Why I am Ashamed to be an American

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

Why I am Ashamed to be an American

 

By Doug Soderstrom

06/01/07 “Thomas Paine’s Corner” — – Having grown up in a small town in Central Kansas I was taught to believe that my country, the United States of America, was a land committed to justice and peace, a nation that one could count on to do the right thing, a country of civilized folks who had but one thing in mind…….. that of doing the will of God. I also began to realize that there is nothing wrong with feeling ashamed for having done something wrong, that such a response is a rather natural consequence of having violated one’s conscience, a voice from deep within that is no doubt a reliable guide for how a man (or woman) of true integrity ought to live his (or her) life. However, for those who seem to lack the capacity to feel ashamed, one can only wonder what must be wrong with them.

As I began to emerge into manhood there was an ever, ongoing flow of hints, subtle suggestions that things were not as I had been told. However, it wasn’t until our country vented its awful wrath upon a post 9-11 world that I began to realize that I had been misled. At that point I had no choice but to take a long, hard look at the history of our country, a thorough examination of what turned out to be a past drenched in the blood of our foes, foreign lands raped of their natural resources, democratically elected governments overthrown, an outrageous succession of egregious arrangements with tyrants and dictators from around the world, along with the fact that our nation is the only developed country in the world that utilizes the death penalty to kill its own people, and that we imprison more of our own people than any other nation in the world…… all of such having enabled me to gain a better understanding of why there are so many folks around the world who have become upset by our nation’s apparent willingness to abuse and exploit our fellow man. As a result of what I found, I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of the American public is out of touch with reality, that such folks have unwittingly allowed themselves to have become mercilessly entangled in a world of fabrication and make-believe, a nation dominated by sheepish yes-men unwilling to face the fact that we, as a nation, are, and for some time have been, caught in a downward spiral of moral decline.

I have found it rather common for folks to become a bit upset with people like myself who occasionally pass judgment upon our country. In fact some have even told me that if I don’t like my country then perhaps I ought to consider leaving it. Such folks seem to believe that criticizing one’s country (one that has attained such a high standard of living…… as if such a thing should make a difference) is somehow unpatriotic. However, the last time I checked there seemed to be no relationship whatsoever between a nation’s quality of life and that of its moral standards. I have also found that individuals that tend to equate criticism of one’s country with that of being unpatriotic either do not understand the postulates upon which democracy is based or that their identity is so terribly intertwined with that of their nation that they have seemingly lost the capacity to reason in an objective manner. Finally, based upon my experience of having debated with such folks, it has become rather clear to me that most of these quislings have little or no education as well as being relatively uninformed as to what is going on in the world.

Now, if you don’t mind, allow me to take a look at a few things that tend to bother me regarding the country in which I just happen to have been born……. the United States of America.

I never cease to be amazed at how terribly ethnocentric the typical American tends to be. It is almost as if having been born in the United States confers upon one the right to think of himself as a privileged person, a contrived sense of status that no doubt lies at the very heart of everything that I will discuss in this paper. For example, consider religion…… the fact that the majority of Americans look upon Christianity as the one and only road that leads to salvation, every other faith a blind alley leading to the unending fires of Hell. Next is that of capitalism, a system having apparently received the blessing of God as the universally correct way of doing business. And then democracy, a political system that apparently no one in their right mind has a right to question. Of course there can be no doubt that democracy is certainly a stellar way of running a country, but must everyone in the world agree? Besides if the religious right (just as Moslems in Iraq) were to seize control, don’t you think that they (as fundamentalists) might be tempted to set up Christianity as the official religion in our country rather than that of running a democracy based upon the separation of church and state? Think about it……. fundamentalists are no doubt fundamentalists regardless of the color of “their stripes!” On the other hand, one must ask what right we (as citizens of a nation that is a mere 231 years from its own inception) have to tell folks living in countries not more than a hop, skip, and a jump from the “Garden of Eden” how they ought to live their lives. Ethnocentrism yes, but perhaps even worse than this is that which such narrow-mindedness almost always brings to pass; an unreasoning sense of arrogance generally referred to as that of the arrogance of ignorance!

Due to what appears to have been a rather serious lapse of judgment on the part of tens of millions of Americans, the voters, for whatever reason (perhaps it was a matter of fear), chose to place into power a President (a presidential administration) that: may well have laid the groundwork for 9-11 (the “new Pearl Harbor”) that, according to PNAC (Project for the New American Century) was needed in order to pave the way for our country’s military/economic takeover of the world; is in the preparatory stages of going to war with Iran (a conflict that will no doubt reign havoc upon our nation as well as that of the world); lied to the American people in regards to why we went to war with Iraq; lied to citizens in that our government has no intention of leaving Iraq given the fact that it is in the process of building as many as fourteen “Enduring Military Bases” (enough to house at least 100,000 soldiers) along with that of having built the world’s largest Foreign Embassy located in Baghdad (a 592 million dollar, 104-acre, 21-building complex); committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as high crimes and misdemeanors for which several of our leaders should be impeached; condoned the systematic use of torture against prisoners; violated the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution by intentionally choosing to interfere with the free flow of information to the American people; enacted laws (such as that of the Patriot Act) that are seriously eroding our freedoms; through the use of the Military Commissions Act, granted the President the right to arbitrarily detain, imprison, and torture U.S. citizens at that of his own discretion (and without the right of Habeas Corpus!); allowed the President to disobey more than 750 U.S. laws through the use of so-called “signing statements”; through the passage of the Defense Authorization Act of 2007 set the stage for, essentially creating the likelihood that, our country might one day become a military dictatorship; allowed the United State’s military to develop an extremely sophisticated, website-based video game (America’s Army) to be used as a recruitment device that is teaching millions (perhaps as many as nine million) of our children to kill human beings with an increased degree of efficiency, all of such having desensitized our teenagers to kill others with little, or no, psychological pain; has enabled politicians to profit immensely from funds awarded to corporate enterprises associated with the military-industrial complex; bankrupted the nation by allowing the national debt to rise to nine trillion dollars in spite of the fact that the nation’s actual debt is a little over 59 trillion dollars due to the government’s use of unorthodox (essentially unethical if not illegal) accounting practices that intentionally disregard (essentially misinforming the American people with respect to) unfunded promises to reimburse (that is to repay) Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and an assortment of federal retirement programs; and has been absolutely unwilling to take responsibility for the fact that we, as a nation, have done more to destroy the ecosystem of our planet than anyone else on Earth.

