Unless we reexamine our policies----we will always live in fear


Our War on Terrorism
Howard Zinn
http://207.44.245.159/article7096.htm

10/18/04 "The Progressive" -- I am calling it "our" war on terrorism
because I want to distinguish it from Bush's war on terrorism, and
from Sharon's, and from Putin's. What their wars have in common is
that they are based on an enormous deception: persuading the people
of their countries that you can deal with terrorism by war. These
rulers say you can end our fear of terrorism--of sudden, deadly,
vicious attacks, a fear new to Americans--by drawing an enormous
circle around an area of the world where terrorists come from
(Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya) or can be claimed to be connected
with (Iraq), and by sending in tanks and planes to bomb and
terrorize whoever lives within that circle.

Since war is itself the most extreme form of terrorism, a war on
terrorism is profoundly self-contradictory. Is it strange, or
normal, that no major political figure has pointed this out?

Even within their limited definition of terrorism, they--the
governments of the United States, Israel, Russia--are clearly
failing. As I write this, three years after the events of September
11, the death toll for American servicemen has surpassed 1,000, more
than 150 Russian children have died in a terrorist takeover of a
school, Afghanistan is in chaos, and the number of significant
terrorist attacks rose to a twenty-one-year high in 2003, according
to official State Department figures. The highly respected
International Institute for Strategic Studies in London has reported
that "over 18,000 potential terrorists are at large with recruitment
accelerating on account of Iraq."

With the failure so obvious, and the President tripping over his
words trying to pretend otherwise (August 30: "I don't think you can
win" and the next day: "Make no mistake about it, we are winning"),
it astonishes us that the polls show a majority of Americans
believing the President has done "a good job" in the war on
terrorism.

I can think of two reasons for this.

First, the press and television have not played the role of
gadflies, of whistleblowers, the role that the press should play in
a society whose fundamental doctrine of democracy (see the
Declaration of Independence) is that you must not give blind trust
to the government. They have not made clear to the public--I mean
vividly, dramatically clear--what have been the human consequences
of the war in Iraq.

I am speaking not only of the deaths and mutilations of American
youth, but the deaths and mutilations of Iraqi children. (I am
reading at this moment of an American bombing of houses in the city
of Fallujah, leaving four children dead, with the U.S. military
saying this was part of a "precision strike" on "a building
frequently used by terrorists.") I believe that the American
people's natural compassion would come to the fore if they truly
understood that we are terrorizing other people by our "war on
terror."

A second reason that so many people accept Bush's leadership is that
no counterargument has come from the opposition party. John Kerry
has not challenged Bush's definition of terrorism. He has not been
forthright. He has dodged and feinted, saying that Bush has
waged "the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time." Is
there a right war, a right place, a right time? Kerry has not spoken
clearly, boldly, in such a way as to appeal to the common sense of
the American people, at least half of whom have turned against the
war, with many more looking for the wise words that a true leader
provides. He has not clearly challenged the fundamental premise of
the Bush Administration: that the massive violence of war is the
proper response to the kind of terrorist attack that took place on
September 11, 2001.

Let us begin by recognizing that terrorist acts--the killing of
innocent people to achieve some desired goal--are morally
unacceptable and must be repudiated and opposed by anyone claiming
to care about human rights. The September 11 attacks, the suicide
bombings in Israel, the taking of hostages by Chechen nationalists--
all are outside the bounds of any ethical principles.

This must be emphasized, because as soon as you suggest that it is
important, to consider something other than violent retaliation, you
are accused of sympathizing with the terrorists. It is a cheap way
of ending a discussion without examining intelligent alternatives to
present policy.

Then the question becomes: What is the appropriate way to respond to
such awful acts? The answer so far, given by Bush, Sharon, and
Putin, is military action. We have enough evidence now to tell us
that this does not stop terrorism, may indeed provoke more
terrorism, and at the same time leads to the deaths of hundreds,
even thousands, of innocent people who happen to live in the
vicinity of suspected terrorists.

What can account for the fact that these obviously ineffective, even
counterproductive, responses have been supported by the people of
Russia, Israel, the United States? It's not hard to figure that out.
It is fear, a deep, paralyzing fear, a dread so profound that one's
normal rational faculties are distorted, and so people rush to
embrace policies that have only one thing in their favor: They make
you feel that something is being done. In the absence of an
alternative, in the presence of a policy vacuum, filling that vacuum
with a decisive act becomes acceptable.

And when the opposition party, the opposition Presidential
candidate, can offer nothing to fill that policy vacuum, the public
feels it has no choice but to go along with what is being done. It
is emotionally satisfying, even if rational thought suggests it does
not work and cannot work.

If John Kerry cannot offer an alternative to war, then it is the
responsibility of citizens, with every possible resource they can
muster, to present such an alternative to the American public.

Yes, we can try to guard in every possible way against future
attacks, by trying to secure airports, seaports, railroads, other
centers of transportation. Yes, we can try to capture known
terrorists. But neither of those actions can bring an end to
terrorism, which comes from the fact that millions of people in the
Middle East and elsewhere are angered by American policies, and out
of these millions come those who will carry their anger to fanatic
extremes.

The CIA senior terrorism analyst who has written a book
signed "Anonymous" has said bluntly that U.S. policies--supporting
Sharon, making war on Afghanistan and Iraq--"are completing the
radicalization of the Islamic world."

Unless we reexamine our policies--our quartering of soldiers in a
hundred countries (the quartering of foreign soldiers, remember, was
one of the grievances of the American revolutionaries), our support
of the occupation of Palestinian lands, our insistence on
controlling the oil of the Middle East--we will always live in fear.
If we were to announce that we will reconsider those policies, and
began to change them, we might start to dry up the huge reservoir of
hatred where terrorists are hatched.

Whoever the next President will be, it is up to the American people
to demand that he begin a bold reconsideration of the role our
country should play in the world. That is the only possible solution
to a future of never-ending, pervasive fear. That would be "our" war
on terrorism.

Howard Zinn, the author of "A People's History of the United
States," is a columnist for The Progressive.

Copyright: The Progressive

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With the ravaging of the CIA and the ousting of Powell — instead of
the more-deserving Rumsfeld — the coup of the neoconservatives is
complete. They have achieved a remarkable political victory
by failing upward.


The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup: The bloodletting has begun.
Robert Scheer
http://207.44.245.159/article7299.htm


11/16/04 "Los Angeles Times" -- I'm not referring to the latest
attempt to reconquer Iraq, but rather the wholesale political
revenge campaign being waged by the hard-liners in the Bush
administration against anybody and everybody inside the government
who challenged the way the second Persian Gulf war in a decade was
marketed and run.

Out: Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose political epitaph should
now read, "You break it, you own it" for his prescient but unwanted
warning to the president on the danger of imperial overreach in
Iraq.

Out: Top CIA officials who dared challenge, behind the scenes, the
White House's unprecedented exploitation of raw intelligence data in
order to sell a war to a Congress and a public hungry for revenge
after 9/11.

Out: Veteran CIA counterterrorism expert and Osama bin Laden hunter
Michael Scheuer, better known as the best-selling
author "Anonymous," whose balanced and devastating critiques of the
Iraq war, the CIA and the way President Bush is handling the war on
terror have been a welcome counterpoint to the "it's true if we say
it's true" idiocy of the White House PR machine.

Meanwhile, incompetence begat by ideological blindness has been
rewarded. The neoconservatives who created the ongoing Iraq mess
have more than survived the failure of their impossibly rosy
scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. In
fact, despite calls for their resignations — from the former head of
the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, among others — the
neocon gang is thriving. They have not been held responsible for
the "16 words" about yellowcake, the rise and fall of Ahmad Chalabi,
the Abu Ghraib scandal, the post-invasion looting of Iraq's
munitions stores and the disastrous elimination of the Iraqi armed
forces.

As of today, the neocons on Zinni's list of losers — Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz; the vice president's chief
of staff, I. Lewis Libby; National Security Council staffer Elliott
Abrams; Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld — are all still employed even
as Bush's new director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, is
eviscerating the CIA's leadership.

This is the culmination of a three-year campaign by the president's
men to scapegoat the CIA for the fact that 9/11 occurred on Bush's
watch.

So far, half a dozen of the nation's top spymasters have been forced
out abruptly — a strange way to handle things at a time when Bin
Laden and Al Qaeda are still seeking to attack the U.S. Ironically,
this all comes as Goss is suppressing a lengthy study, prepared for
Congress by the CIA's inspector general, that, according to an
intelligence official who has read it, names individuals in the
government responsible for failures that paved the way for the 9/11
attacks.

Thus Bush, with Goss as his hatchet man, is having it both ways: He
can be seen to be cleaning house at the CIA — when he is simply
punishing independent voices — while denying Congress access to an
independent audit of actual intelligence failures.

We should remember that as flawed as its performance was under
former Director George J. Tenet, the CIA at least sometimes tried to
be a counterweight to the fraudulent claims of Rumsfeld's and Dick
Cheney's neoconservative staffs. All of the nation's traditional
intelligence centers were bypassed by a rogue operation based in
Feith's Office of Special Plans. Feith was given broad access to raw
intelligence streams — the better to cherry-pick factoids and
fabrications that found their way into even the president's crucial
prewar State of the Union address.

Now, by successfully discarding those who won't buy into the
administration's ideological fantasies of remaking the world in our
image, the neoconservatives have consolidated control of the United
States' vast military power.

With the ravaging of the CIA and the ousting of Powell — instead of
the more-deserving Rumsfeld — the coup of the neoconservatives is
complete. They have achieved a remarkable political victory by
failing upward.

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times

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US soldiers in Iraq suffer horrific brain and mental injuries
By Rick Kelly
20 November 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/sold-n20.shtml

According to official figures, the Iraq war has so far
seen 9,000 US soldiers wounded in action, in addition
to the more than 1,200 troops killed. These wounded,
whose numbers may well be underestimated, include
those with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, lost limbs and
other injuries caused by landmines and bombs. Less
well known, however, is the terrible toll enacted
through brain and psychological injuries, which
frequently have devastating and permanent effects.

The war has seen unusually high rates of traumatic
brain injury (TBI). This head injury causes life-long
damage in many cases. Symptoms include memory loss,
difficulty with attention and reasoning, headaches,
confusion, anxiety, irritability and depression.

TBI rates in previous wars have been estimated at
about 20 percent. In July, a San Francisco Chronicle
survey of troops being processed through Walter Reed
Army Medical Hospital in Washington DC indicated that
as many as two-thirds of all soldiers wounded in Iraq
suffer from the condition.

The increase in brain injury cases is largely due to
the advanced body armor and helmets now used by US
forces. As the death rate of wounded troops has
declined compared to previous conflicts, the rate of
TBI has shot up. The nature of the Iraq war has also
increased the number of brain injuries. Rocket
propelled grenades, mortars, and other explosive
devices cause concussive shock blasts damaging to the
brain.

Traumatic brain injury often goes undetected until the
affected soldier returns home and his or her family
notices that something is wrong. The San Francisco
Chronicle reported on the case of Sgt. 1st Class Alec
Giess, of the Oregon National Guard, whose truck
rolled over him as it crashed while avoiding a
suspected land mine:

"Geiss' wife, Shana, noticed after his return that the
easygoing, relaxed dad who went to Iraq had become a
quick-tempered man who couldn't remember the family's
daily schedule, jumped up screaming when the family
cat landed on his bed and couldn't tolerate crowds.
The world inside his head, Giess said, was even
stranger: he felt bewildered, with no sense of time
other than `daytime' and `nighttime.' He also felt cut
off from his emotions. `When my kids come and hug me,
I don't feel a thing,' he said."

Many other incidents of TBI are even more severe. ABC
News reported last month on the situation in one
Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, California.
"The majority of [TBI patients], they're incontinent,
both bowel and bladder, so we have to retrain them
when to use the toilet, how to use the toilet," nurse
manager Stephanie Alvarez said.

Each patient at the facility is given a "memory book,"
which describes that day's schedule, and other
important information. For many wounded soldiers this
includes a reminder of why they are in hospital. "I
had a head injury from an explosion in Iraq on June
14, 2004," one soldier's book read.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

The US military is also experiencing a very high rate
of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among troops.
Many of the symptoms are similar to traumatic brain
injury. Post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers can
experience feelings of detachment and isolation, poor
concentration and memory, depression, insomnia,
flashbacks, as well as headaches, gastrointestinal
complaints, and immune system problems. Like TBI,
soldiers suffering from psychological disorders have
high rates of alcohol and drug abuse, and suicide.

A study published by the New England Journal of
Medicine in July found that up to 17 percent of the
surveyed Iraq veterans suffered from PTSD, generalized
anxiety, or major depression. This probably
underestimated the true scale of the problem, since
the soldiers in the study served in the early phase of
the war, before the Iraqi resistance really
intensified.

"The bad news is that the study underestimated the
prevalence of what we are going to see down the road,"
Dr. Matthew J. Friedman, executive director of the
Veterans Affairs (VA) national center for
post-traumatic stress disorder, told the Los Angeles
Times last Sunday. "The complexion of the war has
changed into a grueling counterinsurgency. And that
may be very important in terms of the potential
toxicity of this combat experience."

"This is urban warfare," declared Dr. Alfonso Bates,
the VA's national director for readjustment
counseling. "There's no place to hide in Iraq. Whether
you're driving a truck or you're a cook, everyone is
exposed to extreme stress on a daily basis."

There have been at least 30 reported suicides among
soldiers in Iraq—a rate nearly one-third higher than
the Army's historical average. Many more suicides
occur in the US by those who have finished their tour
of duty, but since the Pentagon does not track these
incidents the number is not known.

Associated Press, however, reported on October 18 that
at least 12 Marines had killed themselves after
returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. "Military people
are heavily vetted for any psychological problems
before they enter the service," noted Steve Robinson,
executive director of the National Gulf War Resource
Center. "They're screened very well when they come in,
and they're supposed to be screened very well when
they leave. So when a Marine takes the ultimate step
of checking out by taking his own life, it should make
the hair on the back of your neck stand up. These are
the guys who aren't supposed to do that."

There is mounting evidence that the rate of suicide
and psychological disorders is at least partially due
to the brutality of the US-led occupation. Most of
those serving in the military were drawn from working
class and impoverished rural regions, and enlisted
either to get a job or to advance their education.

These young people have been dispatched to a war that
was based on a series of flagrant lies, and that
violated numerous precepts of international law. They
are now being ordered to intimidate and terrorize the
Iraqi people, and to crush any resistance to the
occupation and Iyad Allawi's stooge interim
government. The killing and brutalization of the Iraqi
people has triggered guilt, shame and serious
psychological problems for many soldiers.

Last month Associated Press reported the case of
Jeffrey Lucey, a 23-year-old Marine who suffered from
serious depression and became dependent on alcohol
after returning from Iraq in July 2003. On Christmas
Eve he told his sister how he had been ordered to
shoot two unarmed Iraqi soldiers. "He took off two dog
tags around his neck, then threw them at me and said,
`Don't you understand? Your brother is a murderer,'"
she recalled. Lucey killed himself in June.

Former Army sergeant, Matt La Branche, told the Los
Angeles Times that the memories of his nine-month
stint as a machine-gunner in Iraq left him "feeling
dead inside." He constantly struggles with the image
of the Iraqi woman who died in his arms after he had
shot her. The woman's children were also wounded in
the incident. "I'm taking enough drugs to sedate an
elephant, and I still wake up dreaming about it," he
said.

Affected soldiers receive grossly inadequate treatment
from the military establishment. Brain trauma and
psychological injuries often require months of
expensive and intensive rehabilitation, long-term drug
therapy and psychological counseling. Facilities that
were already underfunded and overstretched are now at
breaking point.

Receiving treatment is especially difficult for
sufferers of PTSD. Army psychologists are pressured to
get their patients back out in the field as soon as
possible, while the macho culture cultivated within
the ranks leads many soldiers to deny that they have a
problem. The New England Journal of Medicine study
found that less than half of all soldiers affected by
PTSD sought treatment, fearing stigmatization or
damage to their careers.

Officials also leave many families of PTSD sufferers
completely unprepared for the shock of having to deal
with the condition. One woman told the New Yorker how
she had been advised prior to the return of her
husband from Iraq: "When he was coming home, the Army
gave us little cards that said things like `Watch for
psychotic episodes' and `Is he drinking too much?' A
lot of wives said it was a joke. They had a lady come
from the psych ward, who said—and I'm serious—`Don't
call us unless your husband is waking you up in the
middle of the night with a knife at your throat.' Or,
`Don't call us unless he actually chokes you, unless
you pass out. He'll have flashbacks. It's normal.'"

Such treatment is indicative of the way in which tens
of thousands of young people are being used as cannon
fodder in Iraq. Responsibility for their suffering
rests with the criminals in the White House who
launched the war of aggression, and more broadly, the
entire US political establishment which is united on
maintaining the indefinite occupation of Iraq.

See Also:
One in six US veterans of Iraq war suffers trauma
disorders [9 July 2004]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jul2004/post-j09.shtml
Testing of New York guardsmen: first confirmed cases
of Iraq war depleted uranium exposure [21 April 2004]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/dura-a21.shtml
Washington conceals US casualties in Iraq [4 February
2004]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/woun-f04.shtml
Alarming rise in suicides among US troops in Iraq [5
December 2003]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/suic-d05.shtml
America's maimed come home from Iraq [30 July 2003]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/maim-j30.shtml

-

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/sold-n20.shtml

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Divesting conducive to Israeli Palestinian peace
By Shamai Leibovitz
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
http://jordantimes.com/tue/opinion/opinion4.htm>http://jordantimes.co
m/tue/opinion/opinion4.htm

As an Israeli citizen and former tank gunner in the Israeli army, I
feel the need to explain why I, along with many other Jews, support
divestment from Israel.
We are asking the city of Somerville, as well as other cities and
civic institutions, to divest from companies involved in selling
arms, bulldozers and military technologies that are used by the
Israeli army to commit war crimes against Palestinians. As people
committed to human rights for all, we call upon Americans to demand
that their tax-dollars are not invested in companies that sell
equipment and ammunition that fuel Israel's consistent and appalling
violations of international law and human rights.

As a young soldier serving in the Israeli army, I was ordered to
commit war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories. My
platoon meted out collective punishment on whole Palestinian
communities, shot live ammunition at unarmed civilians, killed women
and children, enforced prolonged curfews, creating humanitarian
disasters, arrested and detained Palestinians without charge,
demolished their homes, and arbitrarily destroyed crops and
property.

Being an eyewitness to these war crimes led me eventually to
announce my refusal to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories
in 1994. But the Israeli government, unaffected by the
growing "refusenik" movement, has continued the dehumanising
occupation. More than 3.5 million Palestinians continued to live
under a military regime and were subject to bombings of
neighbourhoods, extrajudicial killings, torture, home demolitions,
unlawful detentions, deportations and a myriad of human rights
violations.

Dozens of Jews were among the many supporters of the divestment
resolution who gathered in the Somerville City Hall on Nov. 8. I,
and several others, spoke in favour of this resolution, saying that
it is precisely because we are Jews and truly care about Israel that
we are asking the City of Somerville to pass this resolution. All of
us present in Somerville were profoundly hurt when accused of
being "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Israel". People abusing the concept
of "anti-Semitism" in order to support the Israeli government's
racist policy towards the Palestinians do nothing less than
desecrate the memory of those Jewish victims of real anti-Semitism.

I have heard too many times the argument that "now is not the time
to divest because Israel is involved in a peace process". The "peace
process" argument was used for dozens of years as an excuse to
continue inflicting suffering, humiliation and destruction upon the
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. It is high time to do away
with this myth.

It has become clear that even during the Oslo process, Israeli
governments pulled the wool over the world's eyes. Israel continued
to resettle its own citizens on confiscated Palestinian land in the
occupied territories, in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention, while at the same time entrenching a cruel
military regime in the same areas and punishing 3.5 million
Palestinians.

It became the primary objective of Israeli propaganda to hide the
brutal reality of occupation. To this end, Israeli governments
constantly came up with "peace plans" and built a sophisticated "we
only want peace" propaganda machine. However, over time, many of us
who lived in Israel and visited or served in the occupied
territories, saw the reality for what it is: Israel was intensifying
an oppressive military regime over millions of Palestinians who were
denied all human, civil and political rights, while building more
Jewish-only settlements for Jews who enjoyed full civil and
political rights.

As an Israeli thoroughly familiar with Israeli politics, I believe
that selective economic pressure is the most effective way to end
the brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and bring peace and
security to Israelis and Palestinians. If the Jewish people are ever
to become "a light unto nations" (Isaiah 42:6), and return to their
core values of justice and human dignity, Israelis and Jews of
conscience must call now for effective measures to end the
occupation of millions of Palestinians.

I realise how hard it is, conceptually, for American Jews to support
divestment, but they should understand that these painful measures
will eventually lead to the path of peace and security. The call for
divestment reflects true loyalty both to Israel's peaceful existence
and to the highest Jewish values. I call upon the Jewish community,
as well as other communities, in the US: if you really want to see
in your lifetime Israelis living in peace with Palestinians, unite
with us behind divestment resolutions.

The writer is an Israeli human rights lawyer, grandson of one of
Israel's most respected thinkers, Yeshayahu Leibovitz, and veteran
of the Israeli army who refused to serve as a reservist in the
occupied territories. His statement was prompted by a Nov. 8 public
meeting held by the Somerville, Massachusetts, Board of Aldermen to
consider a resolution to divest from Israel bonds and companies that
profit from the human rights abuses carried out by Israel against
Palestinians. If the resolution passes, Somerville will be the first
city in the world to pass such a resolution. He contributed this
article to The Jordan Times.

=========================
Sell-by date of war crimes about to expire in Somerville, MA?
Tom Wallace, The Electronic Intifada, 16 November 2004

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3332.shtml

The audience at the meeting.

Tension and apprehension filled the air in the Boston suburb of
Somerville, Massachusetts on the night of Monday November 8, 2004.
The Somerville Board of Aldermen held a public meeting to consider a
non-binding resolution to divest from Israel bonds and from
companies who profit from the human rights abuses carried out by
Israel against Palestinian people. If it passes, it will be the
first such resolution in the world to be passed by a city. The
Presbyterian Church and the National Lawyers Guild have already
voted to divest and The Anglican Church is considering it.

Companies targeted include Caterpillar, United Technologies, General
Electric, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin Corporation. Caterpillar has
been the target of numerous boycott campaigns since American Rachel
Corrie was killed by a D-9 bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier.
She was trying to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist from
demolition at the time. Caterpillar's D-9 is used by Israel to
destroy homes (sometimes with people still inside). It is also used
to destroy land, uproot olive trees and build the so-called
separation barrier/apartheid wall. When complete, the wall may
appropriate up to 45% of the occupied West Bank, including much of
its most arable land and water resources.

For the past 18 months, the Somerville Divestment Project (SPD) has
been educating residents of Somerville, Massachusetts about the 37-
year long Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank,
including East Jerusalem. SDP members have knocked on doors, stood
outside mass transit stations, hosted film nights, and had
individual meetings with many Aldermen in their homes. Through the
process, they collected almost 1,200 signatures in support of the
Socially Responsible Investment resolution.

Their hard work paid off last week when, on Tuesday, November 2,
eight of eleven Aldermen cosponsored the resolution to divest.
Though it almost passed, the resolution was sent to the Legislative
committee for further discussion. Thus the hearing for Monday, Nov.
8 was set and the Aldermen invited the Israeli Consul General and
representatives of the companies whose stock would be sold to
present their case.

Hundreds filled the chamber Monday night as tension mounted.
Supporters of the resolution held small signs that read "Somerville
for Human Rights". There was extra security at city hall and
absolutely no backpacks were allowed into the building. The Israeli
Consulate arrived with a police detail for body guards.

The hearing began with a display of power by opponents of the
resolution that was clearly designed to intimidate the Aldermen. The
Israeli Consul General, the Mayor of Somerville and State Rep. Tim
Twomey expressed their opposition before the actual hearing began.
Following this display there was one hour for each side to present
speakers at 2 minutes each.

Supporters of the resolution, excited by the possibilities raised by
such a hearing, were cautiously optimistic about the prospects of
success. Opponents were incensed that  such a hearing was taking
place at all, that the Aldermen would even consider divesting from
Israel, and that it almost passed  the week before.


Israeli Consul General, Meir Shlomo.
The Israeli Consul General, Meir Shlomo, began by saying that he
was "insulted" by this resolution. "Israel is a country that was
based and founded on social justice and respect for human rights".
He touted Israel's sterling record on civil liberties, which he
boasted, extended to gay people.  On several occasions he noted its
freedom of the press. He talked about the Israeli Supreme Court,
freedom of speech, and reiterated Israel's claim to be the only
democracy in the Middle East. He did not talk about occupation,
collective punishment, house demolition, land confiscation,
settlement expansion or targeted assassinations, except to reassure
the crowd that Israel has no Capitol punishment, even for the worst
terrorists.

As far as I could ascertain, his case against the resolution was
that Israel was being singled out unfairly. Others would assert that
it was anti-Israel.

Next up was Somerville Mayor, Joseph A. Curtatone, who had not
participated in any of the previous meetings on divestment and who
had declined opportunities to meet with Somerville residents and
members of SDP to discuss the resolution. Mayor Curtatone concluded
that the issue was "too complex", that it "went back centuries" and
that the aldermen should reject the resolution. With emotions
already high, those opposing the resolution seemed exhilarated by
the mayor's guarantee that he would veto the resolution if it
passed. The mayor then left before hearing from supporters of the
resolution.

As Somerville residents spoke one after the other Monday night, they
made clear that they do not want their money used to oppress and
violate the human rights of others. Neither do they want to support
companies that profit from those violations.

State Representative Tim Twomey called for a more constructive
resolution that endorses the roadmap. But he made no suggestion as
to what the City of Somerville could do to push the roadmap forward.
Ariel Sharon's senior advisor Dov Weissglass recently put to rest
any notion that Israel had any intention of implementing the roadmap
or creating a Palestinian State, which the roadmap calls for.

The aldermen have wrangled with these types of issues before when
they passed resolutions against Burma, the Patriot Act and the war
in Iraq However, never had they encountered such support for human
rights violations. As one opponent of the resolution put
it, "according to Donald Rumsfeld, the United States has determined
that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to its war on terror, why
should Israel be obliged to abide by them?"

More opposition to the resolution came from local labor leaders and
from leaders of Brit Tzedek and Meretz USA. They claimed that the
resolution would "demonize" Israel and once again we heard that
Israel was being singled out unfairly. Steve Grossman, the local
head of the Anti Defamation League (ADL) and former head of the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which is currently
under investigation for passing American top secret material to
Israel, claimed that the resolution was anti-Semitic. Others went so
far as to call for an investigation of SDP members.

Marty Federman, a Jewish educator and former board member and chair
of the Social Action Committee of Congregation B'nai Brith in
Somerville,  pointed out that tactics including accusations of anti-
semitism and personal attacks are commonly used against anyone who
dares to speak out against policies of the Israeli government. He
strongly supported the resolution based on its merits.

Larry Miller is a former president of Congregation B'nai B'rith, a
congregation well represented on both sides. The outpouring
highlights the deep divisions created by the issue within the
community.

Mr. Miller was embarrassed by accusations of "anti-Semitism" by some
of his friends toward people who support divestment. He told them
that they should be ashamed of themselves.  With that, supporters
erupted with applause while Dr. Annique Kaplan, another of the
Jewish supporters of the resolution, shouted "Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you for saying that"!

As supporters of the resolution spoke, the actual issues surrounding
it began to focus. First and foremost, the only foreign country that
the City of Somerville is invested in is Israel. Thus, Israel had
been "singled out" and given "special treatment" long ago. The
purpose of this resolution, Liz Monin pointed out,  was in fact to
end the special treatment and demand that Somerville stop taking
sides. She dispelled the claims that the resolution was "one-sided,"
by quoting from the language of the resolution which she said "seeks
to stop taking sides and instead take a stand for human rights for
all people".

The atmosphere in the room began to shift as proponents of the
resolution and therefore of divestment, spoke eloquently about why
they had become involved with the project. We began to hear about
human rights violations and the oppression of Palestinians by the
Israeli army and government. They explained why they support
socially responsible investing.

Somerville resident Kevin Qazilbash spoke about the effects of
collective punishment on children, and he said that, as a father and
a teacher, he could not look his students in the eyes if he was not
doing everything he can to work to end the violence against innocent
Palestinian civilians. Qazilbash also made the point that he is
against the violence perpetrated by both sides of the conflict, as
did many people from the other side.


Hilary Rantisi speaks to the meeting.

Hilary Rantisi, a Palestinian American now living in Somerville with
her American husband, spoke in a very personal way about her family
and about her life. She acknowledged that as painful as her story
sounded, that she has been privileged. Many more Palestinians have
suffered much more than she. Many more continue to suffer. We met 15-
year-old Khalil, who is an exchange student presently living outside
of Boston. When home in Gaza City he cannot visit family members
living just 18 miles away due to roadblocks and curfew. Several of
his cousins have been killed over the past year and he was unable to
attend their funerals. Just last week, his 16-year-old cousin,
Hanin, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper while she played
with her little brother inside her house. She died instantly.

