31/12/07
 
M. Collins: Forget the Torture Tapes
Michael Collins
There’s a reflexive tendency to think the worst of the Bush-Cheney administration when scandals like the torture tapes emerge. This tendency is well justified. This administration’s defining moment was the Iraq invasion. Over time, it caused death to 1.2 million civilians and the injuries of 1.1 million noncombatants. Just last week we found out that there are now five million orphans in Iraq. How can the administration and their enablers ever top that? Why shouldn’t we expect the worst immediately when we hear yet another accusation of criminal or unethical conduct? Destroying torture tapes pales by comparison to these tragedies, all a result of the illegal invasion…

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Pastor Manuel and PCAS Chairman call for Pope Benedict XVI to end siege
Muslims and Christians of Gaza Strip make an appeal to the Pope
Popular Committee Against Siege
We address His Holiness in honour of your vital religious roles, effective actions and echoing sermons. We address and urge His Holiness on behalf of Palestinians, especially the besieged Gazans who live under a devilish siege imposed by Israelis, to intervene without delay. Israeli occupation has imposed comprehensive siege in which all crossing points and terminals are closed, preventing people from moving in and outside the Gaza Strip. Serious ramifications have resulted from this illegal siege and flagrant violations of human rights laws have been committed. People are not allowed to obtain medicine or travel abroad for treatment!…

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Video: Iraqi Women Liberated
The Fanonite
Rejoice colonial feminists. You have liberated Iraqi women both from their country, and their dignity. I have already witnessed the women of Afghanistan face the same fate as a result of never ending war. Now courtesy of the feminists who cheered on Bush’s armies, we have Iraqis subjected to the same indignities. I hope I am not the only one revolted by the sight of the Gulf Arabs who enabled this war through material assistance now swoop in like vultures on their morally emaciated prey…

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131 Palestinians who did not participate in the hostilities killed by Israel’s security forces in 2007
B’Tselem
B’Tselem today releases its year-end report. According to B’Tselem data, the number of Israelis and Palestinians killed in clashes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip dropped. However, there has been deterioration in many other measures of the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories . The primary one is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which has declined to an all time low, following Israel ‘s siege on the area…

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William Kristol, the New York Times and Nazi Gunter d’Alquen
Walter C. Uhler
…The final straw for me, however, was the December 30, 2007 decision by the Times to hire William Kristol (editor of the Weekly Standard) as a columnist. Although the Times calls Kristol a conservative, he is, in fact, a notorious neoconservative – a member of a political cult that many traditional conservatives disavow. Readers who noticed this Orwellian elision by the Times might also recall that in January 1998, Kristol (and Robert Kagan) wrote an Op Ed titled, “Bombing Iraq isn’t Enough,” which the Times was reckless enough to publish. Reckless? Yes, because, as Robert Parry has observed: “Under principles of international law applied from Nuremberg to Rwanda, propagandists who contribute to war crimes or encourage crimes against humanity can be put in the dock alongside the actual killers.” [Consortium News, Posted August 21, 2006] Simply recall that, under international law, the unprovoked invasion of another sovereign state is considered the most egregious of war crimes….

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Democracy In Action: Slain Leader’s Crown Passes To Her Son
Winter Patriot
The PPP, Pakistan’s largest opposition party, has democratically chosen to honor Benazir Bhutto’s lifelong commitment to democracy by democratically treating the leadership of the party as an heirloom and handing it to her 19-year-old son, Bilawal Zardari, a handsome young man who lacks any political experience, but whose political future has been well-planned for a long time. Bilawal will democratically assume the responsibilities of his position once he has finished his degree at Oxford. His education will include private tutelage in the labyrinths of Pakistani politics. Lucky Bilawal. While he’s beeing groomed, the party leadership will remain in the Bhutto family, democratically resting in the hands of his father, Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto’s widowed husband….

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Democracy: an existential threat?
A single state in historic Palestine, based on equality, is the most promising alternative to the already dead two-state dogma
Ali Abunimah and Omar Barghouti, Guardian
As two of the authors of a recent document advocating a one-state solution to the Arab-Israeli colonial conflict, we intended to generate debate. Predictably, Zionists decried the proclamation as yet another proof of the unwavering devotion of Palestinian – and some radical Israeli – intellectuals to the “destruction of Israel”. Some pro-Palestinian activists accused us of forsaking immediate and critical Palestinian rights in the quest of a “utopian” dream…

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The phantom terrorists of the War on Terror
Daan de Wit
The stories we know about the most famous terrorists and the best known terrorist plots do not match up with the facts. DeepJournal created a seven part series detailing this issue, starting off with the case of the Liquid Bombers. The limitations for liquids on airports are the result of the near attack by these so-called Liquid Bombers. Their plot was foiled just in time in August of 2006. Or was it? There are still some disturbing questions to be asked regarding the terrorists and their plan. Questions that can no longer be posed to the leader of the Liquid Bombers, Rashid Rauf, now that he has escaped under suspicious circumstances….

