Saturday, July 15, 2006

Unbelievable!

So if you are still among those skeptical of American media having a bias favoring Israel, the current situation should shed some light on this phenomena for you.

In the ongoing assault (4 days continous as of now) on Lebannon by Israel, more than 100 civilians have been killed by the Israeli army and two Israeli soliders have died in the conflict. (Sources: 1 - 2).

It is appalling, more than usual, to see how the media in the States is covering the current situation. Presenting the two bare facts, judge for yourself.

1.
The most recent development is that of a bus being attacked by Israeli air strikes, killing 18 civilians, of which were nice children and the elderly. This alone is horrific, but not something new the Middle East, as Hamas has carried out such attacks on Israeli civilians in the past. When Hamas carries these attacks, the news of this hung as the headline spanning the globe, this is a known fact. Yet in this same exact case, the story is barely existent in the American media, as I type this, CNN.com, FOXNEWS.com, and MSNBC.com have not listed it in the main page anywhere. The story is not be found anywhere.

2. Story is presented differently w/o objectivity
(Objectivity = backbone of journalism)

Foreign Media
Israel Attacks Lebanese Bus, 18 Dead
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20060715&hn=34810

Domestic Media (AP)
Israel Pounds South Beirut, Killing 18
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2196057

Strike differences from our media and the worlds
AP: No mention of civilians, 9 children, bus, or attack/air strike ("pounds")

- - - - -
Some developing news worth noting:
US has a lengthy history of vetoing UN resolutions condemning Israel, may that be in reference to excessive force, illegal settlements, human rights violations, etc. So this should come as no surprise, 'US vetoes UN resolution condemning Israel' -Indian Express. After vetoing a UN resolution condemning Israel pull out of Gaza (maybe you forgot there is a second offensive there "Operation Summer Rain"), there is more of our blind strategy.
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Friday, July 14, 2006

Zidane treated outrageously: Gosper

14th July 2006, 8:20 WST


International Olympic Committee members, described Zidane's straight red card as "outrageous" as it failed to consider Materazzi's role in the incident.
Kevan Gosper, one of Australia's top Olympic officials, has hit out at soccer's world governing body FIFA over Zinedine Zidane's dismissal in the World Cup final for failing to take into account the effect of verbal abuse.

The France captain was sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest after the Italian defender allegedly repeatedly insulted his mother and sister.

Zidane spoke on French television on Wednesday about the hurtful nature of the comments and while he would not elaborate on the exact words, he said he would have preferred "to have been punched in the face".

Gosper, one of Australia's senior International Olympic Committee members, described Zidane's straight red card as "outrageous" as it failed to consider Materazzi's role in the incident.

With the incident now under investigation by FIFA, Gosper said the organisation had the opportunity to crack down on the blight of sledging in sport.

"The outrageous on-field treatment of Zinedine Zidane offers the FIFA Disciplinary Review Panel an opportunity to send a message to the sporting world that verbal abuse can be more wounding than physical attack and will not be tolerated," Gosper said in a statement on Thursday.

Gosper called on FIFA to acknowledge the psychological effect sledging can have upon sportsmen and to treat it as seriously as any physical abuse during matches.

"Without a public appreciation by FIFA of the long-term impact on Zidane, he will carry forever the burden of a verbal abuse every bit as wounding as a physical attack," Gosper said.

"The referee got it wrong when he failed to establish the reason for Zidane acting as he did before abandoning him to the Hall of Infamy."

France went on to lose the World Cup final to Italy 5-3 on penalties, following Zidane's dismissal with 10 minutes to play in extra-time and the score level at 1-1.

Source: The West Australian
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=15&ContentID=1054
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The arrogance of power

By Stavros Lygeros

The developments we have witnessed in Gaza and Lebanon over the past few days merely serve to confirm, in the most dramatic fashion, that the maxim “might is right” still applies. It has become quite clear that Israel is much more than a small state armed to the teeth. Not even the US enjoys such tolerance.

The governments of the West and those who shape its public opinion are, as a rule, extremely cautious in their criticism of Tel Aviv. Evidently this is not merely due to the legacy of the Holocaust. It is also attributable to the creation of an entire industry of ideological terrorism and to the exploitation of the Holocaust for political ends, which insults the memory of the victims.

It is hardly irrelevant that the media refer to Israeli soldiers being “abducted” rather than “taken captive” - the term “abduction” suggests terrorism while soldiers are “taken captive” after armed conflicts. However, both captures, of two Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and another in Gaza earlier this month, followed armed conflict. Generally Israel describes such conflicts as terrorist acts. But this time it referred to the unjustified attack of one sovereign state against another. Tel Aviv does not regard Hezbollah as less of a terrorist organization than Hamas. It just needed a political excuse for its attack on Lebanon.

The attacks on Gaza and Lebanon were not carried out to free the three Israeli soldiers, nor because of Israel’s penchant for multiple reprisals. There is also an acute problem with rocket attacks targeting Israeli settlements. But these attacks are just the flipside of Israel’s offensives in this unbalanced war.

Israel’s mistake is not that it is exercising its right to defend itself but that it has been carried away by an arrogance of power that has extinguished any political farsightedness. Hence its attempt to impose a military solution upon a political problem.

Source: Kathimerni
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_100024_14/07/2006_72063

_________

Related: U.S. vetoes U.N. resolution on Mideast
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast.response/index.html

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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Paralyzed man moves computer cursor through thought

By Patricia Reaney Wed Jul 12, 1:46 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A Paralyzed man using a new brain sensor has been able to move a computer cursor, open e-mail and control a robotic device simply by thinking about doing it, a team of scientists said on Wednesday.

