Palestinian Pundit

Mediator says peace with Syria can be reached 6 months after talks begin

"If Israel and Syria begin negotiations, they can reach agreement within six months and allow Damascus to disengage from Hezbollah and join the war on terrorism, Ibrahim (Abe) Suleiman said yesterday.

The American-Syrian businessman who has represented Syria in informal talks with Alon Liel, his Israeli counterpart, appeared yesterday before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee - an exceptionally rare event for a foreigner.

During the meeting Suleiman said that "accepting the Israeli-Syrian document of understandings that was formulated will allow Syria to assist in the global struggle against terrorism, cut its ties with Hezbollah and assist the American struggle in Iraq."

Suleiman, who resides in Washington, has close ties with the Syrian leadership, and called on Israel to hold official talks with Syria.

At a press conference held after the meeting in the Knesset, Suleiman said that "if the governments of Syria and Israel negotiate they will reach a peace deal in six months."

Suleiman stressed that he had no doubt of Bashar Assad's wish for peace and said that in previous talks the two sides had agreed on 80 percent of the issues.

The last time Israel and Syria held peace talks was in 2000, under the auspices of the Clinton administration.......

Discussing his talks with Liel, Suleiman said that "as a private channel [of negotiations] we will disappear," but stressed that "nothing is impossible in this world. My presence here will make things possible."

After his meeting in the Knesset, Suleiman expressed his happiness at being here.

"In my wildest dreams I did not dream that I would speak with important decision-makers of the Jewish people. Peace is possible and desirable. Syria and Israel have missed many opportunities in the past," Suleiman said.

"Since 1948 Israeli leaders said that they are willing to talk about peace at any time and in any place. Syria now announced that it is ready to talk about peace. I challenge the government of Israel to respond to this call," Suleiman said.

The U.S.-Syrian mediator said Damascus is careful to abide by the cease-fire agreement with Israel and would not begin a war with Israel.

"Not a single bullet was fired since 1974, when Syria signed a cease-fire accord."...."

***

Syria is desperate for a deal, however Usrael wants even more concessions. In the end Bashar Rabbit will be begging on his knees for any deal, as long as his regime survives.

Nakba is not a difficult word to educate people about, so let us be wise and make people talk about it, before Israel gets a chance to complete it.

A good article
By Tariq Shadid
PalestineChronicle.com

".....As a Palestinian living in the West, I can assure you that there are many here who believe their eyes are already open, while in reality they have deviated much less away from the ‘land without people’ formula than they think. They believe they are sufficiently informed in order to have an opinion. And there we have it: the invisible deadlock that permeates the societies of the West, when it comes to Palestine.

This deadlock is caused for the most part by the fact that people in the West have been conditioned on a large scale to feel deeply guilty about any criticism of Israel. And therein lies the main reason for the attractiveness to Westerners to take the position of blaming both sides equally. The fact that the Zionists are the actual invaders, land confiscators, oppressors and occupiers, is brushed aside, basically because it causes these conflicting loyalties. The media aids this by the skilful dosing of information, and by the use of language, branding all Palestinian violence as terrorism, and all Israeli violence as retaliation......

A mistake often made by those who advocate the Palestinian cause in the West, is to fail to exert pressure on these highly essential issues. Nakba-denial is one of the biggest problems that cause the failure of people to perceive the Zionist crime for what it really was, namely a vicious and well-planned act of ethnic cleansing, that displaced around 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and their country in 1948. Also, the over 400 villages they were expelled from, were destroyed, and wiped off the map. The majority of people in the West still don’t know these hard and brutal facts......

How can a supporter of the Palestinian cause regard anyone who defends Zionist ideology, which is national-socialist in origin (this should ring a bell), and infested with concepts of racial superiority, without suspicion? The presently very active Christian form of Zionism is at least as destructive - and I mean this in the most literal sense - and uncompromising to the Palestinian people as its Jewish counterpart.

It is of great importance, to keep Zionism at the center of the political discourse about Israel, and to mention it in any discussion about the subject. Oslo-style thinking has indeed weakened this practice on a large scale, but there is a simple way to reverse this very rapidly: talk about it. Always talk about the Nakba, and always talk about Zionism, when talking about Palestine in the West. Without these two issues on the table, what are we really talking about? And whose purposes are we serving, by being caught in those fruitless dialogues about the issues that are only symptoms of these other two?.....

If only these people knew about the Nakba of 1948, and that it never stopped but is still going on today … Nakba is not a difficult word to educate people about, so let us be wise and make people talk about it, before Israel gets a chance to complete it."

Damascus denies secret Israel peace talks

"DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria on Saturday rejected statements by a Syrian-American businessman who said that he had been at the heart of unofficial peace talks with Israel, the official SANA agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying.

"The statements and the ideas of the American-Syrian Ibrahim Suleiman do not reflect the point of view of Syria, which has repeated many times its refusal to undertake secret negotiations" with Israel, the official was quoted as saying.

Suleiman on Thursday told a top Israeli parliamentary panel that Syria and Israel could clinch a peace deal in six months.......

Suleiman and former Israeli foreign ministry director general Alon Liel say they headed two years of the secret talks during which understandings were reached for a peace treaty between Syria and Israel.

Suleiman, 60, was at the centre of the official peace talks between Israel and Syria which began following the Madrid peace summit, including the 1996 US-sponsored talks at Wye Plantation and later in 2000 in Shepherdstown.

During those talks, Suleiman said on Thursday, "the sides solved 80 percent of disagreements."

He said that he and Liel had succeeded in further narrowing the gap between the sides, and that their talks should be replaced by official negotiations.

"Our work is done, now it's up to officials in Israel and Syria to sit down and iron out their differences," the US businessman said. "We gave them a peace map."

Syria's "President Bashar al-Assad wants peace with Israel. He wants to make peace and be known as the man of peace," Suleiman said."

By Mike Luckovich

"Ramallah - Ma'an - Palestinian deputy prime minister, Azzam Al-Ahmad, on Saturday met with a delegation representing the Israeli labour party's youth in the headquarters of the Palestinian cabinet in Ramallah, in the central West Bank.

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour, is part of efforts to lift the crippling economic embargo that Israel imposes on the Palestinian unity government.....

....Hirmouni also urged the "moderate forces on the Palestinian side to push for the freedom of Gilad Shalit." "

***

Long live "Palestinian unity," and release Shalit, NOW!

Hamas condemns meeting of Abbas and Olmert

"Gaza - Ma'an – The Hamas movement criticized the forthcoming meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and described it as contrary to Palestinian interests.

The meeting is to be held on Sunday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said that the meetings between the two men "will have no positive outcome for the Palestinian people as they discuss only the security issue".

'External agendas'

Barhoum called on Abbas to not submit to what he described as "external agendas". He said "relying on the Americans being fair to our people will not enable us to achieve our interests and our peoples' interests".

The spokesman confirmed that any dealing with the US administration should not be "begging, or considering the American projects which intend to divide us."

At a press conference in Gaza on Saturday Barhoum said "these meetings address the release of the Israeli soldier, without considering the release of the Palestinian prisoners, or the end of the embargo, or Jerusalem or the refugees."......

....He also expressed support for the efforts of Abbas to enable the success of the national project and to garner Arab and international support to make the project successful."

"Nablus - Ma'an - Israeli forces held the Palestinian minister of labour Mahmoud Al Aloul for more than one-and-a-half hours at Huwwara checkpoint, south of Nablus, on Saturday.

The minister was seized along with his companions because the Israeli soldiers found a pistol in the minister's suitcase.

Speaking to Ma'an via telephone, the minister said "the Israeli army stopped me and my associates for more than an-hour-and-a-half at the barrier because they found a pistol in my suitcase."

Al Aloul said that he forgot to tell the soldiers at the barrier about the pistol when they searched his car.

He confirmed that this was not the first time the Israeli soldiers have hindered the movement of Palestinians. "

***

"He confirmed that this was not the first time the Israeli soldiers have hindered the movement of Palestinians."

No kidding, Mr. "Labor Minister!"
Next, the "minister" asked the Israeli soldier for permission to go to the restroom.

Some "government!"

Hamad: US discrimination policy reflects clear political confusion

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ghazi Hamad, the spokesman of the PA unity government, has scathingly criticized the US attempts to discriminate between the PA presidency institution and the PA government that, he added, aims at spoiling Palestinian national unity.

He also explained that although the decision made by the US Congress to give 60 million dollars to PA security forces attached to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas wasn’t translated yet on the ground, the PA finance ministry is the only party entitled to receive financial aid to the PA.

In a press statement he made to the Quds Press news agency, Hamad also explained, “The US decision is a clear indication that the USA policy in the region is flip-flipping and confused”......"

***

So, the U.S. is "confused" and "flip-flopping!" However, Hamas and the PA are steadfast, clear and resolute? What kind of gibberish is this?

Instead of facing the key issue, which is how can such a "unity government" allow its "president" to receive aid, arms, financing and training to strengthen his "forces" whose main mission is to protect Israel and to crush Palestinian resistance to any sellout by this traitor Abbas, the spokesman blames the U.S.

Enough mediocrity and empty rhetoric; dissolve this farcical PA now!

"Bill Moyers has put together an amazing 90-minute video documenting the lies that the Bush administration told to sell the Iraq War to the American public, with a special focus on how the media led the charge. I've watched an advance copy and read a transcript, and the most important thing I can say about it is: Watch PBS from 9 to 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25. Spending that 90 minutes on this will actually save you time, because you'll never watch television news again – not even on PBS, which comes in for its share of criticism.

While a great many pundits, not to mention presidents, look remarkably stupid or dishonest in the four-year-old clips included in "Buying the War," it's hard to take any spiteful pleasure in holding them to account, and not just because the killing and dying they facilitated is ongoing, but also because of what this video reveals about the mindset of members of the DC media. Moyers interviews media personalities, including Dan Rather, who clearly both understand what the media did wrong and are unable to really see it as having been wrong or avoidable.

It's great to see an American media outlet tell this story so well, but it leads one to ask: When will Congress tell it? While the Democrats were in the minority, they clamored for hearings and investigations, they pushed Resolutions of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group and the Downing Street Minutes. Now, in the majority, they've gone largely silent. The chief exception is the House Judiciary Committee's effort to question Condoleezza Rice next week about the forged Niger documents......"

By Kurt Nimmo

"Leave it to the corporate media to make a big deal out of Paul Wolfowitz’s shameless promotion of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, while ignoring the larger story—the fait accompli fusion of neoliberal and neocon policies at the World Bank and the IMF.

“The neolib-neocon fusion is personified by Wolfowitz, close ally of the exceptionally corrupt, brutal Indonesian dictator Suharto during the 1980s and more recently, as deputy Pentagon leader, architect of and apologist for imperial theft and US corporate patronage associated with the illegal Iraq War,” writes Patrick Bond.

In fact, appointing the warmonger Wolfowitz to head up the World Bank was a studied choice—sort of like appointing a wolf to watch over a chicken coop—as the “relationship between globalization and militarism,” as Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey note, “should be seen as two sides of the same coin. On one side, globalization promotes the conditions that lead to unrest, inequality, conflict, and, ultimately, war. On the other side, globalization fuels the means to wage war by protecting and promoting the military industries needed to produce sophisticated weaponry. This weaponry, in turn, is used or is threatened to be used to protect the investments of transnational corporations and their shareholders.”......

....No doubt Mr. Wolfowitz is an embarrassment, as the neocon track record is Mafia-like corruption, and it should come as no surprise this natural inclination manifests itself in the conduct of their personal lives. Paul Wolfowitz will undoubtedly be shown the door, not that he will suffer consequence. Wolfowitz will likely retire to the university, not unlike his former co-conspirator, Douglas Feith over at Georgetown, and write his memoirs on the side. In America, we shower our high place criminals with favor.

In a perfect world, or one far more perfect than Bushzarro world, Paul Wolfowitz and his war crime accomplices would be made to do the perp walk in orange jumpsuits as they wend their way toward the gallows, as Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, Fritz Sauckel, Julius Streicher, and other Nazi plenipotentiaries did before them."

by Giuliana Sgrena
(the author of Friendly Fire: The Remarkable Story of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq, Rescued by an Italian Secret Service Agent, and Shot by U.S. Forces)

"(April 12, 2007) After two years of silence, Mario Lozano has marched forward to tell the truth—or rather, according to the version presented by the American media, to “expose the lies of Sgrena.” Too bad that neither he nor his advisors have noticed that in the meantime my testimony has been confirmed by the results of the investigations carried out by experts appointed by the judiciary on the car in which we were riding that night of 4 March 2005 in Baghdad. Mario Lozano has been summoned to stand trial for the voluntary political homicide of Nicola Calipari and the attempted voluntary homicide of Andrea Carpani and myself on the basis of investigations—not, certainly, on the basis of my “fantasies.”.......

Why doesn’t Lozano come to present his version of the facts at the trial? He says that what is scheduled to begin on Tuesday in Rome is only a “shot trial.” This contempt for the Italian judiciary would seem to warrant some kind of taking of a position on the part of our government. And if it all just seems like a farce, why does it cause so much agitation and discomfort in its repudiation of the version put forward by the American military commission, which has already been taken apart by the Campregher-Regaglini report (from the names of the two Italians who took part in the commission).......

After what happened it is easy to understand that Lozano might have nightmares—as I have as the one who lived through the same event from the other side of the barricade. We know that the rules of engagement are brutal, that the American soldiers in Iraq are terrorized—but there are many of them who had had the courage to rebel against this situation.

What is unacceptable is turning Lozano himself into a victim. This perspective is nurtured by U.S. journalists who interviewed him in response to an order from above, and who see no problem at all with a unilateral version of the facts and with making denigrating references to my book Friendly Fire (Haymarket Books).

A real lesson in journalism “made in the U.S.A.”"

By Robert Fisk

"........But Al would have none of this. And I got the message. To ask the "Why" question made me a Nazi. Which is why I subsequently received a flood of mail, much of it from Denver - what has Denver got against me? - telling me that my mother was Adolf Eichmann's daughter. Thanks, Al. I'm sure you didn't dream of the hate mail your silly diatribe will inspire. I guess Irish radio host Eamon Dunphy did. He pulled the plug on Al.

