http://www.uruknet.info :: Uruknet - Information from Occupied Iraq :: E :: en-us 25-may-2013 18:29 ECT 25-may-2013 18:29 ECT http://www.uruknet.de/rss/ Weblog Editor 2.0 posta@uruknet.info (Paola Pisi) enzo@uruknet.eu (Enzo Viscuso) http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97851 May 23, 2013 - A bomber dressed in a police uniform killed 14 people including a prominent provincial council chief outside the council headquarters in northern Afghanistan on Monday, authorities said. The Taliban insurgency quickly claimed responsibility. Baghlan provincial council leader Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni was entering the compound in the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri in the morning when the bomber approached on foot and detonated his explosives, said Baghlan chief of police Asadullah Sherzad. The attacker was dressed in police uniform and blended with officers at a checkpoint near the council headquarters, then slipped into a group of people surrounding Mohseni and set off his bomb in the crowd, said Baghlan deputy police chief Mohammad Sadeq Muradi... 25-may-2013 18:29 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97851 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97850 May 23, 2013 - President Obama has repeatedly hailed himself for presiding over "the most transparent administration ever." At the same time, he has waged a sustained and unprecedented war on whistleblowers, press freedoms and the basic mechanisms of the newsgathering process. But it is the administration of Barack Obama that has prosecuted more accused leakers under "espionage" statutes than all prior administrations combined -- in fact, double the number of all prior such prosecutions.... 25-may-2013 18:23 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97850 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97849 May 23, 2013 - On Nakba Day, 15 May 2013, Palestinians marked the passing of sixty-five years since the massive forced expulsion of Palestinians from their national homeland. The Nakba commemorations demand reflection not only on the "catastrophe" of the loss of life, land, and property in 1948, but also on Israeli policies that are still dispossessing Palestinians of their land today, sixty-five years later. In a new film (view below), Adalah captures the stories of two Palestinian villages, Al-Araqib and Susiya-one in Israel, one in the West Bank-that share a single story of struggle against forced displacement... 25-may-2013 17:18 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97849 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97848 May 23, 2013 - ...Not so anymore though. Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking on behalf of President Obama, released a letter that purported to justify Obama s assassination program under the rubric of the war on terrorism. Echoing Pinochet, Holder argued that federal assassination isn t murder but rather legal wartime killing....In fact, under our post-9/11 system, Obama and Holder are under no legal requirement to even explain why they have assassinated anyone, including Americans. That s why they continue to remain silent with respect to their assassination of the other three Americans... 25-may-2013 16:57 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97848 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97847 May 23, 2013 - ...As it became clear that the Syrian opposition was putting up fierce resistance, Hezbollah began adjusting its story about the battle for al-Qusayr. The group was now making it known that it was sending in reinforcements from its elite units, and that the fighting might last at least another week. More troublesome for Hezbollah, however, was the news about the severe losses its units were sustaining, with casualty numbers ranging from 30 to 40 dead after the first day of fighting alone. By Tuesday, Syrian activists in al-Qusayr were claiming another 25 dead Hezbollah fighters. This, of course, is not counting those who had been killed prior to the latest assault, going back to last year. The number and make-up of the casualties raise some interesting questions about Hezbollah s fighting force post-2006... 25-may-2013 16:47 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97847 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97846 May 23, 2013 - President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his administration s use of drone strikes to kill terrorists as effective, lawful and "heavily constrained," but he also appeared to be laying groundwork for an expansion of the controversial targeted killings. In remarks at the National Defense University in Washington, Obama cast the use of such operations as a necessary part of an overall national defense strategy, even as he acknowledged targeted killings risk "creating new enemies" and could "lead a president and his team to view drone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism."... 25-may-2013 16:31 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97846 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97845 May 23, 2013 - WHEN Barack Obama ran for president of the United States in 2008, his message of hope and change gave us, the citizens of lesser republics, hope that he would close Guantánamo and shut down programs where extrajudicial killing or bribing foreign heads of state with American taxpayer dollars had become standard practice. Instead, a few days after his inaugural address, a C.I.A.