The Silence of Sheep…
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
I intuitively understood that Hassan Ali Al-Majeed was either being executed, about to be executed or already dead. I checked newswires but could not find anything except an article on al-Jazeerah stating that Al Hassan Al Majeed is to be executed soon, in the coming days… Why do I have a feeling it’s already a done job? Maybe it is those eyes staring at me… The puppet government waited for after the Eid period…so as not to “fumble” it like they did the first, second, third and fourth time… Another Iraqi hanged. Another true Iraq hanged. And not one word… They called him “chemical” Ali. Should I call you “criminal” Americans, or “depleted uranium” Americans and Brits ? Or maybe I should call you “torturer, driller” Iranians, or maybe “cluster, phosphorus bombs” Israelis… The one with no sin should cast the first stone… Come forward if you can, if you dare. That includes you too, so called “Iraqis.” Show me your innocent hands. Show me the hands who were not dipped in ink. Not tainted in any blood and above all show me your pockets…

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Scenes From An Iraki Childhood October 18th 2007
Um Thalit, Gorilla’s Guides
This is Rahna Rasheed’s younger brother. That’s her body you can see covered on the stretcher in the background. She was 17. She was shot this morning by green zone government forces who mistook her for a fighter during a raid on her village north of Baqubah. She was rushed to Baqubah hospital but died of gunshot wounds to the head. The lady with bloodstained clothers and blood on her face is her mother. The other two adults are Hamid and Shokriya Hasan her uncle and aunt….

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Former UN Official: US blocked certification that Iraq had no WMDs in 1990s
Alex Lantier, WSWS
In an interview with journalist Andrew Cockburn, former UN official Rolf Ekeus revealed that in 1997, the US acted to prevent UN officials from certifying that Iraq had complied with UN resolutions demanding that it destroy its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and infrastructure. Ekeus headed the UN Special Commission (Unscom), which inspected Iraqi weapons facilities from 1991 to 1999. Ekeus told Cockburn that in March 1997, “I was getting close to certifying that Iraq was in compliance with [UN] Resolution 687.” The resolution, adopted in 1991, listed the obligations imposed on Iraq after the US-led Persian Gulf War. It required Iraq to destroy all its chemical and biological weapons and related stocks, all ballistic missiles with a range of over 150 km and to place all its nuclear-usable material in the hands of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)….

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Top IDF officer censured over use of ‘human shields’ in Nablus
Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel Defense Forces Brigadier-General Yair Golan was censured on Thursday for allowing soldiers to use Palestinian civilians as “human shields” during military operations in the West Bank. IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi decided to reprimand Golan – who formerly served as commander of forces in the West Bank – following a probe by the IDF’s criminal investigation division into the army’s use of human shields during raids in the town of Nablus. Golan was the most senior officer to be questioned in the probe, which the army launched last March after IDF soldiers were filmed forcing a young Palestinian man at gunpoint to lead them from house to house during an arrest sweep in Nablus….

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Gaza unable to bury its dead
Ma’an News
Gaza has run out of materials for the burial of its dead. Due to Israel’s closure of the crossings in and out of the strip, the deceased of Gaza can no longer be buried in shrouds or graves. The remainder of cloth in the coastal region was used to make clothes for half-a-million children for Eid ul-Fitr. The cement for graves was used for purposes which were given priority over the burial of the dead. In consequence, the corpses continue to be exposed to the elements. Minister of Waqf in the de facto government in Gaza Yousif Al-Mansi said that the closure of the crossings has resulted in a humanitarian disaster….

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PALESTINE ~~ WORLD’S LARGEST ORPHANAGE
Desert Peace
When we think of the occupation of Palestine, do we take into our thoughts what happens to the children of those in prison? Below is the story of some of these children…’ The Administrative Orphans of Palestine’…Here is one way to maintain a sense of family unity: Once a month, the Hashlamoun children visit their parents in jail. Three kids go to see their mother in Hasharon Prison and the other three see their father in Ketziot Prison. Sometimes even this arrangement doesn’t work out. Some of the kids haven’t seen their father in three months and others haven’t seen their mother for a month and a half. When the visits do take place, the children get to stand in front of a glass wall and talk with their mother or father for half an hour – visiting time is strictly limited – on a telephone that connects the people on either side of the soundproof barrier….

