29/04/2011
Occupied Jerusalem, (PIC)-- The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) has accused Thursday that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) of helping and protecting Israeli settlers desecrating the Aqsa Mosque.
According to sources in AFEH, a group of Israeli female soldiers were seen roaming the plazas of the Mosque under tight protection from tens of Israeli occupation soldiers Thursday.
AFEH added that a group of Israeli engineers carrying maps of the alleged Third temple were also seen strolling inside and searching certain parts of the Mosque, warning that the IOA exploits Jewish festivals to give legitimacy to such provocative desecration measures.
The organization further said that the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and in the 1948-occupied Palestinian land would protect the Mosque at all costs, describing the foundation's activities in the Mosque as the safeguard against those Israeli measures.
"The IOA is trying to create facts on the ground by bringing those settlers into the Aqsa Mosque during Jewish religious occasions in order to create an atmosphere of acceptance in the Palestinian community that those practices are normal," AFEH pointed out.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Fatah and Hamas Announce Outline of Deal
April 27, 2011
By ETHAN BRONNER and ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, announced Wednesday that they were putting aside years of bitter rivalry to create an interim unity government and hold elections within a year, a surprise move that promised to reshape the diplomatic landscape of the Middle East.
The deal, brokered in secret talks by the caretaker Egyptian government, was announced at a news conference in Cairo where the two negotiators referred to each side as brothers and declared a new chapter in the Palestinian struggle for independence, hobbled in recent years by the split between the Fatah-run West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza.
It was the first tangible sign that the upheaval across the Arab world, especially the Egyptian revolution, was having an impact on the Palestinians, who have been losing faith in American-sponsored peace negotiations with Israel and seem now to be turning more to fellow Arabs. But the years of bitterness will not be easily overcome, and both sides warned of potential obstacles ahead.
Israel, feeling increasingly surrounded by unfriendly forces, denounced the unity deal as dooming future peace talks since Hamas seeks its destruction. “The Palestinian Authority has to choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a televised statement. The Obama administration warned that Hamas was a terrorist organization unfit for peacemaking.
The deal brings with it the risk of alienating the Western support that the Palestinian Authority has enjoyed. Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah negotiator, said that Salam Fayyad, the prime minister in the West Bank who is despised by Hamas, would not be part of the interim government. It is partly because of Mr. Fayyad, and the trust he inspires in Washington, that hundreds of millions of dollars are provided annually to the Palestinian Authority by Congress. Without that aid, the Palestinian Authority would face great difficulties.
The announcement was sure to fuel a debate on whether Mr. Netanyahu had done enough in his two years in power to forge a deal with the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Mr. Fayyad, widely considered the most moderate leaders the Palestinians have ever had.
The deal also highlighted Egypt’s evolving foreign policy, its increasing regional influence and the challenges that posed for Israel. The new Egyptian government pursued Palestinian negotiations aggressively; has recognized the Muslim Brotherhood, which has deep ties to Hamas; and is reconsidering a natural gas deal with Israel.
Relations between Fatah, the mainstream secularist movement led by Mr. Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamic militant group, have deteriorated since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. They ruptured a year later when Hamas seized full control of Gaza, the coastal enclave, after a brief factional war, routing Fatah forces there and limiting the influence of Mr. Abbas and his Palestinian Authority to the West Bank.
A desire for unity has been one goal that ordinary Palestinians in both areas have consistently said they sought. Until now it has proved elusive and leaders of the two factions have spoken of each other in vicious terms and jailed each other’s activists.
But with the Palestinians seeking international recognition of statehood at the United Nations by September, Mr. Abbas has repeatedly said that unity must be restored for a credible case to be made. Other recent developments also played a role.
As Mr. Ahmad said after the news conference in Cairo: “The changes in the Arab region and the political upheaval contributed to reducing the pressure on the Palestinian factions, and by pressure I mean the negative kind of pressure.” He said that he was referring to “the changing rules of the game in the region.”
Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said that the Palestinian Authority’s failure to reach an agreement with Israel and the anger following an American veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement construction in February encouraged Fatah to come to an agreement with Hamas. The Islamic group, he said, was motivated to get closer to Fatah by regional changes, especially the protests in Syria, where Hamas’s politburo is based. If President Bashar al-Assad of Syria were to fall, Hamas might no longer be able to use Syria as a base or enjoy the protection, money and arms the country has extended.
“We have ended a painful period in the history of the Palestinian people where Palestinian division had prevailed,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, a representative of Hamas who negotiated the deal, said at the Cairo news conference. “We gave the occupation a great opportunity to expand the settlements because of this division. Today we turn this page and open a new page.”
When he spoke at the news conference, Mr. Ahmad of Fatah recalled the chants of young Palestinian demonstrators mimicking the Tunisian and Egyptian chants: “The people want to bring down the regime.”
“To all the Palestinian youth who went out saying, ‘The people want to end the division’ and ‘The people want to end the occupation,’ we say what you demanded was achieved today,” he said, adding that the period of division had taught both sides “a hard lesson in confronting the occupation.”
He said that Israeli officials had warned Mr. Abbas not to collaborate with Hamas but that “he did not heed the warning, and he responded, ‘Yes, we want Hamas.’ ”
The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority has negotiated for a two-state solution with Israel, whereas Hamas says Israel has no right to exist and continues to fire rockets at Israeli towns.
The Palestinian negotiators offered few details of the proposed transitional unity government, saying that it would be composed of neutral professionals and that the leaders of each side would work out details. All the Palestinian factions are to meet next week to sign the agreement.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader, told Al Jazeera Television from Cairo the sides had agreed to changes in the interim leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a tribunal for elections and a date for the elections. The P.L.O. excludes Hamas, which has long sought entry.
Hamas and Fatah will together nominate members of the technocratic government and a 12-judge election tribunal. He also said that an agreement was reached to set up an oversight committee to regulate security.
In November, officials from the two movements met in Damascus but failed to reach an agreement because of differences on security. It seemed likely that Fatah security forces, which work closely with the Israeli Army, would continue to rule in the West Bank, and that Hamas security would continue in Gaza with a tacit agreement not to arrest each other’s activists.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down soon after they started last September when an Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements expired. The international powers have been working to get the sides to resume negotiations, and Mr. Netanyahu has recently been considering making an offer to the Palestinian Authority to try to pre-empt a United Nations vote. He is due to address a joint session of Congress in a month.
But with this latest shift in Palestinian politics, Mr. Netanyahu may also shift tactics. “I think the very idea of the reconciliation shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, and leads one to wonder whether Hamas will take control over Judea and Samaria, as it did over Gaza,” he said in his statement, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu instructed the Israeli security establishment to take all necessary measures to ensure the enforcement of Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza amid reports of plans for another international flotilla. Mr. Netanyahu met with his senior ministers and security officials and said that diplomatic efforts should continue to prevent the flotilla from setting out.
Last May, Israeli naval commandos raided a flotilla trying to breach the blockade of Gaza and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists on a Turkish vessel after violence broke out. The episode stirred international outrage and caused a crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey.
Source: The New York Times
By ETHAN BRONNER and ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, announced Wednesday that they were putting aside years of bitter rivalry to create an interim unity government and hold elections within a year, a surprise move that promised to reshape the diplomatic landscape of the Middle East.
The deal, brokered in secret talks by the caretaker Egyptian government, was announced at a news conference in Cairo where the two negotiators referred to each side as brothers and declared a new chapter in the Palestinian struggle for independence, hobbled in recent years by the split between the Fatah-run West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza.
It was the first tangible sign that the upheaval across the Arab world, especially the Egyptian revolution, was having an impact on the Palestinians, who have been losing faith in American-sponsored peace negotiations with Israel and seem now to be turning more to fellow Arabs. But the years of bitterness will not be easily overcome, and both sides warned of potential obstacles ahead.
Israel, feeling increasingly surrounded by unfriendly forces, denounced the unity deal as dooming future peace talks since Hamas seeks its destruction. “The Palestinian Authority has to choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a televised statement. The Obama administration warned that Hamas was a terrorist organization unfit for peacemaking.
The deal brings with it the risk of alienating the Western support that the Palestinian Authority has enjoyed. Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah negotiator, said that Salam Fayyad, the prime minister in the West Bank who is despised by Hamas, would not be part of the interim government. It is partly because of Mr. Fayyad, and the trust he inspires in Washington, that hundreds of millions of dollars are provided annually to the Palestinian Authority by Congress. Without that aid, the Palestinian Authority would face great difficulties.
The announcement was sure to fuel a debate on whether Mr. Netanyahu had done enough in his two years in power to forge a deal with the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Mr. Fayyad, widely considered the most moderate leaders the Palestinians have ever had.
The deal also highlighted Egypt’s evolving foreign policy, its increasing regional influence and the challenges that posed for Israel. The new Egyptian government pursued Palestinian negotiations aggressively; has recognized the Muslim Brotherhood, which has deep ties to Hamas; and is reconsidering a natural gas deal with Israel.
Relations between Fatah, the mainstream secularist movement led by Mr. Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamic militant group, have deteriorated since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. They ruptured a year later when Hamas seized full control of Gaza, the coastal enclave, after a brief factional war, routing Fatah forces there and limiting the influence of Mr. Abbas and his Palestinian Authority to the West Bank.
A desire for unity has been one goal that ordinary Palestinians in both areas have consistently said they sought. Until now it has proved elusive and leaders of the two factions have spoken of each other in vicious terms and jailed each other’s activists.
But with the Palestinians seeking international recognition of statehood at the United Nations by September, Mr. Abbas has repeatedly said that unity must be restored for a credible case to be made. Other recent developments also played a role.
As Mr. Ahmad said after the news conference in Cairo: “The changes in the Arab region and the political upheaval contributed to reducing the pressure on the Palestinian factions, and by pressure I mean the negative kind of pressure.” He said that he was referring to “the changing rules of the game in the region.”
Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said that the Palestinian Authority’s failure to reach an agreement with Israel and the anger following an American veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement construction in February encouraged Fatah to come to an agreement with Hamas. The Islamic group, he said, was motivated to get closer to Fatah by regional changes, especially the protests in Syria, where Hamas’s politburo is based. If President Bashar al-Assad of Syria were to fall, Hamas might no longer be able to use Syria as a base or enjoy the protection, money and arms the country has extended.
“We have ended a painful period in the history of the Palestinian people where Palestinian division had prevailed,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, a representative of Hamas who negotiated the deal, said at the Cairo news conference. “We gave the occupation a great opportunity to expand the settlements because of this division. Today we turn this page and open a new page.”
When he spoke at the news conference, Mr. Ahmad of Fatah recalled the chants of young Palestinian demonstrators mimicking the Tunisian and Egyptian chants: “The people want to bring down the regime.”
“To all the Palestinian youth who went out saying, ‘The people want to end the division’ and ‘The people want to end the occupation,’ we say what you demanded was achieved today,” he said, adding that the period of division had taught both sides “a hard lesson in confronting the occupation.”
He said that Israeli officials had warned Mr. Abbas not to collaborate with Hamas but that “he did not heed the warning, and he responded, ‘Yes, we want Hamas.’ ”
The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority has negotiated for a two-state solution with Israel, whereas Hamas says Israel has no right to exist and continues to fire rockets at Israeli towns.
The Palestinian negotiators offered few details of the proposed transitional unity government, saying that it would be composed of neutral professionals and that the leaders of each side would work out details. All the Palestinian factions are to meet next week to sign the agreement.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader, told Al Jazeera Television from Cairo the sides had agreed to changes in the interim leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a tribunal for elections and a date for the elections. The P.L.O. excludes Hamas, which has long sought entry.
Hamas and Fatah will together nominate members of the technocratic government and a 12-judge election tribunal. He also said that an agreement was reached to set up an oversight committee to regulate security.
In November, officials from the two movements met in Damascus but failed to reach an agreement because of differences on security. It seemed likely that Fatah security forces, which work closely with the Israeli Army, would continue to rule in the West Bank, and that Hamas security would continue in Gaza with a tacit agreement not to arrest each other’s activists.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down soon after they started last September when an Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements expired. The international powers have been working to get the sides to resume negotiations, and Mr. Netanyahu has recently been considering making an offer to the Palestinian Authority to try to pre-empt a United Nations vote. He is due to address a joint session of Congress in a month.
But with this latest shift in Palestinian politics, Mr. Netanyahu may also shift tactics. “I think the very idea of the reconciliation shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, and leads one to wonder whether Hamas will take control over Judea and Samaria, as it did over Gaza,” he said in his statement, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu instructed the Israeli security establishment to take all necessary measures to ensure the enforcement of Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza amid reports of plans for another international flotilla. Mr. Netanyahu met with his senior ministers and security officials and said that diplomatic efforts should continue to prevent the flotilla from setting out.
Last May, Israeli naval commandos raided a flotilla trying to breach the blockade of Gaza and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists on a Turkish vessel after violence broke out. The episode stirred international outrage and caused a crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey.
Source: The New York Times
This Devastating Mistake Can Wreck Your Immune System...
April 29 2011
Posted By Dr. Mercola
Vaccines can contain live or killed lab altered microorganisms, and also carcinogens, heavy metals, and mutated proteins. Recent news can give you an indication of the unsuspected results that can occur when you inject such a cocktail into your body.
Results from a Swedish study found a roughly 400 percent increased risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents vaccinated with Pandemrix. The results are similar to those found in a Finnish study.
According to the Swedish Lakemedelsverket:
“An ongoing case inventory study ... is expected to give further support to the results ... and will hopefully contribute with new knowledge on the clinical course of the disease and possible risk factors. These results are expected to be available this summer.”
Sources:
Lakemedelsverket March 29, 2011
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
As you know, health authorities around the globe fiercely maintain that vaccines are safe, regardless of what's happening in the real world. Time and again, serious side effects from vaccines are overlooked and swept under the rug as being "coincidental."
But just how many coincidences does it take before a pattern emerges, and how long do you stare at the pattern before you acknowledge that it's there?
It's all very convenient to ascribe all vaccine reactions to sheer chance; brushing them aside with comments like, "they would have gotten ill anyway due to predisposition."
However, once you take the time to truly investigate the information we already have at our disposal, in the form of medical studies and disease statistics, it's quite clear that a pattern is staring us right in the face. In a nutshell, this pattern could be summarized by saying that vaccines generally reduce health and worsen health outcomes.
Patterns of Vaccine-Induced Disease
There are all sorts of research showing that vaccines can, and do, cause or contribute to disease—either the disease the vaccine is supposed to protect against, or other diseases. Here's are but a few examples that I've covered in previous articles:
* Vaccinating children against chickenpox can increase the risk of adult shingles. Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a painful blistering rash that is potentially dangerous in the elderly. According to researchers at Britain's Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), while vaccination might save thousands of lives over time, thousands of elderly people may also suffer the painful effects of shingles and even die prematurely from the complications of shingles.
Interestingly enough, instead of reconsidering the strategy of vaccinating against this typically harmless childhood disease, the pharmaceutical industry simply responded by creating a shingles vaccine for seniors. The vaccine, according to some studies, has been shown to prevent shingles about half the time.
* Of the children who contracted chickenpox in an outbreak in Maryland in 2001, 75 percent of the affected had been vaccinated against the disease.
* Similarly, last year the US experienced the largest outbreak of mumps since 2006. More than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York fell ill, yet 77 percent of those sickened were vaccinated against mumps.