I'm recalling all this nonsense because Al has been back at work attacking his old nemesis, Norm Finkelstein, who has just applied for tenure at DePaul University in the US where he is an assistant professor of politics. Norm's department has supported him but Al has bombarded faculty members with a blistering attack on Norm and all his works.

So let me just explain what these works are. Finkelstein, who is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors, has published a number of works highly critical of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and the use Israeli supporters make of the Holocaust of six million Jews to suppress criticism of Israel's policies. He has accused Dershowitz of plagiarising portions of his 2003 book The Case for Israel. Finkelstein's book, The Holocaust Industry, earned Dershowitz's continued fury.......

...All over the United States, however, Norm's academic chums have been condemning Suchar's tomfoolery; even in Beirut, where Norm has lectured, academics of the American University have insisted that he be granted tenure in his department, Arabs supporting a Jewish professor and son of Holocaust survivors.

Of course, I grant that all this is a little heavy for the real world and I do have a secret desire to take Norm, Chuck and Al and bang their bloody heads together. But what is happening at DePaul University is a very serious matter in the anodyne, frightened academic world that now exists in the US. Norm's moment of truth comes up in May. As they say watch this space. "

By Tom Toles

Israel's Security The Way Israel Sees it.
(also the way Oslo intended it and the way Abbas is implementing with U.S. money and Egyptian/Jordanian arming and training)

By Scott Ritter

"......Invariably, my presentation focused on the nation in question, whether it was Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan or Great Britain, and the status of its relationship with the United States. As an American, I said, I appreciated each nation’s embrace of the United States as a friend and ally. However, as a strong believer in the rule of law, I deplored the trend among America’s so-called friends to facilitate a needless confrontation which would severely harm the U.S. in the long run. These nations were hesitant to stand up to the United States even though they knew the course of action planned for Iraq was wrong.

Such permissive submission was deplorable, and invariably led to a comment from me about the status of genuine sovereignty in the face of American imperial power. If a nation was incapable of defending its sovereign values and interests, then it should simply acknowledge its status as a colony of the United States, pull down its disgraced national flag and raise the Stars and Stripes......

Despite the fact that Congress was only stating through this language a simple reflection of constitutional mandate, Speaker Pelosi and others felt that the inclusion of such verbiage put the security of the state of Israel at risk by eliminating important “policy options” for the president of the United States. In short, Israeli national security interests trumped the Constitution of the United States.......

....Our collective duty as Americans must center on defending the very document, the Constitution, which defines who we are and what we are as a people and a nation. To have our elected representatives flagrantly push aside their constitutional responsibilities in the name of the security interests of another nation is unthinkable. And yet it has just happened, apparently without consequence......

In this time of constitutional crisis, the American people need to wake up and demand that the basic tenets of the Constitution be adhered to. Congress is solely empowered by the Constitution to declare war. Demanding that the president of the United States adhere to this prerequisite is a logical and patriotic stance. Allowing any non-American interest, even one possessing such highly charged political and emotional sensitivities as Israel, to dictate otherwise represents nothing more than a capitulation of sovereignty. We the people need to rally around this defense of sovereignty. We must demand not only that Congress reassert its constitutional responsibilities and authority by demanding the president obey the letter of the law when it comes to war, whether against Iran or any other nation, but also to place in check the anti-American activities of one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, D.C., the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee......

To state that AIPAC, and by extension Israel, is above the law in this regard is to acknowledge the reality that American national sovereignty no longer matters when it comes to the state of Israel. So be it. But then we are, collectively, no better than those nations I mocked prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as “colonies” of the United States. So if we are to continue to permit AIPAC to operate as an undeclared agent of a foreign nation, and to influence American foreign and national security policymaking at the expense of our Constitution, then we should acknowledge our true status as nothing more than a colony of Israel, pull down the Stars and Stripes and raise the Star of David over our nation’s capitol. While representing the final act of submission, it would also be the first truly honest act that occurred in Washington, D.C., in many years......"

Encouraging Ethnic Chauvinism

By LAITH al-SAUD
CounterPunch

".....As I mentioned before, the Baa'th regime did indeed initiate a demographic change in Kirkuk, but this political campaign affected all the non-Arabs of Kirkuk not just the Kurds. One of the problems with nearly everything said or done in occupied Iraq is that narratives have been simplified and their content maligned to fit particular interests. Assyrian, Turkish, Kurdish and even Armenian peoples were all affected by demographic changes in Kirkuk......

Since the 2003 invasion of the country myth has taken precedence over history and Kurdish politicians have adopted the methods of that other myth-based nation-state in the region-Israel, to establish claims on the oil reach city. During the invasion, Kurdish peshmerga (militias) entered Kirkuk and established de facto control of the city. Since then, as has been reported by the Center for Research on Globalization, Kurdish militias have forcibly evicted people from their homes, engaged in murder, assassination and a slow ethnic cleansing. The first victims in this regard have been the Arabs. Since the Arabs there are largely associated with Baa'th policy they have seen little support from the regime in Baghdad. Less publicized has been the targeting of Assyrians and other smaller minorities in the region. But the largest group in the city-and the one that promises to be the most resistant to Kurdish aggression-is the Turcomen. Ethnically Turks, the Turcomen have lived in the area for over eight-hundred years and have strong ties to Turkey. It has also been widely reported that Israeli intelligence officials have been working closely with Kurdish leader and have established a strong foothold in the area. This development raises some serious issues about so-called Kurdistan acting as a staging point for Israeli operations in the rest of the country.

When we take a look at the rhetoric surrounding Kirkuk it would seem to come right out of an Israeli playbook. Kirkuk is now being called the "Jerusalem of the Kurds." Or as one Kurdish writer put it, "Kirkuk has always been sacred to Kurds as Karbala and Najaf to Shiite Muslims and all other Shiite cities and towns. [sic]" In light of this supposed devotion tens of thousands of Kurds have been coming into Kirkuk to change the demographic reality "on the ground." This policy very much resembles Israeli activities in the West Bank, where the Jewish settlers have been encouraged to settle in the contested area, explicitly to complicate the area's status. It is no surprise that an area rich in oil has now become "sacred" to the Kurds. But is it or are the more general claims being made on Kirkuk warranted?......

......Secondly, it underscores how pathetic claims to Kirkuk as a "holy city" are. When an official census was conducted in the area in 1957, Kurds did not constitute a majority in the city. This is in 1957, well before Saddam Hussein or his Arabization policy.

Well these facts speak to the more complex truth around Kirkuk, the aggressive activities of Kurdish militias continue under the auspices of the United States and the puppet regime in Baghdad. But what is most disturbing is that the events concerning Kirkuk are just another testament to the ideology of institutionalised racism imposed on Iraqi society.

Since the invasion, the United States encouraged ethnic chauvinism and consistently hinted at dividing the country up into ethnic or sectarian sections. Should this policy continue, Kurdistan will become a small fascist state with a lot of oil, that will be busy oppressing its large, very large, minority population and begging the US for bases to "protect" it from its neighbours, who are "different." And, of course, the US will gladly oblige, just as it does in the Gulf States because, after all, that is where the oil is. "

Iran condemns 'inhuman and satanic' Iraq attack

"Iran has condemned the suicide bombing attack on the Iraq Parliment buliding that killed two MPs as inhuman and satanic, the official IRNA news agency has reported.

"This inhuman and satanic action was carried out by enemies who wish only bad for the Iraqi people and who targeted deputies whether they were Sunni or Shiite," said foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini.

Mr Hosseini called for unity among Iraqis and the withdrawal of the occupation forces, the agency said.

The suicide bomb attack in a cafeteria in the Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad's Green Zone killed eight people, including at least two MPs and wounded at least 20, an Iraqi official said.

It was a staggering breach of security at the country's most heavily guarded site.

The blast, which came hours after a suicide truck bomber targeted a Baghdad bridge killing 10 people, came despite a massive US-Iraqi security crackdown launched in the capital two months ago."

In any prisoner swap deal with Israel, the cards are stacked in favour of the Palestinians

By Khaled Amayreh
Al-Ahram Weekly

"......Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Olmert is likely to attempt to circumvent his dilemma by acting as a tough negotiator in the hope of extracting a more "palatable" deal from Hamas. This is unlikely to succeed, however, since Hamas, too, can't be seen as compromising when it is answerable to thousands of Palestinian families who are impatient to see their sons and loved ones come home, many of whom have spent the prime of their lives in Israeli jails and detention camps.

Israel has been desperately trying to pin down the whereabouts of its captured soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Israeli army waged several brutal incursions throughout the Gaza Strip during which hundreds of Palestinians, mostly civilian, were killed and maimed. The savagery of the assaults failed to free Shalit.

Meanwhile, the Israeli domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, instructed hundreds of its informers throughout the Gaza Strip to "leave no stone unturned" in order to ascertain the whereabouts of Shalit and the identity of his captors. This, too, failed to achieve any result. Eventually, the Shin Bet recommended against "liberating Shalit by force", arguing that the chances of retrieving him alive were less than one per cent.

Furthermore, the abduction of nearly 100 Hamas cabinet ministers, officials and lawmakers, including such high-ranking leaders as parliament speaker Abdul-Aziz Duweik, in order to pressure Hamas to free Shalit, also failed to yield results, leaving the Israeli government with very few choices left.

In this context, it is not unlikely that the Olmert government, reputed for its duplicity, will resort to publicly agreeing to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners while planning in secret to re- arrest many of them after Shalit's release on fresh concocted charges. Israeli military courts, before which no Palestinian can be proven innocent, could pass hefty suspended prison sentences on prominent prisoners in order to facilitate their re-arrest......"

Whereas Israel has appeared in the past as the US's main proxy in the Middle East, now it apears the relation has reversed

By Ramzy Baroud
Al-Ahram Weekly

"......Palestinians have often been used as, and in some cases have presented themselves to play the role of, a proxy force. The rationale, in some cases, was personal interest; in others, lack of a platform that would allow them to organise. In the two most notable instances in which they tried to exert control over their host domains -- the cases of Jordan in the 1970s and Lebanon in the 1970s and 80s -- the cost was horrendous, leading to unprecedented bloodshed. After Arafat's forced exit from Beirut in 1982, Palestinians were forced to exchange the physical space they obtained for overt allegiance to various regimes. Arafat mastered the art like no other Palestinian leader. The supporters of the Oslo Accords argued that the agreement's key success was freeing the Palestinian political will from pandering to host countries for survival, which proved untrue. A Hamas leader in Syria told me, off the record, during a telephone interview recently: "We have no doubt that Damascus will dump us the moment we are no longer of use, but we have no other option but to play along."......

While Iran's prime objective is to discourage an American military assault against it, Israel seeks regional hegemony, where it is left only with "moderate" neighbours. According to this vision, conceived and promoted publicly by Israeli leaders and their friends in Washington and emphasised to the point of boring repetition by every relevant US official at every possible opportunity, the Iranian "threat" must be eradicated at any cost. Israel's fears of Iran are not nuclear in essence. What worries Israel is that Iran is militarily strong, politically cohesive and economically viable, enough to allow Iran opportunity to challenge Israel at every turn. The Israelis, as their country's history illustrates, simply despise such contenders. Israel's attempt to demolish Gamal Abdel Nasser's national regime in 1956, only eight years after the establishment of the Israeli state, is a poignant example......

But Israel is still cheering for war. Former director of Mossad, Uzi Arad, told the British Guardian that, "A military strike may be easier than you think." He outlined what targets were to be bombed -- not just nuclear, but security and economic centres. "Iran is much more vulnerable than people realise," he stated casually. Arad, like most Israeli officials, wants war, even if such a war would complicate America's regional involvement and cost it innumerable human lives, notwithstanding a foreseeable large number of dead Iranians. It would matter little to Israel, however, for a chaotic Iran, like a chaotic Iraq, is just another opportunity to be exploited, and another "threat" to be checked off Israel's security list.

While proxy relations are part and parcel of Middle East politics, even arrogant superpowers can find themselves exploited, wittingly or not."

By Justin Raimondo

"......We do face what McCain calls "a terrible choice": the choice between a mere disaster and a full-fledged regional (even global) catastrophe. We can leave, and cut our losses, or stay and provoke a wider war. McCain has made his choice: and the majority of Americans, I am glad to say, have made another choice entirely. Now it remains to be seen if we can stay out of a war with Iran until President Bush leaves office, and about that I'm not making any bets one way or the other. One thing we can bet on, however, and you can take this prediction to the bank: if John McCain ever makes it to the Oval Office as anything other than a visitor, we'll be at war with Iran in a matter of months.

McCain never met a war he didn't support: he is a militarist to his very bones. Combine this with his explosive temperament, and the near-dictatorial powers of the President when it comes to foreign policy, and you have a very volatile mixture."

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"DAMASCUS - There are three overlapping wars in Iraq: the Sunni Arab guerrilla struggle against the US; strands of Sunni Arab guerrillas against assorted Shi'ite militias/death squads; and al-Qaeda in Iraq against the puppet, US-backed Iraqi government in the Green Zone. Make it four wars: the Sunni Arab guerrilla war against the government inside the Green Zone. Better yet, make it five wars: the Sadrists, from Sadr City to Kufa and Najaf, against the Americans.

All strands of these five overlapping wars will never allow the United States - or Anglo-American Big Oil - to control Iraq's oil wealth. Even if the new oil law is ratified by Parliament before June, implementation will be a certified nightmare, and security for billions of dollars of necessary investment non-existent......

In the last chapter of my book Globalistan - titled "Condofornia vs Slumistan" - I argue that the future now revolves around the tension between gated communities and unruly slums, "secure environments" and black waves of anger. Wherever both meet - from Baghdad to Sao Paulo - we may see endless replays of Black Hawk Down.