Lana Habash, another Palestinian American and Somerville resident
spoke of the racism upon which the occupation is based. Last summer
she traveled to the West Bank  as an International. She relayed her
eyewitness account of an Israeli soldier who shot a young
Palestinian woman in the stomach and genitals right in front of
her. "If this is what they do in front of us, you can only imagine
what they are doing when we're not looking," said Habash.

Almost all of the speakers supporting the resolution, both Jewish
and gentile alike, had in fact, traveled to the West Bank and
witnessed first hand the "horror" of occupation. The only opponent
who had been to the Occupied Territories was a former Israeli
soldier who claimed that any killings of children or civilians
were "mistakes". Meir Schlomo had also acknowledged that "mistakes"
are made by democracies but claimed Israel second to none in
rectifying them. He did not cite any examples of such rectification.

Shamai Leibowitz, an Israeli attorney who had come in support of the
resolution, quickly dispelled that myth. He recounted that as a
young Israeli soldier he was ordered to commit war crimes in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories. "My platoon meted out collective
punishment on whole Palestinian communities, arrested and detained
Palestinians without charge, demolished their homes, shot live
ammunition at unarmed civilians, killed women and children, and
arbitrarily destroyed crops and property". Leibowitz now refuses to
serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

As a former Israeli soldier and an Orthodox Jew, Leibowitz felt
compelled to emphasize the urgent need for divestment. "The flow of
money that facilitates Israeli war crimes and gross human rights
violations which have been going on for nearly 40 years in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories must be stopped".  He, like many
others, made the point that "only through divestment will Israel be
forced to end the occupation and therefore achieve peace and
security for both Israel and Palestine".

During the hearing last week, five of the aldermen thanked the SDP
for bringing the plight of the Palestinian people to their
attention. They had known little about the issue. Many of the people
in the room on Monday had probably never listened to such
impassioned and honest descriptions of the West Bank and Gaza, or
heard an honest explanation of why divestment is important.

When I got up to speak, I addressed the question of why the aldermen
had known so little about the issue. I explained how the media works
in the US on this issue, that after 22 years of badgering by CAMERA
and now "Honest Reporting" as well, the US media is afraid to report
on anything Israel is doing in the West Bank and Gaza. Just last
week, international observers watched as CNN filmed an Israeli
soldier shoot a Palestinian child who was throwing rocks. CNN
refused to air the footage or even talk about it. I also told the
crowd that "because of this experience you no longer have the luxury
of ignorance. Now that you know what is being done with your money,
you have a responsibility to stop it, to approve the resolution and
support responsible investing".

As if to underscore my point on media bias, the Boston Globe ran a
story Tuesday, November 9, entitled  "Proposal to Divest Israel
Funds Sparks Outrage". Roughly 80% of this story was on the
opposition to the resolution. The author, Benjamin Geden, does not
even appear to have read the resolution.

The vote has been put off until Dec.9 , 2004. No doubt, attempts to
influence the Aldermen by both sides of the issue will continue.
Regardless of the outcome, people had a real opportunity to hear
each other, not a common occurrence on this issue. Nancy Murray of
Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights saw this night as a
watershed in the struggle for peace and justice for Palestinians and
Israelis. Let's hope so.

=====================
Contact information for the Somerville City Clerk and
Board of Aldermen - Please encourage them to support divestment!



  City Clerk: John Long

  Somerville City Hall by email

  JLong@...



  Denise Provost  At-large, President

  denise@...



  Bruce Desmond At-large, Vice-President

  BruceMDesmond@...



  Dennis M. Sullivan At-large

  AldermanSullivan@...



  William White At-large

  william.a.white@...



  William Roche Ward 1

  aldermanroche@...



  Maryann Heuston Ward 2

  mheuston@...



  Thomas Taylor Ward 3

  TFTAld32@...



  Walter Pero Ward 4

  WPero@...



  Sean O'Donovan Ward 5

  sod@...



  John Connolly Ward 6

  jconnolly@...



  Robert Trane Ward 7

  RobertTrane@...

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Reservist Pleads Guilty in Iraq Torture Case:

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/9965316.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The highest-ranking soldier charged with abusing
Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison pleaded guilty Wednesday,
telling a military court that prisoners were forced to submit to
public nudity and degrading treatment "for military intelligence
purposes."

Army reservist Ivan "Chip" Frederick, 38, of Buckingham, Va.,
confessed to eight counts of conspiracy, dereliction of duty,
maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act.
He was expected to be sentenced Thursday and could receive 11 years
in prison.

Frederick - a military policeman who is a corrections officer in
civilian life - acknowledged his part in the scandal, which broke in
April with the publication of photos and videos showing American
troops abusing and humiliating naked Iraqi detainees.

But the Army staff sergeant also blamed his chain of command, saying
he was given no training or support in supervising detainees and
only learned of regulations against mistreatment after the abuses
occurred between October and December last year.

He testified that when he brought issues up with his
commanders, "they told me to do what MI told me to do," referring to
military intelligence.

His lawyer, Gary Myers, said Frederick agreed to cooperate fully in
further investigations and would testify at courts-martial for other
soldiers.

"I was wrong about what I did and I shouldn't have done it,"
Frederick told the judge, Army Col. James Pohl. "I knew it was wrong
at the time because I knew it was a form of abuse."

A report this year by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said using MPs
to break down prisoners may have been a technique imported from the
Guantanamo Bay prison and possibly detention centers in Afghanistan
used to hold suspected terrorists.

During the proceeding, Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Kramer, a
military intelligence soldier called as a witness, referred to an e-
mail from the U.S. command in Baghdad telling him to order his
interrogators to be tough on prisoners.

"The gloves are coming off, gentlemen, regarding these detainees,"
said the e-mail, which was read into evidence. It added that the
command "wants the detainees broken."

Frederick, who was in charge of the night shift at the "hard site"
facility at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, said military intelligence
soldiers and civilian interrogators told the guards how to treat the
detainees.

That included stripping detainees, depriving them of sleep or taking
away their cigarettes, Frederick said. Investigators wanted
detainees "stressed out, wanted them to talk more," he said.

Frederick said that from his first day at the prison, he saw
detainees "naked, handcuffed to their door, some wearing female
underclothes." He said the first time he witnessed sexual
humiliation used as an interrogation technique came late last
October when he saw intelligence officers handcuff naked prisoners
together.

"Nudity was to humiliate and degrade them for military intelligence
purposes. It was very embarrassing for an Arabic male to be seen
nude by another," Frederick said.

During an incident last Nov. 4 captured on photos transmitted around
the world, Frederick said he helped hook wires on a detainee's hands
and told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off a box. An Army
investigator encouraged him to abuse the detainee, saying he didn't
care what was done to the prisoner "as long as you don't kill him,"
Frederick said.

In a Nov. 8 incident, Frederick admitted, he joined another soldier
in jumping on a pile of seven detainees accused of rioting. He also
admitted to stomping on their hands and feet.

"I should have stopped it right there," he said.

But the detainees then were strip-searched and remained naked, even
after female soldiers arrived on the scene - which is against
military rules, he said. Frederick said he punched the ringleader in
the chest so hard that the prisoner needed medical attention.

Finally, Frederick said, soldiers lined the detainees naked against
a wall with bags on their heads and then forced three of them to
masturbate.

An Iraqi detainee testified Wednesday that he had been forced at Abu
Ghraib to simulate humiliating sexual positions, including
masturbating in front of the soldiers.

"I was crying. I wanted to kill myself," he said, then bowed his
head on the witness stand for several minutes. "I felt humiliated,
but I had nothing to kill myself with," he said.

Frederick is one of seven members of the Cresaptown, Md.-based 372nd
Military Police Company charged in the scandal. One, Spc. Jeremy C.
Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., is serving a one-year sentence after
pleading guilty in May to three counts.

In addition, Spc. Armin Cruz, 24, a military intelligence soldier,
was sentenced last month to eight months of confinement, reduction
in rank to private, and a bad conduct discharge for his part in the
scandal.

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The Trefoil and the Cross

By Israel Shamir

http://www.israelshamir.net

On the many-coloured Hans Buenting Map (1581), our world looks like
a flower; its three petals present the three continents of Europe,
West Asia, Africa, united by the Holy Land. The map allows for a
different reading, too: the flower is the faith of Christ and Our
Lady, and the three petals are Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
While the Westerners preferred to view Islam as an antithesis of
Christianity, Eastern Christians, notably St John the Damascene,
considered Islam as another Christian Church, on a par with the
Western Catholic Church. Indeed, Islam with its veneration of Christ
and Sitt Maryam is not farther away from Orthodoxy than icon-less
priest-less anti-Marian Calvinists. The three churches offer
different readings of the same concept: the Orthodox stress Christ
Resurrected, the Catholics concentrate on Christ Crucified, and the
Muslims follow the Holy Spirit. The Orthodox rejection of filioque
is their additional link with Islam; theological proximity grounded
in geographical proximity.

This vision of Islam as of the third great church of our oikouménè
is basic to our understanding of the Middle East war. Indeed, there
are many ways to interpret the conflict: political economy,
demography, geopolitics and race theory offer their conflicting
interpretations. The problem is, none work very well. A strong
feeling that the problem calls for a religion-derived explanation
found its expression in Huntington's "Clash of Civilisations"
doctrine positioning "Islam vs Christianity" as a repeat of the
mediaeval Crusades. Its vulgar, down-to-earth application can be
found in every mainstream Western newspaper from the NY Times to
Berlusconi's empire, brought to its extreme by Oriana Fallaci and
Ann Coulter.

But the conflict between the three great churches is over – for
better or for worse, chivalrous knights in red pelerines over shiny
armour won't ride again in the hills of Palestine and the fields of
Poitou exclaiming Lumen Coeli towards the equally noble and valiant
Saracens with their green banner. Their areas of influence are well
established, and small border skirmishes and soul poaching are just
for keeping the braves awake. There is no `Islamic threat to
Catholicism' or `Catholic threat to Orthodoxy', though many people
would bet otherwise.

The Orthodox Christians of Greece and Russia, of Palestine and Syria
fully share the views of Muslims and are equally hostile to the
American invasion. The attempts to instil pro-American sentiment in
Moscow and Athens invariably fail. "Their [the Orthodox] views seem
to have more in common with public opinion in Cairo or Damascus than
in Berlin or Rome", admitted The Wall Street Journal. So much for
the silly concept of conflict between Christendom and Islam. In my
view, and in this article, `Christianity' includes Islam and the
great Apostolic Churches of East and West.

Huntington's theory, albeit erroneous, is based on the deep
foundations of theopolitics, a word unknown to the Microsoft Word
dictionary but introduced by Carl Schmitt. This great thinker is
hard to position, for he is claimed as their own by Nazis and Neo-
cons, Deconstructionists and Anti-globalists, thinkers as different
as Leo Strauss and Giorgio Agamben, Huntington and Derrida. In
Schmitt's view, "all of the most pregnant concepts of modern
doctrine are secularized theological concepts."

The "liberal democracy and human rights" doctrine carried by the US
marines even across Tigris and Oxus is a crypto-religion, an extreme
heretical form of Judaised Christianity. Alexander Panarin, a modern
(deceased) Russian political philosopher, noticed the anti-Christian
character of the American doctrine: "The new American vision of de-
contextualised Goods and their de-socialised Consumers is a heathen
myth"; in his view the US doctrine represents a lapse into
heathendom.

In my view, this new religion can be called Neo-Judaism; its adepts
imitate classic Jewish attitudes; Jews often act as priests of the
new faith and they are considered sacred by its adepts. Indeed,
while mosques burn in Netherlands and churches are ruined in Israel,
no emotions are stirred in comparison to those set in motion when
graffiti is written on a synagogue wall. The US grades its allies by
their attitude towards Jews. The Holocaust Temple ["Museum"] stands
next to the White House. Support of the Jewish state is a sine qua
non for American politicians.

Everybody can become one of the "Chosen" of the new faith – the
choice is yours; the Newest Covenant admits both Gentiles and Jews;
worship Mammon, disregard Nature, Spirit, Beauty, Love; feel you're
belonging to a race apart, prove it by some this-worldly success -
and you can enter it. On the other hand, every Jew can opt out of
it; there is no biological guilt or virtue.

Still, there is a strong feeling of continuity between Palaeo-
Judaism and the newer version. The Jewish state is the enactment of
the paranoid Jewish fear and loathing of the stranger, while the
Cabal policies of Pentagon are another manifestation of this same
fear and loathing on global scale. The ideas for Neo-Judaism were
formed by Jewish nationalist Leo Strauss, and promoted by Jewish
writers of the New York Times. There is a project of supplying Neo-
Judaism with exoteric rites by constructing a new Jerusalem Temple
on the site of al Aqsa Mosque.

Neo-Judaism is the unofficial faith of the American Empire, and the
war in the Middle East is indeed the Neo-Judaic Jihad. It is
intuited by millions: Tom Friedman of the NY Times wrote that the
Iraqis call the American invaders "Jews". Neo-Judaism is the cult of
globalism, neo-liberalism, destruction of family and nature, anti-
spiritual and anti-Christian.

This is also an anti-social cult of commodification, alienation and
uprooting; fighting cohesive society, solidarity, tradition - in
short, fighting the values upheld by the three great churches. As
the church has lost its position in the West, the adepts of Neo-
Judaism consider Western Christendom almost dead and fight it by
bloodless means through their ADL, ACLU and other anti-Christian
bodies. The Village Voice calls Bush `the Christian', The New York
Times writes of priests' child abuse, Schwarzenegger demolishes a
church in The Last Days, - this is the Western front of the Neo-
Judaic Jihad.

But Islam is the last great reservoir of spirit, tradition and
solidarity, and the Neo-Jews fight it with all firepower at their
disposal. Islam has to be crushed if the Neo-Jewish Temple is to be
erected on the site of al Aqsa. Islam is the dominant faith of
Israel's neighbours and enemies. Islam has a historical role of
defending Palestine, the centrepiece of the three-petal flower, the
depository of the united pre-tradition divined by Guénon. Carl
Schmitt has observed "the great historical parallel" between our
days and the days of Christ. Indeed the war on Palestinians is often
interpreted as a new attempt of (Neo-)Jews and Mammon-worshippers to
crucify Christ in His land. Guénon considered that modernity
(representing the kali yuga or final age) would conclude in the
appearance of the Antichrist and the end of the world. Thus the war
on Islam is a stage of the last war, the War on Christ.

On a deeper, metaphysical level, there is a struggle between two
tendencies: a power that draws Heaven and Earth together and re-
sacralises the world; and a power that tries to separate Heaven and
Earth - to profane the world. The uniting power is represented as
Christ in the arms of Our Lady. The dividing power, the Great
Profaner, is greater than the Jews; but they eagerly support him for
in their view the world outside Israel (Persona Divina, not the
state) should be profane and godless. Thus the actions of the Neo-
Jews eventually lead to the profanation of the world, and, on
another level, to liberation from the limitations imposed by the
society and God, to the victory of individualism.



II

Now, once we have diagnosed the disease (Neo-Judaism as a new
religion and the Middle East as its jihad) we may attempt a cure.
The centrepiece of this warfare is not the battlefield of Falluja,
but the battle over minds carried on by ideas: will Christ or
Antichrist win? This question is not decided by force of arms, but
by our ability to defeat the enemy in discourse. You, my readers and
comrades, are an elite fighting unit of the spiritual army; expose
the enemy and beat him.

It is possible to fight a religion, especially Neo-Judaism, an
extreme form of heresy. We should show its religious roots, profane
its sacral heirloom, ridicule its concepts and highlight its crimes.
When the predecessors of Neo-Judaism began their fight against the
Church, they made fun of its tenets. From this point of view, the
French stand-up actor Dieudonné did as much as anybody to stop the
Jihad.

Guenon considered the Reformation as the Fall, as the beginning of
Kali Yuga; Neo-Judaism should then be seen as its completion, as the
extreme of Reform where the reformed body becomes a total opposite
to the pre-reform one. In a way, our task is Counter-Reformation,
and our banner is Our Lady, who is `majestic as troops with banners'
(SS 6:4). Schmitt also considered Our Lady Mary as the most
important cultural and religious symbol, though he was not aware of
her connection to Islam.

The Judaic tendency which first appeared in Christendom with the
Reformation (or, according to Dugin, with the Roman church's
deviation from the Nicene creed) has now blossomed into Neo-Judaism.
This religion is vulnerable because it is not a universal faith.
Like its predecessor, [Palaeo-] Judaism, it is a religion for the
Chosen; this time for those Chosen by Mammon, and beyond Mammon we
see that Great Profaner, Anti-Christ. The Chosen are but a few; the
rest follow this heresy against their own best interests.

Californian Professor Kevin McDonald wrote with some
astonishment: "Wealthy, powerful European elites are often unaware
of or do not value their own ethnic interests. They have acted to
subvert the ethnic interests of their own people… One reason may be
that these elite Westerners are able to live in gated communities
insulated from the rest of the world, completely ignoring their
ethnic kin." He failed to comprehend that the modern `powerful
European elites' emulate traditional Jewish attitudes: they live
in `gated communities' as the Jews lived in ghetto; [historically, a
Jewish ghetto was a privileged `gated community' just like a
European settlement in pre-Communist Shanghai, wrote Jabotinsky] and
they do not regard ordinary people as their kin. This is the Neo-
Jewish way to success, for Neo-Jews have neither ethnic kin, nor
homeland.

An emulation is rarely as successful as the original. The Sufi poet
Rumi tells the bizarre story of a maid who was happily copulating
with a donkey: she used an aubergine to make his enormous size
suitable for her human dimensions. Her mistress noticed her doings
and decided to emulate her; but she did not apply the magic of
aubergine and was torn to death at first attempt. Likewise, the Neo-
Jews failed to notice the family-like support real Jews provide to
their own; they paid attention only to the external features of
Jewish behaviour, i.e. of their disregard for native society. That
is why they are liable to suffer as did the silly mistress of the
wily maid: indeed, they will decline and destroy their society,
having nothing to fall back to.

The observation of McDonald can be interpreted as recognition of
people's betrayal by the elites. This is correct: while the USSR
collapsed as the result of the elites' betrayal, a similar process
now is taking place in the West. The War on Islam goes as badly as
it does for the US and Israel because local native elites mobilised
by their Church do not go for full betrayal. Such betrayal is not
comme il faut in Dar al Islam.

We may separate the Chosen from the misled, but first we have to
break through a few defence rings of the enemy. The outer defence
ring of Neo-Judaism is its blank denial of its being a religion.
This device was used by Communism and eventually became its undoing.
The second defence ring is the presentation of religion as `a
private matter, of no concern to others'. Their Jihad differs from
the noble Jihad of the Prophet Muhammad; instead of proclaiming
their faith, Neo-Jews try to impose it by stealth. The false flag of
Bushite "Christianity" adorns the third ring.

Until now, Neo-Judaism has won by defeating its enemies one after
the other; now we must unite them together. In Cabbalistic terms, we
should collect the divine sparks that were dispersed when the
Vessels were broken by excess of Divine light (Shevirath Keilim). In
this process we shall recognise the positive [for Christ and Our
Lady] forces and tendencies of our oikouménè and unite them, while
deconstructing the enemy devices.

The left-right schism was imposed by the enemy; we should overcome
it. The Left and the Right refer to one-dimensional universe; while
our world for sure has more dimensions than one. Analysis of Judaic
political practices shows that the Jews do not over-estimate the
Left-Right distinction: the leader of a left-wing Meretz party,
Yossi Sarid, eulogised the assassinated leader of extreme-right
Judaeo-Nazi Party Rahavam Zeevi. Israel is not an exception to the
rule: the most militant Republican Jews, Neo-Cons, expressed their
willingness to change their colours and become Neo-Liberals in case
of Kerry's victory:

Going Back Where They Came From , by Patrick J. Buchanan

http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=2371

"If we have to make common cause with the more hawkish liberals and
fight the conservatives, that is fine with me," William Kristol has
told the New York Times. The Weekly Standard editor added that the
neoconservatives may just abandon the Right altogether and convert
to neo-liberalism. Ranking his political preferences, Kristol
added, "I will take Bush over Kerry, but Kerry over Buchanan....If
you read the last few issues of The Weekly Standard, it has as much
or more in common with the liberal hawks than with traditional
conservatives."

Yes, it does. But as John Kerry backs partial birth abortion,
quotas, raising taxes, homosexual unions, liberals on the Supreme
Court and has a voting record to the left of Teddy Kennedy, how can
Kristol prefer him to other conservatives? Answer: War and Israel.


Our answer is more complicated. The Left and the Right are only
positions on the social axis, important as they are. But there are
two other axes, the Axis of Spirit and the Axis of Earth, or the
Axis of Christ and the Axis of Our Lady. Together they form the
three-dimensional cross described by Guenon in his Symbolism of the
Cross. Our enemies are able to form unions over the Left-and-Right
divide for they are united in their negation of Christ and rejection
of the Virgin. Likewise we should be able to unite with other people
of Spirit and of Earth despite differing social views.

If we refer to the Axis of Spirit, there is a dichotomy between the
all-embracing faiths of the Three Great Churches; and the
exclusivist cults. "Religion is not a private affair of spiritually
inclined individuals," wrote Panarin; "The Church is the guarantor
of values, an alternative and higher authority standing above the
moneychangers. It has to have power to exclude female beauty and
love, convictions, land from the market place." That is why our
enemy fights the Three Churches so remorselessly. In modern society,
one may say anything he likes about the Three Churches, but must say
nothing but good about the Judaism, the prototype of Neo-Judaism.

"The Sacred Jewish Practice of Child Murder" - you won't find an
article with such title anywhere in our "antisemitism-ridden" world,
despite hundreds of Palestinian children slaughtered by Jews in last
few years. But you will find in a prominent Jewish magazine:

____________________________________________

The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading

By Andrew G. Bostom

FrontPageMagazine.com | May 13, 2004

Reactions to the grotesque jihadist decapitation of yet
another "infidel Jew," Mr. Berg, make clear that our intelligentsia
are either dangerously uninformed, or simply unwilling to come to
terms with this ugly reality: such murders are consistent with
sacred jihad practices, as well as Islamic attitudes towards all non-
Muslim infidels, in particular, Jews, which date back to the 7th
century, and the Prophet Muhammad's own example.

________________________________________________________



Every attack of the Churches and their sacral icons is permitted,
even such an evil one as was used by the French Jewish Student body
called UEJF. In France, the courts accept Jewish demands to silence
church bells; the hijab is another well-known example of it. In
Palestine, last week police raided the Anglican Cathedral and
removed Christian asylum seeker Mordecai Vanunu. We should mobilise
the churches and defend their spirit.

Communism was an attempt to create a new all-embracing Christianity,
but without Christ. Though some Right-wing thinkers stress
the `Judaic origin' of Communism, it was an anti-Judaic, all-
embracing ideology. Alas, they applied the Occam razor too
vigorously by far, and died of haemorrhage. We should accept the
survivors of the collapse and give them a place in our ranks.

If we refer to the Axis of Earth, there is difference between
autochthons and wanderers. Yuri Slezkine[1] proposed to call them
Apollonian and Mercurian, where "Apollonian society consists of
peasants, warriors and priests; while Mercurians are messengers,
merchants, interpreters, craftsmen, guides, healers, and other
border-crossers". He compares this distinction with the Jew-Gentile
dichotomy and notices: "Jews are Mercurian, while Gentiles are
Apollonian. In the modern world, all of us became more Mercurian -
more Jewish, if you will, and traditional Mercurians – Jews - are
better at being Mercurian than anyone else."

Naturally, the `all of us' of Professor Slezkine are his colleagues
in Berkeley and Moscow, hardly peons of California or Russian
peasants. With this correction, his thesis should be rephrased: in
order to succeed in the Kali Yuga period, one has to adopt Jewish
qualities and become a Neo-Jew. These `Jewish qualities', according
to Slezkine, are "mobility, restlessness, rootlessness, ability to
remain strangers by staying aloof, not fighting, not sharing meals -
just making, exchanging, selling, and possibly stealing, things and
concepts". "Staying aloof" implies lack of compassion; "not sharing
meals" implies not sharing the faith, "not fighting" implies
benefiting from other men's war, "rootlessness" leads to their
tendency to uproot others.

Indeed, Neo-Jews have no compassion, they benefit from wars other
men fight, and they are rootless and ruthless; an ideal described by
Jacques Attali who seeks the world made out of modern nomads
unconnected to roots or soil. We should return the Mercurians to
their modest position at the margins of the society.

These qualities are not "racial"; indeed, Karl Marx and Simone Weil,
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Otto Weininger are good examples of our
comrades-in-arms who provided tools for modern anti-Judaic
discourse. They proved that the `Judaic tendency' is an ideological
and theological, not a racial trend. Immense publicity for, and
almost promotion of Hitler's crimes by the Judaic media is a tool to
obscure this distinction: mean-spirited biological antisemitism, a
freak development of an age-long struggle against the Judaic spirit,
is presented as the rule.

While rejecting racism, we may equally reject anti-racism, for today
this is a code word for an extreme anti-autochthonic attitude. In
vain did the friends of Palestine try to use this concept in their
struggle for equality in Palestine/Israel. Though every idea can be
used in more ways than one, anti-racism is attuned and honed for the
neo-Judaic fight against cohesive native societies. They would use
it today against Guatémoc or Boadicea, they use it against Mugabe.
Anti-racism is a denial of the autochthon's right to decide his
fate; a tool to separate Man from his native landscape. This concept
de-legitimises objections to swamping a land with a flood of
immigrants and ruining the society's fabric.

Theophilus d'Obla noted that "Contemporary antiracism as well as
human-rights' concept are not principles of fighting against
exclusion and thus protection of the Human Person. Quite to the
contrary, it is in the name of inclusion, dilution in the formless
Whole, that these concepts are carried to the pinnacle of the
dominant culture".

The [Jewish] Holocaust is a shibboleth[2] of the New Chosen. It has
a social function to be used to throw suspicion on native
traditionalist majorities: unless disarmed, transformed into "open
societies", their state undermined and their economy privatised and
sold to the American companies, they will embark on the next
holocaust. Socially-minded Panarin writes: "Whoever accepts the
Holocaust as the most important historical event is able to carry
out the civil war against the traditionalist majority and becomes a
member of in-group for the globalists". But the Holocaust also has a
theological value as this event is offered to supplant the
Crucifixion for believers.

  The human rights mantra is an important part of Neo-Judaism. It is
used to undermine a society's interests. Neo-Jews inherited from
their medieval ideological ancestor a peculiar vision of society as
a host society; a society they do not belong to but prey upon. There
is a real contradiction between the rights of such an individual and
the right of society; Neo-Judaism consistently de-legitimises the
rights of [host] society. Thus, the right of a Chodorkovsky or a
Berezovsky to sell his oil company to Western interests is more
important than the Russian society's right to provide every its
member with heating in winter. The right of a pimp to import
pornography or to export women to whorehouses is more important that
the right of a society to protect its women or its morals.

Conclusion

The Jewish state of Israel became the banner of the enemy and has to
be dismantled. Israeli `Jewish' citizens are torn between two
loyalties: loyalty to the land and loyalty to the Jewish People.
This second loyalty stops them from becoming Palestinians; thus it
has to go. We approve of the Israeli citizens who demanded from
their Supreme Court to cease designating them as `Jews': to a
basically irreligious people this word has became a designator of
loyalty to World Jewry. Their lot is with their native Palestinian
brothers who will accept them. A small Ultra-Orthodox pre-Zionist
Jewish minority in Palestine proved its adherence to the tradition:
they should be protected as the remnant and a witness; their fate
should be left to the spiritual powers.

Palestinians are the epitome of autochthonous people who are being
uprooted by the immigrant Jews. They are the last katechon, in terms
of St Paul's Second Letter to Thessalonians, the last defence of our
sacral heritage, the guardians of the holistic tradition before this
was divided into the Three Churches. They are the paradigmatic
victims of outsourcing: the working people who are being
marginalised and replaced by mercenaries of labour. Thus this war in
Palestine is our war by all three axes: this is a war of autochthon
against uprooting power, this is a war of all-embracing Churches
against Christ's enemies, this is a war of peasants and workers,
warriors and priests against the money changers. This is also a
symbolic war: about whether Neo-Judaism will win on a global scale
or lose globally. This is the most decisive war of the century, and
its outcome will decide the future.



