news agency reported. In the Damascus Statement for the Advancement of the Arabic Language for Moving towards Knowledge Society, the ministers affirmed that the Arabic language and Arab culture are the basis of cultural unity and national identity.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/18/content_10372937.htm

An Unforgettable Moment
When I told this to Anwar Sadat, he laughed: "The moment the door of your airplane opened, all Israelis held their breath. I live on a main street in Tel-Aviv, and at that moment I looked out at the street below. It was totally empty. Nothing moved, except one cat which was probably hurrying home to the television."
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14395

West Bank Looting
For a thousand years the ruins of Khirbet Tawas, a Byzantine jewel crowning a gentle slope planted in olive trees, stood southwest of Hebron. Graceful rows of columns stretched the length of the basilica, watching over the church's ornate mosaic floor. Then, in 2000, the second intifada struck with the force of an earthquake. As Palestinians fought Israeli troops, the West Bank became all but ungovernable. Soon the Israelis set up a web of security checkpoints, sealed off the region, and barred most Palestinians from working inside Israel. Jobless men looked for cash wherever they could find it. Armed with shovels, a small band descended on Khirbet Tawas.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/palestine-antiquities/lange-text

Rights groups slam Katsav's new office
After state grants former president luxury office, women's groups launch letter to Finance Ministry asking why it had altered its decision to supply suspected sex offender with modest means. 'This constitutes contempt for complainants,' letter says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3624515,00.html

UK: Every school to get Holocaust specialist under anti-racism initiative
Every secondary school is to get a Holocaust specialist to ensure that the subject is taught comprehensively and sensitively.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article5106164.ece

Monday: 18 Iraqis Killed, 45 Wounded
At least 18 Iraqis were killed and another 45 were wounded in the latest attacks. Another seven people were injured during an explosion blamed on a defective pipeline. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament began debate on a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, raising hope that a vote on the pact will take place on Nov. 24. The agreement will, among other things, allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq for three more years.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13778

Bomber Kills 15 In Iraq
A suicide car bomber yesterday killed 15 people, including seven policemen, and wounded 20 in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11172008/news/worldnews/bomber_kills_15_in_qaeda_town_139111.htm

Dabbagh: Iraq gov't endorsed two pacts
The Iraqi government says the cabinet has approved two agreements with the United States not just one pact as many people presume.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=75622§ionid=351020201

Why Did the Iraqi Cabinet Approve SOFA Now? (Two Hints: Obama and Iran)
The election of Barack Obama changed Iran's calculus, and so Iran decided, very subtly, to shift to neutral on the pact. As a result, many politicians in Iraq who are either influenced by Iran or who are outright Iranian agents now support the pact.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/107402/why_did_the_iraqi_cabinet_approve_sofa_now_%28two_
hints:_obama_and_iran%29/

Iraqis believe security pact to cause division
IRAQ / Aswat al-Iraq: Ismail al-Difaai, an Iraqi citizen, believes that the cabinet's approval of the security agreement draft with the U.S. will cause division among Iraqi political parties. "Signing the agreement will lead to a division between all political blocs and parties," al-Difaai, 49 from Sadr City, told Aswat al-Iraq.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103279

Observations on the security agreement
http://arablinks.blogspot.com/2008/11/observations-on-security-agreement.html

Sadr Denounces Pact with US Occupier as Disgrace
Iraqi cleric Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr said Monday that the Iraqi government's approval of the controversial Iraq-US military pact that seeks to organize the US occupation presence constituted "the first signs of disgrace and dishonor," calling on the Iraqi parliament to reject it "without hesitation."
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=64025&language=en

Militias lack strength to mount Iraq uprising: US commander
AFP - Iranian-backed "special groups" lack the strength to mount an uprising in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Sadr City district, having suffered heavy losses, a US brigade commander said Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081117/pl_afp/iraqusmilitarybaghdad

Iraqi cleric repeats concerns on US-Iraq pact
AP - Iraq's top Shiite cleric said Tuesday that the U.S.-Iraqi security pact would only be viable if the country's main political groups backed it and it restored the country's full sovereignty.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Premier of Iraq Is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors
The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/middleeast/18maliki.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Iraq says 300 officials charged with corruption
Iraq has charged more than 300 officials with corruption this year and courts handed down 86 convictions, its corruption watchdog said on Tuesday, as a nation awash in oil money fought back against graft. Iraq is perceived as being the world's third most corrupt country, with only failed state Somalia and Myanmar's military junta below it, according to the Transparency International index measuring perceptions of graft in 180 nations.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM838636.htm

Mask Ban Upsets Iraqis Hired as U.S. Interpreters
The U.S. military has barred Iraqi interpreters working with American troops in Baghdad from wearing ski masks to disguise themselves, prompting some to resign and others to bare their faces even though they fear it could get them killed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/16/AR2008111602040.html?hpid=topnews

Top judge: US and UK acted as 'vigilantes' in Iraq invasion
One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante". Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/18/iraq-us-foreign-policy

Al-Qaeda 'awakens' in Iraq
The policy of al-Qaeda in Iraq in its fight against Awakening Councils in Sunni tribal areas has been to assassinate the movement's leaders. Al-Qaeda has now set its sights on recruiting council youths disenchanted by the Iraqi government's attempts to integrate them into the regular security forces.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK19Ak02.html

THE ROVING EYE A pact with the devil
WASHINGTON - The big bang is not that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's majority Shi'ite/Kurdish 37-member cabinet in Baghdad has approved the draft of a security pact with the George W Bush (and Barack Obama) administrations allowing the US military to stay in Iraq for three more years; it's that the 30-strong Sadrist bloc will move heaven and Earth - including massive nationwide protests - to bloc the pact in the Iraqi National Assembly.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK18Ak01.html

Iraqi voices
Views on the recently struck deal on US troops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/in_depth/7733786.stm

Pact, Approved in Iraq, Sets Time for U.S. Pullout
Iraq also obtained a significant degree of jurisdiction in some cases over serious crimes committed by Americans who are off duty and not on bases." *Note posted on Angry Arab by Nir Rosen: "This is a scam. It's not Vietnam where they go to bars and brothels. Americans dont go off bases in Iraq when they are off duty. So there will never be a case of an American soldier or Marine committing a crime off duty, they are always on duty, but it allows the Iraqis to claim a small victory".
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?pagewanted=print

All aboard the Baghdad Metro
The Iraqi capital's first commuter train is slow but steady through streets often tied up by checkpoints and bombings. Just beware the crossing cars, stone-throwing youths and meandering cows. Don't be put off by the sign, which reads "Cent al B ghd d Stat on."
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/456929684/la-fg-train18-2008nov18,0,3250455.story

US again misfires on Iranian arms in Iraq
WASHINGTON - Last April, top George W Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between Iraq's Nuri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shi'ite militias.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK18Ak03.html

Anti-war veterans deploy 4,171 toy soldiers at gas station
In a daring guerrilla raid earlier this fall, members of the Los Angeles chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) infiltrated a local gas station to deploy a battalion of 4171 toy soldiers, together with a sign reading, "Price of Gas: 4171 U.S. Soldiers."
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Antiwar_group_stages_4200_toy_soldiers_1117.html

Why Guantanamo Must Be Closed
Excerpt: On Sunday, in his first television interview since winning the presidential election, Barack Obama repeated his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to ban the use of torture by U.S. forces.
http://www.antiwar.com/worthington/?articleid=13779

AIPAC's Man in the Obama Camp
Excerpt: Barack Obama's first appointment, that of Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, is quite frankly unsettling and suggests that voters who had hoped for real change in Washington will be disappointed.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=13773

A time to speak out
The birth of Independent Jewish Voices in Britain caused some envious glances from across the Atlantic. "Of course it'd happen in the UK first," said the veteran American Jewish peace activist. "They create a diverse – however temporary – coalition, and get a major newspaper to do their publicity for them. We'd never be able to pull something like that off here." For anyone involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace advocacy in the US Jewish community, such statements were all too common as word began to filter out about the emergence of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) last year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/18/israelandthepalestinians-middleeast

--
www.TheHeadlines.org

Pakistan bans Bollywood "gay" buddy movie

2008-11-17T22:12:00.000+01:00

Pakistan bans Bollywood "gay" buddy movie

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • November 17, 2008 - 16:33

The High Court in Lahore has issued ban on an Indian film after a petitioner claimed it "propogates homosexuality."

Dostana, which is hyped as Bollywood's first gay-themed comedy, cannot be shown anywhere in Pakistan as a result of Friday's court ruling.

The judge ordered that a copy of the script be prepared for a later hearing and that the Pakistan Film Censor Board should block any screenings.

Dostana is similar in plot to last year's Hollywood effort I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Two Indian men in Miami pretend to be a gay couple to rent an apartment, and later to gain an immigration permit.

The slapstick comedy of errors has a cameo from Big Brother contestant Shilpa Shetty.

There is no actual gay relationship, but the two male leads share a kiss and it is being hailed as a breakthrough in Indian cinema.

"Dostana is a fun way to pave the way eventually for a Bollywood Brokeback Mountain-type film," producer Karan Johar said.

It is the first Bollywood film entirely set in Miami - it would be unrealistic to set Dostana in India as homosexual acts are illegal there.

Last week the High Court in Delhi finished hearing arguments in a suit brought by gay rights activists seeking to overturn a colonial-era law banning "unnatural sex."

Chief Justice AP Shah has reserved judgement and asked both sides to submit transcripts of their oral arguments.

The government of India has been arguing for the retention of Section 377, the law that criminalises same-sex acts.

Section 377 was enacted in 1860 under the British Raj in line with the anti-sodomy laws in England at the time.

The law punishes anyone who "voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" by imprisonment and criminalises a whole range of sexual acts from mutual masturbation, to fellatio and anal sex.