They believe the BrainGate sensor, which involves implanting electrodes in the brain, could offer new hope to people Paralyzed by injuries or illnesses.

"This is the first step in an ongoing clinical trial of a device that is encouraging for its potential to help people with paralysis," Dr Leigh Hochberg, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said in an interview.

The 25-year-old man who suffered paralysis of all four limbs three years earlier completed tasks such moving a cursor on a screen and controlling a robotic arm.

He is the first of four patients with spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, stroke or motor neurone disease testing the brain-to-movement system developed by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc in Massachusetts.

"This is the dawn of major neurotechnology where the ability to take signals out of the brain has taken a big step forward. We have the ability to put signals into the brain but getting signals out is a real challenge. I think this represents a landmark event," said Professor John Donoghue of Brown University in Rhode Island and the chief scientific officer of Cyberkinetics.

The scientists implanted a tiny silicon chip with 100 electrodes into an area of the brain responsible for movement. The activity of the cells was recorded and sent to a computer which translated the commands and enabled the patient to move and control the external device.

"This part of the brain, the motor cortex, which usually sends its signals down the spinal cord and out to the limbs to control movement, can still be used by this participant to control an external device, even after years had gone by since his spinal cord injury," added Hochberg, a co-author of the study published in the journal Nature.

Although it is not the first time brain activity has been used to control a cursor, Stephen Scott of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada said it advances the technology.

"This research suggests that implanted prosthetics are a viable approach for assisting severely impaired individuals to communicate and interact with the environment," he said in a commentary in the journal.

In a separate study, researchers from Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering described a faster way to process signals from the brain to control a computer or prosthetic device.

"Our research is starting to show that, from a performance perspective, this type of prosthetic system is clinically viable," Stephen Ryu, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford, said in a statement.

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/science_brain_dc...

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Bollywood star hails Mumbai resilience

By Aamir Khan
Bollywood actor

Amir Khan
Khan was anxious about his office staff who commute by train
I was in Satara when I heard about the blasts.

I was shocked and immediately tried to get in touch with Mumbai, but just could not get through - all the lines were blocked.

There was no TV there, so I could not get a sense of what was happening. But my disbelief at the sudden attack and the loss of so many innocent lives is extreme.

I was anxious about the hundreds of thousands of people travelling by trains in peak hours.

I was also concerned about my own office staff, and wanted to know whether they had reached home - but just could not find out.

Then mercifully my chartered accountant called me and I got some information from him.

It is sad, it is appalling and the way people are going out of their way to help is just like the generous Mumbaiite.

'Stabbing the innocent'

The police are doing a good job, they are very capable.

If it seems otherwise, if people feel impatient, we must remind ourselves that the police force and the army are used to dealing with crime on a daily basis and they know what is the best step to take in such a situation.

We must follow the leaders at this time. And trust them. They require our co-operation at this time.

This horrifying act shows the extreme level of cowardice that makes people place bombs in trains and kill totally unaware people.

What can be more cowardly than something like this, which smacks of stabbing someone who is totally innocent.

What was the point of killing ordinary people?

I am glad that we have bounced back and are back at work - it just shows these people that we will not be cowed down by such stealthy, cowardly actions.

I think the best we can do is stick together and be alert.

'Taken unawares'

In fact it is important that we stick together and help the authorities in whichever way we can.

If we have any information that may help them, we should give them that.

It was and is an extremely tough situation for anyone to handle and we can only comment from the sidelines but in actuality we ourselves might not know how to go about handling such an unexpected and horrible situation.

But this is not only the case in India, it also happened in the UK and in the US. They too were taken unawares.

It is very tragic when we look at the result. So many lives lost, so much tragedy in so many families. My heart goes out to them all.

We must mourn the loss of innocent lives and condemn the extremely reprehensible action of the terrorist whose cowardice is seen so blatantly.

These people have little value for life. What sense does it make to kill someone when you do not even know who you are killing?

It is absolutely a senseless act.

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5175824.stm

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Mongolians mark 800th anniversary of Khan

By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press WriterTue Jul 11, 4:30 PM ET

Mongolians celebrated the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's march to world conquest on Tuesday with festivities that mixed commercialism with appeals to nationalism.

In the capital's Central Stadium, men dressed like warriors in Genghis Khan's 13th-century horde paraded on stout, brown horses. In one section of the grandstands, people held up cards to form pictures of the conqueror and the national flag. An actor played Genghis Khan in white robe and head gear, riding a white horse to "Hurrays!" from the crowd.

"We Mongolians must be united and have one goal: to develop our country. Remember Genghis Khan and his great deeds," said President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, who usually wears a suit but was dressed in a traditional gold and cream silk robe for the occasion.

Mongolians and their leaders are reveling in Genghis Khan, finding a source of identity at an unsettling time.

Sandwiched between a voracious China and an assertive Russia, Mongolia faces challenges abroad, while at home the democracy and free markets that followed communism's collapse in 1990 have created wealth for some but left a third of the 2.8 million people in poverty.

The greatness of Genghis Khan is something that most Mongolians agree on.

"I feel so proud to have been born in the land of the Great Khan who conquered most of the world," said Tserendulam, a recently retired cook who was among 800 singers at the ceremony. Like many Mongolians, he uses one name.

The anniversary marks Genghis Khan's unification of fractious Mongol tribes in 1206 — an event that gave Mongolians a nascent national identity and set them on a course to forge an empire that stretched from the Pacific to Central Europe.

Though the celebrations will last a year, Tuesday's ceremony was timed for maximum public impact: the start of an annual festival of horse racing, archery, wrestling and camaraderie known as Naadam.

