Yawn! Even if I wasn't actually tired, that would still be my response to
the latest "terror alert" from the UK government office of Machiavellian
nonsense. I mean, seriously, at what point do people start to smell a rat?
Is the mass mind of the British public destined to be forever child-like and
easily scared, or does the threat of the boogeyman eventually wear off? I mean,
how many times can you arrest a group of patsies and claim that they were planning
to attack the British public before people begin to wonder if you are just
making it up?
Allegedly, the plot involved using carry on luggage to blow up 10 planes on
routes from the UK to the US. Exactly how the "terrorists" were going
to disguise bombs in hand luggage in such a way that they would not be seen
by x-ray machines that are used as standard at all UK airports remains a mystery.
Overnight, 21
homegrown British Muslims were rounded up and flung into a cell for
being Muslim and therefore likely patsy candidates for MI5's most recent "terrorism" stitch
up. There, they will wait for British securocrats to put the final touches
to the made-up "evidence" against them, which will then be presented
by British securocrats to themselves and later selectively released to the
fawning mainstream media.
Referring to the alleged plot Deputy police Commissioner Paul Stephenson followed
the script, like all good little Police Commissioners should, saying:
"This
was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."
Strangely enough
however, over the past 3 weeks, the whole world (minus Deputy Commissioner
Paul Stephenson apparently) has not only been imagining but watching in almost
real time the mass murder of at least 1,000 Lebanese civilians by Israel. Then
again, Lebanese are all terrorists anyway according to Israel and its UK and
US partners in crime.
It is, of course, a massive and uncanny coincidence (to which you should
pay not attention whatsoever) that this "terror
alert" comes just a week after UK home secretary John Reid's anti-terror
campaign was dealt
a serious blow when Britain's three most senior judges ruled
that Reid's "virtual house arrest" powers were incompatible with
human rights law. Why was the Blair government attempting to give itself powers
that violated human rights laws? Well, because the Blair government seems to
enjoy violating human rights laws and scaring the British people
into believing they will benefit from draconian legislation that will
ultimately be used against them.
Feel the fear and know WHY you need us.
Interestingly, it was just yesterday that Reid, speaking to the London Think
Tank Demos, stated in response to the ruling that "traditional concepts of individual rights and freedom are outmoded in the face of the 21st century terror threat." Reid failed to mention however that the terror threat was entirely fabricated by members of the American British and Israeli intelligence services and other unnamed government back room boys.
Reid further stated that Britain might have to modify its freedoms in order to fight an "unconstrained enemy" which posed the "most severe and sustained threat since the end of World War II".
Hitler killed the Jews, Osama wants to kill everyone. See? It's the same thing.
Reid continued: "It is up to each and all of us to ask the questions – what
price security? At what cost preservation of freedom?"
Off the record, Reid continued: "At what cost the preservation of freedom?
Freedom itself? If we we need to remove freedom in order to
preserve it, is that not the best thing to do to secure it? Think about it.
You need to give up your freedoms to retain your freedom. What's so difficult
to understand about that? When challenged
that he was simply parroting the nonsensical rhetoric of the Bush regime
Reid countered:
"Terrorism Terrorists, Terrorists Terrorism. Islamic
Terrorism, Kill Death Bombs Attacks, Terrorism Terrorists, Terrorists Terrorism.
Islamic Terrorism. Hate us because of our Freedom, Take Freedom away. Fear,
Obey government, Freedom Secured, Take Away Freedom, Terrorism, Freedom Safe.
Terrorism Terrorists, Terrorists Terrorism. Islamic Terrorism, Bomb Bomb
Bomb Kill Death Fear."
We should remember that, on the anniversary of the July 7 suicide bombings,
London's police chief Ian Blair (who ordered and then covered up the murder
of innocent Brazilian electrician Charles de Menezes last year) said the threat
had "palpably increased" in the year following the attacks on the capital and
that "further atrocities" were being planned. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Blair
did not, however, say who was planning the atrocities, leaving open
the very real possibility (supported by the many inconsistencies in the official
report on the July 7th train bombings in London) that Blair himself is part
of the cabal plotting fake terror attacks on the British public. Hey, wouldn't
be the first time.
As for the passengers stranded at UK airports; MI5's psyops manual dictates
that, whenever possible, humiliation should be used to aid the process of melding
the minds of the masses towards a strong belief in the reality of fantasy.
To this end, any sheeple foolish enough to attempt to fly from a UK airport
today are being forbidden from taking any hand luggage onboard and are being
given clear plastic bags for things like their wallets and keys, essential
medication unboxed sanitary items etc.
Clear plastic - soon to be the new citizens uniform in the UK?
It may yet be suggested that, on boarding, each
passenger should hold up his little clear plastic bag and loudly declare "look,
it's only my wallet and keys, I am not a terrorist." At which point the
cabin crew should ask: "Are you sure you are not a terrorist?" To
which each passenger in turn will have to respond: "Yes, I am sure I
am not a terrorist because I am not Muslim." Female passengers would be
required to make a statement to the effect that tampons, clearly visible in
their little plastic bags, are not sticks of dynamite.
Muslim passengers however, are a different kettle of fish altogether, as we
all already know. They will be required to leave open the possibility that
they are indeed terrorists by affirming:
"While I believe I am not a terrorist, and the clearly observable contents
of my little clear plastic bag would seem to suggest as much, since I am a
Muslim, I may be harboring terroristic tendencies of which I am not consciously
aware. As such, I would ask all non-Muslim passengers to please view me
and may actions with extreme suspicion. Thank you, and god bless the Queen
and Tony Blair."
For his part, the sniveling, whiny nerd that is Tony Blair, in true colonial
style, is currently enjoying the hospitality of the natives in Barbados on
his annual holiday, while also "keeping in touch" with developments
and being regularly informed of national scareometer levels. Blair also took
the step of briefing Bush on the situation, and is reported to have told him
that he knows jack squat about the situation since it was all made up anyway,
but that the British public have once again been successfully cowed by a non-existent
government-promoted "terror threat".
Director of US Homeland Buffoonery Michael Chertoff seemed
to know more however, stating that the London Plot was "sophisticated,
it had a lot of members and it was international in scope, it was in some respects
suggestive of an al-Qaida plot."
The "respects" in which the plot was "suggestive of al-Qaeda" appear
to be the fact that ordinary Muslims were involved because, as you and I know,
all 1 billion Muslims are terrorists. Chertoff however, understands this fact
better than anyone.
The son of a Rabbi and himself an ardent Zionist, Chertoff holds dual Israeli-American
nationality and, despite this, was unanimously approved by the US Senate for
the post of "Homeland Security Chief" on February 15th 2005. Indeed,
it is this background that makes Chertoff eminently capable of distinguishing
a terrorist from someone who poses no threat to the American people. For example,
Chertoff's previous post was as head of the criminal division at the Department
of Justice where he "helped trace the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the al-Qaida
network." And what a fine job he did! In late 2001, Chertoff wasted no
time in concluding that the 5 Israeli Mossad agents who were detained after
being spotted filming, laughing and cheering the collapse of the twin towers
on 9/11 should be released and sent back to Israel. Chertoff was also responsible
for freeing the over 100 members of an exposed
Israeli spy ring in the US in
the months before the 9/11 attacks.
So take it from me, there are good people on the job;
people in the know; people with their fingers on the pulse, or rather up
the back of, the Islamic terrorism puppet show. Your job is to simply consent to the
abolition of your civil freedoms. Of course, your government could just take
those freedoms away from you, but it's nicer all round and helps to maintain
the charade of Democracy - "the worship of Jackals by Jackasses" - if you can
be scared into asking for it. Comment on this Editorial
It is a little known, but historical fact that Israel has attacked the United States several times. Yet, we now know that our New Homeland Security Chief helped Israel to do so.
In 1954, Israeli agents working in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility, and left evidence behind implicating Arabs as the culprits. The ruse would have worked, had not one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to capture and identify one of the bombers, which in turn led to the round up of an Israeli spy ring.
Some of the spies were from Israel, while others were recruited from the local Jewish population. Israel responded to the scandal with claims in the media that there was no spy ring, that it was all a hoax perpetrated by "anti-Semites". But as the public trial progressed, it was evident that Israel had indeed been behind the bombing. Eventually, Israeli's Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was brought down by the scandal, although it appears that he was himself the victim of a frame-up by the real authors of the bombing project, code named "Operation Susannah."
On June 8, 1967, thirty-four fine young American boys died while defending the U.S.S. Liberty against a sustained air and sea attack by the armed forces of the State of Israel. Yes, during the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab States, the American intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked for 75 minutes in international waters by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats. Thirty-four men died and 172 were wounded.
The U.S.S. Liberty was damaged beyond repair and scrapped.
Survivors and many key government officials including Secretary of State Dean Rusk and former Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman, Admiral Thomas Moorer say it was a deliberate act of war.
On June 15, 1986, The United States attacked Muammar Khadaffi. But according to Victor Ostrovsky, a Mossad defector now living in Canada, Ronald Reagan was tricked into bombing Libya by means of a radio transmitter smuggled into Tripoli by the Mossad, which broadcast messages designed to fool the United States into thinking Libya was about to launch a massive terror attack on the west. On the basis of this fake evidence, the US bombed Libya, killing Khadaffi's daughter. Is Victor Ostrovsky correct?
More recently, the FBI, CIA, Secret Service and DEA found the most significant foreign espionage ring ever discovered in the history of the United States. It was a huge spy ring of hundreds of Israelis who penetrated the highest echelons of American intelligence agencies and the American military as reported by Carl Cameron on Fox News Network's Brit Hume Show, December 12, 2002. In a corresponding broadcast on MSNBC, titled U.S. Busts Israeli Spy Ring, March 5, 2002, it was reported that approximately 200 Israeli agents were apprehended for attempting to penetrate the Justice Department, the U.S. judiciary system, several military bases, the FBI, the DEA, the INS and the CIA.
And it was our new Homeland Security Chief, Michael Chertoff, hand-picked by President Bush, who set them free without being charged. Why? Was it because Michael Chertoff's American patriotisms are subordinate to Zionist sympathies?
It is true, if I may respectfully say so, that many Jews appear to hold such ancient allegiances. And, it is also true that Jews salute the Israeli flag; I've discovered this upon conducting secondary research (writings found in the library) and primary research (in-person interviews with Jews who are American citizens who regularly salute the Israeli flag).
Does Micheal Chertoff salute the Israeli flag?
Nevertheless, for many months, members of this Israeli spy ring shadowed half of the September 11th hijackers as well as their leader, Mohammed Atta. In fact, five of these Israeli spies were so carefully watching Mohammed Atta that they actually resided on the same street where he lived in Hollywood, Florida. It is also known that Israeli intelligence penetrated the entire telephone network of the United States. And, in a brazen act of treason, an Israeli company was given the contract to conduct official wiretaps of all U.S. Government surveillance. Yes, as amazing as it seems, an Israeli company directly funded by the Israeli government and with ties to Mossad, Israel's spy agency the motto of which is "Winning Wars Through Deception", was given the contract to provide all the surveillance and wiretaps conducted by the United States Government. This gave Israel the technical ability to wiretap virtually any telephone in the United States including phone lines of U.S. law enforcement officers. Indeed, records reveal that a powerful Israeli drug organization in the United States escaped prosecution because of this Israeli control of our phone systems because the Israelis tapped the telephone conversations of the law enforcement personnel who were investigating them. This was also reported by Carl Cameron on the Fox News Network during the Brit Hume Show that aired December12, 1002.
What is more, during the September 11th attack, five men were caught standing on their van with binoculars focused on the World Trade Center while their companions videoed and enthusiastically celebrated the tragedy. They were apprehended by the FBI, discovered to be Israeli agents in possession of false passports, large sums of cash and a number of box cutters. The FBI held them for months during which time each and every one failed lie detector tests. After their release by Michael Chertoff, our new Homeland Security Chief, they fled to Israel.
Now, what would cause these Israeli spies to cheer upon seeing what was a nightmare for others? To hear about the attack of September 11th or to see it televised put most of us in mild shock. But they saw it in person and from only a few miles. Yet, for them, it caused glee. Why? Why would government agents of our closest ally to whom we have freely given $90 billion, far more than any other country, along with unqualified friendship and unqualified protection find joy in our darkest hour?
There can be no question that their behavior was inspired by specific and pertinent knowledge attached to the event. To be sure, they must have known who was responsible and who would benefit. They certainly appeared to be celebrating a victory. Apparently, they believed that the September 11th attack would be good for Israel, for it would make their enemies our enemies; we would become allies to them in their war against the Arab world, particularly, their greatest threat, Iraq; and as a byproduct of our war mentality, it would be easier for Israel to prosecute its war against Palestine. I feel it is fatuously obvious this was the cause of their celebration atop that van.
It is also more than a little peculiar that no Israelis died in the World Trade Center attack. Although the President, in his State of the Union Address shortly after September 11th, stated that 130 Israelis died in the attack, he was incorrect. For not a single Israeli citizen died in the World Trade Center. This in spite of the fact that, on the morning after the attack, the Jerusalem Post reported 4,000 Israelis were believed to be in the area of the World Trade Center. Please see the September 11, 2001 Jerusalem Post article titled, Thousands of Israelis Missing Near WTC, Pentagon. Then on September 22, 2002, The New York Times later reduced the 130 casualties to one single casualty in an article by Eric Lipton titled, Estimates of Toll May Be Too High. Presently, most reports state that no Israelis, whatsoever, died on that awful day.
No Israeli casualties in the World Trade Center would be simply impossible, it seems, unless the Israeli Government received prior warning of the attack and, in turn, relayed the warning to some of the Israelis at the World Trade Center. Ten days after Bush's State of the Union Speech, the FBI confirmed that warning messages of the impending attack were, in fact, received by an Israeli firm, Odigo, at its offices located in both Israel and in the World Trade Center. The article titled, Odigo Says Workers Were Warned of Attack, written by Yuval Dror was published in the September 29th, 2001 edition of Ha'aretz, one of Israel's most prominent newspapers.
The evidence appears to be unambiguous. Israel must have known of the World Trade Center attack well in advance, and then in a startlingly act of murderous betrayal warned its nationals while letting Americans die horrific deaths. Yes, apparently Israel cold-heartedly stood by as Americans died while it could have easily warned them. But then, evidently, that is what Israel wanted. As mentioned before, Israel wanted the September11th tragedy for it would garner American support for Ariel Sharon's agenda against Islamic nations, especially Palestine, Iraq and Iran. That is why the Israeli spies were rejoicing at our countrymen's death on September 11th.
Is this a formula? Is September 11th related to the Iraqi War as is the Lusitania to World War I and Pearl Harbor to World War II? To be sure, many historians now believe the sinking of the Lusitania and the attack of Pearl Harbor were staged with Roosevelt's and Churchill's knowledge.
Was September 11th another case of an Israeli terror attack upon the United States like the Lavon Affiar and the attack of the U.S.S. Liberty?
Of course, the Israelis are using our money, our weapons and the lives of our young men to achieve their agenda. Ten thousand of our finest people have been maimed for life and well over one thousand have died in Iraq. Yet, unlike Israel, Iraq has, paradoxically, never committed an act of war or terror against the United States.
There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history.
We do not believe in the notion of God's chosen people. We laugh at this people's fancies and weep over its misdeeds. To act as God's chosen people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity. We call it racism.
Limits to tolerance
There are limits to our patience, and there are limits to our tolerance. We do not believe in divine promises as justification for occupation and apartheid. We have left the Middle Ages behind. We laugh uneasily at those who still believe that the God of flora, fauna, and galaxies has selected one people in particular as his favorite and given it funny stone tablets, burning bushes, and a license to kill.
We call child murderers 'child murderers' and will never accept that such have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages. We say but this: Shame on all apartheid, shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas, Hizballah, or the state of Israel!
Unscrupulous art of war
We acknowledge and pay heed to Europe's deep responsibility for the plight of the Jews, for the disgraceful harassment, the pogroms, and the Holocaust. It was historically and morally necessary for Jews to get their own home. However, the state of Israel, with its unscrupulous art of war and its disgusting weapons, has massacred its own legitimacy. It has systematically flaunted International Law, international conventions, and countless UN resolutions, and it can no longer expect protection from same. It has carpet bombed the recognition of the world. But fear not! The time of trouble shall soon be over. The state of Israel has seen its Soweto.
We are now at the watershed. There is no turning back. The state of Israel has raped the recognition of the world and shall have no peace until it lays down its arms.
Without defense, without skin
May spirit and word sweep away the apartheid walls of Israel. The state of Israel does not exist. It is now without defense, without skin. May the world therefore have mercy on the civilian population. For it is not civilian individuals at whom our doomsaying is directed.
We wish the people of Israel well, nothing but well, but we reserve the right not to eat Jaffa oranges as long as they taste foul and are poisonous. It was endurable to live some years without the blue grapes of apartheid.
They celebrate their triumphs
We do not believe that Israel mourns forty killed Lebanese children more than it for over three thousand years has lamented forty years in the desert. We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs like they once cheered the scourges of the Lord as "fitting punishment" for the people of Egypt. (In that tale, the Lord, God of Israel, appears as an insatiable sadist.) We query whether most Israelis think that one Israeli life is worth more than forty Palestinian or Lebanese lives.
For we have seen pictures of little Israeli girls writing hateful greetings on the bombs to be dropped on the civilian population of Lebanon and Palestine. Little Israeli girls are not cute when they strut with glee at death and torment across the fronts.
The retribution of blood vengeance
We do not recognize the rhetoric of the state of Israel. We do not recognize the spiral of retribution of the blood vengeance with "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." We do not recognize the principle of one or a thousand Arab eyes for one Israeli eye. We do not recognize collective punishment or population-wide diets as political weapons. Two thousand years have passed since a Jewish rabbi criticized the ancient doctrine of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
He said: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." We do not recognize a state founded on antihumanistic principles and on the ruins of an archaic national and war religion. Or as Albert Schweitzer expressed it: "Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose."
