Sections on today's Signs Page:
Signs Editorials
Editorial: Dispatch from Palestine: Israel uses chemical/radioactive weapons in Gaza
Silvia Cattori interviews a Palestinian doctor
11 July 2006
Interview with Doctor Juma al-Saqqa of the Hospital Shifa in Gaza
Q: It seems that you are receiving people with wounds that are very difficult to treat. Do you know what kind of arms are being used?
A: We dont know exactly what kind of weapon it was but we suggest it was a chemical weapon or a weapon with radiation [inaudible] they also had a very strong explosion. There was shrapnel trapped in the bodies.
Q: When did they use this weapon for the first time?
A: They started with Operation Summer Rain two weeks ago.
Q: Were these weapons being used from tanks or planes?
A: From the planes.
Q: And did many people die from these attacks?
A: Yes, many of them died and many are going to die because they are completely injured. Many of them have cuts that are haemorrhaging...
Q: How many died?
A: 50 killed, 200 injured.
Q: Israeli did not allow me to enter Gaza.
A: They dont want you to see what is happening here. This is the worst situation we have had since '48. We have Arab people dying day after day...We are in lack of everything. Bad water supply, bad sewage management, lack of food lack of supplies, they....[Phone line cut off.]
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: Aggression Under False Pretenses
By Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
07/11/06 "Washington Post" -- -- GAZA, Palestine -- As Americans commemorated their annual celebration of independence from colonial occupation, rejoicing in their democratic institutions, we Palestinians were yet again besieged by our occupiers, who destroy our roads and buildings, our power stations and water plants, and who attack our very means of civil administration. Our homes and government offices are shelled, our parliamentarians taken prisoner and threatened with prosecution.
The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.
In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively. The Palestinian leadership is firmly embedded in the concept of Islamic shura , or mutual consultation; suffice it to say that while we may have differing opinions, we are united in mutual respect and focused on the goal of serving our people. Furthermore, the invasion of Gaza and the kidnapping of our leaders and government officials are meant to undermine the recent accords reached between the government party and our brothers and sisters in Fatah and other factions, on achieving consensus for resolving the conflict. Yet Israeli collective punishment only strengthens our collective resolve to work together.
As I inspect the ruins of our infrastructure -- the largess of donor nations and international efforts all turned to rubble once more by F-16s and American-made missiles -- my thoughts again turn to the minds of Americans. What do they think of this?
They think, doubtless, of the hostage soldier, taken in battle -- yet thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, remain in Israeli jails for resisting the illegal, ongoing occupation that is condemned by international law. They think of the pluck and "toughness" of Israel, "standing up" to "terrorists." Yet a nuclear Israel possesses the
13th-largest military force on the planet, one that is used to rule an area about the size of New Jersey and whose adversaries there have no conventional armed forces. Who is the underdog, supposedly America's traditional favorite, in this case?
I hope that Americans will give careful and well-informed thought to root causes and historical realities, in which case I think they will question why a supposedly "legitimate" state such as Israel has had to conduct decades of war against a subject refugee population without ever achieving its goals.
Israel's unilateral movements of the past year will not lead to peace. These acts -- the temporary withdrawal of forces from Gaza, the walling off of the West Bank -- are not strides toward resolution but empty, symbolic acts that fail to address the underlying conflict. Israel's nearly complete control over the lives of Palestinians is never in doubt, as confirmed by the humanitarian and economic suffering of the Palestinians since the January elections. Israel's ongoing policies of expansion, military control and assassination mock any notion of sovereignty or bilateralism. Its "separation barrier," running across our land, is hardly a good-faith gesture toward future coexistence.
But there is a remedy, and while it is not easy it is consistent with our long-held beliefs. Palestinian priorities include recognition of the core dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the rights of all its people; resolution of the refugee issue from 1948; reclaiming all lands occupied in 1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and military expansion. Contrary to popular depictions of the crisis in the American media, the dispute is not only about Gaza and the West Bank; it is a wider national conflict that can be resolved only by addressing the full dimensions of Palestinian national rights in an integrated manner. This means statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly, on the basis of international legitimacy and established law. Meaningful negotiations with a non-expansionist, law-abiding Israel can proceed only after this tremendous labor has begun.
Surely the American people grow weary of this folly, after 50 years and $160 billion in taxpayer support for Israel's war-making capacity -- its "defense." Some Americans, I believe, must be asking themselves if all this blood and treasure could not have bought more tangible results for Palestine if only U.S. policies had been predicated from the start on historical truth, equity and justice.
However, we do not want to live on international welfare and American handouts. We want what Americans enjoy -- democratic rights, economic sovereignty and justice. We thought our pride in conducting the fairest elections in the Arab world might resonate with the United States and its citizens. Instead, our new government was met from the very beginning by acts of explicit, declared sabotage by the White House. Now this aggression continues against 3.9 million civilians living in the world's largest prison camps. America's complacency in the face of these war crimes is, as usual, embedded in the coded rhetorical green light: "Israel has a right to defend itself." Was Israel defending itself when it killed eight family members on a Gaza beach last month or three members of the Hajjaj family on Saturday, among them 6-year-old Rawan? I refuse to believe that such inhumanity sits well with the American public.
We present this clear message: If Israel will not allow Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and national integrity, Israelis themselves will not be able to enjoy those same rights. Meanwhile, our right to defend ourselves from occupying soldiers and aggression is a matter of law, as settled in the Fourth Geneva Convention. If Israel is prepared to negotiate seriously and fairly, and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the secondary ones from 1967, a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a hudna (comprehensive cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the Holy Land still has an opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic powerhouse for all the Semitic people of the region. If Americans only knew the truth, possibility might become reality.
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: Israel's Latest Bureaucratic Obscenity
By JONATHAN COOK
July 12, 2006
The same malign intent from Israel towards the Palestinians is stamped through its history like the lettering in a children's stick of seaside rock. But despite the consistent aim of Israeli policy, generation after generation of Western politicians, diplomats and journalists has shown a repeated inability to grasp what is happening before its very eyes.
The Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi once noted that the first goal of Israel's founders as they prepared to establish their Jewish state on a large swath of the Palestinian homeland in 1948 was to empty Palestine's urban heartlands of their educated elites.
Even before Israel's Declaration of Independence on 15 May 1948, most Palestinians had been terrified away from the two wealthiest cities in coastal Palestine, Jaffa and Haifa. Other Palestinian cities soon fell during the war of 1948: Israeli forces mostly cleansed Lydda, Ramle, Acre, Safad, Tiberias, Baysan and Bir Saba of their native populations. Today all these cities have been repopulated with Jews -- as well as renamed.
Khalidi has written: "These refugees from the urban areas of the country generally tended to be those Palestinians with the highest levels of literacy, skills, wealth, and education". Or, in other words, the small number of Palestinians allowed to remain in their homeland by Israel were peasant families living in isolated rural communities.
These Palestinians posed little threat to the new Jewish state: they lacked the education and tools to resist both the wholesale dispossession of their people and their own personal loss as their farm lands were expropriated by the state to establish the Jewish farming communes of the kibbutz and moshav movements.
And so history repeats itself. As Israel's violent siege of Gaza continues, the Associated Press reported this week that dozens of Palestinians with American passports have left Gaza, escorted out of the Strip in a convoy of United Nations vehicles. One Palestinian American mother said she and her children could no longer stand the terrifying sonic booms produced by Israeli aircraft flying overhead during the night.
These fleeing Palestinians have two things that most of their kin in Gaza lack: they have lots of money that they might have invested in rebuilding Gaza's economy were Israel not intent on destroying it; and they are familiar with a language and ideas that might have conveyed very effectively to Western audiences the horror currently being endured by Gaza's civilian population.
They are also among the least radicalised elements of Gaza's population and might have been the ones most willing to start a dialogue with Israel -- had Israel shown any interest in negotiating.
But of course their absence from Gaza, and flight to America, will not be mourned by Israel.
How much Israel fears the presence in the occupied territories of Palestinians who have lived in the West -- those who have money and influence, and speak in a language the non-Arab world can understand -- was highlighted in another piece of news this week that went mostly unnoticed.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, Israel's interior ministry has been quietly implementing a new rule since April that allows it to refuse entry to Palestinians holding foreign passports to Israel and the occupied territories. Most of those affected are Palestinians who today have citizenship in America or Europe.
Israel has this power over these Palestinians' lives because, since its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, it has usurped control of the borders of the Palestinian territories. In another sign of how mistaken Western observers are in believing that the occupation of Gaza somehow ended with the withdrawal of Jewish settlers last year, Israel is still able to prevent Palestinians with a foreign passport (as well as those from the West Bank) from entering Gaza.
This new policy of exclusion affects thousands of the wealthiest and most educated Palestinians, some of whom have been living in the occupied territories for a decade or more investing in the economy as entrepreneurs, teaching in the universities or establishing desperately needed civil society organisations.
In another irony, many of these Palestinians have a foreign passport only because Israel stripped them of their rights to residency in the occupied territories in violation of international law. Using its control of the area's borders since 1967, Israel revoked the residency of these Palestinians while they were studying or working abroad.
As the Israeli journalist Amira Hass documented in a recent dispatch, some of these Palestinians eventually came back to the occupied territories after marrying a local Palestinian resident but were refused rights of residency they should be entitled to according to the normal principles of family unification.
Instead most Palestinians with foreign passports have remained in the occupied territories at Israel's discretion: as long as they renewed their tourist visa every three months by crossing the border into Jordan or Egypt, they were left in relative peace.
But Israel is now unilaterally changing the rules (as it always does), even if it has been too embarrassed to declare the fact openly. Apparently the US embassy has been aware of the change for some time but does not think it should intervene in the "sovereign decisions" of another country -- or, more accurately, in the decisions of a sovereign country, Israel, in violating the rights of an occupied people, the Palestinians.
Palestinians with US passports have been told by Israel that, when their three-month visas expire, they will no longer be entitled to enter the occupied territories to visit their families -- except in rare "humanitarian cases" such as a close relative dying. Some will be separated from their spouse and children, while others will lose their businesses and everything they have invested in them.
With these foreign passport holders forced to leave the occupied territories, the pressure is sure to grow on their families left behind in Gaza and the West Bank to seek ways to emigrate abroad to be with them again.
The purpose of Israel's current bureaucratic obscenity is the same as it was in 1948 when its highest priority was the clearing of the Palestinian cities of their elites to make way for the establishment of the Jewish state.
This time Israel needs to empty the ghettoes it is crafting for the Palestinians of the most educated and well-connected of their number so that it can more credibly claim that there is no one "moderate" to talk to. Any Palestinian with a stake in an Israeli-imposed peace, even one that damages Palestinian national interests, will have been forced out by Israel's policies long before.
Those who remain behind, trapped by walls of concrete and steel, will be powerless to resist the unilateral and illegal expansion of Israel's borders explicit in Ehud Olmert's convergence plan.
When the only noise heard from the Palestinians in their cages is the occasional whine of a home-made Qassam rocket flying out of the ghetto into the Jewish state, we will be told by Israel and its US ally that terror is the only language the Palestinians know.
But, in truth, it may well be the only language we have left the Palestinians to speak.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. He is the author of the forthcoming "Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State" published by Pluto Press, and available in the United States from the University of Michigan Press. His website is www.jkcook.net
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: Why You Should Think That The War On Terror Is A Sick Joke
Joe Quinn
Signs of the Times
12/07/2006
The big question, and one that has caused serious arguments in families around the country is:
Is the War On Terror real?
By that I mean, is there, as the US government claims, a very real "Islamic terror threat" to the United States and civilised societies everywhere?
This question needs answering, because much of the world has been turned on its head as a result of the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror, and many hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed, and that, it seems, is just for starters. So before we go any futher, we really need to know if this thing is for serious, or if it is just one really big and bad joke.
But how to answer this question definitively? Well, there is of course the evidence pointing to US Government complicity in the 9/11 attacks. There is also the fact that, while it is claimed that the goal of the Iraq invasion was to "spread freedom and democracy" or "defeat Islamic terrorism" in the Middle East, it is clear for all to see that little progress has been made on either. Indeed, the only clearly discernible result of the Iraq invasion is 200,000 dead Iraqis and a massive increase in the net profits of many US corporations with close ties to the US government.
But with the government and mainstream media repeatedly ridiculing any allegations that diverge from the official story as "crazy conspiracy theories", the average Joe is still left more than a little confused about what is really going on. It would greatly help, therefore, if we could turn up something official, a government report perhaps, that proves to us all that the US government is right along side the American people in taking the threat from "Islamic terror" very, very seriously. Or alternatively, a similarly official report that shows that, depsite its public propaganda, in private, the US government assigns no more reality to the "Islamic terrorism" than you or I do to the tooth fairy.
Well, guess what? Today's our lucky day:
Security funding list: Bean fest, but not Times Square?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Homeland Security database of vulnerable terror targets in the United States, which includes an insect zoo but not the Statue of Liberty, is too flawed to determine allocation of federal security funds, the department's internal watchdog found.
Much of the study by Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner appears to have been done before the department announced in May it would cut security grants to New York and Washington by 40 percent this year.
The report, which was released Tuesday, affirmed the fury of those two cities -- the two targets of the September 11, 2001, attacks -- which claimed the department did not accurately assess their risks.
Instead, the department's database of vulnerable critical infrastructure and key resources included an insect zoo, a bourbon festival, a bean fest and a kangaroo conservation center. They represent examples of key assets identified in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Maryland.
New York had 5,687 listed. It did not detail which ones, but the Homeland Security assessment of New York this year failed to include Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty as a national icon or monument.
Now seriously folks, how do you square the public fear-mongering and alarm bell-ringing over "possible Islamic terror attacks" that the US government and its agencies have periodically engaged in over the past 5 years, with the fact that a Homeland Security study has identified an insect zoo, a bean festival, a bourbon festival and a Kangaroo conservation center as main terrorists targets, while ignoring major monuments?
Are these guys really just having a good laugh? Having served under Nikon, Ford and Bush senior, is it possible that Dick Cheney was horrified at the thought of having to spend the twilight years of his political life engaging in the same old flying around the country, giving speeches and cussing out congressmen, and decided to make George W's term a little more interesting?
Maybe that's it. You know, I think it is.
Silly old CNN actually tried to call a Homeland Security representative to ask about the insect farm business, but, unsurprisingly, no one wanted to comment. Probably because they were too busy laughing their socks off at the gullible American public.
However:
In an April 13 response to a draft of the report, department [of Homeland Security] Undersecretary George Foresman said the database represented a range of national assets that could face different levels of threats at different times.
Indeed. However, a little known fact, that I can exclusively reveal today, is that the Kangaroo conservation center was determined to be a prime possible target for a very good reason. You see, intelligence information revealed a deadly plot by "al-Qaeda" to first train the Kangaroos in Jihad or "Holy War against the infidel", equip them with a pair of boxing gloves each, and then combine the Kangaroo's Islamic fervor with the bean festival and the bourbon festival! At that point, woe betide the American people as they faced a wild-eyed hoard of drunk Islamic Kangaroo devils carrying a deadly payload of noxious gas.
The Undersecretary of Homeland Security added:
"The data have been and are currently being utilized to support allocation decision-making processes for the department".
I hope that clears things up for you.
As an aside, I have it on good faith that reporters at the press conference where the Undersecretary gave the above address claimed to have heard raucous laughter from behind the screen just after the Undersecretary left the podium. Afterwards, they all sat down to decide how they were going to con the American people into accepting a US military invasion of Iran, finally deciding that "scaring them" with a few fake terror threats should do the trick.
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts
William Douglas
findtruth40@hotmail.com
July 11, 2006
I began researching the mainstream media coverage of the controversy regarding the attacks of 9/11/2001, when reading an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Newspaper, dated June 29th, 2006. It was titled, "Sept. 11 claim stirs UW probe -- Instructor says U.S. planned the attacks to provoke war." This led to my discovery of some wild conspiracy theorists that endanger our government and media establishments, with quite frankly insane assertions. I'll address this in full in the final paragraph.
Then by using a "google video 9/11" search, I recently viewed a FOX News interview on Hannity and Colmes with an Arab Studies teacher from the University of Wisconsin named Kevin Barrett. I had earlier seen an interview with another, a professor named James Fetzer, University of Minnesota Duluth. A few weeks earlier I had seen an interview on MSNBC Scarborough country interviewing a Mike Berger representing 911Truth.org.
Some of these guests referred to an organization called "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" with a website www.st911.org, which offered a physics research paper questioning the official explanation of the events of 9/11/2001. While visiting this site, I read that they pointed to the temperatures of the fires in the WTC buildings, and construction of the buildings, and the speed they fell, as evidence they claimed proved that what we saw on 9/11/2001 when the towers fell had to have been the result of a controlled demolition. Like the ones we've seen with Las Vegas hotels being brought down. Their claim was that the WTC buildings could not have been caused solely by the aircraft hitting the WTC buildings that day.
Then, I contacted the office of a Wisconsin State Legislator, Rep. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater), and asked to speak to someone in the office who could speak on this issue. I asked if he was familiar with the Scholars for 9/11 Truth website, and he replied they had learned of it this week. I asked him if he and the Representative could comment on the charge that the fires on 9/11/2001 in the WTC buildings did not burn hot enough to bring down the buildings, and if he'd read the scholars organization's charge that thermate traces had been found on debris from the fallen towers (thermate indicating demolition type explosives were involved). The gentleman responded that no, they had not looked at this information, and this would not be something they would look at, further indicating that anyone who made such charges was blinded by their hatred of President Bush.
Which leads back to the interviews of guests on the three television news programs. The main theme of all three of the guests on these programs appeared to be concern of the physical evidence of 9/11/2001, mentioned above and particularly regarding the collapse of three of the World Trade Center buildings on that day.
The main themes of the interviewers on these programs appeared to be two-fold:
1) The guests were representing a fringe movement, and most Americans do not dispute the official 9/11 explanation of the 19 hijackers defeating US military and intelligence forces on 9/11/2001.
2) The guests and those they speak for, who question the official 9/11/2001 account, are of questionable sanity
This motivated me to do some research. First I looked at the fringe movement issue that the majority of Americans disagreed with the programs guests and accept the official explanation, and secondly, the sanity and expertise of people like their guests who question the official story of 9/11/2001.
First, regarding the fringe issue, asserting that the guests questioning the events of 9/11 reflected a small minority of American opinion. I looked at the only polls I could find on these questions, and the results were surprising. A CNN viewers poll, which is not scientific, held Wednesday, November 10th, 2005, asked, "Do you believe there is a U.S. government cover-up surrounding 9/11?" 89% replied "Yes," they did believe there was a cover-up by the U.S. Government (9,441 votes), while only 12% felt there was no cover-up. In a national Zogby poll, of May 2006, found that 45%, of the American public felt a new 9/11 investigation should be launched because "so many unanswered questions about 9/11 remain that Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success." An earlier Zogby poll of New York City residents, from August of 2004, found that Half (49.3%) of New Yorkers felt that U.S. government officials "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act." While 66% of New Yorkers called for a new probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York’s Attorney General.
Now to the second issue the television media interviewers were most concerned with, which was the expertise and sanity of the people demanding a new 9/11 investigation, and some even suggesting possible U.S. government complicity in the attacks of 9/11/2001. Again, a simple google "video 9/11" search, provided a wealth of information. This too yielded some surprising results.