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Syria’s border closure hits Iraqi refugees
Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Suffering kidney disease and living in a Damascus slum, Amal Jabar lost her only means of support when Syria closed its borders to Iraqi refugees a few weeks ago. “My son Mostafa used to come and bring me whatever little he scraped together from odd jobs in Baghdad. I would be starving now if it wasn’t for charity,” said Jabar, who fled from the al-Amel district in Baghdad, a focus of sectarian fighting. “The area is swamped with militias and Mostafa’s life is in danger. He was planning to move to Syria, but now he cannot and I haven’t heard from him,” she said. Syria’s decision on Oct. 1 to shut its borders to Iraqi nationals, except merchants and academics, has disrupted lives of refugees, separated families and trapped thousands amid killings and upheaval, according to refugees and aid agencies….

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AG nominee won’t say if waterboarding is torture
David Edwards and Nick Juliano, RAW STORY
Attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey left open the possibility that a controversial technique alleged to be used by CIA interrogators could be considered Constitutional, when he refused to say one way or another whether water boarding is torture. During the second day of his Senate confirmation hearings, Mukasey was asked if he believed water boarding “was Constitutional.”….

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Democracy, Dynasty
Editorial of Khaleej Times
IS AMERICA, the world’s most powerful democracy, going the anti-democratic, dynastic, way? As a report the other day projected, chances are that America is set for a three-decade, uninterrupted, dual, dynastic succession — of Bush and Clinton families, by turn — if Hillary Clinton is elected as the next president there. In principle, not a happy turn, anyway.Systems in themselves do not matter much. Democracy is a widely-accepted, well-appreciated system of g overnance, though, by all accounts, it is not necessarily the only good form of governance (…) The point to stress in respect of America, however, is that, while it is trying to promote the ideals of democracy around the world, why is it that it is drifting from the basic concepts of democracy itself? It’s common knowledge that the American democratic system is loaded heavily in favour of the rich, and not in favour of the people per se. Election after election there is proof of the sway of the money power of the candidates, and the lack of the voice of the underlings. In a true democracy, it would seem ridiculous that a Bush should follow another Bush, and a Clinton another Clinton, with only periodic interruptions, or by turns….

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Zionist pressure puts press in jeopardy
Will Youmans, The Arab American News.
For four years, the University of Michigan’s publishing house has distributed books from the catalog of Pluto Press. Pluto’s books are critical, often challenging the ideas of those in power. Their catalog examines issues of Israel-Palestine, globalization, foreign policy, and many other topics. The new book, “Overcoming Zionism,” questions the logic of Zionism, which established a Jewish state on a religiously-diverse Palestine. This largely European Jewish movement established the state by force against the will of the native inhabitants. This led to decades of conflict, created millions of refugees and caused a string of wars. The author Joel Kovel, a respected academic who teaches at Bard College, sees Israel as an apartheid state reminiscent of South Africa. The natural result of Zionism’s success was a state for one people, at the expense of the other….

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PALESTINIANS NOT HOPEFUL ON OUTCOME OF ‘PEACE TALKS’
Desert Peace
There was ‘talk after talk, ‘agreement after agreement’…. but nothing has changed. That seems to be the general attitude of the average ‘man in the street’ in the Occupied Territories. Bottom line is that Palestine is still occupied, it’s citizens are being murdered daily, it’s West Bank ‘leadership’ is allowing this to continue… how could there be hope?…

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Former Mossad chief downplays Iranian threat
Yair Ettinger
The Iranian threat to Israel is substantive but not existential, according to former Mossad Chief Ephraim Halevy. During a lecture in Jerusalem yesterday, Halevy said “the State of Israel cannot be destroyed.” He also called on the government to follow Washington’s lead and offer Iran a diplomatic option, in parallel with stepping up efforts to foil Tehran’s nuclear plan. Halevy’s lecture presented a less-disturbing picture from the one offered by President George W. Bush….

