Pope Francis’ Junta Past: Argentine Journalist on New Pontiff’s Ties to Abduction of Jesuit Priests

Democracy Now!

"While praised for his work with the poor, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio — now Pope Francis — has long been dogged by accusations of his role during Argentina’s military dictatorship. We speak to Horacio Verbitsky, a leading Argentine journalist who exposed Francis’ connection to the abduction of two Jesuit priests. Verbitsky is an investigative journalist for the newspaper Pagina Dolce–or Page 12 and head of the Center for Legal and Social Studies, an Argentine human rights organization....."

Media Face a Palestinian Kick

By Mel Frykberg

"RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank, Mar 14 2013 (IPS) - In an extraordinary move, a civilian has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for posting a picture on Facebook of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dressed in a Real Madrid soccer outfit and kicking a ball. The sentencing is among several instances of a targeting of media in Palestinian areas.........


IPS was unable to speak to the family directly considering the likelihood of Palestinian intelligence agencies monitoring the family’s phones, and creating more trouble for them.

Awad had been in trouble with Palestinian intelligence previously for criticising the Palestinian Authority (PA), and he was arrested but then fined and released.

“This is unprecedented. This is the first time this kind of sentence has been imposed on an ordinary citizen merely for commenting on Abbas. The Facebook comment was not even rude or critical,” said Riham Abu Aita from the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA).
“Last year 10 Palestinian journalists from Gaza and the West Bank were arrested and interrogated for criticising both Hamas and the PA. Media freedom in the Palestinian territories has got off to a bad start in 2013 already,” Abu Aita told IPS......"

Real News Video: A New Pope and "The Most Corrupt Vatican Since the Borgias"

Matthew Fox (former Catholic priest) discusses the Vatican's work with the CIA and it's alliance with far right political forces and Pope Francis' opposition to liberation theology in Latin America. 

Hamas on the defensive

The Islamists are again on the defensive

The Economist

(Cartoon by Khalil Bendib)

"HOW quickly the tables have turned. Only three months ago Hamas, the Palestinians’ Islamist movement that rules Gaza, was celebrating the end of an eight-day bombardment by Israel during which its fighters had responded defiantly with rockets that hit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel killed over 170 Gazans for the loss of six of its own people but then, under mediating pressure from the United States and Egypt, agreed to ceasefire terms that provided for all of Gaza’s crossings into Egypt and Israel to be opened. Gaza’s Islamists hailed the war as a triumph. The siege that they had suffered since 2007 would, they declared, at last be lifted.

But it has not been—at least not entirely. So disillusion has returned.....

Unable to get the siege fully lifted and nervous about grumblings that the movement is veering towards normalisation with Israel, Hamas may be turning intolerantly inwards again. Some leaders are resorting to more virulent Islamist language in order to fend off the charge of truckling to Israel. This week the UN cancelled a marathon race in Gaza after Hamas banned women from running beside men and insisted that they cover their legs. Hamas may let young cadres revive a morality campaign that had previously lapsed.

Such actions will do little to endear the Islamists to Gazans tired of conflict, isolation and factional rivalry. Some Gazans have set fire to themselves in the hope of sparking a Tunisia-style uprising. A recent protest rally, where men and women mixed freely, was Gaza’s largest ever."

Rashid Khalidi's new book: Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

 



















...in his new book, BROKERS OF DECEIT: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, noted Middle East scholar, Rashid Khalidi, examines three historical moments to reveal why the American brokered negotiations, going back thirty-five years, have not only failed, but have actively undermined progress towards a peace settlement. The misuse of language has corrupted both thought and action surrounding Palestine and Israel, notes Khalidi, especially with regards to terms such as “terrorism,” “security,” and “self-determination.”  America’s oft repeated mantra about a “peace process,” he writes in the introduction, has long “served to disguise an ugly reality: whatever process the United States was championing, it was not in fact actually directed at achieving a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

Syria's children shot at, tortured, raped: charity report

"(Reuters) - A boy of 12 sees his best friend shot through the heart. Another of 15 is held in a cell with 150 other people, and taken out every day to be put in a giant wheel and burnt with cigarettes.

