Censorship and Press Freedom: at home and away
Mary Rizzo, Peacepalestine
…The Palestine – Iraq blogging world has been recently under severe attack. Our blogs are being targeted for destruction. In the past few weeks, many of us have seen a spam note from Blogger. Machetera wrote about the censorship in a series of articles (also here). This spam note has driven Desert Peace’s Steve away (and his contribution to this post follows), and I shortly followed suit, not without having undergone the violence against the principle of Voltaire brought upon me by Tony Greenstein…The censorship continues; Google not only owns and controls Blogger, it also owns YouTube. A video depicting the crimes against the people of Palestine and five minutes later it is removed from YouTube. Again I ask, what are they afraid of?….

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From Guantanamo to Iraq – the shame of America.
Layla Anwar, Arab Woman Blues II – Silent Reflections…
Two things have marked the downfall of America . Guantanamo and the occupation of Iraq. When I say downfall, I don’t just mean your dollars, I mean you moral downfall, collective downfall from any grace you might have had or attempted to salvage after a bloody history of murder, mayhem and oppression of other peoples. Your examples are too many to mention. It has never ceased to amaze me, that you — the United Sates of America, only 200 years old, was able to create so much suffering to other nations, nations way older and more noble than you. Or maybe I should use the word destroy instead. You created so much suffering and you destroyed so much…

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Two tanks destroyed, The Americans bombed the hospital
Roads to Iraq
…One thing reported by al-Hayat today which I didn’t saw in the western media is that Maliki’s government offered Muqtada al-Sadr a high-rank official position in the government in the exchange with the disband of Mahdi Army …. Nothing new in Harith al-Dhari interview,on al-Sharq al-Awsat, repeating the AMSI statement two days agosaying: “for two years, Maliki’s government used the Sadrists for their own agenda and [doing their dirty work], now they are fighting for interests”….

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Palestinian worker imprisoned and beaten by Israeli police tells his story
Ma’an News
Fifty-year-old Palestinian construction worker Mahmoud Bani Nemra says he was beaten by Israeli police after being arrested on route to his job in Israel last December. Just released after four and a half months in Israeli prisons, Bani Nemra told his story to Ma’an. He said he was attempting to cross a checkpoint in Israel’s separation wall, on his way from his home in the West Bank town of Salfit to his job in Tel Aviv, when four Israeli police officers stopped him. He said he was arrested and taken to a police station in the town of Ramat Gan where he was severely beaten…

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Iraq hospital ‘damaged by US raid’
Aljazeera.net
At least 28 people have been wounded after a hospital in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, a stronghold of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, was damaged in what witnesses described as a US air strike. A medic at the al-Sadr hospital said women and children were among the wounded in the raid, which an Iraqi security official said took place at around 10am local time (0700 GMT) on Saturday. The US military confirmed the attack but said it targeted “known criminal elements”. Witnesses said the target of the air raid, in which US forces fired several missiles, was a small house adjacent to the al-Sadr hospital and used as a rest area by Shia pilgrims. The impact of the attack damaged more than a dozen ambulances belonging to the hospital, one of the three main medical facilities in the district, and shattered the windows of the building.
Elsewhere, US soldiers killed 14 suspected Shia fighters and an American soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in the latest clashes in Baghdad, the US military said on Saturday…

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A strangled people
The bold claims about Middle East peace from London ring hollow in the empty streets of Gaza
Sami Abdel-Shafi, Guardian
It is a strange feeling: after working as a productive professional in Gaza for five years, I have become a black market junkie. I make several phone calls a day hunting for fuel for my car, diesel for the electricity generator waiting on standby to power the house, even cigarettes and vitamins. The only way to get hold of these things, to buy life-saving medicines, to purchase the essentials for a life of basic dignity, is through the black market, if at all. Today all Gaza suffers severe water shortages, with the fuel needed to pump and transport water (as well as sewage) dangerously scarce. The few cars seen on Gaza’s mostly empty streets today almost invariably run on used cooking oil due to the lack of diesel….