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 16 Nov 2008

2008-11-17T13:07:00.000+01:00

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 16 Nov 2008

Urgent Invitation to Ban Ki Mon: A Visit Gaza
Gamal N. El Khoudary, Chairman of Popular Committee Against Siege PCAS
Dear highly respected Ban Ki Mon, we would like to pass our greetings and regards from the Gaza Strip. We would like to invite you urgently to pay a visit for the Gaza strip. People are slowly dying as UNRWA halted its services and a total power blackout imposed by Israel. Your expected visit to Gaza would show your interest in saving people lives. Power, food, medicine, treatment and all aspects of life vanished from the Gaza strip. The 7 crossings are totally closed with no glimpse of hope to re-open them again. Israel went on more deep flagrant violations of all human laws as she blocked the UNRWA aids into Gaza...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48815
No Title.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
There is no Title to this post. I will let you make your own. I am in a very strange kind of mood. I am listening to Tracy Chapman. I like that singer a lot. There is something very genuine about her. I guess she represents 1% of the American population. A 1% hope. If I were a gambler, I would say that the odds are not in my favor. Not with a 1% for sure. I still can't shake off that strange feeling off my shoulders...It must have been that interview with that young Afghani girl, who found her foot in tiny pieces whilst she was with other women in a garden, celebrating something. She said " I saw my foot lying next to me in pieces. My cousin was also laying dead right next to me...They (the Americans) saw that we were only a group of women, and they attacked us nonetheless. The Americans are animals"....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48818
The occupation cannot stay
Serene Assir in Madrid interviewed Mohamed Al-Faidhi, spokesman of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, on the future of the Iraqi resistance and the inevitability of US withdrawal
Serene Assir
...What is known from a reading of history is that resistance undergoes three phases. The first phase is a phase of reaction. This was perhaps the most difficult phase because the occupation tried to cover up the existence of any kind of resistance, to the extent that it would persecute journalists who would indicate the existence of such a resistance. In this phase, we were the main proclaimer of the resistance, who said that there was a resistance, and provided proof of it. There is a second phase to resistance, and that is the process of different activities becoming clear under titles and slogans, core or otherwise. This is the phase that the resistance is currently living...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48813
Under siege: 70% of Gaza blacked out; Israel turns away convoy carrying medicine
Ma'an news
Seventy percent of the Gaza Strip is blacked out on Sunday night after Israel blocked deliveries fuel for Gaza’s power plant for the fifth consecutive day, a high-ranking Palestinian energy official said. Kan’an Ubeid, the deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said in a press conference in Gaza that in addition to the shutdown of the diesel-fueled power plant, the electric network bringing in power from Israel collapsed due to increased pressure on the system...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48812
Iraqi Cabinet Okays US Pact
Antiwar.com
The Iraqi cabinet has approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States, in a vote that was surprisingly one-sided. 27 of 28 cabinet members voted in favor of the agreement, and the deal will now be sent to parliament for consideration. The vote became much easier after Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani indicated he would not object to the deal so long as parliament supported it. The current, and evidently final draft of the SOFA came only after the Iraqi government requested over 100 amendments to the previous "final" draft. The US withheld its response until after its own elections, and accepted most, but not all, of the changes...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48810
Pakistan The Next US Target
Pakistan Daily
Bill Kristol, a Fox Television commentator and arch American neoconservative revealed recently what many had long suspected was US thinking about the current international situation. Kristol recounts that in a 90-minute, mostly off-the-record meeting with a small group of journalists in early July, President Bush "conveyed the following impression, that he thought the next president's biggest challenge would not be Iraq, which he thinks he'll leave in pretty good shape, and would not be Afghanistan, which is manageable by itself… It’s Pakistan." We have "a sort of friendly government that sort of cooperates and sort of doesn’t. It's really a complicated and difficult situation." Right on cue, presidential candidate Barack Obama took the baton from Bush in his speech on July 15, in which he argued that more focus and resource were required on both Afghanistan and Pakistan...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48819
The Unfolding Nightmarish Script...
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
Obama the Booma wins the elections, and the first thing he does, apart from having J.Biden and M.Albright, the Iraqi baby killer on board, he makes inflammatory speeches about fighting terrorism in Afghanistan where the Talibans are winning. And who is he going to ask for help in his fight against "terrorists" in Afghanistan? Iran of course. If Obama calls on Iran to help him win the war in Afghanistan, do you think that has no price tag attached ? Don't you think that perhaps Obama's "gift" to Iran is part of that comprehensive deal that I referred to above ? And what is that comprehensive deal, apart from the Iranian nuclear dossier ? Southern Iraq. Yes Southern Iraq. Re-read that article. The argument for a independent state of Basra, read Southern Iraq, is "more political stability." That was/is Biden's argument. But I thought we had stability in Iraq with Maliki and the surge no ? So what are they telling us now - that if this does not go through, there will be more carnage, of Sunnis in particular ? Like what ? Have the ARAB Sunni population dwindle down from 55% to less than 20% to 0% ? ...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48802
Israel out to bring Gaza to its knees
JONATHAN COOK
The latest tightening of Israel’s chokehold on Gaza – ending all supplies into the Strip for more than a week – has produced immediate and shocking consequences for Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants. The refusal to allow in fuel has forced the shutting down of Gaza’s only power station, creating a blackout that pushed Palestinians bearing candles on to the streets in protest last week. A water and sanitation crisis are expected to follow. And on Thursday, the United Nations announced it had run out of the food essentials it supplies to 750,000 desperately needy Gazans. "This has become a blockade against the United Nations itself," a spokesman said....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48817
Barack Obama brings hope of Iran talks, says Shimon Peres
Richard Beeston, TimesOnLine
Israel believes that there is a chance for dialogue with Iran if Barack Obama succeeds in uniting the international community behind a common policy. Shimon Peres, the Israeli President who arrives in London tonight Monday, said that his country’s most implacable foe could be brought to the negotiating table depending on a new political climate and economic factors, in particular a falling oil price...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48816
Olmert The Liar
Moon of Alabama
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused the Islamist Hamas movement on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, prompting an air strike which killed four Palestinian militants. ... "The responsibility for the shattering of the calm and the creation of a situation of prolonged and repeated violence in the south of the country is entirely on Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza," Olmert told ministers. Israel accuses Hamas of 'shattering' Gaza truce The truce was broken by Israel twelve days ago. As the Guardian reported on November 5....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48814
* * * NOT SATIRE * * *
Maliki nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
AKI-Adnkrons
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, according to the news agency Voices of Iraq. The Iraqi government reportedly nominated al-Maliki for his role in maintaining peace and security in war-ravaged Iraq....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48811
Shame and Disgust
Robert Thompson, Axis of Logic
... We are horrified that our elected representatives should ignore all rights to Freedom, Equality or Brotherly Love for such defenceless people as ordinary Palestinians, ordinary Lebanese, ordinary Iraqis and ordinary Afghans. We are shocked that our same representatives should fail to boycott the Zionist 'state of Israel' in ther hope of obliging it to comply with so many ignored United Nations Resolutions, and to condemn its cruelty towards those whom it has killed, maimed and/or dispossessed in pursuance of its fundamental policy of ethnic cleansing. All these terrible failings cause us to feel shame....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48807
Knesset MP calls for making lives of Gaza people insufferable
Palestinian Information Center
Gideon Ezra, a member of the Knesset for Kadima and a former minister of internal security, called on the Israeli government to tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip's people and make their lives intolerable. "We must use the means available to make the lives of Gaza residents difficult as long as the lives of the inhabitants of villages and cities surrounding the Strip are unbearable because of the repeated Palestinian rocket attacks," Ezra told the Hebrew radio. The Israeli official called on his government to enforce its decision to fortify the buildings in the Israeli settlements around Gaza, noting that this decision does not include all settlements....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48806
Israel denies access of 15 trucks to Gaza, loaded with medicines
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC
Chief of emergency and ambulance department at the Hamas-run health ministry, announced on Sunday that the Israeli occupation authorities denied today access to Gaza of 15 trucks, loaded with medicine. Abu Hasanin said that the Israeli authorities, at the Karni crossing, to the east of Gaza city, prevented the entry of the said shipment, in a time the Strip lacks more than 300 medicines...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48805
Israeli Soldiers kidnap children in east Jerusalem
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC
Palestinian sources reported on Sunday that Israeli soldiers and policemen kidnapped 10 Palestinian children in Al Bustan neighborhood, near the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, and took them to an unknown destination. The sources added that the ages of the detained children are no more than 13, and that they were abducted for allegedly obstructing the work of municipality workers who were preparing for demolishing more Palestinian homes in the neighborhood...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48820
George W Bush could pardon spies involved in torture
Tim Shipman in Washington
Senior intelligence officers are lobbying the outgoing president to look after the men and women who could face charges for following his orders in the war on terrorism. Many fear that Barack Obama, who has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and put an end to the policy of extraordinary rendition, could launch a legal witch hunt against those who oversaw the policies after he is sworn in on Jan 20....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48804
SAME SHIT DIFFERENT CENTURIES (Part Five)
Malcom Lagauche
...This is the fifth of five parts of "Eulogy on King Philip. For more than a year, the Wampanoag won battle-after-battle against the pilgrims. But, disease and lack of food helped destroy what the pilgrims couldn’t: the Wampanoag tribe. Even in this, the methods used were almost identical to those employed by the U.S. today in showing victory. Metacomet’s wife and son were captured and sold into slavery. Once the U.S. occupied Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s wife and daughters quickly left the country before they were captured. Today, they live in exile and are on Interpol’s list of wanted terrorists...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48801
Shiite Bloc Fails to Go to Meeting on Iraq-U.S. Pact
KATHERINE ZOEPF and ATHEER KAKAN, AP
Iraq’s political leaders held a high-level meeting on Saturday to gauge support for a security agreement that will determine the future role and presence of American forces in Iraq before crucial votes in the cabinet and Parliament. But the most powerful Shiite bloc in Parliament, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, did not attend, and the meeting ended without any clear public resolution. The agreement, which Iraq and the United States have been negotiating for months, faces a vote by the cabinet, which is expected on Sunday, and then a vote in Parliament, which has not set a date for it. The agreement will replace the United Nations mandate authorizing American military operations in Iraq, which expires on Dec. 31....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48800
"When the Liaison Israeli Military & PA Security Sevices Accelerate - the Enemy Will Not Be Scrutinized"
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Israeli government, regarding its legal responsibility to deliver urgent and steady supply of sufficient fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip.The Israelis have blocked fuel delivery and turned away trucks with food distributed by UNRWA. Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he is deeply concerned about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the risk of a possible humanitarian disaster...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48798
Video: The Suffering of Iraqi Christians
Shababek

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48808
IOF raid kills four NSB fighters
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
An Israeli reconnaissance plane fired at least one missile at a group of fighters of the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees, east of Gaza on Sunday killing all four of them, medical sources reported. They told the PIC that the four bodies were burnt and torn apart after the missile directly targeted them. The sources pointed out that a number of other casualties in the same aerial bombing were carried to the Shifa hospital...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48809

www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

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UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 15 Nov 2008

