9/12/07

The “Ubermench” and the “Untermench”
Comment by Khalid Amayreh
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in its annual report, released this week, that “racism was so rife in Israel that it was damaging civil liberties and human rights.” “Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy,” said author Sami Michael, president of the association. According to the Hebrew press, the report’s key point includes a 26-percent rise in the number of racist incidents against Arabs and twice as many Jews reporting a feeling of hate toward Arabs (…) Of course, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, anti-goyism and other forms of xenophobia have always been rife in Israel . However, these morbid phenomena have of late assumed nearly Nazi proportions as the Israeli Jewish society continues to drift menacingly toward jingoism and fascism…

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Gaza appeals to You!
Ramy Abdu, Popular Committee Against siege
About 60 years passed since our Palestinian catastrophe (Nakhba). Palestinian people have passed and tasted several sufferings and calamites, thus the Gaza strip which includes about 1.5 million peoples 75% from refuges, got a big share from these sufferings. By the start of the 2 nd Intifada in 2000, Israeli occupation violated all the taboos international conventions and tortured Palestinians severely. In the mean time, the harsh siege imposed on Gaza Strip continues for the seven months but with more cruelty. The siege hinder the freedom movement for people and goods into and out the Gaza Strip. Therefore, humanitarian situation severely deteriorated and the fragile Gaza economy die out. That economy was weak due to occupation procedures. Accordingly, the Gaza Strip turned to a big “Ghetto” All Gaza houses carry stories of pain and suffering!…

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Iraq’s hardline Baathists prefer to stay in the shadows
AFP
…”The law in parliament is worse for us,” said a professor who would only give his name as Dawood, fearing reprisals from Shiite militias. “It is against the Baathists. It is a punishment to Baathists,” Dawood told AFP in an interview at his house deep inside Baghdad’s Sunni stronghold of Adhamiyah, now marked by broken drainage pipes, piles of stinking rubbish and gun-toting Sunni militias. He lost his job in a leading educational institution on May 15, 2003 — two weeks after US President George W. Bush declared an end to the Iraq conflict and Paul Bremer took over as US administrator in Iraq….

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Stealing From Children: Azzoun Children’s Park Further Threatened by Impending Demolition
International Solidarity Movement
Only a few months from now the entire children’s park on the outskirts of Azzoun will be in ruins, demolished by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). The reason given is the lack of building permit from the Israeli authorities, even though the park is located on Palestinian land. It was in early 2006, when the IOF first razed the children’s park, demolishing it within an hour. The park, just off the road between Azzoun and Jayous, attracted many children both from Azzoun but also from the many surrounding villages, being the only of its kind in the region. The cost of US $200,000 was financed mainly by USAID through the YMCA, with some money coming from the village of Azzoun. The justification given by the IOF for the demolition was that the park lacked a building permit for that specific ground, an area which falls within Area C, thus under Israeli civil and military control. Building permits for Area C are notoriously unattainable, applicants are denied by the Israeli-run Civil Administration, even when building on private land….

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More victims of the siege: a toddler, an old man
Palestinian Information Center
The Israeli suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip for six consecutive months has led to the death of a 13-month-old Palestinian toddler and an old man on Sunday bringing to 33 the number of those victims. Medical sources announced the death of the baby girl Rawan Diab, a resident of Gaza city, after the IOA barred her travel abroad for treatment of severe kidney inflammation. One of her relatives said that she obtained a permit for treatment in Israeli hospitals but could not get out of the Strip because of the siege and closure of crossings. He said that Rawan’s health rapidly deteriorated in the past three months and her kidneys no longer functioned….

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Fights started in Diyala
Roads to Iraq
Radio SAWA audio interviewed Baath party official Al-Murshidi – (Al-Douri wing), and asked about the relation between Baath party and Al-Qaeda, he answered: After their political, security and military failure in Iraq, political and military security, they are now spreading propaganda to the world about a relationship between the Baath Party and Al Qaeda. Facts on the ground are different and otherwise, Baath Party’s project is a national, pan-Arab and resists for the liberation of Iraq, Al-Qaeda’s agenda is quite different, therefore there cannot be any relationship and this was even confirmed by the US reports…

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Iraq calls for Gulf security pact including Iran
Ali Khalil
Iraq’s National Security Advisor on Sunday called on Gulf states to form a regional security pact, which would include Iran, while he reassured the area’s US allies that Baghdad is “heading West” in its foreign policies. But Mouaffak al-Rubaie also criticised Saudi Arabia and Iran for what he called settling scores on Iraqi soil and called for regional reconciliation that put sectarian differences aside. “It is extremely important to have a regional reconciliation rather than having this heightened sectarian tension in the region,” he told delegates at a security conference held in the Bahraini capital Manama….