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The World Crisis Intensifies
karlmarxwasright
…Nobody bothers still to recognize that ALL of Iraq’s present Fascist government is related to Iran in one way or another, de facto “soft” partition, “federalism,” and occupation, whatever sanitized doublespeak or descriptive euphemisms one cares to employ. The charade continues unabated by everyone. This fact, this reality, is going to come back to bite EVERYONE involved hard, where it hurts….

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Harvest of Army military operations from 1/9 to 30/9/2007
Islamic Army in Iraq
After putting trust in Allah and by his support the American enemy got the following losses in the period from 1/9 to 31/9/2007: 1. The American army losses in vehicles as follows: • Burning, destroying, spoilage and causing damages to (61 vehicles with killing and wounding their crews, distributed as following: (2 armored tanks, 37 Hummers, 2 Lorry, 7 minesweeper, 1 four by fours, 12 truck) • Downing exploration plane by heavy and middle armed weapons in the hour 0630 on 30/9/2007 in al-Ishakya area north Baghdad (outside)…

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AMSI Warns the Kurdish Politicians
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
….the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) has condemned in the press statement number 484 the ugly manner regarding signing of joint agreements between the Kurdish governors and foreign companies. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) evaluated this action as a kind of giving support to the occupiers. AMSI has stated in the declaration that still the controllers of the Iraqi nation’s wealth with support of the occupation are not perceived how they are living in real corruption. They are ready to handle the occupation plans and gain illegal profits starting from partition of Iraq Project ending with petroleum scattering)…

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US to build “strategic partnership” with Lebanese army, says Pentagon official
The Associated Press
A senior Pentagon official said Thursday the U.S. military would like to see a “strategic partnership” with Lebanon’s army to strengthen the country’s forces so that Hezbollah would have no excuse to bear arms. The comments by Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, in an interview aired on Lebanese television two days after his visit, followed a published report in Beirut that Washington is proposing a treaty with Lebanon to make it a strategic partner to counter increased Russian influence in neighboring Syria. The report, published by the opposition-leaning newspaper As-Safir, was at the time vigorously denied by the government and ridiculed by the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon. “This is totally untrue, said Ahmed Fatfat, a leading member of the government team who holds the youth and sports portfolio, adding that Lebanon neither sought nor had the Americans asked for such a treaty.—

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President Vladimir Putin suggests US campaign against Iraq is ‘pointless’ and for oil wealth
Associated Press
President Vladimir Putin, in his latest jab at Washington, suggested Thursday that the U.S. military campaign in Iraq was a “pointless” battle against the Iraqi people, aimed in part at seizing the country’s oil reserves. Putin was responding to one of dozens of questions from the public in an annual televised Q&A session — his sixth since taking office in 2000. The event broadcast live on state-controlled TV channels and radio stations consisted largely of people from around the country quizzing Putin mainly on bread-and-butter issues, like pensions, public workers’ salaries and school funding….

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AIDING THE ENEMY
Malcom Lagauche
Justice finally prevailed. After seeing defendant-after-defendant in military trials be let off the hook for killing innocent Iraqis, a U.S. Army Reserve officer, Lt. Col. William Steele, is in the middle of a court-martial that could sentence him to life in prison. How many Iraqis did he kill? None. How many Iraqis did he torture? None. Steele’s offense is that he allowed a two Iraqi prisoners to use his cell phone for a few minutes. According to USA Today of October 18, 2007: U.S. soldiers who guarded the lockup that housed Saddam Hussein in his last months testified Wednesday their camp commander let former regime inmates — including those on death row — use his cellphone for unmonitored calls. The testimony, on the third day of the court-martial of 52-year-old Lt. Col. William Steele, an Army reservist from Prince George, Virginia, faces a life sentence if convicted on the charge of aiding the enemy by allowing the prisoners to use his phone (…) Few murderers in the U.S. military have been given sentences for their actions in Iraq. And, those who have been slapped on the wrist are low-end enlisted people. The officers have been given a free pass. But, let a Lt. Colonel who has sympathy for the human race allow his phone to be used for seven minutes, and he’s a traitor. Initially, Steele faced a death sentence if found guilty of aiding the enemy. Major General James Simmons, a former acting commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, was benevolent and he ruled against a possible death senten! ce. It i s unreal that a U.S. Army officer faces life in prison for a humanitarian act while those who ordered cold-blooded murder or violent torture can sit in the officer’s lounge on a U.S. base and drink cocktails while describing their war tales….

