| Al Jazeera, Sep 11, 2008 | ||||||
| By Alex Sehmer | ||||||
More than 50 per cent of people reject the official belief that the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 9, 2001, were carried out by al-Qaeda, a new survey has revealed. The findings, released late on Wednesday, suggest that the official version of events – that the attacks, which killed more than 2,900 people and sparked the US so-called “war on terror”, were carried out by al-Qaeda – is still a long way from being generally accepted. Only 46 per cent of respondents named al-Qaeda, while 25 per cent said they did not know and 15 per cent said the US government was behind the attacks. Steven Kull, the director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, which carried out the survey, told Al Jazeera: “Broadly what this says is that there is a lack of confidence with the United States and so people mistrust the narrative the US puts forward.” Officially, hijackers took control of four passenger aircraft in the September 11 attacks. Two of the aeroplanes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and the “Twin Towers” subsequently collapsed, bringing down two other buildings nearby. The third aircraft hit the Pentagon while the fourth is said to have crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Kull’s organisation asked more than 16,000 people world wide “Who do you think was behind the 9/11 attacks?”, leaving the question open-ended. Blaming Israel While a substantial number of those polled believed the US government was in some way behind the attacks, seven per cent point the finger at Israel.
Of the countries surveyed, Egypt and Jordan had the highest percentages of people who believed Israel was behind the attack, polling 43 and 31 per cent respectively. Nineteen per cent of those polled in the Palestinian territories claimed Israel was in some way responsible.”In Muslim countries – where we’ve carried out a number of focus groups – it’s clear there is a feeling that the US had some kind of motivation, such as invading Iraq,” Kull said. “There are also some difficulties with the idea that Muslims carried out attacks on civilians – which is widely seen as wrong and contrary to Islam… And there are plenty of people in Muslim countries who say it would have been too technically difficult [for al-Qaeda] to pull off.” In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, a majority 57 per cent said they did not know who was behind the attacks. Only five per cent said that Israel had been involved. ‘Conspiracy theorists’ In 2002, the US government set up the 9/11 commission, chaired by Thomas Kean, a former governor of New Jersey, to investigate the event. It published its report in 2004, concluding that the 19 hijackers were all members of al-Qaeda. It also concluded that there had been intelligence failures on the part of the CIA and the FBI, the US’s spy agencies. But the World Trade Centre attacks quickly proved fertile ground for “conspiracy theorists” and sceptics have a wide range of alternative theories to choose from – including that US military personnel were involved in the attack or that the towers were brought down with the help of a controlled explosion. “There are people who are saying that US soldiers were flying the planes … or people who say simply that the US government turned a blind eye to the threat or that they somehow got them to do it through some means,” said Kull. One of the proponents of an alternative version of the events has been Willis Carto, editor of the American Free Press newspaper, which frequently points the finger of blame at Israel. He told Al Jazeera the attacks were “perpetrated by the Israeli Mossad [secret service] in conjunction with the American government”. “There’s no real evidence whatsoever that the official story of the planes smashing into the building was true. It’s impossible to believe that a few furtive little characters armed with box cutters who had no idea how to fly … could have manouvred the planes like this,” Carto said. “There are so many holes in the story that no one in his right mind can believe it.” Classroom politics Those who expound alternative versions of the events have themselves become the targets for debunking. Loose Change, a popular series of internet videos that counters the official version of events, has itself inspired a blog called Screw Loose Change.
Reports in engineering publications have sought to counter alternative theories that say the towers could not have collapsed as they did simply by being hit by an aircraft.In 2007, research by Keith Seffen, a senior lecturer in Cambridge University’s engineering department, used analysis of an engineering model to show the tower collapse had been “quite ordinary and natural”. The US has also seen the debate enter the university classroom. Both Ward Churchill, of the University of Colorado, and Kevin Barrett, of the University of Wisconsin, provoked a public outcry over the fact they professed to believe alternative versions of the events. Their critics feared the academics might be tempted to bring there beliefs into the classroom. Their supporters said that even if they did, a university classroom was the place for alternative theories. ‘Structural failure’ Michael Newman, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist), which worked for several years on reports about how and why the World Trade Centre towers collapsed, told Al Jazeera the debate was unlikely to ever go away. “Whenever we put out one of our reports, we get phone calls and emails from those with alternative views,” he said. “And you always get a lot of interest around the time of the anniversary – it’s a part of history now. The Nist reports say the towers’ collapse was due to “structural failure” after the aeroplanes hit them. The reports have been welcomed by building code regulators and many of Nist’s recommendations from its investigations have been adopted, but those with alternative viewpoints have continued to dispute the organisation’s findings. “We’ve heard opinions from all sides,” Newman told Al Jazeera. “At the end of the day, people are entitled to their own opinions and we probably won’t be able to convince them otherwise.” |
Poll shows many still doubt 9/11
September 11, 2008
A bigger liar than Bush
September 11, 2008McCain (and Palin) are setting a record for outright lies. But what is to stop them?
