tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100424122024-02-19T08:36:51.378-07:00Blue IbisDouble Vision:
Learning to SEE the UnseenBlue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.comBlogger404125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-17864358691481775632010-07-01T19:40:00.000-06:002010-07-05T11:17:48.714-06:00What Mainstream Media is Not Telling You About the Gulf Oil Cleanup<a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/211544-What-Mainstream-Media-is-Not-Telling-You-About-the-Gulf-Oil-Cleanup" target="_blank">What Mainstream Media is Not Telling You About the Gulf Oil Cleanup</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Paul Fassa<br />NaturalNews<br />Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:00 </span><br /> <br />What surface oil dispersant for oil spills is so toxic and ineffective it has been banned in England for a decade? The one that British Petroleum (BP) is using now in the Gulf of Mexico. <strong>It's loaded with 2-butoxyethanol, which kills marine and wetland wild life while causing serious lung problems to humans!</strong><br /><br />It is more toxic than the oil it purports to clean, and it simply sends the newly formed toxic globules of dispersant and oil further into the depths where it forms underwater plumes. It's like pouring paint thinner on spilled paint and letting it drip out onto the lawn and garden, except the underwater plumes of thinned oil and toxic dispersant spread onto the shore lines, wetlands and coral reefs and into the Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and beyond.<br /><br /><strong>Yet there are many less toxic, even 100% green, oil spill solutions available that are more effective.</strong> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">EPA and BP</span><br /><br />It was initially reported that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) had given BP 72 hours to change the current oil dispersant chemicals to something less toxic and more effective. After a sharp reply from BP, the EPA seems to have back pedaled claiming they only want BP to use less of it. It appears somebody with clout stepped in for BP!<br /><br />BP is involved with a few other large international corporations. Among them is the company that makes the toxic oil dispersant banned in England containing 2-butoxyethanol, which kills what is supposedly being protected! Richard Charter, advisor for Defenders of Wildlife, says this about the chemical dispersant being used in the Gulf: <strong>"It's a chemical that the oil industry makes to sell to itself, basically."</strong><br /><br />So in addition to siphoning some of the oil pouring from the ocean floor into tankers, oil that can be separated from the water and sold later, BP execs are enjoying financially incestuous gains.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="BoldGrey">Ignored Solutions</span><br /><br />Two Florida farmers gave a video presentation (YouTube source below) of how safe and effective hay is for grabbing up oil and being hauled away. Hay was used successfully for the Santa Barbara offshore rig oil spill of 1969. And the health damage to workers and wild life was minimal. This could have given several farmers and others much needed income.<br /><br />An even more effective oil spill solvent is composed of oil eating microbes, gathered from all over the world, reproduced rapidly, and then formed into powders that can be used directly or mixed with water for hosing the oil spills. The by-products of the oil eating microbes turn into edible foods for marine life. And when the microbes consume all the oil, they die off because there is nothing left to eat.<br /><br />This was proven in a 1986 contained pool with marine life test by Texas Land Office Commissioner Garry Mauro and Water Commissioner Buck Wynne. The tests were so impressive that the oil eating microbes were allowed to be used successfully for millions of gallons of oil from a burning tanker off the Texas shore, and again when a barge leaked massive amounts of oil into the Texas wetlands.<br /><br />In each situation, the oil was consumed rapidly and marine and wetland wild life thrived!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="BoldGrey">Why?</span><br /><br />There are and have been other clean-up solutions offered, some a little over the top and others that have been used successfully throughout the world.<br /><br />Motives for BP's refusing to consider these solutions and why the U.S. Government does nothing to intervene is full of dots to connect for anyone willing to peek closely behind the curtain.<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">Sources:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2fldJnaNp0" target="_blank">Corexit is Killing the Gulf</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfypUzx1tI&feature=youtube_gdata" target="_blank">Oil Eating Microbes Used Successfully by Texas Gov't for Oil Spills</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7JkFW5nwMQ" target="_blank">Florida Farmers Propose Hay for Gulf Clean-up</a><br /><br /><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/diving-gulfs-toxic-soup-10735329" target="_blank">ABC Video Report: Cousteau Jr Dives into the Goop</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wKsx3H6j2w&feature=related" target="_blank">Siphoning Up Existing Oil for BP Resale</a><br /><br /><a href="http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=11194" target="_blank">Dots to Connect?</a>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-60472495777274961372010-06-27T09:48:00.006-06:002010-06-27T10:05:43.057-06:00All For One and One For AllThe Signs of the Times are bleak indeed, as the mask of sanity the psychopaths of the world are being discarded. If Katrina had normal people wondering, the Gulf oil disaster has proven this fact decisively. But there is hope through unity. Not the unity of protest and violence, but the unity of mind and spirit. To quote Laura Knight-Jadczyk:<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><blockquote>The bottom line is this: we are all in this mess together and we sink together, or we get our boat to harbor, but somebody's got to be the one who coordinates or we'll just go endlessly in circles, nobody will be bailing, paddling, or evaluating currents and signs to determine direction. I've created the EE program, right now hundreds, if not thousands of people are doing it and reporting amazing results. I have also created<span style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">a legal organization for protection of our activities: in a world run by psychopaths, sometimes you have to take a play from their rule book to bootstrap yourself out of their trap: Fellowship of the Cosmic Mind. You can become a member and join with thousands of others who are networking to get themselves cleared and awake and working in a co-linear direction to transform our world.</span></span><br /></blockquote></span>Blue Ibis<br /><br /><a linkindex="193" href="http://laura-knight-jadczyk.blogspot.com/2010/06/all-for-one-and-one-for-all.html" target="_blank">All For One and One For All</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Laura Knight-Jadczyk<br /> laura-knight-jadczyk.blogspot.com<br /> Thu, 24 Jun 2010</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/39878/medium/p1_united_we_stand3.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 295px; height: 180px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/39878/medium/p1_united_we_stand3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The issue of methane and outgassing has occupied me to quite some extent for the past few years particularly after writing <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/145683-New-Light-on-the-Black-Death-The-Cosmic-Connection" target="_blank">New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection</a>. I even asked the <a href="http://www.sott.net/" target="_blank">SOTT.net</a> editors to keep their eyes open for news items about anything that might be related to outgassings. There's quite a collection in the database if you search. And now, with the recent news about the methane involvement in the BP Gusher, and that news getting more dire every day, I started digging around for some data I knew I had written about and, after finding a few things, I thought: how interesting that this "Mother of all Gushers" may give birth to the "Mother of all Storms." You'll understand what I mean in a minute!<br /><br />First, read this bit that is current on SOTT: <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/210863-The-Real-Consequences-of-An-Ocean-Floor-Collapse" target="_blank">The Real Consequences of An Ocean Floor Collapse</a>.<br /><br />Note that it says:<br /><blockquote> The two possible scenarios are either a complete collapse of the ocean floor right above the <em>Deepwater Horizon</em> well and surroundings or a partial collapse in the form of a mud slide on one side of the well.<br /></blockquote>In this article I wrote back in 2007: <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/125454-Fire-and-Ice-The-Day-After-Tomorrow" target="_blank">Fire and Ice The Day After Tomorro</a>w there's a bunch of collected articles which includes one about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos" target="_blank">The Lake Nyos Gas Explosion</a>, Cameroon 1986 where we read:<br /><blockquote>Lake Nyos is one of only three lakes in the world known to be saturated with carbon dioxide -- the others are Lake Monoun, also in Cameroon about 100 km away, and Lake Kivu in Rwanda. A magma chamber beneath the region is an abundant source of carbon dioxide, which seeps up through the lake bed, charging the waters of Lake Nyos with an estimated 90 million tonnes of CO2<br /><br /> Lake Nyos is thermally stratified, with layers of warm, less dense water near the surface floating on the colder, denser water layers near the lake's bottom. Over long periods, carbon dioxide gas seeping into the cold water at the lake's bottom is dissolved in great amounts.<br /><br /> Most of the time, the lake is stable and the CO2 remains in solution in the lower layers. However, over time the water becomes supersaturated, and if an event such as an earthquake or volcanic eruption occurs, large amounts of CO2 may suddenly come out of solution.<br /><br /> Although a sudden outgassing of CO2 had occurred at Lake Monoun in 1984, killing 37 local residents, a similar threat from Lake Nyos was not anticipated. However, on August 21, 1986, a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. The gas rushed down two nearby valleys, displacing all the air and suffocating up to 1,800 people within 20 km of the lake, mostly rural villagers, as well as 3,500 livestock. About 4,000 inhabitants fled the area, and many of these developed respiratory problems, burns, and paralysis as a result of the gases.<br /><br /> It is not known what triggered the catastrophic outgassing. Most geologists suspect a landslide, but some believe that a small volcanic eruption may have occurred on the bed of the lake. A third possibility is that cool rainwater falling on one side of the lake triggered the overturn. Whatever the cause, the event resulted in the rapid mixing of the supersaturated deep water with the upper layers of the lake, where the reduced pressure allowed the stored CO2 to effervesce out of solution.<br /><br /> It is believed that up to a cubic kilometre of gas was released. Because CO2 is denser than air, the gas flowed off the mountainous flank in which Lake Nyos rests and down two adjoining valleys in a layer tens of metres deep, displacing the air and suffocating all the people and animals before it could dissipate. The normally blue waters of the lake turned a deep red after the outgassing, due to iron-rich water from the deep rising to the surface and being oxidised by the air. The level of the lake dropped by about a metre, representing the volume of gas released. The outgassing probably also caused an overflow of the waters of the lake. Trees near the lake were knocked down.<br /><br /> The lake Nyos situation was about a different kind of gas... maybe. In any case, a similar event with methane is even more problematical.<br /></blockquote>Anyway, there is a lot in that article I wrote in 2007 that applies to the present situation, most particularly:<br /><br />John Barnes, in his fiction novel, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMother-Storms-John-Barnes%2Fdp%2F0812533453&ei=bEMjTLLdNoiK_AbXkpyZBQ&usg=AFQjCNGjShoMnrTFba8e0KfLXsGExIAOkQ&sig2=4qrEs65ulrahR0ar_2zhuQ" target="_blank"><em>Mother of Storms</em></a>, described the release of vast quantities of methane as the trigger for a global superstorm that nearly destroys the earth.<br /><br /><blockquote><em>Mother of Storms</em> takes place about thirty years from now. The UN has become dominant and at the start of the book the US President is maneuvering desperately to avoid losing any more sovereignty to the UN. The UN undertakes a nuclear strike against the Siberian Republic's secret--and illegal--nuclear weapons caches buried in the Arctic seabed. The explosions result in the release of huge amount of methane from the methane clathrates buried there. The methane causes a near-runaway greenhouse effect with global temperatures going up by 10 degrees F in a matter of months.<br /><br />The hot, wet oceans are perfect breeding grounds for hurricanes which rapidly develop into storms of unprecedented strength, duration and number.<br /><br />Obviously, if such a scenario were to play out at present, the roles would be reversed to what Barnes imagined: it would be the U.S. undertaking a nuclear strike that unleashes the methane that triggers the Global Superstorm. It would probably only be in such a manner that enough methane would be released fast enough to make such an impact.<br /><blockquote>The above really caught my eye. In the book, <em>Mother of Storms</em>, the methane is released by a nuclear explosion in the arctic... well, so far they haven't set off any nukes in the Gulf of Mexico, but it looks like the situation there is developing rather similarly to what John Barnes described in his novel. He did a lot of research on the science, by the way, so it's worth reading just to get an idea of what COULD happen!<br /><br />Then, there is the issue of earthquakes in the Gulf of Mexico. A few years ago I noted that there was an unusual earthquake in the Gulf and we archived the item on SOTT.net: <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/119244-5-2-Earthquake-Dead-Center-In-Gulf-Of-Mexico-Precursor-to-a-New-Madrid-Big-One-" target="_blank">5.2 Earthquake Dead Center In Gulf Of Mexico - Precursor to a New Madrid Big One?</a> Just read it and think about it.<br /><br />Next, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25BE42PzZZc" target="_blank">History Channel Mega Disasters - Methane Explosion</a>, just to give you an idea of what all this means.<br /><br /><div align="center"><object width="550" height="385"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/25BE42PzZZc&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="385"></embed></object></div><br /><br />Even if nothing so cataclysmic happens, we have to deal with <a href="http://intotheashes.imva.info/?p=311/#arrive" target="_blank">Gulf Coast Toxicity Syndrome</a> which could kill and/or disable millions.<br /><br /><blockquote>Many different gases from hydrogen sulfate to benzene are being released into the air at around 4000 times what it considered safe to humans. As a result of this people are going to become gravely ill. People are going to be poisoned and unfortunately some are going to die. We have already seen breathing problems in the Gulf region and now reports are coming in as far away as Atlanta, Georgia. [...]<br /><br /> In addition to destroying the wildlife, killing animals and devastating the coastal economy, the massive oil spill in the Gulf will have damaging psychological and physical consequences for Gulf coast residents, the entire state of Florida, and now it seems that Georgia and the rest of the southeastern United States could be threatened considering we are already seeing problems from people in Atlanta. And we are not even talking worse case scenarios. [...]<br /><br /> Others are worried about a massive loss of life through a methane explosion that would create a tidal wave that would take out all of Florida and most of the rest of the Gulf region. Included in the worst case scenarios is a toxic rain falling upon tens of millions further north from the Gulf as wind patterns and or a hurricane comes barreling into the region. Others see the entire North Atlantic turning into a black and very dead sea and the nightmare scenarios go on and on making any serious readers' stomach sick to death over what has been done to our planet. We have allowed corporate capitalists do something they cannot undo and this is sad and truly tragic for the future of our children.<br /></blockquote>I know that all of us are feeling a little shell-shocked with the current events. It really is scary and for a good reason: it is a dangerous time to be alive. According to the Cs, we have very little time left. And, based on what we are seeing with the climate change business, adding the possible effects of the BP Gusher on Florida, the "coming global superstorm" is not so crazy an idea anymore. It could be next winter, or the winter after... and the planet could be locked down in ice for the next 10,000 years or so. We don't know.<br /><br />We DO know that economically, this next year is going to be tough. I'm seeing failed harvests all over the globe due to the weather and the price of food going through the roof. Revolution is also possible. One thing is certain, Florida is going to be a place to get out of and stay out of because the situation is so unstable there.<br /><br />Human beings were only able to evolve because of social ties. Trusting others seems to be an evolutionary strategy that served us well for a long time. In that evolutionary struggle, man was opposed to a "natural enemy," the environment and all it contained. All he had was his bigger brain to compensate for his smaller strength and speed; and, of course, his network.<br /><br />Nowadays, we are no longer opposed to the natural world out there as the sparring partner, we are opposed to a culture that has been slowly infiltrated and taken over by pathologicals. At the same time, this outer world that has been shaped by pathology, also represents a certain pathological state within normal humans - their lack of ability to see pathology in individuals that look like themselves - an intra-species predator. Humanity's failure to perceive this, to adapt, means that our inner world, taken into us from the outside by means of identification, has become an "independent power" which, in its turn, by means of projection, is our own creation. After all, it is normal humans, not pathologicals, who have the real power to "create reality" as a group. Pathologicals only influence us - mostly women - to believe certain things are the norm, and we then act as they pull our strings.<br /><br />This outer reality which has such a powerful influence on the formation of our character and the focusing of our creativity, has become a power itself and we are being challenged to become "new beings" that can evolutionarily adapt to this changing situation. Either we become fully pathological, in which case there will be no stress (the <a href="http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=883" target="_blank">Service To Self</a> route), or we return to our roots taking with us the knowledge of the new "opponent" that will enable us to rebuild our social bonds and structures and survive through the massive changes that are ahead of us.<br /><br />Because, realistically, even if no cataclysmic scenario of any external kind manifests, anybody with two neurons firing can see that we are most definitely heading straight into a "clash of civilizations" though it is not at all what is being touted. It is a clash of normal humans with pathologicals and right now, they have all the assets (which they have by trickery, cunning, cheating). Even the mildest scenario of the future is not pleasant to contemplate: Climate Change and its effects on humanity. It's not a pretty picture.<br /><br />This principle that the inner world is taken in from the outside by means of identification, and then, in its turn, by way of projection, alters the external world so that it corresponds to the inner world even more closely, requires some serious thought. Basically, we have to bootstrap ourselves out of here by reversing the process: we must create an inner world in the face of the opposition of the outer world, that then becomes strong enough, EN MASSE, to change the outer world.<br /><br />The creative individual must be able to create and develop his standards beyond the identifications of the external pathological world. This means, in the simplest of terms, connecting with the higher self so that this part consciously guides and rules the creative will even in terms of the personality. The important factor here is that groups of individuals must get from here to there - here being the false personality created in us by the pathological external world, there being the merging with the higher self - by consciously choosing those factors that he will identify with.<br /><br />This must be a group effort.<br /><br />The only solution I can see at this point is for humanity to unite their consciousnesses in awakening and DOing what needs to be done to ameliorate the situation if possible, and pass through this Horror that psychopaths have created on our planet. The big question is: how to do that effectively and efficiently? In other words, something that really works. Something that really gets everyone on the same page, going in the same direction toward Truth... and the answer that I see is to follow what the Cassiopaeans have outlined as the only possible way out: to engage in practice that will help to rapidly clear old emotional programs that get in the way of both effective networking and effective SEEing and discernment: the <a href="http://eiriu-eolas.org/" target="_blank">Éiriú Eolas program</a> that I have created with the help of the Cassiopaeans. And no, I'm not selling it though it will help us a lot if you DO buy the DVDs. We can then make more of them to give away. No, in fact, you can watch the whole program for free on the EE website.<br /><br />So, that's the first order of business: getting clear. The second is for all of humanity to be praying in the same "direction." For that, the Prayer of the Soul which is part of the EE program is exactly designed to help you awaken. The breathing exercises combined with the meditation and prayer will quickly help you to achieve that state of consciousness necessary to be able to see the unseen and know what it is you must do in concert with others.<br /><br />As I explain in the video introduction to EE, stress is a worldwide epidemic. The number one disease of adults in the world is depression. Depression is the most extreme form of stress in your nervous system.<br /><br />But here's the rub: stress response is vital for survival in times of danger. The problem comes when it is turned on too strong, too often.<br /><br />The very fact that our stress response has gone off the charts tells us that our bodies are telling us something about our world! There is DANGER out there, only it is hiding amongst us in the form of pathologicals! We are constantly in a state of stress because we are in a state of cognitive dissonance. We sense the danger, but we cannot SEE it because we have been programmed NOT to see it by lies and false reality constructs.<br /><br />James Surowiecki's book, <em>The Wisdom of Crowds</em>, suggests that multiple viewpoints from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds, rather than the restricted viewpoints of experts or specialists, are crucial in reaching informed decisions on complex topics. Getting input from a broad variety of people is like getting input from a wide variety of devices such as microscopes, telescopes, litmus paper, tensile testors, ultrasound devices, scales, and so on.<br /><br />Here, of course, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there". Even if we are agreeing that there is a real reality and it is what it is, no one of us has the all-encompassing way of perceiving that would give us the understanding of EVERY ASPECT of what is out there.<br /><br />So, in this sense, the network itself is the Teacher.<br /><br />But in order for a network to go anywhere and not just fall into entropy, there must be a direction and in that sense there must be a vanguard.<br /><br />Vanguard: Etymology: Middle English <em>vauntgard</em>, from Anglo-French <em>vantgarde</em>, <em>avantgarde</em>, 1: the troops moving at the head of an army 2: the forefront of an action or movement.<br /><br />It is also reflective of true evolutionary social activities that there are some who are trailblazers and others who support and "watch the back" of the trailblazers. Once the trail is blazed, and the destination is reached, the others not only benefit from the struggles of the trailblazer, they also set about organizing the details of the new environment and stabilizing it. So, everyone plays a role and if the network is tight, they all arrive pretty much together.<br /><br />The bottom line is this: we are all in this mess together and we sink together, or we get our boat to harbor, but somebody's got to be the one who coordinates or we'll just go endlessly in circles, nobody will be bailing, paddling, or evaluating currents and signs to determine direction. I've created the <a href="http://www.eiriu-eolas.org/">EE program</a>, right now hundreds, if not thousands of people are doing it and reporting amazing results. I have also created a legal organization for protection of our activities: in a world run by psychopaths, sometimes you have to take a play from their rule book to bootstrap yourself out of their trap: <a href="http://paleochristianity.org/" target="_blank">Fellowship of the Cosmic Mind</a>. You can become a member and join with thousands of others who are networking to get themselves cleared and awake and working in a co-linear direction to transform our world.<br /><br />As I said, we evolved to trust one another - but that was a world where others were trustworthy. We live in a different world now. The cheaters in our world have evolved ways to induce us to trust them, but we can tell by our stress that we are going in the wrong direction, we are in mortal peril. But still, to get anything done at all, we MUST TRUST. And to figure out who to trust, we need to rely, again, on the network of observations from many observers. Again, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there" and what really seems to work, to explain things, and has internal consistency over time.<br /><br />Those who are able to accomplish this task of rebuilding social connections based on the new evolutionary standard of accounting for pathology in the equations, will evolve. Those who do not evolve will perish.<br /><br />In short, I think the Cassiopaeans are right: we have just a couple years, if that. We really need to get people on the EE program ASAP. If you are not currently doing it, or involved in some way with sharing it with others, I hope that you can begin to feel the urgency of the situation. As I have said before, I don't see anything more important to be doing now than that, not only for the potential of the self, but also because, in coming times, an awake and aware nucleus of people is going to be needed to provide leadership to the lost sheep.<br /><br />That's what I see from where I sit right now. United we Stand, Divided we Fall. All for One and One for All. </blockquote></blockquote>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-85961848773428676232010-06-26T19:12:00.004-06:002010-06-26T19:23:57.269-06:00Profiles in Courage: Forget Sarah Palin. Run The Gulf's Kindra Arnesen for President!<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/211117-Profiles-in-Courage-Forget-Sarah-Palin-Run-The-Gulf-s-Kindra-Arnesen-for-President-">Profiles in Courage: Forget Sarah Palin. Run The Gulf's Kindra Arnesen for President!</a></span><br /><br />Mac McKinney<br />OpEdNews<br />Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:15 EDT<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s2/40003/medium/88301969.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 186px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s2/40003/medium/88301969.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><em>Kindra Arnesen has emerged in the public eye as quickly as Athena sprang from the head of Zeus, fully grown and ready for combat with the enemies of truth and justice. She is an exemplary example of an ordinary citizen daring to get involved when everyone around her is cowed into silence. Whether she has ever met fellow Louisianan Tab Benoit, she is in sync with his message to us all: It is time to get involved.</em><br /><br />On May 28th of this year I ran over to the Jewish Mother Restaurant in Virginia Beach. Tab Benoit, award-winning Cajun Bluesman, environmental activist and creator of the Voice of the Wetlands Music Festival in Houma, Louisiana was doing another gig there; in fact it is one of his favorite venues, where he can get really down and dirty with us, speaking from the heart without any fear of repercussions, and so he did, about BP and the Gulf of Mexico to a packed audience on that hot Friday night.<br /><br /><div align="center"><object width="540" height="285"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LKW0m2YjLQ0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="540" height="285"></embed></object></div><br /><br />Sorry I didn't record the entire speech, but you get the drift: <strong>We all have to find out what is really happening down there, jump in the fire and do what we're supposed to do in our hearts to save the country.</strong><br /><br />During the intermission between sets Tab also stood outside in the Jewish Mother courtyard and spoke to a dozen or so of us. The bottom line, he leveled with us, is that <strong>BP is running the whole show, and the government, Homeland Security, Obama, the Coast Guard, they are all in BP's lap!</strong> Tab is a licensed pilot, yet he mourned how he couldn't even take his plane up to see what was going on in the Gulf, because of the <strong>No Fly zone being extended daily across the Gulf!</strong><br /><br />Again and again he reiterated how all of us have got to take action, meaningful action to stop what I call this black hole of destruction, this vile collaboration between Big Oil and corrupt government that is now becoming not just a threat to Louisiana, but to the entire Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Someone exclaimed, "It sounds like we need a revolution" I seconded that motion. Tab nodded in agreement. Again he underscored that is up to all of us to take responsibility for saving the day.<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">Needed, Some Terry Malloys</span><br /><br />It is common knowledge that almost everyone is scared shitless of BP on the Gulf. Why? Because they are the King (how British) of Oil down there. They have taken over the Good Ole Boy Network and now make cops, sheriffs and Coast Guard admirals hop when they say "JUMP!" Don't want reporters snooping around? Call security and intimidate them! Don't want photographers and videographers filming dead dolphins and scorched sea-turtles? Call security and drive them off! Don't want embarrassing videos getting on or staying on major websites? Call some corporate, white-shoe boys who can get them yanked!<br /><br /><strong>Don't want to stop using deadly, deadly Corexit, because that hides the surface oil, even after the EPA says to stop using it?</strong> Call the double-breasted-suit boys in Washington who are on your lobbying list. The EPA will soon dance to your tune!