Peace and Justice Post

RINF.com, March 4, 2008

 

By Marcus Morgan

Last Friday, the Labour government took out a high court injunction to prevent a former member of the British Special Air Services, Ben Griffin, from revealing further details about the government’s involvement in “extraordinary rendition”

The US administration coined the term to cover the practice of sending arrested terrorist suspects to dozens of detention facilities where torture is often carried out. Ever since reports of rendition and torture began to surface after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001, the British government has adamantly denied any knowledge or collaboration with these activities.

In his last public address before the gagging order came into force, Griffin told an antiwar rally, “I will be continuing to collect evidence and opinion on British involvement in extraordinary rendition, torture, secret detentions, extra-judicial detention, use of evidence gained through torture, breaches of the Geneva Conventions, breaches of International Law and failure to abide by our obligations as per UN Convention Against Torture. I am carrying on regardless.”

He called for former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown to face trial for breaking international law.

Continued . . .

By William D. Hartung, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 5, 2008

War is hell — deadly, dangerous, and expensive. But just how expensive is it?

How far off were they? Well, it depends on which figure you choose to start with. Here’s the range: According to key officials in the Bush administration back in 2002-2003, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq was either going to cost $60 billion, or $100-$200 billion. Actually, we can start by tossing that top figure out, since not long after Bush economic advisor Larry Lindsey offered it in 2002, he was shown the door, in part assumedly for even suggesting something so ludicrous.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz championed the $60 billion figure, but added that much of the cost might well be covered by Iraqi oil revenues; the country was, after all, floating on a “sea of oil.” (“To assume we’re going to pay for it all is just wrong,” he told a congressional hearing.) Still, let’s take that $60 billion figure as the Bush baseline. If economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes are right in their recent calculations and this will turn out to be more than a $3 trillion war (or even a $5-7 trillion one), then the Bush administration was at least $2,940,000,000,000 off in its calculations.

Continued . . .

by Felicity Arbuthnot Global Research, March 4, 2008 Email this article to a friend Print this article “We have an appointment with death We have become familiar with our shores of despair …” Ali Ahmad Said: “Victims of a Map”, Saqi Books The world community is encouraged to celebrate and commemorate two occasions this year: Israel’s theft of Palestine and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. As the British government announces that the educational curriculum is to now include school children visiting Auschwitz “lest we forget” the horrors of the Holocaust and to learn that such inhumanity must never be repeated, the Vice Israeli Minister for Collective Punishment and Serial Killing (sorry, “Defence”) Matan Viilnai, threatened a new “Holocaust” in the Gaza Strip. Surely, a far better education for the young would be to stay with their counterparts in Gaza and experience the real thing. Rows of children’s shoes and silent gas chambers are terrifyingly thought provoking, but pretty yesterday, when it can actually be lived: real human remains, real blood and even those reduced to real ashes – the real thing, in real time, at a Mediterranean venue near you. A learning experience never to be forgotten. The 1.5 million souls to whom Gaza is home are entrapped, with no place to hide, pounded from ground and air, by tanks, F-16’s and Apache attack helicopters (courtesy of the “land of the free”) in a reign of terror unleashed by “the only democracy in the Middle East”. As little Gaza is set to become the next Sabra and Shatila massacre (with the advanced warning ringing round the globe) the world’s governments deafen with their shameful, craven silence. War criminal turned Middle East “peace envoy” in our Kafkaesque world, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair Q.C., was unconcerned, taking a break from his stressful life counting his piles of ill gotten gains, holidaying at an African game park owned by Virgin Airways founder, Richard Branson. America’s shoe in, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has seemingly borrowed his predecessor Kofi Annan’s two word lexicon (“concern” and “regret”) and announced his “concern” at the situation. That, only after he had spoken of Israel’s threat from home made rockets, fired by the resistance, before verbally tiptoeing round Gaza’s threat from weapons of mass destruction fired by the land baggers. Continued . . .

Immanuel Wallerstein | Commentary No. 228, Mar. 1, 2008

It now seems highly probable, although not yet certain, that Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate for president. And it seems highly probable that he would win a contest with John McCain. It also seems almost certain that the Democratic majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives will be enlarged. Thus, it seems that Obama would enter office with a relatively strong mandate from the voters.

