William Bowles.info

Nato’s Fire Sale: One Dead Afghan Child, $2,000
MediaLens
March 17, 2010 – On January 11, 2010, we sent out a media alert titled, ‘Were Afghan children executed by US-led forces? And why aren’t the media interested?’ The alert concerned credible reports that American-led troops had dragged Afghan children from their beds and shot them during a night raid in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan on December 27 last year. Ten people were killed, including eight schoolboys from one family. We noted that the alleged atrocity had been almost wholly ignored by the corporate media, including the BBC. Two months after these disturbing allegations surfaced, The Times correspondent Jerome Starkey sought out two local men whose children and other relatives had been killed…

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Tortured for 7 years – and the British government knew it
Socialist Worker
March 17, 2010 – The Labour government is fighting in the courts to stop its complicity in torture coming to light. Simon Basketter looks at the shattering evidence of Britain’s involvement in torture around the world. Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni is just 32 years old but has difficulty walking even with a walking frame. He is dependent on antibiotics and antidepressants and he can’t hear out of his left ear. He was kidnapped in 2002 by the CIA and, over a seven year period, was tortured in at least five countries, including in British controlled territory. The government says it is never complicit in torture. It is lying – and Madni’s story proves it…

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Gaza: Metals detected in Palestinian children’s hair suggest environmental contamination
New Weapons Comittee
March 17, 2010 – Many Palestinian children still living in precarious situations at ground level in Gaza after Israeli bombing during “Cast lead” have unusually high concentrations of metals in the hair, indicating environmental contamination, which can cause health and growth damages due to chronic exposure. This is the result of a pilot study conducted by the New Weapons Research Group (Nwrg), an independent committee of scientists and experts based in Italy, who is studying the use of unconventional weapons and their mid-term effects on the population of after-war areas. This research follows the previous one, published by Nwrg on December 17 last year, in which the group reported the presence of toxic metals in the areas surrounding the craters left by the bombing. Those tests had found abnormal concentrations of toxic metals in the craters, suggesting the possible contamination of the soil which, combined with precarious living conditions, particularly in refugee camps, might cause exposure, dermal, via inhalation and through food…

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Jerusalem Under the Fire of Death Squads
Kawther Salam
March 17, 2010 – … In Jerusalem, all the shops were closed today, and a commercial strike has spread everywhere in the city. Huge confrontations and clashes have broken out between hundreds of Palestinian protesters and the Israeli police and the border police in Jerusalem and many of the surrounding districts, towns, villages and areas. According to Palestinian sources in Jerusalem, over 100 Palestinians were injured, among them 49 by rubber bullets, of these seven were in the eyes. A foreign journalist, “Daniel”, was injured in his leg, and eight Israeli police were stoned by the demonstrators. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers opened fire on the leg of a boy of age 17 after his arrest, they then beat and left him bleeding in the street until an ambulance was able to transfer him to a hospital for treatment…

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URGENT APPEAL: Illegal detention of children inside Israel
Defence for Children International
March 17, 2010 – On or about 8 March 2010, Israeli authorities transferred at least seven Palestinian children from Ofer Prison, in the West Bank, to Rimonim Prison, inside Israel. This decision occurred after lawyers for DCI-Palestine informed Ofer military court that children were being detained illegally with adult detainees inside Ofer prison. However, the response of the Israeli authorities to transfer the children to Israel amounts to a further contravention of international law. Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of detainees out of occupied territory. All of the children transferred were aged 15 or less. Seven of the children transferred are represented by DCI-Palestine and have been detained since 11 February 2010, after being arrested in dawn raids from the Al Jalazun refugee camp, near Ramallah, in the West Bank (see DCI-Palestine Urgent Appeal 1/10)…