<br /><br />So the thousands and thousands of hard-pressed fishermen and workers on the Gulf, put out of business by BP's deeds of hubris, now have to come begging, hat in hat, for clean-up jobs, and they all get the message: Shut up and do as you're told or your family and you will starve and/or face eviction!<br /><br />And to add injury to insult, BP, playing its little liability game, turns around and says, you know, not only am I going to screw you once by ruining your livelihoods, but I'm going to really rub it in to protect my bottom line: I am going to screw you twice! We are going to pretend that none of this oil, benzene, methane, Corexit, etc. is hazardous to your health. You are NOT going to even wear respirators, and you are going to get poisoned, slowly but surely, if not quickly and surely. Screw OSHA, BP must be thinking, they're in our lap too.<br /><br />I used to work at what was once known as NORSHIPCO Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia (the British, BAE Systems that is, now own that too!) <strong>With all the toxins in the air on some of the big tankers we worked on, down in the ballast/fuel oil tanks especially, if you didn't wear a respirator when down there, and with the right kind of filters to boot, you were asking for trouble, illness, even death. So who the Hell is BP kidding, filling the Gulf of Mexico with over a million gallons of Corexit and counting, and telling its employees not even to wear respirators!</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://seizebp.com/" target="_blank">Seize BP</a>!<br /><br />BP and its bosses, and the way they are strong-arming and silencing, impoverishing and sickening everyone, reminds me of this scene from that famous movie:<br /><br /><div align="center"><object width="540" height="285"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L1JH8KCEYyU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="540" height="285"></embed></object></div><br /><br />No one ever said it would be easy, standing up for the truth, for justice, the living, or even honoring the dead.<br /><br />Like Tab Benoit implored, who is going to jump into the fire and take some of the pressure off those who are struggling against this monstrosity?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">Enter Kindra Arnesen</span><br /><br />On the street level, among the fishermen and clean-up workers, fear still holds sway, ruling the day, and night. There have been a few who have spoken out from the wetland grass roots level, but it hasn't been enough so far. However, I stumbled across one voice just now that is indeed loud and clear, and the voice of a woman, not a man. I see we should spell Terry with an i, so we can recruit both men and women to break the silence and fight back against BP and its spider-web of government collaborators.<br /><br />The woman I am referring to is Kindra Arnesen, who ended up being interviewed on CNN recently after her fisherman husband and the crews of eight shrimp boats had come down sick as dogs after getting downwind of the oil spill. Watch, as she speaks out:<br /><br /><div align="center"><object width="540" height="285"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_HSQiryMWr8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="540" height="285"></embed></object></div><br /><br />She calls BP and the EPA on their lies, the only one the above CNN reporter could find who WOULD speak out. "It starts with one" Kindra says, "and if I have to be the one, I have to be the one."<br /><br /><strong>Her husband coming down ill, losing his livelihood, then being forced to work for BP while signing a gag order, then her children getting ill and her entire, beloved environment going to Hell, all this only sharpened Kindra's tongue, strengthened her convictions and heightened her awareness, leading her to get more and more active, jumping deeper and deeper into the fire</strong> until finally on June 19, 2010 at the Gulf Emergency Summit in New Orleans, she gave one of the most eloquent, forceful <em>J'accuse</em> speeches I have ever heard against a <em>de facto</em> criminal syndicate:<br /><br /><div align="center"><em><object width="540" height="285"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jkYJDI8pK9Y&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="540" height="285"></embed></object></em></div><br /><br />Kindra is a unique resident of the equally unique fishing "village" of Venice, Louisiana, which was all but destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But It was another one of those American towns too tough to die. Actually, Venice isn't even incorporated, sports a population only in the hundreds unless you include nearby Boothville, which jacks the figure up to 2740, and is nicknamed, ominously, "the end of the world". That is because it is the last drivable-to outpost on the southernmost reach of the Mississippi River.<br /><br /><img src="file:///C:/Users/Carolyn/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png" alt="" /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s2/40004/medium/4731557338_397766238e.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s2/40004/medium/4731557338_397766238e.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Consequently, it has also been one of the first communities in the state to become inundated with first tar-balls and then waves of BP oil, which is now wrecking havoc upon the flora and fauna, the wetlands, birds and fish of Venice and surrounding territories.<br /><br />However, Venice also has this singular importance: it is the home of what has become a key Coast Guard response center against the catastrophic BP oil and gas rupture, and all manner of important officials and politicos from President Obama on down have been wandering in and out of here.<br /><br />And perhaps this parade also helped prompt Kindra to challenge these ranks and their endless bromides and nonsense projections. <strong>Nothing like some local, common sense expertise and straight talk to bring folks back to earth, is there?</strong> And ever since she first spoke out in the above CNN video, the phone has been ringing off the hook, literally if not figuratively to hear more from her. To quote from Rocky Kistner of the <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">NRDC</a>:<br /><blockquote>Kindra has been the focus of media attention ever since she began speaking out over a month ago. When I visited her comfortable but cluttered home in Venice, a documentary film crew from Chicago was filming her family during dinner, while another film crew waited outdoors. Her husband cooked while the kids fought over the remote control.<br /><br />Kindra didn't seem fazed by all the attention. She was angry and had one thing on her mind; protect her family, her community and the place she loves. She's on the warpath against the BS that she believes flows like the spewing oil well out BP reps' and politicians' mouths. Her mission is to get people involved and organized. It's a non-stop task, and her cell phone doesn't stop ringing. Network TV and national newspapers and magazines call on her regularly. She's become the Erin Brockovich of Venice (the environmental legal aid who took on mammoth PG&E in California).(<a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/kindra_arnesen_was_livid_when_1.html" target="_blank">source</a>)<br /></blockquote>Here is a real, salt of the earth and daughter of the sea American with superb fighting spirit, taking up the sword of truth for about the most important cause on earth right now, saving the Gulf of Mexico and indirectly, all the oceans. Hell, run her for president! All the phony, posturing, calculating politicians out there, male or female, will just, in her presence, wither away.Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-70744073879039460702010-04-08T23:32:00.002-06:002010-04-08T23:43:50.947-06:00Another organ trafficking ring surfaces in Israel<div class="article-header"> <div style="font-family: georgia;" class="article-title"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/206418-Another-organ-trafficking-ring-surfaces-in-Israel"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a linkindex="185" target="_blank">Another organ trafficking ring surfaces in Israel</a></span> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="article-icon-bar"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/206418-Another-organ-trafficking-ring-surfaces-in-Israel#" onclick="window.print(); return false;"><br /></a> </div>Saed Bannour<br />International Middle East Media Center<br />Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:06 EDT </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image to-right"><a linkindex="186" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/35763/full/scheperhughes_organ_trafficked.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Nancy Scheper-Hughes"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/35763/medium/scheperhughes_organ_trafficked.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:78%;" ><span class="tiny" style="font-family:arial;">© Nancy Scheper-Hughes</span></span><br /><span class="caption"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Brazilian man whose kidney</span><span style="font-family:arial;">was sold via an Israeli broker</span></span><br /><br /></span></div></div>Just months after the Israeli government's chief pathologist was exposed admitting years of involvement in organ trafficking involving both Israeli and Palestinian civilians without their consent, another major organ trafficking ring has been exposed by Israeli police on Wednesday.<br /><br />According to Israeli police reports, six suspects were arrested in a sting operation of the organ trafficking ring on Wednesday, including two lawyers and a retired Brigadier General from the Israeli military who was the recipient of a Medal of Valour in the 1967 war.<br /><br />"We ran an undercover investigation and we were shocked by the proportions of this", said Israeli police superintendent Ahron Galor. The six suspects arrested in the raid have had their remand extended for an additional six days, according to the Magistrate for the District of Nazareth in northern Israel. <br /><br /> The lawyers involved in the scandal allegedly forged documents, including Israeli medical records and travel documents, in order for desperate Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to travel abroad to have a kidney or other organ removed. The trafficking ring would then sell the organ in Israel or abroad for $140,000. This meant quite a profit for those involved, as the person would be paid as little as $20,000 for their organ.<br /><br />Several victims were named in the case, including a 50-year old woman from Nazareth who was flown to Azerbaijan to have her kidney removed, and was promised $100,000, which she never received. An 18-year old teen was flown to the Philippines, and offered $80,000, which he never received.<br /><br />This is not the first time an Israeli organ-trafficking ring has been uncovered - despite Israeli claims that such allegations are 'blood libel' and 'anti-Semitism'. When the Swedish paper <em>Aftonbladet</em> published an article in August 2009 quoting Palestinian sources who claimed that loved ones who were killed during Israeli military operations sometimes had their bodies returned with missing organs. The article raised an uproar, including calls for censorship by the Israeli government, petitions for the removal of the article's author signed by the heads of major Jewish organizations, the recall of the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, and numerous op-eds asserting that the article was indicative of a trend of 'growing anti-Semitism' in Sweden and throughout Europe. But months afterward, when a video surfaced documenting Israel's chief pathologist confirming the claims made in the <em>Aftonbladet</em> article, few media outlets reported it.<br /><br />When the US Federal Bureau of Investigation busted a major crime ring in New Jersey in July 2009, including Rabbis, Mayors and Congressmembers, one of the most shocking parts of the crime ring was the exposure of an international organ trafficking trade between Israel, the US and other countries around the globe, led by Levy Itzak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn. At that time, the leading expert in organ trafficking in the US, Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes, said that she was not surprised by Rosenbaum's arrest, adding that she had told law enforcement agencies about his involvement in organ trafficking way back in 2001. But according to Scheper-Hughes, although most of the trade originated in Israel, "It was a public secret," she said, "It was normalized in Israel." </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-54595800285928242222009-09-01T22:46:00.002-06:002009-09-01T22:51:19.378-06:00The Return of the Body Snatchers<div class="article-header"> <div style="font-weight: bold;" class="article-title"> <a linkindex="167" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/192144-The-Return-of-the-Body-Snatchers" target="_blank">The Return of the Body Snatchers</a> </div> <div class="article-info"> <p> Israel Shamir<br /> IsraelShamir.net<br /> Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:12 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image to-left"><a linkindex="168" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/26103/full/israeli_soldier_pointing_gun_st.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Unknown"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/26103/medium/israeli_soldier_pointing_gun_st.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" >© Unknown</span><br /><br /></span></div></div>In the Turkish blockbuster action movie <em>Valley of the Wolves,</em> an American Jewish doctor in Abu Ghraib prison gently removes a kidney out of a live and suffering Arab prisoner and places it into a special vessel with the label "To Tel Aviv", thus reinforcing the Israeli-American bond of eternal friendship. Real life imitates cinema, as we learn from the dreadful story of Palestinian youths being hunted for their inner organs by that <a linkindex="169" href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1149572658286" target="_blank">most moral army in the world</a>, Israel's, as published by a <a linkindex="170" href="http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article5652583.ab" target="_blank">leading Swedish newspaper</a> [read its English translation <a linkindex="171" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/192096-Our-sons-plundered-for-their-organs-" target="_blank">here</a>].<br /><br />Donald Boström, a Swedish photographer who worked in the West Bank in 1992, was tipped off by UN officials to follow the bloody trail of Israeli soldiers who had kidnapped young Palestinians and returned their dead bodies five days later "with a slit from the abdomen up to the chin." The families in the West Bank and in Gaza felt that they knew exactly what had happened: "Our sons were used as involuntary organ donors; they disappeared for a number of days only to be returned in the dark of night, dead and autopsied. Why did they keep their bodies for five days before letting us bury them? What happened to their bodies in the meantime? Why are they performing autopsies, against our will, when the cause of death is obvious? Why were their bodies returned at night time? Why was this done with a military escort? Why was the area closed off during the funeral? Why was the power supply interrupted?"<br /><br />These questions continued to haunt Boström. He took gruesome pictures of the returned bodies. Like Vanunu, he smuggled his films abroad. When back in Sweden, he offered the story to <em>Dagens Nyheter,</em> a liberal newspaper which, incidentally, is owned by the Jewish Bonnier family. <em>DN</em> refused to publish it. The story was laid to rest until now, when the Social Democrat newspaper <em>Aftonbladet</em> decided to let it run.<br /><br />In Israel, the reaction was hysterical. The country is in danger of busting its guts in rage. Huge pressure has been exerted upon Swedish authorities to condemn the newspaper, to punish the offending author and to beg forgiveness. The Swedish Ambassador in Tel Aviv, a member of the rich and influential Jewish family Bonnier who incidentally own the majority of Swedish newspapers, TV networks and cinemas, expressed her 'shock and disapproval' on a website. Her speedy acceptance of the Tel Aviv diktat misfired. The Swedish government disavowed her interference with the freedom of Swedish press; the editors of <em>Aftonbladet</em> insisted on their right to say what they find fit and called for an international inquiry.<br /><br />Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, was discomfited by Israel's intention to cancel his scheduled visit and had already written in a blog that "such articles can cause anti-Semitism, and instigation is against the Swedish law". However, he did not cry uncle in the way Netanyahu and Lieberman had demanded, while indomitable <em>Aftonbladet</em> Culture Editor Åsa Linderborg, the true hero of the drama, had sent two of her correspondents to the area of crime. They confirmed Boströms findings. Unprepared for such steadfastness, the rage and hysterics in Tel Aviv rather subsided, facing united front of Swedish public opinion.<br /><br />It is easier to express 'outrage about the old canard' than to answer the questions posed by Bostrom. The facts are disturbing, and the accusations are not new. There were too many reports of such goings on, beside the cases mentioned by the <em>Aftonbladet.</em> Knesset Members Ahmed Tibi and Hashem Mahmid <a linkindex="172" href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-1516428,00.html" target="_blank">accused</a> the Abu Kabir institute of forensic medicine of expropriating the inner parts of Palestinian corpses. They said that Palestinian doctors have complained about receiving the bodies of their dead emptied of their innards. Israeli newspapers reported that in 2007 three Palestinian teenagers were killed near Khan Younes in Gaza Strip and their bodies were returned to their parents all cut and brutalised six days later. Israel often does not even return the dead bodies of Palestinians to their families but has them buried in a secret cemetery. This causes even more suspicions.<br /><br />Worse, it fits into a larger pattern.<br /><br />All over the world, Israel and Israelis are involved in trafficking human flesh, this modern form of cannibalism. Beside the case of the <a linkindex="173" href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/07/i_am_what_you_call_a_matchmake.html" target="_blank">New Jersey ring</a> mentioned in the Boström's article, there are plenty others. <ul><li>Turkey: An Israeli professor Zaki Shapira was arrested in Turkey for allegedly cutting into live Turks for spare parts, reported the notoriously anti-Semitic paper <em><a linkindex="174" href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1178020745802" target="_blank">Jerusalem Post</a>.</em></li><br /><li>South Africa: Another anti-Semitic paper, the <em><a linkindex="175" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/world/organ-trade-global-black-market-tracking-sale-kidney-path-poverty-hope.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>,</em> reported on an Israeli trafficking ring active from South Africa to Brazil.</li><br /><li>Brazil: An Israeli officer, <a linkindex="176" href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=22524" target="_blank">Gedalya Tauber</a>, was arrested in Brazil for inducing the poor to part with their body parts. He spilled the beans about activity of his fellow countrymen.</li><br /><li>The Ukraine: The <a linkindex="177" href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766040398&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull" target="_blank"><em>Jerusalem Post</em></a> reported the arrest of "an Israeli illegal organ-smuggling ring" that flew their donors and recipients to the Ukraine.</li></ul> In many cases, Israelis were the doctors, traffickers, smugglers and recipients of the body parts, as the Jewish state is the only country in the world where the state pays for, and best doctors are legally engaged in, the transplanting of illegally obtained organs, reported <em><a linkindex="178" href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=368844&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0" target="_blank">Ha'aretz</a>.</em> The next step was the evolution of international networks for this sort of traffic. Jews are well positioned to get involved in this sordid business: there are many Jewish doctors, there are many ties between Jewish communities in different countries, and there are few moral inhibitions.<br /><br />This lack of moral inhibitions allowed a leading Chabad rabbi, <a linkindex="179" href="http://www.israelshamir.net/English/blood.htm" target="_blank">Yitzhak Ginzburgh</a>, to give his religious permission to a Jew to take a liver from a goy even without his consent. <span style="font-weight: bold;">He said that "a Jew is entitled to extract the liver from a goy if he needs it, for the life of a Jew is more valuable than the life of a goy, likewise the life of a goy is more valuable than the life of an animal." </span><br /><br />Modern Israelis have forgotten their faith, but have retained this lack of inhibition. An Israeli business newspaper, <em><a linkindex="180" href="http://law.themarker.com/tmc/article.jhtml?ElementId=skira20071018_914316&layer=law&layer2=coupon&layer3=law&layer4=article" target="_blank">The Marker</a>,</em> has published an opinion piece by an Israeli lawyer justifying the trade in body organs, for "organs are just commodity, and so they can be bought and sold like any commodity in an open market".<br /><br />The distance between kidneys bought and snatched is not that big: if organs are "just a commodity", surely it is permissible to take them from Palestinians, just as it is 'permitted' to take from Palestinians centuries-old <a linkindex="181" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1414628/Palestinian-olive-trees-sold-to-rich-Israelis.html" target="_blank">olive trees</a> while building the Wall.<br /><br />Indignation is easy, but it is not so easy to prove that the Israelis, who do not hesitate to break arms and legs and pour napalm on schoolchildren, do draw a line about getting some profit from Palestinian innards. <em>Aftonbladet's</em> demand for an international enquiry is reasonable: if the Israelis have done nothing wrong (beyond murdering hundreds of young men), they have nothing to fear from an international investigation. Yet Israel refused UN enquiry commissions permission to visit Jenin after the 2002 massacre and Gaza after the 2009 massacre.<br /><br />For Israel, the most upsetting part of this affair was the breach made in the wall. I do not mean the monstrous Sharon's Wall protecting the biggest Jewish ghetto in the Middle East, but the wall of media control which protects it overseas. Jews buy media all over the world not for fun, and not for profit, but for the influence it has over minds. This is the case in Sweden, where members of its tiny Jewish community own newspapers, magazines, publishing houses and even Swedish Hollywood - Svensk Filmindustri AB. This media actively promotes the neo-liberal policies of privatisation, commodification, immigrant influx, dismantling the welfare state - in short, policies that are good for wealthy Jews.<br /><br />Israeli representatives work hard to keep reporting from the Middle East under their control. A few years ago, the leading radical left magazine <em>Ordfront</em> published a thoughtful piece <a linkindex="182" href="http://www.ordfront.se/Ordfrontmagasin/Tidigare%20artiklar/1205sraelmedia.aspx" target="_blank">Israeli Regime Directs Swedish Media</a> by Johannes Wahlström, telling of Israeli meddling with the Swedish press, of Israeli officials going to newspaper editors and to correspondents. In that article Donald Boström tells of the dreadful story he wanted to tell, but he couldn't get through the wall of pro-Israeli censorship in the Swedish media.<br /><br />Israel is not the only country suspected of such nefarious activities. Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for Balkan crimes, <a linkindex="183" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1584751/Serb-prisoners-were-stripped-of-their-organs-in-Kosovo-war.html" target="_blank">wrote</a> in her 2008 book <em>The Hunt: Me and War Criminals</em> that under the aegis of the Kosovo Liberation Army, this ally of NATO and the US, hundreds of young Serb prisoners were allegedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania where their organs were removed. Some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. Carla del Ponte had seen the house where such surgeries were done and had met with the people involved, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad.<br /><br />However, Carla del Ponte's accusation against Albanians did not cause such a stir, and nobody condemned her as "anti-Albanian", nor would she care if somebody had, for it is perfectly all right to be anti-anybody as long as not anti-Jewish. The Jews have a potent weapon in their "anti-Semitism" label. Or do they?<br /><br />Could it be that the useful-for-Israel fear of anti-Semitism does not work like a charm anymore? This is possible. The Cairo speech of Obama apparently has had no direct consequences; Obama tried to apply pressure to Israel in order to freeze the settlements, but in vain. Did he fail? It is too early to judge, as Zhou Enlai was wont to say. Such changes rarely occur by the wave of a magic wand ... they take time. Recent publications on the Jewish criminal gang in New Jersey, attacks on Goldman Sachs, medals for Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu, an award to <a linkindex="184" href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443840063&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull" target="_blank">Felicia Langer</a>, the collapse of the pro-Jewish socialist party and the appearance of an anti-zionist party in France, the Boström article in <em>Aftonbladet</em> - all are small and separate incidents, but together they imply that the change is coming. Swedes, French, Germans and even New Jerseyans are no longer afraid of Washington coming at them like sixteen tons in defence of Zionists, as would have been the case in the days of George W. Bush. Obama even refused to appoint a new anti-anti-semitic <a linkindex="185" href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1248277936628&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull" target="_blank">commissar</a>.<br /><br />This thought frightens the Tel Aviv government more than anything. If today they let the Swedes get away with it, tomorrow there will be somebody else, and then the fear of the Jews will be assigned to the category of unmanly unrealistic fears, like fear of mice.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">Second Ending</span><br /><br />More importantly, Israeli outrage is a proof that - despite approval for it by radical Cabbalists and neoliberals - transplantation of human organs is an immoral dreadful thing, too close to cannibalism, and we all know that. Yes, it is awful if Israeli soldiers tear kidneys out of Palestinians and kill them afterwards. But it is equally awful, if a kind doctor removes a kidney out of a Detroit mechanic whose house was repossessed by a gentle banker, or out of a Ukrainian worker who was sacked by a polite oligarch, or out of an Indian farmer who has to pay his debt to Monsanto. Every poor man on the planet is a Palestinian - though the means of his dispossession may vary. This kind of thing should be stopped. The human body is sacred. These operations are too expensive and can't be justified. Mankind should overcome its fear of death. We live and we die. There is no reason to waste thousands of dollars prolonging a life by expensive operations if this money can be used for feeding the starving. More about this later... </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-41797510021608302852009-08-29T22:21:00.000-06:002009-08-29T22:21:00.684-06:00Chemical Weapons Used on Palestinian School Children<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-title"> <a linkindex="147" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/192069-Israeli-brutality-in-broad-daylight-A-chemical-weapon-attack-on-Palestinian-school-children" target="_blank">Israeli brutality in broad daylight: A chemical weapon attack on Palestinian school children</a> </div> <div class="article-info"> <br /> <p> SOTT Editors<br /> SOTT.net<br /> Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:26 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image to-left"><a linkindex="148" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25878/full/2009_Israel_WhitePhosphorus.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Reuters"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25878/medium/2009_Israel_WhitePhosphorus.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="tiny">© Reuters</span></span><br /><br /><span class="caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lying through their teeth: M825A1 155mm<br /> projectiles, painted light green to designate<br /> a munition containing white phosphorus,<br /> stand fused and ready with an IDF artillery<br /> unit firing into Gaza.</span></span><br /><br /><br /></span></div></div>These photos, taken a few months ago, record in detail an Israeli attack on a Palestinian school, an attack using <a linkindex="149" href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/wp.htm" target="_blank">white phosphorus</a>: <blockquote> White phosphorous is a colorless to yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military is highly energetic (active) and ignites once it is exposed to oxygen. White phosphorus is a pyrophoric material (it is spontaneously flammable). When exposed to air, it spontaneously ignites and rapidly oxidizes to phosphorus pentoxide. Such heat is produced by this reaction that the element bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. This chemical reaction continues until either all the material is consumed or the element is deprived of oxygen. <strong>White phosphorus results in painful and deep chemical burn injuries. Rapid dermal penetration occurs once particles are embedded under the skin. Incandescent particles of white phosphorous may produce extensive burns. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen.</strong> <span class="BoldRed">Weapons containing white phosphorous are particularly nasty because it continues to burn until it disappears, often burning right down to the bone.</span><br /><br />The White Phosphorus flame produces a hot, dense, white smoke composed of particles of phosphorus pentoxide, which are converted by moist air into phosphoric acid. This acid, depending on concentration and duration of exposure, may produce a variety of topically irritative injuries. <strong>Exposure to heavy smoke concentrations for extended periods (particularly if near the source of emission) may cause illness or even death.</strong> Its fumes can cause severe eye irritation including blepharospasm, photophobia, and lacrimation. Irritation of the eyes and irritation of the mucous membranes are the most commonly seen injuries. </blockquote>The use of this lethal substance is supposedly 'permmissable' under the "laws of war", ostensibly to destroy the enemy's equipment or to limit his vision. But when whole populations are designated as 'enemy', as the Israeli regime does the population of Gaza, the results are horrifying.<br /><br />At the time the Israeli regime denied using this lethal substance during its bombardment of besieged Gaza. Roundly condemned by international obersvers, it <a linkindex="150" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/190521-Israel-admits-white-phosphorus-use" target="_blank">now admits 'Willie Pete' was used</a>, but says it did not fire munitions laden with the chemical weapons "inside populated areas."