The deceit of Reporters Without Borders

by Salim Lamrani

Global Research, November 7, 2007

"On October 16, 2007, the Paris based organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published its “Worldwide Press Freedoms Index 2007.” RSF claims to be neutral, objective and solely interested in press freedoms. But this claim does not hold up to scrutiny. In reality the 2007 index, laden with contradictions, is nothing more than a fraud and demonstrates, to the contrary, that the association directed by Robert Ménard since 1985 defends a very specific interest and political agenda. (1)....."

The original article in French:

La supercherie Reporters sans frontières

دايتون يزور نابلس وسجن الجنيد سراً ويتابع تنفيذ خطته الأمنية ضد المقاومة بنفسه

"نابلس - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

قام الجنرال كيث دايتون، المنسق الأمني الأمريكي لدى السلطة الفلسطينية، بزيارة سرية إلى مدينة نابلس (شمال الضفة الغربية)، حيث التقى بالقادة الأمنيين فيها من أجل الاطلاع على سير الحملة الأمنية في المدينة ضد المقاومة الفلسطينية، التي خطط لها، كما زار سجن جنيد، الذي يختطف فيه عدد من أنصار حركة "حماس".

وأكد محافظ نابلس الدكتور جمال محسين أن الجنرال الأمريكي دايتون قام أمس الثلاثاء (6/11) بزيارة غير معلنة أحيطت بسرية تامة لمدينة نابلس، وهي الزيارة الثانية خلال الأسبوعين الماضيين للمدينة ذاتها.

وقال المحيسن في تصريحات صحفية له إن هدف دايتون من زيارة نابلس كان "الاطلاع على الأوضاع الأمنية وآلية سيرها، خاصة بعد دخول دفعات جديدة من عناصر الأجهزة الأمنية التي كانت في دورات أشرف عليها ضباط أمريكيون في مدينة أريحا"، حسب قوله.

وادعا محافظ نابلس أن دايتون "وصل بصفته رئيس اللجنة الأمنية الدولية للاطلاع عن كثب على الاحتياجات الأمنية، كما يحق له التجوال بنفسه في المدينة، للاطلاع عن كثب على سير الخطة الأمنية الفلسطينية التي تهدف لإنهاء حالة الفلتان الأمني بالمدينة والتي بدأتها السلطة وهي في تصاعد مستمر"، على حد تعبيره.

وأكد أن الجنرال الأمريكي التقي بقادة الأجهزة الأمنية في المدينة وبحث معهم آليات سير الحملة الأمنية وسبل تطويرها من أجل ضمان نجاحها، كما قام بزيارة مقر سجن الجنيد في المدينة. "

Contributed by Lucia

"Abbas' boss visits Nablus to check out the crack on Hamas supporters by his puppet and self appointed Ramallah "government", aka Dayton Government, headed by Abbas and Mr two-per-cent Fayyad." -- Lucia

Dayton pays secret visit to Nablus, PA-run prison

"NABLUS, (PIC)-- Gen. Keith Dayton, the American security coordinator in the PA-run lands, has paid a secret visit to the city of Nablus and the Junaid prison where Hamas supporters are being held.

Dr. Jamal Muhaisen, the governor of Nablus, said that Dayton paid a previously undeclared visit to Nablus, the second in two weeks, and got informed on the security conditions especially after the entry of new batches of PA security elements into the city after attending security courses supervised by American officers in Jericho.

Muhaisen, in press statement, said that Dayton arrived to the city in his capacity as chairman of the international security committee.

He affirmed that Dayton met with security chiefs in the city and discussed with them progress of the security campaign then made a visit to the Junaid prison."