Michael Tomsky | The Guardian, Sep 11, 2008
In 2002 and 2003, the Bush administration knew something about the media that the media still don’t fully understand about themselves. If you’re in a position of power and you want to say something, just say it, no matter what, and the media will repeat it and repeat it.
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction to speak of? No matter. Just say he did. He wasn’t six months away from nuclear capability? So what—just assert that he was. He wasn’t tied to 9-11, there was no famous Prague meeting? No problem. Suggest there might have been. Muddy it up. Good enough.
Bush and co. knew that the media are constitutionally unequipped to call a lie a lie. People in the media like to flatter themselves as truth-tellers and the people’s watchdogs and all that, but the fact is that except in very rare circumstances, there’s no such thing as “objective truth” in the media, particularly the political media. There’s just what one side says and what the other side says. This is especially so on cable television.
The Bush people manipulated this. But the McCain campaign has taken it to extremes that make even Dick Cheney look like a wallflower. The number and intensity of outright lies, even for jaded observers, is just staggering.
There’s Sarah Palin’s lies about the bridge and earmarks. There’s an unbelievable one I mentioned yesterday about Obama’s alleged opposition to combat systems. There’s the flatly false assertion to middle-class audiences that Obama will raise their taxes, even though his tax plan does no such thing.
Now there’s this incredible McCain education ad that tries to argue that Obama wants to pervert kindergartners. The legislation, in Illinois, was in fact designed to allow local school boards to teach “age appropriate” sex education – and to teach children about how to identify sexual predators!
And then there’s this silly pig-lipstick business, which I wouldn’t even dignify by mentioning except that, obvious as it was that Obama was talking about McCain and not Palin, the McCain camp has now created something called the “Palin Truth Squad” that was formed to push the lie that Obama was talking about Palin. I’ll say that again: a “truth squad” created for the express purpose of pushing a lie.
And where is the truth squad of the press, the people’s watchdogs? Mostly enjoying the show, hyping the “mudslinging” between the two sides, which of course “both sides” are guilty of. Nonsense. Obama and Biden distort certain things about McCain’s record – that whole 100 years in Iraq business is a stretch. But McCain did say it, so it’s only a stretch, not a fabrication.
McCain and Palin are engaged in serial total fabrications. And almost no one calls them on it. The New York Times, which found the space to run a puffy piece on Palin’s family on its front page the other day, hasn’t found similar space to run a story under a headline like, “McCain-Palin Claims Stretch Credulity, Some Say.”
CBS and CNN have finally gotten around to running reports that pretty much state outright that Palin is lying about the bridge. ABC’s Jake Tapper plainly called out the “truth squad” on the lipstick story. McClatchy did a strong fact-check of the McCain education ad. But for the most part, the media treats it all as entertainment, a matter of which side has seized the offensive.
The McCain team knows all this. So they consciously promote lies, knowing that no real mechanism exists to stop them from doing so.
The Obama team should have been doing a stronger job of push-back these last few days. It was only after Obama himself said Palin was lying about the bridge that a few media outlets started pursuing that angle. That’s how the game is played, and the McCain strategy will be a test of their ability to hit back fast and hard.
But this race is now a test of the media too. You’d think after being told in the run-up to the Iraq war a bushel of things that didn’t end up being true that they printed anyway, they’d have given some thought to the question of how not to let themselves be manipulated like that again. But it is happening again, and the media are getting played in exactly the same way.
And what does all this say about John McCain? In 2000, when he was running against George Bush in the South Carolina primary, he was smeared by outright lies charging among other things that he’d fathered an out-of-wedlock black child. The man who “directed communications” for Bush’s 2000 South Carolina effort was Tucker Eskew. McCain confidants have long held Eskew partly responsible for those smears.
Last week, McCain hired him, to staff up Palin. That just about says all we need to know about today’s McCain.
Now let me ask you. What is more revealing of a candidate’s “character”: The fact that a candidate used a phrase as old as the hills, a phrase the other candidate himself has used (see Jake Tapper above), or the fact that a candidate would hire someone he once regarded as having helped spread vile innuendo about him and his family?
Deeper and deeper we go into the hall of mirrors…
Protests against Indian rule continue in Kashmir
September 10, 2008PROTESTS IN SRINAGAR, ISLAMABAD
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33 WOUNDED IN POLICE, CRPF FIRING, BATON CHARGE
SHOWKAT HAMEED | Greater Kashmir
Srinagar, Sept 9: Unabated violent protests continued in old city on Tuesday as protestors fought pitched battles with police at various locations on the Chaharum (fourth day ceremony) of the Javaid Ahmad Bhat killed in police firing in Nowhatta on Saturday. Nineteen persons were wounded in firing and tear smoke shelling by the police and paramilitary troopers in various parts of old city while 14 others sustained injuries at Islamabad.Shops and business establishments at Nowhatta, Hawal, Gojwara, Safa Kadal, Rajouri Kadal and adjoining areas remained closed in protest against the killing of Javaid Ahmad as hundreds of youth took to streets and shouted pro-freedom and anti-government slogans. They pelted stones on police and paramilitary forces and burnt rubber tyres. The demonstrators shouted slogans against the unprovoked firing of troops on unarmed protestors and atrocities committed by CRPF and police in the Valley.