Compassion and forgiveness
We do not recognize the old Kingdom of David as a model for the 21st century map of the Middle East. The Jewish rabbi claimed two thousand years ago that the Kingdom of God is not a martial restoration of the Kingdom of David, but that the Kingdom of God is within us and among us. The Kingdom of God is compassion and forgiveness.
Two thousand years have passed since the Jewish rabbi disarmed and humanized the old rhetoric of war. Even in his time, the first Zionist terrorists were operating.
Israel does not listen
For two thousand years, we have rehearsed the syllabus of humanism, but Israel does not listen. It was not the Pharisee that helped the man who lay by the wayside, having fallen prey to robbers. It was a Samaritan; today we would say, a Palestinian. For we are human first of all -- then Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. Or as the Jewish rabbi said: "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?" We do not accept the abduction of soldiers. But nor do we accept the deportation of whole populations or the abduction of legally elected parliamentarians and government ministers.
We recognize the state of Israel of 1948, but not the one of 1967. It is the state of Israel that fails to recognize, respect, or defer to the internationally lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more; more water and more villages. To obtain this, there are those who want, with God's assistance, a final solution to the Palestinian problem. The Palestinians have so many other countries, certain Israeli politicians have argued; we have only one.
The USA or the world?
Or as the highest protector of the state of Israel puts it: "May God continue to bless America." A little child took note of that. She turned to her mother, saying: "Why does the President always end his speeches with 'God bless America'? Why not, 'God bless the world'?"
Then there was a Norwegian poet who let out this childlike sigh of the heart: "Why doth Humanity so slowly progress?" It was he that wrote so beautifully of the Jew and the Jewess. But he rejected the notion of God's chosen people. He personally liked to call himself a Muhammedan.
Calm and mercy
We do not recognize the state of Israel. Not today, not as of this writing, not in the hour of grief and wrath. If the entire Israeli nation should fall to its own devices and parts of the population have to flee the occupied areas into another diaspora, then we say: May the surroundings stay calm and show them mercy. It is forever a crime without mitigation to lay hand on refugees and stateless people.
Peace and free passage for the evacuating civilian population no longer protected by a state. Fire not at the fugitives! Take not aim at them! They are vulnerable now like snails without shells, vulnerable like slow caravans of Palestinian and Lebanese refugees, defenseless like women and children and the old in Qana, Gaza, Sabra, and Chatilla. Give the Israeli refugees shelter, give them milk and honey!
Let not one Israeli child be deprived of life. Far too many children and civilians have already been murdered.
We are the Israeli Government. We are untouchable. No matter what we do, the international community will not act against us. Oh, there will be talks at the United Nations but we know that the United States will intervene on our behalf. There will be Arab League discussions but we know that no state will take action against us. There will be mass protests and demonstrations; there will be activists and advocates begging for peace; there will be rallies and fund-raisers to help the targets of our bombs. And we know that nothing will make a difference because we are Zionists - Jews were victims of the holocaust. Jews have suffered such that we have the right to use their suffering to make the rest of the world pay (even though organized Zionism officially declared war on Germany in 1933, long before Hitler's Final Solution and then aided the Nazis in their death camps). Because we are victims.
Yes, we know that peoples all over the world have suffered worse crimes than ours, but they were not the Chosen People. We know that over 22 million Russians were killed under Stalin, 15 million Chinese were killed by the Japanese, millions elsewhere in the world suffered the same fate in the bloodiest 20th century.
We know that Zionism is an atheist Marxist creation using Judaism and the Jewish people as its weapon; that we were founded upon terrorism and our terrorist leaders became Israel's prime ministers and Nobel Peace Prize winners; that less than 10 percent of Jews worldwide supported the Zionist cause and few do today. We know that the crimes committed by Hitler equally affected Communists, gypsies, the handicapped, and political prisoners. That does not matter - we claim that Jews are special and we shall use that claim to achieve our selfish and psychopathic aims. The rest of the world will not touch us because they are terrified of the label that we have created: "anti-Semite". World leaders are terrified of this ad hominem even though we, the leaders of the Jewish people, are mostly not Semitic people. Jews of Israel, the Sephardim Jews, were almost nonexistent when we arrived from Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary and elsewhere in the 20th century and demanded Arab land. They had spread out and moved on. We did not come from Yemen, Ethiopia or Iraq, but who cares? We use the fact that the Jewish people were victims (with out help) and that is all that counts.
Time and again we wonder at how far American gullibility will take us. We push it to the limits on cable television and get away with it repeatedly. We know that the majority of the world is aware we blatantly lie when we express our "deepest regrets" because "terrorists" were hiding in the villages we destroyed. We even have the gall to pick the same targets as a decade ago, ignoring the cries of outrage from America and the West. We'll just repeat the mantra "a tragic mistake".
Honestly, we too are rather surprised to see that America patiently sits back and buys our words each time. We have trained our diplomats well, not only in the art of deception to the media, but by using powerful strong-arm, behind-the-scenes tactics to mold the views of US Congressmen and women in our favor.
We have worked on this for decades and it has been perfected for the one place it counts: Our bank America. We rely upon those weapons; we need to create constant conflict so as to receive a perpetual $13 billion annual aid package from the US, including unsecured loans that we have never been, nor ever will be, required to pay back. We are living a dream: What we want is given to us on a silver patter because we are the Zionist leaders of the Jews, and we have their holocaust to use and abuse as we see fit.
The above is only daring in that it is never voiced publicly in the West. The world is watching as Israel incinerates the Lebanese, next the Syrians and Palestinians, then Iran. Diplomats call for peace, a cease-fire, and negotiations. They speak the language of noncommittance. It takes a few brave men and women in leadership positions to dare to speak the truth. The leaders of the Israeli governmetn are in the position of dominating the US government to an extent never before seen in history, creating a regime who will fully fund a "new Middle East" which in reality means Eretz Israel consisting of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and even Cyprus by some accounts.
There is nothing speculative about these plans for hegemony - everything has been laid out, written down, and presented for years. Academics who dare write the facts know that their tenured careers are over. This war will not end with a cease-fire next week. This war will not end with a security zone controlled by the UN. This war will not end if Hezbollah and Hamas disappeared tomorrow. This war will not end as long as leaders and diplomats continue to fear the trump card charge of anti-Semitism by Israel.
This war will end when the Middle East is ablaze and Jews and Muslims alike are all dead.
So when hundreds of children are torn apart by uranium-tipped missiles provided courtesy of the US government, look in the mirror. Have you dared to offend Israel? Have you risked? Have you dared to speak out against the psychopaths in power? Ask yourself what role you may have played in contributing to this global disaster. Nothing will change until you do.
This is Zionism. Raja' Abu Sha'ban, 4, was killed by Israeli missiles in Gaza yesterday. She was caught launching missiles on Israel. Don't feel sorry for her.
While the Middle East smoulders, commentators of an apocalyptic bent are lining up for a date with Armageddon.
Better cancel those holidays. We now have a date for Armageddon, and it's a week on Tuesday - August 22.
This information comes from no lesser source than the Wall Street Journal, where Bernard Lewis, President Bush's favourite historian, provides the details.
"In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity," the professor writes, "there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time - Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long-awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined.
"Mr Ahmadinejad [the Iranian president] and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the US about nuclear development by August 22. This was at first reported as 'by the end of August', but Mr Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise."
Lewis continues: "What is the significance of August 22? This year, August 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to 'the farthest mosque', usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (cf, Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world."
This sort of quasi-religious scaremongering always finds a receptive audience in the United States, especially among Christians of the jihadist persuasion. At 90 years old, Professor Lewis may have completely lost his marbles, but he is still feted by the White House (vice-president Dick Cheney was guest of honour at his birthday party in April), and the Wall Street Journal describes him as "a sage". He is credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilisations" back in 1990 and now seems intent on making it a reality.
Nevertheless, Prof Lewis does manage to spot a few drawbacks in his alleged Iranian attempt to obliterate Israel. "An attack that wipes out Israel would almost certainly wipe out the Palestinians too," he writes.
This "might well be of concern to the Palestinians", he says, "but not apparently to their fanatical champions in the Iranian government." (He seems to be assuming here that Iran already has a fully primed nuclear arsenal, which is plainly not the case, despite what many Americans imagine.)
He then suddenly demolishes his own argument with this caveat: "It is far from certain that Mr Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for August 22."
So why, exactly, did the Iranians choose August 22 as the date for giving their answer to the US about nuclear development? Probably for bureaucratic convenience. When they promised a reply "by the end of August", they didn't actually use the word "August", but the Iranian equivalent. If you look up the Persian calendar, you'll see that August 22 just happens to be the end of the month known as Mordad.
I don't suppose this will discourage the neocons from continuing to write such loopy, prophetic nonsense. Here's another of them, Michael Ledeen, formerly a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Iraq-Niger yellowcake affair, predicting an Iranian nuclear test by November 5:
"The Iranians believe they now have all the necessary components for a nuclear bomb. The only question is how long it will take them to assemble and test it. Khamenei had hoped to be able to test an atomic bomb by the third week in October, but his scientific advisers recently told him they could not make that deadline. They are now aiming for November 4 or 5, the anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran during the revolution.
"There is another November date our leaders should take seriously: the 25th, the anniversary of the disappearance of the twelfth imam, and thus the most significant date in the Shiite calendar. Reports from Tehran suggest that the mullahs would like to celebrate that anniversary with a big-time terrorist attack against America."
Utter tosh. Don't believe a word of it. Ledeen was not talking about this coming November, but November 2003. His original article is here.
"Do you represent Israel before you represent America?" - U.S. Senate Candidate Kevin Zeese's query to Rep. Ben Cardin (1)
The Neocons' scheme to destabilize the Middle East, aka "The Clean Break Document," and to create a "safer Israel" is backfiring. (2) Instead, residents of Haifa, Israel, are running for cover from the rocket attacks of Hezbollah. Hey, that wasn't in the plan! The Arabs aren't suppose to fight back. They are only suppose to serve as target practice for the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), like in Gaza, and/or kill each other in that scripted Civil War in Iraq. Israel's unjust invasion, and attempt to seize parts of Lebanon up to the Litani River, has to date, also resulted in 118 Israeli fatalities, including the deaths of 82 of its soldiers. Yanks and Brits dying in combat in Iraq, along with tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, means little to the Neocons. Lebanon being destroyed is also inconsequential to these Wire Pullers. But, Israeli citizens and soldiers being killed, and their northern cities being damaged, well, that's something different, indeed. None of the latter was suppose to be on the "Clean Break" agenda prepared by the Neocon wise guys years ago. (2)
Enter Hezbollah! The IOF has confessed that Hezbollah is a tenacious foe. One IOF member told a Washington Post reporter: "They are the masters of the field. They know the area better than us. They know where to hide and when to move. They always know where we are." (3) Those remarks standing alone are a classic definition of a formidable guerrilla force, who are fighting on their own land, for their own country, and against a foreign enemy. The ultra-Rightist Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, responded to the strong defense being put up by Hezbollah by declaring that there will be "no limitations" on the IOF. Since Israel doesn't give a hoot about International law anyway, "El Supremo's" latest ominous threat means the IOF will stop pretending that it isn't open season on civilians. To date, the IOF has killed about 1,000 innocent Lebanese and displaced a million people from their homes with its terror air strike bombing campaign of over 8,700 sorties.
Meanwhile, our fearless leader, President George W. Bush, is hiding out at his farm in Crawford, TX. He's afraid to come out of his compound, since Cindy Sheehan, the "Gold Star Mother for Peace," is lodged down the road from him at "Camp Casey." (4) Bush's illegal war in Iraq was hatched by the cunning Neocon, Paul Wolfowitz, among others. (5) It has sent 2,598 American military personnel to their early graves and has cost the treasury $306 billion. Bush is another one who doesn't have the guts to take on Israel or its Lobby. (6) It's another sign that our Republic is on life support.
Then, there is Richard Perle! (7) He's a congenital War Hawk and one of the architects of the "Clean Break" policy statement, finalized in 1996, for the then Israeli Hard Right regime of Benjamin Netanyahu. Perle used to serve as one of the directors of the Jerusalem Post newspaper. He was also an ex-member, and chair, too, for many years, of the influential Pentagon Defense Policy Board. I have to ask, looking at just how "safe" Israel is today, thanks to the demented "Clean Break" policy: Will Perle, the Mother of All Neocons, ever be welcomed back to Israel? He has recently been pushing, probably from his villa in Southern France, for a U.S. war with Iran. This is the same repulsive character, with no conscience, who once boasted that if the Bush-Cheney Gang waged a "total war" against Iraq that "our children will sing great songs about us." (8) Every time I read that insane line I think: Doesn't this guy belong in a white coat, with a straight jacket on, and in a padded cell next to someone like - Hannibal Lecter? (9)
Closer to home, the people of Connecticut have had enough of that pious hypocrite, Joe Lieberman, another Neocon clone. He went down in flames in a Democratic Party primary on Aug. 8, 2006. Lieberman was to the Right of our soulless president on the Iraqi War. At times, he even made another Neocon, William Kristol, look like a Peacenik. Lieberman also pushed the USA Patriot Act into law, without a public hearing. At one of the first anti-Iraq War rallies that I went to in Washington, D.C., I noticed a poster sitting up against a tree, near the Potomac River. It read: "Sen. Joe Lieberman is an embarrassment to the good people of Connecticut." Truer words have never been written. If he decides to run as an independent in the general election, I hope they make him register as a member of the Likud Party. Lieberman sure knew how to represent the interests of Israel in the U.S. Congress.
Back to the Middle East. What if Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan and/ or Egypt get trigger happy, like the Israelis have been over the capture of three of their soldiers? What if Russia decides to back Iran, if it is attacked by Israel or the U.S.? How far is humanity, thanks to Israel's militancy, closer to WWIII? Israel's "Clean Break" plan doesn't look so "clean" at the moment. Why would any European country want to send its troops into Southern Lebanon to serve in that so-called "buffer zone?" Do you think their citizens have forgotten what the IOF did recently to those four unarmed UN observers? And why would Hezbollah agree to disarm with a thuggish neighbor next door, like Israel? And, if the Bush-Cheney Gang attempts to use our soldiers in that role, I suspect that even our mostly cowardly U.S. Congress, perennial lapdogs for the Israel Lobby, will say "no." (When will the citizens of Maryland begin to boo U.S. Senator, Barbara A. Mikulski? She has been nearly invisible on War/Peace issues.) As for the American people, growing numbers are appalled by what Israel's Terror, Death & Mayhem Machine is doing in Gaza and Lebanon. I suggest that their feelings of outrage may soon reach a tipping point.
In fact, as a result of the gross barbarism of the IOF in Gaza and Lebanon, a Holocaust survivor, Silvia Tennenbaum, was moved to speak out in an insightful Op Ed piece for Newsday. She wrote: "Would the author of 'Survival in Auschwitz,' Primo Levi, or the poet Paul Celan demand that we slaughter the innocents in a land far from snow-clad forests of Poland? Is it a heroic act to murder a child, even the child of an enemy? Are my brethren glad of it and proud?...I am heartsick, and still I see a glimmer of hope...If Israel had worked for peace as hard as it has worked for war, might it not all be settled now?...The time is long overdue for Jews to return to their role as the world's conscience, who come to the aid of the dispossessed, the wretched of the earth. Once again, we must join those who demand the end to unjust wars-in Iraq, as well as Lebanon- and an unjust occupation in Gaza..." (10)
On the media front, windbag Bill O'Reilly got a surprise when he recently invited Noura Erakat, an eloquent advocate for Palestinian human rights on his show. She told him: "I don't think that our viewers know that Israel actually occupied Lebanon for 18 years and that in the past six years alone it has launched 11,782 missiles over the Lebanese border...Did Americans know that? Did they know?" (11) Erakat, who spoke passionately at a demonstration in front of the State Department, in response to the Qana Massacre, on July 31, 2006, in Washington, D.C., is emerging as the Bernadette Devlin of Arab- America. (12)
Finally, as you pay $3-plus for a gallon of gas, remember the U.S. didn't have any enemies in the Middle East, until Israel was created in 1948. (13) Also, its right of self-defense isn't a license for it to slaughter people indiscriminately, Baltimore's Mayor Martin O'Malley's opinion to the contrary. (14) George Galloway, British MP, and a magnificent Celt, has said that most people in the world see "Israel as a terrorist state." (15) The last question is this: What are you, relying on your own conscience as a guide, going to do about this Neocon-Israeli-instigated horror story? (16)
Ahmad Samih Khalidi
Thursday August 10, 2006
The Guardian
The Franco-US resolution is an absurdity: it would give Israel immunity while denying Lebanon the right to defend itself
As Lebanon is brought to its knees, and Israeli leaders promise yet more of the same, there is something truly extraordinary about the manner in which the war on Lebanon is being portrayed as a war for Israel's survival, as if it were the existence of the Jewish state that were at risk.
Whatever else it may be, this is a war between palpable unequals: a giant nuclear-armed power with the most advanced western military hardware and a potential ground force of up to 650,000 trained men, against a tiny third-world guerrilla force of around 5,000 fighters, armed largely with second-hand former eastern bloc hardware (the first Katyusha rockets were developed in the early 1940s) and castoffs from Iran and Syria. The idea that the latter can pose an existential threat to the former, under any foreseeable circumstances, is risible at best and disingenuous at worst. While it can hardly be comfortable for northern Israel's civilian population to be forced into shelters for four weeks, the physical safety of the overwhelming majority - unlike that of their counterparts in much of Lebanon - has never been seriously at stake. And while Hizbullah's supposed targeting of Israeli civilians has yielded relatively few victims, Israel's repeated "mistakes" in Lebanon have maintained a civilian death rate of about 100 Lebanese to every three Israelis. The opposite side of this coin is that while Israel's hi-tech "surgical strikes" have killed hundreds more civilians than Hizbullah fighters, the Lebanese resistance's low-tech weapons have killed about three times as many Israeli soldiers as civilians.
