Haydar 'abd al-Shafi: RIP

From Laila El-Haddad

"The sad news from Gaza this morning was the passing of the great Haydar 'abd al-Shafi after a two-year battle with stomach cancer. My friend had this to say about him:

A few hours ago, Dr. Haydar 'Abd al-Shafi passed away at his home in Gaza
City. He was 88 years old.

For those who may not have known, Dr. 'Abd al-Shafi was a leading independent Palestinian political figure. He led medical and relief efforts during the 1948 and 1967 wars, was a founding member of the PLO (later serving on the executive committee), and was founder and director of the Gaza Red Crescent Society. Dr. 'Abd al-Shafi endured imprisonment and exile at the
hands of the Israeli military.

Dr. 'Abd al-Shafi will be best remembered for leading the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid peace conference and the subsequent talks in Washington. His eloquence and calm passion helped communicate the aspirations and arguments of the Palestinian Intifada to a global audience. But his insistence that any good-faith peace efforts required a halt to Zionist colonization in the 1967 territories led Israel to stonewall the talks and Yasir 'Arafat to circumvent them, thus producing
the Oslo Accords. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Dr. 'Abd al-Shafi's strenuous criticism of the Oslo regime's perpetuation of the occupation confirmed his status as a leading independent voice in Palestinian politics. During the 1996 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, he won more votes than any other candidate; he later resigned from the PLC after concluding that it had no power to improve the situation."

Ducks in a Row: Congress, Media Clamber on Board the War Train to Persia

Contributed by Andrew

By Chris Floyd

"Jon Schwarz, citing Carah Ong at Iran Nuclear Watch, reports that the Senate vote on the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment -- essentially, a pre-emptive approval of any military action that the Bush Regime wants to take against Iran -- could be voted on as soon as Tuesday......

Some believe that, in the end, Bush won't pull the trigger on Iran, that he will be stopped, or at least dissuaded, by recalcitrant military brass unwilling to see their overstretched, crumbling forces broken completely in a major new conflict. But I think these are false hopes. As we have seen over the years, the Bush Regime ruthlessly purges officers who question the Leader's maniacal agenda or stand up too strongly for the honor and well-being of their troops. And the planned attack on Iran will be mostly a matter of airpower and naval-based missiles: remote killing by generals and admirals who love their glitzy, high-tech toys and want to give them the kind of unbridled work-out they've been denied since the early days of the Iraq invasion. (All that daily, workhorse dumping of a few bombs and missiles on Iraqi civilian areas here and there just doesn't provide the same kind of thrill.)......"

The Stooge is Given the Orders

Podhoretz: the Little Demon on Bush’s Shoulder

By Kurt Nimmo

"....First and foremost, it is no secret Podhoretz, one of the most dangerous neocons on the planet, has Bush’s attention, and second the neocon agenda is not “radical right-wing,” as the old broken down left-right political paradigm no longer works. Podhoretz’s sermon on the White House mount is simply another chapter in the neocon-neolib plan to domesticate the Middle East by way of cruise missile and bunker busters.....

....Israel’s “Arab policy” in “its most intimate particulars, is one of deliberate … acts of provocation, intended to generate Arab hostility and thus to create pretexts for armed action and territorial expansion,” explains Naseer H. Aruri.

Norman Podhoretz is one of several primary abettors of this policy, a sort of traveling salesman shuttling between Tel Aviv and Washington, a fact made apparent by the ease of Podhoretz’s appearance on both U.S. and Israeli television, insisting the United States bomb Iranian kindergarten classrooms and hospitals.....

If you’d like a taste of what Podhoretz’s war will look like, read former CIA officer Philip Giraldi’s latest post over at the Antiwar site. “Podhoretz undoubtedly sees the current global conflict as something that is good and necessary, both containable and winnable, but as his judgment on Iraq was fallible, his prediction of Iran’s rapid destruction is also unreliable. It might be useful to imagine just how war with Iran could play out if the Iranians don’t roll over and surrender at the first whiff of grapeshot.”

Giraldi’s speculation—a minor incident leading to a full-blown regional nuclear war—is entirely plausible. Indeed, it may become a horrific reality now that the little neocon demon Norman Podhoretz—deemed the “Unrepentant Neocon” by the War Street, er Wall Street Journal—has taken roost on Bush’s shoulder."

Arab poetry's sometimes subversive answer to "American Idol"

Saifedean Ammous, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 25, 2007

"Imagine an American TV network deciding to take the American Idol format and apply it to poetry: lining up poets to read their poems in front of temperamental judges while the nation gets out its mobile phones to vote for its favorite poet. One can be sure the show would not survive the first commercial break before the chastened executives pull the plug on it and replace it with yet another series on the Life and Times of Nicole Ritchie. Yet, that was exactly the formula for the latest TV sensation to take Arab countries by storm......"

Border impasse arises again

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 25, 2007

"CAIRO, 24 September (IPS) - The border crisis that had appeared to subside last month is back, with an estimated 2,000 Palestinians marooned on Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip. A new security arrangement between Cairo, Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has effectively sealed the last sovereign transit point in or out of the troubled territory, which has been governed by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas since mid-June....."

Delegation from Barcelona visits Gaza City

"Gaza – Ma'an – A Spanish delegation from the Spanish city of Barcelona in Spain on Monday condemned "the tyrannical Israeli conduct against the Gaza Strip" which they said was aimed at depriving people of food, medicine and freedom.

The delegation is currently on a visit to Gaza City, which is twinned with the city of Barcelona.

The delegation met on Monday with the Mayor of Gaza City, Majid Abu Ramadan and handed over a letter of solidarity from the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, who expressing the solidarity of the district of Catalonia with Gaza City and its residents.

Commenting on the letter of solidarity, the Mayor of Gaza city requested that the people of Spain be informed of the suffering of the people of Gaza City."

Turning Ahmadinejad Into Public Enemy No. 1

by Juan Cole
salon.com

"......Taking potshots at a bantam cock of a populist like Ahmadinejad is actually a way of expressing another, deeper anxiety: fear of Iran’s rising position as a regional power and its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo. The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state. The neoconservatives are even claiming that the United States has been at war with Iran since 1979......

And now the American war party, undeterred by the quagmire in Iraq, convinced that their model of New Empire is working, is eager to go on the offensive again. They may yet find a pretext to plunge the United States into another war. Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York this year will not include his visit to Ground Zero, because that is hallowed ground for American patriotism and he is being depicted as not just a critic of the United States but as the leader of an enemy state. His visit may, however, be ground zero for the next big military struggle of the United States in the Middle East, one that really will make Iraq look like a cakewalk."

What World War III May Look Like

A Must Read

"......It might start with a minor incident, possibly involving an American Marine patrol operating out of the new base at Badrah near the Iranian border. The Marines are surrounded by superior Iranian forces claiming that the Americans have strayed inside Iranian territory. The Marines refuse to surrender their weapons and instead open fire. The Iranians respond. Helicopter gunships are called in to support the Marines, and artillery fire is directed against Iranian military targets close to the border. President Bush calls the incident an act of war and, in an emotional speech to the nation, orders U.S. forces to attack. A hastily called meeting of the UN Security Council results in a 17-1 vote urging the United States to exercise restraint, with only Washington voting "no." In the UN General Assembly, only the U.S., Israel, Micronesia, and Costa Rica support the military action. The U.S. is effectively alone.

