Britain, You Better Wake Up
Gilad Atzmon
February 8, 2010 – The more I read about the Chilcot inquiry the more disturbed I am. The fallacy imbued in the heart of British ‘democracy’ is staggering. While some commentators are concerned with questions to do with the legality of the war, the most crucial issue here is actually the disappearance of ethical judgment from our public and political life. Rather than being concerned with morality and ethics British politicians are concerned with legalism. In other words, if someone would manage to prove that the war was ‘legal’ then the murdering of a million and a half Iraqis would be well justified. Let’s all face it, our politicians are corrupted to the bone. In fact the Chilcot inquiry is in itself a pretty disturbing concept. As George Monbiot pointed out a few days ago in the Guardian CIF, in the world of British ‘official inquiries’, it is the government that appoints its members and sets its terms of reference. “It’s the equivalent of a criminal suspect being allowed to choose what the charges should be, who should judge his case and who should sit on the jury”…

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Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Injustice
Stephen Lendman
February 8, 2010 – …Carefully orchestrated, the trial proceeded like numerous others, targeting innocent victims because of their faith, ethnicity, prominence, benevolent charity, activism, or other reasons for political advantage, ending with convictions and punitive incarcerations against innocent defendants, guilty of being Muslims in America at the wrong time when we’re all just as vulnerable. In a manipulated climate of fear, the same process repeats, using bogus charges, secret evidence, enlisted witnesses to cooperate, the defense prohibited from introducing exculpatory evidence, and proceedings carefully scripted to intimidate juries to convict. Justice is again denied, Siddiqui another victim, a human tragedy, portrayed by the dominant media as a jihadist, and getting public sentiment to agree because disturbing truths are carefully suppressed…

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The “shock doctrine” for Haiti
The U.S. is reviving what Haitians call “the plan of death.”
Ashley Smith
February 8, 2010 – ONE MONTH after the devastating earthquake, Haiti continues to suffer under apocalyptic conditions. The quake killed more than 200,000 people, injured 250,000 and has left over 3 million dependent on assistance for food, water and housing. Contrary to the puff pieces in the media, the relief operation has been a miserable failure. The United Nations admitted at the end of January that had only been able to feed 1 million people, leaving many more without access to food. Whole sections of Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns never even saw relief convoys…

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Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Case Stuck in Legal Limbo
By Dave Lindorff
February 8, 2010 – The recent decision by the US Supreme Court to send convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case back down to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, with instructions for a three-judge panel there to reconsider its decision to uphold the lifting of the prominent African-American journalist’s death penalty, is only the latest in a long string of examples of how courts at all levels have made special exceptions to precedent in order to try and kill this particular prisoner…

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Danny Ayalon’s Arrival Sparks Outrage In London
Palestine Monitor
February 8, 2010 – A protest march will be held in London today against the arrival of deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign and British Muslim Initiative are co-ordinating the march, expected to number several hundred, to highlight the ongoing human rights abuses perpetrated by the Israeli government. Ayalon is the first Knesset member to visit Britain since arrest warrants were submitted for Tzipi Livni in December…

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Wars sending U.S. into ruin
By ERIC MARGOLIS
February 8, 2010 – U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health. In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion…

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An act of the highest levels of Infidelity and Cowardice
Hussein Anwar
February 8, 2010 – …The main objective is a Psychological war, they want to kill the Iraqi people’s resistance by doing such a thing, the traitors told them that you will crush them down by violating and ruining the most precious diamond in every Arab man’s life and that is his mother, sister, wife and daughter. The main objective is to HUMILIATE the Iraqi individual specifically and HUMILIATE the Arab individual in general, to deliberately degridate and humiliate the Iraqi female that resembles the Arab virtue. And this act of Infidelity is only one part of the process of erasing the Arab identity…

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Health conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
Senussi Bsaikri
February 8, 2010 – Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 the number of Palestinians detained is in excess of 700,000 men, women and children, representing 20% of the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories. The current number of prisoners and detainees is estimated at between 8,000 – 10,000 spread around 30 prisons and detention centres. This includes prisons in the desert, where prisoners are held in tents in the searing heat of the summer and bitter cold of winter…