Syria's children are perhaps the greatest victims of their country's conflict, suffering "layers and layers of emotional trauma", Save the Children's chief executive told Reuters.

Syrian children have been shot at, tortured and raped during two years of unrest and civil war, the London-based international charity said in a report released on Wednesday.

Two million children, it said, face malnutrition, disease, early marriage and severe trauma, becoming innocent victims of a bloody conflict that has already claimed 70,000 lives.

"This is a war where women and children are the biggest casualty," chief executive Justin Forsyth told Reuters during a visit to Lebanon, where 340,000 Syrians have fled....."

Al-Jazeera Video: More bodies found in Syria's Quweik river

"In Syria, twelve more bodies have been recovered from the Quweik river in Aleppo a day after 22 corpses were pulled out. Bodies have been appearing on the river shores since late January when up to 80 bodies were found. The opposition says government forces are responsible. In this exclusive report, Al Jazeera meets some of the victims' families in Aleppo Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Aleppo City. WARNING: This report contains graphic images."

Politically motivated sexual assault: the Egypt story none want to hear

Fear of appearing Islamophobic is silencing criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, under whom assaults have increased

Mariz Tadros

Monday 11 March 2013

The Guardian

"What happened to the Egyptian women who were gang raped and sexually tortured in Tahrir Square on 25 January 2013? Not much, other than power holders incriminating the victims as being responsible for bringing the assault upon themselves. Consequently, four leading rights organisations – El Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence, the Center for New Woman Studies, Nazra for Feminist Studies and the Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Aid – have filed an official complaint on behalf of seven female clients.


They have provided evidence, in videos and testimonies, of women who were violently sexually assaulted, which they believe was undertaken in a systematic manner, and have demanded an investigation to reveal the identity of the perpetrators and call them to justice. The organisations believe that such violence is politically motivated, intended to intimidate women against engaging in activism against the government......"

Syria crisis: Assad's army faces troop shortage - live updates

Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 March 2013

".....

• Around 40 Syrian soldiers are being killed each day, according to Jeffery White from the Washington Institute thinktank, who has just returned from a study tour of the region. He said he was given the figure by an analyst who had studied recent funeral data. "In his view the army was exhausting itself", White said. The government is now relying increasingly to auxiliary and irregular forces, White said. A report by a UN panel on Monday also claimed the Syrian government was increasingly turning to the armed militia groups......"

Guardian Video: Syrian jets bomb Homs after rebel advance

"Unverified amateur video footage shows Syrian jets bombing the Baba Amr district of the city of Homs, a day after rebels advanced into the area. Baba Amr, a poor neighborhood on the south-west side of Syria's third largest city, was a centre of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, but was re-taken by government forces in 2012."

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Is there any use for Obama's visit to the region?

It is very early in the polling cycle, but so far 93% said no.

Really 'understanding the settlements': Why Gaza is still central

The sooner Gaza can evolve into a Mediterranean Islamist beach paradise, the better for all (foreign) parties concerned. By Mark LeVine Al-Jazeera

".......The long-term importance of the Gaza redeployment is clearer than ever if we consider that the hardcore nationalist right never believed in a two-state solution and has always sought to create enough facts on the ground in the West Bank to render withdrawal impossible. Or rather, it seems the Right has a two-state plan, and not a one-state plan it says it's offering. It's just that the two states have very different borders than most people imagined they would - namely Israel and the West Bank as one state, and Gaza as another.

The situation forces a re-evaluation of Israeli attitudes towards Gaza. Similar to the Egyptian military's relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood (which it oppressed for decades until it was domesticated enough to trust with a share of power), Israel would have no problem working with its current enemy Hamas - whose early development it after all supported - once it learns to play by the rules.

Rather than starving Gaza into submission, it now becomes clear that Israel has a strong interest in encouraging a rapid development of the Strip under the friendly guidance of the Turks, Qataris and Egyptians (not surprisingly, few if any structures recently built with Turkish or Qatari money were damaged in last November's Operation Pillar of Defence). The sooner Gaza can evolve into a Mediterranean Islamist beach paradise - a Beirut without alcohol, scantily clad women or Shia (at least not out in the open) - the better for all (foreign) parties concerned.

