| Al Jazeera, July 3, 2009 |
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An unmanned US drone aircraft has reportedly carried out a missile strike on Taliban targets near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Missiles struck targets in parts of South Waziristan, in an area controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader and al-Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistani intelligence officials have said. The missile strike hit a suspected training facility in the village of Montoi in South Waziristan. A suspected militant hide-out in Kokat Khel was also hit. There are believed to be casualties from the attack which took place early on Friday morning. Pakistani aircraft are also reported to have carried out an attack on two targets in North Waziristan in which up to 11 people are said to have been killed. Imran Khan, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Islamabad, said the US military has not responded to the attacks. “The US never ever confirms whether they are behind these suspected drone strikes but popularly, it is believed that this is the kind of attack the US has made within this very troubled area of Pakistan before and they area likely to be behind these attacks,” he said.” “Drone strikes are causing much controversy in Pakistan – many people say they have killed a number of innocent civilians and act as more of a recruitment tool for Pakistan Taliban.” |
Deaths in suspected US drone strike
July 3, 2009
In praise of … Ezra Nawi
July 3, 2009- Editorial
- The Guardian/UK, Friday 3 July 2009
He is a rarity, even among that most endangered of species, the Israeli peace activist. Born in Basra to an Iraqi Jewish family, Ezra Nawi lives on the modest wages he earns as a plumber. As such, he comes from the same background which generates the hardline views in Israel. So he was speaking to his own kind when he told laughing border police who had just demolished Palestinian Bedouin shacks that all they would leave behind was hatred. Not content with the Bedouin shacks, the prosecuting authorities are now trying to demolish Mr Nawi’s life by threatening him with a prolonged stay in prison. His arresting officers claim that the non-violent resister had assaulted them – although the alleged assault was not included in their original statements. The whole incident (barring the alleged assault, of course) was caught on film, but the presiding judge believed the police. The sentencing was delayed on Wednesday because so many supporters turned up in court, some bearing a petition with 15,000 signatures. Mr Nawi is asking a bigger question of his countrymen: who is perpetrating the greater violence? Is it people like him, or is it a state which bulldozes Palestinian shacks while protecting the homes of South Hebron settlers which the rest of the world considers illegal? As Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu trade in the semantics of a settlement freeze, it falls to a humble plumber to focus the world’s attention on the routine brutalities of occupation.
Israel’s Man of Conscience
July 2, 2009By Ezra Nawi | ZNet, July 1, 2009
Source: The Nation
[The author is going to prison–for peacefully resisting settler and army violence against West Bank Palestinians and the illegal expropriation of their land.]
My name is Ezra Nawi. I am a Jewish citizen of Israel.
I will be sentenced on the first of July after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers in 2007 while struggling against the demolition of a Palestinian house in Um El Hir, located in the southern part of the West Bank.
Of course the policemen who accused me of assaulting them are lying. Indeed, lying has become common within the Israeli police force, military and among the Jewish settlers.
After close to 140,000 letters were sent to Israeli officials in support of my activities in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Justice responded that I “provoke local residents.”
This response reflects the culture of deceit that has taken over all official discourse relating to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Troop Movement, Not Troop Withdrawal
July 2, 2009Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following statement on June 30, 2009 regarding the announcement that U.S. troops have left the cities and towns of Iraq and turned over formal security to Iraqi security forces:
The withdrawal of some U.S. combat troops from Iraq’s cities is welcome and long overdue news. However, it is important to remember that this is not the same as a withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from Iraq.
U.S. troop combat missions throughout Iraq are not scheduled to end until more than a year from now in August of 2010. In addition, U.S. troops are not scheduled for a complete withdrawal for another two and a half years on December 31, 2011. Rather, U.S. troops are leaving Iraqi cities for military bases in Iraq. They are still in Iraq, and they can be summoned back at any time.
This is not a great victory for peace. On May 19, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Iraqi and U.S. military officials virtually redrew the city limits of Baghdad in order to consider the Army’s Forward Operating Base Falcon as outside the city, despite every map of Baghdad clearly showing it with in city limits. In fact, according to Section 24.3 of the “SOFA” U.S. troops can remain at any agreed upon facility. The reported reason for this decision is to ensure U.S. troops are able to ‘help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.’
This troop movement should not be confused with a troop withdrawal from Iraq. In reality, this is a small step toward Iraqi sovereignty as Iraqi security forces begin assuming greater control over security operations, but it is a long way from independence and a withdrawal of the U.S. military presence.
Israel Abducts Nobel Laureate, Former U.S. Congresswoman
July 2, 2009
The ‘Spirit of Humanity’ sets sail for Gaza (Free Gaza Movement)The Free Gaza Movement announced in a press release on Tuesday that its boat The Spirit of Humanity had been intercepted by the Israeli navy while en route from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Palestinian people.
