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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land theft / Ethnic
cleansing / Settlers
Approval of the plan is
expected to result in a wave of protest from
Palestinians and Arab states, as well as international criticism of the
government in Israel -- The Jerusalem District Planning and Building
Committee at the Interior Ministry will publish in the coming weeks a
new blueprint program for development in Jerusalem that will include
plans to expand Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Most of the land
earmarked for this expansion is privately owned by Arabs. If the plan
is approved, after objections to it are heard, it will grant official
approval to an urban plan for the Israeli takeover of East Jerusalem.
Four Hamas politicians
facing expulsion from Jerusalem received support
last week from an unexpected quarter - PA President Mahmoud Abbas
-- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in his Ramallah
office on Wednesday and on Friday with two Islamist members of the
Palestinian Legislative Council and a former Hamas cabinet minister.
This rare meeting was not related to the reconciliation efforts between
Fatah and Hamas. It was held thanks to the Israeli Interior Ministry and
the Israel Police ... Abu Tir was ordered to leave by June 19 ... On
Wednesday he was notified that he must leave within two days. A few days
before the June 19 deadline he had told Haaretz, in a conversation at
his home: "I will not willingly leave the place my family has lived for
500 years."
The Tourism Ministry is
expanding its commitment to tourist sites in the
West Bank: It will invest another NIS 300,000 in a new 800-dunam
(200-acre ) hotel complex in the Etzion Bloc, TheMarker has learned.
Jerusalem's district
planning council was on Sunday set to rule on a
controversial museum project that archaeologists claim would destroy
valuable ancient structures beneath the Old City. The new museum is
planned for the concourse beside the Western Wall of the Temple Mount –
Judaism's holiest site.
NAZARETH // Avigdor
Lieberman, Israel’s far-right foreign minister, set
out this week what he called a “blueprint for a resolution to the
conflict” with the Palestinians that demands most of the country’s large
Palestinian minority be stripped of citizenship and relocated outside
Israel’s future borders. Mr Lieberman said that Israel faced growing
diplomatic pressure for a full withdrawal to the Green Line, the
pre-1967 border, and if such a partition were implemented, “the conflict
will inevitably pass beyond those borders and into Israel”.
High Court gives State 90 days to declare why it has
yet to destroy West Bank purification plant built on Palestinian land.
Petitioners' attorney: Criminal cooperation between State, settlers
exposed
Residents
said Israeli border guards and settlers fired live ammunition toward
Palestinians in the Ar-Rajabi neighborhood, after tensions rose when
settlers took over the Beit Al-Asal house. Director of the Wad Hilwa
Information Center Jawad Siyam confirmed two Palestinian injuries and
said several fainted after border guards fired tear-gas
canisters. Locals said young Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails
toward the recently occupied house in response.
Twenty Palestinian were
wounded Sunday morning during clashes between
them and Israeli policemen invading Silwan neighborhood in East
Jerusalem, Palestinian sources reported. The sources reported the dozens
of Israeli soldiers and border-guard units invaded the neighborhood in
addition to armed Jewish settlers, adding that they opened fire randomly
at the citizens and fired gas bombs causing at least two injuries.
Fierce
clashes broke out in several East Jerusalem neighborhoods Sunday
afternoon, following a brief period of calm on the tail of violence that
continued overnight. Israeli border police and young local residents
were fighting in the Aiyn Al-Louzam, Ar-Rajabi, and Bir Ayoub quarters
of the Silwan area in the middle of Silwan neighborhood at press time.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=295079Israeli
soldiers prevented a farmer from working his land by confiscating his
bulldozer and driving it away, the farmer reported Sunday. Bassam
Hammdan, from Wadi Al-Jalmoun in Beit Ula, north of the West Bank city
of Hebron, was trying to plant olive and almond trees with a group of
volunteers when the incident occurred, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=295059
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott,
Divestment & Sanctions
What
organizers called a peaceful rally in Beit Jala on Sunday ended with
the detention of four protesters and the injury of three others.
"Soldiers used excessive force" one protester told Ma'an, firing sound
bombs, tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets at the group, which
marched toward the Cremisan winery, where the path of the wall continues
to snake toward the monastery vineyard. Head of the popular committee
against the wall in Beit Jala, Imad Abu Nassar, said soldiers used
batons against what he described as "peaceful protesters" injuring two,
while a two others were injured by tear-gas canisters.