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UPDATED URGENT APPEAL: Mass arrest of children in Jalazun Refugee Camp
Defence for Children International
March 17, 2010 – On 11 February 2010, at least 17 children were arrested from the Al Jalazun Refugee Camp in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers. The children and their families report the use of excessive force during the arrests, and ill-treatment and coercion during subsequent interrogations. The children were interrogated in the absence of a lawyer and family member, and the interrogations were not video recorded. The children are accused of throwing stones, and in some cases, Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers in 2009 and 2010. The children are being prosecuted in military courts… The mass arrest and ill-treatment of at least 17 children from the Al Jalazun Refugee Camp, on 11 February 2010, is not an isolated incident. On 29 September 2009, DCI-Palestine submitted 11 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture arising out of three incidents where the Israeli army entered Palestinian villages in the middle of the night and rounded up children en masse, accusing them of throwing stones at the Wall and settler by-pass roads in the West Bank…

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An Eternal Enemy…
Layla Anwar
March 17, 2010 – …For the West and the Americans in particular, it is crucial for their psyche and its survival to have an identifiable enemy..if he does not exist, you can trust these highly neurotic people to invent him…it’s as if these Christian cultures cannot live in peace at all…hence their so-called peace movements… These are societies built on war…and war does not only take place in battlefields…there are all kinds of wars going on…and these are societies whose survival depends on them… Logically, in order to perpetuate this state of permanent war which is really the state of the Western world and of the USA in particular, it is of absolute necessity to have a permanent enemy…

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Palestinian female detainees moved to cell ‘where human beings cannot live’
Ma’an News
March 17, 2010 – Fifteen female detainees at the Damon detention center in Israel were transferred to a new section that falls well below required standards, the Detainees Support Committee said. Committee spokesman Riyad Al-Ashqar said the new sector “is a place where human beings cannot live, particularly during the winter. There are no windows, no doors, and electricity wires remain uncovered, which could potentially cause a fatal accident when it rains.”..

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Obama Inc. Triumphs: Kucinich Folds His Hand on Health Care
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
March 17, 2010 – The last Left Democrat in the U.S. Congress has folded his hand, crushed by Wall Street’s servant in the White House, Barack Obama. Until Wednesday morning, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich was the only opposition from the Left still holding out against Obama’s private insurance subsidy bill – a massive redistribution of wealth to Wall Street masquerading as health care reform. The bill was long ago stripped of any fig leaf of a “public option,” and now awaits passage in its pure form – the formal establishment of a private health care system in which the people are forced to finance the profits of some of the biggest players in the Wall Street casino, the insurance corporations…

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Torture: Stop transferring Afghan detainees, Amnesty lawyer tells Canadian government
By Juliet O’Neill, Canwest News Service
March 17, 2010 — Canadian Forces should not transfer Afghan detainees to Afghan-run prisons because they currently face a “serious and substantial” risk of torture, Amnesty International lawyer Paul Champ warned Wednesday. Champ also predicted that it could take government-appointed former judge Frank Iacobucci two years or more to review the disclosure bans by government lawyers on hundreds of documents related to detainee transfers…

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Iraq snapshot – Monday, March 17, 2010
The Common Ills
Wendesday, March 17, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, ballot counting continues, a British court rules against the Ministry of Defence ordering them to pay the parent of a soldier who died in Iraq, Gordon Brown corrects his testimony to the Iraq Inquiry, the US Congress hears about what veterans and veterans’ families need, Dennis does what’s best for Dennis, and more…

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US says Israeli bond ‘unshakeable’
Aljazeera.net
March 17, 2010 – The US has affirmed its “unshakeable” and “unbreakable” bond with Israel amid the allies’ most public spat in years over Israel’s announcement that it would build 1,600 new settler homes. “We have an absolute commitment to Israel’s security. We have a close, unshakeable bond between the United States and Israel,” Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said in Washington on Tuesday…

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Hated for their Way of Life
By June Terpstra, Ph.D.
March 17, 2010 – I write today from Havana , Cuba , where the internet is connected through satellite because the USA blocks all cable that surrounds Cuba. Yesterday we met with trade union leaders, state diplomats, a medical doctor from Cinesex, the state sexual health department and Havana university professors. The people are intelligent and gracious, advanced in their knowledge of world events and unbelievably patient in the tasks of hosting a group from that same USA who has caused them so much suffering…