----------------------------------------------------------------

[1] The Jewish Century, Princeton University Press, 2004
http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/Alumni/Cal_Monthly/November_2004/QA-
_A_conversation_with_Yuri_Slezkine.asp

[2] A word that identifies one as a member of an 'in' group. The
purpose of a shibboleth is exclusionary as much as inclusionary: A
person whose way of speaking violates a shibboleth is identified as
an outsider and thereby excluded by the group

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MAU MAU DIDN'T HOLD A CANDLE TO THE BRITS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1335961,00.html

MARK CURTIS, GUARDIAN - British ministers' claim to be defending
civilisation against barbarity in Iraq finds a powerful echo in
1950s Kenya, when Britain sought to smash an uprising against
colonial rule. Yet, while the British media and political class
expressed horror at the tactics of the Mau Mau, the worst abuses
were committed by the occupiers. The colonial police used methods
like slicing off ears, flogging until death and pouring paraffin
over suspects who were then set alight.

British forces killed around 10,000 Kenyans during the Mau Mau
campaign, compared with the 600 deaths among the colonial forces and
European civilians. Some British battalions kept scoreboards
recording kills, and gave L5 rewards for the first sub-unit to kill
an insurgent, whose hands were often chopped off to make
fingerprinting easier. "Free fire zones" were set up, where any
African could be shot on sight.

As opposition to British rule intensified, brutal "resettlement"
operations, which led to the deaths of tens of thousands, forced
around 90,000 into detention camps. In this 1950s version of Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq, forced labor and beatings were systematic and
disease rampant. Former camp officers described "short rations,
overwork, brutality and flogging" and "Japanese methods of torture".

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U.S. CONCENTRATION CAMPS
FEMA AND THE REX 84 PROGRAM


There over 600 prison camps in the United States, all fully
operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and
even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These
camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management
Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United
States.

The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a mass
exodus of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would
be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex
84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned
into prisons.

Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs
which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for
its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the
population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of
the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is
the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up
all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on
the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this
operation.

The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to
and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby.
The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000
prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just
outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive
mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.




A person named Terry Kings wrote an article on his discoveries of
camps located in southern California. His findings are as follows:


Over the last couple months several of us have investigated three
soon-to-be prison camps in the Southern California area. We had
heard about these sites and wanted to see them for ourselves.

The first one we observed was in Palmdale, California. It is not
operating as a prison at the moment but is masquerading as part of a
water facility. Now why would there be a facility of this nature out
in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no prisoners? The fences
that run for miles around this large facility all point inward, and
there are large mounds of dirt and dry moat surrounding the central
area so the inside area is not visible from the road. There are 3
large loading docks facing the entrance that can be observed from
the road. What are these massive docks going to be loading?

We observed white vans patrolling the area and one came out and
greeted us with a friendly wave and followed us until we had driven
safely beyond the area. What would have happened had we decided to
enter the open gate or ask questions?

This facility is across the street from the Palmdale Water
Department. The area around the Water Department has fences pointing
outward, to keep people out of this dangerous area so as not to
drown. Yet, across the street, the fences all point inward. Why? To
keep people in? What people? Who are going to be it’s occupants?

There are also signs posted every 50 feet stating: State of
California Trespassing Loitering Forbidden By Law Section 555
California Penal Code.

The sign at the entrance says: Pearblossom Operations and
Maintenance Subcenter Receiving Department, 34534 116th Street East.
There is also a guard shack located at the entrance.

We didn't venture into this facility, but did circle around it to
see if there was anything else visible from the road. We saw miles
of fences with the top points all directed inward. There is a
railroad track that runs next to the perimeter of this fenced area.
The loading docks are large enough to hold railroad cars.


I wonder what they are planning for this facility? They could easily
fit 100,000 people in this area. And who would the occupants be?

Another site is located in Brand Park in Glendale. There are newly
constructed fences (all outfitted with new wiring that point
inward). The fences surround a dry reservoir. There are also new
buildings situated in the area. We questioned the idea that there
were four armed military personnel walking the park. Since when does
a public park need armed guards?

A third site visited was in the San Fernando Valley, adjacent to the
Water District. Again, the area around the actual Water District had
fences logically pointing out (to keep people out of the dangerous
area). And the rest of the adjacent area which went on for several
miles was ringed with fences and barbed wire facing inward (to keep
what or who in?) Also, interesting was the fact that the addition to
the tops of the fences were fairly new as to not even contain any
sign of rust on them. Within the grounds was a huge building that
the guard said was a training range for policemen. There were newly
constructed roads, new gray military looking buildings, and a
landing strip. For what? Police cars were constantly patrolling the
several mile perimeter of the area.

From the parking lot of the Odyssey Restaurant a better view could
be taken of the area that was hidden from site from the highway.
There was an area that contained about 100 black boxes that looked
like railroad cars. We had heard that loads of railroad cars have
been manufactured in Oregon outfitted with shackles. Would these be
of that nature? From our position it was hard to determine.

In searching the Internet, I have discovered that there are about
600 of these prison sites around the country (and more literally
popping up overnight do they work all night). They are manned, but
yet do not contain prisoners. Why do they need all these non-
operating prisons? What are they waiting for? We continuously hear
that our current prisons are overcrowded and they are releasing
prisoners because of this situation. But what about all these
facilities? What are they really for? Why are there armed guards yet
no one to protect themselves against? And what is going to be the
kick-off point to put these facilities into operation?

What would bring about a situation that would call into effect the
need for these new prison facilities? A man-made or natural
catastrophe? An earthquake, panic due to Y2K, a massive poisoning, a
panic of such dimensions to cause nationwide panic?

Once a major disaster occurs (whether it is a real event or
manufactured event does not matter) Martial Law is hurriedly put in
place and we are all in the hands of the government agencies (FEMA)
who thus portray themselves as our protectors. Yet what happens when
we question those in authority and how they are taking away all of
our freedoms? Will we be the ones detained in these camp sites? And
who are they going to round up? Those with guns? Those who ask
questions? Those that want to know what's really going on? Does that
include any of us? The seekers of truth?

When first coming across this information I was in a state of total
denial. How could this be? I believed our country was free, and
always felt a sense of comfort in knowing that as long as we didn't
hurt others in observing our freedom we were left to ourselves.
Ideally we treated everyone with respect and honored their
uniqueness and hoped that others did likewise.

It took an intensive year of searching into the hidden politics to
discover that we are as free as we believe we are. If we are in
denial, we don't see the signs that are staring at us, but keep our
minds turned off and busy with all the mundane affairs of daily
life.

We just don't care enough to find out the real truth, and settle for
the hand-fed stories that come our way over the major media sources
television, radio, newspaper, and magazines. But it's too late to
turn back to the days of blindfolds and hiding our heads in the sand
because the reality is becoming very clear. The time is fast
approaching when we will be the ones asking "What happened to our
freedom? To our free speech? To our right to protect ourselves and
our family? To think as an individual? To express ourselves in
whatever way we wish?"

Once we challenge that freedom we find out how free we really are.
How many are willing to take up that challenge? Very few indeed,
otherwise we wouldn't find ourselves in the situation that we are in
at the present time. We wouldn't have let things progress and get
out of the hands of the public and into the hands of those that seek
to keep us under their control no matter what it takes, and that
includes the use of force and detainment for those that ask the
wrong questions.

Will asking questions be outlawed next? Several instances have
recently been reported where those that were asking questions that
came too near the untold truth (the cover up) were removed from the
press conferences and from the public's ear. Also, those that wanted
to speak to the press were detained and either imprisoned, locked in
a psychiatric hospital, slaughtered (through make-believe suicides)
or discredited.

Why are we all in denial over these possibilities? Didn't we hear
about prison camps in Germany, and even in the United States during
World War II? Japanese individuals were rounded up and placed in
determent camps during the duration of the War. Where was their
freedom?

You don't think it could happen to you? Obviously those rounded up
and killed didn't think it could happen to them either. How could
decent people have witnessed such atrocities and still said nothing?
Are we going to do the same here as they cart off one by one those
individuals who are taking a stand for the rights of the citizens as
they expose the truth happening behind the scenes? Are we all going
to sit there and wonder what happened to this country of ours? Where
did we go wrong? How could we let it happen?

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread27559/pg1

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BLACK BOXES WERE FOUND AT WORLD TRADE CENTER
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/

WILL BUNCH, PHILA DAILY NEWS CAMPAIGN EXTRA - Two men who worked
extensively in the wreckage of the World Trade Center claim they
helped federal agents find three of the four "black boxes" from the
jetliners that struck the towers on 9/11 - contradicting the
official account. Both the ndependent 9/11 Commission and federal
authorities continue to insist that none of the four devices - a
cockpit voice recorder  and flight data recorder from the two
planes - were ever found in the wreckage.

But New York City firefighter Nicholas DeMasi has written in a
recent book -- self-published by several Ground Zero workers -- that
he escorted federal agents on an all-terrain vehicle in October 2001
and helped them locate three of the four.

His account is supported by a volunteer, Mike Bellone, whose efforts
at Ground Zero have been chronicled in the New York Times and
elsewhere. Bellone said assisted DeMasi and the agents and that saw
a device that resembling a "black box" in the back of the
firefighter's ATV.

Their story raises the question of whether there was a some type of
cover-up at Ground Zero. Federal aviation officials - blaming the
massive devastation - have said the World Trade Center attacks seem
to be the only major jetliner crashes in which the critical devices
were never located.

A footnote to the 9/11 Commission Report issued this summer flatly
states: "The CVRs and FDRs from American 11 and United 175" - the
two planes that hit the Trade Center - "were not found."

And officials for the FBI - which oversaw the cleanup at Ground
Zero - and the New York City Fire Department repeated this week that
the devices were never recovered.

================================
October 27, 2004

9/11 "black box" cover-up at Ground Zero? -- a Campaign Extra!/PDN
exclusive

This is a longer version of a story appearing in the 10/28
Philadelphia Daily News.

Two men who worked extensively in the wreckage of the World Trade
Center claim they helped federal agents find three of the
four "black boxes" from the jetliners that struck the towers on
9/11 - contradicting the official account.

Both the independent 9/11 Commission and federal authorities
continue to insist that none of the four devices - a cockpit voice
recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) from the two planes -
were ever found in the wreckage.

But New York City firefighter Nicholas DeMasi has written in a
recent book -- self-published by several Ground Zero workers -- that
he escorted federal agents on an all-terrain vehicle in October 2001
and helped them locate three of the four.

His account is supported by a volunteer, Mike Bellone, whose efforts
at Ground Zero have been chronicled in the New York Times and
elsewhere. Bellone said assisted DeMasi and the agents and that saw
a device that resembling a “black box� in the back of the
firefighter's ATV.

Their story raises the question of whether there was a some type of
cover-up at Ground Zero. Federal aviation officials - blaming the
massive devastation - have said the World Trade Center attacks seem
to be the only major jetliner crashes in which the critical devices
were never located.

A footnote to the 9/11 Commission Report issued this summer flatly
states: “The CVRs and FDRs from American 11 and United 175� -
the two planes that hit the Trade Center - “were not found.�

And officials for the FBI - which oversaw the cleanup at Ground
Zero - and the New York City Fire Department repeated this week that
the devices were never recovered.

The "black boxes" - actually orange - could have provided valuable
new information about the worst terror attack to ever take place on
American soil.

The cockpit voice recorder uses two microphones to capture the
sounds of the cockpit for the last 30 minutes of a doomed flight on
a tape loop. In the case of the hijacked 9/11 jetliners, the devices
should have captured any conversations or actions involving the
hijackers, as well as radio transmissions.

The flight data recorder records things like airspeed, heading, and
altitude. Both devices - located in the tail of the airplane - emit
loud "pings" so they can be located even in ocean jetliner crashes,
like the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island.

They are built to survive an impact of enormous force - 3400 Gs -
and a fire of 1100 degrees Celsius for one hour, somewhat higher
than official estimates of the World Trade Center blaze.

"It's extremely rare that we don't get the recorders back. I can't
recall another domestic case in which we did not recover the
recorders," Ted Lopatkiewicz, spokesman for the National
Transportation Safety Board, told CBS News in 2002. However,
officials said little of the jets was recovered.

DeMasi was with now defunct Engine Company 261 in 2001. He wrote up
his recollections of the Ground Zero recovery in a glossy book self-
published by a group that calls itself Trauma Recovery Assistance
for Children, or the TRAC Team. The book was published in 2003 but
received little notice.

DeMasi, an all-terrain vehicles hobbyist - said he donated 4 ATVs to
the clean-up and became known as "the ATV Guy."

"At one point, I was asked to take Federal Agents around the site to
search for the black boxes from the planes, he wrote. "We were
getting ready to go out. My ATV was parked at the top of the stairs
at the Brooks Brothers entrance area. We loaded up about a million
dollars worth of equipment and strapped it into the ATV..."

"There were a total of four black boxes. We found three."

Efforts over several days to locate and interview DeMasi, who is now
said to be with the FDNY's Marine Unit, were not successful.

But his account was verified by another member of the so-called TRAC
Team, recovery site volunteer Bellone. He recalled FBI agents
arriving for the search one day in early October, setting up their
equipment near Brooks Brothers. He said he didn't go out with them
on the ATV but observed their search.

At one point, Bellone said he observed the team with a box that
appeared charred but was redish-orange with two white stripes.
Pictures of the flight recorders on the NTSB and other Web sites
show devices that are orange, with two white stripes.

"There was the one that I saw, and two others were recovered in
different locations - but I wasn't there for the other two," Bellone
said. He said the FBI agents left with the boxes.

If the account by DeMasi and Bellone is true, it's not clear what
motive federal authorities would have for claiming they weren't
found.

By the same token, however, it's not clear what incentive either man
would have to lie.

An FBI spokesman in New York, Jim Margolin, said after checking with
the leader of the Ground Zero investigation that none of the boxes
were recovered.

Frank Gribbon, the FDNY spokesman, also said "no one in the
Department is aware of the recovery of any of the airline "black
boxes" at the WTC site."

===========================
View the full statement and list of signatories here:
http://www.911Truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633
Donate for NY Times ad: http://rate.affero.net/911truth/

Respected Leaders and Families Launch 911 Truth Statement Demanding
Deeper Investigation into the Events of 9/11

NEW YORK CITY, NY (Oct. 26, 2004) - An alliance of 100 prominent
Americans and 40 family members of those killed on 9/11 today
announced the release of the 911 Truth Statement, a call for
immediate inquiry into evidence that suggests high-level government
officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks
to occur.  The Statement supports an August 31st Zogby poll that
found nearly 50% of New Yorkers believe the government had
foreknowledge and "consciously failed to act," with 66% wanting a
new 9/11 investigation.

Focusing on twelve questions, the Statement highlights areas of
incriminating evidence that were either inadequately explored or
ignored by the Kean Commission, ranging from insider trading and
hijacker funding to foreign government forewarnings and inactive
defenses around the Pentagon. The Statement asks for four actions:
an immediate investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer, Congressional hearings, media analysis, and the formation
of a truly independent citizens-based inquiry.

The Statement's list of signatories includes notables spanning the
political spectrum, from Presidential candidates Ralph Nader, Michael
Badnarik, and David Cobb to Catherine Austin Fitts, a member of the
first Bush administration, as well as Washington veterans like
Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and retired CIA analyst Ray
McGovern. Other signers range from peace activists like Code Pink
president Jodie Evans and Global Exchange's Kevin Danaher to former
US Ambassador and Chief of Mission to Iraq, Edward L. Peck; from
environmentalists like Randy Hayes and John Robbins to business
leaders such as Paul Hawken and Karl Schwartz, CEO of Patmos
Nanotechnologies; from populist journalist Ronnie Dugger to renowned
investigative reporter Kelly Patricia O'Meara.

The Statement also includes 43 noted authors, including New York
Times #1 bestseller John Gray, as well as 18 eminent professors,
historians, and theologians.  Other notables include five-term
Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, singers Michelle Shocked and
Michael Franti, and actors
Ed Asner and Mimi Kennedy.

The Statement was facilitated by 911truth.org, a leading coalition.
The organization has also announced a press conference outside of
Eliot Spitzer's Manhattan office (corner of Cedar and Nassau) at
2:00PM on Thursday, Oct. 28th where 9/11 family members and victim
group representatives will file a formal complaint demanding the
first criminal investigation of 9/11 events by the New York Attorney
General.

For a complete statement and list of signatories, see
http://www.911Truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633

Take Action!

1. DONATE NOW - We need to raise $70K immediately to get the full
statement and signatories in the NY Times as a full-page
advertisement this week. Contribute yourself and urge friends to do
so: http://rate.affero.net/911truth/

2. Send this information to your congresspeople and journalists,
demanding attention

3. Help New York citizens and 9/11 family members, beginning
Wednesday, Oct. 27th, by signing an online petition in support of
their formal complaint to be filed with New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer.  Petition at http://www.justicefor911.org

4. Get MoveOn moving! Join MoveOn (http://www.moveon.org) and urge
them in member forums to focus on this issue.

5. Stay informed at http://www.911truth.org and get active in local
groups at http://www.septembereleventh.org

Thanks for your support!  May we all get the full truth we deserve.

www.911truth.org

========================
FOCUS: Members of Congress Ask CIA to Turn Over 9/11 Report
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/102104Y.shtml



   Lawmakers Prod CIA for Pre-9/11 Accountability Report
   By Greg Miller
   The Los Angeles Times

   Wednesday 20 October 2004



The agency says the document isn't finished, but some think they're
stalling to benefit Bush.


   WASHINGTON - The ranking members of the House Intelligence
Committee have asked the CIA to turn over an internal report on
whether agency employees should be held accountable for intelligence
failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks, congressional officials
said Tuesday.

   The CIA has not responded to the request, raising concerns among
some Democrats in Congress that the report is being withheld to
avoid embarrassment for the Bush administration in the final weeks
before the presidential election.

   The report was drafted in response to a demand from Congress
nearly two years ago for the CIA to conduct an internal inquiry into
the performance of agency personnel before the attacks. The agency
was asked "to determine whether and to what extent personnel at all
levels should be held accountable" for intelligence breakdowns
cataloged in a joint congressional investigation of Sept. 11.

   No agency employee has been fired or faced other disciplinary
measures in connection with Sept. 11 inquiries, a fact that has
frustrated critics of the CIA and relatives of those who were killed
in the attacks.

   A U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that the document had
not been provided to Congress because it was not complete. "The
report is just a draft," the official said. "It's not yet finished,
and the matter is still under review." The official declined to
elaborate.

   But congressional officials voiced skepticism and said that
mounting frustration with the agency had prompted the chairman of
the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), and the
ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman of Venice, to send a letter to
the CIA two weeks ago directing the agency to deliver the report.

   The existence of the letter was first reported Tuesday in the Los
Angeles Times in an opinion column by Robert Scheer. The column
quoted Harman as saying, "We believe that the CIA has been told not
to distribute the report. We are very concerned."

   Congressional officials said they were told that the CIA inspector
general's office had completed the report in the summer, but that it
would not be turned over because of a request by then-acting CIA
Director John E. McLaughlin for additional information on the
report's contents.

   "The concern here is that this [delay] has gone from days to weeks
to months," a senior congressional aide said on condition of
anonymity. "We're concerned that the work of the inspector general
not be altered or censored or in any way precluded from coming over
here."

   The ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat
Roberts (R-Kan.) and John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), also
have inquired about the report, but have not written a letter asking
for it to be turned over, aides said.

   The FBI conducted a similar inquiry and has provided a copy of its
report to congressional committees, aides said. The FBI has not
disciplined any of its employees in connection with Sept. 11,
officials said.

   The scuffle over the CIA report could pose a problem for the CIA's
new director, Porter J. Goss, who now is head of the agency he
helped investigate when he was chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee.

   Goss, a former Republican congressman from Florida, was a
principal member of the joint congressional inquiry into Sept. 11
intelligence failures. The report was sharply critical of the CIA,
and the request for an internal investigation of employee
accountability was among the dozens of recommendations in that
congressional probe.

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Israelis shoot Gaza child

By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Aljazeera.net
28 November 2004

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8FFC2DC7-D7E6-4F7B-A4C3-
188C87E990C6.htm

Israeli forces have shot and seriously wounded a four-year-old
Palestinian child in Rafah, in southern Gaza, witnesses and medical
sources said.

Palestinian medical sources listed Shayma Hasan Abu Shammala in
critical condition after she was hit by several bullets fired by an
Israeli soldier manning a military tower near the Egyptian-Gaza
borders on Sunday.

Muawiya Hasanayn, head of the emergency department at the
Palestinian health ministry, said the child was transferred to the
European Hospital in Gaza due to the gravity of her condition.

Witnesses said the child was playing in the backyard of her home
when the soldier opened fire on her.

Boy killed

Also on Sunday, a Palestinian boy died of wounds he sustained when
an Israeli explosive device exploded near his home in Rafah at the
southern tip of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources reported.

The boy, identified as 16-year-old Mahmud Said Qishta, was said to
be playing outside his home in Rafah earlier this week when he
inadvertently stepped on an explosive device left behind by the
Israeli army.

Qishta was seriously wounded and transferred to the Nasir hospital
in Khan Yunus, where he succumbed to his wounds on Sunday morning.

Palestinians and human-rights groups often complain that Israeli
forces operating in and around Palestinian population centres
deliberately plant explosive devices in places where Palestinian
children usually play.

Danger zone

Sunday's incidents took place against a backdrop of sharply critical
coverage in the Israeli media of the conduct of Israeli occupation
troops.

Many Israeli soldiers have begun to admit publicly that they are
often given explicit orders to shoot Palestinian civilians,
including children, when seen entering or approaching a certain
"danger zone".

Last week, the Israeli human-rights organisation, B'Tselem accused
the Israeli occupation army of killing Palestinian civilians and
then covering up the killings or concocting mitigating circumstances
to justify criminal behaviour towards innocent non-combatants.

B'Tselem challenged Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon to tell the
truth regarding the so-called zones of destruction within the
confines of which soldiers are allowed to shoot and kill any
Palestinian, including toddlers and children.

'Despicable'

The charges were made in an advertisement after an Israeli TV
station broadcast a conversation between an Israeli officer and
other troops in which the officer said, "Anything that is mobile,
any thing that moves in the zone, even if it is a three-year-old,
needs to be killed."

Incidentally, the Palestinian population is not informed of the
existence of such "death zones".

It is believed that as many as 1400 Palestinian civilians, including
some 570 children and minors, have been killed by Israeli soldiers
during the past year.

This week Israeli columnist Amos Harel, writing in the daily
Haaretz, described the army's practice of shooting Palestinian
children and then covering up the killing as "despicable and
criminal".

Another commentator, Doron Rosenblum, writing in the same
paper, said the Israeli military establishment was more interested
in confronting the negative publicity stemming from the killings of
Palestinian civilians than in taking responsibility for the crimes
themselves.

=======================
Palestinian child wounded on way to school

Xinhua
30 November 2004

GAZA-- A Palestinian child was wounded by the Israeli army on his
way to school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, Palestinian
security and medical sources said Tuesday.

Medics at Abu Youssef Al Najjar Hospital said Ahmed Abu Amra, 12,
was moderately wounded in the area of Tal al Sultan when Israeli
troops stationed around the settlement of Atsmona opened intensive
fire on the residents' houses.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the Israeli army
killed 53 Palestinians and wounded 314 others in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip between Oct. 28 and Nov.27.

Among the casualties, there were 11 children killed, and 39 children
wounded, the ministry said.

=====================
Over 312 Palestinian children imprisoned in Israeli jails: report

Xinhua
1 December 2004

RAMALLAH-- More than 312 Palestinian children are imprisoned in the
Israeli jails and investigation centers, said Palestinian official
statistics released on Wednesday.

A latest report by the youth and children department in the Ministry
of Prisoners' Affairs said there are 12 girls under 18 years old
among the children currently held in the Israeli prisons.

The report denounced the Israeli acts of ignoring the children's
rights stipulated by the international law.

In addition, the report accused the Israeli government of abusing
the imprisoned Palestinian children including beating and
deprivation of food and sleep.

The Israeli prison authorities used physical pressure on the
children in an attempt to squeeze intelligence information out of
them, added the report.

======================
Rules of Engagement and Lack of Accountability Result in Culture of
Impunity for Palestinian Civilian Deaths

B'Tselem - Nov 24, 2004

http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/2004/041124.asp

The circumstances surrounding the killing of Iman al-Hams are grave.
However, the large number of Palestinian civilians killed indicate
that her death is not unusual. What is unusual about this case,
however, is the fact that the IDF initiated a Military Police
investigation that led to an indictment. There is no such
accountability for the vast majority of Palestinian civilian deaths.



Iman al-Hams, a twelve year-old girl, was shot and killed on 5
October 2004 while walking to school in the Rafah refugee camp. The
company commander who shot her claimed that he acted in accordance
with regulations, and the IDF Chief of Staff accepted the commander's
version of events. Only after soldiers from the company told the
press that the commander had "verified" her death (pumping her body
with bullets from close range) did the Military Police initiate an
investigation. The company commander has now been charged with
illegal use of his weapon and obstruction of justice.



According to B'Tselem's data, since the beginning of the intifada,
IDF soldiers have killed at least 1,656 Palestinians who took no
part in the fighting. Of those killed, 529 were children. Many of
these deaths result from changes in the Rules of Engagement, which
now allow soldiers to open fire on Palestinians in a variety of non-
combat situations, even when the soldiers are not in danger. The
most blatant example is the order to open fire whenever Palestinians
enter so-called "danger zones," including the perimeter fence around
the Gaza Strip, and areas around military bases and settlements.



An equally troubling phenomenon, however, is the climate of impunity
in which these deaths take place. Over the past four years, the IDF
conducted only 89 military police investigations into deaths and
injuries of Palestinians. Of these investigations, only 22 resulted
in indictments. To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing
the death of a Palestinian. Thus in the vast majority of cases, no
one is ever held accountable.



The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy
attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results
in a clear and very troubling message about the value the IDF places
on Palestinian life.



B'Tselem calls on the Israeli government to cancel the orders
allowing indiscriminate gunfire and to open a Military Police
investigation into every death of a Palestinian who did not
participate in hostilities. B'Tselem and the Association for Civil
Rights in Israel petitioned the Israeli High Court in September 2003
with a similar demand. The High Court has yet to rule on this
petition.

======================
Palestinians Dehumanized At Israeli Checkpoints : Report


A Palestinian woman tries to squeeze through the turnstile at the
Hawara checkpoint with her son. (courtesy Washington Post)


CAIRO, November 29 (IslamOnline.net) – The West Bank checkpoint of
Hawara stands as a telling example of the beyond-description
dehumanization of thousands of Palestinians at Israeli roadblocks
across the occupied Palestinian territories, a leading US newspaper
reported on Monday, November 29.

Beatings, shootings, harassment, humiliation in front of children
and wives and life-threatening delays are but a few examples of the
appalling conditions at the sandbagged Israeli checkpoints, The
Washington Post said.

"I wouldn't let you in even if you brought God here with you," one
soldier shouted at 29-year-old Mohammad Yousef.

The soldier had dragged the Palestinian out of an ambulance and
refused to even examine his medical papers.

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group said at least 83
Palestinians seeking medical care have died during delays at
checkpoints.

Add to that many heartbreaking scenes of tearful young brides in
their white gowns being turned away and students forced to miss
final exams simply because the checkpoints were closed under the
hoary-old excuse of preventing Palestinian bombings.

As many as 5,000 Palestinians a day request permission to cross.
They stand in line in searing heat or icy rains, depending on the
season, until they reach an open-air shed with a corrugated tin
roof.

Often packed together by the hundreds, the Palestinians must then
wait their turn to pass, one by one, through narrow metal turnstiles
that the Israeli soldiers open and close electronically.

All males under the age of 30 are usually turned away, as are all
students, males and females.

Common Practice


In this video image, a Palestinian plays his violin in order to pass
through an Israeli army roadblock



Soldiers who had served at the Hawara checkpoint over the past year
gave testimony describing what they said were common, accepted
practices among colleagues.

A female soldier, for instance, assigned to a Gaza Strip checkpoint
has forced a Palestinian woman at gunpoint to drink a bottle of
cleaning fluid.

This month, her colleagues at the Beit Iba checkpoint in the West
Bank, ordered a Palestinian to open his violin case and play for
them as hundreds of other Palestinians waited behind him for their
turn to pass.

The episode was caught on camera by Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer
for the Israeli rights group Machsom Watch, which monitors soldiers'
conduct at the roadblocks.

Moreover, a 23-year-old sergeant handcuffed a Palestinian father
with disposable plastic cuffs and ordered him to sit on the ground.

He bashed the Palestinian man in the face with his fist and brushed
him away like a fly with the man's toddler son clung to his father's
shirttail.

The Palestinian ended up in a hut covered by a blanket, with his
muffled cries clearly heard.

When a soldier from the Education Corps asked the sergeant why he
had attacked a defenseless, handcuffed Palestinian, he
answered: "Because he was beaten, then everybody learns and no one
fools around with us."

The sergeant, who received later a six-month jail term, also
admitted beating at least eight other Palestinians at the checkpoint
and smashing the windshields of 10 Palestinian taxicabs.

In as many as five incidents, he "kicked them forcefully in their
buttocks and pushed them backwards or assaulted them with punches
and kicks," his indictment sheet said.