The Baghdad gulag is a Pentagon-enforced Condofornia imposed over an Arab Slumistan. Let no one be fooled: it's being conducted as a technical experiment, with live Iraqis as guinea pigs, and is bound to be replicated in other areas of the Pentagon-created "arc of instability" from the Andes to the Horn of Africa to Arabia to Central Asia........

The Sunni Arab muqawama (resistance) has already celebrated the arrival of the Baghdad gulag - by attacking the heart of the system itself, the Green Zone. The bomb that exploded on Thursday in the cafeteria of the Baghdad Convention Center - which houses the Iraqi Parliament, inside the Green Zone - was yet another crystal-clear message: we can strike you as we please, and where we please......

Crucially, this would mean no passing of the Holy of Holies, the new Iraqi oil law. It's also an open secret in Baghdad - as well as among Iraqi refugees in Damascus - that the Bush administration's now famous "June deadline" to the Maliki government is only about oil. If the oil law is not approved by then, "all options are on the table", and that means a white coup with the reinstallation of former Central Intelligence Agency asset, former interim prime minister, former "butcher of Fallujah" Iyad Allawi, whose main task would be ... to get the oil law approved......"

The Independent

(A lousy article but has some truth)

".......The other risk is that any remaining confidence that the Americans are able to keep their allies safe will be undermined. Inside the "green zone" are not just the Iraqi parliament and many US military and diplomatic facilities. The "zone" is also home to many Iraq government offices and foreign representations; several thousand Iraqis live there. If the "zone" is seen to be vulnerable, all trust in the possibility of order spreading out from there to the rest of Baghdad will evaporate. The spectre of a Saigon-style retreat from Baghdad will be harder and harder to dispel.

This is the ninth week of the US "surge". More and more American and Iraqi soldiers are to be seen on Baghdad streets, as the attempt to crack down on the violence gains pace. The greater visibility of US troops, which is an integral part of the strategy, automatically makes them more vulnerable. It is probably inevitable that, even as the number of violent incidents has declined, US military casualties have increased.

For the strategy to work, it must do much more than multiply armed patrols. It must convince Iraqis that law and order can be restored, not just now but in the longer term. It is not just about deterring gunmen and bombers; it is about instilling confidence in the authorities' prospects of success and reducing support for militant sectarianism. The US "surge" already seemed to be in trouble; yesterday's bombing showed that the citadel could be breached. If and when the US abandons Iraq, this day will mark the beginning of that end."

***

The "ink blot" strategy is working in reverse: Instead of the "ink blots" getting larger, they are shrinking!

Surge
By Martin Rowson, The Guardian

By John Pilger

Global Research, April 12, 2007

"In a cover piece for the New Statesman, John Pilger evokes the memory of Germans 'looking from the side' at Bergen-Belsen to describe the challenge facing us in the West as the Bush/Blair 'long war' becomes 'perhaps the greatest crisis of modern times'.

The Israeli journalist Amira Hass describes the moment her mother, Hannah, was marched from a cattle train to the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. “They were sick and some were dying,” she says. “Then my mother saw these German women looking at the prisoners, just looking. This image became very formative in my upbringing, this despicable ‘looking from the side’.”

It is time we in Britain and other Western countries stopped looking from the side. We are being led towards perhaps the most serious crisis in modern history as the Bush-Cheney-Blair “long war” edges closer to Iran for no reason other than that nation’s independence from rapacious America. The safe delivery of the 15 British sailors into the hands of Rupert Murdoch and his rivals (with tales of their “ordeal” almost certainly authored by the Ministry of Defence – until it got the wind up) is both a farce and a distraction. The Bush administration, in secret connivance with Blair, has spent four years preparing for “Operation Iranian Freedom”. Forty-five cruise missiles are primed to strike. According to Russia’s leading strategic thinker General Leonid Ivashov: “Nuclear facilities will be secondary targets... at least 20 such facilities need to be destroyed. Combat nuclear weapons may be used. This will result in the radioactive contamination of all the Iranian territory, and beyond.”

And yet there is a surreal silence, save for the noise of “news” in which our powerful broadcasters gesture cryptically at the obvious but dare not make sense of it, lest the one-way moral screen erected between us and the consequences of an imperial foreign policy collapse and the truth be revealed. John Bolton, formerly Bush’s man at the United Nations, recently spelled out the truth: that the Bush-Cheney-Blair plan for the Middle East is “an agenda to maintain division and ethnic tension". In other words, bloodshed and chaos equals control. He was referring to Iraq, but he also meant Iran......

....As with Henry Kissinger and Donald Rumsfeld, who dare not travel to certain countries for fear of being prosecuted as war criminals, Blair as a private citizen may no longer be untouchable. On 20 March, Baltasar Garzón, the tenacious Spanish judge who pursued Augusto Pinochet, called for indictments against those responsible for “one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history” – Iraq. Five days later, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to which Britain is a signatory, said that Blair could one day face war-crimes charges.

These are critical changes in the way the sane world thinks – again, thanks to the Reich of Blair and Bush. However, we live in the most dangerous of times. On 6 April, Blair accused “elements of the Iranian regime” of “backing, financing, arming and supporting terrorism in Iraq”. He offered no evidence, and the Ministry of Defence has none. This is the same Goebbels-like refrain with which he and his coterie, Gordon Brown included, brought an epic bloodletting to Iraq. How long will the rest of us continue looking from the side?"

"........Meanwhile, for the first time on Thursday, Hamas extremists openly demonstrated against the leadership of the group.

A group of nearly 200 gunmen from the military wing of Hamas and the Executive Force demonstrated in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip against the unity government and declared that they will only abide by orders from the former foreign and interior ministers, Mahmoud Al-Zahar and Said Sayam.

Another reason for the mutiny revolves around disputes over the identity of the Palestinian prisoners on a list provided to Israel recently, for a possible exchange for the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Some of the demonstrators argued that the list of prisoners was prepared by those prisoners' relatives.

A meeting scheduled Wednesday between Nizar Riyan, a senior figure in the political leadership of Hamas, and members of the "rebels" ended with an exchange of gunfire near Riyan's home.

According to security sources, Hamas has adopted a strategy of duality, which will be maintained under all circumstances, including a situation of a general cease-fire. On the basis of this strategy, a Palestinian organization will continue violent activities against Israel notwithstanding a cease-fire.

This was a similar strategy used by Yasser Arafat, who committed the PLO in agreements to preserve cease-fires, but was always careful to retain his ties with extremist organizations that would continue their terrorist activities against Israel......"

"JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are getting newer bases at home and more advanced training abroad for an expanded security role that could put them on a collision course with militants.

Abbas's call over the weekend for his security forces to help prevent rocket attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip opened a new rift with Hamas and exposed the policy differences that underlie their month-old coalition government.

Western and Palestinian officials said Abbas's goal was to create a Palestinian "gendarmerie," a force trained in military tactics that operates in civilian areas and is capable of carrying out police duties, restoring law and order, and enforcing any existing and future agreements with Israel.

In addition to basic training conducted at facilities in the West Bank city of Jericho and the Gaza Strip, about 500 men loyal to Abbas's Fatah faction recently crossed from Gaza into Egypt for more advanced instruction in police tactics, Western security officials said.

Hundreds of members of Abbas's presidential guard will take similar courses in the coming months at a facility in Jordan as part of a $59.4 million U.S. security program that received a green light from Congress this week......

Palestinian sources say Dahlan was personally coordinating the training programs and seeking additional assistance. A European Union police training program, largely frozen after Hamas came to power in March 2006, may be restarted with a focus on forces under Dahlan's control, European diplomats said......

"The main division between Abbas and Hamas is the mission of the security forces," said Mohammad Yaghi, a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy and a columnist for the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam.

"Hamas wants the security forces to be part of the national struggle with Israel. Abbas and Dahlan want the security forces to be part of implementing any agreement with Israel," he said.

Mouin Rabbani, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Hamas may be nearing a strategic turning point......"

***

This Palestinian "unity" is like the unity of oil and water.

** A Probably Accurate Assessment **

".....According to the defense establishment's current assessment of Hamas, the movement has split into three central groups, the first led by Khaled Mashaal, the exiled political leader based in Damascus. Mashaal, a senior defense official noted Wednesday, recently made a strategic decision to "lower his profile" as part of an effort to disguise himself as a moderate.

"Mashaal's ultimate goal is to take over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and become the next Yasser Arafat and become the supreme Palestinian leader," the official said. The official added that Mashaal's attempt to turn into a pragmatist was part of a "devious plot" and that he had not really abandoned his radical anti-Israel views.

The second group is spearheading the revolt within the movement and is led by former interior minister Said Siam, former foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar and former Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. The three enjoy the backing of many Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip, including members of Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam.

The "rejectionists" - as they are called - accuse Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Mashaal of betraying Hamas voters by agreeing to form a coalition with Fatah. They argue that the Mecca agreement is nothing but a plot designed to remove Hamas from power. Both Siam and Zahar have privately criticized Haniyeh as well as Mashaal for signing the agreement.

The rejectionists are also worried that to retain their positions, Haniyeh and Mashaal are prepared to sacrifice Hamas's ideology. For them, the political platform of the new coalition, which accepts the Arab peace plan of 2002 and UN resolutions regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict, is an indication that Hamas has abandoned its radical ideology.

"Their major fear is that Hamas will do what the PLO did in 1993, when it recognized the two-state solution and launched peace talks with Israel," said one of Haniyeh's top aides. "The unity government has created many problems among the leaders of Hamas, but we hope that this will not lead to a split.".....

The third group in Hamas is the most radical and is believed by Israel to be behind the drafting of the list of prisoners who the Palestinians have demanded be released in exchange for Schalit. This group is based in the Gaza Strip and is led by Ahmed Jaabri - the Hamas "Chief of Staff" in Gaza - believed to have directed and carried out Schalit's abduction in June.

"There is a split inside Hamas," Fatah legislator Jamal Tirawi, who represents the Nablus district in the Palestinian Legislative Council, said. "Siam, Zahar and Abu Zuhri represent the radical trend, while Haniyeh and Mashaal belong to the moderate side."......"

***

Well, it appears that we have not one, but two Habilas. Double celebration is called for, no?

By Patrick Cockburn

"Nowhere is safe. Insurgents struck in the heart of the Green Zone yesterday, one of the most heavily defended places in Baghdad. The symbolism - and the bloody message - was clear with this attack on the home to the US-imposed democracy.

A suicide bomber cleared at least eight rings of security to blow himself up in the Iraqi parliament, killing eight people including three lawmakers as they were eating lunch. It was the most deadly attack mounted from within the Green Zone.

In a separate attack, the Iraqi capital was cut in two as one of the main bridges over the Tigris was blown up earlier in the day.

The Green Zone bombing was not only an assault on democracy. It was intended to undermine President George Bush's troop "surge", which is denounced as a sham by so many Iraqis......

The bombing is likely to increase scepticism that the two-month old American campaign to get control of Baghdad, the "surge", is achieving very much.

The suicide bombing is one of the most dramatic demonstrations of the extent to which the Sunni insurgents have infiltrated the government's own security apparatus. Other recent examples include the serious wounding of the deputy prime minister Salam al-Zubaie on 23 March by a bomber who got near him with the connivance of his own bodyguards......

The sensitivity of the US and the Iraqi government to the breach in security was apparent because all television cameras and video tapes showing the immediate aftermath of the blast were confiscated and handed to US authorities.......

Of the three members of parliament to die, two were from Sunni parties and one from the Shia alliance. Khalaf al-Ilyan, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Accordance Front, said the explosion "underlines the failure of the government security plan."

"The plan is 100 per cent a failure," said Mr al-Ilyan. "It's a complete flop. The explosion means instability and the lack of security has reached the Green Zone, which the government boasts is heavily fortified.".....

The US is gradually increasing its forces to 173,000 by sending in five new brigades as part of the new security plan. But there is little sign the additional troops are altering the political and military balance in Iraq. The Sunni rebellion is continuing and is still highly effective....."

"JERUSALEM - Sameh Amira was fast asleep when he was jolted awake by pounding at the front door. Israeli troops were on a manhunt for wanted militants in the West Bank and decided to draft help.

The terror-stricken 24-year-old Palestinian soon found himself forced onto the front lines of Israel's shadowy war against militants, a human shield as he led heavily armed soldiers from house to house. "I was afraid I would die," he said in a recent interview.

For several years, Palestinians had complained about the army's use of human shields, but proof was difficult to come by. Then in late February, Associated Press Television News captured footage of the incident involving Amira.

The video has prompted the army to launch a rare criminal investigation into whether its soldiers violated a landmark Israeli Supreme Court 2005 ruling barring the use of human shields. Others, including an 11-year-old girl, have been emboldened to come forward with similar accounts of being compelled to walk ahead of soldiers looking for militants.

International law, including the Geneva Conventions and Hague regulations, prohibits placing civilians in harm's way during military operations......"

(Video) Peace activist films IDF soldiers ordering two Palestinian youths to stand in front of their vehicle to prevent locals from stoning it

Ali Waked Published: 04.12.07, 21:20 / Israel News

Caught on Tape

"VIDEO - Despite repeated promises by the Israel Defense Forces not to make use of Palestinian civilians as ‘human shields’ during its activity in the territories, troops operating in Nablus were filmed ordering two Palestinian youths to stand in front of their vehicle to protect it from stones thrown by locals."

Click Here to Watch Video

Kurt Vonnegut: Bush and Hitler Different

"Add lefty literary luminary Kurt Vonnegut to the list of notables who think comparing President Bush to Hitler is the trendy thing to do these days.

According to the Columbus Free Press, Vonnegut was speaking at Ohio State University earlier this week when he offered his insights on the Bush presidency.

"I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president,” the "Slaughterhouse Five" author opined.

Without elaborating on that insult, Vonnegut quickly segued into his next anti-Bush blast: "The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected."......"

"......U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the attack was carried out by those "who wish to stop the Iraqi people having a future that would be based on democracy and stability."

She said the Baghdad security plan was in its early stages and "we have said there will be good days and bad days."........

A witness said the blast appeared to take place inside a restaurant inside the building at a time when many members of parliament were having lunch.