2008-11-16T19:03:00.000+01:00

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 15 Nov 2008

Actions needed: As time runs out Gazans slowly dying
Popular Committee Against Siege (PCAS)
Power, food, medicine, treatment and all aspects of live vanished from the Gaza strip. The 7 crossings are totally closed with no glimpse of hope to reopen them again. Israel went on more deep flagrant violations of all human laws as it blocked the UNRWA aids into Gaza. 750.000 UNRWA's beneficiaries are exposed to hunger and lack of food. On Saturday, the United Nations offices closed its food aid distribution centers and 20,000 Gazans walked away empty-handed from the UN food distribution centers. More than 1 million live in deep darkness since 2 days as 80% of Gaza strip out of power....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48796
Iraqis Believe Americans Bombing Them to Promote SOFA
Anwar Ali
It seems to me that things are getting worse. This week I was at the scene of a bombing, reporting a news story about three explosions in Adhamiya. They were horrible explosions, all at the same time in a very crowded Shia neighborhood. I remember the smell of the blood, the flies all around and the injured people, the broken glass and the destruction.... Some people are saying that the Americans are making the bombings to make Iraqis believe that it is very important for them to stay in Iraq, that they are still needed. The Americans say that when they withdraw from Iraq violence will increase. Is that a threat? You can read it as a threat, or you can read it as an expectation. Some Iraqis take it as a threat. Some people are asking: "Are the Americans punishing us with bombings because Iraq has refused to sign the SOFA?" [Status of Forces Agreement]. Here that is a reality, people think it...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48799
Iraq Detention Imams Work for $2 Billion Private Equity Fund
Nick Mottern and Bill Rau, t r u t h o u t | Report
When Iraqi imams sit down with prisoners at a US detention center in Iraq to discuss Islam, they are working for a subsidiary of Global Innovation (GI) Partners LLP, a California- and London-based private equity firm that claims to have "$2 billion in capital under management." GI Partners sells, among other things: base maintenance for US military forces in Iraq; psychiatric care in the United Kingdom; in-room television and movies for hotels; wine, movie production studios and pubs. GI Partners also manages hundreds of millions of dollars for California and Oregon public employees pension funds and, according to the GI Partners Web site, pension funds in the Netherlands and the Middle East. The imams join the GI Partners world when they go to work for Russian and East European Partnerships (REEP) Inc., the GI Partners subsidiary hired by the US military to run Islamic discussion, civics and vocational programs in its Iraq detention centers....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48793
Shi'ites call for Basra to be mini-state
AP
Two Shi'ite lawmakers have called for a referendum on turning the oil-rich province of Basra in southern Iraq into a mini-state. The push signals a renewed effort by Shi'ites to grant regions self-rule in what would be a federalist system of government. Sunnis oppose the idea, fearing it could lead to the country's eventual break up or isolate them from oil wealth concentrated in mainly Shi'ite and Kurdish areas...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48789
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister; "Gaza invasion, a matter of time"
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai, stated on Friday that a large-scale invasion of Gaza is only a matter of time and added that the army was prepared to invade the Gaza Strip and fight Hamas. Vilnai stated that the offensive would be large and Hamas fighters would suffer a major blow because the offensive "would be very effective". He also said that he talked about a large-scale offensive but did not mention reoccupying the Gaza Strip...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48795
O'Hanlon Gives Obama Some Bad Advice
Robert Dreyfuss
...I have a news flash for Petraeus. The Taliban think they're winning because they are winning. Sending more troops won't help. It will only inflame right-wing Muslims to support the Taliban more strongly, build Pashtun nationalism, destabilize Pakistan, and kill a lot of Afghan civilians. Here's an alternative strategy for Obama: "withdraw and negotiate....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48794
AMSI to the Iraqi Soldiers: Follow Barzan
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) called on employees of all state Guard to follow the example of heroic soldier (Barzan Mohammad Abdullah al Hadidi), who declined to humiliation and took revenge for his dignity. This soldier who took lives of a number of brutal warmongering U.S. soldiers and did like what any honorable Iraqi did firing on the soldiers, killing four of them and wounding three others...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48791
Kurds alarmed by SOFA
Roads to Iraq
...The whole time, Kurds were the only political bloc supported the approval of the security agreement. Not anymore, Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman said: I don’t support the signing of the agreement … it will strengthen the Iraqi government … The U.S. forces will withdraw from the country ….There no reference to the protection of the Kurdistan region. Othman said that there are two articles, Iraq government can use against the Kurds...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48790
Iraq's Cabinet to vote on security pact with US
HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, AP
Iraq's Cabinet will vote Sunday on a security pact with Washington that would keep U.S. forces in the country for another three years, a major step in efforts to balance Iraqi demands for national sovereignty with the security concerns of the two allies. In a bid to secure support for the agreement from the country's top Shiite cleric, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday dispatched two senior lawmakers to see Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, with a copy of the pact's final draft...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48788
Valedictory hot air
Rice's last and final visit to Israel/Palestine is conclusive proof that the neocons achieved nothing and could offer nothing
Khaled Amayreh
The 24th visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Palestine-Israel this week didn't differ much from her previous visits, especially in substance. Rice, who held meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, followed by joint press conferences in both West Jerusalem and Ramallah, essentially regurgitated the same platitudes and false promises she voiced ever since she assumed the top diplomatic post nearly four years ago. Finding virtually nothing to clutch to in terms of hard achievements in the so- called peace process, Rice put a brave face on her apparent colossal failure to get Israel to end its decades-old occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48787
An Embarrassment Of Laundry Lists
Winter Patriot
...When the telecoms wanted legal immunity for their lawbreaking activities, Barack Obama said he would try to prevent that from happening. Then he voted for a law that made it happen. When the big banks wanted $700 billion of your money, with public opinion running 100-to-1 against the idea, Barack Obama voted for the bill that gave that money away. He needed your support then; he slapped you across the head. You voted for him anyway. Those bills were always going to pass. They didn't need his vote. He could have voted against them, as a token gesture. But he didn't. He didn't even pretend to be on your side, even though he needed your support so very much. And you gave it to him anyway. And now ... he doesn't need you anymore. He's already made his intentions as clear as day ... and yet here you come with your Dear Santa letters full of free advice -- advice your man has already rejected. If he didn't even bother pretending to be serious when he needed your support, what makes you think he'll listen now, when he doesn't need you at all?...

I guess I just don't understand politics.

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48786
UN closes Gaza aid centers, citing lack of food
DIAA HADID, AP
Gazans seeking food aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations distribution centers Saturday after a strict Israeli border closure depleted U.N. food reserves. Israel sealed Gaza's borders nearly two weeks ago as part of a new round of fighting with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border towns and Israeli air strikes on Gaza militants have eroded a truce that had largely held for five months...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48785
Iraq: Sunni roadblock to U.S. security agreement
Ned Parker, LATimes
Iraq’s Vice President Tariq Hashimi and his Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party could very well prove to be the force that blocks a U.S.-Iraq security agreement from being signed this year. Hashimi insisted this month that the pact be put before a popular referendum. His party members concede such a referendum would not be possible until sometime next year. Hashimi indicated his stance at the same time Shiite lawmakers close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki have made clear they are now supporting an agreement for U.S. forces to stay in the country for another three years....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48784
Video: Gaza humanitarian crisis
AlJazeeraEnglish
Inside Story questions the 'blame game' being played by the parties while the people of Gaza continue to suffer. Israel has refused permission for a convoy of trucks containing basic humanitarian supplies to deliver their loads to the Gaza Strip. Initially, the authorities had said they would allow passage for the 30 truckloads of drugs and food....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48783
UN on Gaza: "People are going to start getting hungry"
Ma'an news
The situation in the Gaza Strip is shifting from "collective punishment to genocide," said Jamal Al-Khudari, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza. The trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza, on which 80 percent of the population depended, has now been stopped for nine days by the Israeli army. The delivery of medical supplies and industrial fuel donated by the European Union (EU) has also been blocked. The fuel was needed to power Gaza’s sole power plant, which has now shut down, leading to rolling blackouts throughout Gaza...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48782
Second Fiddle to Israel
Khaled Amayreh
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been trading harsh accusations as to who bears responsibility for the open-ended postponement of Egyptian-sponsored national reconciliation talks that were due to take place in Cairo earlier this week. Citing Hamas’s decision to boycott the much-heralded talks, PA and Fatah leaders and spokespersons denounced the Islamic movement for being "unserious and insincere" about the restoration of Palestinian national unity...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48781
Sabra, Shatila and Collective Amnesia
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank
Waltz With Bashir is a breath-taking new Israeli film, an animated documentary directed by Ari Folman. In 1982, Folman was a 19-year-old IDF infantry soldier. Twenty four years later, in 2006, Folman is surprised to find out that he does not remember a thing from that war or the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. The film is a journey into Folman’s lost past. The documentary is set as a chain of animated interviews and conversations between Folman and his military associates, psychologists and Ron Ben Yishai, the legendary Israeli TV reporter who was among the first to report on the Sabra and Shatila Massacres. The setting aims at building a coherent personal past narrative out of the broken memories of others. The film is highly sensitive and emotionally moving....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48779
OBAMA - WIPING THE SLATE CLEAN
Media Lens
In 1997, the British media filled with talk of "historic" change. Blair's victory that year "bursts open the door to a British transformation," the Independent declared. (Neal Ascherson, 'Through the door he can begin to create a freer land,' The Independent, May 4, 1997) A Guardian leader saluted the nation: "Few now sang England Arise, but England had risen all the same." (Leader, 'A political earthquake,' The Guardian, May 2, 1997) The editors predicted that, by 2007, Blair's triumph would be seen as "one of the great turning-points of British political history... the moment when Britain at last gave itself the chance to construct a modern liberal socialist order." (Ibid) The Observer assured readers that the Blair government would create "new worldwide rules on human rights" and implement "tough new limits on arms sales." This, after all, was the dawn of Blair's "ethical" foreign policy. It was a dawn of the dead - Blair left behind him the almost unimaginable horror of Iraq and Afghanistan... Over the past two weeks - one decade and three wars later - the same media have been insisting, as one, that US president-elect Barrack Obama is another "new dawn"...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48778
The upcoming confrontation, Maliki and the Kurdish Coalition
Roads to Iraq
Maliki wanted to change the constitution few days ago (...) Questioning the Constitution means: - The relationship between the Kurds and other Iraqi political components is very close to another phase of internal conflict. Seeing Maliki’s attempts to improve his relations with Sadrists, raises some doubts that Maliki wants to split the United Shiites Alliance into: Al-Hakim’s Supreme Council with its Kurdish Coalition alliance - and Maliki’s Dawa Party with the Sadrists alliance [other small parties, and the tribal councils]...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48780
U.S. helicopter down in Iraq's Mosul leaving two dead
Reuters
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter accident in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday, a military spokeswoman said. The helicopter involved was an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, a small scout helicopter fitted with weapons. It hit overhead cables as it was attempting to land. "There has been a helicopter incident in Mosul. They're classifying it now as a hard landing when it came in contact with wires," Captain Charles Calio said earlier on Saturday...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48792
November 15, 2008: 4 US GIs, 16 Iraqis Killed; 75 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 16 Iraqis were killed and 75 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. Four U.S. servicemembers died in separate incidents, including a helicopter crash in Mosul. Meanwhile, Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have agreed on a draft of a controversial U.S.-Iraqi security pact that will allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after December. The draft now goes to the Cabinet and then Parliament for approval....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48803

www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

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UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 14 Nov 2008