* In 2007, it became clear that the use of the vaccine Prevnar, used against pneumonia, meningitis, and deadly bloodstream infections in young children, has unleashed a superbug that is resistant to all currently available drugs.
In the U.S. Prevnar is given to infants as four shots between the age of 2 months and 15 months. It covers seven of the 90-odd strains of the strep bacteria, and although diseases from the seven covered strains have declined, one strain called 19A has developed super resistance and is now spreading.
* Certain vaccines have also been linked to a rise in type 1 diabetes in a number of studies. One such study, published in 2003 to further investigate this connection concluded that clusters of cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) may be linked to six different vaccines: the haemophilus influenza B (HIB), pertussis, MMR, and BCG vaccine. The authors stated:
"The identification of clusters of cases of T1DM occurring in consistent temporal time periods allowed a link between the hemophilus vaccine and T1DM to be established. The current findings indicate the there are also clusters of cases of T1DM occurring 2-4 years post-immunization with the pertussis, MMR, and BCG vaccine. The data are consistent with the occurrence of clusters following mumps infection and the progression to T1DM in patients with antipancreatic autoantibodies."
* In the late 1960's, an experimental vaccine in development, the RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine killed two infants, and a staggering 80 percent of all children who received it were hospitalized with severe respiratory disease.
A report issued eight years later concluded that the reason for this abysmal failure was because the children's antibodies did not bind to the inactivated virus to produce a protective immune response, meaning their immune system could not recognize the infectious invader. Instead, the dead virus circulated throughout their bodies, triggering a massive immune system attack.
This last example is part and parcel of what many pro-vaccine-safety educators have been saying about other vaccines as well – that they can create serious health problems for those who are injected with lab altered micoorganisms that can wreak havoc on immune function. And, when several vaccines are administered together, or in close succession, their interaction may completely overwhelm your child's developing immune system.
Narcolepsy—A Now Confirmed Side Effect of the Latest Flu Vaccine
Last year, Sweden and Finland sounded the alarm as a disproportionate number of youths suddenly developed narcolepsy after being vaccinated with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. Other European countries, such as France, Germany and Norway, also reported cases of the rare sleeping disorder, causing the EU to launch an investigation.
In Sweden, the Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) began their inquiry in August 2010, the results of which are now published.
The verdict?
The Pandemrix vaccine against H1N1 influenza increases the risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents under the age of 20 by 400 percent.
For every 100,000 children/adolescents vaccinated, 4.06 of them ended up being diagnosed with narcolepsy, compared to the normal incidence, which is 0.97 cases per 100,000. That means that for every 100,000 children vaccinated, three are guaranteed to develop narcolepsy as a result of the vaccine.
Finland also conducted an investigation into the Pandemrix vaccine. There, the vaccine was found to increase the risk of narcolepsy by 900 percent in children and adolescents below the age of 19!
As a result of these findings the Swedish Medical products Agency (MPA) concluded that the vaccine should be withdrawn from use in children and adolescents.
The Pandemrix vaccine was not licensed for use in the US, and so far none of the flu vaccines licensed here have been linked to narcolepsy. However, it just goes to show how little anyone really knows about the interaction between vaccines and health, and how easily something can go awry.
Other Harmful Effects of 2010 Flu Vaccines Around the World
As you may recall, Australia also temporarily suspended its seasonal flu program for children under the age of five last year, after detecting an abnormal number of side effects within 12 hours of vaccination, compared to previous years. Side effects included high fevers and seizures.
A one-year-old child also went into a coma after receiving the flu vaccine. However, three months later, the Australian Department of Health resumed seasonal flu vaccinations for young children, stating that "the higher than usual occurrence of fever and febrile convulsions appears to be confined to the vaccine Fluvax," and advised parents to simply vaccinate their children with some other brand of flu vaccine.
In August of last year, the Korea Herald also reported that nearly 2,600 side effects had been reported to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in association with the swine flu vaccine. There, side effects included fevers, headaches and allergic responses, and 10 deaths.
In the US, the H1N1 flu vaccine has now been statistically linked with abnormally high rates of miscarriage and stillbirths.
Why Vaccinations Can Be so Dangerous
The presumed intent of a vaccination is to help you build immunity to potentially harmful organisms that cause illness and disease. However, your body's immune system is already designed to do this in response to organisms that invade your body naturally.
Most disease-causing organisms enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, mouth, pulmonary system or your digestive tract – NOT through an injection.
These mucous membranes have their own immune system, called the IgA immune system. It is a different system from the one activated when a vaccine is injected into your body. Your IgA immune system is your body's first line of defense. Its job is to fight off invading organisms at their entry points, reducing or even eliminating the need for activation of your body's immune system.
However, when a virus is injected into your body in a vaccine, and especially when combined with an immune adjuvant, your IgA immune system is bypassed and your body's immune system kicks into high gear in response to the vaccination. Adjuvants can trigger unwanted immune responses, as they can cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you're being vaccinated against.
Make no mistake about it, injecting organisms into your body to provoke immunity is contrary to nature, and vaccination carries enormous potential to do serious damage to your health.
The Problem with Artificial Immunity (Vaccination)
Since vaccines bypass your natural first-line defense (your lgA immune system), they are never 100 percent protective because they provide only temporary, typically inferior immunity compared to that your body would receive from naturally contracting and recovering from a disease.
In the case of many childhood diseases, such as mumps for instance, immunity is typically permanent when you contract and recover from it in childhood. According to Barbara Loe Fisher, president and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center:
"Vaccines are supposed to fool your body's immune system into producing antibodies to resist viral and bacterial infection in the same way that actually having the disease usually produces immunity to future infection.
But vaccines atypically introduce into the human body lab altered live viruses and killed bacteria along with chemicals, metals, drugs and other additives such as formaldehyde, aluminum, mercury, monosodium glutamate, sodium phosphate, phenoxyethanol, gelatin, sulfites, yeast protein, antibiotics as well as unknown amounts of RNA and DNA from animal and human cell tissue cultures.
Whereas natural recovery from many infectious diseases usually stimulates lifetime immunity, vaccines only provide temporary protection and most vaccines require "booster" doses to extend vaccine-induced artificial immunity.
The fact that manmade vaccines cannot replicate the body's natural experience with the disease is one of the key points of contention between those who insist that mankind cannot live without mass use of multiple vaccines and those who believe that mankind's biological integrity will be severely compromised by their continued use."
So, is it really better to protect children against all infectious diseases early in life through inferior temporary immunity from vaccines? Wouldn't it be better for the majority of healthy children to experience certain contagious infections in childhood, especially if they are usually mild like chicken pox, and allow them to get more robust, longer lasting immunity?
Another important question, from a vaccine policy standpoint, is whether or not vaccine complications ultimately cause more chronic illness and death than the infectious diseases do. Unfortunately, such investigations have not been done, but again, there is growing evidence that too much vaccination is leading to a deterioration in health in growing numbers of children and adults, who were otherwise healthy prior to receiving one or many different vaccines.
Would You Knowingly Inject Yourself with Toxins?
The main "active" ingredient in a vaccine is either killed bacteria or live viruses that have been attenuated (weakened). However, that's by no means the sole ingredient in vaccines. All vaccines also contain a variety of chemicals; some of which are more toxic than others.
Most seasonal flu vaccines, for example, contain 25 mcg of mercury dangerous levels of mercury in the form of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. Mercury is a known neurotoxin and thimerosal containing vaccines have been associated with long-term immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions. (Aluminum is another neurotoxin that is used in some vaccines as an adjuvant and has been associated with neurological problems such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia).
Just imagine the potential brain damage you're exposing yourself to if you get a seasonal flu vaccine every single year!
But thimerosal is not the only concern when it comes to flu vaccines. You also have the dangers of immune adjuvants like squalene or aluminum to contend with. (Aluminum adjuvants are used in approved U.S. influenza vaccines while other countries may allow squalene to be added as an adjuvant).
Other toxic substances found in various vaccines include:
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze) Triton X100 (detergent)
Formaldehyde – a known cancer causing agent Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Neomycin and streptomycin (antibiotics) Phenol (carbolic acid)
Aluminum -- a neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer's disease Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™) – which can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis
(To determine which vaccines contain which ingredients, see this CDC list.)
Personally, I don't think too many people would knowingly and voluntarily inject even one of these ingredients into their bodies. No, injecting detergent and antifreeze would seem ridiculous to most people, knowing how dangerous it can be swallow even a small amount of these caustic substances. And yet, every parent is asked, or even required by law, to repeatedly inject these and other toxic chemicals into their infants!
Make Educated Decisions
Before making a decision on vaccinating your children against anything, I strongly urge you review the side effects and risks involved. Making this effort could make a tremendous difference in the health of your child.
* Remember: Vaccines can cause serious health problems including brain inflammation and autoimmune disorders, allergies, ear infections, and more
* There's a very real association between vaccine complications and learning and behavioral disorders in children
* The components of vaccines have never been proven safe
* The ingredients and contaminants in vaccines can be detrimental to your health
There are far safer and more effective ways to protect your children and yourself against disease. For example, a Japanese study from last year showed that school children taking vitamin D3 supplements were 58 percent less likely to catch influenza A. That's a higher effectiveness than any flu vaccine can claim, and doesn't come with a barrage of potentially devastating side effects!
There are numerous studies like these, showing the superior effectiveness of natural strategies in the prevention of disease.
Overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system, which vaccines can compromise. So supporting your immune system should always be at the top of your list. Vitamin D is one crucial component for optimal health, so I urge you to get your children's vitamin D levels tested, and, if found deficient, to follow my recommendations for optimizing their levels.
Do this, and they'll be less likely to catch a cold or flu this year.
Remember, all of the information you need to boost your immune system and health is available, for free, on my Web site in a clear, concise format that is broken down for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. I encourage you to browse through this information today for tips on how to stay healthy, naturally.
Protect Your Health Freedom
I always like to remind everyone that we cannot take our freedom to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices in America for granted. There is an attack on non-medical vaccine exemptions in state public health laws that is being led by the pharmaceutical lobby to severely restrict or even eliminate the religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination.
If we don't stand up NOW for our right to make vaccine choices for our children, the day could come when we wake up and find out that we have no choices left.
I encourage you to get involved with the work that the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is doing to protect YOUR right to choose which vaccines you want your children to get, including the legal right to use all, some or no vaccines at all. Register for the free NVIC Advocacy Portal that educates you about how to communcicate effectively with your state legislators. Stay informed about what is happening in your state and make your voice heard.
Go to www.NVICAdvocacy.org and register today to take action.
Related Links:
If You Love Your Kids, Please Do Not Make This Mistake
What is In the Flu Vaccine that Can Cause Infertility?
Why We Need a Fearless Conversation about Vaccines
Posted By Dr. Mercola
Vaccines can contain live or killed lab altered microorganisms, and also carcinogens, heavy metals, and mutated proteins. Recent news can give you an indication of the unsuspected results that can occur when you inject such a cocktail into your body.
Results from a Swedish study found a roughly 400 percent increased risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents vaccinated with Pandemrix. The results are similar to those found in a Finnish study.
According to the Swedish Lakemedelsverket:
“An ongoing case inventory study ... is expected to give further support to the results ... and will hopefully contribute with new knowledge on the clinical course of the disease and possible risk factors. These results are expected to be available this summer.”
Sources:
Lakemedelsverket March 29, 2011
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
As you know, health authorities around the globe fiercely maintain that vaccines are safe, regardless of what's happening in the real world. Time and again, serious side effects from vaccines are overlooked and swept under the rug as being "coincidental."
But just how many coincidences does it take before a pattern emerges, and how long do you stare at the pattern before you acknowledge that it's there?
It's all very convenient to ascribe all vaccine reactions to sheer chance; brushing them aside with comments like, "they would have gotten ill anyway due to predisposition."
However, once you take the time to truly investigate the information we already have at our disposal, in the form of medical studies and disease statistics, it's quite clear that a pattern is staring us right in the face. In a nutshell, this pattern could be summarized by saying that vaccines generally reduce health and worsen health outcomes.
Patterns of Vaccine-Induced Disease
There are all sorts of research showing that vaccines can, and do, cause or contribute to disease—either the disease the vaccine is supposed to protect against, or other diseases. Here's are but a few examples that I've covered in previous articles:
* Vaccinating children against chickenpox can increase the risk of adult shingles. Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a painful blistering rash that is potentially dangerous in the elderly. According to researchers at Britain's Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), while vaccination might save thousands of lives over time, thousands of elderly people may also suffer the painful effects of shingles and even die prematurely from the complications of shingles.
Interestingly enough, instead of reconsidering the strategy of vaccinating against this typically harmless childhood disease, the pharmaceutical industry simply responded by creating a shingles vaccine for seniors. The vaccine, according to some studies, has been shown to prevent shingles about half the time.
* Of the children who contracted chickenpox in an outbreak in Maryland in 2001, 75 percent of the affected had been vaccinated against the disease.
* Similarly, last year the US experienced the largest outbreak of mumps since 2006. More than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York fell ill, yet 77 percent of those sickened were vaccinated against mumps.
* In 2007, it became clear that the use of the vaccine Prevnar, used against pneumonia, meningitis, and deadly bloodstream infections in young children, has unleashed a superbug that is resistant to all currently available drugs.
In the U.S. Prevnar is given to infants as four shots between the age of 2 months and 15 months. It covers seven of the 90-odd strains of the strep bacteria, and although diseases from the seven covered strains have declined, one strain called 19A has developed super resistance and is now spreading.
* Certain vaccines have also been linked to a rise in type 1 diabetes in a number of studies. One such study, published in 2003 to further investigate this connection concluded that clusters of cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) may be linked to six different vaccines: the haemophilus influenza B (HIB), pertussis, MMR, and BCG vaccine. The authors stated:
"The identification of clusters of cases of T1DM occurring in consistent temporal time periods allowed a link between the hemophilus vaccine and T1DM to be established. The current findings indicate the there are also clusters of cases of T1DM occurring 2-4 years post-immunization with the pertussis, MMR, and BCG vaccine. The data are consistent with the occurrence of clusters following mumps infection and the progression to T1DM in patients with antipancreatic autoantibodies."
* In the late 1960's, an experimental vaccine in development, the RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine killed two infants, and a staggering 80 percent of all children who received it were hospitalized with severe respiratory disease.
A report issued eight years later concluded that the reason for this abysmal failure was because the children's antibodies did not bind to the inactivated virus to produce a protective immune response, meaning their immune system could not recognize the infectious invader. Instead, the dead virus circulated throughout their bodies, triggering a massive immune system attack.
This last example is part and parcel of what many pro-vaccine-safety educators have been saying about other vaccines as well – that they can create serious health problems for those who are injected with lab altered micoorganisms that can wreak havoc on immune function. And, when several vaccines are administered together, or in close succession, their interaction may completely overwhelm your child's developing immune system.
Narcolepsy—A Now Confirmed Side Effect of the Latest Flu Vaccine
Last year, Sweden and Finland sounded the alarm as a disproportionate number of youths suddenly developed narcolepsy after being vaccinated with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. Other European countries, such as France, Germany and Norway, also reported cases of the rare sleeping disorder, causing the EU to launch an investigation.
In Sweden, the Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) began their inquiry in August 2010, the results of which are now published.
The verdict?
The Pandemrix vaccine against H1N1 influenza increases the risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents under the age of 20 by 400 percent.