It's a time when the harsh weather of the steppe mellows for a brief summer, Mongolians enjoy themselves and politicians try to burnish their appeal.

Images of Genghis Khan, often as a wizened elder, have been plastered on billboards, etched in white stones on a mountainside and used to promote tourism. A rock opera of the conqueror's life — modeled on "Jesus Christ Superstar" — is being staged by a popular band.

The government tore down mausoleums of a 20th-century nationalist hero and a communist dictator on Ulan Bator's central square this year to build a $5 million monument of Genghis Khan in bronze.

At Tuesday's ceremony, the president and audience sang a newly altered version of the national anthem. The revisions, made by the government in recent weeks, deleted references to the communist past and replaced them with allusions to Mongolian independence.

In the rush to capitalize on his name, Genghis Khan's legacy as a brutal conqueror is being played down. Instead, he's being cast as an agent of world change, a visionary statesman who promoted low taxes on trade, diplomatic immunity and religious tolerance.

"We are forefathers of globalization," says one government slogan.

This marshaling of Genghis Khan's legacy to promote national pride — and the money being spent — has prompted cries of waste and political manipulation from some in the elite.

Mongolian politics has grown divisive, with partisan bickering between Enkhbayar's Mongolian People's First Party, a successor to the old Communist Party, and a coalition of newer democratic parties.

The president's "entourage is trying to create an image that by rallying around our leader we are recreating the glory of Mongolia in the 13th century," said Munkh-Ochir Dorjjugder, an international affairs expert at a Defense Ministry think tank.

Enkhbayar, in his speech, appealed several times for unity. He and members of his political circle defended their use of Genghis Khan's image as necessary given the challenges.

"As a small country sandwiched between large nations, globalization is felt day to day and it's a pressing matter," Tsend Munkh-Orgil, a member of Mongolia's parliament and Enkhbayar's party, told reporters Monday. He said Genghis Khan can help forge "the national unity and national consensus" missing since democracy and capitalism emerged 15 years ago.

"Our ancestor 800 years ago not only brought war and destruction, but he also brought liberation and freedom," said Munkh-Orgil, who has a degree from Harvard Law School. "As to the methods, it was the 13th century. What could we say?"

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060711/ap_on_re_as/mongolia_genghis_fever_lh1

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Monday, July 10, 2006

India's test launch of new missile fails

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 24 minutes ago

India's first test-firing of a new missile designed to carry nuclear warheads across much of Asia and the Middle East was unsuccessful, the defense minister said. Although initially reported as a success by officials, the Agni III missile plunged into the Bay of Bengal short of its target, Defense Pranab Mukherjee told reporters late Sunday.

Following the failed missile launch, an Indian rocket carrying a satellite for TV broadcasts veered off course and exploded after takeoff Monday, Indian media reported.

The missile launch came as President Bush tries to push a civilian nuclear deal with India past a skeptical Congress. The deal permits India to keep making nuclear weapons, and critics say the pact could undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Even though the deal does not cover missiles, the Hindu newspaper reported Monday that the top U.S. general, Peter Pace, gave Indian officials the green light to conduct the test when he visited India last month. The missile test reportedly had been delayed for two years by technical issues and fears of international condemnation.

Mukherjee, who witnessed Sunday's missile launch, said India would press ahead with the Agni III program. He termed the failure a snag, but offered no other details.

Indian media reported that the missile's second stage failed to separate after it was launched from Wheeler Island off the eastern state of Orissa.

India's current crop of missiles have been largely intended to confront archrival and neighbor Pakistan. The Agni III, by contrast, is to be India's longest-range missile, designed to reach 1,900 miles. That would putting China's major cities well into range, as well as targets deep in the Middle East.

It's also said to be capable of carrying a 200-300 kiloton nuclear warhead.

"This is going to help in establishing the credibility of India's deterrent profile," said Indian defense analyst C. Uday Bhaskar.

Still, he dismissed speculation the missile was designed with China in mind.

"Any strategic capability is not aimed at any particular nation. To say it is China-specific is misleading," Bhaskar said.

India and China have shared decades of mutual suspicion and fought a 1962 border war. But relations have warmed considerably in recent years as the two Asian giants have boosted trade and economic ties.

India's missile program, together with its nuclear program and drive for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, is part of its ongoing efforts to establish itself as a world power.

While past Indian missile test firings were seen attempts at saber-rattling with Pakistan, which would in turn test its own missiles, the Agni III test was seen as routine and intended to further India's missile program, which aims to eventually produce a long-range ICBM.

India's homegrown missile arsenal already includes the short-range Prithvi ballistic missile, the medium-range Akash, the anti-tank Nag and the supersonic Brahmos missile, developed jointly with Russia.

India notified Pakistan ahead of the launch, in accordance with an agreement between the two, said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

After Monday's rocket veered off course, authorities alerted emergency crews around the launch site in southeastern India, presumably in case the debris crashed back to earth, NDTV news television station reported.

The nearly 4,800-pound satellite — named INSAT-4C — was to be India's 12th satellite in orbit.

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060710/ap_on_re_as/india_missile_test...

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Sunday, July 09, 2006

Gaza death toll mounts as Israel rejects ceasefire

Press Trust of India
Gaza City, July 9, 2006

Three Palestinian family members, including a six-year-old girl, were killed on Sunday in an air strike in Gaza City as Israel rejected a call by Hamas premier Ismail Haniya for a mutual ceasefire.

The girl, her elder brother and her mother were killed in the air raid which according to an army spokesman targeted a group of militants east of Gaza City.

Despite initial denials, the Israeli army later confirmed carrying out an airstrike in the neighbourhood of Sejayun.

"We are currently examining the exact details of the strike," an army source said.