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‘Hold inquiry into Army abuse in Iraq’
Judge calls for single investigation to cover 46 claims by civilians
By Robert Verkaik
February 8, 2010 – Ministers have been told by a senior judge to consider opening an independent inquiry into all allegations of abuse made by Iraqi civilians against the British Army. The move could lead to the biggest investigation into military malpractice ever heard in this country. Mr Justice Silber, in a note written to lawyers acting for the Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, has told the Government: “My provisional view is that I am uncertain what is to be gained by the Secretary of State continuing to contest these claims for investigation.”…Samahir Abbas Hashim, 32, six months pregnant at the time of the alleged assault, claims she was so badly beaten by soldiers that she lost her baby… The allegations include claims that British troops subjected Iraqi prisoners to rape, sexual humiliation and torture…

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Former Iraq PM: poll ban risks civil war
Reuters
February 8, 2010 – A ban on election candidates accused of links with Saddam Hussein’s Baath party threatens to drag Iraq into civil war, a former prime minister and head of a group seen as a strong contender in the polls said Monday. Iyad Allawi, who leads the Iraqiya list into the March 7 vote, said the ban could trigger a resurgence in sectarian attacks, reversing a fall in violence in the last two years that has allowed U.S. forces to eye a 2011 withdrawal date and Iraq to sign major oil deals…

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Poll result shows that “the majority of Palestinians oppose the resumption of negotiations without the pre-conditions”
Middle East Monitor
February 8, 2010 – An independent Palestinian news agency says that the majority of Palestinians are opposed to any resumption of negotiations with the Israelis without pre-conditions. According to a poll conducted by Sama on its website, 836 out of 1356 participants, 62%, said they oppose the resumption of indirect negotiations, as is now proposed, without any pre-conditions set by the Palestinians. Of those who took part, 486 (36%) supported unconditional negotiations, with 34 (2%) saying, “I don’t know”…

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Iran: Student Facing Execution for Throwing Rocks
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
February 8, 2010 – The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today strongly condemned the prosecution of a young student activist, Mohammad Amin Valian, under the charge of Moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” which is punishable by death and called the charges “grossly disproportionate.” At least nine other protestors have been sentenced to death in similar unfair trials and are at risk of imminent execution. Five other protestors, including Valian, were prosecuted last week and face the death penalty if convicted. The main pieces of evidence used to convict the twenty-year old student are photographs showing him throwing rocks during Ashura protests…

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Two NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan bombing
AFP
February 8, 2010— Two soldiers with NATO-led forces fighting Taliban-led insurgents were killed in a bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan, NATO said Monday. “Two ISAF service members died following an IED (improvised explosive device) strike in southern Afghanistan yesterday (Sunday),” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said. The latest deaths took to 61 the number of the foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, according to an AFP count based on a tally kept by independent icasualties.org website…

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Dozens of Palestinians injured as Israelis raid refugee camp
RIA Novosti
February 8, 2010 – Israel police injured dozens of Palestinians in violence that broke out after they raided a refugee camp on the edge of Jerusalem on Monday, a Palestinian news agency reported. Israeli police moved into the camp early on Monday to arrest tax evaders while Palestinians, mostly schoolchildren, retaliated in the afternoon by hurling stones. Over 10 people were detained, police said…

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Sheikh Jarrah settlers threaten Palestinians with M-16 for the second time in 8 days
International Solidarity Movement
February 8, 2010 – Today at around 3PM, a settler named Yoni was caught spray painting a swastika on the Ghawi tent by an Palestinian who was driving by in his truck. The truck driver yelled at the settler, Yoni and called the police. When the police arrived they ignored the settler and accused neighborhood Palestinians of having painted the swastika. Palestinians painted over the swastika to prevent further accusations. Later, at 5.30 the settler came back again and this time accompanied with another settler dressed in army uniform…