For every 100,000 children/adolescents vaccinated, 4.06 of them ended up being diagnosed with narcolepsy, compared to the normal incidence, which is 0.97 cases per 100,000. That means that for every 100,000 children vaccinated, three are guaranteed to develop narcolepsy as a result of the vaccine.
Finland also conducted an investigation into the Pandemrix vaccine. There, the vaccine was found to increase the risk of narcolepsy by 900 percent in children and adolescents below the age of 19!
As a result of these findings the Swedish Medical products Agency (MPA) concluded that the vaccine should be withdrawn from use in children and adolescents.
The Pandemrix vaccine was not licensed for use in the US, and so far none of the flu vaccines licensed here have been linked to narcolepsy. However, it just goes to show how little anyone really knows about the interaction between vaccines and health, and how easily something can go awry.
Other Harmful Effects of 2010 Flu Vaccines Around the World
As you may recall, Australia also temporarily suspended its seasonal flu program for children under the age of five last year, after detecting an abnormal number of side effects within 12 hours of vaccination, compared to previous years. Side effects included high fevers and seizures.
A one-year-old child also went into a coma after receiving the flu vaccine. However, three months later, the Australian Department of Health resumed seasonal flu vaccinations for young children, stating that "the higher than usual occurrence of fever and febrile convulsions appears to be confined to the vaccine Fluvax," and advised parents to simply vaccinate their children with some other brand of flu vaccine.
In August of last year, the Korea Herald also reported that nearly 2,600 side effects had been reported to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in association with the swine flu vaccine. There, side effects included fevers, headaches and allergic responses, and 10 deaths.
In the US, the H1N1 flu vaccine has now been statistically linked with abnormally high rates of miscarriage and stillbirths.
Why Vaccinations Can Be so Dangerous
The presumed intent of a vaccination is to help you build immunity to potentially harmful organisms that cause illness and disease. However, your body's immune system is already designed to do this in response to organisms that invade your body naturally.
Most disease-causing organisms enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, mouth, pulmonary system or your digestive tract – NOT through an injection.
These mucous membranes have their own immune system, called the IgA immune system. It is a different system from the one activated when a vaccine is injected into your body. Your IgA immune system is your body's first line of defense. Its job is to fight off invading organisms at their entry points, reducing or even eliminating the need for activation of your body's immune system.
However, when a virus is injected into your body in a vaccine, and especially when combined with an immune adjuvant, your IgA immune system is bypassed and your body's immune system kicks into high gear in response to the vaccination. Adjuvants can trigger unwanted immune responses, as they can cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you're being vaccinated against.
Make no mistake about it, injecting organisms into your body to provoke immunity is contrary to nature, and vaccination carries enormous potential to do serious damage to your health.
The Problem with Artificial Immunity (Vaccination)
Since vaccines bypass your natural first-line defense (your lgA immune system), they are never 100 percent protective because they provide only temporary, typically inferior immunity compared to that your body would receive from naturally contracting and recovering from a disease.
In the case of many childhood diseases, such as mumps for instance, immunity is typically permanent when you contract and recover from it in childhood. According to Barbara Loe Fisher, president and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center:
"Vaccines are supposed to fool your body's immune system into producing antibodies to resist viral and bacterial infection in the same way that actually having the disease usually produces immunity to future infection.
But vaccines atypically introduce into the human body lab altered live viruses and killed bacteria along with chemicals, metals, drugs and other additives such as formaldehyde, aluminum, mercury, monosodium glutamate, sodium phosphate, phenoxyethanol, gelatin, sulfites, yeast protein, antibiotics as well as unknown amounts of RNA and DNA from animal and human cell tissue cultures.
Whereas natural recovery from many infectious diseases usually stimulates lifetime immunity, vaccines only provide temporary protection and most vaccines require "booster" doses to extend vaccine-induced artificial immunity.
The fact that manmade vaccines cannot replicate the body's natural experience with the disease is one of the key points of contention between those who insist that mankind cannot live without mass use of multiple vaccines and those who believe that mankind's biological integrity will be severely compromised by their continued use."
So, is it really better to protect children against all infectious diseases early in life through inferior temporary immunity from vaccines? Wouldn't it be better for the majority of healthy children to experience certain contagious infections in childhood, especially if they are usually mild like chicken pox, and allow them to get more robust, longer lasting immunity?
Another important question, from a vaccine policy standpoint, is whether or not vaccine complications ultimately cause more chronic illness and death than the infectious diseases do. Unfortunately, such investigations have not been done, but again, there is growing evidence that too much vaccination is leading to a deterioration in health in growing numbers of children and adults, who were otherwise healthy prior to receiving one or many different vaccines.
Would You Knowingly Inject Yourself with Toxins?
The main "active" ingredient in a vaccine is either killed bacteria or live viruses that have been attenuated (weakened). However, that's by no means the sole ingredient in vaccines. All vaccines also contain a variety of chemicals; some of which are more toxic than others.
Most seasonal flu vaccines, for example, contain 25 mcg of mercury dangerous levels of mercury in the form of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. Mercury is a known neurotoxin and thimerosal containing vaccines have been associated with long-term immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions. (Aluminum is another neurotoxin that is used in some vaccines as an adjuvant and has been associated with neurological problems such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia).
Just imagine the potential brain damage you're exposing yourself to if you get a seasonal flu vaccine every single year!
But thimerosal is not the only concern when it comes to flu vaccines. You also have the dangers of immune adjuvants like squalene or aluminum to contend with. (Aluminum adjuvants are used in approved U.S. influenza vaccines while other countries may allow squalene to be added as an adjuvant).
Other toxic substances found in various vaccines include:
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze) Triton X100 (detergent)
Formaldehyde – a known cancer causing agent Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Neomycin and streptomycin (antibiotics) Phenol (carbolic acid)
Aluminum -- a neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer's disease Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™) – which can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis
(To determine which vaccines contain which ingredients, see this CDC list.)
Personally, I don't think too many people would knowingly and voluntarily inject even one of these ingredients into their bodies. No, injecting detergent and antifreeze would seem ridiculous to most people, knowing how dangerous it can be swallow even a small amount of these caustic substances. And yet, every parent is asked, or even required by law, to repeatedly inject these and other toxic chemicals into their infants!
Make Educated Decisions
Before making a decision on vaccinating your children against anything, I strongly urge you review the side effects and risks involved. Making this effort could make a tremendous difference in the health of your child.
* Remember: Vaccines can cause serious health problems including brain inflammation and autoimmune disorders, allergies, ear infections, and more
* There's a very real association between vaccine complications and learning and behavioral disorders in children
* The components of vaccines have never been proven safe
* The ingredients and contaminants in vaccines can be detrimental to your health
There are far safer and more effective ways to protect your children and yourself against disease. For example, a Japanese study from last year showed that school children taking vitamin D3 supplements were 58 percent less likely to catch influenza A. That's a higher effectiveness than any flu vaccine can claim, and doesn't come with a barrage of potentially devastating side effects!
There are numerous studies like these, showing the superior effectiveness of natural strategies in the prevention of disease.
Overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system, which vaccines can compromise. So supporting your immune system should always be at the top of your list. Vitamin D is one crucial component for optimal health, so I urge you to get your children's vitamin D levels tested, and, if found deficient, to follow my recommendations for optimizing their levels.
Do this, and they'll be less likely to catch a cold or flu this year.
Remember, all of the information you need to boost your immune system and health is available, for free, on my Web site in a clear, concise format that is broken down for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. I encourage you to browse through this information today for tips on how to stay healthy, naturally.
Protect Your Health Freedom
I always like to remind everyone that we cannot take our freedom to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices in America for granted. There is an attack on non-medical vaccine exemptions in state public health laws that is being led by the pharmaceutical lobby to severely restrict or even eliminate the religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination.
If we don't stand up NOW for our right to make vaccine choices for our children, the day could come when we wake up and find out that we have no choices left.
I encourage you to get involved with the work that the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is doing to protect YOUR right to choose which vaccines you want your children to get, including the legal right to use all, some or no vaccines at all. Register for the free NVIC Advocacy Portal that educates you about how to communcicate effectively with your state legislators. Stay informed about what is happening in your state and make your voice heard.
Go to www.NVICAdvocacy.org and register today to take action.
Related Links:
If You Love Your Kids, Please Do Not Make This Mistake
What is In the Flu Vaccine that Can Cause Infertility?
Why We Need a Fearless Conversation about Vaccines
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Egypt wants Qur’an doctrine in law: Poll
April 26, 2011
Egyptian Coptic Christians and Muslims raise a cross and the Holy Qur’an in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during anti-government protests which began in January.
A majority of Egyptians believe laws in their country should be based on the teachings of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, a new opinion poll has revealed.
The survey conducted by US-based Pew Research Center reflects deep Islamic roots within the Egyptian community and a shift towards religious conservatism, the Associated Press reported.
The poll’s results, which came out on Monday, also indicate that most Egyptians prefer having religious parties included in any future government.
Some 54 percent of those surveyed also want an end to their country’s 32-year peace treaty with Tel Aviv that made Egypt the first Arab country to recognize Israel.
The poll also found that 79 percent of Egyptians have an unfavorable view of the United States and 64 percent say they have little or no confidence in US President Barrack Obama.
The recent findings come ahead of the September balloting — the first parliamentary elections since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February.
The poll surveyed 1,000 Egyptians countrywide between March 24 and April 7.
Egyptian Coptic Christians and Muslims raise a cross and the Holy Qur’an in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during anti-government protests which began in January.
A majority of Egyptians believe laws in their country should be based on the teachings of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, a new opinion poll has revealed.
The survey conducted by US-based Pew Research Center reflects deep Islamic roots within the Egyptian community and a shift towards religious conservatism, the Associated Press reported.
The poll’s results, which came out on Monday, also indicate that most Egyptians prefer having religious parties included in any future government.
Some 54 percent of those surveyed also want an end to their country’s 32-year peace treaty with Tel Aviv that made Egypt the first Arab country to recognize Israel.
The poll also found that 79 percent of Egyptians have an unfavorable view of the United States and 64 percent say they have little or no confidence in US President Barrack Obama.
The recent findings come ahead of the September balloting — the first parliamentary elections since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February.
The poll surveyed 1,000 Egyptians countrywide between March 24 and April 7.
Israeli Shin Bet electrocuted child prisoners to extract confessions
April 26, 2011
Abdul Hamid Abdul Latif Sa’id Abu Haniyeh was beaten up severely before being hit hard by a large jolt of electricity.
Following a visit yesterday to some young prisoners being held at the Megiddo Prison, lawyers for the Ministry of Detainees have stated that the young prisoners testified under oath that they had been interrogated and systematically electrocuted and tortured by Israeli intelligence officers in settlements near to Palestinian cities.
According to Salim Redouane who was arrested near Qalqilya on 08.05.2010, he was kept in a camp near Tzofin for 3 hours before being transferred to the settlement of Ariel where he was questioned by Shin Bet interrogators. His head was repeatedly hit against the prison room wall in an effort to get him to confess and he was beaten severely. The investigators threatened to burn his skin if he did not confess to the accusations against him.
Another detainee, Mohamed Ali Radwan, informed the lawyers that he was arrested at his home in Qalqilya Azzun on 3/8/2010 and one of the soldiers forced him to take off his shirt in order to use it as a blindfold. He was handcuffed and then taken somewhere near the village where he was told to hand in what was in his possession before he was hit in the back with a rifle butt and kicked repeatedly in the stomach and on the back. One of the soldiers then dragged him across the ground which resulted in deep wounds on his hands and he was taken to the Ariel settlement where he was questioned for several hours and was hit on the head, in the face and all over his the body.
According to the testimony of Yahya Ali Abdel-Hafez, born 03.07.1995 and a resident of the Qalqilya Governorate of Azzoun, he was arrested on 05.08.2010 near the city of Qalqilya and taken to a camp near Tzofin where he was kept for 3 hours before being transferred to the settlement of Ariel and interrogated. During the interrogation, he did not recognize some of the charges against him and so he was beaten in the face several times and repeatedly electrocuted. Under duress, Yahya eventually signed the statement to avoid further torture.
Lawyers also visited Abdul Hamid Abdul Latif Sa’id Abu Haniyeh who is currently in year 10 and was born on 12/11/1994. A resident of Azzun, he was arrested on 05.08.2010 near Qalqilya, where was also taken to the Ariel settlement and interrogated by Shin Bet interrogators. He was beaten up severely before being hit hard by a large jolt of electricity. A terrified Abdul Hamid who thought he would be imprisoned at the Megiddo prison along with his brothers, signed the statement he was given.
Lawyers for the Ministry of Prisoners also visited Ahmed Hussein Mustafa who was born on 10/01/1994 and is from Jalazoun, north of Ramallah. He was arrested from his home at three in the morning on 11.02.2010 and was beaten up inside his house before being taken to the Beit El settlement. Ahmed remained in the settlement until daybreak when he was transferred to Benjamin where he was fined 2000 NIS and sentenced to 20 months in detention. His two brothers were detained in the Negev prison
Abdul Hamid Abdul Latif Sa’id Abu Haniyeh was beaten up severely before being hit hard by a large jolt of electricity.
Following a visit yesterday to some young prisoners being held at the Megiddo Prison, lawyers for the Ministry of Detainees have stated that the young prisoners testified under oath that they had been interrogated and systematically electrocuted and tortured by Israeli intelligence officers in settlements near to Palestinian cities.
According to Salim Redouane who was arrested near Qalqilya on 08.05.2010, he was kept in a camp near Tzofin for 3 hours before being transferred to the settlement of Ariel where he was questioned by Shin Bet interrogators. His head was repeatedly hit against the prison room wall in an effort to get him to confess and he was beaten severely. The investigators threatened to burn his skin if he did not confess to the accusations against him.
Another detainee, Mohamed Ali Radwan, informed the lawyers that he was arrested at his home in Qalqilya Azzun on 3/8/2010 and one of the soldiers forced him to take off his shirt in order to use it as a blindfold. He was handcuffed and then taken somewhere near the village where he was told to hand in what was in his possession before he was hit in the back with a rifle butt and kicked repeatedly in the stomach and on the back. One of the soldiers then dragged him across the ground which resulted in deep wounds on his hands and he was taken to the Ariel settlement where he was questioned for several hours and was hit on the head, in the face and all over his the body.
According to the testimony of Yahya Ali Abdel-Hafez, born 03.07.1995 and a resident of the Qalqilya Governorate of Azzoun, he was arrested on 05.08.2010 near the city of Qalqilya and taken to a camp near Tzofin where he was kept for 3 hours before being transferred to the settlement of Ariel and interrogated. During the interrogation, he did not recognize some of the charges against him and so he was beaten in the face several times and repeatedly electrocuted. Under duress, Yahya eventually signed the statement to avoid further torture.
Lawyers also visited Abdul Hamid Abdul Latif Sa’id Abu Haniyeh who is currently in year 10 and was born on 12/11/1994. A resident of Azzun, he was arrested on 05.08.2010 near Qalqilya, where was also taken to the Ariel settlement and interrogated by Shin Bet interrogators. He was beaten up severely before being hit hard by a large jolt of electricity. A terrified Abdul Hamid who thought he would be imprisoned at the Megiddo prison along with his brothers, signed the statement he was given.
