Peace and Justice Post

• Patrick Wintour and Riazat Butt
• The Guardian, Friday July 4, 2008

Britain’s most senior judge reopened one of the most highly charged debates in Britain last night when he said he was willing to see sharia law operate in the country, so long as it did not conflict with the laws of England and Wales, or lead to the imposition of severe physical punishments.

The remarks by the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, in a speech to the London Muslim Council yesterday, had a conscious echo of the comments made by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in February who argued that sharia law could sometimes be used in Britain.

The archbishop, who suggested “sharia law was rooted in the sense of doing God’s will in the ordinary things of law”, was later forced to retract the statement.

Phillips insisted last night there was “widespread misunderstanding” of the nature of sharia law, and argued: “There is no reason why sharia principles, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution [with the understanding] … that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of mediation would be drawn from the Laws of England and Wales.”

He also suggested sharia principles should be applied to marriage arrangements.

Less controversially, Phillips backed the creation of specialist financial products and services which comply with sharia principles, something the UK Treasury has acknowledged since 2002.

The lord chief justice, in an address broadly designed to reassure the Muslim community that it was treated equally under British law, stressed that he was not countenancing “any notion of sharia courts operating in this country and seeking to impose such punishments”.

He said: “There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here.

“So far as the law is concerned, those who live in this country are governed by English and Welsh law and subject to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.”

In the most controversial section, Phillips said: ” It was not very radical to advocate embracing sharia law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop’s suggestion.

Continued . . .

• John Pilger, The Guardian, Wednesday July 2, 2008

Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or “official drivel”, as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: “Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless.” The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, “he is a moderating voice, urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with Israel”.

Getting Mohammed to London to receive his prize was a major diplomatic operation. Israel has perfidious control over Gaza’s borders, and only with a Dutch embassy escort was he allowed out. Last Thursday, on his return journey, he was met at the Allenby Bridge crossing (to Jordan) by a Dutch official, who waited outside the Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet, Israel’s infamous security organisation. Mohammed was told to turn off his mobile and remove the battery. He asked if he could call his embassy escort and was told forcefully he could not. A man stood over his luggage, picking through his documents. “Where’s the money?” he demanded. Mohammed produced some US dollars. “Where is the English pound you have?”

“I realised,” said Mohammed, “he was after the award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn’t have it with me. ‘You are lying’, he said. I was now surrounded by eight Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: ‘Why are you treating me this way? I am a human being.’ He said, ‘This is nothing compared with what you will see now.’ He took his gun out, pressing it to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, ‘Why are you bringing perfumes?’ I replied, ‘They are gifts for the people I love’. He said, ‘Oh, do you have love in your culture?’

“As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror.”

An ambulance was called and told to take Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was “suspected” of smuggling and “lost his balance” during a “fair” interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday.

Israeli human rights groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet agents with “beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation”. Amnesty has long reported the widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an international league table for its murder of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of coverage given to the BBC’s Alan Johnston.

The Dutch government says it is shocked by Mohammed Omer’s treatment. The former ambassador Jan Wijenberg said: “This is by no means an isolated incident, but part of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and cultural life … I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future.”

While Mohammed was receiving his prize in London, the new Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Proser, was publicly complaining that many Britons no longer appreciated the uniqueness of Israel’s democracy. Perhaps they do now.

johnpilger.com

The Peoples Voice, July 2, 2008

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

US senator Joe Lieberman says the United States would come under attack during the first year of the country’s new president.

“Our enemies will test the new president early,” Lieberman said in an interview with CBS news. “Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration.”

Lieberman also praised likely Republican nominee John McCain, saying the Arizona senator is determined to counter any possible attacks as the next US president.

“John McCain is ready to take the reins on January 20, 2009. He doesn’t need any training,” he said. “He’s been tested. He’s ready to protect the security of the American people.”

Lieberman’s recent remarks are views by many as a means to create fear and panic among American citizens, thus suggesting the notion that the US would need a war veteran as the head of state to protect the nation.

Lieberman, who endorsed McCain in early February, believes the 71-year-old Arizona senator is the only candidate who ‘will bear any burden, pay any price to assure the survival and sustenance of liberty’.

AGB/MMN

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich | ICH, July 2, 2008

“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.” – Aristotle

A re-born Christian, the world’s most powerful president believes: “Behind all of life and all of history, there’s a dedication and a purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God.” His tyranny disguised, he continues his barbaric assault on humanity. One civilization already destroyed with a death toll of over a million and counting, the mainstream media having conveniently sent the Afghan war to oblivion, Mr. Bush puts attacking Iran at the forefront of his agenda. This time, his message from a ‘higher father’ will drown the whole Middle East in blood and leave America bankrupt for decades. All the while the ‘voices’ tell him that he must continue to arm Israel so that the Palestinians can be slaughtered.

It appears that for Iran to prove its nuclear energy is for peaceful purposes is akin to the myth of Sisyphus. Just as the gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight, considering it that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor; so the U.S. , Israel, and their allies constantly demand that Iran prove its innocence, the negative, even though the IAEA has stated that Iran of the charges. It has become a futile task – frustrating, and hopeless. Each time, the goal post is moved – the threat of bombing Iran dangerously real. The stone will not roll back; it will fall on 70 million innocent people.