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Bad Pawns
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
So, America has finally woken up to the Armenian Genocide in a perfect timing that just haphazardly coincides with: a) matter of fact talks in D.C about the partition plan of Iraq. b) with incursions by Turkey into Northern Iraq to fight off another brand of potential Kurdish warlords the PKK backed by our own warlords Talabani and Barazani. This latter fled to Najaf, hiding behind the skirts of Ammar al Hakeem of the SIIC or maybe behind Muqtada al Sadr’s – Go figure. And Turkey,the other day, said through its military spokesman “ties with the U.S might be irreversibly damaged.” A combo of the bill on the Armenian Genocide and this headache of the PKK. Now you really don’t want to mess with the Turks…A humble piece of advice from me….And, last but not least c) a full backing by Ammar Al Hakeem, head of SIIC, member of the puppet government in Baghdad, in support of the partition plan…

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Awaiting justice
Amanda Noureddine, Al-Ahram Weekly
…It is telling that the states that led and participated in the illegal invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq publicly cited human rights as one of their pretexts while their actions amount to genocide, not only in the figure of one million Iraqis dead, but in the creation of the largest refugee crisis the region has seen since the establishment of Israel. Just as the Nakba was essential to the attempted destruction of Palestine, the Iraqi refugee explosion is an integral part of the attempted destruction of the Iraqi nation. Ironically, the pressures this crisis produces increase as US plans for Iraq are resisted. And with inexorable defeat looming, the issue of Iraqi refugees and their needs may well be compounded by demands for individual and collective war reparations…

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Iraqi POW bodies ‘eye-gauged, mutilated’
NEWS.com.au
THE British military is facing allegations that the bodies of Iraqi prisoners showed evidence of eye-gauging, genital mutilation and hanging. Hospital workers allegedly reported the signs of torture and murder on the bodies Iraqi insurgents left dead after a gun battle with British troops and Iraqi insurgents three year ago, according to reports from UK newspaper The Guardian. It was also reported int The Guardian that a prisoner taken by troops had made a statement which claimed he was “continuously punched and kicked” and saw blood coming from nearby toilets….

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Nobel Hypocrisy
Stephen Lendman

…Since it was established in 1901, the Peace Prize was awarded to 95 individuals and 20 organizations. Some recipients were worthy like Martin Luther King, Jane Addams and Albert Schweitzer but too many were not including this year’s honoree. Al Gore joins a long list of past “ignoble” recipients like warrior presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and supporter of rogue regimes Jimmy Carter. He’s also among the likes of genocidists Henry Kissinger and three former Israeli prime ministers – Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin – along with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who never met a US-led war he didn’t love and support. So much for promoting peace and what this award is supposed to signify. More on this below….

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Lebanese newspaper: If the government don’t tell the truth about the American base in Lebanon, we will publish the secret documents
Roads to Iraq
There is nothing exclusive about Debka’s report “Exclusive: The US plans new military presence in Lebanon including big air installation close by Syrian border” we already know that long time ago (see: The plan is a US-NATO military bases in Tripoli-Lebanon.) The new thing didn’t came from Debka but from Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir, which Debka stole their report from. Why senior American officials and military commanders continuously visit Lebanon since the Israeli war since last July until today?, These visits reached it’s peak this week with the visit of the head the American Department of Defense for Public Policy Eric Edelman, heading a delegation from the Pentagon? !…

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The second Intifada: 4950 Palestinians killed including 945 children
Ameen Abu Wardah – IMEMC News
In its monthly newsletter entitled “People under Occupation”, the Department for National and International relations of the Palestine Liberation Organization, reported that during September, the Israeli army had killed 37 Palestinians, including seven children, while fourteen others were assassinated. It added that 105 residents were injured during military operations carried out in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps. A total of 550 civilians were abducted after their homes had been broken into and at military checkpoints. Fifteen houses were demolished and 350 dunums of agricultural land were bulldozed….