One of the loudest advocates of the most damning charge that "members of the U.S. government actually orchestrated the events of 9/11 to fool the nation into unpopular wars", was not a tree-hugging Green Party activist, but rather a prominent Republican, in fact a Former Chief Economist under George Bush, and professor at Texas A&M, Morgan Reynolds. [Link]
Google research of the growing list of other 9/11 skeptics of the official story, some "convinced of U.S. government involvement," while others not going that far, but pointing out that"the official story is highly questionable and demands further investigation," yielded surprising results. Including a host of high level Republican administration officials, defense experts, intelligence experts, and respected scholars, as well as well known celebrities who are now adding the spotlight of their names to the issue of 9/11. Among them were:
Former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force, under President Reagan, and combat fighter pilot Col. Robert Bowman (Caltech Phd in aeronautics and nuclear engineering). [Link]
Former CIA Intelligence Advisor to Reagan and George HW Bush and founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Ray McGovern [Link]
Kevin Ryan, former department head at UL (Underwriter Laboratories) the company which certified the steel which went into the WTCs upon their construction, and inspected it after the WTC collapses in 2001. [Link]
Former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Research Fellow at Stanford's Independent Institute, and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Craig Roberts [Link]
Canadian National Defense Minister, the Honourable Paul Hellyer [Link]
Minister for the Environment, and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom) Michael Meacher [Link]
National Minister of Defense (Germany). Also, served as Minister of Technology Andreas Von Bulow [Link]
Former Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces, and chief of the department for General affairs in the Soviet Union 's ministry of Defense, General Leonid Ivashov [Link]
Former MI6 British Counter Intelligence Officer, David Shayler [Link]
Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, former Marine Corps officer, author or editor of more than 20 books, and co-chair of Scholars For 9/11 Truth, James Fetzer [Link]
Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University, and co-chair of Scholars For 9/11 Truth, Steven Jones [Link]
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Religion & Theology, Claremont Graduate University, and author or editor of some 30 books, including "The New Pearl Harbor" and "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions" David Ray Griffin [Link]
Professor of mathematics, University of Western Ontario, and founder of the Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven (SPINE), A.K Dewdney [Link] [Link]
Aircraft crash investigation authority, USAF Col. (Ret) George Nelson [Link]
Former chief Pentagon arms negotiator for the Middle East, USAF Col. (Ret) Don de Grand-Pre [Link]
Actor Charlie Sheen (Platoon, Wall Street, etc.) [Link]
Actor, Ed Asner [Link]
Actor, Ed Begley, Jr [Link]
So, now that we've examined the two main issues of concern for the television news interviewers, which was the "fringe" aspect of the questioners, and the "sanity/expertise" issue, it appears those arguments are very weak arguments, really with no merit at all. Obviously tens of millions of Americans, according to polls, want a new investigation into 9/11/2001 and have a strong suspicion of U.S. government involvement at some level. Obviously not all of the national defense, intelligence, aeronautics, physics and engineering experts questioning the official story of 9/11 are insane or unqualified to comment.
This begs the question, in the face of such obvious facts, why do our media personalities continue to attempt to throw out accusations that are patently untrue regarding those who question the official story? When a television news interviewer continues to ask questions and make assertions that he or she knows to be untrue, this would challenge the expertise and sanity, not of their guests, but of the television news interviewer.
The 9/11 truth movement appears to be growing rapidly, and involving people of substantial credentials and expertise. As television and some radio personalities continue to behave in what obviously is an insane behavior, what do we do? Can we get our national media any psychological help? If not, it would be wise to relieve them of their positions at least. I feel increasingly uneasy about millions of young minds being exposed night after night to comments and opinions by people who increasingly appear to be insane, yet in positions of authority.
Of course the concern here is larger. If there is any possibility or doubt about whether the events of 9/11/2001 were participated in by members of our own government, then our entire democracy and world peace would be strengthened by getting to the bottom of the true facts of this pinnacle event of our time. It would be unhealthy to leave a cloud of doubt hanging over such assertions. There should be a full fledged national debate, experts from all sides should be interviewed on national media to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Our Congress should launch investigations into the physics questions that are causing so many to doubt the official story. No matter where anyone stands on this issue, this is obviously the only path to national healing and trust.
However, this debate on national media cannot occur if the interviewers hired by national media continue to behave in an insane irrational behavior, like "conspiracy theory wing-nuts." You see, too many of our media spokespersons on television and radio adhere to a wild conspiracy theory. Their theory is that anyone who looks into the facts of the events of one of the most important issues in history is alone, and insane, but yet somehow organized in some united conspiratorial effort. Of course, the facts fly in the face of this conspiracy theory, but these media personalities appear unable to grasp reality even when it is pointed out to them.
For media reading this article, time will tell whether you are an insane conspiracy theorist or not. If you too, are among the insane in our media, the public will likely eventually demand your resignation. As one who writes sometimes on parental issues, I believe it is unhealthy to have insane people in charge of the national information highways our children are taught to watch. We need sane media people who look at facts regarding issues, not ones who launch into insane screeds of paranoia to avoid reality.
Also, you may recall that when I contacted State Representative, Stephen Nass' office, his aid stated that they were aware of but not interested in and would not look at the physics facts provided by the website Scholars for 9/11 Truth, www.st911.org. However, they did want to fire a university teacher for presenting facts, many of which were available on that site. To fire someone for presenting facts, facts that you dispute, yet have no idea what those facts are, and are unwilling to look at them to find out what they are . . . is also insane. Again, as someone who writes on parenting issues, as a concerned parent as well, America should also consider retiring our insane government officials who fire people for facts they aren't aware of and are unwilling to look at. These politicians apparently assert some wild conspiracy theory that millions of Americans are questioning the events of 9/11 because they are "Bush haters" according to the aid at Nass' office. This kind of delusional paranoia by our elected officials is of particular concern. Such wild eyed conspiratorialists should not be allowed in government.
Bill Douglas, author of "The Amateur Parent - A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe"
findtruth40@hotmail.com July, 11, 2006
Comment on this Editorial
Israel Plans Genocide - Part 1
Israeli army enters Lebanon
Staff and agencies
Wednesday July 12, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
- Two soldiers reported kidnapped by Hizbullah
- Gaza bomb kills nine overnight
- Palestinian president 'threatens to quit'
Israeli troops reportedly entered southern Lebanon today after at least two Israeli troops went missing during border clashes with Hizbullah and were reported captured by the militant group.
Israeli government officials said the army had crossed into Lebanon to search for the soldiers and prevent them being taken further inside Lebanon. An emergency cabinet meeting would be held at 7pm (1700 BST).
The defence minister, Amir Peretz, warned Lebanon against allowing Hizbullah to operate from its territory.
"The Lebanese government, which allows Hizbullah to operate freely against Israel from its sovereign territory, will bear responsibility for the consequences and ramifications (of the cross-border attack)," he said in a statement. "Israel sees itself as being free to employ any means it deems fit, and the army has been instructed accordingly," he said, seeming to suggest a broad Israeli military response to the abduction.
Guerrillas from the Lebanese militant group claimed on Hizbullah Television to have captured the soldiers in a cross-border raid.
But the Israeli military would only officially confirm that two soldiers were missing, while a source told Reuters that troops were thought to have been killed.
Other Hizbullah reports suggested that three Israelis had been killed in the fighting and the broadcaster al-Jazeera said that seven Israelis had been killed. If confirmed, the deaths would be the first Israeli combat fatalities since the start of the Gaza campaign on June 28.
The fighting occurred as Israel killed nine members of a family, including two children, during an overnight bomb strike on a house in Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have pounded Gaza since a group of Palestinian militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on June 25 and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for him.
But the overnight bombing was the most serious single attack of the campaign, which has so far killed more than 60 Palestinians, including at least 12 civilians.
The capture of Israeli troops would be a major coup for Hizbullah, which has engaged in sporadic fighting with Israeli forces along the Lebanese border since they withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.
Hizbullah said that it had seized the soldiers in an attempt to secure the release of some of the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails under military laws.
"Fulfilling its pledge to liberate the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance ... captured two Israeli soldiers at the border with occupied Palestine," the group said in a statement. "The two captives were transferred to a safe place."
If the reported captures are confirmed, they would heighten tit-for-tat tensions in the Middle East. The capture of Corporal Shalit has sparked the biggest Israeli incursion into Gaza Strip since settlers and security forces were withdrawn from the territory in August 2005.
Immediately after the reported capture, Hamas' top Lebanon official, Osama Hamdan, said the situation improved the position of his group over the prisoner exchange issue.
"What happened has strengthened the issue of the captives, and the enemy will submit to our choice, which is the exchange of the captives in return for the release of the soldiers," he said.
Israel has rejected a prisoner exchange to secure the release of Cpl Shalit, although senior political figures have hinted that such a tactic might eventually be inevitable.
The Israeli military has insisted that the Palestinian authorities hand over the kidnapped soldier, although there are questions over how much control the Palestinian leadership has over Gaza.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat today reported that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, had threatened to quit his position and leave the Palestinian territories in a phone conversation with the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
Israeli officials linked the overnight bombing in Gaza to the campaign to track down the people who ordered Cpl Shalit's kidnapping.
The quarter-tonne bomb hit the home of the Hamas activist Nabil Abu Salmiyeh, a lecturer at Gaza City's Islamic University, but Israeli officials said it was intended for Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas' military wing. Members of Hamas' military wing were among three factions that took part in the capture of Cpl Shalit.
Hamas officials said that the intended targets had escaped the scene of the 2.30am bombing, but later confirmed that one of their Gaza commanders, Raad Saed, had been wounded.
Israeli forces claimed that Mr Deif had been wounded along with Ahmed Ghandour, a commander reportedly involved in the June 25 kidnap.
Palestinians said that Israel had also fired a rocket at a car driving away from the scene, but added that the two occupants had managed to get away.
The two-storey house was reduced to rubble and rescue teams frantically searched through the wreckage for survivors while a neighbouring house was close to collapse. The force of the blast had shattered nearby windows and flying masonry had blown holes in the walls of other buildings.
Witnesses reported that the body of a child had been pulled from the wreckage of the house.
Israel defended the attack, saying that members of the Hamas military wing had been meeting in the house.
"Israel is compelled to take action against those planning to unleash lethal terror attacks against Israeli citizens," said David Baker, an official in the office of the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "Palestinian terrorist leaders continue to take refuge amongst and hide behind their own civilians."
But the strike is likely to heighten international condemnation of Israel's reoccupation of Gaza Strip. Last week the EU and UN criticised Israel for "disproportionate use of force" against Palestinians in the territory, while the Swiss government alluded to the Geneva conventions on the laws of war in stating that the Israeli campaign amounted to "collective punishment".
The crackdown in Gaza has included the cutting off of water and power supplies, the destruction of bridges and damaged sanitation for local Palestinians.
Yesterday, Israeli troops pushed into the former Gush Katif Jewish settlement and tanks occupied Gaza's main north-south road, effectively cutting Gaza Strip in two.
Comment: The Israeli government is following a carefully planned operation to escalate the violence and spread it to the wider Middle East. Such an escalation would surely be the beginning of something big, a display of psychopathy for all the world to see, if they can only recognise it as such. It may also be the beginning of the end for Israel. Things may soon get really ugly, many innocent would be murdered, and all of it consciously planned and implemented by the state of Israel. If the "crisis" is simply about the captured Israeli soldier Shalit, as Olmert claims, why will Israel not simply swap women and children for him as Hamas has requested?
Comment on this Article
Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers
Wednesday 12 July 2006, 12:34 Makka Time, 9:34 GMT
Hezbollah has captured two Israeli soldiers in attacks from Lebanon on enemy border posts, prompting Israel to launch a ground and air assaults.
The Lebanese group said on Wednesday that it had captured the pair to secure the release of detainees held in Israeli prisons.
"In order to fulfil a promise to free the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance captured at 9:05am [0605 GMT] two Israeli soldiers at the borders with occupied Palestine," Hezbollah said referring to its military wing.
"The two prisoners were moved to a safe place," it said.
The Israeli defense ministry confirmed the kidnapping and said it held the Lebanese government "directly responsible" for their fate and safe return.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has convened an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers. He warned that those who try to test Israel's resolve would "pay a heavy price."
Separately, an Israeli security source said two Israelis had been killed in cross-border attacks by Hezbollah fighters.
The identities of the casualties were not immediately known.
Israel retaliates
Lebanese security sources said Israeli aircraft retaliated by bombing three bridges in southern Lebanon.
Two Lebanese civilians were killed and a Lebanese soldier was wounded in the air raid, Lebanese security sources said.
The Lebanese casualties occurred in the raid on the coastal Qasmiyeh bridge.
Meanwhile, Israel's army radio reported that ground forces had enterned Lebanon to search for the missing soldiers.
Hezbollah earlier fired dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli border posts and a town, wounding four civilians, according to Israeli and Lebanese security sources.
Israeli gunners retaliated, firing salvoes of artillery shells into the outskirts of four Lebanese border villages while Israeli soldiers exchanged gunfire with guerrillas in the area.
The fighting apparently began when at least two rockets fired from south Lebanon exploded near Shlomi, an Israeli frontier town about 15km east of the Mediterranean coast.
Hezbollah fighters also attacked Israeli posts in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area to the east, Lebanese security sources said.
The Hezbollah attack coincided with the Israeli invasion in Gaza, ordered partly in retaliation for the abduction by Palestinian fighters earlier this month of a soldier from a border post.
Comment on this Article
Israel launches three airstrikes on Gaza Strip
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-12 05:38:12
GAZA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Israel launched Tuesday night three airstrikes on targets in northern and central Gaza Strip, wounding one militant, security sources and witnesses said.
The sources said that two Apache attack helicopters fired two air-to-ground rockets at an empty field in central Gaza Strip, the site of a former Jewish settlement evacuated last September.
Shortly before the airstrike, two Israeli drones fired two rockets at the same time at a training camp, which belongs to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, in northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian witnesses said that a group of militants in the camp managed to escape from the area without injury.
Earlier, an Israeli pilotless drone attacked a group of militants who were launching a homemade rocket from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel.
The militants are members of an armed group called "Al-Fateh al-Mubein."
The group said in a leaflet that its militants launched a homemade rocket at Israel, and the Israeli attack lightly wounded one militant.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian residents of the village of Aseera al-Shamaleya said that the Israeli army stormed the village and detained three Palestinians.
The residents said that Israeli soldiers discovered an explosive device in one of houses and blew it up, adding that the house was destroyed.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, two Jewish settlers were lightly injured after Palestinian youth threw stones at their car, Israel Radio reported.
Comment on this Article
Israeli PM calls Hizbollah attack "act of war"
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-12 19:40:09
JERUSALEM, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday called the Lebanese Hizbollah's attack on the northern Israeli border "an act of war."
"It is an act of war by the state of Lebanon against the state of Israel in its sovereign territory," Olmert said at a news conference.
"We are already responding with great strength ... The cabinet will convene tonight to decide on a further military response by the Israel Defense Forces," he added.
The Israeli prime minister also vowed a "very painful and far-reaching" response, adding that Israel would not negotiate over the fate of two soldiers who went missing during the border violence.
Earlier, Hizbollah claimed that it had kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, demanding Israel release prisoners held in Israeli jails in exchange for the two soldiers.
Comment: Is Olmert stupid, or is he just ignoring the fact that Israel started shelling towns within Lebanon which prompted Hizbullah to REACT! The act of war was on Israel's part.
Comment on this Article
Israel intensifies Gaza action
Tuesday 11 July 2006, 14:38 Makka Time, 11:38 GMT
Chemical weapons?
In Shifa hospital, Dr al-Saqqa said most of the dead bodies taken to the facility were torn apart and completely burnt.
"Even bodies of the injured have been almost completely burnt. They have been deformed in a very ugly way that we have never seen before," he told Aljazeera channel.
Al-Saqaa, who heads the hospital's emergency service, said relatives had been unable to identify the dead victims.
"When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of the shrapnel that hit the person killed," he said, adding that the bodies seemed to have been chemically burnt.
"We are sure that Israel is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in the new operation. More than 25% of the injured are children, aged under 16."
Israel has begun fresh air strikes in the Gaza Strip after pledging to intensify its military offensive on the territory that has killed 51 Palestinians in two weeks.
One Palestinian was killed and four others wounded in a series of Israeli air strikes in the northern industrial zone of Bait Hanun, medics said on Tuesday.
The Israeli military confirmed an air raid in the Bait Hanun area of northern Gaza, the site of two earlier strikes on Tuesday.
The dead man was named Ahmed Shahid, who was struck by a missile fired towards a car, the sources said.
Israeli aircraft also carried out two overnight air strikes against a bridge in the northern Gaza Strip and against a "gunman" west of the Karni transit point for goods entering and leaving the Palestinian territory, a spokesman said.
Ground troops are massed on the eastern and northern border of the impoverished territory - one of the most densely populated areas on earth - and are also stationed east of Gaza City and in the south near a defunct airport.
Israel says the massive operation is to secure the release of a captured soldier on June 25, and halting Palestinian rocket attacks.
Palestinian medics said on Tuesday that patients treated in Shifa hospital in Gaza and bodies at the mortuary presented unusual burns, raising concerns that Israel was using chemical weapons.
Meanwhile, Israeli defence sources said the government had given the military the green light to continue and, if necessary, intensify the so-called Summer Rain offensive with infantry and armour poised to carry out "in depth" incursions.
The approval was granted during consultations late on Monday between Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and the defence minister, Amir Peretz, who faced their biggest test since the new Israeli government took office on May 4.
Olmert is due to hold talks with military commanders on Tuesday with a view to continuing the offensive, the largest operation since Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in September.
Chemical weapons?
In Shifa hospital, Dr al-Saqqa said most of the dead bodies taken to the facility were torn apart and completely burnt.
"Even bodies of the injured have been almost completely burnt. They have been deformed in a very ugly way that we have never seen before," he told Aljazeera channel.
Al-Saqaa, who heads the hospital's emergency service, said relatives had been unable to identify the dead victims.
"When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of the shrapnel that hit the person killed," he said, adding that the bodies seemed to have been chemically burnt.
"We are sure that Israel is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in the new operation. More than 25% of the injured are children, aged under 16."
Four teenagers playing football were among the dead on Monday.
At least 51 Palestinians have been killed since the operation started two weeks ago. An Israeli soldier also died as a result of "friendly fire", according to the Israeli military.
No end in sight
On Monday, Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, demanded a prisoner swap for freeing the captured soldier but Olmert said that would be a "major mistake".
Hamas's armed wing - along with two other militant groups, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam -claims to be holding the soldier.
Olmert has rejected international accusations that the response to the soldier's capture was disproportionate, saying that Israel's pullout from Gaza after 38 years of occupation has been followed only by continued violence.
Aid groups have expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza after months of financial difficulties and the suspension of direct Western aid to the Hamas-led government.
Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, is due to arrive in the region on Tuesday for separate talks with Olmert and the Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on a trip he hopes will help to calm the situation.
Comment on this Article
Israeli Army Drops 1/4 Ton Bomb On Family Home, Kills 9
Washington Post
12 July 2006
Just as an addendum to the wonderful fight that the Israeli army is engaged in, the Washington Post saw fit to mention as a final paragraph to an article buried deep within the paper's pages:
Israel's air force dropped a quarter-ton bomb on a residential building in Gaza earlier Wednesday, killing at least six people, including two children. The target of the airstrike had been top Hamas militants meeting in the building, but Hamas said its top fugitive got away.
Nothing to see here.
Comment on this Article
Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza
Date: 10 / 07 / 2006 Time: 22:07
MAAN NEWS AGENCY
Salfit- Gaza- Ma'an- The Palestinian ministry of health revealed on Monday that the Israeli army has used a new type of explosive in its offensive on the Gaza Strip. These explosives contain toxics and radioactive materials which burn and tear the victim's body from the inside and leave long term deformations.
The ministry called upon the international community and the humanitarian organizations to send an international medical community to examine the victims and confirm the truth about these banned weapons that Israel appears to be using.
The ministry showed that most of the injuries which the hospitals receive result from huge explosions which cause burning and severing of limbs, including the inner parts of the body. This causes long term deformations.
It is added that doctors in Gaza have been forced to amputate limbs of at least 12 injured Palestinians as a result of injuries sustained in the current Israeli offensive on the Strip.
Comment on this Article
Israeli army denies using prohibited weapons
Date: 11 / 07 / 2006 Time: 19:37
MAAN NEWS AGENCY
Jerusalem-Ma'an- The Israeli army denied Palestinian accusations that it is using prohibited weapons in its attack on Gaza.
The army spokesman, Avichia Auz'i refused to tell our correspondent in Jerusalem whether Israel actually started to use a new type of missiles. He said: "When the army uses such missiles, it won't reveal it simply because armies do not reveal the weapons they use. Yet, we are always developing our weapons in order to avoid hitting civilians"
He added: "I just want to confirm that we are using traditional weapons only, regardless of the Palestinian allegations."
In regard to Olmert's endorsement of a comprehensive incursion of Gaza, he answered that the army is performing a major operation "Summer Rain" and every thing is a part of that operation. In addition, he said, "we don't intend to stay in Gaza."
Comment: Of course, and we should all believe the words of the IDF, a bunch of cut-throats who, in the past, have claimed that they accidentally shot Palestinian children, you know, the one's found with 20 bullets in their bodies.
Comment on this Article
Israel Plans Genocide - Part 2
Israel's Chemical Weapons
July 8, 2004
by James Brooks
AntiWar.com
On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high number of cases of [tetany], spasm in legs and hands, connected to the nervous system. Pupils were dilated. ... Other symptoms included shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and sweating."
Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel's impending wall has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report (procured by the International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC]), "the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a nerve gas."
The following day, Israel's "Peace Bloc," Gush Shalom, began a press release with the following quote from Al-Zawiya:
"What the army used here yesterday was not tear gas. We know what tear gas is, what it feels like. That was something totally different. ... When we were still a long way off from where the bulldozers were working, they started shooting things like this one (holding up a dark green metal tube with the inscription "Hand and rifle grenade no.400" - in English). Black smoke came out. Anyone who breathed it lost consciousness immediately, more than a hundred people. They remained unconscious for nearly 24 hours. One is still unconscious, at Rapidiya Hospital in Nablus. They had high fever and their muscles became rigid. Some needed urgent blood transfusion. Now, is this a way of dispersing a demonstration, or is it chemical warfare?"