Other times he took recalcitrant men into "the women's checking tent
that was empty and . . . beat them either by punching them or
kicking them in their stomach."

Dreadful


As many as 5,000 Palestinians a day request permission to cross



Former checkpoint guards endeavor to erase this dark past from their
memory and believe the Israeli army and society should accept some
of the blame.

"The mission is dreadful. . . . It tears you apart," Staff Sgt. Ran
Ridnick told the Post.

"Most soldiers prefer to be under fire than at those roadblocks,"
added Ridnick, who spent six months this year at the Hawara
checkpoint.

Michael Aman, another staff sergeant who served in the same
battalion, said: "Everyone, no matter how moral, if he feels a
commitment to the mission, will or could fall into violence. We're
all told we shouldn't behave badly to civilians -- never hit them,
never yell. But after eight hours in the sun, you're not so strong."

Sgt. Nadav Efrati, who recently finished his military service after
spending months at the Hawara checkpoint, said the main words they
taught them in Arabic were: " Stop. If not, I will shoot you."

"When we do all these things, we are not doing it only to the
Palestinians, but to ourselves, too," added another soldier who
identified himself as Aman.

"The most important discussion should be in our own society. If you
blame the soldiers, you miss the point. . . . These duties corrupt."

Four senior officers of an elite Israeli air force had recently hit
out at the military's "immoral" policies in the occupied
territories.

Erlik Alhanan, an Israeli reservist, said last March that 80 percent
of reservists have lost confidence in the declared moral principles
of the Israeli army due to the practices in Lebanon and the
crackdown on the Palestinians.

Twenty-seven reserve and active duty airmen signed a letter last
September addressed to Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon, refusing to
carry out "immoral and illegal" raids on Palestinian civilians in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Also last November, four former heads of the Israeli Shin Beth
interior security services warned of the "disastrous"  consequences
of Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories.

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No Atonement:

The New Ten Commandments for Israel's National Policies
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&s=neeman

No Atonement
The New Ten Commandments for Israel's National Policies
by Moshe Neeman


1. Dominate thy neighbor. No atonement necessary for an occupation
that deprives the Palestinian population of life, liberty and even
brief moments of happiness. We'll continue violating every
international law and convention that stands in our way.

2. Nothing succeeds like success. The thirty-seven-year-old
occupation continues in full force and will remain in place. With
lands confiscated and settled, the territories as we knew them in
1967 no longer exist. And with every Israeli under 50 raised with
the occupation in the background, the territories are no
longer "occupied"--a term that suggests an interim condition--but
rather transformed into areas permanently and irreversibly
controlled by Israel. Incidentally, this process follows closely
the "creation of facts" that took place in pre-state and immediately
post-state Israel.


ADVERTISEMENT 3. Deceive the world. Talking about redeploying
occupation forces and removing a few fringe settlements while
actually expanding many others across the West Bank will further
strengthen our conquest and make the occupation ever more effective.

4. Apartheid rules. As many foreign visitors testify, the
territories closely resemble South Africa's apartheid rule: limited,
segregated areas (many totally devastated) for Palestinians, who no
longer control their lands and natural resources, where the
population struggles for bare livelihood, experiencing widespread
child malnutrition and lacking health services and employment. Add
to this roads for Jews only, and the picture becomes clearer.

5. Thou shalt assassinate. The occupied territories have become a
free-range shooting gallery for military occupation forces and for
settlers. Israel continues to use various assassination techniques
on a daily basis--from a one-ton bomb dropped on a densely populated
neighborhood to rockets aimed at moving vehicles--both constitute
executions without a trial and both, routinely, result in the
killing of innocent bystanders, including children. Palestinians
react by trying to blow themselves up in areas frequented by
Israelis or by occupation forces, typically stating what each act is
in retaliation for. Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem
(www.btselem.org) reports that between September 29, 2000, and
September 15 of this year 2,859 Palestinians were killed by
Israelis, among them 561 minors under the age of 18. During the same
period, 916 Israelis were killed by Palestinians, among them 110
minors under the age of 18.

6. Deny, deny, deny: Never acknowledge any connection between
a "terrorist act" and our own deeds, or the occupation itself:
Theirs is "terrorism," ours is "defense"; theirs is "hate," ours is
a "desire for peace"; theirs is wrong, ours is right. Always.

7. We have a God-given right to all of the biblical Land of Israel.
Their right for a Palestinian state is, at most, conceptual--
clearly, it does not apply to even 22 percent of historical
Palestine--the areas generally known as the "occupied territories."

8. "No" to Palestinian statehood. To prevent them from achieving
statehood, we will continue to carve out the territories so as to
make an independent state no longer possible, and to crush their pre-
state institutions: their infrastructure--roads, airports,
hospitals, police stations and jails; schools and universities;
computer systems containing demographic and medical records, and
much more. The very same civilian institutions that enabled us to
transition into statehood smoothly in 1948.

9. Money is no object, especially since it's American. We will
devote most of our national resources to the occupation, at the
expense of everything else, including social services to our own
Jewish poor and needy, school lunches and the quality of education,
and the very lives of our youth.

10. Our "Only True Friends" will continue to help us. Republican and
Democrat alike will compete in offering us their
unqualified "support." With such support our "occupation" can
expand, everything else notwithstanding. We will continue to
methodically transfer the land and natural resources to our own
hands and, by further tightening the noose, force the undesirable
Palestinian population away to distant places.

Nothing to atone for, or repent. We're always right.

*********************************************************************

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No Atonement:

The New Ten Commandments for Israel's National Policies
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&s=neeman

No Atonement
The New Ten Commandments for Israel's National Policies
by Moshe Neeman


1. Dominate thy neighbor. No atonement necessary for an occupation
that deprives the Palestinian population of life, liberty and even
brief moments of happiness. We'll continue violating every
international law and convention that stands in our way.

2. Nothing succeeds like success. The thirty-seven-year-old
occupation continues in full force and will remain in place. With
lands confiscated and settled, the territories as we knew them in
1967 no longer exist. And with every Israeli under 50 raised with
the occupation in the background, the territories are no
longer "occupied"--a term that suggests an interim condition--but
rather transformed into areas permanently and irreversibly
controlled by Israel. Incidentally, this process follows closely
the "creation of facts" that took place in pre-state and immediately
post-state Israel.


ADVERTISEMENT 3. Deceive the world. Talking about redeploying
occupation forces and removing a few fringe settlements while
actually expanding many others across the West Bank will further
strengthen our conquest and make the occupation ever more effective.

4. Apartheid rules. As many foreign visitors testify, the
territories closely resemble South Africa's apartheid rule: limited,
segregated areas (many totally devastated) for Palestinians, who no
longer control their lands and natural resources, where the
population struggles for bare livelihood, experiencing widespread
child malnutrition and lacking health services and employment. Add
to this roads for Jews only, and the picture becomes clearer.

5. Thou shalt assassinate. The occupied territories have become a
free-range shooting gallery for military occupation forces and for
settlers. Israel continues to use various assassination techniques
on a daily basis--from a one-ton bomb dropped on a densely populated
neighborhood to rockets aimed at moving vehicles--both constitute
executions without a trial and both, routinely, result in the
killing of innocent bystanders, including children. Palestinians
react by trying to blow themselves up in areas frequented by
Israelis or by occupation forces, typically stating what each act is
in retaliation for. Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem
(www.btselem.org) reports that between September 29, 2000, and
September 15 of this year 2,859 Palestinians were killed by
Israelis, among them 561 minors under the age of 18. During the same
period, 916 Israelis were killed by Palestinians, among them 110
minors under the age of 18.

6. Deny, deny, deny: Never acknowledge any connection between
a "terrorist act" and our own deeds, or the occupation itself:
Theirs is "terrorism," ours is "defense"; theirs is "hate," ours is
a "desire for peace"; theirs is wrong, ours is right. Always.

7. We have a God-given right to all of the biblical Land of Israel.
Their right for a Palestinian state is, at most, conceptual--
clearly, it does not apply to even 22 percent of historical
Palestine--the areas generally known as the "occupied territories."

8. "No" to Palestinian statehood. To prevent them from achieving
statehood, we will continue to carve out the territories so as to
make an independent state no longer possible, and to crush their pre-
state institutions: their infrastructure--roads, airports,
hospitals, police stations and jails; schools and universities;
computer systems containing demographic and medical records, and
much more. The very same civilian institutions that enabled us to
transition into statehood smoothly in 1948.

9. Money is no object, especially since it's American. We will
devote most of our national resources to the occupation, at the
expense of everything else, including social services to our own
Jewish poor and needy, school lunches and the quality of education,
and the very lives of our youth.

10. Our "Only True Friends" will continue to help us. Republican and
Democrat alike will compete in offering us their
unqualified "support." With such support our "occupation" can
expand, everything else notwithstanding. We will continue to
methodically transfer the land and natural resources to our own
hands and, by further tightening the noose, force the undesirable
Palestinian population away to distant places.

Nothing to atone for, or repent. We're always right.

*********************************************************************

WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE

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From PHARISEE WATCH:


"KILL ON SIGHT" A Christ Follower's Dilemma

By Charles E. Carlson

http://www.whtt.org/whtt.shtml?articles/KillOnS2.htm



Killing the wounded and bombing civilians is policy from the U.S.
top.  How can this be denied, when they tell us so up front?  If we
allow it, as in Abu Ghraib prison, a guilty few will be scapegoats
for the acts of their leaders.


An "imbedded journalist" traveling with a U.S. Marine squad that was
cleaning up hours after the so-called "fighting," photographed a
point blank murder with full sound and voices.  The evidence is
unmistakable. Is it the work of a single out-of-control man, or a
growing mercenary military?

One individual, who we will call Marine X and who appears to be
unnamed to this day, was photographed in the act of deliberately
slaughtering a wounded man.  Worse yet, we now know this
unfortunate, unnamed man was found in a mosque among the dead, where
he had been lying in his own blood for 12 hours, too weak to crawl
away.  We are asked to believe the shooting was justified by the
shooter's fears, even though the camera recorded him shouting in
high-strung rage before he did it.  Petitions are being filed in the
shooter's behalf, and "conservative" talk show hosts make demeaning
comments about the victims over 50,000 watt stations about human
beings whom they speak of as animals.

The U.S. press minimizes the crime by characterizing the victim as
a "combatant," though he was too weak to crawl, and an "insurgent,"
though they have no way of knowing if he was part of an insurrection
or "collateral damage." The Los Angeles Times put it this way:

"Televised images of marine fatally shooting an unarmed, wounded
insurgent in a Fallujah mosque were repeatedly broadcast on Arab
TV."  The byline called the helpless man a "combatant."  Marine X's
recorded voice reveals that he did not fear the man, that he
considered him less than human, and that he thought it his right to
kill him.  We now know many thousands of non-insurgents have been
killed since the first shock and awe attack.

Either the imbedded press fails to look at such incidents, or it is
denied access to the worst of these actions.  For whatever reason,
we are not being told the obvious, that indiscriminate killing of
everyone in sight is stated U.S. policy.  The truth is coming out in
large and small pieces.  We now have every reason to believe the
number of civilians killed in Iraq could be more than 100,000, and
we have been lied to about this from the start.  Mohamed Malawi, the
puppet thug picked by the U.S. to rule Iraq, had the chutzpah to
say "no civilians were killed."

The L.A. Times, like most of the U.S.-Israeli controlled press,
fails to make the obvious point that this one photographed incident
is only the tip of the iceberg of hate murders of Iraqis.  It is all
too obvious from many reports that murder is standard operating
procedure (SOP) in Iraq, and that the imbedded press fails to report
it except in rare incidents like this one.  In most cases they don't
see it.

In another documented incident, four Iraqis were killed by Marine
rifle fire in a crowded mosque in Baghdad on Friday, November 19th,
while praying.  It was the Muslim Sabbath at the crowded sundown
prayer service, and many more were wounded.  This story was reported
by the Arab press and confirmed by the Washington Post.  Had it not
been for Middle Eastern independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who
takes his life in his hands every day to report un-imbedded real
news, we would not have known this happened.
http://www.whtt.org/whtt.shtml?rpr/DahrMosq.htm


This disgusting act by Marine X in Fallujah was absolutely
predictable by anyone who bothered to read the pre-attack statements
of our leaders.  Permission to murder innocents was telegraphed by
several Marine commanders before the invasion started.  Every
statement emphasized massive killing.  Several commanders as much as
said they would kill anyone they found alive.  How can we expect
more humanity from Marine X?

This stupid or unlucky Marine X did what he was told to do right in
front of a camera, but no cameras were present when the original
shock force stormed through the mosque where the victim was wounded
almost 12 hours before, and there will never be a report of how many
of those shot were civilians.

We must not allow this incident to be blamed on one bad apple, as
was Abu Ghraib.  Like Lynnette English, the lightweight but sadistic
sex queen of interrogators, Marine X needs to face justice, but he
must not be a dumping place for blame for our public policy and
those who support and implement it.

Every professional solder commander, every political Warmaker, and
every Judaized Christian leader who supported the war and made
Fallujah possible shares the blood guilt on the hands of the men in
Iraq, including the near idiot who committed the terrible deed on
camera.

This Marine X is not a fluke; he is the rule.  He was naïve enough
to believe all the kill talk Marines are made to shout at the top of
their lungs a hundred times every day. He simply got caught crawling
out of a rotten barrel of apples.  We know who murdered one man, but
who killed the 100,000 other Iraqi civilians buried in and under and
around the destroyed homes of Iraq?

Who is not guilty?  Those who have stood against this war and
continue to condemn it at every evil turn and try their best to do
something to prevent it.  If you have stood aside until now, join
Christ as a peacemaker.

Among the guilty, none are guiltier than the religious leaders who
know better.  These professionals call themselves by Christ's name
but are anything but peacemakers.  They are Pharisees who claim to
love justice and feed hatred with false doctrine.  They are the
guiltiest of all, because they provide an aura of morality and even
nobleness to the warmongering that trains men to kill like a pack of
attack dogs and even tells them to enjoy it because the enemy is not
human!

War veterans are already paying the price for their acts.  A
mentally impaired veteran told a late night network interviewer and
a national audience of the agony he lives with, caused by images of
the many of those he killed, including three Iraqis he claimed to
have stabbed to death.  The interviewer spared the tormented man by
not asking how he got close enough to them to stab them to death.
Imagine it!

Our military has created a class of professional killers,
mercenaries in every sense of the word.  Some will become callous
murders by profession; many more will have to live with the agony of
their acts.  Unlike Vietnam, where most soldiers, including Marines,
were drafted or enlisted to avoid the draft, in Iraq every man is
there by his own choice.  Not one can say, "I was there because I
was drafted and I did what I was told to do."  Each one made a
choice.

The press works its subtle distortion in the face of indisputable
evidence.  It fails to make the obvious point that Marine X's act
can only be the tip of the iceberg of thousands or tens of thousands
of slaughtered Iraqis since the onset of "Shock and Awe," a name
intended to imply unimaginable destruction and brutality.  Field
commanders who stated before the first shot was fired that they
planned to kill anyone they found alive.

President Bush cast this war as a struggle between good and evil.
From the highest levels they use the kill word when speaking of
Iraqis.  One Marine colonel, who sounded like a Baptist preacher,
was quoted as saying:


"... the enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He lives in
Falluja. And we're going to destroy him. (TEACHING "VALUES" by
Aljazeera) http://www.whtt.org/whtt.shtml?rpr/Teaching.htm

Marine X is an assassin, but he is only unique in that he forgot he
was on camera.  No cameras or reports were allowed when the original
killing force went through the mosque killing everyone in sight and
leaving this one victim for dead.  Nor is the exposure of this one
murder an isolated case.  On November 14, the day before the killing
began, the following report was posted from interviews with Marines
in Fallujah:

"Some battalions are pushing through the city and others are
clearing it.  Battalions like ours are coming from behind, going
house-to-house killing guys" said a US marine, Lt. Michael Prato.
(HANDSTAND, UK MONTHLY, November 2004)
http://www.whtt.org/whtt.shtml?rpr/Hand.htm)



Lt. Prato told the truth.  His job was to come along behind and
murder the survivors, which is exactly what Marine X did, and that
is what the cameraman recorded only 24 hours later.  There is no way
to minimize it or shift the blame to one man.  The murder plans came
from the top, not from a cursing, screaming ignorant and sadistic
enlisted individual in a mop-up squad.

Unarmed men have been slaughtered; woman and children mutilated and
terrified.  Some women have spontaneously aborted babies due to the
terrible shock and pressure of carpet booming.  Every such hidden
death of an unborn child is a crime equal to the crime committed on
camera.

Blame the Christian and Jewish leaders who reelected Bush and his
war plans by registering and driving Bush voters.  Had Bush lost the
election, there would have been no Fallujah, no matter how week-
kneed John Kerry is, because if had Kerry won, it would have been a
stunning mandate against war, and he would have been forced to seek
a more peaceful path.

The Christian leaders who rallied their people for Bush did so under
the terribly mistaken belief that carrying out the will of Israel's
brutal leaders is their duty to Israel.  This unholy alliance
between a handful of Israeli terrorist leaders, one or two million
militant Israeli patriots, and 40 million or more Judaized
Christians has placed us in the morass of serial wars and spiraling
energy costs.

It has also made a murderer of Marine X and many more.

This secular, Judeo-Christian alliance also bears the blame for the
unbelievably brutal murder of an unarmed 13 year old Palestinian
girl  shot dead at a checkpoint by an Israeli Colonel who riddled
her body with over 20 rifle rounds in front of he friends and
family.  Without the support of the "Christian Right," this killer
of little girls could not have been cleared of all charges, as he
was. (GAZA GIRL  DEATH OFFICER CLEARED)
http://www.whtt.org/whtt.shtml?rpr/Gazagirl.htm



The swing vote for the death mandate comes from the Judaized
churches of America.  They alone, with the Israelis, say the Iraqis
are subhuman and God has ordained their liquidation, just as they
often say God "slew the Canaanites to make way for Israel 3000 years
ago." These apostate elders must suspect deep inside they are
enablers of death, and they mislead those who follow in the name of
Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Let those who agree with us withdraw support from the pro-death
churches now.  Even if you choose to go back to help change the
friends you've left behind, withdraw all financial support.  Join
Project Strait Gate to expose the Judaization of our Christian
churches.

Next week we'll share with you the foolproof one question test to
determine whether any church has been infected.


Would you like to see PHARISEE WATCH PLACED ON THE DESK OF A MILLION
CHURCH LEADERS all over America every week?


Support Strait Gate Ministries every month. Calls welcome, or copy
and paste the following long URL into your browser address window.

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They see the United Kingdom, where 20% of babies conceived are
aborted and 41% of live births are illegitimate, as an undesirable
role model for family life.



No wonder Islam flinches from crusade of Blair values
GERALD WARNER
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1233932004


HUSH, hush, whisper who dares, Britain's exporting the values of
Blair... If you wonder why we are enmeshed in the ever-worsening
crisis in Iraq, then you simply have not been listening. The Great
Charlatan spelled it out at the recent Labour Party conference, when
he explained "success for us in Iraq is not success for America or
Britain, or even Iraq itself, but for the values and the way of life
democracy represents".

That is true (not an encomium one can often award to any claim by
Blair). The insurgency in Iraq has been provoked by fear the
coalition will impose there "the values and the way of life
democracy represents". Observers in the outside world, not having
enjoyed the benefit of being morally anaesthetised by our own
progressive consensus, assess the `values' of western society in
stark, even judgmental, terms.

They see the United Kingdom, where 20% of babies conceived are
aborted and 41% of live births are illegitimate, as an undesirable
role model for family life. We have vowed to bring security to Iraq,
but we are unable to police our own country. Figures just out for
the second quarter of this year record 303,500 violent crimes in
England and Wales - an increase of 11% since last year. Nobody over
the age of 30 dares to venture into the centres of our towns and
cities between 8pm and 4am. The adult members of society are under
curfew and the elderly under house arrest: feral youth has taken
over. Come on in, Iraq - the water's lovely!

Functional illiteracy is growing at a rate that will soon converge
with Iraq's level for males. Driven by the media, British society is
swamped by every kind of vulgarity, indecency and incivility. The
response of the liberal establishment to spiralling drug abuse is to
legalise it. The one indispensable cement of society - the family -
is under unremitting attack from the Blair regime, legally, fiscally
and rhetorically. Marriage is a hated institution the Blairites are
determined to destroy.

There is a widespread pretence that many young women today are
electing not to marry. This liberal assumption conceals the
startling fact that, for the first time in history, marriage is not
an available option for millions of women: no one in their social
milieu would dream of marrying them. Young men have been relieved of
all responsibility - in the name of female emancipation. Feminist
commentators deplore the custom of arranged marriages in other
cultures: tell that to tower-block Tracey, single mum, product
of `peer pressure' from age 12, serial amenity for many `partners'.
She might think it would have been no bad thing if someone had
arranged a marriage for her.

America, leader of the coalition, at least has the merit of being a
morally divided society, with one half still defending traditional
values. That is the constituency of George Bush, who foolishly
allowed himself to be drawn into the Iraqi adventure by the
ideologically deracinated `neo-conservatives'. The other half of
America belongs to John Kerry ("I am a Catholic"), who voted with
the anti-life last-ditchers in defence of partial-birth abortion.

Blair, addressing the US Congress last year, told that
audience: "Our ultimate weapon is not our guns but our beliefs.
Don't ever apologise for your values." In the United States, 25% of
conceptions end in abortion and a further 25% in illegitimate
births. America's annual divorce rate has more than tripled since
1950. The black community, so stable in 1950, has disintegrated: 60%
of black teenagers in the US today are the offspring of single
mothers. The Jerry Springer, trailer-trash culture has overtaken
much of America. In that breeding-ground were spawned the
women `soldiers' whose sadism and sexual grossness appalled the
Middle East. Apologise for our values? Hell, no! What's to apologise
for?

How does the secular west look to Islamic and other societies? Are
people who pray three times a day, marry for life, have a
punctilious sense of sexual decency and a strong attachment to the
family expected to welcome as liberators the amoral, dysfunctional
primates slouching out of the débris of Christendom?

Before September 11, there was a complacent assumption that Islam
was on the way out; that as soon as satellite television brought Sex
and the City to the souk, Muslims would roll over, as the Christians
had done, before the advance of secularism. This turned out to be a
false hope: the advent of Al-Jazeerah and other stations and the
facility with which militant Islam brought its message to the
Internet deprived the west of the cultural advantage. Technology is
not always on the side of atheist modernity: there is even an
Islamic nuclear bomb now, in Pakistan. The odds are becoming more
even.

To compensate for our imploding civilisation, we have made a fetish
of `democracy'. In Britain today, under the management of political
parties which have secured a monopoly of admission to Parliament, it
is now a system of elected dictatorship. We are encouraged to
disregard the loss of our real liberties and to cherish the illusion
that 1/44 millionth of a say in the running of the country is a
precious enfranchisement. In Iraq, it would be 1/12 millionth of a
say - notionally more influential, but of that country's 12.7
million potential electorate, there are at most 50,000 teachers,
doctors and westernised bourgeois who want democracy.

In Britain, disillusionment with the whole farce is reflected in the
71.4% turnout at the 1997 general election slumping to 59.5% in
2001. Viewed from outer space, which looks more of a basket case -
Islam or western secular democracy? Well, now you know who is going
to win.

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Eitan assassinated by Sharon for opposing the Gaza pullout.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Murder Of Rafael 'Raful' Eitan Proven
Barry Chaimish
chamish@...
11-25-4

pictures at http://www.rense.com/general60/murd.htm

Beyond any shadow of any doubt, Raful Eitan did not die while
carried off by a wave as he was standing on a breakwater at Ashdod
port. We have been lied to and maybe this time, we have enough to
get this political murder honestly investigated.

Breaking this murder was as easy as opening pages one and two of
Yediot Ahronot 24/11/04.
I am sending two attachments separately. For those whose programs
automatically delete attachments, fish them out of your Trash box.
They're worth it. I pre-tested the bytes. Both attachments took 8
seconds to send. There should be no complaints about large
attachments.

Now look:

Attachment one - Eitan's car beside the spot on the breakwater where
he allegedly fell in and drowned. First, look at the water. It is
dead calm. Eitan was on the protected side of the breakwater. There
is barely a ripple in all of this bay of the harbor. There are no
big waves which could have towed Eitan in the water, and if a
miracle tsunami had appeared, he would have swum to shore in
seconds.






But now look at the damage to his car. Observe the smashed
windshield, the collapsed roof, the near total destruction of the
right hand side of the vehicle. Now if anyone is crazy enough to
think that a wave caused the wreckage, note the damage on the left
hand side of the car as well. That car was rammed by something sharp
there, by something powerful and blunt on the other side, and it
appears that a fifty pound boulder fell on the roof.

Attachment Two - Raful's corpse found on the military side of the
harbor. Now recall the calm waters where Raful was supposed to have
fallen in and ask how his body floated so far away. But more
important, this is an exposed part of the harbor. Look at the water.
It's churning, but no wave comes close to reaching the top of the
pier. These photos were taken some 90 minutes after Eitan drowned,
however it happened. The weather could not have changed much. There
are no killer waves anywhere.





Now we know something about Raful's last minutes. He tried to escape
his assailants in his car and was violently prevented from doing so.
The murderers actually thought by parking his car on the breakwater,
that people would think a magic wave wrecked it on all sides and
from above,

All doubt is now evaporated. Raful Eitan knew he was in trouble, he
tried to escape his murderers, was chased and sadly, was caught.
It's all in the car. He did not have an accident and drown. It's all
in the waves.

In my initial analysis on the day of the murder, I surmised that
Eitan was going to come out against the Gush Katif evacuation and he
had all the dirt on Sharon he needed to succeed. That appears to be
the case. Here are some words from his last interview:

Raful rarely gave interviews of late. One of these - with the "Iton
Tel Aviv" newspaper in January of this year - was reprinted by Ynet
on the day of his death. Excerpts:

"My opinion is that all these efforts [referring to Sharon's
disengagement plan - ed.] are for naught. With the Arabs, we will
never be able to make peace... This is a struggle between
civilizations. We are a foreign culture, and in my opinion, Islam
will never make peace with our foreign entity, and with the fact
that it has political independence and even defeats them in wars.
They'll never agree... I can prove that whoever thinks that
concessions, compromises, 'Geneva,' Ami Ayalon's plan, are what will
change the Middle East situation - in my opinion is mistaken.

What he could prove and who he could finger, undoubtedly cost him
his life. He is the latest of a long line of political murders
ordered by the "peacemakers" of Israel.

What we have so far failed to do with Rabin, let us succeed with
Raful. We have the proof. We cannot let this opportunity pass. We
can bring justice to Raful. We can yet bring salvation to Israel.

===================
Ex-Israeli army chief drowns

By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Aljazeera.net
23 November 2004

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1192EE7E-0FC7-4E57-9B34-
BFE02E5361B4.htm

Former Israeli army chief of staff Rafael Eitan has died after
drowning at Ashdod Port, south of Tel Aviv. He was 75.

Eitan reportedly fell from a breakwater structure into rough seas in
the early morning on Tuesday and drowned at the port where he was
working as an adviser to a construction company.

Helicopters and rescue ships launched a search and he was found
after two hours, but medics were unable to resuscitate him,
emergency officials said.

Eitan was born in northern Palestine in 1929, and in his late
teenage years joined Jewish groups such as the Hagana and Stern.

He was wounded in action several times, including in the 1956 Sinai
campaign - backed by Britain and France - against Egypt.

During the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982, he ordered the
bombardment of the city, causing thousands of civilian casualties.

He served out his term in disgrace after the official Kahan State
commission of inquiry faulted him for failing to prevent the
massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Israeli-allied militiamen at
Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982.

But the commission did not recommend any action against him.

Notorious

In the mid-80s he founded two right-wing parties called Tehiya
and Tsomet, which called for the expulsion of non-Jews from
Palestine.

Eitan earned notoriety for his comments against Arabs and for
opposing interim peace deals with the Palestinians in the mid-90s.

He served as agriculture minister and environment minister in
Benjamin Netanyahu's government and was appointed to the post of
deputy prime minister.

But his party failed to win support in a general election in 1999
and he left political life.

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Kicking out corporations
by Ken Picard

Rural areas revoke corporate "personhood" in order to reclaim
self-rule.

http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature3.cfm?REF=806
Saturday, October 16, 2004


Porter Township in northwestern Pennsylvania was an unlikely hotbed
for an anti-corporate uprising. The tiny rural community about an
hour north of Pittsburgh has a population of only 1500 people, many
of whom are staunch Republicans with deeply-held conservative values.

But after the Alcosan Corporation, a Pennsylvania sewage-sludge
hauler, threatened to sue Porter Township in 2002 for passing a
local ordinance regulating the dumping of sludge in their community,
town officials decided that their citizens had taken enough crap
from corporations. Literally. So on December 9, 2002, Porter became
the first municipality in the United States to pass a law denying
corporations their rights as "persons" under the law. Weeks later,
Licking Township, another rural Pennsylvania community facing a
similar lawsuit, passed a more expansive ordinance revoking
all constitutional rights of corporations within their jurisdiction.