Lawyers for the Ministry of Prisoners also visited Ahmed Hussein Mustafa who was born on 10/01/1994 and is from Jalazoun, north of Ramallah. He was arrested from his home at three in the morning on 11.02.2010 and was beaten up inside his house before being taken to the Beit El settlement. Ahmed remained in the settlement until daybreak when he was transferred to Benjamin where he was fined 2000 NIS and sentenced to 20 months in detention. His two brothers were detained in the Negev prison
Israeli troops smash Palestinian property in Baten al-Hawa
Sunday, 24 April, 2011
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) -- Violent confrontations erupted in Baten al-Hawa district of Silwan last night, with Israeli forces smashing several vehicles belonging to Palestinian residents and firing tear gas, rubber bullets and sound bombs in the streets. Young Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails at the Israeli military-occupied roof of a Palestinian building in the center of the neighborhood. No injuries were reported, but extensive damage caused to resident’s property was recorded.
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) -- Violent confrontations erupted in Baten al-Hawa district of Silwan last night, with Israeli forces smashing several vehicles belonging to Palestinian residents and firing tear gas, rubber bullets and sound bombs in the streets. Young Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails at the Israeli military-occupied roof of a Palestinian building in the center of the neighborhood. No injuries were reported, but extensive damage caused to resident’s property was recorded.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Rattling the Cage: Tips for information warriors
03/02/201
By LARRY DERFNER
In these days of uncertainty, a volunteer army of steady, sure, confident voices in Israel’s defense is more critical than ever.
As you well know, Israel has never been in such peril as it is today. Anti-Semitism has risen to historic levels. Israel’s enemies are arming themselves with weapons that endanger not only its existence, but its very existence. And now, added to these grave existential threats comes the upheaval we’ve seen spreading throughout the Middle East. In these days of uncertainty, a volunteer army of steady, sure, confident voices in Israel’s defense is more critical than ever. Here is a set of talking points for you to use when fighting the information war for Israel’s survival. B’hatzlaha – good luck.
1. “Our hearts are with the protesters in the square, but...” This lets your audience know at the start that you, as a supporter of Israel, are in favor of democracy, even for Arabs. Then you get to the “but,” and after the “but,” you only mention the bad, terrible things that could happen.
For example: “But Islamic fundamentalists could take over, just like they did in Iran.” “But the new leaders could tear up the peace treaty with Israel.” “But they could support terrorists like al-Qaida.” “But they could destabilize the whole region and start World War III.”
You start off paying lip service to the good – democracy – but keep it brief and vague, and then when you get down to specifics, hit them with one doomsday scenario after another. By the time you’re through, your audience will be more scared of Arabs than ever.
2. “Stability.” This was the point to bring up during the Egyptian uprising – not that we were against democracy and in favor of tyranny, God forbid, but that we were for “stability,” i.e. Mubarak. Today, of course, it’s a little late for that argument. But while it’s become dicey to use the stability gambit against Arabs protesting against dictators, it can be adapted to shore up the case for Israel – and, indirectly, still make the case against the Arab protesters.
It goes like this: Instead of saying, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” which may not be the case for long and which sounds like you want to keep it that way, you say: “Israel is the only stable democracy in the Middle East.”
This reminds your audience of all the terrible things that could happen with these uprisings, and, again, leaves them more scared of Arabs than ever.
NOW THAT your listeners are in a black mood, now that they’re booing the Arabs again, it’s time to lift their spirits and get them cheering for Israel. Time to switch from negative to positive.
3. “Vibrant democracy.” This is the oldest of old chestnuts in the Israel advocate’s basket of goodies – that Israel is a “vibrant democracy.”
The funny thing is that it used to be true – the Right would fight it out with the Left, they went back and forth from the government to the opposition, there would be huge rallies by the settlers and huge rallies by the peaceniks. Today there’s no Left, there’s no fight, there are no huge rallies. Today the only debate is between the hard-liners who want to jail all the Arabs and leftists today and the moderates who counsel patience. The settlers keep building, the army keeps slugging away and barely a peep is heard in protest. But you can still sell people on Israel’s “vibrant democracy” – show them clips from the shouting matches in Knesset. Remember: It’s not the steak, it’s the sizzle.
4. “Israel is not perfect.” This is indispensable. It shows the audience that you’re not a propagandist, not a shill, not trying to sell them a bill of goods – and that criticism of Israel is welcome, so long, of course, as it’s fair. What is fair criticism of Israel? To say that Israel is not perfect – that’s fair. Israel makes mistakes – that’s fair. And if anybody asks you for an example of a mistake Israel has made, you can say, “Well, we thought the Palestinians wanted peace, but...”
Or, “Well, we thought the world would support us when we tried to make peace, but...”
In other words, Israel’s mistake, Israel’s imperfection, is that it’s too good. That’s criticism, and audiences will be impressed with your candor.
5. “Delegitimization.” A really cool word that you can use against anybody who says anything about Israel that you don’t like. Israel’s oppressing somebody? Delegitimization! Israel’s violating somebody’s rights? Delegitimization! It shuts people up. When you say they’re “delegitimizing” Israel, it’s like you’re saying they’re denying Israel’s right to exist, like they’re calling for the destruction of Israel, like they’re calling for the Jews of Israel to be wiped out! It puts people on the defensive beautifully. It’s like calling them anti-Semites without actually using the word, which was getting pretty stale, kind of embarrassing. Delegitimization sounds a lot more sophisticated, and it does the job more effectively.
6. “Denying Israel’s right to self-defense.” This can be used against anyone who questions the divine justice behind anything the IDF does. Anybody who suggested that maybe Israel should not have banned pasta, for example, from entering Gaza was denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Anybody who wonders whether the army should
take more precautions before shooting at Gazan fishermen, farmers and metal scavengers is denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Even Israeli combat soldiers who describe killing, brutalizing and humiliating Palestinian civilians are denying Israel’s right to self-defense.
Again, that’s like denying Israel’s right to life itself, which is a pretty serious charge. And an intimidating one. Use it liberally.
7. “Context” or “contextualization.” This is a fancy way of saying “the background to a story that makes Israel look good and/or the Arabs bad.” If, on the other hand, the background to the story makes Israel look bad and/or the Arabs good, then this is not “context” or “contextualization,” it’s “propaganda.” For instance, if Israel blockades Gaza’s coast and airspace and attacks it with jets, helicopters, tanks and snipers, and you point out that Gazans fire Kassams at Israel, that’s putting the story in context. But if Gazans fire Kassams at Israel and someone else points out that Israel blockades Gaza’s coast and airspace and attacks it with jets, helicopters, tanks and snipers, that’s propaganda.
8. “Lawfare.” Sounds like “warfare,” doesn’t it? That’s the point – to turn lawsuits against the occupation, whether in foreign courts or in Israel’s own courts, into the equivalent of war. In other words, the equivalent of killing people. In other words, the equivalent of terrorism.
Going to court against the occupation is terrorism.
But you don’t want to use the word “terrorism” for a lawsuit, just like you don’t want to use the word “anti-Semitism” for some CNN story. So you call the CNN story “delegitimization” and the lawsuit “lawfare.” You gotta be subtle.
9. “Incitement.” This is the one to bang away at when there’s no, or nearly no, Palestinian terror to speak of, like there hasn’t been for years. When there was terror, you could say, “When the Palestinians stop terror, they will be amazed at how generous we are.” But now we’re in a bit of bind because the Palestinians have basically stopped terror, and, well, what does that leave us to work with? It leaves us incitement! When a Palestinian preacher quotes something gruesome from the Koran, when a Palestinian newspaper accuses Israel of war crimes, when a Palestinian textbook accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing, that’s incitement, and they have stop it or there will never be peace.
All right, we’ve got our rabbis, and they’re saying all sorts of crazy things about killing gentiles and how Arabs are animals and God knows what, and we’ve got this foreign minister who says he wants to execute Arab Knesset members who meet with Hamas and bomb Egypt, and the polls say half of Israelis want the Arabs gone, period.
But that’s not incitement, that’s... that’s... Israel’s vibrant democracy! Yeah, say that. If that doesn’t work, then try, “Israel is not perfect.”
And if they still complain, accuse them of “delegitimization.”
Remember, Israel is at war, the information war. All is fair.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
By LARRY DERFNER
In these days of uncertainty, a volunteer army of steady, sure, confident voices in Israel’s defense is more critical than ever.
As you well know, Israel has never been in such peril as it is today. Anti-Semitism has risen to historic levels. Israel’s enemies are arming themselves with weapons that endanger not only its existence, but its very existence. And now, added to these grave existential threats comes the upheaval we’ve seen spreading throughout the Middle East. In these days of uncertainty, a volunteer army of steady, sure, confident voices in Israel’s defense is more critical than ever. Here is a set of talking points for you to use when fighting the information war for Israel’s survival. B’hatzlaha – good luck.
1. “Our hearts are with the protesters in the square, but...” This lets your audience know at the start that you, as a supporter of Israel, are in favor of democracy, even for Arabs. Then you get to the “but,” and after the “but,” you only mention the bad, terrible things that could happen.
For example: “But Islamic fundamentalists could take over, just like they did in Iran.” “But the new leaders could tear up the peace treaty with Israel.” “But they could support terrorists like al-Qaida.” “But they could destabilize the whole region and start World War III.”
You start off paying lip service to the good – democracy – but keep it brief and vague, and then when you get down to specifics, hit them with one doomsday scenario after another. By the time you’re through, your audience will be more scared of Arabs than ever.
2. “Stability.” This was the point to bring up during the Egyptian uprising – not that we were against democracy and in favor of tyranny, God forbid, but that we were for “stability,” i.e. Mubarak. Today, of course, it’s a little late for that argument. But while it’s become dicey to use the stability gambit against Arabs protesting against dictators, it can be adapted to shore up the case for Israel – and, indirectly, still make the case against the Arab protesters.
It goes like this: Instead of saying, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” which may not be the case for long and which sounds like you want to keep it that way, you say: “Israel is the only stable democracy in the Middle East.”
This reminds your audience of all the terrible things that could happen with these uprisings, and, again, leaves them more scared of Arabs than ever.
NOW THAT your listeners are in a black mood, now that they’re booing the Arabs again, it’s time to lift their spirits and get them cheering for Israel. Time to switch from negative to positive.
3. “Vibrant democracy.” This is the oldest of old chestnuts in the Israel advocate’s basket of goodies – that Israel is a “vibrant democracy.”
The funny thing is that it used to be true – the Right would fight it out with the Left, they went back and forth from the government to the opposition, there would be huge rallies by the settlers and huge rallies by the peaceniks. Today there’s no Left, there’s no fight, there are no huge rallies. Today the only debate is between the hard-liners who want to jail all the Arabs and leftists today and the moderates who counsel patience. The settlers keep building, the army keeps slugging away and barely a peep is heard in protest. But you can still sell people on Israel’s “vibrant democracy” – show them clips from the shouting matches in Knesset. Remember: It’s not the steak, it’s the sizzle.
4. “Israel is not perfect.” This is indispensable. It shows the audience that you’re not a propagandist, not a shill, not trying to sell them a bill of goods – and that criticism of Israel is welcome, so long, of course, as it’s fair. What is fair criticism of Israel? To say that Israel is not perfect – that’s fair. Israel makes mistakes – that’s fair. And if anybody asks you for an example of a mistake Israel has made, you can say, “Well, we thought the Palestinians wanted peace, but...”
Or, “Well, we thought the world would support us when we tried to make peace, but...”
In other words, Israel’s mistake, Israel’s imperfection, is that it’s too good. That’s criticism, and audiences will be impressed with your candor.
5. “Delegitimization.” A really cool word that you can use against anybody who says anything about Israel that you don’t like. Israel’s oppressing somebody? Delegitimization! Israel’s violating somebody’s rights? Delegitimization! It shuts people up. When you say they’re “delegitimizing” Israel, it’s like you’re saying they’re denying Israel’s right to exist, like they’re calling for the destruction of Israel, like they’re calling for the Jews of Israel to be wiped out! It puts people on the defensive beautifully. It’s like calling them anti-Semites without actually using the word, which was getting pretty stale, kind of embarrassing. Delegitimization sounds a lot more sophisticated, and it does the job more effectively.
6. “Denying Israel’s right to self-defense.” This can be used against anyone who questions the divine justice behind anything the IDF does. Anybody who suggested that maybe Israel should not have banned pasta, for example, from entering Gaza was denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Anybody who wonders whether the army should
take more precautions before shooting at Gazan fishermen, farmers and metal scavengers is denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Even Israeli combat soldiers who describe killing, brutalizing and humiliating Palestinian civilians are denying Israel’s right to self-defense.
Again, that’s like denying Israel’s right to life itself, which is a pretty serious charge. And an intimidating one. Use it liberally.
7. “Context” or “contextualization.” This is a fancy way of saying “the background to a story that makes Israel look good and/or the Arabs bad.” If, on the other hand, the background to the story makes Israel look bad and/or the Arabs good, then this is not “context” or “contextualization,” it’s “propaganda.” For instance, if Israel blockades Gaza’s coast and airspace and attacks it with jets, helicopters, tanks and snipers, and you point out that Gazans fire Kassams at Israel, that’s putting the story in context. But if Gazans fire Kassams at Israel and someone else points out that Israel blockades Gaza’s coast and airspace and attacks it with jets, helicopters, tanks and snipers, that’s propaganda.
8. “Lawfare.” Sounds like “warfare,” doesn’t it? That’s the point – to turn lawsuits against the occupation, whether in foreign courts or in Israel’s own courts, into the equivalent of war. In other words, the equivalent of killing people. In other words, the equivalent of terrorism.
Going to court against the occupation is terrorism.
But you don’t want to use the word “terrorism” for a lawsuit, just like you don’t want to use the word “anti-Semitism” for some CNN story. So you call the CNN story “delegitimization” and the lawsuit “lawfare.” You gotta be subtle.
9. “Incitement.” This is the one to bang away at when there’s no, or nearly no, Palestinian terror to speak of, like there hasn’t been for years. When there was terror, you could say, “When the Palestinians stop terror, they will be amazed at how generous we are.” But now we’re in a bit of bind because the Palestinians have basically stopped terror, and, well, what does that leave us to work with? It leaves us incitement! When a Palestinian preacher quotes something gruesome from the Koran, when a Palestinian newspaper accuses Israel of war crimes, when a Palestinian textbook accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing, that’s incitement, and they have stop it or there will never be peace.
All right, we’ve got our rabbis, and they’re saying all sorts of crazy things about killing gentiles and how Arabs are animals and God knows what, and we’ve got this foreign minister who says he wants to execute Arab Knesset members who meet with Hamas and bomb Egypt, and the polls say half of Israelis want the Arabs gone, period.
But that’s not incitement, that’s... that’s... Israel’s vibrant democracy! Yeah, say that. If that doesn’t work, then try, “Israel is not perfect.”
And if they still complain, accuse them of “delegitimization.”
Remember, Israel is at war, the information war. All is fair.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
March 24 members seek to clarify misconceptions
By Thameen Kheetan
AMMAN - Members of the March 24 Youth movement gathered at a public square in Amman on Thursday night to “talk to people” and clarify “misconceptions” that have prevailed about them among many Jordanians.
Dozens of the movement’s members, supporters and Amman residents assembled at the Square de Paris in Jabal Luweibdeh to convey the ideas of the group, which last week adopted the name March 24 Youth Coalition, as a number of youth movements joined in.