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THE MYSTIQUE IS GONE
Malcom Lagauche
…Until 2003, Baghdad was a city laden with mystery to the outsider. The mention of its name conjured special smells, sights and experiences. It had been like this for thousands of years. Wars and natural disasters over the millennia punctured Baghdad, but they did not destroy the city’s standing in the world nor its aura. Today, the primary smells in Baghdad are those of bombs and gunpowder. The U.S. demolished much of the physical portion of the city, but their appointed Iraqi quislings forever destroyed the special place Baghdad held in the hearts and minds of people of all nationalities. Currently, Baghdad is a dysfunctional city that represents the worst traits of humanity. The mystique is gone…

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Cave Dwellers: More Democratic Deceit on War and Torture
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
The Washington Post reports that Congressional Democrats are preparing to sign off on a spending bill that will, once again, pour tens of billions of dollars into the ongoing war crime in Iraq. The exact figure is not yet known, because Bush’s willing executioners among both parties have rigged up a complicated and deliberately deceitful process to shield the true nature of their craven kowtowing to the bloodstained, filth-encrusted White House autocrat. Here’s how the scam will work. First, House Democrats will offer up an initial lowball figure — “only” $30 billion or so — and claim, falsely, that the funds are intended for the war in Afghanistan and other Pentagon projects, even though “all sides in the deal recognize [that the money] could be shifted to fund the Iraq war,” as the Post reports. Then, the Democrat’s so-called leader in the Senate, Harry “Shaky Knees” Reid, will “allow Republicans to increase that amount to avert a filibuster of the spending bill in the Senate.” At that point, with the bill now swollen to, say, $70 billion or so for the Iraq war crime (and this is short-term, stop-gap spending, mind you), it will go back to the House, whose “leaders” will then accept the “compromise” reached in the Senate, and send the bill to the murderous, sadistic wretch in the Oval Office…

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So it goes
Arablinks
…The writers’ strike continues in Hollywood, but this hasn’t affected Washington or Baghdad. Remember Baath resistance leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (or al-Duri)? He was killed in fall 2004, then he was arrested in fall 2005, and in December 2006 he ordered his followers to lay down their arms following the execution of Saddam. That was according to the NYT, AP, and the rest. In real life none of that happened. He wasn’t killed, or arrested, nor did he order anyone to lay down their arms. Obviously the arrest/killing story was getting a little stale, but al-Douri is still in play as far as the writers are concerned, precisely because he hasn’t ordered his followers to lay down their arms. How to go about this? To make a long story short (NYT version here), what happened last week was that they discovered, not the man himself, but a cache of documents which amazingly enough showed that he is linked to AlQaeda! No actual documents have been, or will be, produced, but it is enough of a leg-up for Juan Cole and the others to resume their descriptions of the takfiiri depredations as part of “the Sunni Arab guerilla movement”…

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Iraq calls for Gulf security pact including Iran
AFP
Iraq’s National Security Advisor on Sunday called on Gulf states to form a regional security pact, which would include Iran, while he reassured the area’s US allies that Baghdad is “heading West” in its foreign policies. Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi meanwhile agreed that Iran should be included in any regional security arrangement. “It is our destiny to live with Iran… It is inevitable … that we should work on regional arrangements that lead Iran to be a source of good to the region and not a source of harm,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference, which Iran decided at the last minute not to attend….

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Iraq’s premier warns of use of human rights to undermine his government
The Associated Press
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned Sunday against what he called attempts to use the issue of human rights as a cover to undermine his government. Al-Maliki did not single out who he believed was exploiting the issue of human rights for political gain, but he was apparently referring to his Sunni Arab critics who accuse his 18-month-old administration of human rights abuses and sectarian bias…

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Iraq’s Sunni vice president gives the nod to Iraqi-US cooperation deal
The Associated Press
Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president said Sunday he was in favor of a strategic cooperation agreement with the United States, saying the proposed pact would give Iraq a “strong and honest” partner it needs. Tariq al-Hashemi’s support for the agreement, scheduled to be negotiated and adopted by July next year, signals a significant policy shift by the established political leadership of the Sunni Arab community on the presence and influence of the United States in Iraq…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 9 December 2007
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
…In a dispatch posted at 7:25pm Baghdad time Sunday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that armed Resistance fighters destroyed 10 puppet police vehicles that were backing up Shi’i sectarian Jaysh al-Mahdi militiamen in battle south of Ba’qubah (which is 65km northeast of Baghdad) on Sunday. Yaqen reported that the Shi’i sectarian Jaysh al-Mahdi militia attacked the Buhriz area, 5km south of Ba’qubah but ran into armed resistance from anti-US fighters. The US-backed puppet police entered the battle in support of the Jaysh al-Mahdi sectarian gunmen, but the Resistance then succeeded in setting 0 of the puppet police vehicles ablaze….