In the first few days, overwhelming American air and naval superiority destroy Iran's principal air, naval, and army bases. Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities are particularly targeted and are obliterated, as are the known Iranian nuclear research and development sites. Population centers are avoided, though smart weapons destroy communications centers and command and control facilities. There are nevertheless large numbers of civilian casualties and widespread radioactive contamination as many of the targeted sites are in or near cities. Infrastructure is also hit, particularly bridges, roads, and power generation stations close to known nuclear research centers and military sites. The U.S. media, which had supported the administration's plans to engage Iran, rallies around the flag, praising the surgical attacks designed to cripple Tehran's nuclear weapons program. Congress supports the bombing, with leaders from both parties praising the president and commenting that Iran had it coming.......

The United States uses a neutron-type bomb against the main Iranian nuclear research center at Natanz, which it had already bombed conventionally and destroyed. It vows to bomb again if Iran continues to resist. Iran is defiant and fires another wave of Silkworms at U.S. ships, sinking one. Suicide bombers hit U.S. targets in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia and China place their nuclear forces on high alert. Pakistani militants take over parliament, aided by radical elements in the army and the intelligence service. India launches a preemptive strike against the main Pakistani nuclear centers at Wah and Multan, where the country's arsenal is believed to be concentrated. Pakistan has hidden some of its nukes elsewhere, however, and is able to strike back by bombing New Delhi. World War III has begun."

250-Strong Israeli Spy Ring Equipped by the German BND External Intelligence with German Passports

"The pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite group has seized on Sharon’s accidental detention in the course of a suspected murder probe in Beirut, to depict him as belonging to a 250-strong Israeli spy ring equipped by the German BND external intelligence with German passports. The 32-year old Sharon is said to have been on a mission to prepare the US-Israeli attack on Iran. No source in Israel or Germany confirms this tale.

Monday, Sept 24, the Phalange leader Samir Geagea also claimed Sharon’s arrest had “foiled a big terrorist attack in Lebanon. What has Lebanon come to when an Israeli agent can operate in the heart of Beirut?” he asked.

Following these allegations, the Lebanese government cancelled the visits to the detainee scheduled by German embassy and Red Cross officials for Monday.

According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, Hizballah is connecting the alleged Israeli air attack on Syria of Sept 6 to claims of US-Israeli preparations to attack Iran and trying to present the Israeli-born German Daniel Sharon as proof of those preparations.

As further grist for its mill, our sources report Hizballah is planning to hold up a purported French intelligence “document” which fell into its hands to expose the trilateral collaboration between the US, Germany and Israel. This “document” is described as the source of Hizballah’s claim that Mossad agents, armed with genuine German passports, had in the past year been sent on missions to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They are described as transiting Amman, flying by Royal Jordanian Airways to Irbil and Suleimaniya in Kurdish Iraq and thence to Iran and other Muslim states.

All these missions, Hizballah propagandists report, were linked to the preparations to strike Iranian nuclear installations and the Mossad’s other plans for halting Tehran’s nuclear program. They add for good measure that Israeli intelligence veterans are pushing hard for the Mossad to carry out pinpoint liquidations of Iranian and foreign nuclear scientists along the same format as Israel’s liquidations of German scientists employed in Egypt’s missile program in the late 1950s."

Time to Dust Off Barghouti? I Have Always Said That Israel is Saving Him for the Right Moment; Is That Moment Now?

Ben-Eliezer: Israel should free Barghouti, he is next PA leader

"Imprisoned Fatah boss Marwan Barghouti will become the Palestinians' next leader, Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer recently told Haaretz.

In a holiday interview with Haaretz - which will appear Tuesday - Ben-Eliezer said that he believed that "there is no reason to become alarmed" by the possibility that Barghouti will be released from the Israeli prison system, where he is serving five consecutive life sentences for terrorist activities.

"I would consider releasing him. I think it's a legitimate move, though I believe that his actions were sinister, and I don't take them lightly at all," Ben-Eliezer said.......

Ben-Eliezer says over the past months he had realized Barghouti is probably the best partner Israel has with whom it can hope to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations with the Palestinians.

According to Ben-Eliezer, Barghouti enjoys considerable sway over the situation in Palestinian Authority from within the Hadarim prison facility.

The minister says Barghouti's pull extends to the preparations for the U.S.-sponsored regional peace summit Washington intends to hold in November.

"We have to find a suitable opportunity to release Barghouti, and we have to link it to the release of Gilad Shalit," the minister said. Ben-Eliezer was referring to the Israel Defense Forces soldier Hamas had abducted more than a year ago from the southern Gaza Strip.

"I know this hard to cope with. But we have to look 10 years down the line, and ask ourselves where we want to go," the minister, who has known Barghouti for many years, said. "

Military brains plot Pakistan's downfall

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"With al-Qaeda, assorted jihadis and the Pakistani Taliban on their side, former officers in the Pakistan Army are plotting the course by which they plan to bring down the government of President General Pervez Musharraf, or at least bend him to their will. Saudi Arabia has tried unsuccessfully to defuse the situation and the plan - modeled on Vietnamese guerrilla tactics - is entering a new and decisive phase.....

Pakistani jihadis have launched many attacks on the establishment and against Musharraf, but now they face a well-coordinated "guerrilla" strategy, spearheaded by former army officers.

The former military men are operating out of the Waziristan camp of former Pakistani jihadi commander Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri. They are mostly ex-middle cadre (captains, majors, colonels) who resigned upon Pakistan's U-turn after September 11.....

In Afghanistan, he oriented the fighters to adopt the three-phase guerrilla tactics of Giap in the southeastern provinces of Khost, Paktia and Paktika. These are now being adopted against the Pakistan Army in the two Waziristans......."

'Hitler' does New York

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

".......Articulate, evasive, manipulative, the Iranian president - even lost in translation - was especially skillful in turning US corporate media's hysteria upside down consistently to paint those in the administration of President George W Bush as incorrigible warmongers. Both at the National Press Club, via video-conference, and live at Columbia University, Ahmadinejad even had the luxury of joking about fabled Western "freedom of information" - as so many are still "trying to prevent people from talking".

He scored major points among the target audience that really matters: worldwide Muslim public opinion. Contrasting with a plethora of corrupt Arab leaders, Ahmadinejad has been carefully positioning himself as a Muslim folk hero capable of standing up to Western arrogance and defending the rights of the weak (the Palestinians). The way he deflected US ire on the enemy's own turf will only add to his standing.......

On Israel, Ahmadinejad said, "We do not recognize a regime based on discrimination, occupation and expansionism," and he said that country "last week attacked Syria and last year attacked Lebanon"; pretty much what most of the Middle East agrees with. He may have granted that the Holocaust did take place, but the world needs "more research on it". The Holocaust is not his main point: it always serves as an intro to one of his key themes - why should the Palestinians pay the price for something that happened in Europe? He said he wanted a "clear" answer. No one deigned to provide it......

......(CBS) was firing on all cylinders for a casus belli - from "There's no doubt Iran is providing the IEDs" (improvised explosive devices, in Iraq) to "Why don't you just stop denying that you're building a nuclear bomb?" Ahmadinejad was bemused, to say the least. CNN for its part could not resist proclaiming, "His state even sponsors terrorism ... in some cases even against US troops in Iraq.".....

.....just to plunge once again into the Palestinian tragedy. He stressed how Iran "is friendly with the Jewish people" - which is a fact (at least 30,000 Jews live undisturbed in Iran). Then back to the key point: Why are the Palestinians paying the price for something they had nothing to do with? Iran has a "humanitarian proposal" to solve the problem - a referendum where Palestinians would choose their own political destiny.....

