Peace and Justice Post

Axis of Logic, December 11, 2007

“In my mind, if the world had more people like you who care about poor people like us, middle class people who are struggling, this world would be fantastic,” — Ruth Lisa

“We approach every major oil company and every OPEC nation each year to ask that a small slice of their record profits go to help the poor. Only one oil company – CITGO – and only one nation – Venezuela – stepped up to the plate to offer a helping hand.”

Joseph P. Kennedy, Chairman
Citizens Energy

CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program Launched in Boston

BOSTON, Dec 10, 2007: — The Chairman, President and CEO of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Alejandro Granado, Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph P. Kennedy II and the Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Bernardo Alvarez, announced today the beginning of the 2007-2008 CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program aboard a CITGO tanker carrying fuel that will benefit thousands of Massachusetts residents this winter. This is the third consecutive year the program has operated in the city.

Continued . . .

The Nation,

truthdig | posted December 12, 2007 (web only)

By Robert Scheer

When the CIA destroyed those prisoner interrogation videotapes, was it also destroying the truth about 9/11? After all, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, the basic narrative of what happened on that day–and the definition of the enemy in this war on terror that George W. Bush launched in response to the tragedy–comes from the CIA’s account of what those prisoners told their torturers. The commission was never allowed to interview the prisoners, or speak with those who did, and was instead forced to rely on what the CIA was willing to relay.

On the matter of the existence of the tapes, we know the CIA lied, not only to the 9/11 Commission but to Congress as well. Given that the Bush Administration has for six years refused those prisoners any sort of public legal exposure, why should we believe what we’ve been told about what may turn out to be the most important transformative event in our nation’s history? On the basis of what the CIA claimed the tortured prisoners said, President Bush launched a “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), an endless war that threatens to bankrupt our society both financially and morally.

Keep reading . . .

China View, December 12, 2007

  KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — Five Palestinian militants were killed and four Israeli soldiers wounded during a large-scale Israeli military operation in southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and Israeli army said Tuesday.     Palestinian residents of al-Fakhari village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, said that 30 Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers stormed the village at predawn in the day.

    Mahmoud Abu Tahha, a 55-year-old resident, said a column of tanks and personnel armored vehicles stormed the village before dawn as bulldozers cleared up the ground of roadside bombs.

Keep reading  . . . 

AlterNet.com, December 12, 2007
By Alex Jung

The Geneva conventions aren’t the only humanitarian standards the United States ignores. Under the Bush administration, the United States routinely commits human rights violations within its borders, according to a new report by the U.S. Human Rights Network.

The USHRN, a coalition of over 250 social justice and human rights organizations, published its report to challenge the findings of a self-assessment the U.S. government filed with the U.N. Committee on Ending Discrimination (CERD) last April.

The United States ratified human rights standards from the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 1994 (meaning they have the force of domestic law), but according to the USHRN, has failed to live up to them.

Keep reading . . .

Source: AP

By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer AP – Wednesday, December 12, 2007

JERUSALEM – Israel became the world’s fourth largest defense exporter in 2007, surpassing Britain, with $4.3 billion in signed contracts, officials said Tuesday amid efforts to tighten controls on the nation’s arms sales to banned countries or groups.

Israel exports mostly radar systems, drones and anti-tank missiles to India, Turkey, Britain, the United States and other Western nations, defense officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

But Israel has earned a questionable reputation for the small percentage of its sales _ usually of shells, rifles and ammunition _ that go to war-torn countries, analysts said.

Continued . . .

· Ex-CIA agent says coercive technique was US policy
· Bush at centre of missing interrogation tapes row

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday December 12, 2007
The Guardian

The White House was directly accused yesterday of authorising the waterboarding of al-Qaida detainees, putting President George Bush at the centre of a deepening controversy over the treatment of detainees.

The charge from John Kiriakou, a former CIA official involved in the capture of senior al-Qaida members, came on a day when the Bush administration tried to contain a dispute concerning the destruction of hundreds of hours of video footage of the interrogation of the high-level al-Qaida suspect known as Abu Zubaydah.

Continued . . .

Antiwar.com, December 11, 2007

by Rep. Ron Paul

The latest National Intelligence Estimate has been greeted by a mixture of relief and alarm. As I have been saying all along, Iran indeed poses no quantifiable imminent nuclear threat to us or her neighbors. It is with much alarm, however, that we see the administration continue to ratchet up the war rhetoric as if nothing has changed.

Indeed nothing has changed from the administration’s perspective, as they have had this latest intelligence report for some time. Only this week has it been made known to the public. They want it both ways with Iran. On the one hand, they discredit the report entirely, despite it being one of the most comprehensive intelligence reports on the subject, with over 1,000 source notes in the document. On the other hand, when discrediting it fails, they claim that the timing of the abandonment of the weapons program, just as we were invading Iraq, means our pressure must have worked, so we must keep it up with a new round of even tougher sanctions. Russia and China are not buying this, apparently, and again we are finding ourselves on a lonely, tenuous platform on the world stage.

Keep reading . . .

Published on Monday, December 10, 2007 by Inter Press Service

by William Fisher

NEW YORK – A coalition of more than 200 not-for-profit human rights and social justice organisations charge that the George W. Bush administration is contributing to racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. — and attempting to cover up its violations in a report to the United Nations they term “a complete whitewash”.

The charges are contained in a “shadow report” timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day Monday, and designed to rebut a far more positive picture painted by the U.S. State Department. State’s report, quietly submitted to the U.N. last spring and posted without publicity on the department’s website, was a requirement under the world body’s International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, to which the U.S. is a signatory.

The shadow report was prepared by the U.S. Human Rights Network (USHRN), a large group of non-governmental organisations ranging from Amnesty International to the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund.

Keep reading . . . 

 Press TV, December 10, 2007

Israel’s Gabi Ashkenazi (L) and Admiral Mullen

The top US army commander holds high-level talks with Israeli military echelons after the Zionists rejected the NIE report on Iran.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen met his Israeli counterpart Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi and War Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv on Monday, Israeli sources said.

Zionists military sources added that Admiral Mullen, who has been reportedly opposed to military strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites, was briefed on the argument of Israeli spy agencies that the Islamic Republic ‘could have nuclear bombs by 2010’.

Israel which is widely believed to possess the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East claims a nuclear Iran would be a threat to the region. However, Tehran has repeatedly attested that its nuclear program is civilian.

The December 3rd National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear activities concluded with ‘high confidence’ that the Tehran is not pursuing nuclear weaponry.

The NIE report has provoked an outcry amongst hawkish US officials and their Zionist allies; however political observers believe the findings make a US military strike against Iran less likely.

Dissident Voice

by James Petras / December 10th, 2007

The most important thing [sic] that should be said about Bush is that had I told him that I was opposed to this move (Annapolis meeting), he wouldn’t have embarked on it. I could have blocked the move. Had I been unwilling to co-operate with him, Bush wouldn’t have coerced me… I spoke to the President with unparalleled sharpness about these matters (bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities) and my comments were extremely well received — regarding the freedom (to bomb Iran) we are reserving for ourselves and what we will and won’t do.
– Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Haaretz, November 29, 2007

Introduction

During and immediately after the Annapolis meetings to discuss peace, Israel abducted the student president of Beir Zeit University for dissent, launched over 50 attacks on Gaza killing and wounding over 50 Palestinian civilians, police and militia, set in motion a vast building project of 250 new apartments in Palestinian East Jerusalem, projected permanent Israeli military posts in the West Bank, rejected any time limits or specific goals in their negotiations with the PLO and launched a virulent dismissal of the major US intelligence report (National Intelligence Estimate) on the non-existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Continued . . .