For anyone who has taken the time to study the history of the human race, there can be no doubt that one of the primary, if not the primary, cause of harm is that of people taking up arms in the name of God. No one in their right mind can deny that Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammad, Confucius, or Lao Tse were men of good will. However, over the centuries the simple yet profound truths taught by these wonderfully wise men have been perverted beyond recognition. And, as far as the West is concerned, the greatest perversion has been that of the religious right’s willingness to accommodate the needs of neoconservatives in Washington D.C., a well-thought-out, although no doubt surreptitious, plan to allow the Bush-Cheney presidential administration to utilize their faith (a plan of salvation that rather conveniently ignores the teachings of Jesus, the fact that we should love rather than kill others) as a theologically-based (no doubt divinely inspired) justification for a cadre of militants all to ready to go to war in order that they might one day rule the world……. and all of such in exchange for political presence, an increased opportunity for the religious right to publicize a gospel of family values (a rather fabricated attempt to “sugarcoatedly-disguise” an undoubtedly well-documented ideology of out-and-out social-political conservatism). Looking back at history, there can be little doubt that much the same occurred in the 1980’s when Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority decided to align itself with Ronald Reagan’s tenure as President, and, before that, when Germanically-oriented Christians decided to go along with, and therefore to support, Adolph Hitler’s Nazi inspired efforts to rule the world.

Concerning the education (or shall I say the mis-education) of our children it is high time that we do the right thing, that we stop lying to our kids and begin telling them the truth. The school’s job is not to make “good citizens” of our children, for in doing such a thing our children end up being duped, conditioned, slowly but surely brainwashed, into becoming truckling sycophants, bootlicking followers of the status quo. As one who has taught college students for the past 41 years, the only task worthy of a teacher is that of teaching our kids how to think for themselves, critical thinking skills that might perhaps enable them to counter the outrageous mendacity of those in power, chauvinistic jingoes who would, through the use of propaganda, have our children believe a lie rather than that which is true.

Regarding our economy, a capitalistic enterprise focused upon one, and only one, thing (the enrichment of the rich euphemistically referred to as that of “the American Dream”), we, as Americans (those of us who are rather well-to-do), should be ashamed of ourselves, ashamed of having become an island of enormous wealth stationed in the midst of a poverty-ridden world (not to mention an ever-expanding proportion of our own people who are poor) in that we go to bed every night with a willingness to anesthetize ourselves to the needs of billions of folks whose lives are inextricably mired in an absolutely desperate attempt to simply survive. And then due to what appears to be a rather natural correlate of capitalism (activities that no doubt follow capitalism wherever it goes), the American people (folks so terribly possessed by that which they possess) have developed an apparently insatiable appetite to be rich (the capacity to consume anything and everything they want), the need to be constantly entertained, a near addictive fascination with sex, drugs, gambling, pleasure, power, and violence, and all of such no doubt nullifying any legitimate interest in the “finer things of life” such as that of developing a meaningful philosophy of life, a desire to understand what it means to be a human being, and that which might perhaps be worthy of our time here on Earth.

And then based upon the laws of our nation, lobbyists (highly paid representatives of the corporate world) have been granted the right to converge upon our elected officials for no other reason than to coerce them into conducting business in a manner that more often than not benefits the rich at the expense of the poor. We, as a people, have been led to believe that our votes count when in fact our ballots far too often elect congressmen, the majority of which, wait in hiding for a handout (a bribe) that will serve to fill their “electoral coffers,” and all of such in exchange for a simple promise to use their congressional powers to expedite the needs of their benefactors who in turn are far too likely to reward their compatriots with a well-paid, “post-retirement” position the purpose of which is to use their “congressional knowledge” to bribe those who have now taken their place; a revolving door of immense corruption that is no doubt destroying the foundations of a once democratic republic!

The final, and perhaps most important, reason why I am ashamed to be an American is due to the fact that we, more than any other people, have used our accumulated wealth (part of which comes from money earned from having sold more weapons of war to the rest of the world than the rest of the world combined) along with having developed the largest, most destructive military force (larger than the accumulated defense budgets of the rest of the world combined) since the beginning of time (next year’s defense budget will be nearly 700 billion dollars!), all the while realizing that if we had proven our love for God by using such funds to feed the hungry, medicate the sick, clothe the poor, house the homeless, and liberate the oppressed, we would have become a nation loved and revered by all…… rather than, as things have turned out, having become a land hated by nearly everyone in the world.

In conclusion, in order that you might understand where I am coming from, you need to realize that I do in fact have a bit of respect for my country, or at least for that which was envisioned by our forefathers, the founders of, what has turned out to be, a once great nation. However, just as we would with someone we love, we have no choice but to call attention to weakness, since in doing such a thing we give our loved ones an opportunity to address the problem. It is, and must be, the same with that of the land in which we have been born. If we truly care about our country, if we really do want our nation to flourish, then we should realize that we have not only the right, but, much more importantly, the responsibility, perhaps even, one might say, a moral responsibility to point out its deficiencies in order that it might once again be revived. For we must remember, as our nation goes, so do we……. in its flourishing we, as a people, will no doubt thrive, but in passing away, we, as a collective society, might well cease to exist.

Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. is a psychologist and can be reached at dougsoderstrom @ sbcglobal.net

source:

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=62

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US may collapse as a superpower: analyst

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

US may collapse as a superpower: analyst

The World Today – Friday, 1 June , 2007 12:27:00

 

Reporter: Eleanor Hall

ELEANOR HALL: A US military analyst who’s served in the armed forces and has written on international affairs for more than two decades, is issuing a warning today about the collapse of the United States as a superpower.

In his latest book, The Mess they Made: the Middle East after Iraq, Gwynne Dyer says there’s no doubt that the US will withdraw its troops from Iraq once President George W. Bush leaves office.

But he predicts that already that war has set in motion events that will radically transform not only the Middle East but the role of the United States in the world.

Gwynne Dyer is in Sydney this week and he joined me earlier in the World Today studio.

There’ve been a series of conflicts in the Middle East over the last 40 years, why do you see this latest war in Iraq as likely to be so transformative for the region?

GWYNNE DYER: Well the Americans actually have never committed troops in the Middle East, never actually fought a war in the Middle East, the United States, before. I think this is having an impact on the American public, comparable to the impact on the American public in the Vietnam War though the casualties are far lower this time. So now, there is developing, a Middle Eastern allergy in American public opinion, rather similar to the South East Asian allergy that you had by the end of the 1960′s.