At Nowhatta, the protestors engaged the police and CRPF in ding-dong battles to which the police retaliated with aerial firing and tear smoke shelling. In the incident, 18 persons sustained injuries and were shifted to various city hospitals. The CRPF troopers opened fire on protesters at Nowhatta in the evening wounding Zahoor Ahmad, who was shifted to SKIMS where is condition was stated to be critical. The incident triggered massive protests in the area which were going on when reports last came in.
To prevent protests on the Chaharum of Javaid, the administration had deployed police and paramilitary forces in strength. Thousands of people from the old city participated in the condolence meeting at Javaid’s residence. Later, the mourners took out a huge procession towards martyrs graveyard at Eid Gah where they offered Fateh to the martyr Javaid. The CRPF personnel posted on way to Eid Gah couldn’t stop the procession after seeing thousands of agitated people marching towards the graveyard.
Meanwhile, shops and business establishments at Bagh-e-Mehtab remained closed in protest against the firing of CRPF last night. Hundreds of people came on streets and raised pro-freedom and anti-security forces slogans. The youth at Soura, Batamaloo and Chanapora fought pitched battles with police and paramilitary forces.
POLICE VERSION
Police claimed that shops, business establishments, educational institutions and government offices functioned normally in the Valley.
A police spokesman said that traffic was normally plying on various routes. He said the shops were closed in Nowhatta here due to Chaharum of Javaid Ahmed. He said a minor stone pelting incident was reported in Nowhatta.
KHALID GUL REPORTS FROM ISLAMABAD:
Twelve persons were injured, of them two by firing by CRPF personnel on the shopkeepers protesting against the nocturnal raids on their houses and arrest of several youth. Eye witnesses told Greater Kashmir that as the shopkeepers were closing their establishments at KMD bus stand, a CRPF contingent arrived in vehicles and without any provocation fired several rounds injuring two persons. One of the critically wounded has been identified as Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Sofi of Sarnal.
After the incident, people took to streets and shouted pro-freedom and anti-government slogans. The agitated people protested against the nocturnal raids and arrests of youths and other atrocities by troops.
The protesters held a sit-in near the deputy commissioner’s office and demanded immediate release of the youth. They threatened massive agitation if the nocturnal raids on the houses of the protesters were not stopped forthwith.
The people called off their demonstration only after all the youth were released and on the assurance of the deputy commissioner that there would be no further nocturnal raids on the houses of those who had joined pro-freedom protests.
“Earlier during midnight, army along with police barged into the house of 13-year-old Sajjad Ahmad son of Mushtaq Ahmad of Laizbal and dragged him out of his house. The troops thrashed him severely and even as his mother pleaded innocence,” said the locals.
Sajjad’s neighbors made announcements from the Masjid loudspeakers asking people to come out to protest the troops’ atrocities. Within no time, hundreds of people raising pro-freedom slogans came out and started marching towards Lal Chowk where they organized a sit-in till 3:00 A.M in the night till the boy was released.
The residents said police and former government gunmen turned SPOs had prepared a list of youth involved in pro-freedom rallies and were conducting nocturnal raids on their houses and harassing their families.
Meanwhile, police has been reportedly conducting nocturnal raids on the house of Mirwaiz Islamabad, Qazi Yasir who has evaded his arrest so far.
Disaster in Afghanistan
September 10, 2008
John W. Warnock | Global Research, September 9, 2008
It is difficult to find out what is really going on in Afghanistan. The focus of the mass media is almost entirely on the military activities of the Canadian and NATO forces. There is absolutely no coverage of political developments. The news on the economy is limited to the state of the poppy industry. This is no accident. The North American media, including the CBC, has strongly supported the U.S./NATO strategy and the administration of President Hamid Karzai. Contrary to the mainstream message, things are not going well.
Rise in civilian casualties
Over the past few weeks NATO forces have killed civilians in a number of incidents, and popular opposition to the western military effort is increasing. On August 22 the United States bombed the village of Azizabad in Herat province; the result was the death of 91 civilians, including over 60 children. Rockets and missiles were also used. Many homes were destroyed. Local citizens stoned the Afghan army when they tried to distribute supplies. NATO forces in Paktika province launched an artillery attack on a village on September 1 as part of a general sweep-and-destroy mission against Taliban forces. Three children were killed and seven injured. That same day U.S. and Afghan forces carried out an overnight raid in Hud Kheil, east of Kabul. A family of four, including two children, were killed when hand grenades were thrown into their house. In Kabul hundreds blocked the main road out of town protesting the military practices of the international forces.
