Friday, April 12, 2013
AFTER 6 YEARS OF SILENCE, RIVERBEND SPEAKS AGAIN! Iraq: Ten Years On...
By Riverbend
"We are learning that those amenities we took for granted before 2003, you know- the luxuries – electricity, clean water from faucets, walkable streets, safe schools – those are for deserving populations. Those are for people who don’t allow occupiers into their country......."
"We are learning that those amenities we took for granted before 2003, you know- the luxuries – electricity, clean water from faucets, walkable streets, safe schools – those are for deserving populations. Those are for people who don’t allow occupiers into their country......."
Sectarianism and the New Egypt
Rise of the Salafis
By RANNIE AMIRI
CounterPunch
".......Lamentably, the Brotherhood has adopted a similar tone. Essam El-Erian, vice chairman of the Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party echoed, “Egypt of Al-Azhar, Al-Awkaf [religious endowments], Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood and Sufis will preserve Sunni Egypt …” The Coptic Christian minority has also voiced alarm over recent developments affecting their community and the level of discourse.
Under intense pressure and despite an economy in shambles, Minister Zaazou announced this week the suspension of all incoming flights from Iran pending reconsideration of the tourist program.
Capitulating to the extremist, sectarian, bigoted policies of Salafist parties will only further alienate Mursi from the historically open, tolerant Egyptian people and inevitably herald his downfall.
This is the unfortunate state of the new Egypt.
Or … is it the old?"
Mohamed Morsi backs Egyptian military after malpractice allegations
President promotes three major-generals
and says he rejects any 'insults' against armed forces, after investigation
leaked
Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, has
promoted several generals in a show of untrammelled support for the embattled
military, who have been strongly condemned following this week's leak of a
top-level investigation that made damning allegations about military
malpractice.
Officers allegedly killed,
tortured and abducted Egyptians during the 2011 uprising, according to the
investigation commissioned by Morsi last year. The suppressed report, sections
of which have been obtained by the Guardian, also alleged that senior army
doctors were ordered
to operate without anaesthetic on wounded protesters at a military hospital
in Cairo during protests against military rule in May 2012.
The seriousness of the allegations has led to demands for Morsi, Egypt's first elected civilian president, to bring the officers responsible to account. But such a move would risk outraging the army, with whom Morsi has a delicate relationship.
Standing alongside members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who ruled Egypt between the removal of Hosni Mubarak and Morsi's election, the president said: "Any insult against the armed forces is an insult against all of us, and we reject any kind of insults … I announce this to the whole world: we appreciate the great role that the armed forces has been playing in maintaining the safety and security of this country."......"
Egypt: Release Report on Abuse of Protesters
Morsy Should End Secrecy, Victims’ Families Have Right to Truth
"(New York) – President Mohamed Morsy of Egypt should immediately release the report by a fact-finding committee he created to investigate police and military abuses against protesters from January 2011 to June 2012. The committee submitted its report to the president in December, but the president has not made it public.
The media recently published leaked sections of the report highlighting police use of live gunfire against protesters in Alexandria and Suez, and the military’s role in the use of force against protesters and enforced disappearances. In January 2013, the public prosecutor’s office indicated that it was investigating 14 incidents included in the report.“Releasing the fact-finding report would be the Egyptian government’s first acknowledgment of two years’ worth of police and military abuses,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Victims’ families have the right to know the truth about their loved ones’ deaths. Even if certain information can’t be made public in the interests of justice, all Egyptians need to know what happened.”......"
Egyptian police brutality against Suez protesters - leaked document
The full
chapter on violence in Suez, where 24 people were killed, from a high-level
report commissioned by president Mohamed Morsi. Full
story here
مطلوب تحقيق في ديون السلطة
مطلوب تحقيق في ديون السلطة
رأي القدس
"نشعر بحالة من الصدمة بعد ان تناهى الى اسماعنا ان حجم ديون السلطة الفلسطينية في رام الله قد بلغت اربعة مليارات دولار، وان العجز في ميزانية هذا العام بلغ نصف مليار دولار.
الشعور بالصدمة مرده ان الشعب الفلسطيني الذي يتحمل هذه الديون، التي باتت عبئا ثقيلا على كاهله وربما على اجياله القادمة، كان مضللا بل ومغيبا بالكامل عن هذه القضية الحساسة، حيث اعتقد معظم الفلسطينيين، ونحن منهم، ان الاموال التي تنثرها السلطة وحكومتها يمينا ويسارا هي من اموال الدول المانحة، وليست ديونا تكبل ايدي الشعب الفلسطيني وتكسر ظهر ارادته.الرئيس محمود عباس ورئيس وزرائه سلام فياض كانا يجريان مقارنات بدت منطقية في نظر الكثير، بين احوال الفلسطينيين الاقتصادية المزدهرة في الضفة الغربية، ونظيرتها المتدهورة في قطاع غزة، ولم يذكر هؤلاء مطلقا ان سبب هذا الازدهار هو استدانة المليارات من بنوك ومؤسسات اجنبية، وليس نتيجة عبقرية اقتصادية للحكومة ورئيسها الخبير القادم من صندوق النقد الدولي.