Four more Palestinians were killed earlier as Israeli forces shifted the focus of their Gaza campaign to end militant rocket fire and free a captured soldier to the seaside strip's eastern frontier.

As Israel pushed on into Gaza, officials brushed aside Haniya's call for a "return to a situation of calm on the basis of a halt to all military operations by both sides".

"We do not hold negotiations with terrorists. They must first return the kidnapped soldier unharmed and cease their fire," an official in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office told reporters.

"We will decide on our next moves according to the steps taken by the Palestinian government," he said, asking not to be named.

Haniya stressed that his Hamas government was determined to solve the problem through diplomatic channels in a "peaceful" manner.

Source: Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1739490,00050004.htm
__
Gaza feud stokes bigger fire

 By Betsy Hiel
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
 Sunday, July 9, 2006

The latest Israeli-Palestinian violence is diverting Arab anger from U.S. policy in Iraq to that old standby, U.S. support for Israel.

The fighting poses problems for another U.S. ally in the region -- Egypt -- and has prompted muted criticism of other Arab governments for ignoring the Palestinians.

Yet one American analyst is surprised the conflict hasn't provoked more concern about larger, longer-term consequences.

Jon Alterman, who directs the Middle East program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes that Israel's incursion aims to collapse Hamas and that the Bush administration is "basically sympathetic with Israeli goals."


Without a negotiated end, he predicts "things are likely to get worse."

Israel's incursion into the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip has dominated Middle Eastern newspapers and televisions for nearly two weeks. Arab commentators generally accuse the Bush administration of endorsing an attack that has killed scores of Palestinians, as well as a number of Israeli soldiers.

"It doesn't work, this American connection with Israeli interests," Walid Shaqir wrote in the pan-Arabic daily Al Hayat. "It contributes to the rising hatred against Washington in the region."

Although the incursion initially aimed to rescue a captured Israeli soldier, many Israelis hope it ends frequent rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

Many Arabs suspect the real goal is to destabilize the Palestinians' newly elected Hamas government, reviled in Israel for its suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

"Half the Palestinian cabinet and many parliamentarians are in Israel's hands," wrote Salama A. Salama in an editorial in Egypt's Al Ahram Weekly. "President Mahmoud Abbas is trapped and Gaza is being pummeled, all because one Israeli soldier has been abducted in retaliation for the killing of an entire Palestinian family on a Gaza beach" in an earlier Israeli bombardment.

Even some in Israel's lively press criticize the incursion. "The original goal, to return the kidnapped soldier ... was overlaid by the desire to change the rules of the game in the south (read: to stop the firing of Qassam rockets) and then by the intention to weaken the Hamas government," wrote Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff in the liberal Ha'aretz newspaper.

The operation, they conclude, "tried to achieve too many goals and may end without any of them being achieved."

Egyptian officials fear the fighting will destabilize their borders with Israel and Gaza. But an even greater concern may be that public support for Hamas will encourage more sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood, the increasingly popular Islamic party that is challenging the two-decade-long rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak has sent a delegation to negotiate for the Israeli soldier's release.

The Jordan Times has warned of an unfolding humanitarian disaster among Gaza's 1.3 million residents: "Sonic booms shatter people's sleep at night, lack of electricity plunges large parts of the strip in darkness ... hospitals and other essential services are functioning at emergency capacity only."

Despite the anger on the Arab street, however, Arab governments -- particularly those in Persian Gulf countries getting rich on $75-a-barrel oil -- are unlikely to impose a retaliatory oil embargo. That prospect prompts Salama, the Egyptian editorial writer, to complain that "Palestinians must be aware by now that they can no longer count on Arab help, economically, politically or militarily."

Alterman, of the international studies center, is "struck by how little strategic thinking is going on by anybody. I don't think people have really figured out what they want the end state to be. I don't see a deal that meets any side's ambition ... anyone engaging in the near future," particularly when Western-Muslim relations are so explosive.

"We have had the Palestinian Authority for some time now," he says, "and we may be moving to a point where there isn't a Palestinian Authority -- and what does that look like?"

In other words, if Hamas does fall, anarchy could rise in its place.

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/middleeastreports/s_461195.html
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Friday, July 07, 2006

EU warns Israel on Gaza attacks

The EU has accused Israel of using "disproportionate" force and making a humanitarian crisis worse during operations in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday Israel consolidated its hold on northern Gaza, as air strikes killed at least three Palestinian militants.

It followed the worst day of violence since Israeli forces entered Gaza over a captured Israeli soldier - 22 Palestinians and an Israeli died.

Israel's operations are the biggest since it withdrew from Gaza last year.

"The EU condemns the loss of lives caused by disproportionate use of force by the Israeli Defence Forces and the humanitarian crisis it has aggravated," Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said in a statement.

The EU is Israel's largest trading partner and rarely criticises the country in such terms military or security matters.

'Goodwill gesture'

Meanwhile an Israeli minister suggested that if Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured 12 days ago, was released, Israel may be prepared to consider future prisoner releases.

A spokesman quoted Interior Minister Avi Dichter as saying that Israel "knows how to carry out a release of prisoners as a goodwill gesture".

Until now Israel has said it will not negotiate a prisoner swap, originally suggested by Islamic militants Hamas as a solution to the crisis.


Focus on the Gaza Strip
In pictures: Gaza offensive

Earlier Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya called for international intervention to stop the Israeli offensive.

Mr Haniya, who belongs to Hamas, called it a "crime against humanity".

He said the Israeli push was "a desperate effort to undermine the Palestinian government under the pretext of a search for the missing soldier".

The interior minister in the Hamas-led government, Said Siyam, has urged all the administration's security forces to fight Israeli troops.