This document
is a full translation of the proposed
anti-Boycott bill. The bill was introduced by 25 Knesset members, of
both coalition and opposition parties, on 9 June 2010, and has not been
yet submitted. According to the bill, individuals who initiate,
encourage, or provide support or information for any boycott or
divestment action can be sued for damages by the companies harmed;
foreign residents who do so will be barred from entering Israel or doing
business in it for at least 10 years; and foreign governmental entities
will have their assets confiscated to pay the damages, and will be
banned from engaging in any economic activity in Israel. The proposal
puts a special burden of proof on anyone involved in such actions up to a
year BEFORE the law goes into effect.
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-06-25/new-israeli-bill-to-outlaw-boycott-of-both-israel-and-settlements/
An Israeli presence
at this greatest of global sporting spectacles
would have been guaranteed to attract an unrelenting wave of protests,
PR stunts and bad publicity.
Blockade /
Restriction on movement / Humanitarian issues / Human rights
It is "shameful"
that the international community allowed the Gaza
siege to enter its fourth year as "750,000 innocent children are paying
the toll," UNRWA director of Gaza operations John Ging said
Sunday. Speaking at a news conference in Gaza City, Ging added “The
political focus should be translated into action rather than discussing
improvements or easing the siege. This siege must end completely and
immediately.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294979 Each year, PCHR publishes its
annual report on Occupied Palestine, this year's a detailed 250 page
review of the past year, including the first days of Israel's war on
Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, "the major issue in the record of human
rights and international humanitarian law violations in the Occupied
Palestinian Terrority (OPT) in 2009," the bloodiest since the 1948 Nakba
that stole a nation from its people.
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2010/062710Lendman.shtml
After three years of
deadlock, Palestinian businesses are hoping for a
better future. But some fear that the new Israeli trade rules could
actually mean a fresh squeeze ... "If consumer items are allowed to come
through the crossings, but at the same time we don't allow materials
and the means of production to enter, that will have a negative effect,"
said Amr Hamad, Gaza director of the Palestinian Federation of
Industries.
...Even if many items are
no longer banned, they still have to find their way into the enclave.
Israel controls the crossing points and determines how many trucks are
allowed in daily. Currently, only a quarter of the number once permitted
are able to deliver their cargo, and that is unlikely to change to any
significant degree. Moreover, as part of the “security” blockade, the
ban is expected to remain on items such as cement and steel desperately
needed to build and repair the thousands of homes devastated by Israel’s
attack 18 months ago. In any case, until Gaza’s borders, port and
airspace are its own, its factories are rebuilt, and exports are again
possible, the hobbled economy has no hope of recovering.
An emergency
electricity program was implemented throughout the Gaza Strip on
Saturday, after the sole power station shut down a day earlier due to a
massive fuel shortage. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation
said the remaining 137 megawatts the station could produce with its
limited fuel reserves would be distributed across districts for six
hours on Sunday, followed by 12 hours without electricity. [analysis of
situation follows]
Israeli authorities
temporarily opened one of Gaza's terminals on Sunday
for limited deliveries of aid and fuel. Palestinian liaison official
Raed Fattouh said limited quantities of domestic gas and industrial
diesel, desperately needed to run the besieged enclave's sole power
station, will enter through the same terminal.
Blackout hours in
Gaza up from eight to 16 a day; Hamas says
cutting industrial fuel supply to Strip coordinated by Israel, PA
... The PA has blamed Hamas for not forcing tens of thousands of
salaried Gazans to pay their bills and thereby share in the cost of
industrial fuel for the plant. But Hamas has pointed the finger at the
PA and accused it of worsening the blockade by refusing to
pay Israel for the fuel. The Islamist group claims the European Union
transfers the funds for the fuel directly to Israel and that cutting the
supply of fuel to Gaza was coordinated by Israel and the PA.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3911229,00.html
...The
Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied
West Bank accused Hamas of manufacturing the crisis to "incite" against
it, insisting that it was covering the monthly cost of industrial fuel
for the plant ... The deputy head of the Hamas-run power authority
denied the accusations, insisting that authorities were collecting fees
and transferring them to the West Bank political capital Ramallah in
order to pay for the fuel.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100626/wl_mideast_afp/
mideastpalestinianpoliticsgazaelectricity_20100626113938
Activist Naila Ayesh
says political and economic upheaval in the
territory has forced women to give priority to more immediate needs,
such as finding work and providing for their families.
