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May 31 Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza Talkbacks for this article: 196 All
civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on
Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a
letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral
prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a
potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the
rocket launchings.
The letter, published in Olam Katan [Small World], a
weekly pamphlet to be distributed in synagogues nationwide this Friday,
cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and
Maimonides' commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof
texts for his legal decision.
According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire
city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of
individuals. In Gaza, the entire populace is responsible because they
do nothing to stop the firing of Kassam rockets. More.......... May 28 Wounds run deep for children of Iraq warBAGHDAD: The day his mother and brother died is permanently one that
eight-year-old Iraqi Ziad Irhaima will never forget, as the cauterised stump of
one of his arms serves as a permanent reminder. Irhaima’s lost family members
are only two of the countless and largely anonymous victims of the more than
four years of bloodshed that has convulsed Iraq and inflicted deep and lasting
wounds on its children. The UN children’s fund Unicef has called for an additional $42 million to fund child health initiatives and warned of the dire state of children’s health in the war-torn country. The spectre of disease is all the more frightening because of the gutting of the country’s public health system, which has suffered from a mass exodus of doctors and other trained professionals. The violence and displacement has also cut off thousands of families from health care, preventing children from receiving treatment for the physical and psychological wounds inflicted by the appalling violence. “I will never forget the image of my mother and brother lying on the ground covered with blood,” Ziad says, referring to the aftermath of a car bomb intended for the local courthouse in his hometown of Kirkuk, north of Baghdad. His physical injuries will not prevent him from one day leading a relatively normal life, but the psychological impact of the attack will last a lifetime, as it will for thousands of Iraqi children. Nawzad Mahmud, nine, escaped a similar car bomb with only a wound to his right leg, but when the dust cleared he was surrounded by the smouldering corpses of four other children. “Nawzad is bitter. It was so frustrating for him to see the other kids at school that he quit,” said his father, Mahmud Shakir. The relentless violence in Iraq will leave behind not only an entire generation of traumatised children like Nawzad, but hundreds of permanently disabled children without proper medical care. Abdullah Mahmud, seven, is disfigured from mortar shrapnel that tore through him flesh during a fire fight in the northern town of Samarra. His posture is twisted because of a fractured pelvis and he can not move his hand. “My son cannot study or play with his peers because of his handicap,” his father Mahmud Ahmed said. “Our children have paid a high price for the struggle here.” “Thirty per cent of registered handicapped children were the victims of car bombs and roadside bombs,” said Qamar Abdul Rahman, who heads the Red Crescent in Baghdad. “There are desperate cases, some that cannot be treated in Iraq.” While the trauma wards of the country’s hospitals are regularly flooded with patients, the Iraqi health care system is declining as doctors join the mass exodus of qualified professionals. “We do not have enough staff or equipment in our hospital that meets the needs of the patients and victims we receive,” said Abdul Hamid Rashid, a doctor in Samarra’s hospital. The lasting wounds inflicted on children in Iraq cut across the country’s bitter sectarian divide. In Ramadi, capital of the restive Sunni province of Anbar to the west, Yas Khidhir, nine, was paralysed from the waist down after he was caught in the crossfire between US forces and insurgents. “I had just left school and was surprised to find myself on a battlefield. I got hit in my back and now I am paralysed,” said Yas from his wheelchair. In the southern city of Basra, Hassan Nasir, six, was paralysed on his right side when shrapnel struck him during a clash between Shia militiamen and British forces. “I put Hassan in Al-Sadr hospital, but his situation did not improve after two months there. Then British forces treated him at their own hospital, but his handicap is permanent,” said the boy’s father, Nassir Hassan. In the Shia holy city of Karbala, Ali Murtadha, 10, had shrapnel tear through his leg when mortars slammed into his primary school. “His injury is critical, and it may force us to amputate his leg,” said Dr Abdul Razeq Khalaf. “Locally, we do not have adequate capabilities or the medical equipment to save this child.” source Loonies Tune Out: B’nai Brith Shuts Down Peace Activists in Canadaby Lila Rajiva / May 28th, 2007 Chris Cook of the University of Victoria Gorilla Radio (GO-rilla, as in, our furry friends or cousins… or descendants, depending on your evolutionary perspective and level of optimism about the human race) writes: “For American readers who value and feel protected by the First Amendment (right to free speech), it may seem strange that a country would enshrine in law the opposite condition; but Hate Crime legislation in this country is widely supported. Canada is an ethnically and politically diverse country, consisting of minority populations from the world over, and it was deemed fair-minded to ensure all are protected from the “tyranny of the majority.” But it’s a double-edged sword, making possible an abuse of the statutes, allowing an equally odious tyranny, the stifling of dissent and criticism by a dedicated minority.” Cook’s problem is that one edge of this sword just fell on a web-site he
edits, the Peace, Earth and Justice
News, “a non-profit, all-volunteer, non-hierarchical media
organization” based in Victoria whose mission (as described in its Constitution)
is to report on “climate change and other environmental issues, war and peace in
the Middle East, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and human rights and other matters
of social justice.” More......... Israeli strike on Jabalya camp damages civilian property; human rights officesReport, PCHR, 28 May 2007
An Open Letter to the Democratic CongressWhy I Am Leaving the Democratic PartyBy CINDY SHEEHAN
Dear Democratic Congress, Hello, my name is Cindy Sheehan and my son Casey Sheehan was killed on April 04, 2004 in Sadr City , Baghdad , Iraq . He was killed when the Republicans still were in control of Congress. Naively, I set off on my tireless campaign calling on Congress to rescind George's authority to wage his war of terror while asking him "for what noble cause" did Casey and thousands of other have to die. Now, with Democrats in control of Congress, I have lost my optimistic naiveté and have become cynically pessimistic as I see you all caving into "Mr. 28%" There is absolutely no sane or defensible reason
for you to hand Bloody King George more money to condemn more of our brave,
tired, and damaged soldiers and the people of Iraq to more death and carnage.
