Peace and Justice Post

The Guardian, UK, December 14, 2007

By Michael Ratner

As we all now know, the CIA has destroyed hundreds of hours of video tapes of the likely 2002 water torture of three men, allegedly involved with al-Qaida, by its agents. Although the CIA has not acknowledged that the videos are of water torture – often known euphemistically as “waterboarding” – a former CIA agent, John Kiriakou, has said that the waterboarding was authorised from the highest levels of the Bush administration.

Now we are seeing the usual Washington scrambling and casting of blame after another serious revelation of torture. Most of the official focus seems to be on who made the decision to approve the destruction and not on the underlying issue: the fact that the Bush administration, with the apparent consent of some of the congressional leadership, sanctioned torture.

This endorsement was criminal under both US law and international law – and that opens high level administration officials to prosecution, whether in the US or abroad.

Continued . . .

The News International, Friday, December 14, 2007
By Debbie Menon

Just another stroke against democracy in Palestine, whatever little of it has been allowed to develop in this region. Let us not forget, Hamas’ network of charities, schools and clinics was a key factor in the rising popularity of the movement and contributed to its victory over Fatah in parliament elections in 2006. At the same time, Fatah was weakened by deadlock in peace talks with Israel and widespread official corruption and mismanagement.

Fatah has now with the assistance of US/Israel moved systematically against Hamas in the West Bank. Its security forces have arrested hundreds of Hamas supporters, and issued regulations to cut off Hamas funding from abroad. Information minister Riad Malki said the government in the West Bank dissolved 92 Hamas-linked charity committees. The committees collected money and distributed it among the poor, usually during religious holidays. They were ordered to close down two weeks ago. One of the committees closed down by Abbas, in the West Bank city of Nablus, said it provided aid to 3,200 families and 3,000 orphans, at a cost of $212,000 to $282,000 a month. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the closure of the charities will lead to hunger in the West Bank. “It’s an attempt to weaken Hamas, but the Palestinian citizen will pay the price, because they benefit from these committees.”

Keep reading . . . 

Information Clearing House
By Stephanie Nebehay

“Bringing them to court would bring to the court’s attention the method through which the evidence, including the confessions, were obtained. So this is one further affirmation of the conclusion that the CIA or others have been involved in methods of interrogation that are incompatible with international law,” he said.

Continued . . .

RINF.com,  December 14, 2007

AN American engineer and author recently toured South Africa to dispel alleged myths about the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Enver Masud, 68, presented Fatally Flawed: The 9/11 Commission Report to thousands of South Africans on his tour of the country.

Port Elizabeth-based group Al-Ansar (The Helpers), brought Masud to Port Elizabeth last week because, they said, “the war on terror is based on the premise of the World Trade Centre attacks. If there‘s any doubt about the facts . . . then the whole war on terror is based on a false premise”.

Masud said before his first talk in November 2006 in Washington on the flawed 9/11 commission report, he had had many questions on the attacks, but “first had to gather hard facts instead of going along with conspiracy theories”.

“I‘m not a conspiracy theorist. My goal is purely to show that the US government conclusions are false. I have tons of information, but only use a dozen selected facts from mainstream news sources, pictures and official documents.”

Referring to the plane crash at the Pentagon which formed part of the September 11 attacks, Masud gave a slide presentation at a press briefing on September 12, 2001, stating “that there were no large sections of aircraft visible in the damaged area in front of the Pentagon”.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN senior Pentagon correspondent since November 1992, reported on the day of the attacks that there was no evidence of the plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon.

McIntyre said: “The only pieces left that you can see are small enough to pick up in your hand.”

On CNN‘s website it states that six months after the attacks, “McIntyre‘s contacts provided security camera pictures of American Airlines Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon”. On the images showed by Masud it is difficult to see a plane flying into the Pentagon, “especially missing the street signs and lamp posts still standing”.

Masud referred to official reports and photographs and said the entry and exit holes at the Pentagon crash site were the signature of a Cruise missile, and the term “punch-out hole” was written by investigators over the exit hole.

Masud also refers to the FBI‘s most wanted terrorists list and questions why Osama Bin Laden is not specifically wanted for the 9/11 attacks.

Instead, he is wanted for murder of US nationals outside the US, conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the US and an attack on a federal facility resulting in death.

Masud said according to the FBI “the reason 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama Bin Laden‘s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”.

Masud was the recipient of the 2002 Gold Award from the Human Rights Foundation for his book The War on Islam.

Masud said: “Polls indicate that 70 million Americans don‘t believe the official version of these attacks.

“Muslims in America have been largely silent. They were concerned after the attacks. More than 1 500 were locked up.”