2008-11-16T03:02:00.001+01:00

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 14 Nov 2008
US Covers Up their Murders and Sexual Abuses in Iraq
Kawther Salam
Why does the US occupation and the Iraqi government cover up such incidents? How many such incidents have the governments cover up? Why did they decrease the number of victims in their reports? Omar Abdullah Tawfiq is an Iraqi soldier. One month ago, on October 11, 2008, he opened fire at a number of U.S. troops during a nightly raid carried out jointly by the Iraqi army and U.S. Soldiers in sites in Al-Mosul which were suspected locations of the so-called "Al Qaeda" (civilians). Omar killed four American soldiers and injured two. Iraqi military sources declared that the soldier Omar Abdullah Tawfiq lost control of himself when he saw US marines sexually harassing an Iraqi girl of 17 in a house owned by an old man, her father....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48770
Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel
An explosive report by the Red Cross on a humanitarian tragedy
Donald Macintyre, Independent
The Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to a steady rise in chronic malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the strip, according to a leaked report from the Red Cross. It chronicles the "devastating" effect of the siege that Israel imposed after Hamas seized control in June 2007 and notes that the dramatic fall in living standards has triggered a shift in diet that will damage the long-term health of those living in Gaza and has led to alarming deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and vitamin D. The 46-page report from the International Committee of the Red Cross – seen by The Independent – is the most authoritative yet on the impact that Israel's closure of crossings to commercial goods has had on Gazan families and their diets...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48765
Taleban vow to win Afghan fight
"Al-Qaeda had been brought to Afghanistan by the Americans, not by the Taleban"
BBC News
The Taleban's senior spokesman has used a rare radio interview to call for all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan. Speaking by telephone from a secret location in the region, Zabihullah Mujahid also derided US President-elect Barack Obama. Fielding questions from BBC World Service listeners, he said Mr Obama's plans to deploy more troops would not defeat the Afghan insurgency... The spokesman denied his movement financed itself from the drugs trade, a statement our correspondent says is unlikely to be taken seriously in Western capitals. He criticised the US for attacking Afghanistan in 2001, and said there was no proof that Osama Bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. Al-Qaeda, he said, had been brought to Afghanistan by the Americans, not by the Taleban...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48761
OBAMA - WIPING THE SLATE CLEAN
Media Lens
In 1997, the British media filled with talk of "historic" change. Blair's victory that year "bursts open the door to a British transformation," the Independent declared. (Neal Ascherson, 'Through the door he can begin to create a freer land,' The Independent, May 4, 1997) A Guardian leader saluted the nation: "Few now sang England Arise, but England had risen all the same." (Leader, 'A political earthquake,' The Guardian, May 2, 1997) The editors predicted that, by 2007, Blair's triumph would be seen as "one of the great turning-points of British political history... the moment when Britain at last gave itself the chance to construct a modern liberal socialist order." (Ibid) The Observer assured readers that the Blair government would create "new worldwide rules on human rights" and implement "tough new limits on arms sales." This, after all, was the dawn of Blair's "ethical" foreign policy. It was a dawn of the dead - Blair left behind him the almost unimaginable horror of Iraq and Afghanistan... Over the past two weeks - one decade and three wars later - the same media have been insisting, as one, that US president-elect Barrack Obama is another "new dawn"...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48778
Declaration of Independence 20 years later: heightened concern over internal divide and Jerusalem
Fadi Yacoub, PNN
In spite of Israeli occupation and siege, 20 years ago today the late President Yasser Arafat decided to declare Palestinian independence. It was in Algiers in 1988 that Arafat, as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, delivered his Palestinian Declaration of Independence. Today Palestinians salute the anniversary with sorrow for the fragmentation of the internal scene. On the occassion, PNN spoke with leaders from the leftist parties and those of Fateh and Hamas....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48776
Gaza: Israeli blockade worsening humanitarian crisis
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is urging the Israeli authorities to allow the immediate passage of humanitarian aid, medical supplies and fuel to the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Programme Deputy Director Philip Luther said: 'Israel's latest tightening of its blockade has made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. This is nothing short of collective punishment of Gaza's civilian population and it must stop immediately.' Even the trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza (on which 80% of the population depends) has now been stopped for nine days by the Israeli army...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48771
How US claims about Syria became media facts
Unwary journalists who repeat US army claims about Syria and Iraq become tools in a propaganda war
Sharif Nashashibi, Guardian
In any conflict, warring parties strive to convince the public that justice is on their side. The most effective way of doing this is through the media. It is imperative that journalists cast a critical eye on information they receive to avoid becoming unwitting tools in the propaganda war. In particular, they should not report claims as facts. There were several fundamental failings in the British press coverage of the recent US raid into Syria. For example, Richard White in the Sun and the Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn both reported as fact that the raid killed Abu Ghadiya, an alleged al-Qaida figure who smuggled fighters into Iraq...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48772
Video: Aftershock
IOF soldiers reveal how to brutally repress Palestinian civilians
Haitham Sabbah
"Whilst I was there, I lost all my faith in the Israeli army. They put it right in your face: 'Go be the oppressors for your people. Force yourselves upon them’. They told us…’take these bats wrapped up in plastic and…calm things down’…We had skulls on our helmets, dude. We walked around with machetes, all kinds of crazy stuff. Sheriff badges. We’d improvise some very unique solutions". This is Ehud, speaking 12 years after having served in the occupied Palestinian territories. Like the thousands before him, he was a paratrooper in the Israeli army during the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993). Some of the improvised solutions he came up with while serving in the occupied territories included attaching the plus and minus cables from a two-way radio battery to the ears of a Palestinian to give him an electric shock...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48774
Torture – Yes We Can?
Obama and the national security question: the sellout accelerates
Justin Raimondo
Most politicians wait at least until they've been sworn in before they start breaking their campaign promises. In this sense, as in so many others, Barack Obama represents an entirely new phenomenon: the politician who preemptively reneges. A recent Wall Street Journal piece describing the transition process as it relates to intelligence-gathering reveals we aren't going to see much change in this vitally important realm, the one in which the Bush administration truly made its blackest mark. This will "create tension within the Democratic party," we are told, apparently because even the worst party hacks will have a hard time going along with the revised Obama Doctrine on the issue of torture. According to the Journal, Obama's advisors on intelligence matters are "centrists" in the Clinton mold and outright Republicans, who favor torture "with oversight." These, we are told, are the "pragmatists," likely candidates for positions in Obama's national security bureaucracy. "He's going to take a very centrist approach to these issues," avers Roger Cressey, who served as a counter-terrorism official under Clinton as well as Bush II. It's a grotesque commentary on the moral health of the nation when advocacy of torture is considered "centrist." One shudders to imagine what it means to be right-of-center....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48756
Obama transition points to more war and repression
Bill Van Auken
President-elect Barack Obama owes his victory, both in the Democratic primaries and the general election, in large part to the overwhelming hostility of the American people to the years of military aggression, torture, extraordinary rendition, domestic spying and all of the other crimes that will constitute the indelible legacy of the Bush administration. Thanks to his carefully calibrated criticisms of these policies, as well as his indictment of his principal Democratic opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, for her October 2002 vote authorizing the US invasion of Iraq, Obama’s "change you can believe in" was perceived by many, both in the US and abroad, as a promise that his election would signal an end to militarism and attacks on democratic rights...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48768
Statement about pronouncing a Death Sentence for Al-Mujahid (Kareem Ibrahim Saleh Al-Qaragholi)
The Jihad and Change Front - 1920 Revolution Brigades
Every day passes the fourth occupation government increased its blight and adds shameful acts to (her) history which is full of hasten for the sake of pleasuring the occupation; it comes with unimaginable acts for the most subtle mind people. Thus every day Iraq afflicts with the troubles of people who claim that they belong to it. Since the occupation came with its four governments dolls, they begin to do such an acts, and now its fourth government do not getting bored from monitor the heroic Mujahedeen and uproot them with a pretext of terrorism, but this time it employed the judiciary organization; to pronounce unfair death sentences on them… an embarrassing thing for all people with honor in the world. It was not a surprise for what happened in the recent days of pronouncing a death sentence to Al-Mujahid (Kareem Ibrahim Saleh Al-Qaragholi); but the strange thing is that they announced it with arrogant and without fear...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48767
Buzzwords, Politics and US Elections
Ramzy Baroud
...The fact is, both candidates, McCain and Obama, had much more in common than they would care to admit, as they voted to fund the Iraq war, supported offshore drilling, backed the plan to bail out Wall Street, appealed to the 'middle class’, never the many millions of poor Americans, and brazenly demonstrated their undying love for Israel, right or wrong. Any truly independent assessment would most likely show that commonalities between both candidates – especially towards the end of their campaigns – ran too deep that would render designations of them as 'opponents’, engaged in constant 'debates’, particularly puzzling....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48763
In Italian - On the Drillers.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
...As you may well know, Muqtada Al-Sadr and his drilling Mahdi army spared none in Iraq. Sunnis, Christians, Palestinians, Gays, Secularists , Baathists, Nationalists, patriotic anti-Occupation, women, men, children....And as you may well know, Muqtada Al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army collaborated and propped up the various sectarian fascist Shiite governments that came into place with the Anglo-American occupation. Be it the Jaafari government or the current Maliki government. And engaged his own Sadrist party in the political process as well. And as you may well know, the Mahdi army was a crucial tool in implementing the ethnic cleansing that took place in Iraq, as per the directives of America and its zionistic plans and the subsequent exile of millions of Iraqis for the most part SUNNIS AND CHRISTIANS....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48762
Sources: Hamas looking to postpone national dialogue in order to avoid extending Abbas' term
PNN
Informed Palestinian sources disclosed today that Hamas wants to delay the comprehensive Palestinian dialogue in Cairo until after the ninth of January 2009 when Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential term ends. When the Hamas party declared it would boycott the internal dialogue just a day before it was slated to begin, most indicators pointed to a reticence by leaders outside of Palestine. The Gaza government was viewed as largely supporting the meeting. However within a day the party said there was no internal discord. It should be noted that the Hamas movement works on consensus decision making which includes the outside leadership, the Gaza leadership and members on the chapter level. Postulations as to why Hamas had boycotted the meeting included specifically outside control and a general disdain for Egypt... A source close to the Hamas leadership, who spoke with the daily Al Quds Al Arabi on the condition of anonymity, said that there were two main points that caused the party to cancel its participation in the dialogue...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48773
US Attack Kills 12 In Pakistan
AlJazeera.net
At least 12 people have been killed in a missile strike said to have been carried out by a US drone in a Pakistani tribal region. The raid is thought to have killed pro-Taliban fighters, five of them foreigners, Pakistani officials said on Friday. Previous bombing raids by the US, in which civilians have died, have been condemned by the Pakistani government which argues that they infringe on the country's sovereignty...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48775
Iraq's Maliki to urge his Cabinet to endorse security pact with U.S.
Ned Parker, LATimes
Reporting from Baghdad — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki will urge his Cabinet to endorse a contentious security agreement with the United States and will give an address backing the pact ahead of a vote in parliament, one of his trusted confidants said today. Maliki, who until now had not endorsed the agreement and had criticized U.S. negotiating positions during the summer, decided to publicly support the accord after U.S. officials accepted most of the changes to the text requested by the Iraqi government at the end of October and then agreed to two final changes to the text, said Shiite Muslim lawmaker Sami Askari, the confidant....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48777
UNRWA: Gaza Strip ran out of food supplies amidst catastrophic human condition
Palestinian Information Center
The UNRWA, the UN agency that caters for Palestinian refugees, has announced Thursday that food supplies and basic needs in Gaza Strip had ran out due to the Israeli rejection to allow the agency trucks into the populated Strip. John Ging, the operations manager of the UNRWA in the Strip said in a press statement that the agency won't be able to bring food supplies into Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli refusal to open the border-crossings with Gaza, describing the situation there as "catastrophic". He added that UNRWA ran out of supplies on Thursday evening and will not be able to distribute more unless the crossings are opened and food aid is allowed in...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48759
In direct violation of the Road Map, Barak approves settlement construction in the W. Bank
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC
Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported on Friday morning that Israel's Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, approved in recent months plans for the construction and marketing of hundreds of units in illegal West Bank settlements. A number of settlements are east of the annexation wall, which means that these settlements are even outside of the large settlement blocs that Israel's refuses to evacuate under any peace deal with the Palestinians....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48757
Iraq's top Shiite cleric to let govt decide on US pact
AFP
Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric will leave it to the government to decide on a controversial US military pact, but associates of the reclusive leader said it must respect Iraqi sovereignty. Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani -- revered as the highest religious authority by Iraq's Shiite majority -- rarely involves himself in politics and usually communicates his views only through associates. "The Guide (Sistani) called for general elections which produced the country's government and the parliament," a religious official close to Sistani told AFP on condition of anonymity...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48760
Targeting Hugo Chavez
Stephen Lendman
Since taking office in February 1999, America's dominant media have relentlessly attacked Chavez because of the good example he represents and threat it might spread in spite of scant chance it will in today's climate. Yet some of his fiercest critics maintain pressure and show up often on the Wall Street Journal's op-ed page. Most recently on November 10 by its America's columnist, Mary O'Grady. Her style is agitprop. Her space a truth-free zone. Her latest in an article headlined "Hugo Chavez Spreads the Loot" referring to what The New York Times calls "Suitcasegate."...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48764
Stuck in Boredom...
Layla Anwar, Uncensored Arabwomanblues
...People are just so caught up in their own little bubbles...and I guess am caught up in mine. But there is a little difference here. X. can find other Babettes, Bernadettes and Georgettes on a new camping trip. Y. can change departments, bosses, offices or jobs... But If I leave my "bubble" where will I go to ? I guess my only "consolation", short of an adequate term, is to remember that another 4 million or so are stuck in the same bubble as I. In all likelihood they are as estranged as I am and are thinking along the same lines - Where will we go to ? Yes indeed, them and I are very stuck. And seems like we will remain so for quite a long time...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48769

www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 15, 2008 ~

2008-11-15T12:56:00.000+01:00

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 15, 2008 ~

PCHR Weekly Report: 4 Palestinians killed, 7 injured by Israeli forces
http://www.imemc.org/article/57659