TORONTO, Canada (AFP) –
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip is "not
sustainable" in its current form and must be changed to allow more aid
through to its Palestinian population, G8 leaders said Saturday. In a
statement issued after their summit in Canada, the heads of the world's
major industrialized economies also said they "deeply regret the loss of
life" that happened last month when Israel stormed an activist boat
off Gaza.
Israel's Egyptian helpers
Egyptian security
authorities on Saturday prevented the Jordanian
Professional Association delegation from entering Gaza via the Rafah
border crossing. The Egyptian authorities asked the Jordanian delegation
to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip through the Israeli controlled Erez
crossing, an option categorically rejected by the Jordanian activists
... The Professional Associations Council issued a statement Saturday
charging that Egypt's banning of the Jordanian delegation from entering
via Rafah "represents another episode of the Arab blockade imposed on
our Palestinian people in Gaza."
http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=8645 TEHRAN
(AFP) – The Iranian Red Crescent said on Sunday that in addition to
restrictions imposed by Israel, Egypt had barred a Gaza-bound aid ship
from entering the Suez Canal, leading to the trip being postponed ...
The statement said the voyage to the blockaded Gaza Strip had been put
off despite the vessel being ready to set sail from the southern port
of Bandar Abbas for the Palestinian territory. But in Egypt, the Suez
Canal Authority said it would allow the ship through.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100627/wl_mideast_afp/israelconflictgazairanegypt
Detention
Israeli forces
detained a brother and sister from the Iktaba
village in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarem on Thursday,
family members said. Diyaa Ali Dadu, 26, was detained at the Allenby
Bridge crossing between Jordan and the West Bank with his grandmother,
his father told Ma'an. The grandmother was later released. After the
detention, Israeli forces raided the family home and detained Yasmin Ali
Dadu, 19, his father added, and confiscated two of his computers, used
for his carpet company. His daughter, a first-year student at Birzeit
University, was taken to an unknown location, the father added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294677A
party statement said Hamas leader Anwar Umeir was detained in the Bal'a
village east of Tulkarem after he was summoned by PA intelligence. An
imam from Illar, north of Tulkarem, and 15 teenagers - all members of a
center for memorizing the Quran - were detained while playing football
in the Tulkarem district town of Shweika, the statement read. On Monday,
Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil said the movement would be "obliged to
reciprocate" to political arrests after Khalid Al-Hajj, a party leader,
was detained in Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294916 Palestinian
Authority police and security officers detained 19 Hamas members and
affiliates from five West Bank governorates, a statement from the party
said Friday. Hamas officials said members were arrested for political
reasons, and detained from Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya
and Ramallah.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294563 Israel
indicted three Palestinians from eastern Jerusalem for a shooting
attack on the Jewish residents of an Arab neighborhood. The three
suspects allegedly shot at the residents of Beit Yonatan in the eastern
Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan as they rode through the area in a jeep
protected by a government-appointed security guard, according to
Haaretz. The guard was shot in the leg. The men, including two brothers,
were indicted Wednesday in Jerusalem District Court for the March 1
incident. They were among several people arrested earlier this month for
attacks on Israeli civilians and military personnel in the West Bank. A
gag order on the arrests was lifted Monday.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/06/23/2739742/palestinians-indicted-for-attacking-israelisThis year, the
International Day against Torture comes amid
the escalation in Israeli violations against Palestinians detainees held
in Israeli prisons. They suffer inhuman treatment that violates their
human rights and violates international humanitarian law. It also comes
amid the increase in acts that constitute torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment against the Gazan patients who try to
gain access to hospitals in the West Bank and Israel.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m67405&hd=&size=1&l=e
Proposed prisoner swap
Hamas
reiterated its accusation on Sunday that the Israeli government is
obstructing the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit ... The
statement came in the wake of reports in the Israeli press that the
government intends to maintain a firm stance in its negotiations with
Hamas.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=295002A day before a
massive rally for the release of Gilad Shalit, Hamas
spokesman Ayman Taha on Saturday again blamed Israel for undermining a
prisoner exchange deal that would see the Israel Defense Forces soldier
freed from Hamas captivity ... "The Zionist enemy is now trying to play
games with the names of the [Palestinian] prisoners [to be released in a
prisoner swap.] There are several reservations regarding the names, but
without these names there will be no deal," Taha told the Arab media in
an interview.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/
hamas-we-won-t-let-red-cross-visit-shalit-because-we-can-t-reveal-his-location-1.298371