After yesterday's decision to expand the ground war all the way up to the Litani river and beyond, Israel's constantly shifting war plan is now moving away from its initial relatively cautious phase and has plunged headlong into grand-scale politico-strategic engineering. What Israel now seeks is less of a secure border, and more of a major rearrangement of the Lebanese domestic scene that will crush resistance not only in Lebanon, but by extension in Palestine as well, and wherever else it may exist across the seething Arab Muslim world.
If Hizbullah, as many have argued, is indeed the people of south Lebanon and the voice of Shia Lebanese empowerment, then the Israelis seem to believe that the best means of defeating them is to disperse them, uproot the communities in which they thrive, and destroy the infrastructure that sustains them and provides them with their means of livelihood.
That is why Israel has been pounding away at the Shia areas of south Beirut that Hizbullah evacuated even before the bombing began. That is why it is attacking Shia population centres in the Beka'a valley in the east of the country. And that is why it is deliberately depopulating south Lebanon, driving almost a million civilians northwards in the hope of destroying what remains of the area's infrastructure, so as to make it impossible for its residents to return home any time in the near future. As in Gaza - which has been hit by 12,000 artillery shells over the past six weeks - Israel is creating a system of free fire and buffer zones, where it will be free to act in response to any "provocation".
Sadly, there is really not much new here. Depopulation is a longstanding Israeli expedient, used sometimes for grand strategic purposes, as in the 1948 war in Palestine, and at other times for less grandiose aims, but no less painfully, as in Lebanon in the 1978, 1982 and 1996 invasions.
The difference this time is in the purposeful destruction of the social and economic structure of the south, and the rest of the country. With no popular sea to swim in, Hizbullah's fighters will have been denied a secure social base for a long time to come. And now there seems to be the additional goal of creating a new socio-demographic reality in Lebanon, one that will make an impact on the already fragile domestic confessional and sectarian balance. After "cleansing" the south, Israel expects the rest of Lebanon, with support from the international community, to continue the elimination of Hizbullah - politically if possible, but by force of arms if necessary.
The fact is that it is now Lebanon that faces an existential threat. And with that comes the threat of a serious meltdown in the Levant that will have inevitable repercussions, from Syria to Iraq with its disaffected Shia masses. And it is precisely because of these grave dangers that the initial Franco-US draft security council resolution is so outrageous.
The draft effectively gives immunity to Israel's occupying forces, denies Hizbullah, or any other Lebanese party, the right to resist the continued violation of Lebanese sovereignty and soil, says not a word about an Israeli withdrawal, and does nothing to bring the population back to their homes and thus safeguard Lebanon's domestic balance and political future.
How any of this could be expected to appeal to the Lebanese, how an undefeated Hizbullah is meant to concur, and how this could have been seen as "a step in the right direction" as suggested by prime minister Blair, beggars belief. And why the strongest military power in the region needs another layer of defence via an international force, to secure it from the weakest and least powerful party in the area, is simply beyond argument or reason.
The only conclusion must be that the real purpose of the British-backed Franco-US manoeuvre is a deliberate and calculated western attempt to rescue Israel's ill-conceived war from the jaws of political and moral defeat. It is also meant to threaten the Lebanese with dire consequences for refusing to rise up against the party that is defending their very soil and homes. And it is further intended to send a message to Tehran and Damascus that those who act with such violence in Lebanon, as well as Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, are ready to do the same in Iran and Syria as well.
The UN may yet come to its senses, and stitch together a resolution that has a minimum chance of success. Its initial, absurd draft may have been intended to produce a second modified draft that the Arabs, Lebanese and Hizbullah would find very hard to refuse.
But even if Lebanon survives intact, the hatred of its battered and bloodied population for those on the other side of the border will have intensified, and a whole new generation of Lebanese will have grown up knowing nothing of Israel but its pitiless aerial bombardment and indiscriminate destruction. Far from being a war for its survival, Israel has by its actions over the past month only increased the long-term threat to its own security.
The Foreign Ministry is under pressure from Israeli citizens to resume its boycott of the BBC and to withdraw credentials from its reporters due to "one-sided" reports on the war in Lebanon, Israeli diplomatic officials said Wednesday.
For seven months during a wave of Palestinian violence in 2003, Israeli officials boycotted BBC news programs, declining interviews and excluding BBC reporters from briefings. The boycott was ended after the BBC appointed a panel to oversee its Middle East coverage and to ensure it would be unbiased.
The diplomatic officials said the network had not been reporting the war fairly. Senior diplomatic officials in Jerusalem went as far as saying that "the reports we see give the impression that the BBC is working on behalf of Hizbullah instead of doing fair journalism."
Foreign Ministry Deputy Director-General for Media and Public Affairs Gideon Meir, who declined to comment for this article, spoke on Channel 1 about a column that appeared in The Times of London on July 24 in which Stephen Pollard wrote that a BBC program appeared to have been written by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
"The BBC's coverage has been overwhelmingly one-sided, with presenters and reporters editorializing against what they universally refer to as 'Israeli attacks on Lebanon,'" Pollard wrote.
Col. (res.) Miri Eisen, who is set to take over as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman on August 20, called the BBC "the only international English-speaking news outlet that is downright hostile to Israel on every level." Eisen told an audience from the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey on Wednesday that the BBC's coverage was fair during the first week of the war, but then the network moved its anchors from Haifa to Beirut, and since then it has been similar to Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
A Foreign Ministry official said the ministry had compiled a dossier of reports from Lebanon by BBC senior correspondent Jeremy Bowen that officials consider biased.
The BBC press office issued a statement in response.
"Our duty is to provide independent reporting and analysis of all perspectives of a story, so our audiences can make sense of what's going on in the world," the press office said.
"There can be times when this is misread by one or other side of a debate. However, this is not to suggest that we do not take complaints extremely seriously; we do. It is also worth noting that the recent independent panel set up by the (BBC) Board of Governors found no deliberate or systematic bias in the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict."
Comment: Ahhh... the poor Israeli government! Is the already pro-Israel BBC showing too many pictures of dead Lebanese children? Coverage not 100% biased towards Israel? What a shame! Only thing to do is boycott them until they come up to the mark.
WASHINGTON - The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is expected to publish an ad in the New York Times in which it harshly slams UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The organization accuses Annan of being blatantly one-sided against Israel and of the human tragedies taking place in Israel and Lebanon.
The American organization directly appealed to the UN secretary-general, asking: "How many more Israeli civilians must die before you condemn Hizbullah? And when will you extend condolences to Israeli victims?"
ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman accused Annan of being one-sided in terms of the Israel-Hizbullah conflict. In a letter to the UN secretary-general, ADL expressed its fury over the fact that the UN Human Rights Council had scheduled a special meeting, following a request made by Arab states and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, aimed at condemning Israel.
"While you clearly are not at a loss for words when it comes to criticizing and denouncing Israel, a member state of the United Nations, you seen unable to muster an equally strong voice to denounce the daily firing by the terrorist organization Hizbullah of hundreds of rockets into Israel specifically aimed at and intended to kill and maim civilians," ADL leaders said in the letter to Annan.
Annan: Israeli violations of international law
ADL has been following Annan's remarks and decided to publish the ad following a statement he issued on Tuesday, in which he accused Israel of "a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, committed during the course of the current hostilities."
Since the onset of the fighting between Hizbullah and Israel, Annan has been reportedly one-sided in his reactions. After the Israel Defense Forces accidentally killed four UNIFIL observers, Annan accused Israel of intentionally killing the four, before the incident was event inquired.
When reports on the Qana village killing began pouring in, the UN secretary-general decided to convene a special Security Council meeting. Eventually it turned out that Hizbullah's claims that 60 civilians were killed in the strike were false, and only 26 bodies were found in the area.
Israeli sources noted that throughout the war Annan chose not to issue a statement on the harm caused to Israel. The secretary-general failed to address the heavy rocket barrage that hit Haifa or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call to destroy Israel .
Annan's term as UN secretary-general is expected to end in January.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Here's some news you may never hear about Israel's war against Hezbollah: a missile falls into the sea, a strategic military installation is hit, a Cabinet minister plans to visit the front lines.
All these topics are subject to review by Israel's chief military censor, who has - in her own words - "extraordinary power." She can silence a broadcaster, block information and put journalists in jail.
"I can, for example, publish an order that no material can be published. I can close a newspaper or shut down a station. I can do almost anything," Col. Sima Vaknin said Wednesday.
Israel believes that as a small country in a near constant state of conflict, having a say over what information gets out to the world is vital to its security. Critics say the policy is a slippery slope not fit for a democracy.
The range of issues subject to censorship in the latest conflict with Lebanese guerrillas are all related to the goal of preventing Hezbollah from using the media to help it better aim rockets at Israel.
The Associated Press has agreed, like other organizations, to abide by the rules of the censor, which is a condition for receiving permission to operate as a media organization in Israel.
Reporters are expected to censor themselves and not report any of the forbidden material. This story was not submitted to a censor. When in doubt, they can submit a story to the censor who will hand it back, possibly with deletions. The AP will note in a story if any deletions have been made. If a reporter violates the rules, he or she suffers the consequences.
The rules include no real-time reports giving the exact locations of guerrilla missile hits; no reports of missile hits - or misses - on strategic targets; and no reports telling when citizens are allowed to leave their bunkers for supplies.
Journalists are also not allowed to give details about senior Israeli officials going to the north, where Hezbollah's rockets are falling, until the officials have left the area. They also cannot report places where there aren't enough shelters or where public defense is weak.
So far in this conflict, about one rocket in 100 fired by Hezbollah has killed an Israeli. The rest usually explode in empty fields, tear concrete from abandoned streets or plunk into the Mediterranean. Fired blind, Hezbollah's thousands of mostly short-range, inaccurate munitions simply pose a random peril to Israeli citizens.
For obvious reasons, Israel would like to keep it that way. But live media feedback, the censor says, changes everything.
If a news outlet reports immediately that a missile splashed into the sea, for example, any guerrilla with an Internet connection knows to aim left. Report that an oil refinery in Haifa went up in flames, and Hezbollah will surely celebrate and reload. Report that a senior official is headed north, and rockets will be raining down in no time.
Or so goes the logic of censorship.
But in an era when mobile phones have cameras and the terrorists' weapons include laptops and video crews, even the chief censor acknowledges that a complete blockade of news is in many cases not possible.
"Not in 2006,'' she says.
Restrictions on the media are not unique to Israel. The United States military makes journalists embedded with troops in Iraq sign a document agreeing not to report specifics of troop movements and attacks in real time, for reasons similar to Israel's.
Critics say the censorship system is worse than ineffective - it's undemocratic, often counterproductive and a violation of freedom of speech.
"People are entitled to get as much information as they can about what's happening in a conflict,'' says Rohan Jahasekera, associate editor of the London-based magazine, the Index of Censorship.
Israel's censorship rules are not unusual, he adds, but "it's unusual in that they're enforced.''
Jahasekera also disputed arguments that reporting missile landings helped Hezbollah, since the rockets the Islamic militants use are "spectacularly inaccurate.''
Bob Steele, Nelson Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute, a media studies organization, says editors should bear the responsibility for decisions to publish or not.
"These are decisions that the news organizations and journalists should make with the input of government and military officials,'' he said. "They should not be decisions that are made by default.''
"We should always push back on censorship,'' Steele adds, even if it's a losing fight.
Comment: She can also deny Israeli Jews the FACT that their government has manipulated the current crisis and that it is engaged in ethnic cleansing of the Lebanese.
CAIRO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Israel renewed its bombardment against southern Lebanon Wednesday night, the pan-Arab al-Jazeera satellite channel reported.
Explosions were heard in southern Lebanon in the footage of al-Jazeera.
Meanwhile, Israel's newspaper Ha'aretz reported that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began operation against eastern section of Lebanon security zone.
The fresh raid came about two hours after Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech that its group's ability to fire rockets against Israeli cities was not harmed by an over-four-week-long Israeli offensive.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli security cabinet approved expanding the army's ground operations in south Lebanon, under which Israeli troops are to push to the Litani River, about 20 km from the Israel-Lebanon border, local media reported.
Over 100 Israelis and about 1,000 Lebanese have been killed in the 29 days of violence so far since Israel-Hezbollah violence was erupted on July 12 when the Shiite group kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others.
Thursday 10 August 2006, 13:43 Makka Time, 10:43 GMT
Israeli warplanes have continued their raids on Lebanon, hitting a historic lighthouse in densely populated west Beirut and killing one man in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
A disused lighthouse in the heart of the Lebanese capital was hit by Israeli strikes on Thursday, damaging the top of the French colonial-era structure.
Local television showed live video of the damage, with part of the tower's roof blown off.
The strike was the first on Beirut proper since Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, issued a warning to Israel on August 4, saying that his fighters would fire rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel hit the Lebanese capital.
An Israeli drone also fired a missile into a minibus driving in the eastern Bekaa Valley, killing one person and wounding 12, residents said.
The attack occurred near the town of Rayak, about 5km east of the provincial capital of Zahle.
Another air strike targeted a road linking the city of Baalbek, traditionally a Hezbollah stronghold, with the Syrian city of Homs, witnesses said.
Leaflets
Israeli warplanes also dropped leaflets over northern Lebanon for the first time on Thursday, warning trucks off a coastal road linking Lebanon to Syria, residents said.
The single page document read: "Any pick-up or truck of any kind moving on the coastal road as of 8pm. (1700GMT) will be attacked because it is suspected of carrying rockets, military hardware and saboteurs.
"You must know that anyone who moves in a pick-up or truck is endangering his life."
The leaflets fell north of Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, about 25km from the Syrian border. The area that was leafleted includes the Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi.
It was unclear whether the curfew would be 24-hours a day, starting on Thursday night, or whether it was only a night time ban on traffic.
The leaflets were signed:"The State of Israel."
Missiles
Meanwhile, a rocket fired by Hezbollah hit a house in northern Israel on Thursday, killing two people, including a toddler.
Emergency services said that the rocket, among at least 50 launched into Israel from Lebanon before noon, struck the Israeli Arab village of Deir al-Assad in the Galilee region.
News reports said the child killed in the attack was two years old. No details on the second fatality were immediately available.
JERUSALEM - Israel will hold back a new ground offensive in Lebanon until the weekend to give cease-fire efforts another chance, senior government officials said Thursday, a day after Israel's Security Cabinet approved a major expansion of the month-long war.
But prospects for a quick cease-fire resolution by the
U.N. Security Council were uncertain, with the United States and France still divided over a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
France wants Israel to pull out once hostilities end, while the United States backs Israel's insistence on staying in southern Lebanon until a strong international force is deployed, which could take weeks or months.
In fighting Thursday, Hezbollah claimed it destroyed 13 Israel tanks in south Lebanon. The Israeli military declined comment. On Wednesday, 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon, the deadliest day for Israeli soldiers in the war.
Israeli missiles, meanwhile, hit Beirut proper for the first time, damaging a historic lighthouse Thursday. Warplanes also dropped leaflets over northern Lebanon, also a first, warning trucks off a coastal road linking Lebanon to
Syria.
In Israel, Hezbollah rockets killed two Israeli Arabs, including an infant, medics said.
The deeper push into Lebanon was approved by Israel's Security Cabinet. During the tense six-hour meeting, ministers received constant updates on the rising Israeli military casualties in Lebanon.
A senior government official said Thursday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to hold off on the offensive until the weekend. The campaign could begin earlier if Hezbollah launches a major attack on Israel, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the issue with reporters.
Cabinet minister Rafi Eitan confirmed the government's decision to wait.
"There are diplomatic considerations," he told Israel Radio, when asked about a planned delay. "There is still a chance that an international force will arrive in the area. We have no interest in being in south Lebanon. We have an interest in peace on our borders."
The government's running of the war was coming under growing criticism at home.
The army has failed to make a dent in Hezbollah's ability to fire rockets at Israel - the guerrillas fired 170 on Wednesday, for a war total of more than 3,500 - and critics said pushing deeper into Lebanon would not stop such attacks since longer-range rockets can still reach Israel.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported an angry exchange between Defense Minister Amir Peretz and his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz, in the Security Cabinet meeting. When Mofaz criticized the planned new offensive, Peretz reportedly shot back: "Where were you when Hezbollah built up this array (of weapons)?"
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called during the meeting, officials said, and Olmert told ministers after his half-hour conversation with Rice that the offensive would be accompanied by a new diplomatic push.
Under the army plan, Israeli forces would move to the Litani River, some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. At the moment, more than 10,000 troops are engaged in house-to-house battles against Hezbollah fighters in a strip less than half that size.
Even in the current war zone, Israeli troops have had trouble taking control of towns and villages. Security officials say the guerrillas' bunkers, well equipped with food, weapons and electricity, are a reason for Hezbollah's stamina. During lulls in the fighting, gunmen emerge and set up new ambushes for troops.
On Thursday, troops backed by tanks and armored vehicles took up positions on the outskirts of the Christian town of Marjayoun in south Lebanon, about six miles from the border. Troops met no resistance. Soldiers also moved to a nearby hill overlooking the Litani River Valley, witnesses said. Heavy battles were reported in south Lebanese villages across from Israel's Galilee panhandle, hard hit by rockets.
Israel hopes an expanded offensive will force Hezbollah guerrillas out of their strongholds across southern Lebanon. The offensive is expected to last a month and eliminate 70 percent to 80 percent of Hezbollah's short-range rocket launchers, but not its long-range launchers, senior military officials said.