....He is more than aware that the nuclear dossier is "a political issue" - a question of "two or three powers who think they can monopolize science and knowledge". It's up to a sovereign Iran to decide whether it needs nuclear fuel. "Why should we need fuel from you? You don't even give us spare parts for aircraft."....."

Body Bag Number 3,800 Has Just Arrived

U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq.........3,800

"Coalition" Troops Killed...........4,100

U.S. Troops Wounded..............27,936

The Arabs Always Come Back for More....
It Has Been The Rule for Over 90 Years.

First Chapter: ‘The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy’

"......Yet on one subject, we can be equally confident that the candidates will speak with one voice. In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep personal commitment to one foreign country-Israel-as well as their determination to maintain unyielding U.S. support for the Jewish state. Each candidate will emphasize that he or she fully appreciates the multitude of threats facing Israel and make it clear that, if elected, the United States will remain firmly committed to defending Israel's interests under any and all circumstances. None of the candidates is likely to criticize Israel in any significant way or suggest that the United States ought to pursue a more evenhanded policy in the region. Any who do will probably fall by the wayside.

This observation is hardly a bold prediction, because presidential aspirants were already proclaiming their support for Israel in early 2007. The process began in January, when four potential candidates spoke to Israel's annual Herzliya Conference on security issues. As Joshua Mitnick reported in Jewish Week, they were "seemingly competing to see who can be most strident in defense of the Jewish State." Appearing via satellite link, John Edwards, the Democratic party's 2004 vice presidential candidate, told his Israeli listeners that "your future is our future" and said that the bond between the United States and Israel "will never be broken." Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney spoke of being "in a country I love with people I love" and, aware of Israel's deep concern about a possible nuclear Iran, proclaimed that "it is time for the world to speak three truths: (1) Iran must be stopped; (2) Iran can be stopped; (3) Iran will be stopped!" Senator John McCain (R-AZ) declared that "when it comes to the defense of Israel, we simply cannot compromise," while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) told the audience that "Israel is facing the greatest danger for [sic] its survival since the 1967 victory."......."

Excerpted from The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer Stephen M. Walt Copyright © 2007 by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Excerpted by permission.

Podhoretz secretly urged Bush to bomb Iran

"President Bush and Karl Rove sat listening to Norman Podhoretz for roughly 45 minutes at the White House as the patriarch of neoconservatism argued that the United States should bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. The meeting was not on the president’s public schedule. Rove was silent throughout, though he took notes. The president listened diligently, Podhoretz said as he recounted the conversation months later, but he “didn’t tip his hand.”

“I did say to [the president], that people ask: Why are you spending all this time negotiating sanctions? Time is passing. I said, my friend [Robert] Kagan wrote a column which he said you were giving ‘futility its chance.’ And both he and Karl Rove burst out laughing.

“It struck me,” Podhoretz added, “that if they really believed that there was a chance for these negotiations and sanctions to work, they would not have laughed. They would have got their backs up and said, ‘No, no, it’s not futile, there’s a very good chance.’ ”

Podhoretz walked out of the meeting neither deterred nor assured the president would attack the Persian state. Yet prior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York for the United Nations’ General Assembly, Podhoretz said he believes that “Bush is going to hit” Iran before the end of his presidency.

His assumption is based on intellectual instinct. If Podhoretz were merely another old man of the chattering class, his intellectual instincts would hardly be worth pondering. But Podhoretz, after a half-century in argument, remains fiercely relevant......."

Foam on the Water

By Uri Avnery
PalestineChronicle.com

"......The pathetic Condoleezza Rice keeps coming and going. Ehud Olmert is formulating a document without content in order to create the illusion of progress towards the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Israeli airplanes bombard a Syrian area in order to eliminate a threat of "weapons of mass destruction". Israel prepares to bomb or not to bomb nuclear installations in Iran. President Bush is calling for an "international meeting" at an unknown date, with unknown participants for an unknown purpose.

All this is imagined reality. The real reality is unfolding on the ground, every day, every hour: nightly incursions in West Bank towns, frantic building in the settlements, enlargement of the "Israelis only" road network, further additions to the 600 or so existing roadblocks, worsening of the living conditions in the Palestinian ghettos in the West Bank and turning life in the Gaza Strip into hell.

This is the real war: the war for "the whole of the Land of Israel" - a war that has disappeared from public discourse, but that is being waged energetically, far from the eyes of Israelis living only 20 minutes drive from there. The Palestinians are fighting with their meager means but with dogged obduracy......."

Just How Powerful is the Israel Lobby?

Only Cheney Knows for Sure

By SHERWOOD ROSS
CounterPunch

"......According to Petras, a sociologist at Binghamton University, New York, the pro-Zionist "power configuration" is not just the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC). The Zionist lobby is so powerful, Petras argues, it "calls the shots" and "supports the escalation of the Iraq war and the savaging of Palestine, Somalia and Afghanistan."

"It (the Lobby") has neutralized the biggest and most concerted efforts by big name centrist political figures to alter White House policy," including James Baker, (former Secretary of State under the first president Bush,) former president Carter and "protesting former military commanders" in Iraq.

Petras charges, "the White House is putting into practice the war strategy presented by the American' Enterprise Institute, which he dubs a Zioncon thinktank. Led by "arch-Zionist" Michael Ledeen a resident scholar of AEI, "some in the Jewish Lobby dismissed the Baker Iraq Study Group as the realists and anti-Semites.'" The ISG "was unable to deal with Israeli violence against Palestinians or enter into a dialogue with Syria and Iran on any but the most narrow and unpromising terms," Petras asserted......"

Action-as-Propaganda

Learning About the Iraq War from Hannah Arendt

By DAVID KEEN
(This essay is excerpted from David Keen's new book, Endless War? Hidden Functions of the 'War on Terror')

CounterPunch

".......Second, even a lack of success may lend legitimacy to the insistence that America and its allies must devote ever-greater energy to defeating terrorism. Indeed, those waging war on terror seem to have an interest in insisting that they are simultaneously both winning and losing. This is a confusing message, to be sure; but a mixed message has the significant advantage that it can never be disproved. Any form of evidence, any positive or negative turn of events, can be harnessed to the (ambiguous) official line. Each victory brings some new atrocity and some new struggle in its wake: the toppling of the Taliban is followed by the bombing of Bali; the ousting of Saddam is followed by the bombing of Madrid; elections in Iraq, but bombings in London. It would seem the task is never done: as Mark Duffield pithily puts it, "It is always a case of one more massacre, of winning this endless war, and we will be free." Just as we breathe a sigh of relief, we find some new anxiety catching in out throats. The war on terror is drawing to an end; long live the war on terror! "

Bush peace confab a swan dive or belly flop?

Khody Akhavi, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 24, 2007

"WASHINGTON, 21 September (IPS) - This past summer, President George W. Bush extended a hand where he never has before, calling for a Middle East conference to find a solution to the long-moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace process. This time, says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her boss expects results. Yet as with most of Washington's diplomatic overtures to the region over the last seven years, Bush's recent demands for a "viable Palestinian state" -- which critics argue simply aim to spit-shine an already tarnished presidential legacy -- may crumble under the weight of stark realities on the ground......"

Brzezinski: U.S. in danger of 'stampeding' to war with Iran

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials' saber rattling about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions to similar statements made before the start of the Iraq war.

"I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq," Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday.

But Henry Kissinger, the former national security adviser and secretary of state under President Nixon, appeared not to doubt Iran's alleged ambitions.

"I believe they are building a capability to build a nuclear bomb," Kissinger told CNN. "I don't think they're yet in a position to build a nuclear bomb, but they may be two or three years away from it."........"