Forty-five Palestinian homes and farms issued demolition orders in Idhna, West of Hebron
On November 3rd, 25 Palestinian homes and five farms in Idhna were issued demolition orders of their homes for the 23rd of November. The order claims that the homes were "built without permission" of the Israeli authorities.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/13/forty-five-palestinian-homes-and-farms-issued-demolition
-orders-in-idhna-west-of-hebron/

In direct violation of the Road Map, Barak approves settlement construction in the W. Bank
Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported on Friday morning that Israel's Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, approved in recent months plans for the construction and marketing of hundreds of units in illegal West Bank settlements.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57660

Israel's Barak approved settlement construction: report
AFP - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak approved dozens of construction projects in Jewish settlements in the West Bank in recent months despite international commitments to freeze such activity, the Haaretz daily said on Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081114/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictsettler

Palestinian PM: Peace process endangered by settlements
Salam Fayyad says during visit to France 'efficient international action needed to change status quo, put pressure on Israel to respect its obligations in accordance with Road Map for peace initiative'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3622857,00.html

Israeli forces kill four Gazans on seventh day of total closure
On Wednesday, 12 November 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) carried out an incursion into al-Qarara town and killed four Palestinians. IOF continues to seal the Gaza Strip's borders and impede entry of food, medical supplies and fuel for the seventh day in a row. According to Al Mezan investigations, at around 10am on Wednesday, 12 November 2008, Israeli troops infiltrated nearly 300 meters inside agricultural lands in the al-Wad area to the northeast of Khan Younis city.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9959.shtml

Testimony: Israeli navy shoots and wounds fisherman off Gaza coast
I live in the Sultan neighborhood in Rafah with my parents, three brothers, and three sisters. In 2006, I began to work as a fisherman. My father taught me the trade and I worked with him for about two months. Then I went to work with Omar al-Bardawil. Omar has two boats, one a motorboat and the other a rowboat. When gas is available in the Strip, we use the motorboat, and when there isn't gas, we use the rowboat.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9950.shtml

Israeli settlers assault Palestinians and peace activists near Hebron
At least ten Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements built atop southern Mount Hebron assaulted a number of Palestinians and peace activists on Saturday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57677

Demonstration held against Homesh settlement
Palestinians held a demonstration against the return of settlers to the Homesh settlement, between Jenin and Nablus. The settlement, evacuated during Sharon's "disengagement", is set to be repopulated by Jewish settlers. The demonstration was organized by a committee comprising representatives from the villages of Burqa, Bizzariya, Silat ad-Dhahr, Sabastiya, and Beit Imrin. These villages, all located in the area of Homesh, will be affected by the resettlement and closures, confiscations, and expansions that will inevitably ensue.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1777.shtml

Ramallah villages rally in protest of road closures
Palestinians living near the northern West Bank city of Ramallah marched on Friday in response to calls by a local council to protest checkpoints that obstruct movement in the surrounding villages. The residents, along with Israeli and other international peace activists assembled between the villages of Ras Karker and Dir Ibzeegh on a road used by 14 villages that are populated by about 35,000 Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33227

Two wounded in a nonviolent demonstration at an evacuated settlement
Two Palestinian civilians were wounded as they tried to enter the evacuated Israeli settlement of Homesh near Nablus.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57663

Israeli troops attack nonviolent protestors in Bethlehem
Israeli troops assaulted nonviolent anti-wall protest in the West Bank village of Al-Ma'asara near Bethlehem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57664

Three nonviolent protestors wounded in Nilin demo
At least three civilians have been wounded, one in the head, during an anti-wall protest in the West Bank town of Nilin near Ramallah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57665

Israeli troops wound four nonviolent protestors in Bilin
At least four nonviolent protestors were wounded in the weekly nonviolent protest in Bilin west of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57666

Nine residents of Ni'lin arrested for particpation in popular resistance against the apartheid wall
Eight people have been arrested during Israeli invasions of Ni'lin on the nights of November 10th and 11th. Another resident of Ni'lin also decided to turn himself in to Israeli authorities after his home had been invaded by the army for several consecutive nights while his wife and children were harassed by the soldiers looking for him.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/14/nine-residents-of-nilin-arrested-for-particpation-in-popular
-resistance-against-the-apartheid-wall/

PA forces beat, detain fans at football match; fire into crowd
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces fired on football fans Friday night at a match in progress at the Askar Refugee Camp, witnesses told Ma'an. The match was being played between the Askar Youth team and the Tulkarem Youth Center in Jenin when PA security forces unexpectedly attacked people in the crowd at the amphitheater, reportedly beating several Palestinians with batons and detaining dozens of youths.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33231

Hebron man sentenced to death by firing squad, PCHR appeals to Abbas
A Bethlehem military court sentenced a Palestinian to death on Wednesday after convicting him of treason. Ayman Ahmed Awwad Daghamgha from the Al-Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron and member of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service (PGIS) was found guilty of having collaborated with Israel since 1999.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33223

UN on Gaza: "People are going to start getting hungry"
The situation in the Gaza Strip is shifting from "collective punishment to genocide," said Jamal Al-Khudari, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza. The trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza, on which 80 percent of the population depended, has now been stopped for nine days by the Israeli army. The delivery of medical supplies and industrial fuel donated by the EU has also been blocked. The fuel was needed to power Gaza's sole power plant, which has now shut down, leading to rolling blackouts throughout Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33244

Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel
The Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to a steady rise in chronic malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the strip, according to a leaked report from the Red Cross.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chronic-malnutrition-in-gaza-blamed-on-israel
-1019521.html

U.N. Shuts Down Gaza Food Distribution Program
The United Nations has shut down a food distribution program that feeds 750,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after U.N. officials said their warehouses were empty and could not be restocked because of an Israeli blockade.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111401112.html?nav=rss_
world/mideast

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Gaza humanitarian crisis - Nov 14
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2008/11/al-jazeera-video-inside-story-gaza.html

Ging appeals for world intervention to save Gaza from imminent disaster
John Ging, the director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, on Saturday called on the world officials to pressure Israel into ending its collective punishment of the Gaza Strip inhabitants.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Gaza closure concerns EU commissioner
An European Union (EU) official said Friday he was "profoundly concerned" with the effect Israel's decision to close all Gaza border crossings may have on the area's population. "I am profoundly concerned about the consequences for the Gazan population of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings for deliveries of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance," Bentita Ferrero-Waldner, commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, said in a statement..
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/14/content_10360420.htm

Blockaded Gaza 'faces disaster'
The UK-based aid agency Oxfam has warned of catastrophe for Gaza and nearby areas of Israel if a truce agreed last June is not maintained.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7729886.stm

Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Israeli blockade causes worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/YSAR-7LDN8D?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Israeli army blocks deliveries to Gaza
The Israeli army has completely blocked the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip for more than a week. Very little fuel has been allowed in. Amnesty International urged the Israeli authorities on Friday to allow their immediate passage. "This latest tightening of the Israeli blockade has made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. It is nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population and it must stop immediately," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/israeli-army-blocks-deliveries-gaza-20081114

VIDEO:IOF soldiers reveal how to brutally repress Palestinian civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSlQ98r5QXo

Army to court martial soldiers who filmed themselves while humiliating a bound Palestinian
Israeli sources reported that the army decided to court martial Israeli soldiers who filmed themselves humiliating and abusing a bound Palestinian man at a roadblock in the occupied West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57661

Hamas protest in Gaza over West Bank arrests
AFP - Thousands of Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza City on Friday to denounce what the Islamists says is the arrest of hundreds of its members by Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081114/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianpoliticshamas

Hamas supporters protest against Abbas' Fatah movement
Hamas supporters demonstrate against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in Gaza city, November 14, 2008. The security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday arrested 17 Hamas members across the West Bank. Hamas boycotted an Egyptian-led efforts to reconcile it with Fatah due to the West Bank crackdown. (Xinhua Photo)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/15/content_10362087.htm

Hamas accuses Abbas of cutting lines of national dialogue after arresting Naseef
The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has accused PA chief Mahmoud Abbas of cutting all lines of national dialogue, and held him responsible for the arrest of the Hamas leader Rafat Naseef.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Hamas rallies against "criminal" PA security services, Israeli army
Hamas leaders rallied against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s security services in a televised media offensive in Gaza City on Friday afternoon. Hamas spokesperson Mushir Al-Masri described President Abbas as the "leader of a gang" during the rally held outside Gaza's parliament building.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33221

Bahar calls for exposing crimes of Abbas's security apparatuses
Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting PLC speaker, has called on the Arab masses to organize marches to denounce the crimes committed by the PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's security apparatuses in the West Bank.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Sources: Hamas looking to postpone national dialogue in order to avoid extending Abbas' term
Informed Palestinian sources disclosed today that Hamas wants to delay the comprehensive Palestinian dialogue in Cairo until after the ninth of January 2009 when Mahmoud Abbas presidential term ends.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57668

MIDEAST: Palestinian Factions Torture Opponents
Unity talks between the two main Palestinian political factions Hamas and Fatah failed before they even began this week following Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's refusal to release 400 Hamas prisoners held in PA jails in the West Bank.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44702

Abbas to meet Olmert despite IOF escalation in Gaza
PA chief Mahmoud Abbas is to meet with Israeli premier Ehud Olmert on Monday to discuss the settlement process, Saeb Uraikat, who is in charge with the PLO's negotiation, said on Saturday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Gov't source: Gaza truce can still be resumed
Top government official says it's not too late to resume ceasefire with Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, 'if Hamas completely violates the truce, it will a hefty price '. Source says Israel not afraid to break truce.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3623044,00.html

Hamas not to renew ceasefire
Hamas to demand new conditions for any ceasefire talks, including prior opening of crossings; Islamic Jihad member warns of imminent suicide attacks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3623096,00.html

Hamas: Israelis won't live in peace unless Palestinians do
The Islamic Hamas movement on Saturday vowed not to allow the Israelis to live in peace unless residents of the Gaza Strip enjoy it.
"The Israelis will not enjoy quietness while the Palestinian people live in bloodshed," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/15/content_10363152.htm

In 2006 letter to Bush, Haniyeh offered compromise with Israel
In the second paragraph, Haniyeh laid out the political platform he maintains to this day. "We are so concerned about stability and security in the area that we don't mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and offering a truce for many years," he wrote. Haniyeh called on Bush to launch a dialogue with the Hamas government.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037258.html

EU parliamentarian: "Hamas is fighting an occupation"
The assault on Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat party spokesman for the environment for the north west of Britain and a member of the European Union's parliamentary delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council, has delivered a firm political message to the European parliament..
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9958.shtml

French, Palestinians call US Mideast role crucial
AP - French and Palestinian officials are calling on the administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to quickly take a leading role in the Middle East peace process.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_palestinians

Switzerland leans on Israel to stop home demolitions in Jerusalem
Switzerland on Friday condemned the destruction of Palestinian homes in Occupied Jerusalem and said it had made representations to the Israeli Foreign Ministry on the issue. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it was "deeply worried" and called on "the Israeli government to put an immediate end to operations of destruction carried out under the name of 'administrative demolitions.'"
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97726