<br /><br />These photos tell the true story. <br /><br /> <span class="BoldGrey">United Nations Relief and Works Agency school in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, Palestine</span><br /><br /><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="151" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25838/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25838/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div style="font-weight: bold;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="152" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25837/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25837/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div style="font-weight: bold;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="153" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25839/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25839/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="154" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25840/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Unknown"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25840/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Unknown<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="155" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25841/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25841/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="156" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25842/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25842/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="157" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25843/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25843/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="158" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25844/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25844/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="159" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25845/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25845/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="160" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25846/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25846/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="161" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25847/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25847/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="162" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25848/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25848/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="163" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25849/full/340x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25849/medium/340x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="164" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25850/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25850/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="165" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25851/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25851/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="166" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25852/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25852/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="167" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25853/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25853/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="168" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25854/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25854/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="169" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25855/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25855/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="170" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25856/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25856/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="171" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25857/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25857/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="172" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25858/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25858/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="173" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25859/full/340x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25859/medium/340x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="174" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25860/full/340x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25860/medium/340x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="175" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25861/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25861/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="176" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25862/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25862/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="177" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25863/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25863/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="178" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25864/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25864/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="179" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25865/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25865/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="180" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25866/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25866/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="181" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25867/full/340x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25867/medium/340x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br /></span></div></div><div class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="182" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25868/full/610x.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/25868/medium/610x.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny">© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images</span></div></div> </div><!-- end article-body --> <br /><strong>Comment: </strong><a linkindex="183" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/173049-We-could-hear-their-bodies-burning-" target="_blank">"We could hear their bodies burning"</a> <blockquote> "The smoke was spreading so fast; we couldn't see through it. We couldn't see, but we could hear." From the windows of the burning home the cries of her children and cousins filled the streets. "The cries were not just from my home, but from the neighbors' house too." </blockquote> <a linkindex="184" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/173013-Gaza-under-cloud-of-white-phosphorous" target="_blank">Israelis Rain 'Phosphorous Bombs' Over Gaza</a> <blockquote> "I've been on the border for the last few days watching the Israeli artillery firing white phosphorus shells into refugee camps."<br /><br />"While the international community might be horrified by the use of phosphorous, this is overlooking the issue that hundreds of half-tonne bombs are being dropped on Gaza on civilian targets on a daily basis." </blockquote>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-68009496045012778642009-07-28T23:01:00.001-06:002009-07-28T23:01:00.793-06:00Cellcom: Fantasy and Truth<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-title"> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/8161004.stm" target="_blank">Palestinians answer back to racist ad with truth</a></div><div class="article-info"><p> BBC News<br /> Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:28 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iROM7rf_r6s&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><br /><br />Pro-Palestinian protesters have made their own version of a controversial Israeli mobile phone advert.<br /><br />The Cellcom ad, widely criticised for bad taste, shows troops enjoying a game of football with unseen Palestinians on the other side of a high concrete wall.<br /><br />At protests against Israel's West Bank barrier, activists filmed themselves kicking a ball to Israeli troops.<br /><br /><strong>The video footage shows their gesture being met with tear gas canisters and their ball left trapped in barbed wire. </strong> <br /><br />The Cellcom advert, which first aired earlier in July, opens with a football landing on the bonnet of an Israeli military vehicle patrolling along the West Bank separation barrier.<br /><br />After initial apprehension, one of the soldiers kicks the ball back over the high wall and seconds later it comes flying over once again.<br /><br />Seeing the opportunity for an impromptu kick-about, the troops call in reinforcements, more jeeps arrive and everyone enjoys themselves with an upbeat tune playing in the background.<br /><br />"After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun," says the voiceover.<br /><br />The advert was derided by critics for <strong>trivialising the fraught issue of the separation barrier and portraying the Palestinians as an invisible other</strong>.<br /><br /><div align="center"><object width="560" height="340"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Et8VGyCDt10&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></div><br /><br />Abdullah Abu Rahme, a leader of the weekly protest in the frontline village of , said their video - which uses the same sound track as Cellcom - was to show "<strong>we are here, we are suffering, this wall killed our life</strong>".<br /><br />"<strong>We threw the football to the soldiers, but they sent tear gas and stinking water back at us</strong>."<br /><br />Israeli Arab politicians have already called for the Cellcom advert to be removed from their airwaves.<br /><br />"<strong>The barrier separates families and prevents children from reaching schools and clinics</strong>," Ahmed Tibi told Reuters news agency.<br /><br />"<strong>Yet the advertisement presents the barrier as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv</strong>."<br /><br />Cellcom has said its "core value is communication between people" regardless of "religion, race or gender".<br /><br />The advertisement illustrates the possibility of "mutual entertainment" for people of diverse opinions, it said.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">Deadly fire</span><br /><br />Bilin protesters - who include local Palestinians, Israeli activists and internationals - say they are non-violent. The Israeli military says the protests are "unauthorised", that stones and Molotov cocktails are often thrown and Israeli security infrastructure damaged.<br /><br />Israeli forces frequently disperse protesters with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and a foul-smelling liquid spray.<br /><br /><strong>Six protesters have died from Israeli fire in Bilin and nearby </strong><strong>Naalin</strong><strong> in recent years, with two killed in recent months</strong>.<br /><br />Israel began building the West Bank barrier - part wall, part metal fence - in 2002. It said it was to stop suicide bombers, but Palestinians see the structure as a land grab.<br /><br />The barrier's route has been widely criticised internationally for looping into Palestinian areas around Israeli settlements, rather than following the Green Line, which marks the boundary that separates Israel from the West Bank.<br /><br />International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the barrier is illegal where it cuts into the West Bank and called for it to be pulled down.<br /><br />A spokeswoman for Cellcom said it was just a coincidence that the advert was aired the same week as the fifth anniversary of the advisory verdict. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-63813711190763264772009-07-15T11:00:00.000-06:002009-07-15T11:00:01.343-06:00The Desperation of the Discreditedand dis-honour to those who suffered in WWII, who now live <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/apr2007/holo-a18.shtml">in poverty</a> in their "safe haven". Zionist hypocrisy knows no bounds.<br /><br />Blue Ibis<br />*******************************************************************<br /><br /><div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/189063-Netanyahu-turns-to-Nazi-language-to-bully"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Netanyahu turns to Nazi language to bully</a></span><br /> <p> Peter Beaumont<br /> Uruknet<br /> Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:26 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image to-left"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/24044/full/netanyahu4.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Unknown"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/24044/medium/netanyahu4.jpg" alt="Netanyahu bully" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div style="font-weight: bold;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="tiny">© Unknown<br /><br /></span></span></div></div><em>The Israeli prime minister's use of the word 'Judenrein' is a cynical attempt to skew the fight over West Bank settlements</em><br /><br />There are words with meanings corrosive as acid. Heavy with the stench of historic crimes. Words that damn those who use them. One such word is "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenfrei" target="_blank">Judenrein</a>", the Nazi-era word that means "cleansed of Jews". It is a surprise, then, to learn that <strong>it is a word that has been appropriated by Binyamin Netanyahu to describe the Palestinian demand for the dismantling of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. More shocking still, according to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5685LP20090709?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews" target="_blank">reports</a> yesterday, it was used in talks between Netanyahu and Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister of a country still haunted by the guilt of its Nazi past - who was compelled to nod in embarrassed silence.</strong><br /><br />Netanyahu has not been alone in using "Judenrein" in recent months to describe the prospect of the removal of Israeli settlements in a future peace deal to create a Palestinian state .<br /><br />As frustration among Israeli rightists has been mounting against the new policies of President Obama, the word has been creeping into the discourse, first in the rightwing blogosphere and now penetrating the mainstream media in Israel.<br /><br />It is not the word "Judenfrei" - equally offensive - that Netanyahu used but its even stronger and more despicable companion. A word, under the Nazi race laws, that meant all trace of Jewish ancestry had been removed. The justification for its employment has been somewhat historically self-serving, arguing two things.<br /><br />First, it contends that because Jewish communities historically lived on the West Bank and in Jerusalem before 1967 (over 3,000 years except for 19 years of Jordanian occupation between 1948 and 1967, according to this argument) any insistence on the removal of the settlements would amount to a de facto ethnic cleansing.<br /><br />Secondly it argues - as <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3739588,00.html" target="_blank">Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi</a> did on 2 July in <em>Yediot Ahronoth</em> - that the international community has accepted an unequal proposition, "that the Palestinians should be allowed to establish a country based on the religion of the majority of its citizens" while denying that same right to Israel. By that logic, he concludes, "international politics will no longer have to deal with the 'Palestinian problem' but rather with the 'Jewish problem' in Palestine".<br /><br />It is an argument born of desperation that is as stunning for its sophistry as it is for its denial of what the settlement programme post-1967 represented. For while it is true that Jewish communities existed on the West Bank before the six-day war,<strong> the settlement programme that followed the occupation is regarded by most international bodies as a serious violation of international law</strong>. That view is based on the interpretation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention as well as a series of UN security council resolutions that have deemed aspects of the settlements to be illegal.<br /><br />Indeed, according to a<a href="http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=191&docid=2024" target="_blank"> report</a> acquired by the Peace Now group in 2006, which it claimed it had acquired from the Israeli government's civil administration, <strong>as much as 32% of the land on which settlements are built is, in reality, privately owned by Palestinians</strong>.<br /><br />The reality is that this is not about truth or the justness of Israel's historical argument for the existence of communities in territories it calls by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria. <strong>The evocation of <em>Judenrein </em>by Netanyahu and by other commentators is the most cynical of ploys in a negotiation that his government feels that is going against it.</strong> Under pressure from Obama to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/obama-administration-israel-settlements" target="_blank">freeze settlement building </a>completely - including the construction that Israel likes to label as "natural growth" - it is being forced into ever more extreme language to defend the continued existence of the settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories in language, like that used with Steinmeier, <strong>to embarrass and cajole.</strong><br /><br />There are words with particular meanings. Bloody with the worst offences. <strong>To use "Judenrein" so cheaply to score a political point dishonours the memory of history and its victims. It shames Israel's prime minister.</strong> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-70508172615305341342009-07-13T10:36:00.000-06:002009-07-13T10:36:01.018-06:00The Wikipedia "Double Tail"<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <strong style="color: red;"></strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/156543-Wiki-the-Chaos-Controlled#" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Wiki, the Chaos Controlled</a></span> <p> Israel Shamir<br /> Israelshamir.net<br /> Thu, 15 May 2008 18:06 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> In the art of surveillance, there is a cunning ploy, familiar to the readers of Le Carre: the target is followed by a clumsy gumshoe; he discovers he is being tailed, easily shakes the tail off and goes on, feeling secure and unobserved. Unbeknownst to him, there are other detectives who stick to him like glue and follow him to his perdition. Professionally it is called a "double tail".<br /><br /><strong>Apparently, some of us were duped by such a ruse in the peculiar affair of a Zionist plot to infiltrate Wikipedia. </strong>This powerful online encyclopaedia is ostensibly free and open: everyone can be an editor, add or edit any entry. Editors remain anonymous; their true identity is hidden behind a nickname. This rule has a serious drawback: using this anonymity, <strong>a dedicated group may infiltrate the system by stealth, distort reality and create a false picture of the world in the eyes of billions</strong>. Apparently this script has been recently enacted. <br /><br /> Conspiracy? Yes. Jewish conspiracy? You bet! The damning email exchange was intercepted and <a linkindex="156" href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20080424&articleId=8784" target="_blank">published</a>, revealing a radical Zionist plot to bend "Wiki." A moderate leftist (some would call it 'tame') US-based pro-Palestinian site EI revealed that the radical-extremist Zionist organisation CAMERA called for "volunteers who can work as 'editors' to ensure" that Israel-related articles on Wikipedia agree with their right-wing-Zionist agenda. This effort was to be kept secret from the media and the public. Stealth and misrepresentation were presented as the keys to success. A CAMERA official advised the volunteers to sign up as editors for Wikipedia and afterwards to avoid editing Israel-related material for a while, in order to "avoid the appearance of being one-topic editors". The orchestrated effort was to appear as if it were the work of unaffiliated individuals, and for this reason the editors were to avoid picking a user name that marked them as pro-Israel, or that let people know their real name. The emails taught Zionist apprentices how to act in the interests of Israel while using neutral language. The emphasis was on the long run side of the operation: "This is a marathon not a sprint", a Zionist instructor nicknamed 'Zeq' taught his apprentices in the email exchange.<br /><br />The EI article about this revelation was quite sycophantic towards Wikipedia. It presented Wiki as an objective source at loggerheads with Zionist infiltrators, and even bordered on advertising: "Openness and good faith are among Wikipedia's core principles. Any person in the world can write or edit articles, but Wikipedia has strict guidelines and procedures for accountability intended to ensure quality control and prevent vandalism, plagiarism or distortion. It is because of these safeguards that articles on key elements of the Palestine-Israel conflict have generally remained well-referenced, useful and objective."<br /><br />Still, it was not enough, and on the next day, 22 April 2008, EI updated this article with a triumphal and calming statement: "a plan by the pro-Israel pressure group CAMERA to skew Wikipedia in a pro-Israel direction appears to have collapsed after it was exposed by EI". Zeq was dismissed, and anyway, fewer than a dozen of Camera moles were active at the time EI exposed the scheme. In short: everything is fine, Wiki is functioning well, and the Zionist scare is gone, thanks to fearless EI. And anyway, it was only a small operation by the enemies of freedom, and it is over.<br /><br />Excuse me, is this an article, or a paid advertisement for Wikipedia? Did EI receive on evening April 21st an offer they could not refuse from the owner of Wiki? <strong>Only a Zionist can think that Wiki "articles on key elements of the Palestine-Israel conflict have generally remained well-referenced, useful and objective." On the contrary, they are biased in the extreme</strong>; just read, for instance, an exceedingly hostile entry on Hamas, including its Talk, i.e. discussions of editors, deletions and corrections. It defines Hamas as "... best known for multiple suicide bombings and other attacks directed against civilians [known to whom? To me it is best known as the ruling party of Palestine, and secondly, as grassroots mutual assistance movement - ISH]... Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel [while all prominent Israeli parties joined in destruction of Palestine - ISH] ... the organization is described by many as antisemitic." Is that objective? <strong>Further the entry says, inter alia: Hamas is considered by the US a terrorist organisation. This is true, but not the whole truth. I personally added: However, Russia refused to consider Hamas a terrorist organisation. My addition was immediately removed by ever-watchful Zionist case-officer. Hamas is terrorist, full stop.</strong><br /><br />Only a dishonest fool, or a man who never used Wikipedia, may think that plan of the Lobby "to skew Wikipedia in a pro-Israel direction appears to have collapsed". The clumsy gumshoe was shaken off, for Camera is but a bunch of amateurs, extreme Jewish nationalists with some nuisance value. They do not represent the Jewish mainstream; but they do play a useful part: they make the mainstream appear moderate. Being hassled by Camera is like being hassled by the Klan - it proves nothing. They hassle everybody, even moderate Zionists and other fellow-philosemites whom Camera fanatics consider insufficiently zealous, such as <a linkindex="157" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-loathsome-smearing-of-israels-critics-822751.html" target="_blank">Johann Hari</a>, an English professional philosemite who recently boasted: "I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me 'a Jew-lover''. Later he strayed farther afield and wrote about Israeli sewage pouring all over Gaza. Afterwards, he complained, "Camera said I am an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels."<br /><br /><strong>Now, when the amateurs are disgraced and gone, the professionals remain. </strong>Wiki is as partial to Jews as the Jewish Chronicle. The picture of the world it offers is being edited and shaped in full accordance with general Jewish world view thanks to a group of permanent and devoted editors and arbiters.<br /><br /><strong>Freedom to add and edit is just a bait attracting millions unpaid contributors. If Wiki were truly free, provided that "ordinary people' are in vast majority, we could expect to find a democratic world view, not one not perverted by a biased minority, but the real Wikipedia does not work that way.</strong><br /><br /> The apparent chaos of Wiki is strictly controlled by a hierarchy of Agents Smith, who secure the Wiki matrix. <strong>They delete references to Jewish misdeeds, but emphasize every good deed by a Jew.</strong> Israel/Palestine is just one area in what is truly universal agenda. For instance, <strong>they block and remove attempts to mention the Jewish origin of the founder of Satanist movement, one La Vey (originally Levy), though this explains his hatred towards Christianity. They insist on inferiority of Poincare versus Einstein, of Jung versus Freud or Proudhon versus Marx. Every act against Jews is recorded; every act of Jews against goyim is blotted out from this organised memory of our generation. </strong>These editors can manage just fine, thank you, without amateur infiltrators.<br /><br />Zeq has been banned for his indiscretions, but the man he wrote of so admiringly, whom he described as their role model to his apprentices ("work with him and learn from him"), <strong>an ideal, effective Zionist Wikipedia editor called Jayjg</strong>, is still there. Jayjg is not just an editor; he is an arbiter, what passes for a judge on the Wikipedia. He was appointed to that position by the site owner himself. He is an Agent Smith of the Wiki matrix. One may see his work in many, many entries: clever and unscrupulous, he is a master of the subterfuge and deceit.<br /><br />Another, superior Agent Smith is Cberlet or John Foster (Chip) Berlet, the scourge of the web. He is <a linkindex="158" href="http://www.ctrl.org/MilleganStews/McBride-Berlet.html" target="_blank">acting under many names</a>. <strong>He is a collaborator with the ADL, the Jewish thought police. </strong> Though he previously denied having any relationship to ADL, he admitted to Israeli Foreign Affairs that he "had had quite a cordial professional relationship with the ADL" and "had been doing research in cooperation with ADL".<br /><br /><strong>The New York City Jewish newspaper "Forward" reported that Berlet transferred information from FBI anti-Communist informer directly to ADL. </strong><a linkindex="159" href="http://www.geocities.com/Berlet_archive/ace.htm" target="_blank">Ace Hayes</a> wrote: "John Foster "Chip" Berlet has been involved, over the past half decade, in attacking virtually every independent critic of the Imperial State that the reader can name." His operation is financed by Ford Foundation. Michael Collins Piper in his monumental book on the Kennedy assassination, <em>Final Judgment</em>, asserts that <strong>Chip Berlet is a CIA agent</strong>. Naturally, his own entry in Wiki is protected from editing. The Arbitration committee (those who hold the reigns of power on the Wiki) "admit to hero-worship of Cberlet', as I was informed by a prominent insider.<br /><br />These men are discreet, they won't babble about their devotion to the Jewish cause; they hide it under the veil of bureaucratic expressions and abbreviations. Their supporting cast includes some Jewish "antizionists" like RolandR. This is actually a British Trotskyite trade union apparatchik Roland Rance, who does not mind to cooperate with convinced anti-Communist, CIA and ADL agent Berlet and with zealous Zionist Jayjg. So much for his antizionism and his socialism! He, and thousands of smaller wanna-be Agents Smith did not need the starry-eyed arch-Zionists of CAMERA, they are already in.<br /><br /><strong>The "revelation" of EI is nothing but a subterfuge, a "double tail" executed to increase our trust in Wiki.</strong> A similar "double tail" operation was performed last year, when Wiki <a linkindex="160" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6947532.stm" target="_blank">announced</a> it had found CIA-made edits on a few pages. Careful reading of that "revelation" was even more disappointing than that of EI. The worst discovered CIA edit of President Ahmadinejad entry was 'added exclamation "Wahhhhhh!", while "other changes that have been made are more innocuous, and include tweaks to the profile of former CIA chief Porter Goss and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey."<br /><br />This is ridiculous: the US secret services spend many billions per annum in their drive for domination of the Web. A recent <a linkindex="161" href="http://infowars.net/articles/may2008/060508DARPA.htm" target="_blank">report</a> speaks of <strong>$30 billion allocated by the Pentagon for an "electronic Manhattan Project" in order to fight the Web</strong>. And they want us to believe that all these billions produced an exclamation "Wahhhhhh!"? Alas, it is just another "double tail" sting by the usual suspects.<br /><br />2<br /><br /><strong>The Wiki entries on Palestine/Israel are far from "well-referenced, useful and objective" as the dupes of EI claim.</strong> On the second thought, are they dupes, or willing collaborators? The top man in EI is Electronic Ali, as <strong>Ali Abunima</strong> is nicknamed, the man who began the witch hunt against "Shamir the antisemite". <strong>He is the Arab front for various exclusively Jewish organisations for Palestine, who rather promote the Jewish cause and fight antisemitism.</strong> Such Jewish bodies like to have a compliant shabbesgoy (as Rosa Luxemburg called these guys) for a front, and Ali fits the bill perfectly. Even this article on Wiki has some reference to 'evil antisemites'.<br /><br />In his attack on me, Electronic Ali acted together with the execrable Hussein Ibish, but since then, the thieves have fallen apart. [1] Another prominent EI person is, or was, <strong>Nigel Parry</strong>, a British antisemitism-fighter, their webmaster and probably also their case officer. Nigel Perry is an enforcer of Political Correctness and is Gatekeeper General of the permitted discourse on Palestine, keeping it between hard Likud and the soft Peace Now. <strong>He proudly mentions many years of involvement with the Palestinian cause. Well, such guys are a reason why the Palestinian cause looks the way it does.</strong><br /><br />Why, we could have One State, a single unified state in Israel/Palestine by now, but for these guys. Looking back, it was a possible development in 2001, sometime before 9/11, when my call for One State was heeded by many Israelis and Americans, and supported by major American newspapers. Then these men began their campaign to denigrate me and scared the supporters away. "Shamir is discredited and marginalised", they wrote with satisfaction. For them, it did not matter that together with me, they discredited and marginalised the idea of One State -- the only possible peaceful solution to our conflict.