Marie Colvin: 'Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice'

Today it was confirmed that the war correspondent Marie Colvin has died in the Syrian city of Homs. In November 2010 she gave the following speech on the importance of war reporting

Marie Colvin
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 February 2012

"....We do have that faith because we believe we do make a difference.

And we could not make that difference – or begin to do our job – without the fixers, drivers and translators, who face the same risks and die in appalling numbers. Today we honour them as much as the front line journalists who have died in pursuit of the truth. They have kept the faith as we who remain must continue to do."

Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin killed in Syria

Marie Colvin dies along with French photographer Remi Ochlik after shell hits safe house for journalists in Homs

Martin Chulov
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 February 2012

"The veteran Sunday Times correspondent, Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs after a shell hit the house in which they were staying.

Two other foreign reporters as well as seven activists from the ravaged Bab al-Amr neighbourhood were also wounded in the deadliest attack on western media since the Syrian uprising began almost one year ago. One of the wounded is the Sunday Times photographer, Paul Conroy, who was travelling with Colvin.

Colvin, a decorated correspondent with more than 30 years of experience in conflict zones, and Ochlik, who last month won a World Press Photo award, died instantly when the artillery shell struck the safe house that had been provided for them by local activists.

The house was located next to a hospital and had been the main refuge for all reporters who had made it to Bab al-Amr in the face of a relentless barrage by regime forces over the past three weeks.

An activist for the campaigning group Avaaz who witnessed the attack on Wednesday morning said: "I left the house after it got struck and headed to a house across the street. The shelling continues and the bodies of the journalists are still on the ground. We can't get them out because of the intensity of the shelling even though we're only a few metres away from them."

Another witness told the Guardian that rockets continued to rain down on the area as the wounded tried to escape the bombed house. A graphic video poster on the internet showed the two-story house in ruins – a scale of damage that could only be caused by a heavy artillery round. Two bodies were visible in the rubble......."

Egypt: Systematic failure to rein in security forces

Amnesty International
22 February 2012

"A year after the uprising, Egypt's security forces continue to kill protesters with the same brutal tactics used in Hosni Mubarak’s last days in power, Amnesty International said after concluding that riot police yet again used excessive force in policing protests in Cairo and Suez.

The protests earlier this month followed the Port Said tragedy in which more than 70 football fans from Al-Ahly club were killed after a football match on 1 February.

The organization found that, between 2 and 6 February, the Ministry of Interior’s Central Security Forces (riot police) used excessive force, including firearms, to disperse angry protests, killing at least 16 people and injuring hundreds of others.

"The behaviour of the security forces in dealing with these protests is unfortunately very reminiscent of a time many Egyptians thought they had left behind after the ‘25 January Revolution’," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

“Promises of reform of the security forces continue to ring hollow in the face of the killing of more than a hundred protesters in the last five months.”

“Not only have the authorities not reformed the security forces but evidence of the use of rubber bullets and live ammunition is met with denial and accusation of foreign interference by Egyptian officials.”......."

Israeli decision to release Palestinian detainee in April ‘insufficient’

"The Israeli authorities’ decision to release a Palestinian detainee by mid-April is insufficient, Amnesty International said amid reports that he has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike.

The organization has urged Israel to release Khader Adnan immediately to allow him to receive urgent medical treatment. The 33-year-old baker – allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement – is at immediate risk of death after more than 10 weeks on hunger strike.

“A deal which will see Khader Adnan released on 17 April unless significant new evidence emerges is insufficient when he needs urgent medical treatment to save his life now,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Interim Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Even if reports that Khader Adnan has agreed to end his hunger strike are true, this does not mean he is out of danger nor does it lessen the need for highly specialized medical care.

“He cannot constitute a ‘security threat’ in his current condition and should be released from custody immediately. The Israeli authorities have revealed no evidence justifying his continued detention.”...."

NATO: Caught in the headlights

Read the second part of chapter five of Marwan Bishara's latest book, The Invisible Arab

".....The militarisation of the Arab Spring in Libya didn't bode well for it or other Arab nations such as Syria and Yemen. Western exploitation of the Libyan escalation had also tarnished the Arab revolution with more of the same foreign intervention which had long been detested by the Arabs for being selective and motivated by cynicism. So, yes to the intervention in Libya as it was on the side of the people and against a dictator who had outlived his usefulness to the West; but no to intervention to support people power in Bahrain, because it was contrary to Saudi interests. The intervention also encouraged a reinvigorated NATO to speak of the Libyan operation as a prototype of operations to come.