A Vote for Mukasey Is a Vote for Torture

By Amy Goodman

"Judge Michael Mukasey admits waterboarding is repugnant, but refuses to say whether it amounts to torture. Yet Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein voted for his confirmation as U.S. attorney general anyway. Mukasey, Schumer and Feinstein should talk to French journalist Henri Alleg. An editor of a paper in Algeria, he was waterboarded by the French military in 1957, when the French were trying to crush the Algerian independence movement. The 86-year-old journalist spoke to me from his home in Paris:

“I was put on a plank, on a board, fastened to it and taken to a tap [water faucet]. And my face was covered with a rag. Very quickly, the rag was completely full of water. You have the impression of being drowned. And the water ran all over my face. I couldn’t breathe. It’s a terrible, terrible impression of torture and of death, being near death.”......"

Our Man in Pakistan

By Robert Scheer

"So, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, treated ever so respectfully by George Bush throughout his administration, in which he became the first Pakistani leader to visit Camp David, has turned out to be just another crummy dictator. But he was our dictator, kind of a modern, even westernized one who could stand up to all those bearded Islamic terrorists.

Well, not exactly.....

So where did the $10 billion go, and that’s not counting covert funds, that Bush gave Musharraf to beef up his military to better combat the terrorists? Well, clearly the Pakistani army is very strong—just look at the martial law it has been able to impose on judges and other folks who actually believe in the rule of law. But wait, Musharraf will back down; a deal was all but brokered, and Benazir Bhutto, whose adherence to democracy is as compelling as her family’s rich history of corruption, is waiting in the wings.

Condi Rice is on the phone, so hopefully Musharraf can be bought off and the free world once again served by the nation Bush designated “a major non-NATO ally.”....."

Abbas insists on a timeline for negotiations. Here is Israel's timeline:

1) Start negotiations about Israeli withdrawals when times permit.

2) Negotiation about Jerusalem starts when God wills it.

3) The issue of Palestinian refugees to be looked into when conditions improve.

4) A Palestinian state to be set up when the above have been fulfilled.

By Hamed Najeeb

By Tom Toles

IMI: Mideast Summit Likely to Fail, Abbas May Resign

Al-Manar

"07/11/2007 Israeli Military Intelligence believes that the upcoming U.S-sponsored Middle East conference scheduled to take place in late November in Annapolis is likely to fail, and that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas might step down as a result.

Abbas reportedly views the Annapolis conference as the last opportunity to resuscitate the settlement process. If he does go home in the wake of a failure of the talks, without a successor acceptable to Fatah, Abbas' departure would create a lacuna in the Palestinian leadership and increase Hamas influence.

According to Military Intelligence, Abbas' inner circle is cut off from the Fatah rank and file, and has difficulty exerting its authority over the various military wings of Fatah (the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the various West Bank cities) and its political activists. This lack of full control at the grass-roots level might make it difficult for the PA to fulfill its obligations as part of a diplomatic process.

As Israeli daily Haaretz reported a few weeks ago, MI believes the chances for success at Annapolis are "close to nil." The Israeli army believes the main obstacle is disagreement over the Palestinians meeting their obligations as part of stage 1 of the road map, set forward by the Bush administration in 2002: dismantling ‘terror’ infrastructure. The Palestinian Authority says it has met this obligation, and is not responsible for the Qassam rocket fire on the western Negev since the attacks emanate from the Gaza Strip, which is no longer under its control. Israeli occupation forces intelligence officers say the PA's main function has been reduced to paying salaries to PA workers and security forces.

Former senior Israeli army officers who took part in the Camp David talks say they are also concerned that over the lack of experience of Israeli representatives to the Annapolis talks, especially in the face of the years of experience the PA's negotiators have had in talks with Israel. "

Nothing less than our freedom

Mohammed Khatib, The Electronic Intifada, 7 November 2007

"For the people of our small village of Bil'in, which lies west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the planned negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Annapolis, Maryland evoke mixed feelings. Like all Palestinians, we pray that our children will not spend their lives as we did, under Israeli military occupation.

But our experience has been that Israel, the stronger party, exploits peace talks as a smokescreen to obscure facts that it is establishing on the ground. During the Oslo "peace" process Israel built settlements in the occupied territories at an unprecedented rate. Israel's system of settler-only roads, which is now strangling our cities and villages, was created during the Oslo process. This makes us wary of the Annapolis negotiations......."