-operated drone dropped Hellfire missiles on Fahim Qureishi s home in North Waziristan, killing seven of his family members and severely injuring Fahim. He was just 13 years old and left with only one eye, and shrapnel in his stomach. There was no militant present.-- 25-may-2013 05:48 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97845 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97844 May 23, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, Sahwa and snakes threaten the Iraqi people, US President Barack Obama wishes he could close Guantanamo (he says), Medea Benjamin heckles him, he offers a major speech about how The Drone War and the so-called war on terrorism will continue, IRS official Lois Lerner gets placed on administrative leave, the War on the First Amendment continues, and more.With US President Barack Obama making statements about the press today, we re again starting with The War on the First Amendment. Last week, The War on the First Amendment s big revelations were that the Justice Dept had secretly seized the phone records of a 167-year-old news institution, the Associated Press. This week s revelation is that the Justice Dept targeted Fox News reporter James Rosen... 25-may-2013 05:43 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97844 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97843 May 23, 2013 - The speech by President Barack Obama, which touched upon perpetual war, his authority to carry out drone strikes, the efficacy of drones, closing Guantanamo Bay prison, adhering to the rule of law when fighting terrorism and even national security leaks was wide-ranging and bewildering. It was longer than the "State of the Union" address he gave this year. A speech like this on his counterterrorism policies and civil liberties had not been given since his May 21, 2009, at the National Archives. In many ways, this was a repurposing of that speech with the inclusion of content intended to stifle criticism of the expansions of executive power he has embraced. Not responding to that criticism earlier and maintaining an excessive level of secrecy made it inevitable that his administration would have to cram all manner of talking points into a speech that would seemingly go on and on forever... 25-may-2013 05:40 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97843 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97842 May 23, 2014 - After he first took office, President Obama jettisoned the use of the phrase "global war on terror," preferring ‘overseas contingency operation. In remarks on his counterterrorism policy (or what he d like it to be?) to the National Defense University this afternoon, Obama insisted America was "still threatened by terrorists," but warned that America "must define the nature and scope of this struggle," otherwise "it will define us." ...Nevertheless, even while warning America to define the nature and scope of the struggle against terrorism, Obama managed to expand the definition of the terrorism he believes government must protect Americans from.... 25-may-2013 05:20 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97842 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97841 May 23 2013 - The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported that Israeli soldiers kidnapped twelve children, students of the Orphanage School in occupied East Jerusalem. Bassam Khalil, vice-principal of the school, stated that the army kidnapped the children as they left school in the Old City, and took them to a local Police station in the Chain Gate area. He added that, so far, three of the kidnapped children have been identified as Mohammad Abu Sneina, Obaida Es eed, and Marwan Dweik... 25-may-2013 05:17 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97841 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97840 May 23, 2013 - ...Obama is expected to reveal the justification for wholesale acts of political murder (now including that of four Americans-but who s counting?) and the extreme terrorization of whole populations, through never knowing when the sustained buzzing overhead will strike without warning, this last a trick that the Nazis learned about psychological warfare during the London bombings, especially the unmanned aerial vehicles. If the US is skating on the thin edge of fascism in its creation of an hierarchical social order based on monopolization, the unrestrained growth of the military, and, through the political culture of militarism ensuring mass passivity and acquiescence (hardly a peep from organized labor, civil rights and civil liberties organizations, religious groups, students-all of whom played an important part in the civil rights struggle-on assassination as official US policy from the top), the use of armed drones is taking America over the edge... 25-may-2013 05:14 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97840 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97839 May 23, 2013 -Rewriting history in the Israeli narrative is as simple as refusing calls for independent inquiries into the countless crimes of the occupation. Years after Muhammad al-Durrah s death in 2000, claims that the child is still alive have resurfaced, despite Israel admitting responsibility for the child s death in the past. Footage aired by France 2 depicts Muhammad al-Durrah and his father cowering behind a barrel, as they find themselves trapped in crossfire and unarmed. The film as now been denounced as staged and forming part of Palestinian propaganda - according to Netanyahu, who set up a committee to investigate the circumstances in the light of continued damage it has caused to Israel . Israel has also requested that France 2 relinquishes its fabricated footage ... 