But why?

No doubt America would like to attack Iran using the civilian nuclear energy as a pretext so that it can have more bases given that most desirable for expanding its empire are in Iran. As a comparison, “[t]he Roman Empire at its height in 117 AD required thirty-seven major bases to police its realm from Britannia to Egypt, from Hispania to Armenia”. As of 2005, the US has 16 large, 22 medium, and 699 small bases making a total of 737. The number does not include 20 bases in Turkey owned by the Turkish government but used by both; the espionage installation in Britain paid for by the U.S. and disguised as the Royal Air Force; other secret bases and garrisons established since 9/11. As with Iraq where the oil was an obvious factor, in 2005 the U.S. military upgraded the Balad International Airport so that military flights could fly into Balad and commercial flights use Baghdad International Airport. Balad houses over 250 aircraft (Johnson, 2006).

And of course Israel would be so pleased to see Iran destroyed!

Bush was put in the White House with the strong backing of the Evangelicals. His ‘Devotion’ to religion has cost over one million lives and should Iran be attacked, millions more will die. In a democratic society, every individual who submits to apathy is equally guilty as the man who is in command. Gone are the days when Americans were loved and welcomed, separated from their government. They voted for a man who with the spilling of American lives, allowed the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation and caused the death of so many Iraqis, the total destruction of their country, and their treasures looted. The Supreme Court put Bush in the White House, and by voting for him in 2004, we kept him there. Lest we remove him, America will have no more tears to shed for undone deeds.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has lived and studied in Iran, the UK, France, and the US. She obtained her Bachelors Degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Socialist Worker, July 3, 2008

The Exxon Valdez gushed at least 11 million gallons of crude oil over 1,300 miles of unspoiled Alaskan coastline

BEFORE CLINCHING the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Barack Obama contrasted his vision for the future role of the U.S. Supreme Court to rival John McCain’s, arguing that the current Court’s consistent bias in favor of “the powerful against the powerless” has allowed corporate and government interests to ride roughshod over “what ordinary people are going through.”

In that populist vein, Obama went on to describe as his models for Supreme Court appointments Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter–who he claimed are “people on the bench who have enough empathy, enough feeling” for those trampled on by Corporate America.

Once securely anointed in June, Obama immediately lost interest in ordinary people and began panting for corporate support. Perhaps for this reason, he felt no need to criticize the Court for its June 25 ruling on behalf of ExxonMobil that reduced to a mere pittance the amount in punitive damages that the most profitable corporation in history owes to the nearly 33,000 Alaskan fishermen, cannery workers and Natives whose livelihoods were destroyed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in corporate history.

Souter himself penned the decision, which pronounced, “The punitive damages award against Exxon was excessive as a matter of maritime common law.” Souter did not mention that maritime common law was virtually nonexistent, but was being invented on the fly by the current Supreme Court.

ExxonMobil had based its maritime appeal solely on an obscure 1818 decision known as “the Amiable Nancy,” in which the Court ruled that a privateer ship’s owners were not liable for punitive damages stemming from a robbery by a sailor in its employ. During questioning, Ginsburg–who dissented in the current ruling–noted that it was “an exaggeration to call it a long line of settled decisions in maritime law” as Exxon claimed, apparently to no avail.

Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the case because he owns ExxonMobil stocks worth between $100,000 and $250,000, according to 2006 financial statements. But the court remained stacked with Exxon sympathizers.

“So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive damages awards such as this?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked in exasperation during questioning. When the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jeffrey Fisher, noted that Exxon should not benefit from an argument its legal team had not made, Justice Antonin Scalia retorted, “They don’t have to make every tiny little argument.”

Continued . . .

By Mel Frykberg

The drought in the Palestinian territories has exacerbated Gaza’s shortage of drinking water. Credit:Mel Frykberg

GAZA CITY, Jul 2 (IPS) – Gaza is being forced to pump 77 tonnes of untreated or partially treated sewage out to sea daily due to the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. The fear is that some of this is creeping back into drinking water.

“The health of Gaza’s 1.5 million people is at risk,” Mahmoud Daher, from the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) told IPS following a report released by WHO after it carried out a number of tests on Gaza’s contaminated water.

On the ground Israel’s closure has translated into a lack of fuel, electricity and spare parts needed to operate wastewater and sewerage treatment plants. Consequently Gaza’s water and sanitation systems are near complete collapse as the power required to run treatment and desalination plants, pump water to homes, and pump sewage away from populated areas is only available on a very limited basis.

Following Hamas’ takeover in Gaza last year, after it won legislative elections in 2006, Israel designated the densely populated strip of 360 square kilometres hostile territory and sealed off the borders, enforcing an embargo which is supported by the international community.

Since then the Jewish state has allowed only a trickle of humanitarian goods into Gaza, and only after intense international pressure and intervention. Besides drastically reducing fuel and electricity supplies, Israel has also barred import of most vital technical parts, which humanitarian organisations argue are necessary if Gaza’s basic infrastructure is to operate.

