Poverty in the New Iraq.
Layla Anwar
January 3, 2010 – It’s always like that. I start off wanting to write about something quite important, but something of greater importance takes place and I have learned to get my priorities right in Life and my priority was and remains Iraq. Occupied, raped, destroyed Iraq remains a priority even more so, precisely because it is NOT getting coverage in either mainstream or “alternative” media. But this is another subject matter that I will have to delve into in greater depth in some future post, because this SILENCE around the Iraqi cause is criminal in itself…A study published by the University of Babel, came out with staggering figures regarding the levels of Poverty in Iraq. As you may know, there are roughly two types of poverty indexes – absolute and relative. The agreed upon definitions for these 2 types by economists are 1) absolute poverty is when someone lives on less than 2$ per day. 2) the relative poverty index on the other hand is calculated per indicators of wealth distribution and inequities in wealth distribution coupled with other indicators such as inflation, employment levels, etc… Having said that, this latest academic publication from the University of Babel, states that 10 Million Iraqis live in ABSOLUTE poverty since 2003…

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Shooting Handcuffed Children
By David Swanson
January 3, 2010 – The occupied government of Afghanistan and the United Nations have both concluded that U.S.-led troops recently dragged eight sleeping children out of their beds, handcuffed some of them, and shot them all dead. While this apparently constitutes an everyday act of kindness, far less intriguing than the vicious singeing of his pubic hairs by Captain Underpants, it is at least a variation on the ordinary American technique of murdering men, women, and children by the dozens with unmanned drones…

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Gaza robbed of the most basic human right: the right to health
Stuart Littlewood
January 3, 2010 – Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, marked the start of the New Year in a way that many campaigners for justice and liberty will find lamentable. The charity MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) had written an open letter to Brown asking him to “urgently use all available diplomatic means to bring an immediate and unconditional end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip”. It reminded Brown that a year after the assault on Gaza, in which almost 1,400 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,300 injured, civilians continued to pay a devastating price […] Furthermore “the blockade is directly compromising one of the people of Gaza’s most basic human rights; the right to health. Israeli authorities continue to routinely, and without explanation, block or delay the entry of medical supplies and equipment, leaving hospitals less able to cope. As hospitals falter, patients seeking care outside the Gaza Strip are routinely denied exit for life-saving medical treatment…”

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#3
Malcom Lagauche
January 3, 2010 – On January 1, 2010, I and a few dozen friends commemorated the life of President Saddam Hussein, who was murdered three years ago by the U.S., Iraqi stooges, and Iranian-backed death squads. This was our third commemoration …I asked a few people who live in other parts of the U.S. or in foreign countries, to send me messages about their thoughts of Saddam. Some had even worked with him over the years. Most are people who never met Saddam, but realize his achievements, despite the lies and propaganda thrust on him over the years. Below are the statements sent to me…

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Afghan Taliban say no links with Pakistani Taliban
The News International
January 03, 2010 -: Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan has announced that it has no links with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), adding that it is fighting only against United States. “Al-Qaeda and us have nothing in common except Jihad against the US troops,” a private TV channel reported Qari Zia-ur-Rahman, commander of Afghan Taliban in Kunar province of Afghanistan as saying. He said a large number of doctors and engineers have joined them, who will struggle to eliminate misunderstandings about Taliban’s armed struggle…

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2009: Civilians Pay Dearly For US Drones
By Aamir Latif
January 3, 2010 – As Pakistanis welcomed the new year with a US missile strike that killed three people, civilians have paid the heaviest price for the 44 attacks launched by US drones in the south Asian Muslim country in 2009. “Only five top Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Baitullah Mehsud, were killed in these 44 attacks, whereas 708 civilians, including children, and women lost their lives in these drone attacks,” a senior interior ministry official told IslamOnline.net. The US is repeatedly launching drone attacks in Pakistan’s northern tribal area on claims of fighting terror. Washington stepped up the attacks since Barack Obama was elected president, reaching 44 strikes last year. Estimates show that at least 58 civilians were killed per month in the US drone strikes last year…

In calculation, some 140 civilians were killed against one militants in the drone attacks.