The movement was launched on March 24 during a 30-hour sit-in at Amman’s Interior Ministry Circle, which ended in violence when a rival group attacked the demonstrators with stones and security forces dispersed the protesters with batons and water canons.
The coalition’s main demands include constitutional amendments whereby the government is formed from the parliamentary majority, fighting corruption and an end to the influence of security agencies in the country’s public and political life.
The incident was followed by a wave of discriminatory remarks about Jordanians of Palestinian origin on Facebook and other local news websites, with critics of the group saying March 24 activists comprise Islamists who are against the regime and want to make Jordan an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians.
“Deception, dishonesty and lies have prevailed in the official and semi-official media after the incident,” said Firas Mahadin, a leader of March 24, noting that the idea behind Thursday’s event is “to communicate with the public and tell them who we are and what we think”.
“The main slogan that we agreed on was reforming the regime… this is not a compliment but our position,” Mahadin told The Jordan Times.
He stressed that the group comprises members from different parts of Jordan who aim to “topple the alternative homeland option” by encouraging political reforms in the Kingdom.
“Some think we are dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Some of our activists are indeed Islamists, but we have also leftists, nationalists and others,” Mahadin, a leftist filmmaker, told two women, who said they wanted to know more about the March 24 Youth Coalition.
One of them, Manal Milhem, said she was interested in the fact that the group is a “diverse garden of several ideologies… trying to do something for the country”.
“It’s a common factor between us that we want reforms… that we want the intelligence [force] to stop its intervention,” Milhem told The Jordan Times.
While musician Ihab Abu Hammad played the oud as a group of participants sang, others continued their discussions.
“I heard that something was happening here at the square and came to see,” noted Suzan Bakri, a mother of three who lives in the neighbourhood.
“One can feel that these young people have principles that they are sticking to,” she remarked.
22 April 2011
AMMAN - Members of the March 24 Youth movement gathered at a public square in Amman on Thursday night to “talk to people” and clarify “misconceptions” that have prevailed about them among many Jordanians.
Dozens of the movement’s members, supporters and Amman residents assembled at the Square de Paris in Jabal Luweibdeh to convey the ideas of the group, which last week adopted the name March 24 Youth Coalition, as a number of youth movements joined in.
The movement was launched on March 24 during a 30-hour sit-in at Amman’s Interior Ministry Circle, which ended in violence when a rival group attacked the demonstrators with stones and security forces dispersed the protesters with batons and water canons.
The coalition’s main demands include constitutional amendments whereby the government is formed from the parliamentary majority, fighting corruption and an end to the influence of security agencies in the country’s public and political life.
The incident was followed by a wave of discriminatory remarks about Jordanians of Palestinian origin on Facebook and other local news websites, with critics of the group saying March 24 activists comprise Islamists who are against the regime and want to make Jordan an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians.
“Deception, dishonesty and lies have prevailed in the official and semi-official media after the incident,” said Firas Mahadin, a leader of March 24, noting that the idea behind Thursday’s event is “to communicate with the public and tell them who we are and what we think”.
“The main slogan that we agreed on was reforming the regime… this is not a compliment but our position,” Mahadin told The Jordan Times.
He stressed that the group comprises members from different parts of Jordan who aim to “topple the alternative homeland option” by encouraging political reforms in the Kingdom.
“Some think we are dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Some of our activists are indeed Islamists, but we have also leftists, nationalists and others,” Mahadin, a leftist filmmaker, told two women, who said they wanted to know more about the March 24 Youth Coalition.
One of them, Manal Milhem, said she was interested in the fact that the group is a “diverse garden of several ideologies… trying to do something for the country”.
“It’s a common factor between us that we want reforms… that we want the intelligence [force] to stop its intervention,” Milhem told The Jordan Times.
While musician Ihab Abu Hammad played the oud as a group of participants sang, others continued their discussions.
“I heard that something was happening here at the square and came to see,” noted Suzan Bakri, a mother of three who lives in the neighbourhood.
“One can feel that these young people have principles that they are sticking to,” she remarked.
22 April 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
US oilman accused of bribing Jordan official to win contract
4/20/2011
By Penn Bullock
Special to msnbc.com
A member of Jordan’s royal family is accusing an American oilman and former GOP fundraiser of bribing the Jordanian government to facilitate his fuel shipments through the country to U.S. forces in Iraq.
The allegation emerged in a civil lawsuit pitting the billionaire American businessman, Harry Sargeant III, against an ex-business partner, Mohammad al-Saleh, the brother-in-law of Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Al-Saleh, the plaintiff in the case first reported by NBC News in May 2008, claims that he was cut out of a lucrative one-third share in Sargeant’s firm, the International Oil Trading Co., based in Boca Raton, Fla., and replaced by an ex-CIA official with deep contacts in the Jordanian government.
The crux of the bribery allegation involves a $9 million wire transfer from Sargeant’s firm, directed to a mysterious figure in Jordan’s intelligence agency identified in court documents only as “Pasha.”
Sargeant’s lawyers acknowledge that “Pasha” was “possibly” Gen. Mohammad Dahabi, then head of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Jordan’s intelligence agency. A source inside the Jordanian government confirmed that.
Kickback or legitimate payment?
Al-Saleh’s lawyers argue in court documents that the money was a kickback to curry favor with the GID and secure Sargeant’s continued use of Jordanian thoroughfares to ship fuel to U.S. bases in western Iraq.
Sargeant’s lawyers insist the $9 million was payment to a “quasi-government” Jordanian company that was a subcontractor for Sargeant’s firm and deny any wrongdoing by their client.
Sargeant, a retired Marine pilot and former official of the Florida state GOP, was once among the Pentagon’s closest business partners, winning billions of dollars in fuel contracts in the Iraq war. But fallout from the contracts has eroded Sargeant’s reputation.
A congressional probe led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., concluded in October 2008 that Sargeant had exploited his close ties with the Jordanian monarchy to win an exclusive license — a so-called letter of authorization that permitted his company to ship the fuel through Jordan to Iraq, as the contracts required.
Sargeant used his “effective monopoly” over the supply routes to grossly overcharge the Pentagon, Waxman wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Waxman called it “the worst form of war profiteering.”
Shortly after the probe, Sargeant resigned as the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party.
Last month, a Pentagon audit requested by Waxman found that Sargeant was overpaid by as much as $204 million for the fuel contracts, which were worth nearly $2.7 billion over six years. The Defense Department accepted Sargeant’s inflated prices because no other competitor could get the letter of authorization from the Jordanian government, the audit said.
Ex-CIA agent hired
Now Al-Saleh’s lawsuit is dredging up new information about Sargeant’s dealings with the Jordanian government.
Among other things, court records indicate that Sargeant hired Marty Martin, a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, to help manage his oil firm in 2007. Martin — identified in court documents as a former Middle East CIA station chief — leveraged his contacts in the Arab world to cement Sargeant’s relationship with the Jordanian government, even as the king’s brother-in-law was being forced out of the oil company and defrauded, al-Saleh’s lawyers contend.
The money transfer at the core of the bribery allegation is revealed in a November 2007 email from Martin to a representative of the Jordanian intelligence service. In it, Martin wrote that $4.5 million had been “transferred to the designated account for the Pasha’s attention.”
Three days later, Martin wrote again to confirm that a “second tranche of $4.5 million should also hit your account today.” He added, “Please advise Pasha.”
A high-placed source inside the Jordanian government confirmed that the “Pasha” alluded to in the emails was Dahabi, then head of the GID. The source, who requested anonymity, said the payments were “being made to the GID,” and added, “A simple trace on the wires will easily reveal who the beneficiaries were and the bank account details.”
The GID is the Jordanian counterpart to the CIA, and the two agencies have reportedly cooperated in the secret rendition of terrorist suspects. In a report this year, Human Rights Watch portrayed the GID as a vast shadow force in Jordan, harassing dissidents and “influenc(ing) decisions in most aspects of Jordanian public life.”
Violation of anti-bribery law alleged
Al-Saleh’s lawyers allege in court documents that Martin’s payments to the GID may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
But Sargeant’s lawyers, Mark Tuohey and Roger Kobert, said the wires were destined for Taurus Trading Co., a Jordanian firm that provided ground services for Sargeant as a subcontractor. The lawyers characterized Taurus Trading Co. as a “quasi-government entity” and said the Jordanian government was a paid third party in Sargeant’s defense work. Taurus Trading Co. did not respond to emails requesting comment, nor did the Jordanian Embassy in Washington.
Asked why the director of the GID would be involved in the wire transfers, Kobert responded, “You’d have to ask him.”
Dahabi, who was the GID’s director in 2007, did not answer calls to his cellphone.
Martin did not reply to emails or phone calls seeking comment.
Sargeant’s lawyers accuse al-Saleh’s side of taking the wire transfers out of context. “They try to make something very mundane and boring sound sexy,” said Kobert. “It’s not sexy.”
Al-Saleh’s lawyers have cited another email that they argue shows Martin plotting to cut al-Saleh out of his one-third stake in the oil firm.
On Sept. 11, 2007, Martin told the Jordanian intelligence representative: “Please be aware that we have not yet officially advised Mr. Mohammad Al-Sal(e)h that effective 1 July our commercial relationship with him will be completely terminated to be replaced by direct interaction and cooperation with GID and H(is) M(ajesty)’s offices … Our team or myself are prepared to travel to Jordan for direct discussions on short notice and fully at Pasha’s and H(is) M(ajesty’s) convenience.”
Al-Saleh’s lawyer, Barry Ostrager, said the case is scheduled to go to trial in June.
“I am quite confident the full truth relating to my client’s claims will out,” he said, declining further comment on specifics of the case.
Private fleet, powerful connections
Sargeant, who acquired one of the world’s largest privately owned fleets of asphalt tankers and barges, has cultivated connections with powerful politicians, including former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and ex-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was his college fraternity brother at Florida State University.
Sargeant has also been accused of skirting campaign contribution regulations. In August 2008, McCain returned $50,000 that Sargeant had raised for his presidential campaign after the Washington Post alleged that some of the money had been channeled through so-called “straw donors.” According to the Post, a former head of the CIA unit formed to hunt down al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden helped raise the money, but the paper did not identify him by name.
Despite such allegations, Sargeant’s company has continued to do business with the U.S. government. Three days after the Defense Department launched its audit of the oilman in 2009, it again contracted with his firm to supply fuel to U.S. forces in Iraq, a deal that netted International Oil Trading Co. $123 million.
And Warisbusiness.com, a website that tracks Pentagon spending, reported last month that another of Sargeant’s companies, Palm Beach Aviation, won three contracts with the U.S. Special Operations Command in 2009 and 2010, including one to provide “passenger air charter service” for the 4th Psychological Operations Group, the U.S. military’s propaganda unit.
In addition to the lawsuit, Sargeant could face scrutiny from criminal prosecutors.
In a statement about the Jordanian bribery allegations, Waxman urged the Justice Department to “investigate whether any criminal charges are warranted.”
By Penn Bullock
Special to msnbc.com
A member of Jordan’s royal family is accusing an American oilman and former GOP fundraiser of bribing the Jordanian government to facilitate his fuel shipments through the country to U.S. forces in Iraq.
The allegation emerged in a civil lawsuit pitting the billionaire American businessman, Harry Sargeant III, against an ex-business partner, Mohammad al-Saleh, the brother-in-law of Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Al-Saleh, the plaintiff in the case first reported by NBC News in May 2008, claims that he was cut out of a lucrative one-third share in Sargeant’s firm, the International Oil Trading Co., based in Boca Raton, Fla., and replaced by an ex-CIA official with deep contacts in the Jordanian government.
The crux of the bribery allegation involves a $9 million wire transfer from Sargeant’s firm, directed to a mysterious figure in Jordan’s intelligence agency identified in court documents only as “Pasha.”
Sargeant’s lawyers acknowledge that “Pasha” was “possibly” Gen. Mohammad Dahabi, then head of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Jordan’s intelligence agency. A source inside the Jordanian government confirmed that.
Kickback or legitimate payment?
Al-Saleh’s lawyers argue in court documents that the money was a kickback to curry favor with the GID and secure Sargeant’s continued use of Jordanian thoroughfares to ship fuel to U.S. bases in western Iraq.
Sargeant’s lawyers insist the $9 million was payment to a “quasi-government” Jordanian company that was a subcontractor for Sargeant’s firm and deny any wrongdoing by their client.
Sargeant, a retired Marine pilot and former official of the Florida state GOP, was once among the Pentagon’s closest business partners, winning billions of dollars in fuel contracts in the Iraq war. But fallout from the contracts has eroded Sargeant’s reputation.
A congressional probe led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., concluded in October 2008 that Sargeant had exploited his close ties with the Jordanian monarchy to win an exclusive license — a so-called letter of authorization that permitted his company to ship the fuel through Jordan to Iraq, as the contracts required.
Sargeant used his “effective monopoly” over the supply routes to grossly overcharge the Pentagon, Waxman wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Waxman called it “the worst form of war profiteering.”
Shortly after the probe, Sargeant resigned as the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party.
Last month, a Pentagon audit requested by Waxman found that Sargeant was overpaid by as much as $204 million for the fuel contracts, which were worth nearly $2.7 billion over six years. The Defense Department accepted Sargeant’s inflated prices because no other competitor could get the letter of authorization from the Jordanian government, the audit said.
Ex-CIA agent hired
Now Al-Saleh’s lawsuit is dredging up new information about Sargeant’s dealings with the Jordanian government.
Among other things, court records indicate that Sargeant hired Marty Martin, a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, to help manage his oil firm in 2007. Martin — identified in court documents as a former Middle East CIA station chief — leveraged his contacts in the Arab world to cement Sargeant’s relationship with the Jordanian government, even as the king’s brother-in-law was being forced out of the oil company and defrauded, al-Saleh’s lawyers contend.
The money transfer at the core of the bribery allegation is revealed in a November 2007 email from Martin to a representative of the Jordanian intelligence service. In it, Martin wrote that $4.5 million had been “transferred to the designated account for the Pasha’s attention.”
Three days later, Martin wrote again to confirm that a “second tranche of $4.5 million should also hit your account today.” He added, “Please advise Pasha.”
A high-placed source inside the Jordanian government confirmed that the “Pasha” alluded to in the emails was Dahabi, then head of the GID. The source, who requested anonymity, said the payments were “being made to the GID,” and added, “A simple trace on the wires will easily reveal who the beneficiaries were and the bank account details.”
The GID is the Jordanian counterpart to the CIA, and the two agencies have reportedly cooperated in the secret rendition of terrorist suspects. In a report this year, Human Rights Watch portrayed the GID as a vast shadow force in Jordan, harassing dissidents and “influenc(ing) decisions in most aspects of Jordanian public life.”
Violation of anti-bribery law alleged
Al-Saleh’s lawyers allege in court documents that Martin’s payments to the GID may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
But Sargeant’s lawyers, Mark Tuohey and Roger Kobert, said the wires were destined for Taurus Trading Co., a Jordanian firm that provided ground services for Sargeant as a subcontractor. The lawyers characterized Taurus Trading Co. as a “quasi-government entity” and said the Jordanian government was a paid third party in Sargeant’s defense work. Taurus Trading Co. did not respond to emails requesting comment, nor did the Jordanian Embassy in Washington.
Asked why the director of the GID would be involved in the wire transfers, Kobert responded, “You’d have to ask him.”