However, Trade Minister Eli Yishai, who abstained in Wednesday's vote, said the assessment is too optimistic. "I think it will take a lot longer," he said.
Danny Yatom, a senior member of Peretz' Labor Party and a general in the reserves, said moving deeper into Lebanon was pointless.
"We are banging our head against the wall," he told Israel TV's Channel One. "And even if we reach the Litani, the Katyushas (rockets) won't stop.
So far, the fighting has killed 711 people on the Lebanese side and 120 Israelis, including 38 civilians and 82 soldiers.
Comment: How come we don't get a breakdown of the Lebanese casualties? How many of them were "terrorists", and how many of them were innocent civilians??
The economic price was also going up. Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson said the war has cost Israel some $1.6 billion so far. He said he will ask the government to cut $650 million from the 2006 state budget to help pay for the war. Israel's total budget for 2006 is $56 billion.
The prospect of a wider war would put tremendous pressure on the United Nations to rapidly agree on a cease-fire. The fighting has caused widespread destruction across southern Lebanon and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee or take refuge in bomb shelters.
However, France and the U.S. remained divided over a proposed truce resolution, particularly at whether Israeli troops would be able to stay in south Lebanon until they can hand over to a multinational force.
French President Jacques Chirac appealed for rapid agreement.
"The most immoral of solutions would be to accept the current situation and give up on an immediate cease-fire," he said.
In a televised speech Wednesday night, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief, rejected as "unfair and unjust" a draft U.N. resolution that would temporarily let Israeli troops remain in south Lebanon and take defensive action.
"It has given Israel more than it wanted and more than it was looking for," he said.
The Israeli government's decision came two days after Lebanon offered to send 15,000 soldiers to patrol the border region, a key Israeli demand intended to prevent future attacks on Israel. The current fighting began when Hezbollah fighters raided Israel July 12, killed three soldiers and captured two others.
In a major shift, Nasrallah said Hezbollah supported an army deployment, after a cease-fire is declared and Israel leaves.
Israeli officials remained skeptical of the Lebanese offer and were not convinced Lebanon's army would take concrete action to stop future Hezbollah attacks.
"It is important that the Lebanese army will be accompanied by an international force that will enable it to reach the south in an organized manner, and to leave the place clean of Hezbollah," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said.
Comment: Well, let's see: the last "cease-fire" was supposed to last 48 hours, and Israel broke it after only 12 hours...
by Professor Paola Manduca
August 7, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca
New and unkown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces
'direct energy' weapons, chemical and/or biological agents, in a macabre experiment of future warfare
By now there are countless reports, from hospitals, witnesses, armament experts and journalists that strongly suggest that in the present offensive of Israeli forces against Lebanon and Gaza 'new weapons' are being used.
New and strange symptoms are reported amongst the wounded and the dead.
Bodies with dead tissues and no apparent wounds; 'shrunken' corpses; civilians with heavy damage to lower limbs that require amputation, which is nevertheless followed by unstoppable necrosis and death; descriptions of extensive internal wounds with no trace of shrapnel, corpses blackened but not burnt, and others heavily wounded that did not bleed.
Many of these descriptions suggest the possibility that the new weapons used include 'direct energy' weapons, and chemical and/or biological agents, in a sort of macabre experiment of future warfare, where there is no respect for anything: International rules (from the Geneva Convention to the treaties on biological and chemical weapons), refugees, hospitals and the Red Cross, not to mention the people, their future, their children, the environment, which is poisoned through dissemination of Depleted Uranium and toxic substances released after oil and chemical depots are bombed.
Right now, the Lebanese and Palestinian people have many urgent and impellent problems, yet many people believe that these episodes cannot and must not pass ignored. In fact several appeals have been launched to scientists and experts with a view to investigating the issue.
With the intent of responding to such appeals, we have set up a team to investigate the testimonies, the images, and possibly the material evidence that delegations and NGOs will be able to bring from the affected areas. We want to offer support to the health institutions of Lebanon and Palestine, which ask constantly for help and external verification and monitoring, and we are examining all available materials in order to formulate hypotheses which can be verified or disproved.
We ask for the active participation of our (Italian) scientific institutions, and, following the request from medical personnel in the conflict area, we are requesting that the UN set up an international independent verification and investigation committee, with a view to facilitating entry into the conflict zone, as well as collecting material and testimonies directly in the field, and undertaking inquries and verifications concerning the various claims regarding these new kinds of weapons of mass destruction being used by Israeli forces in Lebanon. We request that such investigating teams be set up immediately, and that procedures be defined and implemented with a view to supporting future investigations. Of particular concern is the issue of how to collect and store samples from the different theatres, with a view to preserving important information regarding the various impacts of these weapons.
We ask that the international committee have access to all sources of information, that it be fully operational, while abiding by relevant investigative procedures, including cross-checking of information between different laboratories. The international committee is to report to the competent authorities, including the Human Rights tribunals and international courts, if appropriate..
As people and as scientists, we are offering our time and expertise in order to reach an understanding of the underlying facts, in the belief that a perspective of justice, equity and peace among people can be reached only with the respect of the rules defined up to now within the international community of nations. The issue pertains to the behavior of the parties in an armed conflict.
We ask that the respect of these rules be verified in the context of the present conflict.
We invite scientists to contribute to this effort by offering their specific competences. In particular we seek collaboration of toxicology experts, pharmacologists, anatomy pathologists, doctors with an expertise in trauma and burns, chemists.
They can reach the working group at the E-mail address: nuovearmi@gmail.com Paola Manduca, Professor of.Genetics, University of Genova, Italy
BEIRUT, Aug.9 (Xinhua) -- Israel suffered up to 30 casualties in a battle between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli force in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah announced here on Wednesday.
Hezbollah said its fighters had also launched seven rounds of anti-tank rockets against northern Israel on the same day.
The Israeli military confirmed 15 soldiers had been killed in the battle. But Doha-based al-Jazeera TV channel reported 11 Israelis had lost their lives.
The violent fighting occurred in Dibel, southern Lebanon, which caused the highest casualties in a single day since the Israel-Hezbollah violence erupted on July 12, when Hezbollah guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others during cross-border attacks.
Golani fighters joined by snipers hailing from states that fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan
Fighters of the 51st Battalion of Golani received aid from an unusual source Tuesday.
A group of snipers hailing from states that had fought in battles in Chechnya and Afghanistan the joined the battalion as it entered Bint Jbeil for the second time after it suffered a serious blow two weeks ago when eight of its soldiers, including the deputy battalion commander, were killed. The snipers were called up in an emergency draft to the war.
The snipers, between 35 and 40 years old, immigrated to Israel at the beginning of the 90s and in the past few years have been considered excellent fighters. They were active in the past in operational activity in the Gaza division, but at a certain point finished their service in the division once the impression was created that they were "trigger happy."
The snipers were stationed Tuesday at one of the entrance points to Lebanon alongside Golani fighters. They displayed high motivation. They are soon expected to join the operations of the brigade inside Lebanon.
Comment: Trigger happy in Gaza? Yes indeed, these are the guys who shoot Palestinian children in the head from a few hundred yards. These are the guys who, even for the brutal IDF, were too brutal. So what does the Israeli government do? Bring 'em back of course! There's nothing like a few hired mercenary psychopaths in the Israeli army to stir things up.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources (who made up the claim).
It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.
Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral.
Israel says many of the rockets being fired against its civilian and military targets are Iranian made, and that Hizbollah fighters taking on its forces trained in Iran. Washington also accuses Tehran of actively funding Hizbollah.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards are traditionally very close to fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Hizbollah and were deployed in south Lebanon in the 1980s.
Wednesday 09 August 2006, 22:56 Makka Time, 19:56 GMT
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, says his movement backs the Lebanese army's deployment to the south but that Washington is trying to impose Israeli demands on Lebanon through a draft UN resolution.
In a televised speech on Wednesday, Nasrallah said that a seven-point plan presented by the Lebanese government was the least the country should accept as part of a draft resolution to end the fighting.
He also gave a deeply negative assessment of the plan, saying "the least we can describe this [draft resolution] is as unfair and unjust.
"It has given Israel more than it wanted and more than it was looking for."
Nasrallah said Israeli attacks had not weakened its rocket capabilities and its fighters would turn south Lebanon into a "graveyard" for invading Israeli troops.
"The enemy has failed to weaken our rocket-launching capacity and our guerrillas are still fighting on the frontlines," he said.
Nasrallah further called on the Arab residents of Haifa to quit the Israeli city so as to avoid being hurt by Hezbollah rocket fire.
"I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call you to leave this city. I hope you do this. ... Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood."
By JOSEPH PANOSSIAN
Associated Press
Wed Aug 9, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned all Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa so the militant group could step up attacks without fear of shedding the blood of fellow Muslims.
Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, has been the frequent target of Hezbollah's rocket attacks.
"I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call on you to leave this city. I hope you do this. ... Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood," Nasrallah said.
The Shiite cleric also gave a deeply negative assessment of the proposal to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in his first comments on a draft U.N. cease-fire resolution.
"The least we can describe this (draft resolution) is as unfair and unjust. It has given Israel more than it wanted and more than it was looking for," he said in a televised speech. But in a policy shift, Nasrallah said the guerrilla organization was solidly behind a Lebanese government plan to deploy 15,000 soldiers in south Lebanon if a cease-fire is reached and Israel pulls out its forces.
"In the past we used to oppose or not agree on deployment of the army at the borders," the Hezbollah leader said. Now, he said, "we agree on deployment of the army."
Lebanon has been pushing to amend the U.S.-French proposal to require that Israeli withdraw its troops from the south immediately after a cease-fire is agreed. But U.S. envoy David Welch told Prime Minister Fuad Saniora that Israel had rejected the demand.
Nasrallah heaped criticism on the assistant U.S. secretary of state for visiting Beirut Wednesday as the Israel's Security Cabinet decided to expand the ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
"We will be waiting for you at every village, at every valley. Thousands of courageous holy warriors are waiting for you," he warned the Israelis.
Welch's visit to the Lebanese capital, he said, was designed "to terrify the government and the Lebanese to pressure them to accept old-new conditions."
He said the Americans were trying to undermine any attempt at a solution that takes into consideration Lebanese demands and he urged Beirut not to buckle under U.S. pressure.
"I call for political will and steadfastness," he said.
He also said the guerrillas would not falter, promising "We'll keep fighting to the last shot."
Nasrallah said his fighters already had won the conflict by putting up such a fierce fight through the monthlong Israeli onslaught that began after guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers July 12 in a cross-border mission.
"On the battlefield, we remain steadfast and that in itself is a victory for the resistance, and defeat for the enemy," he said.
There were bulldozers turning over the tons of rubble, a cloud of dust and smoke a mile high over the smashed slums of Beirut's southern suburbs and a tall man in a grey T-shirt - a Brooklyn taxi driver, no less - standing on the verge of tears, staring at what may well be the grave of his grandfather, his uncle and aunt. Half the family home had been torn away and the entire block of civilian apartments next door had been smashed to the ground a few hours earlier by the two missiles that exploded in Asaad al-Assad Street.
What do you say to a man whose family is buried under the rubble? The last corpse had been a man whose face appeared etched in dust before the muck was removed and he turned out to be paper-thin - so perfectly had the falling concrete crushed him. Mohamed al-Husseini had left New York for a holiday with his young wife and infant child - they were safe in the centre of Beirut - because he wanted to see his family home and talk to the relatives he grew up with.
"Just look what the Israelis have done," he said, not taking his eyes off the floors of the apartments, now scarcely an inch between them. "I am confused. You know? I don't know what to do. I could go back to my wife and kid but the rest of my family is in there. They used to live in the south and they survived there. Then they come to Beirut and die here."
Mohamed al-Husseini's grandfather, Mohamed Yassin, is - let us not say "was" yet - 75. His uncle is Hussein Yassin, his aunt is called Hila. By last night, nothing had been found of them. And of those in the building next door?
At least 17 civilians were killed, many of them children. A 12-year-old boy called Hussein Ahmed Mohsen lay dead in the mortuary of the Mount Lebanon Hospital, along with a woman who died just after being rescued when the missiles collapsed her home just after 7.30 on Monday night. Almost all the occupants of this doomed building were members of the Rmeiti family - again, they were from the dangerous south - and 15 of the dead were from the same village.
It was a scene to provoke fury. One Hizbollah "watcher" demanded my press card and lost interest when he read it. But a Lebanese youth in a yellow shirt at the scene was grabbed by the same man, hauled away by his collar and handed over to a clutch of beefy, tall individuals who forced him into a car. Everyone now searches for spies, for the men - and women - who are reputed to "paint" the apartment blocks of Beirut for Israel's missile technology to lock on to their targets.
A sad, grim meeting in the same Mount Lebanon Hospital suggested that the house had not been "fingered" by anyone. I found Ali Rmeiti, an employee at Beirut airport, covered in bloody wounds, his face distorted, shaking his head in disbelief. "I was on the balcony with my wife, Huda, and three of our children ... I heard nothing - nothing. I didn't realise what happened. It was black. Then came the second blast and we were all blown into the street with the balcony."
Huda Rmeiti is lying next to her husband on a drip-feed, covered with even more bloody wounds than Ali. I know - and they do not - that three of their four children were killed.
And why was the building struck? The Israelis have slaughtered hundreds of civilians, attacking convoys of refugees they themselves ordered to leave. But Saadieh, Ali Rmeiti's sister-in-law, has a story which matches those of two other survivors. Before the missiles exploded, she said, an Israeli drone flew over the Shiyyah district, a pilotless reconnaissance aircraft which sends live pictures back to Tel Aviv. "Um Kamel", as the Lebanese call them, whined around for a time and then, without warning, someone drove down Assaad al-Assad street on a motorcycle and fired into the sky with a rifle opposite the Rmeiti home.
Then he left, some youth who wanted to prove his foolish manhood. You can't destroy drones with a rifle, as any Hizbollah member knows. But not long afterwards, the two missiles came streaking down on the homes of the innocent.
As Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip passes the one month milestone, Defence for Children International - Palestine Section (DCI/PS) would like to draw attention to the 31 Palestinian children whose deaths expose anew the degradation of the principles of international humanitarian law. The death of these children implicates both the parties to the conflict as well as those States not directly involved, but who, as third parties, are legally bound to enforce these principles.
Recalling that the Gaza Strip has been under belligerent occupation by Israel since 1967, and that it remains under occupation despite the 12 September 2005 'disengagement' of Israeli troops, the attacks by both the Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups in the past month have been characterized by their lack of respect for the customary international law principle of distinction. This principle requires combatants at all times to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects, and military objectives. The Israeli tactics in Gaza have also been condemned as disproportionate by the EU and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in that the incidental loss of Palestinian lives, injury of Palestinians and damage to Palestinian civilian infrastructure has been excessive in relation to the military advantage understood to be gained by Israel . Israeli air, sea and ground troops have opened fire in civilian areas in the dense population centers of Gaza cities and refugee camps, including near hospitals, schools, and in crowded residential housing complexes on numerous occasions.
The following children have been killed by Israeli military actions in Gaza since 26 June 2006:
1. Anwar Isma'el Atallah, 12 years old
2. Saleh Sleman Al Jemasi, 16 years old
3. Ruwan Fareed Hajjaj, 5 years old
4. Khalid Nidal Abed Al Karim Wahbeh, 1 year old
5. Mahfouth Farid Nasseer, 15 years old
6. Ahmad Ghaleb Abu Amshah, 16 years old
7. Ahmed Fathi Odah Shabat, 16 years old
8. Waleed Mahmoud Al Zinati, 12 years old
9. Salah Adeen Hammad Abu Maktuma, 17 years old
10. Ibrahim Ali Khatoush, 15 years old
11. Mahmoud Muhammad Al Asar, 15 years old
12. Ibrahim Ali Al Nabaheen, 15 years old
13. Ahmad Abdil Mina'm Abu Hajaj, 16 years old
14. Nasrallah Nabil Abu Selmieh, 5 years old
15. Aya Nabil Abu Selmieh, 7 years old
16. Iman Nabil Abu Selmieh, 11 years old
17. Yahya Nabil Abu Selmieh, 9 years old
18. Huda Nabil Abu Selmieh, 13 years old
19. Basma Nabil Abu Selmieh, 15 years old
20. Sumaia Nabil Abu Selmieh, 16 years old
21. Raji Omar Deif Alla, 16 years old
22. Muhanna Sa'ed Mesleh, 16 years old
23. Ahmad Rawhee Abdo, 13 years old
24. Ali Kamil Al Najar, 13 years old
25. Fadwa Faisel al 'Urouqi, 13 years old
26. Mohammad Awad Muhra, 17 years old
27. Khitam Muhammad Tayeh, 11 years old
28. Nadee Habib Al Ataar, 11 years old
29. Saleh Ibrahim Nasser, 13 years old
30. Ashraf Abdullah Awad Abu Thaher, 14 years old
31. Bara' Naser Habib, 2 years old
DCI/PS recalls that one of the predominant reasons for restrictions enshrined in the ius in bello (the law governing the conduct of warfare, or international humanitarian law) is to regulate combatant behavior such that acts will not be taken which are so grave as to prevent the return to peace. At a time when international political actors are calling for a return to the logic of 'durable solutions' to stop the current escalation in violence, DCI/PS asserts that nations at war remember no injuries as acutely as they remember the death of their children. Thus, DCI/PS believes that any effective solutions to the current crisis and the crisis of the future must include a reiterated commitment to the principles of international humanitarian law, and particularly those principles relating to the protection of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure.
So much for Ehud Olmert's "humanitarian corridors". Two weeks after the Israeli Prime Minister's comforting assertion - which no one in Lebanon believed - the Israeli air force has blown up the last bridge across the Litani river, in effect ending all humanitarian convoys between Beirut and southern Lebanon. Requests from humanitarian organisations for clearance from the Israelis are now being refused. Even the Red Cross admits there is now, in effect, a blockade on a vast area along the Lebanese border where thousands of civilians are still cowering in their homes.