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Stop the Wall offices hit in late night raid
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
February 8, 2010 – Late last night Occupation forces raided the Stop the Wall offices in Ramallah. Some 10 military jeeps, hummers and an armoured bus surrounded the building as soldiers searched rooms, turning the office upside down and confiscating computer hard disks, laptops, and video cameras along with paper documents, CDs, and video cassettes. Part of the mounting repression of the anti-Wall movement, this attack on the Campaign offices comes after the arrests of Jamal Juma’ and Mohammed Othman, who were both were later released after significant international pressure. Other arrest operations are ongoing, and currently some 40 anti-Wall activists are held for their grassroots mobilizing and international advocacy efforts in Israeli jails…

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The three dead Guantanamo men crying for justice
Andrew Sullivan
February 8, 2010 -… What really happened? I do not know. But it seems to me that these credible witnesses should have at least been interviewed by the NCIS; that the official story has gaping holes of logic; that the autopsies are beyond bizarre; and that the slightest possibility that something is amiss requires further investigation. If there is any chance that these prisoners were accidentally tortured to death and their deaths then covered up as suicide, this is the biggest story in the grim annals of the Bush-Cheney era since Abu Ghraib. And yet, other than to carry a brief synopsis from Associated Press, no main US newspaper has delved into the Harper’s cover-story. And indeed, a year ago Hickman and his fellows went to Obama’s justice department to explain what they believed needed to be investigated further. The FBI interviewed other witnesses who backed Hickman up. Last November, after months of waiting for a response, Hickman’s lawyer got a call from the justice department. The case was closed. The NCIS report stood. When Hickman’s lawyer asked why, he was told that Hickman’s conclusions “appeared” to be unsupported. This is the change we were asked to believe in…

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Israel admits detention of international activists illegal
International Solidarity Movement
February 8, 2010 – A state prosecutor admitted before the Supreme Court today that the Immigration Police illegally detained the two international activists arrested yesterday in a pre-dawn raid on the International Solidarity Movement’s Ramallah offices. The two will be released on bail. Earlier today, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the release on bail of the two activists who were arrested on Sunday during a pre-dawn raid on the Ramallah media office of the International Solidarity Movement. During the hearing, the State Prosecutor admitted that it was illegal for the Immigration Police to receive custody of the two in the Occupied Territories, where it has no legal authority…

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Video: Gazans recycle rubble to rebuild
Aljazeera.net
February 8, 2010 – Palestinians have been forced to innovate ways to rebuild houses destroyed during last year’s war on Gaza. That is because an Israeli blockade is preventing construction materials from getting into the Gaza Strip. Many therefore are collecting rubble from destroyed homes, smuggling in cement from Egypt, and using the two to make concrete blocks. The quality of the concrete blocks is not as good as they should be. But desperate to rebuild homes, few are complaining…

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Military Resistance 8B3: Misspent Youth – 8 February 2010
Thomas F. Barton
A Military Resistance Exclusive: Congressman John Murtha Linked To War Profiteer Chosen By Army To Supply Inferior Plate Carrier Protection For Soldiers In Combat: KDH Defense Systems “Had The Assistance Of A Lobbying Firm That Employed Both Murtha’s Brother And His Former Appropriations Aide”. Part 1: The Plate Carrier. “During A Raging Conflict In Afghanistan, The SSB Chose A New And Inferior System … Over A Proven, Superior And Currently Fielded System”. “Army Armor Experts That Have Used The MBAV In Afghanistan Told Army Times They Agree With Miller That The Gap In KDH’s Soft Armor Is A Serious Concern”. Sgt. Miller Says “This Decision Points To A Lack Of Common Sense”. Pentagon Fool Says “We Can’t Just Go With MBAV Because It’s Out There And Battle-Proven”.

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Military Resistance 8B2: Take Your Pick – 7 February 2010
Thomas F. Barton
Three Choices: Take Your Pick:
#1: The Taliban Force Includes “Hundreds Of Idiots Running Around Marjah Right Now Waiting To Aggregate” — USMC Col. George Amland
#2: “It Is Ignorance And Negligence That Are Unforgivable, Fatal Faults. You Must Never Underestimate The Enemy” — Mubarakshah; The Rules Of War
#3: “The Maxim In War, That Your Enemy Is Every To Be Dreaded Until At Your Feet, Ought To Be Held Inviolate” — Major-Gen. Light Horse Harry Lee; “War In The Southern Department Of The United States: Accounts Of The American Revolution”

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