The parliament building is located in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.

One of the dead lawmakers was Mohammed Awad, a member of the Sunni National Dialogue Front, said Saleh al-Mutlaq, the leader of the party, which holds 11 seats in Iraq's legislature. A female Sunni lawmaker from the same list was wounded, he said.

A security official at the parliament building said identified a second lawmaker killed in the blast as a Shiite MP. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

But Mukhlis al-Zamili of the Shiite Fadhila party said the second dead lawmaker was a Kurd. And he said six of those wounded were members of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc.......

Earlier, a truck bomb killed at least seven people on a key bridge in northern Baghdad, destroying most of the steel structure and sending several cars plunging into the River Tigris below, police said.

Two main sections of the Sarafiya bridge, a main artery linking east and west Baghdad, collapsed into the river. One army officer on the scene said explosive charges might have also been used to bring down a bridge that local residents said was built by the British in the early 1900s.

Among the dead were four policemen who drowned after their car toppled into the river's muddy waters, police said......."

General view of the destroyed bridge after a bomb attack in Baghdad April 12, 2007. A big truck bomb killed at least eight people on a bridge in Baghdad on Thursday, destroying parts of the steel structure and sending several cars plunging into the Tigris River below, Iraqi police said. (REUTERS)

***

More work for Kellogg Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton). I wonder if the bomber was a "contractor" working for their DESTRUCTION Division.


Boots with the blood stains of an Iraqi soldier, who was killed in the bomb attack on the Sarafiya Bridge, are seen near shattered glass at the entrance of a hospital in Baghdad April 12, 2007 (Reuters)

U.S. defense secretary to visit Israel

HAARETZ

"WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit Israel next week for a series of meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz on the strategic situation in the Middle East.

The visit, scheduled for April 17, is the first time a U.S. Defense Secretary will be visiting Israel in eight years.

American sources told Haaretz on Tuesday that the visit was decided and a date finalized, though an official announcement on the matter has not been made public.

The visit, which comes about a month after Peretz visited Washington, will also deal with bilateral defense ties between the U.S. and Israel......

Gates' main mission at this point is to oversea the renewed effort to stabilize Iraq, in light of President George Bush's decision to increase the number of U.S. troops in that country.

American sources told Haaretz yesterday that Gates is interested in hearing what the Israeli leadership thinks about the situation in Iraq. He is also planning to discuss tactics for dealing with the IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) employed by terrorists in Iraq, which have taken a toll on U.S. forces......"

(Click on map to enlarge)

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"....The White House and the State Department insist Syria allows and/or encourages jihadis to cross its border into Iraq - going as far as stating that 90% of the suicide bombers in Iraq have crossed from Syria. They seem to ignore Colonel William Crowe, the Pentagon official in charge of all those Americans on the Iraqi side of the border, who has said, on the record, that there is "no large influx of foreign fighters".

Moreover, "Damascus" has repeatedly confirmed that most of the 724km-long border has been fitted with barbed wire and reinforced sand barriers - and no fewer than 1,500 potential jihadis have been captured or deported.

But the fact is that any enterprising jihadi with geographical positioning and minimal tribal connections could cross this border at will. In theory, "Damascus", from President Bashar al-Assad on down, is interested in combating smuggling and jihadi traffic. The devil is in the details - how the Syrian police/military hierarchy actually deals with the problem.

For starters, Syrian business is in the hands of a powerful Sunni oligarchy. Its members will obviously be tempted to lend a hand to their Sunni muqawama (resistance) brothers in the east. Syrian military forces at wasteland border points - as in Attanf - consist of no more than a few bored men with rifles. Corruption is the norm. Evading surveillance is a matter of walking a few kilometers in the desert.

Historically, Iran, Iraq and Syria were united by the Silk Road. Attanf, for instance, is not very far from fabled Palmyra. The interaction has never ceased. Nowadays we may be seeing a new Silk Road pipeline - not only of men, ideas and commerce but also of weapons. Whatever comes from Iran has to pass through Iraq and Syria to reach Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Palestine (Hamas). Same for Sunni solidarity with Iraq, expressed through men, ideas, commerce or weapons from either Lebanon or Syria.

Accusing Syria of being a suicide-bomber factory is nonsense. The majority of suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudis, and they cross from US ally Saudi Arabia. Syria, since the fall of Baghdad four years ago, may have witnessed an inflation of Islamists, nationalists and former Ba'ath supporters of Saddam Hussein.

For the Syrian government, having its own Islamists crossing the border to fight the Americans in Iraq has always sounded like a good idea: a way of sweeping a problem under someone else's carpet. But to imply that Syria has become a sanctuary of Islamic fundamentalists and radical Ba'athists at the same time is also nonsense......."

The widespread doubts within U.S. military and intelligence circles that George W. Bush’s Iraq War “surge” can succeed were underscored when one of the plan’s architects, retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, was one of three generals to rebuff a White House offer of a new job dubbed “war czar.”

By Robert Parry

"In December, Keane and neoconservative scholar Frederick Kagan promoted the idea of a U.S. military escalation in Iraq as an alternative to the growing consensus in favor of a phased withdrawal of Amercan combat forces.

At the time, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group was advocating a troop drawdown combined with a stronger commitment to training Iraqi forces and renewed talks with Iraq’s neighbors. But Bush bristled at the implied criticism of his work as “war president,” declaring: “This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it whatsoever.”

Bush countered the momentum behind the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations by latching onto the Keane-Kagan “surge” idea. When the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the two commanders then overseeing the Iraq War, Generals John Abizaid and George Casey, resisted the “surge,” Bush ousted Abizaid and Casey and overruled the Pentagon brass.......

.....The American people “don’t want politicians in Washington telling our generals how to fight a war,” Bush said at an April 3 press briefing, scolding congressional Democrats for seeking a gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The polite Washington press corps rarely notes that Bush was the politician in Washington “telling our generals how to fight a war,” that he simply removed senior commanders who disagreed with him.

It now appears that Bush is even having trouble finding a retired military leader to become “war czar.” Not even the guy who helped invent the “surge” wants the job."

The escalating attacks are not usually aimed at civilians, but are a direct response to the brutal actions of US-led troops

Haifa Zangana
Thursday April 12, 2007
The Guardian

"In Muqdadiyah, 50 miles from Baghdad, a woman wearing a traditional Iraqi abaya blew herself up this week in the midst of Iraqi police recruits. This was the seventh suicide attack by a women since the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, and an act unheard of before that. Iraqi women are driven to despair and self-destruction by grief. Their expectations are reduced to pleas for help to clear the bodies of the dead from the streets, according to a report by the international committee of the Red Cross, released yesterday. It's the same frustration that drew hundreds of thousands to demonstrate against foreign forces in Najaf on Monday.

In the fifth year of occupation, the sectarian and ethnic divide between politicians, parties and their warring militias has become monstrous, turning on its creators in the Green Zone and beyond, and not sparing ordinary people. One of the consequences is a major change in the public role of women......

.....There is only one solution to this disaster, and that is for the US and Britain to accept that the Iraqi resistance is fighting to end the occupation. And to acknowlege that it consists of ordinary Iraqis, not only al-Qaida, not just Sunnis or Shias, not those terrorists - as Tony Blair called them - inspired by neighbouring countries such as Iran. To recognise that Iraqis are proud, peace-loving people, and that they hate occuption, not each other. And to understand that the main targets of the resistance are not Iraqi civilians. According to Brookings, the independent US research institute, 75% of recorded attacks are directed at occupation forces, and a further 17% at Iraqi government forces. The average number of attacks has more than doubled in the past year to about 185 a day. That is 1,300 a week, and more than 5,500 a month.

Another way of understanding this is that in any one hour, day or night, there are seven or eight new attacks. Without the Iraqi people's support, directly and indirectly, this level of resistance would not have happened."

Breaking News

"A major explosion ripped through the Iraqi parliament building in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone today, witnesses and officials said.
The blast - feared to have caused many casualties - appeared to have targeted a restaurant in the building at a time when many MPs and other staff were eating lunch, a witness told Reuters.

Separately, an Iraqi parliament official told the Associated Press that an explosion had happened at the parliament, inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

The apparent attack happened hours after a blast severely damaged one of the main road bridges in north Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and sending cars into the River Tigris below......."

***

Where is John McCain when you need him?

Abed Rabbo: Israel focusses discussion on formalities, not vital issues

"Gaza - Ma'an - Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo has played down the importance of the meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday.

Abed Rabbo told Palestinian radio that the meeting will be between the two men only. He said that Olmert is promoting the idea of a third party being present in the meeting but Abed Rabbo said this will not make the meeting any more fruitful. He said that Olmert is trying to make the presence of a third party a public relations issue more than anything else......."

Food for Thought

By Kurt Nimmo

"It is sincerely mysterious “al-Qaeda” has a knack of showing up in places targeted by the neocons. For instance, Africa, in particular Somalia and, more recently, Algeria. “Terrorist bomb attacks in Algeria yesterday show al-Qaeda and its allies pose a ‘very real threat’ in North Africa, the U.S. State Department said,” reports Bloomberg. “Al-Qaeda is a ‘current and persistent’ threat in the region, department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington yesterday…. Islamic militants are becoming more active in North Africa, particularly in the Maghreb region of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria where they have joined forces with al-Qaeda.”

Does AFRICOM ring a bell? It should, that is if you bother to read the newspaper beyond horoscopes and celebrity gossip. Back in February, Defense Secretary Robert “Iran-Contra” Gates “announced the creation of AFRICOM, which will ultimately be responsible for all of Africa except Egypt, which has existing military ties with U.S. Central Command,” according to Stars and Stripes. “AFRICOM’s purpose is to make Africa the primary concern of one combatant command instead of a ’secondary or tertiary’ concern for three other commands.” In other words, the neocons have a keen interest in expanding the WOT into Africa......."

The head of the International Red Cross in Tehran says he saw wounds on an Iranian diplomat who has alleged that US forces in Iraq tortured him.

BBC

"Peter Stoeker said there were marks on Jalal Sharafi's feet, legs, back and nose but he was unable to say if they were the result of torture.

Iranian media quoted Mr Sharafi saying the CIA tortured him "day and night".

Mr Sharafi was abducted in Iraq in February and released last week......

Mr Sharafi, second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, says he was kidnapped by Iraqi agents operating under the supervision of the CIA.

Iranian state media has quoted Mr Sharafi saying the CIA subjected him to torture as they questioned him about Iranian assistance to groups inside Iraq.

'Evidence of torture'

Iranian television has shown pictures of Mr Sharafi receiving treatment in hospital and quotes a doctor's report saying there are signs someone drilled holes in his feet as well as broke his nose, injured his ear and wounded his neck and back.

The ICRC's Mr Stoeker said he had been happy to meet Mr Sharafi in hospital because his organisation had been unable to find him in Iraq.

He confirmed he saw wounds on Mr Sharafi's feet, legs, back and nose but, not being a doctor, he was unable to say if they were the result of torture and if so, who inflicted them......"

Al-Manar

"11/04/2007 Hezbollah deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Kassem said that Washington is waging a covert war against Hezbollah which accuses the US administration of arming militias in Lebanon and seeking to undermine the Lebanese army in moves which could plunge the country back into civil war. In an interview with the Guardian, Sheikh Kassem said that US Vice President Dick Cheney has given orders for a covert war against Hezbollah...there is now an American program that is using Lebanon to further its goals in the region. The accusation follows reports in the US and British media that the CIA has been authorized to take covert action against the Hezbollah as part of wider strategy by the Bush administration to prevent what it terms as the spread of Iranian influence in the region. But Hezbollah accused the Lebanese government of arming groups across the country. "This happens with the knowledge of Fouad Saniora and is facilitated by the security forces under his command," said Sheikh Kassem. The Hezbollah deputy Secretary General accused Washington of foiling attempts by the Lebanese government and the opposition to reach a compromise to solve the ongoing political crisis in the country. "We think that if it wasn't for America's interference, we would have resolved the issue of participating in the government a long time ago," he said. "America is forcing the government forces to prolong this crisis, because they want a price for it... They want to tie Lebanon into negotiations that benefit Israel and their plan for a new Middle East." Sheikh Kassem said Hezbollah did not rule out another confrontation with Israel this summer: "We are prepared for the possibility of another adventure or the demand of American policy that might push the Israeli army in that direction.""

An Important Story

Al-Manar

"11/04/2007 Al-Manar TV special - Manar Sabbagh - Translated /
The Jordanian daily "Al-Wihda" quoted what it described as well informed sources as saying that a group of the Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces (LF) and MP Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) are receiving 3-week military training in special camps in Israel. On the 20th of March, Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri unveiled "a phenomena of arming and training in some Lebanese regions," warning against sedition in the country. A Palestinian internet site in lands occupied in 1948 quoted the Jordanian daily as saying that this is the third batch of militiamen to arrive in Israel, coming by air from European countries with passports but without visas. It added that four Lebanese LF and PSP officials accompanied the groups and returned back to Beirut via Paris, which according to the daily, is aware of the ongoing trainings. Prominent American journalist Seymour Hersh said in his most recent study that an Israeli-American crew is overseeing Washington and Tel Aviv's relation with some groups in Lebanon, and that the crew had instructed the leaderships of these groups to execute a plot that would blow up the situation in Lebanon. This came as Hezbollah's deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Kassem told the Guardian daily about a secret American covert war against the party, through arming anti-Hezbollah militias in Lebanon."

Israel must withdraw for peace with 1 billion Muslims, King Abdullah II of Jordan tells AFP

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - Jordan's King Abdullah II urged Israel to end its occupation of Arab land to guarantee peaceful coexistence with the world's Muslims in an interview with Agence France Press (AFP) on Tuesday.

"Israel, the European states, and the United States should realize that the Palestinian issue does not only concern the Palestinians but also has the sympathy of all Muslims from Indonesia to the Maghreb states," he said.

"If Israel wants to coexist with more than 1 billion Muslims, it should end its occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands." ......"