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

By Naser Jafari

How Iraq won its 'freedom'

By Tom Engelhardt
Asia Times

"In a single document, former US viceroy in Iraq L Paul Bremer granted Blackwater USA and other private security firms that provide hired guns to the military immunity from prosecution. This turned the global clock back at least a century, establishing a special kind of freedom in Iraq. It was, in essence, a get-out-of-jail-free card in perpetuity......"

Iran, Israel ratchet up tensions

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times

"After France took the lead in verbally attacking Iran, Israel has now taken up the mantle as the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions spirals further out of control. Israel's hostility toward Iran is nothing new, but it does raise fears echoed in a report this week that US Vice President Dick Cheney mulled Israeli strikes against Iran in the hope that Tehran would strike back, giving the US an excuse to attack......"

"Turkey shooting" and now "Baiting" ... Acts of American "Bravery"

By Imad Khadduri

""At the end of the [1991] war, retreating Iraqi conscripts (mainly from the Kurdish north of the country) and groups of foreign workers fleeing Kuwait, were attacked by massive USA air power.
Rockets, napalm and cluster bombs were used in what is described by the pilots as a "turkey shoot". This is a USA term meaning an unopposed slaughter (emphasis added)."

The Turkey Shoot

"A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items".

Military is ‘baiting’ insurgents in Iraq

Take This, Stupid Abbas: Olmert: Final status deal with Palestinians will take 20-30 years

"......However, the prime minister said, he did not expect Israel to reach a final status agreement with the Palestinians for another 20 or 30 years.

"You don't have a mandate from the Jewish people to make these concessions," Likud MK Silvan Shalom told the prime minister. Shalom said that in order to implement a West Bank withdrawal, Olmert would need either a referendum or new elections.

Olmert stressed that to date, there was no draft agreement with the Palestinians. If there were, he said, he would present it to the cabinet for approval......."

The tide is turning

Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 24, 2007

".......As for Israeli civilians, since 1967, as many as one million have voted with their feet and left Israel, and some say the rate of those refusing to serve in the Israeli army is as high as 50 percent and that 30 percent of Israeli pilots refuse to bomb the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This occupation is unsustainable and Israeli civilians are losing faith in militarism. It has to end, and we must work out viable alternatives for living together peacefully, in full recognition of our mutual rights, not least the fundamental human right to self-determination.

Central issues such as acknowledgment by Israel of responsibility for the refugees must be addressed. Not least for the sake of Israeli "closure" and an end to the exceptional nature of Israel, which prevents it from participating as a normal state in this Parliament of Man, which is the UN.

Regarding Israel's cozy relationship with the US, which just announced a $30 billion military aid package for Israel, journalist and filmmaker John Pilger recently observed, "No other country on earth enjoys such immunity, allowing it to act without sanction, as Israel. No other country has such a record of lawlessness: not one of the world's tyrannies comes close. International treaties, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified by Iran, are ignored by Israel. There is nothing like it in UN history."

In fact, in direct negation of UN recognition of Israeli statehood, Israel has ignored over 60 UN Security Council resolutions.

However, as Pilger also points out, the tide is turning. "The swell of a boycott is growing inexorably, as if an important marker has been passed, reminiscent of the boycotts that led to sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Both Mandela and Desmond Tutu have drawn this parallel; so have South African cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils and other illustrious Jewish members of the liberation struggle."

In Palestine this year, Kasrils said the situation there is 100 times worse than it was in apartheid South Africa. UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, and (in a parliamentary debate) British Member of Parliament Clare Short, have both said that human rights conditions in the EU trade agreement should be invoked and Israel's trading preferences suspended. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, John Dugard, speaks of crimes against humanity, as the occupation is characterized by elements of colonialism and apartheid......"

Life behind the wire

Israel's policies have made Gaza a giant prison. Now many Palestinians fear the same in the West Bank.

By Chris Doyle
The Guardian

".....Collective starvation is being used as a political tool of pressure. One Israeli official admitted: "It is meant to be used as leverage on the civilian population, to pressure the Hamas regime over the Qassam fire." This is a war crime and for clear moral reasons, a cast-iron case of state terrorism, threatening an entire civilian population for political ends.......

In nearly every other context, such crimes would be slammed from every governmental and parliamentary pulpit. But the silence is as deafening as the Israeli sonic booms over Gaza. British government ministers condemn boycotts of Israel, but cannot even muster a word of condemnation of Israeli practices that actually endanger hundreds of thousands of lives. The hypocrisy is not lost on millions of Arabs and Muslims.

Gaza has become a human laboratory experiment. But will this starvation camp work? Will an entire society, brought to its knees, reject the programme of one political group and kowtow to the demands of the occupier? It will fail as every Israeli attempt to subjugate the Palestinians has. Even if Gazans capitulate, if only to survive, it will be only a short-term gain. Rocket attacks will resume. Just as Israel's bombing of Lebanon last summer failed to compel Lebanese to turn against Hizbullah, this crushing of Gaza will continue to bolster Hamas's support as well as those who will make Hamas seem like the good guys......"

The Whispers of War

Newsweek

"......The simulations have led Gardiner to an ominous conclusion: though the United States is now emphasizing sanctions and diplomacy as the means of compelling Tehran to stop enriching uranium, an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could end up dragging Washington into a war. "Even if Israel goes it alone, we will be blamed," says Gardiner. "Hence, we would see retaliation against U.S. interests."......

While the Bush administration appears to have given tacit support to the Syria raid, Israel and the United States are not in lockstep on Iran. For Israel, the next three months may be decisive: either Tehran succumbs to sanctions and stops enriching uranium or it must be dealt with militarily. (Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes only.) "Two thousand seven is the year you determine whether diplomatic efforts will stop Iran," says a well-placed Israeli source, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak for the government. "If by the end of the year that's not working, 2008 becomes the year you take action."......"

ماذا يُطبخ لسورية؟

ماذا يُطبخ لسورية؟

عبد الباري عطوان

"......انها مؤشرات توحي جميعها بان احتمالات توجيه ضربة عسكرية الي سورية باتت وشيكة. والسؤال المطروح بشدة هو عما اذا كانت هذه الضربة في اطار هجوم امريكي ـ اسرائيلي شامل علي ايران وسورية ام علي الاخيرة وحدها؟
الاستعدادات الامريكية لضرب ايران لم تتوقف،
......
هناك سيناريوهان رئيسيان يمكن استخلاصهما من حملات التشويش والتحريض المتصاعدة ضد سورية، الاول يقول بان اسرائيل، وباتفاق مسبق مع الولايات المتحدة، وربما فرنسا ايضا، بصدد الاقدام علي ضربات استباقية ثلاثية الطابع، تستهدف اولاها سورية، وثانيتها حزب الله في جنوب لبنان وثالثتها حركات المقاومة الاسلامية في قطاع غزة و حماس علي وجه الخصوص.
......
اما السيناريو الثاني فيتلخص في الاقدام علي هجمات استفزازية محدودة لسورية علي غرار غارة دير الزور لاشغال قيادتها، واحراجها عربيا وداخليا، بعدم قدرتها علي الرد، انتظارا للهجوم الموسع الاكبر عليها وعلي ايران في الوقت نفسه.
السيناريو الاول يبدو الاكثر ترجيحا، لان الانفراد بسورية، وتوجيه ضربات اليها ربما يكون الخيار الاسهل والاقل كلفة، بالمقارنة مع كلفة الخيار الثاني بمهاجمة ايران، وهي كلفة ضخمة بكل المقاييس
......."

