The Suffering of Fallujah

July 30, 2010

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fallujah . . .

And so it turns out that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, though not until we arrived and started using them.

Along with whatever else we did to Fallujah – exacted collective punishment on a defiant city (a war crime) in November 2004, killed thousands of civilians, shattered the infrastructure (nearly six years later, the sewage system hasn’t been repaired and waste flows in the streets) — we also, apparently, nuked the city, leaving a legacy of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and genetic abnormality.

Freedom isn’t free. Remember when that was the go-to phrase of the citizen war zealots among us, their all-purpose rebuttal when those of us appalled by this insane war cited civilian casualty stats? Discussion over. Thought stops here.

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Srebrenica 15 Years Later

July 30, 2010

By Kevin Beck, Foreign Policy Journal, July 30, 2010

The July 1995 massacre and murder of 8000 Bosnian men and boys in the eastern Bosnian city of Srebrenica, Bosnia-Hercegovina continues to be a stain on humanity as more than seventy major mass graves have been located in Bosnia-Hercegovina containing civilians killed during the worst war crimes in Europe since the days of World War Two.

While there has been partial accountability for these terrible crimes of mass slaughter and ethnic intolerance that took place during the final months of the civil war and genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina, efforts to more fully hold those responsible accountable have progressed slowly in the fifteen years since the tragedy.

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Obama Administration In Danger Of Establishing ‘New Normal’ With Worst Bush-Era Policies, Says ACLU

July 30, 2010
eNews Park Forest,  29 July 2010 13:08 Press Release Analysis

NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–July 29, 2010.  The Obama administration has repudiated some of the Bush administration’s most egregious national security policies but is in danger of institutionalizing others permanently into law, thereby creating a troubling “new normal,” according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Establishing a New Normal: National Security, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights Under the Obama Administration,” an 18-month review of the Obama administration’s record on national security issues affecting civil liberties, concludes that the current administration’s record on issues of national security and civil liberties is decidedly mixed: President Obama has made great strides in some areas, such as his auspicious first steps to categorically prohibit torture, outlaw the CIA’s use of secret overseas detention sites and release the Bush administration’s torture memos, but he has failed to eliminate some of the worst policies put in place by President Bush, such as military commissions and indefinite detention. He has also expanded the Bush administration’s “targeted killing” program.

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“The Real Terrorist Was Me” Speech By A U.S. War Veteran

July 30, 2010

Information Clearing House,  July 29, 2010
Video


Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it’s profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us
– Mike Prysner


Please Support the Veterans at:
http://www.ivaw.org/

TRANSCRIPT

Time Content
00:00 → 00:04

I tried hard to be proud of my service

00:04 → 00:06

but all i can feel is shame

00:06 → 00:10

The racism you can not master the reality of the occupation

00:10 → 00:12

it’s the people it’s the human beings

00:12 → 00:16

I seem i claim by guilt everytime i see

00:16 → 00:19

an eldery man like the one that could’t walk

00:19 → 00:21

and we brought by the stretcher and we called the Iraq’s Police to take him away

00:21 → 00:25

I feel guilt everytime i see a mother with her children like the one who cried hystericly

00:25 → 00:29

and screaming that we are worst than Saddam, as we forced her from her home.

00:29 → 00:35

I feel guilt anytime I see a young girl, like the one I grabbed by the arm, and dragged into the street.

00:35 → 00:38

We are told we are fighting terrorists;

00:38 → 00:43

the real terrorist was me and the real terrorism is in this occupation.

00:43 → 00:47

Racism within the military has long been an important tool

00:47 → 00:49

to justify the destruction and occupation of another country.

00:49 → 00:54

It’s long been used to justify the killing, subjugation and torture of another people.

00:54 → 00:57

Racism is a vital weapon employed by this government.

00:57 → 01:03

It’s a more important weapon than a rifle, a tank, a bomber or a battleship.

01:03 → 01:08

It’s more destructive than an artillery shell or a bunker buster, or a Tom Hawk Missile.

01:08 → 01:11

While all those weapons are created and owned by this government,

01:11 → 01:14

they are harmless without people willing to use them.

01:14 → 01:18

Those who send us to war do not have to pull a trigger, or lab a mortal round.

01:18 → 01:21

They don’t have to fight the war, they merely have to sell the war.

01:21 → 01:25

They need a public who is willing to send their soldiers in the harms way.