Dahabi, who was the GID’s director in 2007, did not answer calls to his cellphone.
Martin did not reply to emails or phone calls seeking comment.
Sargeant’s lawyers accuse al-Saleh’s side of taking the wire transfers out of context. “They try to make something very mundane and boring sound sexy,” said Kobert. “It’s not sexy.”
Al-Saleh’s lawyers have cited another email that they argue shows Martin plotting to cut al-Saleh out of his one-third stake in the oil firm.
On Sept. 11, 2007, Martin told the Jordanian intelligence representative: “Please be aware that we have not yet officially advised Mr. Mohammad Al-Sal(e)h that effective 1 July our commercial relationship with him will be completely terminated to be replaced by direct interaction and cooperation with GID and H(is) M(ajesty)’s offices … Our team or myself are prepared to travel to Jordan for direct discussions on short notice and fully at Pasha’s and H(is) M(ajesty’s) convenience.”
Al-Saleh’s lawyer, Barry Ostrager, said the case is scheduled to go to trial in June.
“I am quite confident the full truth relating to my client’s claims will out,” he said, declining further comment on specifics of the case.
Private fleet, powerful connections
Sargeant, who acquired one of the world’s largest privately owned fleets of asphalt tankers and barges, has cultivated connections with powerful politicians, including former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and ex-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was his college fraternity brother at Florida State University.
Sargeant has also been accused of skirting campaign contribution regulations. In August 2008, McCain returned $50,000 that Sargeant had raised for his presidential campaign after the Washington Post alleged that some of the money had been channeled through so-called “straw donors.” According to the Post, a former head of the CIA unit formed to hunt down al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden helped raise the money, but the paper did not identify him by name.
Despite such allegations, Sargeant’s company has continued to do business with the U.S. government. Three days after the Defense Department launched its audit of the oilman in 2009, it again contracted with his firm to supply fuel to U.S. forces in Iraq, a deal that netted International Oil Trading Co. $123 million.
And Warisbusiness.com, a website that tracks Pentagon spending, reported last month that another of Sargeant’s companies, Palm Beach Aviation, won three contracts with the U.S. Special Operations Command in 2009 and 2010, including one to provide “passenger air charter service” for the 4th Psychological Operations Group, the U.S. military’s propaganda unit.
In addition to the lawsuit, Sargeant could face scrutiny from criminal prosecutors.
In a statement about the Jordanian bribery allegations, Waxman urged the Justice Department to “investigate whether any criminal charges are warranted.”
In Turkey, surveyors map a WWI battlefield
Sat Apr 23
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press
ISTANBUL – The World War I battlefield of the Gallipoli campaign, where throngs gather each April to remember the fallen, is a place of lore, an echo of ancient warfare that took place on the same soil. Now researchers are mapping dugouts, trenches and tunnels in the most extensive archaeological survey of a site whose slaughter helped forge the identity of young nations.
Armed with old maps and GPS technology, the experts from Turkey, Australia and New Zealand have so far discovered rusted food cans, unused bullets and their shell casings, and fragments of shrapnel, Ottoman-era bricks with Greek lettering, ceramic rum flagons of Allied soldiers and glass shards of beer bottles on the Turkish side. They announced early findings ahead of annual commemorations on the rugged peninsula on Sunday and Monday.
The chief aim is to gain a detailed layout of a battlefield whose desperate trench warfare, with enemy lines just a few dozen meters (yards) apart in some places, has been recounted in films, books and ballads, acquiring a legendary aura in the culture of its combatants.
"It will hasten a broader understanding of what went on at Gallipoli," Richard Reid, a researcher and author of the book "Gallipoli 1915" said of the government-funded investigation. "It will help us as nations that are always interested in trying to preserve what heritage we have."
There is heightened interest in the battle, especially among Turks who are showing more pride in their past, buoyed by economic and diplomatic advances after decades of internal strife. Australia and New Zealand mark the occasion with a national holiday on Monday, holding dawn services and closing off downtown areas for marches of veterans of all conflicts.
Before dawn on April 25, 1915, an Allied expedition under British command landed at Gallipoli on the Aegean Sea in a bid to reach Istanbul and open a sea route to Russia, an ally whose troops were wilting on the eastern front. But Ottoman armies, allied with Germany, dug in and forced their adversaries to withdraw after a nine-month campaign.
About 44,000 Allied soldiers died, and at least twice as many perished on the Turkish side. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded or suffered debilitating fever, diarrhea and dysentery.
For Turkey, the terrible losses are central to the staunch nationalism that underpins its regional ambitions today, and the battle made a hero out of an Ottoman army officer who led Turkey to independence in 1923. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk imposed a secular vision that gave the state authority over Islam, a legacy that dominates the divisive politics of modern Turkey.
"I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die," the steely commander is said to have told a regiment that was eventually wiped out. "In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can take our place."
During the battle one night, local lore says, the light of a star and the crescent moon shone on the blood-soaked ground, forming the design of what became Turkey's red and white national flag.
In recent years, some of Turkey's founding "myths" have been undercut, among them the idea of a tight-knit Turkish identity that ignored the existence of ethnic Kurds and other minorities, said Kerem Oktem, author of "Angry Nation: Turkey since 1989," a book about the country's erratic transition from military to democratic rule.
"Gallipoli remains "one of the important, overarching, big, symbolic moments," he said.
For that reason, Oktem said, neither the current Islam-based government nor secular nationalists who oppose it want to "devalue or challenge" the idea that Gallipoli was a glorious victory, despite debate about its military significance.
Australia and New Zealand regard Gallipoli with equal reverence, noting the bravery and loyalty of soldiers whose British commanders considered troops from the former colonies to be untested and of poorer quality. It forged a self-image of determination, irreverence and "mateship" that is referred to as the Anzac spirit, after the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
The fighting happened near the mouth of the Dardanelles strait, part of a conduit between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The Turkish military occupied the strategic site until 1973, when it became a national park. Memorials and cemeteries at the site discouraged thoughts of potentially disruptive fieldwork.
The new study does not involve excavation, instead using satellite-based technology to map battle positions over gullies, dense vegetation and limestone cliffs.
"Forestation had changed the natural geography of the battlefield, even of trenches and pits," said Mithat Atabay, a history professor at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University and one of five Turks on the 14-member team. In 1994, he said, "a huge part of the forest burnt down, and the zone suffered further damage."
In October, the researchers mapped four kilometers (2.5 miles) of trenches, many of them barely visible, at locations including Johnston's Jolly and Quinn's Post, names bestowed by Allied troops. They inspected Turkish positions known as Kirmizi Sirt, or Red Ridge.
"The war on the surface was only one element of the struggle," the team said in a report. "A constant underground battle developed; tunneling became a major preoccupation on both sides of the line, for both offensive and defensive reasons."
Mapping data is entered in a digital database that can be compared with information from other sources, including maps used in the 1915 landings and Ottoman-era documents. Fieldwork resumes in September, and is expected to continue, with the help of ground-penetrating radar and aerial photographs, until the campaign centenary in 2015.
Charles Bean, an Australian journalist who covered the conflict and surveyed the battlefield just after the war, wrote about the grudging respect that was said to have developed between the underdog enemies. In an early 1916 dispatch, he recalled a memorial built by an Australian.
It was, he wrote, "a little wooden cross found in the scrub, just two splinters of biscuit box tacked together, with the inscription 'Here lies a Turk.' The poor soul would probably turn in his grave if his ghost could see that rough cross above him. But he need not worry. It was put there in all sincerity."
The remains of the ancient city of Troy lie near the Gallipoli peninsula. Alexander the Great led an army through the region. So did Persian emperor Xerxes I. The Greek historian Herodotus referred to the place in his chronicles.
"The Allies were really the last, I suppose, military expedition to try to take this particular strip of land," said Chris Mackie, a classics professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and one of the Gallipoli surveyors. "But there were plenty before them."
Source: Associated Press
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press
ISTANBUL – The World War I battlefield of the Gallipoli campaign, where throngs gather each April to remember the fallen, is a place of lore, an echo of ancient warfare that took place on the same soil. Now researchers are mapping dugouts, trenches and tunnels in the most extensive archaeological survey of a site whose slaughter helped forge the identity of young nations.
Armed with old maps and GPS technology, the experts from Turkey, Australia and New Zealand have so far discovered rusted food cans, unused bullets and their shell casings, and fragments of shrapnel, Ottoman-era bricks with Greek lettering, ceramic rum flagons of Allied soldiers and glass shards of beer bottles on the Turkish side. They announced early findings ahead of annual commemorations on the rugged peninsula on Sunday and Monday.
The chief aim is to gain a detailed layout of a battlefield whose desperate trench warfare, with enemy lines just a few dozen meters (yards) apart in some places, has been recounted in films, books and ballads, acquiring a legendary aura in the culture of its combatants.
"It will hasten a broader understanding of what went on at Gallipoli," Richard Reid, a researcher and author of the book "Gallipoli 1915" said of the government-funded investigation. "It will help us as nations that are always interested in trying to preserve what heritage we have."
There is heightened interest in the battle, especially among Turks who are showing more pride in their past, buoyed by economic and diplomatic advances after decades of internal strife. Australia and New Zealand mark the occasion with a national holiday on Monday, holding dawn services and closing off downtown areas for marches of veterans of all conflicts.
Before dawn on April 25, 1915, an Allied expedition under British command landed at Gallipoli on the Aegean Sea in a bid to reach Istanbul and open a sea route to Russia, an ally whose troops were wilting on the eastern front. But Ottoman armies, allied with Germany, dug in and forced their adversaries to withdraw after a nine-month campaign.
About 44,000 Allied soldiers died, and at least twice as many perished on the Turkish side. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded or suffered debilitating fever, diarrhea and dysentery.
For Turkey, the terrible losses are central to the staunch nationalism that underpins its regional ambitions today, and the battle made a hero out of an Ottoman army officer who led Turkey to independence in 1923. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk imposed a secular vision that gave the state authority over Islam, a legacy that dominates the divisive politics of modern Turkey.
"I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die," the steely commander is said to have told a regiment that was eventually wiped out. "In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can take our place."
During the battle one night, local lore says, the light of a star and the crescent moon shone on the blood-soaked ground, forming the design of what became Turkey's red and white national flag.
In recent years, some of Turkey's founding "myths" have been undercut, among them the idea of a tight-knit Turkish identity that ignored the existence of ethnic Kurds and other minorities, said Kerem Oktem, author of "Angry Nation: Turkey since 1989," a book about the country's erratic transition from military to democratic rule.
"Gallipoli remains "one of the important, overarching, big, symbolic moments," he said.
For that reason, Oktem said, neither the current Islam-based government nor secular nationalists who oppose it want to "devalue or challenge" the idea that Gallipoli was a glorious victory, despite debate about its military significance.
Australia and New Zealand regard Gallipoli with equal reverence, noting the bravery and loyalty of soldiers whose British commanders considered troops from the former colonies to be untested and of poorer quality. It forged a self-image of determination, irreverence and "mateship" that is referred to as the Anzac spirit, after the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
The fighting happened near the mouth of the Dardanelles strait, part of a conduit between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The Turkish military occupied the strategic site until 1973, when it became a national park. Memorials and cemeteries at the site discouraged thoughts of potentially disruptive fieldwork.
The new study does not involve excavation, instead using satellite-based technology to map battle positions over gullies, dense vegetation and limestone cliffs.
"Forestation had changed the natural geography of the battlefield, even of trenches and pits," said Mithat Atabay, a history professor at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University and one of five Turks on the 14-member team. In 1994, he said, "a huge part of the forest burnt down, and the zone suffered further damage."
In October, the researchers mapped four kilometers (2.5 miles) of trenches, many of them barely visible, at locations including Johnston's Jolly and Quinn's Post, names bestowed by Allied troops. They inspected Turkish positions known as Kirmizi Sirt, or Red Ridge.
"The war on the surface was only one element of the struggle," the team said in a report. "A constant underground battle developed; tunneling became a major preoccupation on both sides of the line, for both offensive and defensive reasons."
Mapping data is entered in a digital database that can be compared with information from other sources, including maps used in the 1915 landings and Ottoman-era documents. Fieldwork resumes in September, and is expected to continue, with the help of ground-penetrating radar and aerial photographs, until the campaign centenary in 2015.
Charles Bean, an Australian journalist who covered the conflict and surveyed the battlefield just after the war, wrote about the grudging respect that was said to have developed between the underdog enemies. In an early 1916 dispatch, he recalled a memorial built by an Australian.
It was, he wrote, "a little wooden cross found in the scrub, just two splinters of biscuit box tacked together, with the inscription 'Here lies a Turk.' The poor soul would probably turn in his grave if his ghost could see that rough cross above him. But he need not worry. It was put there in all sincerity."
The remains of the ancient city of Troy lie near the Gallipoli peninsula. Alexander the Great led an army through the region. So did Persian emperor Xerxes I. The Greek historian Herodotus referred to the place in his chronicles.
"The Allies were really the last, I suppose, military expedition to try to take this particular strip of land," said Chris Mackie, a classics professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and one of the Gallipoli surveyors. "But there were plenty before them."
Source: Associated Press
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Israel’s chief rabbi says Obama must free Pollard if he wants another term
By Haaretz Service
The Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, told congregants in a Sabbath sermon that if U.S. President Barack Obama seeks reelection, he must release Jonathan Pollard, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.
In the sermon delivered at Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem on Saturday, Metzger told said there was a feeling that many American Jews that had supported Obama in the last election were disappointed in him, in no small part because of Obama’s indifference to Pollard.
A civilian employee for the United States Navy, Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 on charges of spying for Israel. He is incarcerated at a federal jail in North Carolina.
“If Obama wishes to dictate Israeli policy, he must show that he has mutual interests with Israel,” Israel Radio quoted Metzger as saying. The rabbi reportedly added that these “mutual interests” should be shown through releasing Pollard.
Pollard’s release has long been a bone of contention between Isael and its chief ally. In January, the Prime Minister’s Office sent a letter to Obama requesting the convicted spy’s release on humanitarian grounds. This marked the first formal request by Israel for the release of Pollard.
“Even though Israel was in no way directing its intelligence efforts against the United States, its actions were wrong and wholly unacceptable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in the letter. “Both Mr. Pollard and the Government of Israel have repeatedly expressed remorse for these actions, and Israel will continue to abide by its commitment that such wrongful actions will never be repeated.”
Pollard’s health has reportedly been in decline, and he has been hospitalized on several occasions. Last month, he cancelled a meeting with Israel Social Affairs Minister Moshe Kahlon because he was feeling ill.
The United States responded to Netanyahu’s announcement of his decision to send the letter by saying only that Pollard at present is still incarcerated.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has raised this from time to time, both in his current incarnation and in his previous incarnation,” State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said. “All I can tell you is Jonathan Pollard remains in prison.”
Source: The Ugly Truth
The Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, told congregants in a Sabbath sermon that if U.S. President Barack Obama seeks reelection, he must release Jonathan Pollard, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.
In the sermon delivered at Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem on Saturday, Metzger told said there was a feeling that many American Jews that had supported Obama in the last election were disappointed in him, in no small part because of Obama’s indifference to Pollard.
A civilian employee for the United States Navy, Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 on charges of spying for Israel. He is incarcerated at a federal jail in North Carolina.
“If Obama wishes to dictate Israeli policy, he must show that he has mutual interests with Israel,” Israel Radio quoted Metzger as saying. The rabbi reportedly added that these “mutual interests” should be shown through releasing Pollard.