David Shearer, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Lebanon, has pleaded with the Israelis to end their attacks against the country's infrastructure and end all activities which threaten the transport of humanitarian aid to the displaced. But convoys since have been cancelled or forced to make long detours across the country and along the edge of the Lebanese-Syrian border. Truck drivers are frightened to risk their lives under Israeli air attack. I myself was on a Red Cross field trip from Qlaya to Jezzine when, close to the village of Arab Selim, an Israeli jet dropped a bomb on the road 80 metres in front of us. On the Litani river, north of Tyre, the main road bridge had been blasted away but the Lebanese army had constructed a temporary bridge over the water to the west. Now that, too, has been ripped to pieces by Israeli bombs.
Mr Shearer warned of a "serious humanitarian crisis" if convoys were not allowed to move south. A Red Cross spokesman, Richard Huguenin, said his organisation had been denied permission by the Israelis to move humanitarian aid to the border. Without guarantees of safe passage, the organisation cannot leave Tyre for dozens of villages whose inhabitants are trapped. "At night, we ask for permission and in the morning we get either a red light or a green light, and for the past 48 hours it has been red," he said.
A Greek ship carrying Red Cross supplies was supposed to have docked in Tyre on Monday, but was refused permission to land and diverted to Sidon, north of the Litani. The French are still bringing boatloads of supplies into Beirut, accompanied - wisely, it has to be said - by a French warship equipped with anti-aircraft missiles.
Nine anti-war protesters who have been occupying the Derry (N. Ireland) offices of the defence company, Raytheon have been arrested by police.
They have been taken to police stations in the city and in Coleraine.
The Derry Anti-War Coalition had been throwing computer equipment and documents out of first floor windows.
The protesters claimed "weapons manufactured by Raytheon were being used by Israel to bomb Lebanon".
The company is a leading weapons manufacturer, although it has said its Derry operation is involved in software for air traffic control systems.
The facility was previously occupied by people demonstrating against the use of Raytheon weapons in Iraq.
Raytheon, a US firm, makes the Patriot, Tomahawk, Cruise and Sidewinder missiles.
Nine people occupied the offices on Wednesday morning, with about 20 protesting outside with placards.
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday Venezuela would likely sever relations with Israel in protest over Israel's military campaign against Lebanon.
Chavez, a harsh critic of the United States who frequently expresses sympathy for the Palestine people, announced last week he had ordered the withdrawal of Venezuela's ambassador in Israel.
Israel withdrew its chief diplomat in Caracas in response.
"We have withdrawn our diplomatic representation from the state of Israel and they have also withdrawn their ambassador," Chavez said during an evening speech. "The most likely next step will be for us to break diplomatic relations, because I have no interest in maintaining diplomatic relations, or offices, or businesses, or anything with a state like Israel."
Chavez has openly criticized Israeli incursions into Gaza and Lebanon, and has blamed the Middle East conflict on an "Israeli elite" and U.S. influence in the region.
THE rapid spread of Western business practices in Japan has caused widespread mental illness and is responsible for a deepening demographic crisis, government officials say.
Statistics indicate that 60 per cent of workers suffer from "high anxiety" and that 65 per cent of companies report soaring levels of mental illness.
Meanwhile, the size of the Japanese population is shrinking, and for the first time the Government has acknowledged that the falling birth rate is linked to job-related factors. Directors of the Japanese Mental Health Institute blame the same factors for rising levels of depression among workers and the country's suicide rate, which remains the highest among rich nations.
Merit-based pay and promotion are of particular concern because they are at odds with the traditional system, built on seniority, that has reigned supreme in corporate Japan. In the harsh new atmosphere of cut-throat rivalry between workers, the Institute for Population and Social Security argues, young people do not feel financially stable enough to start families.
The trend is put down to Japanese companies' attempts to globalise by adopting working practices more closely in line with US and British models. Larger numbers of temporary staff, a greater willingness to sack people and greater pay disparities are the downside.
A spokesman for the Mental Health Institute said that the emphasis on individual performance was driving Japanese workers - particularly those in their thirties - to mental turmoil. "People tend to be individualised under the new working patterns," he said. "When people worked in teams they were happier."
The Bush administration has drafted changes to the War Crimes Act that would protect US policymakers from possible retrospective criminal charges for authorising humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.
The Bush administration has drafted changes to the War Crimes Act that would protect US policymakers from possible retrospective criminal charges for authorising humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.
The move marks the administration's latest effort to deal with how the US should treat people taken into custody in President George Bush's campaign against terror.
At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA and the degree to which harsh tactics such as waterboarding were authorised by administration officials. A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, applies to the military.
The Washington Post first reported on the War Crimes Act amendments yesterday.
One section of the draft would outlaw torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, but it does not contain prohibitions from Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions against "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment".
A copy of the section of the draft was obtained by The Associated Press.
Another section would apply the legislation retrospectively, according to two lawyers who have seen the contents of the section.
One of them said the draft was in the revision stage, but the administration seems intent on pushing forward the draft's major points in congress after it returns from its recess in early September.
"I think what this bill can do is in effect immunise past crimes. That's why it's so dangerous," said a third lawyer, Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
Fidell said the initiative was "not just protection of political appointees, but also CIA personnel who led interrogations".
Interrogation practices "follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration", said a fourth lawyer, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely. "The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act."
The administration argues that Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions includes vague terms that are susceptible to different interpretations. The refurbished War Crimes Act is supposed to rectify that.
Extreme interrogation practices have been a flashpoint for criticism of the administration.
When interrogators engage in waterboarding, a prisoner is strapped to a plank and dunked in water until he fears he is drowning.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a former military lawyer, said congress "is aware of the dilemma we face, how to make sure the CIA and others are not unfairly prosecuted".
He said that at the same time, however, that congress "will not allow political appointees to waive the law".
Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA's executive director, said: "President Bush is looking to limit the War Crimes Act through legislation" now that the supreme court had embraced Article Three of the Geneva Conventions.
In June, the court ruled that Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals broke Common Article Three.
BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@MiamiHerald.com
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
The Rapture Index -- a popular evangelical Christian Web posting that calculates a global rise in natural disasters, war and inflation -- bills itself as "a Dow Jones industrial average of end-time activity.''
An index below 85 signifies a week of ''slow prophetic activity.'' Anything above 145 signals the apocalypse is near.
The Rapture Index this week: 158. The spike reflects many U.S. evangelicals' view that growing conflict in the Middle East signals the start of a global struggle leading to Christ's return.
''We believe 100 percent what the Scripture has to say about this,'' said Jack Heintz, a South Florida businessman and president of the Christian group Peace for Israel, who recruited 23 evangelical Christians to join a July telephone fundraising event for Israel. "There's going to be a total battle, the battle of Armageddon, and I believe that's very close to happening.''
Some have ratcheted up support for Israel in its current battle in Lebanon with Hezbollah out of belief that a raging war -- perhaps even a nuclear confrontation -- marks a prelude to the apocalypse. Christian groups are sending millions of dollars to Israeli communities and shelters, hosting pro-Israel rallies and urging U.S. politicians to back Israeli military action.
Evangelicals have issued dire warnings about a conflagration in the Middle East for decades, said Clyde Wilcox, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who studies evangelicals and politics. Many evangelicals regard such calls with skepticism, he said.
''Every time there's been a war in the Middle East, this comes up,'' Wilcox said. "Most evangelicals would not interpret this as saying that Christ is coming back in the next couple of years.''
RAISED INTEREST
Since the current crisis erupted July 12, interest in the Rapture Index has mushroomed, said Todd Strandberg, a Christian from Nebraska who updates the index on his website, raptureready.com. The site had a quarter-million unique visitors in July, up from 180,000 the previous month, Strandberg said.
''The Scripture bears witness to these events being part of the end-times prophecy,'' said Gary Cristofaro, pastor of First Assembly of God in Melbourne. "Israel is so important in God's eyes.''
Cristofaro's church is one of a handful of Florida congregations that tithes a monthly donation to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a practice that stems from a belief that Israel must control the Palestinian territories in order to fulfill biblical prophecy. The congregation has donated more than $100,000 to support Israeli settlements in the past decade, Cristofaro said. On Saturday, church members plan to hold a ''Bless Israel'' fundraising event for 2,000 people.
Evangelicals' financial support for Israel has increasingly been supplemented by political action, Christian and Jewish leaders say.
At a July 18-19 pro-Israel rally in Washington, Christians from Florida and other states lobbied politicians to back Israel's military campaign in Lebanon. The Rev. John Hagee, pastor of a mega-church in San Antonio and founder of Christians United for Israel, organized the convention in hopes of launching a pro-Israel political network in 50 states.
Hagee has issued dire predictions about instability in the region leading to apocalypse. In his 2006 book Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World, Hagee warns: "The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty. The war of Ezekiel 38-39 could begin before this book gets published.''
Other high-profile Christian leaders have espoused similar views. In a July 22 commentary, the Rev. Jerry Falwell predicted present-day conflict in the Middle East will ''serve as a prelude or forerunner to the future Battle of Armageddon and the glorious return of Jesus Christ.'' Pat Robertson has shied away from declaring Armageddon but has warned ''God himself'' will fight for Israel.
WARY OF SOME EFFORTS
While a number of Jewish leaders have courted evangelicals' support for the Jewish homeland, others are troubled by its theological underpinnings, said Rabbi James Rudin, senior interreligious advisor at the America Jewish Committee in New York. Jewish leaders have long been wary of evangelicals' effort to convert Jews to Christianity through messianic groups such as Jews for Jesus and the Chosen People Ministries.
''Is the motivation to stand up for Israel, or convert the Jewish people and bring on the end of days?'' said Rabbi Solomon Schiff, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami.
Other Jewish leaders say evangelicals have toned down the religious aspects of their pro-Israel mission in recent years, particularly their insistence that Jews convert.
Avi Mizrachi, executive director of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, said he was overwhelmed by fervor for Israel at the Washington rally for Christians United for Israel.
''I saw more Israeli flags there than on Israeli independence day,'' he said. 'In the past, there was concern about them trying to convert us. It doesn't even come up anymore.''
Christian Zionism -- the belief that Israel will set the stage for prophetic events such as the rise of the Antichrist, the Battle of Armageddon and Christ's 1,000-year reign -- has steadily gained popularity since the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s and '80s, said Timothy Weber, author of On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend.
In the most gruesome scenario, evangelicals envision a global battle breaking out when a 200-million-man army invades from the east and Jesus returns to take on the Antichrist. Jews and other non-Christians will face conversion or death.
In the past, some Christians predicted the armies would come from Russia or China, and today, many foresee an Islamic army led by Iran, Weber said.
Hagee and others caution that while Christians may have stepped up preparations for the end times, most believe the fate of the world remains in God's hands.
''No Christian or groups of Christians can do anything to hasten the return of Jesus Christ,'' Hagee said.
With the Bush administration refusing to hold direct talks with Syria, Col. David Hunt, military analyst for Fox News, appeared on Hannity & Colmes last night to offer some advice to the president: "I think we can talk to them when we line them up and kill them." Stating that "the only reason to talk to some of these guys is to just do that," Hunt went on to argue that America should "absolutely, 100 percent" seek regime change in both Syria and Iran if they're "not going to cooperate."
Watch it:
Strangely, after his tirade, Hunt acknowledged that in some cases, "we have to directly talk to these guys to find out what they want."
Full transcript:
HANNITY: How naive is this notion - the New York Times editorial today - that the idea that we can talk to Syria, talk to these terrorist regimes. Can you talk to Ahmadinejad? Can you talk to an Assad? Can you talk to Usama bin Laden? Can you get anywhere? Is that an...
HUNT: I think we can talk to them when we line them up and kill them. I don't think - the only reason to talk to some of these guys is to just do that. However, we're not going to wipe out, as we talked offline, the entire country, but we have to directly talk to these guys to find out what they want. If they're not going to cooperate, yes, they have to go.
MINNEAPOLIS - Three Egyptian students who were being sought for failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University were taken into custody Wednesday, more than a week after they arrived in the United States.
One student was arrested in Minnesota, and two others surrendered to authorities in New Jersey. They were among 11 students being sought by law enforcement after they failed to attend a monthlong program on the English language and U.S. history and culture in Bozeman, Mont., the FBI said.
Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, was taken into custody in Minneapolis on an immigration violation. Two other students - Mohamed Ragab Mohamed Abd Alla and Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa Abdou, both 22 - surrendered to police in Manville, N.J., after hearing media reports that they were wanted, FBI spokesman Steven Siegal said.
Eight students remain at large. They arrived in New York on July 29 as part of a group of 17 students. Six students reported to Bozeman on time.
The missing students pose no terrorism threat, the FBI said.
Hamvi Kassab, a Minneapolis grocer who said he is El-Dessouki's uncle, told television station KSTP that his nephew was in town to visit relatives and to inquire about attending the University of Minnesota.
Montana State repeatedly tried to contact the missing students. When that failed, the school notified
Homeland Security officials and registered the Egyptians as "no-shows" in the system developed after the Sept. 11 attacks to track foreign students.
The government tightened the student visa process after the attacks. One of the hijackers involved in the attacks had arrived in the U.S. with a student visa, and immigration officials approved student visas for two other hijackers after they entered the country. A fourth attended flight training school without a student visa.
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is often accused of an obsession with secrecy, and critics say the case of the Justice Department versus Connecticut librarians proves their point.
Documents once kept secret in a now closed terrorism inquiry reveal that government lawyers kept secret a newspaper article and several references to Supreme Court opinions that undercut government arguments for secrecy.
The documents were placed on the public record Thursday on orders from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Ann Beeson says the documents show the government engaging in "a clear case of overcensoring" during the yearlong dispute on the FBI's request for subscriber and billing information from a library computer used in a 45-minute span on Feb. 15, 2005.
Four librarians resisted the FBI directive. They were put under a gag order that prohibited them from even acknowledging the existence of the demand for information, which came in the form of a national security letter rather than a subpoena signed by a judge. Such a letter allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without a judge's approval or a grand jury subpoena.
The FBI said the government had sound legal reasons for the secrecy and that under other circumstances the librarians' refusal to cooperate could have increased the danger of terrorists succeeding.
The newly released records showed that the government deleted references in a court decision to the fact that The New York Times had already ascertained and published the name of the library group challenging the FBI. The government had kept a copy of the Times article under seal in the case.
Another document was a Supreme Court opinion written in October 2005 in which Ginsburg pointed out that the library group already had been identified publicly. "That cat was inadvertently let out of the bag," she wrote. The government kept the quote secret.
Also among the fresh disclosures was a previously excised section of an opinion by U.S. District Judge Janet Hall in Connecticut rejecting the government's demand for secrecy about the name of the plaintiff, the Library Connection.
Describing how irrelevant it was to national security that the name of the group would get out publicly, Hall had written that "the universe of people who could be the subject of this investigation would likely be in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands."
The Library Connection, which fought the government's request for information, is a network of 26 Connecticut public and private libraries serving more than 288,000 library cardholders, along with others who do not hold cards.
Ginsburg's action opens the way for release of more material from the case by the federal court in Connecticut and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
INDIANAPOLIS - A spate of violence in Indianapolis that has left 13 people dead in a week prompted authorities to increase security at the Indiana State Fair as the 12-day event got under way Wednesday.
One of the shootings occurred six blocks from the fairgrounds.
About 300 officers or security guards will be posted at the fair each day, including about 130 state troopers, 40 state conservation officers, and some 50 private security guards, said fair spokesman Andy Klotz. Police bike patrols also are helping.
The fair, which averages about 40,000 to 120,000 people daily depending on the day and weather, has been incident-free over the years, he said.
The extra security is part of the city's response to the slayings, including stepped-up police patrols and extending officers' shifts by two hours, said Indianapolis Police Department spokesman Maj. Lloyd Crowe.
Nan Johnson, who lives in Lebanon just northwest of Indianapolis, went to the fair with her sister and three nieces. She said she's been attending for years and has never felt unsafe - but is uneasy about the neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds.
"Once you're on the grounds you're fine, but it's not in a real safe neighborhood. I wouldn't be out here at nighttime," she said, gesturing to the gas station where she had stopped.
Even before the rash of killings stunned the city of about 863,000, Indiana's capital already was on track for its bloodiest year since 1998, when 162 people died. So far this year, 94 people have been slain in Indianapolis.
City leaders announced a plan Wednesday to relieve the strain on the Marion County Jail by spending about $2.2 million this year to create a night court. The jail recently released hundreds of inmates to ease crowding, a situation Prosecutor Carl Brizzi blamed for the spike in crime.
Dozens of Indianapolis residents joined a prayer vigil Wednesday evening, visiting neighborhoods caught up in the violence.
WASHINGTON - Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.
While the country is preparing to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and shocked the world, 95 percent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the day of the attacks, according to Wednesday's edition of the newspaper.
But when asked what year, 30 percent could not give a correct answer.
Of that group, six percent gave an earlier year, eight percent gave a later year, and 16 percent admitted they had no idea whatsoever.
This memory black hole is essentially the problem of the older crowd: 48 percent of those who did not know were between the ages of 55 and 64, and 47 percent were older than 65, according to the poll.
The Post telephone survey was carried out July 21-24 among 1,002 randomly selected adults. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
Comment: We have it from a reliable source that the question answer session for the 16% that did not know went as follows:
Questioner: In what year did the September 11th 2001 attacks occur?
Pollster: Don't know, gimme a clue
Questioner: In what year did the September 11th 2001 attacks occur?
Pollster: Don't know, gimme a clue
Questioner: In what year did the September 11th 2001 attacks occur?
Pollster: Don't know, gimme a clue
Questioner: In what year did the September 11th 2001 attacks occur?