25-may-2013 05:05 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97839 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97838 May 23, 2013 -It is not surprising, or even unexpected, to see settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem attacking and threatening the lives of Palestinians, destroying their properties, ruining their farms and targeting their holy sites. These attacks have not stopped since the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem and since settlements and judaisation in the region began. To list examples, it would be enough to mention the attempts of these settlers to assassinate three elected Palestinian Mayors: Basam Al shakaa from Nablus, Karim Khalaf from Ramallah, and Ibrahim Altawil from Albira in 1980. Yet they also attacked students of Hebron University in 1984, attempted to poison water tanks at the schools of Jenin municipality in 1984, and stationed Rabbi Kiryat Arba in front of Dheisheh refugee camp for two years. In addition, settler Baruch Goldstein committed the massacre of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1993... 25-may-2013 05:00 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97838 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97837 May 23, 2013 - Two decades from now, social commentators may very well decide, with hindsight, that 2013 was an historic turning point. Humanity has an urgent choice to make about many monumental crises - including climate change, economic inequality, democracy for sale and resource wars - and opportunities. One of the great decisions we face is about drones. This train is rapidly leaving the station, and it doesn t take a crystal ball to see where it s headed. In two decades it will likely be moot, but now we can still get in front of this locomotive. There is still time to imagine - and create - another future... 25-may-2013 04:25 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97837 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97836 May 23, 2013 - ...B Tselem has gathered testimonies from Gazan children over the age of eight who have not seen their imprisoned fathers since 2007. In their testimonies, the children describe their longing to be reunited with their fathers as well as the difficulties they face because of the separation. The children s only mode of communication with their fathers is written correspondence and sending pictures. Visits are permitted very infrequently, only once a week on Mondays, and then only at one prison facility at a time: Nafha, Ramon and Eshel (Dekel). As a result, each eligible inmate receives a visit once every three or four months. In contrast, inmates from Israel or from the West Bank who are held on criminal or security grounds may receive visits once every two weeks.... 25-may-2013 04:20 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97836 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97835 Ah, my friends. I never thought I would live to see it: the day when most of humanity agrees that needless, brutal, non-defensive murder is monstrously evil and utterly unforgivable. But I was directed to a post offering the front pages of U.K. newspapers today -- and I feel entirely justified in heralding the glorious beginning of a new era for civilization. We finally may be able to use the word "civilization" with accuracy, and even with pride. One front page carries the words: You will never be safe, we will not stop fighting Another states: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We won t stop fighting until you leave us alone . Be sure to understand: these declarations from murderers who are proud of their killing and who refuse to apologize for it are universally condemned. Accompanying these headlines are photos of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and other key figures who had led and continue to lead the West s, and more particularly the U.S. s, wars of annihilation and murder on a monumental scale. But most people now recognize the evil of these men and all who had supported them.The newspapers point to the genocide in Iraq, a campaign of murder on a world-historical scale. They also mention the ongoing campaigns of slaughter in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and numerous other countries ... 25-may-2013 04:17 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97835 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97834 May 23, 2013 - Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using what appeared to be a meat cleaver to hack to death a British soldier. In the wake of claims that the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing, and a video showing one of the assailants citing Islam as well as a desire to avenge and stop continuous UK violence against Muslims, media outlets (including the Guardian) and British politicians instantly characterized the attack as "terrorism". That this was a barbaric and horrendous act goes without saying, but given the legal, military, cultural and political significance of the term "terrorism", it is vital to ask: is that term really applicable to this act of violence? To begin with, in order for an act of violence to be "terrorism", many argue that it must deliberately target civilians. That s the most common means used by those who try to distinguish the violence engaged in by western nations from that used by the "terrorists": sure, we kill