That is transformative because if America is not there enforcing the status quo, the status quo probably collapses. It is very old and shoddy. The regimes of the Arab world, with zero exceptions, except for Iraq, where the Americans overthrew Saddam, have all been in power for at least forty years.

They’re all dictatorships or absolute monarchies, most of them are corrupt beyond imagining. So this is a very unstable status quo, maintained by American subsidies, American troops, American guarantees, and when those are withdrawn, I think that there will be very large changes in the Middle East.

ELEANOR HALL: You’re certain that all of those will be withdrawn, not just the US troops, but the US subsidies as well?

GWYNNE DYER: Not all and not right away, but enough to create a momentum, in which Congress will be reluctant to vote new funds, Congress will be very suspicious about new commitments to support Arab regimes, and meanwhile the momentum in the streets in the Arab world will be moving very rapidly in the favour of the revolutionaries. And that’s what they are, after all, the Islamists, after all, are political revolutionaries, they’re not just religious fanatics.

ELEANOR HALL: So what will be the shape of the Middle East at that point?

GWYNNE DYER: I think that you’re going to see some, I can’t tell you which ones, but some Arab regimes fall in the next five years, fall to Islamists of various variety. Some of them perhaps very radical, some of them less so.
ELEANOR HALL: So what would this mean for terrorism in the West

GWYNNE DYER: I think it would drop. I mean the terrorism in the West has two sources, really, first of all the actual 9/11 attacks were a strategic move by a revolutionary Arab organisation, al-Qaeda, to trick the United States into invading Muslim countries. If you pull the troops out of the Middle East, and the West is no longer occupying Muslim countries, I think the wind goes out of the sails of that particular interpretation.

ELEANOR HALL: There’s not a danger that having Islamist republics in the Middle East might inspire terrorism around the world?

GWYNNE DYER: No, I don’t see why, because I mean, once they’re in power, what do they need to bother us for?

ELEANOR HALL: You suggest that the Iraq war could also transform the role of the US in the world, that it’s actually done far more damage to US power and prestige than the Vietnam War. What are you predicting for the US?

GWYNNE DYER: Well, think about the Vietnam War for a moment. The United States suffered a humiliating defeat and frankly the US armed forces were a complete shambles for 10 years after that. And yet, within five years, it was all forgiven and forgotten. And in the world at large by the end of the 1970′s, the United States was back as the leader of the free world – trusted, beloved by all, well, by most. That could happen again, if the US pulls out of Iraq, as soon as Mr Bush leaves power.

Which is what I think will happen. About 10 minutes after the inauguration of the next President in January 2009, the evacuation starts. However, there is the possibility that the United States before Mr Bush leaves will attack Iran. And if that happens, I think we have a very different outcome. Former National Security Adviser in the United States, Zbigniew Brzezinski is on record as saying if the United States attacks Iran, it will lose its place in the world. And I think he’s right.

ELEANOR HALL: What do you think the odds are though, of the United States attacking Iran?

GWYNNE DYER: I have no idea, I change in my view from week to week on this, which presumably means they’re about 50/50. I mean, the forces are in place, the runways have been lengthened, you know, the extra carriers are in the Gulf.

ELEANOR HALL: And yet there are constant denials from the Bush administration…

GWYNNE DYER: Well of course there are, but that’s what you’d have in this situation, so it means nothing. Could all be bluff, and I hope it is, but if it isn’t, then it is imaginable that the Bush administration decides to roll the dice one last time. If they attacked Iran, they would lose, and of course, the Iranians would close the Gulf to the tanker traffic, and so suddenly there’s a global economic crisis, and then in two or three months we get America off the hook, somehow and get the Gulf reopened. But by that time, frankly, I think NATO will have broken up, I think the Russians will have decided they’d better make a deal with the Chinese, it would change the look of the chessboard very dramatically.

ELEANOR HALL: Why would it change it so dramatically, when you’re saying that the Iraq war, you’re expecting that the world and the American people will forgive the Bush administration, why wouldn’t they equally forgive it for a disastrous war in Iran, were that to happen?

GWYNNE DYER: It’s the rogue state phenomenon. I mean, this could be another unprovoked, illegal American attack on a sovereign state. It would actually convince a great many people that the United States is congenitally a rogue state.

A senior Japanese diplomat said to me, last year, he said “You know the United States is a twelve year old with a shotgun”. And what he meant was that as the United States begins to suspect that it’s past the apogee of its trajectory, its on the way down, as a great power no longer on the way up or at the top securely, that it is becoming extremely erratic, that is lashing out in all sorts of ways to try and slow or stop what it perceives as insipient decline.

So there is concern that we’re getting into rather deep water here, that we may be going into an era where the Americans become highly unpredictable and quite dangerous.

ELEANOR HALL: Gwynne Dyer, thanks very much for speaking to us.

GWYNNE DYER: You’re welcome.

ELEANOR HALL: And that’s the military historian, Gwynne Dyer, speaking about his latest book, The Mess they Made: the Middle East after Iraq.

source:

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1939849.htm

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A Message From The “Iraq Resistance”

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

A Message From The “Iraq Resistance”

 

Islamic Jihad Army – A message in English

 

“We are simple people who chose principles over fear.”

Iraqi Resistance speech on videotape December 13 2004

Rush transcript-

Title: Communiqué Number 6

The media platoon of the Islamic Jihad Army. On the 27^th of Shawal 1425h. 10 December 2004

People of the world! These words come to you from those who up to the day of the invasion were struggling to survive under the sanctions imposed by the criminal regimes of the U.S. and Britain .

We are simple people who chose principles over fear.

We have suffered crimes and sanctions, which we consider the true weapons of mass destruction.

Years and years of agony and despair, while the condemned UN traded with our oil revenues in the name of world stability and peace.

Over two million innocents died waiting for a light at the end of a tunnel that only ended with the occupation of our country and the theft of our resources.

After the crimes of the administrations of the U.S and Britain in Iraq , we have chosen our future. The future of every resistance struggle ever in the history of man.

It is our duty, as well as our right, to fight back the occupying forces, which their nations will be held morally and economically responsible; for what their elected governments have destroyed and stolen from our land.

We have not crossed the oceans and seas to occupy Britain or the U.S. nor are we responsible for 9/11. These are only a few of the lies that these criminals present to cover their true plans for the control of the energy resources of the world, in face of a growing China and a strong unified Europe . It is Ironic that the Iraqi’s are to bear the full face of this large and growing conflict on behalf of the rest of this sleeping world.