Afghan government and NATO attacks In response to the steady increase of civilian deaths this year, the Afghan parliament passed a resolution in August calling on the Karzai administration to negotiate a new status-of-forces agreement with NATO and United States, making it consistent with Afghan and international law. President Karzai’s cabinet demanded “an end to air attacks in civilian areas, illegal detentions and unilateral house searches.” There is growing opposition to the presence of the occupying forces. The Senlis Council reported in June 2008 that in their most recent recent public opinion survey “more than six out of ten of those interviewed … said that foreign troops should leave.” This is the position taken by many of the democratic parties in Afghanistan. Malalai Joya, the outspoken critic of the Karzai government, has called for all foreign troops to leave the country. She argues that Afghans can settle this dispute better on their own.
The approaching famine
However, the most important current issue in Afghanistan is the drought, the crop failure, and the prospect of famine. This story has received no coverage in the North American media. Over the last winter Afghanistan received well-below normal rainfall and mountain snow pack. The spring runoff was light, and crop yields from irrigated agriculture have been significantly reduced. There are conditions of drought throughout the country. In many areas there are no crops and livestock has perished from lack of pasture. Wheat provides the staple food, and production is 60 percent below average. Recent rains have brought flooding, as the land has been hardened by the drought. Floods are more common because over the past few decades 60% of the woodland has been removed by the population seeking fuel for cooking and winter heating. The jump in fuel prices has raised the cost of the delivery of food from neighbouring countries. Food prices are rising. The price of a 50 kg bag of wheat flour is now $35. One half of the population in Afghanistan lives on less than $2 per day. The government of Afghanistan reports that 42% of the population lives in “extreme poverty”, defined as a per capita income of less than $120 per year. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan reported in August that “at least four million most vulnerable people have already been pushed into the ‘high-risk food-insecurity ‘ category.” Children are the most vulnerable. One in five children die before the age of five, mainly due to malnutrition. In response, the United Nations and other food agencies have called for an emergency fund of $404 million in order to purchase food. To date less than 20% has been forthcoming from donor countries.
What is happening to women’s rights?
Supporters of the U.S. project in Afghanistan always point to how many girls are now going to school. But as Ann Jones points out, the number cited (5 million) is fewer than half the children of school age. In Kabul 85% are in school; in the Pashtun south, less than 20% and “near zero for girls.” Radio Free Afghanistan’s Jan Alekozai recently toured eastern Afghanistan. He noted that there were schools but no teachers, no chairs and tables, no electricity or water, no books, and no labs. “The participation of women is zero in the provinces,” he argued. While some are going to school “they cannot walk, for example, in a park – or with their families.” In February 2008 Womankind Worldwide (UK) released a survey of the status of women in Afghanistan. They found that 87% of Afghan women report domestic violence, 60% of all marriages are still forced, and 57% of all recent marriages involved girls under the age of sixteen, which is contrary to the law. Ann Jones, who spent a number of years in Afghanistan working for women’s rights, is not surprised. President Karzai’ wife is a qualified gynecologist but does not practice her skills. She remains locked up in the presidential fortress, the Arg, and is not seen by the general public. Since the onset of the 20th century, she is the first wife of a state leader who has not publicly championed women’s rights.
Change of regime in Afghanistan
Few Canadians would know that there is a presidential election scheduled for Afghanistan in 2009. Hamid Karzai has announced that he will run again. After his tour of eastern Afghanistan, Jan Alekozai reported strong opposition to the local warlords and the Karzai government. He judged that Karzai would have a hard time getting 20% of the votes in the 2009 election. The people blame the Americans and NATO for the increase in the power of the warlords. The main opposition to Karzai will come from the United National Front, which is largely a coalition of the warlords and Islamist leaders based in the parliament. They have demanded a change in the constitution to bring in a parliamentary system of government with political parties and elections by proportional representation. The Front is dominated by the Islamist forces from the Northern Alliance. The Front has called for a new international meeting to settle the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan. This would be hosted by the United Nations and include all neighbouring states as well as representation from Afghanistan’s political groups, including the armed opposition. In late August Fazel Sangcharaki, speaking for the Front, stated that many foreign envoys have supported this proposal. But the problem is the opposition of the U.S. government.
