An International Crime Called Gaza
By Dr. Elias Akleh
A fully pre-meditated international crime of genocide has been taking place during the last 62 years in the heart of the Arab World. The victims are the Palestinian people especially those in the Gaza Strip. The assassin is the worst ever terrorist group deceptively called the Israeli Defense Forces under the leadership of the theocratically most racist “god’s chosen” deceitfully self-proclaimed “democratic Jewish-only”…

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Inside the Military-Industrial-Media Complex: Impacts on Movement for Social Justice
By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff
December 28, 2009 – Among the most important corporate media censored news stories of the past decade, one must be that over one million people have died because of the United States military invasion and occupation of Iraq. This, of course, does not include the number of deaths from the first Gulf War nor the ensuing sanctions placed upon the country of Iraq that, combined, caused close to an additional one million Iraqi deaths. In the Iraq War, which began in March of 2003, over a million people have died violently primarily from US bombings and neighborhood patrols. These were deaths in excess of the normal civilian death rate under the prior government. Among US military leaders and policy elites, the issue of counting the dead was dismissed before the Iraqi invasion even began. In an interview with reporters in late March of 2002 US General Tommy Franks stated, “You know we don’t do body counts…

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Gaza massacre reflections
Eva Barlett, In Gaza
December 28, 2009 – The anniversary of the first day of Israel’s massacre of Gaza last winter passed yesterday. Palestinians still locked in Gaza couldn’t avoid thinking about that hell, recalling to others where they were when the first strikes hit…what they did, what they thought, what they saw and smelled and heard. At 11 am yesterday I’m in a meeting, but all of us are aware of the significance of the hour, particularly as the minutes pass towards 11:25, when the slaughter began. Later, I visit a family in the north, their mother killed, shot at close range by an Israeli soldier as she carried a white cloth, trying to lead the family out of their home. Not an isolated story. How are they? Grim, alive without joy, no expectations except that things will get worse. Mahmoud is a young engineer but is jobless. They are not refugess and so don’t receive UN hand-outs. A charitable association gives them flour, oil, sugar and tea every 40 days. Meat, fish? Impossible…

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Xe, Formerly Blackwater, Poses Biggest Threat to Pakistan’s Nukes
Dr Shahid Qureshi
December 28, 2009 – Lawyers from the local bar associations protested outside the ‘secret base’ of US mercenaries (Xe/Blackwater) inside the ‘Sehala’ Police Training College, a few miles from the Kahuta Nuclear Plant. Why did Pakistani media ignore the story? As the propaganda that Pakistani nukes are likely to fall into the hands of the Taliban continues in the American press, one wonders what might be the U.S. intent. Seen in the light that American mercenaries have become overt operationally, it appears that the intent is to use them to ‘lift’ the Pak Nukes using the threat from the Taliban as an excuse…

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Reaching the Gates of Hell is not so easy
Stuart Littlewood
December 28, 2009 – The Viva Palestina convoy is being given the run-around by Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and his ’Awkward Squad’. My heart goes out to the 500 or so dedicated people from 17 different countries who brought their convoy of 200 vehicles almost to the gates of Gaza, only to be stranded at Aqaba just 4 hours short of their destination. And not only the 500 driving with the Viva Palestina convoy but the thousands of supporters, fund-raisers and donors back home who have worked for months to provide the medical supplies, the food, the transport and the countless other humanitarian items…

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Palestinians remember the massacre
Eva Barlett, In Gaza
December 28, 2009 – Palestinians gathered in Gaza City, with flowers and candles, and remembered the over 1400 martyrs, and over 5000 wounded in the Israeli massacre of Gaza. Israel as usual claimed it was defending itself against “terrorists”, but ended up showing the entire world that the only terrorist around is the Zionist entity itself. During this latest Israeli genocide in Gaza 1419 Palestinians were killed by the IOF, including: 326 children, 111 women, 367 students, at least 15 teachers, 16 medical personnel, 21 farmers, 2 fishermen and 92 labourers. Over 5300 Palestinians were injured by the IOF attacks, including 600 who suffered permanent disability and 221 required amputations…

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U.S. Intelligence Found Iran Nuke Document Was Forged
By Gareth Porter*
December 28, 2009 – U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a “neutron initiator” for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official…

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Israeli military constructs new roadblock in West Bank village, crippling farmers’ economy
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
December 28, 2009 – The Israeli army erected a giant earth mound across a crucial agricultural road in the northern West Bank village of Madama this week. The road block severely limits hundreds of farmers’ access to their lands, making transport by vehicle all but impossible. The intentional crippling of the village’s chief economy comes as settler violence continues unabated in the region. Four Israeli military jeeps and one Caterpillar bulldozer entered the village on Wednesday night to construct the road block…

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Iraq to separate boys and girls in schools
Alsumaria
Monday, December 28, 2009 – Strict traditions and social conventions are back in the spotlight in Iraq with the decision of Iraq’s Education Ministry to separate boys and girls in Sadr City schools. The Ministry’s surprising decision spurred mounting debates. Decision advocators confirm that social and religious status in Sadr City does not permit to mix boys and girls in schools. Protestors say they have yield to the decision though it contradicts their personal convictions, the director general of Al Sadr Directorate Education, Hussein Al Abudi, said…

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Video: Fears remain after Gaza war
Aljazeera.English
December 28, 2009 – One year after the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros revisits a family she met during the assault. Rima Abid, the mother, says that even though the bombings have stopped, reminders of the war are still present in the family’s daily life. Her children are afraid to sleep alone, fearing there might be another attack…

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Viva Palestina: A Report from Aqaba
By Rifat Audeh
December 28, 2009 – Just as the world was shocked and outraged one year ago with Israel barbarically dropping bombs on civilians in the Gaza Strip including banned white phosphorous, it is just as appalled now with a new crime being perpetrated against the Gazans once again. A convoy called Viva Palestina had started traveling from London, England on December 6th, carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinians of Gaza. It arrived in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba on December 24th, and has been stuck there ever since. This is because the Egyptian regime has refused to allow the convoy to enter Egyptian territory through the designated route via Al-Nouwaibe’ port…

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EGYPT: Are there hidden motives behind blocking of Gaza aid convoy?
Amro Hassan
December 28, 2009 – The stranding of the Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy in the Jordanian port of Aqaba since Thursday has prompted speculation over why the group is being prevented entry into the besieged Gaza Strip through Egyptian territories via the Nuweiba port. Led by British lawmaker George Galloway, the convoy, whose volunteers have topped 500 carrying medical supplies, food and hundreds of trucks and ambulances, departed London on Dec. 6, aiming to reach Gaza on the first anniversary of Israel’s bombing of the city on Dec. 26, 2008…

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