<br /><br />The final battle was fought on the Wikipedia site, where Ali-Ibish-Parry provided ammunition to Zionist Agent Smith Jayjg and ADL's own Barlet, with the ADL-sponsored block of "antifascist" e-zines: British Searchlight, Norwegian Monitor, Swedish Expo, American Trotskyite Socialist Viewpoint et al. These formidable forces were counteracted by our wonderful friend Joh Domingo, a South African fighter against apartheid, and our French friend Omnivore. You can read the protocols of the battle <a linkindex="162" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Israel_Shamir" target="_blank">here</a>. They decided to make me a Swedish neonazi impostor, instead of the Israeli writer I am.<br /><br />All the time this battle was going on, I lived in my Jaffa house, receiving endless visitors, giving numerous interviews, going to work, seeing people - but I might as well have been dead. I felt like Doc Daneeka, a character in Joseph Heller's witty Catch-22, who was declared dead as the plane he was supposed to fly was downed. "I am alive!" he shouted. "Here we have a paper saying you are dead", they replied. His wife "inherited" his property, he was stricken from the lists, they stopped serving him food, and even his friends and comrades looked askance when he appeared. This is the power of an official-looking document - or a webpage blue with hyperlinks. <strong>Thus I have learned the dreadful power of an encyclopaedia: it does not reflect the world, but rather creates the world. </strong>Wiki is linked to thousands of sites; whether you look at answers.com or at an Arab English-language site, you'll be led to Wiki with its lies.<br /><br />If an encyclopaedia said I am a Swedish neonazi antisemite, nothing could change it. I could scream all day long: "Look, here I am, in Jaffa" but they would reply: "Here we have an official paper saying that you are not". I am very grateful to Joh Domingo for his superhuman efforts, but he could not overcome the Agents Smith. Neither could I. If tomorrow they decide to make you a little green man from Mars, they will succeed, too. And then, even your friends will look behind you for your flying saucer.<br /><br />A few days ago, I spoke to a group of Indian intellectuals in Delhi, and afterwards I received this touching letter from Come Carpentier, a French expat writer living in the Indian capital. He wrote: "I meant to thank you for these enlightening, balanced and always objective yet passionate words you spoke that evening...Listening to them dispels even better than reading you the reputation that you have been given by you-know-who as a firebrand defamer of Israel, holocaust denier, Nazi apologist and so on and so forth... Not to mention the rumours about your being a clandestine Swedish Far Right-winger infiltrated in the Holy Land by the international Islamo-Fascist Cabal!"<br /><br />3<br /><br /><strong>In a way, pro-Jewish bias of Wiki is unavoidable bearing in mind Jewish positions in Western discourse, media and universities.</strong> Jews - even people of Jewish origin - are likely to correct discourse in a flattering for them way. They did it hundred years ago, and five hundred years ago. Provided they do it in one direction, they constitute the only entity (besides the undermined Church and its Orders) capable of a marathon (in words of Zeq) - of sustaining a long-run operation.<br /><br /><strong>A hundred years ago, a New York lawyer Samuel Untermeyer financed the first Scofield Reference Bible; since then, the Scofield Bibles are being republished in newer even more pro-Jewish editions and they bring in millions of Christian Zionists.</strong><br /><br />Joachim Martillo writes in his <a linkindex="163" href="http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2008/05/fight-judonia-now-or-never.html" target="_blank">Judonia</a>: <blockquote> "Jewish efforts benefit from organizational memory that does not exist in other lobbying situations. The longevity of Jewish Federation organizations can give Israel Lobbying efforts a generational aspect not seen elsewhere. For example, <strong>Israel Advocacy organizations worked for fifty years to delegitimize Arabists in the Foreign Service and State Department</strong>, and replace them with Israel-sympathetic personnel". </blockquote> Martllo erroneously connects this result with some specific pro-Israel organisation. Success of Zionism (and incidentally its crimes) is just the strawberry on top of the Jewish success cake. The Jews are engaged in advocacy of Jews, and consequently they delegitimize Arabists, or priests, or independent historians who do not subscribe to the notion that Jews are special in consistently beneficial way. <strong>Zionism is a result of Jewish pruning of history, and this pruned history is what we were taught.</strong><br /><br />There are no Arab sheiks or Russian oligarchs or American oilmen ready to finance anything long term of no immediate relevancy. They do not understand that practically <strong>every entry of encyclopaedia, every textbook, influence future generations</strong>. A correct entry on, say, Poincare or monotheism or Persian invasion could save potential Zionists from their delusions of grandeur.<br /><br />Wikipedia is a great idea for Jews: people of all nations from all over the world contribute of their knowledge, and then this Summa is pruned in the way acceptable to the pro-Jewish gardeners. <strong>Despite its "free" image, Wikipedia is part and parcel of the immense Judaised media holding, and thus is as biased as any other publication of the group from the New York Times (owned by Sulzberger) to Liberation (owned by Rothschild) to hundreds of Murdock papers.</strong><br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">Conclusion</span><br /><br /><strong>Wikipedia is an important asset, like the <em>New York Times</em>, but both are in the hands of enemies of freedom. </strong> Sometimes good and truthful articles or entries are to be found in both, but these are specks of gold dust placed there to salt the dud mine. We certainly want to democratise both; to make both really democratic and accessible. Until this is done, we should explain that <strong>both are tools of mind control not to be trusted or taken at face value</strong>. If Wiki wants to preserve some of its reliability, it must get rid of its Zionist enforcers. Not only of the CAMERA bumpkins, but of the hard men in black suits, the Agents Smith.<br /><br />[1] In an <a linkindex="164" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9028.shtml" target="_blank">article</a> by Osamah Khalil of Berkeley EI deservedly took Ibish to task for his "defense of Abbas' strategy of deference and obsequiousness to the US and Israel. According to Ibish's issue paper, Abbas' problem is not that he is a failed, corrupt and ineffectual leader who appears to Palestinians as an eager American tool, but that he is "uninspiring" and "lacks the charisma that many politicians rely upon, and is not an emotive speaker." Ibish's screed, continues EI, "deliberately ignores a thugocracy in Palestinian politics as embodied by Mohammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub and their ilk." His idea of an independent secular Palestinian state is a US-backed government of thieves and their enforcers... Ibish derides reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas as "utopian", as for him there is no alternative to Abbas' rule, American hyperpower, and Israel's military and economic dominance in the Middle East." </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-6386556885339282482009-07-09T08:37:00.001-06:002009-07-09T08:37:00.618-06:00Three Cheers for the Irish activists kidnapped by Israel<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/188654-Rousing-homecoming-for-Irish-activists-kidnapped-by-Israel" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Rousing homecoming for Irish activists kidnapped by Israel</a><br /> <p> Freda Hughes<br /> Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign<br /> Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:39 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div style="font-weight: bold;" class="article-image to-center"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23802/full/3_gpc_img_3152.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Michael Gallagher"><img style="width: 343px; height: 227px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23802/medium/3_gpc_img_3152.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span class="tiny">© Michael Gallagher</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><br /><span class="caption">IPSC members and other supporters greet the<br />heroes at Dublin Airport </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Speech by Freda Hughes,<br />National Events Coordinator of the IPSC</span></span><br /></div></div><span class="BoldGrey"><br />7th July 2009, Radisson Blu Hotel, <em>Free Gaza Homecoming</em> Press Conference.</span><br /><br />Last Monday 29th June, Derek and Mariead set sail on the Free Gaza boat the <em>Spirit of Humanity</em>, along with 19 other international peace activists on a mission to deliver much needed medical supplies, food, toys and olives tree to the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip has been officially under siege since 2007. A recent International Committee of the Red Cross report highlighted the stark living conditions for the people of this beleaguered strip.<br /><br />For example seriously ill patients are not getting the treatment they need and thousands of Gazans whose homes and belongings were destroyed half a year ago remain without adequate shelter. It states that the almost 4.5 billion dollars pledged for reconstruction by donor countries will be of little use as long as Israel prevents building materials and other essential items from being imported into the Gaza Strip. Essential water and sanitation infrastructure remain insufficient: every day the equivalent of 28 Olympic-size swimming pools of sewage is pumped directly, more or less untreated, into the Mediterranean. Hospitals are struggling because complex and lengthy Israeli import procedures slow down the delivery of basic medical necessities. The ICRC demanded that the restrictions on the movement of people and goods be lifted. This is also the stance of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.<br /><br /> <div class="article-image to-left"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23803/full/9_the_gaza_2_img_3268.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Michael Gallagher"><img style="width: 366px; height: 320px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23803/medium/9_the_gaza_2_img_3268.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="tiny">© Mi<span style="font-size:85%;">chael Gallagher</span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="caption"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Gaza 2: Derek Graham and Mairead Maguire</span><br /><br /></span></div></div>On a diplomatic level, the IPSC is calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement (also known as the Euro Med Agreement) on the grounds of constant Israeli breaches of Article 2 of the agreement. The agreement grants Israel preferential trading relations with EU member states, as well as cooperation in scientific, educational and artistic fields .<br /><br />Article 2 states that respect for human rights and democratic principles are - quote- "an essential element" - unquote - of the Euro Med Agreement. Essential, not optional. The Israeli slaughter in Gaza at the beginning of the year that left over 2,400 people dead, and the ongoing brutal Siege of Gaza in place since 2007 are just two in a long line of actions that have shown Israel's contempt for human rights and democratic principles.<br /><br />The IPSC feels, given that the EU is Israel's biggest trading partner, that even the threat of suspension of the Agreement could see a change in Israeli behaviour towards the Palestinians. However, it is not something the EU seems willing to act on. The IPSC therefore calls on the Irish Government to take a leading role in Europe in arguing for the suspension of the Euro Med Agreement.<br /><br />On an individual and institutional level, <strong>we advocate a comprehensive Economic, Cultural, Sporting and Academic Boycott campaign against the Apartheid State of Israel and its representatives</strong>, similar to the international campaign adopted against Apartheid South Africa. We also call on businesses involved with Israel to divest.<br /><br />We must remember that the kidnapping of the 21 Free Gaza activists, which, however horrific for the abductees and their families, is merely the latest in a long line of Israeli acts of disregard for international law - from the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948, to the illegal Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, to the brutal suppression of the first and second intifadas, to the ravaging of Gaza earlier this year, through to the ongoing Siege of Gaza of which the kidnapping is a part. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign will continue to fight against these, and future, injustices.<br /><br /><div class="article-image to-center"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23804/full/8_gpc_img_3174.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Michael Gallagher"><img style="width: 321px; height: 450px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23804/medium/8_gpc_img_3174.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span class="tiny">© Michael Gallagher</span></span></div></div> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-56756743929923990412009-07-05T15:52:00.006-06:002009-07-05T16:28:36.385-06:00Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney - Israeli Prisoner 88794<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/188429-Cynthia-McKinney-Prisoner-88794-call-Day-2-from-Prison#" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Cynthia McKinney - Prisoner 88794 call Day 2 from Prison</a><br /><p> Dandelion Salad<br /> Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:10 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <em>Cynthia McKinney calls in to WBAIX.org, now as Prisoner 88794 during her 2nd day in Prison. She tells the story in more detail and talks about the people she's meet in prison.</em><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tZPRKJzgkHA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tZPRKJzgkHA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <br /><br /> <strong>Letter from an Israeli Jail, by Cynthia McKinney</strong><br /><br />Written by Free Gaza Team<br /><a href="http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/986-letter-from-an-israeli-jail-by-cynthia-mckinney" target="_blank">Freegaza</a><br />Saturday, 04 July 2009 13:47<br /><br />This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.<br /><br />At the outbreak of Israel's Operation 'Cast Lead' [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day's notice and tried, as the US representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.<br /><br />During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16's rained hellfire on a trapped people.<strong> Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide.</strong> U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors.<strong> I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel's onslaught that Gaza had become Israel's veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.</strong><br /><br />The world saw Israel's despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water ... It's a miracle that I'm even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.<br /><br />The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime ... I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids?<br /><br />Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else's children.<strong> Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza's children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.</strong><br /><br />I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza's children could color & paint, that Gaza's wounded could be healed, and that Gaza's bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.<br /><br />But I've learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it's incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream ... like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better ... The once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.<br /><br />My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn't cheap. Many of them represent their family's best collective efforts for self-fulfilment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel only after they arrived Israel told them "there is no UN in Israel."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system.</span> These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a place of refuge and safety for the world's first Jews and Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.<br /><br />The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle's detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and 'yes we can' were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in.<br /><br /><strong>It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel's marketing to the world.</strong> It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.<br /><br />We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, for what they've done to others around the world.<br /><br />What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people's children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I'm experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I'm lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?<br /><br />Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do?<br /><br />Let's change the world together & reclaim what we all need as human beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to the United State's Department of State to include the plight of detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people.<br /><br />I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free Palestine, and to the women I've met at Ramle. This is Cynthia McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794.<br /><br /><div class="article-image-small to-center"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23660/full/340x245jpgcenter0.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Getty"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23660/pod/340x245jpgcenter0.jpg" alt="cynthia mckinney" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >© Getty</span></span><br /><br /></span></div></div>from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/AnitaStewart?ref=mf" target="_blank">Anita Stewart</a><br /><br />Breaking: From John Judge, Cynthia's press secretary during her Presidential campaign: <blockquote> I had another call from Cynthia McKinney who has been told she will remain imprisoned in Ramale, Israel until Monday, July 6 at least along with many others. She asked me to pass along this detail. Among their aid group were three Muslim women from Bahrain who spoke neither English nor Hebrew, and two men from Bahrain. All five of these people were released from custody and flown back to Bahrain in the private plane of the King of Bahrain Sheikh Hamad ibn 'Isa Al Khalifah, where they were welcomed as national heroes. </blockquote> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-12359108767008573592009-06-25T11:04:00.000-06:002009-06-25T11:04:01.359-06:00Long, Slow, Cruel: Endless Isolation in Israeli Prisons<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/187625-Prolonged-Solitary-Confinement-in-Israeli-Prison-Prescription-for-Slow-Death-or-Insanity#" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Prolonged Solitary Confinement in Israeli Prison: Prescription for Slow Death or Insanity</a><br /><p> The Palestinian Information Center<br /> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:59 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image-small to-left"><a linkindex="184" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23209/full/DataFiles_5CCache_5CTempImgs_5C.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/23209/pod/DataFiles_5CCache_5CTempImgs_5C.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div>With a voice full of hope for a brighter future, and optimism that the end of suffering is near, the prisoner Hasan Salamah repeated songs he has memorized in order to break the routine of a deadly dull life in cramped isolation cells where mercy is unknown and the only smells are those associated with depression, death or insanity.<br /><br />The prisoner, Salamah, sentenced to several life sentences, has been held in solitary confinement for six years. The occupation authorities have accused him of responsibility for the deaths of scores of Zionists. He is one of more than 100 Palestinian prisoners being held in isolation cells in various sections of Israeli prisons. This isolation may continue for many years so as to drill into the prisoner's mind, body and soul effects which can not be easily erased. The psyche and the body are subjected to ongoing pressure by being deprived of everything, even the simplest conversation with another human being.<br /><br />Although isolation is a punishment which is supposed to be limited to a specific duration, the occupation has deliberately set no time limits on it so as to crank up the psychological pressure on prisoners. Isolation is periodically extended throughout the period of confinement by means of a kangaroo court known as the Court of Extended Isolation. The prisoner is brought before the court without ever being informed of the reason for his isolation, which is usually based upon a recommendation by the Zionist internal security service, Shin Bet. The prisoner is merely informed that his isolation has been extended on the basis of confidential material. The extension will be for a year if the isolation is partial (i.e., two persons in one cell) and for a period of six months if the prisoner is completely alone in the cell. Throughout this new term the prisoner continues to endure all the forms of suffering he had previously endured until he is brought before a new court in the following year to receive a new extension from the judge for another year for the same reasons (confidential material), and so on, year after year.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="BoldGrey">Punishment for Leaders!</span><br /><br />According to the Ministry of Current and Released Prisoners, in a report on prisoners being held in isolation, the Israeli Department of Corrections imposes the punishment of isolation on those prisoners accused of carrying out major resistance attacks that led to the death of Zionists or on prisoners who are considered leaders of the nationalist movement among the prisoners, whose words carry weight with the other prisoners.<br /><br />The goal is to humiliate the prisoner, break his will, destroy his psyche, and turn him into a body without a spirit. They are keen to turn him into fertile ground for the spread of debilitating diseases that weaken the bones and impair vision. They want the isolated prisoner to lose both spirit and body, so that he will long for death a thousand times rather than remain stuck within the same walls, talking to himself and counting the hours and days that drag by, waiting to emerge from this dark tomb.<br /><br />Riyad al-Ashqar, director of the Information Department of the Ministry, explains that isolation is of two types: The first is in individual cells -called snuke- in which a prisoner is held in solitary confinement. These are no bigger than 1.5 × 2 meters, and there is no room to move, walk or pray. There is one mattress, a blanket, one bottle for relieving oneself, and another for drinking water. The prisoner is only allowed to go to the bathroom once a day.<br /><br />In these cells prisoners lose all sense of time; they do not know the times of prayer or even when day turns to night. They are not allowed to have watches, radios, newspapers, or any means of communication with the outside world, nor are they permitted to purchase anything from the prison canteen.<br /><br />The second type of isolation is in a wing of the prison completely devoted to isolation cells. The cells in these sections are slightly better than snuke, and are large enough to house more than one prisoner. They have a toilet inside each cell, and prisoners are allowed to prepare food inside the cell.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="BoldGrey">The Prisoners Subjected to the Greatest Isolation</span><br /><br />Al-Ashqar explained that the number of prisoners being held in isolation is more than 100 prisoners in various prisons, with some being held in solitary confinement within the isolation wings of the prisons of Askalan, Ramla, Ayalon, Nafha and Beer Sheba. There are a number of prisoners who have been singled out by the prison management for punishment by isolation on a continuous basis. They are:<br /> <ul><li>Hasan Salamah, from the city of Khan Younis, has been sentenced to dozens of life sentences. So far he has spent six years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Hamid Ibrahim, from Silwad, has been sentenced to dozens of life sentences. He has been held in isolation ever since his initial arrest more than three years ago.</li><br /><li>Mahmoud Eesa, from Jerusalem, has been sentenced to several life sentences. So far he has spent eight years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Tayseer Samoudi, from Yamoun, has spent more than 14 years being shifted from one isolation cell to another.</li><br /><li>Mu'taz Hijazi, from Jerusalem, was sentenced to 11 years. So far he has spent six years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Abd al-Naser Halees has spent more than ten years so far in isolation.</li><br /><li>Jamal Abu Haija of Jenin, has been sentenced to several life sentences. So far he has spent four years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Abdullah al-Barghouthi, of Ramallah, has been sentenced to dozens of life sentences. So far he has spent five years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Ahmed al-Maghrabi, from Bethlehem, has been sentenced to several life sentences. So far he has spent five years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Mohammed Jamal Natsheh, from Hebron; a member of a Legislative Council, he was sentenced to eight years. He has spent five years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Uwaydah Kallab from the Gaza Strip, was condemned to life imprisonment. He has stayed more than ten years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Hisham Sharbati was sentenced to eight years; he has spent three years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Zaher Jabareen, from Hebron, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He has been isolated more than once; the longest period was for two years.</li><br /><li>Musa Dudeen, from Hebron, was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been subjected to isolation more than six times.</li><br /><li>Mahawish Nu'aymat of Rafah has spent more than a year in isolation since his arrest.</li><br /><li>Mohammed Jaber Ubaydi, of the town of Kafr Ni'ma, has spent four years in isolation.</li><br /><li>Usamah al-Ainabusi of the town of Tubas.</li><br /><li>Saleh Dar Musa from the town of Bayt Luqya.</li><br /><li>Jihad Yaghmour of Jerusalem.</li></ul> <br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="BoldGrey">Suffering without Limits</span><br /><br />Al-Ashqar identified a number of forms of suffering endured by prisoners confined in isolation cells. Among the most serious is being confined in sections that house common criminals; there they are subjected to every form of abuse, curses, and having flammable liquids thrown at them. They are also subjected to a steady assault on their religious sentiments and continued harassment by loud music, constant drumming on their doors and being repeatedly subjected to prisoner counts at short intervals.<br /><br />Prisoners are not allowed to go out to the exercise "yard" except one hour a day, and the guards manipulate the timing of that hour so that on bitterly cold days they come at six in the morning to announce that anyone who wants to exercise must wake up. If one prisoner wants to sleep and the other wants to go out, the one who stays must wake up to have manacles placed on his hands so that the other can go out. If he doesn't wake up, the other will be deprived of the opportunity to go out in the yard. If they both want to go out, manacles are put on both, and they go out one by one. Frequently one of them will be required to remain out in the yard in manacles. Worse still, manacles are a feature of all the details of daily life. Prisoners are handcuffed when the trash is taken out, when receiving visits from lawyers or family members, and when going out to the clinic or the court. The prisoner will be placed on the examination bed and made to lie with his hands under his back. Prisoners are even forced to give urine samples in a most humiliating way while manacled.<br /><br />The prisoner in isolation is imposed upon in all aspects of life. The prison administration may, for instance, require one prisoner to be paired off with another in cells that are usually cramped and poorly ventilated. The administration will deliberately pair a non-smoker with a smoker or a religious prisoner with a non-religious one to set the prisoners up for 24-hours-a-day of conflict. If one of them tries to protest or get a transfer away from the other, the solution is blows and truncheons. They are forced to live together, and if they refuse, all their personal belongings are confiscated and the cell is converted to a snuke or torture chamber stripped of all personal belongings. More than once the brothers are told, "One of you could get rid of the other by having the other one die."<br /><br />A prisoner is subjected to the severest penalties if he reads the Qur'an aloud, or breaks anything inadvertently, or speaks with another prisoner in the section. If a piece of metal, wire or string tied for some particular purpose is found in a cell, all electrical devices will be removed from it and the prisoner will be denied access to the canteen and the daily exercise outing. As for visits from family members, these are already prohibited, except in rare cases.<br /><br />In addition, there are sudden raids in the middle of the night by a special unit wearing masks and equipped with video cameras. They conduct violent searches in which the prisoner is stripped naked for no reason and handcuffed while his personal belongings are broken and trifled with and the room is turned upside down. After the inspection is completed, the door is locked and the prisoner sticks his hands through a large hole in the bottom of the door to have the handcuffs removed. For two or three days after an inspection a prisoner will work to restore order to his room, only to have the same procedure repeated a few days later.<br /><br />If a prisoner in isolation is afflicted by any health ailment he will have to go through a complicated set of procedures before being able to see a doctor. He will have to register for the clinic several times. Often the isolation section will have a specific day of the week set aside when those prisoners are allowed to go out for clinic visits. If the day is Monday, for example, and the prisoner gets sick on Tuesday, he will have to wait the whole week before being allowed to go to the clinic. If the officer assigned to take him happens to be busy or has the day off, he loses his chance and has to wait for another week. When he does finally get to the clinic he will remain handcuffed during the examination and forced to listen to insults from the doctor and the nurse. If blood tests or imaging are necessary, he will have to wait for months, if he ever gets one.