***

Not ending the occupation was not an obstacle for his rotten majesty to establish and keep full relations with Israel and even become an ally and an enthusiastic supporter; these were the American instructions to their agent. The same instructions to the rest of the agents (including the Saudis) will be obeyed. All talk about "peace initiatives" and end of occupation is just a smokescreen.

Cartoon by Mr. Fish (click on it to enlarge)
Contributed by Datta

[Notice the name, FULAYTER = F.U. later?]

by Nicola Nasser

Global Research, April 11, 2007

".......The security chaos was highlighted by the kidnapping of BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, 44, in Gaza city on March 12th, in the longest captivity a foreign journalist has endured in Gaza over the past three years. The Dogmush family, who is thought to have a militia of about 2,000 men, is suspected of abducting him and was blamed for the abduction of two Fox TV journalists held for two weeks last summer; the family denied these accusations. “This has become a country of mafia,” said Hani Habeeb, a sociologist with Gaza's al-Azhar University......

But there remains the overall violence-breeding incubator of the prevailing security chaos.

First, the blurred national role of the PA security apparatus is eroding public confidence in this role. Externally what is the point in having more than 80,000 of national security personnel when they could not stand up to the IOF to defend their people or at least make their daily onslaughts with a price? Internally, according to Hassan Khraisheh, deputy speaker of the PLC, “What's the point in having 85,000 security officers if they can't free a foreign journalist who has been held in the Gaza Strip for three weeks?” The PA has become the most heavily policed territory in the world, with an officer-to-resident ratio of 1:50; compared to 1:400 in the United States, according to one estimate.

Second, disarming all but the government is a security prerogative, but it will not certainly be a very popular move by the PA to disarm people of personal and overwhelmingly primitive self-defence weapons while they are still under Israeli occupation and their “national” security forces are practically unable and politically committed not to defend them against the ongoing military incursions, extra-judicial assassinations (dubbed by the Israelis “targeted killings”), house demolitions and mass arrests.

Third, the absence of what the US Administration and PA officials have been recently fond of describing as “political horizon,” the deadlocked “vision” of a two-state solution, Israel’s undermining of the Road Map and her rejection of the Arab Peace Initiative are all factors contributing to a destabilizing no-war-no-peace situation that is playing on an already edgy Palestinian nerves and their collective sense of insecurity......."

Hamas questions US motives behind $60m aid pledge to presidential security; Fayyad calls for $1.3 billion in PA aid

"The Hamas movement has criticized the United States Congress' decision to give financial aid to the Palestinian presidential security forces and cover expenses for other security purposes.

A spokesman of the movement issued a statement in which he said, "The US administration does not work for the good of the Palestinian people."

"It is always biased towards the Israelis and their colonialist plans, and that is why such aid to the presidential security bodies must have bad intentions."......

The US Congress authorized on Monday $60m in funds to improve the state of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security staff, Reuters news agency reported.

The funds are expected to be spent on Abbas' presidential guard, security at border crossings and equipment.

"This has also been done with Israeli agreement and understanding," the US State Department official was quoted by Reuters as saying......

The Hamas spokesman added in his statement, "The presidency should explain its position in terms of this latest aid, which is a suspicious aid." He also said, "It aims to contain the resistance and service the Israeli army".

The statement confirmed, "If the US administration cares about the Palestinian people, they would have ended the siege, released the Palestinian money in the banks".

The spokesman also said that "the ministry of finance is the address that the money should be transferred to; sending the money to anywhere else is suspicious and raises a lot of questions."......"

***

HAMAS should be celebrating the "gift" of $60 millions to strengthen "Brother Abu Mazen." He is its partner in the "unity government" after all is said and done. HAMAS is just blowing smoke in our eyes to make us believe that their position is different from that of the Usraeli stooge. It is trying to have its cake and eat it too; this is an old and transparent game. This will lead to plummeting trust in HAMAS. If it is serious about having a different program from that of the stooge, then it will have to dissolve the PA and refuse to be a partner with a traitor.

Enough game playing, HAMAS!

"Ramallah - Ma'an - Amid the fierce Israeli campaign against the member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bishara, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, another Arab member of the Knesset, Wasil Taha, told Ma'an News Agency that, "We know that there is a programmed campaign planned by the Israeli intelligence and security establishment against the [Palestinian] national movement and its leaders inside Israel."

Speaking to our correspondent in Ramallah, Taha described how the National Democratic Assembly (NDA) and Dr Bishara, like all other parties and national leaders defending the Palestinian citizens' rights, criticize the state of Israel and struggle to make the Israeli state a state for all its citizens and not only for its Jewish citizens. "This trend is annoying the [Israeli] security establishment," Taha said.

Taha added that former Israeli minister of education Shulamit Aloni said previously that the Israeli establishment were preparing all the files needed to accuse Bishara.

Taha also said that the Israeli intelligence agency, the Shin Bet/ Shabak, and the statements they make in regard to the Arab citizens of Israel, reflect the fact that they consider the Arab citizens as more dangerous than a nuclear bomb inside Israel."

By Tom Toles

By Noam Chomsky

AsiaTimes

"......This "debate" is a typical illustration of a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed - or else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less concern. In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy. The cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.

The debate over Iranian interference in Iraq proceeds without ridicule on the assumption that the United States owns the world. We did not, for example, engage in a similar debate in the 1980s about whether the US was interfering in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and I doubt that Pravda, probably recognizing the absurdity of the situation, sank to outrage about that fact (which American officials and the US media, in any case, made no effort to conceal). Perhaps the official Nazi press also featured solemn debates about whether the Allies were interfering in sovereign Vichy France, though if so, sane people would then have collapsed in ridicule......

These facts suggest a possible way to prevent the current crisis from exploding, perhaps even into some version of World War III. That awesome threat might be averted by pursuing a familiar proposal: democracy promotion - this time at home in the United States, where it is badly needed......

Democracy promotion at home, while no panacea, would be a useful step toward helping the United States become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international order (to adopt the term used for adversaries), instead of being an object of fear and dislike throughout much of the world. Apart from being a value in itself, functioning democracy at home holds real promise for dealing constructively with many current problems, international and domestic, including those that literally threaten the survival of our species."

ناجي علوش

"هل هناك إمكانية لسلام بين العرب والكيان الصهيوني؟ هذا موضوع مختلف فيه، لا من أيام منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية فحسب، بل من قبل ذلك، في أيام الهيئة العربية العليا والحاج أمين الحسيني.

فقد انفجر الخلاف بين المجلسيين والمعارضين عام 1936، حين كان المجلسيون بزعامة الحاج أمين الحسيني مع الثورة واستخدام السلاح، وكان المعارضون وعلى رأسهم راغب النشاشيبي والمحامي أحمد صدقي الدجاني ولويس شحادة صاحب جريدة "مرآة الشرق"، ضد الثورة.

واشتد الصراع حتى قامت حركة اغتيالات اغتيل فيها النشاشيبي وأحمد صدقي الدجاني، لأنهم كانوا يدعون إلى التفاهم مع الإنجليز واستتباعا عمليا مع الصهيونيين.

وعندما طرحت قضية التسوية والحل المرحلي بعد 37 عاما في 1973، أثار نايف حواتمة الموضوع ولام الحاج أمين الحسيني لأنه لم يتجه إلى التسوية.

وكان من رأي حواتمة أن الحاج أمين أخطأ لأنه لو اتجه إلى التسوية لكانت هناك دولة فلسطينية اليوم، ولما كان شعبنا الفلسطيني في الشتات.

ونرى من الضروري أن نعود إلى المشكلة وأن نسأل: هل كانت حقا ثمة إمكانية لسلام؟

ونحن نقول لا إمكانية لسلام بين العرب والصهاينة، لا لأن العرب لا يريدون سلاما، بل لأن فهم القيادات الصهيونية للسلام مختلف عن فهم العرب له، وكان ذلك هو موقف بريطانيا، ثم الآن الولايات المتحدة ومن يأخذ برأيها.

فكل ما طرح من مشاريع للتسوية، بما في ذلك تقسيم 1947 كان استدراجا للتنازلات الفلسطينية والعربية، وإعطاء الشرعية للهجرة الصهيونية وقيام الكيان الصهيوني، بينما كان قادة المشروع الصهيوني يرون أن الكيان "الدولة" لا يقوم إلا باغتصاب الأرض وتهجير السكان، لأن قرار التقسيم لم يكن قابلا للتطبيق، إذ كيف تقوم دولة يهودية أغلب أرضها ملك للعرب وأغلب سكانها من العرب.

والسلام بالنسبة للولايات المتحدة ليس سلاما بين العرب والكيان الصهيوني، بل هو سلام أميركي يفرض على العرب والوطن العربي كله. ولو كان الموضوع يتعلق بالفلسطينيين لكان الأمر سهلا.
.......
........"

· Cheney sanctioned covert operations, says leader
· Militant group does not rule out clashes with Israel

Clancy Chassay in Beirut
Wednesday April 11, 2007
The Guardian

"Washington is waging a covert war against Hizbullah, according to the militant group, which accuses the US administration of arming anti-Hizbullah militias and seeking to undermine the Lebanese army in moves which could plunge the country back into civil war. "Dick Cheney [US vice president] has given orders for a covert war against Hizbullah...there is now an American programme that is using Lebanon to further its goals in the region," Sheikh Naim Qasim, Hizbullah's deputy secretary general, told the Guardian in an interview in a safe house deep in Beirut's Hizbullah-controlled southern suburbs......

But Hizbullah accused the Lebanese government of arming groups across the country. "This happens with the knowledge of the prime minister and is facilitated by the security forces under his command," said Sheikh Qasim......

Sheikh Qasim rejected the accusation, claiming Washington had scuppered attempts by the Lebanese government and the Hizbullah-led opposition to reach a compromise. "We think that if it wasn't for America's interference, we would have resolved the issue of participating in the government a long time ago," he said.

"America is forcing the government forces to prolong this crisis, because they want a price for it... They want to tie Lebanon into negotiations that benefit Israel and their plan for a new Middle East."......

Sheikh Qasim said Hizbullah did not rule out another confrontation with Israel this summer and confirmed that the group was rearming: "We are prepared for the possibility of another adventure or the demand of American policy that might push the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] in that direction.""

by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, April 9, 2007

"In a timely decision, Azerbaijan recently (mid-March) granted NATO the permission to use two of its military bases and an airport to "back up its peace-keeping operation in Afghanistan" including support for NATO's "supply route to Afghanistan". NATO's special envoy Robert Simmons insists that the agreement has nothing to do with US plans to wage aerial bombardments on Iran.

Media sources in Baku have intimated that this timely agreement is directly related to ongoing US-Israeli-NATO war plans. Its timing coincides with US naval deployments and war games in the Persian Gulf.

The airport and two military bases are slated to be "modernized to meet NATO standards". Washington has confirmed in this regard that it would "support the modernization of a military airport in the framework of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) signed between Azerbaijan and NATO......

"A lot of planes overfly Georgia and Azerbaijan on the way to Afghanistan. Should it prove necessary, we would like to be able to use an airfield in Azerbaijan," the US diplomat said, answering a question concerning the modernization of a military airfield in Azerbaijan with the Americans' help. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 2, 2007)......

Azerbaijan is also strategic in view of its maritime border with Iran in the Caspian sea. In this regard, the U.S. Navy is involved in supporting the Azeri Navy, in the area of training. There is also an agreement to provide US support to refurbish Azeri warships in the Caspian sea.

The US sponsored Caspian Guard Initiative was launched in 2003 to "coordinate activities in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan with those of U.S. Central Command and other U.S government agencies to enhance Caspian security." The initiative was implemented under the cover of preventing narcotics trafficking and counter- terrorism, Its ultimate objective, however, is to provide USCENTCOM with a strategic naval corridor in the Caspian sea basin......."

Divide and rule. A new counter-insurgency strategy to carve up the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam. So what chance does it have in Iraq?

An Informative Article

By Robert Fisk

"Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad - despite President George Bush's "surge" in troops - US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter.

The campaign of "gated communities" - whose genesis was in the Vietnam War - will involve up to 30 of the city's 89 official districts and will be the most ambitious counter-insurgency programme yet mounted by the US in Iraq.

The system has been used - and has spectacularly failed - in the past, and its inauguration in Iraq is as much a sign of American desperation at the country's continued descent into civil conflict as it is of US determination to "win" the war against an Iraqi insurgency that has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops. The system of "gating" areas under foreign occupation failed during the French war against FLN insurgents in Algeria and again during the American war in Vietnam. Israel has employed similar practices during its occupation of Palestinian territory - again, with little success.......

The latest "security" plan, of which The Independent has learnt the details, was concocted by General David Petraeus, the current US commander in Baghdad, during a six-month command and staff course at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Those attending the course - American army generals serving in Iraq and top officers from the US Marine Corps, along with, according to some reports, at least four senior Israeli officers - participated in a series of debates to determine how best to "turn round" the disastrous war in Iraq.......

A former US officer in Vietnam who has a deep knowledge of General Petraeus's plans is sceptical of the possible results. "The first loyalty of any Sunni who is in the Iraqi army is to the insurgency," he said. "Any Shia's first loyalty is to the head of his political party and its militia. Any Kurd in the Iraqi army, his first loyalty is to either Barzani or Talabani. There is no independent Iraqi army.......

The senior generals who constructed the new "security" plan for Baghdad were largely responsible for the seminal - but officially "restricted" - field manual on counter-insurgency produced by the Department of the Army in December of last year, code-numbered FM 3-24.......

"Once the additional troops are in place the insurrectionists will cut the lines of communication from Kuwait to the greatest extent they are able," he told The Independent. "They will do the same inside Baghdad, forcing more use of helicopters. The helicopters will be vulnerable coming into the patrol bases, and the enemy will destroy as many as they can. The second part of their plan will be to attempt to destroy one of the patrol bases. They will begin that process by utilising their people inside the 'gated communities' to help them enter. They will choose bases where the Iraqi troops either will not fight or will actually support them.

"The American reaction will be to use massive firepower, which will destroy the neighbourhood that is being 'protected'."......."