Foreign Reporters Furious over Gaza Ban
Foreign journalists are furious that the Israeli Defense Ministry's closure of Gaza Strip crossings has barred them from entering. They were given no formal notice of the ban. Instead, reporters found out the hard way last week that they could not get into the Strip, either by phone or at the Erez crossing to northern Gaza, according to Conny Mus, a reporter for the Dutch television station RTL.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=63544&language=en

Mind your own business, settler leader tells Rudd
NADIA Matar, the leader of the Israeli settler movement Women in Green, has a message for Kevin Rudd. "The incredible audacity of you!" she shouted from her home in Efrat, a Jewish settlement of 7700 people in the West Bank. Last weekend, the Rudd Government reversed Howard-era policy and voted in support of a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to stop building settlements in the occupied West Bank.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/mind-your-own-business-settler-leader-tells-rudd-20081114-67as.html

Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank
I get threatening phone calls telling me I am going to be killed," he said. "Today, I carry a gun because I am afraid of the Jews, not the Arabs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/world/middleeast/14settlers.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&
oref=slogin

Palestinian refugees in the Arab world: the right to have a right
The borders between states in the Arab East were historically porous so that refugees were able to move quite easily. Waves of refugees were able to be managed with tremendous tolerance: 800,000 Palestinians, 1 million Iraqis in the 1990s and 2.4 million Iraqis since 2003, 1 million Sudanese since the 1990s.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=97718

Friday: The day in photos
Israeli soldiers scuffle with an Israeli activist today during a demonstration against construction of a barrier near the West Bank village of Maasarah, near Bethlehem. Israel says the barrier, aimed at sealing off the Jewish state from the West Bank, is necessary for security; Palestinians see the move as a unilateral redrawing of the border.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-1114-dayinphotos-pg,1,6751712.photogallery

Eviction in battle for East Jerusalem
Fawzia al-Kurd, 52, raises her black cloak to show the bottoms of the pyjamas she is still wearing several days after she and her wheelchair-bound husband were forced from the home he had lived for five decades.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7729487.stm

SJP Statement on violent anti-Palestinian attack on campus
According to dozens of witnesses on the scene, three organizers for the "Zionist Freedom Alliance" attacked one male and two female Arab students who stood nearby the event holding a Palestinian flag. The assailants were identified by the Daily Californian to include current ASUC student senator John Moghtader, Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and performer Yehuda De sa. The paper also reported that all three had been cited by the UC Police Department on several counts of battery.
http://calsjp.org/2008/11/14/blog/sjp-statement-on-violent-anti-palestinian-attack-on-campus/

Tell Oxford not to create lecture series in Peres' honor
Oxford University's Balliol College has decided to honor Shimon Peres and the apartheid state of Israel by inviting him to speak in Oxford, and by planning to establish a lecture series in his name. Peres will deliver his lecture on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 under the title "The Globalization of Peace."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9957.shtml

UN social responsibility member company tied to settlements
A company that is a member of the UN Global Compact for corporate social responsibility has ties to production in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank considered illegal by the United Nations. A spokesperson for the company, Vileda said he was unaware of the contract with a manufacturer in the West Bank. However, a representative of Plasto confirmed that the company was a subcontractor for Vileda.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9960.shtml

Israel Tightens Chokehold on Village of Entrepreneurs
Excerpt: The sun is sinking fast behind the trees of an olive grove on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Nilin. After a day of confrontations between the Israeli army and the Palestinian villagers over Israel's building of its separation wall on Nilin's land, the soldiers appear finally to have gone.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=13766

Palestinian children draw anti-siege paintings in Gaza
Palestinian children draw anti-siege paintings in Gaza, November 14, 2008, as Gaza plunges into darkness after its main power plant shut down due to Israel's embargo. (Xinhua Photo)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/15/content_10362111.htm

Mending the broken wing
Thousands of hectares of land have been confiscated, hundreds of olive trees were uprooted and tens of thousands of trees were burned at the hands of Israeli occupying forces. In Palestinian villages, where social and economic development is sustained from the land, the villagers are left asking: What's left for next generations?! Abdallah Mesleh reflects on the significance of the harvest to his besieged village of Nilin.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9956.shtml

Video: "Nahr al-Bared: Transitions"
More than a year after their homes were destroyed during the battle between the Lebanese army and the militant Islamist group Fatah al-Islam, the majority of the Palestinian refugees from the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon find themselves in a difficult situation. Not able to return to their homes, stuck in pre-fabricated housing units and mostly unemployed, many feel frustrated and hopeless that things will improve.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9946.shtml

…

Palestine is the Key to World Peace
Dear Mr Obama, Salaam, I am not sure if this will ever pass your eyes. At a time when the whole world is excited about your landmark election and everybody who is somebody is talking about your meteoric rise, this is likely to be dismissed as just another outpouring of emotions from the Middle East. But write I must. And I hope to God it does find its way to your table. Even if it doesn't, I'll at least have the consolation of having tried to persuade you what the world, especially the Middle East, expects from you and what a great opportunity you have of changing it for the better.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14387

Meet the Palestinian Seinfeld. Who knew?
"I'm totally secular, but I'm scared like hell of God." Sayed Kashua says this with the kind of neurotic, biting humor that has led many people - critics, fans and others - to compare him to Woody Allen. A Palestinian Woody Allen?
http://www.sfgate..com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/13/DDCS1434BO.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment

Saturday: 2 US GIs, 12 Iraqis Killed; 42 Iraqis Wounded; US Copter Crash
Excerpt: At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 42 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. Two U.S. servicemembers died in separate incidents, but the casualty figures, if any, from a U.S. helicopter crash in Mosul were unknown.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13769

Iraqi prime minister now backs U.S. security accord
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has informed Iraq's presidency council that he now supports a security agreement with the United States, a Shiite Muslim legislator who's close to the premier said Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081114/wl_mcclatchy/3100686

Iraq's al-Sadr renews threats to attack US
Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday renewed threats to resume attacks on U.S. forces, and the country's top Shiite cleric was quoted as saying he would intervene if a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact infringed on Iraqi sovereignty.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/14/iraqs-alsadr-renews-threa_n_143811.html

Counting the dead gets more complicated in Iraq
AP - This much is agreed — a double bombing in Baghdad struck a school bus and those responding to the first blast. But the difference in casualty figures was stark. Iraqi officials said 31 people died; the U.S. military put the death toll at five..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_casualty_confusion

Last Iraqi refugees leave Saudi Arabia
The Rafah Refugee Camp in Saudi Arabia is now empty of its Iraqi refugees who had fled there during the 1991 Gulf War. The camp was established mainly to receive Iraqi army personnel who laid down their guns and surrendered to U.S. troops and Iraqi opponents who rose against the rule of Saddam Hussein in the uprising that took place in southern Iraq.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-11-11\kurd.htm

U.S. May Buy 10,000 All-Terrain, Blast-Proof Trucks
The U.S. military will seek to buy as many as 10,000 all-terrain, blast-proof trucks in an ``urgent'' competition to begin by Dec. 1. The trucks will be called MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles, or M-ATV.
http://www..bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a6mNMf.fVWhQ&refer=us

Rise of sexual terrorism in Iraq
Abu Ghraib. Haditha. Guantanamo. These are words that shame our country. Now, add to them Mahmudiya, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad. There, this March, a group of five American soldiers allegedly were involved in the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza, a young Iraqi girl. Her body was then set on fire to cover up their crimes, her father, mother, and sister murdered. The rape of this one girl, if proven true, is probably not simply an isolated incident. But how would we know? In Iraq, rape is a taboo subject. Shamed by the rape, relatives of this girl wouldn't even hold a public funeral and were reluctant to reveal where she is buried.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/38932/

How the Iraq war humiliated the British
The fact that we're hanging around there still today (over 4,100 soldiers) is a testimony to President Bush's desire not to lose the fig leaf of his biggest partner in the entire endeavour. Only now, with Obama preparing to move into the White House, can the British finally leave – a reality that Maliki confirmed in October when he sealed the humiliation, tersely informing the British that "their services were no longer required".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/12/iraq-afghanistan

Israeli PM Candidate's Website Looks A Lot Like Obama's... (PHOTO)
JERUSALEM -- Click on the Russian-language version of the campaign Web site of Benjamin Netanyahu, the conservative Likud leader running for prime minister of Israel, and up pops a picture of the candidate with Barack Obama. On the Hebrew version, Mr. Obama is not pictured. But he is, in fact, everywhere.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/14/iraeli-pm-candidates-webs_n_143959.html

School District Nixes Arabic Classes
Students in two Chicago's west suburban high school districts won't get a chance to study Arabic next year, despite interest from local families. Two districts recently decided they won't add Arabic classes, disappointing many in the local Muslim community. They're not the only ones who think Arabic is a smart choice for American kids.
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=30195

Nasrallah: Don't pin your hopes on Obama
Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has cautioned the Arab world against expecting a change in US foreign policy with Obama.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75109§ionid=351020203

--
www.TheHeadlines.org

Documents linking Iran to nuclear weapons push may have been fabricated

2008-11-13T23:57:00.000+01:00

Documents linking Iran to nuclear weapons push may have been fabricated

Gareth Porter
Published: Monday November 10, 2008

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has obtained evidence suggesting that documents which have been described as technical studies for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related research program may have been fabricated.

The documents in question were acquired by U.S. intelligence in 2004 from a still unknown source -- most of them in the form of electronic files allegedly stolen from a laptop computer belonging to an Iranian researcher. The US has based much of its push for sanctions against Iran on these documents.

The new evidence of possible fraud has increased pressure within the IAEA secretariat to distance the agency from the laptop documents, according to a Vienna-based diplomatic source close to the IAEA, who spoke to RAW STORY on condition of anonymity.

The laptop documents include what the IAEA has described in a published report as technical drawings of efforts to redesign the nosecone of the Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missile “to accommodate a nuclear warhead.” The documents are also said to include studies on the use of a high explosive detonation system, drawings of a shaft apparently to be used for nuclear tests, and studies on a bench-scale uranium conversion facility.

These technical papers, along with some correspondence related to the alleged secret Iranian program -- referred to by the IAEA as “alleged studies” -- have been the primary basis during 2008 for the insistence by the US-led international coalition pushing for sanctions against Iran that the Iranian case must be kept going in the United Nations Security Council.
Handwritten Notes
At the center of the internal IAEA struggle is an Iranian firm named Kimia Maadan, which is portrayed in the documents as responsible for studies on a uranium conversion facility, called the “green salt” project, as part of the alleged nuclear weapons program under the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

According to a February 2006 Washington Post article, the United States and its allies believe that Kimia Maadan is a front for the Iranian military.

One of the communications included in the laptop documents – a letter allegedly sent to Kimia Maadan from an unnamed Iranian engineering firm in May 2003 – is at the center of the authenticity argument.

This letter is described in the May 26, 2008 IAEA report as “a one page annotated letter of May 2003 in Farsi.” According to a US source who has been briefed on the matter, the letter has handwritten notes on it which refer to studies on the redesign of a missile reentry vehicle.

Last January, however, Iran turned over to the IAEA a copy of the same May 2003 letter with no handwritten notes on it. This was confirmed by the director of the IAEA Safeguards Department, Olli Heinonen, during a February briefing for member states. Heinonen referred to “correspondence” related to Kimia Maadan that is “identical to that provided by Iran, with the addition of handwritten notes.”

Notes on the Heinonen briefing, compiled by unnamed diplomats who attended it, were posted on the website of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

The copy of the letter without the handwritten notes was part of a larger collection of documentation concerning Kimia Maadan provided to IAEA by Iran in response to a request for an explanation of that firm’s role in the management of the Iranian Gchine uranium mine.