There is one last aspect of this debacle that has continued to irritate me. And if it sounds like a conspiracy, it is not. In late 2010, France and Britain decided to stage a war game titled Operation: Southern Mistral. It would involve thousands of military personnel and hardware from both countries. The scenario envisioned the two longtime military rivals joining forces for a bombing campaign against an imaginary southern dictator. The simulated war was condoned by a fictitious UN Security Council resolution and was scheduled to begin on March 21 of 2011. Well, the actual bombing of Libya began on March 19. This is surely a coincidence. But it does highlight the French and British mindsets and why no serious diplomatic effort got off the ground. The bombers were already on the runway."

'Foreign journalists killed' in Homs shelling

Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik reportedly killed in Bab Amr assault as activists warn of humanitarian crisis.

Al-Jazeera

"Two foreign journalists have been killed in Homs, activists say, as shelling of a district of the Syrian city continued amid warnings of an escalating humanitarian crisis.

Omar Shakir, an activist in the city, told Al Jazeera that the deaths of Marie Colvin, a US reporter working for the UK's Sunday Times newspaper, and French photographer Remi Ochlik occurred as a building used by activists as a media centre was shelled on Wednesday.

French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse confirmed the names of the slain reporters.

Nine people were reportedly killed in addition to the journalists. Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy was said to be seriously injured, along with two other reporters.

"We can't even enter the area or the building where the media office is," Abu Jafar, an activist in the city, told Al Jazeera. "There's still heavy bombardment."

Government forces bombarded the Bab Amr neighbourhood for a 20th straight day, according to activists, and fears were growing of a humanitarian crisis in the area.

'Absolutely sickening'

In a phone interview with British broadcaster BBC on Tuesday, Colvin described the situation in the area as "absolutely sickening".

She said she had witnessed the death of a two-year-old boy after he was hit by shrapnel, and said there was a "constant stream of civilians" in the field clinic she visited......"

السلطة عرضت خدمة واشنطن أمنيا

AN IMPORTANT ARTICLE

"أفادت وثائق سرية حصلت عليها الجزيرة بأن السلطة الفلسطينية عرضت على الولايات المتحدة مساعدتها في بلدان عديدة تشهد توترات أمنية، مثل باكستان والصومال وأفغانستان والعراق. كما كشفت عن جهود فلسطينية لمساعدة المعارضة الإيرانية إعلاميا.

ففي اجتماع بتاريخ 5 مايو/أيار 2009 يخاطب رئيس دائرة المفاوضات في منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية صائب عريقات موظفي وحدة دعم المفاوضات بالقول: "نحن نكسر التقليد العربي في الذهاب إلى أميركا وإخبارها بما نريد".

مهمة في كردستان
ويضيف "عوضا عن ذلك، نحن نقول لـ(الرئيس الأميركي باراك) أوباما إننا يمكن أن نساعد. يمكن أن نساعد في باكستان والصومال وأفغانستان والعراق، إلى آخره".

ويتابع "سوريا والعربية السعودية ومصر والأردن كلهم يحتاجون إلى أن يقولوا لأوباما كيف يمكن أن يساعدوه. لقد ذهبت إلى كردستان" (من غير أن توضح الوثيقة طبيعة مهمة عريقات في كردستان التي يبدو أنه يقصد بها كردستان العراق).

ويذهب عريقات أبعد من ذلك في تحديد الدور الذي يمكن أن تضطلع به السلطة، فيقول "إذا كانت الدول الأخرى تعتقد أنها تستطيع أن تستعمل (حركة المقاومة الإسلامية) حماس كورقة، فإننا سنفعل نفس الشيء معهم".

ويضيف "نحن لا ندير مؤسسة خيرية. إيران تتلاعب، وهي تستعمل حماس كورقة".

إذاعة لموسوي
كما كشفت الوثائق السرية التي حصلت عليها الجزيرة أن السلطة بذلت جهودا لمساعدة المعارضة الإيرانية.