نحن لا ننحاز هنا الى سلطة حماس فلنا عليها مآخذ كثيرة، ابرزها التعاطي مع اهل القطاع بقبضة حديدية، وانتشار المحسوبية، والتدخل الفج في الحياة الشخصية للمواطنين، وامور اخرى عديدة ليس هذا مجال مناقشتها، ولكننا ننحاز الى الشعب الفلسطيني ومستقبله وارتهانه لاصحاب هذه القروض وضغوطهم، ونحن نعرف كيف استولت شركة قناة السويس على اهم شريان حيوي واقتصادي على الارض المصرية، بسبب بذخ الخديوي اسماعيل، وعجزه عن تسديد الديون التي تراكمت بشكل مرعب.
السلطة الفلسطينية التي اقترضت هذه الاموال من بنوك ومؤسسات مالية اجنبية فعلت هذا من وراء ظهر الشعب الفلسطيني، ودون التشاور معه، ومن اجل الحفاظ على وجودها، ودفع رواتب موظفيها، وتغطية نفقاتها الباهظة الناجمة عن تصرفها كدولة شبه عظمى تملك عشرات السفارات في الخارج تقدم القليل للشعب الفلسطيني وقضيته.
نحمد الله ان ازمة استقالة الدكتور نبيل قسيس او اقالته، هي التي فتحت اعيننا على هذه الديون، ورفعت الغطاء عن الكثير من الخطايا المالية، والا لاستمر الشعب الفلسطيني في البقاء في الظلام.
السيد سلام فياض يجب ان يستقيل، ليس لانه لا يريد تنفيذ اوامر رئيسه الرئيس عباس في اعادة الدكتور قسيس الى منصبه وزيرا للمالية، وانما لانه اغرق الشعب الفلسطيني بالديون، وهو ما زال تحت الاحتلال.الدكتور سلام فياض ورئيسه محمود عباس يتحملان معا هذه الكارثة، ويجب ان يستقيلا معا، لانهما دعما الاحتلال الاسرائيلي عمليا باعفائه من مسؤولية تحمل اعباء الاحتلال على مدى اكثر من عشرين عاما. اي منذ توقيع اتفاقات اوسلو.
نطالب بتحقيق فلسطيني مستقل في ازمة الديون هذه، وكيف تراكمت بالطريقة التي نراها حاليا، دون معرفة الشعب الفلسطيني او استشارته، ولماذا غابت الشفافية في هذا الملف الخطير، وتضليل الشعب الفلسطيني. مثلما نطالب في كل الاحوال بحل هذه السلطة التي باتت تعزز الاحتلال دون ان تقاومه باقتراض اموال لا تستطيع سدادها، وكيف تفعل وهي باتت محترفة تسول.
"
رأي القدس
"نشعر بحالة من الصدمة بعد ان تناهى الى اسماعنا ان حجم ديون السلطة الفلسطينية في رام الله قد بلغت اربعة مليارات دولار، وان العجز في ميزانية هذا العام بلغ نصف مليار دولار.
الشعور بالصدمة مرده ان الشعب الفلسطيني الذي يتحمل هذه الديون، التي باتت عبئا ثقيلا على كاهله وربما على اجياله القادمة، كان مضللا بل ومغيبا بالكامل عن هذه القضية الحساسة، حيث اعتقد معظم الفلسطينيين، ونحن منهم، ان الاموال التي تنثرها السلطة وحكومتها يمينا ويسارا هي من اموال الدول المانحة، وليست ديونا تكبل ايدي الشعب الفلسطيني وتكسر ظهر ارادته.الرئيس محمود عباس ورئيس وزرائه سلام فياض كانا يجريان مقارنات بدت منطقية في نظر الكثير، بين احوال الفلسطينيين الاقتصادية المزدهرة في الضفة الغربية، ونظيرتها المتدهورة في قطاع غزة، ولم يذكر هؤلاء مطلقا ان سبب هذا الازدهار هو استدانة المليارات من بنوك ومؤسسات اجنبية، وليس نتيجة عبقرية اقتصادية للحكومة ورئيسها الخبير القادم من صندوق النقد الدولي.