Since then, dozens of other municipalities across Pennsylvania, some
with as few as 1000 residents, have followed suit, reversing nearly
120 years of corporate encroachment on the rights guaranteed to all
citizens under the US
Constitution. Prompted by the failure of state and federal regulatory
agencies to protect citizens' health, safety and quality of life from
large-scale corporate activities, these municipalities took matters
into their own hands and reclaimed their right of self-rule. Though
the laws fly in the face of more than a century's worth of legal
precedents that say corporations are "persons" protected by the Bill
of Rights and the 14th Amendment, thus far these ordinances seem to
be working.

Now some Vermonters are looking to follow Pennsylvania's example and
draft similar ordinances here to address environmental and public-
health problems stemming from large corporate activities: the influx
of big-box stores, the spreading of toxic sludge, even the proposed
power increase at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Proponents
of this strategy suggest that these laws may even be used one day to
challenge undemocratic principles that were written into the World
Trade Organization charter and the North American Free Trade
Agreement.


Championing this fight is Tom Linzey, a 35-year-old Alabama-born
attorney who is the executive director and co-founder of the
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Founded in 1995, the
Pennsylvania-based CELDF was initially set up to provide free legal
services to small community groups that were fighting big
environmental battles: toxic-waste incinerators, landfills,
municipal sludge fields and corporate factory farms. Since then,
however, the nonprofit law firm has expanded its mission to help
municipalities around the country roll back corporate rights through
local ordinances. CELDF conducts "democracy schools" - intensive,
weekend-long seminars that trace the history of corporate rights and
help citizens reframe local issues according to a new paradigm. Once
such democracy school was held two weeks ago in Putney for 20
Vermonters from the Brattleboro area.

Linzey, who speaks on September 30 at Vermont Law School, explained
in a recent interview how this movement began. In the mid- to late-
1990s, large out-of-state agribusinesses began applying for permits
to build large-scale hog farms in rural Pennsylvania. Local
residents, who overwhelmingly opposed these farming operations,
sought the help of state and federal regulatory agencies like the
EPA. However, these communities soon realized that waging their
battle on the regulatory front wouldn't stop undesirable
businesses from moving into town - it would merely lessen the harm
those activities caused.

The proposed factory farms were huge operations - 5000- to 6000-head
hog farms - that would dwarf neighboring family farms. Before long,
CELDF was inundated with phone calls from local officials across
Pennsylvania - some 400 townships in all - seeking their help at
fending off these corporate farms. So CELDF began researching how
this issue had been handled in other states, particularly in the
Midwest, where 300,000- to 400,000-head hog farms are common.

This was when Linzey made a startling discovery: nine Midwestern
states have laws banning large corporations from owning or
controlling farms.

In fact, Nebraska and South Dakota went so far as to incorporate
that ban into their state constitutions. So CELDF copied the South
Dakota constitutional amendment and used it as a model for local
ordinances. Ten townships and five counties in Pennsylvania have
adopted the anti-corporate farming ordinance. To date, only one has
been overturned by the courts.

During this same period in the 1990s, CELDF also began receiving
calls from community groups and local officials who were trying to
stop the permitting of sludge fields. Sludge, the solid-waste
byproduct of wastewater treatment plants, is not considered
a "hazardous waste" by the federal government. Although it can
contain as many as 600,000 different toxic contaminants, the
US Environmental Protection Agency requires testing for only 11 of
those contaminants.

Spreading sludge on farmland, a practice known as "biosolid land
application," was already a controversial issue in rural Pennsylvania
because of its impact on human and animal health. In 1995, two
youths died after coming into contact with a newly applied sludge
field. In an effort to prevent more sludge from being dumped in
their communities, 68 Pennsylvania townships passed anti-sludge
ordinances.

The corporate waste haulers didn't take these ordinances lying down.
They challenged the laws in court, arguing that townships were
denying them their constitutional rights and didn't have the legal
authority to pass these laws. The corporations also tried to hold
town officials personally liable for passing these laws. They based
their argument on a federal civil rights law that was passed in the
aftermath of the Civil War in order to protect African-Americans
from state-sanctioned discrimination.

Since these corporate sludge haulers had deep pockets, it wasn't even
necessary that they win in court. All they had to do was deplete a
town's financial resources by waging a long and costly legal battle.
How did CELDF respond? As Linzey explains, CELDF helped Porter and
Licking townships draft a "Corporate Rights Elimination Ordinance,"
which effectively stripped the corporation of its right to sue.
Though these laws were an unprecedented challenge to corporate
empowerment, they remain in effect today and have yet to be
challenged in court.

"Corporate rights sometimes get talked about as some academic or
abstract concept like something that's taught in a college political
science class," Linzey says. "Here, what folks have said is that our
vision for our community does not include land-applied sludge. It
does not include factory farms. And that's the community we want."

Critics were quick to label the movement the work of liberal,
anti-business activists. But as Linzey points out, about 80% of the
communities he works with are overwhelmingly conservative and
Republican. "Keep in mind, these are rural township officials with
the shit-kicker boots and the John Deere hats. These are the guys
who clear and salt the roads in the wintertime," he says. "These are
not activists. They are folks who saw a problem and tried to do
something about it."

How effective have the ordinances been? Very, says Linzey. "In the 68
townships that have passed sludge ordinances, not one new teaspoon
of sludge has been land-applied," he says. The same holds true for
the ban on corporate hog farms. In the 10 townships that passed anti-
corporate farm ordinances, Linzey says, not one new corporate hog
farm has been established, even though those areas were targeted for
more factory farms.

Vermont is no stranger to the legal perversion of corporate
"personhood." In April, 1994, the Vermont Legislature passed the
nation's first law requiring the labeling of dairy products
containing the genetically altered growth hormone, rBGH. In
response, agribusiness giant Monsanto and a coalition of
dairy-industry groups sued the state, asserting that the law was
unconstitutional. A federal judge agreed, ruling that the new law
violated Monsanto's First Amendment right "not to speak."

Several weeks ago, 20 people from southern Vermont spent a weekend at
Landmark College in Putney, attending one of CELDF's democracy
schools. Among them was Larry Bloch, a small-business owner from
Brattleboro who is with Vermonters Restoring Democracy. It's an
umbrella organization of groups that deal with issues ranging from
genetically modified organisms to nuclear power to social and
economic justice. Though its members come from a variety of
political backgrounds, what unites them, Bloch explains, is a desire
to combat corporate dominance over local decision-making.


"When a predatory corporation comes in and says, 'We're moving in no
matter what and we don't care if we push out your independently
owned local businesses,' that doesn't affect only progressives or
only conservatives," Bloch says. "To hear the stories from
Pennsylvania was inspiring because these were people who had never
been activists and weren't blessed with a lot of free time or money
or the inclination to shake things up."

Representative Sarah Edwards (P-Brattleboro) agrees. Edwards, who
alsoattended the democracy school, says the seminar helped reframe
the debate in her mind, especially on the issue of nuclear
power. "It's helping me to know who my adversary is," Edwards
says. "I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about the
corporations.

"I have friends who work at [Vermont] Yankee. I know management who
work at Yankee," she adds. "This is not about them. This is about
the system, the machine of the corporation squeezing out the
diversity of voices that is necessary to have a good and healthy
democracy.

Democracy schools already have been held in six states. By next
year, there will be five permanent "Daniel Pennock Democracy
Schools" - named for one of the two boys who died after coming into
contact with the toxic sludge. In the past, these schools have
largely addressed environmental issues. But that's charging, Linzey
notes. Activists in Roxbury, Massachusetts, for example, hope the
Pennsylvania model can be used to challenge the pharmaceutical
industry on its policies pertaining to AIDS drugs.

Others see the approach as a way to counter international agreements
like NAFTA. John Berkowitz is executive director of Southern
Vermonters for a Fair Economy and Environmental Protection. He
points to a law passed in Massachusetts 10 years ago that prohibited
municipalities from signing contracts with companies that do
business with Burma - a country with an abysmal human rights record.
After Japan and the European Union filed a complaint about the law
with the WTO, in 1997 the US Supreme Court struck down the
Massachusetts laws as unconstitutional.

"Wait a minute. Who's deciding what's best for a community?"
Berkowitz asks. "Is it absentee corporations and people working for
trade organizations like the WTO? We're finding that people's local
decision-making abilities are being trumped by trade agreements that
basically say, 'You can't decide that at the local level.'"

But as Linzey reminds people who attend CELDF's democracy schools,
local communities can reclaim the power of self-rule. Like
hurricanes that feed off warmer waters, the anti-corporate movement
draws strength through legal provocation. Says Linzey, "This is
about shifting the paradigm to let people understand that the courts
do step in to defend community rights over corporate rights."

Ken Picard is a staff writer for Seven Days. Reprinted with
permission.

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Eternal Darkness of the American Mind
Manuel Valenzuelas
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6997.htm


10/02/04 "ICH" -- The prevalent and continued decline of the
Empire's mind can be attributed to the evolving degeneration of
American capitalism, through the inherent evils it espouses, its
subjugation and control of human nature, and its consequences on a
society entangled and indeed dependent on the very mechanisms of
exploitation of self, addiction to materialism and the pandemic of
greed. This latest stage of capitalism, the most sinister to arise
from the realm of human conscious, has replaced once nobler,
controllable, equal and just instruments. It is simply the erosion
of capitalism, after having flourishing in previous stages of
development, into a phase that has mutated beyond the control of
humans and into a realm of damaging and malevolent repression and
exploitation.

Thriving off of human nature, feeding and growing from its ability
to dominate our animal instincts, our wants, needs and desires,
capitalism as we know it today has become an unrelenting disease,
jumping from host to host, contaminating a society that, more and
more, lives in utter disconnect from a greater world community and
that allows itself to be manipulated, dumbed down and owned by elite
capitalists whose control over our lives grows more discernible
every day. It is capitalism on steroids, a bulging muscled beast
that has succeeded in mutating American society, transforming our
culture to one whose assembly lines of human procreation manufacture
millions of consumers, producers, worker bees, soldier ants and
growing generations of unthinking automatons.

American capitalism in the first decade of the 21st century is the
inevitable result of an economic form of governance whose stages
have, over the last two centuries, and with exponentially-increasing
dominance, power and control over our society, created a vicious
cycle of evolving degeneration that today runs amok, destroying the
environment and planet, human health and intelligence, individual
thought and free-thinking minds, democracy and a once grand societal
experiment of equality, justice and freedom. It is American
capitalism, then, that now lives off of human exploitation and
ignorance, breathing in and usurping our energy, exhaling poisons
that blacken our eyes and minds while enveloping the Empire's
horizons with a darkness that infects us with its various forms of
disease that are making our society, culture and way of life the
nightmares of yesterday's slaves and the controlled programs
hardwired into tomorrow's automatons.

The Light that brings forth Darkness

The darkness that has encircled the Empire and its people has over
the last fifty years grown thanks to the continued evolution of the
television monitor and the ever-expanding media tentacles of the
corporate world. The TV has become the single biggest tool for the
corporate beast, having morphed in the last few decades into the
apparatus by which consumerism, materialism, belief in fantasy,
mental manipulation, love of the almighty dollar and the virus of
greed are extracted and exploited from the masses, thus enriching
the corporate beast with both the treasure and the controlled,
easily manipulated mind of the American populace.

As the popularity of the television media has grown over the years
and with Americans watching more and more hours of the instruments
of fantasy, propaganda and brainwashing fostered by the corporate
Leviathan, the collective American mind has dissipated in power and
intellect, over the last few decades degenerating and becoming
instead a sponge readily accepting and believing anything and
everything implanted into it by the monitor - the axis by which
everything in our home revolves around - that now serves as its
brain.

The television, that glowing light now reigning as the center of our
homes, robbing us of analytical minds and healthy bodies, that
invention celebrated and adored, has become the single biggest
weapon the corporate capitalists have to dominate, control and
program us. It lies as the great culprit in the continued regression
of the American mind and erosion of intellect, the further dominance
by corporations of our daily lives, the decay and festering
ignorance of our youth, the indifference to world affairs and apathy
to the plight of the peoples of the globe, the unconcern towards
government politics, accountability and transparency, the growth of
our world renowned amnesia and short-attention spans, and the
increased conditioning of and appetite for violence, death and
destruction.Â

From birth it becomes our adopted parent, our consumerist advisor
and materialist shaman, guiding us with its hypnotic light through
the dense fog of capitalistic indoctrination. Training us from birth
how to become good parasitic consumers, bombarding our still
undeveloped brains with fantasy and psychological manipulation,
illuminating our virgin minds with a rapid influx of images that no
incipient human mind has ever been subjected with, the television
begins to distort our concept of reality, marketing fantasy and
fiction, promoting and distorting human needs and wants, rewiring
our fragile mind to suit the needs of the corporation and the
government it owns. Almost from birth the programming making us
obedient consumers trapped between the fantasy we see and the
reality we experience distorts the life we live, forever to
psychologically confuse the mammalian brain inside our skulls.

Indifferent to suffering, displaced from reality and sequestered
from the constructs of human behavior, the innocent mind is, through
television, manipulated to seek what it can never attain. The
perfection of fiction, the happiness of fantasy, the allure of what
will never be and the mesmerizing glow of a world beyond what
humanity could ever become is nonetheless absorbed into our
conscious understanding and subconscious being, haunting us
seemingly from cradle to grave. Throughout our lives the belief that
what we see on the screen is reachable invariably results in a
reality altogether different. We entrap ourselves in a vicious cycle
of a lifetime of production and consumption, as if buying and
producing enough goods and services will lead to the perfection we
have been conditioned to believe can be attained.

What follows over the course of one's life, naturally, is a
perceived belief in failure that the perfection we desperately seek
to emulate and the fictions ingrained in our minds escaped us,
thereby blaming ourselves or our loved ones for the unclimbable
mountaintop whose passage no human could ever reach. The subsequent
unhappiness that follows, of never reaching the beauty, wealth,
happiness and perfection of the fictionally created characters we
become enamored with, combine with other factors prevalent in our
capitalist society to depress our emotions and feelings about
ourselves and the life we lead. Even the accumulation of money,
material goods and modifications of our physical selves fail to
transport us into the fantasy world that invades our living rooms on
a nightly basis.

In many ways, the Molotov cocktail of capitalistic unhappiness has
led to the enormous growth in, demand of and addiction to
pharmaceutical mind altering and hallucinatory drugs so prevalent in
society today that act as conduits of escapism from the unhappy
lives we portend to lead. It is these drugs, now pervasive in
American society yet nonexistent for centuries and millennia before
that have arisen along with the degrading stages of capitalism we
now find ourselves immersed in. It is the television, along with the
other tentacles of modern day capitalism, that is causing an eroded
conscious of human psychology through the indoctrination of the
human brain, from the time of birth, of seeking the perfection that
in the human condition does not and cannot possibly exist but that
thrives in the realm of television, movies and video games.

Seeking meaning and happiness through the possession of material
goods and wealth, becoming insecure of our bodies and beauty by the
incessant bombardment of human perfection and kneeling down to pray
to the Almighty Dollar in front of its altar called the television,
Americans are finding that the goals espoused by the corporate
Leviathan are unattainable. When compared to the perfection we have
seen on the monitor from our early age, the life we lead is boring,
unexciting and imperfect. The real world thus cannot compete with
the vision the corporate capitalists have marketed for us in order
to manipulate buying patterns, control behaviors and expand profits
margins.

The cause for concern among Americans is the effect capitalism and
its tentacles, including the pervasive disease of television, is
having on our psychology. The rise in pharmaceutical drugs designed
for the human brain and our psychological behaviors should act as
the canary sent down the mine shaft. More and more, America is a
nation of pill poppers unhappy and depressed, preferring the escape
of hallucination and the zombie-like behavior of anti-depressants to
the realities facing us today. With 11 million children on anti-
depressants and many more adults dependent on drugs, questions must
begin to be raised as to the causes of such utter degeneration, the
likes of which no society has ever experienced. This is but one more
symptom of a disease the corrosive tumor of capitalism has
engendered onto a society that offers so much wealth, freedom and
materialistic bliss yet lacks enduring waves of human happiness or
enlightenment.

Corporate owned television produces mind-numbing, ignorance-laden,
thought-controlling, escapism-filled, fantasy-saturated and
propaganda-laced programming designed for one simple reason: to hook
us like fish out of water so that we are subjected to a barrage of
advertisements that, it is hoped, inspire us to spend our hard
earned wages on the products that best manipulate our human needs,
wants, emotions and passions. Fiction-filled shows, laced in the
aura of televised perfection and beauty, endeavor our minds to seek
what cannot in reality exist. They are created so that addicted we
become to the characters and story lines, thus becoming loyal
viewers and possible prey. These programs are formulated to attract
whichever demographic and target market a corporation wants as loyal
consumers. The advertisements and products designed for this
particular target are then plastered throughout the enormous window
of opportunity, blitzkrieging our eyes and minds with a volley of
images that attack our psychology, emotions, animalistic behaviors
and human passions.

Methodically the attack starts in our youth as the marketing vipers
seek to incarcerate us into their vast array of products from as
early an age as possible. They know that once they succeed in
squeezing into their grip a young child the strong possibility
exists that a loyal and conditioned customer they will have for an
entire lifetime. It is the undeveloped, susceptible, easily
manipulated and conditioned mind, devoid of analytical thinking and
human experience that the corporate marketers drool over. It is
their Holy Grail, a virgin mind easily exploited and programmed,
naïve to humanity and ignorant of experiences, slowly but surely
becoming the mental and physical slave to those whose incessant
brainwashing fills the airwaves. In the most pure and innocent among
us the corporate sharks enjoy their greatest meals.

Copied from organized religion, which for centuries has perfected
the formula for conditioning and brainwashing children into
controlled and subservient followers of archaic myths and primitive
fables, the systemic usurpation of innocent minds guarantees
loyalty, lifetime consumers, unthinking individuals, psychologically
fragile drones and easily controlled beings. With the twist of a
marketing campaign, corporations can dictate tastes, trends,
consumption patterns and the direction a society or a target market
takes. Through the television, we thus become putty in the hands of
those who are experts at exploiting our senses, feelings, emotions
and passions.

Manipulating our minds and rewiring our thoughts, the television,
nothing more than the mechanism by which the corporate world
controls and dominates us, has transformed human thinking and
behavior like no other instrument in our history. Our minds are
being bombarded with image after image, fantasy after fantasy and
manipulative emotion after manipulative emotion. Our still primitive
brains have never evolved to this reality, and the damage can be
seen in the rise of attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, lack
of discipline and loss of intellectual capacity in children. It can
be seen in a society that has not been able to adapt and handle the
blitzkrieg we see on our monitors on a daily basis and that cannot
escape the conditioning and brainwashing the corporate world and our
government so readily apply into our minds. The proof is all-
encompassing, surrounding us like a thick fog, doing tremendous
damage to the still undeveloped brains of youth, shackling and
controlling almost every activity we do as adults, and haunting our
daily life until death finally opens the gates of escape.


The Bubble of Ignorance


From the cradle to the grave, the television works its corporate
magic, helping make America the most consumerist, materialistic,
gluttonous and wasteful society to ever grace the green lands of
Earth. We gorge on food, we waste like no other, consume as if our
life depended on it and pollute with devastating effect. Like a
plague of locusts we are devouring the natural resources of the
planet, indifferent to the plight of the oceans, the forests and the
other 6 billion people we share this small planet with. Our thirst
for oil can only be met through war, destruction and death, our
appetite for cheap products and labor enslaves billions of humans
worldwide and the need to quench our addiction to material wealth is
rapidly hemorrhaging an Earth ready to purge us from its surface.

We are four percent of the world's population yet contribute 25
percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. We are four percent
of 6.2 billion humans yet indifferent we remain to the damage our
greed unleashes onto humanity. Global warming is now the greatest
threat facing mankind, yet we ignore its truths and our complicity.
Our greed and voracious appetite to consume blinds us to the rape of
ecosystems, the extinction of cultures, the devastation of nations
and the ever-growing despair among the billions of humans not lucky
to live inside the belly of the beast.

We are 290 million people, most of whom believe the lands and
inhabitants of this Earth have been placed by the Almighty in their
rightful position as exploitable property and servants of America,
the only nation allowed to dictate its commands on all others, even
when tens of millions of us have not a clue or a remote idea that an
outside world of peoples and nations exists outside our borders.
Even as the globe becomes a giant village, where the actions of one
affect all others and the collective destiny of humanity depends on
the unity of the entire spectrum of world citizens we seem to care
not a trickle what occurs outside our borders nor understand the
complexities of human interaction.

Through the catastrophe we have created in Iraq our ignorance and
lack of knowledge can be witnessed. In our failure to learn alien
cultures, religions, beliefs and societies, by failing to understand
peoples beyond our shores and remaining oblivious to the hatred our
policies have created our lives have been made less safe, not more,
condemning us to a fear that has augmented our already paranoid
schizophrenia even more. The colossal mistakes in Iraq, Vietnam, the
continued support of Israeli dehumanization of the Palestinians and
our continued shunning of the global community are testament to the
decline of world knowledge and the exponentially-growing ignorance
that only serves to endanger our lives and further alienate the
billions who once admired what America once stood for.

Cocooned and protected by a bubble that insulates us from the truths
and realities affecting billions living at the edge of starvation,
suffering, indigence and under constant threats of disease and
death, we rejoice in our own arrogance and perceived omnipotence.
Unfeeling and apathetic humans we have become to a planet and its
inhabitants that more and more depend on the interconnectedness of
man and synergy of nations to survive from the disaster humankind
always seems to unearth. Yet instead of embracing the rest of
humanity we isolate ourselves from it, hiding behind our wealth, our
gluttony, our arrogance, our perceived aura of superiority and our
incredible and ever-growing ignorance both of ourselves and the rest
of humanity.


The Black Hole of American Education


In a nation of vast wealth, tremendous resources and great diversity
one would expect ignorance to be extinct, intelligence to be all-
encompassing and world and human knowledge to be absolute. Instead,
in America we find the opposite to be true. Our educational system,
reeling from under-funding, incompetence and a crater-like hole of
indifference, resembles the quality of learning one would expect in
an under-developed nation in Africa, where per capita investment in
education is worth $8 dollars per year. The education system has
failed miserably in the last few decades to instill the knowledge in
our children necessary to foster free-thinking and analytical minds
capable of being privy to the past history and present course of
human existence.

Today, education to the vast majority of Americans is a fiasco.
Instead of liberating minds it is enslaving children, programming
our young to always stay in between the lines, becoming obedient
drones whose independent thoughts are superceded by the corporate
and state dictates. Textbooks and curricula distort American
history, brainwashing our future to a revisionist past that fails to
convey the state terrorism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, enslavement,
incessant war and crimes against humanity it took to secure the home
of the free and the land of the brave. The whitewashing of our past
crimes, and what it took to achieve our present wealth, has been
erased from memory, instead giving way to the fictional romance and
revisionist nostalgia of how the United States became the Empire it
is today.

By failing to teach history, with its plethora of lessons and
truisms for understanding who and what we are, our government is
making sure that it is repeated, once again to condemn entire
generations for the mistakes they will commit. For those who have no
concept of humanity nor its easily decipherable nuances and
behaviors that manifest themselves through the eons of human
existence will only repeat the errors of times past that perpetually
linger in the human condition.

By preaching and indoctrinating that our nation can do no wrong,
that it epitomizes the enlightenment of human thought, that we stand
on the moral high ground of human affairs and that our government
seeks only the protection of freedom, liberty and democracy is to do
our progeny a great disservice, for to live in delusion and fiction
only assures that all that is purged from history’s texts will
resurface. The naïve assumption and distorted belief in our
grandeur and altruism, simply because the state makes it so, robs us
of understanding of why today the world hates America.

Instead of thinking on our own, demanding answers, seeking
accountability and questioning authority we acquiesce to the
terrorism the state spawns around the globe, its grip and control
over our lives, and the crimes against humanity committed in our
name. But because we have been trained to believe in the sanctity
and perceived goodness of the state, where it has our best interests
at heart, where it never lies and is incapable of the worst horrors
of human evil, we fail to halt the handful of miscreants that power
has endowed with our collective destiny.Â

The economic genocide labeled "sanctions" imposed on Iraq in the
1990's that exterminated up to a million and a half human beings,
2/3 of them children, is a perfect example of the wickedness our
government is capable of unleashing thanks to our silent passivity.
The murder of three million Vietnamese by bombings, chemical poison
and endemic disease and indigence brought on by American devastation
is another poignant example.

The so called "war on terror", and our indisputable belief in its
valid implementation by the state, allows us to see the blind faith
we place in a government that has mutated into a tool for the
corporate Leviathan and the military-industrial complex. Never do we
question or seek the truth to what might very well be a fiction that
only serves to enrich wicked capitalists through the implementation
of fear to control the populace and the introduction of perpetual
war for perpetual profit.

The fictional war on terror is designed to breed insecurity and fear
so that assembly lines continue spitting out profit and the
corporatist ideology of total power and control arises. Enemies are
thus manufactured, much like those Communist Reds we were once
conditioned to hate and fear, thereby planting paranoia and
schizophrenia onto a populace that blindly wraps itself around the
flag every time our elected leaders press the buttons of
psychological manipulation. It is because of our inability to stand
up and question the state that this "war on terror" charade will
continue to haunt our waking conscious and devastate our
exponentially-growing fragile psyches.

It is our government that is perpetuating the vicious cycle of
violence and whose actions will result in real terror being imported
to our cities and streets. It is our government that, through our
inability to question authority, will assure that perpetual conflict
never ceases and terror remains planted firmly in our minds. The
eternal darkness of the American mind is therefore helping to cement
fear, insecurity and psychological stresses on our present
population and future progeny.

American education has and continues to create unthinking automatons
trained to follow the decrees of the state and the mandates of
authority. Trained to never think for themselves, children are today
prepared for standardized tests while being denied important liberal
arts subject matter that instill analytical thinking, creativity and
inquisitive thought. Thanks to the evisceration of educational
funding and the appointment of George Bush to the White House,
however, millions of children are today being programmed like
robots, robbing them of intellect, knowledge and the power of
liberation that education engenders. This is not by coincidence, as
the corporate owners of government have succeeded in creating a
populace whose only function is to become the slave labor of the
capitalist elite.

Millions of children, many bursting with incredible talent and
ability, are being deprived of opportunity, instead destined to
remain fragmented in their allotted caste, becoming the work force
of the corporatist few, content to sacrifice the keys to mobility
for the comfort of exploitation. With minds that do not think or
question, the few controlling the reigns of our society are free to
implement the tools to further empower themselves at the expense and
degradation of the masses. It is when the people are ignorant to
what is being done to them that the powerful have succeeded in
spawning the eternal darkness of the American mind. This is our
reality today.


As American as Apple Pie

Conditioned through shows, movies and all-too real video games to
violence, war, death and destruction, our minds easily accept the
horrors of war and human evil unleashed by the state. War and
violence has become as American as apple pie, resurfacing every
decade to grease up the assembly line of death and the conveyor
belts of human destruction. We have become rapacious animals
addicted to bombs, bullets, explosions and guns, seeing in ourselves
a Rambo society needy of enemies and battles. We are a war culture,
carefully cultivated by the state and the corporate world, breast-
fed the sanitized and whitewashed parameters of violence. In our
minds, death and destruction are but special effects, the enemy a
necessary entity providing the blood and guts that grace our
monitors and screens.

To us, war remains a PG-13 or R rated Hollywood produced movie or
show, full of pyrotechnics and special effects, heroes and enemies,
good guys and bad dudes. Yet our love for war and violence is based
on the fictions and creations of Hollywood, offering us only a
detached semblance of reality. This, in turn, becomes our perception
of real war, death and destruction, a completely distorted view of a
reality that hundreds of millions worldwide have experienced.

In America, war is a video game, a Hollywood action movie where
blood and guts are spilled and the hero, usually the US, is always
declared the winner. The enemy, nowadays Arab bogeymen, are
ingrained into our minds as the propaganda used to condition us to
the war on terror is inculcated into society. In truth, the horror
of war and violence, excluding 9/11, is as alien to our lands and
cities as the sheer misery befalling billions of humans living
outside our shores. It is because our nation has been safe for so
long that we fail to understand violence and hinder war. Europe,
after centuries of war, finally understands that war and violence
are not a solution to anything human or a means to a viable end.

Our answer to trouble is always in the form of a smart bomb or a
guided missile or through the barrel of a gun. Yet it is brains, not
brawn, that makes humans out of animals. It is our humanity, not our
weaponry, that brings about solutions. It is intelligence and
knowledge, not ignorance and arrogance, that creates friends and
brings forth adoration. Force can never foster emulation; occupation
can never win hearts and minds; guns can never birth democracy;
state terrorism can never defeat the hatred and thirst for vengeance
it unearths. Five beheadings of Americans can never become more
barbaric than the aerial bombing of cities, where hundreds of
innocents are dismembered, maimed, killed and yes, even beheaded. We
do not possess the monopoly on the moral high ground, and if a few
beheadings are barbaric and medieval, then what are we to call the
terrorism raining down from the sky above that exterminates and
maims men, women and children?

Our government is as much a terrorist as those in Beslam, Bali, New
York and Madrid. It is time we stop thinking ourselves the
enlightened culture we are not. It is time to stop a hypocrisy that
seems to validate the atrocities we commit while castigating those
made against us. Up to 30,000 Iraqis have died from our candy-like
cluster bombs, guided missiles, rampaging soldiers and hollow-tipped
bullets. In our name the government falsely imprisoned thousands,
raped hundreds and tortured untold numbers of innocents. In our name
tens of thousands have been injured and millions now suffer the
effects of our occupation. Let’s stop the bull manure. Our silence
makes us all complicit in the state sponsored terrorism the Bush
administration and the US military have exported into Iraq. Iraqi
lives are not worth less than American ones simply because they are
Arab or possess darker skin or believe in a different religion. They
are human, like you and me, breathing air and bleeding red, burying
loved ones and living under constant fear, so stop the hypocrisy.

American society must escape the chains of bondage our minds are
presently trapped in. The dungeon that is our conditioned psychology
must be burned to the ground if we are to exorcise the brainwashed
demons that linger in our beliefs and society. We must do this to
free the young from the darkness encircling them. They are our
future, and our hopes, and must not be made to suffer the pandemic
presently strangulating our society. Let us not condemn another
generation of Americans to the virus destroying free thought. If we
do they will be made to suffer from a perpetual fear and an
incessant insecurity, forever fighting, killing and dying as cannon
fodder for the corporate wars for profit and power. If we fail them
they will grow up lacking the freedoms and rights we once took for
granted.

Into the tunnel of the surreal

American society at the beginning of the 21st century is undergoing
a monumental transformation into dimensions bordering on the
surreal. As capitalism exerts tremendous pressure on parents to
become machine-like, efficient-seeking, Puritanical work ethic
slaves of the corporate Leviathan the television has become parent,
teacher, role model and best friend to America's youth.

It is manipulating, conditioning, brainwashing and programming their
minds, creating obedient drones and unthinking sloths. Attention
spans are being made extinct, collective amnesia is all-encompassing
and anti-depressants are replacing candy as our children's yummy
treats. Relevant news and valuable knowledge are considered boring,
not fast-paced or hip enough in a society born with a remote control
in hand. Reading, the great empowerer of minds, has been all but
abandoned by our young generations, replaced by the video game and
the television. If books bring knowledge, which enables power, then
television creates ignorance, which fosters mental indigence.
Parents have stopped teaching, rearing, raising, disciplining and
loving. Children have stopped learning the concepts of human
interaction; they are losing all semblances of empathy, discipline
and knowledge. The corporation now owns our youth's future; the
state now engineers their minds.

Capitalism has eroded happiness while birthing depression. It has
programmed us for its wars and crimes, making us subservient and
acquiescent beings. Like a marionette it controls us, pulling all
the strings to get its desired results. Into the tunnel of the
surreal our society finds itself, trapped in darkness, shackled to
murky walls of shame, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet
unable to move an inch away from the corrosive grip the latter
stages of capitalism have on us.

In time this economic form of governance will implode upon itself.
The wickedness of its existence and the demons of human nature it
resurrects make this truism an inevitability. The exploitation,
subjugation, and greed it fosters will one day soon force it to
collapse under its own weight. Too many people are made to suffer;
too much inequality and injustice roams the planet. The symptoms of
its disease are presently wreaking havoc on American society. The
signs are visible to anyone who can see how fast the degeneration of
America has taken place, coinciding with the enormous rise of crony
capitalism that has created unsustainable levels of consumerism,
materialism, waste, unhappiness, corruption and greed.

To continue to read article: click here:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6997.htm

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Tom "Duct Tape" Ridge Resigns
December 1, 2004
http://www.aztlan.net/duct_tape_ridge.htm


[IMAGE] Tom Ridge, the first  Homeland Security
Secretary,  resigned yesterday. Ridge had become a
constant embarrassment for the Bush administration
after a growing number of Americans began to complain
about his constant "Cry Wolf" antics.  Worst of all,
during a Homeland Security initiated scare concerning
an impending biological attack on America, Tom Ridge
suggested to mortified Americans that they go to
their local hardware store and buy "duct tape" and
plastic sheeting to tape up their homes against
biological contaminants after an attack.

Tom Ridge's ploys, however, had more sinister
purposes both political and for economic gain.
Bush's re-election was due in part to the "fear vote"
cast by terrorized Americans and Ridge played an
important  part in creating the political environment.

Another purpose was to create a "security gold mine"
for certain corporate supporters of the Bush
presidency. Various  companies have now made billions
in the "security racket."  In American there is now a
multi-billion security market where individual
Republican own companies are profiting from the sale
of security equipment such as metal detectors, x-ray
equipment, explosive powder sniffers, video monitors
and computer security related peripherals.   In
addition, there is now a huge network of so call
private security consultants controlled by Bush's
cronies that provide personnel and security measures
at airports and pretty much at every municipal,
county, state and federal building.

Security personnel and their intrusive methods at the
entrances of many government buildings are completely
unnecessary and are only sucking up much needed tax
dollars.  An example is the extremely elaborate
security at the Los Angeles County Public Works
building in Alhambra, California. In entering the
building to purchase a copy of a tract map one is
confronted by three armed security guards.  They then
escort you to an area of the lobby where they ask you
to produce identity documents. After that they ask
you to stand against the wall to be photographed.
They then print a temporary identification card which
is pinned to your breast. Only then is the person
allowed to go to the map office to purchase a $1.98
copy of a tract map.

The security expenditure at just this one Los Angeles
county building must be considerable.  The much
needed county funds are being wasted at at time when
the county is shutting down much needed county
hospital trauma centers and at a time when
approximately  15,000 homeless families, many of them
with children, are sleeping on the street in any one
night in Los Angeles county.

La Voz de Aztlan asks, is Osama Bin Laden and Al
Queda going to target a county building with a bunch
of archived paper maps?  The answer is no! The real
purpose is the profits being generated for the
security industry and possibly for some county
officials.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
La Voz de Aztlan
http://www.aztlan.net/duct_tape_ridge.htm

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Israel's Torture Den in southern Lebanon


KHIAM PRISON
Israel's Torture Den
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?
Cat=&Board=news_crime&Number=292770364



Khiam prison was a detention and interrogation camp during the years
of the Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon. From 1985 until the
Israeli defeat in May 2000, thousands of Lebanese were held in Khiam
without trial. Most of them were brutally tortured - some of them
died.

The prisoners included members of the resistance, their relatives,
civilians by the dozen whose crime was innocence, who would not
collaborate with the Israelis or the SLA, who refused to join the
murderous little militia, who declined to give the Israelis
information about the Lebanese resistance.

Israel ran the prison using the militia they had created from the
Maronite Christian community - the SLA. The SLA provided Khiams
guards and interrogators whilst israelis held the top positions.
They provided the training for the torturers and lead the torture
sessions. They paid the salaries and provided all the equipment.
They commanded, the SLA followed.

Men women and even several children were locked up without trail,
some spent decades here.


Children Tortured

Ali Kashmar was fourteen when he became caught up in the conflict
that was to cost him his youth. Ali was simply a schoolboy.
"I was like everyone else; all I could think about was playing. At
that stage if I thought about the future at all it was about passing
my exams and waiting for the results of my studies."

This picture was taken just two weeks before Ali disappeared from
his family's life.



Ali Kashmar, aged 14, was imprisoned & tortured at Khiam

No one really seems to know why he was arrested. He thinks it may
have been because he made anti-Israeli remarks in the school
playground.

It happened the night he'd chosen to sleep alone for the first time.

"I thought that that night I'd become a man. I was asleep when
suddenly I had guns pointed at me and my mother and sister were
crying.

There were armed men everywhere - outside the windows, in the street
and on the roof.

Ali Kashmar's Mother Sobiyeh:

"He got to the front door, hugged me and said goodbye Mother. I
collapsed against the wall. After a while I looked around and he was
gone. I ran outside and saw the cars speeding away."

It would be ten years before Ali was back here with his mother
Sobiyeh.

In prison:

"Alone I fought with time. I thought about my parents and my
friends. I got mange for five years because of a lack of
cleanliness, so I used to spend my time scraping my scabs waiting
for the time when they offered me food. I tried to sleep as much as
possible to make the time pass."


Ali Kashmar was now seven years into his detention.



Ali Kashma's mother Sobiyeh without her son for 10 years

Each night his mother would lay an extra place at the table for her
missing son. And as she went about those daily rituals that bind a
family together, she was constantly reminded of the place that had
swallowed him up.

The Kashmar family home is in the town of Khiam and from her roof
she could see the prison.

"I used to take my cigarettes, go up to the roof and sit there. I
used to imagine I was talking to Ali. I'd say; 'my son, my beloved
son, what are you doing now, what are they doing to you, where have
they put you?' I'd think that I was talking to him and that he was
going to answer me. When the neighbours heard me they'd come to take
me down."

The interrogators were looking for intelligence about anti-Israeli
resistance operations. But after eleven days of torture in Khiam the
fourteen year old Ali Kashmar, with no real secrets to tell,
remembers desperately making things up.

"I tried to convince myself that I was someone important. I told
myself I must be stupid, I probably am involved, I've probably done
many things against them and worked for other people without being
aware of it. In the end I made up story after story after story.
Later my conscience started bothering me but I ignored it because I
just couldn't think straight anymore."

The interrogators forgot about Ali, once they realised he had
nothing to tell them. But there were no courts to rule on his guilt
or innocence, no one to appeal to for release. So Khiam kept Ali
anyway. Through his teens and into his twenties.

Freedom could be as arbitrary as detention. In 1998 in an exchange
between Israel and Lebanon, fifty-five Khiam prisoners were freed
and forty-four Lebanese corpses were handed over. The remains of
three Israeli soldiers were delivered in return.

After a decade Ali Kashmar had served his purpose - one of those
bargaining chips in this grim trade in the living and the dead.


Ali Kashmar upon release after 10 year of imprisonment without
charge.

Compare this photo taken upon his release with the one aged 14 which
was taken just before his arrest. The years in between were lost at
Khiam.

Ali Kashmar's Mother on seeing Ali after years or imprisonment:

"I stared at him and said to myself; 'this man has a beard, in my
imagination my son was still a little boy'. I had never thought that
he was grown up and had become a man. I stared at him . I wanted to
say; 'why am I here, where's my son?' Then Ali said; 'Mother look at
me, Mother it's me, Ali'. And he laughed. When I saw his smile I
finally recognised him."


Mother and son reunited again after 10 years

Ali Kashmar on his release:

"For a month I heard but nothing but horns and voices, horns and
traffic and cars. I tried to spend some time alone and sleep, to get
used to the outside world step by step."

"I wanted to go down the street in my pyjamas but my parents told me
this was an embarrassing thing to do. I couldn't understand why
because in prison I always wore pyjamas."

Ali Kashmar about his imprisonment:

"If a person is free he can look in a mirror and see his appearance
changing. In prison we had no means to look at ourselves. Once I saw
a mirror in the guard's room, someone was reflected in it, so I
looked back to see who it was. It turned out to be me. It was I
moving in that mirror."

"It's really hard to summarise all that period in seconds. But I
tell you something - when you die you die in a second but in that
prison you died a hundred times every day."


Methods Of Torture

Ryadh Kalekesh comes from a family that was deeply involved in
Hezbollah and its resistance against Israeli occupation - one of his
brothers had been martyred as a "suicide" bomber.

He didn't have time to play much of an active role in the fighting
himself. In the spring of 1986, when he was seventeen, Israeli
troops made a sweep through his village and he went into hiding.

"When they caught me they started beating me and asking for
information about saboteurs. I told them I didn't know any
saboteurs. I'd come here to visit my grandparents and didn't have
any weapons."

"I lost consciousness. They woke me up by beating me and throwing
water on my face then they made me stand up, my hands and feet
cuffed. They said; 'you will stay like this until we tell you to sit
down'. I was standing the whole time with no food or water. Every
fifteen minutes I'd start to collapse. This lasted for six or seven
hours, throughout that time they were interrogating and beating me."



Ryadh Kalekesh - tortured

In prison, Ryadh Kalekesh:

"I told the guard that I needed to go to the lavatory. He said; 'no,
urinate in your cell'. They gave us hardly any food, so a long time
passed before we defecated. I used to defecate once every fifteen or
twenty days. Many detainees were like me. As for urinating, I used
to urinate on the floor, I had no choice."

Most of the questioning was done in the interrogation rooms and the
process could last for months.

In evidence from the detainees the same stories keep coming up. Most
endured electric shocks administered by attaching wires to the
fingertips, the tongue or the genitals.

Ryadh Kalekesh:

"They electrocuted me, choosing a particularly sensitive place. I
used to lose consciousness and wake up to find myself stumbling
blindly in my room. During the interrogation the Israelis were there
all the time torturing me that way."

New prisoners quickly became familiar with what they called 'the
pole'. Hooded and handcuffed to the ironwork, often naked, they were
beaten, doused in hot then cold water or simply left to hang here
for hours with their toes just touching the ground.


Whole Families Tortured

Sometimes whole families would be drawn in. The Kalekesh's were a
natural target for attention. With one brother Ryadh detained in
Khiam and a second martyred in a "suicide" bomb attack, a third
brother, Adel, came home from abroad to join Hezbollah.

In 1993 Adel was arrested and taken to Khiam too. When he proved
tough under torture his wife was pulled in as well.


Mona, pregnant at the time, was subjected to utmost torture

Three members of the same family were now within Khiam's walls. Mona
was pregnant with their first child at the time. Her interrogator
played her against her husband and her husband against her.

Mona recalls:

"They beat my husband and made me listen to him screaming. They also
made me listen to Ryadh scream while he was beaten. They used this
method for a while but they didn't get anything from me."

The women's section of the prison was smaller than the men's but
some of them were tortured just as badly.

"He beat me and attached the electrodes to my nipples. Then all I
remember is that I was screaming."

Mona spent a total of three months in solitary confinement. After
one day long interrogation she was taken to hospital. When she
returned after being patched up the torture resumed.

"He lay on the bed and started, I don't know how to tell this, he
started masturbating. At that moment I was really terrified. He
approached me while I was sitting on a chair and tried to rub his
body against me. That moment was the only one when I felt really
vulnerable. I felt that he was trying to take something from me.
Then I started crying."

Mona lost her baby in Khiam. Her husband Adel may never be able to
father another child because of the way he was tortured there.


The Tools Of Torture

Robert Fisk, a British journalist, describes what he saw at Khiam
during a visit days after its liberation:

The torturers had just left but the horror remained. There was the
whipping pole and the window grilles where prisoners were tied naked
for days, freezing water thrown over them at night. Then there were
the electric leads for the little dynamo - the machine mercifully
taken off to Israel by the interrogators - which had the inmates
shrieking with pain when the electrodes touched their fingers or
penises. And there were the handcuffs which an ex-prisoner handed to
me yesterday afternoon.


An ex-prisoner demonstrates how "the pole" was used

Engraved into the steel were the words: "The Peerless Handcuff Co.
Springfield, Mass. Made in USA." And I wondered, in Israel's most
shameful prison, if the executives over in Springfield knew what
they were doing when they sold these manacles.

They were used over years to bind the arms of prisoners before
interrogation. And they wore them, day and night, as they were
kicked - kicked so badly in Sulieman Ramadan's case that they later
had to amputate his arm. Another prisoner was so badly beaten, he
lost the use of a leg. I found his crutch in Khiam prison yesterday,
along with piles of Red Cross letters from prisoners -- letters
which the guards from Israel's now-defunct "South Lebanon Army"
militia never bothered to forward.

"I was hung here naked for 13 days,"

Abdullah Attiyeh told me as we walked along a dirty passageway
beside the wall of the old French mandate fort.

"They put a bag on my head and threw cold water over me night and
day."

The hoods were still there, big light-blue corduroy sacks with
towels inside -- some of the towels bought from Norwegian Unifil
soldiers because the UN globe was embroidered on some of them -- and
so was the wire with which other prisoners, including women, were
beaten. Big, thick wire bound in blue plastic. The torturers were
sadistic, often stupid men. There were pornographic magazines and
cheap comics and puzzle books in their filthy quarters. Israel has
admitted teaching these men how to do their job.

Ibrahim Kalash was allowed a bath once every 40 days.

"If we spilt water on the floor, they used to make us lick it
clean," he said.


Khiam prison surrounded by minefields

Abdullah Attiyeh was asked why they didn't escape:

"You're surprised we didn't escape? Four men did. One made it,
another was shot, another captured and the fourth blew himself up on
a mine and lost a leg and an eye."

Around the prison there are minefields galore.

"An Israeli officer came here and told the SLA men 'Destroy
everything that is green', That is why there are no trees, just long
grass with mines."


UN Stayed Silent


The screams of the prisoners being tortured could be heard from the
UN post

Khiam wasn't entirely isolated from the outside world. From the
prison yard you can see the blue flag of the United Nations snapping
in the Mediterranean breeze.

There was a UN post within sight and hearing of Khiam throughout its
time as a detention and interrogation centre.

But they did nothing - "the UN contingent here are supposed to be
observing Lebanon's border with Israel, it's not part of the mandate
to act on whatever may or may not have seen or heard beyond the
prison walls."


Confessions Of A Prison Guard

Tanios Nahra was a guard at Khiam from 1985 until 1987 - years which
saw some of the worst excesses.


Tanios Nahra, Khiam Prison Guard

Tanios Nahra:

"There was this old field telephone they used to wind manually, the
wires were tied to the detainee's fingers and could produce as much
power as your mains at home. If you crank it quickly the detainee
might lose consciousness so it's better to crank it slowly - that
way the detainee suffers more."

Do you remember seeing Israeli officers present while electric shock
treatment was being administered or while people were on the pole?

"They weren't just present; they themselves hung people on the pole
and electrocuted them. The Lebanese interrogators imitated the
Israelis because they were in charge. The Israelis were present less
often but as for torture they were even worse."


Confessions Of A Nurse

When prisoners did get medical attention, they were brought to the
Israeli run Marjayoun Hospital.


Marjayoun Hospital where tortured prisoners were sometimes brought

None of the staff would talk openly about what they saw when
prisoners were brought in. One nurse did agree to speak if her
identy was concealed.

Nurse:

"They were brought here with bags on their heads, even if they had
asthma. They would be dragged in here hooded and handcuffed. The
guard would torture them. When prisoners rang he would verbally
abuse them and beat them. Then he'd lock the door and wouldn't let
anyone come in. The guard sometimes used to stub his cigarettes out
on the patients."

The medical files at Marjayoun Hospital provide one of the very few
sources of written evidence about what happened at Khiam prison. The
prisoners are listed not by their family names but by their prison
numbers and these paint a pretty grim picture of the condition some
of them were in when they were brought here. The diagnoses include
trauma to the head, broken limbs, injured testicles, several
miscarriages, gunshot wounds and one patient is recorded as having
multiple trauma.


Conditions In The Cells

Six prisoners would be held in dark cells little more than six feet
square. They went weeks without washing and were allowed into light
for exercise only once a month.


Prisoners were only allowed into the light once a month

Hunger strikes about conditions were commonplace. A spell in
solitary was often the punishment.

These punishment cells were just concrete boxes less than a metre
wide apart from a tiny ventilation shaft at the top. They had no
toilets and only a few were big enough to lie down in. It wasn't
just hours or days that prisoners spent in these, many of them were
there for weeks even months in solitary and one detainee said he did
a seven month stretch.

How to survive when locked up for years in solitary confinement
between the four walls of a 1m 80 by 80 cell; or when six people
have to share a 2.25 by 2.25 m room.

Deprived of the most basic necessities, the prisoners recreated
them, picking up secretly and hiding bits of string, wood and stone,
cheese wrappers, olive stones, garbage. That is how they contrived
to produce secretly a neele, a pencil, strings of prayer beads made
of olive stones...


Prisoners secretly produced works of art from garbage


Prayer beads from olive stones ... a comb from drift wood

The prisoners used their walls as canvases for expressing
themselves. In the women's section there is a drawing of a fish with
a heart attached to it and a painting of six white horses running
over a darkened field. There was a picture of Father Christmas taken
from a chocolate wrapper. And names.

"Zeina Koutash,
born 3/9/79, arrested 7/5/99, released 3/1/2000."

There were the names of Rana Awada and Ismahan Ali Khalil, only 19
when she was dragged to this awful place by the SLA.

"How many drops of blood have been spilt on our soil and have not
flowered?"

she wrote on the wall, along with two words.

"Remember me."

In the mens section, Abu Ahlan had written on his wall:

"Lebanon is ours and for our children after us."


School Teacher Tortured To Death

Nowhere, it seems, was beyond Khiam's reach. This head teacher of a
school was picked up in 1986.


School Head TeacherAbdullah Hamzi, father of three children,
was tortured to death at Khiam prison

Abdullah Hamzi had made no secret of his opposition to the Israeli
occupation. But his family insist he wasn't part of the guerrilla
campaign against Israel.

He left a wife and three children behind when he was taken away by
Israeli soldiers one February dawn. They had no idea what became of
him once he'd gone.

Feyrouz Hamzi:

"We went crazy, we lost our minds. We used to ask and ask and ask
and make enquiries; 'do you know where they've taken him?' We
couldn't find him. Some said they'd killed him, others said he was
still here, some said he was taken to Israel. Some said they'd put
him in a cell alone."


Feyrouz Hamzi, widow of murdered teacher Abdullah Hamzi

What Feyrouz and her children didn't know is that she was already a
widow, they were already orphans. Abdullah Hamzi was killed within
three weeks of arriving in Khiam.

The events of that night unfolded in earshot of Ryadh Kalekesh's
cell. He recalls:

"He kept shouting; 'there are no charges against me, this is unjust
and unfair'. He banged on the door demanding to be released. Then
the guards took him out, handcuffed him, hung him on the pole and
beat him. When he died at their hands the guards started blaming
each other for the death of Abdullah Hamzi."

For three and a half years, oblivious of the truth, Feyrouz walked
the thirty miles to Khiam carrying clothes and food to the husband
she believed was being held there.


For three and a half years Feyrous walked the 30 miles to bring food
and cloths for her husband who, unknown to her, was already dead

She eventually learnt what had happened from detainees who were
released.

But even now this family's Khiam story isn't quite over.

Feyrouz Hamzi:

"We want his body so we can bury him. We want to know where he is.
We'll never give up our fight to bring him back. This is what we're
demanding, even if it costs us our lives, we want his body back."

Abdullah Hamzi died in the spring of 1986.


In 1989 two prisoners were killed during a protest - the guards
threw tear gas into their windowless cells.

Another three are believed to have lost their lives as a result of
torture. Two prisoners simply disappeared and altogether at least
fourteen people are believed to have died in this detention centre
or not long after leaving it. The full toll isn't known for certain.


Israel Defeated By Hizbullah

The final act unravelled faster than anyone could have anticipated.
In May 2000 Israeli troops scrambled out of southern Lebanon with
Hezbollah forces hard on their heels


Israeli Army, defeated and humiliated by Hizbullah,
scramble out of Lebanon in the cover of darkness

Twenty-two years of occupation were over. Hezbollah and their allies
were victorious. Without Israeli support the SLA simply melted away.


Hizbullah is victorious

Crowds enter Khiam Prison and freed the prisoners


The first sight of freedom:
Cries of 'Allah O Akbar' - God is Greater


Prisoners being freed as the prison echos of 'Allah O Akbar'


Free but its not over

One of those freed that final day was Ryadh Kalekesh:

"My mind was racing. A thousand thoughts went through my mind. I
felt fear and euphoria at the same time. I wanted to find the girl
who'd been faithful to me and was waiting for me."

As towns and villages all over southern Lebanon welcomed home their
local heroes, Ryadh Kalekesh had something more to celebrate.

He and Nada fell in love as teenagers. They got engaged just before
his detention and she waited for him throughout those fourteen years
and four months.

Nada recalls:

"Everyone was greeting him but I wasn't there. He was looking for
me. When we finally found each other I fainted. I woke up to hear
him saying; 'it's me, Ryadh, I'm here, wake up'. I looked at him and
my tears started running. He hugged me and put me in the car. This
was our meeting, it was a strange feeling."


Nada engaged to Ryadh waited for 14 years while he was imprisoned

But the years Ryadh Kalekesh spent in Khiam have left their mark.
The electric shock torture did long term damage - he's had six
operations on his genitals over the past five months.

His doctor says almost all the long term detainees from Khiam he's
examined have eye problems because of the conditions they were kept
in.

Ali Kashmar suffers frequent panic attacks. His mother says he
desperately needs help he's not getting.


Ali Kashmar still suffers frequent panic attacks, his mother attends
him

Ali Kashmar's mother confides:

"He feels anxiety. He asks me to sit by his side and says; 'I feel a
pressure in my body that wants to escape'. He remains like that all
day. Sometimes he spends three or four days or even a week asleep.
He does nothing but eat, go to the toilet and sleep. He slips into a
state of drowsiness."

Khiam is now a place of pilgrimage. At weekends hundreds of people
crowd through the buildings.


Entrance of Khiam Prison after liberation

Their guides, who saw so much suffering here, want justice.

There are those who believe that for the sake of reconciliation
Khiam's story should be allowed to slip quietly into history,
especially at this sensitive moment in Middle East politics.

But there are also those for whom forgetting is not an option.

Ali Kashmar is still a prisoner of his memories. Ali is asked: When
you stand here and look at the prison what goes through your mind?

Ali Kashmar cannot reply, he shakes his head and walks away.

So what has become of those who are guilty of this crime?

The people of Israel have elected him, Sharon who led the brutal
invasion of Lebanon and is responsible for these war crimes, as
their Prime Minister. His lackeys the SLA torturers who escaped
Lebanon, today enjoy holiday apartments with Mediterranean views as
guests of the state of Israel.

URL: http://www.inminds.com/khiam-prison.html


References:

This article relies on the work of several journalists and reporters
for which we are grateful: Most of the interviews and images are
taken from the BBC Correspondent Series episode titled "Israel
Accused" which was broadcast on 4th November 2000 (44 min). The
reporter was Edward Stourton.

The description of the torture den came from Robert Fisk's
article "Inside a torturers' den, manacles lie abandoned" which
appeared in the Independent Newspaper on 25th May 2000.

Part of the description of the prison cells came from Hilary
Andersons BBC News report on Khiam Prison which was broadcast on May
27th 2000.

Details of how the prisoners spent their time locked up deprived of
the most basic necessities, and the images of their artwork
originates from the introduction to the film Khiam by Joana
Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Lebanon/2001/Video/52 min).




Post Extras:



TDM358
(insurgent)
07/10/04 12:06 AM
   KHIAM PRISON  [ To: graybeard  |  Post 292770378, reply to
292770372 ] (Score: 2)

The BBC tape.

The neoconservatives ... stand ready to sacrifice as many goyim as
it takes. Even if you think this war isn't especially necessary, you
have to admire such determination. JOSEPH SOBRAN

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Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at
roadblock

By Chris McGreal in Jerusalem

The Guardian
29 November 2004

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1361552,00.html

Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the
past week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video
footage of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin.

The incident was not as shocking as the recording of an Israeli
officer pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and
then saying he would have shot her even if she had been three years
old.

Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of
ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a
man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth.

But the matter of the violin touched on something deeper about the
way Israelis see themselves, and their conflict with the
Palestinians.

The violinist, Wissam Tayem, was on his way to a music lesson near
Nablus when he said an Israeli officer ordered him to "play
something sad" while soldiers made fun of him. After several
minutes, he was told he could pass.

It may be that the soldiers wanted Mr Tayem to prove he was indeed a
musician walking to a lesson because, as a man under 30, he would
not normally have been permitted through the checkpoint.

But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace
activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally
perturbed about the treatment of Arabs.

The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident
disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide
background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked,
referring to the Nazi extermination camp.

The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock
and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been
diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem.

Yoram Kaniuk, author of a book about a Jewish violinist forced to
play for a concentration camp commander, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth
newspaper that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial "not
for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust".

"Of all the terrible things done at the roadblocks, this story is
one which negates the very possibility of the existence of Israel as
a Jewish state. If [the military] does not put these soldiers on
trial we will have no moral right to speak of ourselves as a state
that rose from the Holocaust," he wrote.

"If we allow Jewish soldiers to put an Arab violinist at a roadblock
and laugh at him, we have succeeded in arriving at the lowest moral
point possible. Our entire existence in this Arab region was
justified, and is still justified, by our suffering; by Jewish
violinists in the camps."

Others took a broader view by drawing a link between the routine
dehumanising treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the
desecration of dead bodies and what looks very much like the murder
of a terrified 13-year-old Palestinian girl by an army officer in
Gaza.

Israelis put great store in a belief that their army is "the most
moral in the world" because it says it adheres to a code of "the
purity of arms". There is rarely much public questioning of the
army's routine explanation that Palestinian civilians who have been
killed had been "caught in crossfire", or that children are shot
because they are used as cover by fighters.

But the public's confidence has been shaken by the revelations of
the past week. The audio recording of the shooting of the
13-year-old, Iman al-Hams, prompted much soul searching, although
the revulsion appears to be as much at the Israeli officer firing a
stream of bullets into her lifeless body as the killing itself. Some
soldiers told Israeli papers that their mothers had sought
assurances that they did not do that kind of thing.

One Israeli peace group, the Arik Institute, took out large
newspaper adverts to plead for "Jewish patriots" to "open your eyes
and look around" at the suffering of Palestinians.

The incidents prompted the army to call in all commanders from the
rank of lieutenant-colonel to emphasise the importance of
maintaining the "purity of arms" code.

The army's critics say the real problem is not the behaviour of
soldiers on the ground but the climate of impunity that emanates
from the top.

While the officer responsible for killing Iman al-Hams has been
charged with relatively minor offences, and the soldiers who forced
the violinist to play were ticked off for being "insensitive", the
only troops who were swiftly punished for violating regulations last
week were some who posed naked in the snow for a photograph. They
were dismissed from their unit.

Last week the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem criticised what it
described as a "culture of impunity" within the army. The group says
at least 1,656 Palestinian non-combatants have been killed during
the intifada, including 529 children.

"To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a
Palestinian," it said.

"The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a
trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of
impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the
value the Israeli military places on Palestinian life."

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P10K peace force
From: human@...


As the atrocities in Palestine (Iraq & beyond) continue to mount,
with our (western) taxes providing the vast majority of funding no
less, I am as always deeply saddened and angry at what we in the
west can do, and what we are doing.  The potential and the reality
are shameful and those who continue to be maimed and murdered by our
nations are only reflections  of our lack of will, not our lack of
ability.

I maintain wholeheartedly that Human Shields were the best chance
Iraqi's had to avoid the seemingly inevitable mass murder and
occupation.  But instead we employed our tried and tested dissention
through protest. Protest organisers managed the largest protest in
the history of Britain (perhaps 2 million) and the single largest
day of protest the world has ever seen (Feb. 15, 2003 – perhaps 15
million).  We hailed our "protest successes"… and than the invasion
went ahead with hardly a glitch.

And yet we continue to employ (largely exclusively) the protest
strategy as if somehow the results will be different each new time
we use it.  Who are we kidding?

This is a fact; roughly 100 Human Shields, strategically placed at
six sites around Baghdad during the "Shock & Awe" bombing campaign,
did indeed save untold lives.  Dozens or maybe even hundreds were
spared just by Human Shield presence.  Not one site where Human
Shields were deployed was bombed, despite similar sites throughout
Iraq being destroyed (as they were in the first Gulf War in 1991).
That is the power just a few of us hold.

What if a few thousand Human Shields out of a total population of 879
million in the west would have shown up pre-invasion?  Would that
have achieved more than 15 million people protesting around the
world? You bet it would.  We would most definitely have saved
thousands of lives.  And even if we still failed to stop the
invasion we would have than become critical material witnesses who
would have verified the crimes against humanity, mass murder and
state sponsored terrorism that our nations are directly responsible
for or complicit with.  We would have exposed the murderous truth by
transcending the "Prostitutes of Propaganda" in the corporate media;
we would have compiled the physical evidence to send Blair and Bush
straight to the International Criminal Court.

Do not tell me our presence in the thousands would not have changed
everything… drastically, it surely would have.  Do not tell me there
is not tens of thousands of compassionate, conscientious and
wonderful people who are ready to act in unison in order to save our
planet from our currently insane path; there are tens of millions of
such people at the least.  And the moment we get really serious we
will understand that mobilising in the lands of our victims is the
most powerful act of all. This is what I intend to prove.

Protests should be the very least we do, rather than the excuse we
use to say "I did my part, I went to the protests."  Bollucks to
that; our protests do not mean a damn thing to those who are maimed
and murdered daily.

When will several thousand of us stand up, in unison, intelligently,
to let the tyrants and their puppets know the way this world will be
run from that day forward?  When will we, those of conscience, those
who see the pending disaster ahead, take the stand that must be
taken in order to turn this world around for the better?  I say we
do so as soon as is possible… and not a moment later.  I say we do
it now.

And now I say again that P10K (http://www.P10K.net) is the very best
plan put on the table for achieving the above goal.  It is a simple
plan and one that is far more realistic than the cynics and tyrants
would have us believe.  It has the support of virtually all
Palestinians and peace loving Israeli's including Mordechai Vanunu.
Noam Chomsky supports it, as does every other peace loving person
who has taken a genuine look at the plan.  I am in regular contact
with my brothers and sisters in Palestine and they continually
express their deep desire to support P10K in every way they can.
But alas I have not been successful in the most critical initial
element of P10K, the `Agreement in Principle' for a cessation
of offensive operations in Israel on behalf of the resisting
factions in Palestine (Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade).  That would have insured the rapid growth of the P10K
FORCE.

"The Palestinian Department of Foreign Relations and the Palestinian
Legislative Council are ready to support you (P10K) in everything you
need. I have links with Israeli's and we can invite them to
participate. If this campaign succeeds, it will finish Palestinian
suffering on the ground." - Abbas Zaki, General Delegate Foreign
Relations & Central Committee of Fatah

Despite my best efforts however, I could not (through phone and fax
communiqués) get Hamas and Islamic Jihad to agree to this ceasefire
in return for 10,000 western/world citizens (P10K FORCE) arriving in
Palestine.  Only Al Aqsa Martyrs had agreed; no small task either I
might add.  But this was not enough and that is why I
attempted "illegal entry" into Gaza in June 2004; I was going there
to meet with the so-called "terrorists", in order to secure this
agreement.  But I was subsequently apprehended by the Israeli
Defence Forces in the security zone between Israeli and Palestinian
Gaza.  It is distinctly possible that if I had made it into
Palestinian Gaza that I might just have succeeded in securing
this agreement; instead I was jailed and deported by the Israeli
Government.  This has made promoting P10K much more difficult, and
therefore the work will take longer.

So for those of you who are not clear about P10K or the P10K FORCE;
the P10K FORCE will be comprised of no less than 10,000 people who
will serve two major objectives when they arrive (in unison) to the
occupied territories of Palestine;

1. The catalyst for the resisting factions in Palestine to cease
offensive operations in Israel while we (P10K FORCE) live in and
among the Palestinian population.  This objective negates any bogus
argument that Israel would make to say we are a "Security Risk."
2. To act as International Observers who will document any and all
Human Rights violations and violations of International Law in the
interest of compelling the application of International Law;
International Law that makes clear the illegality of the Israeli
Apartheid Wall, the settlements, the theft of further Palestinian
land and the occupation as a whole.

"If the Palestinian resistance feels they are alone, they will use
weapons, but if the world community comes, then we will use other
methods, to peacefully take our freedom." - Awni Mashni, Fatah

It is just that simple and this plan will only happen when 10,000
people minimum are registered and ready to deploy.  If Israel
attempts to stop all 10,000 of us; than it is time to do what Gandhi
would do.

"More and more Israelis, who have not lost their conscience, have
joined in (non-violent struggle). A huge presence of internationals
from all over the world would constitute an enormous push to this
struggle, and will give us all a renewed sense of hope. " - Tanya
Reinhart speaking, Professor of Linguistics at Tel Aviv University

Let us acknowledge a painful fact, the Palestinians continue to be
the victims of not just Israeli brutality, but western lack of
will.  If democracy exists at all than we have the power to compel
balanced treatment for Israel as has occurred for Iraq and other
Arab nations. Israel has flouted United Nations resolutions for over
three decades while actively developing illegal nuclear, biological
and chemical weapons capabilities.  All the while our
western "democracies" do little more than express pathetically
insincere words of disapproval backed with no action of any
consequence.  That's not democracy, so let us effect democracy on
our own terms.

I say again that P10K has more chance of major results than any other
citizen-based initiative that I am aware of.

"This (P10K) is a very imaginative, creative, and courageous
initiative. If it receives the support it merits it could have a
major impact on moves towards reconciliation, peace, and hopes for
justice and freedom in this tortured corner of the world." – Noam
Chomsky

P10K will change the world; 10,000 people who will become the
conscience of humanity; replacing the collective conscience that has
slumbered in a coma for far too long.

I do not know how long it will take to prove the power of P10K, to
acquire the 10,000 registrants, but I will do my best.  The main
thing I put to every person who reads this now is; would you or
would you not want to be 1 of 10,000 who will travel to Palestine
for the objectives stated above? If yes than why have you not yet
registered to be part of the P10K FORCE? Because the bottom line is
that the P10K FORCE will only happen when the 10,000 people are
registered and ready to go.

Whether it takes six months, one year or longer I will continue to
present P10K until the 10,000 are registered.  That is my priority
in life and despite my limitations as one person I am not alone, I
have incredible support and a growing team and we are all committed
to the P10K Mission. And the sooner those of conscience realise the
power of the P10K plan the sooner we will together make history,
save life and truly turn this world around for the better.

REGISTER for the P10K FORCE!

TJP,
Ken O'Keefe

PS – A P10K Registration Tour of the United Kingdom, Ireland and
Europe is being planned for early 2005, if you live in any of these
areas and wish to host this presentation (which will feature Ken
O'Keefe and guest speakers from Israel and Palestine) than email
P10K organisers at human@...

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Here a worthwhile piece by Yael Lerer, who is proactively engaged in
cultural bridging in her unique initiative Andalus:

http://www.oznik.com/words/041116.html

The Word in Times of Crisis
Given at Mare Nostrum III:
The Mediterranean: Dividing Waters or Common Ground?
The role of literature and writers in a world in conflict,
Cyprus – Nov.5th-7th 2004,
The European Writers' Congress (EWC) and the Cyprus Writers Union
(CWU).
Yael Lerer
16 Nov. 2004

The title of this session is "The Word in Times of Crisis," and I
was invited here to speak as an Israeli who translates Arabic
literature into Hebrew. My assumption, later confirmed by the
organizers of this event, was that I has been invited to talk about
OUR times of crisis—that of Israelis and Palestinians. But before I
address THE WORD in times of crisis, I would like to say a few words
about THE CRISIS ITSELF. There is no "time of crisis" in
Israel/Palestine. There is a permanent state of conflict between
colonizer and colonized, occupier and occupied, the privileged and
the disenfranchised.

This conflict is rooted in the Zionist enterprise, in the very idea
of a "land without people for a people without a land." It
intensified after the Nakba—the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948 in
which some 3/4 of a million Palestinians were expelled from their
homeland—and continued with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza
in 1967, which has now entered its 38th year. Today, one can say
that this conflict is "stabilizing" (if one can use such a term in
the context of ongoing horror), in the form of an Apartheid-like
regime. I use Apartheid-like because there is no other term at my
disposal to describe the policy of unequal separation unilaterally
enforced by Israel, beginning with "roads for Jews" and "roads for
Arabs"—if the latter are lucky enough to have a functional road at
all—and on to separate tracks for almost every other function or
facet of daily life.

Thus, it is very difficult for me to relate to the current reality
as a "time of crisis," an anomalous epoch disrupting the would-be
normalcy of the times.

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the current situation is
particularly harsh. In the past month alone, some 430 Palestinians
were injured, 140 Palestinians were killed—including 25 children
under the age of 18. The Israeli army damaged at least 230 homes in
the northern Gaza Strip, including 85 housing units ground to dust.
The Israelis called this operation, or 2 weeks of wanton
destruction "The Days of Repentance."

In Judaism, the "Days of Repentance" mark the 10 days between the
Jewish New Year—Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement.
These are the days during which every Jewish man and woman should be
soul-searching, and asking for forgiveness from friends and foes
alike, as well as from God. Days of good deeds, prayers, and
appeals. The Day of Atonement is the climax in a process of
expressing regret, begging for mercy, and demonstrating kindness. On
Yom Kippur 2004, the Israeli army destroyed 45 houses in Gaza.
The operation "Days of Repentance" was launched four days later, on
the eve of Sukkoth, the holiday of harvest, of reaping what you sow.
A seven-day holiday during which most Israelis are on vacation,
public festivities are held around the country, attended by hundreds
of thousands of people. The Hebrew media were full of images of
Israelis at leisure, at play, celebrating in the traditional
makeshift tabernacle known as the sukka. Almost nonexistent were
images of the Palestinians forced into makeshift huts FOR REAL
because their homes, and their lives, were being systematically
destroyed.

As a Jew, this reality is unbearable, and calls my work, if not my
life in this country, into question. How can one hear such news, and
then pick up the phone to call the literary supplements to find out
if this or that book is going to be reviewed? How can one get angry
at the fact that nobody has noticed that Andalus—the publishing
house I founded and run—has printed a new title, when nobody notices
what's taking place next door. As a private person, and an Israeli
citizen, it is more important that I pick up the phone to call the
editors of the daily papers to find out why they are omitting news
of the ongoing massacre in Gaza. Before Israeli readers should get
to know Arabic literature, they should know AND CARE about the
crimes that are being perpetrated in their name. At times like
these, it seems that to do anything other than to struggle against
the occupation is to normalize an unbearable situation. By
normalize, I mean treat the abnormal, the intolerable, as if it were
routine.

Indeed, OUR "Time of Crisis," has being going on for over 100 years,
though, as I noted earlier, since the Nakba of 1948, it has become a
permanent state of expulsion, dispossession, oppression, and
occupation. I was born into this conflict, it wasn't a matter of
choice. I was also born into the Hebrew language, my mother tongue
as well as that of both my parents. Since I became a conscious
adult, I have found this reality intolerable, but more importantly,
I have tried to assume responsibility for it. I am the expeller, the
dispossessor, the oppressor, the occupier. It was I who riddled the
tender 13-year-old body of Iman al-Hams of Rafah with 20 live
bullets; it is I who holds the key to the locked gate in the wall
that separates Palestinian schoolchildren from their school.
Yet in any other country, and any other tongue, I would feel myself
a stranger, an immigrant. My fierce criticism of Zionism
notwithstanding, it created me, along with several million other
native Hebrew speakers whose only homeland was established upon the
ruins of another. Knowing this, it is my responsibility to fight for
national and civic equality between Arabs and Jews; to work for
historic reconciliation based on the Israeli recognition of the
Palestinian Right of Return; for a life of partnership, justice, and
equality. The only framework in which I can envision realizing these
values, is a bi-national one. To quote Israeli historian Amnon Raz-
Krakotzkin, who proposes bi-nationalism as the basis for rethinking
a political alternative.

Bi-national is first of all a description of the existing reality.
And since the national distinction—Jews vs. Arabs—is the basis for
the definition of this reality, the bi-national position is the only
one which embodies the demand to dismantle the mechanisms by which
the Jewish collective asserts control over the Arab collective. The
bi-national position launches a discussion that integrates the
various aspects of the so-called "Palestinian question"—usually
discussed separately: the occupied territories, the refugees, the
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the future of the Jewish
collective in Israel and its surrounding Arab environment.
In Raz-Krakotzkin's words:

"The discussion is a single discussion: the question of the Jews and
the question of the Arabs. One can not speak of Jewish rights
without speaking about Palestinian rights. Similarly, one cannot
accept a separation between the discussion on the occupation and the
discussion on the Jewish character of the State of Israel, as though
they were separate issues. Only by combining these discussions, is
change likely to occur."

Raz-Krakotzkin evokes the term bi-nationalism not as an alternative
to a Palestinian state in the form of a single state, but rather as
an alternative to the principle of "separation," a precept that has
informed Zionism from the outset. It was Labor's last Prime
Minister, Ehud Barak, who put it to cynical use in his electoral
campaign with the barefaced slogan (borrowed from the extreme
right!): "We are Here and They are There!" WE being the Jews and
THEY being the Arabs. Adopting separation as THE precondition
for "peace," as THE necessary requirement for Israeli recognition of
a Palestinian state, has meant that under the guise of Israeli
withdrawal, Israel has in fact intensified the occupation by
expanding settlements, paving bypass roads, and confiscating great
amounts of land in order to orchestrate separation upon separation.
The massive wall under construction deep inside the West Bank, is
but this precept's most recent and blatant physical example.
To quote Raz-Krakotzkin again:

"Bi-nationalism, in the broad sense, is the question of the Arab-
Jew, and its aim is to counter the Orientalist paradigm that pits
one of these identities against the other—in all the senses that
paradigm functions as a basis for the definition of Israeli culture…
The category Arab-Jew isn't merely marking an identity that was and
still is the basis for the consciousness of Arab Jews [i.e., Jews
who originated in Arab lands]: it is meant to constitute a basis for
defining the consciousness of every Israeli, the new basis for
Israeli identity, whose existence and right to do so, must be
premised on their existence in the Arab world. As long as Israeli
discourse is premised on the dichotomy Arab vs. Jew, it will be
impossible to frame an alternative. Arab-Jew is, thus, a call for
partnership based on the decolonization of Jewish identity in all
senses and contexts."

Andalus Publishing is guided by such a bi-national conception, by
the assumption that the only life possible is a life together, in
Israel-Palestine and in our larger Arab surroundings. Of course,
this should include cultural partnership, literary partnership.
Andalus seeks to foster points of contact between Hebrew and Arabic
literature, the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and the worlds (and
words) they convey; to imbed Arabic literature into the Hebrew
experience; to create a textual middle ground, an intermediate
cultural space that blurs borders but avoids the pitfalls of
Orientalism, which distances rather than draws closer. Blurring
borders means resisting the hegemonic dictate to separate and
refusing to accept the false binary Arab vs. Jew.
Andalus Publishing seeks to evoke a shared Arab-Jewish past.
Andalus, the site of the "golden age" of Islamic and Jewish thought,
where Arabic and Jewish cultures fed and fertilized one another, was
also an epoch known for its literary and intellectual output by some
of the greatest Muslim and Jewish philosophers, theologians, and
poets. It was a period during which texts were translated and ideas
exchanged freely from Arabic to Hebrew and vice versa.
Andalus was established a few months BEFORE the outbreak of the
current Intifada. Here I must admit that, despite my clarification
at the outset, the feeling of crisis we have been in since October
2000: the daily killings, the spiraling Israeli descent into
fascism, would have precluded Andalus' establishment a few months
AFTER the outbreak of the current Intifada. That is to say, I had
yet to learn (!) to accept horror as a fixed situation—which it
isn't, it only gets worse by the year.

Between 1932—when Menahem Kapeliuk's Hebrew translation of Taha
Hussein's Al-Ayyam (The Days) was published in Tel Aviv—and 2000,
less than 40 Arabic language fiction titles were translated from
Arabic into Hebrew. Most of these were authored by Egyptians and
Palestinians (before Andalus Publishing began operating, not a
single Syrian, Iraqi, or North African writer was translated to
Hebrew from Arabic—the Moroccan Taher Ben Jaloun was translated from
French as were a number of others). Of these, only three are women:
the Palestinians Sahar Khalife and Fadwa Tuqan, and the Egyptian
Nawal al-Sa'adawi.
Contemporary Arabic writers who have been translated into many
languages, and, needless to say, are well known to every literate
Arab, remain unknown to the Hebrew reader, save for the Egyptian
Nobel laureate Nagib Mahfouz. The names of authors such as the
Egyptian Sunallah Ibrahim, the Syrian Zakaria Tamer, the Lebanese
Hanan al-Sheikh and Elias Khoury, not to mention the late Iraqi Jew
Samir Naqash who wrote in Arabic and published from his home in
Petach Tiqva, Israel are not familiar to the Israeli public, nor is
their extensive body of literary work.

Despite Israel's location in the heart of the Arab world, Hebrew-
reading Israelis remain, for the most part, unexposed to Arabic
culture in general, and Arabic literature and thought in particular.
Until recently it was nearly impossible to find translations of
narratives that might enable the Hebrew reader to understand Arab
societies and the various, complex experiences that shape the lives
of the people who comprise them.

What could be more normal than translating Hanan al-Sheikh or Hoda
Barakat into Hebrew? And here we arrive at the greatest paradox of
all. While at Andalus we are guided by a conception that seeks to
normalize Jewish existence in the Arab world, we must ask ourselves
day in and day out whether or not acting "normal" also normalizes
the current situation, which, as I noted before is not only
abnormal, but intolerable.

Questions of normalization preoccupy not only us. In may 2001,
following Andalus' appeal to several Arab writers to grant us
permission to translate and publish their works, an intensive debate
broke out among Arab writers and intellectuals over the pages of the
Arabic press on the pros and cons of translating Arabic literature
into Hebrew, re-examining the question of cultural normalization.
The late Edward Said was fierce in his attack on those Arab writers
who oppose having their works translated into Hebrew. Over the pages
of Al-Hayat he wrote:

"Take the recent campaign against the translation of Arabic books
into Hebrew. One would have thought that the more Arabic literature
is available in Israel, the better able Israelis are to understand
us as a people, and to stop treating us as animals or less-than-
human. Instead we have the sorry spectacle of serious Arab writers
actually denouncing their colleagues for "allowing" themselves
to "normalize" with Israel, which is the idiotic phrase used as an
accusation for collaborating with the enemy. Isn't it the case, as
Julien Benda was the first to say, that intellectuals are supposed
to go against collective passions instead of trading in them
demagogically? How on earth is a Hebrew translation an act of
collaboration? Getting into a foreign language is always a victory
for the writer. Always and in each case. Isn't it a far more
intelligent and useful thing than the craven "normalization" of the
various countries that have trade and diplomatic relationships with
the enemy even as Palestinians are being killed like so many flies
by the Israeli army and air force? Aren't Hebrew translations of
Arabic literature a way of entering Israeli life culturally, making
a positive effect in it, changing people's mind from bloody passion
to reasonable understanding of Israel's Arab Others, especially when
it is Israeli publishers who have gone and published the
translations as a sign of cultural protest against Israel's
barbarous Arab policy?"

Although I agree with Said's every word, I must say that as time
(that of crisis and that of heightened crisis) goes by, my pessimism
only grows deeper, and the answers to these question appear ever-
less clear.

Yael Lerer is the founder of Andalus Publishing, publisher of Arabic
Literature in Hebrew translation.

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Columbia vows swift action on anti-Israel professors

By Shlomo Shamir

Haaretz / 26 November 2004

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/506594.html

NEW YORK - Columbia University president Lee Bollinger plans
"specific steps" soon in response to allegations that professors and
lecturers at the Ivy League university made vitriolic and malicious
comments against Israel in classes.

Bollinger made the pledge in a Wednesday phone call to
Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman. Bollinger
didn't detail the character of the steps, but emphasized "the matter
will be handled immediately."

New York's Columbia University was recently embarrassed by reports
that Middle Eastern professors are exploiting their academic
standing to express extreme political views on Israel, using
slanderous and defamatory statements.

The allegations against the professors, including their names and
photographs, were published at the beginning of the week in an
investigative report by mass-circulation newspaper the New York
Daily News.

Jewish sources in New York reported Thursday that major Jewish
donors to the university were considering severing ties with the
prestigious institution in response to the "corrupt behavior" by
academic staff. In particular, the sources mentioned Jewish
graduates of the university active in alumni organizations.

They said that Bollinger had recently received irate requests from
alumni protesting the behavior and explaining they expected an
appropriate response from the university to what they called
"malicious comments" against Israel.

The university president recently proposed the establishment of a
special chair for Israeli Studies, with the view of separating it
from Middle East Studies. The proposal was interpreted by the Jewish
community as an appeasement gesture after the wave of protest
against the professors' behavior.

Foxman told Haaretz on Thursday that he his meeting with Bollinger
had left him with the impression that "he is aware of the problem
and understands its seriousness."

Foxman called the Columbia events "particularly grave as the
institution is located in New York, which has a large Jewish
population, and Jewish students are exposed to insults from
professors."

Foxman emphasized that "if Columbia handles the problem decisively,
it will be a strong message to other U.S. campuses where similar
phenomena occur."

================
ADC Action Alert:
Defend Academic Freedom at Columbia University

11/24/04--ADC expresses its deep concern over increased attempts to
silence free speech and academic freedom at Columbia University.

Professor Joseph Massad, an untenured junior faculty member in the
department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures
(MEALAC) has been the target of a campaign designed to intimidate
academics critical of Israel and U.S. foreign policy in the Arab
world. Citing "the duress of coercion and intimidation,"
Professor Massad has decided not to teach his course on Palestinian
and Israeli Politics and Societies next semester.

A "special report" in the New York Daily News on November 21 accused
the MEALAC department of "promoting an I-hate-Israel agenda,
embracing the ugliest of Arab propaganda, and teaching that Zionism
is the root of all evil in the Mideast." Arguing that "Columbia has
been infected with a contingent of faculty members whose hatred for
Israel has eclipsed any academic mission that makes sense," a
November 19 New York Sun editorial went so far as to demand that
Columbia University President expand his investigation to
include "the content of the scholars' research." At least one
Congressman, Representative Anthony Weiner, has publicly called for
Professor Massad to be fired.

This flurry of attacks was triggered by private showings of "Columbia
Unbecoming," a film produced by The David Project, a Boston-based
anti-Palestinian initiative formed in 2002 "in response to the
growing ideological assault on Israel." In the film, a small number
of students affiliated with Lionpac, the University's pro-Israel
student club, accused Professor Massad of intimidating students who
expressed views sympathetic of Israel. Not one of the students
interviewed in the film has ever filed any kind of complaint against
Professor Massad or the MEALAC through any of the appropriate
channels. Few had ever taken a class with him. Students supportive
of Professor Massad and appreciative of his classroom instruction
were not interviewed by the filmmakers.

Citing concern over the "disturbing and offensive nature of
incidents described in the film," Columbia University President Lee
Bollinger has already announced plans to investigate accusations of
anti-Semitism and intimidation at the University. In October, he
appointed Provost Alan Brinkley to lead the investigation into
allegations of intimidation and assess the adequacy of the grievance
process.

ADC has long expressed serious concerns about efforts to stifle free
speech on US campuses by labeling any criticism of Israel as "anti-
Semitism" and these latest efforts by The David Project must be seen
within the context of the organized national campaign to intimidate
and silence supporters of Palestinian human rights. For more
information, see ADC's earlier press release:

http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=1142

Leading the charge against any academic criticism of Israel is
Daniel Pipes' "Campus Watch" project (see: www.campuswatch.org).
Launched in September 2002, Pipes' website monitors the political
views of US professors and graduate students, maintains "dossiers"
on professors and academic institutions deemed insufficiently pro-
Israel, and urges students to inform on their professors' views.
Since its inception, a number of professors, students and other
prominent persons have been targeted. The "survey institutions"
section includes condemnations of Colorado College for inviting
Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi to speak at a symposium. In
addition to Professor Massad, Columbia Professors Rashid Khalidi and
Hamid Dabashi, as well as others such as Tariq Ramadan, have also
been targeted.

ACTION REQUESTED:

ADC members are urged to contact the Columbia University
administration to express support for academic freedom on campus and
urge the University President not to bow to political pressure to
silence professors critical of Israeli or American policy.

CONTACT:

University President Lee Bollinger
Telephone: 212.854.9970
Fax: 212.854.9973
Email: Bollinger@...

University Provost Alan Brinkley
Telephone: (212) 854-2404
Fax: (212) 932-0418
Email: ab65@...

For more information see:

Joseph Massad's Statement in Response to the Intimidation of
Columbia University
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mealac/faculty/massad/

"Columbia Unbecoming" in the clear light of day
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3296.shtml

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's statement on "Columbia
Unbecoming"
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/president/communications%
20files/davidprojectfilm.htm

Columbia University Provost Alan Brinkely's statement on "Columbia
Unbecoming"
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/provost/docs/news.html

Online Petition in Support of Professor Massad
http://www.petitiononline.com/jmassad/petition.html

ADC Denounces New Efforts to Chill Academic Freedom [2002]
http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=1142

Campus Watch Survey: Columbia University
http://www.campus-watch.org/survey.php/id/1

===========================================
Celebrate ADC's 25 Years of Dedicated Service to Civil and Human
Rights

CONTRIBUTE TO AND/OR JOIN ADC, CLICK HERE:
https://www.adc.org/membership/
===========================================

For more information, contact Laila Al-Qatami at:

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
4201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20008
Tel: (202) 244-2990, Fax: (202) 244-3196, Email: adc@...
  www.adc.org

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THE LAVON AFFAIR
IS HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF?

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/lavon.html


In 1954, Israeli agents working in Egypt planted bombs in several
buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility, and left
evidence behind implicating Arabs as the culprits. The ruse would
have worked, had not one of the bombs detonated prematurely,
allowing the Egyptians to capture and identify one of the bombers,
which in turn led to the round up of an Israeli spy ring. Some of
the spies were from Israel, while others were recruited from the
local Jewish population. Israel responded to the scandal with claims
in the media that there was no spy ring, that it was all a hoax
perpetrated by "anti-Semites". But as the public trial progressed,
it was evident that Israel had indeed been behind the bombing.
Eventually, Israeli's Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was brought down
by the scandal, although it appears that he was himself the victim
of a frame-up by the real authors of the bombing project, code
named "Operation Susannah."

It is therefore a fact that Israel has a prior history of setting
off bombs with the intent to blame Arabs for them.

This is not the only example of a "False Flag" operation designed to
trick the United States into attacking Israel's enemies. According
to Victor Ostrovsky, a Mossad defector now living in Canada, Ronald
Reagan was tricked into bombing Libya by means of a radio
transmitter smuggled into Tripoli by the Mossad, which broadcast
messages designed to fool the United States into thinking Libya was
about to launch a massive terror attack on the west. On the basis of
this fake evidence, the US bombed Libya, killing Khadaffi's
daughter.

The Jews of Iraq is a story by a Jewish writer revealing yet another
false flag operation where Israelis used bombs and planted the blame
on Arabs






So, with this established history, it is now time to re-examine some
facts about the World Trade Towers:




1. There is no proof at all of who was actually on the hijacked
airplanes last 9/11. Even the head of the FBI admits that the only
hard evidence are the names used by the hijackers on faked IDs. At
least 7 of the men whose names were on those IDs have since turned
up alive. Another had died back in 1999. None of the names of the
alleged hijackers were on the passenger lists of the four aircraft.
We do not know who was on those planes, only that we are supposed to
think they were Arab Muslims. 2. The night before the attacks on the
World Trade Towers, men using those stolen identities visited bars
and strip clubs, making sure they would be noticed and remembered by
all they met. Students of Islam will confirm that no Muslim devout
enough to be willing to commit suicide would spend the night before
he was to meet Allah violating so many of Islam's laws regarding
alcohol and nude women. This suggests the planting of a false trail
ahead of time, doubly so because we know the identities were stolen.
Coupled with the deception of the faked Osama "confession" video
tape , it is beyond question that deception and fraud exists in the
World Trade Towers case.

3. Contrary to early reports (including a statement by George Bush)
of large numbers of Israelis being killed in the 9-11 attacks, only
two Israelis died, both passengers on the airplanes. No Israelis
working in or near the World Trade Towers died. The foreign press
has long rumored that Israelis were given an advance warning not to
go to work on 9-11, and in the case of Odigo, an Israeli company
with offices located near the World Trade Towers, the existence of a
warning message sent before the four aircraft had even left the
ground is an established fact. That someone in Israel knew of the
attacks ahead of time is beyond question.

4. There is an Israeli spy ring. As in the Lavon Affair, Israeli
assets have been trying to dismiss the spy ring story (apparently
with the FBI's help) while accusing those who refuse to be silent
of "anti-Semitism". The lesson from the Lavon case is that Israel's
strident denials and smear campaigns are a sure sign that something
is indeed being covered up, even as the "art students" continue to
be deported. And, as a US Official stated in Carl Cameron's
suppressed story on the Israeli Spy/Bugging Ring, evidence does
exist that links the arrested Israeli spies with 9-11, but that this
evidence has been classified by the United States Government,
probably to keep from looking like total idiots at having been so
easily fooled for the Nth time.

The United States has been deceived before by Israeli covert
operations with the intention of harming American relations with the
Arab nations. Israel has never hesitated to kill Americans (USS
Liberty) or allow Americans to be killed (The bombing in Beirut that
killed 241 American Marines) when it serves a purpose. And, the fact
remains that Israel has exploited 9-11 from the instant when Ehud
Barak appeared on the BBC moments after the attacks on the World
Trade Towers (holding a prepared speech) to the aggression against
the Palestinian people which has escalated non-stop ever since 9-11.

Who is responsible for the World Trade Towers attacks? We truly do
not know. What we do know beyond all doubt is that someone went to a
great deal of effort to provide an easy and at times all-too-obvious
a target to blame. Our nation was fooled by that stunt before. The
result was that our money and the blood of our children was spent to
attack someone else's enemies.

There is an old saying that goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool
me twice, shame on ME!"

There is another saying, "We won't get fooled again!"


What Really Happened

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/lavon.html

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Fallujah families 'desperate for food'

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society on Thursday was able for the first
time to deliver aid directly to families stranded by fighting in
Fallujah

  http://snipurl.com/awbh

Fallujah - The Iraqi Red Crescent Society on Thursday was able for
the first time to deliver aid directly to families stranded by
fighting in Fallujah after a United States-led offensive to wrest
the Sunni-Muslim city from insurgents.

A single Red Crescent team delivered food and water to five families
in a battered northern Fallujah neighbourhood, an AFP photographer
reported, after US Marines patrolling the area found them hiding in
their homes.

The Red Crescent estimates that only 150 to 175 families remained in
Fallujah after the start of the US-led offensive on November 8, and
civilians living in the ruined city have become desperate for water
and blankets.

Red Crescent officials met Thursday with US Marine Lieutenant
Colonel Gary Montgomery to discuss co-operative aid efforts.

Red Crescent convoys had been able to enter Fallujah on Wednesday
and Monday, but only toured the city and said they were unable to
move freely and find any of the civilians who needed assistance.

Red Crescent efforts to assist civilians still in Fallujah have been
frustrated by ongoing military operations, and the agency's co-
ordinator for Fallujah, Jotiar Nafaa, said getting out into the city
to assess how many people need help is the organization's first
priority.

"It should start going better," Montgomery said after Thursday's
meeting. "We weren't getting the information we needed from them so
they weren't getting what we needed from us and were getting
frustrated." - Sapa-AFP

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Tortured Into Making  A Confession, Canadian Palestinian Sentenced To
Four Years Imprisonment by Israeli Military Court

By Yahya Abdul Rahman

Montreal - Nov 25, 2004 (MMN) - In October 2003, 23 year old Jamal
Akkal, a Palestinian-Canadian attending the University of Windsor,
traveled to the Gaza strip to meet with his fiancée in the community
of
Nusseriat, where he himself has been born. He moved to Canada in 1999
and since then obtained his Canadian citizenship

More than 12 months after his arrival in Gaza - despite the fact that
Israel has no legal jurisdiction there - on November 23, 2004 Akkal
was
formally sentenced by an Israeli military court to four years
imprisonment and issued a fine of $500 (CDN) for being a Hamas
assassin
and planning attacks on Jewish and Israel targets in North America.
Akkal had stayed for one month in Gaza before he began his long trip
back to Canada. He arrived at Rafah on Nov 1, 2003 to go through the
border to Egypt but was picked up by Israel's intelligence agency,
Shin Bet. His Canadian passport was not helpful at all.

During his month long visit Akkal reportedly fired 8 rounds from a
rifle into the air, which is a common practice in Palestinian
society, especially during times of celebration. A Palestinian
collaborator for Shin Bet, who is active in the Nusseirat refugee
camp, witnessed the incident. Prominent Hamas activist Ahmed Wahabi
was also reportedly present at the time Akkal fired the rifle. The
collaborator relayed the incident to Shin Bet, who then arranged to
have Akkal arrested as he attempted to leave Gaza.

Over the next month Israeli intelligence interrogated Akkal and
subjected him to beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological
torture and eventually was able to extract a range of 'confessions'
on which they built their case against him. He was forced to sign a
confession in Hebrew, a language that he does not understand.
Although interrogation by torture is absolutely prohibited by
Israeli and international law, despite this fact and according to
reports from numerous Human Rights organizations, Israeli security
forces breach this prohibition and torture Palestinians during
interrogation on a routine basis. In its 2003 report, Amnesty
International took a close look at Israel over the span of just one
year and wrote:  "The IDF arrested thousands of Palestinians,
including hundreds of minors, throughout the Occupied Territories.
Most were released without charge and many without having been
questioned. Ill-treatment was widespread during arrest and
interrogation, and there were numerous reports of torture in
detention, including beatings, being handcuffed and tied in
uncomfortable positions for prolonged periods, threats to the
detainee and their relatives, and sleep deprivation. At least one
detainee died in custody after he was beaten."

On December 14, 2004 the formal charge against Akkal was put forward
by Lieutenant-Colonel David Benjamin, Israel's top military
prosecutor in the Gaza Strip, who explained the alleged plot to
reporters as follows as quoted in the Dec 16th edition of the Globe
and Mail: "The plan was, as we understand from his statement, to
find a person who looked Jewish by the skullcap or some other
defining feature...in Canada,…And they said, 'You know, make sure
it's a Jew, and then go and attach a bomb to the door of the house."

The confession which Akkal signed stated that Hamas had enlisted him
to attack Jewish targets in North America. The Israeli military also
charged him with having been approached by Wahabi to raise money in
North American mosques. The fund was officially to be raised for
families of Palestinian suicide bombers but would actually be used
to fund his militant activities.  According to the indictment, Akkal
was to buy an M-16 rifle in Detroit and bomb materials to carry out
the attacks in cities where many Jews live. The charge seems strange
as Hamas has never been active in launching any kind of attacks
outside Palestine.  Under a plea bargain agreement a second charge
that Akkal underwent military training was dropped.

Jameel Kahtib, Akkal's lawyer, described Akkal as sad and angry over
the plea agreement.

"It's difficult to describe his emotions because he feels he is
innocent," the lawyer said. "He believes he should be free, but we
don't have another choice."

Since his full sentence on November 23,  Akkal has pleaded for Prime
Minister Paul Martin to help him and has repeatedly maintained his
innocence and hoped that Canadians would not forget him.

"Even though he is not allowed to speak, in the short walk between
the holding cell and the courtroom he did proclaim his innocence,"
CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer told CTV News.

When she asked Akkal his message for Prime Minister Paul
Martin, "Get me out of here," were his final words.

Marie-Christine Lilkoff of Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Ottawa said Canadian officials had followed Akkal's case closely.

"Now that Mr. Akkal has been sentenced, the Canadian government will
assist him to explore the options open to him and will continue to
provide consular assistance. However, we cannot interfere in the
judicial process of another country," she said.

This is a strange statement especially when it is contrasted with
the case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who died
in Iranian custody in July 2003 after being arrested for taking
pictures outside a prison during a student protest in Tehran. An
Iranian security agent was charged and acquitted of killing her.
Canada certainly did  "interfere in the judicial process of another
country" in this case. For example, on July 25, 2004 the Foreign
Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said he was dissatisfied with the
trial and acquittal of Kazemi's accused killer. In addition, on July
23, 2003, and then again on July 18, 2004 Canada recalled its
ambassador to Iran  - Philip MacKinnon  - over its objections of how
the case was being handled by the Iranian judiciary. Former Foreign
Affairs Minister Bill Graham also said he planned to take the case
to the UN's International Court of Justice. Also on July 21, 2003
Graham called for swifter action in the investigation into the death
of Zahra Kazemi. He stated that Kazemi's treatment "was a flagrant
violation of her rights under international human rights law and a
breach of obligations that Iran owes to the international
community."  On September 10, 2003 Graham also stated he wanted the
UN Human Rights commission to help find out what really happened
when Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in a jail in Iran.
Only recently has Canada appointed a new ambassador to Iran.

For the most part Palestinians have been denied the right to express
their opinions on Akkal's case via the media. The mainstream press
has instead resorted to inviting Israeli spin doctors who passs
themselves off as "Hamas experts" and proclaim Israeli courts to be
the epitome of justice. Furthermore, little or no refernce has been
made to the fact that Hamas denied it has trained Akkal, has never
operated outside of Israel and the land it occupies, nor do they
have any interest in changing that  policy.  In addition, no
reference has been made that just a few days before Akkal's arrival
into Gaza, the Israeli aramy launched an incursion into Rafah -
described by Amnesty International as "a war crime" - destroying 170
houses that had sheltered a total of more than 2000 people, leaving
53 Palestinians wounded, and killing 8, including 3 children.
Instead what we get is reference to one Palestinian shooting a rifle
into the air which harmed no one.

Finally, Akkal himself is not allowed to address the public and
defend himself and we may never hear him speak in his own words
until his release 3-4 years from now.

The bottom line is that Jamal Akkal is yet another victim of the
Sharon government's attempts to fabricate evidence of a Hamas
conspiracy in North America, publically demonize the Muslim
community and create the impression that Muslims are launching acts
of terror on Canadian soil. This will in turn be used as a pre-text
to further scrutinize Canadian Muslims and to restrict their civil
liberties while all the while Israel continues on with its daily
crimes against the Palestinian people.

http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/akkal.htm

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WASHINGTON'S SECRET NUCLEAR WAR
mindfully.org


Sept. 14, 2004- Illegal weapons of mass destruction have not only
been found in Iraq but have been used against Iraqis and have even
killed US troops. . . Thousands of DU shells and bombs have been
used in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and - both during the 1990-91 Gulf
war and the ongoing conflict - in Iraq. "They"re using it now,
they're using it in Falluja, Baghdad is chock-a-block with DU "It's
all over the place," says Maj. Doug Rokke, Dir. of the army's DU
project in 1994-95. . . DU has a "half-life" of 4.5 billion years,
meaning it takes that long for just half of its atoms to decay. . .
Only 467 US soldiers were officially wounded during the 1990-91 Gulf
war. But according to Terry Jemison at the US Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA), of the more than 592,560 discharged personnel who
served there, at least 179,310 - one third - are receiving
disability compensation and over 24,760 cases were pending in
September 2004. This does not include personnel still active and
receiving care from the military, or those who have died. And among
the 168,528 veterans of the current conflict in Iraq who have left
active duty, 16% (27,571) had sought treatment from the VA by July
04. . . Dr. Jenan Ali, a senior Iraqi doctor at Basra hospital's
College of Medicine, says her studies show a 100% rise in child
leukaemia in the region in the decade after the first Gulf war, with
a 242% increase in all types of malignancies.


The director of the Afghan DU and Recovery Fund, Dr. Daud Miraki,
says . . . "Many children are born with no eyes, no limbs, or
tumours protruding from their mouths and eyes," Some newborns are
barely recognizable as human, he says.  Many do not survive. . .
Full story: mindfully.org

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The Bible Unearthed

by Larry Saltzman - The Palestine Chronicle

PalestineChronicle.com:

A revolution is happening in Biblical Archaeology. Biblical
Archaeology is critically examining the Bible against the
archaeological record and is turning everything we thought we knew
upside down. It may disturb many that hold strong political or
highly conservative religious beliefs. This will be true of
Christians, Muslims and Jews who interpret the Bible literally.

It will disturb many secular Zionists who justify modern Israel's
existence and the proposed annexation of "Judah and Samaria" based
on the Biblical Texts. You can choose to believe this research or
not. But it has profound implications for the Israeli Palestinian
conflict. This article will review the theories of one of the
foremost of these revolutionary Biblical archaeologists - Israel
Finkelstein.

Professor Finkelstein is an Israeli and has received a lot of
criticism in Israel for his work from conservative elements in the
society that are aware of what it means for the Biblical
underpinnings of Zionism. To read more about the research that lies
behind this summary, I refer you to the writings of Israel
Finkelstein. The most accessible book is The Bible Unearthed:
Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its
Sacred Texts, written with Neil Asher Silberman and published by The
Free Press in 2001. Finkelstein is one of a group of radical
archaeologists that is turning the field of biblical archaeology on
its head.

Archaeologists live in a world of tells, strata, Carbon 14 dating,
Jericho IV, The Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age, Iron Age I and
Iron Age II and of course pottery shards and architectural styles.
Slowly but surely as they excavate and date the significant
Archaeological sites located in modern Israel and parts of Occupied
Palestine the history of the region as recorded in the Bible is
being re-written from what the Bible has told us. What follows is a
very brief summary of that research and an analysis of its
implications.

Professor Finkelstein has not attempted himself to interpret his
research in the context of the contemporary political and diplomatic
complexities of the Middle East. He has simply presented the facts
that the archaeological record has revealed. Some archaeologists
still disagree, but his is a mainstream scientific view and not the
work of a fringe writer with a political or conspiracy axe to grind.
And more and more prominent scholars in the field are moving to
something like his viewpoint, even though they may disagree on the
details.



Israel, Judah and Samaria were simply Canaanite States that arose
out of indigenous Canaanite culture and not from the invasion of a
mythical people called the Hebrews. Israel was a small Canaanite
State that briefly achieved a golden age, reaching its' height of
power and glory in the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The
House of David never ruled in Israel, it ruled over the Canaanite
State of Judah.

Finkelstein is convinced that the House of David did exist. David
and Solomon were probably tribal chiefs in the hill country that
became the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem was the Capital of Judah not
of Israel. In the time of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was an
unimportant very small town with no great Temple. The major cult
centres were farther to the north in the cities of Israel. In fact
the great cities of Canaan that were previously attributed to the
Solomon were built by Israeli Kings like Ahab.

It was under King Josiah that the Bible was finally written and
something resembling modern Judaism begins to take shape in the 7th
and 8th centuries BC. It is a political document that is designed to
glorify the Josiah and to connect him falsely with the golden era
when the state of Israel briefly rose up as a powerful and advanced
civilized centre. The Bible is essentially a work of propaganda,
weaving historical fragments and myths of various Canaanite peoples
into a powerful justification for Josiah's rule and expansionist
policies.

I personally draw a positive conclusion from this research. As an
American-Jew, I have long struggled with the contradictions and
problems of Zionism and the unjust policies of the State of Israel
towards Palestinians. For those brave enough to seize this research
in the right spirit, there is a solution in it for the problems of
the Middle East. Simply stated, European Jews, Middle Eastern Jews,
and Palestinians are brothers and sisters and share a common
Canaanite ancestry. There were a small number of voices amongst the
early Zionists who were against the creation of a separate Jewish
state in the region. They lost out to the bigger faction lead by
David Ben-Gurion, who suffered from the disease of European
colonialism. Ben-Gurion and those in his camp saw the natives of the
region as an obstacle to be eliminated. I believe Jews around the
world need to take pride not in Israel as a modern colonialist State
but in the entire region of Palestine as the homeland of Canaanite
and Israelite culture that we are descended from. European Jews are
simply Europeanized Canaanites; Palestinians, whether Muslim,
Christian or Jewish were simply Arabised Canaanites. Even modern
genetic research is proving that we come from the same ancestry.

Think of Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans returning to their
ancestral homelands to experience the culture and the people. They
do not think they have the right to conquer the land and dispossess
those who stayed behind. Rather they go back to re-connect with
their cultural roots from those who are part of the living culture.
Because of Zionism, Jews lost the chance to return to Palestine and
re-connect with the Palestinians who are the people that have
carried forward the culture of ancient Canaan. Viewed in that light,
I see the fight against Zionism as being as much my fight as the
Palestinians fight. It is the Zionists who created a rift between
family, where there should have been friendship and cooperation. It
is modern Zionism that disconnected me from my roots not connected
me. It is that movement that even stole the spiritual base of
Judaism and associated it for the first time in two thousand years
with aggression and oppression of others. Whatever flaws my European
ancestors had, they were not the ones starting wars and building
colonial empires, as was the Christian majority in Europe.

It is the Zionists who through their acts of ethnic cleansing and on-
going violence have made enemies out of people who share a common
ancestry with me. The disease of European Colonialist thinking
prevented them from seeing how much the Palestinians had to share
with us of the ancient cultures and common heritage. Those who came
from Europe may have had the advantage of European technology, but
the Palestinians had something far more valuable that the Zionists
treated with contempt and discarded.

My hope though, is that a new vision of the common ancestry of Jews
and Palestinians can be shared and spread and used to defeat the
discredited legacy of Zionism. The ancient Canaanites had a great
culture. From their culture springs Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Their culture as expressed by the Canaanite civilizations of Judah
and Israel exerts more influence on great portions of humanity than
does that of far greater military powers and empires of the ancient
world. Where the myths and religions of other ancient civilizations
of the Middle East are no longer believed or practiced by many
people, The religious heritage of Judah is practiced in the form of
Christianity, Islam and Judaism by something approaching two billion
people on every inhabited continent. When we can recognize and
accept our profound common heritage, perhaps we can begin to
overcome the suffering and warfare of the twentieth century and move
towards lasting peace and justice in the Middle East.

Larry Saltzman is an American Jew who believes that the meaning of
the Holocaust is that "never again" means that no people on the
planet should be persecuted. He is deeply involved in organic
gardening and has an orchard of some 60 fruit trees. He had been
opposed to the Israeli occupation for some time, but when he learned
of the wanton destruction of orchards and farmland by Israeli troops
in the Palestinian Territories this past year, he decided to become
active. He has a B.A. in Anthropology from UCLA but works as a
computer programmer.

Extracted 09/03/02 from The Palestine Chronicle



E-mail your comments to amirali@...

  ===== John Kameel Farah http://www.johnfarah.com

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US Marine's mystery "suicide" deepens

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - December 3, 2004 - (ACN)
This sad story came to La Voz de Aztlan in a
roundabout way. It came to us after we published our
report "Iraqi insurgent video shows graphic death of
US Marines" and the video at http://www.aztlan.net/ramadi.wmv
which shows the death of US Marine Private 1st Class
Moises A. Langhorst of Moose Lake, Minnesota. The
information was sent, after reading our report, by a
resident of the small town of Moose Lake who
personally knew Private Langhorst and another Moose
Lake High School marine who died in Kuwait one month
prior to Langhorst.

It is difficult to say which death was sadder, that of
19 year old Private 1st Class Moises A. Langhorst who
was killed as a consequence of an Iraqi insurgent
operation in Ramadi or that of 18 year old Pfc.
Matthew G. Milczark who was found shot in a chapel at
Camp Victory in Kuwait. Both were friends, graduated
together from Moose Lake High School and both joined
the marines at the same time.

Whereas the death of Private Langhorst has been put to
rest by the small town of Moose Lake and his family,
that of Pfc Milczark has not. You see, the US Marines
declared the death of Pfc Milczark a suicide, however,
there is one small detail that really bothers the town
and the family . . . the one gunshot that killed the
marine was to the back of his head.

No one who knew Pfc Milczark personally believes that
he could commit suicide. His family has been pressing
for information to no avail. They have contacted their
local congressperson with no results and they are now
concerned that the truth may never be known. What
really happened to Pfc. Matthew G. Milczark?

"When I talked to him 10 days before he was reported
dead, he was very upbeat," said Milczark's stepbrother
Derek Wood. Pfc. Matthew G. Milczark was a well
balanced student and was elected Homecoming King the
year he graduated. He was a star football player and
respected as a leader by the entire student body. "He
was a leader here, one of those kids you would see in
the hallway who automatically had that respect from
others," said Tim Caroline, superintendent of Moose
Lake Community Schools. "He was a good kid,
happy-go-lucky and always smiling."

What then is the truth? Did Pfc. Matthew G. Milczark
commit suicide by shooting himself in the back of his
head? Did another US Marine kill him? Why is the US
Marine Command keeping quiet about this and other
marine suicides and why have they closed the
investigation? The family of Matthew G. Milczark needs
to know, but most importantly all Americans need to
know. There is now an epidemic of US Marines
committing "suicide?" and it behooves all Americans
with loved ones in Iraq to find out the truth!

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Related La Voz de Aztlan article:

Iraqi insurgent video shows graphic
death of US Marines
http://www.aztlan.net/iraqi_insurgent_video.htm

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
La Voz de Aztlan
http://www.aztlan.net/us_marine_suicide.htm

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You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is

In Iraq, the US does eliminate those who dare to count the dead
Naomi Klein
12/04/04 "The Guardian " --
http://207.44.245.159/article7414.htm

David T Johnson,
Acting ambassador,
US Embassy, London

Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter
to the Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column
of the same day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their
Iraqi surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on
civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors,
clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies." Of particular
concern was the word "eliminating".

The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the
Guardian either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this
extremely grave accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy
officials to openly involve themselves in the free press of a
foreign country, so I took the letter extremely seriously. But while
I agree that the accusation is grave, I have no intention of
withdrawing it. Here, instead, is the evidence you requested.

In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the
gruesome killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a
failure, with US troops eventually handing the city back to
resistance forces. The reason for the withdrawal was that the siege
had sparked uprisings across the country, triggered by reports that
hundreds of civilians had been killed. This information came from
three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today reported on April 11
that "Statistics and names of the dead were gathered from four main
clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital". 2) Arab
TV journalists. While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it was
al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya that put a human face on those statistics.
With unembedded camera crews in Falluja, both networks beamed
footage of mutilated women and children throughout Iraq and the Arab-
speaking world. 3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian casualties
coming from journalists and doctors were seized upon by prominent
clerics in Iraq. Many delivered fiery sermons condemning the attack,
turning their congregants against US forces and igniting the
uprising that forced US troops to withdraw.

US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed
during last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of
these reports. For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer",
speaking to the New York Times last month, labelled Falluja general
hospital "a centre of propaganda". But the strongest words were
reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about al-Jazeera and al-
Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed in
Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied
that "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and
inexcusable ... " Last month, US troops once again laid siege to
Falluja - but this time the attack included a new tactic:
eliminating the doctors, journalists and clerics who focused public
attention on civilian casualties last time around.

Eliminating doctors
The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to
storm Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the
facility under military control. The New York Times reported
that "the hospital was selected as an early target because the
American military believed that it was the source of rumours about
heavy casual ties", noting that "this time around, the American
military intends to fight its own information war, countering or
squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent
weapons". The Los Angeles Times quoted a doctor as saying that the
soldiers "stole the mobile phones" at the hospital - preventing
doctors from communicating with the outside world.

But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two
days earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to
rubble, as well as a medical supplies dispensary next door. Dr Sami
al-Jumaili, who was working in the clinic, says the bombs took the
lives of 15 medics, four nurses and 35 patients. The Los Angeles
Times reported that the manager of Falluja general hospital "had
told a US general the location of the downtown makeshift medical
centre" before it was hit.

Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the
effect was the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the
war zone. As Dr Jumaili told the Independent on November 14: "There
is not a single surgeon in Falluja." When fighting moved to Mosul, a
similar tactic was used: on entering the city, US and Iraqi forces
immediately seized control of the al-Zaharawi hospital.

Eliminating journalists
The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost
exclusively from reporters embedded with US troops. This is because
Arab journalists who had covered April's siege from the civilian
perspective had effectively been eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no
cameras on the ground because it has been banned from reporting in
Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded reporter, Abdel
Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces arrested
him and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention
has been condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the
International Federation of Journalists. "We cannot ignore the
possibility that he is being intimidated for just trying to do his
job," the IFJ stated.

It's not the first time journalists in Iraq have faced this kind of
intimidation. When US forces invaded Baghdad in April 2003, US
Central Command urged all unembedded journalists to leave the city.
Some insisted on staying and at least three paid with their lives.
On April 8, a US aircraft bombed al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices,
killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera has documentation proving
it gave the coordinates of its location to US forces.

On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing
José Couso, of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of
Reuters. Three US soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from
Couso's family, which alleges that US forces were well aware that
journalists were in the Palestine hotel and that they committed a
war crime.

Eliminating clerics
Just as doctors and journalists have been targeted, so too have many
of the clerics who have spoken out forcefully against the killings
in Falluja. On November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of
the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was arrested.
According to Associated Press, "Al-Sumaidaei has called on the
country's Sunni minority to launch a civil disobedience campaign if
the Iraqi government does not halt the attack on Falluja". On
November 19, AP reported that US and Iraqi forces stormed a
prominent Sunni mosque, the Abu Hanifa, in Aadhamiya, killing three
people and arresting 40, including the chief cleric - another
opponent of the Falluja siege. On the same day, Fox News reported
that "US troops also raided a Sunni mosque in Qaim, near the Syrian
border". The report described the arrests as "retaliation for
opposing the Falluja offensive". Two Shia clerics associated with
Moqtada al-Sadr have also been arrested in recent weeks; according
to AP, "both had spoken out against the Falluja attack".

"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central
Command. The question is: what happens to the people who insist on
counting the bodies - the doctors who must pronounce their patients
dead, the journalists who document these losses, the clerics who
denounce them? In Iraq, evidence is mounting that these voices are
being systematically silenced through a variety of means, from mass
arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and
unexplained physical attacks.

Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi
surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi
people, and it has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is
a war on witnesses.

Additional research by Aaron Maté
  www.nologo.org

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Israel blocks Palestinian elections registration in east Jerusalem

Xinhua
29 November 2004

RAMALLAH-- Palestinian officials said Monday that Israel still
obstructs the Palestinian elections registration in east Jerusalem
despite its promise to facilitate the efforts.

They said the registration stations in east Jerusalem can not open
because the Israeli ban is still in effect.

A senior Israeli official, who declined to give his name, said
Sharon tends to agree to allow the Palestinians living in east
Jerusalem to vote, but the intention has to be presented to the
cabinet for approval.

He added that the Palestinians had not submitted a request regarding
polling in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) decided to hold municipal
elections on Dec. 23 and president elections on Jan. 9 with polling
taking place in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

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