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Obama Sends Brennan to Sell Yemen Attack on Sunday News Shows
Kurt Nimmo
January 3, 2009 – It is a glaring example that there is precious little difference between so-called liberals and conservatives on the subject of the government’s response to manufactured terrorism — the “progressive” Chris Matthews claims to be worried about terrorists boarding planes who know Kung Fu. Matthews spewed this blather on MSNBC the other day. He was serious. Matthews, of course, is merely parroting the government line that we have to “go after the terrorists.” It’s his job to keep the phony GWOT front and center. There is virtually no difference between MSNBC and Fox News on this. Both read from the same Pentagon script.

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Lieberman: No facility more humane than Gitmo
By David Edwards
January 3, 2010 – Sen. Joe Lieberman believes that Guantanamo Bay’s bad reputation isn’t deserved. “You could not find a better, more humane facility for a detention center in the world,” Lieberman told ABC’s Terry Moran Sunday. Lieberman thinks it’s a mistake to close the detention center…

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Unreported in US Media: Minnesota Resident held in Israeli Jail
By Amanda Mueller
January 3, 2010 – Minnesota resident Ryan Olander is facing deportation after being held in Israeli prisons for over two weeks. He spent his Christmas and New Year at a deportation facility in Ramle, where his request for release has been rejected by the prison judge. His lawyer submitted an appeal to the District Court in Tel Aviv on 27 December 2009 challenging the request of the Israeli Ministry of Interior for Mr. Olander’s deportation. The lawyer is anticipating the decision of the judge within the next 48 hours. Ryan Olander was arrested from a tent the Palestinian al-Kurd family built in their own backyard following a recent setter take-over of a section of their house…

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US and UK shut Yemen embassies
Aljazeera.net
January 3, 2010 – The United States and Britain have closed their embassies in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, citing security concerns after threats from an al-Qaeda group. The US embassy posted a message on its website on Sunday saying it was closed “in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen”…

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Video: Iraq PM slammed for ‘Iran loyalty’
Aljazeera.English
January 3, 2010 – Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi president, has come in for criticism from opposition groups over what they describe as his “weak response” to Iran’s seizure of an oil well that Baghdad considers its own. Iranian soldiers seized the well in December and critics of al-Maliki say his “weak response” illustrated the prime minister’s loyalty to his fellow Shia majority across the border in Iran…

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US lies about Flight 253 “crotch bomber” patsy: summary of the evidence; Yemen attack implication
Carl Herman
January 3, 2010 – The US government who lied for wars in other resource-rich countries are lying about what happened on Delta Flight 253 with an alleged underwear/crotch bomber. Below is a summary of facts reported at this time, along with a 4-minute news interview from Webster Tarpley, followed by an extensive interview of Mr. Tarpley by Alex Jones…

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Settler tunnel causes another road collapse in Silwan, East Jerusalem
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
January 3, 2010 – At around 4pm, on Saturday 2 January 2010 part of a main road in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan collapsed. The section of road runs above tunneling work carried out by the Elad settler organisation. Despite the road collapsing in the mid-afternoon, it was not until 8pm that Israeli police arrived at the scene, after an Israeli bus serving the settler population drove into the hole in the road. Silwan is a Palestinian village on the hills south of the Old City of Jerusalem, captured in 1967 by the Israeli army. It is one of several neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem where the Israeli state and settler organisations are forcing Palestinians from their homes. Almost 90 houses in the area are currently threatened with demolition, potentially displacing 1,000 – 1,500 residents and no construction permits have been issued for Palestinians in the area since 1967. Excavation works represent another threat to Palestinian residents; literally undermining their homes…

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Iran: The active participation of workers is necessary for final victory
Maziar Razi
January 3, 2010 – Honourable workers of Iran, Today we have entered a new stage of mass activities against the threats and intimidation of the capitalist government. You have experienced the threats and suppression of the past three decades more than any other social layer. There is no social force in Iran today that has experienced the economic, psychological and moral attacks meted out by the despotic capitalist government as such as you have. You have been the only social force in Iran that, despite paying a high price (like unemployment and unpaid wages, arrests, torture and the murder of your brothers and sisters), has persistently continued its struggles against the capitalist government (both during the reformist and fundamentalist periods) for three decades…