The incident in Al-Zawiya appears to be the tenth attack by Israeli soldiers using an "unknown gas" against Palestinian civilians since early 2001. We have photographs of the canisters. We have film of victims suffering in the hospital. We have interviews with Palestinian and European doctors who have treated the victims. And we presumably have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of survivors. But we know nothing of their fate. Despite the evidence, we have not inquired.
Though it is a state secret, Israel's development of chemical and biological weapons has been known and analyzed for decades. From the typhoid poisoning of Palestinian wells and water supplies in 1948 to the conversion of F-16s into nerve gas "crop dusters" in 1998, Israel has always demonstrated a strong interest in developing CBW agents and methods for their dispersal.
In 1992 an El Al 747 flying nerve gas ingredients from the U.S. to Israel crashed into an Amsterdam apartment building. According to Salman Abu-Sitta, president of the Palestine Land Society, the respected Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad followed up the crash with an in-depth investigation of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), Israel's CBW complex in Nes Ziona. The paper reportedly found "strong links" with several U.S. CBW and medical research centers, "close cooperation between IIBR and the British-American biological warfare program," and "extensive collaboration on BW research with Germany and Holland."
At IIBR, doctors publish world-class research in acetylcholine, the mother lode of nerve gas design. The Nes Ziona complex is reputed to have invented an "undetectable" poison-needle gun for "clean" assassinations. In September 1997, two days after Jordan's King Hussein told Israeli PM Netanyahu that Hamas was seeking negotiations, Mossad agents in Jordan attempted to kill Hamas leader Khaled Misha'al with a lethal dose of fentanyl.
For years, rumors persisted that Israel was using or testing unknown chemical agents on Palestinian civilians. The rumors began to reveal their substance February 12, 2001, when Israel began a six-week campaign of "novel gas" attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. By chance, American filmmaker James Longley arrived in Khan Younis, Gaza in the middle of the first attack. That afternoon he began filming the victims. His award-winning film, Gaza Strip, documents the naked reality of Israel's chemical weaponry - the canisters, the doctors, the eyewitnesses, and the hideous suffering of the victims, many of whom remained hospitalized for days or weeks.
The February 12 gassing of neighborhoods in Khan Younis presaged the attacks that followed. When the gas canisters landed, they began to billow clouds of either white or black, sooty smoke. The gas was non-irritating and initially odorless, changing to a sweet, minty fragrance after a few minutes. One victim recalled, "the smell was good. You want to breathe more. You feel good when you inhale it." The smoke often shifted to a "rainbow" of changing colors.
From five to thirty minutes after breathing the gas, victims began to feel sick and have difficulty breathing. A searing pain began to wrench their gut, followed by vomiting, sometimes of blood, then complete hysteria and extremely violent convulsions. Many victims suffered a relentless syndrome for days or weeks afterward, alternating between convulsions and periods of conscious, twitching, vomiting agony. Palestinians agreed: "This is like nothing we've ever seen before."
Forty people were admitted to Al-Nasser Hospital "in an odd state of hysteria and nervous breakdown," suffering from "fainting and spasms." Sixteen gas patients had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. Doctors "reported the Israeli use of gas that appeared to cause convulsions."
At the Gharbi refugee camp, thirty-two people "were treated for serious injuries" following exposure to the gas. Dr. Salakh Shami at Al-Amal Hospital reported the hospital receiving "about 130 patients suffering from gas inhalation from February 12."
Bewildered medical personnel had "never seen anything ... like the gas at Tufa." Victims were "jumping up and down, left and right ... thrashing limbs around," suffering "convulsions ... a kind of hysteria. They were all shaking." Others were already unconscious. An hour or two later, they would come to. And the convulsions and the vomiting and disorientation and pain would return.
The following day, February 13, Israeli forces again deployed the strange new gas canisters in Khan Younis. Over forty new gas victims, "including a number of children ... from 1 to 5-years-old," arrived at Al-Nasser Hospital and the hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The news began to trickle out. "Palestinian security services have accused the Israeli army of using nerve gas during a gunbattle yesterday," reported AFX News Limited, noting "the army has strongly denied the charges." The Voice of Palestine reported that "specialists believe that this is an internationally banned nerve gas." Those who inhaled the gas "suffered a nervous breakdown and vomited blood."
The next day, Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted Dr. Yasser Sheikh Ali from Al-Nasser Hospital: "Israel has been using a powerful type of tear gas against the Palestinians that causes convulsions and spasms." According to DPA, more than 80 Palestinians...reported that Israeli soldiers had used the white smoky gas, but Israel denied doing so."
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that on February 15 three more canisters of the poison gas were fired at houses in the Khan Younis camp, and "another 11 Palestinian civilians, mostly children, suffered from suffocation and spasms due to gas inhalation." British journalist Graham Usher wrote that Khan Younis civilians were "incapacitated" by "a 'new' form of toxic gas."
PA President Yasser Arafat publicly "accused Israel of using poison gas." The IDF issued a second denial. Israeli Communications Minister Ben-Eliezer called reports of gas casualties in Khan Younis "incorrect and false." Senior PA minister Nabil Shaath said that a sample of the gas would be sent to "an international center for analysis." The results, if any, were never divulged.
On February 18, Israeli soldiers near the Neve Dekalim settlement reportedly fired four poison gas canisters at Palestinian houses in Khan Younis. Later that afternoon, more canisters were fired, forcing Palestinians to flee their homes. PCHR reported that "41 Palestinian civilians, mostly children and women, suffered from suffocation and spasms." By PCHR's count, 238 Palestinians were affected by poison gas attacks between February 12 and February 20. Twenty-seven of the victims were still hospitalized on the 22nd.
On March 2, an unknown gas was used against civilians in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh. Israeli soldiers reportedly fired "canisters of a highly effective black gas similar to the one used in Khan Yunis three weeks ago."
Twenty-four days later, Israeli forces east of Gaza City used a gas that "left symptoms different from those of the ... gas used first ... in Khan Yunis starting from February 12," although several similarities also appeared. In this attack the onset of abdominal pain seemed to be delayed.
On March 30, medical professionals in Nablus reported Israeli soldiers using the new poison gas against Palestinian demonstrators.
British journalist Jonathan Cook reported a March gas attack on the schoolyard of Al-Khader village, near Bethlehem. Thirteen year-old Sliman Salah was playing when a gas canister landed next to him, "enveloping him in a cloud of gas described by witnesses as an unfamiliar, yellow colour." Large doses of anti-convulsants were required to control the boy's seizures and maintain consciousness. His symptoms "were finally brought under control five days after his exposure to the gas. But Salah's father says the boy is still suffering from stomach pains, vomiting, dizziness and breathing problems."
In its March, 2003 special report, Israel's Secret Weapon, BBC Television reviewed this series of gas attacks, noting, "The Israeli army has used new unidentified weapons. In February 2001 a new gas was used in Gaza. A hundred and eighty patients were admitted to hospitals with severe convulsions. ... Israel is outside chemical and biological weapons treaties and still refuses to say what the new gas was."
In my amateur analysis of the reported comments of victims, eyewitnesses and medical professionals regarding this series of attacks, I identified thirty-three distinct symptoms attributed to the unidentified gas. All but three of these symptoms appear to be typical of nerve gas poisoning. Tareg Bey, a chemical warfare expert at the University of California-Irvine, told the Chicago Reader that the symptoms described to him "all fit really well to nerve gas," though he was puzzled by the reported fragrance and skin rashes.
In an October 9, 2003, article, Jennifer Loewenstein and Angela Gaff asked, "What gas is Israel using?" They reported the story of Mukhles Burgal, a Palestinian prisoner caught in a brutal attack inside Israel's Ashkelon prison. The "guards forced their way into the crowded cell, spraying two canisters of some type of gas. Some of the 14 prisoners passed out. ... The effects of the gas were severe muscle spasms and an overwhelming sensation of not being able to breathe."
Two days later, Palestine Monitor reported that Israeli forces in Rafah were allegedly "firing gas grenades containing a black gas believed to be adamatite [adamsite?] - the use of which is forbidden according to international law. Medical authorities urged people to avoid the gas at all costs, as it not only causes difficulty in breathing but seriously affects the nervous system." For some reason, PCHR's press release from the same day, an apparent source of these reports, is no longer available. On the 14th, eyewitness Laura Gordon wrote, "The army used some kind of nerve gas for the first time in Rafah, leaving people in convulsions for days."
Following the recent gas attack in Al-Zawiya, town officials reportedly told Al Ayyam newspaper, "the Israeli occupation troops were using an illegal substance that caused nerve spasms and that several cases had been transferred to Nablus hospitals."
The PA's International Press Center reported that "official and public sources in ... Al-Zawya ... asserted that those who have inhaled the tear gas IOF troops fired at them four days ago are still suffering from the effects of the gas ... a number of those citizens have already had amnesias or partial memory loss, in addition to cramps ... in addition to strange cramps every three hours ... those who inhaled the gas are still suffering severe pains in the joints and nausea for four days now. Eyewitnesses recalled that the Israeli soldiers were keen on picking the empty tear gas canisters." Journalists told IPC "that the gas was in different colors they have never seen coming out of a tear gas canister before, and that some gases had an unrecalled smell."
According to IMEMC, "[T]ens of demonstrators who inhaled this gas had partial memory loss. Dr. Bassam Abu Madi told IMEMC that the some of those who inhaled the gas had severe choking and some contraction in their feet and arm muscles. Eyewitnesses said the gas has a strange smell and a reddish-brownish color." In a follow up story, IMEMC concluded that "protesters were attacked with gas that is not like the tear gas. Those who inhaled the gas suffered some memory loss while others had other symptoms of a nerve gas. Yet this was not medically confirmed for lack of laboratories to inspect the gas canisters collected from the scene."
Al-Jazeera reported the opinion of Awni Khatib, a professor of chemistry at Hebron University:
"The new symptoms - particularly the violent convulsions experienced by some Palestinian protesters outside the village of Sawiya [Zawiya], southwest of Nablus - suggest ... that the Israeli army may be using a new class of chemicals that lie somewhere between normal tear gas and chemical weapons."
Israel's repeated use of highly toxic unknown chemicals against Palestinian civilians is now an open secret. We can expect these attacks to continue until a concerted effort is made to determine the facts and hold Israel accountable. So far, the international human rights community has steadfastly ignored the mounting evidence.
When will professional investigators begin to retrieve and test the gas canisters? Why has no one but James Longley bothered to document interviews with victims, doctors, and other eyewitnesses? In a world in which one country's mere possession of chemical weapons can be an excuse for international retribution, how can another country's use of chemical weapons against civilians be dismissed as a "regrettably excessive" tactic of crowd control?
Our silence is poisoning Palestine.
Comment on this Article
Flashback: Is The Israeli Military Using Depleted-Uranium Weapons Against The Palestinians?
By John Catalinotto and Sara Flounders,
International Action Center
International Action Center calls for an investigation
27 Nov 2000-- The International Action Center calls upon international organizations, NGOs, environmental and health organizations to investigate the Israeli military's use of prohibited weapons in the West Bank and Gaza, and to mobilize to stop it. These weapons include dumdum bullets and CS gas. The IAC believes it also includes depleted- uranium weapons.
The effect of dumdum bullets and CS gas is immediate, easily shown and obvious. Using radioactive and toxic depleted-uranium weapons is an additional crime that has an insidious long-term effect, not only on combatants and civilians in the vicinity, but over a broad area and to the general environment, as has been shown by the Pentagon's massive use of DU weapons in Yugoslavia and especially in Iraq.
The International Action Center's own investigative team on Nov. 1 and 2 saw Israeli helicopter gun ships firing into densely populated areas. According to international law these attacks on civilian areas are war crimes--as is the long-term destruction of the environment from DU contamination.
Mobilizing investigations, public challenges and mass protests against the use of DU weapons can stop this crime against humanity.
The aim of this paper is to show with supporting data that it is credible that the Israeli military is using DU weapons in the Occupied Territories. We know that Israel is DU-armed and capable, and shielding on Israeli tanks is DU-reinforced. The IAC urges scientists, doctors and soldiers who know of the use of DU shells to come forward with definitive proof that the Israeli military has at least tested DU weapons in its attacks on Palestinian offices and homes. In addition, we urge environmental and other organizations to demand an accounting from these authorities.
It will also show how following similar Pentagon or U.S. government denials regarding test-firing DU weapons in Puerto Rico, Okinawa Panama and south Korea, revelations and public pressure have forced admissions and in some cases have won pledges to stop firing DU weapons. In Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and in the Persian/Arabian Gulf region this pressure has led to international investigations and legal actions against DU use.
DU IS PART OF ISRAELI ARSENAL
U.S. arms make up the major part of the Israeli arsenal and Israel has been the number one recipient of U.S. arms aid for decades. These U.S. weapons include the M1 Abrams tank-which fires DU shells and is armored with DU-reinforced metal. The "Apache" and the Cobra helicopter gun ships are also equipped to fire DU shells. Since this latest Intifada started, the U.S. has shipped Israel "the newest and most advanced multi-mission attack helicopters in the U.S. inventory," as reported in the Jerusalem Post. These were Apache helicopters.
The IAC delegation witnessed Israeli attack helicopters, which people described to them as "Apache" helicopters from the U.S., firing shells and rockets at targets in and around Ramallah on Nov. 1. They then examined a small office used by the Fatah organization that the projectiles hit and destroyed.
The following day they saw machine guns on tanks being fired at Palestinian youths in Ramallah armed only with rocks and slingshots. They also visited a Fatah office near Nablus that Israeli rockets had hit the night before.
The IAC delegation gathered up shell casings and metal fragments in these areas. As they were preparing to leave from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, members of the IAC delegation were stopped, searched and interrogated. The shell casings and metal fragments were confiscated. While this prevented the IAC from arranging its own tests, it made them even more suspicious that the Israeli forces were using DU shells and trying to hide it.
Because of its great density, DU is also used to stabilize or balance airplanes and missiles, including the Tomahawk Cruise missile. When the missile explodes, or should the plane crash, the DU burns and is released into the air just as it is when DU shells hit steel. DU is also used to shield tanks, including the M1 Abrams tank used by the U.S. and Israel. After 32 continuous days, or 64 12-hour days, the amount of radiation a tank driver receives to his head from overhead armor will exceed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's standard for public whole-body annual exposure to man-made sources of radiation.
Whether from shells or from the scrapings from tanks moving around the countryside, radioactive materials enter into the land, the water and the whole food chain, contaminating the densely populated West Bank and Gaza, where water is a scarce resource. Wanton radioactive contamination of this region is a crime against all of humanity and a threat to the entire region now and for generations to come.
According to the LAKA Foundation in the Netherlands, the Israeli army first used depleted-uranium weapons in the 1973 war, under direction from U.S. advisers.
The same 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute mentioned earlier asserts that Israel is one of the countries with DU munitions in its arsenal. These included at that time at least Bahrain, Egypt, France, Greece, Kuwait, Pakistan Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States. This assertion has been repeated in the Christian Science Monitor, the Jerusalem Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and other newspapers.
Israel has a nuclear-weapons program more developed than that of any country except the five major nuclear powers. For exposing this nuclear program, Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear-weapons technician, was kidnapped by the Mossad and held in solitary confinement 14 years.
Given Israel's own nuclear program and well-developed military industry, the likelihood is that Israel is a manufacturer of DU ammunition. The firm Rafael of Israel is named in numerous reports as being such a manufacturer. But even if this were not the case, Israel has been able to import DU weapons from the United States.
DANGERS FROM DEPLETED URANIUM
DU, much like natural uranium from which it hardly differs, is both radioactive and toxic. DU is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. Over a billion pounds of DU exists in the United States and must be safely stored or disposed of by the Department of Energy. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, the radioactivity of DU is effectively eternal.
It is so abundant it has been given away to arms manufacturers. Because it is extremely dense-1.7 times as dense as lead--when turned into a metal DU can be used to make a shell that easily penetrates steel. In addition it is pyrophoric, that is, it burns when heated by friction from when it strikes steel.
When DU burns, this spews tiny particles of poisonous and radioactive uranium oxide in the air. The small particles can be ingested or inhaled by humans for miles around, and even one particle, when lodged in a vital organ, can be dangerous.
The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S., and used it openly in combat against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf war. At least 600,000 pounds of DU and uranium dust was left around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S. and British forces during that war.
Although the U.S. government and military continue to deny or minimize the environmental and health dangers from depleted uranium weapons, they themselves have to admit these dangers exist. A 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute, entitled the "Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army" stated, "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological.... Personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures."
DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000 reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome." Numerous international studies in Britain, the United States and in Iraq have linked Gulf War Syndrome to the use of radioactive weapons in the bombing. The chronic symptoms of this ailment range from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in the veterans' children.
The damage to the Iraqi people was even more severe. A symposium in Baghdad in December 1998 found higher rates of childhood leukemia and other cancers in people living around Basra, Iraq, and attributed this to DU contamination. Data was presented on the pattern of a more than five-fold increase in many cancers, a ten-fold increase in uterine cancer and a sixteen fold increase in ovarian cancer and the high incidence of still births and congenital deformities, especially in Southern Iraq.
U.S. USE OF DU WEAPONS WORLDWIDE
The only admitted use of DU in combat has been in the 1991 war against Iraq, the 1995 NATO bombing of Bosnia and the massive NATO assault on Yugoslavia in 1999. There have, however, been other instances when the Pentagon has test-fired DU shells in such a way that it has endangered nearby civilians. Besides the many tests conducted within the United States, these include DU testing at sites in Vieques, Puerto Rico; Okinawa, Japan; Panama and South Korea.
VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO
Vieques, an island near and part of Puerto Rico, has been a Pentagon target-practice site since 1940. For the past few years and especially since an errant U.S. bomb killed a Vieques resident in April 1999, people in Vieques and all Puerto Rico have mobilized to stop the testing on that island. As part of this mass mobilization, they have demanded that the U.S. Navy fulfill its responsibility to the local environment and clean up depleted-uranium shells it fired on the island.
While first denying it did such testing, in January 2000, Navy spokespeople admitted firing 263 shells reinforced with DU during practice runs in Vieques, claiming they did so "by accident." They said Navy forces were able to recover 57 rounds, leaving 206. Removing the DU contamination has remained one of the demands of the movement in Vieques. Dr. Doug Rokke, former Director of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, has condemned the Navy's use of DU in Vieques and called in a Feb. 9, 2000 news release for "complete environmental remediation of all affected terrain and medical care be provided for all affected residents of Vieques."
OKINAWA
The U.S. government never notified Japan it was testing DU weapons near Okinawa. Yet it turned out that a U.S Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier jet in late 1995 had test fired 1,520 rounds of DU ammunition. The Pentagon finally admitted this in an article published in the Washington Times on Feb. 10, 1997. This created such a national outrage including angry denunciations in the Japanese Duma that the U.S. government apologized, agreed to remove the weapons from bases on Okinawa and make an extensive clean-up of the site.
As reported in the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, Pentagon spokesperson Kenneth Bacon said the U.S. military has moved all depleted-uranium bullets deployed in Okinawa to south Korea. He also reportedly said that in south Korea, the shells are closer to a "potential battlefield.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun article, a South Korean foreign ministry source said the U.S.-puppet government in Seoul had not been informed of the transfer. "If it is the case that the move was made to avoid further controversy in Japan, it could disturb sentiments of the [south Korean] people," the source reportedly said.
SOUTH KOREA
And it did. U.S. Air-Force veteran turned peace activist during the war against Vietnam Brian Willson reports on his May 2000 visit to South Korea:
"For Example, in May 2000, Koreans discovered that U.S.Air Force A-10s were practice bombing at a 50-year-old bombing/strafing range (Koon Ni) near the village of Maehyang Ri, fifty-five miles southwest of Seoul. On May 8, due to an in-flight emergency, one of the A-10s quickly dropped six bombs outside of the prescribed bombing area, damaging some houses in the village and injuring seven residents. "Local Korean villagers have been vehemently opposed to the use of their historic farmland for U.S. bombing and strafing practice ever since the Korean government first provided the 5900-acre Koon Ni site free of charge to the U.S. military in 1951. The Korean government does not even collect from the U.S. the utility fees entailed for operating the range, now leased by the Pentagon to the world's largest arm's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. When people inquired into the purpose of the A-10s, and asked for explanations for the errant bombing, they discovered that A-10s were heavily used in Kosovo and Serbia delivering DU-coated weapons. "The local people of Maehyang Ri demanded an answer from the Korean government and U.S. military in Korea as to whether DU weapons were being stored in Korea or used in any way during practice bombings. Though at first officials denied presence of DU, incessant pressure by doubting Korean people finally elicited an admission from officials of both the Korean government and U.S. forces that, indeed, DU was present in Korea. It had been moved there in February 1997 from bases in Okinawa, after the Japanese complained of its presence there. And though Korean and U.S. officials denied that they used DU in practices at the Koon Ni range, they did admit that on two occasions in 1997, DU weapons were inadvertently expended in Korea."