Four years and two
days after their son was abducted to the Gaza
Strip, the family members of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit
on Sunday morning embarked on a 12-day march from their home in the
northern community of Mitzpe Hila to Jerusalem. Ynet is offering a live
broadcast of the march throughout the day. The Shalit family was
expected to be joined by thousands of Israelis throughout the journey,
in an aim to pressure the government to secure Gilad's release
from Hamas captivity.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3911053,00.html
It seems that the
longer Israel delays Shalit's release, the
greater the damage to the state and its people -- ...The negotiations
with Hamas have been going on for four years, a brutal blockade has been
imposed on a population of 1.5 million people for three years, and none
of this, and not even Operation Cast Lead, have driven Hamas to change
its conditions substantially. There is no evidence that continuing the
negotiations for another four years will bring about different results.
On the contrary, the events surrounding the Gaza-bound flotillas and the
opening of the civilian blockade of the Gaza Strip only show that
Israel is not really in control of events.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/make-a-deal-now-1.298494
Political
developments / Diplomacy
Press reports have
quoted a senior US official as saying that a high
levelled American envoy will arrive in an Arab country this week to hold
meetings with the leaders of Hamas and to deliver a message from the US
administration. Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper said that on Thursday, a
senior political source in Hamas confirmed that both US official and
non-official representatives had asked the group not to make any
statements to the press about these meetings as a measure of caution
toward the Jewish lobby and other pressure groups in the United States,
who would take every step to stop all US contacts with the movement.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m67415&hd=&size=1&l=e
(AP) The United
States on Saturday warned Turkey that it was
alienating U.S. supporters and needed to demonstrate its commitment to
partnership with the West ... Gordon cited Turkey's vote against a
U.S.-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on new sanctions
against Iran and noted Turkish rhetoric after Israel's deadly assault on
a Gaza-bound flotilla last month ... Turkey has opposed sanctions as
ineffective and damaging to its interests with an important neighbor. It
has said that it hopes to maintain channels with Tehran to continue
looking for a solution to the standoff over Iran's alleged nuclear arms
ambitions.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-turkey-must-prove-its-commitment-to-the-west-1.298389
Khalida Jarrar,
representing the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, said the PA's decision to stay elections and to create
consensus lists were "against the principles of democracy and
integrity." The PFLP official's comments were made during a panel
session organized by Palestinian leftist factions in Qalqiliya in the
northern West Bank, where she called on Palestinians to hold rallies on
the day elections were scheduled to take place, 17 July.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294843
Other news
PARIS: A Gaza-based
television station, accused of inciting hatred
of Jews and Israel, has had its broadcasts to Europe shut off, Eutelsat
satellite firm said on Friday. Paris-based Eutelsat said its client
Noorsat, the operator which handles the broadcasting of Al-Aqsa TV to
parts of Europe and throughout the Middle East, cut the satellite signal
on Thursday. Reacting to the move, Al-Aqsa director Hazem al-Charawi
said: “The legal battle has just started and we are determined to pursue
it.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=116397#axzz0s4mM51Q3
(AFP)
– Hamas police raided a Gaza bank and seized 16,000 dollars on
Sunday after the lenderrefused to obey a court order to release the
funds, a bank official said. The operation was part of a growing feud
between the territory's Hamas rulers and monetary authorities in
the West Bank who refuse to deal with the Islamist movement, which is
blacklisted as a terrorist group by the West.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100627/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianpoliticsbank
Ramallah, Palestinian
Territories (AFP) - Palestinian president
Mahmud Abbas on Saturday unveiled a new law to combat corruption, part
of plans to create the institutions of a future state. The law will
establish a new commission headed by Rafiq al-Natsheh, a widely
respected former minister from Abbas's Fatah party, who will have the
authority to question officials from Abbas on down.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100626/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianpoliticscorruption
Opinion /
Analysis
...We
are so preoccupied with the struggle over what the city would look like
following a permanent status agreement that we are ignoring the fact
that present-day Jerusalem is declining before our eyes, becoming a city
in which life would be difficult even when peace finally arrives
... Chaos in the material aspects of life is sorely evident in east
Jerusalem, where things like dense construction around roads which
preempt any future expansion and collapsing sewage systems are creating
an irreversible reality on the ground. The poverty and neglect in east
Jerusalem will not only cause hardship for the Palestinians living there
but will also affect the Jews in west Jerusalem whether the city
remains united or divided ... In west Jerusalem, the nonharedi Jewish
population is dwindling.