civilians sometimes, but we don t deliberately target them the way the "terrorists" do... 25-may-2013 04:12 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97834 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97833 May 23, 2013 - Motahedoon coalition, headed by Osama Nujaifi accused the government of supporting armed militias. The coalition said in a press statement today 23, May: "The past few days have seen a militia set up fake checkpoints and enter areas under the eyes and ears of the security forces, if not with their support and cooperation with them." The statement denounced: "The recent criminal incidents, which affected a number of innocent Iraqis in specific areas in Baghdad by terrorist militias, which apparently resumed their activities and given the green light to kidnap and kill and throw corpses as they used previously by killing according to identity," according to the statement... 25-may-2013 04:01 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97833 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97832 May 23, 2013 - New reports suggest that among the topics of a recent meeting between Army Chief of Staff Gen. Parvez Kayani and Pakistan s incoming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif included a discussion of US drone strikes, and an agreement by the two to more forcefully "counter" the ongoing attacks. The promise comes in the context of Sharif running on a platform that included ending the strikes, which have proven hugely unpopular inside Pakistan and have sparked several major anti-US protests over the past few years... 25-may-2013 03:59 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97832 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97831 May 23 2013 - Israel s crippling blockade of the coastal territory of Gaza is pushing desperate young Palestinians to ever more extreme measures in the search for livelihoods, despite an agreement granting Gazans greater access to their agricultural land.In search of work, some Gazans try to enter Israel by jumping the fence that separates it from Gaza. Others continue to be shot dead or are seriously injured by Israeli soldiers as they try to farm land bordering the fence, and still others who choose an underground path die when tunnels linking Gaza with Egypt collapse. Yet an agreement between Hamas and Israel s COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) following a ceasefire in November stated that Gazans would be able to access most of their agricultural land in Israel s self-declared 300-metre buffer zone, which runs along the border, by reducing the zone to 100 metres... 25-may-2013 03:55 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97831 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97830 May 23, 2013 - On May 8, B Tselem published a report titled "Human Rights Violations During Operation Pillar of Defense: 14 - 21 November 2012." Israel s Operation Pillar of Cloud (aka Cloud Column/Pillar of Defense) was naked, premeditated aggression... Naked aggression is called self-defense. Palestinian self-defense is called terrorism. Claiming either doesn t wash. Israel does it repeatedly. Slaughtered civilians bear testimony to imperial crimes. On November 14, Israel murdered Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari. A missile struck his car. He was well-known and respected. Many considered him Hamas most important military and political leader. Hours before his assassination, he concluded a truce agreement draft... 25-may-2013 03:46 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97830 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97829 May 23, 2013 - Please sign the Avaaz petition calling for the closure of Guantánamo! Just hours before President Obama delivers a major speech on national security at the National Defense University, in which he will discuss the drone program and will also lay out his plans for Guantánamo, an international petition calling for the prison s closure, launched by Avaaz, has secured over 400,000 signatures in just one day. The petition calls on President Obama "to appoint a White House official whose responsibility it is to close down the prison, and to use the authority granted to you by the US Congress to immediately transfer the 86 men who have been cleared," which is exactly the message that is required, so please, if you haven t already signed it, do so now, and then circulate it to everyone you know... 25-may-2013 03:42 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97829 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97828 May 23, 2013 - Summary: Israeli violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the oPt continued during the reporting period 16 - 22 May 2013. Shooting: During the reporting period, Israeli forces wounded 17 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children. 3 civilians were wounded during incursions in the Palestinian communities, while 14 others, including 12 children, were wounded in peaceful protests in al-Jalazoun refugee camp, north of Ramallah. On 17 May 2012, 3 Palestinian civilians were wounded. The first one was wounded when Israeli forces moved into Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, while the other two ones were wounded by the newly-employed Tutu bullets when Israeli forces moved into al-Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, as Israeli forces have recently resumed using snipers to disperse Palestinian demonstrations using Tutu rifles, which are sniper rifles with a small barrel.... 