Canadian government stresses militarism
The policy of the Canadian government since 2001 has been to put the highest priority on its military role in Afghanistan. In support of the Afghan “war on terrorism”, the Canadian government has been spending around $1 billion per year on the military and only $100 million on humanitarian assistance and economic development. Much of the military budget has been spent on acquiring new military hardware, needed for counter-insurgency warfare.. Just before Stephen Harper forced a fall election, polls emerged which showed that Canadians remain skeptical of the role in Afghanistan. A poll by Ipsos Reid for the Department of National Defence revealed that the majority of Canadians still want Canada to emphasize peacekeeping. A CBC poll done by Environics reported that 56% of Canadians disapprove of Canada’s military role in Afghanistan. Since the March 2008 agreement by the Conservatives and Liberals to extend Canada’s mission to 2011, Afghanistan has largely disappeared from political discussion. The challenge for Canadians is to make this disastrous war in Afghanistan an issue in the current election.
John W. Warnock is a Regina political economist and author of Creating a Failed State: the US and Canada in Afghanistan. (Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, May 2008).
Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says
September 10, 2008RINF.COM, Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.
The program — which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb — must remain secret for now or it would “get people killed,” Woodward said Monday on CNN’s Larry King Live.
“It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have,” Woodward said.
In “The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008,” Woodward disclosed the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.
National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement reacting to Woodward’s book, acknowledged the new strategy. Yet he disputed Woodward’s conclusion that the “surge” of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq was not the primary reason for the decline in violent attacks.
“It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations,” Hadley wrote.
Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, wrote that along with the surge and the new covert tactics, two other factors helped reduce the violence.
One was the decision of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to order a cease-fire by his Mehdi Army. The other was the “Anbar Awakening” movement that saw Sunni tribes aligning with U.S. troops to battle al Qaeda in Iraq.
Woodward told Larry King that while there is a debate over how much credit the new secret operations should get for the drop in violence, he concluded it “accounts for a good portion.”
“I would somewhat compare it to the Manhattan Project in World War II,” he said “It’s a ski slope right down in a matter of months, cutting the violence in half. This isn’t going to happen with the bunch of joint security stations or the surge.”
The top secret operations, he said, will “some day in history … be described to people’s amazement.”
While he would not reveal the details, Woodward said the terrorists who have been targeted were already aware of the capabilities.
“The enemy has a heads up because they’ve been getting wiped out and a lot of them have been killed,” he said. “It’s not news to them.
“If you were a member of al Qaeda or the resistance or some extremist militia, you would be wise to get your rear end out of town,” Woodward said. “It is very dangerous.”
CNN
The racist creep show
September 10, 2008By handing the Republican Party back to the Christian Right fanatics, John McCain has made a decision to unleash the ugliest forces in American politics.
Socialist Worker, September 10, 2008 | Issue 680
Running mate Sarah Palin joins John McCain onstage at the Republican convention (Brian Kersey | UPI)
JOHN MCCAIN and friends let the dogs loose at the Republican Party convention last week–and it wasn’t just for show.
To the chanting of “USA! USA!” and “Drill, baby, drill!” the Christian Right and social conservatives, thought to be consigned to the margins for this election, made their triumphant return to the spotlight–in the form of John McCain’s running mate, Bible-thumping “hockey mom,” Sarah Palin.
Suddenly, the Republican base–which has always regarded McCain with suspicion for his unforgivably “moderate” views, and which was working itself into a frenzy over a rumor that he might pick a pro-choice running mate–was over the moon.
“A lady who’s a leader,” gushed the Weekly Standard‘s William Kristol. “I would pull that lever,” declared James Dobson of Focus on the Family.
Palin’s convention speech was expected to be a mild-mannered introduction from an almost entirely unknown figure. Instead, she sneered at Barack Obama and snarled about the “liberal” media like an old hand. That set the stage for an address by McCain that ended with bluster about his war wounds and patriotic duty.
If anyone thought the Republicans would be too humiliated by their disastrous eight years in power under George Bush to make much of an effort this time around, think again. McCain was able to erase the Obama’s post-convention “bounce” in opinion polls, and then some, even taking a lead beyond the margin of error in a few.
To be sure, McCain’s own post-convention bounce will fade, and once it does, the Democrats’ significant advantages in this election–above all, the crisis of the Bush administration and the collapse of the right-wing agenda–should become more obvious. But the presidential election is certainly looking like it will be closer than expected.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
IF PALIN survived the convention week with a high level of popularity, it’s because the mainstream media let her get away with being all things to all people–a firm family-values conservative and a down-to-earth working mother; a straight-talking, get-things-done operator and a crusader against corruption and cronyism.
Palin is just what the doctor ordered for the Christian Right, whose top ranks, always overstocked with old white men, are bulging with the discredited, the scandal-plagued and a growing number of outright laughingstocks.
But beneath her just-folks image, Palin is a real fanatic.
The energy industry is in love with this “renegade” governor who can’t wait to open up her home state of Alaska to oil drilling–which is why she sued the Bush administration over plans to add the polar bear to the list of endangered species.
As far as Palin is concerned, she has God’s approval for her policies. Referring to a $30 billion Alaskan oil pipeline, she told the graduating class of commission students at her former church, the evangelical Wasilla Assembly of God, three months ago, “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.”