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Criminal probe into U.S. Embassy in Iraq construction
Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers
A mortar shell smashed into the hulking new U.S. Embassy that’s under construction in Baghdad last May, damaging a wall and causing minor injuries to people inside the building. It also exposed enormous problems in the management of what’s become a $592 million government construction project. The State Department contractor in charge of the project, James L. Golden, attempted to alter the scene of the blast, according to government officials familiar with the incident. The State Department inspector general prevented Department officials from investigating the incident, according to interviews and documents. A congressional committee is examining whether the walls of the still-unfinished embassy complex, which are supposed to be blast-resistant, performed as they should have during the mortar attack….

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Just talk
Khaled Amayreh
…Ali Jerbawi, a prominent Palestinian academic and professor of international relations at Birzeit University, called PA optimism about American and Israeli intentions “mendacious and misplaced”. “Those who think that the American-Israeli stances have changed are infinitely naïve,” he said. Jerbawi accused the PA leadership of trying to compensate for the imbalance with Israel, first with superficial formalities and high-profile meetings and encounters, and, second, with creating false hopes and high expectations of the present process. “The Palestinians are in their worst situation ever. There is a geographical-political division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, poverty is rife and economic collapse is everywhere, and Israeli efforts to obliterate Palestinian presence in Jerusalem continue unabated while Arab support for the Palestinian cause is at an all-time low.” Jerbawi asks: “when will we stop running after the mirage, thinking it is water?”…

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Meeting Resistance: New Doc Follows Iraqis Fighting U.S. Occupation of Their Country
Democracy Now!
….What would you do if your country was invaded? “Meeting Resistance” is a new documentary on the Iraq war from a perspective that few in the West ever see. It turns the spotlight on Iraqi men and women who choose to resist the military occupation of their country. The film takes us back to the first year of the US-led invasion of Iraq and the beginnings of the insurgency in Iraq. This is how a young cleric interviewed in the film explains the roots of the insurgency…

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Iraqi Kurds: no to Turkish military push
YAHYA BARZANJI, Associated Press Writer
Thousands of Kurds joined rallies across northern Iraq and marched to U.N. offices Thursday to protest a vote by Turkey’s lawmakers that backed possible cross-border attacks against Kurdish rebel camps. The Turkish vote Wednesday removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive to root out guerrillas seeking autonomy for the mostly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey. But there no sign of imminent military strikes, and the United States and the Iraqi government have urged restraint. “No to military action. Yes to dialogue,” demonstrators shouted as more than 5,000 people headed to U.N. offices in Dahuk near the Turkish border….

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Israel Confiscates 1,100 Dunam of Palestinian Land in the E1 Area of the Maale Adumim Settlement
Sergio Yahni and Bryan Atinsky, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
On September 24th 2007, Israeli General Gadi Sh’mani, commander of the central command, signed an order to confiscate a 1,100 dunnum of land in the E1 area of Maale Edumim settlement. The lands to be confiscated are from the Palestinian villages of Abu Dis, Arab a Sawakh’reh, Nebi Musa and Talkhan al Khamar. According to the military confiscation order, the lands are to be used in order to build a road to serve Palestinians….

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FLASHBACK: In Defense of ‘Chemical Ali’
Jude Wanniski
…”Chemical Ali” supposedly gave the order to the Iraqi Air Force to drop chemical bombs on Halabja, but W. Patrick Lang, who was the senior analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency in that period and who concurs with Pelletiere on the facts in evidence, tells me the armies exchanged gas by mortars and no aircraft were used – as was reported by the New Yorker. Incidentally, there is still no evidence that any Iraqi Kurds died of gas ordered by “Chemical Ali,” a nickname cooked up by the same propagandists at the Pentagon who made “Ali” the king of spades in its deck of cards…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 18 October 2007.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free
….In a dispatch posted at 4:26pm Baghdad time Thursday afternoon, the Aswat al-’Iraq news agency, which was set up by Reuters and the U.N. Development Agency, reported that foreign mercenaries had opened fire on Iraqi civilians – in the fourth such incident to be reported in a month, this time near Kirkuk, 250km north of Baghdad. Aswat al-’Iraq reported an official source in the Kirkuk puppet police, who asked to remain anonymous, as saying that foreign mercenary “security guards” opened fire on a civilian car near Qarah Hunjayr, 25km northeast of Kirkuk at midday Thursday. The source said that the mercenaries’ gunfire wounded one man and two women who were riding in the car at the time. All three were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment after the attack. The source did not disclose the name of the mercenary “security” company whose personnel had wounded the Iraqi civilians…..