The
members of a bizarre coalition of pro-settlement right-wingers (for
example, the late Yosef Ben-Shlomo, and Israel Harel, long may he live)
and the anti-Zionist left (recently, Yehouda Shenhav) are united in one
claim. They hold that the Zionist left's support for the pre-1967
borders, and its sharp opposition to the settlements since, are
hypocritical and inconsistent. The inconsistency, they say, is that
Zionism has been settling at the Arab's expense since it began - not
only since 1967. In addition, they claim that even if the post-'67
settlements are the basis of unjust acts, Zionism committed many more
injustices in 1948 and the following decade. At that time it not only
settled on private land belonging to Palestinians, it also uprooted
masses of people from their homes and refused to allow them to return.
The Palestinian
Authority and Egypt watch as the ripples from the
'freedom flotilla' could dissipate into a minor PR success for the Gaza
leadership and prove to be a trap ... After it was announced the
blockade would be eased, Hamas stated: "We think these steps to lift the
siege on land are merely throwing sand in the eyes of the world." Hamas
is demanding the full lifting of the blockade and especially the
opening of the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
...What do we need to
make peace between Israel and Palestine? A leader
on each side who is mad enough and patriotic enough to be willing to be a
martyr to the future. Yitzhak Rabin made peace with Jordan, and was on
his way to making peace with the Palestinians, when we killed him. Anwar
Sadat was Israel's most lethal enemy, when he took the step that in one
stroke made a landmark peace and regained every square centimeter of
captured Egyptian territory. Just after Israel made its final large
withdrawal, one of Sadat's junior army officers gunned him down. What do
we need from our leaders? Only peace, and their life's blood. What kind
of person could possibly be willing to take on that kind of challenge,
in exchange for nothing more than a place in history and a future for
millions of children on both sides? Precisely the kind we seem to lack
at the moment. A genuine hero.
Israel
must recognize that by insisting on these patterns - Cast Lead, the
Mavi Marmara, Sheikh Jarrah, the fence route, Route 443 - it is ignoring
the values of the world to which it wants to belong.
(photos, audio files)
...it has been a huge privilege to go to the places and meet the people
who cram onto this small and turbulent land. What follows is a selection
of some of the photos I took and encounters I had over three years:
some for this diary, some for radio, and some for my own private
pleasure.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10374342.stm
Iraq
At least six Iraqis were
killed and 11 more were wounded in attacks
across the country. A series of brazen jewelry heists troubled Fallujah,
where robbers may have been seeking funds to continue miltant
efforts.Also, the United Nations has asked Iraq to ratify a convention
against torture. President Barack Obama nominated James Jeffrey, who
currently serves as U.S. ambassador to Turkey, to replace Christopher
Hill as Iraq ambassador. Also, some Iraqi officials fear that their
needs will be set aside as Gen. Petraeus focuses his efforts on
Afghanistan.
Excerpt: At
least five Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded in light
violence. Also, a U.S. soldier was killed and two more were
wounded during a vehicular accident in Diwaniya. Meanwhile, Iraqi
journalists continue to suffer harassment from Iraqi officials who see
nothing amiss in the arrest of elderly reporters on charges that lack
evidence. In Baghdad, a sticky bomb left on a car on Haifa St. killed
the driver and wounded a bystander. Another sticky bomb, this one
in Furat, wounded a married couple. A third sticky bomb wounded a
driver in Khadraa....
