30/12/07

Waiting for “Mr.Goodbar.”
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…But hey, we have also become sexually liberated. We have done what you cannot do for yourselves, despite years of bra-burning, chakra mantra-singing and group sex therapy under Guru supervision. We are also looking for Mr. Goodbar. But we found him. A question of survival. UNCHR the very “respected” agency that deals with refugees (and I find myself spelling it out for you since you are so behind and ignorant in everything) calls it “Survival Sex.” I am sure this term turns you on – after all you have been trying it for years since your sexual liberation and it has not borne any fruits. Well maybe, just maybe, you think to yourself, it will bear fruit in Iraq. Well, it did. Pat yourselves on the back. “Democracy” and “survival sex.” What better combo can one wish for ? Survival sex is rampant not only inside Iraq but also outside. It happens in alley ways, around shrines, in dirty beds and in bars…Bars in Syria and Jordan. They are all waiting for Mr.Goodbar. But contrary to your Hollywood star, they are not there to heal from some relationship gone emotionally sour. Oh no. They are there to make a bit of money to feed their hungry sisters and brothers waiting for them in some damp, dirty, cockroach ridden, room – where they are all amassed, one on top of the other, hungry and waiting… Hungry and exiled because of YOU and YOUR fucking democracy. And this is exactly what it boils down to — a fucking democracy. Some of them are as old your teenagers…

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Outcomes and Statistics of Siege imposed on Gaza Strip
Popular Committee Against Siege
52 Patients killed by Israeli Occupation due to Closure!
96% of factories are closed
67 thousand factories employee become out of work
25 thousand of textile workers became jobless
100% of textile factories are closed
$58 million are the losses of wooden industries
570 thousand of wooden industries workshop are closed
20-30 food lorries inter Gaza Strip instead of 300 in the past
85% of citizens are under poverty line
470 cancer patients are likely to die….

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“Death zones” in Gaza
The Heathlander
Brigadier General (res.) Zvika Fogel, former chief of staff of the IDF Southern Command headquarters in the run-up to the second intifada describes how the ‘purest army in the world’ crushed Palestinian resistance in Gaza: ‘”One of the means Southern Command adopted in order to avert attacks on Israelis was to declare death zones in the Gaza Strip – areas in which IDF soldiers were authorized to open fire at anyone who entered them. “Their use of women, children, infants and innocent farmers increased,” Fogel explains. “We understood that in order to reduce the margin of error, we had to create areas in which anyone who entered was considered a terrorist.” And was marked for death? “Absolutely.”..

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Key Pentagon strategist plots global war on terror
Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post
In the Pentagon’s newly expanded Special Operations office, Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers is working to implement the U.S. military’s highest-priority plan: a global campaign against terrorism that reaches far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. The plan details the targeting of al-Qaida-affiliated networks around the world and explores how the United States should retaliate in case of another major terrorist attack. The most critical aspect of the plan, Vickers said in a recent interview, involves U.S. Special Operations forces working through foreign partners to uproot and fight terrorist groups….

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Bardawil: One day Fayyad, Maleki will stand trial before people and history
Palestinian Information Center
Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman of the Hamas-affiliated change and reform parliamentary bloc, has said that one day Salam Fayyad, premier of the illegal government in Ramallah, and his information minister Riyadh Al-Maleki would be tried before the people and history for betraying resistance. He told PIC on Saturday evening that Fayyad’s statements in which he denounced the Palestinian resistance’s raid in Al-Khalil do not reflect the opinion of the Palestinian people, who are suffering daily at the hands of Zionist occupiers….

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Israeli siege kills Palestinian woman and girl suffering chronic diseases
Palestinian Information Center
As a result of the Israeli unjust siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian woman, the mother of Hamas spokesman, died on Saturday of a brain stroke in addition to a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was suffering from brain atrophy. Palestinian medical sources reported that Nadia Abu Zuhri, 51, the mother of Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman, died Saturday evening in Gaza and after a few hours a girl child called Razan Atallah, 6, joined her because their medical treatment is not available in Gaza hospitals and they were not allowed by the IOA to travel abroad….