نحن لا ننحاز هنا الى سلطة حماس فلنا عليها مآخذ كثيرة، ابرزها التعاطي مع اهل القطاع بقبضة حديدية، وانتشار المحسوبية، والتدخل الفج في الحياة الشخصية للمواطنين، وامور اخرى عديدة ليس هذا مجال مناقشتها، ولكننا ننحاز الى الشعب الفلسطيني ومستقبله وارتهانه لاصحاب هذه القروض وضغوطهم، ونحن نعرف كيف استولت شركة قناة السويس على اهم شريان حيوي واقتصادي على الارض المصرية، بسبب بذخ الخديوي اسماعيل، وعجزه عن تسديد الديون التي تراكمت بشكل مرعب.
السلطة الفلسطينية التي اقترضت هذه الاموال من بنوك ومؤسسات مالية اجنبية فعلت هذا من وراء ظهر الشعب الفلسطيني، ودون التشاور معه، ومن اجل الحفاظ على وجودها، ودفع رواتب موظفيها، وتغطية نفقاتها الباهظة الناجمة عن تصرفها كدولة شبه عظمى تملك عشرات السفارات في الخارج تقدم القليل للشعب الفلسطيني وقضيته.
نحمد الله ان ازمة استقالة الدكتور نبيل قسيس او اقالته، هي التي فتحت اعيننا على هذه الديون، ورفعت الغطاء عن الكثير من الخطايا المالية، والا لاستمر الشعب الفلسطيني في البقاء في الظلام.
السيد سلام فياض يجب ان يستقيل، ليس لانه لا يريد تنفيذ اوامر رئيسه الرئيس عباس في اعادة الدكتور قسيس الى منصبه وزيرا للمالية، وانما لانه اغرق الشعب الفلسطيني بالديون، وهو ما زال تحت الاحتلال.الدكتور سلام فياض ورئيسه محمود عباس يتحملان معا هذه الكارثة، ويجب ان يستقيلا معا، لانهما دعما الاحتلال الاسرائيلي عمليا باعفائه من مسؤولية تحمل اعباء الاحتلال على مدى اكثر من عشرين عاما. اي منذ توقيع اتفاقات اوسلو.
نطالب بتحقيق فلسطيني مستقل في ازمة الديون هذه، وكيف تراكمت بالطريقة التي نراها حاليا، دون معرفة الشعب الفلسطيني او استشارته، ولماذا غابت الشفافية في هذا الملف الخطير، وتضليل الشعب الفلسطيني. مثلما نطالب في كل الاحوال بحل هذه السلطة التي باتت تعزز الاحتلال دون ان تقاومه باقتراض اموال لا تستطيع سدادها، وكيف تفعل وهي باتت محترفة تسول.
"
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Mubarak forces 'had official approval' to fire live rounds at Suez protesters
Latest leak shows high-level sanction
for violence in which 24 protesters died – and raises hopes of jailing
perpetrators
Patrick Kingsley and Louisa Loveluck in Cairo
guardian.co.uk,
" Senior interior ministry officials sanctioned the use of live ammunition against protesters in Suez during the opening days of Egypt's revolution, according to a leaked fact-finding report commissioned by the president.
guardian.co.uk,
" Senior interior ministry officials sanctioned the use of live ammunition against protesters in Suez during the opening days of Egypt's revolution, according to a leaked fact-finding report commissioned by the president.
Under the watch of the interior ministry's most senior representative in the region, police fired indiscriminately at crowds from the roof of a police station, according to the report, and senior police officers allowed their deputies to remove weaponry from official stores without presenting identification. The report also describes how a military officer ordered plainclothes police to carry firearms through the streets even after police had been officially evacuated from the city.
These are the latest
revelations from a tranche of a report commissioned by the president, Mohamed Morsi, that has
been leaked to the Guardian. The new material covers the events of January and
early February 2011 in Suez, the first large city to hold major
protests against the rule of the then president, Hosni Mubarak.
Earlier leaks documented
allegations that the
military were involved in torture, killings and forced disappearances during the
uprising......."
Egypt's government must work for its people
President Morsi's administration has
gifted the army with a constitution that indemnifies it
The report
leaked to the Guardian on the Egyptian military's dealings with protesters
during and after the revolution has been sitting on the Egyptian president's
desk since January.
Last May, when Morsi was making his case to be elected president for "all Egyptians", he promised to deal with the issue of what had happened to thousands of our young people during the previous year. The year when the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) was "protecting the revolution and overseeing the transition to democracy" – as they described it – had been a year of escalating massacres, trials, torture and disappearance......