Hamas: Abbas's militias complement IOF mission against Palestinian resistance

"NABLUS, (PIC)-- Hamas Movement has unequivocally accused PA security apparatuses under PA chief Mahmoud Abbas of supplementing the IOF troops' job against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank.

Responsible source in Hamas Movement affirmed Sunday that the PA security forces in the West Bank carried out a number of arrests in lines of Hamas cadres in the aftermath of the heroic resistance the Hamas fighters demonstrated against the IOF troops in the Ein Biet Al-Maa refugee camp in Nablus city.

According to local witnesses, the PA security elements and armed Fatah militias who are usually seen in Palestinian streets vandalizing and arresting Palestinian citizens refrained from defending the camp and opted to remain arms folded towards the IOF onslaught.

Two Hamas political leaders in the West Bank Fayyadh Al-Aghbar and Hussam Kataloni were rounded up at the hands of Abbas's armed militias in an aggressive manner after condolence visits they paid to houses of Palestinian resistance fighters martyred in the battle.......

Unwelcome Israeli-PA security coordination in the West Bank:

For their part, Palestinian citizens in the West Bank condemned the security coordination between PA security departments and their Israeli counterparts, describing such coordination as harmful to the Palestinian people, and achieving only Israel's security interests.

Earlier, the Israeli military institution decided to allow PA security elements deploy in the streets of Nablus city carrying their light weapons and during day time only, but it banned them from doing so during the night.

The Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper described the Israeli step as a gesture of "goodwill" on the part of the Israeli occupation government towards Abbas and towards the "unconstitutional" PA government of Salam Fayyadh.

According to the Hebrew paper, the Israeli decision was taken after a meeting between Israeli war minister Ehud Barak and Fayyadh last week, during which, Fayyadh requested the deployment of 500 PA policemen to "impose law and order" in the Nablus city, in allusion to fighting and arresting Palestinian resistance fighters.

According to Israeli and PA sources, the deployment of the PA policemen in Nablus will be a pilot experiment before similar steps could be replicated in different parts of the West Bank.......

More PA arrests in the West Bank recorded:

But PA security forces arrest campaign of Hamas supporters persisted in Ramallah city as at least 16 Hamas members were rounded up at the hands of those security elements in the Palestinian village of Rantis, west of the city, after summoning them to meet the PA intelligence officer in the village.

Moreover, Hamas prominent political leader in the West Bank Maher Al-Kharraz, 55, was also apprehended at the hands of the PA intelligence members after he visited house of a Hamas activist in the city, which the IOF troops reduced to rubbles two days ago.

No charges were filed against Kharraz whom the IOF troops attempted to arrest twice before but failed."

Angry protesters greet Blair

"BEIRUT. British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday began his first visit to Lebanon, where he was greeted by angry demonstrators protesting his stance on Israel’s month-long war with Hezbollah guerillas.

Security was tight, with police cordoning off a large section of downtown Beirut to traffic and prohibiting parking on the route of Blair’s motorcade.

On the eve of the visit, Lebanon’s top Shiite religious leader urged the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to declare Blair "persona non grata", describing him as a "key accomplice" in Israel’s onslaught against Lebanon......."

The men planning America's next air war

By Eric Margolis

"......I asked when the Bush administration's widely expected air war against Iran would begin. This was not a subject my hosts cared to discuss. Smiles vanished. Dr Lani Kass, Checkmate's formidable senior civilian official, a former Israeli military officer who had somehow morphed into a senior Pentagon advisor, dismissed my question, insisting no decision to attack Iran had been made. She called a possible air war "unlikely". But I was ready to bet plans to blitz Iran were being drawn up in an adjoining office. One could feel a buzz of excitement among Checkmate's hard-eyed officers who wore combat flight suits and tensed up every time I mentioned Iran. Pentagon sources say the air force has selected 3,000-4,000 targets in Iran, and that some US and British special forces are already operating there. However, Washington sources also report strong opposition to war against Iran among the Pentagon's brass, and high-ranking officials in the CIA, Treasury, and state department. They view war with Iran as unpredictable, unwise and dangerous at a time when US ground and air forces are stretched to breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We can defeat Iran," insisted Dr Kass, `but are Americans willing to pay the price?"......."

Counting The Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Haroon Siddiqui
The Toronto Star

"......That reminded me of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In October 1964, in the early stages of his anti-Shah agitation, he gave a colourful speech attacking the legal immunity enjoyed by Americans in Iran.

“If an American’s servant or cook assassinates your marja (religious leader), the Iranian police do not have the right to apprehend him.

“But if someone runs over a dog belonging to an American, he’d be prosecuted. Even if the Shah himself were to run over a dog belonging to an American, he’d be prosecuted. But if an American cook runs over the Shah, no one would have the right to interfere with him.”

Khomeini’s words spread like wildfire. Within a month, he was exiled. He returned 15 years later, triumphant, having engineered a revolution that toppled the Shah and ended America’s hold on Iran.

The ayatollah remains a reviled figure in the West. But his point is relevant to Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States and its allies do not even count the local dead......."

Hired Guns, Loose Cannons

By Eric Margolis
The Toronto Sun

"Munich - Private armies have a very sinister reputation in Europe.Memories still linger of Germany’s post First World War army veterans, the Stahlhelm, and Nazi Brownshirts, who battled Communist street toughs in Munich and Berlin.

Europeans remember Italy’s fascist Blackshirts and, most recently, Serb neo-fascist gangs like Arkan’s Tigers and the White Eagles who committed some of the worst atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Germany also remains haunted by folk memory of the hordes of blood-crazed mercenaries who turned much of this nation into a wasteland during the savage 30 Years War. The name of the great mercenary captain, Wallenstein, still resounds, and of those most feared mercenaries of all, the ferocious Swiss, who once terrorized Europe.

Wrote Machiavelli: “where there is gold and blood, there are the Swiss.” The Vatican’s Swiss Guard is a faint reminder of the “furia Helvetica.”.......

Unleashed

Vice-President Dick Cheney took Vietnam’s lesson to heart by championing use of mercenaries for nasty foreign wars. But democracies should have no business unleashing armies of hired gunmen on the world.

Worse, these private armies hardwired to the Republican Party’s far right are a grave and intolerable danger to the American republic. Congress should outlaw them absolutely. The great Roman Republic held that mandatory military service by all citizens was the basis of democracy, while professional armies were a grave menace.

How ironic that colonial America, which rose up in arms in response to the British crown’s use of brutal German mercenaries, is resorting to the same tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan. Europe wants no more of private armies. Americans have yet to learn this painful lesson."

The Boys from Baghdad: Iraqi Commandos Trained by U.S. Contractor

by Pratap Chatterjee
Corpwatch

"......The “boys” that the report praises are members of one of dozens of elite Iraqi commandos units that function as a "third force” to augment the Iraqi police and army, both of which are widely considered to be failures. On this mission in early July 2005, the Emergency Response Unit, backed by the First Battalion of the Fifth Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army, had detained “anti-Iraqi forces” and intercepted roadside bombs.

Their tactics owed much to a secretive U.S. private contractor, U.S. Investigations Services (USIS), which conducted ERU trainings on U.S. military bases in Iraq -- including at Camp Dublin and Camp Solidarity. The trainings began under General David Petreaus as an effort to bolster security in Iraq, and soon evolved into a system for providing support to the deeply sectarian Ministry of the Interior.

Beginning in May 2004, U.S. authorities contracted with USIS to create the first ERU. The non-sectarian force is supposed “to respond to national-level law enforcement emergencies......"