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GI Special 5L23: GI Resistance – 29 Dec 2007
Thomas F. Barton
… “As Activists Committed To Ending This War, We Need To Reach Out To The Troops Who Are Fighting It And Show Them That We Support GI Resistance” “Our Sole Function Should Be Reaching Out To Them, Helping Them To Resist, Helping Them To Come Home” “Soldiers In Iraq And Afghanistan Need To Know That At Home In The United States There Is A Dedicated Activist Community That Will Support Them In Resisting This Illegal War At Any Cost”…

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Hot news from Baghdad.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
I doubt you have read or seen the following in your mainstream media, but here goes… Yesterday, the American occupation forces sealed and fortified with more men and guns the “sooooneeeeee” neighborhood of Adhamiya. Do let me know when you people will learn to pronounce correctly. The story goes — Huge gatherings and demonstrations took place in the Adhamyia ghetto to commemorate. Yes, huge crowds of Iraqis gathered, braving your smelly brave boys and their deadly arsenal to remember the leader and president of Iraq – Saddam Hussein – who turned this country into a jewel in less than 30 years and that you destroyed in less than 5. In the Sayydiyah neighborhood, your smelly brave boys arrested not less than 120 people, for commemorating too. A lot of children and women were part of those arrested….

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Video: Johara Baker speaks to Hesham Tillawi about the Palestinian prisoners
Window Into Palestine
Joharah speaks about the plight of the Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails. Men, Women, and Children tortured in Israeli jails.

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Iraqi refugees turn to sex trade in Syria
Alistair Lyon, Reuters
A score of young Iraqi women in tight, shimmering gowns shuffle across the nightclub dance floor under the hungry eyes of Gulf Arabs at nearby tables. The band blasts out Iraqi songs into the early hours as the watching youths join the dancing or summon girls to sit with them — there is little pretence about what gets transacted at this neon-lit nightspot half an hour’s drive north of Damascus. The dancers, some in their early teens, do not want to talk, but one said she had no other way to support her family. “My father was killed in Baghdad and our money is finished,” muttered the dark-haired girl in a black and silver dress. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR calls it “survival sex”, a desperate way to cope for Iraqi refugees whose savings have run out since they escaped the violence at home…

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Thousands prevented from visiting Saddam tomb on anniversary of execution
Deborah Haynes of The Times and Ali Hamdani in Baghdad
A handful of Saddam Hussein supporters wept at his graveside in a village north of Baghdad today on the first anniversary of the toppled dictator’s execution, while thousands more were prevented from visiting the tomb because of heightened security. In a show of defiant support for the former president, leaflets protesting about his death were scattered around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad and across the Sunni belt to the north of the capital, home to Saddam loyalists, where Iraqi security forces had been put on high alert. In the village of Awja, where Saddam was born and is buried, scores of sombre-looking Sunni tribal leaders and clerics paid their respects at his tomb, which was covered in Iraqi flags and flowers and surrounded by pictures of the mustachioed leader smiling…

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A senior Israeli army official says Israel might stay in Gaza one year and a half
Rami Almeghari – IMEMC
Israeli army senior official, Ghabi Ashkenazi, stated Sunday that the Israeli army- once it invades Gaza- will stay over there for one year and a half. Ashkenazi, who serves as the Israeli army’s chief of staff, was speaking during a closed security meeting on a potential large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip. “It will be clear whether we or the Palestinians will eventually be defeated in case we massively invade Gaza”, Ashkenazi told the meeting…

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Bhutto, Saddam, Hariri: The travails of international criminal “justice”
Helena Cobban, Just World News
…And while we’re on the subject of internationally launched criminal investigations and other criminal proceedings, let’s: (a) remember that today is the first anniversary of the ghastly travesty of the execution of Saddam Hussein, conducted by a kangaroo court that was convened under the eager and highly politicized auspices of the US military occupation; (b) look at how incredibly divisive, inconclusive, and partisan the SC’s Hariri investigation has turned out to be; and (c) review the record of all the other criminal proceedings the international “community” has launched over the past 14 years…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 30 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 9pm Makkah time Sunday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that rumors were rife that the health of US-installed Iraqi “Prime Minister” Nuri al-Maliki had completely collapsed after his third stroke in 72 hours, necessitating his evacuation to London for intensive care. Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the third stroke impelled doctors in the top-security headquarters of the US occupation regime, known as the “Green Zone,” to consult with al-Maliki’s first wife and is son, Ahmad regarding his immediate evacuation to London – inasmuch as al-Maliki himself was unable to discuss his own treatment.An Iraqi political source in London said that al-Maliki’s condition worsened during the trip to London which took five hours, despite the fact that a medical team accompanied the US-installed “Prime Minister” on the direct flight to Heathrow. Al-Maliki was reportedly evacuated to London rather than to the American hospital where he usually received treatment due to the urgency of his condition and the fact that Britain was a shorter flight from Baghdad than was the USA….