In a statement read out by his spokesman, Khalid Abu Hilal, he called on them to do their duty by "resisting this treacherous invasion and aggression of the cowardly Zionists".

In other developments:

  • A Palestinian militant was shot dead in clashes with Israeli troops in a refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus

  • At least one Palestinian teenager died as a result of Israeli fire following an incursion in Jenin, reports say

  • In the last few days Israeli police have arrested 749 Palestinians they say were living in Israel illegally, as well as several Israelis said to be employing them

Many of those killed in the air strikes and heavy fighting in northern Gaza are militants but there are also civilian victims.

The Israeli military says more than 40 militants have died since the offensive started last week.

Friday morning's air strikes targeted armed Palestinians, it said.

One Hamas militant was killed and three others were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on them from an aircraft in the early morning, Hamas and hospital officials said.

Later two militants were killed in a missile strike.

Captured soldier

The Israeli offensive began largely in southern Gaza in an attempt to free Cpl Gilad Shalit, after he was captured by militants on 25 June.

But troops moved deeper into the north of the territory after rocket attacks on the nearby Israeli city of Ashkelon.

In New York, the UN Security Council has debated a draft resolution demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of detained Palestinian officials.

The draft was presented by Qatar on behalf of the UN's Arab Group, but appears doomed in view of opposition from the US, which has the power of veto.

The draft does not mention the Palestinian rocket attacks or Cpl Shalit's capture, and the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said the document was "not balanced".

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5159050.stm
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'It is never anti-Semitic to oppose injustice'

The Israeli narrative adopted and cobbled from Bush's war on terrorism states that Israel is heroically engaged in its own war on terror. This is utterly misleading.

by Ted Schmidt
July 6, 2006

There is a splendid Talmudic saying that a single life is a universe. How absolutely wonderful in its insistence on the dignity of each human being, a reminder that no child of God should be forgotten, abused or die unmourned. The 20th century, however, of all centuries in history, seemingly forgot this crucial legacy of the Abrahamic religions.

As I write, the awesome military might of the world's fourth largest army is mobilized to secure the release of a young Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by a rogue element of Hamas. On the one hand we can applaud the primacy of a human life, its inherent dignity. Yet we should be appalled at the ongoing collective punishment of an entire civilian population, the contravention of Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.

Over the last month, at least 30 Palestinian civilians in Gaza have lost their lives due to Israeli bombardment in retaliation to the launching of the notoriously inefficient Qassam rockets and the death of two soldiers.

Instead of calming the situation, these bombardments led to its deterioration and to further complications and confrontations. To exacerbate the situation, Gaza's borders have been slammed shut denying the population vital food and medicine. This is a recipe for a human catastrophe.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert displayed shocking chauvinism when he stated, “I am sorry with all my heart for the residents of Gaza but the lives and well being of Sderot's residents [the targets of the homemade Qassam rockets] are more important than those of Gaza residents.” Apparently, one human life may be a universe — only if that life is Israeli.

Then we saw the arrest of 30 Hamas leaders which led the Haaretz editorial of June 30 to state the obvious: “Olmert should know that arresting leaders only strengthens them and their supporters. This is not merely faulty reasoning; arresting people to use as bargaining chips is the act of a gang not a state.”

All of this must be seen not as an isolated barbaric issue of kidnapping a soldier or even of the nihilistic suicide bombers but of 40 years of a debilitating and shameful Occupation. The Israeli narrative adopted and cobbled from Bush's war on terrorism states that Israel is heroically engaged in its own war on terror. This is utterly misleading. The primary violence is the decades old Occupation. The shocking asymmetry of fire power can be summed up thusly: A terrorist is one with a bomb — but not an air force.

As usual, the Israeli government has moved against a clearly defenseless population without any regard to international norms or human decency. Acting with little interest in diplomacy and wielding its overwhelmingly huge stick, Operation Summer Rains is simply the latest attempt to destroy any hope for a resolution of Middle East hostilities.

The Israeli planes have cut off electricity for nearly half the population of Gaza — no refrigeration, fans or air conditioners in a scorching climate. “Unacceptable and barbaric punishment of civilians — women, children and the old,” stated the office of Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian leader worked to secure the release of young Shalit. Add to this the sonic booms used to further terrorize the population.

Now we see hysterical reactions from pundits when concerned agencies such as CUPE, the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. join their voices to much of the United Nations (save the United States and the increasingly muted Canada) in trying to get Israel to come to its senses.

How long can silence reign in light of illegal house demolitions, extrajudicial murders, the destruction of thousands of olive groves, the consistent refusal to honour UN resolutions 446, 452, 465 and 471 — the return of land captured in war. Israel and its wealthy patron the Bush administration refuse.

The asymmetrical suffering of the Palestinian people (B'Tselem, the Israeli centre for Human Rights, counts 3,482 Palestinians killed vs. 688 Israelis from October 28, 2000-June 15, 2006) and the overwhelming firepower of Israel correctly frames this one-sided conflict.

The Oslo Accords (1993) were a major Palestinian concession. Here, the Palestinians would accept the West Bank and Gaza, lands seized by Israel in the 1967 war. This would be about 22 per cent of historic Palestine. Prime Minister Olmert's plan backed by the U.S. in May would cut the percentage to 15 per cent.

The cynical Sharon unilateral disengagement designed for Western consumption, simply removed 8,000 settlers from Gaza leaving 400,000 ensconced in the West Bank. Add to this the Separation Barrier or Wall which steals 10 per cent more of Palestinian land and you have a pathetic rump of non-contiguous poor cantons as the sorry basis of a viable state. Hence the notorious “A” word — apartheid-like. Just as Israel and its supporters do not like to be compared to the former South African regime, so the Palestinians could never accept such a demeaning offer.

