Peace and Justice Post

by William Blum | Dissident Voice, July 5th, 2008

Most important thought: I’m sick and tired of this thing called “patriotism”.

The Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic. The German people who supported Hitler and his conquests were being patriotic, fighting for the Fatherland. All the Latin American military dictators who overthrew democratically-elected governments and routinely tortured people were being patriotic — saving their beloved country from “communism”.

General Augusto Pinochet of Chile: “I would like to be remembered as a man who served his country.”¹

P.W. Botha, former president of apartheid South Africa: “I am not going to repent. I am not going to ask for favours. What I did, I did for my country.”²

Pol Pot, mass murderer of Cambodia: “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country.”³

Tony Blair, former British prime minister, defending his role in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis: “I did what I thought was right for our country.”⁴

I won’t bore you with what George W. has said.

At the end of World War II, the United States gave moral lectures to their German prisoners and to the German people on the inadmissibility of pleading that their participation in the holocaust was in obedience to their legitimate government. To prove to them how legally inadmissable this defense was, the World War II allies hanged the leading examples of such patriotic loyalty.

I was once asked after a talk: “Do you love America?” I answered: “No”. After pausing for a few seconds to let that sink in amidst several nervous giggles in the audience, I continued with: “I don’t love any country. I’m a citizen of the world. I love certain principles, like human rights, civil liberties, democracy, an economy which puts people before profits.”

I don’t make much of a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Some writers equate patriotism with allegiance to one’s country and government, while defining nationalism as sentiments of ethno-national superiority. However defined, in practice the psychological and behavioral manifestations of nationalism and patriotism — and the impact of such sentiments on actual policies — are not easily distinguishable.

Howard Zinn has called nationalism “a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other Motherlands or Fatherlands.”⁵ … “Patriotism is used to create the illusion of a common interest that everybody in the country has.”⁶

Continued . . .

By Nora Barrows-Friedman and Dennis Bernstein | Consortiumnews.com, July 5, 2008

Editor’s Note: Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer recently traveled to Europe where he received an award given to reporters engaged in coverage of dangerous conflicts. However, Omer found the risk of returning to Gaza through Israel a hazard that he had not anticipated.

Below is a commentary expressing the outrage of two of Omer’s colleagues at the radio program, “Flashpoints,” followed by an interview with Omer about his ordeal:

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The U.S.-supported occupation violence against Palestine continues unchecked. The failure of major Western politicians and the Big Press to cover the story has given Israel an absolute free hand to prosecute its program of ethnic cleansing.

It is nearly impossible these days to get substantial, unbiased information out on punishing Israeli policies. The few reporters who have chosen to take on the story head-on oftentimes risk their life and their limbs to do their work.

A week ago Thursday, the Israeli occupation violence hit close to home as award-winning reporter and Flashpoints correspondent Mohammed Omer was detained and tortured trying to return back to his home in Gaza through Jordan.

Mohammed Omer was returning home from Europe with great pride, having been distinguished with the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. The prize is given every year with great fanfare to frontline reporters who take great risks to report their stories.

Omer, who is also the recipient of the New America Media’s Best Youth Voice Award, was detained on his way back from Europe, trying to cross back home into the Gaza Strip via Jordan and the West Bank.

Omer, knowing the dangers he would face going back to Gaza, had the assistance of the Dutch diplomatic core in the West Bank to escort him back through Israel into the northern Gaza Strip’s Erez crossing.

But even this proved to be a worthless effort – at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, Omer was detained, humiliated, interrogated, beaten and tortured, according to Omer, by Israeli Shin Bet agents.

What follows is a Flashpoints interview with Mohammed Omer from his hospital bed in central Gaza, where he was finally transported after he received critical wounds, including fractured ribs and an injured trachea, from the Israeli forces.

The interview was broadcast on Pacifica Radio’s Flashpoints show on Monday, June 30.

Omer is a featured and regular correspondent for Flashpoints and a working colleague at Inter Press Service with Flashpoints Senior Producer Nora Barrows-Friedman, who herself has returned from Gaza and the West Bank.

Continued . . .

Spidered News, Fri, July 4, 2008

Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez advises Washington to stop making threats against Iran and Venezuela in hopes of seeing lower oil prices.

Chavez suggested that wealthy nations, including the United States, can end the surge in oil prices by refraining from blaming crude exporting nations and by pulling their troops out of Iraq.

“They want to blame us: the Arabs and Venezuela. We are not to blame. Withdraw the troops from Iraq and you’ll see how oil prices will drop,” he said Thursday.

“Stop the threats against Iran and Venezuela, oil-producing countries, and you’ll see prices will tend to decline,” Chavez said in an address to visiting delegates from Non-Aligned Movement countries.