You think giving him more money is politically expedient, but it is a moral
abomination and every second the occupation of Iraq endures, you all have more
blood on your hands. More......... May 24 Priests claim torture; fort says noBy Bill Hess Published on Sunday, May 20, 2007 TUCSON
— A pair of priests arrested in November for trespassing on Fort
Huachuca are determined to make a court case out of what they contend
is torture being taught at the Southern Arizona Army post.
“We’re going to put torture on trial,” the Rev. Louis Vitale and the Rev. Steve Kelly told nearly 80 people Friday in the sanctuary of the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson.  (File photo by Suzanne Cronn•Herald/Review) The Revs. Louie Vitale, left, and Steve Kelly prepare to try to enter Fort Huachuca and deliver a letter to Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast. They were arrested. The two believe the post and its intelligence leadership prepare soldiers to become torturers in a misguided attempt to extract information. But Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the senior officer on the post and the one who leads the Intelligence Center, denies torture techniques are part of any instruction. The training on the post is “completely consistent with applicable law and policy, to include Sen. (John) McCain’s amendment, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005,” Fast said. More.............. Why the US Government Is Hated All Over the Worldby Fred Reed  Something is wrong with the United States. I think most of us have noticed it. There is a mortal rot in the country, made manifest by many little rots that are hard to integrate mentally yet are, I think, somehow related. The change is grave, accelerating, probably irreversible, and fascinating. Things are not as they were. The United States is the most hated country on the planet, followed by, to the extent that there is a distinction, Israel. So far as I know, there are no other contenders. You can say “Who cares?” as many will say, or “Screw’em if they can’t take a joke,” or “I’d ratherh be feared than loved.” All very droll. Still, it is an interesting datum. No country ever lives up to its own PR, but there was a time when America was widely admired. Now, almost universally, it is seen as a rogue state. And is. This carries a price. The US consulate in Guadalajara is part fortress, part prison, with barriers and cameras and bars and rentacops, and they take away a woman’s lipstick if she is going to enter. Maybe a country that fears lipstick needs to think. The French consulate around the corner is wide open, like all others that I know of. The French, Chinese, Japanese and so on aren’t hated. More............. China and USA in New Cold War over Africa’s Oil RichesDarfur? It’s the Oil, Stupid... by F. William Engdahl Global Research, May 20, 2007 To paraphrase the famous quip during the 1992 US Presidential debates, when an unknown William Jefferson Clinton told then-President George Herbert Walker Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid,” the present concern of the current Washington Administration over Darfur in southern Sudan is not, if we were to look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa. No. “It’s the oil, stupid.” Hereby hangs a tale of cynical dimension appropriate to a Washington Administration that has shown no regard for its own genocide in Iraq, when its control over major oil reserves is involved. What’s at stake in the battle for Darfur? Control over oil, lots and lots of oil. The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of
sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the
new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in China’s oil demand to
fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive
policy of—ironically-- dollar diplomacy. With its more than $1.3
trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples’ National Bank of
China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a
major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad
is priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US
invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and
Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played
its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major
battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control. More......... IRAQ: Where Nobody Is AccountableAli al-Fadhily* BAGHDAD, May 21 (IPS) - Killings, crime, lack of medical care, collapse of educationàthe list goes on. But with the occupation by U.S.-led forces now into a fifth year, and a supposedly democratic government in place, no one knows who to hold accountable for all that is going wrong. It is the occupation forces, particularly the United States and Britain, that must be held accountable, many Iraqis say. "It is good of these people to discuss accountability for theft, but the most important thing to account for is Iraqi blood," Numan Ahmed, a human rights activist from the Adhamiya neighbourhood in Baghdad told IPS. The British medical journal Lancet has reported that by July 2006, 655,000 people had died as "a consequence of the war." It has reported that the risk of death among civilians is now 58 times higher than before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. "By now a million Iraqis have been killed for no reason, and many millions disabled or badly injured just because of some thieves in Baghdad and Washington," Ahmed said. "We are prepared to reveal the documents to condemn them even if takes us a lifetime." More>>>>>> Leaked British plan would turn doctors, social workers into police informantsPlan meant to preempt violent crime in Britain, but critics worry about privacy implications.By Andrew Heining | csmonitor.comThe British government is weighing a plan that would require civil servants – including social workers and doctors – to report people deemed likely to commit acts of violence in the interest of stopping crimes before they are committed, according to a leaked official document. The Times of London reports that the British Home Office's internal document on "multi-agency information sharing" – which the newspaper received from a senior British official – would allow government agencies better access to information on potential threats.