"......As for lifting the siege, Haniyeh said that government officials will hold several meetings and visit European Union countries which have decided to deal with Palestinian ministers selectively. He explained that the government will give its ministers the chance to take personal roles without forcing foreign countries to deal with the unity government as a whole. Haniyeh pointed out that Minister of Finance Dr Salam Fayyad will start an international tour on 11 April......."

***

The idiot is naked, and everyone knows it; however he still thinks that he makes decisions! For how long are the Palestinians going to put up with this farce?

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"......It was one of the key justifications for the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
President Bush: “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
President Bush made the statement in his January 2003 State of the Union. Those sixteen words were central to the administration’s claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking weapons of mass destruction and served as a basis for launching the Iraq invasion less than two months later. Bush’s declaration was based on an intelligence document that provided evidence about Iraq’s purchase of uranium from the African country of Niger. But there was one problem: the document was a fake.....

Today, a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive: two explosive new books. Carlo Bonini is the Italian reporter who broke the story. His new book is called “Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror.” He is an investigative journalist with La Repubblica newspaper of Rome, and he joins us in our firehouse studio. Peter Eisner is a veteran foreign correspondent and is currently an editor at the Washington Post. His new book is “The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq.” He joins us from Washington, D.C.
Peter Eisner. Veteran foreign correspondent. He is currently an editor at the Washington Post. He is co-author of “The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq.”

Carlo Bonini. Investigative journalist with La Repubblica newspaper of Rome. He is co-author of “Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror.”......"

Click Here to Watch, Listen or Read Transcript

Arab Puppet (holding a banner demanding end of the siege of the Palestinians) Telling the U.S., "I am doing this for show, to avoid blame."

And How Bush Said "Thanks"

By JAMES G. ABOUREZK
CounterPunch

"About five years ago I had a visit with Syrian President Bashar Al Asad, a visit when he told me that his intelligence services had uncovered a plot by Al Qaeda that would have killed American servicemen in the Middle East. He turned over the information to the U.S., which was then able to stop the operation, saving the lives of the Americans who were being targeted.

When I asked him what operation that was, he replied that, "The Americans asked me not to talk about it, but if they keep calling us a terrorist state, I will talk about it."

After I left his office, I asked the U.S. Ambassador to Syria if what he had said was true. His reply was that not only was it true, but that President Asad had been able to stop more than one Al Qaeda attack on American interests.

Those days are gone now, the heavy handed bad-mouthing of Syria by George W. Bush causing Syria to completely stop its cooperation. Despite the results of that incompetence on the part of the Bush Administration, the denunciations by Bush have continued unabated. Bush and his people have been so anxious to please Israel that what might be good for America is no longer the basis for American actions in the Middle East......"

Mishaal: Just solution for Palestinian question key for stability in ME

"DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Khaled Mishaal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, has affirmed that a just solution for the Palestinian issue is the key for peace and stability in the Middle East.

In statement to the Quds Press news agency, the Hamas leader said that the international community is well aware that “without establishing an independent and viable Palestinian state, instability and chaos in the Middle East would persist”.

Highlighting the importance of the Iraqi issue, and acknowledging that the US occupation of that Arab country had negatively affected the Palestinian question, Mishaal, nonetheless, explained that the Palestinian issue will remain the essential issue for Arab and Muslim worlds......."

Pretension of a "Government" With a Traitor at the Very Center

By Jim Lobe

".......Unlike his high-public profile as assistant secretary 20 years ago, Abrams, who now presides over Middle East policy at the National Security Council, is today far more discreet, no doubt in part because his conviction in 1991 for lying to Congress about his role in the Iran-contra scandal has made him an easy target for Democrats.

"He's very careful about not leaving fingerprints," one State Department official told IPS earlier this year.

But there is little doubt among Middle East analysts here that Abrams is playing a lead role in White House efforts to discredit Pelosi for meeting with Assad, just as he did with Wright for meeting Ortega in 1987.

And just as he worked with Reagan hard-liners to undermine the Arias Plan 20 years ago, so he appears to be doing what he can to undermine recent efforts by Saudi King Abdullah to initiate an Arab-Israeli peace process and, for that matter, by Republican realists, and even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to push it forward."

by Tom Engelhardt

".......Certainly, many of the top officials of the Bush administration and their neocons allies, dreaming of just such an orderly, American-dominated "Greater Middle East," were ready to settle for a little chaos in the process. If a weakened Iraq broke into several parts; or, say, the oil-rich Shi'ite areas of Saudi Arabia happened to fall off that country, well, too bad. They'd deal.

Little did they know......

Here's the remarkable thing, when you think about it: All the Bush administration had to do was meddle in any country in that arc of instability (and which one didn't it meddle in?), for actual instability, often chaos, sometimes outright disaster to set in. It's been quite a record, the very opposite of an imperial golden touch.

And, on any given day, you can see the evidence of this on a case by case basis in your local paper or on the TV news. You can check out the Iraqi, or Somali, or Lebanese, or Iranian, or Pakistani disasters, or impending disasters. But what you never see is all those crises and potential crises discussed in one place – without which the magnitude of the present disaster and the dangers in our future are hard to grasp.

Few in the mainstream world have even tried to put them all together since the Bush administration rolled back the media, essentially demobilizing it in 2001-2002, at which point its journalists and pundits simply stopped connecting the dots. Give the Bush administration credit: Its top officials took in the world as a whole and at an imperial glance. They regularly connected the dots as they saw them. The post-9/11 strike at Afghanistan was never simply a strike at al-Qaeda (or the Taliban who hosted them). It was always a prelude to war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And the invasion of Iraq was never meant to end in Baghdad (as indicated in the neocon prewar quip, "Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran"). Nor was Tehran to be the end of the line.

Under the rubric of the "Global War on Terror," they were considering literally dozens of countries as potential future targets. Dick Cheney put the matter bluntly back in August 2002 as the public drumbeat for an invasion of Iraq was just revving up:

"The war in Afghanistan is only the beginning of a lengthy campaign, Cheney noted. 'Were we to stop now, any sense of security we might have would be false and temporary,' he said. 'There is a terrorist underworld out there spread among more than 60 countries.'"......"

By Dahr Jamail

"DAMASCUS - Salim Hamad, 33, glances at the sprawling buildings of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus and sees business. He has set up a small tea shop at the camp.

"I left everything behind," he told IPS. "I have no idea what became of my house."

Salim, a railways worker in Baghdad, sold his car and furniture to raise money to bring his wife and three children to Damascus five months ago. Syria it had to be, because by then Jordan's government was no longer letting in men his age......

Yarmouk refugee camp, on the outskirts of Damascus, has long been home to more than 100,000 Palestinian refugees. It is a set of tall apartment buildings separated by small alleys stuffed with shops.

It is one of the better refugee camps. Most refugees have running water, electricity, and other basic services.

Now tens of thousands of Iraqis have flooded into Yarmouk. The exact number is unknown......

"We had 11 engineers from one company detained by the Mahdi Army [the militia of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr]," he said. "We never heard from them again. I knew then that I had to drop everything and run for my life."

Ali does not see himself returning soon. "I don't expect to go back for at least 15-20 years. I have left everything behind, and now I have nothing but a small food store I run here. But it is not enough. Not the UN, nor any government, least of all the Iraqi government, is doing enough to help us."....."

"Khan Younis - Ma'an - Many Palestinian faction leaders have said that the recent Arab summit, held in Saudi Arabia in March, failed to do anything for the Palestinian issue, and that the summit came upon an American wish and recommendation in order to reach some kind of harmony between the Arab moderate states and the US administration.

Various leaders also stressed the importance and necessity of studying the benefits of continuing the Palestinian Authority if the siege continues on the Palestinians.......

Nafiz Azzam from Islamic Jihad said that the Arab summit did not result in anything new and just repeated the Arab initiative, which was rejected by Israel. "Presenting again the initiative means that the Arabs have nothing to offer or anything new to present," he said.

He raised the issue of respecting the agreements and said that this point represented a change in Hamas' position. He added that he was not optimistic regarding a break through by this government in the international community. His pessimism was due to American policy, he said......

Sami Abu Zuhri from Hamas confirmed the importance of studying the benefits of preserving the Palestinian Authority if the siege continues to be carried out against the Palestinians......."

Award Winning Photo

"Gaza - Ma'an – Agence France Presse (AFP) photographer in Gaza, Mahmoud Al Hums, won the golden prize in the China international competition for a photo he took of the Atahmna family that lost 17 members during an Israeli air strike in July 2006.

The prize is considered to be one of the most important prizes of its kind, which is granted to photo journalists worldwide. It is held annually by China International Press contest.

Al Hums dedicated the prize to Palestinian martyrs, especially the Atahmna family and expressed his pride in receiving the award.

Al Hums won the bronze medal in 2004 in the same competition.

He will receive the prize at an official celebration in China on the 22nd of May. "

The Palestinian meteorological department expects the weather to be partly cloudy on Tuesday with a drop in temperatures expected. There remains a possibility of localized rain. Meanwhile, winds will be westerly to northwesterly and light to moderate.

Rafah crossing open Tuesday and Wednesday in both directions.

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Bendib

(Click on the map to enlarge)

Good Analysis

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst

"WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- After four years of war, 3,200 American deaths, 23,000 U.S. troops wounded and possibly in excess of 100,000 Iraqis killed, U.S. policymakers are now making what may prove to be their worst mistake yet: They may be on a new collision course with Moqtada al-Sadr.
U.S. forces backed by Iraqi troops were reported Saturday in fierce clashes with Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army militia in a bid to wrest control from it of the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniyah.

There is a considerable amount of tactical justification for U.S. forces to clash with Sadr's forces now, especially in Diwaniyah. With a U.S. air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities widely expected in the region, U.S. forces may want to suppress, cripple or intimidate Sadr's militia -- the most pro-Iranian and anti-American of all the Shiite paramilitary groupings in Iraq -- as a preemptive measure.

Also, if Sadr's forces and other allied Shiite groups were to attempt to cut crucial U.S. supply lines from Kuwait and the Persian Gulf up to the main concentration of American forces in Iraq in and around Baghdad, it would also make sense to Pentagon planners to secure Diwaniyah along one of the crucial supply routes first.......

We wrote then, "Although Sadr is extremely anti-American, like other Shiite politicians he realizes that currently the U.S. forces in Iraq are committed to wiping out his main long-term enemies, the Sunni Islamist forces. Therefore he has remained on the sidelines in the current struggle in Baghdad. This has given U.S. forces the chance to cooperate in limited but effective ways with various Shiite militias."

But we also cautioned, "If the United States launches major air strikes against the nuclear facilities in neighboring Iran, then Iran's Revolutionary Guards look certain to use their massive clout with the Mahdi Army, and with other Shiite militias, to get them to cut off cooperation with U.S. forces in Iraq and to attack the Americans instead.......

And if other Iraqi Shiite groups, especially those controlled by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, were to rise up and attack U.S. forces in retaliation for any U.S. air strikes against the Iranian nuclear facilities, then Sadr almost certainly would not hesitate to order a general uprising against U.S. forces, if he knew that this time he was not alone, but part of a far broader and more formidable Shiite coalition.

On March 12 we warned, "U.S. strategies for Iraq and neighboring Iran are therefore chaotically entangled already, and even on a collision course." The latest fighting in Diwaniyah unfortunately confirms the continuing accuracy of that assessment. "

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
We Support A Fair Tenure Process for Dr. Norman Finkelstein

"To: DePaul University
To:
Dennis H. Holtschneider, President, DePaul University
Helmut P. Epp, Provost, DePaul University
and the
Trustees, Deans, Faculty and Students of DePaul University

We are deeply concerned about reports of outside interference into the tenure and promotion case of Dr. Norman Finkelstein, and that as a result he may not be awarded tenure from DePaul University.

One such report is:
Harvard Law Professor Works to Disrupt Tenure Bid of Longtime Nemesis at DePaul U.
By Jennifer Howard, The Chronicle of Higher Education April 5, 2007
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=g4gfPKPrmfSXvwhvXzRPxd2Msdzzgrpm

We value Dr. Finkelstein's scholarship, his public talks and debates,
and his well-argued, fact-based critiques of issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In our opinion, his association with DePaul University has enhanced DePaul University's reputation.

We understand his department has recommended tenure. We will be troubled if Dr. Finkelstein is denied tenure and will be concerned about the integrity of the tenure process at DePaul University.

We support a fair tenure process for Dr. Finkelstein.

Sincerely, "

Click Here to Sign Petition

Analysis of the current state of the conflict with Iran shows that the world faces the possibility of a new war...

by General Leonid Ivashov

Global Research, April 9, 2007

"The US and its allies started the psychological preparation of the world public opinion for the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons to resolve 'the Iranian problem'. The US propaganda machine is working hard to create the impression that a 'surgically precise' use of the nuclear weapon with only limited consequences is possible. However, this has been known to be untrue since the 1945 US nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After the very first nuclear strike, it will become totally impossible to prevent the use of all of the available means of mass destruction. In the situation of a mass extermination of their nations, the conflicting sides will resort to whatever means they have without limitations. Therefore, not only the nuclear arsenals of various countries, including those whose nuclear status is not recognized officially, will come into play. No doubt, chemical and biological warfare (and, generally, any poisonous substances), which can be produced on the basis of minimal industrial and economic resources, will be used......

Certainly, Washington is aware that the result will be not the strengthening but the loss of the US positions in the world. Consequently, the goal of the US attack against Iran has to be seen in a different light. The nuclear offensive must boost the use of the nuclear blackmail in the global politics by the US and fundamentally transform the world order.....

The coordinated public activities must be organized with the promptness adequate to the war-time conditions. The forces of aggression have already been amassed and concentrated at the starting positions in the state of full combat readiness. The US military do not make it a secret that everything can be a matter of weeks or even days. There are indirect indications that the US will launch a nuclear strike on Iran already in April, 2007. After the very first nuclear blast, mankind will find itself in an entirely new world, an absolutely inhumane one. The chances to prevent this outcome must be used completely."