If one asks how Obama, who entered the race some six months ago as a young and unlikely victor, has been able to achieve this, the answer seems clear. He has emphasized the theme of “change” and this theme seems to have resonated with the voters, including many who have not voted before. Of course, change is an ambiguous term, and its meaning varies according to those who embrace it. But it seems that the theme of “change” responds to a high degree of discomfort in the United States with the present overall situation in the country and the world. The two zones of maximum discomfort are the war in Iraq and the state of the economy.

What a majority of voters seems to be saying is that they think the war in Iraq is a quagmire, and that it was a mistake to have invaded the country. As for the economy, the voters seem to be saying that their actual standard of living has been going down and they are very afraid that it will go down still further. So, basically, they are rejecting the main lines of argument of the Bush regime, and are blaming it in large part for their discomforts. What specific changes the voters want seems less clear, but they want something.

Continued . . .

Analyzing the Gallup World Poll with John Esposito

By WAJAHAT ALI

While speaking authoritatively about Islam and the “psychology” of the Muslim mind, the talking heads on television screens, the experts sitting in prestigious think tanks, the policy analysts strategizing in D.C., and the often loud and bombastic voices heard on the airwaves are rarely, if ever, Muslims.

To many concerned and prescient minds, this reality is often baffling and troubling. One such individual, Jim Clifton, Gallup’s Chairman and CEO, remarked, “no one in Washington had any idea what 1.3 billion Muslims were thinking, and yet we were working on intricate strategies that were going to change the world for all time.”

In order to discover what Muslims truly think, Gallup spent 6 years interviewing nearly 50,000 Muslims from 35 countries representing the most comprehensive analysis of the wishes, desires, grievances, complaints, and opinions of nearly 1.3 billion Muslims. The results are illuminating to say the least.

The results were collected and analyzed by John L. Esposito, a leading American expert on Islam and University Professor at Georgetown, and Dalia Mogahed, a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, in their new, groundbreaking work: “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.”

Continued . . .

China View, March 4, 2008

Three Palestinian protestors are arrested by Israeli troop during a rally against Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) military operation in Gaza Strip, on the street of West Bank town Hebron, March 3, 2008. Angry people burnt tires, even cars. IDF fired back and arrested many youngsters. Latest Arabic sources reported one IDF soldier was killed in Hebron clash on the day due to mistaken fire. IDF office hasn’t confirmed it yet. (Xinhua Photo/Guo Lei)

JERUSALEM, March 3 (Xinhua) — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that counter-terror operations in Gaza would continue, local media reported.

Barak made the remarks during a meeting with European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana, according to the website of local daily Jerusalem Post.

Hamas was dealt “a heavy blow” in the recent Israeli army’s activity, he added.

The defense minister stressed that the ultimate goal of the operation was to restore calm to the residents of southern Israel. “We will achieve this,” he pledged, and added that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would come out on top in the continuing military campaign.

Solana said that the political process was “essential,” and expressed hope for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Early Monday morning, IDF withdrew its ground troops from the Gaza Strip, completing a five-day-long offensive in which more than 100 Palestinians were killed.

Solana called for Israel to leave a window of opportunity open for the peace process.”

“I know this sounds a bit optimistic considering the events of the past few days,” he said after his meeting with senior Israel officials.

“A Dirty War”The Al Deira Hotel, in Gaza City, is a haven of calm in a land beset by poverty, fear, and violence. In the middle of December 2007, I sit in the hotel’s airy restaurant, its windows open to the Mediterranean, and listen to a slight, bearded man named Mazen Asad abu Dan describe the suffering he endured 11 months before at the hands of his fellow Palestinians. Abu Dan, 28, is a member of Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamist organization that has been designated a terrorist group by the United States, but I have a good reason for taking him at his word: I’ve seen the video.

Continued . . .