Zion-power and War: From Iraq to Iran

Contributed by Datta

The Deadly Embrace

By James Petras

".......The lesson is clear: the rise of Judeo-fascism (JF) represents a clear and present danger to our democratic freedoms in the United States. They do not come with black shirts and stiff-arm salutes. The public face is a clean-shaved, necktied, pink-jowled attorney, real estate philanthropist or Ivy League professor. They work hard to send the family members of non-Zionists to fight wars in the Middle East in the interest of Greater Israel. And they tells us to keep quiet or face slander, ostracism in our communities, loss of jobs or worst… And it is the exemplary punishment of the many small voices, which keeps the number of vocal critics low…until recently. There is rising anger and hostility in America against the ZPC, against its arrogant authoritarian communal attacks on our democratic values. Sooner or later there will be a major backlash – and it ill behooves those who, through vocation or conviction, engaged in the firings, censoring and intimidation campaigns against the American majority. The American people will not remember their cries of ‘anti-Semitism’ they will recall their role in sending thousands of American soldiers to their death in the Middle East in the interests of Israel.

Let us hope that those who seek justice will not use the same authoritarian laws like the Patriot Act, nor the harsh interrogation techniques of degradation (torture) and anti-Arab/Muslim practices promoted by the Zionists in the Pentagon, Congress, Justice Department and Homeland Security. Those who oppose Zionism need to abide solidly by higher moral standards."

Taliban stage a coup of their own

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"Taking full advantage of President General Pervez Musharraf's troubles following the declaration of an emergency and the army's preoccupation with political issues, the Taliban are making gains in Afghanistan and the Pashtun areas of Pakistan......"

Because The Pharaoh Has No Balls: Stranded Palestinians at the Egyptian side enter their 4th month of suffering

"ARISH, (PIC)-- The number of Palestinians stranded at the Egyptian side of the borders with the Gaza Strip has risen to 1,400, Egyptian sources announced on Tuesday, adding that they might be transferred next Sunday via Israeli-controlled Oja crossing into Gaza.

A number of those stranded at the Egyptian city of Arish said that they started their fourth month of suffering amidst complete disregard on the part of the Palestinian embassy in Cairo that sent about 20 dollars for each one carrying a Palestinian passport.

They said that among the stranded are 33 heart patients, 12 patients who underwent an open heart surgery, 8 patients suffering kidney failure, 8 cancer patients, five women who gave birth and 70 students in addition to 13 families with their children, 13 teachers and six teams of engineers returning from a training trip in Japan. They noted that a newly born baby died due to poor health care."

More birth-pangs expected

From Missing Links:

"Nahrainnet.net, the Sadrist news site, cites informed sources in the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the effect that these states have over the past three weeks been instituting states of military and civil-defence readiness for repercussions from an expected US attack on Iran. The measures include canceling military leave, setting up special military and civil-defence command headquarters, testing warning sirens, and so on. In the case of Saudi and the UAE, the sources said the state of readiness is "level c" which is the highest. The report concludes:

These Gulf sources say senior political and military leaders in these countries have become convinced that a military strike against Iran is coming, without any doubt, in the coming three months and that in fact it could be very close. The sources said the military leaders are dealing with the possibilities of an attack on Iran because they have concluded that this is a certainty and not just a "possibility" !! What they are not able to anticipate is the size of the attack and the scope of the targets of the rockets and deadly bombs within Iran. Nor are they able to predict whether the attack will be carried out by America alone, or together with Israel......."

"I Am At Your Disposal, Princess"

Joe Lieberman's War

"Neoconservative godfather Norman Podhoretz has written that "as an American and as a Jew" he prays that President George W. Bush will attack Iran. He rests his case on his belief that 2007 is really 1938, that Iran is Nazi Germany, and that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Hitler. His most recent book, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, was described by a reviewer as "a hectoring, often illogical screed based on cherry-picked facts and blustering assertions (often made without any supporting evidence), a book that furiously hurls accusations of cowardice, anti-Americanism, and sheer venality at any and all opponents of the Bush doctrine, be they on the right or the left.".....