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Private security guards shoot three Iraqi civilians
AFP
Guards from a British security firm fired on a taxi in Iraq on Thursday wounding three civilians, police said, in a shooting that will put new pressure on the government to rein in private contractors. A woman journalist was among the casualties when the guards opened fire after the taxi approached their convoy near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said. “I saw a convoy of three cars pass a taxi and one of the guards took his weapon and opened fire on the taxi,” said police officer Hussain Rashid. “I tried myself to stop the convoy but they didn’t pay attention to me. They stopped about 300 metres (yards) from the scene, then they moved,” he added….

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Illegal discrimination against Palestinians in Lebanon
IRIN News
The Lebanese government’s practices against Palestinian refugees continue to breach the country’s obligations under international human rights law and should be repealed immediately, according to a report released here on 17 October by Amnesty International (AI). “The continuing restrictions which deny Palestinian refugees access to their rights to work, education and adequate housing and health are wholly unjustified and should be lifted without further procrastination or delay,” the report by the London-based international human rights group said….

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Face-Off: Airbrushing Accountability in the Terror War
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
Here’s the Terror War ethos in action: when the security forces are caught red-handed in a flagrant act of, literally, overkill — in this case, the totally unprovoked, multiple shooting to death of an innocent man in a London subway — they will resort to any measure to avoid the consequences for their action. The BBC reports: Police have been accused of manipulating a photo of Jean Charles de Menezes so it could be compared to that of one of the 21/7 bomb plotters. The image had been “stretched and sized” to form a composite image of the Brazilian and Hussain Osman to show the jury, prosecutors told the Old Bailey. …

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Annapolis conference looking precarious, may be cancelled
Khalid Amayreh
The Middle East peace conference the Bush administration is planning to convene in Annapolis , Maryland , in November, may be postponed or even cancelled altogether due to Israel’s refusal to deal seriously with the core issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian sources said Thursday. The sources pointed out that Israel was refusing to undertake to withdraw to the borders of the 4th of June, 1967, especially in the Jerusalem region and was also adamantly refusing to allow the repatriation of significant numbers of Palestinian refugees, uprooted from their homes and towns, in 1948….

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Campuses Have Become Poisoned by an Atmosphere of Surveillance and Harassment
Academic Freedom is at Risk in America
SAREE MAKDISI
“Academic colleagues, get used to it,” warned the pro-Israel activist Martin Kramer in March 2004. “Yes, you are being watched. Those obscure articles in campus newspapers are now available on the Internet, and they will be harvested. Your syllabi, which you’ve also posted, will be scrutinized. Your Web sites will be visited late at night.” Kramer’s warning inaugurated an attack on intellectual freedom in the U.S. that has grown more aggressive in recent months. This attack, intended to shield Israel from criticism, not only threatens academic privileges on college campuses, it jeopardizes our capacity to evaluate our foreign policy. With a potentially catastrophic clash with Iran on the horizon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict spiraling out of control, Americans urgently need to be able to think clearly about our commitments and intentions in the Middle East. And yet we are being prevented from doing so by a longstanding campaign of intimidation that has terminated careers, stymied debate and shut down dialogue….

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Turkey defends right to attack Iraq
Associated Press
The Turkish justice minister insisted yesterday on Turkey’s right to stage a possible attack against Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in Iraq, rebuffing US calls for restraint. Parliament on Wednesday authorized the government to send troops into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels who are said to have been conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive, but there was no immediate plans to stage a cross-border attack….

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First steps
Arablinks
“When you are surrounded by nothing but failure, then any success you can achieve will have a magnified effect,” writes historian Bashir Nafie in an overview of Iraqi politics. His starting point is the recent announcement of a six-faction resistance alliance (the gist of which was to unite two MB-related factions with the four-faction Iraqi-Islamist Reform and Jihad grouping led by the Islamic Army in Iraq)….

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