War In Iraq
By: atheo on: 04.03.2008

by Nimer Sultany

Once again Israel defies an impotent international community which offers nothing but timid calls for ceasefire on “both sides.” And once again Palestinian suffering and death tolls continue to break records in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

Perhaps it is easy to dismiss this suffering by blaming the victims and resorting to ready cliches. Indeed, Israeli propagandists go out of their way to repeat the sound bite: we withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and since then the Palestinians have been firing rockets on our southern towns. This sound bite might fly in the western media; after all it resonates with a simplistic world view that ignites stereotypes which have been in the making for centuries, producing demonic and degrading representations of Muslims and Arabs. It becomes easy to describe the Palestinians in this context as the carriers of incomprehensible and irrational rage. This kind of representation has intensified since September 2001 with the “rediscovery” of Israel, and its supreme court, as a western lighthouse amid the darkness of the Middle East.

When examined closely, however, reality rules out crude explanations of “violence without reason” and “terrorism without context.” It becomes apparent that one cannot seriously discuss a legitimate resistance to a prolonged and horrendous military occupation within the context of the “war on terrorism.” Moreover, even if one finds a place to critique some practices of the oppressed one should keep in mind the root of the problem: it is the occupation, not the resistance. No rhetorical device can conceal the reality of colonialism by transforming it either to a mere “conflict” between equally culpable sides or to portray the occupier as the retaliating victim.

Continued . . .

Illumanati News

– Letter That Albert Einstein Sent to the New York Times
1948, Protesting the Visit of Menachem Begin –
– http://pulpnonfiction.blogspot.com
Letters to the Editor

New York Times
December 4, 1948

TO THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:

ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ

HANNAH ARENDT

ABRAHAM BRICK

RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO

ALBERT EINSTEIN

HERMAN EISEN, M.D.

HAYIM FINEMAN

M. GALLEN, M.D.

H.H. HARRIS

ZELIG S. HARRIS

SIDNEY HOOK

FRED KARUSH

BRURIA KAUFMAN

IRMA L. LINDHEIM

NACHMAN MAISEL

SEYMOUR MELMAN

MYER D. MENDELSON

M.D., HARRY M. OSLINSKY

SAMUEL PITLICK

FRITZ ROHRLICH

LOUIS P. ROCKER

RUTH SAGIS

ITZHAK SANKOWSKY

I.J. SHOENBERG

SAMUEL SHUMAN

M. SINGER

IRMA WOLFE

STEFAN WOLF.

New York, Dec. 2, 1948

Al Bawaba, Monday, 3 March 2008

Israeli forces on Monday killed seven Palestinians and wounded dozens in al-Shijaeya neighborhood, al-Nusaerat refugee camp and Jabalya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian security sources said that Israeli warplanes fired a missile against a group of Hamas activists in Baghdad street, eastern al-Shijaeya neighborhood, killing one and wounding others, some critically.

Medics affirmed to WAFA that Ramzi Khwayter was killed. His dead body was shattered into pieces, reports said. Shortly later, Israeli warplanes targeted another group of activists at al-Sika street in the neighbourhood, killing three.

Also in the Gaza Strip, another military raid was launched in al-Tufah neighborhood, killing twoPalestinians and wounding two others, one critically. In al-Nusaerat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, an Israeli raid was launched killing a man and wounding three others, one critically.

 

In Jabalya refugee camp, after Israeli ground forces withdrew from the area, rescue teams managed to get three dead bodies from under the wreckage. Later, medics declared that a man died of wounds he sustained during the recent Israeli assault against Jabalya refugee camp.

Thus, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) the death toll following the Israeli assault against Gaza Strip since last Wednesday has mounted to 118, a third of which are children while more than 350 were wounded.

 

In the West Bank, Israeli occupation troops on Monday shot dead a Palestinian teenager north of Ramallah during a demonstration protesting the killings in the Gaza Strip. Local sources said that students of the Mazra Al-Gharbia village organized a protest rally that headed towards a nearby settlement but were met with live bullets by soldiers and guards of that settlement.

 

The demonstrators threw stones at the soldiers and the Israelis retaliated by firing bullets that hit and killed Mohammed Saleh Shreiteh, 18.

 

Similar demonstrations were organized in Hebron city.

 

© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)