US drone missiles slaughtered 700 Pakistani civilians in 2009
Bill Van Auken
January 5, 2010 – US drone missile attacks have claimed the lives of over 700 Pakistani civilians since Barack Obama took office a year ago, according to figures released this week by officials in Islamabad. The escalation of Washington’s AfPak war, now in full swing, will mean the slaughter of thousands more men, women and children in 2010. The grim death toll was announced in the Pakistani English-language daily Dawn Monday, just as news of the latest strike by a Hellfire missile made its way from an impoverished village near the Afghanistan border…

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The Many Faces of Al-Qaeda.
Layla Anwar
January 5, 2010 – So I spend my thinking time linking dots…picking details here and there, gathering them together to get the bigger picture that will take me closer to the Truth…I am no investigative journalist, but I do love detective work. So who is Al-Qaeda ? Wrong questions give wrong answers. The question to ask is – Does Al-Qaida as an ORGANIZATION really exist ? Now that is a much smarter question to start speculating with… Last week, someone suggested I watch a documentary by the BBC called “The power of Nightmares” (will provide link at the bottom of page). It was long — in 17 parts but well worth watching. And I urge you to watch it in its entirety. I watched it as if watching a film. I did not agree with all of its content but the conclusion I was left with is very much in line with what I have believed all along – there is NO organization called Al-Qaeda. Then I continued the film in my head and thought of all the Al-Qaeda terrorist acts and links as transpired through my various readings/and info regarding events in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia…to name a few. First of, I noticed a trend, a correlation between discourses and the events that subsequently take place…

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Getting Away with Torture
By David Cole
January 5, 2010 – In the fall of 2002, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen on his way home from Tunisia, was pulled out of line by US officials while changing planes at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. He was locked up for twelve days, much of that time incommunicado, and harshly interrogated. When he was finally allowed to make a phone call, after a week in captivity, he called his mother in Canada, who found him a lawyer. The lawyer saw Arar on Saturday. The very next night—a Sunday evening—immigration officials held an extraordinary six-hour hearing starting at 9 PM, orchestrated from Washington, D.C. When Arar asked to have his lawyer present, they told him that she had chosen not to participate in the hearing. In fact, the only “notice” they had provided was to leave a message on the lawyer’s office voice mail that Sunday night. She got the message Monday morning, and immediately called the immigration service. They told her, falsely, that Arar was being transferred to New Jersey, and she could contact him the next day. In fact, that night federal agents took him on a federally chartered jet to Jordan, and from there to Syria. In Syria, Arar was handed over to intelligence officials who imprisoned him in a cell the size of a grave, three feet by six feet by seven feet. Syrian security agents tortured him, including beating him with an electric cable, while asking the same questions that FBI interrogators had been asking at JFK—was he a terrorist, was he linked to al-Qaeda, did he know various other p! ersons t hought to be associated with al-Qaeda?…

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An American World of War
What to Watch for in 2010
By Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse
January 5, 2010 – …We know one thing: 2010 will be another year of war for the United States and, from assassination campaigns to new fronts in what is no longer called the Global War on Terror but is no less global or based on terror, it could get a lot uglier. The Obama administration may, from time to time, talk withdrawal, but across the Middle East and Central Asia, the Pentagon and its contractors are digging in. In the meantime, more money, not less, is being put into preparations and planning for future wars. As William Hartung points out, “if the government’s current plans are carried out, there will be yearly increases in military spending for at least another decade.”…

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Hundreds of Afghans rally against NATO forces
Pakistan Observer
Janaury 5, 2010 – Hundreds of people, mostly students rallied in central Kabul and eastern Nangarhar provinces against the killing of civilians in foreign forces operations. Four civilians were killed during an operation of NATO forces in Baghlan and eleven, eight of them schoolchildren, were killed in eastern Kunar and 13 others were perished in an overnight air raid of NATO-soldiers in Laghman province. Activists of youth branch of Jamiat Eslah (Afghan Society for Social Reform and Development) staged a demonstration in Kabul, condemning the airstrikes and demanded withdrawal of the troops…