The unilateral plan of Ariel Sharon was nothing but an exercise in political manipulation. This was admitted by his principal advisor, Dov Weinglass, in an October 2004 interview in Haaretz. The latter openly stated that the unilateral disengagement policy was designed to freeze the peace process and deny the Palestinians a viable state.

Where does this leave people of conscience in the West?

At the Catholic New Times, we have consistently insisted on a double solidarity: The absolute right for Israel to exist with safe and secure borders but also a solidarity with the long suffering Palestinian people, whose 40 years in the wilderness is akin to the Jews of the Exodus.

We have repeatedly condemned all acts of terror and killing of innocents. Unlike most of the mainstream media, we have insisted that the present conflict must absolutely be contextualized in a historical framework.

Boycotts like CUPE, the United and Presbyterian Church are honourable ways of nonviolent protest. My own Roman Catholic Church should be the next to exert such pressure. This would be an act of love akin to fraternal and sororal correction. In no way does it delegitimize Israel.

The sad absence of any prophetic voices coming from the Canadian synagogue is to be lamented as simply the rightward turn of most religious bodies today. The prophetic spirit of Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel and Reuben Slonim, not to mention Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah need to be recaptured at this moment. They are a constant reminder that no state is beyond criticism.

One can take hope in the brave voices emanating from Israel today which support CUPE, the United and Presbyterian Churches. They remind all of us that, “It is never anti-Semitic to oppose injustice, destruction, gross inequity, and inequality... Israel, having the fourth most powerful military in the world, is in no existential danger.”

Ted Schmidt is on the editorial board of Catholic New Times.

Source: Rabble Podcast Network
http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=51122
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Thursday, July 06, 2006

Ex-Soldier Steven D. Green Enters Not-Guilty Plea in Iraq Rape, Killings Charges

07-06-2006 7:05 PM
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A former Army private charged with raping an Iraqi woman and killing her and her family entered a plea of not guilty through his public defenders Thursday.

Steven D. Green also waived a detention hearing and a preliminary hearing, and agreed that his case would be prosecuted in the Western District of Kentucky.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Moyer set an arraignment date of Aug. 8 in Paducah for Green, who was arrested Friday by FBI agents in Marion, N.C. Green appeared in baggy shorts and flip-flops, and was wearing the same Johnny Cash T-shirt he wore to a hearing Monday in Charlotte, N.C.

Green answered Moyer's questions about his inability to pay for an attorney, saying he has about $6,000 in a checking account and owns a 1995 Lincoln Town Car.

"I don't have anything else," he told the judge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Butler said the case would be presented before a grand jury sometime in mid-July, probably in Paducah. Butler and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ford declined to comment on where Green would be held before his arraignment.

Green, who served 11 months with the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., received an honorable discharge and left the army in mid-May. He was discharged because of an "anti-social personality disorder," according to military officials and court documents.

A psychiatric condition, anti-social personality disorder is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits or violates the rights of others. Someone with the disorder may break the law repeatedly, lie, get in fights and show a lack of remorse.

According to a federal affidavit, Green and other soldiers targeted the Iraqi young woman after spotting her at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. Green is being tried in federal rather than military court because he no longer is in the Army.

Army Criminal Investigation Command agents have turned over the evidence that they had obtained against Green to federal law enforcement officials for their use.

Military officials concluded Thursday that since Green had received his final discharge papers, he was no longer under the control of the Army and would not be subject to a court martial.

No other soldiers have been charged yet in the case.

On Thursday, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, said the investigation would be pursued in a "vigorous and open process."

"Coalition forces came to Iraq to protect the rights and freedoms of the Iraqi people, to defend democratic values, and to uphold human dignity. As such, we will face every situation honestly and openly, and we will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of the facts," the statement said.

"We will hold our service members accountable if they are found guilty of misconduct in a court of law," it added.

Source: AP via Cox.net
http://connecticut.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8IMPER80
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Monday, July 03, 2006

A Love For Humanity

July 1, 2006
By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR, Courant Staff Writer
Muslims in America deal with many of the same issues that affect other American families, but also contend with racial and ethnic profiling in an atmosphere of fear.

Finding ways to cope with the challenges of being Muslim in the United States brought hundreds of Muslim families to the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford on Friday. The weekend conference, a national event sponsored by two of largest Islamic organizations in the country, is intended to help Muslims meet challenges and celebrate their faith.

The recent news of terror suspects arrested in Florida is an example of media and government scrutiny of Muslims, said Naeem Baig, secretary general of Islamic Circle of North America, one of two groups hosting the conference. The other sponsor is the Muslim American Society.

"Take this Miami terror plot - when our government investigates, the first thing that comes out is that they are a Muslim group," Baig said, referring to the seven men in Florida accused of having links with al-Qaida and planning an attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago.

"The next thing that happens is windows being broken at mosques and harassment," he said. "Muslims feel as if they are constantly being watched, as if our Islamic centers are somehow secretive places when in fact most are very open places that anyone can come into. The media promotes Muslims as if they are to be feared."

"Living Islam, Loving Humanity" - the theme of the convention - is important for the larger society to know about Islam, said Imam Qasim Khan, director of outreach for Islamic Circle.

"The emphasis is that you cannot live Islam unless you are showing love for humanity," Khan said. "All of the turmoil you see ... - the Patriot Act, the hurricane, the tsunami - ICNA has been in the forefront of responding to the needs of humanity. And that is part of Islam - it's a complete way of life. We show our love for humanity, because we are all connected."