Continued . . .

WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) — U.S. officials have denied claims that U.S. Special Forces are already operating across the Iraqi border in Iran, but Seymour Hersh‘s claim that senior U.S. generals are opposing American airstrikes against Iran reflects very real divisions in the Pentagon and the Bush administration.

REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

While I was preparing a reflection about McCain’s relationship with the anti-Cuban terrorist mafia in Miami and other related subjects of historical interest, fresh news was flowing about this character that is being projected by the empire’s hawks as Bush’s replacement: his visit to Colombia and Mexico which will begin tomorrow. It is not possible to avoid them since they confirm the opinions we have sustained.

“McCain will be in Colombia for two days, starting tomorrow on Tuesday, and then he will travel to Mexico”, the Panamanian newspaper La Prensa informs us.

“The United States Fourth Fleet returns to patrol Latin American waters”, Clarín, the Argentine newspaper with largest circulation, publishes; “this time under the command of Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan. Kernan who, up till now has been Commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, has a background that is rather worrying”, the newspaper comments. “The naval officer belongs to the Navy SEALs, an elite commando team made up of men chosen for the toughest of special operations, trained to act in the most adverse and challenging conditions. They were in action in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The choice of Kernan to command the Fourth Fleet, according even to the Pentagon’s own admission, is absolutely unusual…” “Furthermore, with this decision, the Southern Command reaches the same level of importance as the Central Command operating in the Persian Gulf with the U.S. Fifth Fleet”.

“What reason could the United States have to send such a powerful naval force to a region in peace, without nuclear power, without any real military conflicts or threats?·, the newspaper wonders. “They are never going to admit that it is because of natural resources, but it is no coincidence that this decision comes up just when a structural change in world economy is beginning, where reserves of fresh water, food and energy resources take on a position of important strategic value”, replies Professor Khatchik Der Ghougassian of the Argentine University of San Andrés, an expert on security issues.

The professor adds that “they do not hide the enormous importance of the oceans of the southern Western Hemisphere and they admit that this will increase their capacity for action since the U.S. Fourth Fleet will be supervising ships and aircraft, including both civilian and commercial navigating south of the United States.”

“James Stavridis, the current Commander of the Southern Command”, Clarín continues, “added drug trafficking, the fight on terror and the possibility to respond to the massive migration of refugees from countries such as Haiti or Cuba. James Stevenson, Commander of the United States Naval Forces Southern Command, specified that his vessels would even reach the extensive system of rivers in South America, navigating more in fresh waters than in the traditional salt waters. In other words, they shall have a vast control of the Latin American hinterland.

“United States Naval Forces Southern Command carries out social activities such as the distribution of food or medical supplies that would allow them to convince the U.S. Congress that such penetration is justified”, the Argentine newspaper adds.

El Universal of Mexico, under the headline “John McCain will go from the Basilica to Iztapalapa”, writes:

“John McCain will travel to Mexico not just to makes politics. Or perhaps not just party politics. The Republican candidate will visit the Basilica of Guadalupe. He will also tour one of the tough neighbourhoods in Mexico City.”

“The visit McCain will make to Colombia and Mexico has had his team of collaborators working overtime, even on weekends”, the newspaper comments. “On Saturday night an event that had been planned as a farewell reception for the closing ceremony of the conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (known as NALEO in English), turned into a discussion roundtable about the scope of his trip to Latin America…he would be getting up early to do an interview with a Televisa news program. Then he would head to the northern part of the city where a half-hour visit to the Basilica of Guadalupe is scheduled…he would attend a luncheon with members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico. Later he would be meeting with Mexican and American businessmen…he would end the day with a visit to the Iztapalapa neighbourhood where he would be briefed about strategies to fight organized crime and support community harmony.”

Amidst a torrent of comments relating to the Republican candidate, 52,521 people with more than a million dollars live in South Florida, according to the latest detailed report by an important research firm. Almost all the capital came from Latin America.

McCain, not known to be a piously religious man, thinks that by offering a prayer at the Basilica of Guadalupe he will fool Catholics, Protestants, whites, blacks, Indians and mestizos in the countries where, by contrast, extreme poverty grows on a daily basis.

Today the front page of Granma reads: “U.S. airline fined for violating blockade against Cuba”, while a Mexican press agency refers to some 57 thousand Cubans arriving in that country between 2005 and 2007. It is well known that 20 thousand Cubans of all ages, except those fulfilling some inescapable social duty, are legally authorized each year to emigrate to that country; they travel safely, both the children and the adults have received education and are in good health. With the aim of family reunification, Cuba supports this sacrifice.

Those who have been enticed by the cynical Cuban Adjustment Act do so directly or through third countries, either secretly or under some legal cover; not only are they committing a despicable lack of ethics but they are depriving our peoples’ economy of their specialists and qualified workers. It is an outrageous brain drain and it takes away our productive members; our homeland, in its heroic struggle, must fight this with determination.

I shall publish the reflection I prepared earlier some other day. It is worthwhile to know the real story.

Fidel Castro Ruz

June 30, 2008.

5:16 p.m.