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The Dialectic of Unity and Liberation in the Arab World
Ibrahim Alloush, FreeArabVoice
Since the 1950s and 1960s arguments have raged in the Arab world over which should come first: unification or liberation? Must we unite the Arab Nation first in order to be able to achieve liberation? Or is liberation possible without unity, since the task of liberation is something so urgent that it cannot await Arab unity? Must we build our forces by and through a unified Arab state in the first place in order to be able to achieve the liberation of Palestine and other occupied Arab lands? Or are the two tasks simply separate from one another, efforts that can proceed side by side, with one not necessarily depending on the other?…

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Haditha ‘leader’ escapes murder charge
Times Online
The US Marine accused of leading the killing of as many as 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the worst alleged atrocity by American forces during the war in Iraq will not face murder charges, it emerged today. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 27, will instead face lesser counts of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice, the US Marines confirmed…

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Death of Palestinian patient brings toll to 56 because of Israeli siege on Gaza
Palestinian Information Center
Victims of the suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip rose to 56 Palestinians after the death of an elderly patient Sunday evening in light of warnings that the death toll would double if the Israeli blockade was not lifted. Palestinian medical sources announced that Mustafa Sulaih, 55, from the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, died of liver failure after the Israeli occupation authority prevented him from traveling to receive appropriate medical treatment abroad due to its siege and closure of the crossings….

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Israeli army admits killing woman entering Gaza after hajj
AFP
The Israeli army on Monday admitted killing a 30-year-old Palestinian woman crossing into the Gaza Strip on Sunday after completing the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. An initial army inquiry said that troops had fired “warning shots into the air in order to distance a crowd” of some 700 Palestinians crossing into the Hamas-controlled territory through the Erez crossing with Egypt. The group “began to advance en masse towards an IDF (army) post located nearby,” the army said in a statement…

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IOA sentences Palestinian child to 18 months behind bars
Palestinian Information Center
The Israeli Salem military court has sentenced the 13-year-old Palestinian child Ahmed Amarne to one and a half year behind bars for throwing stones at IOF soldiers, a charge which he denied. Father of the child from Zabuba village west of Jenin said that the court judge did not heed the child’s denial and sentenced him to jail or to pay a fine of around 700 dollars…

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Six reported killed in Gaza infighting Monday
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
Late on Monday evening, clashes reportedly broke out between the rival Fateh and Hamas parties in the Gaza Strip. Some sources have reported as many as six dead in the evening gunbattles, with up to 30 wounded. Apparently the clashes broke out after Hamas banned a 34th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Fateh party. Hamas security forces reportedly raided a university in the morning, arresting Fateh supporters, and the Fateh leadership decided to cancel the planned gathering….

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 31 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 8:26pm Baghdad time Monday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the building housing the puppet “Iraqi Interior Ministry” on Monday evening. Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the reason for the blaze was unknown but that the fire spread extensively throughout the building. Rescue units raced to try to extinguish the fire. As of the time of reporting no information on the extent of loss was available….

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US occupation forces met Islamic Army today
Roads to Iraq
It was true, Al-Maliki was unconscious for 30 minutes, according Kurdish sources the breakdown came after an argument about some unsolved issues with the Kurds and threatened him of withdraw from the parliament. This was confirmed even by Maliki’s office accusing the Kurds [Barazani and Zeibari] of “cooking something” behind his back. Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish official said today that 2008 is the year of the fall of Maliki’s government….

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Second Palestinian pilgrim dies as Egypt blocks pilgrims
Palestinian Information Center
Another elderly Palestinian female pilgrim has died Monday after Egyptian authorities refused to allow thousands of Palestinian pilgrims cross into the Gaza Strip. The victim was identified as Khadra Mahmoud Sa’ad, 67, Palestinian medical sources confirmed, adding that another seven sick pilgrims were rushed to Areesh hospital after their health condition deteriorated. The first victim was pilgrim Shafeeka Al-Buhaisi who died on a ferry carrying pilgrims from Aqaba in Jordan to cross to the Egyptian port of Nweibe’ on their way back home in the Gaza Strip…

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Not one step forward
Salah Hemeid,
Declaring him “man of the year”, many US media sources are already hailing General David Petraeus, the US Iraq “surge strategist”, a hero for making victory in Iraq look possible again. But nearly five years into the US occupation of Iraq, the country is still wracked by killing, sectarian militias, a stagnated economy and deadlocked national reconciliation. As difficulties and setbacks continue, Iraq today is far from being the tranquil democracy the United States promised on launching its March 2003 invasion…

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GI Special 5L25: Organizers In Uniform [ December 31, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
ORGANIZERS IN UNIFORM: GI RESISTANCE AGAINST WAR:
“They Are Told Their Job Is To Defend Our American Way Of Life, To Make The World Safe For Freedom And Democracy. When They Realize The Real Reasons Are Different, They Feel Betrayed And Used”
“The Overall Affect Of The Tactics Used By The GI Resistance Movement Was The Near Collapse Of The Military And The Eventual Pull-Out Of Ground Troops From Vietnam”

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GI Special 5L24: The Redcoats Are Coming [ December 30, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
60% Of Iraqis Want Redcoats Dead: Big Surprise
61% of Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces in their country, up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. 9/27/2006 By BARRY SCHWEID, AP & Program on International Policy Attitudes
Iraqis feel about U.S. troops trampling them in the dirt the same way Americans felt about British troops trampling them in the dirt in 1776. They are right to resist by any means necessary.

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