Pollster: Don't know, gimme a clue
Questioner: In what year did the September 11th 2001 attacks occur?
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s publishing arm has released a book that says President Bush organized New York's Sept. 11 attacks.
The decision by the 160-year-old Westminster John Knox Press, the trade and academic publishing imprint of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., to attribute the attacks on the World Trade Center brings into the U.S. religious mainstream a conspiracy theory long held by the world's jihadists.
In 'Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action,' author David Ray Griffin calls the United States the world's 'chief embodiment of demonic power, says he initially scoffed at 9/11 conspiracy theories.
But after investigating he concluded that the Twin Towers were brought down by controlled demolition, military personnel were given stand-down orders not to intercept hijacked flights and the 9/11 Commission, ostensibly created to uncover the truth behind the events of 9/11, 'simply ignored evidence' that the administration was involved in the attacks.
Griffin further asserts that such events such as that of 9/11 are part of a long history of 'false-flag attacks,' attacks orchestrated by governments against their own people to garner popular support for military action.
Griffin is a professor at California's Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, and a codirector of the Center for Process Studies.
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
Wed Aug 9, 2006
WASHINGTON - Tourists won't be climbing back up to the Statue of Liberty's crown. That's the word from the National Park Service to lawmakers, some of whom have been fighting to reopen the crown following the 2001 terror attacks.
The crown has been closed out of concerns that fire and terrorism hazards for the cramped spiral staircase could not be overcome.
"For the better part of three years now, they've been dancing around this issue," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who has sought to force the National Park Service to reopen the crown.
"This is the first time they've said they're not moving forward, they're essentially done looking at it," said Weiner. He called the decision "the final victory of the terrorists on Sept. 11."
In a letter to Weiner dated Aug. 4, outgoing Park Service Director Fran Mainella wrote that "the current access patterns reflect a responsible management strategy in the best interests of all our visitors."
Another congressman, who oversees the House subcommittee on national parks, said he may hold hearings to re-examine the issue and the agency's decision.
"While I respect the Park Service's justified concern for public safety, I am disappointed with their apparent decision to stop trying," said Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. "Americans have a right to hear something better from their National Park Service than the implied message of this letter, which is 'never.'"
Mainella said that even before 2001, the park service had been re-evaluating public safety at the statue, particularly concerns about fire safety on the 168-step ascent from the base to the crown. She said the crown was originally designed for maintenance workers, not the public.
The statue, which sits on 12-acre Liberty Island in New York Harbor, was shut down after Sept. 11, 2001. After spending $20 million on security and safety improvements, the government reopened the statue in 2004, but only up to the top of the pedestal, or Lady Liberty's toes.
The new security measures included a bomb detection device that blows air into clothing and then checks for particles of explosives residue. Bomb-sniffing dogs also have been seen at the site.
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886 and was designated a national monument in 1924. It was restored for its centennial on July 4, 1986. Its torch has been closed since 1916.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Should the United States and Israel be on high alert? Two weeks from today, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has implied that he will give his final answer to the U.S. about his country's nuclear program by August 22nd.
Now, August 22nd also has great significance on the Islamic calendar. It's a day when Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad road a winged horse, first to Jerusalem and then to Heaven and back.
So is it possible that Iran will flex its nuclear muscles on that date? Joining us now is FOX News military analyst Colonel David Hunt.
And, Colonel Hunt, do you place any significance on that date? Do we believe that Iran will take action based on the date, August 22nd?
COL. DAVID HUNT, FOX NEWS MILITARY ANALYST: I think Iran, Alan, has taken action for years. They've taken it with Hezbollah against Israel, they've taken it against us everyday. They've killed Americans in Iraq. So, yes, I take everything that wing nut says very seriously, whether it's the 22nd - but we've been at this World War III for a long, long time. It's time that the rest of us woke up. So high alert, I'm afraid, is going to be here for a while, and this war we're in with terrorists, like the nation - like Iran, is here to stay.
COLMES: I keep hearing this inflamed rhetoric, like World War III. When you say that, it implies as though the United States somehow has to be involved in a ground or air war when you say World War III. Are you suggesting that the United States is just weeks or months away from being a participant in a world war?
HUNT: I think we have been. I'm not talking about attacking all the nations of the world, Al. I am saying this: The War on Terror is a world war. It involves nations all other the world, like Syria, and Iran. It involves the Russian mafia, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah. It's a different type of war. It doesn't mean we have to invade all these countries. We've got a lot more killing of bad guys to do and a lot more recognition of what this about, holy war, in countries sponsoring terrorism.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Hey, Colonel, welcome back to the program. It's amazing to me how many people don't understand the nature of Islamic fascism and how widespread this movement is and how they want to destroy Israel, Europe and the United States.
The Iranians we now discovered today - from the capture of one of the people responsible for the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers, Iranian trained - we now know Iran is supplying the weaponry to Hezbollah. So this really - they're using Hezbollah as a proxy for them to wage their own war, isn't that true?
HUNT: Yes, and they're also running Hamas. They're the ones - there's $100 million a year going into Hezbollah out of Iran. Iran, as we know, are killing American soldiers in Iraq, and they're controlling a militia. They're controlling Muqtada al-Sadr there. So they have very bad guys, and they're doing it by proxy. You're right, Hezbollah is just one of their main armies, and they're well trained and well financed.
HANNITY: How naive is this notion - The New York Times editorial today - that the idea that we can talk to Syria, talk to these terrorist regimes. Can you talk to Ahmadinejad? Can you talk to an Assad? Can you talk to Usama bin Laden? Can you get anywhere? Is that an...
HUNT: I think we can talk to them when we line them up and kill them. The only reason to talk to some of these guys is to just do that. However, we're not going to wipe out, as we talked offline, the entire country, but we have to directly talk to these guys to find out what they want. If they're not going to cooperate, yes, they have to go.
HANNITY: Regime change.
HUNT: Absolutely, 100 percent.
HANNITY: All right, thanks. Good to see you, Colonel.
COLMES: All right, Colonel, we thank you very much, Colonel.
While the Middle East smoulders, commentators of an apocalyptic bent are lining up for a date with Armageddon.
Better cancel those holidays. We now have a date for Armageddon, and it's a week on Tuesday - August 22.
This information comes from no lesser source than the Wall Street Journal, where Bernard Lewis, President Bush's favourite historian, provides the details.
"In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity," the professor writes, "there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time - Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long-awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined.
"Mr Ahmadinejad [the Iranian president] and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the US about nuclear development by August 22. This was at first reported as 'by the end of August', but Mr Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise."
Lewis continues: "What is the significance of August 22? This year, August 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to 'the farthest mosque', usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (cf, Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world."
This sort of quasi-religious scaremongering always finds a receptive audience in the United States, especially among Christians of the jihadist persuasion. At 90 years old, Professor Lewis may have completely lost his marbles, but he is still feted by the White House (vice-president Dick Cheney was guest of honour at his birthday party in April), and the Wall Street Journal describes him as "a sage". He is credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilisations" back in 1990 and now seems intent on making it a reality.
Nevertheless, Prof Lewis does manage to spot a few drawbacks in his alleged Iranian attempt to obliterate Israel. "An attack that wipes out Israel would almost certainly wipe out the Palestinians too," he writes.
This "might well be of concern to the Palestinians", he says, "but not apparently to their fanatical champions in the Iranian government." (He seems to be assuming here that Iran already has a fully primed nuclear arsenal, which is plainly not the case, despite what many Americans imagine.)
He then suddenly demolishes his own argument with this caveat: "It is far from certain that Mr Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for August 22."
So why, exactly, did the Iranians choose August 22 as the date for giving their answer to the US about nuclear development? Probably for bureaucratic convenience. When they promised a reply "by the end of August", they didn't actually use the word "August", but the Iranian equivalent. If you look up the Persian calendar, you'll see that August 22 just happens to be the end of the month known as Mordad.
I don't suppose this will discourage the neocons from continuing to write such loopy, prophetic nonsense. Here's another of them, Michael Ledeen, formerly a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Iraq-Niger yellowcake affair, predicting an Iranian nuclear test by November 5:
"The Iranians believe they now have all the necessary components for a nuclear bomb. The only question is how long it will take them to assemble and test it. Khamenei had hoped to be able to test an atomic bomb by the third week in October, but his scientific advisers recently told him they could not make that deadline. They are now aiming for November 4 or 5, the anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran during the revolution.
"There is another November date our leaders should take seriously: the 25th, the anniversary of the disappearance of the twelfth imam, and thus the most significant date in the Shiite calendar. Reports from Tehran suggest that the mullahs would like to celebrate that anniversary with a big-time terrorist attack against America."
Utter tosh. Don't believe a word of it. Ledeen was not talking about this coming November, but November 2003. His original article is here.
WASHINGTON - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States of harboring imperial ambitions and demanded the administration change its behavior, in an interview with a US television network.
The Americans "want to build an empire," said Ahmadinejad, according to excerpts of the interview published by the CBS network on its website Wednesday.
"And they don't want to live side-by-side in peace with other nations. The American government, sir, it is very clear to me they have to change their behavior and everything will be resolved," said Ahmadinejad.
The interview, which was to be broadcast in full on Sunday on the "60 minutes" program, coincides with rising tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's disputed nuclear program and Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The hardline Iranian president said the administration of
President George W. Bush had adopted a condescending attitude towards Iran over its nuclear program and criticized a UN Security Council resolution requiring Tehran suspend uranium enrichment activities or face the prospect of sanctions.
"Well, please look at the makeup of the American administration, the behavior of the American administration. See how they talk down to my nation. And this recent resolution passed about the nuclear issue, look at the wording."
The July 31 resolution was pushed through after Iran ignored a previous non-binding deadline and failed to respond to an international offer of a package of incentives in exchange for a moratorium on nuclear fuel work.
Ahmadinejad said Iran was still reviewing the package of incentives.
Western powers had "presented us with a package which we are studying right now," the president said. "We even gave them a date for our response. Ignoring that, they passed a resolution."
Ahmadinejad also expressed disappointment that the US administration had not responded to a letter he sent to Bush in May, which Tehran had presented as an important diplomatic initiative.
"Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective," he said.
The Bush administration, however, dismissed the 18-page letter as little more than a rambling philosophical treatise that offered nothing new on the nuclear crisis.
Ahmadinejad scoffed at Bush for refusing his "invitation" in the form of his letter.
"We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate," he said.
"You see that his approval rating is dropping every day. Hatred vis-a-vis the president is increasing every day around the world."
By QAIS AL-BASHIR
Associated Press
August 10, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber detonated a belt of explosives near a highly revered Shiite shrine in southern
Iraq Thursday, killing at least 30 people and injuring 60, an official said.
The bomber blew himself up while being patted down by policemen near the Imam Ali mosque in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said Dr. Munthir al-Ithari, the head of the city's health directorate.
He said 22 of the 30 dead were men, including five policemen. The Shiite Endowment, which takes care of Shiite shrines in Iraq, confirmed the casualty toll and condemned the attack.
The bombing occurred at about 10:30 a.m. in a market packed with pilgrims and shoppers in front of the Imam Ali mosque, which contains the tomb of Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali. It is one of the world's most sacred shrines for Shiites, the minority sect of Islam.
Shakir Obeid Hassan, who was injured in the blast, said the suicide bomber was stopped at the last police checkpoint before the shrine, which was untouched, though all the stores facing the shrine were damaged, he said.
"Before I reached the checkpoint, only a few (feet) from the shrine, I heard a huge explosion. Something hit me on the head and I fell. I couldn't hear for a while but I saw bodies and human flesh everywhere," Hassan, 51, said from his hospital bed.
The Grand Market, directly in front of the shrine's entrance, is a wide road with shops lining both sides selling perfumes, jewelry, clothes and religious souvenirs, including rings with pictures of Ali and his son Hussein.
The aftermath of the bombing was a scene of carnage. Indistinguishable debris, boxes of perfume bottles, sandals and worry beads littered the bloodied street. Volunteers picked up human remains and washed away the thick pools of blood.
Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, is a major pilgrim destination for Shiites around the world, especially from neighboring Iran, which is predominantly Shiite like Iraq.
Najaf was the scene of heavy fighting in 2004 between U.S. forces and the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, until the Shiite clerical hierarchy convinced the militiamen to give up.
Since then the city - considered the world center of Shiite theology - had been tightly controlled by police and Shiite guards, including former militiamen. The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini lived for years in exile in Najaf and Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, studied there.
Generations of tensions between Shiites and Sunnis turned into bloodshed after a Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. Extremists among both communities have been embroiled in tit-for-tat attacks since then, fueling fears that Iraq was on the verge of civil war.
A bombing near another Shiite shrine in Kufa, the twin city of Najaf, on July 18 killed 53 people. Thursday's explosions is the first time that an attack has taken place near the Imam Ali shrine.
The Shiite Endowment urged people not to be incited by "this terrorist and criminal attack." The attack shows "blind hatred and insistence on blasphemy," the endowment said in a statement, and called on people "to remain united" to thwart sectarianism.
Sectarian clashes have largely occurred in the Baghdad area, where about 1,500 violent deaths were reported last month, a dramatic rise from about 1,000 deaths in January. Most of the deaths were believed to be the result of sectarian feuding.
The bloodshed has dashed U.S. hopes for an early drawdown in the 127,000-member U.S. military force here. Instead, the U.S. military is rushing about 12,000 American and Iraqi soldiers to Baghdad.
Iraq's National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie announced Thursday that Iraqi police arrested 20 al-Qaida members and killed one around the country in the past few days.
He said five top al-Qaida terrorists were arrested in Baghdad and one was killed. He announced their names and showed photos of five.
In scattered violence, 11 people were killed Thursday, including three policemen in a gunfight between Interior Ministry forces and insurgents in Baghdad. Five bodies were also found Thursday.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was to chair an emergency security meeting Thursday after the discovery of a foiled bomb plot sparked a major terror alert in Britain, the ministry said.
French airline Air France said it had cancelled its three morning flights from Paris to London due to over-saturation at London Heathrow airport and was to review the situation at 1200 GMT.
Six British-bound flights from the Mediterranean city of Nice - four operated by British Airways and two by the low-cost carrier Easyjet - were also cancelled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded, the airport said.
The British government was scrambling to tighten airport security as the country went on its highest state of terror alert, following the discovery of a foil plot to bomb a place between Britain and the United States.
The terror alert level in French airports was so far unchanged at 'red', the third highest on a four-colour scale, but security was stepped up at British airline check-in counters at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, police said.
Sarkozy cut short his holiday to chair a meeting Thursday afternoon with national police chiefs and top officials from the intelligence and national security services, who were to decide on possible extra security measures.
France's civil aviation authority was to hold a separate meeting at midday to discuss the security threat.
British Home Secretary John Reid said the foiled plot discovered early Thursday was "very significant" and designed to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life."
Police said it involved hiding explosive devices in hand luggage and that many arrests had been made, although the number was unclear.
Passengers flying out of UK airports faced major delays in the wake of today's anti-terrorism operation.
By 8.30am passengers were experiencing check-in desk queues of at least two hours at Heathrow Airport.
Tony Douglas, British Airways Authority Heathrow chief executive, warned passengers only to leave home if their travel was absolutely vital and to be prepared for long delays.
Barely enough room was left at Heathrow's Terminal One check-in for people to line up as some queues reached out the door.
Inside many passengers were going through hand luggage to remove those items they could take on board.
A bmi representative said they were trying to stop families and friends entering the airport with passengers.
They were also recommending passengers rebook their flights.
She said: "Many business travellers have just turned around and gone home because they take one look at these queues and know that they're not going anywhere. But we have had trouble with people returning home to long haul destinations because they haven't got anywhere else to stay if they are delayed."
The delays were caused by a new Department for Transport policy stating, with immediate effect, that all cabin baggage must be processed as hold baggage.
Travellers are only being allowed to take a limited number of items on board by hand - in a single transparent plastic carrier bag - and nothing may be carried in pockets.
Items which can be taken on board by hand in the bag include pocket sized wallets and purses, travel documents and prescription medicines.
All passengers are being hand searched and footwear is being x-ray screened.
Pushchairs and walking aids are also being x-ray screened and only airport-provided wheelchairs are allowed to pass through the screening point.
The DoT said: "Regrettably, significant delays at airports are inevitable.
"We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the Government, will need to be in place for a limited period only."
LONDON - Essential military kit must be sent to Iraq urgently to protect British troops who are under-equipped and overstretched despite escalating violence there, a parliamentary committee reported.
The all-party defence committee highlighted shortages in vital equipment, including armoured vehicles and helicopters, and said repeated tours of duty were threatening the army's operational effectiveness.
"(We) were disturbed by the deficiencies in equipment they faced," the MPs said in a report based on a visit to some of Britain's 7,200 troops in southern Iraq.
"The MoD (Ministry of Defence) must address equipment shortages and capability gaps as a matter of urgency. Our forces cannot wait for long-term procurement projects to come to fruition; they need the kit now.
"We cannot send them on operations without giving them the tools they need to do the job."
British involvement in the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq is still a controversial subject here, particularly with the mounting death toll: 115 British personnel have since been killed in Iraq.
Concerns about equipment are equally long-standing: US troops nicknamed their British counterparts "The Borrowers" because of their frequent requests for kit while other problems date from the 1991 Gulf War.
Chief among the MPs' worries was the ineffectiveness of so-called "Snatch" Land Rovers against the increasing use of road-side bombs.
Defence Secretary Des Browne has already ordered an urgent review after several soldiers died while on patrol; he has pledged to send more heavily-protected vehicles to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the members of parliament said: "It is unsatisfactory that the lack of capability was not addressed with greater urgency much earlier."
On helicopters, they said there was a "deeply concerning shortage" and if not addressed, "the effectiveness and coherence of UK operations on the ground will suffer".