01:25 → 01:28

They need soldiers who are willing to kill and be killed without question.

01:28 → 01:33

They can spend millions on a single bomb, but that bomb only becomes a weapon,

01:33 → 01:36

when the ranks of the military are willing to follow orders to use it.

01:36 → 01:38

They can send every last soldier anywhere on earth,

01:38 → 01:42

but there’ll only be a war, as soldiers are willing to fight.

01:42 → 01:46

And the ruling class, the billionaires who profit from human suffering

01:46 → 01:50

care only about expending their wealth controlling the world economy.

01:50 → 01:53

Understand that their power lies only in their ability

01:53 → 01:57

to convince us that war, oppression and exploitation is in our interest.

01:57 → 02:00

They understand that their wealth is dependent on their ability

02:00 → 02:05

to convince the working class to die to control the market of another country.

02:05 → 02:09

And, convincing us to kill and die is based on their ability

02:09 → 02:12

to make us think that we are somehow superior.

02:12 → 02:16

Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen,

02:16 → 02:19

have nothing to gain from this occupation.

02:19 → 02:23

The vast majority of people living in the U.S. have nothing to gain from this occupation.

02:23 → 02:26

In fact, not only do we have nothing to gain,

02:26 → 02:28

but we suffer more because of it.

02:28 → 02:31

We lose wings, and bear trauma and give our lives

02:31 → 02:35

Our families have to watch flag draped coffins rolling into the earth.

02:35 → 02:40

Millions in this country without health care, jobs or access to education,

02:40 → 02:46

just watch over this government squander of a $ 450 million a day in this occupation.

02:55 → 02:59

Poor and working people in this country are sent to kill poor and working people in other country

03:00 → 03:02

and make the rich richer

03:02 → 03:09

without racism we realize that we have more common with the Iraq people than we have with billioners that send us to war

03:38 → 03:40

We need to wake up and realize

03:41 → 03:43

that our real enemy is not the ones living in a distant land

03:43 → 03:45

the people whose names we don’t know

03:46 → 03:47

and cultures we don’t understand

03:47 → 03:50

The enemy is people we know very well and people we can identify

03:50 → 03:53

The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable

03:53 → 03:56

the enemy is the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable,

03:56 → 03:59

the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it’s profitable,

03:59 → 04:02

the Banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable.

04:02 → 04:05

Our enemies are not five thousands miles away

04:05 → 04:07

the are right here home

04:07 → 04:08

but if we organize and fight with our sisters and brothers

04:08 → 04:12

we can stop this war we can stop this government and we can create a better world

04:12 → 04:27

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign ennemy…

04:27 → 04:30

The loss of Liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger

04:30 → 04:33

real or imagined from abroad…”

04:33 → 04:36

– James Madison –

04:36 → 04:39

Edité par Phaedrus

The Real Aim of Israel’s Bomb Iran Campaign

July 30, 2010

by Gareth Porter, CommonDreams.org, July 30, 2010

Reuel Marc Gerecht’s screed justifying an Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening of  the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of House Resolution 1553 expressing full support for such an Israeli attack.

What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is to support an attack by Israel so that the United States can be drawn into direct, full-scale war with Iran.

That has long been the Israeli strategy for Iran, because Israel cannot fight a war with Iran without full U.S. involvement. Israel needs to know that the United States will finish the war that Israel wants to start.

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Exclusive Intifada Interview with Archbishop Theodosios (Atallah) Hanna

July 30, 2010
Elias Harb, Intifada Palestine, July 23, 2010

Intifada Exclusive Interview with his Eminence

Archbishop Theodosios “Atallah Hanna”

Archbishop of Sebastia

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Of Jerusalem

“For those who use the Bible to support Israel need to differentiate between God promise and Balfour promise, because the occupation is the result of a promise given to the Israelis by Lord Balfour and not by God.” Archbishop Theodosios


Elias Harb: Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel has claimed in various publications  that Jews, Christians and Muslims are able to build their homes anywhere in Jerusalem and that only under Israeli sovereignty had freedom of worship for all religions been assured in the city. How do you respond to that?