<br /><br />Isolation wings tend to be unhealthy places with poor ventilation and poor hygiene; rats run on the food, and the rooms are filled with cockroaches and mosquitoes. Worst of all, the daily exercise yard is no more than a room 5 meters longs by 4 meters wide with a cement roof. It gets no sun, and it is not possible to use it for exercise or even a walk, it being frequently filled with the leftovers of the common criminals, such as urine, feces and other filth.<br /><br />Prisoners in isolation are denied all religious rights such as holidays, Friday prayers, even religious books. A prisoner may even sometimes have his prayer rug taken away. They are, likewise, deprived of family visits and of newspapers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="BoldGrey">Psychological effects</span><br /><br />The report pointed out that isolation leaves great psychological effects on a prisoner. For years on end he does not see anyone; he is either entirely alone or with one other person, but the two of them cannot mingle with other people. He is subjected to all forms of psychological torture and deprivation, and then when he shows some signs of protest or of being affected by his situation, he is accused of being suicidal. Force is immediately brought to bear; his hands and feet are bound fast to a high iron "perch" on which he sleeps. He is set free only twice a day for half an hour each in the morning and evening to eat and go to the bathroom.<br /><br />Many international human rights organizations have confirmed that isolation leaves clear, striking psychological effects on prisoners. Some prisoners go insane as a result of isolation from the world for long periods, for humans are by nature social beings; they need to talk with others. Should a person be forcibly deprived of expression of this natural instinct, he will be vulnerable to serious mental illnesses that will affect the course of his life.<br /><br />The prisoner Uwaydah Kallab from the Gaza Strip was sentenced to life imprisonment and has spent 20 years in Israeli prisons, during which he has been isolated for more than 12 years. This has led to serious mental illness and the loss of mental and legal competence. It has resulted in his inability to recognize his friends in prison. He refuses the visits of his relatives, and he refuses to acknowledge his only son, who was a young child when Uwaydah was taken away and is now a young man.<br /><br />Afeef Awawidah is suffering a serious psychiatric illness caused by isolation for long periods. The prison administration attempted to exploit the prisoner's disease by goading him to attack one of his colleagues in isolation. The prisoner Darwish Dawhal is also suffering from a psychological and neurological condition as a result of solitary confinement; he does not wish to talk with anyone or come out of his cell for the daily exercise session.<br /><br />There are many other prisoners who are suffering from depression and mental illness as a result of isolation from the world for long periods. The situation calls for a serious stand to stop this criminal policy against the prisoners, which is in contravention of humanitarian conventions. The ministry is calling for immediate intervention by international institutions to curb the Israeli policy of punishing our male and female prisoners by isolation, and to improve the living conditions in prisons to bring them in line with the requirements of international law. They need to do that before they make demands of the Palestinians to release Corporal Gilad Shalit or allow him a visit by the Red Cross. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-5339432910608014952009-06-20T11:15:00.000-06:002009-06-20T11:15:01.992-06:00Israeli Psyops: Tweeting for Iran destabilization<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-knew-it-truth-behind-teharan-tweets.html" target="_blank">I knew it! The truth behind the Tehran tweets</a></span> <p> David Seaton<br /> David Seaton's News Links<br /> Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:51 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> I have found myself getting more and more suspicious about the western media coverage of the Iranian elections and their aftermath.<br /><br />As I <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/2009/06/iran-keeping-our-eye-on-ball.html" target="_blank">wrote before</a>, What I do know for sure is that there are two simultaneous stories: <br /><br />1.) What is actually happening in Iran<br /><br />and<br /><br />2.) How it is being reported here.<br /><br /><strong>What I see is that my point two is pushing Bibi Netanyahu and his version of a Palestinian "state" off the front pages.<br /><br />It is a good thing to remember that while Iran, in reality, actually poses no threat to Israel's existence (Persians are not suicidal), a free, sovereign Palestinian state in "Judea and Samaria" does. or at least to Bibi's version of it. In my opinion the neocons are back at work.</strong> <br /><br />The run up to Iraq made me a bit paranoid I'm afraid, and all those who whooped up that war, haven't folded their tents or committed harakiri either, they are still with us. I simply don't trust the intentions of the US media, not then, not now.<br /><br />Just like during the run up to the war in Iraq, the US media is not checking the sources, they are just gushing over the twitters and their tweets. And that is professional negligence if there ever was, because they are quite fishy.<br /><br />Have you noticed that <em>you</em> can read all these Iranian "tweets"? Are you aware that the language of Iran is Farsi, not English? Does this piece of information suggest anything to you? Perhaps, the world is like in Hollywood movies where all the exotic character speak English, albeit with charming foreign accents? Or maybe, the dial on a person's bullshit meter might tremble a bit?<br /><br />But, unlike the run up to the war in Iraq, this time some amateurs have take the trouble to do the homework that the "professionals" seem too understaffed to do themselves.<br /><br />A financial website, "<a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.chartingstocks.net/" target="_blank">Charting Stocks</a>", has taken the trouble that the MSM can't be bothered with and has exposed a very effective Israeli psy-op. <br /><br />So, whatever is actually happening in Tehran, we now know that the Israelis are manipulating our perceptions.<br /><br />Sit back and read this: <blockquote> <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/06/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/" target="_blank">Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection</a><br /><br />Right-wing Israeli interests are engaged in an all out Twitter attack with hopes of delegitimizing the Iranian election and causing political instability within Iran.<br /><br />Anyone using Twitter over the past few days knows that the topic of the Iranian election has been the most popular. Thousands of tweets and retweets alleging that the election was a fraud, calling for protests in Iran, and even urging followers hack various Iranian news websites (which they did successfully). The Twitter popularity caught the eye of various blogs such as Mashable and TechCrunch and even made its way to mainstream news media sites.<br /><br />Were these legitimate Iranian people or the works of a propaganda machine? I became curious and decided to investigate the origins of the information. In doing so, I narrowed it down to a handful of people who have accounted for 30,000 Iran related tweets in the past few days. Each of them had some striking similarities -<br /><br />1. They each created their twitter accounts on Saturday June 13th.<br />2. Each had extremely high number of Tweets since creating their profiles.<br />3. "IranElection" was each of their most popular keyword<br />4. With some very small exceptions, each were posting in ENGLISH.<br />5. Half of them had the exact same profile photo<br />6. Each had thousands of followers, with only a few friends. Most of their friends were EACH OTHER.<br /><br />Why were these tweets in English? Why were all of these profiles OBSESSED with Iran? It became obvious that this was the work of a team of people with an interest in destabilizing Iran. The profiles are phonies and were created with the sole intention of destabilizing Iran and effecting public opinion as to the legitimacy of Iran's election.<br /><br />I narrowed the spammers down to three of the most persistent - @StopAhmadi @IranRiggedElect @Change_For_Iran<br /><br />I decided to do a google search for 2 of the 3 - @StopAhmadi and @IranRiggedElect. The first page to come up was JPost (<em>Jerusalem Post</em>) which is a right wing newspaper pro-Israeli newspaper.<br /><br />JPost actually ran a story about 3 people "who joined the social network mere hours ago have already amassed thousands of followers." <strong>Why would a news organization post a story about 3 people who JUST JOINED TWITTER hours earlier? Is that newsworthy? </strong>JPost was the first (and only to my knowledge) major news source that mentioned these 3 spammers.<br /><br />JPost, a major news organization, promoted these three Twitterers who went on the be the source of the IranElection Twitter bombardment. Why is JPost so concerned about Iranian students all of a sudden (which these spammers claim to be)? I must admit that I had my suspicions. After all, Que Bono? (who benefits).<br /><br />There's no question that Israel perceives Iran as an enemy, more so than any other nation. According to a recent poll, more than half of Israel's population support using military force against Iran if they do not cease from developing nuclear energy (which they have the legal right to do as per the NNP treaty). Oddly enough, this comes out of a country which is not a cosigner to the NNP treaty and has no right to develop nuclear energy, yet posses an arsenal of nuclear BOMBS.<br /><br />Of course, Mousavi himself plays an important role in causing the social unrest within Iran. How often do you see a candidate declare himself the winner before any votes are counted and then, when faced with defeat, call the entire election process a fraud? As obvious as it was in our own 2000 election, Al Gore would not touch the topic of voter fraud. No major US politician goes near the subject. They know full well that such an accusation would shake the entire foundation of our democracy and threaten the political structures that are in place.<br /><br />These twitting spammers began crying foul before the final votes were even counted, just as Mousavi had. The spammer @IranRiggedElect created his profile before a winner was announced and preformed the public service of informing us in the United States , in English and every 10 minutes, of the unfair election. He did so unselfishly, and without any regard for his fellow friends and citizens of Iran, who don't speak English and don't use Twitter!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Meet The Spammers:<br /><br /></span>IranRiggedElect<br />3146 followers. 31 friends.<br />340 tweets in past 4 days. none before that.<br />Top 5 words - iranelection, cnnfail, mousavi, tehran,<br />All tweets in English<br />Time: Bulk between 12pm and 2pm eastern standard time<br />Most retweets: @StopAhmadi @IranElection09 @change_for_iran<br /><br />Change_for_Iran<br />14,000 followers. 0 friends<br />117 tweets in 2 days. none before that.<br />All tweets in English<br />Time: Bulk between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm eastern.<br />Top 5 words: iranelection, people, police, right, students<br />No retweets<br /><br />IranElection09<br />800 followers. 9 friends.<br />196 tweets in 3 days. none before that.<br />185 in English. 11 in Farsi (Arabic appearing letters. Not sure if it's Farsi)<br />Time: bulk between 2:00pm and 6:00pm eastern. Also 1:00am.<br />Top 5 words: iranelection, rt, mousavi, tehran, march<br />Most retweets: @IranRiggedElect @StopAhmadi<br /><br />StopAhmadi<br />6199 followers. 53 friends.<br />1107 tweets in past 3 days. None before then.<br />top 5 words: iranelection, ppl, news, rt, iran.<br />All tweets in English<br />Time: bulk between 9:00am and 5:00pm eastern<br />Most retweets: @mohamadreza @mahdi<br /><br />mohamadreza<br />1433 followers. 142 friends<br />(protected account. cant see data)<br /><br />The following all have the same photo in their profile and are followed by the profiles previously mentioned.<br /><br />http://twitter.com/SadeqEn<br />http://twitter.com/greenvote<br />http://twitter.com/Change_for_Iran (14,000 followers)<br />http://twitter.com/iranbaan<br />http://twitter.com/sdavood<br />http://twitter.com/IranElection09 (800 followers. 9 friends.) </blockquote>One of the few things that I am sure of and understand in this situation is that the government of Israel, and those they influence, would like the USA to attack Iran. Up till now there has been little or no enthusiasm in the USA for doing so. How to "create" that enthusiasm? Stay tuned. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-86803671042292269602009-06-19T10:44:00.000-06:002009-06-19T10:44:01.726-06:00Biting the hand that feeds: Israeli minister wants sanctions on US<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186874-Biting-the-hand-that-feeds-Israeli-minister-wants-sanctions-on-US"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a linkindex="12" target="_blank">Biting the hand that feeds: Israeli minister wants sanctions on US</a></span> <p> Justin Raimondo<br /> Antiwar.com<br /> Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:15 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image to-right"><a linkindex="13" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22808/full/1_1_cover.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22808/medium/1_1_cover.jpg" alt="Anti-Americanism" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div>Obama gets tough with the Israelis - or, rather, <a linkindex="14" href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042009/news/worldnews/obama_heat_on_israeli_settlers_172501.htm" target="_blank">talks</a> about getting tough - and hilarity <a linkindex="15" href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371046569&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull" target="_blank">ensues</a>: <blockquote> "In a sign of growing concern in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government over U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policies, Minister-without-Portfolio <strong>Yossi Peled proposed Israeli sanctions on the U.S</strong>. in a letter to cabinet ministers on Sunday.<br /><br />"In the 11-page letter, obtained by the <em>Jerusalem Post</em> from a minister on Monday, Peled recommends steps Israel can take to compensate for the shift in American policy, which he believes has become hostile to Israel." </blockquote>According to Peled, the Obama administration will eventually come to realize the error of its ways, but for now the U.S. president seems intent on exerting "intensive pressure to stop building in settlements, remove outposts, and advance the formation of a Palestinian state" - all steps previously <a linkindex="16" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all" target="_blank">agreed to</a> by Israeli leaders, by the way, and now thrown <a linkindex="17" href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073771.html" target="_blank">in the trash bin</a> by the far-Right nutballs who have captured the Israeli government.<br /><br />"But in the interim," the <em>Post </em>reports, "the minister suggests reconsidering military and civilian purchases from the U.S., selling sensitive equipment that the Washington opposes distributing internationally, and allowing other countries that compete with the U.S. to get involved with the peace process and be given a foothold for their military forces and intelligence agencies."<br /><br /> <strong>The irony of someone "reconsidering military and civilian purchases" which are being made, or will be made, with <a linkindex="18" href="http://criticalconcern.com/an-iron-triangle.htm" target="_blank">our money</a> is a real hoot</strong> - but the laughs are just starting!<br /><br />There's just one conceivable answer to the suggestion that Israel should start "selling sensitive equipment that Washington opposes distributing internationally": when did they ever stop? <strong>The Israelis have been stealing U.S. technology and selling it to the Chinese - for <a linkindex="19" href="http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6852" target="_blank">one example</a> - for years</strong>, much to Washington's chagrin. So does this mean they're going to be doing it openly, instead of sneaking around and doing it on the sly?<br /><br />As for the idea of giving "other countries that compete with the U.S." a military foothold - go for it, Yossi! I can hardly wait until the Venezuelan army arrives to guard <a linkindex="20" href="http://www.sojo.net/magazine/archives/soj0311/images/031122.jpg" target="_blank">the Wall of Separation</a>. And no doubt the Chinese - grateful for all the high-tech weaponry you've stolen on their behalf - will be more than happy to guard the illegal settlements you're building (with our tax dollars).<br /><br />And although the French would be grateful, I'm sure, if the Israelis switched from Boeing to Airbus - as Peled suggests - they probably wouldn't want to get involved militarily. The most you can expect is that they'll displace Jerry Lewis from their national pantheon of comedic culture heroes and install <a style="color: orange;" linkindex="21" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbvNQd8kHXM" target="_blank">this guy</a> in his place.<br /><br />Oh, but we haven't even gotten to the best part of this "news from Bizarro World" item: <blockquote> "In what may be his most controversial suggestion, <strong>Peled recommends intervening in American congressional races to weaken Obama and asking American Jewish donors not to contribute to Democratic congressional candidates.</strong> He predicted that this would result in Democratic candidates pressuring Obama to become more pro-Israel." </blockquote> Israel intervene in U.S. politics - why, what a novel idea! If Peled hadn't suggested it, it would never - <a linkindex="22" href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS305US305&q=lobby%2Bsite%3Aantiwar.com&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=" target="_blank">ever</a> - have occurred to me.<br /><br />Okay, now that you've stopped laughing, just consider: look at all the pro-Israel <a linkindex="23" href="http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Israel/AIPAC%27S_Dangerous_Grip.html" target="_blank">money</a> that has flowed into the coffers of U.S. congressional candidates, and you have to wonder - is it really enough? Surely the Israelis can afford to ship a few million of those billions we give them directly back to Washington. And, when you think about it, isn't this a way for the Israelis to make up for their boycott of Boeing and other U.S. providers - by pumping extra millions into the U.S. economy, via the campaign chests of our elected officials? They don't call it a "special relationship" for nothing.<br /><br />The reality, of course, is that the <strong>Israelis and their American <a linkindex="24" href="http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j012403.html" target="_blank">amen corner</a> are already buying up U.S. politicians by the dozen</strong> - no, AIPAC doesn't do it directly, they do it through a complex network of local and regional political action committees. As for the idea of Israel and its American friends exerting pressure on a U.S. official in exchange for under-the-table favors - like, say, intervening in an espionage case - well, it is <a linkindex="25" href="http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=hsnews-000003098436" target="_blank">absolutely</a> un<em><a linkindex="26" href="http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/04/source-wiretap-caught-harman-d.html" target="_blank">heard</a></em> of...<br /><br />Or is it?<br /><br />You really can't make this stuff up, and, what's more, you don't have to bother. Because the <a linkindex="27" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/20/politics/main1820193.shtml" target="_blank">last</a> <a linkindex="28" href="http://www.forward.com/articles/14912/" target="_blank">two</a> times the Israelis went in and slaughtered a few thousands of their neighbors, the U.S. Congress voted to hail them as heroes. <strong>When it become clear that our president wouldn't be catering to the Israelis' each and every whim, AIPAC <a linkindex="29" href="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/15/hoyer-cantor-aipac-letter/" target="_blank">circulated a letter</a> demanding that the White House not "pressure" Tel Aviv - and <a linkindex="30" href="http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/20/1005290/three-quarters-of-senate-signs-aipac-backed-letter-on-middle-east" target="_blank">more than three-quarters</a> of the U.S. Senate signed it, along with the vast majority of House members.</strong><br /><br />Congress is already "Israeli-occupied territory," as one wag famously put it, so Peled's suggestion is redundant, to say the least. What I suggest, however, is that they start a campaign to impeach Obama, and, once they've succeeded, they should finance and run their own candidate for the White House. After all, <a linkindex="31" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62438-2004Sep4?language=printer" target="_blank">look how</a> they <a linkindex="32" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn0821.html" target="_blank">got rid of</a> Cynthia McKinney and filled her seat with a suitable replacement.<br /><br />Yes, the laughs just keep on coming: <blockquote> "Peled called for the formation of a new body intended to influence American public opinion. The groups he suggests courting include Hispanic Americans and labor unions in industries that benefit from Israeli military acquisitions." </blockquote> What a great idea: they can call the "new body" the "Elders of Zion" and put out a manifesto entitled - what else? - <em><a linkindex="33" href="http://www.skepdic.com/protocols.html" target="_blank">The Protocols</a></em>. Then they can translate it into Spanish and pass it out at taco joints and factory gates (those that aren't closed on account of the recession and the Israeli boycott of U.S. goods and services). Now there's a winning strategy if ever I saw one!<br /><br />Seriously, though, what gets me are the disingenuous responses to the Peled sanctions campaign from our pro-Israel lobbyists. "He's right," said Shoshana Bryen, senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, but maybe he shouldn't talk so loud: "She warned that such expressions could 'take on a life of their own,'" the <em>Post</em> reports, "and that some of Peled's policy prescriptions could be less than helpful for the Jewish state."<br /><br />Well, yes, Bryen does have a point: what if the U.S. suddenly stopped the <a linkindex="34" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/christison03052009.html" target="_blank">$3 billion-plus</a> in annual aid to the Jewish state? That might prove less than helpful, to be sure. And, even worse, the idea that our Israeli "allies" are faithless, spoiled, and have an unjustifiable sense of entitlement might take on a life of its own, so to speak - and help ensure that the aid cutoff is total, and permanent.<br /><br />Not that this will ever happen, you understand, not even if the Israelis bombed Washington with those U.S.-bought-and-paid-for <a linkindex="35" href="http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/6/israel_f16_attack_kills_father_of" target="_blank">fighter jets</a>. Smarties like Ira Forman are way ahead of Peled on this: <blockquote>"Democratic political activists in Washington dismissed out of hand Peled's suggestions, saying that such an approach would have little chance of influencing Congress' posture on Israel. 'It shows Yossi Peled is terribly uninformed about U.S. politics,' said National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira Forman. 'He doesn't understand the politics of the American Jewish community. He doesn't understand the politics of the Democratic Party.'" </blockquote>In short, Peled doesn't understand that the U.S. Congress has already been bought and sold by pro-Israel money - and that any more cash would be redundant. Peled also doesn't understand that no one is supposed to talk about this, unless they're an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president who never had much of a chance anyway. <strong>Nothing is ever said, yet the quid pro quo is all-too-well understood.</strong><br /><br />The <em>Post</em> reports Forman's comment that "such efforts, if attempted, would neither shift congressional support away from Obama nor boomerang to hurt Israel's backing on Capitol Hill," and I'd lay odds on it. Before any "boomerang effect" sets in, at least in the hallowed halls of Congress, the Israelis would have to set off a couple of nukes in major American cities - and even then, there would probably be a congressional resolution expressing undying support for the "special relationship" in spite of all that bothersome radioactivity.<br /><br />Okay, we've all had our laugh for the day, a light moment that enables us to rise above the depressing everyday reality, but before we return to the mundane world of the distinctly non-amusing, let's consider just who <a linkindex="36" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yossi_Peled" target="_blank">Yossi Peled</a> is, and his place in the Israeli political landscape. Surely he's some fire-breathing extremist, a Kahanist or a supporter of Avigdor Lieberman's neo-fascist party - right? Wrong. According to the <em>Jerusalem Post</em>, he's a "moderate," a relative "dove" who's a Likudnik, albeit on the "left" flank of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party. In which case, can you imagine what the real extremists are wont to do in response to Obama's new policy?<br /><br />For years, we've heard about how "pro-American" the Israelis are: why, they're just like us - a democratic and inherently Western state that is embedded in an anti-American sea. Well, <a linkindex="37" href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091469.html" target="_blank">not anymore</a>. Today, the Foreign Ministry of Israel is run by a man who could be compared, with <a linkindex="38" href="http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9923" target="_blank">much justification</a>, to the failed painter from Vienna, or at least a Bizarro World Jewish version of the same.<br /><br />Israelis want to deport their Arabs, seize their land, and construct a "Greater Israel." What's more, <strong>anti-Americanism is on the rise in Israel - as Peled's comments suggest - and the most anti-American of them all appear to be those Israeli-American dual citizens who vote in U.S. elections and go to Israel regularly</strong>, where Max Blumenthal recently <a linkindex="39" href="http://maxblumenthal.com/2009/06/feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-the-eve-of-obamas-speech-in-cairo/" target="_blank">captured</a> their rabid anti-American sentiments on video.<br /><br />What I want to know is this: when, oh, when will the American people wake up to the basic absurdity of the "special relationship" - and put an end to it, forever? Their president, it seems, is aware that our national interests are not served by this condition of mutual resentment and dependency. <strong>Now that Israel's true face is showing, how long before all the public relations efforts in the world fail to mask the ugly reality?</strong><br /><br />And the reality is this: <strong>Israel has been a <a linkindex="40" href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html" target="_blank">burden</a>, not a benefit, to the U.S. and its national interests abroad.</strong> By giving the Jewish state our unconditional support, we have, ironically, set ourselves up for some "blowback" from Israel's direction - and it isn't pretty, is it? </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-65779556090475871102009-06-18T09:43:00.000-06:002009-06-18T09:43:00.212-06:00Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186994-Does-Israel-Really-Have-a-Right-to-Exist-"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?</a></span> <p> Susan Abulhawa<br /> Dissident Voice<br /> Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:29 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22920/full/latuff_the_palestinian_right_to.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 401px; height: 305px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22920/full/latuff_the_palestinian_right_to.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Following Netanyahu's much anticipated policy speech, politicians and journalists, like mindless automatons, have set about repeating Israel's tired mantra that Palestinians should recognize Israel's right to exist. <strong>Never mind the fact that the PLO and Palestine Authority have obliged this ludicrous call, not once, but four times. And never mind that Israel has always denied Palestine's right to exist, not only as a nation, but as individuals seeking a dignified life in our own homeland.</strong><br /><br />Does anyone find it interesting that Israel is the only country on the planet going around with this incessant insistence that everyone recognize her right to exist? <strong>Given that we Palestinians are the ones who have been dispossessed, occupied, and oppressed, one might expect that we should be the ones making such a demand.</strong> But that isn't the case. Why? <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="BoldRed">Because our right to exist as a nation is self-evident. We are the natives of that land! We know we have that right. The world knows it.</span> That's why Palestine doesn't need Israel or any other country to recognize her right to exist. <strong>We are the rightful heirs to that land and this can be verified legally, historically, culturally, and even genetically.</strong> And as such, the only true legitimacy Israel will ever have must come from us abdicating our inheritance, our history, and our culture to Israel. That's why Israel insists we declare she had a right to take everything we ever had - from home and property, cemeteries, churches and mosques, to culture and history and hope.<br /><br />Israel is a country that was founded by Europeans who came to Palestine, formed terrorist gangs who set about a systematic ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians from their homes on 78% of Historic Palestine in 1948. Those Palestinians and their descendants still languish in refugee camps. Israel attempted a similar scenario in 1967 when they conquered the remainder of Palestine, but Palestinians then couldn't be dislodged from their homes as easily. This remains true, despite 40 years of Israel's violent and oppressive military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.<strong> Despite home demolitions, land confiscations, rapacious building of Jewish-only colonies, endless checkpoints, targeted assassinations, bombings of schools, hospitals, municipal buildings and malls, closures and denials; despite the massive human rights abuses, the imprisonment and torture of men women and children alike, the separation of families, the daily humiliations; despite the massive killings - Palestinians remain. We still resist. We still live, love, and have babies.</strong> As much as we can, we rebuild what Israel destroys. Such are rights!<br /><br />Rights are inherent and inherently just, like the right to live with dignity and to be masters of one's own fate. It is a human right not be persecuted and oppressed because you happen to belong to one religion and not another.<br /><br />That Israelis simply take property belonging to Palestinians is not a right. <strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">That is theft.