We thank all those, including those of Britain and the U.S. , who took to the streets in protest against this war and against Globalism. We also thank France , Germany and other states for their position, which least to say are considered wise and balanced, til now.

Today, we call on you again.

We do not require arms or fighters, for we have plenty.

We ask you to form a world wide front against war and sanctions. A front that is governed by the wise and knowing. A front that will bring reform and order. New institutions that would replace the now corrupt.

Stop using the U.S. dollar, use the Euro or a basket of currencies. Reduce or halt your consumption of British and U.S. products. Put an end to Zionism before it ends the world. Educate those in doubt of the true nature of this conflict and do not believe their media for their casualties are far higher than they admit.

We only wish we had more cameras to show the world their true defeat.

The enemy is on the run. They are in fear of a resistance movement they can not see nor predict.

We, now choose when, where, and how to strike. And as our ancestors drew the first sparks of civilization, we will redefine the word “conquest.“

Today we write a new chapter in the arts of urban warfare.

Know that by helping the Iraqi people you are helping yourselves, for tomorrow may bring the same destruction to you.

In helping the Iraqi people does not mean dealing for the Americans for a few contracts here and there. You must continue to isolate their strategy.

This conflict is no longer considered a localized war. Nor can the world remain hostage to the never-ending and regenerated fear that the American people suffer from in general.

We will pin them here in Iraq to drain their resources, manpower, and their will to fight. We will make them spend as much as they steal, if not more.

We will disrupt, then halt the flow of our stolen oil, thus, rendering their plans useless.

And the earlier a movement is born, the earlier their fall will be.

And to the American soldiers we say, you can also choose to fight tyranny with us. Lay down your weapons, and seek refuge in our mosques, churches and homes. We will protect you. And we will get you out of Iraq , as we have done with a few others before you.

Go back to your homes, families, and loved ones. This is not your war. Nor are you fighting for a true cause in Iraq .

And to George W. Bush, we say, “You have asked us to ‘Bring it on’, and so have we. Like never expected. Have you another challenge?”

source:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7468.htm

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Amnesty International: No security without basic rights

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

Amnesty International: No security without basic rights

 

Report, Amnesty International, 4 June 2007

 

Palestinians hold a picture of their jailed relative during a protest calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, 16 April 2007. (Mouid Ashqar/MaanImages)

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Amnesty International today called on the Israeli authorities to end the land-grabbing, blockades and other violations of international law carried out under the occupation. These have resulted in widespread human rights abuses and have also failed to bring security to the Israeli and Palestinian civilian populations.

A 45-page report published today, Enduring Occupation: Palestinians under siege in the West Bank, illustrates the devastating impact of four decades of Israeli military occupation. The report documents the relentless expansion of unlawful settlements on occupied land that deprives the Palestinian population of crucial resources and documents a plethora of measures that confine Palestinians to fragmented enclaves and hinder their access to work, health and education facilities. These measures include a 700km fence/wall, more than 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a complicated system of permits.

“Palestinians living in the West Bank are blocked at every turn. This is not simply an inconvenience — it can be a matter of life or death. It is unacceptable that women in labour, sick children, or victims of accidents on their way to hospital should be forced to take long detours and face delays which can cost them their lives,” said Malcolm Smart, Director for Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“International action is urgently needed to address the widespread human rights abuses being committed under the occupation, and which are fuelling resentment and despair among a predominantly young and increasingly radicalized Palestinian population,” said Malcolm Smart. “For forty years, the international community has failed adequately to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem; it cannot, must not, wait another forty years to do so.”

Amnesty International is calling for the urgent deployment of an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism to monitor compliance by both parties, Israeli and Palestinian, with their obligations under international law. This must be backed up with a commitment to investigate and prosecute, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction, those who commit war crimes or other crimes under international law.

“We do not underestimate the difficulties of establishing such an independent monitoring system, whether by the UN or another appropriate body, but it is vital that the international community should become more engaged in finding a solution, and in holding the parties to their obligations under international law,” said Malcolm Smart.

In its report, Amnesty International acknowledges Israel’s legitimate security concerns and the government’s obligation to protect the population within its borders, but says this does not justify blatant violations of international law, such as construction of much of the fence/wall inside the West Bank on Palestinian land.

“If the intention was simply to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel, the barrier would be located on the Green Line, the border between Israel and the West Bank,” said Malcolm Smart. “Yet, the reality is that most of it is being built on Palestinian land, in defiance of the International Court of Justice, and is separating Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank.”

In addition to the fence/wall, the movement of Palestinians is several constrained by a host of other restrictions, including over 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a network of roads for Israeli settlers to use and off-limits to Palestinians. The barrier, together with these roads and roadblocks, benefit continuously expanding but unlawful Israeli settlements and make them territorially contiguous with Israel.

“Harsh Israeli restrictions have caused the virtual collapse of the Palestinian economy and are exacerbating the increasingly fragile conditions in which Palestinians live and work — resulting in levels of despair, poverty and food insecurity never before seen in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” said Malcolm Smart.

“Most Palestinians are now relying on aid for subsistence, with families reducing the quality and quantity of the food they consume and selling assets essential for their livelihoods.”

Amnesty International is calling on the Israeli authorities to:
lift the regime of blockades and restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT, which constitute collective punishment, and ensure that restrictions imposed in response to specific security threats only target the individuals concerned — not entire communities.
halt the construction of the fence/wall inside the West Bank, and remove the sections already built there;
cease the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements and related infrastructure in the OPT as a first step towards removing Israeli settlements and “outposts”;
cancel all demolition orders on homes in the OPT, and provide reparation to Palestinians whose homes and properties have already been destroyed.

The organization is also reiterating its call on Palestinian armed groups to end immediately attacks on civilians and on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take effective action to stop and prevent such attacks and bring to justice those responsible.

source:

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6992.shtml

Related Links
Amnesty International

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‘Shin Bet involved in 1976 hijacking’ : Zionist ‘Teroris’ Israel

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

‘Shin Bet involved in 1976 hijacking’ : Zionist ‘Teroris’ Israel

 

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

 

Yoni Netanyahu, the commander of the rescue team who was killed in the raid on Entebbe.

Photo: AP

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) may have been involved in the hijacking of an Air France plane in 1976 by Palestinian terrorists, according to newly declassified British government documents released Friday.