The same goes for the war on Iraq. “[O]ur leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she said in the same church speech. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan, and that that plan is God’s plan.”
Palin has appeared as a speaker for the Alaskan Independence Party, which supports secession of Alaska from the U.S. She supports creationism being taught in school. She opposes women’s right to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest. Palin was asked in a 2006 debate what she would do if her daughter–who was 14 years old at the time–was raped and became pregnant. “I would chose life,” Palin answered.
Then there’s Palin’s response–as reported by a server at the restaurant where she was eating with friends–to the news some months back that Obama had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination over Hillary Clinton: “So Sambo beat the bitch.”
Of course, Palin was only one cog in the Republican attack machine. Lacking any program of its own worth cheering for, speakers repeatedly went after Obama and the Democrats–to wild cheers from an arena packed with the Republican faithful. The same message was repeated again and again: The “urban” and “elitist” Democrats are “out of touch” with “small-town America.”
Thus, St. Paul witnessed the spectacle of Mitt Romney–former governor of Massachusetts and CEO of an investment firm–denouncing the “Eastern elite.” Multimillionaire Rudolph Giuliani–the ex-mayor, mind you, of one of the most diverse and multiracial cities in the world–sneered that Obama supposedly thinks Palin’s “hometown isn’t cosmopolitan enough…I’m sorry, Barack, that it’s not flashy enough.” And Palin herself joined in mocking Obama’s history as a “community organizer.”
These insults weren’t chosen at random. As even mainstream commentators recognized, “community organizer” and “urban elite” have become new racist code words–just as surely as the Republicans’ talk about “law and order” and “welfare cheats” served to stir up bigotry in the past.
The Republican creep show in St. Paul served notice that McCain and his party have no qualms whatsoever about playing the race card–as long as it’s done in such a way that any allegations about what’s really being said can be denied with self-righteous anger.
Plus, all that snide abuse served to deflect attention from an obvious question: Since when do the Republicans–the party of big business interests and war profiteers–represent ordinary, working-class Americans against the “elite”?
As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman asked, “Can the vice-presidential candidate of a party that has controlled the White House, Congress or both for 26 of the past 28 years, a party that, Borg-like, assimilated much of the D.C. lobbying industry into itself–until Congress changed hands, high-paying lobbying jobs were reserved for loyal Republicans–really portray herself as running against the ‘Washington elite’? Yes, they can.”
Israel Moves to Judaise East Jerusalem
September 10, 2008By Mel Frykberg | Inter-Press Service, Sep 9, 2008
EAST JERUSALEM, – The Israeli government is attempting to Judaise Palestinian East Jerusalem, and maintain a Jewish majority against the demographic threat of a higher Palestinian birth rate.
To that end, the Israeli government is enforcing a number of policies aimed at establishing facts on the ground in order to limit the number of Palestinian residents in the city.
To make any future division of Jerusalem almost impossible, the Israeli authorities are applying a combination of strategies including limiting family reunification permits, redrawing Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, enlarging Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and establishing new illegal ones.
Under international law the Green Line divides Jewish West Jerusalem from Palestinian East Jerusalem. However, Israel has illegally occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Last month Israel published tenders for the construction of 1,761 illegal housing units for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem alone, according to the Israeli rights group, Peace Now.
Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem says there are nearly 192,000 Israeli settlers residing illegally in 12 settlements in East Jerusalem.
Jerusalem municipality’s redrawing of the city’s municipal boundaries has incorporated the illegal settlements, while the building of the separation barrier, which separates Israel proper from the West Bank, has increased the number of Palestinians on the ‘wrong side’ of the barrier or wall, thereby further limiting a Palestinian presence.
According to conservative UN figures, about 25 percent of the 253,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem have been cut off from the city by the barrier.
“The Israelis are implementing the final plan to Judaise Jerusalem completely,” Suhail Khalilieh, head of the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) settlement unit told IPS.
“The plan began when Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967. The last stage of the plan involves the completion of the barrier with the specific aim of manipulating the demographics and limiting the balance of the Palestinian population to a mere 15-20 percent, with the remainder being Jewish,” said Khalilieh.
East Jerusalem is of particular importance to Palestinians because under international law it belongs to them and is designated the capital of a future Palestinian state. They also have significant cultural, religious, educational and business ties to the city.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, the second holiest Islamic site, as well as sites where Christ is said to have been buried and crucified are in East Jerusalem. Many Palestinians are Christian, even though they are a minority.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is trying to address the future status of East Jerusalem, which it considers a red line issue, within the framework of final negotiations on a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But the PNA faces a task of Sisyphean proportions as Israel’s encroachment of East Jerusalem has steadily increased over the decades since 1967, when a third of the area was expropriated from individual Palestinian landowners during the annexation and used exclusively to build settlements.
The expropriation, in defiance of the Fourth Geneva Convention, was justified on the basis of classifying Palestinian-owned land as vacant or unused, as many Palestinians fled the war temporarily to neighbouring countries.