The Times noted that the document says nothing of what would happen to those deemed likely to commit crimes, or their likely victims, were the proposal to be enacted. More>>>>>>> Opium: Iraq's deadly new exportAmid the anarchy, farmers begin to grow opium poppies, raising fears that the country could become a major heroin supplierBy Patrick Cockburn in BaghdadPublished: 23 May 2007Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan. Rice farmers along the Euphrates, to the west of the city of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, have stopped cultivating rice, for which the area is famous, and are instead planting poppies, Iraqi sources familiar with the area have told The Independent. The shift to opium cultivation is still in its early stages but
there is little the Iraqi government can do about it because rival Shia
militias and their surrogates in the security forces control Diwaniya
and its neighborhood. There have been bloody clashes between
militiamen, police, Iraqi army and US forces in the city over the past
two months. More>>>>>>> May 23 'Israel committed war crimes'Amnesty: Threefold increase in killings of Palestinians by IDF in 2006 Sderot created the Gaza StripPhilip Rizk writing from the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 22 May 2007
Yesterday eight members of one family were murdered on the spot in Israel's latest military strike on Gaza. The target, doctor Khaleel Al-Haya, a Hamas member, remained unharmed. Later in the day Islamic Jihad responded by firing two homemade rockets into Gaza. One Israeli citizen was killed, another wounded. This sounds like a horrible, but straightforward series of events. The only aspect that calls for attention is that one of these attacks is considered terrorism, while the other is mentioned in most media outlets only in passing, and referred to as a legitimate attempt on a bad man's life. As Israel's extra-judicial assassinations in Gaza once again become the norm, Gaza is being cast into deeper and deeper despair. More>>>>> The Haunted Woods of John HowardBy SONJA KARKAR There is something worrying about a
prime minister of a liberal, democratic country who imposes values
on his country's citizens and those who wish to become citizens,
yet does not adhere to those values when he regards it politically
expedient to ignore them. This is precisely what Prime Minister
John Howard has done in accepting the "honour" of
having a forest named after him in Israel's Negev Desert and
also the Jerusalem Prize for his support of Israel and its "values".
And John Howard is in good company: Sir Robert Menzies and
Bob Hawke - both former Australian prime ministers - also have
forests in Israel named after them, as well as a former governor-general,
Sir Zelman Cowen. More......... Is the CIA counterfeiting dollars and blaming it on North Korea?Joshua Holland: And if so, what operations are they funding outside of the view of Congress? "Super notes" -- forged U.S. dollars of such high quality that even experts have trouble detecting them -- have taken on an almost mythic status among national security watchers. Supposedly, they're part of a plot to undermine confidence in the U.S. economy, and at times they've been called an act of war. Their origins have tended to shift with the political winds; it was said that they originate in Iran, some have speculated that they come from the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon (where they were supposedly produced by Syria) and lately the consensus has been that they're part of a sinister North Korean plan. Others have accused Israel of printing them. But according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, a respected German paper, their source may in fact be far closer to home than most people suspected [Translation by Watching America] … The American secret service, the CIA, could be responsible for manufacturing the nearly-perfect counterfeit 50 and 100-dollar-notes that Washington pins on the terror regime of North Korea. The charge comes after an extensive investigation in Europe and Asia by the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung of Frankfurt, and after interviews with counterfeit money experts and leading representatives of the high-security publishing industry. […]
The administration of George W. Bush officially accused Pyongyang of the deed in the autumn of 2005, derailing Six-Party Talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Since then, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased considerably. America charges that North Korea is financing its rocket and nuclear weapons program with the counterfeit "Supernotes." North Korea is one of the world's poorest nations and lacks the technological capability to produce notes of such high quality. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung, North Korea is at present unable to even produce the won [the North Korean currency]. The sources, which do not wish to be identified, allege that the CIA prints the falsified "Supernotes" at a secret facility near Washington to fund covert operations without Congressional oversight. U.S. officials have not responded to the story.
Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer. Goodling: Being a Republican helps in getting hired at the Justice DepartmentMichael Roston Published: Wednesday May 23, 2007
In questioning by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Goodling added more details to her statements in the morning session
acknowledged that she frequently interviewed people who sought
political and career appointments simultaneously. When she didn't have
political slots open, she would then direct them to career postings. More............. May 18 AIPAC's Power Base: America's Real TerroristsBy: Ted Lang Our entire government is controlled by Israel! Through a small, rich and powerful Jewish supported pro-Israeli tax-exempt lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or simply AIPAC, virtually all American domestic and foreign policy is now being controlled by a foreign government entanglement. This is done by targeting American politicians: those who are pro-Israel receive campaign funding and favorable publicity through a myriad of Jewish organizations, magnified by the liberal and Democratic Party-leaning American press; those politicians not favoring policies benefiting Israel are targeted by Jews all over America who send money to help finance that politician’s opponent. Former Georgia Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, who was critical of
the dominance Israel enjoyed controlling our government, was defeated
in this way by Jewish contributions coming in from all over the United
States. Those contributions had to be requested en masse, funneled to a
finance manager, and then distributed to all the right places to both
the opposing candidate and key media outlets to generate the necessary
opposing campaign propaganda. More>>>>>>>>> May 13 Suppressing critics of IsraelThe campaign against Norman Finkelstein Bitta Mostofi, The Electronic Intifada, 10 May 2007
In recent weeks a considerable amount has been written and said
about Norman Finkelstein's bid for tenure at DePaul University. As most
academics are aware, it is unique for a tenure decision, something that
is an inherently internal process, to be subject to external
discussion. Unfortunately, Finkelstein's case is important because of
the way in which is not unique. Forces outside DePaul have attempted to
interfere with the University's in an effort to sway its decision
towards denial of Finkelstein's tenure. This campaign is part of a
pattern of attacks aimed at silencing prominent critics of the Israeli
government. The goal is to erode the willingness of academics,
journalists, politicians and individuals to speak out against Israel's
human rights record for fear of losing their jobs. More>>>>>>> British Study: Artificial Food Additives Linked to Children’s Behavioral ProblemsDate Published: Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
In a new study that may have major implications for the food industry, scientists at the University of Southampton have found what they believe is a definitive link between artificial food additives and hyperactivity and restlessness in young children. The research was commissioned by Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) and is set to be peer-reviewed and published later this year. Researchers tested six artificial colorings; tartrazine (E102),
ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline
yellow (E104), and allura red AC (E129) and one preservative, sodium
benzoate. All of the tested chemicals were associated with some sort of
medical risk, including hyperactivity, mood swings, asthma, allergic
reactions, and intolerance. Somalia: The Hidden War for Oil
The US bombing of Somalia took place while the World Social Forum was underway in Kenya, three days before a large anti-war action in Washington on 27 January 2007. Nunu Kidane, network coordinator for Priority Africa Network (PAN), was present in Nairobi. After returning home, she asked: how ‘to explain the silence of the US peace movement on Somalia?’ Writing in the San Francisco community newspaper Bay View, Kidane suggested one valid reason: ‘Perhaps US-based organizations don’t have the proper analytical framework to understand the significance of the Horn of Africa region. Perhaps it is because Somalia is largely seen as a country with no government and in perpetual chaos; with “fundamental Islamic” forces, not deserving of defense against the military attacks by US in search of “terrorists”.’ To that it may be added the role of the major US media in the lead up to the invasion and the suffering now taking place in the Horn of Africa.
Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now recently examined the coverage of ABC, NBC and CBS on Somalia in the evening newscasts since the invasion. ABC and NBC had not mentioned the war at all. CBS mentioned
the war once, dedicating three whole sentences to it. Despite the fact
that there have been more casualties in this war than in the recent
fighting in Lebanon. MORE>>>>>> |
In
the afternoon session of a hearing before the House Judiciary
Committee, the Justice Department's former White House Liaison admitted
that self-acknowledged Republicans had a better chance of getting hired
by her for non-political openings at the Justice Department.
Carl Bloice, writing for 
‘The carnage and suffering in Somalia may be the worst in more than a decade - but you’d hardly know it from your nightly news’, wrote Andrew Cawthorne for Reuters from Nairobi last week.
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