On paper, it's a very inventive scenario. But it will never be anything more than a complete fantasy, even if it is the official if unstated policy of the Israeli government......."

Syria: the story behind one of the most shocking images of the war

Why did the bodies of 110 men suddenly wash up in the river running through Aleppo city six weeks ago? A Guardian investigation found out

Martin Chulov with photographs and video by Ben Solomon and Noah Payne-Frank
The Guardian, Sunday 10 March 2013

"Discovery

It is already one of the defining images of the Syrian civil war: a line of bodies at neatly spaced intervals lying on a river bed in the heart of Syria’s second city Aleppo. All 110 victims have been shot in the head, their hands bound with plastic ties behind their back. Their brutal execution only became apparent when the winter high waters of the Queiq river, which courses through the no man’s land between the opposition-held east of the city and the regime-held west, subsided in January.

It’s a picture that raises so many questions: who were these men? How did they die? Why? What does their story tell us about the wretched disintegration of Syria? A Guardian investigation has established a grisly narrative behind the worst - and most visible - massacre to have taken place here. All the men were from neighbourhoods in the eastern rebel-held part of Aleppo. Most were men of working age. Many disappeared at regime checkpoints. They may not be the last to be found......."

Violence against activists becomes more systematic, observers say ..

Al-Masry Al-Youm

"Reports released by human rights organizations over the past months say that the targeting of activists and deliberate murder of civilians inside and outside detention facilities have been on the rise since President Mohamed Morsy was elected in June.
What’s more, the mounting number of cases seems to point to a systematic targeting of low-profile activists, and even bystanders.
The deaths of Gaber Salah, known as Jika, Mohamed al-Gendy of the leftist Popular Current movement, and Mohamed Qorany, known as Christie — all of whom were active in anti-Muslim Brotherhood Facebook groups — have led observers and rights groups to speculate that the activists were targeted for their political activities.
Rights lawyer Malek Adly tells Egypt Independent that such targeting is not new, but rather a consistent violation that has been taking place since the time of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, that also continued to take place during the military regime’s rule......"