Why Do They Hate Us?

by Sonja Karkar
Women for Palestine

"Israel has long played on its heroic beginnings to stir up support for its less than heroic exploits today. The problem is that those heroic beginnings have always been a fiction. Israel’s bloody birth and subsequent actions were crimes against humanity which continue to this day. The veneer of Israel’s manufactured “legitimacy” cannot hide the rot eating away at the core of its existence - its original sin of violent dispossession and its current colonialist and apartheid policies. And, without acknowledgement of, and reparations for, the atrocities committed against the Palestinians, the ghosts of Deir Yassin and elsewhere in Palestine will continue to loom large in any peace talks.

It was 9 April 1948, that a Jewish terrorist gang entered the quiet rural village of Deir Yassin on the outskirts of Jerusalem with the express purpose of destroying it. There were 750 people living in the village at the time, mostly stonecutters. Their houses had been built from limestone with arched doors and windows and these homes had stood that way for centuries. The villagers knew that massacres had been carried out earlier in the year in other villages and had, therefore, entered into a non-aggression pact with the Jewish Hagana, another terrorist group. But this pact was worthless: Deir Yassin had already been marked for extinction and to avoid being held accountable the Hagana called on two terrorist groups, the Irgun and Stern Gang, to execute the plan......

Today, in the most tasteless, despicable irony, the Israeli museum commemorating the Jewish holocaust, Yad Vashem sits on top of a hill overlooking the graveyard of Deir Yassin, while the limestone buildings of the former Palestinian village are used as an Israeli mental institution. Is it any wonder that the ghosts of Deir Yassin still haunt the collective memory of Palestinians and all those who know that Deir Yassin was the catalyst in the plan to create a Jewish-only state of Israel? In the meantime, the millions of dispossessed in the camps of Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon are waiting to return and/or receive compensation for their immeasurable losses and nobody has the authority to trade away their human rights in order to submit to a racist state born out of Palestinian dispossession and misery. To agree to anything less without their consensus would betray the 60-year Palestinian struggle for recognition and self-determination in defiance of Apartheid Israel. "

The author of “American Fascists” explores the Christian right’s obsession with armageddon and the self-fulfilling holocaust it will produce.


By Chris Hedges

"......Apocalyptic visions like this one have, throughout history, cowed populations and inspired genocidal killers. They have enticed societies into collective suicide. These visions nourished the butchers who led the Inquisition, the Crusades and the conquistadors who swept through the Americas converting and then exterminating the native population. These visions sustained the SS guards at Auschwitz, the Stalinists who consigned tens of thousands of Ukrainian families to starvation and death, the torturers in the clandestine prisons in Argentina during the Dirty War and the Serbian thugs with heavy machine guns and wraparound sunglasses who stood over the bodies of those they had slain in the smoking ruins of Bosnian villages. Those who promise to purify the world through violence, to relieve the anxiety of moral pollution and despair, appeal to our noblest sentiments, our highest virtues, our capacity for self-sacrifice and our utopian visions of a cleansed world. It is this coupling of fantastic hope and profound despair, along with visions of peace and light and absolute terror, of selflessness and murder, which frees the consciences of those who call for and carry out the eradication of those they have banished from moral consideration. When leaders of this movement, such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, sanction, as they do, pre-emptive nuclear strikes against our enemies, and therefore the enemies of God, they fuel the passions of terrorists in love with the same apocalyptic nightmares. They march us to our own doom cheered by the delusion that once the dogs of war, even nuclear war, are unleashed, hundreds of millions will die, but because Christians have been blessed and chosen by God they alone will arise in triumph from the ash heap........"

"Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.

In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

Part of the struggle for self-determination by Palestinians has been to tell the truth about Palestinians as victims of Zionism. For too long their history has been denied, and this denial has only served to further oppress and deliberately dehumanize Palestinians in Israel, inside the occupied territories, and outside in their diaspora.

Some progress has been made. Westerners now realize that Palestinians, as a people, do exist. And they have come to acknowledge that during the creation of the state of Israel, thousands of Palestinians were killed and over 700,000 were driven or frightened from their homes and lands on which they had lived for centuries.

Deir Yassin Remembered seeks similar progress on behalf of the victims of the Deir Yassin Massacre . . .

From Khrushchev to Sadat, many world leaders have felt the venom of Mohamed Hasseinein Heikel's acerbic commentary. Robert Fisk has an audience with the great Egyptian writer

By Robert Fisk

"......"There is a state of polarisation," Heikel continues. "Between the rich and the poor, between revolutionaries and conservatives, between the government and the people. This thing is tearing through the Arab world. When the boys in the universities learn to use computers, they will end at the mosque.

"There is a sea between the authorities and the people - this is the wide sea which has opened. There is no wind now - but when the wind starts ...".......

"There is something serious happening in Egypt. The pressure of the economy, political pressure - we never had it so bad for the poor. I go to the village behind my farm in the Nile Delta and try to help the people there. But some people have never had it so good. They have fabulous palaces. It's amazing - in front of every rich quarter there is a slum. One of our friends, a doctor, was saying that one day each slum will march on its palace. No wonder that last Christmas the government instructed newspapers not to publish the prices of parties and weddings."......

And the future? The Arabs, he says, believe that the Americans are their enemies. "The US was once a promise to them. I sit with young people and try to differentiate between American policies and Americans. But the enemies of the Americans are not only the Taliban, Hamas, Hizbollah, but a wide sea of ordinary people who hate them because the Americans created the polarisations in their lives. They are between impotence and despair. This is a catastrophe."

Yet there is still optimism in Heikel. "I think there is something very interesting going on in Egypt, moving under the pressures of society. What is amazing about our students is not the standards of education - it's their eagerness to acquire knowledge. The effect of mobiles, computers, satellites - there is a generation coming that is outside the traditional controls. Normally, generations recreate themselves. But something else is happening. The police are unable to prevent the political demonstrations. These are not very large - but by using phones, mobiles, the internet, SMS, they are starting a political form of guerrilla warfare in a new medium. Do you know that never before in our history in Egypt was the budget of our army less than the budget of our police? Now it is. What does that tell you?"......"

By Layla Anwar

""And on the third day, I rose…

Something inside keeps pushing me to write through.
Even though I have no "ink" left.
Something, someone, like a still little voice deep from within, from without, gently commands me...WRITE.

And I struggle and I wrestle...with words.
Words that keep eluding me, slipping through my fingers like ether, like mercury...
I compress, squeeze, wring...
I shake, as if shaking a bottle for the last drops to trickle and hopefully quench.....

The enemies at my gates were numerous and my Judas had many masks.
Each mask bearing a different origin, a different color, a different lie and each mask hiding another...

Where do you want me to start?

Help me here…

Lend me one of your so called Christian charitable hands and tell me what do you want me to begin with?
Lend me some of your so called Muslim piety and stand by me, at least for a little while.
Lend me some of your so called Jewish tears and speak of the persecuted, the defamed...
Lend me one of your so called Arab pompous, prideful voices and trigger me off.
Lend me one of your so called Solidarity fists and multiply my voice, multiply my absent words...
Lend me one of your so called civilized humanistic orations and halt my blood.

Stop giving me vinegar pretending it is water.
Stop digging more nails into my body pretending they are balms.
Stop crowning me with thorns pretending they are flowers......

Here I am trying to find words as if crawling on four, trying to gather lost, scattered beads from a rosary.
Get down with me and search for them...Reclaim your sacred vows, rediscover your language.
I am giving you this opportunity, I am offering your this gift, over my dead tortured, massacred body...

You have nailed and crucified me and I am resurrecting again and again.
Don't shut me out, dont shut me off...
Don't shut yourself off and repossess the words with me.......

Do not mistake my crying out to you as helplessness...Take it as my hand finally saving you.

Remember me. Remember my history and remember who I am, and don't you ever forget my name. I am Iraq.

I have died a thousand times and have resurrected. And have died once more...and will resurrect again.
But this time around it will be your final end and my eternal beginning."

And thus She spoke, on the third day, on the Cross.

Happy Easter and Happy Resurrection."

Tariq Ayub: Al-Jazeera Reporter
Killed Four Years Ago
When U.S. Jets Deliberately Bombed Al-Jazeera Building in Baghdad
While Ayub was Filming on the Roof

The "Negotiations" Are Proceeding
By Emad Hajjaj

By Jan Baumgartner

"
Progressive website Al-Jazeerah.info was "knocked-off" this weekend; yet another casualty of the erosion of our First Amendment rights and Freedom of Speech.

This morning, as I set aside time to scan other progressive websites, I pulled up the Al-Jazeerah.info site to find something rather unexpected.

If any of you are familiar with this forum, you will more than likely recognize many of the writer's who contribute to Al-Jazeerah as they are familiar names to Op Ed News - many are frequent writers for this site.

You can imagine my horror when I saw the following statement issued by the founder and editor, Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjir:

From the Al-Jazeerah.info Editor to Readers

Dear Readers,

Al-Jazeerah.info has been a US independent forum promoting peace between the US and the Arab and Muslim worlds and between Israelis and Palestinians, for the last five years.

Some people apparently neither like peace nor tolerate the First Amendment to the US Constitution. They have not stopped attacks on Al-Jazeerah, its editor, its contributors and authors.

What's new this time is that those who oppose Al-Jazeerah.info have been orchestrating a campaign against Al-Jazeerah.info Editor, personally.

A letter writing campaign has been going on since March 22, 2007 targeting officials of the institution I work with in addition to a continuous smearing internet and media campaign against me, personally.

I have concluded that it's not safe for me any more to continue editing Al-Jazeerah.info in this atmosphere of intimidation, which abridges freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

I promise to resume publication as soon as conditions change to a more peaceful and tolerant discourse.

Hassan El-Najjir, Al-Jazeerah Editor

About Al-Jazeerah: This is an educational publication that promotes peace in the world, between Palestinians and Israelis and between the US and the Arab and Muslim worlds. Ending wars and occupation is the first step.

Al-Jazeerah Peace Information Center is an independent U.S. news and world research publication. It is not related to any other identity or government in the world. In particular, it is not related to the Saudi, UAE, or the Qatari websites with similar names.

This website, Al-Jazeerah.info is not related by any means to Aljazeera t.v. station of Qatar.

It does not aim for profit. All donations and proceeds are used to run the website.

*******

Many of the past contributors to Al-Jazeerah.info are also contributors for like sites such as Op Ed News, Common Dreams, Truthout, Counterpunch, etc., and the content of the articles published on Al-Jazeerah were of similar nature and content as those published on these other progressive sites.

I cannot help but wonder if the very name of the forum, as well as that of its founder/editor, had anything to do with the attacks, intimidations and its ultimate demise.

How tragic that individuals who provide an open forum for peace and peaceful dialogue must fear for their "safety." And yet, in an atmosphere which has driven this country to its knees using nothing more than the fear-factor with its own "terror tactics," I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised.

Question is, who's next? "

"انتقد قائد كتائب شهداء الأقصى -الجناح العسكري لحركة التحرير الوطني الفلسطيني (فتح)- في الضفة الغربية، أداء القيادات السياسية للتنظيمات الفلسطينية، متهما إياهم بالفشل في إدارة المعركة مع الاحتلال، ومحاولة إسقاط الورقة الوحيدة في يد الشعب الفلسطيني وهي المقاومة.

وتبرأ زكريا الزبيدي في حديث خاص بالجزيرة نت قبيل إصابته برصاص الاحتلال بيوم واحد، من الخلافات الداخلية بين الفصائل وما تبعها من فوضى وانفلات، مؤكدا أنه لا يمكن لمقاوم رفع سلاحه في وجه الاحتلال وينتظر الموت في كل لحظة أن يرفع سلاحه في وجه أخيه المقاوم. واتهم "فئات مأجورة" بإثارة حالة الفوضى في الشارع الفلسطيني.

وأكد الزبيدي أن كتائب الأقصى ليست في هدنة، وأنها لا تفرق في عملياتها بين الأراضي المحتلة عام 1948 والأراضي المحتلة عام 1967، واصفا قرارات التقسيم الدولية بأنها "أرقام حسابات بنكية لشخصيات متنفذة".

وبمناسبة الذكرى السنوية الخامسة لاجتياح مخيم جنين، أشار قائد كتائب الأقصى إلى أن حالة من الإحباط تسود الشارع الفلسطيني من المستوى السياسي وعدم حصاد ثمار التضحيات التي قدمها الشعب.

وفيما يلي نص الحوار مع الزبيدي الذي تطرق لجملة من القضايا في الساحة الفلسطينية ومستقبل المقاومة.

........"

Fatah says release of former Tanzim leader as part of prisoner exchange deal with Israel may increase public support for Hamas, spark upheaval within faction; Barghouti’s associates: Fatah members are wary of his ‘threatening status’

"While Hamas leaders have already promised Marwan Barghouti’s family that the former Tanzim leader in the West Bank would be included in a prisoner exchange deal with Israel, some Fatah members would rather see him remain in jail.

Barghouti is at the top of the list of senior prisoners the Palestinian Authority is demanding Israel free in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, but some Fatah members fear his release would boost support for rival faction Hamas.

Senior Fatah officials are trying to convince Barghouti’s family to back efforts to release him as part of a more comprehensive deal with Israel for which Hamas does not get all the credit.

The Islamic group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Shalit in a cross-border operation near Gaza in June of last year.

Fatah prefers to see Barghouti released as part of a goodwill gesture by Israel to President Mahmoud Abbas.

'Release would spark changes within the party'

Barghouti’s associates have accused Fatah members opposed to his release of being concerned with Barghouti’s ‘threatening status within Fatah.’

Barghouti, whose relations with Hamas’ leaders are excellent, was instrumental in the drafting of a document drafted by Palestinian prisoners, which urged the formation of a Palestinian unity government and to end internal strife.

Along with Hamas, he also helped devise a ceasefire between rival Palestinian factions, which was declared in March 2005 in Cairo.

Several Fatah leaders fear that Barghouti’s release would spark the beginning of changes within the party, some of which they may not approve of......."