Pollard’s release has long been a bone of contention between Isael and its chief ally. In January, the Prime Minister’s Office sent a letter to Obama requesting the convicted spy’s release on humanitarian grounds. This marked the first formal request by Israel for the release of Pollard.
“Even though Israel was in no way directing its intelligence efforts against the United States, its actions were wrong and wholly unacceptable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in the letter. “Both Mr. Pollard and the Government of Israel have repeatedly expressed remorse for these actions, and Israel will continue to abide by its commitment that such wrongful actions will never be repeated.”
Pollard’s health has reportedly been in decline, and he has been hospitalized on several occasions. Last month, he cancelled a meeting with Israel Social Affairs Minister Moshe Kahlon because he was feeling ill.
The United States responded to Netanyahu’s announcement of his decision to send the letter by saying only that Pollard at present is still incarcerated.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has raised this from time to time, both in his current incarnation and in his previous incarnation,” State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said. “All I can tell you is Jonathan Pollard remains in prison.”
Source: The Ugly Truth
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Operation Cast Lead II–Yisrael Beiteinu promotes another invasion
April 16, 2011
Editor Palestine Monitor
Scrapping Hamas’ offered cease-fire, influential Yisrael Beiteinu politicians are promoting another invasion of Palestine’s worn-torn, besieged land of Gaza.
Photo by Gaurdian.co.uk While President Benajim Netanyahu thanked in Washington, DC for another US$205 million for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called for the forced removal of Hamas.
“Only the collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza will stop the firing,” Ayalon said, according to Jpost. “There is no other solution.”
A peaceful solution, though, was proposed by Hamas: a ceasefire that was held by both Netanyahu and most of Gaza’s guerrillas. But following escalating violence, Israel has reentered Gaza in force, killing twenty Palestinians as a collective punishment.
Ayalon, his party comrade Avigdor Lieberman, and others called the cease-fire a mistake.
“The enemy will now recover, just as it did after Operation Cast Lead, another military operation which drew to a halt before its completion,” wrote Israel Harel on Haaretz. “Hamas will arm itself for another, even more lethal, round of fighting.”
Voted into power in 2006, Hamas was quickly targeted by the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the US as a “terrorist” threat and engaged through bloody inter-Palestinian battles, sanctions, and a horrific siege. The harshest result of this complete rejection of the Gaza Strip’s impoverished people’s democratic choice – however desperately decided – was called Operation Cast Lead.
The Palestine Monitor’s 2009 book Palestine’s Guernica and many other sources have multilaterally defined Israel’s invasion of Gaza a modern atrocity of incredible proportions. six thousand injured and 1,500 dead. It’s blood and rancor have not cautioned the war drums of Israel – but have rather whet the appetites of some leading politicians.
“We need to finish the job of Operation Cast Lead,” said Uzi Landau, National Infrastructure Minister said to Israeli Army Radio. “If we really want to deter Hamas, we must exploit their fear of losing control in the strip. Our targets need to be their leaders.”
Source: The Ugly Truth
Editor Palestine Monitor
Scrapping Hamas’ offered cease-fire, influential Yisrael Beiteinu politicians are promoting another invasion of Palestine’s worn-torn, besieged land of Gaza.
Photo by Gaurdian.co.uk While President Benajim Netanyahu thanked in Washington, DC for another US$205 million for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called for the forced removal of Hamas.
“Only the collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza will stop the firing,” Ayalon said, according to Jpost. “There is no other solution.”
A peaceful solution, though, was proposed by Hamas: a ceasefire that was held by both Netanyahu and most of Gaza’s guerrillas. But following escalating violence, Israel has reentered Gaza in force, killing twenty Palestinians as a collective punishment.
Ayalon, his party comrade Avigdor Lieberman, and others called the cease-fire a mistake.
“The enemy will now recover, just as it did after Operation Cast Lead, another military operation which drew to a halt before its completion,” wrote Israel Harel on Haaretz. “Hamas will arm itself for another, even more lethal, round of fighting.”
Voted into power in 2006, Hamas was quickly targeted by the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the US as a “terrorist” threat and engaged through bloody inter-Palestinian battles, sanctions, and a horrific siege. The harshest result of this complete rejection of the Gaza Strip’s impoverished people’s democratic choice – however desperately decided – was called Operation Cast Lead.
The Palestine Monitor’s 2009 book Palestine’s Guernica and many other sources have multilaterally defined Israel’s invasion of Gaza a modern atrocity of incredible proportions. six thousand injured and 1,500 dead. It’s blood and rancor have not cautioned the war drums of Israel – but have rather whet the appetites of some leading politicians.
“We need to finish the job of Operation Cast Lead,” said Uzi Landau, National Infrastructure Minister said to Israeli Army Radio. “If we really want to deter Hamas, we must exploit their fear of losing control in the strip. Our targets need to be their leaders.”
Source: The Ugly Truth
US campus activists facing increased repression
Marwa Katbi
EI, April 14, 2011
Last November, four friends and I -- all of us activists with Students for Justice in Palestine -- were protesting near a Tommy Trojan statue at the University of Southern California (USC) when campus authorities tried to break up our peaceful demonstration. Unfortunately, it is only one of many examples of the discrimination faced by Arab, Muslim and pro-Palestinian students at my campus and at campuses around the United States.
We were protesting the outdoor event "SCSI Fights on for Darfur" as we viewed it to be complicit in whitewashing Israel's criminal occupation. USC Students for Israel and the USC College Democrats were partnering in an effort to raise awareness and money for victims of the genocide in Darfur; USC Students for Israel is a political organization that defines itself solely on the basis of unconditional support for the State of Israel. Its members routinely defend Israel's oppressive policies, which are in clear violation of international law. During this event, USC Students for Israel boasted that Israel is the only country in the Middle East to provide sanctuary to refugees from Darfur, never once mentioning that Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees their right to return.
I was told earlier in the day by a university official that it was within our right to protest near Tommy Trojan, and next to USC Students for Israel's table, so long as we were peaceful and silent. The five of us stood next to each another, in a row, holding up signs. According to university policy, "dissent (defined as disagreement, a difference of opinion, or thinking differently from others) is an integral aspect of expression in higher education," and is a protected form of "free speech" (University of Southern California Policy on Free Expression and Dissent).
But about 15 minutes into our protest, approximately six Department of Public Safety officers clustered around our group and immediately began yelling "Move! Move! You have to move! We're only gonna tell you this three times, you have to leave!" Threatening to arrest us, the officers harassed and yelled at us for approximately ten minutes while my friends and I tried to remain in place, reiterating that we were standing in a free speech zone, were not going to move, and that they were violating our rights by insisting that we do so. No matter what we said in our own defense, the officers still told us to move. I could hardly speak up without getting cut off by their shouting and it was clear from the beginning that they were going to try their hardest to make us leave.
When that effort alone wasn't enough, a man in a suit approached me and my friends to tell us, once again, that we either had to leave or move over to the other side of the street. I didn't recognize the man, Michael L. Jackson, Vice-President of Student Affairs, at first. He asked my friend Alix Robinson and I for our first and last names and our student IDs. All the while, members of USC Students for Israel were holding up their phone cameras, trying to get footage of the confrontation, or sitting silently on the sidelines next to members of the USC College Democrats. Dr. Jackson then identified himself and said "When somebody like me tells you to move, you move." Hurt and angry by his decision to suppress my free speech rights, I replied: "Your position doesn't matter to me." The two officers standing directly behind him began to laugh while Dr. Jackson looked back at me, stunned, as though he didn't expect me to stand up for myself.
Shortly after that, Dr. Jackson and the officers left the scene and we continued on with our protest. I'm not sure why they left, but I'm assuming that they realized we weren't going to move, and knew that resorting to physical force would result in serious legal consequences. As the last officer was walking away he awkwardly looked over at me, said goodbye, good luck and have a nice rest of the day.
I recently sent an email out to USC students, student organizations and faculty regarding this incident which is exemplary of the discrimination that Arab, Muslim and pro-Palestinian students face at our university. The USC administration has come up with no response, possibly in hopes that a few students, faculty and members of our community will feel upset about the issue for a short period of time, but that the matter will eventually fade from memory. Our campus newspaper refuses to report on the story, claiming that it's old news that was made public months after it happened. Recently, I was contacted by president of the USC College Democrats who insisted "that they support the irrevocable right to freedom of speech and condemn any form of harassment against those exercising their legal right." While his clarification is appreciated, an intervention by their members while the incident was occurring would have been of much greater value.
USC is not the only campus where solidarity activists have experienced disturbing attempts deny their First Amendment rights. Eleven Muslim students at the University of California Irvine are currently facing criminal charges for disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren. The FBI has issued subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury to several Palestine solidarity activists in the Midwest, some of them students, threatening their right to free speech and engaging in what some are calling a witch hunt.
The context of this repression is the growing success of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which is challenging Israeli apartheid and its supporters in the US.
On 15 December 2010, C. L. Max Nikias, president of USC, issued a statement dismissing proposed boycott, divestment and sanctions measures against the State of Israel, characterizing this initiative as a "betrayal of our values as a pluralistic university whose students, faculty, and alumni ... represent a diversity of political, cultural and religious beliefs" ("Statement by C. L. Max Nikias"). Our SJP understands this to mean that the University of Southern California respects the diversity of all moral, political and religious beliefs, except for ours.
While Nikias claims to promote open discourse and even-handedness, his statement accomplishes the opposite. It marginalizes the views of students supportive of Palestinian rights by minimizing the nature and scope of domination which characterizes Israeli state aggression against a vulnerable, stateless Palestinian population. Despite repeated UN resolutions condemning Israel's discriminatory policies as illegal, the painful reality is that all forms of negotiation over a twenty-year-long disintegrating peace process have failed, and the call from Palestinian civil society to boycott, divest and sanction the institutions and individuals involved in maintaining their oppression has proven necessary.
Boycotts, among other tools of ethical resistance, have historically challenged racist systems throughout the world. Renowned leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela have advocated these measures. The international community successfully used similar tactics to end the racist policies of apartheid South Africa in the '80s. And a sincere devotion to pluralistic values will often require us to assemble enough courage to participate in nonviolent methods of civil disobedience so long as they are in accordance with international law. In the words of Dr. King, our purpose is to "create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue."
The Israeli government will not end its entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian people without concerted pressure from the international community. BDS -- the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement -- is a reflection of the urgency of the matter and a reassurance that Palestinian lives are valuable. A blanket condemnation of boycotts mistakenly judges the oppression they face as unworthy of greater action. As USC students, we expect our campus to remain open to all morally responsible civic and political views. Given the influence of Nikias' word, we believe his statement is inappropriate and, therefore, encourage him to repeal it in an effort to ensure that the University of Southern California, among other US academic institutions, does not contribute to the maintenance of oppressive systems elsewhere and acts in line with its own central mission: "the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit" by nurturing a "pluralistic," "supportive community" that welcomes "men and women of every race, creed, and background."
Marwa Katbi is a Syrian American student at the University of Southern California majoring in creative writing.
EI, April 14, 2011
Last November, four friends and I -- all of us activists with Students for Justice in Palestine -- were protesting near a Tommy Trojan statue at the University of Southern California (USC) when campus authorities tried to break up our peaceful demonstration. Unfortunately, it is only one of many examples of the discrimination faced by Arab, Muslim and pro-Palestinian students at my campus and at campuses around the United States.
We were protesting the outdoor event "SCSI Fights on for Darfur" as we viewed it to be complicit in whitewashing Israel's criminal occupation. USC Students for Israel and the USC College Democrats were partnering in an effort to raise awareness and money for victims of the genocide in Darfur; USC Students for Israel is a political organization that defines itself solely on the basis of unconditional support for the State of Israel. Its members routinely defend Israel's oppressive policies, which are in clear violation of international law. During this event, USC Students for Israel boasted that Israel is the only country in the Middle East to provide sanctuary to refugees from Darfur, never once mentioning that Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees their right to return.
I was told earlier in the day by a university official that it was within our right to protest near Tommy Trojan, and next to USC Students for Israel's table, so long as we were peaceful and silent. The five of us stood next to each another, in a row, holding up signs. According to university policy, "dissent (defined as disagreement, a difference of opinion, or thinking differently from others) is an integral aspect of expression in higher education," and is a protected form of "free speech" (University of Southern California Policy on Free Expression and Dissent).
But about 15 minutes into our protest, approximately six Department of Public Safety officers clustered around our group and immediately began yelling "Move! Move! You have to move! We're only gonna tell you this three times, you have to leave!" Threatening to arrest us, the officers harassed and yelled at us for approximately ten minutes while my friends and I tried to remain in place, reiterating that we were standing in a free speech zone, were not going to move, and that they were violating our rights by insisting that we do so. No matter what we said in our own defense, the officers still told us to move. I could hardly speak up without getting cut off by their shouting and it was clear from the beginning that they were going to try their hardest to make us leave.
When that effort alone wasn't enough, a man in a suit approached me and my friends to tell us, once again, that we either had to leave or move over to the other side of the street. I didn't recognize the man, Michael L. Jackson, Vice-President of Student Affairs, at first. He asked my friend Alix Robinson and I for our first and last names and our student IDs. All the while, members of USC Students for Israel were holding up their phone cameras, trying to get footage of the confrontation, or sitting silently on the sidelines next to members of the USC College Democrats. Dr. Jackson then identified himself and said "When somebody like me tells you to move, you move." Hurt and angry by his decision to suppress my free speech rights, I replied: "Your position doesn't matter to me." The two officers standing directly behind him began to laugh while Dr. Jackson looked back at me, stunned, as though he didn't expect me to stand up for myself.
Shortly after that, Dr. Jackson and the officers left the scene and we continued on with our protest. I'm not sure why they left, but I'm assuming that they realized we weren't going to move, and knew that resorting to physical force would result in serious legal consequences. As the last officer was walking away he awkwardly looked over at me, said goodbye, good luck and have a nice rest of the day.
I recently sent an email out to USC students, student organizations and faculty regarding this incident which is exemplary of the discrimination that Arab, Muslim and pro-Palestinian students face at our university. The USC administration has come up with no response, possibly in hopes that a few students, faculty and members of our community will feel upset about the issue for a short period of time, but that the matter will eventually fade from memory. Our campus newspaper refuses to report on the story, claiming that it's old news that was made public months after it happened. Recently, I was contacted by president of the USC College Democrats who insisted "that they support the irrevocable right to freedom of speech and condemn any form of harassment against those exercising their legal right." While his clarification is appreciated, an intervention by their members while the incident was occurring would have been of much greater value.
USC is not the only campus where solidarity activists have experienced disturbing attempts deny their First Amendment rights. Eleven Muslim students at the University of California Irvine are currently facing criminal charges for disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren. The FBI has issued subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury to several Palestine solidarity activists in the Midwest, some of them students, threatening their right to free speech and engaging in what some are calling a witch hunt.
The context of this repression is the growing success of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which is challenging Israeli apartheid and its supporters in the US.
On 15 December 2010, C. L. Max Nikias, president of USC, issued a statement dismissing proposed boycott, divestment and sanctions measures against the State of Israel, characterizing this initiative as a "betrayal of our values as a pluralistic university whose students, faculty, and alumni ... represent a diversity of political, cultural and religious beliefs" ("Statement by C. L. Max Nikias"). Our SJP understands this to mean that the University of Southern California respects the diversity of all moral, political and religious beliefs, except for ours.