Masud grew up in India and said his parents had been his biggest influences when it came to speaking the truth.

His father, Mirza Nasiruddin, worked with Gandhi, and his mother, Atiya Fatima, worked with Mother Teresa.

Eat The State.org, vol. 12, No. 7, December 6, 2007

by Carol Davidek-Waller

Clearly the nation has turned against Vice President Cheney and President George W. Bush. Their approval ratings are the lowest of any elected leaders in American history. We are weary of war and bled white from profligate spending and larceny. Our civil rights have been severely restricted and crimes have been committed. A once peaceful world stands on the brink of turmoil.

As the 2008 elections draw near, it’s tempting to look upon regime change as an end to our long night. We would like to believe that a change of face in the Oval Office would repair the damage done by the current administration. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Without investigation and impeachment, electing a new president will only serve to codify the unprecedented and illegitimate power stolen from the Congress and the American people. The powers of a dictator will be passed on like an Olympic torch where they will reside with the next president like a ticking time bomb.

Keep reading . . .

Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University

Immanuel Wallerstein | Commentary No. 222, December 1, 2007

The United States is going through two sets of debates among presidential candidates, one set each for Democrats and Republicans. These debates usually have journalists as conveners and questioners, and the journalists seek to force the candidates to commit themselves on supposedly difficult choices. These “difficult” choices are regularly formulated in ways that they are media traps, sometime maliciously so.

A typical example occurred on Nov. 14 at a Democratic debate presided over by Wolf Blitzer. He posed the question, “Are human rights more important than American national security?” Obviously, the answer Blitzer was forcing was the pseudo-patriotic one that national security took precedence over everything else. Bravely, Richardson voted for human rights. But Dodd, Biden, and Clinton all said it was obvious that national security was the primary consideration. And Obama said the two considerations are complementary. Kucinich was cut off from answering.

No one said the question was an absurd one, in two different ways. First of all, was it a question about foreign policy? Or was it a question about U.S. internal policy? Blitzer and the candidates assumed it was a question about foreign policy, at the moment a question about U.S. policy in Pakistan. One person tried to shift the ground to internal policy, but he was not allowed to do this.

Continued . . .

Salon.com, December 13, 2007

The Senate Judiciary Committee has just approved contempt citations for Josh Bolten and Karl Rove, citing the president’s chief of staff and former top political advisor for failing to comply with subpoenas issued as part of the committee’s investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys last year.

Republicans Arlen Specter and Charles Grassley joined 10 Democrats in voting in favor of the citations.

But before anybody gets in line to watch the sort of “frog-marching” that Joseph Wilson has long anticipated, it’s probably worth mentioning that the citations are meaningless unless they survive a vote on the Senate floor, and they’re probably meaningless even then.

Even assuming that the full Senate approves the citations, any prosecution under them would be handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia. At least until Jan. 20, 2009, the prosecutors in that office serve at the pleasure of George W. Bush, whose people have already declared that the office “would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case.”

Information Clearing House
By RAWA

12/12/07 “ICH” — — The US and her allies tried to legitimize their military occupation of Afghanistan under the banner of “bringing freedom and democracy for Afghan people”. But as we have experienced in the past three decades, in regard to the fate of our people, the US government first of all considers her own political and economic interests and has empowered and equipped the most traitorous, anti-democratic, misogynist and corrupt fundamentalist gangs in Afghanistan.

In the past few years, for a thousand times the lies of US claims in the so-called “War on terror” were uncovered. By relying on the criminal bands of the Northern Alliance, the US made a game of values like democracy, human rights, women’s rights etc. thus disgracing our mournful nation. The US created a government from those people responsible for massacres in Pul-e-Charkhi, Dasht-e-Chamtala, Kapisa, Karala, Dasht-e-Lieli, 65,000 Kabulis and tens of mass graves across the country. Now the US tries to include infamous killers like Mullah Omer and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar into the government, which will be another big hypocrisy in the “war against terror”.

Keep reading . . .

After the invasion of Iraq, the US government claimed that women there had ‘new rights and new hopes’. In fact their lives have become immeasurably worse, with rapes, burnings and murders now a daily occurrence.
By Mark Lattimer
Thursday December 13, 2007
The Guardian

They lie in the Sulaimaniyah hospital morgue in Iraqi Kurdistan, set out on white-tiled slabs. A few have been shot or strangled, some beaten to death, but most have been burned. One girl, a lock of hair falling across her half-closed eyes, could almost be on the point of falling asleep. Burns have stretched the skin on another young woman’s face into a fixed look of surprise.

These women are not casualties of battle. In fact, the cause of death is generally recorded as “accidental”, although their bodies often lie unclaimed by their families.

Continued . . .