Some 100 passengers were held by hijackers at Entebbe airport in Uganda during an eight-day ordeal that concluded when General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal) troops stormed the building where the captives were held.

Twenty-four people died in the shoot-out, including three hostages, 20 Ugandans and the commander of the rescue team, Yoni Netanyahu, brother of current opposition head Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud).

The hijackers, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the German Baader-Meinhof gang, demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners.

But according to the newly released documents, the Shin Bet and the PFLP are alleged to have teamed up in an “unholy alliance” in an attempt to change foreign policy in the Middle East.

The allegation appeared in a document written by official DH Colvin at the British embassy in Paris, quoting a contact at the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Association, as the crisis unfolded.

“According to his information, the hijack was the work of the PFLP, with help from the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Bet,” he wrote.

“The operation was designed to torpedo the PLO’s (Palestine Liberation Organization) standing in France and to prevent what they see as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and the Americans.

“Their nightmare is that… one will witness the imposition in the Middle East of a Pax Americana, which will be to the advantage of the PLO (who will gain international respectability and perhaps the right to establish a state on evacuated territories) and to the disadvantage of the Refusal Front (who will be squeezed right out in any overall peace settlement and will lose their raison d’etre) and Israel who will be forced to evacuate occupied territory. Hence the unholy alliance of the hijacking.”

The document also suggested that then Ugandan president Idi Amin may have been collaborating with the hijackers.

The document was released by the National Archives in London.

Shimon Peres, who was defense minister at the time of the hijacking and Entebbe rescue, said over the weekend that the claims were so outrageously baseless that they did not merit comment.

source:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180527980537&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

The Secret Carnage

 

78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes

 

By Sherwood Ross

06/01/07 “Counterpunch” — – -An estimated 78,000 Iraqis were killed by U.S. and Coalition air strikes from the start of the war through June of last year, an article in “The Nation” magazine says.

The estimate is based on the supposition that 13 percent of the 601,000 Iraqis who met violent deaths reported by The Lancet study released last October “had been killed by bomb, missile, rocket or cannon up to last June,” author Nick Turse writes in the June 11th issue of the weekly magazine.

“There are indications that the air war has taken an especially grievous toll on Iraqi children,” Turse said.

“Figures provided by the Lancet study suggest that 50 percent of all violent deaths of Iraqi children under 15 in that same period (March 2003 through June 2006) were due to coalition airstrikes.”

Since April, 2003, Turse reports, the U.S. has dropped at least 59,787 pounds of cluster bombs in Iraq, a type of weapon Human Rights Watch(HRW) termed “the single greatest risk civilians face with regard to a current weapon that is in use.”

The author notes cluster bombs have “a high failure rate” so that unexploded bomblets that fall to ground become, in fact, landmines which, Marc Garlasco of HRW points out, are “already banned by most nations.”

Garlasco, the HRW senior military analyst, says, “I don’t see how any use of the current U.S. cluster-bomb arsenal in proximity to civilian objects can be defended in any way as being legal or legitimate.”

At a time when many nations are moving toward banning cluster munitions, the U.S. China, Israel, Pakistan and Russia are opposing new limits of any kind. At a conference in Oslo last February, 46 of 48 governments supported an international ban on cluster bombs by 2008.

The cluster bomb bursts above ground and releases hundreds of smaller “bomblets” that create a kill radius about the size of a football field, shredding virtually every object in the zone.

Aside from these deadly devices, Air Force officials acknowledge Coalition aircraft dropped at least 111,000 pounds of other types of bombs in Iraq last year as part of 10,519 “close air support missions,” author Turse said.

According to Les Roberts, co-author of two surveys of mortality in Iraq published in the British medical journal The Lancet, “Rocket and cannon fire could account for most coalition-attributed civilian deaths.” The magazine quotes him further as stating, “I find it disturbing that they (Pentagon) will not release this (figure), but even more disturbing that they have not released such information to Congressmen who have requested it.”

Turse’s article is titled, “The Secret Air War in Iraq,” and alleges “The devastation from U.S. bombing is underreported—and may be increasing.” He writes, “That an occupying power regularly conducts airstrikes in or near dense population centers should have raised serious concerns in the mainstream media, unfortunately, reports on the air war are sparse and mostly confined to regurgitations of military announcements.”

“..Until reporters begin bypassing official U.S. military pronouncements and locating Iraqi sources, we will remain largely in the dark regarding the secret and deadly U.S. air war in Iraq,” Turse concludes.

Sherwood Ross is a Florida-based writer who covers military and political topics. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com

source:

http://www.counterpunch.org/ross06012007.html

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

The Nazi rabbi

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

The Nazi rabbi

 

Khalid Amayreh, thepeoplesvoice.org

June 2, 2007

Shortly before Israeli occupation soldiers in cold blood murdered two Gaza children, who apparently were searching for scrap metal to sell for a few cents in order to help feed their impoverished families, the former Chief rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Elyahu, urged the Israeli army and government to use the “Nazi choice” against Palestinians.

Elyahu reportedly petitioned the Israeli government to carry out a series of carpet bombings of Palestinian population centers in Gaza, arguing that a ground invasion of the world’s most crowded spot would endanger Israeli soldiers.

 

Mordechai Elyahu

 

Shmuel Elyahu

“If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,” said Shmuel Elyahu, the son of Mordechai Elyahu, quoting his father. “And if they do not stop after 1,000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”

Mordechai, considered one of the most knowledgeable Talmudic sages in Israel, said it was forbidden to risk the lives of Jews for fear of injuring and killing Palestinian civilians.

This is not the first time Elyahu issues such an outrageous Talmudic edict. A few years ago, he called on the Israeli occupation army not to refrain from killing Palestinian children if that meant “saving Jewish lives.”

Elyahu is associated with Merkaz Ha’rav, a Talmudic College in West Jerusalem, that is largely considered to be the theological and ideological nerve center of religious-messianic Zionism.

The College teaches and promotes the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the immigrant Jewish community in Palestine who is viewed as the religious and spiritual godfather and mentor of the settler movement, known as Gush Emunim (the bloc of faithful.”

According to Israeli writer Yair Sheleg Rabbi Kook wrote that “the difference between the Jewish soul and the souls of all non-Jews, no matter what their rank and level of understanding, is bigger and deeper than the difference between the human soul and the animal soul.” (Moses and the Prophets never taught this outrageous invention which is totally incompatible with the Abrahamic traditions).