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Israeli airstrike kills one, wounds three in Gaza: Medics
AFP
January 5, 2010 – An Israeli airstrike killed one person and wounded three in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli military confirmed the attack, which hit near the southern town of Khan Yunis…

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Zionism: The Road to Self-destruction
By Roger Higginson
January 5, 2010 – On 4 December 2009, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that the United States had failed to persuade its partners in the so-called ‘Quartet’ to issue a declaration of support for Israel’s temporary pause in settlement construction. The four members of the ‘Quartet’ are the EU, the UN, Russia and the USA. So who was the party-pooper? Russia, apparently. However, more interesting than who said no was the reason why: Russia had objected to any declaration supporting the Jewish identity of the state of Israel. In doing so, it has focussed on one of the key characteristics of the Israeli state which sets it apart from nearly every other country in the world, particularly in the Western world, of which it pretends so hard to be a part. Israel is an ethnocracy; a country which defines its citizens as belonging to a particular cultural or religious group – in its case, those who define themselves as Jewish…

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Gaza and the path to accountability
Sunera Thobani
January 5, 2010 – …If Israel can now be hauled before the International Criminal Court, who might it be next? If Israeli politicians can be arrested by warrants issued under universal jurisdiction, why not officials from the US, Britain and Canada as well? Who knows how quickly and how far things could unravel? If one occupying power could be held liable for war crimes, why not the other occupying powers who may have also engaged in collective punishment, in the destruction of civilian infrastructure, in the torture and killing of civilians? Where might it all end? In seeking to protect Israel from the Goldstone report and Israeli politicians from the threat of arrest in the UK, the British, American and Canadian governments might well be engaged in a battle to save their own skins in the face of an emboldened legal activism. Gaza may well be the gateway to anti-imperialist accountability in the 21st century…

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British government will fight legal attempts to indict Israeli leaders in UK
Rory McCarthy and Afua Hirsch
January 5, 2010 – The government is determined to protect high-ranking Israeli officials from arrest in the UK, the attorney general said, as it emerged that a further visit by the Israeli military had been cancelled. Speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem today, Baroness Scotland said Israeli leaders should not face arrest for war crimes under the law of “universal jurisdiction”, following attempts by British lawyers last month to obtain a warrant for the former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni…

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Left to Fend for Themselves
Killing Organizers in Honduras
By JOSEPH SHANSKY
January 5, 2010 – The bodies of slain activists are piling up in Honduras. While it’s being kept quiet in most Honduran and international media, the rage is building among a dedicated network of friends spreading the word quickly with the tragic announcement of each compañero/a. Now that the world heard from mainstream news outlets such as the New York Times of a “clean and fair” election on Nov. 29 (orchestrated by the US-supported junta currently in power), the violence has increased even faster than feared. The specific targets of these killings have been those perceived as the biggest threats to the coup establishment. The bravest, and thus the most vulnerable: Members of the Popular Resistance against the coup…

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Israel okays new Jerusalem settlement buildings
Ma’an News
January 5, 2010 – Israeli authorities approved on Monday the construction of four new settlement apartment buildings Palestinian land in occupied east Jerusalem. According to Israeli media, the country’s Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee approved the new structures, intended to house 24 settler families adjacent to a Jewish religious school, in the heart of the annexed Palestinian capital…

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Mossad chief: Time to overthrow Abbas
Ma’an News
January 5, 2010 – Israeli spy chief Efraim Halevy berated the Palestinian Authority (PA) and President Mahmoud Abbas during an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday. “The PA is useless and nothing but students of Israel and the US. As soon as the US and Israel stop funding the PA it will fade away. Abbas and his PA should know that and know to behave modestly with their threats against Israel,” Halevy said during the program Good Morning Israel, hosted by Ghazi Burqai…

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US warns Yemen to be focus in “worldwide” war
By Patrick Martin
January 5, 2010 – Tensions mounted Monday in advance of a widely expected expansion of US military operations inside Yemen, with the US, British, French and other embassies either closing down entirely or sharply curtailing operations, with many foreign personnel leaving the country. Yemen is being targeted in the aftermath of the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines jetliner near Detroit, allegedly directed by al Qaeda operatives based in that country. In his Saturday radio speech, US President Barack Obama for the first time publicly named al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the organizer of the Christmas Day attack…