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/06/27/sunday-1-us-solider-5-iraqis-killed-7-iraqis-wounded/
More
than 10 Iraqi asylum seekers deported from the UK more than a week ago
are still in detention in Baghdad. The men were part of a group of more
than 40 Iraqis forcibly removed on 16 June after their claims for
political asylum were turned down ... One of the deportees told the BBC
by telephone that they were being held in a single room at Baghdad
International Airport.
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Oil
Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said on Saturday
that Iraq is seeking around 20 billion dollars to build four
newrefineries as it seeks to become a net exporter of petroleum products
... "The investment will not be constrained -- we are looking for real
partners and in any ratio," Shahristani said.
DHAHIR,
Iraq — The looting of Iraq’s ancient ruins is thriving again. This time
it is not a result of the "stuff happens" chaos that followed the
American invasion in 2003, but rather the bureaucratic indifference of
Iraq’s newly sovereign government.
Other Mideast
By Mohammed Mukhashaf
and Mohammed Ghobari, Reuters. Security forces in
Yemen's port of Aden have arrested 30 people during a two day hunt for
suspected al-Qa`ida operatives behind an attack on an intelligence
building, a security official and the Defence Ministry said ... Yemen
has accused al-Qa`ida of the attack last Saturday in which militants in
military uniform raided the police intelligence building, killing seven
security officers, three women and a 7-year-old boy, and freeing several
detainees.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-arrests-30-in-alqaida-hunt-2011250.html
*Majority of
youth see political activism as useless *90
percent of unemployed are young people *U.N. report coincides with
mounting anti-gov't protests -- CAIRO, June 27 (Reuters) - Young
Egyptians do not trust the electoral system and shun politics because of
the security services' intolerance of public activity, a U.N. report
said on Sunday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE65Q0CZ.htm
U.S. and other
world news
The parents of
a New Jersey man accused of trying to join a
terrorist group say they believe the FBI fueled the behavior that led to
his arrest. Mahmood and Nadia Alessa told The Record newspaper their
20-year-old son, Mohamed, had been monitored by the FBI since age 16 and
was encouraged by an undercover agent to act like a terrorist.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100625/ap_on_re_us/us_terrorism_arrests Andy
Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses the nearly 75%
success rate of Guantanamo detainee habeas hearings, why Gitmo
inmate Mohammed Hassan Odaini – despite winning his habeas case and
being cleared for release by the Bush and Obama administrations –
remains in custody, the government’s incredibly flimsy evidence against
the so called “worst of the worst” and how Washington political games
and moral cowardice prevents justice from being served.
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/06/26/andy-worthington-15/ ...In a 29-page
report to the United Nations Human Rights Council presented early June,
the official, Philip Alston, the United Nations special representative
on extrajudicial executions, called on the United States to exercise
greater restraint in its use of drones in places like Pakistan and
Yemen, outside the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. "I’m particularly
concerned that the United States seems oblivious to this fact when it
asserts an ever-expanding entitlement for itself to target individuals
across the globe," Mr. Alston said in an accompanying statement.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m67392&hd=&size=1&l=e
For example, cases
of traumatic brain injury and Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder, or PTSD, as a result of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan
are excluded from the official list of casualties. "Under this scheme,
chronic injuries and many acute internal injuries such as hearing
impairment, back injuries, mild traumatic brain injuries, mental health
problems and a host of diseases suffered by personnel in Iraq and
Afghanistan are usually not counted as being war-related regardless of
how debilitating they are," writes Matthew Nasuti in an article
published on the Afghan news site and media organization Kabul Press.
"They are either generally lumped into the category of 'non-hostile
wounded' or simply not counted at all."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/06/iraqafghanistan-.html
MEDEA
BENJAMIN: Yesterday my colleague Tighe Barry from CODEPINK
and I had an hour and a half free, and we thought, let’s go over to
Canada and have lunch. We went there and were detained. They searched
our car. They held me for questioning for about four hours and asked me
everything about the Social Forum and what I was doing and what
conferences I was taking part in. They asked if I was coming for the G20
summit. They even asked me who I voted for for president. After four
hours, they allowed me to return to the United States, but my colleague,
Tighe Barry, was kept. He was held overnight, and he is still there for a second night in a row.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/25/medea |
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