This totally racist discourse toward non-Jews represents the mainstream and modus operandi at Merkaz Harav where Talmudic sages such as Haim Druckman, Avraham Shapira, Dov Lior, etc, teach that non-Jews are sub-humans, and ought to be enslaved or destroyed.

Western people, constantly brainwashed with unceasing Zionist propaganda and disinformation about Israeli “democracy” and “liberalism” might be prompted to think that such ideas are marginal, eccentric or even anecdotal and that they are espoused by only a small bunch of Talmudic extremists.

But this is not the case at all. Today, this Nazi-like ideology is “manual for action” for hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world, especially in Israel, including the estimated half a million settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem who openly claim that non-Jews living under Jewish rule ought to be enslaved, expelled or annihilated.

A few years ago, Haim Yavin, a prominent TV personality in Israel, did a documentary on Jewish settlers in the West Bank and how they viewed their Arab neighbors.

The documentary featured a Jewish settler woman who told Yavin that “if we Jews get together, we will make the Palestinians our slaves…and Muhammed; will make coffee for both of us.”!!!

The more radical settlers (we are talking abut tens of thousands of people, such as the followers of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish terrorist who in 1994 murdered 29 Palestinian civilians while praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron, and the so-called hilltop youths) go one step further and believe that Palestinians belong to one and only place: The Ovens.

Last year, when some peace-minded Israeli activists visited Hebron and sought to erase graffiti reading “Arabs to the Oven” scrawled outside the settler compound of Abraham Avino, local settlers ganged up on the activists, calling them “Nazis, Arab lovers, and whores” as pro-settler policemen and soldiers looked on rather passively. One particularly nasty settler woman, the wife of a rabbi, shouted at one female activist, saying “How many Arabs did you sleep with today?”

There is no doubt that the nefarious ideas of Jewish supremacy, as taught by Talmudic circles such as Mirkaz Harav, is poisoning and even nazifying the minds of thousands of Jewish and Israeli youths.

Earlier in May, a recent Jewish immigrant from France murdered in cold blood an Arab taxi driver from East Jerusalem after beguiling the unsuspecting victim to take him to Netanya.

The murderer, named Julian Sufir, had apparently been subjected to heavy doses of religious indoctrination at a synagogue near his home, which probably preached the message that non-Jews are infra-humans.

When this Sufir was interrogated by policy, he so calmly and nonchalantly told them that “I just wanted to kill an Arab, any Arab. There is no difference between killing an Arab and killing an animal. When I killed him, I felt I was slaughtering a sheep.!!” (see my article Hypocrisy with French Flavor- www.thepeoplevoice.org)

In truth, one can hardly exaggerate the danger of these powerful fascist elements in Israel as a growing number of Jewish youngsters are being inculcated with the same venomous hatred and fascistic mindset that once brainwashed German youths more than sixty years ago. We know the rest of the story.

This danger is so real and so tangible especially when one considers the fact that tens of thousands of Israeli occupation soldiers happen to be graduates of Talmudic schools, known as Yeshevot.

Needless to say, most of these schools teach that killing innocent Arab children is a great mitzvah and makes a Jew closer to God.

This little-known fact, which most westerners are not allowed to know or even discover, explains why Jewish soldiers in Gaza and Nablus shoot Palestinian school children right in the head with no compunction or guilty conscience.

Finally, the peoples of the world, including man honest and peace-minded Jews, are invited to imagine how Israel would look like and how the world would look like when these Judeo-Nazi forces assume power in Israel and be in control of Israel’s 300 nuclear bombs.

I say “when” because the Israeli Jewish society is drifting menacingly to jingoistic religious chauvinism that can be compared with the drifting ideological currents among Germans in the mid and late 1930s. Hence, a takeover of power in Israel by the settler and pro-settler camp is not a matter of “if” but rather “when” it will happen.

This is not a matter of concern for Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims alone. The whole world would be facing a real danger. Germany, too, would be in danger since Talmudic sages are already saying that Germans would eventually be forced to pay dearly for the holocaust.

source:

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/06/02/p17249#more17249

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Children playing with kite, man on bike killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

Barbaric Uncivilized War Criminal :

 

Children playing with kite, man on bike killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

 

Report, PCHR, 3 June 2007

Palestinians observe the bodies of boys Ahmed Abu Zbeida and Zaher al-Majdalawi, killed while playing with kites in the Gaza Strip, 1 June 2007. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

June 3, 2007

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued their military operations in the Gaza Strip for more than three weeks. On Friday, 1 June 2007, IOF killed two Palestinian children and wounded a third one in the northern Gaza Strip, and extrajudicially executed a member of the Islamic Jihad in the south. Since the beginning of this latest IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip, 55 Palestinians, including 23 civilians, have been killed and dozens of others, mostly civilians, have been wounded. PCHR is deeply concerned over the policy of retaliation practiced against Palestinian civilians, which threatens their lives, especially as IOF have continued to attack targets in civilian populated areas.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR:

At approximately 12:00 on Friday, 1 June 2007, an IOF infantry unit positioned on a wooden land in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, nearly 100 meters away from the beach, opened fire at four Palestinian children, who were playing with kites near the beach. Three children were wounded, whereas the fourth one was able to escape. Two of the children were left in the area bleeding to death. According to the third child who was wounded, 16-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim al-’Atawna, from Jabalya refugee camp, a kite fell near the area where IOF soldiers were hiding, and when they went to bring it, IOF soldiers opened fire at them. Soon after, the soldiers moved towards the children. They asked al-’Atwana, who was wounded by a gunshot to the back, about the condition of the other two children who were wounded by several gunshots throughout their bodies. He told them that the children were in a critical condition. They left the two children bleeding to death in the area and evacuated al-’Atawna to an Israeli hospital, where he had received medical treatment before he was transferred to a hospital in Beit Lahia. The two children who were killed were identified as:

1) Zaher Jaber Mohammed al-Majdalawi, 14; and

2) Ahmed Sabri Aba Zbaida, 14, both from Jabalya refugee camp.

At approximately 20:30 also on Friday, an IOF aircraft fired two missiles at a Palestinian who was riding a bicycle in al-Shanaliya Street in the north of Khan Yunis. He was instantly killed. He was identifies as Fadi ‘Abdul Qader Abu Mustafa, 22, a member of the al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jihad).