ففي اجتماع بتاريخ 21 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول 2009 يخاطب عريقات المبعوث الأميركي إلى الشرق الأوسط جورج ميتشل بقوله "إنها لحظة الحقيقة في الشرق الأوسط. (الرئيس الإيراني محمود أحمدي) نجاد في غزة وفي لبنان. باكستان تتجه نحو الفشل (...)، وهناك السودان والصومال".

ويضيف "الدول العربية لا تفعل شيئا. أتدري أن الرئيس محمود عباس (أبو مازن) أقنع رجل أعمال بتمويل محطة إذاعة لموسوي (المعارض الإيراني مير حسين موسوي)".

وفي اجتماع بنفس اليوم مع المستشار السابق للأمن القومي الأميركي الجنرال جيمس جونز، يقول عريقات "منذ عشرة أيام أقنعنا رجل أعمال فلسطيني بدفع 50 مليون دولار لموسوي حتى تكون له محطة راديو".
"

An attack on Iran would be an act of criminal stupidity

US and Israeli leaders are talking themselves into a disastrous conflict that will make Iranian nuclear weapons a certainty

Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 February 2012

"After a decade of calamitous western wars in the wider Middle East, the signs are becoming ever more ominous that we're heading for another. And, hard as it is to credit, the same discredited arguments used to justify the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan – from weapons of mass destruction to sponsorship of terrorism and fundamentalist fanatics – are now being used to make the case for an attack on Iran.

War talk about Iran and its nuclear programme has been going on for so long it might be tempting to dismiss it as bluster. The mixed messages about Iran coming from the US and Israeli governments in recent weeks have become increasingly contradictory and bewildering. Maybe it's all a game of bluff and psychological warfare. Perhaps Iran's offer of new talks or this week's atomic energy inspectors' visit might lead to a breakthrough.

But the mood music has become more menacing. US defence secretary Leon Panetta has let it be known there is a "strong likelihood" Israel will attack Iran between April and June, even as Barack Obama says no Israeli decision has yet been taken. US officials told the Guardian last week they believed the administration would be left with "no alternative" but to attack Iran or watch Israel do so later this year......"

'In Homs we are all wading in blood'

Clinics are overwhelmed with casualties as the regime's snipers target anyone who moves in the rebel neighbourhoods

Jonathan Littell
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 February 2012

".....In Bayarda, shortly after Taha's death, I meet a film-maker from Damascus. "There is a religious confrontation under way here, it's undeniable," he acknowledges. "On both sides, there is talk of ethnic cleansing. But it's particular to Homs, it doesn't exist elsewhere. Me, I am a secular man. I must be here. If I am not, then it is a sectarian war. But if it develops better in other cities, if a better version of the revolution prevails, then Homs will be contained."

This is far from given. Since I left the city, on 2 February, it has been bombed daily, massively, and more than 718 people have been killed, according to a detailed list I obtained from the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Communication networks are nearly all down, there is no more bread, and the clinics are overwhelmed with casualties. The west and the Arab League, paralysed by the Russian and Chinese veto, are talking of UN peacekeepers, of humanitarian corridors. This brings back bad old memories. Between 1993 and 1995, when I was in Bosnia, more than 80,000 people were killed in front of the eyes of journalists and aid workers from around the world, and of UN peacekeepers whose mandate allowed them only to shoot rabid dogs. If we have nothing better to offer the Syrian people, we might as well leave them to their fate. It would at least have the virtue of honesty."

Is Tawakkul Karman Naive or Simply Stupid? Guardian Video: Yemeni Nobel peace prize laureate joins voters in one-candidate election

Yemenis, including Tawakkol Karman, winner of the 2011 Nobel peace prize, go to the polls. Tuesday's election is the fruit of a US-backed deal that eased President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in exchange for immunity from prosecution over the alleged killing of hundreds of protesters. Saleh's deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, is the only candidate

Palestinian Prisoner Khader Adnan to be Released from Israeli Jail After 66-Day Hunger Strike

"Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for 66 days. He is being held in Israel without charge or trial. Under the deal, Adnan will be released on April 17. Doctors previously said Adnan was at immediate risk of death. We speak to three guests about his case: his sister, Maali Mousa; Bill Van Esveld, researcher at Human Rights Watch; and Danny Morrison, a friend of the late Irish republican activist Bobby Sands, who died on his 66th day of a hunger strike in 1981. "[Adnan] told us that, 'I am going on this hunger strike until I have a honorable deal or getting out of this jail,'" said Mousa about her recent visit to see her brother. "But at the same time, his spirits were very high." Van Esveld accused Israel of violating international law by holding a Palestinian from the West Bank inside Israel. "It’s a violation of Israel’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions to detain people from the occupied West Bank in prisons or hospitals, in this case, inside Israel," he said....."