Archbishop Theodosios: The facts on the ground say exactly the opposite, more and more Muslims and Christians are having great difficulties in entering the city. We see thousands are denied the entry to their holiest sites. The Israelis authorities are even preventing the Arab Jerusalemites from entering the Holy sepulcher and the Aqsa mosque on major religious feasts. It is very apparent that the Israelis want Jerusalem to themselves and they do not want to share it with others. It is a big pity that the city of peace, which must symbolizes brotherhood and love to be transformed into a symbol of hatred and division because of Israeli actions.

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Dan Ellsberg on WikiLeaks & the Essential Democratic Question: Who Will Tell the People?

July 29, 2010

John Nichols, The Nation, July 29, 2010

The Obama White House was quick to condemn the publication Sunday evening of more than 91,000 secret documents detailing the monumentally misguided and frequently failed attempt by the United States to occupy Afghanistan.

National Security Adviser James Jones took the lead in attacking WikiLeaks for making the details of the war available to the American people—who are, ultimately, supposed to define the direction of US foreign policy—by declaring: “The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.”

Despite the fact that the “Afghanistan War Logs,” which are being published by the New York Times, the Guardian and Der Speigel, detail the mess in Afghanistan, and point to the bigger mess that will be made if the occupation is expanded as the Obama administration proposes, Jones offered a classic don’t-confuse-us-with-the-facts response. “These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people.”

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The United States Must Grow Up On Pakistan

July 29, 2010

By Michael Scheuer, The Diplomat, July 26, 2010

—Major efforts to slow the growth of Islamist radicalism and violence in the country’s economic, agricultural and industrial heartland in the Sindh and Punjab. This will require a modus Vivendi with the tribes on the western border that encourages them—with subventions of (probably US) money, weaponry and other support—to stop attacking in Pakistan proper and begin aiding their Afghan brethren against Karzai.

—Pakistan’s intelligence service (ISI) will try to mend fences with Pashtuns on both sides of the border, and influence them to attack Karzai’s regime, NATO forces, and Indian targets, all in an effort to hurry NATO’s defeat and help the Islamists to retake power in Kabul. This is the only long-term result that meets Pakistan’s national security needs.

—The Army will reduce the lethality of its tribal-area operations as its contribution to ending the civil war Musharraf ignited. No doubt Kayani will keep the Army active in the tribal lands, but only with Potemkin operations meant to keep US aid flowing while not further alienating the Pashtuns. This tack also will start to ease the deep discontent in the Army over being tasked to kill Muslims for US infidels.

—Zidari and Kayani will seek promises from Riyadh to financially assist Pakistan if Washington cuts aid to Pakistan. Since Islamabad’s goal of replacing Karzai with a Taliban-like regime is compatible with Saudi and Gulf state foreign-policy goals—indeed, much of the Taliban’s funding is from the Gulf—such a pledge from Riyadh is likely. As a sweetener, the Pakistanis will help insert young Gulf jihadis returning from Iraq or graduating from so-called reeducation camps into Afghanistan to fight US-NATO forces.

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French Christian groups call for end to Israeli ‘impunity’

July 29, 2010
Middle East Online, July 29, 2010



But will the French PM listen to reason?

Christians call on French government to ‘pressure’ Israel to respect basic rights of Palestinians.

PARIS – Five French Christian organisations on Wednesday called on the French government to end what they termed the “impunity accorded to the state of Israel” over its treatment of the Palestinians.

In an open letter the five groups, including Secours Catholique, called on Prime Minister Francois Fillon to “exert pressure… so that Israel respects the basic rights of the Palestinians.”

The groups urged the “French government to act, to put an end to the impunity accorded to the state of Israel as regards the violation of international law,” the letter said.

The other groups that signed up to the letter were Cimade, an ecumenical organisation; Acat-France, which campaigns against torture; Defap, a Protestant evangelical group; and les Amis de Sabeel-France.

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The Palestinian Authority is imprisoning Gazans

July 29, 2010

The same government that includes a call to end the blockade on Gaza, in practice aids in imprisoning the Gazans by preventing them from holding valid Palestinian passports.

Amira Hass, Haretz/Israel, July28, 2010

Lies and power go hand in hand. But what is considered outrageous in a sovereign state is catastrophic for a society fighting for its freedom. The Palestinians have two sets of leadership under occupation competing for the dubious title of “government” – and both are generating lies to perpetuate their status. The Hamas government, which won the majority of the vote in democratic Palestinian legislative elections, is not recognized by most countries. Yet these countries warmly accept the Palestinian Authority government, which was appointed by the president and leader of the party that lost the election, Fatah.

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