The people of Gaza have suffered under an Israeli siege and a three-week military assault code-named Operation Cast Lead that began on December 27 last year.
Israel has been heavily criticized by human rights groups for its actions during that campaign, which included indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets and the use of white phosphorus as a weapon, forbidden under international law.
The Israeli navy intercepted the boat, named the Arion but dubbed The Spirit of Humanity by its passengers, boarded it, and then forcibly directed it to Ashdod, Israel.
Amnesty Accuses Israel Of War Crimes In Gaza
July 2, 2009Sky News,9:00am UK, Thursday July 02, 2009
Israel has been accused of killing hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and destroying thousands of houses in their recent offensive along the Gaza strip.
Amnesty found 300 children and hundreds of unarmed civilians died in the conflict
The first in-depth human rights report on the three-week conflict in Gaza said Israel’s attacks amounted to war crimes.
Amnesty International first accused Israel of breaching the laws of war shortly after the fighting ended on January 18.
And it said “disturbing questions” remain about why high-precision weapons “killed so many children and other civilians”.
The group called on Israel to publicly pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas.
And it urged Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers to stop rocket fire against Israeli civilians.
Remnants of an Israeli airstrike
In addition, Amnesty accused Israeli forces of using Palestinians as “human shields”, and regularly denying civilians from getting medical care and humanitarian aid.
The pattern of attacks and the high number of civilian casualties “showed elements of reckless conduct, disregard for civilian lives and property and a consistent failure to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects”, the 117-page report read
More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed during the offensive, according to Gaza health officials and human rights groups.
Israel said the death toll closer to 1,100 and says the vast majority of the dead were militants, though it has refused requests to provide a list of the dead.
Amnesty found some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians were among the dead.
Amnesty International’s report was based on physical evidence and testimony gathered from dozens of attack sites in Gaza and southern Israel during and after the war.
AFGHANISTAN: 800 civilians killed in conflict in January-May – UN report
July 1, 2009IRIN NEWS,
 Photo: publik16/Flickr  |
| Civilian casualties inflicted by international forces in Afghanistan have caused anger among the affected population |
KABUL, 28 June 2009 (IRIN) – Civilian deaths resulting from armed hostilities between insurgents, the US military, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and government forces have increased by 24 percent so far this year compared to the same period in 2008, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
In May alone, 261 non-combatants lost their lives in conflict in Afghanistan, John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told members of the Security Council at a meeting on 26 June.
Sri Lanka – camps, media…genocide?
July 1, 2009Martin Shaw | OpenDemocracy, June 30, 2009
What kind of violence has the Sri Lankan state been committing against its Tamil civilian population as the island‘s civil war ended; on what scale and with what intentions? Martin Shaw explores the difficult terrain where war, atrocity and genocide meet.
The civil war in Sri Lanka is receding from the international headlines, as crises in Iran and celebrity deaths occupy the media’s limited space and attention-span. A very large number of its Tamil victims are still, more than six weeks after the fighting ended, confined in government forces in a complex of forty camps in the north east of the country. An estimated 280,000 civilians – originally displaced from their homes by the fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (TamilTigers / LTTE), and in some cases fleeing from the brutal regime in the LTTE’s former “liberated” zone – are being held, generally against their will.
Peace and Justice Post 
Iraq’s “National Sovereignty Day” is U.S.-Style Hallmark Hype
July 1, 2009Despite the big show, the U.S. occupation continues. It is very doubtful that—decades from now—Iraqis will tell their grandchildren about where they were on “National Sovereignty Day.”
By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports, July 1, 2009
The puppet government in Iraq has named June 30 as “National Sovereignty Day,” and—without mentioning the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis maimed, killed, tortured or made refugees by the U.S. invasion and occupation—thanked the occupiers for placing them in power. “President” Jalal Talabani termed today “a glorious day,” saying, “While we celebrate this day, we express our thanks and gratitude to our friends in the coalition forces who faced risks and responsibilities and sustained casualties and
damage while helping Iraq to get rid from the ugliest dictatorship and during the joint effort to impose security and stability.”
Meanwhile the Iraqi “Prime Minister” Nouri al Maliki—clearly living in his Green Zone bubble—stated: “The national united government succeeded in putting down the sectarian war that was threatening the unity and the sovereignty of Iraq,” adding, “Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake.” Perhaps Maliki has been hanging out too much by the swimming pools and cabanas in the Green Zone and missed these events:
Continued >>
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Tags: “National Sovereignty Day”, Iraq, Jeremy Scahill, U.S. occupation, US military
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