25-may-2013 03:32 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97828 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97827 May 23, 2013 -... The IDF Spokesperson s announcement on Tuesday basically confirmed that the army collectively punishes Gazan fishermen for rockets launched from the Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Moshe (Bogie) Ya alon, approved the expansion of the Gaza Strip s designated fishing zone from three to six nautical miles. The designated fishing zone was limited due to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel on March 21, 2013. Recent attempts to launch rockets from the Strip have been carried out by tiny radical organizations that even Hamas has trouble to controlling. So why are Gaza s fishermen being punished for it? ... 25-may-2013 03:28 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97827 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97826 May 23, 2013 -About two weeks ago, A. was on his way from Hebron to Jerusalem. A is a resident of Abu Dis, and married to a resident of East Jerusalem; as such, he enjoys Israeli residency. But as he was about to find out, that didn t help him all that much. On his way home, A. passed through a checkpoint charmingly named "the humanitarian checkpoint," where he ran into a surprise roadblock, manned by a mixed force of soldiers and border policemen. The soldiers asked A. to turn off his engine, leave the car, and hand them his papers. A. noted they spoke "poor Arabic."... 25-may-2013 02:45 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97826 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97825 May 22, 2013 - By the end of Wednesday, the coordination committees were able to document 125 martyrs, among 11 women, 13 children, and 5 martyrs under torture: 37 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 29 martyrs in Homs; 21 martyrs in Hama; 17 martyrs in Idlib; 9 martyrs in Daraa; 7 martyrs in Aleppo; 2 martyrs in Raqqa; 2 martyrs in Lattakia; and 1 martyr in Deir Ezzor.The committees have documented 342 points of shelling, fiercest of which was in Sbineh in Damascus suburbs and Qusair in Homs: Warplane shelling was recorded in 24 points, fiercest of which was in Hamidieh and Qusair neighborhoods in Homs, shelling with surface-to-surface missiles was recorded in Sbineh in Damascus suburbs and shelling with cluster bombs was recorded in Hamidieh in Homs. Mortar shelling was documented in 95 points, rocket shelling in 103 points, and artillery shelling in 115 points in different areas across Syria... 25-may-2013 02:30 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97825 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97824 May 22, 2013 - Today sees the launch of the "Global Rendition System" database and interactive map - the most comprehensive resource so far created illustrating the CIA s programme of renditions and secret prisons as part of the ‘war on terror ... The database - a collaboration between Reprieve and the Rendition Project based at Kingston and Kent Universities - uses data from freedom of information requests, legal cases, published first-hand accounts, investigations by NGOs and authoritative news reporting to detail dozens of prisoner transfers between secret "black sites". Through analysis of more than 11,000 flights by over 120 aircraft, linked to more than 50 private companies, the site reveals the roles of different countries and shows how companies tried to cover their routes by filing false flight plans or by switching aircraft halfway... 24-may-2013 23:02 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97824 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97823 24-may-2013 23:00 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97823 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97822 May 22 , 2013 - nspired by the hunger strike of most remaining Guantanamo prisoners, hundreds of people in the arts, law, public life and academia have made an urgent call to Obama to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, where 166 men are still held, and "the release of the cleared Guantanamo prisoners now, and an end to indefinite detention without charge for the others, before they lose their lives." President Obama will speak Thursday, May 23 on national security, and is expected to make a case for expansion of the U.S. drone war and discuss his failure to close Guantanamo after his 2009 promise to do so within a year. Thursday morning, the European Parliament will debate a resolution on the U.S. prison at Guantanamo and U.S. "breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law."... 24-may-2013 22:56 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97822 http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97821 May 22, 2013 -There should be no question that George W. Bush is the first to charge for the shame of Guantánamo. But now President Obama, the Congress, and the nation share that shame. Just as the nation bought the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Powell lies that took us to war in Iraq, so the nation bought their claims that every person imprisoned at Guantánamo was the worst of the worst. We now know that was a lie, too. Of the 166 men now being held at Guantánamo, 86 have been cleared of wrong-doing. There is no reason to hold them except for Congressional action to make their releases difficult and the recalcitrance of a president whose moral convictions have evaporated like steam from boiling water... 24-may-2013 22:42 ECT http://www.uruknet.info?p=m97821