“Palestinians residing outside of Jerusalem for seven or more years lose their Jerusalem residency status unless they can prove Jerusalem residency within the municipal boundaries and the importance of the city in their daily life, which is imperative in order to keep their identity cards,” says B’Tselem.
This does not apply to Israelis in West Jerusalem.
According to UN figures, in 2006 at least 1,360 Palestinians had their ID cards revoked. This was five times more than in 2005, and more than in any previous year since Israel began occupying East Jerusalem.
In 2003, the Citizenship and Entry into Israel law was enacted, which denies spouses from the occupied Palestinian territories, who are married to Israeli citizens or permanent residents (Jerusalem ID card holders), the right to acquire citizenship or residency status, and thus the opportunity to live with their partners in Israel and Jerusalem.
As a result, thousands of married couples are forced to live apart from one another.
In Israel, foreign spouses who are Jewish are automatically granted citizenship under Israel’s Law of Return.
Furthermore, since 1982 the Israeli Interior Ministry has not permitted the registration of Palestinian children as Jerusalem residents if the child’s father does not hold a Jerusalem ID card, even if the mother is a Jerusalem ID cardholder.
Jerusalem’s urban planning too, has been fine-tuned to increase the Jewish population with tax incentives and massive investment in Jewish neighbourhoods, while severely restricting construction in Palestinian neighbourhoods to seven percent of East Jerusalem.
“However, even before Palestinians are permitted to build they need to obtain the requisite building permits which are both expensive and extremely difficult to obtain,” said Khalilieh.
Even if Palestinians are fortunate enough to get the permits, they are still restricted to building on only 25 percent of their land.
Again, these restrictions do not apply to Jewish residents of West Jerusalem.
Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) says there is currently a housing shortage of 25,000 units in East Jerusalem, and fewer homes means higher prices.
“Despite the housing shortage, Israel’s municipality grants Palestinians only around 150 to 350 work permits a year, yet demolishes 150 or more existing homes at the same time,” said Halper.
Houses built without permits are demolished by the municipality.
B’Tselem states that both Israelis and Palestinians build illegally, but that the response of the authorities is not equal. Palestinians account for about 20 percent of illegal construction, yet more than 75 percent of the demolitions are carried out on Palestinian homes.
“While demolitions carried out in Jewish neighbourhoods target either commercial buildings or additions to a house, in Palestinian neighbourhoods such demolitions leave entire Palestinian families homeless,” added the human rights group.
ICAHD further asserts that Palestinians face discrimination in regard to budgeting and taxation as well as essential needs like water, sewage, roads, parks, lighting, post offices, schools and other services.
The PNA continues to negotiate with the Israelis despite the continued settlement building and land expropriation.
“The Palestinians are in an extremely weak position. If they stopped negotiations on this basis, Israel would put the blame on failed talks squarely on their shoulders, with the support of the U.S., and continue with establishing facts on the ground irrespectively,” Khalilieh told IPS. (END/2008)
Indian troops injure over 100 people in Kashmir
September 9, 2008 Font Size TROOPS GO BERSERK, OVER 100 WOUNDED; PROTESTS THROUGHOUT VALLEY
ARIF SHAFI WANI and GOWHAR BHAT | Greater Kashmir, Sep. 8
Srinagar, Sep 8: The protests against a youth’s killing were responded with brute force on Monday when troopers of paramilitary CRPF thrashed people irrespective of age and fired indiscriminately on people at Nowhatta, Safa Kadal, Bagh-e-Mehtab and Varmul, wounding over hundred persons. At least 19 persons sustained bullet injuries. The incidents triggered massive demonstrations in various parts of the city with people demanding action against the accused troopers.
NOWHATTA MAYHEMAt least 30 persons, four of them critically, were injured when the troopers of CRPF went berserk and opened fire on a group of people at Nowhatta Monday evening.
“We were offering Asar prayers when cops smashed the window panes of the masjid. We rushed out and asked the cops reason for attacking the masjid. However, the cops asked the CRPF men accompanying them to open fire. They aimed their guns towards us and opened fire. There were screams and blood all around…,” the witnesses said.
They said four persons, one of them identified as Tariq Ahmad Shah son of Muhammad Sidiq Shah of Saidapora sustained bullet injuries in the shootout.
“As Tariq, who was hit by a bullet on his neck, was writhing in pain, the troopers continued to hit him with rifles butts. They tried to drag his body towards the police station,” witnesses said.
Earlier, Nowhatta turned into a battleground when hundreds of youth shouting pro-freedom slogans attacked the police station there with stones. Demanding action against the police officer who killed Javid Ahmad Bhat yesterday, the protesters engaged the troopers in ding dong battles throughout the day.
However, when the protesters reached near the police station, the CRPF troopers went on rampage firing dozens of rounds to disperse the mob. Eyewitness said after the protests, the troopers caught hold of many youth including kids and severely thrashed them. The pitched battles were going on in the area when reports last came in.