PCHR is deeply concerned over continuous IOF military operations in the Gaza Strip, and:

1) Condemns these latest crimes which are part of a series of continuous crimes committed by IOF in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, considering them a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian civilian population in violation of Article 33 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
2) Stresses that IOF do not pay attention to the principles of necessity and proportionality in using their full-fledged arsenal against members of the Palestinian resistance, who are sometimes present in densely populated areas.
3) Reiterates condemnation for the policy of extrajudicial executions adopted by IOF against Palestinian activists, and asserts that this policy serves to increase tension in the region and threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians.
4) Calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop such crimes, and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to fulfill their obligation under Article 1 of the Convention to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under Article 146 to search for and prosecute those who are responsible for perpetrating grave breaches of the Convention, as such breaches constitute war crimes according to Article 147 of the Convention and the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).

source:

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6993.shtml

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

US tank fires kill three Iraqi children : Barbaric Uncivilized War Criminal

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

US tank fires kill three Iraqi children : Barbaric Uncivilized War Criminal

 

BAGHDAD – Three Iraqi children died when a US tank opened fire on suspected insurgent bombers in the western city of Fallujah, the US military reported Saturday.

A tank crew observed Friday three men that appeared to be installing a roadside bomb on the side of a highway southeast of the restive city and opened fire with its main gun. The army claimed that the men escaped. Only three children were found dead instead.

“Civilians in the area reported two children, ages seven and nine, were killed by a blast in the area by the canal,” said the statement.

“A third, age 11, was transported by civilians to the Jordanian hospital nearby but later succumbed to his wounds.”

The military could not say if the children died as a direct result of their shell and a patrol that subsequently reached the site discovered two separate blast sites.

“Due to dust and debris, the tank crew’s view of the blast was obscured immediately after they fired. It is not clear at this time if there were secondary explosions at either site from IED material,” the statement said.

Three more US soldiers die in Iraq

Three more American soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq, the military said Saturday, after the deadliest month for US forces here in two-and-a-half years.

Two of the soldiers died on May 30, statements said, bringing that month’s death toll to 121, the worst since US marines famously stormed the insurgent city of Fallujah in November 2004.

A third soldier was shot dead in Baghdad on Friday, becoming June’s first casualty, according to US command.

These latest fatalities bring the number of US soldiers who have died in combat and from other causes in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,474, according to a count based on Pentagon figures.

US troops find rockets destined for Green Zone

US paratroopers raided a Baghdad militia stronghold and found an arsenal of rockets they believe were destined to be fired at the fortified Green Zone, the military said Saturday.

In recent months the US embassy, the Iraqi parliament, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office and other buildings inside this protected area have been attacked several times by rockets and mortars.

On May 2 four civilian contractors working for the US embassy were killed and five more were injured two weeks later. Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit on May 9 to the embassy was marred by a rocket attack.

American troops found the weapons dump on Friday after a local citizen tipped them off.

“It was found in an area known to locals as the ‘Jaish al-Mahdi Forbidden Zone,’ where some rocket attacks on Baghdad’s International Zone have originated,” a US statement said.

Jaish al-Mahdi is Arabic for Mahdi Army, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia, and the stockpile was found a short distance north of Sadr City, his east Baghdad stronghold.

“The cache contained 20 107mm rocket warheads, three fully assembled 107mm rockets, one 60mm mortar and a sandbag full of blasting devices,” the statement said. Soldiers destroyed the weapons with a controlled detonation.

source:

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

US Terrorize The Whole World by “War on Terror” – 18 Jumadil Awal 1428 H (4.6.07)

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

US may collapse as a superpower: analyst

6 Minute Audio and Transcript:
A US military analyst who’s served in the armed forces and has written on international affairs for more than two decades, is issuing a warning today about the collapse of the United States as a superpower.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1939849.htm

 

===

 

The Nazi rabbi

Shortly before Israeli occupation soldiers murdered in cold blood two Gaza children , who apparently were searching for scrap metal to sell for a few cents in order to help feed their impoverished families, the former Chief rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Elyahu, urged the Israeli army and government to use the “Nazi choice” against Palestinians.

“If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,” said Shmuel Elyahu, the son of Mordechai Elyahu, quoting his father. “And if they do not stop after 1,000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/1892

 

===

 

Amnesty International: No security without basic rights

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Amnesty International today called on the Israeli authorities to end the land-grabbing, blockades and other violations of international law carried out under the occupation. These have resulted in widespread human rights abuses and have also failed to bring security to the Israeli and Palestinian civilian populations.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6992.shtml

 

===

 

‘Shin Bet involved in 1976 hijacking’

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) may have been involved in the hijacking of an Air France plane in 1976 by Palestinian terrorists, according to newly declassified British government documents released Friday.

“According to his information, the hijack was the work of the PFLP, with help from the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Bet,” he wrote.

The allegation appeared in a document written by official DH Colvin at the British embassy in Paris, quoting a contact at the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Association, as the crisis unfolded.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180527980537&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

===

 

The Secret Carnage : 78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes

Since April, 2003, Turse reports, the U.S. has dropped at least 59,787 pounds of cluster bombs in Iraq, a type of weapon Human Rights Watch(HRW) termed “the single greatest risk civilians face with regard to a current weapon that is in use.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17808.htm

 

===

 

A Message From The “Iraq Resistance”

People of the world! These words come to you from those who up to the day of the invasion were struggling to survive under the sanctions imposed by the criminal regimes of the U.S. and Britain .

We are simple people who chose principles over fear.

We have suffered crimes and sanctions, which we consider the true weapons of mass destruction.

Years and years of agony and despair, while the condemned UN traded with our oil revenues in the name of world stability and peace.

Over two million innocents died waiting for a light at the end of a tunnel that only ended with the occupation of our country and the theft of our resources.

After the crimes of the administrations of the U.S and Britain in Iraq , we have chosen our future. The future of every resistance struggle ever in the history of man.

It is our duty, as well as our right, to fight back the occupying forces, which their nations will be held morally and economically responsible; for what their elected governments have destroyed and stolen from our land.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7468.htm

 

===

 

Attacks on U.S. Troops in Iraq Grow in Lethality, Complexity

As U.S. troops push more deeply into Baghdad and its volatile outskirts, Iraqi insurgents are using increasingly sophisticated and lethal means of attack, including bigger roadside bombs that are resulting in greater numbers of American fatalities relative to the number of wounded.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060201294.html

 

===

 

Barbaric Uncivilized War Criminal : US tank fires kill three Iraqi children

BAGHDAD – Three Iraqi children died when a US tank opened fire on suspected insurgent bombers in the western city of Fallujah, the US military reported Saturday.