Oil prices surged to an all-time high of over $146 a barrel on Thursday. Brent peaked at $146.69 before falling back to $146.08; US crude jumped $1.72 to $145.29 after having hit $145.85.

Crude skyrocketed to nearly $144 on Monday over speculation that Israel plans to launch a military strike on Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter.

The New York Times recently quoted Pentagon officials as saying that over 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged a maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in early June.

As part of the maneuver, Israeli aircraft flew over 900 miles, roughly the distance from their airfields to a nuclear enrichment facility in the central Iranian city of Natanz.

Asked whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if Israel launches a military strike on the country, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari suggested June 28 that Tehran would consider all options.

“When a country comes under attack, it naturally uses all its capacities to confront the enemy,” said the Iranian commander.

The strategic 21-mile Strait of Hormuz waterway between Iran and Oman is a vital conduit for energy supplies. As much as 40 percent of the world’s sea-transited crude oil passes through the narrow Persian Gulf chokepoint.

Chavez warned last month that crude prices would hit $200 a barrel if the US continued to threaten Iran.

MK/AA

Citizens or terrorists and militias?? Why aren’t they on the US “terror” list?? Don’t they qualify?

Home-made Israeli settler rockets

Israeli settlers are not content that they are living on illegally occupied territory and in illegally-built settlements. They are not content that they are allowed to roam the streets of Israel armed to the teeth… killing, mutilating and torturing Palestinian citizens and children without accountability while the IDF, mainstream media and the ‘civilized’ world pretend not to notice. Israeli settlers now are building their own home-made rockets and are firing them at Palestinian refugees because they do not agree that Israel should withdraw from any of the occupied territories or make any concessions to the Palestinians in order to achieve a state of peace. As far as they are concerned, anyone living between the Nile and the Euphrates should vacate so that the ‘holy’ settlers can loot their lands, homes and properties as they’ve always done throughout history and suck every drop of blood from their victims until they explode.

Yesterday Israeli settlers fired 2 home-made rockets near a school in the village of Burin which is located between 2 illegal settlements. The rockets were named ‘Sharon 1’ and ‘Sharon 2’. How appropriate indeed. The entire IDF is not enough for the settlers. The land which was allocated to Israel by the UN as well as the land which Israel annexed illegally in the various wars it launched against its neighbors is also not enough for those settlers. These vicious, extremist, nasty and greedy blood-suckers are now developing their own rockets in order to keep and expand their illegal settlements against International Law and against every international agreement, resolution or convention that govern or apply to the Arab/Israeli conflict. Will the UN condemn the Israeli settlers’ actions? I hardly think so. It never condemned them for any of their previous horrific crimes so why would it condemn them for starting to make their own rockets. The UN might even justify the settlers’ actions as “self defense” just as it justified practically all of Israel’s actions as “self defense” for the past 60 years. It seems that Israel and its settlers need to blow up the entire Middle East and beyond in their quest for ‘peace’ and pursuit of “self defense”.

Continued . . .

Reuters, July 4, 2008
ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Twenty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led forces on Friday in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nuristan, an official said.

The attack happened on a road in Want district while the noncombatants were traveling in two vehicles, the district chief, Zia-Ul Rahman, told reporters.

“The civilians were evacuating the district as they were told by the U.S.-led troops to do so because they wanted to launch an operation against the Taliban,” he said.

“The civilians were in two vehicles when killed by the air raid,” he added.

The U.S. military confirmed the mission, but said there was no report of civilian injuries. It said the strike was in response to an attack by militants against NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops.

“An ISAF RC-East combat outpost in Nuristan province received indirect fire from militants today. Coalition helicopter support was used to locate the militants,” it said in a statement.

“The militants were moving in two vehicles when Coalition attack helicopters were used to destroy (them) killing the combatants. No reports of noncombatant injuries” were received, it added.

The incident comes amid an upsurge of violence in Afghanistan in the past two years, the bloodiest period since the overthrow of Taliban’s government in 2001.

The issue of civilians killed by foreign troops is a sensitive one in Afghanistan as it undermines public support for the presence of around 71,000 international troops in the country and the government of President Hamid Karzai.

In the first six months of this year, 698 civilians were killed, 255 of them by Afghan government and foreign forces. In the same period last year, a total of 430 civilians were killed, the United Nations said last week.

(Reporting by Rohullah Anwari; Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No sooner had Bush started speaking at the naturalization ceremony welcoming new American citizens than protesters began shouting at him, calling him a “war criminal.”

The President paused in his remarks and then responded, “To my fellow citizens, we believe in free speech in the United States of America.”