The committee also said it was "alarmed" that explosive-suppressant foam may not be fitted to aircraft, despite the deaths of 10 personnel in a missile attack on their Hercules C-130 transport plane in January 2005.
Former defence secretary John Reid conceded in May this year that the foam -- which stops fuel tanks exploding when pierced by bullets and has been standard on US planes since the Vietnam War -- may have saved their lives.
On repeated tours of duty, the MPs said official denials of overstretch "contrasts with what we are hearing from service personnel on the ground".
"The issues raised in this report give rise to a fundamental question: are our armed forces structured, trained and equipped to fulfil the role envisaged for them...
"This is a question that goes to the heart of the government's defence policy. We believe this question needs to be addressed."
In response, Browne said many of the report's recommendations were already being carried out.
"There is no room for complacency, and I welcome the committee's scrutiny. I will respond to the report in full when I have studied it in more detail," he added.
The United States and France battled Wednesday to overcome a rift on how to make a UN call for an end to Middle East hostilities after strong Arab demands that Israel withdraw from Lebanon.
The French and US ambassadors to the United Nations held new talks on a draft Security Council resolution but again failed to reach accord on how to word a call for ceasefire and any Israeli pullout, diplomats said.
US ambassador John Bolton acknowledged that there are "disagreements" and "areas of uncertainty", but insisted both sides were working hard to draw up a new resolution.
Officials said a Security Council vote on the resolution was now unlikely before
Friday.
France's President Jacques Chirac has hinted that his country may present its own resolution if there is no agreement with the United States.
"It seems indeed that there are American reservations towards adopting the proposal," Chirac said of the Lebanese demands for amendments to the French-US text.
Beirut's demands for an Israeli withdrawal from its territory and its plan to send 15,000 Lebanese troops to take control of Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon have caused the new split between the transatlantic allies.
Bolton indicated however that the United States, Israel's main ally, remains concerned about how to disarm and keep Hezbollah fighters out of positions to launch attacks on Israel.
He told reporters "everybody wants to see this (resolution) used to transform the situation in the region, which means fundamentally that we don't want Hezbollah to reinfiltrate the southern part of Lebanon."
Bolton added: "The question remains how to have an effective security presence in the southern part of Lebanon as the Israeli forces withdraw, when that becomes appropriate, and how you put that together, how you arrange that politically, how that becomes part of the overall transformation of Lebanon."
"Positions have changed; there are new circumstances unquestionably that do have an effect," said Bolton. "But it doesn't change the basic objective that we have and we are struggling now to make sure that the first resolution goes as far as we can to accomplish those objectives."
The US ambassador said the Lebanese offer to deploy troops was "significant" and that it would be taken into account in the new draft, but did not say how.
Speaking of the talks with France, Bolton said: "The disagreements, the areas of uncertainty, are things that we are working very hard on and I don't think a purpose would be served exposing all of them in public."
France and the United States face strong Arab resistance to their current draft text which does not specifically call for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon after any end to hostilities.
An Arab League delegation warned the Security Council on Tuesday there would be civil war in Lebanon if Israel's troops did not leave. More than four weeks into conflict, the Arab ministers also criticised the delay in Security Council action.
"It is most saddening that this council stands idly by, crippled and unable to stop the bloodbath, which has become the bitter daily lot of the unarmed Lebanese people," Qatar's foreign minister told a special council debate on the conflict.
"If we adopt a resolution without fully considering the reality of Lebanon, we will face a civil war and, instead of helping Lebanon, we will destroy Lebanon," added the minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.
Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gillerman told the Security Council there has to be a "strong, robust and effective international force" in southern Lebanon to counter Hezbollah.
He also called for international action to stop Iran and Syria - which he called "the merchants of terror in Damascus and Tehran" - from supplying arms to Hezbollah.
The defense establishment's proposal to expand the Israel Defense Forces operation in Lebanon was approved by a large majority of cabinet ministers on Wednesday: Nine ministers backed the proposal, while three abstained. But according to some attendees, the results of the vote do not reflect the ministers' true opinions. "If everyone voted the way they spoke, there would be a majority opposing the proposal," one minister said. So why didn't anyone vote against the proposal? We were afraid, the minister explained, of showing the public and the Hezbollah that there are rifts within the government and cracks in its support for the IDF.
The problem is that such cracks exist and no one is really making an effort to hide them anymore. Rifts between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Rifts between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. And those between the head of the Mossad, Meir Dagan and Head of the Imtelligence Corps, Amos Yadlin. And between Peretz and his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz and between Mofaz and Avi Dichter. One of those present summed the situation up by saying, "everyone was involved in at least one quarrel."
The prime minister does not like the master plan prepared for him this week by Peretz and Halutz. He feared that sending in several divisions to operate for a month, possibly two, in the hostile territory of southern Lebanon would entail multiple casualties, an ongoing occupation and would gnaw at the already dwindling remnants of Israel's international support. It is doubtful whether the Katyusha fire on northern Israeli towns would cease, even after such an operation. There will always be some Hezbollah man on donkey-back, poised and ready to launch a rocket into the Galilee, just like the Palestinian Qassam launchers are doing in Gaza.
But Olmert's reservations clash with his original position, that the political echelon should not interfere with operational decisions, and that it should follow the army's recommendations. What should he do? Olmert found two ways to solve this dilemma - he allowed Mofaz to present before the ministers his plan for a swift, limited operation, a plan that would enable Israel to announce victory quickly and with a minimal casualties. Mofaz met with Olmert on Tuesday and presented his plan. According to one version of the story, he also told the chief of staff about it before the meeting.
The ministers reacted enthusiastically to the plan, and Peretz realized he had been ambushed. It was an obvious trick: The minister who has the most military experience in the government, Lieutenant General (res.) Shaul Mofaz, proposes an elegant and mischievous scheme, to counter the weighty, clumsy and danger-riddled plan proposed by his heir. If there are any complications, the public will know there was a simpler, cheaper solution.
Then Peretz burst reminding that Mofaz had been the one who neglected to deal with Hezbollah's massive arming during his tenure in the past few years. When the meeting was over, the accusations continued - on the one hand, voiced claimed that even if you have a new operational plan, you shouldn't wave it at a cabinet meeting just to demonstrate your superiority. Others counterclaimed that Mofaz had been opposed to Israel's unilateral pullout from Lebanon in the spring of 2000, and had also warned Israel of the dangers of the rocket arsenal there.
Olmert made efforts to restore calm in the meeting and explained that since he must maintain authority and responsibility, he can only bring the defense establishment's proposal up to a vote.
In the end, his salvation came from Condoleezza Rice. The U.S. Secretary of State called to inform the cabinet of expected progress in talks over a UN resolution which have so far been unfruitful. Livni had earlier conditioned her support for the proposal on a "timeout" to pursue a diplomatic resolution first before going ahead with the operation. As a result of Rice's news, Olmert and Livni managed to convince Peretz that the operation should be postponed for at least 48 hours.
And so the cabinet meeting ended in a rather predictable compromise: Approval of an outline of the operation in principle, while postponing its implementation to allow for development in the UN talks. Troops, however, will take up positions in preparation for the operation. Israel is telling the UN "hold me back," in efforts to prevent itself from getting swept up in any one decision and hoping for the best. Olmert's moment of truth has been postponed, at least until Friday.
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press
August 10, 2006
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government raised its threat warning to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States early Thursday in response to a terror plot disrupted in London. Terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines, two U.S. counterterrorism officials said.
In addition to the highest alert for flights from Britain, the alert for all flights coming or going from the United States was also raised slightly. The government banned beverages, hair gels and lotions from flights, explaining only that liquids emerged as a risk from the investigation in Britain.
Multiple flights to multiple American cities were put on alert. Specifically, these airlines included United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., the two counterterrorism officials said. American and United flights were turned into terrorist weapons on Sept. 11, 2001, when they were hijacked and crashed.
It is the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied. Homeland Security defines the red alert as designating a "severe risk of terrorist attacks."
"We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted," said Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff in announcing that the threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest "severe or red" level.
"To defend further against any remaining threat from this plot, we will also raise the threat level to high, or orange, for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the United States," Chertoff said.
A statement issued by Chertoff said "currently, there is no indication ... of plotting within the United States."
A U.S. law enforcement official said there have been no arrests in the United States connected to the plot.
A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people and as many as 50 were involved or connected to the overseas plot that was unraveled Wednesday evening. The plan "had a footprint to al-Qaida back to it," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
It was not believed to be connected to the Egyptian students who disappeared in the United States more than a week ago before reaching a college they were supposed to attend in Montana. Three of the 11 have since been found and the
FBI has said neither they nor the still-missing eight are believed to be a threat.
The plan involved airline passengers hiding masked explosives in carryon luggage, the official said. "They were not yet sitting on an airplane," but were very close to traveling, the official said, calling the plot "the real deal."
U.S. intelligence has been working closely with the British on the investigation, which has been ongoing for months, the second official said.
Authorities have not yet arrested or detained all suspects who are believed to be involved in the plot, the official said, prompting Chertoff's alarm.
"Consistent with these higher threat levels, the Transportation Security Administration is coordinating with federal partners, airport authorities and commercial airlines on expanding the intensity of existing security requirements," Chertoff said.
"Due to the nature of the threat revealed by this investigation, we are prohibiting any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions from being carried on the airplane."
He said the changes take effect at 4 a.m. local time across the United States and will be undated as warranted.
The metal detector and X-ray machines at airport security checkpoints cannot detect explosives. At many, but not all airport checkpoints, the TSA has deployed walkthrough "sniffer" or "puffer" machines that can detect explosives residue.
As part of the foiled Bojinka Plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1990s, terrorist mastermind Ramzi Youssef planned to put together an improvised bomb using liquid in a contact lens solution container.
Chertoff said travelers in the United States "should also anticipate additional security measures within the airport and at screening checkpoints."
Multiple airlines with flights to multiple U.S. airports were at risk, according to a western counterterrorism official. Another official refused to identify the airlines because they were still being notified of the threat but referred to them as the "usual suspects." In the past, U.S. cities with terrorism threats or plots have included Washington, New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Airlines whose planes were hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, were United Airlines and American Airlines. British Airways has also dealt with numerous threats in recent years.
"These measures will continue to assure that our aviation system remains safe and secure," Chertoff added. "Travelers should go about their plans confidently, while maintaining vigilance in their surroundings and exercising patience with screening and security officials."
At U.S. Northern Command, the military headquarters established in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination of the defense of U.S. territory, spokesman Sean Kelly declined to comment on any precautionary steps taken in response to the heightened threat levels.
"It is inappropriate to speculate or comment on any current operational activities or discuss future force protection measures," he said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said in London that the prime minister, vacationing in the Caribbean, had briefed
President Bush on the situation overnight.
There was no immediate public reaction from the White House. Bush is spending a few days at his ranch near Crawford, Texas.
The Homeland Security Department devised the alert system after the Sept. 11 attacks. The last time the U.S. government raised the terrorist risk here to orange, or high, was in July 2005 after the subway bombings in London. It was lowered to yellow a month later, the elevated risk status that has been the norm since the system was created.
U.S. authorities, including the Transportation Security Administration, planned a news briefing early Thursday.
In London, Britain's Home Secretary John Reid said the alleged plot was "significant" and that terrorists aimed to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life."
Police arrested a number of people overnight in London after a major covert counterterrorism operation that had lasted several months, but did not immediately say how many. Heathrow airport in London was closed for most European flights.
The national threat level in Britain was raised to critical - a warning level that indicates the likelihood of an imminent terrorist attack. The threat rating was posted on the Web site of Britain's MI5 - the British domestic spy agency.
VALLEY, Wash. - A fast-moving wildfire burned nine structures north of Spokane and forced the evacuation of residents from as many as 50 homes, authorities said Wednesday.
The fire quickly grew to nearly three-quarters of a square mile in windy weather Tuesday, but it was not expected to spread Wednesday and firefighters had it encircled with fire breaks, said Steve Harris, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.
The cause of the fire had not been established and the number of burned homes among the nine structures was unclear. Harris said some were primary residences.
"The fire did a lot of jumping. That's one of the reasons it was difficult to suppress - it kept spotting ahead of itself," Harris said.
One firefighter, a state prison inmate, was gashed by a chain saw but returned to the fire lines after being treated at the scene, officials said.
Many evacuated residents were anxious to learn what had happened to their homes.
"I think we lost everything. I don't know," Kathy Richardson told KREM Television of Spokane on Tuesday.
In north-central Washington, crews were battling two blazes northeast of Winthrop that had charred more than 116 square miles of national and state forest land. They were 10 percent contained, officials said.
In Idaho, 29 new lightning-sparked fires were reported Tuesday in the Salmon-Challis National Forest.
North of Stanley, Idaho, a 2-week-old fire had blackened more than 8 square miles of forest and threatened 10 homes that had been evacuated. Crews still needed to complete 18 more miles of containment lines to encircle the blaze, officials said.
"It's a running battle mainly because it's very rugged, steep, and hard to get people in to where fire is at," David Eaker of the Great Basin National Incident Management Team said of the blaze near Stanley.
Firefighters in Southern California contained a fire Wednesday that had burned a third of an acre in Riverside County and had threatened some 200 homes at one point.
A larger blaze in the county was 5 percent contained. The fire, which had charred 1.2 square miles, had forced the temporary evacuation of 10 vacation cottages Tuesday.
AHMEDABAD, India - Swollen rivers swamped thousands of villages and towns across India's south and west on Wednesday, forcing 4.5 million from their homes as rescuers struggled to bring them food and drinking water, officials said.
India's annual monsoon rains -- vital for the country's agriculture-driven economy -- have triggered floods across at least five states since the weekend, killing at least 311 people, submerging villages and causing widespread damage to crops.
Most deaths were reported from the western state of Maharashtra, where 163 people have been killed in four days of incessant rains, 86 of them in the past 48 hours, officials said.
Floods had forced more than 200,000 people out of their homes in nearly 3,500 villages of Maharashtra, a relief official said.
In Maharashtra and also neighboring Gujarat, military boats and helicopters continued to reach out to thousands who remained marooned on trees and rooftops, many without food and water, after rivers burst their banks and flooded homes.
In Gujarat, about 200 villages were cut off and the industrial town of Surat, known for its diamond-cutting and textile trades, went without power as floodwaters inundated the region, leaving around three million people homeless.
"We screamed out when we saw the soldiers, they saved our lives," said Mulji Devalia, a Surat resident, whose two-storey house was completely submerged by floodwaters.
Indian television channels said 90 percent of the town was submerged and showed pictures of people wading through waist-high water and vehicles almost totally submerged.
Officials said phone lines were down, train services to Surat suspended and there was an acute shortage of drinking water. Full-scale relief operations would begin once water levels receded, the officials added.
"It is tough to reach out to the needy, the water level is rising minute by minute," said local administrator Vatsala Vasudev.
Industrial production has been badly affected in the nearby coastal city of Hazira, with Oil and Natural Gas Corp.'s gas plant flooded and production disrupted at a petrochemicals complex run by Reliance Industries Ltd..
In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where 112 people have perished in four days of rain, some 6,000 villages have been flooded, leaving around 1.5 million homeless and forcing thousands into trees and onto rooftops.
"We haven't eaten for three days and the children are crying because of hunger and thirst," one resident of a flood-affected village told Reuters by telephone.
Other stranded villagers said they were suffering from fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.
"The situation is terrible. The area under submergence is increasing every hour due to the backwaters," said M. V. P. C. Sastry, a senior flood official, adding that military helicopters were dropping food packets and water rations to the marooned.
Officials in the central state of Madhya Pradesh said 15 people, including three children were swept away in flash floods over the last three days. Floods have also killed at least 21 people in the neighboring states of Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
Chinese authorities evacuated about 1.1 million people to prepare for the approach of Typhoon Saomai, the most powerful storm to hit the country in two years.
Saomai, with winds of 173 kilometers (108 miles) per hour and gusts of 209 kilometers per hour, was centered about 45 kilometers southeast of Wenzhou, a city of 7 million on China's southeast coast, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement carried on the official Xinhua News Agency. The storm is expected to make landfall at Wenzhou at about 5 p.m.
About 750 people have died this year in typhoons or tropical storms in China. Authorities in Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located, evacuated 528,989 people and 571,000 were evacuated in adjacent Fujian, Xinhua said. The government raised the storm's status to "extremely powerful,'' Xinhua said.
Saomai, which is Vietnamese for Venus, is the strongest storm to hit China since Typhoon Rananim in 2004, which killed 164 people and caused economic losses estimated at 18.1 billion yuan ($2.3 billion). Rananim, the strongest storm to reach China since 1956, packed winds of 100 miles an hour (160 kilometers an hour).
Saomai is a supertyphoon, or Category 5 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 256 kilometers per hour and gusts to 312 kilometers per hour, according to Weather.com, a U.S.-based Internet weather company.
Climate researchers and ecologists are usually known for using complex computer simulations to study environmental change. But Boston University researchers are using more humble sources to determine the effects of climate change on local flora and fauna.
For the past three years, Richard Primack and Abraham Miller-Rushing have asked Massachusetts residents with long memories and a record-keeping habit to show how rising temperatures over the decades have changed the nature around them.
The data they have collected from amateur naturalists, farmers, landscape gardeners and photographers show that trees are sprouting leaves earlier in spring, birds are changing their migratory habits, and the patterns of flowers' blooming is changing.
"It's a good way to show that something is really happening, to species that people know," says Primack, who presented the work at the meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Memphis, Tennessee. "It will help us make the argument that global climate change is a reality even more convincing to the public."
Interesting times
The vast majority of scientists are convinced both that global warming is real, and that it is hitting ecosystems in measurable ways. The new initiative is intended to help convince members of the public - and government officials - who are still suspicious of climate predictions.