"KABUL, Afghanistan - Roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan on Sunday left seven NATO soldiers dead, the alliance said, as its forces continued an anti-Taliban offensive in the world's most fertile opium-producing region.

One roadside bombing killed six NATO soldiers dead and wounded another, the alliance said. A separate roadside bomb killed one NATO soldier and wounded two, while a clash in the east left two Afghan guards and two militants dead, officials said......"

في حوار خاص مع الجزيرة نت

"يعتبر الصحفي الأميركي سيمور هيرش أحد كبار رموز صحافة الاستقصاء في العالم على مدى العقود الثلاثة الماضية. وقد اشتهر هيرش في المشهد الإعلامي العالمي عندما كشف عام 1969 ما أصبح يعرف بمذبحة "ماي لي" التي قتل فيها أكثر من خمسمائة مدني فيتنامي على أيدي جنود أميركيين، وكشف أيضا أسرار الترسانة النووية الإسرائيلية في كتاب له صدر في أوائل التسعينيات من القرن الماضي.

وفي السنوات الأخيرة أصبحت تحقيقات هيرش في مجلة "نيويوركر" تشكل مصدر إحراج حقيقي لسياسات الإدارة الأميركية بقيادة الرئيس جورج وبورش وخاصة خططها في منطقة الشرق الأوسط. في عام 2004 عاد هيرش للواجهة بكشف فضيحة التعذيب الذي تمارسه القوات الأميركية في سجن أبو غريب بالعراق وألف كتابا يعري خلفيات السياسة الأميركية منذ عام 2001 بعنوان "سلسلة القيادة: الطريق من 11 سبتمبر إلى أبو غريب".

بفضل مصادره الكثيرة في مختلف دواليب الإدارة الأميركية يمتلك هيرش دراية واسعة بالإستراتيجيات ومخططات الإدارة الأميركية. وخلال مساره المهني الطويل ألف هيرش عددا من الكتب وحصل على عدة جوائز تقديرية بينها جائزة بوليتزر مكافأة لتميزه المهني في تناول عدة قضايا تهم الرأي العام الأميركي والعالمي.

في لقاء مع الجزيرة نت على هامش منتدى الجزيرة الإعلامي الثالث ينتقد هيرش أداء كبرى وسائل الإعلام الأميركية في تغطية الأوضاع في الشرق الأوسط خلال السنوات القليلة الماضية ويدافع عن دور الصحافة وخاصة صحافة الاستقصاء في التأثير على مجريات الأمور في جميع أنحاء العالم وبصفة خاصة في منطقة الشرق الأوسط.

في كلمتكم بمنتدى الجزيرة الإعلامي الثالث قلتم إن الصحافة كفاح من أجل تحسين الأمور، هل تعتقدون أن للصحافة تأثيرا على مجريات الأمور في الولايات المتحدة حاليا؟

بطبيعة الحال أقول إن للصحافة تأثيرا على مجريات الأمور في الولايات المتحدة. لكن الأمور ليست كذلك في الوقت الحاضر في ظل حكومة غريبة لأن إدارة الرئيس جورج بوش ونائبه ديك تشيني لا تبالي كثيرا بما تقوله الصحافة.

الرئيس بوش منفصل عن الصحافة وفي ظل حكمه لا أعتقد أن الصحافة ستؤثر بشكل كبير على تطورات الأمور. لكن بصفة عامة الصحافة لها تأثير كبير في جميع أنحاء العالم. ويعتبر الشرق الأوسط من المناطق التي يمكن للصحافة أن تلعب دورا فعليا خاصة في ظل التقاليد السائدة في المنطقة والمتمثلة في احتكار الحكومات لوسائل الإعلام.

وهنا أسوق نموذج العربية السعودية التي تمول صحفا كبرى تصدر في أوروبا. هذا لا يعني أن كل ما ينشر هو دعاية لكن هناك أخبارا ووقائع.

وهكذا فظهور صحافة مستقلة سيساعد على تغيير مجريات الأمور في المنطقة. وعموما أقول أن الصحافة القوية شيء مهم. وفي الولايات المتحدة أعتقد أن النبرة النقدية في الصحف بشأن الحرب على العراق أثرت على الانتخابات الأخيرة في الولايات ا "
عموما أقول إن الصحافة القوية شيء مهم. وفي الولايات المتحدة أعتقد أن النبرة النقدية في الصحف بشأن الحرب على العراق أثرت على الانتخابات الأخيرة في الولايات المتحدة وساعدت في حصول الديمقراطيين على الأغلبية في الكونغرس.

........."

"MK Azmi Bishara, chairman of the Arab Balad party, intends to announce his resignation from the Knesset while he is out of the country, Haaretz learned on Sunday.

Bishara is expected to make the announcement on a television interview from his present location in Amman, Jordan. Bishara will also send his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik following the Passover recess, later in the week.

Bishara's intentions were first reported on the Website of the Nazareth-based Arab language newspaper A-Sinara. The circumstances surrounding Bishara's expected resignation are still unclear.

The Balad chairman left Israel two weeks ago. He initially left for Qatar to serve as commentator for the Aljazeera TV network during the Arab Summit in Riyadh. He then flew to Amman, in order to promote the release of his latest novel. He plans to announce his resignation from Amman, and it is unclear when he intends to return to Israel.

Senior Balad officials stressed to Haaretz on Sunday that the resignation will be confirmed only if Bishara does in fact make the announcement......."

National Democratic Assembly denies that Azmi Bishara intends to resign from Knesset

"Bethlehem-Ma'an- National Democratic Assembly NDA, a Palestinian political party inside Israel, denied on Sunday the news that the party's chairman, and Israeli Knesset member Dr Azmi Bisharah intends to resign from the Israeli Knesset.

In a statement distributed today, the NDA said, " the news published in the media are false, because if there was such an intention, the party would have reported it."......"

By Gideon Levy

"The moment of truth has arrived, and it has to be said: Israel does not want peace. The arsenal of excuses has run out, and the chorus of Israeli rejection already rings hollow. Until recently, it was still possible to accept the Israeli refrain that "there is no partner" for peace and that "the time isn't right" to deal with our enemies. Today, the new reality before our eyes leaves no room for doubt and the tired refrain that "Israel supports peace" has been left shattered.

It's hard to determine when the breaking point occurred. Was it the absolute dismissal of the Saudi initiative? The refusal to acknowledge the Syrian initiative? Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's annual Passover interviews? The revulsion at the statements made by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in Damascus, alleging that Israel was ready to renew peace talks with Syria?

Who would have believed it? A high-ranking U.S. official says Israel wants peace talks to resume and instantly her president "severely" denies the veracity of her words. Is Israel even hearing these voices? Are we digesting the significance of these voices for peace? Seven million apathetic Israeli citizens prove that we are not......

Israel makes a point of setting prerequisites and believes it has an exclusive right to do so. But, time and time again, Israel avoids the most basic prerequisite for any just peace - an end to the occupation. Of all the questions asked during his Passover interviews, no one bothered to ask Olmert why he didn't react with excitement to the recent Arab initiatives, without preconditions? The answer: real estate. The real estate of the settlements......."

North Koreans Arm Ethiopians as U.S. Assents

Ethiopian tanks in Somalia. Ethiopia bought much of its military equipment from the former Soviet Union and relies on North Korean parts.


"WASHINGTON, April 7 — Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa......."

Cleric calls for Iraqis to end cooperation with the U.S., start attacking

"BAGHDAD — The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate their attacks on American troops rather than Iraqis, according to a statement issued Sunday.

The statement, stamped with al-Sadr's official seal, was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday — a day before a large demonstration there, called for by al-Sadr, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy," the statement said. Its authenticity could not be verified......."

Iraq cleric says fight in Diwaniyah is 'trap' by US

"Iraq's radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday urged his militiamen and security forces to end their three-day-long fight in Diwaniyah, saying it was a "trap" by US-led forces.

"He (Sadr) appeals to the Iraqi army and the Mahdi militia not to fall into America's trap by fighting in Diwaniyah," said a statement stamped and issued by the cleric's office in the holy city of Najaf.

US and Iraqi soldiers have clashed with Shiite militiamen, including from Sadr's Mahdi Army, in the central city of Diwaniyah since Friday......."

"Gaza - Ma'an - The An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), have criticized the statements made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which he criticized the launching of projectiles at Israeli communities inside Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The brigades said they consider such statements as an insult to the Palestinian resistance. In a statement issued on Sunday, the brigades said that the projectiles are a "normal and natural retaliation for the Israeli crimes."

The statement added that the projectiles are "part of the strategic arsenal to protect the fighters and to defend themselves."

According to a Reuters report, on Saturday Abbas called on members of his presidential guards and national security forces to step up efforts to prevent the firing of projectiles so "that our people can lead a safe life"."

***

It is very significant that HAMAS has not said a word about this declaration by the puppet Abbas. I take it that HAMAS is more concerned about its new, "moderate" image in the eyes of the West and in preserving "national unity" with "Brother Abu Mazen" than in preserving the right to resist. As it is, HAMAS has been meticulously observing a one-sided "cease fire" and for HAMAS resistance is a thing of the past. Now is the age of Ahmad Yousef with HAMAS "leaders" jetting around from capital to capital in three-piece suits with Palestinian flag pins on their lapels.

Celebrate the end of resistance, NOW!

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bishara, has said that the Palestinian unity government must confront the lawlessness and disorder and avoid slipping into any unjust settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Bishara played down the recent political activity in the region, in spite of its importance, because of what he called "the Israeli position".

Speaking to the Jordanian daily 'Al-Ghad', he said that the Palestinian issue has turned into a public relations issue with no goals. He did not exclude the possibility of a new war in the region. He added that emphasising the sectarian issue will lead to failure.

Bishara, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, said that the economy in the Palestinian territories should be improved and should be able to produce and build. He stressed that the Palestinian Authority should act differently and must stop acting like a beggar.

He added that he did not expect a settlement to be reached between the current Palestinian and Israeli governments.

He also warned Hamas against making any concessions in order to win international acceptance or satisfaction. He also warned Hamas to act like the Palestinian national movement did in the 1970s, or as what happened during the time of the Madrid and Oslo agreements.

Bishara did concede, however, that recent events such as the Mecca agreement, the Palestinian unity government, and the revival of the Arab initiative, could enable the situation to move forward. However, he said that this will result in nothing.

Bishara said he believed that movement at a political level has become a goal in itself, and the peace process is being used as a kind of anaesthetic.

He added that every time a crisis happens in the region, especially one that may harm the USA, activity begins in the region. He said that this happens in order to hide the failure of the Americans. Currently, he said, the political activity is to overshadow the events in Iraq, by making the people busy and creating the impression that the Americans and their allies in the region are working towards a settlement to the Palestinian issue.

Bishara believes that the Arabs are making concessions every time, but there is nothing in the horizon. He said that the Arab allies of the USA are interested in solving the Palestinian issue, but they are not pressurizing Israel and the USA to have the issue solved in a just and fair way. They believe that the USA has all the keys to solving the issue without any pressures needed in return, he said.

He also warned against making concessions regarding the 'right of return' as he believes that Israel will demand more and more concessions. Bishara added that he believes that the initiative came after September 11th, in order to improve the image of the Arabs in the eyes of the world and the Americans. "

By Uri Avnery

"RECENTLY, THE CHIEF of the Shin Bet declared that the "Israeli Arabs", a fifth of Israel's population, constitute a danger to the state.

He requested permission for the General Security Service to act against anyone who aims at changing the official designation of Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" - even if they use nothing but completely legal means.

It follows that In the view of the chief of the Security Service, a central figure in the Israeli leadership, the task of the Shin Bet (now commonly known in Israel as Shabak) is not only to protect the state from spies and terrorists, but also from any challenge to its ideological designation, like the KGB in the former Soviet Union and the Stasi in communist East Germany......

That brings us to the subject now raised again by the Shin Bet chief.

I attacked Ben-Gurion on many subjects: the total domination of all affairs in the country by the Labor Party (then called Mapai), the corruption that was then starting to infect the ruling class, the discrimination suffered by Jewish immigrants from Oriental countries, the religious coercion, etc.

But the pivot of this struggle was the definition of Israel as a "Jewish state".

What is a "Jewish state"? That was never made clear. A state whose citizens are all Jewish? A state that belongs to Jews only? The "state of the Jewish people", which also belongs to millions of Jews who do not live here and are citizens of the US, Argentina and France? A state ruled by the Jewish religion? A state that expresses Jewish values (and if so, which ones?)......

The term "Jewish state" is nebulous. It can be interpreted in several ways. When one adds the word "democratic", it becomes an oxymoron - if a state belongs only to a part of its population it is not democratic, and if it is democratic then it cannot belong to a part of its population, even if they compose the majority......

Activating the secret police to abort this process would mean turning Israel into a police state. Not a "democracy protecting itself", but, rather, a state protecting itself from democracy.......

When the State of Israel really belongs, practically and officially, to all its citizens, it will be much easier for the Arabs here to decide on their status. If they choose to belong to the Israeli nation, much as Hispanics in the US belong to the American nation, that will be fine. If they prefer the status of a national minority, they should enjoy the rights of such a minority in a modern state. Either way, the Arabic language and Arab culture must be fully recognized by the state. The affinity of the Arab citizens with the Palestinian people and the Arab world must be considered just as legitimate as the affinity of the Hebrew citizens with the Jewish people throughout the world......"

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Avnery does not address the Palestinians' right of return nor justice for the Palestinian majority that was expelled when Israel was formed by force of arms. However, what does he mean by this paragraph:

"If Israel is an attractive country, natural increase will rise and many will knock on its doors, people who desire to join our nation. The Israeli nation - unlike the Jewish religion - can in principle absorb everyone who wants to belong to it."

So if and when the Palestinian refugee comes knocking on the door with the deed to his property in his hand, what is Avnery's position? And when several million Palestinians want to return to their home, will this contradict Avnery's hope when he says, "I HOPE that the State of Israel remains a state with a Hebrew majority, that the Hebrew language will remain its main language, that it will express the modern Hebrew society and its culture and also keep alive the Jewish tradition of generations past?"