Al-Jazeera Video: Syria's wounded seek medical refuge in Lebanon

Al-Jazeera Video: Syrian violence rages despite truce calls

Al-Jazeera Video: Red Cross calls for aid ceasefire in Syria

The Syrian Revolution Does Not Want the Likes of Al-Qa'ida, by Emad Hajjaj

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Deal reached to end Khader Adnan’s detention by 17 April, but no confirmation hunger strike has ended

By Ali Abunimah

"Lawyers for Khader Adnan have reached a deal with Israel for Adnan to be released on 17 April, Addameer announced today via Twitter.

Adnan has been on hunger strike for 66 days against his “administrative detention” by Israel without charge or trial. Addameer is a Palestinian prisoners rights group whose lawyers have been closely following Adnan’s case.

According to the deal, Adnan will be released on 17 April – when his current administrative detention order expires – but his admistrative detention order would not be renewed. Israel has typically renewed administrative detention orders repeatedly. As of this moment, it was not confirmed whether or not Adnan had agreed to end his hunger strike.

Some media reports said Adnan had agreed to end his hunger strike, but as of just before 4pm local time in Palestine, Addameer tweeted in Arabic that a lawyer for the group was waiting for permission to visit Adnan to “confirm his decision.”....."

Jordan Is Not Palestine, Neither Is Qatar

By Sam Bahour
Palestine Chronicle

".....Following multiple victories in recent elections across the Arab world, Islamist movements are boasting that there political time has arrived. The “Arab Spring,” as it has been coined, may be morphing into an “Islamic Winter,” as recently noted by Galilaean Palestinian attorney Sabri Jiryis. It is very possible that Hamas’ decision to act now on so many fronts can be attributed to the broader Islamic political waves that are moving across the region.....

What does all this movement mean? Well, it depends on whom you ask. Islamists will say that Hamas is getting renewed energy by indications that the Arab Spring is really turning into an “Islamic Winter.” Palestinians in leadership today will say Hamas feels the heat in Syria and on Iran, and although it may have found another location to base its operations, it ultimately knows that without entering into an operational political system, it cannot maintain control on an Israeli-siege Gaza forever.

Something much more dangerous is in process. Both Hamas and Palestinian President Abbas’ Fateh movements are in dire need to unite to save themselves, after totally decimating anything resembling a national liberation movement or an operating political system. The average Palestinian in Jerusalem, Haifa, Shatila, and Santiago is without voice, without representation, and further away from freedom, return and independence than they have ever been. Hamas’ Khaled Meshaal looks more like someone preparing to enter and take over the secular PLO than someone begging to take over a Palestinian Authority that has been emptied of any serious authority (if it ever had any).

Israel may be laughing away at all this, proud that they destroyed all remnants of a peace process, but history has lessons for he who laughs last."

Poisoned spring: revolution brings Tunisia more fear than freedom

The hopes vested in last year's uprising have ended in continued censorship, growing intolerance and unemployment, says Robert Fisk in Tunis

By Robert Fisk

"....The town of Sejnane, north-west of Tunis, witnessed, briefly, the existence of an "Islamic emirate" at the end of last year when around 200 Salafists took control, turned government buildings into prisons for "sinning" – in most cases for drinking alcohol – and beat inmates. A shop selling CDs of western songs in Arabic was set on fire and a self-proclaimed Islamist "judge" announced to the owner that "if you try once more to distract Muslims from the mosque, it will be your home and all those in it who will burn".

Women began to wear the niqab, men to grow beards and wear Afghan-style clothes. The government did nothing. Was the Ennahda Party supporting the Salafists?

Attacks on cinemas began shortly afterwards, the owner of Nessma TV, Nabil Karoui, put on trial for showing Persepolis – about the reactions of a young girl growing up in the 1979 Iranian revolution – a film deemed "contrary to the values of the people". Two intellectuals were savagely beaten and 10,000 demonstrators marched through Tunis and other cities to protest at the increase of extremism.