</strong> That Israel cut off the movement of food, medicine and other basic goods to the Gaza strip, causing massive malnutrition, economic collapse and misery because Palestinians elected particular leaders is not a right. <strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">That is an affront to humanity.</strong> That Israel rain death from the skies on an already battered and starved Gaza, murdering over 3000 human beings and maiming thousands more in a single month is not a right.<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">It's a war crime</strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">. </span>That Israel has employed every imperialistic tactic to subjugate, humiliate, break, and expel an entire nation of principally unarmed civilians because of their religion is not a right. <strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">It is a moral obscenity.</strong> That every Jew from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia be entitled to dual citizenship, one in their native country and one in Israel, while the rightful heirs to the land linger as refugees without citizenship anywhere is not a right. <strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">It is an outrage.</strong><br /><br />I'm sure my words will be twisted in some way to imply that I'm advocating pushing Israelis "into the sea" or some other asinine claim. So let me be explicit: We all have the right to exist, to live, to be masters of our own destiny. We all have the right not to be oppressed by others. Such rights are inherent to every individual living in that land: Jew, Muslim, or Christian. <span style="font-style: italic;">But Israelis do not have the right to create particular religious demographics by causing the demise of the natives.</span> To be a Jewish [or Muslim or Christian] state, where privilege is accorded to those belonging to a particular religion at the expense of those who do not is not a right.<br /><br />A nation that discriminates against and oppresses those who do not belong to a particular religious, racial, or ethnic group is not a light onto nations.<strong> It is a blight.</strong> And to recognize such racism as a human or national right goes against every tenet of international law. It defies the basic sense that the worth of a human being should not be measured by their religion, any more than it should be measured by the color of their skin or the language they speak.<br /><br /><em>Susan Abulhawa is the author of</em> The Scar of David, <em>a work of historic fiction. She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, www.PlaygroundsforPalestine.org and Board Member of Deir Yassin Remembered. She can be reached at: sjabulhawa@yahoo.com.</em> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-19193715344849238182009-06-15T10:52:00.000-06:002009-06-15T10:52:00.619-06:00Gaza: No Right to Life. Collaborate or DieWith the lack of medical services in Gaza, critically ill patients must travel into Israel for treatment. Many are asked to collaborate with Israeli intelligence services before they receive aid. It has been alleged that if they refuse to become informers they are refused medical treatment.<br /><br /><div align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SAGCObIS7yw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=it&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-87360161469378048152009-06-14T09:57:00.000-06:002009-06-14T09:57:00.494-06:00What are they hiding? Flight 447 and Tunguska Type EventsEvery now and then we have to lift our eyes up (literally) from the sordid state of poor Mother Earth and the treatment that our species meets out our weakest members, to contemplate larger matters. Unfortunately, they bring us no comfort either. There is grave danger in the heavens, the like of which has not been seen for over <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/128992-Forget-About-Global-Warming-We-re-One-Step-From-Extinction-">3600 years</a>. Yet the "leaders" of the world have seen fit to hide this from us. <br /><br />Blue Ibis<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><br />**********************************</span></span><span style="font-size:180%;">**************</span><br /><br /><div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><a linkindex="167" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186672-What-are-they-hiding-Flight-447-and-Tunguska-Type-Events" target="_blank">What are they hiding? Flight 447 and Tunguska Type Events</a></span> <p> Joe Quinn<br /> SOTT.net<br /> Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:22 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div style="text-align: center;" class="article-image to-center"><a linkindex="168" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22692/full/af447_tail2.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22692/medium/af447_tail2.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div><br />Air France Flight 447 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared over the Mid-Atlantic (just north of the equator) at approximately 1.33UTC on June 1st 2009.<br /><br />No mayday signal was received from the aircraft and almost two weeks later, aviation officials have yet to give a coherent explanation as to what could have caused the sudden demise of a high tech Airbus 330-200 passenger plane.<br /><br />As usual, the media are missing (or concealing) some very obvious yet understandably disturbing data about the nature of the threats to life on planet earth, and as usual, it is left to Sott.net to spell out the details.<br /><br /> One of the first official comments on the incident came from French Prime Minister Francois Fillon who said <blockquote> "Our only certainty is that the plane did not send out any distress call but regular automatic alerts for three minutes indicating the failure of all systems." </blockquote> Aviation experts were also said to be puzzled that there were no radio reports from the Airbus and stated that <strong>such a modern aircraft would have had to suffer multiple traumas to plunge into the sea.</strong><br /><br /><div class="article-image-small to-left"><a linkindex="169" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22691/full/pitot.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22691/pod/pitot.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="caption">Commercial aircraft pitot tube</span></span></div></div><br />Initial theorizing focused on the Pitot tube, part of the aircraft's system of pressure-sensitive instruments which determine airspeed, Mach number, altitude, and vertical speed. An Air France spokesperson <a linkindex="170" href="http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=comm&id=news/RECORD060309.xml" target="_blank">stated</a> on 3 June that "the aircraft sent a series of electronic messages over a three-minute period, which represented about a minute of information. Exactly what that data means hasn't been sorted out, yet."[17]<br /><br />An aviation safety expert <a linkindex="171" href="http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/aw060809p1.xml&channel=awst" target="_blank">explained</a> a few days later that "<strong>complete failure would require 100% failure of the electrical system,</strong>" which "did not happen early in the flight, because the system was up linking data to the maintenance facility, indicating there was some electricity on the airplane.<br /><br />The messages, sent from an onboard maintenance system, Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), indicated that between 02:10 UTC and 02:14 UTC - four minutes or less - <em>5 failure reports and 19 warnings were transmitted</em>.The messages resulted from equipment failure data, captured by a built-in system for testing and reporting, and cockpit warnings also posted to ACARS. The failures and warnings in the 5 minutes of transmission concerned navigation auto-flight, flight controls, and cabin air-handling.<br /><br /><div class="article-image to-center"><div style="text-align: center;"><a linkindex="172" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22693/full/af447_site.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22693/medium/af447_site.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="caption">approximate last location of AF 447</span></span></div></div><br />Among the ACARS transmissions in the first minute is one message that indicates a fault in the pitot-static system. Sources close to the investigation have <a linkindex="173" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&sid=aHpmstG1g14A" target="_blank">confirmed</a> that "the first automated system-failure message in a string of radio alerts from the crashed jet explicitly indicated that the airspeed sensors were faulty". The twelve warning messages with the same time code indicate that the autopilot and auto-thrust system had disengaged, that the aircraft collision avoidance system was in fault mode. Additionally the flight mode went from 'normal law' to 'alternate law'. The remainder of the <a linkindex="174" href="http://avherald.com/h?article=41a81ef1/0022&opt=0" target="_blank">messages</a> occurred from 02:11 UTC to 02:14 UTC, containing a fault message for an Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (which sends air speed data to the pilots display as well as other systems such as the engines, autopilot, flight control and landing gear systems. At 02:12 UTC, a warning message indicated that there was a disagreement between the independent air data systems. At 02:13 UTC, a fault message for the flight management guidance and envelope computer was sent. One of the two final messages, transmitted at 02:14 UTC was a warning referring to the air data reference system, the other was a "cabin vertical speed warning".<br /><br />All of the above would seem to bear out the aforementioned aviation expert's conclusion that the plane did indeed suffer multiple traumas before it plunged into the sea. Yet such a series of traumas would be unprecedented in modern aviation history, particularly given that the Airbus 330 is one of the most advanced and and safest commercial planes available. It has an excellent safety record, with more than 550 planes built and no passenger fatalities since it went into service in 1993. It is almost inconceivable then that such a plane with no history of technical issues could have experienced such complete technical failure so quickly that the pilot did not even have time to send a distress call ("Mayday") on the aircraft emergency frequency.<br /><br />Unsurprisingly then, on June 11th the French Investigation and Analysis Office For Civilian Security <a linkindex="175" href="http://www.agi.it/world/news/200906111526-cro-ren0032-plane_crash_not_caused_by_speed_sensors" target="_blank">discounted</a> the idea then that the "air speed sensor" could have been the main cause of the crash.<br /><br />Severe weather has also been proposed as a possible cause. This theory is based on the report that at about 1am UTC the pilots reported that they had encountered "stormy weather with strong turbulence". <a linkindex="176" href="http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=netweather&traveler=0&article=6" target="_blank">Daniel G. Kottlowski</a>, a senior meteorologist with Accuweather.com calculated that thunderstorms in the region of the crash could have generated updrafts in the range of 100 miles per hour, although he conceded that <em>this was not unusual weather</em> for the region. According to commercial transport pilots familiar with the route, it is likely that the flight crew of the Air France aircraft was aware of the intensity of the storm in the flight path at that altitude long before actually encountering the thunderstorms. Using the on board radar pilots can see and fairly easily navigate around particular storm cells.<br /><br />Lightning is also unlikely to have caused any serious problems because modern aircraft are <a linkindex="177" href="http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/wp-admin/post-new.php" target="_blank">designed to take lightning strikes</a> without significant damage.<br /><br />The most compelling evidence against the weather theory however is the fact that <a linkindex="178" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL21026278" target="_blank">two Lufthansa jets</a> flew through the same area both before and after Flight 447 without incident. <blockquote>The United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday it had preliminary information indicating the two aircraft recorded data on prevailing temperatures and winds. But they were not equipped to automatically transmit information on turbulence.<br /><br />On Monday, a source with access to the data transmitted to the World Meteorological Organisation told Reuters in Paris that the two jets passed through turbulence before and after the plane without incident, leaving experts scrambling to assess the weather's role in the disaster. </blockquote> Indeed, no less than <a linkindex="179" href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/06/05/france.plane.investigation/index.html" target="_blank">12 other flights shared more or less the same route</a> with Flight 447 around the time of the accident. No weather problems were reported by any of the planes.<br /><br />Recent reports that passengers bodies <a linkindex="180" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186566-Identification-of-Air-France-victims-could-prove-jet-broke-up" target="_blank">have been found</a> 54kms apart strongly suggest that the plane broke apart high in the air.<br /><br />When faced with the problem of the loss of a commercial jet in mid-air with no obvious explanation, the mainstream media generally resorts to storytelling, with a little Hollywood movie-style emotional string pulling for good measure, as evidenced by this <a linkindex="181" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6446268.ece" target="_blank">UK Times article</a>: <blockquote> Had AF447 suffered a structural failure? Did a window break or wing shear off? Whatever it was, the passengers must have been terrified. It was night over the Atlantic, lightning splitting the sky, the aircraft jolting in the turbulence, systems failing. Then massive decompression, cabin air gone and, outside, the temperature -30C or below. Mercifully they may not have suffered long. </blockquote> Interestingly, in the same article the authors state: <blockquote> Though no one yet knows for sure what destroyed the plane, investigators are concerned that it was not caused, as first suggested, <strong>by a lightning strike or a bomb or a meteorite</strong>. Instead they fear it was a fatal collision of high technology and the brute force of nature. </blockquote> Ah yes, the "brute force of nature"! Now that is getting close, but even closer was the reference to a meteorite. Even though this idea received scant attention in the mainstream press, with only <em>Discover</em> magazine blog <a linkindex="182" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/06/04/did-a-meteor-bring-down-air-france-447/" target="_blank">allowing one</a> of their editors to speculate on the statistical possibility of an errant bolide sealing the fate of AF 447, it cannot be discounted. As the saying goes, when all other theories have been tried and found wanting, whatever remains, however implausible, must be the answer.<br /><br />Readers of Sott.net will be familiar with the <a linkindex="183" href="http://fireballs-meteorites.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">data we have compiled</a> on the alarming increase in frequency of meteorite sightings and impacts over the past 10 years. Laura Knight-Jadczyk's article <a linkindex="184" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/151954" target="_blank">Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls</a> presents a list of impact events dating from 10,000 BC to the present day. It was this and other data, studiously ignored by the mainstream media, that led us to quickly consider a more logical explanation to the sudden disappearance of AF 447.<br /><br />Within a few days of the crash the first piece of evidence that something other than high technology and weather destroyed AF 447 came in.<br /><br />A Spanish pilot with Air Comet (which flies from South and Central American countries to Madrid) flying the Lima to Madrid route <a linkindex="185" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186119-Spanish-pilot-saw-flash-of-white-light-when-French-plane-went-missing" target="_blank">reported</a> a bright descending light in the region of AF 447's last position: <blockquote> "Suddenly we saw in the distance a bright intense flash of white light that fell straight down and disappeared in six seconds".<br /><br />At the time of the sighting, (the copilot and a passenger who was in the front kitchen area of the airplane also saw it), the Air Comet aircraft was located at seven degrees north of the equator and at the 49th meridian West. The estimated location for the A-330-203 until the moment of its disappearance is at the equator and around the 30th meridian West<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;" class="article-image-small to-left"><a linkindex="186" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22694/full/bolide.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img style="width: 245px; height: 237px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22694/pod/bolide.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div> </blockquote>It seems reasonable to suggest that an aircraft would not produce a bright and intense white light for six seconds as it fell from the sky. The <a linkindex="187" href="http://fireballs-meteorites.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">many dozens of meteorite and fireball sightings</a> over the past few years however are often seen as bright white flashes of descending light.<br /><br />A Sott.net reader later sent us the following report: <blockquote> Early in the morning today (8th June 2009) I saw here in Brazil, an interview (on Record television network) with a native from the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha who stated that he saw strange lights in the night of the disaster with the Air France Jet.<br /><br />He declared seeing a light (bright white) and later it changed directions several times and changed to red color. </blockquote>So are we saying that a meteorite hit AF 447? Not exactly. The chances of a single smallish, (or even largish) rock falling from the sky and hitting a plane travelling at 500mph are surely too remote to be plausible. But meteorites and comets often do not simply fall to earth intact. Remember <a linkindex="188" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event" target="_blank">Tunguska?</a> <blockquote> The Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at around 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908<br /><br />Although the cause of the explosion is the subject of debate, <strong>it is commonly believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5 - 10 kilometres (3 - 6 miles) above the Earth's surface</strong>. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a <strong>few tens of metres across</strong><br /><br /><div class="article-image-small to-right"><a linkindex="189" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22697/full/Tunguska3.png" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img style="width: 287px; height: 200px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22697/pod/Tunguska3.png" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="caption">The Tunguska shock wave<br />levelled 2000 sq kms of trees</span></span></div></div><br />Although the meteor or comet burst in the air rather than directly hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact. Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 megatons to as high as 30 megatons of TNT, with 10 - 15 megatons the most likely - roughly equal to the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear explosion set off in late February 1954, about 1,000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and about one-third the power of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated.<strong>The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles)</strong>. It is estimated that the shockwave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. <strong>An explosion of this magnitude is capable of destroying a large metropolitan area.</strong><br /><br />Although the Tunguska event is believed to be the largest impact event on land in Earth's recent history, <strong>impacts of similar size <span class="BoldRed">in remote ocean areas</span> would have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s.</strong><br /><br /><div class="article-image-small to-left"><div style="text-align: center;"><a linkindex="190" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22696/full/Tunguska4.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Don Davis"><img style="width: 246px; height: 218px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22696/pod/Tunguska4.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="tiny">© Don Davis</span><br /><span class="caption">How the Tunguska blast might<br />have looked from the windows<br />of a nearby airliner. The expanding<br />shock wave would have knocked<br />the plane from the sky moments later</span></span></div></div> </blockquote> The Tunguska meteorite probably was visible as it exploded and broke up, appearing as a <em>bright white light descending in the sky</em>. 6-10 miles up is within the height range of commercial aircraft. And AF flight 447 was indeed located in a remote ocean area. So if, as we suspect, the blast from a Tunguska-like comet - though a significantly smaller one than that which exploded over Tunguska - destroyed AF447, the precursor electronic activity in the atmosphere explaining the anomalies of the complete air craft systems failures - it is also likely that modern satellite monitoring systems would have picked up such an event. Indeed, Brigadier General S. Pete Worden's article <a linkindex="191" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/147939-NEOS-Planetary-Defense-and-Government-A-View-From-the-Pentagon" target="_blank">NEOS, Planetary Defense and Government - A View From the Pentagon</a> confirms this likelihood: <blockquote> I can show people evidence of real strikes inflicting local and regional damage less than a century ago. Even more compelling are <strong>the frequent kiloton-level detonations our early warning satellites see in the earth's atmosphere</strong>.<br /><br />Within the United States space community there is a growing concern over "space situational awareness." We are beginning to understand that it is essential to identify and track virtually everything in earth orbit. <strong>Some of these objects, down to a few centimeters in size, present a potential threat to commercial and civil space operations</strong> such as the International Space Station. </blockquote> So, what are the chances that civilian, or even government/military satellite imagery will be available to either confirm or deny this "wild speculation" of ours?<br /><br />Well, up until a few days ago the chances seemed good. But then, for some unknown reason, and <em>very</em> coincidentally, this happened: <blockquote> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186499-Military-Hush-Up-Incoming-Space-Rocks-Now-Classified"><strong>Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified</strong></a><br /><br /><em>Space.com</em><br />10 June 2009<br /><br />For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere - but no longer.<br /><br />A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of <a linkindex="192" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186548-When-Meteors-Explode-Full-Account-of-a-Wild-Chicago-Night" target="_blank">incoming bolides and fireballs</a> are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com had learned.<br /><br />The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists.<br /><br />The upshot: Space rocks that <a linkindex="193" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186549-Exploding-Asteroids-Satellites-Monitor-Threat-to-Earth" target="_blank">explode in the atmosphere</a> are now classified.<br /><br /><strong>"It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work.</strong> "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy...a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn't be done any other way. It's a regrettable change in policy."<br /><br /><strong>Scientists say not only will research into the threat from space be hampered, but public understanding of sometimes <a linkindex="194" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/124099-Catastrophe-Calculator-Estimate-Asteroid-Impact-Effects-Online" target="_blank">dramatic sky explosions</a> will be diminished, perhaps leading to hype and fear of the unknown.</strong> </blockquote>Commenting last year on the significance of the Tunguska event, former Apollo astronaut and chairman of the Board of Directors of the B612 Foundation, Rusty Schweickart, <a linkindex="195" href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/22714594.html?page=2&c=y" target="_blank">stated</a>: <blockquote> <strong>Tunguska is a great reminder of what we will likely have to deal with in the next 10 years or so. </strong>We now know statistically that there are some 600,000 or more "Tunguskas" out there of which we have to date discovered less than 1%! While for those of us who have been working this issue it is clear that we can deflect such impact threats ...<strong> the primary prerequisite is that we know one is coming! We can't protect ourselves against something we don't know about.</strong><br /><br />So the primary "message" of Tunguska is that it happened, it will happen again, and we can prevent it. but we have to find and track these smaller NEOs. Congress has spoken. They've told NASA to crank up a more powerful search program. NASA, however, has refused to act - or even to comply with Congress's request to recommend a search strategy and to estimate the budget needed to support it.<br /><br />Their excuse? They don't have the budget to support it!<br /><br />Thanks, NASA. </blockquote>If a high-altitude cometary explosion did indeed destroy AF 447, then the decision by the US military (and government), just a few days later, to impose a black out on all information about earth-bound space rocks is extremely worrying. It suggests that members of the US government know that a cometary explosion destroyed the Air France flight and that they suspect that more such events, perhaps over populated areas, are likely in the near future. More horrifying however is the callous disregard for human life displayed by such a cavalier attitude to the withholding of information pertaining to what is clearly the greatest existential threat facing humanity today.<br /><br /><div class="article-image-small to-left"><a linkindex="196" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22698/full/cheyenne_doors.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22698/pod/cheyenne_doors.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="image-caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="caption">the 25 ton doors leading<br />to the Cheyenne complex</span></span></div></div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-83745034064642073972009-06-13T10:39:00.000-06:002009-06-13T10:39:00.327-06:00"Security threat": An attempt to visit family in Ramallah, West Bank by a British couple<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186644-Security-threat-An-attempt-to-visit-family-in-Ramallah-West-Bank-by-a-British-couple#" onclick="window.print(); return false;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186644-Security-threat-An-attempt-to-visit-family-in-Ramallah-West-Bank-by-a-British-couple#" onclick="window.print(); return false;">"Security threat": An attempt to visit family in Ramallah, West Bank by a British couple</a></span> <p> Asa Winstanley<br /> The Electronic Intifada<br /> Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:46 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> Taking the first bus of the day, my wife and I arrived on the Israeli side of the King Hussein bridge crossing into the West Bank from Jordan. We explained that we were heading to Ramallah to visit my wife's mother and brothers for three weeks. We performed the exact same procedure last year without incident. However, this year I was told to wait.<br /><br />My wife is a Palestinian from Ramallah, where we met a few years ago. We got married there, and her closest family still live in Ramallah. We have moved to live and work in London, but try to return once a year. As Israel still controls all the border crossings into the West Bank, a trip intended as a May holiday to visit family quickly ran afoul of the continuing occupation.<br /><br />Four hours after my passport was taken away, I had heard absolutely nothing. I started to make a fuss and was told that my passport was "with security." Several hours later, I was taken in to a back room and questioned by a burly "security" agent. He asked several questions about the purpose of my trip while typing into a computer.<br /><br />He wanted to know if I belong to any "groups that help the Palestinians," and asked if, since I am a journalist I was going to work during this visit. I replied that, although I had worked with the <em>Palestine Times</em> in the past, this trip I was just to visit family. It tells you a lot about the nature of the Israeli occupation that they try to make it seem that "helping the Palestinians" is some sort of crime.<br /><br />After the questions were finished, he told me to wait in the next room "for five minutes." Two hours later I was still waiting.<br /><br />By now we were the last remaining people in the terminal. I was finally approached by a police woman with my passport. After waiting a total of nine hours since the morning, I was told to come back the next day. Apparently I would not be allowed in without signing some sort of document, but the people from the Ministry of the Interior were not available, so I would have to come back when they were. After being assured by the policewoman that I would "definitely" be allowed in the next day, I returned to Amman at my own expense, while my wife went on to Ramallah.<br /><br />I returned in the morning to find out that even though the policewoman was not there her colleague was familiar with my case. Eventually, I was called into an office marked "Ministry of the Interior" and presented with a one-page document to sign. Written in Hebrew, with English translation underneath each paragraph it had three clauses:<br /><blockquote>1. My visit was to be "within Israel only" and I was not allowed to enter "the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority without advance authorization from the Territory Actions Coordinator."<br /><br />2. If I was to enter "any area under the control of the Palestinian Authority" I could be deported and issued with a ban from "Israel ... of up to 10 years."<br /><br />3. My visit to "Israel" was only allowed for two days, and if I wished to apply for an extension on this, I would have to deposit 20,000 shekels (about $5,000), returnable on exit. </blockquote>After waiting for two days just for this, I was extremely angry. I kept asking them why they couldn't have just told me just told me all this the previous day; they gave no answer of substance.<br /><br />I asked, "who is the Territory Actions Coordinator?"<br /><br />Reply: "That's us."<br /><br />"Can I have permission to see my family in Ramallah?"<br /><br />"No."<br /><br />"Why not?"<br /><br />"Security reasons."<br /><br />"Which are what?"<br /><br />"We can't tell you that."<br /><br />And that was basically that. I stayed in Jerusalem catching up with some friends for two days before heading back. I had no real problems on the way out. I then reunited with my wife and her mother and brothers in Amman, Jordan where we spent a couple of weeks on holiday.