Lieberman repeats over and over again that American soldiers are being killed by Iran. Apparently, the neocons have found it too difficult to make the case that Iran is actually seeking a nuclear weapon. That American soldiers are being killed through the active intervention of the Iranian government is in any event debatable, and most of the international media appears to believe that the allegations lack hard evidence. That many Americans do not see the need to attack Iran does not faze Sen. Joseph Isadore Lieberman, a man of self-proclaimed principle who obviously has clearer vision and knows better than his fellow countrymen what is right and what is wrong. If Iran turns into a major catastrophe not only for the U.S. and Iran but also for the entire region, will Lieberman take the blame as a principal enabler of the war so desired by Norman Podhoretz? If Lieberman's lack of contrition over Iraq is anything to go by, almost certainly not."

Abbas’s policemen clash with Fatah gunmen in Nablus

From Khalid Amayreh in the Occupied West Bank

"Undisciplined and poorly-trained Palestinian Authority policemen on Monday clashed with Fatah gunmen at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. At least nine people, mostly civilians, were injured, two of them seriously.

Earlier, as many as 300 policemen were deployed in Nablus, the most lawless city in the West Bank, in an effort to reestablish law and order and prove to the Americans that the Ramallah-based regime was capable of assuming “security responsibilities” in the West Bank. The deployment of the policemen was fully coordinated with the Israeli occupation army.

Townspeople, utterly upset by a lingering reign of terror imposed on the city of Nablus by gangsters calling themselves al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, initially welcomed the arrival of the policemen, hoping that their presence would help stem the tide of lawlessness and terror in the city..

However, the revelation made yesterday that the policemen could only operate in the city and its surrounding during certain hours of the day and no later than midnight, apparently to allow the Israeli army to operate freely, made many Nablusites dismiss the policemen as “tools of Israel.”

Some Nablusites have even spoken of a tacit collaboration between the deployed police force and the Israeli occupation army for the purpose of arresting resistance fighters, including those affiliated with Fatah.

On Monday, shortly after the PA policemen returned to their dorms, a large Israeli force entered the city unopposed and arrested Sheikh Maher al-Kharaz, a local Islamic leader. Al-Kharaz’s two sons are already in custody, one in Israeli jails and the other in a PA prison.

Al-Kharaz, a respected Islamic figure in Nablus, was briefly arrested by the PA security authorities in Nablus for taking part in a protest against the murder by the Israeli occupation authorities of local activists and civilians.

The PA hopes that success in restoring law and order in Nablus, which locals say is a formidable task, it would be in a better position to press Israel to withdraw from more Palestinian population centers in the West Bank.

The Israeli army re-occupied the erstwhile self-rule enclaves in the West Bank shortly in 2001 following the al-Aqsa intifada or uprising against the Israeli occupation. The Palestinians had interpreted the Oslo Agreement as promising a fully sovereign and free state, but Israel viewed the agreement as only promising a very limited self-rule authority with the Israeli army retaining ultimate control of the occupied territories.

The Aqsa Brigades gunmen are believed to be responsible for numerous acts of murder, extortion, vandalism as well as levying protection money from local businesses. The gunmen also spearheaded a continuing campaign of terror and vandalism against Hamas supporters and institutions in the northern West Bank, including the murder of at least three people......"

Balfour Declaration

But Britain should apologize to the victims of its colonialism for the injustice that it had inflicted upon them by erecting a racist colonialist state on the ruins of their society.

By Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Special to PalestineChronicle.com

"......Lloyd George stated in 1936 that what induced Britain to issue the declaration was to enlist the support of the Jewish people, including the American Jewish community, during the war when Britain lost the confidence in its allies. Other motives for the declaration had to do with the ideologies and the attitudes of the British leadership. It was suggested that Lord Balfour, the main architect of the declaration that carries his name, and Prime Minister Lloyd George were ardent supporter of the Zionist movement due to their religious belief in the Bible and the Jews right of return. They were “deeply religious men and knew the Bible” according to Chaim Weizmann. Arthur Balfour closed a memorandum he wrote on August 11, 1919 by stating that whether Zionism is right or wrong, “good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions,…, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”

Majority of British politicians believed that a Jewish state allied with Britain would serve the British interests in the Middle East and help protect the lines of communications with the Indian subcontinent, the Jewel of the British Crown. The support for Zionism and disregard for the Palestinians’ grievances became the basis for the policies of the British governments that succeeded Lloyd George administration. Some analysts suggest that British policy makers might have co-operated with the Zionists in order to divert East European Jewish immigrants to Palestine rather than to Britain......."

Punishing Gaza

By Stephen Lendman

"....Hamas also revealed plans to follow Damascus with meetings in Gaza and the West Bank to further highlight what Hamas and others call "this mockery" of a US-Israeli-Abbas effort to compromise or scrap issues vital to the Palestinian people like the right of return and status of Jerusalem. Ideas to be discussed include selecting "alternative and parallel national bodies" to counter Fatah's disregard for "the Palestinian national consensus." Under consideration is a new National Council and Executive Committee in direct opposition to Abbas who (along with Secretary Rice) tried unsuccessfully to abort Hamas' initiative. Little is expected from Annapolis, and some believe that may trigger a third Intifada and swing momentum to Hamas.

Shin Bet's Yuval Diskin thinks not but others disagree. Oslo came out of the first Intifada, and Israel's Gaza disengagement followed the second one. Nothing is off the table this time. Stay closely tuned."

State of Emergency
By Steve Bell, The Guardian

The statement by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry

The Independent

"“The whole of the judiciary of Pakistan is struggling for the supremacy of the constitution. The Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO)|issued by General Musharraf has been declared a step to interfere in the independence of the judiciary, and therefore a judicial ‘restraining’ order against it had been issued by a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court, which has to be respected and enforced.

"Any action by the government after the passing of this order is illegal, including the detention of lawyers and members of civil society whose only sin is that they opposed the emergency and the PCO. Up to 13 justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan have refused to take an oath under the PCO. Yesterday morning,the judges of the Supreme Court were stopped as they sought to carry out their judicial duty, including the hearing of a case by the full court regarding the PCO, about which the restraining order had been passed.

"This order has been passed and those who defy it, defy the constitution. I and all the judges of the Supreme Court were exercising our jurisdiction in accordance with the law and constitution and are determined to do so in the future.” "

Lawyers vs the General

As lawyers in Pakistan take to the streets in fierce defiance of martial law, Iftikhar Chaudhry - the Chief Justice who sparked the crisis - issues a warning to Musharraf in an exclusive statement smuggled out from under house arrest

By Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich in Islamabad

"Pakistan’s ousted Chief Justice has issued a message of defiance from house arrest, accusing General Pervez Musharraf of acting illegally, and demanding the restoration of the rule of law.

In a statement passed to The Independent, Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry, whose home has been surrounded by dozens of armed police and his phone lines cut, warned General Musharraf that he would not be deterred from launching a fresh struggle to restore the constitution and the rule of law. He also dismissed the general’s claims that the judiciary was interfering with the government’s efforts to combat terrorism.

Mr Chaudhry, who is now at the centre of the crisis in Pakistan after refusing to ratify General Musharraf’s order suspending the country’s constitution, said: “I and all the honourable judges of the Supreme Court were exercising our jurisdiction in accordance with the law and constitution and are determined to do so in the future.”

The judge, who has been a thorn in General Musharraf’s side for months and has become a rallying figure for opponents of the military regime, was sacked on Saturday after leading seven Supreme Court justices in refusing to ratify the decree that ushered in emergency rule......"