PANAMA
According to an article in the Aug. 20, 1997 Christian Science Monitor, Rick Stauber, A member of the seven-person team that prepared the US Department of Defense's report on leftover ordnance at three military firing ranges in Panama, says during his investigation he was handed a report, listing all US weapon testing from the 1960s to the early 1990s, that showed that 120mm depleted- uranium projectiles were fired on Empire Range.
At first, U.S. Ambassador William Hughs denied Stauber's report. When the Fellowship of Reconciliation brought this to the attention of Panamanian daily newspapers, the strong reaction forced Washington to admit that the military had at least stored DU shells in Panama to test their deterioration in tropical climates. Stauber, a military consultant, said that they would then be obliged to test fire at least some of the shells to see if they were functional.
KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
Early in NATO's war against Yugoslavia, on April 1, 1999, the International Action Center sent out a news release charging the U.S. with using DU weapons against Yugoslavia. While the Pentagon was trying to avoid comment on this, Pentagon spokespeople had already told the media that the A-10 Warthog anti-tank plane was being used against Yugoslav tanks in Kosovo. Finally pressure on this question from the media forced the Pentagon to acknowledge use of DU.
Still, NATO headquarters and especially the Pentagon withheld cooperation with investigations of DU contamination of Kosovo. On Oct. 14, 1999, a United Nations official who chairs the task force investigating the impact on the environment of the 78-day U.S.- NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia said that NATO officials had refused to cooperate regarding their use of depleted- uranium weapons. Pekka Haavisto, task-force chairperson, said his team was unable to determine the extent of pollution caused by uranium-tipped weapons. He said NATO refused either to admit using the weapons or to cooperate with the task force.
Finally though, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan from NATO Secretary-General,
Lord Robertson, it states:
"DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged armor during Operation Allied Force. Therefore, it was used throughout Kosovo during approximately 100 missions... A total of approximately 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition was used in operation Allied Force. The major focus of these operations was in an area west of the Pec- Dakovica-Prizren highway, in the area surrounding Klina, in the area around Prizren and in an area to the north of a line joining Suva Reka and Urosevac. However many missions using DU also took place outside these areas."
According to articles written October 2000 by Rainer Rupp in the Berlin daily, Junge Welt, and by British journalist Felicity Arbuthnot, concern over DU dangers have created problems involving both UN personnel and NATO-country troops occupying Kosovo.
"Last week [Oct 14-20] the French government followed its Italian counterpart and launched an investigation of the effects of spent depleted uranium shells on its soldiers in Kosovo. Two Italian K-FOR (occupation) soldiers who were stricken with cancer and who showed symptoms similar to those with Gulf War Syndrome are to be flown from Kosovo to Rome in the near future.
"The Rome military prosecutor followed his colleagues in Milan, Turin and Venice and set underway an investigation of the effects of DU- shells on Italian troops in Kosovo. With this in the background the Portuguese defense minister has decided to withdraw the Portuguese troop contingent from Kosovo. (Junge Welt, Oct. 24)
Notice that in all these cases the military authorities at first either stonewalled or denied that DU was being used, then wound up having to admit it.
ISRAELI EL AL JET
A flaming crash of an El Al cargo jet in Bijlmer, a suburb of Amsterdam on Oct. 4, 1992, killing 43 people has been the target of ongoing research. The health consequences for people in a whole section of Amsterdam has created an ongoing movement of the Dutch Greens on the chemical and radiological toxicity of depleted uranium.
The El Al Boeing 747 jet had on board tons of chemicals, flammable liquids, substances used in the manufacture of nerve gas and 1,500 kilograms of DU in the form of counterweights. Both the nerve gas chemicals and the DU have long been a topic of debate. The Dutch Ministry of Defense report "Health risks during exposure to uranium" documented the radiotoxic effects of DU in the human body.
THE GULF WAR
U.S. veterans organizations have campaigned to demand investigation and compensation for their extremely high incidence of chronic sicknesses among Gulf War veterans. The U.S. government has denied their claims.
IS ISRAEL USING DU IN COMBAT?
Some may argue that because the Israelis are not firing against tanks-the strongest military justification for using DU shells-but against unarmed or at the most lightly armed and virtually unprotected opponents, there is no special reason for them to be using DU shells.
This is true. But the same could be said for U.S. forces in Vieques, Panama, Okinawa and south Korea, yet DU weapons were tested in all those places. Like the Pentagon brass, the Israeli general staff would want to try out their weapons under all conditions, especially in combat. Now that they are firing at homes and offices in an attempt to punish the Fatah leadership, they would want to see if DU shells penetrate concrete as they do steel and if this makes a difference in battle.
The Israeli military has already shown its racist contempt for the Palestinians by firing to maim thousands and kill hundreds of young people protesting the occupation of their country, people armed in the great majority with stones and slingshots. As of Nov. 20, over 240 people have been killed and over 8,000 wounded.
And the Israeli officers have a strong reason to use DU-shielded tanks. They want the Israeli soldiers and their families to think that they are invulnerable in their tanks and armored personal carriers shielded with DU armor. If the troops grow ill months or years later from their constant exposure to radiation, that is no longer a political problem for the generals. The same is true when they handle shells and fire rounds from tank guns.
The Israeli peace movement and the families of the troops, should know that the illusion of invincibility comes at a price. There has already been the beginning of resistance among individual Israeli troops to playing the role of oppressor. This movement should seriously consider the dangers of DU.
The first step to exposing and stopping this crime and its long-term impact is to start a serious investigation of Israeli use of depleted- uranium weapons.
Comment on this Article
Flashback: Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
James Brooks
Counterpunch
July 5 2006
"On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high number of cases of [tetany], spasm in legs and hands, connected to the nervous system. Pupils were dilated...Other symptoms included shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and sweating." (1)
Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel's impending wall has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report (procured by the International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC), "the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a nerve gas."
The following day, Israel's 'Peace Bloc', Gush Shalom, began a press release with the following quote from Al-Zawiya: "What the army used here yesterday was not tear gas. We know what tear gas is, what it feels like. That was something totally different.... When we were still a long way off from where the bulldozers were working, they started shooting things like this one (holding up a dark green metal tube with the inscription "Hand and rifle grenade no.400" - in English). Black smoke came out. Anyone who breathed it lost consciousness immediately, more than a hundred people. They remained unconscious for nearly 24 hours. One is still unconscious, at Rapidiya Hospital in Nablus. They had high fever and their muscles became rigid. Some needed urgent blood transfusion. Now, is this a way of dispersing a demonstration, or is it chemical warfare?" (2)
The incident in Al-Zawiya appears to be the tenth attack by Israeli soldiers using an "unknown gas" against Palestinian civilians since early 2001. We have photographs of the canisters. We have film of victims suffering in the hospital. We have interviews with Palestinian and European doctors who have treated the victims. And we presumably have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of survivors. But we know nothing of their fate. Despite the evidence, we have not inquired.
Though it is a state secret, Israel's development of chemical and biological weapons has been known and analyzed for decades. From the typhoid poisoning of Palestinian wells and water supplies in 1948 (3,4) to the conversion of F-16s into nerve gas 'crop dusters' in 1998 (5), Israel has always demonstrated a strong interest in developing CBW agents and methods for their dispersal.
In 1992 an El Al 747 flying nerve gas ingredients from the US to Israel crashed into an Amsterdam apartment building. (6) According to Salman Abu-Sitta, president of the Palestine Land Society, the respected Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad followed up the crash with an in-depth investigation of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), Israel's CBW complex in Nes Ziona. The paper reportedly found "strong links" with several US CBW and medical research centers, "close cooperation between IIBR and the British-American biological warfare programme", and "extensive collaboration on BW research with Germany and Holland." (7)
At IIBR, doctors publish world-class research in acetylcholine, the mother lode of nerve gas design. The Nes Ziona complex is reputed to have invented an "undetectable" poison-needle gun for "clean" assassinations. (8) In September 1997, two days after Jordan's King Hussein told Israeli PM Netanyahu that Hamas was seeking negotiations, Mossad agents in Jordan attempted to kill Hamas leader Khaled Misha'al with a lethal dose of fentanyl. (9)
For years, rumors persisted that Israel was using or testing unknown chemical agents on Palestinian civilians. The rumors began to reveal their substance February 12, 2001, when Israel began a six-week campaign of "novel gas" attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. By chance, American filmmaker James Longley arrived in Khan Younis, Gaza in the middle of the first attack. That afternoon he began filming the victims. His award-winning film, Gaza Strip, documents the naked reality of Israel's chemical weaponry_the canisters, the doctors, the eyewitnesses, and the hideous suffering of the victims, many of whom remained hospitalized for days or weeks. (10)
The February 12 gassing of neighborhoods in Khan Younis presaged the attacks that followed. When the gas canisters landed, they began to billow clouds of either white or black, sooty smoke. The gas was non-irritating and initially odorless, changing to a sweet, minty fragrance after a few minutes. One victim recalled, "the smell was good. You want to breathe more. You feel good when you inhale it." The smoke often shifted to a "rainbow" of changing colors. (11) (12)
From five to thirty minutes after breathing the gas, victims began to feel sick and have difficulty breathing. A searing pain began to wrench their gut, followed by vomiting, sometimes of blood, then complete hysteria and extremely violent convulsions. Many victims suffered a relentless syndrome for days or weeks afterward, alternating between convulsions and periods of conscious, twitching, vomiting agony. Palestinians agreed: "This is like nothing we've ever seen before." (13)
Forty people were admitted to Al-Nasser Hospital "in an odd state of hysteria and nervous breakdown", suffering from "fainting and spasms." Sixteen gas patients had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. Doctors "reported the Israeli use of gas that appeared to cause convulsions." (14)
At the Gharbi refugee camp, thirty-two people "were treated for serious injuries" following exposure to the gas. Dr. Salakh Shami at Al-Amal Hospital reported the hospital receiving "about 130 patients suffering from gas inhalation from February 12." (15)
Bewildered medical personnel had "never seen anything..like the gas at Tufa." Victims were "jumping up and down, left and right..thrashing limbs around", suffering "convulsions..a kind of hysteria. They were all shaking." Others were already unconscious. An hour or two later, they would come to. And the convulsions and the vomiting and disorientation and pain would return.(16)
The following day, February 13, Israeli forces again deployed the strange new gas canisters in Khan Younis. Over forty new gas victims, "including a number of children..from 1 to 5 years-old", arrived at Al-Nasser Hospital and the hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. (17)
The news began to trickle out. "Palestinian security services have accused the Israeli army of using nerve gas during a gunbattle yesterday", reported AFX News Limited, noting "the army has strongly denied the charges." (18) The Voice of Palestine reported that "specialists believe that this is an internationally banned nerve gas." Those who inhaled the gas "suffered a nervous breakdown and vomited blood." (19)
The next day, Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted Dr. Yasser Sheikh Ali from Al-Nasser Hospital: "Israel has been using a powerful type of tear gas against the Palestinians that causes convulsions and spasms." According to DPA, more than 80 Palestinians...reported that Israeli soldiers had used the white smoky gas, but Israel denied doing so." (20)
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that on February 15 three more canisters of the poison gas were fired at houses in the Khan Younis camp, and "another 11 Palestinian civilians, mostly children, suffered from suffocation and spasms due to gas inhalation." (21) British journalist Graham Usher wrote that Khan Younis civilians were "incapacitated" by "a 'new' form of toxic gas." (22)
PA President Yasser Arafat publicly "accused Israel of using poison gas." The IDF issued a second denial. Israeli Communications Minister Ben-Eliezer called reports of gas casualties in Khan Younis "incorrect and false." Senior PA minister Nabil Shaath said that a sample of the gas would be sent to "an international center for analysis." (23) The results, if any, were never divulged.
On February 18, Israeli soldiers near the Neve Dekalim settlement reportedly fired four poison gas canisters at Palestinian houses in Khan Younis. Later that afternoon, more canisters were fired, forcing Palestinians to flee their homes. PCHR reported that "41 Palestinian civilians, mostly children and women, suffered from suffocation and spasms." (24) By PCHR's count, 238 Palestinians were affected by poison gas attacks between February 12 and February 20. Twenty-seven of the victims were still hospitalized on the 22nd. (25)
On March 2, an unknown gas was used against civilians in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh. Israeli soldiers reportedly fired "canisters of a highly effective black gas similar to the one used in Khan Yunis three weeks ago." (26)
Twenty-four days later, Israeli forces east of Gaza City used a gas that "left symptoms different from those of the..gas used first.. in Khan Yunis starting from February 12..", although several similarities also appeared. In this attack the onset of abdominal pain seemed to be delayed. (27)
On March 30, medical professionals in Nablus reported Israeli soldiers using the new poison gas against Palestinian demonstrators. (28)
British journalist Jonathan Cook reported a March gas attack on the schoolyard of Al-Khader village, near Bethlehem. Thirteen year-old Sliman Salah was playing when a gas canister landed next to him, "enveloping him in a cloud of gas described by witnesses as an unfamiliar, yellow colour." Large doses of anti-convulsants were required to control the boy's seizures and maintain consciousness. His symptoms "were finally brought under control five days after his exposure to the gas. But Salah's father says the boy is still suffering from stomach pains, vomiting, dizziness and breathing problems." (29)
In its March, 2003 special report, Israel's Secret Weapon, BBC Television reviewed this series of gas attacks, noting, "The Israeli army has used new unidentified weapons. In February 2001 a new gas was used in Gaza. A hundred and eighty patients were admitted to hospitals with severe convulsions....Israel is outside chemical and biological weapons treaties and still refuses to say what the new gas was." (30)
In my amateur analysis of the reported comments of victims, eyewitnesses and medical professionals regarding this series of attacks, I identified thirty-three distinct symptoms attributed to the unidentified gas. All but three of these symptoms appear to be typical of nerve gas poisoning. (31) Tareg Bey, a chemical warfare expert at the University of California-Irvine, told the Chicago Reader that the symptoms described to him "all fit really well to nerve gas", though he was puzzled by the reported fragrance and skin rashes. (32)
In an October 9, 2003 article, Jennifer Loewenstein and Angela Gaff asked, "What gas is Israel using?" They reported the story of Mukhles Burgal, a Palestinian prisoner caught in a brutal attack inside Israel's Ashkelon prison. The "guards forced their way into the crowded cell, spraying two canisters of some type of gas. Some of the 14 prisoners passed out...The effects of the gas were severe muscle spasms and an overwhelming sensation of not being able to breathe." (33)
Two days later, Palestine Monitor reported that Israeli forces in Rafah were allegedly "firing gas grenades containing a black gas believed to be adamatite [adamsite?]- the use of which is forbidden according to international law. Medical authorities urged people to avoid the gas at all costs, as it not only causes difficulty in breathing but seriously affects the nervous system." (34) For some reason, PCHR's press release from the same day, an apparent source of these reports, is no longer available. (35) On the 14th, eyewitness Laura Gordon wrote, "The army used some kind of nerve gas for the first time in Rafah, leaving people in convulsions for days." (36)
Following the recent gas attack in Al-Zawiya, town officials reportedly told Al Ayyam newspaper, "the Israeli occupation troops were using an illegal substance that caused nerve spasms and that several cases had been transferred to Nablus hospitals." (37)
The PA's International Press Center reported that "official and public sources in..Al-Zawya..asserted that those who have inhaled the tear gas IOF troops fired at them four days ago are still suffering from the effects of the gas...a number of those citizens have already had amnesias or partial memory loss, in addition to cramps...in addition to strange cramps every three hours... those who inhaled the gas are still suffering severe pains in the joints and nausea for four days now. Eyewitnesses recalled that the Israeli soldiers were keen on picking the empty tear gas canisters.." Journalists told IPC "that the gas was in different colors they have never seen coming out of a tear gas canister before, and that some gases had an unrecalled smell." (38)
According to IMEMC, "..tens of demonstrators who inhaled this gas had partial memory loss. Dr. Bassam Abu Madi told IMEMC that the some of those who inhaled the gas had severe choking and some contraction in their feet and arm muscles. Eyewitnesses said the gas has a strange smell and a reddish-brownish color." [corrected copy] In a follow up story, IMEMC concluded that "protesters were attacked with gas that is not like the tear gas. Those who inhaled the gas suffered some memory loss while others had other symptoms of a nerve gas. Yet this was not medically confirmed for lack of laboratories to inspect the gas canisters collected from the scene." (39)
Al Jazeera reported the opinion of Awni Khatib, a professor of chemistry at Hebron University; "the new symptoms-particularly the violent convulsions experienced by some Palestinian protesters outside the village of Sawiya [Zawiya], southwest of Nablus-suggest..that the Israeli army may be using a new class of chemicals that lie somewhere between normal tear gas and chemical weapons." (40)
Israel's repeated use of highly toxic unknown chemicals against Palestinian civilians is now an open secret. We can expect these attacks to continue until a concerted effort is made to determine the facts and hold Israel accountable. So far, the international human rights community has steadfastly ignored the mounting evidence.
When will professional investigators begin to retrieve and test the gas canisters? Why has no one but James Longley bothered to document interviews with victims, doctors, and other eyewitnesses? In a world in which one country's mere possession of chemical weapons can be an excuse for international retribution, how another country's use of chemical weapons against civilians be dismissed as a "regrettably excessive" tactic of crowd control?
Comment on this Article
Israeli Blood-sport in Gaza
11/07/2006
By Mike Whitney
""We are sure that Israel is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in their operation...When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of shrapnel that hit the person killed." Dr. al-Saqqa, Shifa hospital, Gaza; following the examination of the "completely burnt" bodies of dead Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid.
Question: How many editorials or op-ed columns have appeared in American newspapers defending the rights of Palestinian civilians to live in peace without the constant threat of being invaded or shelled by the world's forth largest military?
None.
How many editorials or op-ed columnists have defended the Geneva Conventions or international laws against collective punishment, the willful destruction of critical infrastructure, or military maneuvers that deliberately put civilians in imminent danger?
None.
Then how many editorials or op-ed columnists have presented the recent flurry of events (including the capture of Israeli soldier Galid Shalit) in the broader context of Israel's ongoing boycott of food and medical supplies, as well as the 50 or so Palestinian civilians who have been killed in Israel's regular incitements in the occupied territories?
None.
The account of Palestinian suffering and victim-hood rarely finds its way into the mainstream press, but in the present case, it has been completely ignored. In fact, none of the media provide any context for the current invasion at all. Israel's blockade of food and lethal provocations have been going on for months, and yet, the accounts from Gaza would have the reader believe that history began on the day that the Israeli soldier was captured.
Sure, if the reader wants a balanced perspective, he can go to the internet and choose from the many articles which provide the Israeli or Palestinian perspective of events, but the mainstream media?
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
The bias has grown into such an impenetrable cloud of pro-Israeli rubbish that it's laughable. In fact, its more likely to stumble across the random article lambasting Bush or Cheney than anything remotely critical of Israel.
There's no debate about the facts of Israel's brutal siege of Gaza. The only thing in dispute is the way those facts are skewed in the American media. Pick up the New York Times and you would swear it was edited by Ariel Sharon. There's not even an attempt at evenhandedness; just the foolish ruminations of scribes who think they can spin war crimes into hard-hitting journalism.
Israel has been pummeling Gaza for months; intentionally starving the beleaguered occupants while lobbing 6,000 artillery shells into populated areas. Isn't that front page news?
Meanwhile, another 50 civilians have been bumped-off in gangland-style hits ("Targeted assassinations") authorized by the Knesset's newest Mafia Don, Ehud Olmert. Olmert has put the carnage and destruction into high-gear eliciting criticism from his very own daughter who protested in front of her father's home with signs that said, "Stop the Killing" among other things.
The Israelis have developed "sound machines" that emit ear-piercing explosions that have been deployed in Gaza City to shatter windows, cause miscarriages, and send children into deep trauma. It is a "terror device" pure and simple; it has no other function except to produce massive fear and anxiety. It is the latest weapon in the prodigious arsenal of the "world's most moral army" (Olmert quote)
So why can't we get the real scoop about Israel's depredations in the territories or, at the very least, an occasional article providing a differing point of view? Is that too much to ask?
Simply put, anyone who believes this nonsense about "the poor abducted soldier" who fell prey to Hamas terrorists is a fool. The soldier is part of an illegal occupation which has been condemned in countless UN resolutions and which makes him a legitimate target in the struggle for national liberation. Since his capture, he has received medical attention and, my guess is, he probably hasn't been tortured or abused at all. (which certainly would not be the case if he was captured by Israeli or American forces)
So, who're the terrorists here anyway?