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Bhutto and Bin Laden in the rumour mill
Omar Chatriwala
…But while the big media companies are focusing their attentions around the who and the how of Benazir’s death – whether it was an assassin’s bullet that did her in, or a blow to the head – YouTube and the blogosphere have begun clambering around an entirely different rumor, namely that of the former prime minister fingering “the man who murdered bin Laden”. Within an hour of her confirmed death on Thursday, my editor at the Al Jazeera English website had asked me to compile interviews the channel had carried out with her. Bhutto spoke to Sir David Frost on his program in November, and at the time of her demise, before we’d gotten a fresh clip online, that interview was one of the most-prominently placed on YouTube when searching for her name. An anomaly in the interview, as various articles were quick to point out (almost two months later), is when about six minutes into the interview, Bhutto casually mentions [Ahmed] Omar [Saeed] Sheikh as the man who murdered bin Laden. She was speaking about people who could be out to kill her after she survived an attack at her homecoming rally in October. I admit, when I first heard her say it in early November, I did a double-take as well. I remember asking someone else in the newsroom if she just said “the man who killed bin Laden”, and as if by coincidence, a transcript of the interview was sitting next to my desk. While she did say what I (and now lots of others) thought she said, and which at first got me wondering what memo I had missed, w! hat seem ed evident, both from reading the transcript and re-watching the clip, was that she simply misspoke, meaning to say “the man who killed [WSJ reporter] Daniel Pearl” – which Omar Sheikh is accused of – in such a matter of fact tone, because it is well known…

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Defining Israeli Zionist Racism: Part 2
Kim Petersen and B.J. Sabri
Nafeez Ahmed is a political analyst and human rights activist based in London; he is also director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development and a Researcher at the Islamic Human Rights Commission inn the same city. In his article: “Is Zionism racist?,” Ahmed offers not only a solid analysis of Zionist racism, but also details the connubial bond between this racism and western imperialist aims and strategies in the Middle East and the Arab world…

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Israeli troops kill woman at Gaza crossing, witnesses say (Extra)
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
A 55-year-old woman was killed and five others were wounded when Israeli troops opened fire late Sunday night at a crowd that had gathered near the Gaza Strip’s northern Erez Crossing, Palestinian witnesses said. The people had gathered to welcome home hundreds of Muslim pilgrims who crossed through Erez after returning from the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia…

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IOF troops execute Qassam member in cold blood
Palestinian Information Center
IOF troops at dawn Sunday executed Adel Qishta, 24, a resident of Rafah district, south of the Gaza Strip, in cold blood shortly after arresting him near Karam Abu Salem crossing. Eyewitnesses said that an IOF armored unit advanced east of Rafah city and stormed Nahda suburb before arresting Qishta then executed him. Meanwhile, a group of Palestinians at dawn Sunday survived an IOF shelling that targeted them east of Shujaia suburb in Gaza city….

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Iran-U.S. talks on Iraq should produce “clear result”: FM
Tehran Times, Iran
Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said here on Sunday that the new round of talks between Iranian and U.S. officials over the security situation in Iraq must produce a clear result. “Unlike the previous negotiations, the (new round of) talks should have a clear agenda and should yield a clear result,” Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the Eid al-Ghadir holiday, which commemorates the last sermon of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his household)…

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Video: War Crimes: Out of the Lion’s Mouth
Former captain in the Israeli Air Force speaks about the crimes of IOF in Gaza…

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PCHR Calls for Stopping attacks against Offices of Fatah Movement and Affiliated Institutions in Gaza
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
PCHR strongly condemns attacks against offices of Fatah movement and affiliated institutions in Gaza City, and the attacks against the campus of al-Azhar University, in which dozens of persons were arrested. PCHR calls upon the dismissed Palestinian government in Gaza to stop such attacks and to respect the right to association and other rights and public freedoms….