One woman moved towards the stage before being stopped by security, but other protesters still made their voices heard.

Only minutes later, another protester shouted expletives at the President, while still another called Bush “a fascist”.

By the time Bush finished his 10-minute remarks, at least nine protesters had been escorted out of the event by law enforcement.

Although Bush did not mention the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in his final Fourth of July speech as President, he did thank the troops, while paying tribute to the author of the Declaration of Independence, who died on this day in 1826.

“We honor Jefferson’s legacy by aiding the rise of liberty in lands that do not know the blessings of freedom,” Bush said. “And on this Fourth of July we pay tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America,” prompting a standing ovation from the assembled crowd.

Bush congratulated the new citizens participating in the naturalization ceremony, more than 70 men and women from about 35 different countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Norway, and Burma.

“From this day forward the history of the United States will be part of your heritage, the Fourth of July will be part of your Independence Day, and I will be honored to call you a fellow American,” said the President.

While in Charlottesville, Bush toured Monticello with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat. Early in the afternoon, Bush returned to the White House to celebrate Independence Day, a holiday which falls right at the start of his birthday weekend.

“Thomas Jefferson once said he’d rather celebrate the Fourth of July than his own birthday,” said Bush, who turns 62 on Sunday. “To me it’s pretty simple, the Fourth of July weekend is my birthday weekend.”

Protesters also lined the President’s motorcade route, chanting “Arrest Bush” as he drove to and from the Monticello ceremony.

Copyright © 2008 ABCNews Internet Ventures

Cesar Chelala | uruknet.info, July 4, 2008

Friday, 4 July, 2008, 01:32 AM Doha Time NEW YORK: A just released report by the US Army makes a severe indictment of the planning and conduct of the Iraq war. Both the civilian and military planning for a post-Saddam Iraq was inadequate, and that the US Army commanders didn’t foresee the full spectrum of operations needed to bring stability to the country, it said. In the civilian arena, this is particularly true in the case of refugees, millions of Iraqis who had to flee their own country in desperation. According to official estimates Iraqi refugees now total almost 5mn people, and are part of one of the most tragic humanitarian crises in the region. According to Amnesty International, countries are evading their responsibility towards Iraqi refugees by promoting a false sense of security in Iraq, which is neither safe nor suitable for their return. The organisation stressed that the world’s richest countries are failing to provide necessary assistance to Iraqi refugees, “most of whom are plunged in despair and hurtling towards destitution”. According to the most recent estimates of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of Iraqis who have fled their homes has now reached 4.7mn. This is the highest number since the US-led invasion and the subsequent internal armed conflict in Iraq. Neighbouring countries, particularly Syria and Jordan, have received most refugees. However, lack of support from the international community has obliged those countries to restrict their entry and to deport Iraqis, even those who may be at risk of persecution in their own country. The same policy of deportation back to Iraq is now being attempted by several European countries, who intend to send Iraqis back to the most dangerous parts of the country, such as the south and central regions. Even Sweden, host to the largest number of Iraqi refugees in Europe, which was once hailed as a positive example, has now changed its asylum policies and is denying protection to large numbers of Iraqis. This is happening while people continue being killed in large numbers by armed groups, the Multinational Force, Iraqi security forces and private military. In desperation, many Iraqis still try to flee their country, which has become now more difficult to do following recent visa restrictions on Iraqis by Jordan and Syria. Many families are forced to have the children work in the streets or resort to prostitution in a desperate attempt to help them survive. In a scathing report on the situation, Refugees International states: “Since the beginning of the crisis, the government of Iraq has proven to be unwilling and unable to respond to the needs of vulnerable Iraqis. Although it has access to large sums of money, it is divided along sectarian lines, lacking both the capacity and the political will to use its important resources to address humanitarian needs. As a result, the government doesn’t have any credibility left with Iraqis.” Continued . . .

Herb Keinon, jpost.com staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST, July 3, 2008

This week’s warnings from US President George W. Bush and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of America’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, against an IDF strike on Iran are a sign that Washington is concerned that Jerusalem may indeed attack the Islamic Republic, Israeli government officials said Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Channel 2 analyst Ehud Ya’ari reported that Iran had expressed readiness to freeze its uranium enrichment program in return for the lifting of the international sanctions imposed on it.

Citing unnamed Western officials, he said the Iranians had conveyed messages indicating they could accept the latest incentive package offered by the West in return for halting its enrichment program.

Meanwhile, a State Department spokesman said the US was sticking to its demand that Iran halt uranium enrichment as a precondition for US participation in negotiations with the Islamic republic over its nuclear program. He added, however, that the US would not rule out early consultations with Iran before official talks begin on resolving its standoff with the West.