Newly elected Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has been calling for calm and restraint throughout the entire 14 day ordeal. In fact, Haniyeh has made repeated appeals to the militants to release the soldier unharmed even while "Olmert the barbarian" was rampaging through Gaza blowing up roads, electric power plants, water lines, and, yes, even schools.
Schools, for God's sakes. That's just flat nuts!
If Israel had any sense they'd dump Olmert the madman and appoint Haniyeh as Prime Minister. So far, he's the only one who has emerged from this mess looking like a reasonable fellow. (Note: Israel continues to threaten his life.)
Anyway, don't expect objectivity from the American "free press". I had to search through the Arab media just to find out that the UN was sending a fact-finding mission to Gaza to report on "Israel's grave rights violations". Don't you think that the American people would like to know that little tidbit?
Or, that UN special-rapporteur, John Dugard is headed off to Gaza to investigate the Israeli military's "disproportionate use of force against civilians". Dugard said, "It is clear that Israel is in violation of the most fundamental norms of humanitarian law and human rights."
His comments have not appeared in any American newspaper.
Wouldn't the American people want to know how far removed their government is from the prevailing opinion of other countries?
Sure they would, but don't expect the media to tell them.
The American public has no idea the effect this invasion has had on the Muslim world; the mass demonstrations in Amman, Cairo, Tehran, Doha etc. They haven't heard the anger ring-out at the United Nations or the world leaders who are sick and tired of the US defending Israel's heavy-handed tactics.
The average American has no idea that Israel is keeping over 9,000 prisoners locked up without charges and that over 400 of them are woman and children.
What the hell are they doing with children anyway? It's an outrage.
It's pretty clear that Israel would never get away with its crimes against humanity if it didn't have a trustworthy friend in the American media. The streetwalking western press gave Bush a free pass on his Iraqi bloodbath; now they're abetting Israel in its terror-crusade in Gaza.
Comment on this Article
Israelis give government good grades for response to Gaza situation
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
The government's conduct in the situation created by the kidnapping of the soldier Gilad Shalit currently wins quite good grades from most of the public, according to a new poll published by professors Ephraim Yaar and Tamar Hermann of Tel Aviv University.
Nevertheless, the majority identifies with the statement that it is unfair that the kidnapping drew such a severe response, whereas Israel's reaction to the ongoing Kassam fire on Sderot has been relatively restrained.
Furthermore, in contrast to the decision-makers' stated refusal to hold direct negotiations with Hamas on freeing the kidnapped soldier, the prevailing view in the public is that Israel should indeed negotiate for his release. This apparently reflects the overriding importance the public in general ascribes to the principle of redeeming captives, since when it comes to direct political negotiations with Hamas, the public is almost evenly split in its positions with a slight advantage for those opposing such talks.
As for the personal functioning of the prime minister and the defense minister so far, a different picture emerges. A majority, albeit small, evaluates Olmert's functioning positively, while a larger majority views Peretz's functioning negatively. In any case, neither leader is viewed especially flatteringly.
Finally, apparently on the background of the recent deterioration in the security situation, today - unlike in the past - a small majority of the public believes that the unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip was not the right step and that the prime minister's realignment plan is also counter to Israel's national interest. This may also explain why a clear majority assesses the national mood as bad.
Those are the main findings of the Peace Index survey that was carried out on July 3-4.
Slightly over half the public (52 percent) sees the government as acting properly in the situation created by the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, while one-third views it as failing the test (This one-third is made up, as would be expected, of voters for the opposition parties from the Right - Likud, National Union/National Religious Party and Israel Beiteinu.) Yet, at the same time, a 54% majority identifies with the claim that it is unfair that Israel reacted to the kidnapping with such severity, including the arrests of Palestinian members of parliament from Hamas, while responding with more restrained measures to the ongoing Kassam fire on Sderot.
That does not mean the public lacks empathy for the efforts to free the kidnapped soldier. On the contrary, the prevailing view (48%) is that Israel must always remain committed to the principle of redeeming captives, with only a third saying that sometimes security and national interests are more important. On this question, a pronounced gap was found between men and women. Among the former, there was an even split on this question; among the latter, the rate of those endorsing the supreme obligation to redeem captives - 57 - was much higher than the rate of those saying there are sometimes more important considerations - 27%.
The Israeli leadership makes repeated declarations that it will not negotiate directly with Hamas because the organization does not recognize Israel's right to exist and supports terror against it. The data show, however, that 50% of the public support negotiating with Hamas in the case of the kidnapped soldier, with 42% opposing it.
The strongest support for negotiations in this context comes from Labor, the Gil Pensioners Party and Meretz voters, and the lowest from Israel Beiteinu and United Torah Judaism voters. On political negotiations, however, the public is divided - 47% in favor and 49% against, with the opposition concentrated among voters for Israel Beiteinu, UTJ, NU/NRP and Likud.
In both cases, though, the public as a whole is more open than the leadership to the possibility of dialogue with Hamas, a finding the Peace Index surveys have pointed to consistently in recent months.
At the same time, a majority of the public accepts the narrative of the political and military leadership that the Palestinian attack on the tank constituted an "act of terror" and not a military (and thus more legitimate) act. Sixty-one percent concur, with only 32% defining the act as military.
Amid the criticism leveled at the security forces in the media and by various analysts, the survey checked to what extent the public accepted the view that the event at Kerem Shalom was a military failure or instead believed, like the political and military leadership, that such incidents could not always be avoided under the pressures in which the defense establishment operated. Forty-seven percent agree that it is impossible to prevent such events totally under the pressure of circumstances, whereas 40% think there was a foul-up. Note that only among Likud voters is there a majority for those who see a failure (49% compared to only 36% who view the event as an unavoidable mishap).
In other words, even among the voters for the rest of the opposition parties, the majority accepts the establishment's position.
The deteriorating security situation and the recent incidents have apparently caused a change in the public's positions on policy toward the Palestinians both in the past and the future. The majority that supported the unilateral disengagement from Gaza seems to have disappeared, with only 46% now saying it was the right move, while 50% view it as having been unwise. The realignment plan, which was less popular from the start than the disengagement, is now supported by only 39% with 47% opposed. This also seems to explain the majority's assessment of the "national mood" as negative: 62% define it as moderately bad or very bad and only 30% as very good or moderately good, with voters for the right-wing parties, as expected, making the gloomiest evaluations.
Comment on this Article
"Israel Imprisons the Vice President of the Euro-Med Assembly and where is the EU?"
Date posted: July 11, 2006
By Luisa Morgantini
"I have no more words to express my indignation for the repeated and unpunished violations of the legality by the Israeli government. But it seems that the European Union is speechless either, since it hasn't condemned yet the imprisonment, that took place on Friday 7 July, of Mr Hassan Khreshi, Vice President of the Political Committee on Security and Human Rights of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliament Assembly (EMPA), of which I am member as well" declared Luisa Morgantini (GUE/NGL).
"What more Israel has to do, which other violation Israel has to commit, how many other murders of civil victims have to be completed before the EU firmly orders to Israel to respect the international law and the human rights?"
The imprisonment of Mr Hassan Khreshi, former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Member since 1996, and Palestinian representative to the EMPA and to the Parliamentary Assembly of the NATO, which took place in the crossing of the Allenby bridge, between Jordan and Palestine, while he was coming back from a work meeting, "is a new episode of arrogance and impunity of Israel - Morgantini continues - . Khreshi is not member of any Palestinian political party, he is an independent. In the Political Committee we all had the pleasure to appreciate his availability and openness to dialogue.
"The non-right Israel used to arrest him is part of a real war strategy against the Palestinian National Authority and its Parliamentary Institutions, elected in a democratic way, under the control of many international observers, even from Europe.
"Until this moment 64 Members of the Palestinian Parliament and 8 Ministers of the PNA have been illegitimately kidnapped by the Israeli Government, which hasn't stopped itself even in front of the condemnation voices of the international and European institutions, even if they have been very weak.
"The European Union, with the weakness of her position towards this evident violation of the international legality, becomes accomplice of this clear and without precedents injustice.
"I believe it is not only necessary but even urgent that Brussels strongly demand to Israel, member of the EMPA, and partner of the EU in the Barcelona Process, to immediately release Mr Hassan Khreshi, and all other representatives of the Palestinian Legislative Council, imprisoned and deported in Israel, and to stop the siege against the civil population of Gaza and all the occupied territory".
Luisa Morgantini, Chair of the Development Committee of the European Parliament and Member of the Political Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliament Assembly
Comment on this Article
Four Palestinians die at Rafah border awaiting entry into Gaza
Haaretz
11/07/2006
Four Palestinians have died in recent days awaiting entry into the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, which has been closed for nearly two weeks since the kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
Comment on this Article
Gaza: Of Mice and Men
By Israel Shamir
11/07/2006
A cat called to the mouse holed up under the floor: “Come out, you have nothing to worry about! I have become a pious vegetarian, preparing for my Hajj, you may play freely”. “Oh wonderful news”, cried the mouse and ran out of the hole; a moment of the eternity clock passed, and the mouse found herself in cat’s claws, goes Nizami’s fable.
This is, in brief, the development of Gaza crisis that began with Israel’s phoney but much advertised “withdrawal” (a.k.a. “disengagement”) from Gaza in summer 2005, followed by their phoney permission to run democratic elections for the Palestinian government.
- “Sharon changed his ways”, exclaimed the good-meaning Americans and Europeans; “he – and after him, Olmert – are ready for peace and reconciliation.”
- “We liberated Gaza”, said Hamas.
- “Oy vey!” cried the settlers.
The cries of joy and sorrow of the fake withdrawal had not died out, when the real siege and bombardment of Gaza began. After a few months of shelling, this real takeover of Gaza and arrest of all Palestinian leadership completed the picture of a fat cat playing with the mouse.
Our readers may remember that at the height of withdrawal hullabaloo we called (in Much Ado about Gaza) for everyone to tone down their expectations: an Israeli pull-out is always followed by a push-in, as in a rape scene. Do not expect to see the last of them: an Englishman leaves without bidding farewell, a Jew says his farewells but does not leave, quoth a Jewish joke. Readers of this list and site received, as always, the correct forecast: indeed the Jews came back.
The intermezzo was quite sad, too. Gaza after the withdrawal was one of the most depressing places on earth, with widespread starvation and vast unemployment, and it was not the Gazans’ fault: whether under Hamas or Fatah rule, Gaza can’t stand alone; this narrow strip is surrounded by Israeli troops and barbed wire, the Gazans have no way to sell their goods or to import their needs but through Jewish-controlled ports. Remove the SS men from Auschwitz to its perimeter, give the camp full autonomy but keep its gates shut from outside, and you’ll get a picture of Gaza. The Jews destroyed the Gazan industry and trade by their siege: Gazan fruits and flowers for export withered at Karmi checkpoint, and multimillion-dollar investment went down the drain. Gazans openly regretted their new-found “independence”, because in the days of Israeli rule they could make a living working at Israeli factories, and the Israeli shelling was much more moderate, while “independent” Gaza was subjected to incessant shelling. Hundreds of missiles and shells were launched against this small strip of land daily, killing a few but ruining the nerves of its residents.
I, for one, know what that means: in 1974, my commando unit spent less than half a year in the fortified crater of an extinguished volcano some 40 km (25 miles) to the south of Damascus. We were shelled daily by Syrian artillery, and we could not respond with our light arms to their cannons. At the first exiting boom we would hide in bunkers and wait for the salvo to land. Sometimes, it was a single shell, sometimes it was followed by the inhuman squeal of a Katyusha missile. We had very few casualties: a couple of wounded and one killed for this whole period of time, but our nerves were completely shattered. We stopped brushing our teeth and shaving: it did not make sense when death is so imminent. We ceased writing letters. Even the periods of the most intense fighting we went through with dozens of killed comrades were preferable to the attrition of incessant shelling. Gazans – children, women, men, - had now almost a year of attrition made worse by aerial booming, something we were free from by virtue of Israeli air superiority.
Israeli tactics in Gaza resemble the strategy of “starving into obedience” applied by the Pentagon to North Vietnam, per the Pentagon Papers, - the single most evil piece of strategic planning in the 20th century:
“Strikes at population targets are likely not only to create a counterproductive wave of revulsion abroad and at home, but greatly to increase the risk of enlarging the war with neighbours. Destruction of locks and dams, however, does not kill or drown people. By shallow-flooding the rice, it leads after time to widespread starvation (more than a million dead?) unless food is provided--which we could offer to do at the conference table.” [1]
If the Jews were to bomb a hundred thousand Gazans to oblivion, probably there would be “a wave of revulsion”, but destruction, starvation and thirst are equally efficient, and do not disturb the world conscience all that much. The destruction of a Gazan power plant was a shrewd business decision as well: this American-build and insured station competed with the Israeli Electric Company for supply of electric power to Gazans. Even running at half-capacity, the power station undermined the Jewish supplier’s monopoly.[2] Now it is gone, and Gazans will have to buy all their electricity from Jews at a much higher price. Combining business with pleasure, this destruction also allowed Jews to “thirst Palestinians” in addition to starving them as Gaza has no rivers, and electricity is needed to operate pumps.
Still, in this short time of Gazan “independence”, Gazans proved they are men, not mice. Their stubborn launching of Kassams were a sign of their unbroken spirit: they refused to be starved into obedience. Kassam is hardly a weapon in the modern meaning of the word. This is a medieval weapon, a catapult, at best: an iron mote propelled by a simple device, carrying no explosives. We built and launched such missiles when we were kids in prep school. Surely, an iron mote can kill in the unlikely case of a direct hit, but the chances are small indeed.
Their brave and well-planned raid of an Israeli siege unit has restored our appreciation of Gazans’ fighting abilities. It is not a simple thing to attack tanks with your bare hands. True, Israel utilised this courageous raid to jumpstart a new invasion of Gaza, but do not make too much out of this linkage: Haaretz (29.06.06) revealed that the plans for mass arrests of Palestinian leadership and for re-invasion were prepared a long time ago.
The Israeli government referred to the raid: “a horrific, serious terror attack was carried out by Palestinian factions, which ended in the deaths of two soldiers, the injury of an additional soldier, and the kidnapping of Shalit.” Our friend Jeff Blankfort wittily quipped: “One would think Shalit was a little boy walking to the candy store who had been seized by a notorious child molester and not a soldier on active duty”.
A Palestinian Christian Professor and a Knesset Member, Azmi Bishara said well of the resistance fighters: “Some people chose to respond to the murder of Palestinian civilians by attacking an Israeli military installation. They made the hardest choice, and chose the difficult path. Those who did not take this path, who did not make this sacrifice, or put their courage to this test, or suffer the trembling nerves in the darkness of the tunnel, yet who have some delicacy of feeling towards the pains of the Palestinians could at least spare this operation the embarrassment of tainting it as terrorist.”
Yea, when the Jews attack, that’s war, when they are attacked, it is terror. Uri Avnery called it “a unilateral war”, on a par with their “unilateral withdrawals”. But this unilateralism is a constant feature of Jewish-Native relations: when Jews attack natives, this is rightful vengeance, when they get some of it back, it is a pogrom. Long before the Jews defamed Palestinians as terrorists, they vilified their previous native neighbours, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Spaniards, Germans as subhuman and vicious antisemites. If we reject their defamation of Palestinians, we may re-examine their accusation of others, and the whole narrative of Jewish suffering will collapse.
Then, the problem of Palestine, or rather the problem of Jewish mistreatment of their ‘goyim’ will appear as an old problem, for the way Jews act today probably is the way they acted – if they could – yesterday. Long before the apartheid wall spanned Palestine, the Jews did not allow a native Spaniard to enter the walled city of Lucena, where they held sway.[3] Long before they shelled Gaza, they filled Mamilla Pool in Jerusalem with blood of slaughtered Christians.
This is a good news for the descendants of Jews: we were brainwashed in hatred to ‘antisemitic’ mankind; came the Rape of Gaza, and now we learn that mankind was right and good, while we misbehaved. It is better to find oneself in the wrong than to accuse the whole of mankind, for one can repent.
This understanding began to seep into our conscience. A Jaffa man Anwar Sacca wrote to Dorothy Naor, a wonderful Israeli woman: “Through their [Jewish] history, unfortunately not only for Jews but for the whole world, they were always self-destructive supremacists. As a minority living within any country and enjoying its citizenship, they always antagonized their fellow citizens by totally dominating their economy, media, life styles etc...to a limitless extent which generated dreadful consequences they had to heavily pay for. The same case applies in Palestine…”
The Rape of Gaza fits too well into this centuries-proven pattern. The Jewish leadership never intended to give their captive goy a chance to lead normal life. Sooner will a cat turn vegetarian. Whatever they do, expect the worst. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. “Their good deeds are as dangerous as their obvious crimes”. In 1880s, Dostoyevsky prophesised: if and when the Jews get power, they will skin the goy alive. In Palestine this prophesy is being realised. This is not a question of innate Jewish qualities: a Jew can be good and do good, a Jew can repent, but ‘the Jews’ can’t because this body politic exists to compete and combat the indigenes, whether in Palestine or elsewhere.
Ideologically, a Jewish state will do the Jewish thing, that is, to fight natives and combat the Church, whether Christian or Islamic. “If the Jews of old were to come back”, - wrote Simone Weil, - “they would destroy our churches and massacre us all”. “The Jewish tradition is rampantly ethnocentric and dehumanises outsiders with a gusto that could hardly be exceeded”, - wrote Ed Herman in his Triumph of the Market[4]. In the Jewish State, the Jews of old have come back, and the Jewish tradition has became paramount.
Thus, the Hamas was right in refusing to recognise the Jewish state: in no way this state can become a tolerable neighbour, whether ruled by Labour of Peretz or by Kadima of Olmert, or even in extremely unlikely case of being ruled by Mr Avnery. This state has to be dismantled, like the Assassins’ extraterritorial State that once controlled the Middle East. The Assassins drew their power from their ability and preparedness to assassinate the prominent leaders of Crusaders and Muslims, while leaving alive only weak rulers who did not dare to touch them.
The Jews do the same: sometimes, by sword, sometimes, by their money, sometimes, by their media, but no strong leader has emerged within their sphere of influence.
* Assassinations by media are the most frequent, and this topic is well covered. If they decide to kill a person by their media, they try to eliminate every reference to his name; if it does not work, they attack him ad hominem, spreading lies and distortions. This treatment was recently given to the leaders of Iran: the Jewish press spread a lie that the Iranians intend to adorn every Jew with a yellow star. They lie was quickly disproved, but the retraction appeared on far-away pages of newspapers, while the damage was already done. The US politicians who tried to go against Jewish orders were usually assassinated by Jewish media and found themselves in the wilderness.
* Assassinations by money are equally frequent: enough to mention a prominent American industrialist Henry Ford who tried to combat Jewish influence. Eventually he received an offer he could not refuse; he apologised, burned his books, and repented. He preferred that to destruction of his car-making empire.
* Assassinations by sword were done when nothing else worked: Lord Moyne, Folke Bernadotte, Sheikh Yassin. Hundreds of Palestinian leaders were assassinated by Jews. Recent publication of Haaretz tells of operation Zarzir (Starling), a Jewish “comprehensive, operational plan, a nationwide program of assassinations” of enemy leaders, both political (Emile Houri) and military leaders, such as Hassan Salameh and Abdel Khader al-Husseini. Khaled Meshal escaped their assassins just by chance – they tried to drop poison into his ear in a rather Shakespearian fashion.
In the days of old, salvation came from unexpected corner: West Asia was conquered by Mongols and these ruthless warriors flushed the Assassins out of their mountain retreats and utterly destroyed their conspiracy. Their harmless descendants are Ismailis, who live peacefully and do not disturb peace anymore. If we can’t solve the problem, some new Mongols will dismantle the State of Sodom and render descendents of Jews as harmless as Ismailis.
Then, there is a milder way of dealing with the problem by introducing reciprocity instead of unilateralism. A medieval chronicle reports that the Jewish King of Khazar once said to a Muslim visitor: “We would destroy all the churches and mosques in our kingdom right away, but we can’t for fear that they will destroy the synagogues in Baghdad and Constantinople”. Indeed, if in response to the Jewish destruction of Gaza’s power plant, an Israeli power plant in Caesarea were erased, and the Jews had to survive our summer without air-conditioners, they wouldn’t do it again. If the Jews in Europe were limited to the rights their brethren granted to Palestinians, Palestine would be free tomorrow.
But why should we indulge in daydreaming? Who could do such a deed? The Arabs are subdued. The US conquest of Iraq eliminated the last independent Arab state. Iran is being pushed hard and this powerful Muslim state is happy every day it is not bombed. Syria is in the crosshairs of the US whom the French are helping them to contain Damascus. Never before – since Saladin – has the Middle East been so helpless and powerless.