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The Mother of all Battles.
Layla Anwar, Arab Woman Blues II – Silent Reflections…
As I was typing the previous post, I remembered this sentence “the Mother of all Battles.” This sentence was first coined by President Saddam Hussein when describing the 1991, Gulf War 1. So my memories drifted to Gulf War 1 and what preceded it… I remembered the meeting that took place in Geneva between Tariq Aziz and Baker, a few weeks before “Desert Storm.” After that meeting, there was a press conference and Tariq Aziz was asked the following question: “If the Americans decide to wage a war, will you retaliate?” Tariq Aziz “If the Americans decide to wage a war, we will hit Israel.” The journalist: “Israel?” Tariq Aziz: “Yes, absolutely. Next Question.” I remember those lines so vividly. As if it was yesterday. And Tariq Aziz and the Iraqi government stood by its promise. Israel was hit. Hit by scud missiles. They were named Al-Hussein and Al-Abbass (names of Muslim Imams before these names becoming sole property of today’s sectarian Shiites). These scuds were manufactured in Iraq by the Iraqis…

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IOF kidnaps 363 Palestinians including mentally retarded persons in April
Palestinian Information Center
The Israeli occupation forces rounded up 363 Palestinians in the past month of April using “savage means” such as sabotaging gates and humiliating detainees, the Palestinian center in defense of prisoners said. It issued a statistics report charging that the IOF troops were deliberately spreading panic and terror in their operations, describing the practice as “inhuman” and “barbaric”. The IOF troops used hounds to terrorize civilians, it said, noting that the soldiers beat up detainees and their families during the kidnap in violation of international laws and treaties….

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ISRAEL’S BIG BIRTHDAY BASH GETTING A BASHING
Desertpeace
Methinks Israel is in for a big surprise on it’s 60th birthday….. no one is in ‘celebration mode’… or mood. The war, the economic situation, the recent scandals among high government officials could be part of the reason. The ongoing crisis between Israel and Palestine is probably the main factor, people on both sides of the wall are sick and tired of the needless killing. In years gone by blue and white flags were visible everywhere…. on private cars, on windows and terraces….everywhere. I always thought of it as an ‘in your face’ demonstration against the people of Palestine that did NOT have a national day (or nation) to fly their flag. This year, a special one on the Israeli calendar, hardly a flag is flying. Yesterday, while strolling through my neighbourhood, I counted three cars that had flags attached to their windows. Everyone that purchased an Israeli newspaper yesterday received a large Israeli flag as a gift, compliments of one of the major banks here….. but those flags are NOT being displayed…

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IOF kidnaps 363 Palestinians including mentally retarded persons in April
Palestinian Information Center
The Israeli occupation forces rounded up 363 Palestinians in the past month of April using “savage means” such as sabotaging gates and humiliating detainees, the Palestinian center in defense of prisoners said. It issued a statistics report charging that the IOF troops were deliberately spreading panic and terror in their operations, describing the practice as “inhuman” and “barbaric”. The IOF troops used hounds to terrorize civilians, it said, noting that the soldiers beat up detainees and their families during the kidnap in violation of international laws and treaties….

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‘Perhaps 60% of today’s oil price is pure speculation’
F. William Engdahl, Global Research
The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It’s controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today’s crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How?…

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AMSI Warns the Muslim World of Insidious Plans of Israel! (foto)
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
This horrific scandal has been revealed by AMSI after some reliable information given by an Iraqi doctor working in one Iraqi Center for Medical Assistance in the Green Zone comprising Iraqis and Americans. According to the information Israel is transferring some Iraqi children patients for treatment to one of the hospital in Tel Aviv. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) pointed out the irony of this scandal that brought the victim to be dealt with according to the claim under the supervision of the executioner. AMSI said that: “ We appeal all Muslims and Arab brothers to hold this file of these children whether hospitals are unable to have premium class of advanced reception in the concourse, at least it is sufficient to accept these patients to any hospitals not to transfer occupation state.”…