BATTLEGROUND SAFA KADAL
Two persons were injured when the security guards of Dr Jalaluddin, who heads the cardiology department of SK Institute of Medical Sciences, opened fire to disperse the protesters who intercepted his vehicle near Sekidafar Chowk. “On seeing a huge mob approaching towards the vehicle. Dr Jalal’s PSOs opened fire injuring two persons,” eye witnesses said.
Meanwhile, violent clashes took place between protesters and police at Safa Kadal and its adjoining areas, including Zampa Kadal, Chattabal, Kak Sarai and Karan Nagar. However when a large contingent of CRPF reached the spot they resorted to firing and fired several tear smoke shells to disperse the protesters. Dozens of people were injured in the incident.
The inhabitants of Sekidafar in Safa Kadal locality accused that the CRPF troopers of beat many people without any provocation. “Soon after the morning prayers, the troopers barged into our houses and smashed the window panes,” the locals alleged.
They said the CRPF troopers barged into a masjid in the area and ruthlessly beat up the Imam, Ajaz Ahmad. He sustained head injuries and was later shifted to SKIMS.
Soon after the incident, angry youth took to streets to protests the troopers’ atrocities. Shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, they staged protest demonstration and blocked the roads and fought pitched battles with the CRPF troopers. The troopers opened fire injuring one youth, Abid Ahmad, who received a bullet in his left arm.
The troopers thrashed many locals when they were collecting food grains from a ration depot in the area. In the onslaught, the store in charge of the Safa Kadal ration depot, Muhammad Yousuf and a shopkeeper Imtiyaz Ahmad were also injured.
Reports said later in the evening, the troopers of CRPF barged into several house at Ganderpora, Zadi Masjid and Nowpora areas of Seki Dafar and thrashed the inmates.
Christians in India face prospect of more attacks by extremists
September 11, 2008The Times, September 11, 2008
A Christian girl whose face was burnt during the recent religious violence, sits in a shelter at Raikia village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa
Rhys Blakely in Bombay
The worst anti-Christian violence in India since independence 60 years ago came in Kandhamal district, in the state of Orissa, in recent weeks. Hindu fanatics attempted to poison water sources at relief camps holding at least 15,000 people displaced by mob violence, local activists alleged. Hundreds of Christian refugees in the region were told not to return to their homes unless they converted to Hinduism.
In Chattisgarh, central India, two nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, were beaten by a mob when they took four orphans to an adoption centre.
A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said: “These nuns are known for spending their life for the service of the poorest of the poor in the world. In India most of the beneficiaries of their services belong to the Hindu society.”
A church was burnt down in Karnataka, southern India, the state that recorded the highest number of anti-Christian incidents in India last year. There were also reports of violence in Madhya Pradesh, central India.
The Catholic Church said that at least 35 people — many of them burnt alive — had been killed by Hindu extremists in Orissa since August 23. It is feared that the country is on course for an even greater tragedy as hardline groups seek to mobilise support in an election year. The deadline for the general election is next May. A UN investigation gave warning that India was in danger of a repeat of the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, which claimed 2,500 lives.
Asma Jahangir, a special rapporteur on religious freedom for the UN, said: “There is a real risk that similar communal violence might happen again unless incitement to religious hatred and political exploitation of communal tensions are effectively prevented.”
She added: “Organised groups based on religious ideologies have unleashed the fear of mob violence in many parts of the country.”
The crisis in Orissa began over the murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, a local figurehead for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an extremist Hindu group. Saraswati had campaigned against the alleged forced conversion of poor Hindus to Christianity by Western-backed missionaries. Hindu extremists dismissed a claim of responsibility from Maoist militants for the murder and blamed Christians. They refused to condemn the murder of Christians that followed.
Gauri Prasad Rath, the president of the VHP in Orissa, said: “I do not condemn the violence against Christians. I condemn the killing of Hindu sage Swami Laxmananda Saraswati … Christians killed him.”
The decision to take the body of Saraswati on a two-day procession of the state led to the violence when the ceremony was used as an anti-Christian rally. It is believed to have been sanctioned by the RSS, an influential Hindu fundamentalist group that holds sway over the BJP, the largest Indian opposition party.
Some moderate Hindus suggested that the RSS exploited the murder of Saraswati for political ends – a course of events that would echo UN warnings on “political exploitation of communal tensions”.
“The murder of Saraswati was a gift for the RSS,” Dhirendra Panda, a Hindu member of the Committee for Communal Harmony in Bhubaneswar, an independent civil group, said. “They will decide when the violence ends.”
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Tags: Asma Jahangir, Christians in India, Gauri Prasad Rath, Hindu fanatics, India, Orissa, Swami Saraswati, the Catholic Church, Vishwa Hindu Prashad
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