While Nikias claims to promote open discourse and even-handedness, his statement accomplishes the opposite. It marginalizes the views of students supportive of Palestinian rights by minimizing the nature and scope of domination which characterizes Israeli state aggression against a vulnerable, stateless Palestinian population. Despite repeated UN resolutions condemning Israel's discriminatory policies as illegal, the painful reality is that all forms of negotiation over a twenty-year-long disintegrating peace process have failed, and the call from Palestinian civil society to boycott, divest and sanction the institutions and individuals involved in maintaining their oppression has proven necessary.
Boycotts, among other tools of ethical resistance, have historically challenged racist systems throughout the world. Renowned leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela have advocated these measures. The international community successfully used similar tactics to end the racist policies of apartheid South Africa in the '80s. And a sincere devotion to pluralistic values will often require us to assemble enough courage to participate in nonviolent methods of civil disobedience so long as they are in accordance with international law. In the words of Dr. King, our purpose is to "create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue."
The Israeli government will not end its entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian people without concerted pressure from the international community. BDS -- the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement -- is a reflection of the urgency of the matter and a reassurance that Palestinian lives are valuable. A blanket condemnation of boycotts mistakenly judges the oppression they face as unworthy of greater action. As USC students, we expect our campus to remain open to all morally responsible civic and political views. Given the influence of Nikias' word, we believe his statement is inappropriate and, therefore, encourage him to repeal it in an effort to ensure that the University of Southern California, among other US academic institutions, does not contribute to the maintenance of oppressive systems elsewhere and acts in line with its own central mission: "the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit" by nurturing a "pluralistic," "supportive community" that welcomes "men and women of every race, creed, and background."
Marwa Katbi is a Syrian American student at the University of Southern California majoring in creative writing.
No compromise on Nato troops withdrawal: Taliban
The News International
April 14, 2011
PESHAWAR: The Taliban on Wednesday said the basic solution to the Afghan issue lies in the immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and not in setting up Taliban offices in other countries.
Talking to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) by telephone, Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi said the current issue of Afghanistan was triggered by the military invasion and interference of foreign forces and this issue couldn’t be resolved unless the foreign forces pull out of the country.
About the claims of High Peace Council’s officials that Turkey and several other countries of the region had offered to allow Taliban to open offices in these countries, he said: "As we said in the past, Taliban are not ready to any kind of negotiation in presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan. So it is meaningless to offer Taliban to open political offices. We know well that these are all useless efforts. We have never budged from our stand of unconditional withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan as real issue is the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan."
Ahmadi said: "We demand all those individuals and parties, who want solution to the Afghan problem, to use their abilities in the withdrawal of foreign forces. They should convince the foreigners to leave Afghanistan as the problem started due to their occupation and the Afghan issue can never be resolved unless and until the occupation is practically ended," he added.
The purported Taliban spokesman also demanded of Afghans, who were sincere in seeking solution to the ongoing problem, to use their abilities for the ouster of foreign forces so that peace could be restored to the war-ravaged country. He added that they did not need to open office in Turkey or any other country, as they were not ready to held talks in the current circumstances.
Afghanistan’s High Council for Peace Deputy Chief Abdul Hakim Mujahid told the AIP that Turkey had offered to allow Taliban to open political office in their country so that Taliban could be engaged in talks. He continued that Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkmenistan had also offered to allow Taliban to open offices on their soil, if Taliban extended them a formal request.
April 14, 2011
PESHAWAR: The Taliban on Wednesday said the basic solution to the Afghan issue lies in the immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and not in setting up Taliban offices in other countries.
Talking to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) by telephone, Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi said the current issue of Afghanistan was triggered by the military invasion and interference of foreign forces and this issue couldn’t be resolved unless the foreign forces pull out of the country.
About the claims of High Peace Council’s officials that Turkey and several other countries of the region had offered to allow Taliban to open offices in these countries, he said: "As we said in the past, Taliban are not ready to any kind of negotiation in presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan. So it is meaningless to offer Taliban to open political offices. We know well that these are all useless efforts. We have never budged from our stand of unconditional withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan as real issue is the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan."
Ahmadi said: "We demand all those individuals and parties, who want solution to the Afghan problem, to use their abilities in the withdrawal of foreign forces. They should convince the foreigners to leave Afghanistan as the problem started due to their occupation and the Afghan issue can never be resolved unless and until the occupation is practically ended," he added.
The purported Taliban spokesman also demanded of Afghans, who were sincere in seeking solution to the ongoing problem, to use their abilities for the ouster of foreign forces so that peace could be restored to the war-ravaged country. He added that they did not need to open office in Turkey or any other country, as they were not ready to held talks in the current circumstances.
Afghanistan’s High Council for Peace Deputy Chief Abdul Hakim Mujahid told the AIP that Turkey had offered to allow Taliban to open political office in their country so that Taliban could be engaged in talks. He continued that Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkmenistan had also offered to allow Taliban to open offices on their soil, if Taliban extended them a formal request.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Arab League to ask UN for no-fly zone in Gaza
10 Apr 2011
Arab League Chief Amr Moussa said the organisation will ask the UN to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza, which Israel has pounded with air strikes in response to rocket fire.
Moussa told an emergency meeting of Arab League ambassadors that “the Arab bloc in the United Nations has been directed to ask for the convention of the Security Council to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and impose a no-fly zone.”
Israeli and Palestinian officials were on Sunday floating a ceasefire to end fighting in the coastal strip where Israeli air strikes have killed at least 18 people since Thursday.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of an even stronger response if more rockets are fired from the Palestinian territory controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.
The flare-up came after an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus on Thursday, wounding two people, one of them critically.
Even if Arab representatives at the United Nations succeed in convening a Security Council meeting, the US, a close ally of Israel, is likely to veto it.
The Arab League request for a no-fly zone over Gaza may have been inspired by a UN-sanctioned aerial blockade for Libya to halt forces loyal to Muammar Qadhafi harming civilians.
Arab League backing for that no-fly zone was seen as crucially important by the USs when it pressed for a UN resolution that authorised it and other countries to keep Libyan planes grounded.
Arab League Chief Amr Moussa said the organisation will ask the UN to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza, which Israel has pounded with air strikes in response to rocket fire.
Moussa told an emergency meeting of Arab League ambassadors that “the Arab bloc in the United Nations has been directed to ask for the convention of the Security Council to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and impose a no-fly zone.”
Israeli and Palestinian officials were on Sunday floating a ceasefire to end fighting in the coastal strip where Israeli air strikes have killed at least 18 people since Thursday.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of an even stronger response if more rockets are fired from the Palestinian territory controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.
The flare-up came after an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus on Thursday, wounding two people, one of them critically.
Even if Arab representatives at the United Nations succeed in convening a Security Council meeting, the US, a close ally of Israel, is likely to veto it.
The Arab League request for a no-fly zone over Gaza may have been inspired by a UN-sanctioned aerial blockade for Libya to halt forces loyal to Muammar Qadhafi harming civilians.
Arab League backing for that no-fly zone was seen as crucially important by the USs when it pressed for a UN resolution that authorised it and other countries to keep Libyan planes grounded.
Gaza under attack: death and destruction in Rafah
April 10, 2011
International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
On the afternoon of Thursday April 7th, Israeli forces escalated their attacks on the Gaza Strip. The murderous offensive has killed 18 people so far, the majority of them being civilians. Among the massacred are a mother, her daughter, two children, two elderly men and four members of Al Qassam Brigades. More than sixty people have been injured, some are still fighting for their lives. Since Thursday afternoon the Gaza Strip is besieged by drones, Apache helicopters, F16 and E15 fighter planes, gunboats in the south and tanks by the border.
At approximately 16:00 on Thursday, Israeli forces targeted areas surrounding the previously destroyed Gaza International Airport in the far southeast of Rafah city, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces positioned along the border fired approximately 10 artillery shells, while Apache helicopters opened machine gun fire. A number of the artillery shells landed near three Palestinian civilians who were sitting near the airport. Two of them, Mohammed Eyada Eid el-Mahmoum (25) and Khaled Ismail Hamdan el-Dabari (17) were killed immediately and the third civilian, Saleh Jarmi Ateya al-Tarabin (38) died of his wounds in the hospital on the evening of the same day.
Israeli forces continued to fire as a number of Palestinian civilians attempted to rescue the wounded; Musaab Mohammed Ubeid Sawwaf, 20, was killed and another 14 civilians, including five children and a paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, were wounded.
Salama El-Dabari is seated in a tent, mourning the loss of his nephew, the 17 year old Khaled Ismail Hamdan el-Dabari, while he explains to ISM volunteers what has happened.
"Khaled was following the ambulances on his motorbike, to assist the medics in evacuating the injured people. As soon as the ambulances arrived, an Apache helicopter shelled the site again. Khaled got stuck under his motorcycle, which caught fire during the shelling. The ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were not able to evacuate him immediately. They recovered his body the next morning, covered in burns, with open head wounds, a hole in the abdomen, bullets in the legs and without hands. His father, my brother, was looking for him, but we didn’t want him to see his son in such a condition, so we sent him home before evacuating Khaled’s body."
Salama switches to the inequality of the conflict and says the following: "Look at us, the Palestinians; we are a peaceful people who are trying to shake off the occupation to live in freedom. But we don’t have any meaningful military power: we have no drones nor F16′s, we don’t have any of Israel’s modern weaponry. There is no comparison possible. We are desperate. Nobody seems to care about the Palestinians and our struggle for justice."
21 year old Abdel Hadi Jumma el-Sufi is one of the injured and is currently hospitalized in Shifa hospital in Gaza City. He stares at the ceiling of his hospital room while recalling the murderous event.
Source: Uruknet
International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
On the afternoon of Thursday April 7th, Israeli forces escalated their attacks on the Gaza Strip. The murderous offensive has killed 18 people so far, the majority of them being civilians. Among the massacred are a mother, her daughter, two children, two elderly men and four members of Al Qassam Brigades. More than sixty people have been injured, some are still fighting for their lives. Since Thursday afternoon the Gaza Strip is besieged by drones, Apache helicopters, F16 and E15 fighter planes, gunboats in the south and tanks by the border.
At approximately 16:00 on Thursday, Israeli forces targeted areas surrounding the previously destroyed Gaza International Airport in the far southeast of Rafah city, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces positioned along the border fired approximately 10 artillery shells, while Apache helicopters opened machine gun fire. A number of the artillery shells landed near three Palestinian civilians who were sitting near the airport. Two of them, Mohammed Eyada Eid el-Mahmoum (25) and Khaled Ismail Hamdan el-Dabari (17) were killed immediately and the third civilian, Saleh Jarmi Ateya al-Tarabin (38) died of his wounds in the hospital on the evening of the same day.
Israeli forces continued to fire as a number of Palestinian civilians attempted to rescue the wounded; Musaab Mohammed Ubeid Sawwaf, 20, was killed and another 14 civilians, including five children and a paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, were wounded.
Salama El-Dabari is seated in a tent, mourning the loss of his nephew, the 17 year old Khaled Ismail Hamdan el-Dabari, while he explains to ISM volunteers what has happened.
"Khaled was following the ambulances on his motorbike, to assist the medics in evacuating the injured people. As soon as the ambulances arrived, an Apache helicopter shelled the site again. Khaled got stuck under his motorcycle, which caught fire during the shelling. The ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were not able to evacuate him immediately. They recovered his body the next morning, covered in burns, with open head wounds, a hole in the abdomen, bullets in the legs and without hands. His father, my brother, was looking for him, but we didn’t want him to see his son in such a condition, so we sent him home before evacuating Khaled’s body."
Salama switches to the inequality of the conflict and says the following: "Look at us, the Palestinians; we are a peaceful people who are trying to shake off the occupation to live in freedom. But we don’t have any meaningful military power: we have no drones nor F16′s, we don’t have any of Israel’s modern weaponry. There is no comparison possible. We are desperate. Nobody seems to care about the Palestinians and our struggle for justice."
21 year old Abdel Hadi Jumma el-Sufi is one of the injured and is currently hospitalized in Shifa hospital in Gaza City. He stares at the ceiling of his hospital room while recalling the murderous event.
Source: Uruknet
Salafists threaten to protest at Interior Ministry Circle
April 10th, 2011
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
MMAN - Jihadist Salafists plan to hold their next protest near the Interior Ministry Circle later this week in attempt to pressure authorities to release prisoners they allege are being held for preaching this conservative school that adopts a strict interpretation of Islam and preaches jihad.
“Next time it will be at the Interior Ministry Circle. We are ready to go as far as it takes to release our brothers from prisons. They are held unfairly behind bars just for being Salafists,” said one Salafist cleric, Othman Mohammad, who has taken part in several such gatherings in different towns.
On Friday, a group of Salafists from various areas took to the streets in the northern town of Irbid calling for releasing their peers, some of whom are convicted of terror-related charges.
The gathering near the city’s main mosque was the fifth of its kind in less than a month.
Relatives of detainees have also taken part in the protests, where participants have also called for eradicating corruption and greater political freedom.
The protesters came from several cities including Maan, hometown of Abu Sayyaf (Mohammad Shalabi), who is currently serving a 15-year prison term for his role in the 2002 Maan riots.
“We want Abu Sayyaf and all Salafist prisoners released. They have not committed any crime to be treated like this,” said Kareema Mohammad, whose son is in Swaqa prison for terrorism-related charges.
Many Salafist scholars promote violence, but others have renounced it since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The first group is called jihadist Salafists, or takfiris, in reference to a trend among them to label Muslims as infidels for mere differences in religious opinion.
The government has banned protests at vital intersections like the Interior Ministry Circle, where on March 25, anti-riot police cracked down on two rival demonstrating groups, leaving scores injured, while one man died of a heart condition.
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
MMAN - Jihadist Salafists plan to hold their next protest near the Interior Ministry Circle later this week in attempt to pressure authorities to release prisoners they allege are being held for preaching this conservative school that adopts a strict interpretation of Islam and preaches jihad.
“Next time it will be at the Interior Ministry Circle. We are ready to go as far as it takes to release our brothers from prisons. They are held unfairly behind bars just for being Salafists,” said one Salafist cleric, Othman Mohammad, who has taken part in several such gatherings in different towns.
On Friday, a group of Salafists from various areas took to the streets in the northern town of Irbid calling for releasing their peers, some of whom are convicted of terror-related charges.
The gathering near the city’s main mosque was the fifth of its kind in less than a month.
Relatives of detainees have also taken part in the protests, where participants have also called for eradicating corruption and greater political freedom.
The protesters came from several cities including Maan, hometown of Abu Sayyaf (Mohammad Shalabi), who is currently serving a 15-year prison term for his role in the 2002 Maan riots.
“We want Abu Sayyaf and all Salafist prisoners released. They have not committed any crime to be treated like this,” said Kareema Mohammad, whose son is in Swaqa prison for terrorism-related charges.
Many Salafist scholars promote violence, but others have renounced it since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The first group is called jihadist Salafists, or takfiris, in reference to a trend among them to label Muslims as infidels for mere differences in religious opinion.
The government has banned protests at vital intersections like the Interior Ministry Circle, where on March 25, anti-riot police cracked down on two rival demonstrating groups, leaving scores injured, while one man died of a heart condition.
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