Europe and America are equally subdued: none of prominent public figures dared to object to the Jewish Drang nach Gaza. “Why do you keep quiet?” exclaimed Jonathan Steele in the Guardian (July 6, “Europe's response to the siege of Gaza is shameful”). Don’t you know the answer, Mr Steele? Whoever tried, was invariably defamed as “antisemite” and “neonazi”, and lost his living and his good name. I know, I tried to defend the Palestinians, and was stabbed in the back by a couple of nice Palestinian activists, Mr Ali Abunimah and Mr Nigel Perry of Electronic Intifada, followed by a cabal of other pro-Palestinian activists. Only after that did the heavy guns of Jewish media – like Aaronovitch of the Times, or Wikipedia – go into action. These good activists deserve some credit for present destruction of Palestine: if an Israel Shamir from Jaffa is attacked like that, what could expect a John Smith from Wisconsin? Whoever tried to defend Palestinians, got this treatment, unless he observed the PC rule of never uttering the J word. Still, I do not regret speaking the truth, for if we keep silent, the stones will cry out.
The Palestinians have no chance, unless we free our souls from Jewish control. And here we may turn to the second J word, more mighty than the first: Jesus. The present subservience of the West began with a minor step. In 1960s, the Western churches removed from their liturgy a prayer “Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis”, “Let us pray for perfidious Jews that our God and Lord will remove the veil from their hearts so that they too may acknowledge the light of thy truth which is our Lord Jesus Christ and be delivered from their darkness”. This is a far cry from the Jewish prayer “Shepokh Hamatha”, “Lord, vent your fury upon goyim who do not know your name”. But the Jews preserved their prayer of vengeance, while misled and subdued Christians dropped their prayer of mercy. Say this prayer today, say it in your church, dismiss a priest who dares it not, and tomorrow you will not writhe in face of Jewish displeasure, and Gaza – and your soul - will be saved. And if your prayer will be answered, the Jews will be saved, too.
Comment on this Article
Israeli President in Spiraling Sex Scandal
By AMY TEIBEL
Associated Press
July 11, 2006
JERUSALEM -- Israel's president is being dogged by allegations of sexual harassment in a spiraling scandal that has pushed the country's violent standoff with Hamas off the front pages.
The swirl of accusations against President Moshe Katsav has not led to charges or even a police investigation. But it is threatening to tarnish the image of a Mr. Clean politician and has invited comparisons to another presidential sex scandal.
"Who does he think he is? Clinton?" a pair of comedians wrote in a newspaper column this week.
Katsav, who has held the largely ceremonial office since 2000, denies wrongdoing.
The first allegation surfaced late last week when Israel's Channel 2 TV reported that a former senior employee in the president's office accused him of sexually harassing her. The woman has not been identified.
In a meeting with Katsav last week, she also threatened to disclose the number of an overseas bank account allegedly set up to collect money the president received in exchange for presidential pardons, the television report said. The employee demanded hush money, it added.
The Maariv newspaper reported Tuesday that a second woman has since come forward with similar accusations.
"Katsav sexually harassed me," the headline blared. The newspaper did not reveal her identity.
With the Katsav story dominating the media, Israel's two-week military operation in Gaza sparked by the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants was relegated to the back pages.
The president, whose decades-long political career had been unmarred by any whiff of scandal, insisted in a statement that all his dealings with female employees have been professional.
His office has said he has filed no blackmail complaint. And it rejected the graft accusation as absurd.
"The president decides whether to grant clemency after a recommendation by the justice minister, whose signature is required on the writ of clemency," his office said.
Though no sexual harassment charges have been filed, the president discussed the case with Attorney General Meni Mazuz last week. Mazuz asked Katsav to hand over any pertinent documents to him.
Late Tuesday, Mazuz ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged blackmail attempt, Israeli media reported.
Quoting Justice Ministry officials, the Haaretz daily's Web site said the probe is a preliminary investigation opened on the basis of a meeting between Katsav and Mazuz and two letters the president provided the attorney general.
Katsav, Israel's eighth president, was elected by parliament in 2000.
Israeli presidents enjoy immunity from trial on charges related to their tenure in office, Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti said. They are not immune from investigation, Galanti said.
The president's office is no stranger to scandal. Ezer Weizman's last year as president in 2000 was tainted by allegations he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from a French tycoon.
Police could not prove he evaded taxes or violated a law prohibiting government officials from accepting gifts in the course of official business. But they said Weizman's failure to report the gifts to authorities constituted fraud and breach of public trust.
The case was closed - but only because the 5-year statute of limitations had run out on the charges.
Comment: In the time-honored tradition of introducing a purile scandal when planning to commit a crime, the Israeli government and press presents this wonderful distraction for the Israeli people, just so they don't have to watch as their brave sons go about the brave job of butchering innocent civilians and children.
Comment on this Article
Amerika
Novak: Rove was a source in outing Plame
11 Jul 2006
Reuters
Columnist Robert Novak said publicly for the first time Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove was a source for his story outing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Comment: So, eh, correct me if I am wrong, but since this means that Rove committed a fairly serious crime, doesn't that mean he should be going to jail? I mean, that IS what happens to criminals in the US, isn't it? Or am I getting confused between, black, white and government felons?
Comment on this Article
Columnist names White House adviser in spy scandal
David Fickling and agencies
Wednesday July 12, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The journalist at the centre of an extensive criminal investigation into the naming of a CIA agent has revealed that top presidential aide Karl Rove played a major role in the affair.
Robert Novak, a conservative columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, admitted publicly for the first time that Mr Rove, a close adviser to George Bush, had been one of his sources for a story outing CIA agent Valerie Plame. Publicly naming a CIA operative is a criminal offence in the US.
The affair raised suggestions that the White House was endangering national security for the sake of discrediting an Iraq war critic.
Ms Plame's husband Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat, had been sent on a fact-finding mission to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein had attempted to obtain "yellow cake" uranium ore from the country for a nuclear weapons programme.
After his return he wrote an editorial in the New York Times casting doubt on the Niger claims, which had been alluded to as being confirmed by British intelligence officers in Mr Bush's 2003 state of the Union address.
The editorial infuriated vice president Dick Cheney, who scrawled handwritten notes on a copy of the newspaper: "Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an amb(assador) to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was called on to find out if officials in the White House had ordered the outing of Ms Plame in Novak's column so as to undermine the credibility of Mr Wilson's criticisms. After being frustrated in the initial investigation, Mr Fitzgerald has turned to finding out whether the officials were involved in a cover-up.
Novak, whose silence on his role in the affair and long-standing association with Mr Rove and other senior Republicans has made him a target of criticism since the scandal broke, today finally laid out his side of the story.
He confirmed that Mr Rove and former CIA public information officer Bill Harlow had been two of his three sources for the column, but refused to name the primary source for the article.
He said that he had named the individuals to the Fitzgerald inquiry after learning that investigators already knew the information, and that he was writing publicly about the issue now because the inquiry had confirmed he was no longer of interest.
"Joe Wilson's wife's role in instituting her husband's mission was revealed to me in the middle of a long interview with an official who I have previously said was not a political gunslinger. After the federal investigation was announced, he told me through a third party that the disclosure was inadvertent on his part," he wrote.
"Following my interview with the primary source, I sought out the second administration official and the CIA spokesman for confirmation.
"I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in Who's Who in America.
"I considered his wife's role in initiating Wilson's mission, later confirmed by the Senate intelligence committee, to be a previously undisclosed part of an important news story. I reported it on that basis."
It was confirmed last month that Mr Rove would not be facing charges over the affair, although Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Mr Cheney's former chief of staff, is still facing criminal charges.
Mr Bush last year promised to fire anybody in the government shown to have leaked Ms Plame's name, but Mr Rove's continued position as his deputy chief of staff suggests that the pledge did not apply to those who confirmed the agent's identity.
Comment on this Article
Army to End Expansive, Exclusive Halliburton Deal
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 12, 2006; A01
The Army is discontinuing a controversial multibillion-dollar deal with oil services giant Halliburton Co. to provide logistical support to U.S. troops worldwide, a decision that could cut deeply into the firm's dominance of government contracting in Iraq.
The choice comes after several years of attacks from critics who saw the contract as a symbol of politically connected corporations profiteering on the war.
Under the deal, Halliburton had exclusive rights to provide the military with a wide range of work that included keeping soldiers around the world fed, sheltered and in communication with friends and family back home. Government audits turned up more than $1 billion in questionable costs. Whistle-blowers told how the company charged $45 per case of soda, double-billed on meals and allowed troops to bathe in contaminated water.
Halliburton officials have denied the allegations strenuously. Army officials yesterday defended the company's performance but also acknowledged that reliance on a single contractor left the government vulnerable. The Pentagon's new plan will split the work among three companies, to be chosen this fall, with a fourth firm hired to help monitor the performance of the other three. Halliburton will be eligible to bid on the work.
The decision on Halliburton comes as the U.S. contribution to Iraq's reconstruction begins to wane, reducing opportunities for U.S. companies after nearly four years of massive payouts to the private sector.
Of the more than $18 billion Congress allocated for reconstruction in late 2003, more than two-thirds has been spent and more than 90 percent has been contractually obligated, according to the inspector general's office overseeing reconstruction work. The rest of the money, which is collectively known as the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, needs to be obligated by the end of September.
Army spokesman Dave Foster said in a written response to questions that funding for 11 contracts covering various aspects of reconstruction -- including transportation, communications, water distribution and the electric grid -- will expire this fall. While the contractors will be allowed to finish any work previously requested, no new work can be ordered after September.
Among those contracts is another Halliburton deal, for up to $1.2 billion to restore oil services in southern Iraq. As with the others, it will not be extended.
"The Iraq reconstruction is winding down . . . so there is no need for new contracts to replace the existing," Foster said.
Instead, the Iraqi government will have to find its own contractors to do the work, which includes tackling a large number of projects left undone by the United States.
"This is the year of transition for Iraqi reconstruction. The U.S.-funded projects are being completed and transferred to Iraqi management and control," said James Mitchell, spokesman for the inspector general's office.
That office has repeatedly warned of a "reconstruction gap" between what the United States promised in rebuilding the country after the spring 2003 invasion and what it has delivered. For instance, a contract aimed at building 142 new health centers across Iraq instead produced 20 before the program ran out of money.
The heavy involvement of U.S. contractors in Iraq has been one of the defining features of the American presence there, with private companies called on for duties as varied as guarding supply convoys and analyzing intelligence.
No contractor has received more money as a result of the invasion of Iraq than Halliburton, whose former chief executive is Vice President Cheney.
The logistics work is performed through a subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. Last year, the Army paid the company more than $7 billion under the contract, according to a search of government contracting data by Eagle Eye Inc., a private consulting firm. The number this year is expected to be between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to Randy King, a program manager with the Army.
The company maintains that its billing disputes with Defense Department auditors have been resolved and that its work has received rave reviews from the military. "By all accounts, KBR's logistical achievements in support of the troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan have been nothing short of amazing," said company spokeswoman Melissa Norcross in a statement.
King, the Army official, agreed yesterday. "Halliburton has done an outstanding job, under the circumstances," he said. He added that Pentagon leaders ultimately decided they did not want to have "all our eggs in one basket" because multiple contractors will give them better prices, more accountability and greater protection if one contractor fails to perform.
Halliburton initially won the contract in December 2001. At the time, the deal was relatively modest in size, but stubborn insurgencies in both Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched U.S. troops and kept Halliburton busy trying to meet their needs.
Known formally as the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP, the contract "has expanded beyond what anyone could have imagined," said Dov S. Zakheim, the Pentagon's comptroller from 2001 until 2004 and now a vice president at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. "The KBR people themselves would point out that the challenges they had coming out of Iraq, over and above everything else they had to do, were taxing their systems. You're really asking too much of one firm to be able to manage all of this."
The original contract included one base year with nine option years. The Army says it will not pick up the next option year and instead plans to put out a new request for proposal by the end of the month. It expects to announce winners in November.
The bidding on the new contract is likely to attract some high-profile suitors, including weapons makers Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
"These are huge contracts. They are among the biggest government services contracts that have ever been created," said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a defense research organization in Arlington. "Most of the big, integrated defense contractors recognize that new sales of military hardware are going to be hard to come by in the years ahead. There's a general migration to services. And no contract on the horizon is bigger in services than LOGCAP. It's just too big to ignore."
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a frequent Halliburton critic, said he would like to see even more companies included as winners in order to increase competition as work arises. But he welcomed the move away from the exclusive contract with Halliburton as a good first step. "When you have a single contractor, that company has the government over a barrel," Waxman said. "One needs multiple contractors in order to have real price competition. Real competition saves the taxpayer money."
Comment on this Article
White House seeks dismissal of wiretap suit
10 Jul 2006
msnbc
The Bush regime Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, arguing that defending the four-year-old wiretapping program in open court would risk national security.
Comment: Yadda yadda...Is anyone getting tired of the "national security" excuse? It appears that, these days, "protecting national security" means keeping the Bush administration's collective ass out of jail.
Comment on this Article
US U-turn on detainee rights
Tuesday 11 July 2006, 19:52 Makka Time, 16:52 GMT
The US has admitted that all detainees held by the military, including those at Guantanamo, should be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
A memo signed by Gordon England, the second-highest official at the defence department, stated that all detainees are entitled to humane treatment.
Certain prisoners held during the so-called war on terror have not previously been given the protections of the Geneva Conventions - international agreements governing the treatment of prisoners of war.
The memo was made public on Tuesday as congress began hearings on how to proceed with the trials of Guantanamo prisoners. The supreme court ruled two weeks ago that the military tribunals set up by the Bush administration to try foreign terrorism suspects were illegal.
The US has faced international criticism over how detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have been treated.
Military custody
The memo, dated July 7, stated that detainees held in US military custody across the world are covered by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
The article prohibits violence against detainees, including mutilation, cruel treatment and torture, and "outrages upon personal dignity" including humiliating and degrading treatment". It also ensures care for the sick and wounded.
The administration said the admission was not a change in policy because the defence department already treated detainees humanely.
"It is not really a reversal of policy," said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman. "Humane treatment has always been the standard, and that is something that they followed at Guantanamo."
Comment: What about rendition??
Comment on this Article
Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Soldiers
Cindy Sheehan
11/07/2006
As of today, the War Department lists 2544 as the number of unjustly murdered troops in Iraq. Dozens of innocent Iraqis are being killed due to the war crime every day. Over 80 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad alone on July 9th: dozens of people just in one city on one day who would be alive if not for BushCo.
I don't know what number Casey was. Nor do I care. I have seen people say 614, I have seen people say 714. It doesn't matter, because Casey and the other 2543 were not numbers. They were living, breathing, loving, worthwhile and contributing members of society. They could pass drug tests (unlike their "commander in chief" at their ages) and they honorably volunteered to serve their country to defend America and our freedoms. What George Bush and the rest of the careless war profiteers have committed in Iraq is abuse and misuse and had nothing to do with defending America or protecting our freedoms. The lies are well documented and proven. The lies are written on my heart forever.
Between WWI and WWII, a highly decorated Marine, Major General Smedley Butler, wrote a short dissertation called War is a Racket. I wish to God I had read this before Casey enlisted, because I believe that he would be alive today if only I had. The first two paragraphs succinctly define the entire booklet and the reason not to allow your child to fall into the hands of the military-industrial war complex:
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In his treatise the General goes on to define the "damned" war profiteers of his day: the DuPont family, the steel companies, the leather companies, the t-shirt manufacturers, etc. The profits for these companies increased at a minimum tenfold in the WWI years and in retrospect even seem like healthy profits in 2006 dollars. He also complains about the 6000 buckboards for the colonels, thousands of saddles for the Cavalry, and hundreds of airplane engines that were never used in the war. The waste of money and the waste of life in war are horrendous and inherently immoral - always!
The criminal tradition of the enormous profiteering that went on in WWI and all the other wars is going on today in the war crime of Iraq. The Halliburtons, Bechtels, Blackwater Securities, KBRs, Standard Oils are raking in the billions at a clip that would make Barbary Coast pirate ship captains' heads spin. The no-bid profiteers are cronies and/or former companies of the vice president and most of the Bush regime. I don't know how the blood-monied devils can look at their own children or grandchildren and not be ashamed and appalled that their insatiable greed killed someone else's flesh and blood!
Napoleon once said: "All men are enamored of decorations ... they are positively enamored of them."
Casey was in the paramilitary Boy Scouts founded by Lord Baden-Powell, who was a militarist. I am not knocking the Boy Scouts, because Casey was an Eagle Scout and he gained a lot of positive skills in the Scouts. But he was also taught how to be a good soldier: To pledge to do his duty to God and Country. Does that include marching reluctantly off to a war which one knows is wrong? Does that include putting "the mission" first, above even one's own family and life, no matter how disordered and corrupt the mission is? Boy Scouts earn decorations for their paramilitary uniforms and I know I sewed dozens on Casey's sash (I always complained that sewing should be their first mandatory badge earned so the Scout could do it himself). Then Casey "graduated" to soldier and started earning his "Man Scout" badges. I was handed his Bronze Star and Purple Heart at his funeral like I should be a proud mom being pinned with his Eagle Scout badge. The Man Scout Badges, General Butler explains, were instituted so the military wouldn't have to pay the soldiers more money. How many Man Scout badges can make up for the needless, senseless and avoidable murder of your oldest child? There are not enough in the entire world.
In war correspondent Christopher Hedges' book, War Is the Force That Gives Us Meaning, he writes:
The disillusionment comes later. Each generation again responds to war as innocents. Each generation discovers its own disillusionment - often at a terrible price.
The terrible price is that, once again, we forget that the war machine loves to greedily consume our children for the terrible profits that they so willingly and cheerfully reap. Hence the phrase: "Laughing all the way to the bank." How does it feel that the vultures are laughing at how gullible we are to so naively cough up our young? Previous generations of mothers have watched presidents and other cheerleaders for war and mayhem drag us into war after war and we mothers are unwilling and unknowing accomplices in our children's murders. War will finally have to stop when we mothers (and fathers and spouses, etc.) stop allowing our leaders to march our children off to wars that are to feed the ravenous war monster: This hideous war monster counts on us families forgetting that the last war for revenue was fought against phantom enemies that can't be confined within borders. Whether the wars are covert or overt they are always being waged with our babies' blood.
Tragically, I don't know anyone, war supporter or not, who raised his or her children to be a war criminal. I would hope that there are few people in our country who have hoped against hope that one day that their son would grow up to rape Iraqi girls and kill innocent Iraqis in cold blood. The Mahmoudiya and Haditha incidents are horrible atrocities but, unfortunately, are not isolated incidents in the Iraq war crime. War breeds atrocities. I wish to God, and everything that anybody holds holy, that Mahmoudiya and Haditha were isolated incidents, but we know that they are not. When the neo-cons despicably spit out the blather that we need to "stay the course," I wonder what that means? Rape and murder? That is a horrible course. I think we should change it now.
To be honest with ourselves and our children, instead of the flags and Man Scout badges that our soldiers decorate their uniforms with, they should have their suits covered with corporate logos like NASCAR drivers. A Halliburton patch here and an Exxon patch there. I also believe, like General Butler said: during times of war, CEOs of war profiteers should only be allowed to earn as much as a common soldier.
Sounds fair to me, and I believe war would end if the war profiteers, politicians and generals were required to send their own children to fight for their ill-gotten gains before they sent ours.
Our nation forgot the lessons of Vietnam, where not one person over the rank of Lieutenant was even tried for war crimes. It is incumbent upon this generation of war victims to make sure that this unspeakable episode does not repeat itself. The people responsible for sending our children to this war crime should not get off scot-free. BushCo should be the ones sent to federal prison for crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.
Holding our leaders accountable for unnecessary war and killing innocent people? It's a new concept, but I think one that just might work. Let's try it this time.
But more important, don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers.
Comment on this Article
Data miners dig a little deeper
Posted 7/11/2006 10:11 PM ET
By Michelle Kessler and Byron Acohido, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO - When customers sign up for a free Hotmail e-mail account from Microsoft, they're required to submit their name, age, gender and ZIP code.
But that's not all the software giant knows about them.
Microsoft takes notice of what time of day they access their inboxes. And it goes to the trouble of finding out how much money folks in their neighborhood earn.
Why? It knows a florist will pay a premium to have a coupon for roses reach males 30-40, earning good wages, who check their e-mail during lunch hour on Valentine's Day.
Microsoft is one of many companies collecting and aggregating data in new ways so sophisticated that many customers may not even realize they're being watched.