An explosion is seen next to a building during an Israeli army raid in the Al Ain refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. A fierce Israeli army raid in a crowded West Bank refugee camp confined thousands of residents to their homes for a third straight day Thursday, and many said they're running out of food and water. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)


A Palestinian girl walks past a destroyed house Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, after Israeli army raids on the Al Ain refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus earlier in the week. During the fierce army raids that lasted several days thousands of residents were confined to their homes, and many said they were running out of food and water. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)


A Palestinian man sits on the rubble of a house, which was demolished by the Israeli army during a military operation, in Gaza September 21, 2007. REUTERS


A Palestinian boy carries two Brazilian volleyballs given to him as he arrives at Guarulhos airport with his family and other refugees who have been living in the Ruweished camp in Jordan after escaping the violence in Iraq four years earlier, in Sao Paulo September 21, 2007. A first group of 38 of a total of about 100 refugees from Ruweished who were granted residence in Brazil through the United Nations refugee program arrived to take up residence in different parts of the country. REUTERS


A Palestinian woman sorts through belongings in her demolished house following an Israeli army operation in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Sept. 21, 2007. On Wednesday,Sept. 19, 2007, the Israeli government decided to declare Gaza 'hostile territory' and further isolate its residents, cutting back their fuel, electricity and nonessential goods.(AP Photo)


A Palestinian police officer orders a group of Hamas women to leave the area, during a demonstration organized by Hamas women calling for the release of Hamas members who are jailed in Palestinian prisons, in the West Bank city of Ramallah September 22, 2007. (Loay Abu Haykel/Reuters)

Iraqi PM: Shootings threaten sovereignty

"NEW YORK - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday the shooting deaths of civilians — allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards — and other prior incidents involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted.

"The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly.

Noting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq."......"

Puppet leader

A Great Comment
By Gideon Levy

"Mahmoud Abbas has to stay home. As things stand right now, he must not go to Washington. Even his meetings with Ehud Olmert are gradually turning into a disgrace and have become a humiliation for his people. Nothing good will come of them. It has become impossible to bear the spectacle of the Palestinian leader's jolly visits in Jerusalem, bussing the cheek of the wife of the very prime minister who is meanwhile threatening to blockade a million and a half of his people, condemning them to darkness and hunger.

If Abu Mazen were a genuine national leader instead of a petty retailer, he would refuse to participate in the summit and any other meetings until the blockade of Gaza is lifted. If he were a man of truly historic stature he would add that no conference can be held without Ismail Haniyeh, another crucial Palestinian representative. And if Israel really wanted peace, not only an "agreement of principles" with a puppet-leader that will lead nowhere, it should respect Abbas' demand. Israel should aspire for Abu Mazen to be considered a leader in the eyes of his people, not only a marionette whose strings are pulled by Israel and the United States, or affected by other short-term power plays.......

.....Therefore, he shares a shameful common interest with Israel, which will do neither side any good. Judging by his behavior Abu Mazen not only doesn't object to what Israel is doing in Gaza, he may even agree with the twisted doctrine arguing that cruel pressure will subdue Hamas and return the people to Fatah's embrace. In so doing, Abu Mazen proves that he's no "downy chick," as Ariel Sharon once put it, but a cynical rooster who cares little for the welfare of his people.....

......But the least one could expect from the person with the lofty title of "President of the Palestinian Authority" is to strive for the greater good of all his people, especially in light of the extent of their distress. But instead of acting to bring about a cessation of hostilities and opening Gaza to the world, the triumvirate is busy formulating yet another position paper that won't be worth the paper it's written on and that will soon find itself in the garbage bin of history, along with its predecessors. It will only serve to impose increasingly cruel hardships on the people of Gaza. Abu Mazen must not participate in this farce. "

First group of Palestinians arrive in Brazil from desert camp. Obrigado, Brasil; you proved to be more humane than the Arab countries combined.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"SAO PAULO, 23 September 2007 (IRIN) - The first batch of Palestinians previously living in a squalid refugee camp on the Iraqi-Jordanian border arrived in Brazil on 21 and 22 September and has been receiving medical assistance, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Justice.

The 35 Palestinians are part of a group of 117 Palestinian refugees who had been living in Ruwaished refugee camp in the desert on the Iraqi-Jordanian border since the fall of late former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 2003.

“Brazilians have welcomed with open arms our new arrivals. The population is glad with the government initiative, which hopes to offer a better life to those who have suffered violence in Iraq,” Luiz Paulo Barreto, secretary general at the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, told IRIN.

“Palestinians are going to enjoy the same citizenship rights as Brazilians do,” he added. “Next week they will receive ID documents and passports. They will receive monthly financial assistance for two years until they are able to support themselves. They are already being given free health services and they and their children will attend Portuguese classes,” he said.

Cardiologists, paediatricians and gynaecologists have been examining the new arrivals......."

Cheney may have mulled Israeli pretext for U.S. attack on Iran

"Newsweek Magazine reported Sunday that Vice President Richard Cheney may have considered a plan for Israeli missile strikes against an Iranian nuclear site in an effort to draw a military response from Iran, which could in turn spark a U.S. offensive against targets in the Islamic Republic.

Citing two unnamed sources the magazine called knowledgeable, the magazine quoted David Wurmser, until last month Cheney's Middle East advisor, as having told a small group of people that "Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz?and perhaps other sites?in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out."

According to the report, "The Iranian reaction would then give Washington a pretext to launch strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran."

Newsweek said that it had corroborated Wurmser's remarks, which it said were first published by Washington foreign-policy blogger Steven Clemons.......

Labor MK Danny Yatom, a former head of the Mossad, told Newsweek that in order to attack Iranian nuclear sites, planes would have to operate over Iran for days or weeks.

Despite the risks of local and regional escalation, Yatom said, "The military option is not the worst option. The worst option is a nuclear Iran." "

The final triumph of Saint Che

Forty years after his death in Bolivia, Guevara is a living force in the town where his body was paraded

"......It was here in Vallegrande, 40 years ago, that the corpse of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara lay on display, eyes open, in the hospital laundry. And it is here that his unofficial sainthood is becoming firmly established. 'For them, he is just like any other saint,' Father Agustin says ruefully. 'He is just like any other soul they are praying to. One can do nothing.'

On a bench in the square, Freddy Vallejos, 27, says: 'We have a faith, a confidence in Che. When I go to bed and when I wake up, I first pray to God and then I pray to Che - and then, everything is all right.' Freddy wears a cap bearing Alberto Korda's iconic image of Guevara. 'Che's presence here is a positive force. I feel it in my skin, I have faith that always, at all times, he has an eye on us.'......

In his 1967 dispatch to the Guardian, journalist Richard Gott, in Vallegrande on the day of Guevara's death, wrote: 'It was difficult to recall that this man had once been one of the great figures of Latin America. It was not just that he was a great guerrilla leader; he had been a friend of Presidents as well as revolutionaries. His voice had been heard and appreciated in inter-American councils as well as in the jungle. He was a doctor, an amateur economist, once Minister of Industries in revolutionary Cuba, and Castro's right-hand man. He may well go down in history as the greatest continental figure since Bolivar. Legends will be created around his name.'

Gott was right. Susana Osinaga, a nurse who cleaned Guevara's body back then, recalls: 'He was just like a Christ, with his strong eyes, his beard, his long hair.' Today the laundry where Guevara's corpse was laid is a place of pilgrimage. On the wall above Osinaga, an engraving reads: 'None dies as long as he is remembered.' Osinaga has an altar to Guevara in her home. 'He is very miraculous.'.....