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Video: Witness – A girl called Jewel
Aljazeera.English
January 3, 2010 – Just days into Israel’s war on Gaza, in early January, the extended Al Samouni family, some 48 men, women and children, was attacked in the homes they occupied together in the south of Gaza – and almost all of them were killed. Thirteen-year-old Almaza – ‘jewel’ – is one of the very few who survived the attack in which 30 members of her family died, many before her own eyes. A Girl Called Jewel is Almaza’s story, a heart-breaking eye-witness account of the war in Gaza…

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Israel rejects bill allocating equal land to Jews and Arabs
By Jonathan Liss
January 3, 2010 – The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday rejected a bill proposed by MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra’am-Ta’al) proposing that the state enforce equal allocation of land to Jews and Arabs. “Yet again, the Israeli government has proven that it is avoiding the principle of civil equality,” Tibi said in response to the ruling. “The same government which approved the selection bill of [Jewish] MKs David Rotem and Israel Hasson, ignores Arabs’ rights, and hasn’t approved the building of a new Arab village since 1948. The government failed at the challenge I placed before it, and that saddens me.”..

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Suspected U.S. drone strike kills 2 in Pakistan
By Rasool Dawar ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 3, 2010 — Intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. drone missile strike has killed at least two people in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region. The officials said Sunday’s strike targeted the house of a well-known tribesman near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. At least two bodies have been recovered from the destroyed compound…

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Netanyahu vows to react ‘aggressively’ to Gaza fire
Ma’an News
January 3, 2010 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to strike “aggressively” at Gaza in reaction to any fire from the territory. “Our policy is clear to all and I think it also became clear over the weekend – to respond aggressively to any firing at our territory and at our communities,” he said at the opening of his weekly Cabinet meeting…

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Tragedy Lives on in Hospital One Year After Israeli Assault
By Alex Kane
January 3, 2010 – Occupied Palestinian Territory, Gaza City, Gaza Strip—Dr. Wael Weshah walks the halls of the Shifa Hospital, explaining what working in a medical facility during the Israeli assault on Gaza last winter was like. While Dr. Weshah is a remarkably jovial man, the hospital was a dark and tragic place during the war. It’s been a year since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians and injured over 5,300, the overwhelming majority of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. “Of these, 1,600 were children, and 860 were women. In total, 600 persons suffered permanent disability as a result of injuries sustained during the Israeli assault, and 221 people required amputation,” a report by the center titled “23 Days of War, 928 Days of Closure” states…

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Israeli inability to conceive of Palestinians as fully human
Yaniv Reich
January 3, 2010 – Do Israelis give Palestinians the same human impulses they give themselves? In the Israeli mind, can Palestinians formulate the same obvious questions that would emerge from an Israeli facing the same situation? Is there any possible level of Palestinian suffering that would cause Israelis to empathize substantially with them? In an Jerusalem Post op-ed, Larry Derfner explores this line of thought by posing the following “taboo” question: The question we have to ask ourselves is this: If anybody treated us like we’re treating the people in Gaza, what would we do? This question is not about the legitimation of violence. Indeed, the point that must be made is precisely the opposite: By disallowing Palestinians the basic thoughts that we hold so dearly and naturally, we make possible our immeasurable violence against them…

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Jewish American organizations aid Somali human rights abusers in effort to protect Israel
by amyro89
January 3, 2010 – The mere mention of Somalia often brings up visions of great violence for many, especially Americans still reeling from the Black Hawk Down incident. And given the current state of affairs in southern Somalia (where most of the fighting occurs), this image will like remain for some time. For some Somalis who fled, it was not from the chaos of the civil war, but from Siad Barre’s regime that had committed serious human rights abuses. In particular, Barre, in order to put down the uprising from the resistant group Somali Nation Movement (SNM), had resorted to targeting civilians from areas where they were considered popular…

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