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Pentagon Expands Propaganda Reach With Foreign “News” Websites
Military run electronic media outlets form global network of “Information Operations” to take on “adversaries on the internet”
Steve Watson & Paul Watson, Infowars.net
The Pentagon is expanding “Information Operations” on the Internet with purposefully set up foreign news websites that are designed to look like independent media sources but in reality are nothing more than direct military propaganda. USA Today reports: “The Pentagon is setting up a global network of foreign-language news websites, including an Arabic site for Iraqis, and hiring local journalists to write current events stories and other content that promote U.S. interests and counter insurgent messages.” …

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IRAQ: Refugees Look to Europe
Zack Baddorf
“I’ll go to any country,” says Zirgon Tomas al-Aya, a 60-year-old Iraqi standing outside the UN Refugee Agency headquarters in Damascus. “I like Syria but I can’t work here, I want to go somewhere else,” said the asylum seeker, one of about 1.5 million Iraqis who have fled to Syria since 2003. He said he will not go back to Iraq. And he’s not alone. A United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees poll released Tuesday found that only four percent of Iraqi refugees in Syria plan to return home…

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Video: Inside Iraq – Iraq’s sectarian policies – 02 May 08 – Part 2
AlJazeeraEnglish
Will Iraqi PM Nuri Al-Maliki’s government heed the call to end sectarian policies?

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The Bomb Squads: How to Survive a Gaza Refugee Camp
Ramzy Baroud
We waited breathless. Breathing heavily was hazardous under these somewhat exceptional circumstances. The army, my father often advised, was sensitive to the slightest movements or sounds, including a whisper, a cough, or God forbid, a sneeze. Thus we sat completely still. Muneer, my younger brother was entrusted with the mission of peering through the rusty holes in the front door. It bothered me that I was not the one elected for the seemingly perilous mission. My father explained that Muneer was smaller and quicker, he could negotiate his way back and forth, seamlessly, between the observation ground and the room where everyone was hiding….

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Gaza Strip Report 961:Israelis killed and abused residents of Al-Faraheen
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
On Thursday afternoon Israeli armored vehicles and bulldozers trespassed and stormed into Palestinian territories on Gaza Strip, in the area of Al Faraheen, eastern parts of Khan Younis. The Israeli perpetrators were shooting with heavy machine-guns towards the residents, seizing people, demolishing homes, and destroying agricultural lands. Before withdrawing on Thursday night from the Al- Faraheen area,after 22 hours incursion in which the Israelis killed, and abused the residents, the Israelis also abducted over 30 Palestinians, the abducted were all taken to an undisclosed location,sources in Khan Younis report to PalestineFreeVoice…

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Agreement reached on incentives for Iran on nuclear program
ANNE GEARAN (AP)
World powers agreed Friday to try again to lure Iran to the nuclear bargaining table with a repackaged set of carrots to accompany the stick of U.N. sanctions. Diplomats said the offer contained no major new enticements, but was meant to remind the clerical regime that talking is still an option. The central terms of a 2006 compromise stand: Iran could trade away worrisome elements of its nuclear program for economic and political incentives and the possibility of a better relationship with archrival Washington. Iran turned down that invitation, saying it came with insulting strings attached, and Western diplomats were hard-pressed to say why the response would be any different today….

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Silence !
Layla Anwar, Arab Woman Blues II – Silent Reflections…
I refuse to be silenced. I also refuse to move my blog to another website. So am here to stay. This blog will not replace Arab Woman Blues – the original. I consider the “original one” as the Mother of all my blogs. This is just a temporary set up, until the censorship storm clears… Of course, you may argue – why not stick to the ones you already have ?…

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May 2 : 30 Iraqis Killed, 36 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 30 Iraqis were killed and 36 more wounded in the latest violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) locations deep within northern Iraq. In Sadr City, seven people were killed and nine were wounded during clashes. U.S. forces killed two gunmen. Hospital authorities reported 12 wounded. Also, hundreds of demonstrators protested Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s policies and urged him to end a stalemate with Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 2 May 2008
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice.
In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 4:39pm Friday afternoon Beijing time (12:39pm in Baghdad), the Xinhua News Agency reported that US forces together with their Iraqi army allies sealed off the city of al-Mahawil, 65km south of Baghdad, and launched a campaign of raids and searches there…

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