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2007 Deadliest for US Troops in Iraq
BRADLEY BROOKS, AP
The second half of 2007 saw violence drop dramatically in Iraq, but the progress came at a high price: The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed. American commanders and diplomats, however, say the battlefield gains against insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq offer only a partial picture of where the country stands as the war moves toward its five-year mark in March….

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Palestinian dies in Israeli detention
Report, PCHR
Palestinian prisoner Fadi Abd al-Latif Abu al-Rob (21) from the town of Qabatia near Jenin died in the Israeli prison of Jalbou’ on the evening of 28 December 2007. The prisoner was a member of Islamic Jihad detained on 29 June 2007. According to information gathered by PCHR, Fadi suffered an illness on the morning of the day he died. He was transferred to the prison clinic. However, his condition deteriorated and the Israeli Prisons Authority announced his death in the evening without specifying the cause. Fadi is the fifth Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli jails during 2007. Four died as a result of medical negligence and the fifth was shot in the head by an anti-riot unit that broke into sections G1 and G2 of the Ketziot (Ansar III) detention center in the Negev. It is noted that Palestinian prisoners are suffering very harsh and cruel conditions as a result of the deterioration in prison conditions and in the healthcare provided…

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The Destabilization of Pakistan
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Globalresearch
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has created conditions which contribute to the ongoing destabilization and fragmentation of Pakistan as a Nation. The process of US sponsored “regime change”, which normally consists in the re-formation of a fresh proxy government under new leaders has been broken. Discredited in the eyes of Pakistani public opinion, General Pervez Musharaf cannot remain in the seat of political power. But at the same time, the fake elections supported by the “international community” scheduled for January 2008, even if they were to be carried out, would not be accepted as legitimate, thereby creating a political impasse.

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Pakistan: Dangerous And Violent Nonsense In Wake Of Bhutto Assassination
Winter Patriot
The dangerous nonsense coming out of Pakistan has reached seemingly impossible new levels of absurdity in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Rawalpindi on Thursday. [Seemingly impossible? Maybe. But the bar has been raised yet again, and this piece has been updated (twice) with even more absurdity than the absurd original.] The government’s story of how she died changed twice in the first 36 hours after her death, and now they don’t want to talk about it anymore. Their story of who did it has only changed once, and that’s all they want to talk about. In short, the Bhutto’s party — Pakistan People’s Party — blames the government, and the government blames the terrorists. Which terrorists? Who cares! But if they could be connected to al Qaeda, so much the better…

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‘LET MY PEOPLE GO’ ~~ ISRAELI OCCUPATION IN EGYPT
Desert Peace
There’s no other way to put it…. Egypt is literally under the control of its zionist neighbours. Over a thousand observant Muslims are being punished for going on a pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca. The joint excuses of both the Israeli and Egyptian governments show the disregard for the very lives of the Palestinian people, a people who for 60 years have literally been at the mercy of both Israel and the Arab world. The rhetoric we hear is nothing but nonsense…. leading many to believe that the only reason many of these pilgrims made the trip is so they can ‘sneak’ into Israel on their return trip. NONSENSE!….

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Rudd Australia Report Card #1
GideonPolya
The election of the Rudd Labor Government has been welcomed by decent, anti-racist, pro-Peace, pro-Planet Australians but as this Day #2 Rudd Australia Report Card #1 shows there are many serious issues to be addressed in a resolute fashion, in this instance Australia’s CONTINUING and past involvement in Occupied Iraq and CONTINUING Australian Holocaust Commission, Holocaust Denial, Genocide Commission, and Genocide Denial. There is urgent need for investigation and prosecution of Iraq-related Australian crimes. Of crucial importance is the near-comprehensive, entrenched failure of Mainstream media, politicians, academics and other public servants to tell the truth – lying by omission that represent a major threat to the security, health, wealth and reputation of Australia…

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Shame of Imported Labor in Kurdish North of Iraq
MICHAEL KAMBER, NYTimes
The tiny Filipino woman’s hands trembled. She was in hiding, fearing capture at any moment. She and a friend had come to Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish north as guest workers six months earlier. Now they worried they would be forcibly returned to Erbil, where they had been locked in a house for a month and made to work for free, they said, after their passports, cellphones and plane tickets were taken away. The two had escaped by begging their captor to let them attend church, then making contact with other Filipino workers, who spirited them away….

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