Among the guests this weekend is James Yee, a former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain, who will speak about civil rights. Yee was chaplain to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until he was arrested on espionage charges. He was jailed for three months and then released; the charges were dismissed.

In his book, "For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire," Yee says that prisoners were being subject to cruel and inhumane treatment. While recent suicides of three detainees made headlines several weeks ago, Yee said he believed there had been as many as 100 suicides there, and many more attempts.

"What that means is that some people, many of whom had been held there years without charges, felt it was better to die than to wait on American justice," Yee said.

Yee called Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that challenged the Bush administration's policies on Guantanamo a landmark decision.

"It means that human rights extend even to those being held in captivity and that, no matter where they are being held, international law still applies," Yee said.

In addition to sessions on civil rights, the conference features workshops on women's issues, parenting and youth issues.

On Friday, the conference held an interfaith session that included Bishop Peter Rosazza of the Hartford Archdiocese, the Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak of the Christian Conference of Connecticut, Bishop Andrew Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and Heidi Hadsell, president of Hartford Seminary. Hadsell suggested the group work together to develop an interfaith response to the violence among youth in Hartford.

Zahid Bukhari, who directs the Center for Muslim and Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, said that while there has been significant progress in interfaith connections between Muslims and Jews, Catholics and mainline Protestants, there has been little contact between Muslims and evangelical Christians.

"That is definitely a connection that has been missing. I think it is unfortunate that there has been so little dialogue," Bukhari said. "This is a group [evangelicals] that has a done important work in the inner city and has significant influence on foreign policy at the national level. I think it would be important for Muslims and evangelicals to begin talking to one another, because we share many of the same kinds of family and social values."

The conference continues today and Sunday at the Connecticut Convention Center. For more information, visit icna.org.

Contact Frances Grandy Taylor at ftaylor@courant.com.

Source: Hartford Courant
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctislamconvention0701.artjul01,0,6626343.story
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Saturday, July 01, 2006

Human Tragedy in Gaza

By Cihan News Agency, Anadolu News Agency (aa), Jerusalem, Gaza
Published: Saturday, July 01, 2006
zaman.com

The United Nations (UN) has warned that a human tragedy is emerging in Gaza; the target of attacks by Israel.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland asked Israel to refurnish electricity and fuel to the town, and said, “The situation in Gaza will otherwise become a quick sand.”

Israel arrested 64 people including eight government ministers on Thursday, and yesterday it cancelled the residential permit of a minister and three deputies in Eastern Jerusalem.

A number of politicians arrested by Israel have reportedly begun a hunger strike.

The international community has intensified its efforts to solve the crisis sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday and asked for Turkey’s support. Erdogan called for restraint.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) had agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped soldier, however, Israel refused to agree to any conditions.

Egeland said they are anxiously monitoring the events following the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza last Sunday.

Egeland informed that 1.4 million Palestinians may be left without power and water.

Israel targeted power stations in the region; some 130 wells in Gaza run on electricity and back up diesel pumps are without fuel because Israel has also fuel to Gaza for four days.

“We are astonished to see how both parties play with the future of civilians including children,” Jan Egeland said.

The UN official stated that Israel’s selective bombing of the power station in Gaza that meets 40 percent of the region’s electricity needs is a violation of human rights and the situation is expected to get worse if aid is not sent directly to the region.

Egeland called on the Palestinians to release the kidnapped Israeli soldier and prevent Palestinian militants from conducting missile attacks against Israel, and said “I am sure neither party wants to further deaths in Gaza populated with 1.4 million people, half of whom are children.”

As part of the massive Israeli operation in Gaza to secure the return of the soldier, the Israeli army arrested 64 HAMAS officials including eight ministers on Thursday in the West Bank.

The Israeli army recommenced the severe practices it used during the Intifada and took measures to make it difficult for East Jerusalem residents to enter West Bank towns.

The Tel Aviv administration also cancelled the residential permit of a HAMAS minister and three deputies and issued an order to close the main passage between Jerusalem and Baytullahim to residents of East Jerusalem holding ID cards issued by Israel.

The 237,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem and East Jerusalem residents living in the West Bank towns near Jerusalem including Ramallah and Baytullahim and with family ties and commercial relations with Palestinians have been issued “Blue” ID cards by Israel.

The HAMAS minister and most of the deputies arrested by Israel as part of the Gaza operation began a hunger strike.

The 45 HAMAS politicians taken to Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramallah have reportedly begun a hunger strike to protest “their abduction.”

Thousands of Gaza residents bombarded by Israel gathered in the town center on Thursday evening condemning Israel and promised to support the HAMAS government.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniya addressing the public for the first time since the Israeli operation said the operation does not only aim at securing the release of the kidnapped soldier but was an attempt to overthrow the HAMAS government.

“This entire war is evidence of a pre-designed plan,” Haniya said and stated Israel’s roundup of ministers and deputies will not affect the government’s activities and the duties of these ministers will be undertaken by other members of the government.

Meanwhile, the arrest of HAMAS ministers met with widespread reaction from the international community, and France called on the Tel Aviv government to immediately release all Palestinian government ministers.

Source: zaman.com
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20060701&hn=34434
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Thursday, June 29, 2006

Israel Engineers Another Cover-Up

Israel Engineers Another Cover-Up

Leaving the Truth Buried in Gaza's Sands

By JONATHAN COOK

If you keep lying long enough and with enough conviction, people start to believe you -- or at least doubt the evidence in front of their own eyes. And so it has been with the Israeli army’s account of how seven members of a Palestinian family were killed, and dozens of other Palestinians injured, during shelling close by a beach in Gaza.