These businesses are using new software tools that can record every move a person makes online and combine that information with other data. Brick-and-mortar stores, afraid of being left behind, are ramping up data collection and processing efforts, too, says JupiterResearch analyst Patti Freeman Evans.
The result: Corporate America is creating increasingly detailed portraits of each consumer, whether they're aware of it or not.
Companies say they can be trusted to do so responsibly. Yahoo, for instance, has a strict ban on selling data from its customer registration lists. And Microsoft says it won't purchase an individual's income history - just the average income from his or her ZIP code. "We're making sure there's a very bright line in the sand," says spokesman Joe Doran.
Some consumers aren't reassured. Salt Lake City lighting designer Jody Good, 54, goes to great lengths to control his personal information, including signing up for some services with false names and keeping unusually tight security settings on his PC. "I'm trying to preserve my privacy," he says.
Privacy advocates are worried, too. "Think about it: A handful of powerful entities know a tremendous amount of information about you," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "Today they manipulate you into what kind of soap to buy, tomorrow it might be who you should pray for or who you should vote for."
Targeting behavior
Internet firms are at the vanguard of the trend through a technique called behavioral targeting.
It works like this: Anyone who has registered to use any of Yahoo's free online services can be sure the tech company is paying close attention to everything they do within its network. It will notice, for instance, who uses Yahoo search to find information on SUVs. Why? It wants to sell targeted ads to SUV makers and auto loan brokers that will appear, say, on Yahoo Finance the next time that person checks his or her stocks.
Online retailers target, too, usually by placing a small data file called a cookie on a customer's computer. The cookie keeps track of where you go each time you are on the site. Hewlett-Packard's online store uses cookies to remind customers of items viewed in previous visits - no matter how much time has elapsed between them.
Targeting isn't new. In 2000, online advertiser DoubleClick ignited a public uproar when it announced plans to cross-reference anonymous Web-surfing data with personal data collected by offline data broker Abacus Direct. Congress held hearings, and DoubleClick backed off.
But, as online advertising soars, "We're hitting the tipping point," says Bill Gossman, CEO of Revenue Science.
Merrill Lynch estimates the online ad market will grow 29% this year topping $16 billion. Researcher eMarketer estimates advertisers will spend about $1.2 billion on targeted online advertising this year and more than $2 billion by 2008.
A phalanx of online marketing specialists, including Tacoda, Revenue Science, AlmondNet, advertising.com, DrivePM and Did-it, are pushing it. They're hustling to form overlapping alliances with major media website publishers.
"Targeting has certainly become a large part of what advertisers are interested in," says Yahoo spokeswoman Nissa Anklesaria.
Targeting advocates herald the win-win-win. Publishers can charge more for relevant ads that spur sales and decrease annoyances. Microsoft says it can help a Dinners-To-Go franchisee zero in on working moms, age 30 to 40, in a given neighborhood, with ads designed to reach them before 10 a.m., when they are likely to be planning the evening meal. "Instead of carpet bombing, it's more of a shotgun approach where you're hoping to hit the targeted customer," say Doran.
But there's one big holdout: search giant Google. Although the company scans customers' Google e-mail accounts in order to send them text ads, it hasn't yet embraced more proactive targeting.
"We're treading very carefully in this space because we put user trust foremost," says Google product manager Richard Holden.
Rewarding loyalty
Brick-and-mortar companies are working hard to create similarly rich data sources. Although they can't track a customer's every move, they can create basic profiles of them using loyalty cards.
Loyalty cards are typically given to customers in exchange for personal information. In return, customers get coupon-like discounts when they present their card.
Safeway helped kick off the loyalty-card era in 1998, and was soon followed by rivals such as Albertsons and Kroger. Many programs are run behind the scenes by a little-known Florida firm called Catalina Marketing.
Catalina collects loyalty and bulk sales data from more than 20,000 stores, then uses it to create pictures of shoppers over time, says CEO L. Dick Buell. The picture gets clearer the more data stores collect. For example, Catalina can help retailers determine that someone lives in an upscale area, buys diapers, and may be interested in high-end baby food.
The data Catalina receives do not contain personal information. Records are identified by an ID number only. But retailers hang on to personal information and can reattach it to records once getting them back from Catalina.
That worries privacy advocates, because loyalty cards - fairly rare a few years ago - are spreading fast. Most large grocery chains except Wal-Mart have them. And they're moving beyond grocery stores, to outlets such as Barnes & Noble bookstores, CVS drugstores, and Exxon and Mobil gas stations.
Mining for data
The flood of new information is helping spawn a sister industry: data-mining software. These powerful programs sort through massive databases, looking for patterns that would take a human years to spot. Sales of data-crunching software have jumped more than 30% since 2000 and are expected to keep growing, says tech analyst Dan Vesset with researcher IDC.
"Most large companies are doing it in one area or another," says tech analyst Gareth Herschel with researcher Gartner.
In its most basic form, data mining is simple. A grocery store might put the peanut butter next to the jelly one week, and move it to a different aisle the following week. The store can then run data-mining software on the two weeks' sales receipts to learn which setup sold more peanut butter.
Technology always improving
But far more sophisticated and complex types of mining are emerging. Silicon Valley firm Sigma Dynamics has launched software that can analyze data on the fly, even if it's not stored in neat columns and rows. For example, it can read the typed notes of a customer service agent, compare them with a database of stored records, and see if any phrases match. Then it can instantly pop up a window offering a solution to the customer's problem.
Entrepreneur Jeff Jonas has created software that starts by examining the record of a known entity - usually a person. It then compares that record to thousands of others, looking for patterns that might signify a relationship. Jonas designed the software for Las Vegas casinos, which wanted to better know who their customers were - in part to keep out cheats. The software could identify relationships that might otherwise go unnoticed, such as the fact that a cheater and a casino employee were roommates.
The Central Intelligence Agency realized that the software could have other applications. Its venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, funded Jonas' small company in 2001. IBM bought it in 2005 and now sells the program to businesses, including retailers and financial institutions.
Other companies are working to make data mining - traditionally a high-tech discipline of statisticians and programmers - accessible to average workers. One such firm, San Francisco data-mining software maker KXEN, says there's a huge demand. Data-mining technology "has been used for a long time, but only by a very small number of people," says President Ken Bendix. Although companies have long had useful data, the information was rarely used to its full potential, he says. Now that's starting to change.
But the growth in data mining creates a problem, says Stanford University professor Hector Garcia-Molina. "How can you provide that kind of useful information without violating the privacy of individuals?" he asks. Garcia-Molina is working on computer science tools that will keep databases from extracting too much personal information while slicing and dicing. The work, still in its experimental phase, "is not easy," he admits.
IBM's Jonas proposes a lower-tech solution - better disclosure. Most companies do have privacy policies today, but they're generally vague, he says. "I would like to do business with companies who are using my data the way I expect them to," he says. "I want to avoid surprise."
Jeff Barnum, a 45-year-old real estate consultant from Cincinnati, agrees. He avoids filling out many forms and frequently deletes cookies from his PC, yet is willing to share his information with companies he trusts.
Barnum says his clients do the same. When visiting an open house, many people give him false names and other information. But once they get to know him, "They'll tell me anything," he says, laughing.
Comment on this Article
CNN Poll: Do you think it's an acceptable standard that electronic voting machines can fail almost a tenth of the time?
CNN
12/07/2006
Result:
Yes: 5%
No: 95%
Sadly, elections this year and in 2008 will continue to use electronic voting.
Comment on this Article
Police Impose 'Crime Emergency' in US Capital City
By VOA News
12 July 2006
The U.S. capital city, Washington, D.C., is under a "crime emergency" after a surge in violent crime.
City Police Chief Charles Ramsey issued the emergency Tuesday, days after a British citizen was murdered in the city's affluent Georgetown neighborhood. There have been a total of 13 homicides in Washington since July first.
Ramsey says there also has been a sharp increase in the number of robberies and armed assaults during the past month in the district.
Under the emergency, police commanders can adjust officers' work schedules to increase police presence in high-crime areas.
Hours after police declared the crime emergency, six tourists were robbed at gunpoint in two separate incidents near the Washington Monument. Police say one of the robbed women was also sexually assaulted.
Comment on this Article
General Mayhem
Iran's top nuclear negotiator asks for patience
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-11 23:06:48
BRUSSELS, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Tuesday called for patience in tackling the Islamic Republic's nuclear issue, saying talks will be a "long process."
"Things we have to do, it is a long process, we must be patient," Larijani told reporters after a meeting with Javier Solana, the foreign policy and security chief of the European Union (EU).
"In the meeting, we have discussed a wide range of important issues together ... consultations must be made by both sides. And there will be contact together in order to see how to proceed," said Larijani through an interpreter.
Solana, on his part, said he had a "long meeting" with Larijani, adding that he will meet on Wednesday representatives of the six countries which have crafted a package for Iran -- Britain, France, Germany, plus the United States, Russia and China.
"We will make (an) analysis ... and we will see how to proceed," said Solana.
He also said he will be in contact with Larijani.
The comments by the two men indicated no breakthrough in the talks.
They refused to answer any questions.
The EU and the United States were pressing for an Iranian reply to the international nuclear package by Saturday when a summit of the Group of Eight most industrialized countries takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia. But authorities in Tehran have said it would not respond until August.
The package was designed to lure Iran to a suspension of uranium enrichment, a crucial step in the nuclear fuel cycle to make atomic bombs, in return for political and economic incentives and nuclear technological assistance.
But Tehran has insisted no precondition shall be attached to the negotiations.
Iran resumed uranium enrichment-related activities in January. As a result, the EU suspended talks and sought to bring the issue before the UN Security Council.
The United States accuses Iran of having a secret program to produce nuclear weapons. But Iran has said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Comment on this Article
Jailed French, German nationals risk new charges
TEHRAN, July 11, 2006 (AFP)
A Frenchman and a German in jail for illegally entering Iranian waters risk new charges and are unlikely to be released soon, Iran's justice minister said Tuesday.
"Some other issues have been brought up about the equipment they had with them (at the time of their arrest), and because of this another case has been opened and is being followed up," Jamal Karimi-Rad told reporters.
"They are not supposed to be released so soon," he added.
Frenchman Stéphane L'Herbier, 32, and German national Donald Klein, 52, were sentenced to 18 months in jail in January by a court in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran where they were initially imprisoned.
Their sentence was upheld by an appeals court in mid-March and they were transferred to Tehran's Evin prison.
The two were arrested at the end of November near the island of Abu Mussa, which is Iranian territory but is claimed by the United Arab Emirates. The two men claimed they had mistakenly used Emirati maps that did not show the current maritime boundaries.
Comment on this Article
Putin Rips Cheney's Verbal 'Hunting Shot'
By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated PressJuly 12, 2006, 9:08AM
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Vice President Dick Cheney ahead of this weekend's G-8 summit, calling his recent criticisms of Russia "an unsuccessful hunting shot," according to a television interview broadcast Wednesday.
The remark, from an interview with NBC, referred to the shotgun blast by Cheney on a hunting trip that accidentally wounded a companion.
Cheney, in a May speech in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania, accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."
Asked about Cheney's remarks, Putin said, "I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot."
Both Cheney's criticism and Putin's caustic response underline the tensions that exist between the United States and Russia as both countries prepare for the Group of Eight summit, beginning Saturday in St. Petersburg.
Western leaders are expected to raise concerns at the summit about Russian moves that are seen as antidemocratic, including a new law placing restrictions on non-governmental organizations, tightening state control of news media, and making the upper chamber of parliament an appointed body instead of an elected one.
Russia, in setting the agenda for the G-8 summit, has made energy security one of the top issues. However, Russia this year unsettled Europe when a dispute with Ukraine over natural gas prices resulted in a temporary reduction of Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe. Most of Russia's Europe-bound gas goes through Ukraine.
Despite his sharp comments on Cheney's statement, Putin said Russia welcomed criticism.
"I am glad that we have critics. It would be worse if there were one voice, as it was in the time of the Soviet Union at meetings of the Communist Party. If we hear both critical and positive observations, it means that we have the possibility of better orienting ourselves toward what we're doing," Putin said.
In a separate interview with Canadian broadcaster CTV, Putin said that Western officials' attendance at a pre-summit conference organized by opposition forces amounted to interference in Russia's internal affairs.
The opposition "is doing this (conference) in the run-up to State Duma elections at the end of 2007. And if officials of other countries support this undertaking, it simply means they are trying to influence the internal political arrangement of Russia a little bit," he said, according to a Kremlin transcript.
Opposition movements and civic groups participating in the "Other Russia" meeting appealed to G-8 leaders Wednesday to pressure Putin to end what they called systematic political repression. Participants said numerous activists had been forcibly prevented from attending the conference _ as well as beaten, detained and otherwise abused.
Participants stepped up their criticism of the Kremlin at the conference, which is intended to counter the image of a democratic Russia that Russian officials will be presenting at the G-8 summit.
"In Russia today, there are two sides, two countries. One is a country of bureaucracy, the disregard of law, a country of lawlessness, of backwardness and non-freedom. The authorities are on that side and they are terrorizing the other country, the country of citizens," said Andrei Illarionov, Putin's former economic adviser.
Western officials, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, also attended the forum. Edward McMillan-Scott, a European Parliament member from Britain, said Russia represented "a threat to Europe's stability and security."
"It is a country led by a regime that is selfish, corrupt and which is unreliable," he told the forum.
The G-8 summit starts Saturday when the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States gather for a glittering dinner in St. Petersburg, the former czarist capital founded 300 years ago by Peter the Great.
In the more than three decades that the world's major countries have staged these get-togethers, foreign policy crises often have intervened to take time away from the economic issues, and this year is no exception.
A search for ways to deal with North Korea's test firing of missiles and Iran's nuclear program are expected to take up much of the discussion time.
Russian support is seen as critical in defusing both situations, and for that reason President Bush and the other leaders are expected to soften any criticism of Putin's backsliding on democratic reforms.
Comment on this Article
Death toll in India train bombings at 200
By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM
Associated Press
July 12, 2006
BOMBAY, India - The death toll from a series of bombs that struck Bombay's packed commuter trains rose Wednesday to 200, and India demanded that Pakistan dismantle the "infrastructure of terrorism," but leveled no direct accusation at its rival for the attacks.
The number of dead in the eight near-simultaneous bombings during Tuesday evening's rush hour in India's financial hub has risen steadily as rescue efforts uncovered more bodies and people have succumbed to their injuries.
R. Patil, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state told lawmakers that 200 bodies had been found in the twisted wreckage of the trains. Bombay is the capital of Maharashtra.
Officials say more than 700 people were wounded.
Comment on this Article
Eight dead, dozens injured in grenade attacks in Kashmir
Last Updated Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:29:12 EDT
CBC News
Eight people were killed and two dozen were injured following a series of grenade attacks launched Tuesday morning by Islamic militants in Srinagar, the India-administered portion of Kashmir. The grenade attacks came before India was shaken by a series of bomb attacks on packed commuter trains in Mumbai that killed dozens and wounded scores more.
Islamic separatists fighting for an independent Kashmir state have attacked Indian targets for the past 14 years. India has accused neighbouring Pakistan of supporting Kashmiri militants, a charge Islamabad denies.
No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday morning's attacks in Srinagar.
Police officials say the first grenade attack of the day took place around noon local time. Militants are said to have thrown a grenade into a minibus carrying Indian tourists. One man and four women died in the blast and two others later succumbed to their injuries. Another 12 people were wounded in the attack.
Grenades target taxi, shopping area, neighbourhood
About an hour later, the city was rocked by three more grenade attacks, with a taxi, a shopping area and residential neighbourhood as the targets.
Later in the day, an assailant threw a grenade at a tourist pavilion. Authorities were able to apprehend the alleged assailant, police said.
A politician and four civilians were killed Saturday when suspected militants tossed a grenade at people emerging from a Muslim shrine. At least 45 others were injured in the attack.
Authorities say the number of attacks has risen more than 20 per cent in the first five months of 2006 as compared to the same period in 2005.
Comment on this Article
Kashmiri extremists deny role in Mumbai bombings
Last Updated Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:07:01 EDT
CBC News
Two Kashmiri militant groups issued statements Wednesday denying responsibility for the bombings on Mumbai's commuter system that killed 183 people on Tuesday.
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen both condemned the bombings in India in separate statements released Wednesday, insisting they were not involved.
"These dastardly acts were perpetrated by the enemies of humanity," said Lashkar spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi in a statement.
"Indian security forces blame Lashkar in an attempt to defame the Kashmir freedom struggle," he said, repeating a charge the militants regularly make when they are accused of carrying out attacks against Indian civilians.
"We do not believe in killing innocent civilians," Ghaznavi said.
The Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen group also condemned the blasts and said in a statement that "Mujahedeen cannot be involved in such heinous crimes."
Commuters return to train platforms
CBC correspondent Michael McAuliffe said commuters on subway platforms were "defiant" in their attitude to not be intimidated and carry on with their lives. More than 6 million people depend on Mumbai's commuter system.
A series of eight bombs hit the western rail line in the city after between 6 and 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday, ripping train carriages apart.
Indian authorities said Wednesday they were aware Mumbai could be targeted by terrorists.
"We had an idea since some months that Mumbai was a target," said P.S. Pasricha, the director general of police for Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located. "Since it is the financial capital, there are many vulnerable areas in the city. Targets are well-known."
Pasricha also revised earlier death toll figures, saying that 183 people had been killed by the blasts and 714 injured.
The Times of India reported Wednesday that Indian intelligence officials believe Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, were responsible for the blasts. Both groups were blamed for a series of Mumbai bombings in 2003.
Comment on this Article
Accidents Will Happen
Small Plane Crashes Near Lee Airport
July 11, 2006
NBC4.com
Only the pilot, a man in his 40s, was onboard the plane at the time of the crash. He was unconscious and suffering from head trauma when he was freed from the wreckage.
Officials said the pilot was trying to land the plane when it crashed.
Comment on this Article
Two killed in small plane crash
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jul 11, 2006
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Two people were killed this morning when the single-engine plane in which they were flying crashed soon after takeoff in a wooded residential area, narrowly missing a house.
Virginia State Police Sgt. D.S. Carr said the plane took off from Norfolk International Airport at 11:20 a.m. and crashed at 11:31 in a wooded residential area off Woodgreen Road, near Virginia Wesleyan College.
Carr did not identify the victims, and offered no indication of what might have caused the crash. A witness, Dan Foster, told WVEC-TV in Norfolk he heard the plane's engine sputter as it flew low overhead.
Comment on this Article
Recent BGSU pilot graduate dies in Steubenville plane crash
Block News Alliance
11/07/2006
A recent graduate of Bowling Green State University piloting an aerial-advertising plane for a Lake Township company was killed this morning when the plane struck power lines, then crashed onto an entrance ramp for U.S. 22 in Steubenville, Ohio.
Scott M. Holland, 22, of North Ridgeville in Lorain County, Ohio, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash by Dr. John Metcalf, the Jefferson County, Ohio, coroner. He received a bachelor's degree in aviation studies in May.
Comment on this Article
Crop-Dusting Plane Crashes In Frederick Co.
July 11, 2006
NBC4.com
FREDERICK, Md. -- Maryland State Police are investigating a small plane crash in the area of Liberty Road and Woodsboro Pike in Frederick County, authorities said.
Police were sent to the area just before 2 p.m. after a state police helicopter spotted the wreckage and called for help.
Authorities said they found the plane on a field, and there are reports that the pilot was seen walking around the plane.
Officials said the small crop-dusting plane attempted to land in a cornfield after the engine stopped running. Once the plane touched down in the field, it flipped over.
Comment on this Article
Rock n Roll
Minor Earthquake Hits in Greenbrier County
Posted 7/12/2006 12:35 AM
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the earthquake happened at 8:01 a.m. Tuesday in the Smoot area of Greenbrier County. Smoot is about six miles from Rupert and nine miles from Rainelle.
59 News found a woman who experienced it.
Karen Goins woke up about 8 a.m. Tuesday.
That is when she heard what she describes as a loud boom.
It was actually a minor earthquake, measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale.
Goins says her friend in nearby Dawson also heard it.
"I said, 'Sandy, did you hear any kind of loud boom this morning?' She said, 'Yeah, I did.' I said, 'Well, I did, too,'" said Goins.
For most people in the Smoot area, the earthquake was news to them.
In fact, the Greenbrier County 911 center received no reports of the quake or any damage.
"That's a good thing, I believe, in this instance. Widespread panic would have been, I believe, throughout the county, hearing about an earthquake," said Rusty Harvey, the county's 911 director.
And it's the first earthquake for West Virginia in 15 years. The last one was in the Charleston area.
For Karen Goins, she's just thankful she's safe and she didn't find any damage to her home.
And Harvey says there is no report yet of any damage.
In most of North America, east of the Rockies, the U.S. Geological Survey says earthquakes are infrequent, but can happen.