شافيز الشعوب وشافيز الطغاة صبحي حديدي

شافيز الشعوب وشافيز الطغاة
 صبحي حديدي

"في سنة 2005، التي صادفت الذكرى الـ400 لصدور رواية 'دون كيخوتة'، إحدى أرفع أمهات، إذا لم تكن الأمّ الأرفع، في فنّ الرواية؛ قرّر الرئيس الفنزويلي هوغو شافيز أن يحتفي بعمل سيرفانتيس العظيم، على نحو فريد حقاً: لقد طلب من وزارة الثقافة أن تطبع مليون نسخة منها، وأن توزّعها مجاناً على مليون أسرة فنزويلية فقيرة. هو، نفسه، شافيز الذي صادق معظم دكتاتوريات العالم العربي؛ وكان، على نحو أو آخر، يطبّق سلوكاً معيارياً تبسيطياً، مفاده أنك إذا أعلنتَ العداء للإمبرالية، حتى على صعيد اللفظ وحده، فإنت عدوّ لها بالضرورة، وأنت صديق الشعب الفنزويلي، أياً كان نظام الاستبداد والفساد الذي تديره.
هذه واحدة من المعضلات التي لا مفرّ للمرء من مواجهتها عند تلمّس حصيلة ما، موضوعية في الحدود الدنيا، لأحد أهمّ القادة الشعبيين، والشعبويين ربما؛ ليس في فنزويلا الحديثة وحدها، بل على امتداد غالبية دول أمريكا اللاتينية المعاصرة. هو، داخل بلده، وريث أصيل لتراث سيمون بوليفار الثوري، وصديق حميم وشرس لفقراء بلاده، ومناهض أشرس للولايات المتحدة والاحتكارات النفطية والغازية. وهذه بعض العناصر الإيجابية التي صنعت شعبيته، وجعلتها صيغة في العمل السياسي والاقتصادي والاجتماعي تعكّر صفو السياسات الأمريكية المعتمَدة، والراسخة التي لم تتغيّر كثيراً بعد أن رسم ملامحها العريضة وزير الخارجية الأمريكي الأسبق هنري كيسنجر.
وكان غلاة الليبراليين في واشنطن، وكذلك في معظم عواصم القارّة اللاتينية، يقارنون بين أسلوب شافيز ('المتهور'، 'الشعبوي'، 'الاشتراكي'...)، بأسلوب الرئيس البرازيلي السابق لويس إيناسيو لولا دا سيلفا ('العقلاني'، 'الليبرالي'، 'الهادىء'...)؛ حتى أقرّ الأخير، وليس البتة تعظيماً للأوّل بمناسبة رحيله، أنّ شافيز كان أحد اعظم القامات السياسية والشعبية في تاريخ القارّة. في بال لولا كانت إنجازات فنزويلا خلال عهدَي شافيز، من تحقيق نموّ اقتصادي بلغ 9 في المئة وكان بين الأعلى على مستوى القارة، إلى محو الأمية واجتثاث التقاليد الإقطاعية المعيقة للنموّ في القطاعات الزراعية، مروراً بالقفزات النوعية في تطوير البنى النوعية والخدمات العامة والتنمية المستدامة.
أمّا في الخارج، أو بالأحرى في بلداننا نحن على وجه التحديد، فإنّ صورة شافيز استقرّت على نقائض صفاته اللاتينية: يخرق الحصار على العراق، ويزور بغداد، لكنه يكيل لدكتاتور العراق مدائح عجز عنها حتى لطيف نصيف جاسم أو محمد سعيد الصحاف! ولا يتردد في القول إنّ القذافي 'هو الشخص الوحيد الذي أؤدّي له التحية العسكرية، وأتمنى أن أعمل جندياً تحت إمرته'؛ وأنّ 'نظام القذافي'، ولا نعرف المقصود بالتعبير هنا، سوف 'يظلّ خالداً إلى الأبد'! وأمّا بشار الأسد، فكيف لا ندعم حكومته وهي الحكومة الشرعية لسورية؟'، أعلن شافيز، بعد أن صنّف 'مناوئي النظام السوري' هكذا: 'إنهم 'إرهابيون يقتلون الناس في كلّ الاتجاهات'؛ معتبراً أنّ ما يجري هو 'أزمة مخطط لها، على غرار سقوط معمر القذافي في ليبيا'، وأنّ 'الشعب السوري هو حاليا ضحية سياسة استعمارية عنيفة'.
وفي مقابل، وربما على نقيض، مفهوم 'محور الشرّ' الذي اجترحه الرئيس الأمريكي السابق جورج بوش مطلع العام 2002، والذي تألف من كوريا الشمالية وإيران والعراق آنذاك؛ اقترح الكاتب الباكستاني ـ البريطاني طارق علي مفهوم 'محور الأمل'، الذي رآه قائماً أيضاً على ثلاث ركائز: كوبا وفنزويلا وبوليفيا، تحت زعامات فيديل كاسترو وهوغو شافيز وإيفو موراليس. كان هذا موضوع كتابه 'قراصنة الكاريبي: محور الأمل'، في محاكاة ذات مغزى للفيلم الأمريكي الرائج 'قراصنة الكاريبي'. غلاف الكتاب يسخر من ملصق الفيلم إياه: العنوان على لفافة ورق قديم، ووجوه 'القراصنة' الثلاثة (كاسترو، شافيز، موراليس) ظاهرة في الجزء الأعلى، تماماً على غرار جوني ديب وأورلاندو بلوم وكيرا نايتلي!
لماذا القراصنة؟ لأنهم ببساطة أبطال أزمنة خلت الآن، وحلّت محلها أخرى بديلة أو مضادة لأخلاقيات البطولة تلك؛ ولأنهم كانوا ثوّار تلك الأيام، ضدّ المراكز الإمبراطورية الكبرى والقوى العظمى. هم كذلك أسطورة تشحذ المخيّلة المعاصرة في كلّ ما يتصل بحسّ المغامرة في إطار عامّ، وفي حسّ المقاومة ضدّ الطغيان السياسي والجبروت العسكري بصفة خاصة. لقد رحل أحدهم، اليوم؛ والثاني، كاسترو، أقعده المرض عن السياسة؛ وظلّ الثالث يصارع الأنواء والأعاصير!
وكما يصحّ أن نميّز بين أكثر من شافيز واحد، يصحّ أيضاً أن نميّز بين أكثر من علي واحد: مؤلف هذا الكتاب الجميل، وعشرات سواه، أخطأ بحقّ الانتفاضة السورية مراراً، فهبطت مواقفه وصعدت وتقلّبت وتدنّت، حتى بلغ به الأمر حدّ تبرئة النظام من مجزرة الحولة. صحيح أنه عدّل الموقف، وأعاد اتهام النظام وحده؛ وصحيح، كذلك، أنه لا يوفّر مفردة في تحقير النظام السوري؛ ولكن من الصحيح أيضاً أنّ معظم الغمام الذي يكتنف مواقفه نابع من مناهضته للتدخل الخارجي الأطلسي... وكأنّ هذا التدخّل على الأبواب!
والحال أنّ الحصيلة بين شافيز الشعوب، وشافيز الطغاة، تجعل الكفة تميل إلى الشخصية الأولى، في يقيني؛ وبهذا فإنّ الشعوب الفقيرة، وشعوب الجنوب عموماً، خسرت قائداً شعبياً كبيراً؛ بل لعلها ودّعت آخر التمثيلات المعاصرة لمزيج نادر من بوليفار وتشي غيفارا، في آن معاً.
"