The spokesman went on to say that Washington would not dismiss the option of Iran stopping enrichment for a limited time in exchange for the removal of sanctions. However, he stressed that Teheran must first give a detailed response to the EU incentive package, Israel Radio reported.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report.

Mullen said late Wednesday that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be a high-risk move that could destabilize the Middle East. At a Defense Department news conference, he refused to say what Israeli leaders had told him during meetings last week about any intentions to strike Iran.

Asked whether he was concerned Israel would strike before the end of the year, Mullen said: “This is a very unstable part of the world and I don’t need it to be more unstable.”

Israeli officials said the fact that Mullen gave a press conference on the matter indicated he was not reassured by what he heard on his visit to Israel.

One of the purposes of his visit was to see whether recent comments made here, such as those made by Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who said Israel might have no choice but to act against the Islamic Republic, were “just words” or indicated real intent.

Israel’s large air force exercise over the eastern Mediterranean in the first week of June, which was widely described as a “dress rehearsal” for an attack on Iran, has also caused concern in Washington, the officials said.

Mullen’s visit was his second in seven months. Prior to December, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs had not been in Israel in more than 10 years.

He said Thursday that opening a third front now, with the US military already stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “would be extremely stressful on us.”

“I believe they’re [the Iranians] still on a path to get nuclear weapons and I think that’s something that needs to be deterred,” and that this should be done through diplomatic, financial and economic actions by the US and other nations, Mullen said.

But, he added, “I think that just about every move in that part of the world is a high-risk move.”

In a news conference earlier in the day, President Bush was also asked about increasing speculation that Israel will launch a strike, and said that all options are on the table but that military action would not be his first choice.

“I have made it very clear to all parties that the first option ought to be solving this problem diplomatically,” Bush said. “And the best way to solve it diplomatically is for the United States to work with other nations to send a focused message – and that is: You will be isolated, and you will have economic hardship, if you continue to enrich” uranium for a bomb.

Israeli officials said Iran was also the main topic of conversation when Bush called Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday to express his condolences for the victims of the bulldozer attack in Jerusalem.

“All this is designed to throw cold water on any possible Israeli intentions,” the officials said.

“They are worried by the atmosphere in Israel, and that reports of an inevitable attack have suddenly started to dominate the debate.”

ACLU Releases Navy Files On Civilian Casualties In Iraq War ACLU

July 2, 2008

Public Has A Right To Unfiltered Information About The Human Cost Of War, ACLU Says

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today released thousands of pages of documents related to Navy investigations of civilians killed by Coalition Forces in Iraq, including the cousin of the Iraqi ambassador to the United States. Released today in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the ACLU filed in June 2006, these records provide a vivid snapshot of the circumstances surrounding civilian deaths in Iraq.

“At every step of the way, the Bush administration and Defense Department have gone to unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “Our democracy depends on an informed public and that is why it is so important that the American people see these documents. These documents will help to fill the information void around the issue of civilian casualties in Iraq and will lead to a more complete understanding of the prosecution of the war.”

The ACLU obtained documents from eight Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigations. One of the files documents the investigation of the death of Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, a cousin of the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S, Samir al-Sumaidaie. In 2006, the ambassador accused Marines of “intentionally” killing his cousin and today’s records shed light on al-Sumaidaie’s NCIS investigation for the first time. Among the findings uncovered in this file are conflicting accounts of events, questions of credibility, possible command influence issues and cover-ups.

“As these files remind us, many charges of war crimes in Iraq have not seen the light of day,” said Michael Pheneger, a retired Army intelligence colonel who is also a board member of the ACLU. “There are many discoveries here that should bring pause to any American who cares about this country and hopes to restore the United States’ respected role in the world. It is time to bring the facts about this war into the sunlight and end practices that go against our laws and national values.”

Through its FOIA project, the ACLU has made public information on Defense Department policies designed to control information about the human costs of war. These practices include:

• Banning photographers on U.S. military bases from covering the arrival of caskets containing the remains of U.S. soldiers killed overseas; • Paying Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts of the U.S. war effort; • Inviting U.S. journalists to “embed” with military units but requiring them to submit their stories for pre-publication review; • Erasing journalists’ footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan; and • Refusing to disclose statistics on civilian casualties.

Today’s documents are available online at: http://www.aclu.org/natsec/foia/NCIS_log.html

Attorneys involved in this project are Bargzie, Ben Wizner and Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU National Security Project. In a separate lawsuit, the ACLU sued for records concerning the abuse of prisoners held by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. To date, that request has resulted in the release of more than 100,000 pages, all of which are available online at: www.aclu.org/torturefoia