59 News spoke with Dave Russ. He's the Eastern United States geology executive for the U.S. Geological Survey.
He said he was not surprised by the earthquake. He said there is a low level of seismic activity in the Giles County, Virginia area, and over into bordering West Virginia counties.
The last earthquake in West Virginia was in the Charleston area in 1991. It was a 3.2 quake.
There was also one back in 1969 in Southern West Virginia. It was a 4.53 magnitude quake. It did minor damage in Giles County, Virginia, and broke windows in southern Mercer County.
Comment on this Article
Moderate earthquake jolts Cayman Islands
Tuesday, July 11, 2006 · Last updated 7:49 p.m. PT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands -- A moderate earthquake jolted the Cayman Islands on Tuesday. No injuries or damage were reported.
The magnitude-4.5 quake was centered roughly 30 miles east of George Town roughly 6 miles beneath the earth's surface, officials said.
The quake, which lasted for about 10 seconds, hit at about 8:30 a.m.
Kurt Tibbetts, the top elected official in the Caymans, said the government was developing a seismic monitoring program and had authorized the installation of four seismic sensors in the island chain.
Comment on this Article
Moderate earthquake jolts Kabul
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, July 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A moderate earthquake jolted this central capital and the adjacent areas on Wednesday morning.
The unknown magnitude tremour hit Kabul at 9:50am. Direction and magnitude of the earthquake could not be ascertained for non-availability of proper equipment in this war-battered country.
It is yet to be ascertained whether the tremour had caused any losses to life or property in Kabul or other areas.
People rushed out of their houses and offices as the earthquake hit the city. Its duration was about 30 seconds.
Comment on this Article
Wildfire rages near historic Hollywood set
Last Updated Wed, 12 Jul 2006 07:44:25 EDT
The Associated Press
Firefighters removed more people from their southern California homes Wednesday morning as a wildfire raced across the Yucca Valley and consumed several structures in a locale where dozens of Hollywood westerns were filmed.
Winds topping 60 kilometres per hour fanned the flames, and officials said they didn't expect the strong wind and dry conditions to change anytime soon. The fire had burned more than 68 square kilometres by early Wednesday.
Dozens more people were taken from communities in Little Morongo Canyon and Burns Canyon after as many as 1,000 fled the flames Tuesday, authorities said.
The blaze burned through historic Pioneertown, destroying at least 30 homes and buildings there and in surrounding towns. It was unclear whether any historic structures were destroyed, said California Department of Forestry Capt. Marc DeRosier.
Pioneertown, about two hours east of Los Angeles, was host to Roy Rogers, Russ "Lucky" Hayden and other Hollywood cowboys who helped establish the desert hideaway in 1946. Movie crews nailed together a saloon, hauled up a railroad car and sank posts around the "OK Corral."
Gene Autry filmed Last of the Pony Riders and Indian Territory in Pioneertown. Hayden, of Hopalong Cassidy fame, used it for his Judge Roy Bean TV series, and Cisco Kid producers shot several movies and the TV series there.
By the 1960s, the town had become more of a residential community, although filmmakers began returning a few years ago. Car companies have filmed commercials in Pioneertown in recent years, and music videos have also been made there.
Fire investigators believe a lightning strike over the weekend sparked the fire, which slowly heated up before it "reared its ugly head" Tuesday afternoon, Lannen said. Earlier, they thought the fire was part of several lighting-sparked blazes that began Sunday that had been temporarily contained.
California Department of Forestry Capt. Debbie Chapman said about 200 homes were threatened. About 2,500 firefighters aided by 13 helicopters and eight air tankers were working the blaze.
Seven firefighters and two civilians suffered minor injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation.
Comment on this Article
On The Edge
Bank of England Warns City faces meltdown if debt crisis hits
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
Telegraph
12/07/2006
The City could face a financial meltdown if the debt bubble bursts, with over a year's worth of bank profits - £40bn - potentially being wiped off balance sheets, the Bank of England warns today.
The Bank is issuing a stark warning about the potential damage a credit crunch and a collapse in asset prices could cause to the economy and financial system.
It says that a sudden jump in borrowing rates - potentially caused by a further surge in the oil price - could cause a 2pc fall in economic output and wipe out banks' annual profits, estimated this year to top £40bn.
In a worse-case scenario, a sharp fall in credit conditions worldwide would have devastating consequences for Britain, the Bank warns.
It could cause a 1.5pc contraction of the UK economy, a 25pc fall in house prices and a 35pc drop in commercial property prices over three years, according to the scenarios mapped out by the Bank. Other major countries would suffer similar effects, it says.
It also indicates that the risks of a serious financial problem in the City have increased during the past six months, and investors would be wrong to assume that, following the market turbulence of past months, the worst is now over.
Although it said the financial system remained extremely healthy, there were six major risks that could, in certain circumstances, lead to serious financial trouble. To a large extent, these risks revolve around the record level of debt that has been built up in recent years by UK households and businesses.
It said a combination of these risks could create a serious crash if, for example, there were a sharp turn in the credit cycle, caused by higher interest rates.
"The severe crystallisation of credit, market and liquidity risk could plainly represent a serious shock to the UK financial system," it says.
"Such extreme scenarios could be sufficient to more than absorb the annual profits of the UK banking system and therefore cause some material erosion of capital.
"Although such an outcome is very unlikely, given its potential impact, it merits consideration in financial firms' risk management planning."
The doomsday scenario was painted in the Bank's Financial Stability Review, a study about how the City would react if struck by a crisis.
The vulnerability of banks to a collapse in the debt bubble is illustrated by the recent rapid rise in their funding gap (see chart), which shows that in recent years the amount lent to customers that is not backed by customer deposits has soared. Banks are, therefore, having to rely much more on the wholesale money market, which tends to be far more expensive than customer deposits.
The Bank of England is also increasingly concerned about the complex and risky financial instruments devised by banks and hedge funds, of which little is known.
The Bank is believed to feel that many institutions using these instruments, such as credit derivatives, are "sitting with their fingers crossed, hoping that the music doesn't stop".
Another serious worry is the possibility of a global pandemic of a human form of avian flu, and the Bank will conduct a computer simulation later this year of how the City would be affected if the disease broke out in London.
Comment on this Article
Trade deficit rises as oil prices jump
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
July 12, 2006
WASHINGTON - America's trade deficit rose in May as the price of imported oil jumped by the largest amount since 1990 in the run-up to the first U.S.-Iraq war.
The Commerce Department reported that the trade imbalance rose by 0.8 percent to $63.8 billion compared to a revised April deficit of $63.3 billion. While the increase was smaller than the 2.5 percent rise that economists had been expecting, it still represented the sixth largest deficit in history.
So far this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $763 billion, 6.5 percent higher than last year's record of $716.7 billion.
President Bush's critics say the swelling trade deficits, which they blame on unfair trade practices in countries such as China, have contributed to the loss of nearly 3 million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office.
The increase in the May deficit reflected a 16.9 percent jump in America's foreign oil bill, which totaled $27.9 billion, up $4 billion from April. The increase reflected a big jump in the average price of imported crude oil which rose to $61.74 per barrel, an increase of $4.92 from April. That was the biggest monthly jump since a $6.06 increase from August to September 1990 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait sent global oil prices soaring.
Economists are predicting that the trade deficit will worsen further in coming months, reflecting further increases in world oil prices, which hit a new record above $75 per barrel last month.
The politically sensitive deficit with China rose by 4 percent to $17.7 billion, reflecting big gains in imports of cell phones, clothing and textiles and writing and art supplies.
Both U.S. exports to other countries and imports set records in May.
Exports rose a sharp 2.4 percent, the biggest monthly gain in 17 months. The increase pushed total exports to $118.7 billion as overseas sales of American farm goods, industrial supplies and consumer goods climbed to all-time highs.
Imports, driven higher by the surging oil prices, rose 1.8 percent to a record $182.5 billion.
The U.S. deficit with Mexico rose to a record of $5.5 billion but the deficit with Canada, America's other partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement, declined slightly to $5.8 billion.
The deficit with the 25-nation European Union rose to $10.8 billion while the imbalance with Japan edged down slightly to $7.1 billion.
The administration is facing increasing pressure in an election year to show progress in dealing with the deficit. New Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said he will continue to pursue efforts to get China to overhaul its currency system to allow the yuan to rise in value against the dollar.
American manufacturers contend the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent against the dollar. That makes Chinese products cheaper for American consumers and makes American goods more expensive in China.
Comment on this Article
Elderly to face double-digit rise in Medicare premiums
11 Jul 2006
Yahoo News
The elderly will face another double-digit rise in their Medicare premiums next year, resulting in monthly payments of nearly $100.
Comment on this Article
Zidanews
Zidane wins World Cup best player award
Middle East Online
12/07/2006
French playmaker wins Golden Ball award despite being sent off in World Cup final against Italy.
BERLIN - France captain Zinedine Zidane was named the best player at the World Cup despite being sent off in the final against Italy for headbutting Italian defender Marco Materazzi, FIFA announced on Monday.
Zidane received 2,012 points with Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro second on 1,977 points and Italy's Andrea Pirlo third on 715 points.
Journalists covering the World Cup voted for the Golden Ball award.
Comment on this Article
Why I Wear My Zidane Jersey
By DAVE ZIRIN
July11, 2006
Imagine Michael Jordan in his last game, with the score tied in overtime, knocking out his defender with a punch to the throat. Imagine Derek Jeter in game seven of the World Series, at bat with the bases loaded, thrashing the opposing team's catcher over the head with his bat. Our collective shock would only be exceeded by disappointment. No one, fan or foe, would want to a see a great player end their career in an act that speaks to the worst impulses of sports: when hard competition spills over into violence.
Now imagine if Jordan and Jeter claimed they were provoked with a racial slur. Does their violence become understandable? Even excusable? Herein lies the case of French National team captain, the great Zinedine Zidane. Zidane, competing in his last professional match, was kicked out of the World Cup final in overtime for flattening Italian player Marco Materazzi with the head-butt heard around the world. Zidane, or Zissou as he is known, became the first captain ever ejected from a World Cup championship match. The announcers denounced Zissou for committing a "classless act and the French team withered, eventually losing to a demonstrably inferior Italian squad in overtime. The following morning the international tabloids with their typical grace, gave Zissou a new nickname: "butt-head". Less examined was the fact that Zissou was literally carrying a lightly regarded French team to the finals. Less examined was the fact that Zissou had been grabbed, kicked, and fouled all game by the vaunted Italian defense. Less examined was the fact that Zissou had almost left minutes earlier due to injury, his arm wilting off his shoulder like a wet leaf of spinach. This unholy amount of pressure is the primary reason the 34-year-old veteran snapped and planted Materazzi into the pitch.
Now the great mystery is what set Zissou off. What could Materazzi have possibly said to send him over the edge? Answers are beginning to filter out. According to a FIFA employee transcribing what was said during the match, Materazzi called Zissou a "big Algerian shit". A Brazilian television program that claims to have used a lip-reader said Materazzi called Zissou's sister "a whore". The highly respected French anti-racist coalition SOS Racisme issued a press release stating, "According to several very well informed sources from the world of football, it would seem [Materazzi] called Zissou a 'dirty terrorist'."
Materazzi, in an answer that can only be called Clintonian, said, "It is absolutely not true. I didn't call him a terrorist. Of course he didn't comment on what he did call him. Zissou himself has only said cryptically that he would reveal what Materazzi said "in the coming days."
Right now, we do not know beyond a shadow of a doubt what was said but all the circumstantial evidence points at least toward a variant of SOS Racisme's claim. Zissou is the son of Algerian immigrants who has sparred verbally with Europe's far-right political machine for more than a decade. He is an outspoken anti-racist on a team that has defined itself by its multiculturalism and stubborn insistence to stand up against bigotry both inside and outside the sport. Materazzi on the other hand, will be playing this year for the Italian team Lazio, where his father was the former coach. Lazio's fan club, The Ultras, are notorious for their Fascist-friendly politics. Lazio's hardcore Ultras, known as the "Irriducibili," have members in Italy's extra-parliamentary far right and try to use the club to recruit. The group has frequently uses racist and anti-Semitic banners, one time hanging a 50-foot banner that said their opponents were a "team of niggers."
It's wrong to taint Materazzi for the actions of Lazio's fans, but there is more. Earlier this season in a match that pitted Messina against Inter in Sicily, Messina's star African player Marc Zoro famously picked up the ball and walked off the pitch in protest of the monkey chants rained upon him by Inter supporters. In a stirring act of solidarity, many of the Inter players immediately showed support for Zoro's actions. But one opponent yelled, "Stop that, Zoro, you're just trying to make a name for yourself." That opponent's name was Marco Materazzi.
At the start of this tournament I wrote a soccer column with my colleague John Cox, called Racism Stalks the Cup. We expressed our concern that the monkey chants, banana peels, and peanuts raining down on African players this year would continue on the sport's grandest stage. This largely did not occur. But then in the final act, at the moment of most exquisite tension, it seems racism may have actually emerged from the shadows. I, for one, am damn glad that when it did, it ran smack into Zissou's beautiful head.
We don,t know with iron certainty what Materazzi said, but if it turns out to be more of the anti-Black, anti-Muslim, garbage that has infected soccer like a virus, the Italian team should forfeit the cup. They should voluntarily give the greatest trophy of them all back to FIFA as a statement that some things in this world are more important than sports. Racism will be the death of soccer if things don't change. Italy can set the sport back on course, with one simple, stunning gesture. Give the damn thing back.
Dave Zirin is the author of "'What's My name Fool?': Sports and Resistance in the United States." Contact him at whatsmynamefool2005@yahoo.com.
Comment on this Article
Um...
Would You Eat Lab-Grown Meat?
AlterNet
July 12, 2006
As I type these words, men and women of science are growing meat in a laboratory. That's meat grown independently of any animal. It isn't hatched or born. It doesn't graze, walk or breathe. But it is alive. It sits growing in a room where somebody has called it into existence with a pipette and syringe.
"Cultured meat," it's called, and it is supposed to save us from the execrable pollution and guilt of factory farms while still allowing all 6.5 billion of us to stuff our gullets with ham sandwiches whenever we want to. It already exists in ground or chipped form. What Dutch scientists are working on now is a product that costs a few dollars per pound instead of a few thousand. It could be as little as five years away.
The concept is as simple as it is horrifying. Take some stem cells, or myoblasts, which are the precursors to muscle cells. Set them on "scaffolding" that they can attach to, like a flat sheet of plastic that the cells can later be slid off of. Put them in a "growth medium" -- some kind of fluid supplying the nutrients that blood would ordinarily provide. "Exercise" them regularly by administering electric currents or stretching the sheets of cells mechanically. Wait. Harvest. Eat.
It seems like something out of a chilling sci-fi future, the very epitome of bloodless Matrix-style barbarism. But growing flesh in a petri dish is an old idea from the early 20th century that received a fresh infusion of, how you say, growth medium in 2002. As part of a NASA-funded experiment to find a portable source of animal protein for astronauts, Touro College biology professors Morris Benjaminson and James Gilchriest sliced a bit of muscle from the abdomen of a goldfish and set it in a saline solution enriched with fetal calf serum. Over several weeks the muscle grew about 15 percent. Another muscle growing in a maitake mushroom solution did almost as well.
To determine whether the product was remotely appetizing or would be too repulsive even for space station humanoids to eat, Benjaminson and Gilchriest convened a panel of female employees, chosen for their gender's presumed pickiness and demonstrably superior sense of smell. Gilchriest, who used to be a professional chef ("He makes great calamari," says Benjaminson), breaded the tiny filet and sauteed it in extra virgin olive oil. He finished with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of pecorino cheese.
"And it smelled good to them," Benjaminson says. Understandably, the ladies were not asked to eat the "fish."
Whatever one's response to the idea of meat grown in a petri dish --revulsion seems to be a common one -- there are also some compelling reasons in favor of it.
"It's cleaner, healthier, less polluting and more humane," says Jason Matheny, a doctoral student in agricultural policy at the University of Maryland who sits on the board of New Harvest, a research organization for in vitro meat.
Meat grown in the sterile environment of a laboratory wouldn't harbor zoonotic diseases like avian flu or contribute to antibiotic resistance, Matheny says. As for human health, artery-clogging beef fat could be swapped out in vitro for salmon fat, for example, with its salubrious omega-3 fatty acids. And the squalid misery of factory farms could be bypassed altogether. No river would be fouled with manure and no chicken's beak would be clipped in the making of dinner.
These are important considerations. All the problems associated with modern meat production -- like the 64 million tons of manure excreted each year by factory farmed animals in the United States alone -- are poised to worsen as the earth's population heads toward 9 billion people by 2050. As up-and-coming nations like China and India develop large middle classes that adopt Western habits of consumption, that translates to an exponential rise in meat eaters and factory farms over the next 45 years.
Add it all up, and some people find cultured meat a splendid idea.
Bruce Friedrich, vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calls it "the best thing since sliced bread." Friedrich, who energetically denounces the eating of "animal corpses" every chance he gets, says that "anything that takes the cruelty out of meat-eating is good."
There are a couple of serious problems with cultured meat, though, starting with the fact that people seem to find the idea repellent.
"Yeah," Matheny admits. "There's a 'yuck' factor involved with producing any novel food."
Presented with the argument that cultured meat just ain't natural, Matheny gamely counters that wine and cheese are engineered products, too.
"And I would say cultured meat is not inherently more unnatural than producing chicken meat from tens of thousands of animals raised intensively in their own feces and fed antibiotics," he says.
That is a very good point. But then Matheny, who is vegetarian, probably won't be eating much cultured meat, either. Nor will Friedrich, who says he's done just fine without eating animal flesh for 18 years and plans to stick with his program.
As for Benjaminson, when asked if he finds the idea of cultured meat appealing, he answers, "From an esthetic standpoint? No. It would have to taste palatable, and that would require a lot of tissue engineering."
What a lot of trouble to go to for a solution that is frankly nightmarish (especially the "exercising" of the disembodied muscle by means of electrical shocks). All cultivation is a form of enslavement, however benevolent or necessary, but harnessing the manic energy of stem cells takes that dynamic into a realm where the side effects -- the "equal and opposite reaction" promised by Newton -- play out perilously close to the life process itself. If synthetic fertilizer, which seemed like such a great way to boost plant fertility, can create a dead zone the size of Maryland at the Mississippi Delta, wiping out a totally different link in the food chain, who's to say what would come of overexploited RNA or mitochondria?
Fred Kirschenmann of Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture just hopes there will be plenty of testing. "I'm not saying some of these new ideas can't be done and they won't work at some level, but every time we mess around with our ecological heritage there are always unintended side effects that come from it," he says. "We have a long history of unintended consequences.
"We've got all these animals out there right now," he adds, "and if we suddenly decide we don't want to raise them, what does that do to the larger ecology?"
Here's an idea: Instead of safeguarding our appetites and engineering our meat, let's safeguard our meat and engineer our appetites. What if real animals were raised humanely and in sustainable numbers, so that their meat cost more -- maybe even a lot more? What if people only ate it on special occasions? What if, instead of deciding that the most important thing was to be able to satisfy every idle hankering for a cheeseburger, humanity assessed the resources and made a rational decision about protein acquisition that did not involve divorcing its food source from the life cycle? What if we took the invisible hand of the market, which has all the self-discipline and foresight of a 14-year-old boy, off the job and put a grown-up in charge?
One of the many people who has already thought of this is Robert Lawrence, director of the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. Although Lawrence sits on New Harvest's board, he's skeptical about the possibilities for cultured meat.
"I think it's an interesting idea," he says . "I think in some situations it might have real value as an important bioavailable form of quality protein. But there are other more straightforward and readily available solutions."
The most obvious one is moderating intake, both frequency and portion size. The Center for a Livable Future sponsors a Meatless Mondays campaign that has attracted interest from public school systems in New York and Maryland. But as mild a suggestion as Meatless Monday is (Meatless Monday Through Thursday would be a lot closer to the mark) it has provoked what Lawrence calls a "backlash" by the meat industry.
"They called me an environmental extremist," he says with a laugh.
That bit of hysteria reveals volumes. It could be a long time before people smell the legume blossoms and start eating lower on the food chain. Matheny thinks cultured meat can be "a stopgap measure" aiding that process, methadone for meat eaters to ease the transition out of the era of 72-ounce steaks and into the days of dollops of hummus.
Maybe he's right. Maybe in vitro meat can serve that purpose. Or maybe it will work in a different way -- by so thoroughly grossing people out that they'll gladly reduce their meat consumption just so they lessen the risk of accidentally eating a meatri burger. That's how it's working on me.
Traci Hukill is a freelance journalist based in Monterey, Calif.
Comment on this Article
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: sott(at)signs-of-the-times.org