<br /><br />So basically the "State of Israel" considers a skinny Welsh guy from London a security threat, simply because he wants to visit his family in Ramallah? I would like to flatter myself that I worry the occupation authorities, but no:<span style="font-weight: bold;"> this is simply how they treat everyone visiting Palestine. </span><br /><br />Examples abound, and are documented by the Right to Enter campaign. Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir was denied entry when traveling from Jordan to attend the premiere of her acclaimed film <em>Salt of this Sea</em> in Ramallah. The film was an official selection at the 2008 Cannes Film festival and stars acclaimed Palestinian-American poet and actress Suheir Hammad. The reason they gave for denying Jacir entry to her homeland was simply: "You spend too much time here."<br /><br />As poorly as we were treated by the Israelis, I saw or met many Palestinians over the two days I spent at the border crossing who were treated much worse. Their number one target for abuse was Palestinians of the Diaspora: either Palestinians born overseas on their way to visit, or Palestinians who now have a different passport through marriage. There was one Palestinian-Australian woman who had come thousands of miles, presumably to visit family, yet the Israelis sent her back. I will never forget the tears in her eyes as they sent her back to Jordan; neither will I forget her defiance as she refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her weep openly.<br /><br />I talked with a Palestinian woman on her way back to Jerusalem. "I wish they would just give me an answer one way or another," I said. "At least then I could get this waiting over with."<br /><br />"For me it's not an option," she replied. "I have to go back for work."<br /><br />The way they treated her was disgusting. It was not enough for them to keep her waiting for hours without information: when she dared to politely ask what was happening with her passport the reply was screamed, "Go and sit down!" This is standard behavior.<br /><br />If my wife had been from Gaza things would be even worse for us. At least my mother-in-law can come to Amman where we can reunite. For someone from the Gaza Strip to visit Egypt, even for emergency medical treatment, is next to impossible (and here we must lay blame at the door of the Western-backed Egyptian dictatorship, as well as the Israelis).<br /><br />On the second day, I also saw the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen pass through the terminal. He was not detained for more than 15 minutes, at most. But then, he has power and influence. I wish they would have detained him: I'm sure he would have done a story about it, and of course that is precisely why he wasn't.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Israelis want to do everything in their power to pressure the Palestinians into leaving.</span> At the moment, they cannot get away with a repeat performance of the mass ethnic cleansing of 1948 -- that might prove politically problematic. So instead they "encourage" indirect, slow, removal of the Palestinian population -- "transfer" in the longstanding Zionist jargon. Such treatment at borders, making travel difficult or impossible, is another aspect of this policy.<br /><br />If you doubt any of this, consider this simple fact: they would not have given me these problems if I was married to a Jew and was going to visit her family in Tel Aviv. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Similar policies in South Africa were called "apartheid" and the whole world boycotted and isolated the apartheid regime until, because of the struggle of the African National Congress, supported by the international solidarity campaign, the state was cornered into accepting democracy. </span><br /><br />Yet, the world lets Israel get away with seemingly everything. Israel killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in the latest round of massacres that its army initiated in Gaza in December-January. But the European Union is still moving to upgrade trade relations with Israel. The US under President Barack Obama is still intending to bankroll Israeli apartheid to the tune of some $3 billion in military aid this year alone. It's time to wake up and respond to the call of Palestinian civil society to boycott Israel.<br /><br />Of course I want to go back to Palestine, and going on what the Ministry of the Interior officials said, the door is not totally shut for me. I may still have legal avenues to explore. On the 61st anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, when half the population of Palestine was ethnically cleansed from their homeland by Zionist militias -- it's important to remember that, relatively speaking, I and my family are among the lucky ones. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-18957397557543986152009-06-12T11:39:00.000-06:002009-06-12T11:39:00.893-06:00It's Official: Israel is practicing apartheid<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><a linkindex="147" href="http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-exhaustive-report-israel-is.html" target="_blank">New exhaustive report: </a></span><a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186556-New-exhaustive-report-Israel-is-practicing-apartheid#" onclick="window.print(); return false;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a linkindex="147" href="http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-exhaustive-report-israel-is.html" target="_blank">Israel is practicing apartheid</a></span> <p> <br /> Jews sans frontieres<br /> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:11 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) has released a study indicating that <strong>Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid</strong> in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The study is being posted for public debate on this website.<br /><br />The interim report, which will form part of a discussion at an upcoming HSRC conference on the subject, titled Re-envisioning Israel/Palestine, on 13 and 14 June in Cape Town, serves as a document to be finalised later this year.<br /><br />The HSRC commissioned an international team of scholars and practitioners of international public law from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel and the West Bank to conduct the study. The resulting 300-page draft, titled <em>Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid</em>?: A re-assessment of Israel's practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law, represents 15 months of research and constitutes an exhaustive review of Israel's practices in the OPT according to definitions of colonialism and apartheid provided by international law. The project was suggested originally by the January 2007 report by eminent South African jurist John Dugard, in his capacity as Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council, when he indicated that <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Israel practices had assumed characteristics of colonialism and apartheid. </span><br /><br /> You can download the report below (PDF):<br /><br /><em>Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid</em>; <a linkindex="148" href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-3230.phtml" target="_blank">executive summary</a>.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" linkindex="149" href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-3227.phtml" target="_blank">Full study</a>.<br /><br />Regarding colonialism, the team found that Israel's policy and practices violate the prohibition on colonialism which the international community developed in the 1960s in response to the great decolonisation struggles in Africa and Asia. Israel's policy is demonstrably to fragment the West Bank and annex part of it permanently to Israel, which is the hallmark of colonialism. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Israel has appropriated land and water in the OPT, merged the Palestinian economy with Israel's economy, and imposed a system of domination over Palestinians to ensure their subjugation to these measures.</span> Through these measures, Israel has denied the indigenous population the right to self-determination and indicated clear intention to assume sovereignty over portions of its land and natural resources. Permanent annexation of territory in this fashion is the hallmark of colonialism.<br /><br />Regarding apartheid, the team found that Israel's laws and policies in the OPT fit the definition of apartheid in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. Israeli law conveys privileges to Jewish settlers and disadvantages Palestinians in the same territory on the basis of their respective identities, which function in this case as racialised identities in the sense provided by international law. Israel's practices are corollary to five of the six 'inhuman acts' listed by the Convention. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A policy of apartheid is especially indicated by Israel's demarcation of geographic 'reserves' in the West Bank, to which Palestinian residence is confined and which Palestinians cannot leave without a permit. The system is very similar to the policy of 'Grand Apartheid' in apartheid South Africa, in which black South Africans were confined to black homelands delineated by the South African government, while white South Africans enjoyed freedom of movement and full civil rights in the rest of the country. </span><br /><br />The <em style="font-weight: bold;"><a linkindex="150" href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-3230.phtml" target="_blank">Executive Summary</a></em> of the report says that the three pillars of apartheid in South Africa are all practiced by Israel in the OPT. In South Africa, the first pillar was to demarcate the population of South Africa into racial groups, and to accord superior rights, privileges and services to the white racial group. The second pillar was to segregate the population into different geographic areas, which were allocated by law to different racialgroups, and restrict passage by members of any group into the area allocated to other groups. And the third pillar was "a matrix of draconian 'security' laws and policies that were employed to suppress any opposition to the regime and to reinforce the system of racial domination, by providing for administrative detention, torture, censorship, banning, and assassination."<br /><br />The Report finds that Israeli practices in the OPT exhibit the same three 'pillars' of apartheid:<br /><br />The first pillar "derives from Israeli laws and policies that establish Jewish identity for purposes of law and afford a preferential legal status and material benefits to Jews over non-Jews". The second pillar is reflected in "Israel's 'grand' policy to fragment the OPT [and] ensure that Palestinians remain confined to the reserves designated for them while Israeli Jews are prohibited from entering those reserves but enjoy freedom of movement throughout the rest of the Palestinian territory. This policy is evidenced by Israel's extensive appropriation of Palestinian land, which continues to shrink the territorial space available to Palestinians; the hermetic closure and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the OPT; the deliberate severing of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank; and the appropriation and construction policies serving to carve up the West Bank into an intricate and well-serviced network of connected settlements for Jewish-Israelis and an archipelago of besieged and non-contiguous enclaves for Palestinians".<br /><br />The third pillar is "Israel's invocation of 'security' to validate sweeping restrictions on Palestinian freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, association and movement [to] mask a true underlying intent to suppress dissent to its system of domination and thereby maintain control over Palestinians as a group."<br /><br />The research team included scholars and international lawyers based at the HSRC, the School for Oriental and African Studies (London), the British Institute for International and Comparative Law, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban), the Adalah/Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and al-Haq/West Bank Affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists. Consultation on the study's theory and method was provided by eminent jurists from South Africa, Israel and Europe.<br /><br />The HSRC serves as the national social science council for South Africa. The Middle East Project of the HSRC is an independent two-year project to conduct analysis of Middle East politics relevant to South African foreign policy, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government of South Africa. The analysis in this report is entirely independent of the views or foreign policy of the Government of South Africa and does not represent an official position of the HSRC. It is intended purely as a scholarly resource for the South African government and civil society and the concerned international community.<br /><br /><em>For more information or interviews, contact: mep@hsrc.ac.za or +27-21-466-7924. (Human Sciences Research Council of<br />South Africa (HSRC))</em> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-42093633295589487382009-06-09T11:22:00.000-06:002009-06-09T11:22:00.562-06:00Israel: Jewish Town in Galilee Demands "Loyalty Oath" to Block Arab Applicants<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/186310-Israel-Jewish-Town-in-Galilee-Demands-Loyalty-Oath-to-Block-Arab-Applicants"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Israel: Jewish Town in Galilee Demands "Loyalty Oath" to Block Arab Applicants</a></span> <p> Jonathan Cook<br /> Dissident Voice<br /> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:47 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> A community in northern Israel has changed its bylaws to demand that new residents pledge support for "Zionism, Jewish heritage and settlement of the land" in a thinly veiled attempt to block Arab applicants from gaining admission.<br /><br />Critics are calling the bylaw, adopted by Manof, home to 170 Jewish families in Galilee, a local "loyalty oath" similar to a national scheme recently proposed by the far-Right party of the government minister Avigdor Lieberman.<br /><br />Other Jewish communities in the central Galilee - falling under the umbrella of a regional council known as Misgav - are preparing similar bylaws in response to a court petition filed by an Arab couple hoping to build a home in Misgav.<br /><br />"It looks very much like this is being co-ordinated by the Misgav council in an attempt to pre-empt the court ruling," said Ronin Ben Ari, resident of another Misgav community, Mikhmanim, and an opponent of the bylaw change.<br /><br />Manof's move comes in the wake of efforts by Ahmed and Fatina Zbeidat, who live in the neighbouring Arab town of Sakhnin, to win admission to the Misgav community of Rakafet.<br /><br />Traditionally some 700 rural communities in Israel, including 30 in Misgav, have weeded out Arab applicants by issuing automatic rejections through special vetting committees. Arab citizens make up one-fifth of the country's population.<br /><br />According to a legal rights group, <span style="font-weight: bold;">rural communities, which are home to only five per cent of the population but have control over four-fifths of the countryside, are seen by the state as a bulwark against Arabs gaining access to what are called "national lands". </span><br /><br />However, the vetting system has been under threat since a court ruling in 2000 that required the committees to consider Arab applicants and justify their decisions.<br /><br />In line with the ruling, the Zbeidats demanded the right to take a suitability test when their application was turned down in 2006. Examiners found Fatina too "individualistic" for life in a small community while her husband lacked "knowledge of sophisticated interpersonal relations".<br /><br />The Zbeidats then petitioned the courts against the use of vetting committees, saying they enforced "blatant discrimination" against Arab applicants. Earlier this year, in an indication that the court was preparing to back them, it demanded that the attorney-general explain why the vetting committees should continue.<br /><br />"There is little doubt that many residents of Misgav are panicking about the court case," said Mr Ben Ari, who heads a small dissident group called Alternative Voice in the Galilee.<br /><br />He added that Ron Shani, who was elected Misgav's mayor late last year, made opposition to the Zbeidats' bid to live in Rakafet a major platform in his campaign.<br /><br />Mr Shani defended the bylaw change last week to the Israeli media. "The council's position is that it is appropriate to strengthen the character of the community - a community in which Zionist values and Jewish heritage stand at the heart of its way of life. We don't see this as racism in any way."<br /><br />Mr Ben Ari said: "There is a widely held feeling in Misgav that changing the bylaws is a legitimate way for the Jewish minority in the Galilee to defend itself against an Arab and Islamic danger.<br /><br />"The residents here are not right-wing types like Lieberman. They see themselves as liberals and in fact are made very uncomfortable by the Lieberman comparison."<br /><br />A bill proposed by Mr Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party that conditioned citizenship on declaring loyalty to a Jewish state was rejected by a ministerial committee last week. Mr Lieberman campaigned in February's general election on a platform of "No loyalty, no citizenship".<br /><br />Such views are widely held, according to polls. One in 2006 found that 68 per cent of Israeli Jews would refuse to live next to an Arab and 46 per cent would not allow an Arab to visit their home.<br /><br />The bylaw, accepted by an overwhelming majority in Manof, stipulates that applicants must share "the values of the Zionist movement, Jewish heritage, settlement of the Land of Israel ... and observance of Jewish holidays".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It also proposes that local children be encouraged to join the Zionist youth movement and the Israeli army. </span><br /><br />A similarly worded proposal will come before another Misgav community, Yuvalim, later this month.<br /><br />One resident opposed to the change, Arik Kirschenbaum, told the liberal <em>Haaretz</em> newspaper last week: "It suddenly seems as if we adopted bylaws from the settlements."<br /><br />Residents of Manof have been quoted in the Israeli media decrying accusations of racism.<br /><br />"It's unpleasant and even offensive to wake up one morning and find that you've turned into Lieberman," said Alon Mayer, pointing out that Yisrael Beiteinu won only 2.5 per cent of Manof's vote in the February general election.<br /><br />Several residents were reported to fear that living alongside Arabs might lead to ethnic tensions and sectarian violence.<br /><br />Suhad Bishara, a lawyer with the Adalah legal rights group who is representing the Zbeidats, said: <span style="font-weight: bold;">"There is nothing unique or special about the way of life in these communities to justify this kind of restriction on admission. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"Rather, the purpose of the selection system is to make sure 80 per cent of the territory inside Israel is not accessible to Arabs, that the control of public resources stays exclusively in Jewish hands." </span><br /><br />The Zbeidats' application was submitted after they were unable to find a building plot in Sakhnin. The town's young couples face increasing difficulties building homes after much of Sakhnin's land was turned over to Misgav's jurisdiction.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sakhnin officials point out that its 25,000 inhabitants have only</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> one-twentieth of the land</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">available to the 20,000 residents of Misgav's 30 communities.</span> An appeal by Sakhnin that it be awarded some of Misgav's land was rejected by a boundary commission in 2005.<br /><br />Misgav promotes itself, in the words of its website, as a model of "ethnic pluralism" because it includes 5,000 Bedouin. However, critics note that Misgav's Bedouin live in a handful of separate communities deprived of the land available to the Jewish communities.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Bedouin inhabitants are generally denied basic services such as water and electricity, as well as schools and medical clinics.</span> In one, Arab al Naim, the inhabitants are forced to live in tin shacks because permanent structures are demolished by the state.<br /><br />Last week, three members of the Israeli parliament introduced a bill stipulating that vetting committees should assess candidates' "suitability to the community's way of life and social fabric". The legislators said the bill would help in "maintaining the Zionist vision". </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-76816531120563543852009-06-07T22:48:00.001-06:002009-06-07T22:48:00.543-06:00Auschwitz survivor: "I can identify with Palestinian youth"<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/185965-Auschwitz-survivor-I-can-identify-with-Palestinian-youth-#" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Auschwitz survivor: "I can identify with Palestinian youth"</a></span> <p> Adri Nieuwhof<br /> The Electronic Intifada<br /> Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:44 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image-small to-left"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22285/full/hajo_meyer.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22285/pod/hajo_meyer.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div><br />Hajo Meyer, author of the book <em>The End of Judaism</em>, was born in Bielefeld, in Germany, in 1924. In 1939, he fled on his own at age 14 to the Netherlands to escape the Nazi regime, and was unable to attend school. A year later, when the Germans occupied the Netherlands he lived in hiding with a poorly forged ID. Meyer was captured by the Gestapo in March 1944 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp a week later. He is one of the last survivors of Auschwitz.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">Adri Nieuwhof:</span> What would you like to say to introduce yourself to EI's readers?<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">Hajo Meyer:</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>I had to quit grammar school in Bielefeld after the Kristallnacht [the two-day pogrom against Jews in Nazi Germany], in November 1938. It was a terrible experience for an inquisitive boy and his parents. Therefore, I can fully identify with the Palestinian youth that are hampered in their education. And I can in no way identify with the criminals who make it impossible for Palestinian youth to be educated.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">AN:</span> What motivated you to write your book, <em>The End of Judaism?</em><br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">HM:</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>In the past, the European media have written extensively about extreme right-wing politicians like Joerg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France. But when Ariel Sharon was elected [prime minister] in Israel in 2001, the media remained silent. But in the 1980s I understood the deeply fascist thinking of these politicians. With the book I wanted to distance myself from this. I was raised in Judaism with the equality of relationships among human beings as a core value. I only learned about nationalist Judaism when I heard settlers defend their harassment of Palestinians in interviews. When a publisher asked me to write about my past, I decided to write this book, in a way, to deal with my past. <strong>People of one group who dehumanize people who belong to another group can do this, because they either have learned to do so from their parents, or they have been brainwashed by their political leaders.</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="BoldRed">This has happened for decades in Israel</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span>in that they manipulate the Holocaust for their political aims. In the long-run the country is destructing itself this way by inducing their Jewish citizens to become paranoid. In 2005 [then Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon illustrated this by saying in the Knesset [the Israeli parliament], we know we cannot trust anyone, we only can trust ourselves. <strong>This is the shortest possible definition of somebody who suffers from clinical paranoia.</strong> One of the major annoyances in my life is that Israel by means of trickery calls itself a Jewish state, while in fact it is Zionist. It wants the maximum territory with a minimum number of Palestinians. I have four Jewish grandparents. I am an atheist. I share the Jewish socio-cultural inheritance and I have learned about Jewish ethics. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="BoldRed">I don't wish to be represented by a Zionist state</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">.</span> They have no idea about the Holocaust. They <strong>use the Holocaust to implant paranoia in their children.</strong><br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">AN:</span> In your book you write about the lessons you have learned from your past. Can you explain how your past influenced your perception of Israel and Palestine?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">HM:</span> I have never been a Zionist. After the war, Zionist Jews spoke about the miracle of having "our own country." As a confirmed atheist I thought, if this is a miracle by God, I wished that he had performed the smallest miracle imaginable by creating the state 15 years earlier. Then my parents would not have been dead.<br /><br />I can write up an <strong>endless list of similarities between Nazi Germany and Israel</strong>. The capturing of land and property, denying people access to educational opportunities and restricting access to earn a living to destroy their hope, all with the aim to chase people away from their land. And what I personally find more appalling then dirtying one's hands by killing people, is creating circumstances where people start to kill each other. Then the distinction between victims and perpetrators becomes faint. By sowing discord in a situation where there is no unity, by enlarging the gap between people - like Israel is doing in Gaza.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">AN:</span> In your book you write about the role of Jews in the peace movement in and outside Israel, and Israeli army refuseniks. How do you value their contribution?<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">HM:</span> Of course it is positive that parts of the Jewish population of Israel try to see Palestinians as human beings and as their equals. However, it disturbs me how paper-thin the number is that protests and is truly anti-Zionist. We get worked up by what happened in Hitler's Germany. If you expressed only the slightest hint of criticism at that time, you ended up in the Dachau concentration camp. If you expressed criticism, you were dead.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets, but they don't. </span><br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">AN:</span> Can you comment on the news that Israeli ministers approved a draft law banning commemoration of the Nakba, or the dispossession of historic Palestine? The law proposes punishment of up to three years in prison.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">HM:</span> It is so racist, so dreadful. I am at a loss for words. It is an expression of what we already know. [The Israeli Nakba commemoration organization] Zochrot was founded to counteract Israeli efforts to wipe out the marks that are a reminder of Palestinian life. To forbid Palestinians to publicly commemorate the Nakba. ... they cannot act in a more Nazi-like, fascist way. Maybe it will help to awaken the world.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">AN:</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>What are your plans for the future?<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="BoldGrey">HM:</span> [Laughs] Do you know how old I am? I am almost 85 years old. I always say cynically and with self-mockery that I have a choice: either I am always tired because I want to do so much, or I am going to sit still waiting for the time to go by. Well, I plan to be tired, because I have still so much to say.<br /><br /><em>Adri Nieuwhof is consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.</em> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-1414401244459690272009-06-05T22:24:00.000-06:002009-06-05T22:24:00.832-06:00Israeli Paramoralism: For God's sake, Let them be SadFor nomal people the ability to make statements that are blatently contradictory to the "facts on the ground" is hard to imagine. <a href="http://www.ponerology.com">Political Ponerology</a> comes to our aid:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Paramoralisms:</span> The conviction that moral values exist and that some actions violate moral rules is so common and ancient a phenomenon that it seems to have some substratum at man’s instinctive endowment level (although it is certainly not totally adequate for moral truth), and that it does not only represent centuries’ of experience, culture, religion, and socialization. Thus, any insinuation framed in moral slogans is always suggestive, even if the “moral” criteria used are just an “ad hoc” invention. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Any act can thus be proved to be immoral or moral</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">by means of such paramoralisms utilized as active suggestion, and people whose minds will succumb to such reasoning can always be found.</span><br />[....]<br />Paramoralisms somehow cunningly evades the control of our common sense, sometimes leading to acceptance or approval of behavior that is openly pathological.<br /><br />Paramoralistic statements and suggestions so often accompany various kinds of evil that they seem quite irreplaceable. Unfortunately, it has become a frequent phenomenon for individuals, oppressive groups, or patho-political systems to invent ever-new moral criteria for someone’s convenience. Such suggestions often partially deprive people of their moral reasoning and deform its development in youngsters. Paramoralism factories have been founded worldwide, and a ponerologist finds it hard to believe that they are managed by psychologically normal people.<br /><br />The conversive features in the genesis of paramoralisms seem to prove<span style="font-weight: bold;"> they are derived from <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">mostly subconscious rejection (and repression from the field of consciousness)</span> of something completely different, which we call</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> the voice of conscience.</span></blockquote>Blue Ibis<span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">*******************************************************************</span><br /></span><br /><div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/185964-Israeli-Paramoralism-For-God-s-sake-Let-them-be-Sad" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Israeli Paramoralism: For God's sake, Let them be Sad</a> <p> Gilad Atzmon<br /> Palestine Think Tank<br /> Sun, 31 May 2009 10:32 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image-small to-left"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22313/full/AIPAC2008_Gavison.