After the IAEA received the copy of the letter without notes from Iran, some officials began pushing for an acknowledgment by the Agency that there were serious questions about the whether the laptop documents were fabricated, according to the Vienna-based source close to the IAEA.

“There was an effort to point out that the Agency isn’t in a position to authenticate the documents,” said the source.

Heinonen and other IAEA Safeguards Department officials have continued, however, to defend the credibility of the document in question.

According to an American source briefed on the dispute, the defenders of the authenticity of the version of the letter with the handwritten notes say that the appearance of the clean copy can be attributed to Kimia Maadan making multiple copies of the original which have been circulated to various staff members.
Only an Ore-processing Plant
Further evidence damaging to the credibility of the letter and the handwritten notes was provided to the atomic energy watchdog last January by the Iranian government. According to Iran, Kimia Maadan was not working for the Defense Ministry but for the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

The new Iranian documentation, described in the February 22, 2008 IAEA report, proved to IAEA’s satisfaction that the Kimia Maadan Company had been created in May 2000 solely to carry out a project to design, procure and install equipment for an ore processing plant.

The documents also showed that the core staff of Kimia Maadan was able to undertake the work on ore processing only because the nuclear agency had provided it with the technical drawings and reports as the basis for the contract.

“Information and explanations provided by Iran were supported by the documentation, the content of which is consistent with the information already available to the agency,” the IAEA concluded.

Marie Harff, a spokesperson for the CIA, declined to comment.
Additional Doubts About the Letter
Other questions surround the letter with the handwritten notes. The subject of the letter was Kimia Maadan's inquiry to the engineering firm about procurement of a programmable logic control (PLC) system, according to the IAEA's May 26 report.

A PLC system is one of many types of technology that the United States has long sought to deny to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Iran had informed the IAEA even before 2006 that Kimia Maadan had assisted the AEOI in getting around that denial strategy by procuring various technologies for the planned uranium conversion facility at Esfahan.

Given that Kimia Maadan’s role in procurement for the conversion facility was both unrelated to its technical work for the AEOI and part of a covert effort to get around U.S. restrictions, it seems unlikely that they would have made multiple copies of the letter. Even if multiple copies were made, the firm would certainly have taken normal security precautions for a document of that type, marking each copy with a number or name.

A security procedure of that kind would have identified any missing copies. However, this was not the case with the 2003 letter. The United States, as its reason for refusing to provide a copy of the document to Iran, has argued that it would allow Iranian security personnel to identify the person who wrote the notes from their handwriting, according to the US source who has been briefed on the matter.

Another problem with the handwritten letter is the absence of any logical link between the subject of the letter and the alleged work on redesign of the missile. PLC systems, which are used for automation of industrial processes, such as control of machinery on factory assembly lines, would have been irrelevant to the technical studies on redesigning the Shahab-3 missile.
Other Documents Also Under Suspicion
Other documents from the laptop collection, allegedly showing that Kimia Maadan was working closely with the team trying to redesigning the Shahab-3 missile, have also come under suspicion of fraud.

The IAEA’s May 2008 report describes a flowsheet under Kimia Maadan’s name, showing a “process for bench scale conversion of uranium oxide” to UF4 (uranium tetraflouride), also known as “green salt.” The project number shown in the disputed documents for the “green salt” subproject is 5.13.

However, Heinonen stated that the number given to the Gchine subproject was 5.15. According to the documents obtained by the IAEA from Iran last January, this was the number of the uranium ore processing project that was assigned in 1999 by the civilian AEOI, not by the Iranian Defense Ministry. This would mean that the author of the document used the project number 5.13 for the “green salt” subproject based on their knowledge of the AEOI numbering system and not on a military designation.

In his February 25 briefing, Heinonen additionally referred to an alleged letter sent by Kimia Maadan – as manager of three subprojects – to the “missile re-entry vehicle” project, asking for a “technical opinion” on the plans for equipment for a proposed “green salt” conversion facility.

However, it is difficult to understand why the team working on redesigning the missile would be asked for a “technical opinion” on equipment for a uranium conversion facility.

A spokesperson for the State Department’s Office of Arms Control and International Security, which is responsible for IAEA affairs, said in an e-mail that specialists in the office “aren’t able to comment” on the subject of the intelligence documents now being considered by the IAEA.

The IAEA also declined to comment.
Toward a Showdown on the Contradictions
As the contradictions between the new Iranian evidence and the laptop documents relating to Kimia Maadan became apparent, some IAEA officials argued that the Agency should distance itself from what they now suspect are forgeries. Despite that argument, the May 2008 report contained no reference to the issue.

The next IAEA report, due out in mid-November, will include the first response by the Agency to a confidential 117-page Iranian critique of the laptop documents, according to the Vienna-based source.

In the past, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has shown an ability to face off with the United States when evidence has been called into doubt. The infamous “Niger forgeries” – documents that purported to show an agreement between Niger and Iraq for the purchase of uranium oxide – were used by the White House as part of its case for war against Iraq.

In response, ElBaradei sent a letter to the White House and the National Security Council in December 2002, over three months before the US launched the Iraq War, warning that he believed the documents were forgeries and should not be cited as evidence of Iraqi intention to obtain nuclear weapons.

When ElBaradei received no response from the Bush administration, he went public to debunk the Niger forgeries. In a speech at the United Nations in March 2003, he declared that the IAEA, after “thorough analysis,” had concluded that the documents alleging the purchase of uranium by Iraqi from Niger “are in fact not authentic.”

The anomalies that have been revealed by the Iranian documents obtained from Iran last January may not be as obvious as the ones that made it clear the Niger documents were fabrications. Nevertheless, they appear to be red flags for IAEA analysts concerned with the issue.

Suspicion has surrounded the “alleged studies” documents from the beginning, because the United States has refused to say who brought the collection to US intelligence four years ago.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

* Mujahadeen-e-Khalq provided “smoking Laptop.” Is the Mossad involved?
* Envoy: IAEA has become a tool of the U.S.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/IAEA_suspects_fraud_in_evidence_for_1109.html
__._,_.___

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 11 Nov 2008

2008-11-13T01:04:00.000+01:00

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 11 Nov 2008
Happy Days: No Crime, No Foul for the Media-Political Club
Chris Floyd
Take for example the piece below by Salon.com's own Joan Walsh, who would certainly consider herself one of the fiercest critics of the Bush Administration around. Yet here she is, deeply stirred by Condi Rice's tribute to the historical significance of Barack Obama's election: Am I a total sap to find Condoleezza Rice's reaction to Barack Obama's victory moving? She looked like a little girl on Christmas. She looked 20 years younger, at least. That grim mask of determination and repression was gone...I know, she bears enormous responsibility for the nightmare of the Iraq war. But since this is a day to appreciate the opening to change that Obama's election creates, I think it's a day to be happy to see Condi Rice happy, and to hope she puts her experience and intelligence to work undoing the wrongs of the Bush administration. My word, yes! Let's be happy that Condi is happy! Let's not put Condi on trial for war crimes, or bother her with investigations and tribunals. Let's not take her to Fallujah and put her in front of, say, a woman who has seen her own children blown to bits just like the four little girls in Birmingham... Not only is Obama not going to pursue any kind of criminal investigation of war crimes, torture, concentration camps, warrantless spying and the innumerable other high crimes of the past eight years -- he is not even going to be pressured to do so, not even tepidly, by the leading lights of the "progressive" movement...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48706
Afghan resistance statement
A Matter to Ponder for Obama
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
...It is, therefore, imperative for Obama to put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans and pull out US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq forthwith. If Obama and the Democrats would like to follow into the steps of Bush and see their magnanimity in oppressing and subjugating nations and nurture the ambitions of prolonging the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, then it is clear that the fate of the Democrats will be even more shameful and despicable than the Republicans. They will not bring the ship of the downfall of USA safely to the coast of rescue and will not land it securely. It was because of this sky-high expenditure, which is now pushing America to the verge of penury and their economic institutions are melting down. The Europe and the rest of the world are pondering to bring about changes in their financial relations with USA...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48679
Afghan Insurgency Stronger Than Ever
CBS
The war President-elect Barack Obama is inheriting in Afghanistan includes an insurgency that's stronger than ever. And it's creeping ever-closer to the Afghan capital. In a video obtained by CBS News, a U.S. convoy is attacked less than 20 miles from Kabul. "I think in Afghanistan, we really dropped the ball for a long time," said Karin von Hippel of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. It's now widely agreed America's new president needs a new approach, CBS News cheif foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports. President-elect Obama's emerging strategy appears to shift focus to a regional solution to Afghanistan's problems...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48693
Palestinians Scold Dividing Hamas, Fatah
Motasem Dalloul, IOL Correspondent
Marking the fourth anniversary of their ironic leader Yasser Arafat's death, many Palestinians blame rivals Fatah and Hamas for an ever-increasing divide and hijacking unity hopes. "For the failure of the dialogue, I blame both Hamas and Fatah," Mahmoud Joneed, an unemployed worker from Gaza, told IslamOnline.net... "Both sides are blamed," insists Mohammed Nabeel, a shopkeeper. Both sides are liars and people don't trust them," he fumed. "Both should have offered bitter concessions to guarantee a fruitful dialogue. But this did not happen."...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48698
Obama's Afghanistan Plan
IslamOnline.net
US President-elect Barack Obama plans a new regional approach to the war in Afghanistan once he assumes office in January, which will include engaging key players like arch foe Iran. "As we look to the future, it would be helpful to have an interlocutor" to explore shared objectives, one senior US military official told the Washington Post on Tuesday, November 11. In a major break with outgoing George Bush, Obama plans a regional strategy to tackle the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where US causalities this year were the highest since invading the country in 2001. According Obama military strategists, the bedrock Bush administration policy towards key regional players has outlived its usefulness. They believe Iran, which borders Afghanistan from the west, should be considered in formulating any Afghanistan plan. The Iranians "don't want Sunni extremists in charge of Afghanistan any more than we do," said the senior military official...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48699
UNRWA to stop providing services to Gaza as border crossings remain closed
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza warned on Tuesday it would be forced to stop providing services to registered Palestinian refugees unless the Israeli closure of crossings stops. Christopher Gunness, official spokesperson of UNRWA told media outlets in Gaza that his organization would be obliged to stop providing food assistance to more than 750,000 registered Palestinian refugees in a couple of days if the Israeli closure of crossings continue...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48701
Media blackout? International journalists report being barred from entering, exiting Gaza
Ma'an news
Israel has limited food and fuel shipments into Gaza, and now appears to be preventing journalists from entering and even leaving the area. Several journalists have speculated that Israel hopes to limit press coverage of the effects of its latest blockade. On Tuesday Dirk Jan Visser, a photographer with a foreign news service, was denied entry into the Gaza Strip, on Monday BBC journalist Aleem Maqbool and his colleague were denied entry into Gaza, and a French journalist, "V" was denied permission to leave...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48697
US May Lose Its 'AAA' Rating
CNBC
The United States may be on course to lose its 'AAA' rating due to the large amount of debt it has accumulated, according to Martin Hennecke, senior manager of private clients at Tyche. "The U.S. might really have to look at a default on the bankruptcy reorganization of the present financial system" and the bankruptcy of the government is not out of the realm of possibility, Hennecke said... In order to solve or stem the economic slowdown, Hennecke suggested the US would have to radically reduce spending across all sectors and recall all its troops from around the world...