An elected government, after a revolution, should be keen to put in place some form of transitional justice; to be seen caring for those who'd made sacrifices for the revolution. Instead, this government has gifted the army with a constitution that indemnifies it. And on the watch of this elected president more people have been killed, maimed, disappeared and tried than in the year of the military......"
Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll
Do you support the resumption of the "peace process" between Israel and the Palestinians?
With about 1,000 responding so far, 83% said no.
Sharif Kouddous & Lina Attalah on Egypt’s Media, Sectarianism & State Violence From Mubarak to Morsi
Democracy Now!
A VERY IMPORTANT REPORT
"New revelations have emerged in Egypt that members of the Army participated in the forced disappearance, torture and killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Despite the allegations, President Mohamed Morsi has declined to prosecute any officers since he assumed power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces after his election in June. The disclosures come amidst growing sectarian violence in Egypt between Muslims and Coptic Christians. We discuss the latest with Democracy Now! correspondent and Nation Institute fellow Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Lina Attalah, chief editor of Egypt Independent, a Cairo-based English-language newspaper and website....."
A VERY IMPORTANT REPORT
"New revelations have emerged in Egypt that members of the Army participated in the forced disappearance, torture and killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Despite the allegations, President Mohamed Morsi has declined to prosecute any officers since he assumed power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces after his election in June. The disclosures come amidst growing sectarian violence in Egypt between Muslims and Coptic Christians. We discuss the latest with Democracy Now! correspondent and Nation Institute fellow Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Lina Attalah, chief editor of Egypt Independent, a Cairo-based English-language newspaper and website....."
Syria: Aerial Attacks Strike Civilians
59 Unlawful Attacks Documented in Northern Syria
Human Rights Watch
"(Aleppo) – The Syrian Air Force has repeatedly carried out indiscriminate, and in some cases deliberate, air strikes against civilians. These attacks are serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war), and people who commit such violations with criminal intent are responsible for war crimes.
The 80-page report, “Death from the Skies: Deliberate and Indiscriminate Air Strikes on Civilians,” is based on visits to 50 sites of government air strikes in opposition-controlled areas in Aleppo, Idlib, and Latakia governorates, and more than 140 interviews with witnesses and victims. The air strikes Human Rights Watch documented killed at least 152 civilians. According to a network of local Syrian activists, air strikes have killed more than 4,300 civilians across Syria since July 2012.“In village after village, we found a civilian population terrified by their country’s own air force,” said Ole Solvang, a Human Rights Watch emergencies researcher who visited the sites and interviewed many of the victims and witnesses. “These illegal air strikes killed and injured many civilians and sowed a path of destruction, fear, and displacement.”......"
Download the full report
In Egypt, satire can't just be a laughing matter
Comics such as
Bassem Youssef are attacked by thin-skinned Islamist leaders – but satire's job
is to lampoon the powerful
"......Youssef's satire lassos the powerful, while the powerful lash out against the vulnerable. Several Muslim Brotherhood officials and some from the ultra-conservative Salafi movement are on record blaming women for sexual violence at a time when street sexual harassment and assaults are at epidemic levels. Islamists also face little if any legal blowback for astounding bigotry and incitement against Egypt's Christians. This at a time when Christians feel increasingly at risk: just this Sunday, two died in fighting outside the Coptic church's headquarters in Cairo, after Muslims attacked Christians mourning a sectarian attack the day before.
We always knew religious fundamentalists were humourless but who knew they were so thin-skinned. The revolution has taught us much."
Guardian Video: Syria's air force targeting civilians, says Human Rights Watch
"A Human Rights Watch report says that the Syrian air force is indiscriminately targeting civilians with air strikes. The NGO says more than 4,300 civilians have been killed in Syria as a result of air strikes in the country since July 2012, and those involved in attacks are guilty of war crimes."
Egyptian doctors 'ordered to operate on protesters without anaesthetic'
Exclusive: Leaked presidential report recommends an
investigation into the highest echelons of the army leadership
Patrick Kingsley and Louisa Loveluck in Cairo
guardian.co.uk,
Senior Egyptian army doctors were ordered to operate without anaesthetic on
wounded protesters at a military hospital in Cairo during protests against
military rule, according to an investigation commissioned by president Mohamed
Morsi. The report into military and police malpractice since 2011 also alleges
that doctors, soldiers and medics assaulted protesters inside the hospital.
The new chapter contains testimony from doctors and protesters about the treatment of injured demonstrators at the Kobri el-Qoba military hospital in Cairo in May 2012.
It alleges that a senior military doctor ordered subordinates to operate on wounded protesters without anaesthetic or sterilisation and reports that doctors, nurses and senior officers also beat some of the wounded protesters. It also claims that a senior officer ordered soldiers to lock protesters in a basement......"