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/22313/pod/AIPAC2008_Gavison.jpg" alt="" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a></div>As part of their racist campaign against the indigenous Palestinians, Israeli lawmakers are now insisting upon making the commemoration of the Nakba illegal. Recently a number of Israeli cabinet and Knesset Members proposed a "draft law" that would criminalize the remembrance of 1948 Palestinian holocaust (Nakba) by Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship. Interestingly enough, the Jewish state that sets its raison d'être around the remembrance of Jewish suffering is attempting to ban Palestinians from doing exactly the same with their own.<br /><br />As we know, Israel had wiped out every possible remnant of Palestinian existence on the ground. Palestinian villages, towns, orchards, fields and cultural assets had been erased soon after 1948. Currently, the Israeli lawmakers are taking the war against the Palestinian heritage one step further. It is not just a physical expulsion and erasure of facts on the ground, it is not just racially motivated ethnic cleansing, starvation, land confiscation, house demolition, bombing schools or spreading white phosphorous over populated neighbourhoods, from now on, Israel wants to invade the Palestinian mind. Israeli Knesset members insist upon eradicating the Palestinian collective memory. At least formally, they are trying to ban the right to remember.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21929/pod/Nakba60.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 238px;" src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21929/pod/Nakba60.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>As Khalid Amayreh pointed out a few days ago,<span style="font-weight: bold;"> "one Israeli Palestinian parliamentarian compared the proposed law with an imagined promulgation by Germany of a law banning all Jewish activities commemorating the holocaust." The equation between the Nakba and the Jewish holocaust is well placed. </span>We are talking about two racist crimes of a colossal magnitude. Yet, it is rather obvious that while Germans came collectively to terms with their past, the Jewish state is advancing into its seventh decade of denial bonded with total abuse of an innocent civilian population.<br /><br />In the light of the new measures of Israeli merciless brutality <strong>it is rather interesting to explore a Jewish 'voice of reason'</strong>. The odd voice of a person who stood up against this very ludicrous draft law. Professor Ruth Gavison is such a voice. Gavison is an Israeli Law professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is also 'the president' of, try not to laugh, 'The Centre of Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanitarian Thought'. Last week she published an article in the highly popular Hebrew Ynet online news magazine denouncing the new proposed law.<br /><br />Professor Gavison believes that Zionism could be interpreted as humanist and a liberal endeavour. However, a brief scrutiny of her thoughts reveals the devastating truth, the Law professor lacks the essential comprehension of the notion of universal ethics or humanism. Her vision of justice, is rather Zionised. She, seemingly, tries to juggle some old Zionist symbolic clichés hoping that her Hebrew readers would be too bored to challenge her lame argument.<br /><br />Gavison is against the draft law. She rightly argues that the proposed law is, "Unjustified and foolish for misidentifying the core problem in our public life." She argues that legalism is the least appropriate route to confront the core issue. But this is more or less where Professor Gavison runs out of kindness.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;" class="BoldRed">In spite of the promising departure, it doesn't take too long before the Israeli law professor shows her spots.</span><br /><br />Here is Gavison on the Nakba.<br /><br />"It is an accepted fact that the day when the Jewish majority celebrates their independence in their own land, is the same day that symbolizes for some of the Arab minority the day of their disaster." It is indeed revealing to know that as far as Professor Gavison is concerned, it is not the Palestinians as a whole who commemorate their Nakba as a disaster but only just "some" of them. <strong>However, for Gavison, the Palestinians have themselves to blame for it and no one but themselves.</strong><br /><br />"It must be remembered," says Gavison, that "it could as well be different... this day could have been a celebration for both Israelis and Palestinians who could celebrate the foundation of two national states." <strong>One may wonder at this stage, who is it exactly which Gavison is trying to fool or mislead</strong>. Surely she must know that the plan to expel the Palestinians was well imbued in the Zionist agenda from the very beginning. "The Palestinians," she continues, "stood up against the partition resolution and the consequences of this war is the fact that the Israeli state was erected on the wreckage of the Palestinian society and over the Palestinian land. Many Palestinians became refugees and a Palestinian state is yet to be established."<br /><br />One would expect that at this stage, the Israeli law professor who is also a 'president' of an institute that is there to promote an image of 'Jewish humanism' would come with the necessary conclusion: time is more than ripe to bring the expelled Palestinians back to their lands and homes.<br /><br /><strong>Do not hold your breath</strong>, Gavison is not exactly a universal humanist, she is just a Zionist one. All she really wants is to stop the current legislation that bans Palestinians from mourning. In other words, she wants to allow Palestinians to be sad so they can lament as much as they want.<br /><br />"Sadness is a natural feeling for people who suffer so much," acknowledges the gracious professor, "We should never deny the history, we should never ban it legally, our challenge is to confront it." One would expect that such a revelation from an alleged humanist would lead her to acknowledge the Zionist sin and even take responsibility.<br /><br />This is not going to happen. The president of 'The Centre of 'Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanitarian Thought' doesn't fit easily into our common notion of a humanist. She is more of a Jewish tribal campaigner that tries to mould some liberal sporadic terminology to justify some relentless and crude non-ethical behaviour. Gavison doesn't really want to bring justice to the region. All she demands is to develop an "awareness of the past, that would eventually evolve into a civilian future in which Arab and Jews live side by side," never together I guess.<br /><br />True, Gavison is indeed compassionate enough to let the Palestinians lament over their past. But she is clearly <strong>reluctant to take responsibility</strong> for the consequences of the Jewish national colonial apparatus. She clearly prefers to dwell on Palestinian land and even to call it "homeland" rather than giving it back to its true owner. More than the right wing Zionist zealots who brought up the sinister draft law, it is actually Professor Gavison, the so-called 'humanist Zionist', who <strong>embodies the true meaning of Israeli brutality and ugliness</strong>: <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="BoldRed">In the name of humanist symbolism she promotes the maintenance of the Jewish nationalist crime.</span><br /><br />Professor Gavison ends her article by declaring that, "denial of the past is inappropriate, but failing to take responsibility for it is unacceptable either. We have to come with solutions that approve the right of the Jews of self determination in (part of their) homeland." I would really expect the profound 'Zio-humanist' professor to open our eyes so we understand once and for all what gives the Jews the right to 'self determination' at the expense of others. Once we understand that, we may be mature enough to let professor Gavison or any other 'Humanist Zionist' enlighten us so we grasp what is it in Palestine that makes it into a legitimate Jewish homeland.<br /><br />Reading Gavison reveals once again how devastating the truth of the matter is: Zionism and liberal Jewish thought have very little to do with humanism, ethics or universalism. If anything, Zionism and humanism are opposing concepts for the simple reason that Zionism is a racially orientated tribal philosophy and humanism aims at the universal. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-81050221260845232942009-05-27T10:39:00.000-06:002009-05-27T10:39:00.620-06:00Time for US to stop fueling the conflict<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/185255-Time-for-US-to-stop-fueling-the-conflict"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ></span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><a target="_blank">Time for US to stop fueling the conflict</a></span> <p> Josh Reubner<br /> The Electronic Intifada<br /> Mon, 25 May 2009 19:08 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image-small to-left"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21880/full/090524_reubner.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Pete Souza/White House Photo"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21880/pod/090524_reubner.jpg" alt="Obama Peres" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="tiny">© Pete Souza/White House Photo</span></span><br /><span class="caption"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Seen in the Oval Office with Israeli President Shimon Peres in May 2009, US President Barack Obama requested $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel</span></span><br /><br /></span></div></div>In pledging to trim ineffective spending, US President Obama declared that "there will be no sacred cows and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices, and it's time their government did the same."<br /><br /><strong>By asking earlier this month for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel in his FY2010 budget request, it would seem that on this important policy issue President Obama's commitment is more rhetorical than substantive</strong>. Since 1949, according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has provided to Israel more than $100 billion in military and economic assistance. In 2007, the US and Israel signed an agreement for $30 billion in additional military aid through FY2018.<br /><br />Yet the provision of US weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense has done nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to achieving a just and lasting peace. Rather, these weapons have had the exact opposite effect, as documented recently by Amnesty International, which pointed to <strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">US weapons as a prime factor "fueling" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</strong><br /><br />According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, during the Bush Administration,<strong> Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent Palestinian civilians, including more than 1,000 children</strong>. During its December 2008-January 2009 war on the occupied Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200 non-combatants.<br /><br />On average, for each day that President Bush sat in the Oval Office, Israel killed one Palestinian civilian, often with US weapons. Before Congress appropriates any additional military aid to Israel, it should insist upon President Obama providing a comprehensive and transparent review of the effects US weapons transfers to Israel have on Palestinian civilians. The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of US weapons given to a foreign country to "internal security" and "legitimate self-defense."<br /><br />If, after reviewing the impact of Israel's misuse of US weapons, the President and Congress cannot find the political will to sanction Israel for its violations of the Arms Export Control Act and prohibit future arms transfers as is required by law, then there are still steps that the US government should take to ensure that any future transfers are not used to commit human rights abuses but instead to promote US policy goals. For example, previous US loan guarantees to Israel have stipulated that funds cannot be used to support Israeli activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Conditioning US military aid to Israel in the same way would prevent these weapons from being used to kill innocent Palestinian civilians.<br /><br />As President Obama has stated, "We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars, on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups. We simply can't afford it." <strong>In regard to US aid to Israel, this is true as much from a budgetary standpoint as it is from a moral one.</strong><br /><br /><em>Josh Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. This essay was originally published by the Detroit Free Press.</em> </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-90182758698328162602009-05-24T11:22:00.000-06:002009-05-24T11:22:00.395-06:00The Joy and Comfort of Conspiracy Denial<div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/184839-The-Joy-and-Comfort-of-Conspiracy-Denial"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" onclick="window.print(); return false;">The Joy and Comfort of Conspiracy Denial</a></span> <p> Carol Cleveland<br /> OpEdNews.com<br /> Thu, 21 May 2009 15:54 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image to-left"><a linkindex="148" href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21707/full/300px_new_york_times_9_11.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© NY Times"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21707/medium/300px_new_york_times_9_11.jpg" alt="911 NY Times" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">© NY Times</span></span><br /><br /></span></div></div>Recently I read another stinging rebuke of the 9-11 conspiracy theorists for their frightful mishandling of evidence, their will to believe only what gives them psychological comfort, and their general state of delusion. It was not the first I had read, nor will it be the last. The writer held unwaveringly to the party line: all those who seek to discredit the official, announced version of the events of 9-11 are "conspiracy theorists"- and should not be listened to. That this position constitutes an attempt at prior censorship does not seem to bother the deniers, nor the fact that the central tenets of conspiracy denial are an ad hominem attack. We are told that conspiracy theorists are crazy, or at least cowardly clingers to delusions that they find comforting.<br /><br />It occurred to me that I haven't seen anyone examine the mental comforts of conspiracy denial, using the handy tools of amateur psychology. It's my guess that there's considerable comfort to be had, especially for men, from an acceptance of the official explanation for 9-11. This is not to say that many women aren't happy with the Arab hijacker theory, but for men, the provision of a clear enemy to fight is always especially gratifying.<br /><br />To accept the official announcements of the story of 9-11 is instantly satisfying in several ways. Commercial airliners, hijacked by suicide terrorists, flew into buildings at the behest of a really smart master-terrorist named Osama Bin Laden. This is an immediately credible scenario""many of us had heard the name Bin Laden, and "knew" he was a terrorist who lived on the other side of the world. Indeed, the WTC had been attacked once before. And terrorism itself certainly exists--both sides of the 9-11 controversy can agree on that. <strong>So, to accept the official announcements that followed the attacks enabled you quickly to locate all the blame for the attacks in a tiny evil army of foreigners, all out of immediate reach, but accessible to the U.S. Army, you bet. The hijackers themselves were all dead, and their leader was extremely hard to find, but American forces could find and punish them. No need, really, to conduct any investigations or solve any mysteries--an evil super-hero with a small army of mentally enslaved unfortunates was able to penetrate the defenses of the finest air force in the world to murder 3000 Americans. A fluke, but in life and in sports, stuff like that happens.</strong><br /><br />The fact that this reads like a comic book plot doesn't seem to be a source of embarrassment for the anti-truther movement. In fact, an evil mastermind who, through mindless suicidal drones, wreaks havoc on good and decent people is the major plot driver of The Lord of the Rings, and many other fantasy and science fiction epics. Mythically speaking, it's golden.<br /><br />And under the broad strokes of the main story, there's also a layer of historically accurate information that supports the main plot line. Joe and Jane Six-Pack would accept the unadorned story eagerly, but there's something to satisfy the more thoughtful as well. The back story is that American foreign policy for the last 30 years could easily result in some very unhappy Arabs. CIA meddling in the politics of Iran and Iraq, and above all, our support for Israel, have been highly unpopular on the Arab street. Well-read people could find the anti-American sentiments of the terrorists quite credible, if regrettable.<br /><br /><strong>So the psychological comforts of the official story are several and real: you get a clearly defined enemy, a simple solution to a complex foreign policy problem, you get to feel morally superior to your enemy because you're more civilized and don't kill civilians</strong>, and finally, if you know something of the history of American policy in the Near East, you get to feel superior to those who don't.<br /><br /><strong>It's entirely understandable that any American should believe the official 9-11 story. And, of course, to consider seriously for an instant that there could be something seriously wrong with that story, to imagine that as possible, really does change everything, just like 9-11 itself. If there's a chance that Americans colluded in those horrors, then the entire mental structure of our sanity, which we've lived in all our lives, has a serious crack, a San Andreas Fault, right down the middle. If we think it possible that "We have met the enemy, and he is us," then everything previously unthinkable is thinkable.</strong><br /><br />In fairness to their enemies among the truthers, the conspiracy deniers should admit that there is much psychological comfort in their own position, and that conspiracy theorists do not have a monopoly on convenient but deluded assumptions. 9-11 is, after all, a heap of facts, and it is open to human inquiry. Whether the heap was created by our enemies' hatred or something worse has yet to be decided. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10042412.post-31492957634742753632009-05-23T10:46:00.001-06:002009-05-23T10:46:00.155-06:00Whistleblowers UNITE!Sibel Edmonds continues her brave fight to bring the truth about the literally deadly corruption in Government. Please give her all the support you can. There is strength in numbers'.<br /><br />Blue Ibis<br />**********************************************************************<br /><br /><div class="article-header"> <div class="article-info"> <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/184847-Rob-Kall-Interviews-Sibel-Edmonds"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" onclick="window.print(); return false;">Rob Kall Interviews Sibel Edmonds</a></span> <p> Rob Kall<br /> OpEdNews.com<br /> Sat, 16 May 2009 17:21 UTC </p> </div><!-- end article-info --> </div><!-- end article-header --> <div class="article-body"> <div class="article-image-small to-right"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21706/full/SibelEdmonds_ReadyToTell.jpg" rel="ibox&ignore_target=true" target="_blank" title="© Unknown"><img src="http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/21706/pod/SibelEdmonds_ReadyToTell.jpg" alt="Sibel Edmonds" title="Click to enlarge" border="0" /></a><div class="image-caption"><span class="tiny"><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">© Unknown</span></span><br /><br /></span></div></div><em>Thanks to Luke Ryland for transcribing the interview. He says, "The following is a partial transcript. All errors, edits and omissions are mine."</em><br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">Sibel Edmonds:</span><br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br />We (NSWBC) stopped our activities for a while, and we are restarting them again, and I just launched my <a href="http://%20www.123realchange.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blog</a>, and the first series that I'm posting there is on the mainstream media, and in the next few days, you're going to see more than 300 whistleblowers who are going to post their comments at the blog too, about their experiences with various people in the mainstream media.<br /><br />So that's going to be the main discussion, because <strong>currently we review the mainstream media as the culprit, because if they were to do their jobs, they would put pressure on the people in the congress, because these people want to get re-elected, and therefore that pressure would act as a catalyst to get these things that we, the people, have been asking for - the real hearings and accountability</strong>. But without the mainstream media putting that pressure, going after them, well, they don't have anything really to fear. You know, you have to have carrots, you have to have sticks, but there have been no sticks for these people. They get away with everything.<br /><br />And even when we have some coverage, it only lasts for a couple of days, you don't get what you saw, let's say, with Watergate. You have to keep at it, and the mainstream media is not doing this. And the best example of this is the Harman case, it just popped out, and then in a couple of days it disappeared, and it has been buried.<br /><br /> [SNIP]<br /><br />They never ask "Why State Secrets Privilege?" and that is what I always bring up with people<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">Rob Kall:</span> Well, why is there the State Secrets Privilege?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE: </span>That is the question, right. There are people in the, I would not even say the alternative media, some good researchers in the blogosphere who have worked on it and have been able to at least answer some of that question.<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK:</span> What were the answers?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> Well, the answer is, from 1996 to 2002, there were certain investigations under one file within the FBI, that involved criminal activities by US persons, and these are the US government people, whether elected or appointed - and I'm talking about criminal deeds with some severe consequences, and if my case were to be public - to go to court all the way, or have hearings in congress, and you have the FBI agents as witnesses come and testify, with other witnesses, and myself, you will see a lot of these people go to jail.<br /><br />You will see immediately a Special Prosecutor in this case and you will see the trial for these people because you are looking at very, very serious issues, very, very serious illegal activities.<br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> Vanity Fair ran the <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9774.htm" target="_blank">story </a>on Dennis Hastert and the fact that he may have been one of the top targets of the FBI in this corruption and criminal matters involving Turkey, because of his relationship, and some of the illegal activities he was engaged with, with certain Turkish and Turkish American people...<br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK:</span> What was the scandal regarding Turkey?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> <strong>Well, the fact that he was receiving suitcases full of cash from certain Turkish organizations, to do certain things in Congress, and in the Senate (?) for them, and that some of his activities involved, actually, narcotics in Chicago.</strong><br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br />As soon as Hastert came out of Congress, he goes and becomes an agent for Turkey, getting $35,000 per month for serving this interest, and most likely, his son will be replacing that service provided from the inside (if the son gets elected to Hastert's seat). That's how it works with Congress - even when they are out, they are not really out.<br /><br />You see, before Dennis Hastert, OK, the person who was serving this interest (Turkey) in congress was Bob Livingston; he was the Speaker of the House. And I can not tell you whether the FBI had thick files on Bob Livingston or not. Well, Bob Livingston resigned, left the Congress in 1999, OK, Hastert replaced him. In 1999 when Bob Livingston left Congress, a few months later he, again, registered himself as the agent for the Turkish interests, under FARA, Foreign Agents Registration Act, under this company that he set up, The Livingston Group, and he received $1.5 million per year for eight years.<br /><br />His boy, Dennis Hastert, was left behind and became Speaker of the House. Now, Dennis Hastert is out and receiving $35,000 per month serving the Turkish interests. I'm sure he has several boys left behind there who would be doing what Hastert did while he was inside, and then when they come out, they will get their $35,000 or $50,000. That's how it works. And it's not only with the Turkish Lobby; you see that a lot with the Israel Lobby. A lot of people know this, but as I said, we get these crusty people and then we keep re-electing them. Why? Because a lot of people don't know about this, and they don't know about it because the mainstream media is not reporting it.<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK: </span>What did Turkey get in the deal?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> <strong>It is not the Turkish government - it only looks like it is the Turkish government</strong>, but these are certain entities, and again there is plenty of information out there, these are certain Turkish entities that are engaged in certain international activities, some of them legal, some of them illegal.<br /><div class="StoryComment"><br /><br /><strong>Comment: </strong>Hmmm... could these activities be in any way linked to the <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/174183-Mossad-linked-to-Ergenekon-plot" target="_blank">Ergenekon</a> scandal?<br /><br /></div><br /><br />And again, there are many pieces written on this, one is by<a href="http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2006/05/sibel-giraldi-american-conservative.html" target="_blank"> Phil Giraldi</a> .... which talks about what these Turkish entities do, and who they are... He links these Turkish entities directly to Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and Eric Edelman and Marc Grossman and Dennis Hastert, and he makes those links fairly accurately... He is a pretty solid freelance writer, he's very good, and very intelligent, and also knowledgeable with direct information on certain angles on my case, because that is what he did, he did work in Turkey, and he was involved in operations that involved, basically, some of the same people.<br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK:</span> <strong>So Turkey basically gets better treatment from the US, they get access to military technology, maybe they get to be a little nastier with the Kurds...</strong><br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> Yes, and when you're getting into the military technology, or intelligence stuff, you're basically looking at espionage activities, and they can obtain information from the Pentagon and State Department or congress. Classified information that belongs to the American government that is not supposed to go to other countries, but they're able to get whatever they want because they have their people in place.<br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK: </span>What do you think of AG Eric Holder?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> He's basically the same old dung, the same crap, putting it crudely. There is no difference between him and Ashcroft or Gonzales, and unfortunately every day that passes in these four years we are going to see that. We are already seeing this. They dropped the AIPAC court case. Who did it? Obama's Justice Department, his AG decided, despite all the evidence on these Israeli spies, that they were going to drop it. Even the Bush administration didn't go that far - because some of the FBI agents were out there who would have screamed, and they did. Because that is why we got that <a href="http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page1.html" target="_blank">CQ piece on Harman</a>. So they said 'we will not go after you.' Obama's administration right now, they are pressuring the British government saying we don't want you to pursue this torture case in your courts because it involves some of our classified information, and we don't want you to do that. It's not only that they are classifying things here, trying to cover up with secrecy, they're trying to do it overseas, with England! That is ridiculous. It's the same with torture. <strong>It is this administration, this Justice Department that is saying that everybody is going to get off the hook...</strong><br /><br />[SNIP]<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK:</span> Now you have a new website. What is it?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> <a href="http://www.123realchange.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">www.123realchange.blogspot.com</a> . And my first series is going to be on the mainstream media... and there will be a surprise element, because in the next few days there will be an announcement there, and I believe that will bring a lot of attention from the mainstream media. It may turn the whole thing into a war zone but we'll see about that, so some exciting things are going to happen there. I hope we will get more visitors and I hope I'll find more ways to promote...<br /><br />I hope people will cross-post what I write I'm hoping to get tons and tons of comments at the blog, and we'll have the surprise announcement in the next few days which will be good, because <strong>we have about 300+ members and sub-members for NSWBC - people from the NSA, FBI, CIA, DoD, people such as Russ Tice, and all these people are going to be active with the blog, posting comments, some anonymous, some with their pseudo-names</strong>. Keep following the blog - because when the attack comes, and they start doing it, the mainstream media, I'm going to need all the support I can get! Don't leave me alone there! And I'm also working on the next op-ed piece which is going to be on Obama with some of the stuff we just talked about... And anyone can take any of these articles and reprint them, absolutely. And if people can point back to my blog, because I'll need these people to come and comment, I'll need these supporters because the attacks will follow, I know it's going to come.<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">RK: </span>What kind of attack? What are you talking about?<br /><br /><span class="BoldGrey">SE:</span> Well, this is going to be a pretty interesting thing. You're going to find out in two days - so that's something to look forward to, because, in a way, us, the whistleblowers, are going to turn the table on the mainstream media.<br /><br />In fact, to say the 'mainstream media is the culprit' in a way let's them off the hook, because it's just a general term, like saying 'congress' but when you start going individually after individuals, or individual papers with specific cases it becomes a different story... These are the things we are going to put on my blog, and I'm going to hit them. Name, paper, incident, cases. </div>Blue Ibishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09515889184162816983noreply@blogger.com0