Syrian government reportedly using local groups for mass killings: U.N.

"(Reuters) - The Syrian government is reportedly using local militias known as Popular Committees to commit mass killings which are at times sectarian in nature, U.N. human rights investigators said on Monday.
"In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times taken on sectarian overtones," the U.N. commission of inquiry on Syria, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, said in its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Investigators cited accounts from witnesses and victims."

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Syria - Syria: When peacekeeping goes awry

"We look at the most recent developments where kidnappings and killings have dominated the headlines. Inside Syria with presenter Mike Hanna speaks to guests: Joseph Holliday, a senior research analyst for the Institute for the Study of War; Hisham Marwah, a member of the Legal commission of the Syrian National Council and he is also a member of the Syrian National Coalition; Louay Almokdad, the political and media coordinator for the Free Syrian Army; and Mohammad Bassam Imadi, member of the Syrian National Coalition . Imadi is also a former member of the Syrian National Council and the former Syrian ambassador to Sweden."

Real News Video: Humanitarian Catastrophe in Syria

Omar Dahi: Western Powers and GCC countries fail to provide aid at levels needed, inspite of professed interest in the Syrian people

Saddam's statue: the bitter regrets of Iraq's sledgehammer man

Kadom al-Jabouri became famous when he took his hammer to the dictator's statue. Now he wishes he had never done it

Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
The Observer, Saturday 9 March 2013

"Ten years ago, Kadom al-Jabouri became the face of the fall of Baghdad. Pictured with a sledgehammer while attempting to demolish the huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the city's Firdos Square.......

However, almost exactly a decade later, the "sledgehammer man" – who was helped by a US tank carrier to finally topple the statue – furiously regrets that afternoon and the symbolism of what he was involved in. "I hated Saddam," the 52-year-old owner of a motorcycle spares shop told the Observer. "I dreamed for five years of bringing down that statue, but what has followed has been a bitter disappointment.
"Then we had only one dictator. Now we have hundreds," he says, echoing a popular sentiment in a country mired in political problems and corruption, where killings still occur on an almost daily basis. "Nothing has changed for the better."....."

Syrian refugees could triple to 3m

Syria could become world's worst refugee problem area, warns UN high commissioner

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 10 March 2013

"The number of refugees from the Syrian conflict, which topped 1 million last week, could triple by the end of the year if it continues at the current rate, the UN's refugee chief said on Sunday.

"If this escalation goes on, we will have – and nothing happens to solve the problem – we might have in the end of the year a much larger number of refugees, two or three times the present level," the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, told reporters in Ankara.

If his worst forecast comes true, it would make Syria the world's biggest refugee problem area, ahead of Afghanistan and Iraq........"