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Ignored by the state, a father of four disabled Iraqis turns to God
AFP
Three children are paralysed and one has severe heart problems — life has not been kind to Basim Mahjar and his family huddled in a windowless room at a Baghdad school. Nor, it seems, have the Iraqi authorities. Mahjar, 45, earns a pittance as a guard at central Baghdad’s Al-Dahana school. He is the sole breadwinner in a family of six. “I have surrendered myself to God’s mercy,” said Mahjar whose wage is a meagre 150 dollars a month — not enough to pay for surgery for his children….

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Iran protests over ‘US nuclear spying’: FM
AFP
Iran has issued a formal protest over the use of espionage by the United States to produce a key intelligence report on its controversial nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday. Mottaki said that Tehran had issued a protest to the Swiss embassy — which looks after US interests in the absence of an American mission — over a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) published on Monday. “The day the report came out the foreign ministry sent a protest note to the Swiss embassy and demanded an explanation over the espionage that has taken place,” Mottaki was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency…

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Press Release: The Genocide of Gaza Continues
The One Democratic State Group-Gaza
The latest round of Israeli war crimes in Gaza has resulted in the brutal killings of more than 31 Palestinians in less than a week. The latest casualty was the farmer Mahdi Abu Daqqa from Kahn Younus, who was killed brutally while farming his land. This brings the death toll since the convening of the Annapolis conference to more than 62 Palestinian martyrs. 30 of them were terminally ill people waiting for the Israeli authorities to allow them to leave Gaza in order to get treatment in the West Bank, or Jordan and Egypt. We condemn in the strongest possible terms these heinous crimes and call upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it for its 40 years of military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza…

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British PM eyes Basra transfer in Iraq visit: spokesman
AFP
Britain will hand over Basra province to Iraqi control within two weeks, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said during a surprise trip to southern Iraq Sunday, his Downing Street office said. Addressing troops in the southern Iraqi city, Brown said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was recommending “a move to provincial Iraqi control within two weeks”, a spokesman in London said. “I have just talked to Prime Minister Maliki, and he has asked me to pass on his thanks to you for what you have done to help rebuild the democracy of Iraq,” Brown said, according to the spokesman…

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Sunni areas short-changed for resources in Iraq
Government dominated by Shiites is slow to show trust, deliver services
AAMER MADHANI, Chicago Tribune
….U.S. forces working in the Taji area also have found that getting government bureaucrats in Baghdad to provide electricity for irrigation, staff for health clinics and even teachers for the schools is a struggle against inertia.
Both tribal leaders and U.S. commanders expressed frustration that the various government ministries resist deploying resources outside the “walls of Baghdad.””Before, the Iraqi government said that we didn’t have the security, so the services could not be provided,” said Sheikh Hussein Mohammed Abu Risha al-Tamimi. “Now we have security, but the government still does not provide what is ours.”…

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Secretly briefed, Pelosi did not object to waterboarding in 2002
John Byrne, Raw Story
…Two senior Republicans and Democrats in Congress — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — were briefing on the CIA’s program to use waterboarding on terror suspects in September 2002 and did not object, according to Sunday’s Washington Post. In the long-ranging article, which seemingly takes the lawmakers and the Bush Administration to task by discussing the practice’s emergence in Nazi Germany and other totalitarian states, a Pelosi aide said the Speaker remembered discussion of “enhanced” interrogation techniques and “acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time.”…

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U.S. Congress approves $155 million weapons package for Israel
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to approve $155 million worth of weapons for Israel, in an addendum to a $460 billion military spending bill that was approved on October 1st in the U.S. Congress. The gift of more weapons to the U.S. ally comes at a moment when tensions are high and diplomacy is delicate between Israel and the Palestinians, and analysts point out that the gift of additional weapons to Israel at this particular moment could have an effect on the Summit planned for the end of November between Israel and the Palestinian Authority…

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