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‘When I left the house there were 22 people dead’
Ma’an News
January 5, 2010 – … Richard Goldstone’s UN fact-finding mission investigated 11 incidents in which serious allegations of direct attacks with lethal outcome were made against civilians. “In these incidents, 34 Palestinian civilians lost their lives owing to Israeli fire intentionally directed at them. Numerous others were injured, some very severely and with permanent consequences,” his report states. “There appears to have been no justifiable military objective pursued in any of them.” The first two incidents concern alleged attacks by Israeli forces against houses in the As-Samouni neighborhood of Gaza during the initial phase of the ground invasion…

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How Goldman Sachs Made Tens Of Billions Of Dollars From The Economic Collapse Of America In Four Easy Steps
The Economic Collapse
January 5, 2010 – Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become perhaps the most prominent symbol for everything that is wrong with the U.S. financial system, but most Americans cannot even begin to explain what they do or how they have made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America. The truth is that what Goldman Sachs did was fairly simple, and there may not have even been anything “illegal” about it (although they are now being investigated by the SEC among others). The following is how Goldman Sachs made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America in four easy steps…

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Israeli officers fear UK arrest
Aljazeera.net
January 5, 2010 – A group of Israeli military officers have delayed an official visit to Britain over fears they could be arrested on war crimes charges. Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said on Tuesday that four officers invited to the UK by the British army would not be travelling “as we do not have a 100 per cent guarantee that they will not become objects of criminal lawsuits”. The officers, who hold ranks from major to colonel, are the latest in a string of Israeli politicians and military officials to call off travel to Britain due to fears over possible legal action…

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The Chilcot Inquiry: Britain’s 9/11 Commission
Maidhc Ó Cathail
January 5, 2010 – All too often, official inquiries are conducted by the very people who should themselves be under investigation. In this respect, Britain’s Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq war bears a distressing similarity to the 9/11 Commission… If British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were genuinely interested in finding out why his predecessor followed George Bush into the Iraq quagmire, his appointment of Sir Lawrence Freedman to the five-member Chilcot Inquiry was an odd choice. As the political editor of the BBC’s Newsnight programme, Michael Crick, pointed out, “Critics of the war might argue Sir Lawrence was himself one of the causes of the war!” …

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New Year in America: A portrait of social misery
By Tom Eley
January 5, 2010 – The new decade finds the US working class suffering a level of social misery not seen since the Great Depression. Unemployment, poverty, hunger, utility cutoffs, homelessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies have become common experiences for millions. But unlike in the Great Depression, when limited reforms were put in place in response to the crisis, the Obama administration, Congress, and state and local governments are taking no serious measures to provide relief. On the contrary, the two parties of big business are exacerbating the crisis through budget cuts at the state and local level and the federal government is preparing new austerity measures…

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IOF troops advance into southern Gaza, round up more West Bankers
Palestinian Information Center
January 5, 2010 — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) mounting four tanks and escorting three bulldozers advanced into eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, locals reported. They told the PIC reporter that the IOF tanks and bulldozers suddenly and swiftly crossed the borders in a limited incursion. Meanwhile, IOF soldiers detained 8 Palestinians in the West Bank during separate raids that included storming and searching homes…

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Photostory: Commemorating the assault on Gaza
The Electronic Intifada
January 5, 2010 – Approximately one year ago, Israel unleashed its assault on the Gaza Strip — amidst its ongoing siege and occupation — killing more than 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the attacks, most of them soldiers. Israel has since been accused of war crimes by numerous international human rights organizations as well as in a UN-commissioned inquiry led by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. The attacks sparked mass demonstrations around the world in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Solidarity actions have continued, and a number of groups have attempted to travel to Gaza and break the siege. The below images are from around the one year anniversary, when many groups around the world again led demonstrations to show their continued solidarity with Palestine.

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