According to his executioner, Mario Teran, Guevara's last words were: 'Calm down and point well; you are about to kill a man.' What came after the shots, according to inhabitants of La Higuera like Manuel Cortes, was that 'Saint Ernesto was born in La Higuera'.

In Pucara, Remi Calzadilla wears a beige cap that says 'Che'. He prays to him every day. 'And he helped me; a few years ago I couldn't walk at all', he says, describing how every time he 'speaks' to Che he feels 'a strong force inside of him'......

With local sainthood and worldwide immortality, history has not proved true the claim that Guevara made on the day he was captured. 'Halt, do not shoot, I am Che Guevara and I am worth more alive than dead,' he said, as he lay wounded on a rock. In that same stone today, a shiny white inscription reads: 'Che is alive.'"

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Khalil Bendib

Hamdan holds Arab world responsible for Gaza suffering. I say to Hamdan: The Pharaoh has no balls; what do you expect??

"BEIRUT, (PIC)-- Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, held the Arab world fully responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, calling on Arab states, especially Egypt and Jordan, to open up to the Strip and assist it to come through adversities, instead of closing the doors at the Palestinians.

In a televised statement, Hamdan revealed that Ismail Haneyya, the premier of the caretaker government in Gaza, had many contacts with Arab and Islamic countries to explain the current Palestinian situation, pointing out that the Arab countries are unanimous in the need for immediate dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.

Regarding the Israeli decision which classified the Gaza Strip as a hostile entity, the Hamas representative stated that it is a multi-dimensional decision, but it generally represents an explicit declaration of war which has already been waged on the Palestinian people, adding that the decision is an attempt to justify massacres to be committed by the IOF troops against the Palestinian citizens in Gaza.

Hamdan highlighted that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas provided the IOA with justifications to take such a decision when he condemned the legitimate resistance and alleged that Hamas harbored members from Al-Qaeda.

Regarding the autumn conference called for by American president George W. Bush, he stated: "Everyone is aware that this conference is devoid of any real content; besides, the Arabs are worried about attending it, and some of them publicly declared reservations on the issue of attendance, so predictably it would be a failure, especially if we take into account the fact that the Israeli side will provide nothing for the Palestinians."

الحرب آتية

A Good Article (Arabic)

عبد الستار قاسم

"هل ستنشب حرب في المنطقة العربية الإسلامية تكون أميركا وإسرائيل وإيران وسوريا وحزب الله أطرافها أو بعض أطرافها؟ نعم.

يدور جدل واسع حول إمكانية نشوب الحرب، وأغلبه يدور حول احتمال مهاجمة أميركا وإسرائيل للأطراف المشار إليها أعلاه، ويندر أن نسمع أحدا يناقش احتمال قيام سوريا وإيران وحزب الله بالهجوم.

هناك من يستبعد قيام أميركا بالهجوم على إيران مرجحا اللجوء إلى تشديد العقوبات المتنوعة من خلال مجلس الأمن، وهناك من يرى أن العقوبات لن تجدي نفعا كبيرا لأميركا وإسرائيل، وأن الحسم العسكري هو الحل الوحيد للقضاء على التهديد الإيراني لإسرائيل والنفوذ الأميركي في المنطقة.

وهناك من يرى احتمالا قويا بأن تقوم إسرائيل بمهاجمة سوريا وحزب الله، بينما يرى آخرون أن إسرائيل تكتفي بالترتيبات التي تمت في جنوب لبنان عام 2006 مع السعي إلى منح مزيد من الصلاحيات الأمنية للقوة المتعددة الجنسيات والجيش اللبناني.

..... "

Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike

"THE United States Air Force has set up a highly confidential strategic planning group tasked with “fighting the next war” as tensions rise with Iran.

Project Checkmate, a successor to the group that planned the 1991 Gulf War’s air campaign, was quietly reestablished at the Pentagon in June.

It reports directly to General Michael Moseley, the US Air Force chief, and consists of 20-30 top air force officers and defence and cyberspace experts with ready access to the White House, the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Detailed contingency planning for a possible attack on Iran has been carried out for more than two years by Centcom (US central command), according to defence sources.

Checkmate’s job is to add a dash of brilliance to Air Force thinking by countering the military’s tendency to “fight the last war” and by providing innovative strategies for warfighting and assessing future needs for air, space and cyberwarfare.

It is led by Brigadier-General Lawrence “Stutz” Stutzriem, who is considered one of the brightest air force generals. He is assisted by Dr Lani Kass, a former Israeli military officer and expert on cyberwarfare......."

14 Years after Oslo Accord

Today after 14 years of the agreement I, like all my Palestinian country men and woman feel the bitterness of this harvest.

By Salim Nazzal

".....It is obvious that the Palestinian leaders who negotiated with Israel went into the opposite logic, at least compared with other national movements. Other national movements fight first the proxy government made by the occupation; In Palestine Israel failed to create a cooperating Palestinian corporation of proxy government, yet the tragic thing is that “we” negotiated Israel in order to have a proxy government and regardless of the intention of the Palestinian negotiators that is what has become of the Oslo accord, continuous occupation with a Palestinian stamp. Some may come with the argument that the Palestinian authority government has brought some positive things. This is controversial, but if it true the damage which occurred to the whole struggle is huge compared with the minor benefits if existed. Therefore I believe this period must be the period of drawing clearer and even sharper lines. In other words we need to make a clear and sharp demarcation message to all concerned that Palestinians are not interested any longer in time wasted negotiations. In the shadow of this type of negotiations Israel is imposing facts on the ground which will complicate the whole struggle. Future negotiations must be based on international resolutions and laws and not on the mood of the negotiators. In the absence of clear cut rod instrument made sharply by Palestinians Israel is able to coin false statements such the statement that there is no Palestinian partner for peace, the counter statement should be that Israel is not ready to respect the international resolutions ,when it is ready Palestinians are there. In fact Palestinian negotiators do not have to do much work other than to fill their suit cases the UN resolutions which are the valid references for this conflict. Yet before anything done in this regard the Palestinian duty on the domestic level must be done in great responsibility where the priority for the Palestinian political parties must start in recognizing the simple fact that there is no wisdom at all to go to negotiate the enemy while fighting the brother. "

The war on Gaza's children

By Saree Makdisi
(professor of English literature at UCLA and the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation," forthcoming from Norton)

The Los Angeles Times, via uruknet.info

".....It is a violation of international law to collectively punish more than a million people for something they did not do. According to the Geneva Convention, to which it is a signatory, Israel actually has the obligation to ensure the well-being of the people on whom it has chosen to impose a military occupation for more than four decades.

Instead, it has shrugged off the law. It has ignored the repeated demands of the U.N. Security Council. It has dismissed the International Court of Justice in the Hague. What John Dugard, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories, refers to as the "carefully managed" strangulation of Gaza - in full view of an uncaring world - is explicitly part of its strategy. "The idea," said Dov Weisglass, an Israeli government advisor, "is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not make them die of hunger.""

Beneath the Hideous Veneer of "Security"

Civil Society and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
CounterPunch

"......Reading these words, I was struck by a sense of déjà vu and had to double check the source to certify that they were in fact spoken 31 years ago. Unfortunately, however, although the similarities with present day circumstances are remarkable, the situation that we face vis a vis the Palestinian issue today is far more serious.

Noam Chomsky's response to my upbeat description of last year's UN's Conference in Geneva on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was that if things did not soon improve on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories, the next such conference "would be a wake." It was a sobering reminder of just how dire the situation has become; how, in Chomsky's words we are currently witnessing an event almost unprecedented in the modern era: the systematic, deliberate and long-term destruction of an entire nation......