Patrick Kingsley and Louisa Loveluck in Cairo
guardian.co.uk,
The findings, which relate
to the army's behaviour during the
Abbassiya clashes in May 2012, are the latest leak to the Guardian of a
suppressed report investigating human rights abuses in Egypt since the start of the
2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Earlier leaks alleged that the
military were involved in torture,
killings and forced disappearances during the uprising.
The new chapter contains testimony from doctors and protesters about the treatment of injured demonstrators at the Kobri el-Qoba military hospital in Cairo in May 2012.
It alleges that a senior military doctor ordered subordinates to operate on wounded protesters without anaesthetic or sterilisation and reports that doctors, nurses and senior officers also beat some of the wounded protesters. It also claims that a senior officer ordered soldiers to lock protesters in a basement......"
In Palestine, 'death' by a thousand micro jobs
Microwork centred on the internet can allow Palestinians to work from their jail cells, offering them subsistence wages.
By Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera
"......Welcome to "m2Work", the latest bright idea pyramid scheme to help Palestinians build a viable economy to ensure Palestinians remain safely in their cages while the occupation continues unabated and the space of Israel/Palestine continues its march towards a neoliberal dystopia..........
Virtual jobs for a virtual Palestine.......
Embracing occupation
Whether or not the microwork programme actually produces actual jobs with sustainable incomes or enables the exploitation of more Palestinian sweatshop labour for the internet age is an open question...............
Desperate Palestinians might take up microwork just as they have been compelled to do the macrowork of building the very settlements, cobbling the boots of the very soldiers and farming the stolen agricultural land that dispossesses them. But the World Bank's call for Palestinian "youth and women [to] embrace microwork for jobs and income" is little more than the latest morally bankrupt idea from an international community that has for generations used the rhetoric of jobs, progress and development to mask a reality of ever-greater exploitation of the world's poor, in Palestine and across the developing world. It would be nice if the World Bank supported the development of an m2Work app, or even just a comic, to expose this reality."
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The Grand Betrayal has Arrived
Bill Black: President Obama's bargain with Republicans opens the door to Wall
St.'s dream - the privatization of Social Security
Israeli Journalist Amira Hass Sparks Furor at Home for Defending Palestinian Right to Resist
Democracy Now!
"Amira Hass, the only Jewish-Israeli journalist to have spent almost 20 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank, recently suffered a torrent of hate mail and calls for her prosecution after she wrote an article defending the right of Palestinians to resist violent occupation. In the article, Hass defended the throwing of stones by Palestinian youth at Israeli soldiers, calling it "the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule." Hass said Israelis remain in denial about "how much violence is used on a daily basis against Palestinians. They don’t like to be told that someone has the right to resist their violence." Hass joins us to discuss the reaction to her piece and her response to the latest regional visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Despite vows to revive peace talks and free up the Palestinian economy, Hass says the Obama administration wants to preserve the status-quo of occupation......."
"Amira Hass, the only Jewish-Israeli journalist to have spent almost 20 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank, recently suffered a torrent of hate mail and calls for her prosecution after she wrote an article defending the right of Palestinians to resist violent occupation. In the article, Hass defended the throwing of stones by Palestinian youth at Israeli soldiers, calling it "the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule." Hass said Israelis remain in denial about "how much violence is used on a daily basis against Palestinians. They don’t like to be told that someone has the right to resist their violence." Hass joins us to discuss the reaction to her piece and her response to the latest regional visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Despite vows to revive peace talks and free up the Palestinian economy, Hass says the Obama administration wants to preserve the status-quo of occupation......."
Brotherhood turns back on Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud
Asia Times
"Post-revolution Egypt is maintaining the very policy of isolating Gaza first espoused by former dictator Hosni Mubarak. Overwhelmed by persistent political deadlock at home, the ruling Muslim Brotherhood approaches matters concerning Palestinians with utmost caution and is offering little to help the Hamas government overcome the Israeli blockade........"
Asia Times
"Post-revolution Egypt is maintaining the very policy of isolating Gaza first espoused by former dictator Hosni Mubarak. Overwhelmed by persistent political deadlock at home, the ruling Muslim Brotherhood approaches matters concerning Palestinians with utmost caution and is offering little to help the Hamas government overcome the Israeli blockade........"
Egyptian army's role in torture and disappearances – leaked document
Part of a leaked copy of the highest-level
inquiry into the deaths of nearly 900 protesters in Egypt's uprising. The
report, which remains unpublished, concludes that the country's armed forces participated
in forced disappearances, torture and killings
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