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Christians In Iraq
Warren Mass
Saddam Hussein, who was a secularized Sunni Muslim, had no set agenda against members of religions other than his own. Avak Asadourian, Iraq's Armenian archbishop, told the April 21, 2003 Christian Science Monitor, "We enjoyed total religious freedom and there was no religious discrimination" under Saddam's rule.... That was then. But because of violence against Christians in post-Saddam Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled, and the country's Christian population has plummeted from 800,000 five years ago to an estimated 250,000 today. These days, the Iraqi government is intertwined with Iran and is itself moving in the direction of becoming a radical Islamic state...

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Boycotting Israeli settlement products: tactic vs. strategy
Omar Barghouti, The Electronic Intifada
There has been a spate of recent news reports on international companies moving out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to locations inside the internationally-recognized boundary between Israel and the West Bank. The impression is made that boycotting products originating in Israel's illegal colonies in the West Bank is on its way to becoming mainstream, handing the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement with a fresh, substantial victory. While this development should indeed be celebrated by all BDS activists anywhere, caution is called for in distinguishing between advocating such a targeted boycott as a tactic -- leading to the ultimate goal of boycotting all Israeli goods and services -- and as an end in itself. While the former may be necessary in some countries as a convenient tool of raising awareness and promoting debate about Israel's colonial and apartheid regime, the latter, despite its lure, would be in direct contradiction with the stated objectives of the Palestinian boycott movement...

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Washington secretly authorized military raids on 20 countries since 2004
Bill Van Auken, WSWS
Since 2004, the Bush administration has secretly authorized military raids against up to 20 countries without any declaration of war or even any explicit congressional authorization for armed action, according to a report published Monday in the New York Times. The report, which cites recent attacks on targets in Pakistan, Syria and Somalia, establishes that under an order issued by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and approved by President George W. Bush in the spring of 2004, the US military’s Special Operations forces were given license to attack alleged al Qaeda targets "anywhere in the world."...

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The Kurdish terror in north of Iraq
Mr. Lokman Nejam Ahmed was born in 1st July 1968 in the district of Telkeef that is linked to the city of city of Mosul. He was arrested on the 8th of July 2007 on the Iraqi/Turkish border Ibrahim Alkhalil by the Kurdish secret police that are known as Asayish while he was travelling from the city of Mosul to Turkey with a group of a Turkmen from the city of Erbil. Mr. Lokman Nejam Ahmed was working as a deputy of the ITF (Iraqi Turkmen Front) in the city of Mosul and according to the witnesses who were with him at the time....

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Iraq Signs $3.5 Billion Deal for China to Develop Oil Field
KATHERINE ZOEPF
North Oil, an Iraqi-owned company, has signed a contract with a Chinese state-owned oil corporation, CNPC, that was first negotiated during Saddam Hussein’s government, an official in Iraq’s Oil Ministry said Tuesday. The deal is worth $3.5 billion, said the official, Ahmed al-Shamaa, the deputy oil minister. It is the first major oil-development deal that Iraq has made with a foreign company since the American-led invasion in 2003. It will allow CNPC, with Norinco, another Chinese company, to develop the Adhab oil field in Wasit Province, southeast of Baghdad, for 20 years, Mr. Shamaa said in a telephone interview. "It has been the same contract since Saddam’s regime, but we changed it from a production-sharing contract to a service contract," Mr. Shamaa said. "The contract includes developing the field, digging wells, laying down bibs, delivering crude oil to the national grid, and natural gas processing and delivery."...

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Shame on You World - What More Evil Can You Do To Gaza Strip?
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
The impact of the long siege,with sudden and frequent electric outrage and the presence of the Israeli intruder is perceived by the Gaza Strip community as extremely devastating and humiliating. When the electricity break down, the darkness consumes everything,the skies over this coastal Palestinian region, are very frightful until the children light their candles and their friends and families begin to march in protest, demanding a stop to the criminal embargo on Gaza Strip. The European Union has legally claimed that the Israelis must follow international law and provide sufficient fuel to restart the power plant in Gaza Strip.However what the Israelis are providing in electric power to Gaza Strip is not enough, in consequence, the Gaza Strip community has plunged into darkness again...

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No ceremonies for Arafat in Gaza
Amira Hass
There was not a single public commemorations in Gaza of the fourth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death (November 11, 2004). The rallies scheduled for Gaza Strip cities were canceled by order of the police, Fatah officials said. However, a spokesman for the Hamas government said there had been no request made for a permit for the demonstrations. The first event was scheduled for Monday in Rafah and was supposed to combine three issues: Arafat's memory; a protest over the siege of Gaza and the closing of the border crossings; and support for rapprochement talks between Hamas and Fatah being held in Cairo. Officially, all the canceled demonstrations were not under Fatah auspices but were being arranged by a coordinating committee of all PLO member organizations. In any case, the organizers of the Rafah rally were summoned by the police, held for a few hours and then asked to sign a statement they would not organize any activities or they would be fined. Some signed and others refused. The organizations have canceled all their demonstrations, though Fatah made no official announcement...

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No matter how much you try to clean yourself ,America your hands will always be dirty...
Yousef Abudayyeh
It was impossible to find a major newspaper or magazine anywhere in the world that did not have a headline that read something like "Change has come to America ". I hope what these publications mean is that African Americans finally made it to the White House and racism is gone. But how was the United States really changed? Is the racism that was inherent in what was to become the United States of America from its colonial beginnings of black slavery and white indentured servitude really gone, changed overnight by the fact of one election victory?...

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37% of Americans still believe Iraq had WMDs
BUSINESS WIRE
While a majority of U.S. adults believe that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in March 2003, surprisingly, a significant number of U.S. adults (37%) still believe today that Iraq had such weapons (...) Fifty-two percent say it is true that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (down significantly from 64% in July 2006)....

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Divided Palestinians mourn Arafat
AlJazeera.net
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has launched a bitter attack on the rival Hamas movement as he attended events to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, the former Palsetinian leader. Abbas accused Hamas of sabotaging efforts to mend the rift in Palestinian politics and of using force to prevent any commemorations for Arafat in the coastal territory. Speaking at Arafat's graveside on Tuesday, Abbas blamed Hamas for the abandonment of planned reconciliation talks due to have been held in Cairo on Sunday, accusing it of "not wanting dialogue"...

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Yasser Arafat 1929 - 2004
Kristen Ess – Palestine News Network
Four years ago today Yasser Arafat died in France after taking ill in Ramallah. He was airlifted from the Muqata never to return. The image of the great man turned slight by poison or too many years under siege indoors, whatever it was that eventually killed him, that photo is forever etched in the mind. Abu Ammar waving goodbye. Talking to people today and yesterday, it seems that there is no one who does not remember where he was four years ago, and where he was days later when the national hero’s body was returned to the soil of Palestine...

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Arab-Americans and Obama
How to Vote Against Your Own Interests
JAMES G. ABOUREZK
...In spite of the fealty paid to the Israeli Lobby both by Obama and by McCain, and in spite of Ralph Nader doing his best to publicize the brutality of the Israeli occupation, a great many Arab Americans abandoned Nader and his message in favor of the other candidates. Of course, we all understood that Nader would not win the election, but the movement of Arab Americans away from him regrettably deprives him of the political influence he might have gained to press his positions, including his strong criticism of Israel’s illegal occupation. His voice is considerably weakened because of the movement of Arab American voters to other candidates, which is unfortunate for those Palestinians who live in desperation on a daily basis....

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November 11, 2008: 7 Iraqis Killed, 51 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 7 Iraqis were killed and another 51 were wounded, mostly during bombing attacks in Baghdad and Mosul. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, the fate of a U.S.-Iraqi agreement may rest on support from a political group that has much to lose regardless of the choice they make. Also, Iran conducted war games close to the Iraqi border. Political observers are waiting to see whether the Supreme Islamic Iraq Council will support a controversial U.S.-Iraqi security agreement...

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www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.

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Liverpool council's village plan "ignores" LGBT community

2008-11-12T16:25:00.000+01:00

Liverpool council's village plan "ignores" LGBT community

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • November 12, 2008 - 12:35

A leading councillor has attacked Liverpool's City Council over plans for a gay village.

The city needs £260,000 for the scheme, which supporters claim will attract more businesses to invest in the area and create a "café culture," and is hoping to secure EU funds.

Eberle Street will be permanently blocked to cars, while Cumberland Street and parts of Stanley Street will be pedestrianised from Thursdays to Mondays from 10pm to 5am.

Councillor Steve Radford of the Liberal party welcomed plans to close Eberle Street, host to Garlands and G Bar, "after a seven year campaign."

He claimed the council "has bluntly treated with contempt the 96% response of the LGBT community and other users to close Stanley Street in the evening.

"The closure suggested is now ten at night, is anyone other than the plonkers in Liverpool Town Hall going to believe there is any chance or benefit of clubs and restaurants putting out tables into the street at ten at night?"

A final decision will be made by the council in December.

Cllr Peter Millea, executive member for assets and development, told the Liverpool Daily Post:

“A traffic regulation order (TRO) for this plan will be published shortly and interested parties will be asked for their views. A final decision will be made depending on the responses.

“What is being proposed is a compromise between the various views, taking into account those businesses which operate during the day as well as boosting the night economy.

“If this scheme does go ahead following the TRO consultation, it could be the first step to a wider pedestrianisation of the area, making this part of the city centre more pedestrian friendly.”

Gay arts group sues Milwaukee for discrimination

2008-11-12T16:13:00.000+01:00

Gay arts group sues Milwaukee for discrimination
Gay arts group sues Milwaukee for discrimination after nude musical revue gets shut down
By M.L. JOHNSON Associated Press Writer | AP

Nov 11, 2008

(MILWAUKEE) A gay arts group has sued the city of Milwaukee in federal court for violating its free speech rights three years ago when officials shut down a musical revue featuring nudity.

The city temporarily shut down performances of "Naked Boys Singing!" in August 2005 while it considered the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center's application for a theater permit. The group later received a permit and reopened the show.

Larry Dupuis, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which is handling the case, said the city's enforcement seemed unusually zealous, even given the musical's content.

"I think the title made it kind of controversial," Dupuis said. "But of course, `The Full Monty' has nudity in it, and that doesn't get it threats to shut it down."

The lawsuit, filed Monday, says the city ordinance is unconstitutional because it gives officials "unbridled discretion" over when permits must be obtained and how applications will be handled. It also says the law could be used to restrict certain viewpoints.

Eileen Force, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Barrett, declined to comment on the lawsuit, and a call to the office of City Attorney Grant Langley rang unanswered Monday afternoon.

Dupuis said few, if any, other nonprofit theater groups have been required to get permits from the city.

He also expressed concern that the city's law does not require officials to approve or deny theater permit applications in a timely fashion. If they don't like a show's content, they can simply not act, he said.

"It could be used to discriminate," Dupuis said, "and we suspect that there was some sort of discriminatory thinking that went into the decision-making somewhere along the line."

The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center had already started performances of "Naked Boys Singing!" when police received a complaint about what the caller described as "illegal nude theater," Dupuis said.

The lawsuit claims the center had applied for a permit but not yet received it. Also, the city council was not expected to act on its application until its meeting in September 2005.

The show's director canceled an Aug. 18 performance, as well as others planned for that month after a detective told him participants could be arrested for performing without a permit, the lawsuit says.

When MGAC opened the show months later, it drew smaller audiences and incurred additional advertising and other costs, Dupuis said. He would not say how much money the center lost on the show, and the lawsuit does not seek a specific amount of damages.

"Naked Boys Singing!" has run into trouble with authorities before in such cities as Provincetown, Mass.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Atlanta. Eventually, all three cities held performances of the show.

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http://www.newsweek.com/id/168452/page/1