By understanding this we are forced to confront the sudden cynical embrace by both Israel and the US of Mahmoud Abbas and his disturbing acquiescence in this embrace. Abbas' illegal government-by-decree has agreed not only to avoid any dialogue or attempts at reconciliation with Hamas; it has also accepted ­ in Orwellian fashion-the US/Israeli designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Indeed Abbas himself while lauding the values of freedom and democracy announced on Israeli television that he would refuse to "conduct negotiations with murderers." Surely his Israeli and American backers have satisfied their immediate aims of making him an honorary Warrior on Terror. Thus, with help from his foreign backers, Abbas' Fatah faction has succeeded in splitting the Palestinian National Movement in half making it easier still for the Israelis to continue to destroy the economic, social, cultural and political fabric of Palestine. Who are these people that they would sacrifice on the altar of celebrity, power and corruption the historic struggle and soul of Palestine? The path on which this cynical triumvirate of power is moving leads inexorably to a fate none of us here would seriously like to contemplate.

Last November I had the pleasure of returning to Gaza to visit friends to whom I owe more than I can ever say. Yet the visit called up the usual mixture of emotions that fill one's heart with the beauty and anguish that is Gaza today. In the midst of a lovely family gathering, of laughter, warmth and an uncanny sense to me of belonging, the treacherous thundering guns of "Operation Autumn Clouds" commenced in the north, in Beit Hanoun. In the days that followed I visited the Shifa and Kamal Adwan hospitals ­the ICU wards full of badly wounded civilians- and the morgues on which the dead men, women and children lay silently on cold, silver freezer trays.

What was more troubling to me than anything else was not the absurdity and injustice of these deaths; the on-going brutality and barbarism that a state has adopted under a hideous veneer of "security needs." No, what bothered me most was the chilling familiarity of the scenes: Jenin, Rafah, Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Ramallah, Nablus, Beitunia, El-Bireh, Qalandia, Beit Sahour, Hebron I can no longer remember which place bore which of these unspeakable tragedies. All I know is that they show no sign of ending and that, my friends, is why our messages here at this conference must be urgently heeded."

Blackwater: Hired Guns, Above the Law

By Jeremy Scahill

Editor's Note: This is an edited transcript of the prepared testimony of Jeremy Scahill before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, September 21, 2007.

"......It is long past due for the actions of Blackwater USA and the other private military firms operating in Iraq--actions carried out in the names of the American people and with US tax dollars--to be carefully and thoroughly investigated by the US Congress. For the Iraqi people, this is a matter of life, and far too often, death. In the bigger picture, this body should seriously question whether the linking of corporate profits to war making is in the best interests of this nation and the world. I would humbly submit that the chairs of relevant committees in both the House and Senate use their power of subpoena to compel the heads of the major war contracting companies operating on the US payroll in Iraq to appear publicly before the American people and answer for the actions of their forces. I am prepared to answer any questions."

Giuliani, Greenwald, and Israel

By Kurt Nimmo

"It should come as no surprise Rudy Giuliani is a stark raving neocon. One glance at Giuliani’s foreign policy team—stacked with the usual suspects from the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the Heritage Foundation—and it should be obvious what sort of decider-commander guy Giuliani would be, not that he has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting anywhere near the White House. No, the White House is reserved for the Bilderberg Queen, Hillary, and the “field,” as it is called, is little more than a dog and pony show for distracted Americans, who think they live in a democracy.

“Rudy Giuliani talked tough on Iran yesterday, proposing to expand NATO to include Israel and warning that if Iran’s leaders go ahead with their goal to be a nuclear power ‘we will prevent it, or we will set them back five or 10 years,’” Newsday reported earlier this week. “Giuliani’s implied threat of a U.S. or allied attack on Iran’s nuclear capabilities goes further than the hard line against Iran by most other Republican presidential hopefuls, and even exceeds the stern warnings of the Bush White House.” In fact, this “hard line” is more of the same, albeit a bit shriller than the typical neocon superfluity of warmongering. But then Rudy is attempting to stand out from the other “hopefuls,” all of them down to the man and women—with the notable exception of Ron Paul—calling for continued mass murder and war crimes......"

Israeli arrested due to frequent visits to Lebanon

Al-Manar

"An Israeli citizen has been arrested in Lebanon, Lebanese local media reported on Saturday. The reports say that the man was arrested due to frequent visits to Lebanon using a foreign passport. The German embassy in Beirut confirmed on Saturday that a man by the name of Daniel Sharon had in fact been arrested, but could not confirm the man's nationality. According to Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Daniel Sharon was arrested on Thursday following an investigation into the murder of a Lebanese citizen. During the murder investigation it had emerged that the German-Israeli dual citizen had visited Lebanon 11 times over the last two years. Sharon denied allegations he was on an espionage mission. According to reports, Lebanese police was investigating a murder of a man found dead in his home. The victim had been shot with a gun belonging to a security worker who had been his roommate. The roommate was summoned for questioning, and maintained that he had lost his gun.
The roommate also said that during the time of the murder, he had been with his German friend who lives at the Four Points Sheraton hotel in Beirut. A hotel employee told the police that Sharon had paid him a sum of money in exchange for not writing his full name on any documents. The media also reported that Sharon had visited Lebanon 11 times since 2005, once immediately prior to the Second Lebanon War with Israel last summer. His last visit was four days prior to his arrest, and he was scheduled to leave on the day of his arrest. It later emerged that Sharon had his security worker friend on trips abroad on several occasions, and in exchange the man helped Sharon within Lebanon."

Hamas women protest to free loyalists from Palestinian jails

"Hundreds of female Hamas supporters, some fully veiled, marched Saturday to demand the release of members of the Islamic militant group from Palestinian jails.

The protest was the first during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan held by Hamas loyalists in the West Bank, which is ruled by rival group Fatah. Previous protests in support of Hamas have ended in violence.

Palestinian police formed a chain to prevent the women, some covering their faces and others wearing headscarves and long coats, from gathering in Ramallah's main square, where protests traditionally converge......

Sabah Katalouni, 41, said her husband, a 50-year-old municipal official, was arrested Friday after security officials broke into their house and fired in the air. Katalouni said pro-Fatah officials beat her husband and her son. "They are oppressors," she said of Fatah.

"It is Ramadan and our brothers and fathers are in Abbas's jails," said a woman who gave her name only as Rula. "We are one Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank... Abbas is helping the Israelis by jailing his own people."

The women said some 700 Hamas loyalists have been arrested in the West Bank since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June, and that some 150 still remain in jail without charge.

Palestinian human rights groups have said some Hamas loyalists were harshly beaten during arrests........"

Palestinian police, in coordination with Israel, seize over 100 residents of Huwwara

"Nablus – Ma'an – Dozens of Palestinian police officers, in collaboration with the Israeli military, raided the village of Huwwara, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, on Friday night in an attempt to control the security situation which has reportedly deteriorated in recent days.

Huwwara is located in Area B, which in terms to the Oslo Accords, falls under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control. However, the Oslo Accords are widely considered to be defunct after the Israeli reinvasion of areas under full PA control in late 2001.

Director of Nablus police, Ahmad Sharqawi, told Ma'an that the Palestinian police seized dozens of local residents, who were 'wanted' for contraventions of Palestinian justice and law.

Sharqawi added that the operation was undertaken by the police department, with reinforcement from the Palestinian national security, and there was coordination with the Israeli authorities to allow the Palestinian police to enter the area......"