In the much-underrated French magazine Jeune Afrique, Amel Grami, head of the Islamic Studies department at Manouba University, described how a dispute over a female student who insisted on wearing full head-covering to college resulted in an invasion of the campus by sword-carrying Salafists, some of whom shouted "dirty whore" when staff objected to the separation of male and female students. According to Amel Grami, the Salafists were supported by two sons of the Tunisian Interior Minister, Ali Laarayedh.

Little wonder, then, that the impending arrival in Tunisia of the Egyptian preacher Wajdi Ghanim created such anger among secular Tunisians. Ghanim supports the Tunisian Salafists, advocates a return to an older, more "genuine" Islam and – in the view of human rights groups – wants to "create hatred between Tunisians". It all has the feel of Algeria before the army's cancellation of the second round of elections which would have brought the Islamic Salvation Front to power in 1992. We shall not dwell on the carnage and bloodletting that followed......"

Palestinian journalists under pressure

The Guardian

"The International Press Institute (IPI) has registered its concern over the treatment of Palestinian journalists by both Israeli forces and Palestinian security services [Partners in Crime.].

The press freedom watchdog says that since the beginning of 2012, at least five journalists working in the Palestinian territories have been subjected to arbitrary arrest. Two more have had their detention periods extended.

Three of those who were arrested recently were allegedly interrogated for several hours about their writing before being released. The other two remain in custody.

IPI's executive director Alison Bethel McKenzie said the detentions appear to reflect a desire to control information and silence criticism "neither of which is acceptable in a democratic society."

She said: "The pattern of interrogating journalists for what they write and then later releasing them appears to be a method of encouraging self-censorship, something that is ultimately most harmful to the people of Palestine."

The two journalists still in detention following their arrests by Israeli forces on 5 February were named as Suhaib Al-Asa, a reporter with Radio Bethelem 2000, and Oman Halaiqaa, a photojournalist based in al-Khalil province.

On 3 February, Palestinian security forces arrested Rami Samara, an editor at the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, and questioned him for three hours about criticisms of the PLO leadership posted on his Facebook page.

And Yousef Shayeb, a correspondent for the Jordan-based al-Ghad newspaper, said he was held for eight hours on 31 January and questioned about his stories alleging corruption at a Palestinian diplomatic mission abroad......"

Homs, city of torture

Author Jonathan Littell tells of Assad's security forces targeting medical personnel and how he was smuggled to the heart of the Syrian conflict

Jonathan Littell
guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 February 2012

"In Bashar al-Assad's Syria, it is not just forbidden to speak, demonstrate and protest: it is also forbidden both to give medical treatment, and to receive treatment yourself. Since the beginning of the uprising, the regime has been waging a merciless war against any individual or institution capable of bringing medical aid to the victims of repression. "It's very dangerous to be a doctor or a pharmacist," a pharmacist from the Baba Amro neighbourhood of Homs tells me. Medical personnel are imprisoned – like the nurse in the nearby district of al-Qusayr, arrested the day after he showed me around his hidden emergency-care centre, its carpets covered with plastic tarpaulins to protect them from blood – or killed, like Abdur Rahim Amir, the only doctor in that centre, murdered in cold blood in November by military security, while he sought to treat civilians wounded during the army's assault on Rastan to the north. Or tortured.....

The trip from Qusayr on the border to Homs, about 30 kilometres, will be made in the same way: by going from one house to another, from one vehicle to another, from one hand to another. A wide network of civilians helps the Free Syrian Army and the revolution. At every stage, a vehicle or motorbike goes in front to check if the road is free. And when we move, there are always people in front, around, behind us; cellphones are continually ringing to transmit the latest news.

Everything happens as if, faced with the police and security grid of the Ba'ath party and the mukhabarats – a grid that has dominated the life of the country for decades – society had in these past few months put in place a counter-grid, almost as effective, made of civilian activists, notables, religious figures, and, more and more, armed forces – the deserters who form the FSA. This counter-grid resists the other one, circumvents it, and is even starting to absorb it in part. When you travel between the Lebanese border and Homs, it becomes visible. There has, of course, always been a passive resistance to the regime's grid, but now this second grid has completely broken away from its ties to the former. As if Syrian society, since the spring, had split in two, and as if both parallel societies were coexisting in the country, in mortal conflict."