This week, according to reports in the Israeli media, even Marc Garlasco, a Pentagon expert on the effects of battlefield weapons hired by Human Rights Watch to investigate the deaths, "conceded" that he could not contradict the findings of the Israeli army’s own inquiry.

Presumably that is because Israel is not letting him or anyone else near their evidence. But Garlasco’s slight change of tune -- even if it is not exactly a ringing endorsement -- leaves the door ajar just wide enough that the Israeli army will doubtless slip through it to escape being held accountable yet again.

The army has been claiming for more than a week, based on its own evidence, that the lethal explosion was not caused by a stray shell landing on the Gaza beach but most probably by a mine placed there by Palestinian militants to prevent an Israeli naval landing.

The army’s case could be dismissed outright were it not for the racist assumptions that now prevail as Western "thought" about Arabs and Muslims.

To be plausible the army account requires two preposterous assumptions: first, that Palestinian militants are so fanatical that they consider it acceptable to lay a mine secretly in an area frequented by local families; and second, that they are so primitive that their best military minds could not work out the futility of placing a single mine along miles of coastline that could be used for a landing (or are we to assume that there are many more of these mines waiting to explode?).

To support its case, the army has produced two pieces of evidence that apparently make its denials of responsibility "airtight".

First, it claims that a piece of shrapnel removed by doctors from an injured Palestinian transferred to an Israeli hospital was not from one its shells but more likely from a Palestinian explosive device.

Given that, unlike Israel, the Palestinians do not have any factories manufacturing mines or rockets and are forced instead to make them out of any spare metal parts they can get their hands on -- doors, pipes, wrecked cars, fridges -- this evidence is meaningless. Palestinian witnesses have already said the beach victims were standing close to taxis when the shell exploded. So if the shrapnel was not from an Israeli shell, it suggests only that the missile also damaged other metal objects -- possibly the cars -- sending a shard into at least one of the victims.

The army will have a lot of explaining to do if reports on Israeli TV, not usually noted for its independent approach, confirm that another piece of shrapnel found in a victim is from an Israeli shell. So far, of course, the army is denying the report.

The second piece of evidence is supplied by the army, which says one of its many drones that circle overhead spying on Gaza round the clock shows the families calmly still on the beach, and later an ambulance arriving, tens of minutes after the army had finished shelling the area.

The problem with the Israeli evidence is that we have to take the army’s word for it: that the families shown are the ones who were about to be shelled, and that the timings given are accurate.

It also means we have to discount a lot of counter-evidence supplied by Garlasco, journalists, doctors and Palestinian witnesses -- and even the Israeli army. The army, for example, has admitted that one of the shells it fired in the area is unaccounted for, a striking admission in itself. The drones apparently were no help in locating this "missing" explosion, even though they were spying on the area.

Garlasco has already determined that the injuries sustained by the beach victims accord with a blast above ground -- an Israeli shell -- rather than one underground -- a Palestinian mine.

The many Palestinian witnesses have all put the time of the blast close to when the shelling occurred, and report that the reason they were queuing for taxis was because of panic sown by the shells they were hearing landing nearby.

Independent journalists have shown that, according to the clocks on the hospital computers that admitted the dead and injured, the timing of the first blood tests were taken soon after the Israeli army shelling -- and certainly too soon to accord with the army’s account of when the Palestinian mine supposedly exploded. Doctors have also confirmed that they were called to the nearest hospitals well before 5pm -- at about the time, or even before, the army claims the mine went off.

The outrage expressed in some quarters at the failure simply to believe the army’s version might sound more convincing were Israel welcoming an international investigation to adjudicate on the matter. But of course it is not. Just as in spring 2002, following the deaths of many civilians in the Palestinian town of Jenin and the destruction of the heart of the local refugee camp during a prolonged attack by the Israeli army and air force, Israel is rejecting all suggestions of an independent inquiry.

So why not just take Israel’s word for it? Its army is the most moral in the world, after all, and a state of law like Israel would gain nothing from lying in such a bare-faced manner.

The only problem is that Israel and its security forces have been caught out lying repeatedly during this intifada and before it, not just to people on the other side of the world who cannot verify the facts but also to its own courts and public.

Ths week, for example, the Supreme Court ordered the army and Ministry of Defence to pull down several kilometres of the steel and concrete barrier they have erected on Palestinian land in the West Bank after it was proved that the security considerations behind the choice of the wall’s route were entirely bogus. Official documents reveal that the wall was located there to allow for the future expansion of nearly illegal Jewish settlements on yet more Palestinian land. The army and government concocted the fib and then stuck to it for more than two years. Chief Justice Aharaon Barak called their systematic lying “a grave phenomenon”.

And at the start of the intifada, back in October 2000, the government and police covered up the fact that live ammunition and sniper units trained to deal with terror attacks had been used against unarmed Arab demonstrators inside Israel. For more than six months the government and security services denied that a single live round had been fired, despite mounting evidence to the contrary that lawyers and journalists like myself had unearthed.

They might have got away with their brazen lies too, had it not been for an unusual series of events that led to the appointment of a state inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge, Theodor Or, who quickly exposed the truth.

That happened not because of any urge by official bodies to come clean or the inevitable triumph of Israeli justice. It happened for one reason alone: the prime minister of the day, Ehud Barak, feared losing the impending general election to his rival Ariel Sharon and thought he could buy back Arab votes by setting up an inquiry.

The inhabitants of Gaza have no such leverage inside the Israeli legal and political system. They have no friends inside Israel. And now it looks like they have no friends in the international community either.

Jonathan Cook, a writer and journalist living in Nazareth, Israel, is the author of “Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State”, published by Pluto Press. His website is www.jkcook.net

Source: CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.com/cook06202006.html
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