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Abdolreza Ghanbari, Another Ashura Day Protester Receives the Death Sentence
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
March 17, 2010 – Abdolreza Ghanbari, accused of heretics (moharebeh) for participation in Ashura Day protests, has been sentenced to death by Judge Salavati. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has been informed that Ghanbari did not have access to a fair trial and has not had the possibility to select and talk to an attorney in compiling his defense. Following a meeting with Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani in Qom on Monday, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said that verdicts of six Ashura Day suspects have been issued and the sentences are under appeal…

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Israeli raids targeting children
Nora Barrows-Friedman
March 17, 2010 – Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem (IPS) – Three thousand heavily armed Israeli security service forces locked down large parts of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, as battalions of police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian protesters in the occupied eastern part of the city. Nearly 40 Palestinians were wounded and treated at nearby hospitals, as 25 were arrested during intense clashes. Protests were aimed at the Netanyahu administration’s announcement of expanded illegal settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem and the five-day closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Palestinian institutions within the Old City. Fundamentalist settler groups held an opening ceremony for a synagogue constructed against the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which was seen as a provocation to the Palestinian community in the area…

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Winds of a third intifada
Osama AbuKatta
March 17, 2010 …The continued unbearable pressure by the U.S. and Israel on the PA to maintain security, without any political progress, will ultimately make the PA loose legitimacy and support from the Palestinian street. This will also make a third Intifada the only option and best alternative to a negotiated agreement for Palestinians. Many Palestinians argue that even if a third Intifada means the end of the PA, it will hopefully end Palestinians internal rifts…

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Jerusalem: A City Under Siege
Palestine Monitor
March 17, 2010 – For five days and in the context of the opening of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish quarter, the Old City has been turned into a city under siege. Israeli authorities have maintained a heavy military and police presence. Since Friday, a closure was imposed on the West Bank, banning the entry of West Bank permit holders into occupied East Jerusalem. Men under 50 years of age have also been prohibited from entering Al Aqsa Mosque compound. Demonstrations were reported throughout the city, while clashes were especially concentrated in the Old City, Eisawiya, Shu’fat Camp, Wadi Al Joz, Qalandiya checkpoint…

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Protesters say Israel fired on Gaza demonstration
Ma’an News
March 17, 2010 – Israeli forces opened fire during a demonstration in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, protesters said. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that soldiers opened fire, but said the reports were still being investigated. Abu Al-Walid Az-Zaq, member of the Popular Committee Against the Buffer Zone, said the demonstration was intended to reassert control over an Israeli “no-go area” near Beit Hanoun…

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Two UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan, MoD says
BBC News
March 17, 2010 – Two British soldiers have died after an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said. The soldiers were both from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battle Group. The blast happened north of the Musa Qala district of Helmand province on Tuesday. Both families have been told…

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Afghanistan violence escalates as US forces prepare Kandahar assault
By Patrick O’Connor
March 17, 2010 – Intensified clashes between US-led occupying forces and Taliban and Afghan resistance fighters have seen a substantial increase in casualties for both sides, and a rising death toll for local civilians. Helmand and Kandahar provinces, on Afghanistan’s south-western border with Pakistan, remain the focus of Washington’s military escalation. Having captured Marjah town in Helmand last month, US military commanders are waiting for the remainder of the 30,000 additional troops deployed by President Barack Obama before launching a summer offensive in Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar…

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‘DAY OF RAGE’ IN JERUSALEM
Steve Amsel, Desertpeace
March 17, 2010 – Yesterday, demonstrations were held throughout Jerusalem by Palestinians and progressive Israelis. They were protesting the growth of illegal settlements and evictions throughout the occupied eastern part of the city. One of the demonstrations was held on the campus of the Hebrew University. About 80 Palestinian students assembled peacefully outside one of the main entrances. They were jeered by no more than 10 Israeli students who chanted “Go back to Gaza”, among other chants that I dare not put in writing without putting an ‘adult content’ tag on this post…

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