“Civilians in the area reported two children, ages seven and nine, were killed by a blast in the area by the canal,” said the statement.

“A third, age 11, was transported by civilians to the Jordanian hospital nearby but later succumbed to his wounds.”

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/iraq/?id=20927

 

===

 

US death toll in Iraq in May reaches at least 127

BAGHDAD (AP) – At least 127 US troops died in Iraq during May.

The military announced today that a soldier who was wounded in a roadside bombing Wednesday later died.

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=6601713&nav=9qrx

 

===

 

Sixteen US troops killed in Iraq

Fourteen of the latest deaths were reported on Sunday alone by the US military.

http://www.itv.com/news/world_878557f520f4afd14ae50f4044ecfd79.html

 

===

 

U.S. military reports 14 more soldiers killed in deadly 3 days

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military announced Sunday that 14 American soldiers were killed over the past three days, including four in a single roadside bombing and another who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol.

 

===

 

Four U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

Four U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded in insurgent attacks in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200706/02/eng20070602_380308.html

 

===

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 2 June 2007

• US tank kills three Iraqi children near al-Fallujah Friday.
• Army of the Mujahideen takes responsibility for disabling US vehicle in al-Karmah.
• Resistance group destroys US military vehicle near al-Fallujah.
• Head of al-Qa‘idah in Iraq orders fighters to stay home, not clash with Islamic Army men, following two days of battle between rival Resistance groups in Baghdad’s al-‘Amiriyah.
• Shi‘i sectarian death squads murder Sunni religious leader in western Baghdad midday Saturday.
• Shi‘i sectarian militias blast Sunni neighborhood as part of effort to partition Iraq on sectarian lines.
• US admits five more American troops die in Iraq.
• Strategic bridge leading to northern Iraq blown up in Tuz Khurmatu Saturday morning.
• Resistance bomb sets US tank ablaze in Khan Bani Sa‘d area.
• Resistance shoots down US helicopter in Khan Bani Sa‘d.
• Puppet policeman killed in Resistance car bomb attack in al-Miqdadiyah.
• Resistance fighters capture Iraqi puppet army troops southwest of al-Huwayjah.

http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?mod=art&lapage=../en_articles_2007/0607/iraqiresistancereport_020607.htm

===

 

What Happened to Nasrallah’s Red Line?

With this dramatic escalation taking place, Hizbullah has fallen silent.

When Hizbullah was resisting the Israeli invasion of south Lebanon last summer all Palestinians in Lebanon, in the occupied areas and everywhere, stood by Hizbullah, and Nasrallah was celebrated as a hero. Palestinians in the refugee camps in Lebanon, in spite of their meager means, opened their homes to Lebanese refugees from the south. Sadly, the reverse has not happened to the Palestinian refugees fleeing Nahr El-Bared. I read that not one Lebanese church, mosque or any civil group has opened its doors to the Palestinians.

http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-happened-to-nasrallahs-red-line.html

 

===

 

Whose Truth?

For the past 800 and some odd days in Lebanon, especially in Rafiq Hariri strongholds, there have been signs counting the days until “the truth” (al-haqiqa) is learned about Hariri’s assassination (in other words, until Syria can be blamed). This “truth” seems to be the only one that matters in Lebanon right now.

When we finally reached Badawi camp to deliver the medicine we were learned that one refugee from Nahr al-Bared camp, who passed through a checkpoint earlier today, was told by a Lebanese soldier, “I hope that we can round up all the Palestinians, throw benzene on you, and light a fire.” This is a truth that Lebanon does not want told. These are the stories that must be told and they far outweigh and out number the story of one prominent, wealthy Lebanese leader’s international tribunal.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6989.shtml

 

===

 

Israeli agents ‘helped Entebbe hijackers’

An extraordinary claim that Israeli intelligence may have had a hand in an airline hijacking before sending in commandos to rescue the hostages at Entebbe was made to the Foreign Office.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17805.htm

===

 

Cementing Israeli Apartheid: The Role of World Bank

In Palestine, international powers are eager to implement plans to use the apartheid apparatus of the Israeli occupation-particularly the infrastructure created by the Apartheid Wall-for the establishment of industrial zones, guaranteeing economic dependency and exploitation of Palestinian communities on top of the occupation control.

http://leftturn.mayfirst.org/?q=node/190

 

===

 

Amnesty: Watchdog Needed for Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) – Amnesty International marked 40 years since the outbreak of the 1967 Middle East war with a call for Israel to dismantle West Bank settlements and roadblocks, for the Palestinians to end attacks on Israeli civilians and for the international community to monitor both sides.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6681546,00.html

 

===

 

Children playing with kite, man on bike killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued their military operations in the Gaza Strip for more than three weeks. On Friday, 1 June 2007, IOF killed two Palestinian children and wounded a third one in the northern Gaza Strip, and extrajudicially executed a member of the Islamic Jihad in the south. Since the beginning of this latest IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip, 55 Palestinians, including 23 civilians, have been killed and dozens of others, mostly civilians, have been wounded. PCHR is deeply concerned over the policy of retaliation practiced against Palestinian civilians, which threatens their lives, especially as IOF have continued to attack targets in civilian populated areas.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6993.shtml

 

===

 

Memories That Won’t Die–A First Hand Account to the Israeli Murder of 34 American Servicemen on the USS Liberty

‘When the first missile hit, I thought one of the main lines from the boiler had blown. The whole ship shook so hard it felt like an earthquake. About 15 seconds later when I smelled what seemed like burned gunpowder and heard the Captain order everyone to General Quarters on the ship, I knew it wasn’t no blown pipe, but that the ship was under attack. Everything that took place afterwards moved in slow motion’.

http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/memories-that-won%e2%80%99t-die-a-first-hand-account-to-the-israeli-murder-of-34-american-servicemen-on-the-uss-liberty/

 

===

 

Detainee Abuse Was Well Planned

Many of the controversial interrogation tactics used against terror suspects in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo were modeled on techniques the U.S. feared that the Communists themselves might use against captured American troops during the Cold War, according to a little-noticed, highly classified Pentagon report released several days ago. Originally developed as training for elite special forces at Fort Bragg under the “Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape” program, otherwise known as SERE, tactics such as sleep deprivation, isolation, sexual humiliation, nudity, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions were part of a carefully monitored survival training program for personnel at risk of capture by Soviet or Chinese forces, all carried out under the supervision of military psychologists.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0%2C8599%2C1627229%2C00.html

 

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW