Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Deutschland: Amoklauf/Medien

Spiegel: Who's to Blame for School Shootings?

Monday's school shooting in Germany has led to calls for a crackdown on violent computer games of the sort 18-year-old Sebastian B. played. But it's too easy to blame games, the Internet or the media, say German newspaper commentators. Society as a whole is at fault.

Da die Webseite von Sebastian B. kurz nach der Tat vom Netz genommen wurde, hatten die Medien die alleinige Kontrolle darüber, was aus Sebastians Abschiedsbrief der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht wurde.

Die Auszüge beschränkten sich dabei meistens auf reisserische, aus dem Kontext gerissene Passagen. Auf die eigentliche Aussage des Briefes wurde dabei kaum eingegangen obwohl genau diese einer eingehenderen Analyse unterzogen werden sollte.

Dasselbe Verhalten legen die Massenmedien seit einigen Jahren auch bei den "Bin Laden" Videos an den Tag.

Man kann darüber streiten ob die Ansichten von Terroristen und Amokläufern in den Massenmedien verbreitet werden sollten. Den scheinheiligen, mit Betroffenheitsrethorik geführten Debatten nach den eigentlich Taten, stünde es aber nicht schlecht an sich mit den eigentlichen Beweggründen der Täter zu befassen, als sich mit dem Ruf nach härteren Strafen, mehr Überwachung und einem Verbot nach Videospielen zu profilieren.


Ich veröffentliche deshalb hier den ganzen Abschiedbrief von Sebastian B.

"Wenn man weiss, dass man in seinem Leben nicht mehr Glücklich werden kann, und sich von Tag zu Tag die Gründe dafür häufen, dann bleibt einem nichts anderes übrig als aus diesem Leben zu verschwinden. Und dafür habe ich mich entschieden. Es gibt vielleicht Leute die hätten weiter gemacht, hätten sich gedacht "das wird schon", aber das wird es nicht.

Man hat mir gesagt ich muss zur Schule gehen, um für mein leben zu lernen, um später ein schönes Leben führen zu können. Aber was bringt einem das dickste Auto, das grösste Haus, die schönste Frau, wenn es letztendlich sowieso für'n Arsch ist. Wenn deine Frau beginnt dich zu hassen, wenn dein Auto Benzin verbraucht das du nicht zahlen kannst, und wenn du niemanden hast der dich in deinem scheiss Haus besuchen kommt!

Das einzigste was ich intensiv in der Schule beigebracht bekommen habe war, das ich ein Verlierer bin. Für die ersten jahre an der GSS stimmt das sogar, ich war der Konsumgeilheit verfallen, habe anach gestrebt Freunde zu bekommen, Menschen die dich nicht als Person, sondern als Statussymbol sehen.
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Aber dann bin ich aufgewacht! Ich erkannte das die Welt wie sie mir erschien nicht existiert, das ie eine Illusion war, die hauptsächlich von den Medien erzeugt wurde. Ich merkte mehr und mehr in was für einer Welt ich mich befand. Eine Welt in der Geld alles regiert, selbst in der Schule ging es nur darum. Man musste das neuste Handy haben, die neusten Klamotten, und die richtigen "Freunde". hat man eines davon nicht ist man es nicht wert beachtet zu werden. Und diese Menschen nennt man Jocks. Jocks sind alle, die meinen aufgrund von teuren Klamotten oder schönen Mädchen an der Seite über anderen zu stehen. Ich verabscheue diese Menschen, nein, ich verabscheue Menschen.

Ich habe in den 18 Jahren meines Lebens erfahren müssen, das man nur Glücklich werden kann, wenn man sich der Masse fügt, der Gesellschaft anpasst. Aber das konnte und wollte ich nicht. Ich bin frei! Niemand darf in mein Leben eingreifen, und tut er es doch hat er die Konsequenzen zu tragen! Kein Politiker hat das Recht Gesetze zu erlassen, die mir Dinge verbieten, Kein Bulle hat das Recht mir meine Waffe wegzunehmen, schon gar nicht während er seine am Gürtel trägt.

Wozu das alles? Wozu soll ich arbeiten? Damit ich mich kaputtmaloche um mit 65 in den Ruhestand zugehen und 5 Jahre später abzukratzen? Warum soll ich mich noch anstrengen irgendetwas zu erreichen, wenn es letztendlich sowieso für'n Arsch ist weil ich früher oder später krepiere?

Ich kann ein Haus bauen, Kinder bekommen und was weiss ich nicht alles. Aber wozu? Das Haus wird irgendwann abgerissen, und die Kinder sterben auch mal. Was hat denn das Leben bitte für einen Sinn? Keinen! Also muss man seinem Leben einen Sinn geben, und das mache ich nicht indem ich einem überbezahlten Chef im Arsch rumkrieche oder mich von Faschisten verarschen lasse die mir erzählen wollen wir leben in einer Volksherrschaft.

Nein, es gibt für mich jetzt noch eine Möglichkeit meinem Leben einen Sinn zu geben, und die werde ich nicht wie alle anderen zuvor verschwenden! Vielleicht hätte mein Leben komplett anders verlaufen können. Aber die Gesellschaft hat nunmal keinen Platz für Individualisten. Ich meine richtige Individualisten, Leute die selbst denken, und nicht solche "Ich trage ein Nietenarmband und bin alternativ" Idioten!

Ihr habt diese Schlacht begonnen, nicht ich. Meine Handlungen sind ein Resultat eurer Welt, eine Welt die mich nicht sein lassen will wie ich bin. Ihr habt euch über mich lustig gemacht, dasselbe habe ich nun mit euch getan, ich hatte nur einen ganz anderen Humor!

Von 1994 bis 2003/2004 war es auch mein Bestreben, Freunde zu haben, Spass zu haben. Als ich dann 1998 auf die GSS kam, fing es an mit den Statussymbolen, Kleidung, Freunde, Handy usw.. Dann bin ich wach geworden. Mir wurde bewusst das ich mein Leben lang der Dumme für andere war, und man sich über mich lustig machte. Und ich habe mir Rache geschworen!

Diese Rache wird so brutal und rücksichtslos ausgeführt werden, dass euch das Blut in den Adern gefriert. Bevor ich gehe, werde ich euch einen Denkzettel verpassen, damit mich nie wieder ein Mensch vergisst!

Ich will das ihr erkennt, das niemand das Recht hat unter einem faschistischen Deckmantel aus Gesetz und Religion in fremdes Leben einzugreifen!

Ich will das sich mein Gesicht in eure Köpfe einbrennt!

Ich will nicht länger davon laufen!

Ich will meinen Teil zur Revolution der Ausgestossenen beitragen!

Ich will R A C H E !

Ich habe darüber nachgedacht, dass die meisten der Schüler die mich gedemütigt haben schon von der GSS abgegangen sind. Dazu habe ich zwei Dinge zu sagen:

1. Ich ging nicht nur in eine klasse, nein, ich ging auf die ganze Schule. Die Menschen die sich auf der Schule befinden, sind in keinem Falle unschuldig! Niemand ist das! In deren Köpfen läuft das selbe Programm welches auch bei den früheren Jahrgängen lief! Ich bin der Virus der diese Programme zerstören will, es ist völlig irrelewand wo ich da anfange.

2. Ein Grossteil meiner Rache wird sich auf das Lehrpersonal richten, denn das sind Menschen die gegen meinen Willen in mein Leben eingegriffen haben, und geholfen haben mich dahin zu stellen, wo ich jetzt stehe; Auf dem Schlachtfeld! Diese Lehrer befinden sich so gut wie alle noch auf dieser verdammten schule!

Das Leben wie es heute täglich stattfindet ist wohl das armseeligste was die Welt zu bieten hat! S.A.A.R.T. - Schule, Ausbildung, Arbeit, Rente, Tod Das ist der Lebenslauf eines "normalen" Menschen heutzutage. Aber was ist eigentlich normal?

Als normal wird das bezeichnet, was von der Gesellschaft erwartet wird. Somit werden heutzutage Punks, Penner, Mörder, Gothics, Schwule usw. als unnormal bezeichnet, weil sie den allgemeinen Vorstellungen der Gesellschaft nicht gerecht werden, können oder wollen. Ich scheiss auf euch! Jeder hat frei zu sein! Gebt jedem eine Waffe und die Probleme unter den Menschen lösen sich ohne jedliche Einmischung Dritter. Wenn jemand stirbt, dann ist er halt tot. Und? Der Tod gehört zum Leben! Kommen die Angehörigen mit dem Verlust nicht klar, können sie Selbstmord begehen, niemand hindert sie daran!

S.A.A.R.T. beginnt mit dem 6. Lebensjahr hier in Deutschland, mit der Einschulung. Das Kind begibt sich auf seine perönliche Sozialisationsstrecke, und wird in den darauffolgenden Jahren gezwungen sich der Allgemeinheit, der Mehrheit anzupassen. Lehnt es dies ab, schalten sich Lehrer, Eltern, und nicht zuletzt die Polizei ein. Schulpflicht ist die Schönrede von Schulzwang, denn man wird ja gezwungen zur Schule zu gehen.

Wer gezwungen wird, verliert ein Stück seiner Freiheit. Man wird gezwungen Steuern zu zahlen, man wird gezwungen Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen einzuhalten, man wird gezwungen dies zu tun, man wird gewzungen das zu tun. Ergo: Keine Freiheit!

Und sowas nennt man dann Volksherrschaft. Wenn das Volk hier herrschen würde, hiesse es Anarchie!

WERDET ENDLICH WACH - GEHT AUF DIE STRASSE - DAS HAT IN DEUTSCHLAND SCHONMAL FUNKTIONIERT!

Nach meiner Tat werden wieder irgendwelche fetten Politiker dumme Sprüche klopfen wie "Wir halten nun alle zusammen" oder "Wir müssen gemeinsam versuchen dies durchzustehen". Doch das machen sie nur um Aufmerksmakeit zu bekommen, um sich selbst als die Lösung zu präsentieren. Auf der GSS war es genauso... niemals lässt sich dieses fette Stück Scheisse von Rektorin blicken, aber wenn Theater- aufführungen sind, dann steht sie als erste mit einem breiten Grinsen auf der Bühne und präsentiert sich der Masse!

Nazis, HipHoper, Türken, Staat, Staatsdiener, Gläubige...einfach alle sind zum kotzen und müssen vernichtet werden! (Den begriff "Türken" benutze ich für alle HipHopMuchels und Kleingangster; Sie kommen nach Deutschland weil die Bedingungen bei ihnen zu hause zu schlecht sind, weil Krieg ist... und dann kommen Sie nach Deutschland, dem Sozialamt der Welt, und lassne hier die Sau raus. Sie sollten alle vergast werden! Keine Juden, keine Neger, keine Holländer, aber Muchels! ICH BIN KEIN SCHEISS NAZI)

Ich hasse euch und eure Art! Ihr müsst alle sterben!

Seit meinem 6. Lebensjahr wurde ich von euch allen verarscht! Nun müsst ihr dafür bezahlen!

Weil ich weiss das die Fascholizei meine Videos, Schulhefte, Tagebücher, einfach alles, nicht veröffentlichen will, habe ich das selbst in die Hand genommen.

Als letztes möchte ich den Menschen die mir was bedeuten, oder die jemals gut zu mir waren, danken, und mich für all dies Entschuldigen!

Ich bin weg..."

Friday, November 10, 2006

GAZA: We Overcame Our Fear

GAZA: We Overcame Our Fear


Guardian: We overcame our fear
By Jameela al-Shanti in Beit Hanoun


The unarmed women of the Gaza Strip have taken the lead in resisting Israel's latest bloody assault

Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel's artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 1,500 other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew last Friday - and set about freeing some of our young men who were besieged in a mosque while defending us and our city against the Israeli military machine.

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed. The soldiers were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel's so-called defence force did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

GAZA


Guardian: A Brutal Taste of the Future

The initiation of Avigdor Lieberman - widely regarded as an outright racist - into Ehud Olmert's Israeli government seems to have already brought a taste of things to come. For the past week, the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun has been made a ground zero by the Israeli army. By yesterday, more than 260 Palestinians lay dead and injured, with 53 fatalities - women, children and ambulance drivers among them.

The Israeli army had vowed to end the firing of home-made rockets towards southern Israel. Many Palestinians disagree with the use of these makeshift rockets, but regard Israeli offensives as flagrantly disproportionate. Beit Hanoun was left with no men between the ages of 16 and 45 in the wake of a massive forced round-up by the Israeli army last Thursday night amid helicopter gunfire, tanks and artillery shelling. Women and children in the city sent urgent calls for help through Gaza's radio stations. To these jobless women, losing their men meant breakdown in their households.

On Friday morning, scores of women marched through Beit Hanoun in a spontaneous rush to aid friends and loved ones after hearing their pleas. Unarmed, they were shot at by Israeli soldiers from their tanks; two women were left dead and others severely injured. These women were said to have been heading to a mosque to free armed men who took refuge there. Television footage and interviews with witnesses show these women posed no military threat, but they were treated as such by the Israeli army without warning.

USA


NY Times: Rumsfeld Resigns; Bush Vows ‘To Find Common Ground’; Focus Is on Virginia

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Faced with the collapse of his Republican majority in Congress, President Bush responded swiftly on Wednesday by announcing the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and vowing to work with Democrats “to find common ground” on the war in Iraq and domestic issues.

With Democrats having recaptured the House and control of the Senate depending on the outcome of a single unsettled contest in Virginia, Mr. Bush, sounding alternately testy and conciliatory at a White House news conference, said he was “obviously disappointed.” He portrayed the results as a cumulative “thumping” of Republicans and conceded that as head of the party, he bore some responsibility.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

USA











NY Times: Democrats Take Control of House; Senate Hangs on Virginia and Montana

Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and defeated at least four Republican senators yesterday, riding a wave of voter discontent with President Bush and the war in Iraq.

But the fate of the Senate remained in doubt hours after the polls closed. The Democrats were still short early this morning of the six seats they need to win the Senate, as an extraordinary drama was unfolding over control of that chamber, with the race in Virginia too close to call and the race in Montana still undecided

Monday, November 06, 2006

GAZA

Haaretz: Listen to Maj. Gen. Stern
by Gideon Levy

A bloodbath is taking place in Beit Hanun, the Israel Defense Forces runs rampant and kills at least 37 people in four days - and Israeli public opinion yawns with indifference. A brigade commander tells his soldiers, who killed 12 people in one day: "You've won 12:0," and the soldiers grin broadly. This is the moral nadir we have reached, following a long slide down a slippery slope: Human life has become cheap.

SADDAM

ICH: November 5, 2006 Judgment: Statement of Saddam Hussein's Defense Lawyers

The Presiding Judge of the First Trial Panel

11/04/06 Information Clearing House

Peace be upon you,

Sub./ Finalization of the procedures of the case No.(1st.crim.2005) – "the so-called Dujail case"

It has been reported that the Court will issue its judgment in the above-mentioned case on November 5, 2006. We want to state the following:

1- The due procedures of this case have not completed in order for a sentence to be announced according to article no. (156) of the (Iraqi) Civil Procedural Law. The Court has not yet received the final defense submissions, which have already been handed to it. Although one of our (protected) colleagues was delegated by the Defense Committee and by his other colleagues to submit our submissions to the Court, in compliance with the decision of the same court in its session no. (39) Of July 27, 2006, which provides that the Court will "admit the deposition of the defense lawyer's and their client's submissions during the adjournment period of time, which ends on the 16th of October 2006. Our delegated colleague has done the following to this end:

SADDAM


Al-Jazeera: Saddam Hussein sentenced to hang

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, has been sentenced to death by a Baghdad court after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.

When the judge announced the sentence, Saddam appeared shaken.

However he soon recovered and shouted: "Allahu Akbar!" [God is greatest] and "Long live the nation!"

Saddam was found guilty by the Iraqi High Tribunal for ordering the killing of 148 Shia civilians in the town of Dujail in 1982.

AMERICAN GULAG


AP: U.S. says terror suspect shouldn't talk to civilian lawyer
By Associated Press

11/05/06 WASHINGTON (AP) — A suspected terrorist who spent years in a secret CIA prison should not be allowed to speak to a civilian attorney, the Bush administration argues, because he could reveal the agency's closely guarded interrogation techniques.
Human rights groups have questioned the CIA's methods for questioning suspects, especially following the passage of a bill last month that authorized the use of harsh — but undefined — interrogation tactics.

"Improper disclosure of other operational details, such as interrogation methods, could also enable terrorist organizations and operatives to adapt their training to counter such methods, thereby obstructing the CIA's ability to obtain vital intelligence that could disrupt future planned terrorist attacks," the Justice Department wrote.

"I suspect that a Terrorist training to hold his breath in adaption to their new Torture methods is not what they are fearing in first place. They try to cover up stories about Americans torturing like Saddam out of fear of a new Abu-Ghraib like PR-Armageddon"

IRAQ


The Independent: Bush & Blair: The Iraq fantasy
by Patrick Cockburn

Neither will admit that Iraq is a disaster. But while their state of denial may cost votes in Washington and London, on the frontline in the Middle East, it continues to cost lives


"When does the incompetence end and the crime begin?" asked an appalled German Chancellor in the First World War when the German army commander said he intended to resume his bloody and doomed assaults on the French fortress city of Verdun

Thursday, October 12, 2006

IRAQ: BODY COUNT

Washington Post: Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000

- A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.

The surveyors said they found a steady increase in mortality since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence as reported by the U.S. military, the news media and civilian groups. In the year ending in June, the team calculated Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly four times what it was the year before the war.

click here for the Full Report (PDF)

Monday, October 09, 2006

ROBERT FISK


Independent: The Age of Terror - a landmark report
by Robert Fisk

With chaos stretching from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, we have never lived in a more dangerous time. Over the next 15 pages and 7,000 words, our man in the Middle East looks back over a lifetime of covering war and death, and lays out a bleak future for all of us - one that even those living in the comfort of the Home Counties cannot escape

NORTH KOREA


Asia Times: Kim's message: War is coming to US soil
By Kim Myong Chol ("Unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.)

The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced on October 3 that the DPRK planned to conduct a nuclear test. The Foreign Ministry stated that the planned nuclear test was in response to the grave situation created by the US, where "the supreme national security interests of the DPRK are at stake with the Korean nation standing at the crossroads of life and death".

The nuclear test, once conducted, will have far-reaching implications for the Koreas and the rest of the world. It carries five messages.

NORTH KOREA


Reuters: North Korea says conducted nuclear test

SEOUL (Reuters) -
North Korea said on Monday it had safely and successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, flying in the face of a warning from the
U.N. Security Council.


South Korea's military ordered army units to step up their state of alert after the announcement by the reclusive communist state, which came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Seoul.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.2 magnitude quake in North Korea at 10:35 local time (0135 GMT) on Monday, confirming a similar report from South Korea.

U.S. defense officials were still saying they could not confirm a nuclear test, however.

Friday, October 06, 2006

IRAN: COUNTDOWN TO WAR


CRG.com: The March to War: Naval build-up in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Only time will tell if the horrors of further warfare is to fully materialize. Even then, the shape of a war is still undecided in terms of its outcome.

If war is to be waged or not against Iran and Syria, there is still the undeniable build-up and development of measures that confirm a process of military deployment and preparation for war.

The diplomatic forum also seems to be pointing to the possibility of war. The decisions being made, the preparations being taken, and the military maneuvers that are unfolding on the geo-strategic chessboard are projecting a prognosis and forecast towards the direction of mobilization for some form of conflict in the Middle East.

ISRAEL/SYIRA



Counterpunch: Lunch in Damascus
by Uri Avnery

Once while, traveling in a taxi, I had an argument with the driver--a profession associated in Israel with extreme right-wing views. I tried in vain to convince him of the desirability of peace with the Arabs. In our country, which has never seen a single day of peace in the last hundred years, peace can seem like something out of science fiction.

Suddenly I had an inspiration.
"When we have peace," I said, "You can take your taxi in the morning and go to Damascus, have lunch there with real authentic Hummus and come back home in the evening." He jumped at the idea. "Wow," he exclaimed, "If that happens, I shall take you with me for nothing!""And I shall treat you to lunch," I responded. He continued to dream. "If I could go to Damascus in my car, I could drive on from there all the way to Paris!"

IRAN: COUNTDOWN TO WAR


FPIF.org: War or Rumors of War?

What's going on with the current bustle around U.S. naval stations? According to Time, the Navy has issued “Prepare to Deploy Orders” (PTDOs) to a strike group including minesweepers, a submarine, an Aegis class cruiser, and a mine hunter. Taken alongside disclosures that the chief of naval operations asked his planners for a rundown of how a blockade of Iranian oil ports would work, these military preparations led Time to conclude cautiously that the United States “may be preparing for war with Iran.”
Military officials downplay these recent moves as routine. But given the administration's recent history of manufacturing threat, misreading intelligence, and misrepresenting war plans, it is tempting to read between the lines—especially when increasingly hot rhetoric is coming from Washington.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

USA

ICH: War is Peace
By Irene Rheinwald

“Imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations – not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.”

George Orwell penned these words over five decades ago, yet the sentiments are sadly germane to today’s “war on terror”. Israel and the United States, as self-styled purveyors of democracy and freedom, have ironically fallen into their own propaganda trap. In seeking to rationalize aggressions towards Arabs and Muslims, collectively termed “terrorists”, both nations employ techniques reminiscent of totalitarian regimes, and decry the “enemy” as fascist, irrational “evildoers” naturally bent upon violence. To a certain extent, the techniques succeeded. Inflammatory, racist, rhetoric cultivates a climate of xenophobic paranoia. Entire groups are ostracized and reviled without just cause. Recall how Nazism made scapegoats of minorities, most notably the Jews. Today we have the vaguely defined “terrorist”. What is a “terrorist”? Someone, anyone, who loathes freedom, liberty, the God given pursuit of materialism, and democracy as practiced by George W. Bush with the assistance of the Patriot Act.

USA

ICH: Woodward’s 60 Minutes bloodbath
by Mike Whitney

-- Veteran journalist Bob Woodward can always be counted on to tell the truth… after all the other options have been exhausted. His new book doesn’t veer too far from the pattern he’s followed his entire career; one minute he’s the “kingmaker” dishing up hearty-helpings of literary tripe like “Bush at War” and “Plan of Attack” and the next minute he’s ramming a scimitar into the lower lumbar region of his prey.

That’s Bob, the consummate insider and part-time assassin whose real job is not to maintain an “informed public” or preserve the free flow of information, but to use the privately-owned media in a way that serves the exclusive interests of the ruling elite.

Most of what Woodward said on 60 Minutes was accurate and interesting. Bush has deceived the American people about the slow-rolling catastrophe in Iraq. He’s obfuscated the truth about the 800 to 900 attacks on American troops per week and, yes, Rumsfeld is the greatest bungler in the history of the Republic. But why has Woodward decided to spill the beans now? And, how long has he been withholding this information from the public? (some of the crucial details date back to 2003!?!) And why would Woodward organize a book tour that is clearly designed to obliterate Bush’s credibility just 6 weeks before the election?

Online Video: State Of Denial
Bob Woodward 60 Minute Interview



Thursday, September 28, 2006

CHAVEZ AT THE UN














Rense: Rise Up Against The Empire
Speech At The UN General Assembly
by Hugo Chavez

The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

IRAQ

IPS: U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment'
By Dahr Jamail

RAMADI, Sep 18 (IPS) - U.S. forces are taking to collective punishment of civilians in several cities across the al-Anabar province west of Baghdad, residents and officials say.

IRAN: ROAD TO WAR

Time: What Would War Look Like?
By Michael Duffy

A flurry of military maneuvers in the Middle East increases speculation that conflict with Iran is no longer quite so unthinkable. Here's how the U.S. would fight such a war--and the huge price it would have to pay to win it

Monday, September 18, 2006

USA

Independent via ICH: The American Military's Cult of Cruelty
by Robert Fisk

In the week that George Bush took to fantasising that his blood-soaked "war on terror" would lead the 21st century into a "shining age of human liberty" I went through my mail bag to find a frightening letter addressed to me by an American veteran whose son is serving as a lieutenant colonel and medical doctor with US forces in Baghdad. Put simply, my American friend believes the change of military creed under the Bush administration--from that of "soldier" to that of "warrior"--is encouraging American troops to commit atrocities.

Friday, September 15, 2006

RETAIL

Spacehijackers.org:A-Z Retail Tricks To Make You Shop

A - Aisle Order Some customers, particularly men, tend to simply shop for what they want, walking down an aisle grabbing what they want, turning back and walking the way they came, this is called the 'Boomerang Effect'. In order to maximise shopper and produce contact time, shops therefore place major items and brands in the middle of aisles ensuring that from any direction the customer has to walk the furthest to reach them.

B -
Baby Powder – Some UK baby shops now add Baby Powder to the air conditioning to remind people of new-born’s and relax them.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

ISRAEL

ICH: State of Chuzpah
by Uri Avnery

THE PRESIDENT of Israel is supposed to symbolize the common denominator of all our citizens. Therefore it is proper for him to symbolize this trait, too. And indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more quintessential chutzpah than the behavior of His Excellency, President Moshe Katzav. He is the supreme symbol of Israeli chutzpah. Katzav has been accused of the sexual harassment of several women who worked for him in the President's office, as well as in his earlier public offices. At least three of them accused him of rape. Such accusations are, of course, far from a conviction

CENSORED

Project Censored: Top 25 Censored news stories of 2007

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran

#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US

#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo

Thursday, September 07, 2006

SECRET CIA PRISONS

NBC: Bush Admits, Defends Secret CIA Prisons

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush on Wednesday said for the first time that some suspected terrorist leaders have been held by the CIA outside the United States in secret locations.

His comments marked the first time the administration has acknowledged the existence of CIA prisons, which have been a source of friction between Washington and some allies in Europe. The administration has come under criticism for its treatment of terrorism detainees. European Union lawmakers said the CIA was conducting clandestine flights in Europe to take terror suspects to countries where they could face torture.

IRAQ WAR

Mother Jones: Lie by Lie

Mother Jones has a very interesting Flash Timeline with all the lies in the build up to the Iraq War.

Check it out

IRAN, SYRIA NEXT?

Global Research: The Next Phase of the Middle East War

Israel's war on Lebanon is an integral part of a US sponsored "military roadmap".

The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is "a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations.

Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of Lebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda.

onfirmed by official statements and military documents, the US in close coordination with Britain (and in consultation with its NATO partners), is planning to launch a war directed against Iran and Syria. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has already initiated the draft of a UN Security Council resolution with a view to imposing sanctions on Tehran for its alleged (nonexistent) nuclear weapons program.


Monday, September 04, 2006

BANKSY DOES PARIS

BBC: Paris Hilton targeted in CD prank

Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums have been tampered with in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy.

Flickr-set

Monday, August 28, 2006

IRAQ

Arab News via Rense: Brits Abandon Major Southern Iraq Base

-- On Friday, Aug. 25, the Washington Post published a startling story from its Baghdad bureau. I can do no better than to quote its opening paragraph: "British troops abandoned a major base in southern Iraq on Thursday and prepared to wage guerrilla warfare along the Iranian border to combat weapons smuggling, a move that anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr called the first expulsion of US-led coalition forces from an Iraqi urban center. 'This is the first Iraqi city that has kicked out the occupier!' trumpeted a message from Sadr's office that played on car-mounted speakers in Amarah. 'We have to celebrate this occasion!'"

Details painted the larger picture. Local resentment had boiled into anger when British soldiers entered a mosque to make arrests. Insurgents, clearly loyal to Sadr, began shelling the British base, Camp Abu Naji, which had 1,200 soldiers and was on the border of Iran. In simple language, the British withdrew from the camp, which was looted when they left, so clearly the withdrawal was less than orderly. The decision may have been encouraged by the fact that "the 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Army's 4th Brigade mutinied".

MIDDLE EAST

Commondreams: Israel Prepares for the Next War

As Israelis read their newspapers, the message comes through loud and clear: Get ready for the next war, the really big war. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave his people an ominous warning yesterday when he “toured northern Israel Thursday and visited, among other venues, the hospital in Nahariya directly hit by rocket fire during the Lebanon war. ‘We must be prepared for (various) scenarios and ready for anything,’ he said. ‘We must push forward deadlines and be ready for the possibility of receiving casualties under all conditions.’ … ‘At this time we shall prepare for any possible scenario of a threat, in full force.’”

But who will be the enemy? “The head of the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that after the war with Hizbullah, Syria will try to reclaim the Golan Heights through either diplomatic or military means,” Yediot Aharonot reports.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

ISRAEL

The Sun: Olmert, Minister in Clash Over Returning the Golan to Syria

TEL AVIV, Israel — Dissent within Israel's war Cabinet appeared to spill into the open yesterday with the country's minister for internal security defying an order from Prime Minister Olmert and publicly saying that if Syria was interested, he would endorse negotiating the return of the Golan Heights to the Baathist regime in Damascus in exchange for peace.

The statements from Avi Dichter — a former chief of Israel's FBI, known as the Shabak — seemed directly to contradict the prime minister, who said on Sunday before the weekly Cabinet meeting that members of the government should not discuss possible Golan negotiations.

ISRAEL

ICH: Restarting the 34 Day War
By Mike Whitney

Israel is in a state of post-war trauma. Its 34 day pounding of Lebanon achieved none of the stated goals and has left the public furious at the incompetence of the Olmert government. 118 soldiers were killed in the conflict and Israel’s celebrated "power of deterrents" has been smashed to smithereens. Nothing was gained. In the north, industry was brought to a complete standstill while the local people were shunted off to fallout shelters for weeks on end.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

IRAQ

Tom Dispatch: 7 Facts You Might Not Know about the Iraq War

With a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon holding, the ever-hotter war in Iraq is once again creeping back onto newspaper front pages and towards the top of the evening news. Before being fully immersed in daily reports of bomb blasts, sectarian violence, and casualties, however, it might be worth considering some of the just-under-the-radar-screen realities of the situation in that country. Here, then, is a little guide to understanding what is likely to be a flood of new Iraqi developments -- a few enduring, but seldom commented upon, patterns central to the dynamics of the Iraq war, as well as to the fate of the American occupation and Iraqi society.

CHOMSKY ON LEBONON

The Anatolian: Chomsky: UN Security Council acts within constraints set by great powers
Interviewed by Nermeen Al Mufti

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 came very late and posed a fragile ceasefire, yet there will be another war as long as the Bush-backed Israel has the pretext of "safer borders," and Bush himself is insisting on going further in his war against terrorism.

Eminent Professor Noam Chomsky, in this interview with The New Anatolian, speaks about Israeli-Lebanese war and the UN Security Council.

ISRAEL BREAKING CEASE-FIRE

ABC News: Israeli Warplanes Roar Over Lebanon

With concern mounting over the fragile truce, Israel sent war planes Monday over the coastal city of Tripoli, some 35 miles north of Beirut, and over Baalbek, scene of an Israeli commando raid two days ago which Israel said was to disrupt weapons shipments for Hezbollah from Syria.

Lebanon considers overflights a violation of the U.N. resolution that ended 34 days of fighting last week.

Reuters: Three hizbollah fighters killed in Israel clash-TV

DUBAI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Three Hizbollah fighters were killed and four Israeli soldiers were wounded in a clash in south Lebanon on Monday, Al Arabiya television reported. The station did not give further details in its news flash. An Israeli army spokesman said earlier that Israeli troops had shot and wounded three Hizbollah guerrillas

USA/ISRAEL

Foreign Policy in Focus: How Washington Goaded Israel

There is increasing evidence that Israel instigated a disastrous war on Lebanon largely at the behest of the United States. The Bush administration was set on crippling Hezbollah...

..Israel was a willing partner. Although numerous Israeli press reports indicate that some Israeli officials, including top military officials, are furious at Bush for pushing Olmert into war, the Israeli government had been planning the attack since 2004. According to a July 21 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Israel had briefed U.S. officials with details of the plans, including PowerPoint presentations, in what the newspaper described as “revealing detail.” Political science professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University told the Chronicle that “[O]f all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared. In a sense, the preparation began in May 2000, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal …”

Monday, August 21, 2006

ENGLAND

Guardian: Ryanair threatens government over airport security

Ryanair today threatened to sue the government for compensation unless airport security measures are returned to normal within seven days.

Michael O'Leary, the outspoken chief executive of Ryanair, described the new restrictions as "farcical Keystone Cops security measures that don't add anything except to block up airports", as he issued the ultimatum.

At a news conference in London, Mr O'Leary, described as "nonsense" the increased body checks and the new carry-on restrictions. Flanked by a Winston Churchill figure - in reference to the company's advertising campaign - he went on to say that the disruption at airports handed extremists a public relations victory.

TERRORISM/RACISM

Daily Mail: Mutiny as passengers refuse to fly until Asians are removed

Passengers refuse to allow holiday jet to take off until two Asian men are thrown off plan

British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.

"The Goverment Propaganda seems to work"

Friday, August 18, 2006

LEBANON

ICH: From Mania to Depression
by Uri Avnery

Thirty three days of war. The longest of our wars since 1949.

On the Israeli side: 154 dead--117 of them soldiers. 3970 rockets launched against us, 37 civilians dead, more than 422 civilians wounded.

On the Lebanese side: about a thousand dead civilians, thousands wounded. An unknown number of Hizbullah fighters dead and wounded.

More than a million refugees on both sides.

So what has been achieved for this terrible price?

Thursday, August 17, 2006

AFGHANISTAN

AP: Afghan opium cultivation hits a record

ABUL, Afghanistan - Opium cultivation in
Afghanistan has hit record levels — up by more than 40 percent from 2005 — despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money, Western officials told The Associated Press.

The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave security situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight against Afghan and international forces.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

IRAQ

New York Times: July deadliest month in Iraq, tallies show

BAGHDAD More Iraqi civilians appear to have been killed in July than in any other month of the war, according to national and morgue statistics, suggesting that the much-vaunted Baghdad security plan started in June by the new government had failed.

An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed per day in July, according to figures from Iraq's Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue. At least 3,438 civilians died violently that month, a 9 percent increase over the total in June and nearly twice as many as in January.

USA

Los Angeles Times: Group Says Iran Is 'Not a Crisis'

WASHINGTON — Seeking to counter the White House's depiction of its Middle East policies as crucial to the prevention of terrorist attacks at home, 21 former generals, diplomats and national security officials will release an open letter tomorrow arguing that the administration's "hard line" has actually undermined U.S. security.

The letter comes as President Bush has made a series of appearances and statements, including a visit Tuesday to the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va., seeking to promote the administration's record on security issues in advance of November's midterm congressional elections.

The rhetoric has increased since last week's Democratic primary in Connecticut, in which antiwar political newcomer Ned Lamont defeated three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman to become the party's Senate candidate — a victory that senior administration officials are describing as a sign that Democrats are embracing their party's extreme left.

"for me as european it is kinda funny to see what the americans are calling "extreme left" but maybe it is because they just have have a two party system where both parties are acting as big-business frontgroups""

LEBANON


ICH: Lebanese deaths, and Israeli war crimes, kept off the balance sheet
by Jonathan Steele

During Israel’s war against the people of Lebanon, our media, politicians and diplomats have colluded with the aggressors by distracting us with irrelevancies, by concocting controversies, and by framing the language of diplomacy. In the fragile truce that is currently holding while Lebanon waits for Israel to withdraw, we are simply getting more of the same.

One example of the many distractions during the war that neatly reveals their true purpose is the “faked Reuters photograph” affair. The supposed scandal of a Lebanese photographer tampering with a picture to add and darken smoke from an Israeli missile attack -- to little or no effect, it should be noted -- has not only been decried by activists on Zionist websites but amplified by mainstream commentators into a debate about whether we can trust the images of this war.

ISRAEL

Teheran Times: Olmert may not survive this disastrous war

The ceasefire in southern Lebanon will not hold. Israel will probably lose more soldiers killed in combat in the next month than in the past month (119). Ehud Olmert will probably no longer be prime minister of Israel by the end of this year. And it is all too likely that Binyamin Netanyahu will take his place.

The UN-sponsored ceasefire will not hold because Hezbollah has not been defeated. Despite a month of pounding by Israeli bombs and artillery, it still holds at least 80 percent of the territory south of the Litani river: in most places, Israeli forces have advanced no more than a few miles (kilometers) from the frontier. In the last few days before the ceasefire, Hezbollah was launching twice as many rockets into northern Israel as its daily average in the first week of the war.

LEBANON

Independent via ICH: In the face of Bush's lies, it's left to Assad to tell the truth
by Robert Fisk

In the sparse Baathist drawing rooms of Damascus, reality often seems a long way away. But it was a sign of the times that President Bashar al-Assad was able to bring the great and the good of Damascus to their feet by the simple token of telling the truth - which no other Arab leader has chosen to do these past five weeks: that the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla army has, in effect, won this round of their war with Israel.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

LEBANON/IRAN

Democracy Now: Seymour Hersh: U.S. Helped Plan Israeli Attack, Cheney "Convinced" Assault on Lebanon Could Serve as Prelude to Preemptive Attack on Iran

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports in this week's issue of the New Yorker that Israeli officials visited the White House earlier this summer to get a "green light" for an attack on Lebanon. The Bush administration approved, Hersh says, in part to remove Hezbollah as a deterrent to a potential US bombing of Iran. [includes rush transcript]

Listen to Segment

Watch 256k stream

LEBANON/IRAN

New Yorker: Washington’s interests in Israel’s war.
by Seymour M. Hersh

Issue of 2006-08-21 --In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.” He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the “root causes of instability,” and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.”

"a must read"

Monday, August 14, 2006

LEBANON

Haaretz: IDF general: Troops lacking food can steal from Lebanese stores

"If our fighters deep in Lebanese territory are left without food our water, I believe they can break into local Lebanese stores to solve that problem," Brigadier General Avi Mizrahi, the head of the Israel Defense Forces logistics branch, said Monday.

Mizrahi's comments followed complaints by IDF soldiers regarding the lack of food on the front lines.

"If what they need to do is take water from the stores, they can take," Mizrahi told Army Radio.

"The most moral army in the world"

LEBANON

Independent via ICH: As the 6am ceasefire takes effect... the real war begins
by Robert Fisk in Beirut

The real war in Lebanon begins today. The world may believe - and Israel may believe - that the UN ceasefire due to come into effect at 6am today will mark the beginning of the end of the latest dirty war in Lebanon after up to 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 30 Israeli civilians have been killed. But the reality is quite different and will suffer no such self-delusion: the Israeli army, reeling under the Hizbollah's onslaught of the past 24 hours, is now facing the harshest guerrilla war in its history. And it is a war they may well lose.

CHOMSKY

YNET: Apocalypse Near

Following intellectuals' letter, Prof. Noam Chomsky explains his doctrine, discusses danger of Israel's nukes compared to 'Iranian threat,' global media's role in escalating Mideast conflict and US's place in picture

LEBANON

Axcess: Iran to Provide Hezbollah with Anti-Aircraft and Other Weapons System

New York - While the Israeli forces have been able to maintain total air supremacy in the skies over Lebanon, Iran is preparing to turn over state-of-the-art anti-aircraft weapons systems to Hezbollah for use against Israeli military planes, according to a report in Friday's Jane's Defense Weekly.

Jane's reported that during a strategy meeting last month, Hezbollah requested that its Iranian sponsors "accelerate and extend the scope of weapon shipments from Iran to the Islamic Resistance, particularly advanced missiles against ground and air targets."

LEBANON

Reuters: Truce goes into effect to end war

Guns fell silent across southern Lebanon on Monday after a U.N.-brokered truce went into effect to end five weeks of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah that killed more than 1,250 people and wounded thousands.

Diplomats expect the truce to be fragile -- tens of thousands of Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon, and they are not expected to withdraw fully until an international peacekeeping force arrives alongside Lebanese troops.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“To those countries who claim that we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: You’re damn right we are.”
- Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations at a pro-Israel Rally in New York



"Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah"
-Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon on July 27

LEBANON

Independent via ICH: Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital
by Robert Fisk

An attack on a hospital, the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the seizure of five men in Baalbek and a new civilian death toll - 468 men, women and children - marked the 22nd day of Israel's latest war on Lebanon.

The Israelis claimed that helicopter-borne soldiers had seized senior Hizbollah leaders although one of them turned out to be a local Baalbek grocer. In a village near the city, Israeli air strikes killed the local mayor's son and brother and five children in their family.

The battle for Lebanon was fast moving out of control last night. Lebanese troops abandoned many of their checkpoints and European diplomats were warning their colleagues that militiamen were taking over the positions. Up to 8,000 Israeli troops were reported to have crossed the border by last night in what was publicised as a military advance towards the Litani river. But far more soldiers would be needed to secure so large an area of southern Lebanon.

The obscene score-card for death in this latest war now stands as follows:
508 Lebanese civilians, 46 Hizbollah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and 19 Israeli civilians.

In other words, Hizbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas

Monday, July 31, 2006

LEBANON: QANA

ICH: Pictures From Qana
Warning:
Graphic images depicting the reality and horror of Israel's Invasion and destruction of Lebanon

ICH: Video Report of QANA Massacre

Witnesses said the early-morning strike hit the three-storey building where families had been sheltering in the basement, crushing it sideways into an enormous crater.

One survivor said the "bombing was so intense that no-one could move".

Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area.

This report contains some images you may find distressing

07/30/06 BBC Report - Runtime 3 Minutes

LEBANON: MASSACRE


AP: '57 killed' as Israeli air strike hits children

Dozens of children were feared dead today after Israeli missiles struck the southern Lebanese village of Qana, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. Survivors said that more than 50 adults and children had died.

The Israeli army said missiles had been fired from the area before the 1am air strike in which a three-story building took a direct hit.

Rescuers aided by villagers were digging by hand to look for casualties.

The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defence official at the scene. At least 10 children's bodies had been pulled out, placed in plastic bags and loaded in ambulances, he said.

LEBANON

ICH: Mobilize to avenge the blood of Qana
by Uri Avnery

George Bush and his vassal, Tony Blair, are no statesmen. They are war criminals. They claim to be pious Christians. They are the physical manifestation of the devil himself.

Interviewed by the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, on Saturday 30 July, Blair repeatedly declined to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.

"Give Israel time to do its job of destruction. Let Israel annihilate Hizbullah and, preferably, Syria as well. When this is done, we shall call for a ceasefire." This is the conclusion which any reasonable person watching Blair's interview would draw. Indeed, it is the conclusion which Nick Robinson himself drew - he said so himself in conversation with the television news presenter after the interview.

Well, Israel has done its job. At least 60 innocent civilians, including many children, were murdered on Sunday 30 July, the very next day after Blair's interview, when Israeli warplanes bombed the basement in which they were sheltering. And still, Bush's vassal will not call for an immediate ceasefire. The closest he would come to this is to call for a ceasefire "as soon as possible", i.e. when Israel has completed its job of murder and destruction.

LEBANON


Independent via ICH: 'How can we stand by and allow this to go on?'
by Robert Fisk

They wrote the names of the dead children on their plastic shrouds. "Mehdi Hashem, aged seven - Qana," was written in felt pen on the bag in which the little boy's body lay. "Hussein al-Mohamed, aged 12 - Qana',' "Abbas al-Shalhoub, aged one - Qana.'' And when the Lebanese soldier went to pick up Abbas's little body, it bounced on his shoulder as the boy might have done on his father's shoulder on Saturday. In all, there were 56 corpses brought to the Tyre government hospital and other surgeries, and 34 of them were children. When they ran out of plastic bags, they wrapped the small corpses in carpets. Their hair was matted with dust, most had blood running from their noses.

You must have a heart of stone not to feel the outrage that those of us watching this experienced yesterday. This slaughter was an obscenity, an atrocity - yes, if the Israeli air force truly bombs with the "pinpoint accuracy'' it claims, this was also a war crime. Israel claimed that missiles had been fired by Hizbollah gunmen from the south Lebanese town of Qana - as if that justified this massacre. Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked about "Muslim terror" threatening "western civilisation" - as if the Hizbollah had killed all these poor people.

LEBANON

Independent via ICH: Under fire in Beirut
by Robert Fisk

In his second weekly dispatch from the front line, our veteran war reporter confesses he was so scared after one attack that he could not put pen to paper


To Sidon. Ed Cody has found a cool, 120-mile-an-hour driver called Hassan - he has a black Mercedes which I nickname "Death Car" (because that will be the fate of anyone who gets in our way) and we zip down the coast road and turn east into the hills at Naameh, where the Israelis have just blown the bridge.

Thirty years ago, Cody was an Associated Press correspondent in Beirut and taught me how to cover wars. "Get in the car, drive to the battle and find out what the arseholes are doing," he used to say. Cody is from Oregon, a slim, brilliant, highly subversive journalist who is now Beijing correspondent for the Washington Post. A great guy to travel with, eyes sharp for F-16s, brave without being a poseur, fluent in Arabic, he understands the dirty war we are watching and thrives on cynicism.

"Look," he says, pointing to a blown-up highway interchange. "It's a terrorist bridge! And if you take the road to Zahle, you'll find a burned out terrorist flour and grain lorry!" If the world became a better place, I fear Cody would contemplate suicide.

LEBANON

Wayne Madsen Report:

July 28, 2006 -- Countering the spin. Hezbollah sources have an entirely different story about the incident that triggered the Israeli attack on Lebanon. The counter-story lends credence to the pre-meditated nature of a plan that was hatched in a three-way meeting between Dick Cheney, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Natan Sharansky at an American Enterprise Institute conference in Colorado last month.

Hezbollah reports that on July 12, two Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops were captured by Hezbollah after they entered Lebanese territory. Hezbollah put out feelers that they would entertain a prisoner swap, something that had occurred many times in the past. However, already looking for an incident on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the Israeli government dispatched a Merkava-2 tank into Lebanon to retrieve its two captured troops. The tank hit a land mine, killing four Israeli soldiers. Haaretz confirmed that the tank was destroyed by a mine and not in a Hezbollah attack.

The neo-con spin machine, including George W. Bush, claims that Hezbollah entered Israel in an unprovoked attack and kidnapped the two Israelis.

Friday, July 28, 2006

LEBANON

CSM: Israeli strikes may boost Hizbullah base


The stakes are high for Hizbullah, but it seems it can count on an unprecedented swell of public support that cuts across sectarian lines.According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.

Lebanese no longer blame Hizbullah for sparking the war by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but Israel and the US instead.

LEBANON

ICH: 'Everything In My Life Is Destroyed, So I Will Fight Them'
by Dahr Jamail

"I am in Hezbollah because I care," the fighter, who agreed to the interview on condition of anonymity, told me. "I care about my people, my country, and defending them from the Zionist aggression." I jotted furiously in my note pad while sitting in the back seat of his car. We were parked not far from Dahaya, the district in southern Beirut which is being bombed by Israeli warplanes as we talk.

LEBANON

Independent: On a Red Cross mission of mercy when Israeli air force came calling
by Robert Fisk


It was supposed to be a routine trip across the Lebanese killing fields for the brave men and women of the International Red Cross. Sylvie Thoral was the "team leader" of our two vehicles, a 38-year-old Frenchwoman with dark brown hair and eyes like steel. The Israelis had been informed and had given what the ICRC likes to call its "green light" to the route. And, of course, we almost died.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

LEBANON

AP: UN Officials: Observers Asked Israel 10 Times To Halt Bombs

U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon called the Israeli military 10 times over a six-hour period to ask it to halt its nearby bombing before their observation post was hit, killing four people, according to details of a preliminary U.N. report on the incident released to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

During each phone call, an Israeli official promised to halt the bombing, according to a U.N. official who had seen the preliminary report.

The U.N. peacekeepers at the post said the area within a kilometer of the post was hit with precision munitions, including 17 bombs and 12 artillery shells, four of which directly hit the post Tuesday, the report said.

LEBANON

ICH: Is Beirut Burning?
by Uri Avnery

Tel Aviv - "IT SEEMS that Nasrallah survived," Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tons of bombs were dropped on a site in Beirut, where the Hizbullah leader was supposedly hiding in a bunker.

An interesting formulation. A few hours after the bombing, Nazrallah had given an interview to Aljazeera television. Not only did he look alive, but even composed and confident. He spoke about the bombardment - proof that the interview was recorded on the same day.

So what does "it seems that" mean? Very simple: Nasrallah pretends to be alive, but you can't believe an Arab. Everyone knows that Arabs always lie. That's in their very nature, as Ehud Barak once pronounced.

The killing of the man is a national aim, almost the main aim of the war. This is, perhaps, the first war in history waged by a state in order to kill one person. Until now, only the Mafia thought along those lines. Even the British in World War II did not proclaim that their aim was to kill Hitler. On the contrary, they wanted to catch him alive, in order to put him on trial. Probably that's what the Americans wanted, too, in their war against Saddam Hussein.

LEBANON

Independent: Smoke signals from the battle of Bint Jbeil send a warning to Israel
by Robert Fisk

Qlaya, Southern Lebanon -- Is it possible - is it conceivable - that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon?

From this hill village in the south of the country, I am watching the clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up to 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and others surrounded, after a devastating ambush by Hizbollah guerrillas in what was supposed to be a successful Israeli military advance against a "terrorist centre".

To my left smoke rises too, over the town of Khiam, where a smashed United Nations outpost remains the only memorial to the four UN soldiers - most of them decapitated by an American-made missile on Tuesday - killed by the Israeli air force.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

LEBANON

Independent: Robert Fisk: A war crime?
by Robert Fisk in Beirut

They are in the schools, in empty hospitals, in halls and mosques and in the streets. The Shia Muslim refugees of southern Lebanon, driven from their homes by the Israelis, are arriving in Sidon by the thousand, cared for by Sunni Muslims and then sent north to join the 600,000 displaced Lebanese in Beirut. More than 34,000 have passed through here in the past four days alone, a tide of misery and anger. It will take years to heal their wounds, and billions of dollars to repair their damaged property.

And who can blame them for their flight? For the second time in eight days, the Israelis committed a war crime yesterday. They ordered the villagers of Taire, near the border, to leave their homes and then - as their convoy of cars and minibuses obediently trailed northwards - the Israeli air force fired a missile into the rear minibus, killing three refugees and seriously wounding 13 other civilians. The rocket that killed them is believed to have been a Hellfire missile made by Lockheed Martin in Florida.

LEBANON

Aljazeera via ICH: Interview with Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah

July 22, 2006 - Al Jazeera in Arabic

Al-Jazeera interviews Hezbollah chief - Full text

Text of report by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 20 July

Interview with Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, by Al-Jazeera Beirut Bureau Chief Ghassan Bin-Jiddu, on 20 July.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

LEBANON

DEBKAfile via Rense: Hezbollah Using Iwo Jima Tactics To Baffle IDF

Notwithstanding the IDF's important battle gains at a number of focal South Lebanese points in the last 24 hours ­ including the latest raids on the outskirts of Bint Jubeil on the heels of the capture of Maroun er Ras ­ only one multiple firing rocket launcher (picture) and 6 single-barrel launchers have been destroyed.

This figure will certainly multiply substantially in the coming days. Yet it will not change the essential strategic picture or stop the rocket fire from holding northern Israel and more than a million inhabitants to siege.

Friday, July 21, 2006

LEBANON: ETHNIC CLEANSING

Juan Cole: Friday, July 21, 2006

The Orwellian world into which Olmert and his band of manic bombers have plunged ordinary Lebanese is illustrated by Liz Sly's report for the Trib:

' Thousands of Lebanese were trying to flee the south after Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets warning people to leave, stirring fears that an Israeli ground invasion was imminent. But hundreds of thousands more remain stranded in villages and towns across the south, unable to leave their homes because of the intensity of the sustained Israeli bombing campaign. United Nations and Lebanese officials warned of an impending humanitarian disaster unless food and medical supplies are allowed to reach the stricken area and called on Israel to establish a "humanitarian corridor" to allow aid to get through. '


So let's get this straight. The Israelis warn the small town Shiites of the south to flee their own homes and go hundreds of miles away (and live on what? in what?). But then they intensely bombing them, making it impossible for them to flee. The Lebanese have awoken to find themselves cockroaches.

I repeat, this is nothing less than an ethnic cleansing of the Shiites of southern Lebanon, an assault on an entire civilian population's way of life. Aside from ecology, it is no different from what Saddam Hussein did to the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq, and the Israelis are doing it for exactly the same sorts of reasons that Saddam did.

IS JESUS COMING?

Harpers Via Boing Boing: Religious nuts ecstatic over Middle East turmoil

Harper's has posted messages from the Rapture Ready/End Times chat bulletin board. These folks are as happy as can be that Israel and Hezbollah are fighting because that means they're one step closer to the Rapture.

Got that dancing feeling on the inside of me.

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This is the busiest I've ever seen this website in a few years! I have been having rapture dreams and I can't believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Whoa! I can sure feel the glory bumps after reading this thread!

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I too am soooo excited!! I get goose bumps, literally, when I watch what's going on in the M.E.!! And Watcherboy, you were so right when saying it was quite a day yesterday, in the world news, and I add in local news here in the Boston area!! Tunnel ceiling collapsed on a car and killed a woman of faith, and we had the most terrifying storms I have ever seen here!! But, yes, oh happy day, like in your screen name , it is most indeed a time to be happy and excited, right there with ya!!

LEBANON

Haaretz: Four soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah; thousands of IDF troops in Lebanon

Warplanes resumed strikes on targets across Lebanon on Friday as Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to flee the south "immediately," preparing for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

Four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and five others were wounded, one seriously, in a series of battles fought Thursday just north of Moshav Avivim on the Lebanon border.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

LEBANON

Haaretz: Lebanese defense minister: Army will fight ground invasion

Lebanon's army, which so far has sat on the sidelines of the violence raging in the country, will fight an Israeli ground invasion, Defense Minister Elias Murr said on Al-Jazeera television Thursday.

"The Lebanese army - and I stress - the Lebanese army will resist and defend and will prove that it is an army that deserves respect," he said.


Nasrallah: Hezbollah leadership intact
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the group's leadership remains intact, appearing in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV a day after Israel claimed to have bombed a bunker where he may have been hiding.

"I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare, that we have not been harmed," he said. He denied claims by Israel to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal.

LEBANON

Counterpunch: Why Hezbollah is Winning... So Far

The stakes in the Israel-Hezbollah-Hamas war are significantly higher than most observers understand. If Hezbollah and Hamas win—and winning just means surviving, given that Israel’s objective is to destroy both entities—a powerful state will have suffered a new kind of defeat, again, a defeat across at least one international boundary and maybe two, depending on how one defines Gaza’s border. The balance between states and “fourth generation warfare” forces will be altered world-wide, and not to a trivial degree.

So far, Hezbollah is winning. As Arab states stood silent and helpless before Israel’s assault on Hamas, another non-state entity, Hezbollah, intervened to relieve the siege of Gaza by opening a second front. Its initial move, a brilliantly conducted raid that killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two for the loss of one Hezbollah fighter, showed once again that Hezbollah can take on state armed forces on even terms (the Chechens are the only other 4GW force to demonstrate that capability). In both respects, the contrast with Arab states will be clear on the street, pushing the Arab and larger Islamic worlds further away from the state.

LEBANON

Noam Chomsky: The Murder Of A Nation

Lebanon - Israel Facts the Media Isn't Telling You

LEBANON

ICH: The Most Dangerous Alliance in the World
by Norman Salomon

"In American media, the current mumbling about the need for “restraint” is little better than window-dressing for bomb-dropping. The prevalent dynamic is based on a chain of rarely spoken lies, however conscious or unconscious: none more important than the lie that a religion can make one life worth more than another; render a human death unimportant; elevate certain war-inflicted agonies to spiritual significance."

After getting out of Lebanon, writer June Rugh told Reuters: “As an American, I’m embarrassed and ashamed. My administration is letting it happen [by giving] tacit permission for Israel to destroy a country.” The news service quoted another American evacuee, Andrew Muha, who had been in southern Lebanon. He said: “It’s a travesty. There’s a million homeless in Lebanon and the intense amount of bombing has brought an entire country to its knees.”

LEBANON

Sidney Morning Herald: South Lebanon, Has Become A Killing Zone

Grim proof ordinary folk are dying in the killing zone

PARKED outside the small general hospital in Tyre is a badly refrigerated lorry container in which are stacked the bodies of 91 Lebanese civilians, 55 of them children.

The bodies have been placed inside black plastic rubbish bags and labelled in anticipation of the time, days or weeks from now, when their surviving relatives - if any - can come to collect them.

"It's a disaster. It's making me cry," the hospital's director, Dr Salman Zeineddine said. "We can't move them anywhere else. Since the attacks came I've been trying to get wounded out of Beit Jbeil and I can't. How could I get critical patients to Beirut, much less move dead people?"

Since Israel began bombing and shelling south Lebanon last Wednesday, about 380 patients have passed through this 65-bed hospital, plus the 91 dead.

A LETTER FROM SADDAM

ICH: Handwritten letter from President Saddam Hussein to the American people.

Click here to view a copy of the original letter: Pdf

To the American people:

Peace upon those who believe in peace and desire it, and the mercy of God and His blessings.

I address you in this letter from the place of my confinement, as my attempt on the basis of my moral, human, and constitutional responsibility so that no one among you might say that no one came to us with a message of peace after the war began, refuting the arguments for it and desiring peace for you and for our upright, loyal, heroic people. And as I say this, I do no know whether my brothers and comrades who are leading the Resistance outside the prison have come to you with a letter before or not. That is because the “democracy” of your leaders has prevented me since my arrest and until now from getting newspapers and magazines or hearing radio and television and has isolated me from the world and has isolated the world from me so that I might not hear or see anything from outside my place of confinement.