"The president is still not convinced that climate change is a reality, and our policy reflects that," Primack told news@nature.com. "But with the Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth, Hurricane Katrina and the recent heatwaves, we're entering an interesting period where we can make people focus on climate change."
The data donated to his project don't prove the science behind climate change but do make the effects easy to grasp, he says. For example, Kathleen Anderson, who lives near Boston, donated decades' worth of diaries showing that, in 1965, wood duck (Aix sponsa) arrived in her pond in mid-April. Now, the ducks consistently turn up in late February.
In another example, an early photograph of Lowell Cemetery in Massachusetts, taken in May 1868, shows leafless trees. A modern May photograph is full of foliage. Primack notes that Boston has warmed by around 2.5 °C during this time - above average for the United States, but a level of warming that is expected across the country during this century.
The researchers will shortly publish the photographs and their other findings in the American Journal of Botany.
This is not the first time that unusual data sources have flagged up changes to ecosystems. Menus reflect declines in fish stocks, for example, by showing that depleted fish have become more expensive (see 'Old menus reveal collapse of fish stocks').
Primack and Miller-Rushing plan to keep appealing to any Bostonians who can help show the effect of climate change, be they botanists, naturalists or historians. "We just get up at as many meetings as we can and tell people what we're looking for," Primack says.
BEIJING - Nearly 500,000 people were evacuated from their homes in southeast China as the region, already suffering from two months of devastating weather, prepared for Typhoon Saomai to make landfall.
Saomai, with winds of over 200 kilometers (124 miles) an hour, was expected to reach the provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang on late Thursday afternoon or evening after pounding Taiwan earlier in the day, the Xinhua news agency said.
While no major damage was reported in Taiwan, authorities in mainland China were preparing for the worst following seven previous storms or typhoons in the southeast over the past two months that have claimed well over 1,000 lives.
In Fujian, 266,000 people had been evacuated while another 200,000 people were forced to leave their homes in Zhejiang, Xinhua said.
All 10,286 ships and 35,282 fishermen based in Fujian had returned to harbor by Wednesday evening, while outdoor activities in all 26,800 schools in the province were suspended on Thursday, according to Xinhua.
As much as 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain was expected to be dumped on Fujian over the next few days, Xinhua said, citing provincial observatory and government officials.
In Zhejiang, the neighboring province to the north which lies just below Shanghai, 5,638 ships had returned to port.
Hong Kong authorities cancelled or delayed 18 flights to Taiwan as torrential rains and strong winds swept parts of the island.
Saomai, named after the Vietnamese word for the planet Venus, closely followed Prapiroon, a tyhpoon that made landfall last week in southeast China and killed at least 80 people.
State media said on Wednesday that natural disasters killed nearly 987 people, left another 310 missing and caused 68.8 billion yuan (8.6 billion dollars) in economic losses across China in July.
The government said in late July that more than 1,300 people had been killed and 306 were missing from weather-related incidents from the start of May to July 21.
Comment: Chinese government evacuates 500,000 in advance of storm. US government leaves 500,000 to their own devices in advance of storm.
Philippine scientists have given renewed warnings of a major explosion at the erupting Mayon volcano, as steaming lava poured down its slopes and thousands huddled in evacuation camps.
Mayon's chief monitor Ernesto Corpuz said the volcano, which has been rumbling and oozing molten rock for about three weeks, may erupt in spectacular fashion in the coming days.
"It is at this time that the volcanic activity could be gearing up for a bigger explosion," Corpuz told AFP.
"This is going to be a critical time," he said, adding: "This kind of unusual quiet is ominous."
Official warnings about Mayon, the country's most active volcano which has claimed more than 1,000 lives over the years, have forced the evacuation of some 40,000 villagers from around the central mountain.
While obvious signs of activity have slackened in the past two days, lava continues to pour down gullies on the slopes of the picturesque, cone-shaped mountain which is a major tourist attraction.
About 40,000 people have been evacuated from villages within a six to eight kilometer (four-five mile) danger zone since Monday in case of an explosion that could cover surrounding areas with deadly volcanic ash.
The residents have been herded into makeshift evacuation centers, mainly school buildings where sometimes as many as 50 people are sleeping on cold cement classroom floors.
The evacuated villagers are living on rations of rice, instant noodles and canned sardines and meat. Local officials warn that money for their upkeep might soon run out if the crisis is prolonged.
There are also fears that the overcrowding in the evacuation centers could spawn an epidemic.
The 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon has shown increasing unrest since mid-July and on Monday, after a series of powerful explosions, government vulcanologists warned a dangerous eruption could take place within days.
The number of volcanic quakes detected in Mayon fell to only three on Wednesday from 109 on Monday and 21 on Tuesday. The amount of sulphur dioxide expelled also has been falling, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
However crimson streams of lava could still be seen trickling down Mayon's slopes at night and a huge column of steaming lava is still moving through a gulley in the Bonga district.
Soldiers have been assigned to patrol forests on the foothills to keep residents out of the danger zone. However some farmers and herdsmen still sneak into the area to check on their crops and to safeguard their homes.
The troops said they are seeing fewer farmers braving the danger zone now that the lava has moved lower.
MANILA - Strong winds and giant waves, boosted by a southwest monsoon, wiped out hundreds of shacks on stilts and left thousands of people homeless in the southern Philippines, local government officials said on Thursday.
An undetermined number of people were missing after giant waves swept four coastal villages out to sea, said the governor of the Tawi-tawi chain of islands near the Malaysian borders.
One child was reported killed but many survived because most of the homes belonged to the Badjao tribe, strong swimmers famed for their skill in diving for pearls, Sahali Sadikul told reporters.
The stormy weather was not related to a super typhoon churning toward China's southeast coast on Thursday, a forecaster said.
Nearly 3,000 people were brought to a mosque and several public schools serving as temporary shelter centers as soldiers and police officers searched the sea for survivors.
"It's like a thief in the night," said Albert Que, a local mayor. "Most of the people were caught by surprise as winds and waves ate their homes before dawn on Thursday."
Que appealed for food, warm clothes and other relief materials for the displaced.
Philippine disaster officials are currently sending emergency supplies to nearly 40,000 people sheltering from a possible violent volcanic eruption in the center of the archipelago.
Extreme weather and natural disasters often hit the Philippines, which sits on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin.
From Barbara Starr
CNN Washington Bureau
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A sailor facing espionage and desertion charges has been held at a Norfolk, Virginia, brig since March, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.
Ariel Weinmann, 21, is suspected of having worked on behalf of Russia, said military sources close to the case.
He was likely to have had access to technical manuals and other material on submarine systems, Navy sources said. No one else in the Navy is suspected of having worked with Weinmann, they said.
The fire control technician third class, assigned to the submarine USS Albuquerque, attempted on three occasions to pass classified information to foreign agents, the charges against him state.
Those incidents occurred in March 2005 in Bahrain; October 2005 in Vienna, Austria; and March 2006 in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the charges.
In addition to the espionage allegations, Weinmann also faces desertion charges, which could result in the death penalty. He is accused of deserting in July 2005 during his first tour of duty.
A customs agent took Weinmann into custody March 26 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport when he tried to re-enter the United States.
The case is the second involving allegations of military spying by Russia. The Defense Department has said it suspects Russia collected information about American intelligence in Iraq from U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, in 2003.
Comment: That's funny. Yesterday, we ran an article stating he was working for Israel's Mossad. Later in the day, CNN apparently jumped on the story and reported it was Russia...
The Associated Press, on the other hand, is sticking to the "unknown government" story.
The US Navy has categorically denied that Petty Officer Ariel J. Weinmann was spying for Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to a Navy official, reports that Weinmann was an Israeli spy are "absolutely not true."
Weinmann was apprehended on March 26 after being listed as "a deserter by his command," according to the US Navy.
On Monday, the Saudi daily Al-Watan wrote that Weinmann had recently returned from Israel and implied that he may have been working for the Mossad.
"I can tell you definitively that is not true," the Navy official said in a phone interview with the Post on Tuesday. "This is not a case of an individual spying for Israel...The Al-Watan report is erroneous," he continued.
The official said he had no idea where the Saudi paper got their information from, and that his sources at the Pentagon also knew that Weinmann, suspected of spying, was not a spy for Israel.
To date, the navy has completed an initial investigation and brought a set of initial charges, called preferred charges, against Weinmann. The preferred charges include desertion, larceny, destroying US military property, failure to obey orders or regulations, and espionage.
Specifically, it is alleged that while serving at or near Bahrain, Mexico, and Austria, Weinmann "with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, [attempted] to communicate, deliver or transmit classified CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET information relating to the national defense, to a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign government."
The preferred charges also include stealing a military laptop "of a value of more than $500.00," and "willfully [destroying] a laptop computer hard drive, of some value, by smashing it with a mallet and cutting off the pins," the Navy charge sheet states.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities have put the founder and former head of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group under house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore, a spokesman for the Islamic charity he now runs said on Thursday.
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed resigned almost five years ago from Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group suspected of involvement in the Indian rail blasts of July 11 that killed over 180 people, to become head of a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, regarded as its sister organization.
The United States has designated both as terrorist organizations.
"They informed us last night that Hafiz could not leave his residence and this restriction is for one month," Yahya Mujahid, Jamaat-ud-Dawa's spokesman told Reuters.
He said the charity had been banned from all public activities.
After joining a U.S.-led global war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan put the leaders of several militant organizations under house arrest. Saeed has been put under house arrest several times before, but he has been operating freely for the past few years.
Pakistan's reluctance to act more strongly against these groups probably stems from the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency's history of support for their activities, according to analysts.
Mujahid said police had been stationed at Saeed's residence and police had also canceled permission for Jamaat-ud-Dawa to hold a rally in Lahore on August 12.
India has called for Pakistan to act more forcefully to shut down militant organizations in the wake of the Mumbai blasts, and New Delhi's suspicions of Pakistani links to the attacks have jeopardized a peace process the nuclear-armed rivals began over 2 years ago.
There was no immediate official reaction from India, but foreign ministry officials in New Delhi expressed a mixture of surprise and skepticism.
"Pakistan is probably trying to give the impression that they are doing something about these groups. Such house arrests have taken place in the past as well and these leaders end up living in luxury," one official, who requested anonymity, said. India canceled a meeting to review the peace process last month.
Both sides have subsequently said they want to go on with talks, but tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats for spying last week showed how strained relations have become.
An attack by Pakistani militants on India's parliament in December 2001 brought the two countries to the brink of a fourth war in mid-2002. Lashkar-e-Taiba was one of the groups implicated in the attack.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned by Pakistan, and its members say it only operates out of Indian Kashmir these days, although members of Lashkar have been arrested in the United States.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa is regarded within the intelligence community as a fund-raising front for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It was added to a State Department terrorist list earlier this year, and while Pakistan has put it on a watchlist it is not banned.
In a report issued last year, the State Department said Lashkar used the charity to gather funds and maintain ties with religious militant groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya.
Jamaat ud-Dawa has been prominent in providing relief after an earthquake killed over 73,000 people and left around three million destitute in Kashmir and northwest Pakistan in October.
By ESTES THOMPSON
Associated Press
Wed Aug 9, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. - An ex-CIA contractor charged with beating an Afghan detainee who later died hit the man with a flashlight and kicked in him the groin with enough force to lift him off the ground, witnesses testified Wednesday.
The two were the first witnesses to say they saw David Passaro beat detainee Abdul Wali during a 2003 interrogation about rocket attacks on a remote base housing U.S. and Afghan troops.
Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Johnson said he was assigned to guard Wali once he was brought into the detention area. In describing the interrogation, Johnson said Passaro at various times grabbed Wali by his shirt and slammed his face to the wall and floor, smacked his head with an open hand and hit him with a metal flashlight.
"Dave kicks him - a straight kick to the groin. There was enough force to launch (Wali) off the ground," Johnson said.
A CIA interpreter who used the pseudonym Farooq Ali and appeared behind a blue privacy screen said Passaro hit Wali with a flashlight whenever he got an answer he didn't like.
"I do not remember exactly how many times (Passaro swung)," Ali said. "It could be 20 times or 30 times, between that."
Defense attorneys have said the former Special Forces medic never hit Wali and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation the day he died.
Prosecutors have charged Passaro, 40, with assault and he could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. Passaro is the first American civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The top CIA officer at the base - who testified in disguise and using the pseudonym Steve Jones - said Wednesday that Passaro enthusiastically volunteered to take over Wali's questioning after an initial interrogation produced no information. Jones said he allowed Passaro to continue his questioning until learning Wali was "not doing well. He was down in his cell and he was groaning.'"
Wali died later that day. According to Jones, Passaro said he had knocked the prisoner down once during his two days of questioning and that Wali had been caught with a makeshift key trying to open his shackles.
"He mentioned to me that he had to defend himself," Jones said.
Earlier Wednesday, a retired Army Special Forces soldier testified that Passaro become enraged when Wali wasn't able to answer questions during an initial interview about the attacks, but said during cross-examination he never saw Passaro strike the prisoner.
Passaro is standing trial in his home state under a provision of the USA Patriot Act allowing charges against U.S. citizens for crimes committed on land or facilities designated for use by the U.S. government.
Japanese police have arrested a former president of a trading company on suspicion of illegally exporting to North Korea equipment that could help produce biological weapons.
Kim Yeong-Geun, a 58-year-old ethnic Korean living in Japan, was arrested for allegedly shipping a freeze dryer to North Korea in September 2002 without trade ministry permission, said a police spokesman in western Yamaguchi prefecture.
He admitted during questioning that he was aware the device could be used by a military-linked research institution in North Korea, Jiji Press and Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed police sources.
The man used to head a Tokyo-based trading company, Meisho Yoko. Reports said the company shipped the freeze dryer to the communist state via Taiwan.
The allegations first surfaced in February, when police in Yamaguchi and neighboring Shimane prefectures raided two trading houses over the export of the freeze dryer.
Japan has pledged to tighten scrutiny of transactions with North Korea after the communist state test-fired seven missiles in its direction on July 5.
Japan has banned a major North Korean ferry link, visits by diplomats and charter flights since Pyongyang's tests of seven missiles, which included a long-range Taepodong-2 believed to be capable of reaching US soil.
With the United States, Japan also spearheaded a UN resolution that imposed sanctions against the North's missile program.
Japan has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang and has been particularly sensitive to its military capabilities after the North Koreans in 1998 launched a long-range missile which flew over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.
ROME - A Rome court will decide on November 29 whether to try a U.S. soldier, almost certainly in absentia, for an Italian agent's death in Baghdad while he escorted a freed hostage to safety, a court source said on Wednesday.
Prosecutors want Mario Lozano of the 69th Infantry Regiment to stand trial for manslaughter and attempted double homicide.
Intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was escorting a newly freed Italian hostage when he was shot dead at a checkpoint in March 2005.
A judge will rule in the November hearing whether there is enough evidence for an indictment over the shooting.
The U.S. military exonerated its troops of any blame while Rome said inexperienced, nervous American soldiers and a badly-run road block were at the root of the shooting.
Investigators sought the names of other U.S. soldiers at the Baghdad checkpoint but Washington declined to give them.
Italy's new centre-left government, which opposes the war in
Iraq and has brought forward the withdrawal of Italian troops, has criticized the lack of U.S. cooperation.
The case is one of two major investigations by Italian prosecutors into American soldiers and intelligence agents. Milan magistrates have issued arrest warrants for 22
CIA agents over the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003.
MEXICO CITY - A partial recount of votes was under way to determine who won last month's presidential election, but leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said only a recount of all the 41.7 million votes would be fair.
"If there is a full recount and the result is against us, we'll call off the protest movement," the leftist former Mexico City mayor told his followers late Wednesday after they blocked three foreign banks and disrupted traffic in the city center.
"You can't get a more generous offer than that, and yet they won't accept it," Lopez Obrador said.
Mexico's electoral tribunal on Saturday rejected Lopez Obrador's recount petition, instead ruling for the partial recount at polling stations where it believed there were possible irregularities.
Election officials on Wednesday launched the review of nine percent of votes from the July 2 election at polling districts in 26 of Mexico's 32 states under the supervision of 192 judges and representatives of political parties.
Officials have set a Sunday deadline to complete the recount, and until August 31 to resolve all pending questions. A president-elect must be named by September 6 and assume office on December 1.
Based on initial results, conservative National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderon won by a mere 0.58 percent of the vote - some 244,000 votes. Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) has refused to concede defeat and alleges the election was marked by widespread fraud.
"They accuse us of being obstinate, unyielding, but they forget that what we are demanding is only fair and, I would think, the least" that can be done, he said.
His supporters agreed.
"We come with the intention of showing that the votes in favor of our candidate were lost and to convince the electoral tribunal that it must recount the remaining ballots," PRD official Miguel Moreno told a rally in one of the districts where the vote review was underway.
Most of the polling districts affected by the recount were won by Calderon based on initial results but PRD leaders say there were irregularities in how ballots were tallied.
As election officials began their task, Lopez Obrador followers Wednesday blocked the downtown offices of British bank HSBC, Banamex -- owned by the US giant Citigroup -- and Spain's BBVA-Bancomer.
The action was part of a peaceful civil resistance campaign, said Jose Guadalupe Curiel, a top PRD official.
The move came a day after PRD supporters took over three key toll booths in Mexico's capital for several hours, allowing cars to pass without paying.
Thousands of Lopez Obrador supporters have been camped out in Mexico City for the past 11 days, blocking some eight kilometers (five miles) of the city's main avenue and preventing access to much of the city's historic and financial downtown area.
As for Calderon, he has chosen not to respond to attacks by his leftist rival and instead has operated as if he was already proclaimed the new president, holding numerous meetings with representatives from all sectors of society.
To avoid aggravating the tense political climate, Calderon also called off planned trips to the United States and Chile.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has suffered the biggest parliamentary revolt of his decade in power over controversial plans to process asylum-seekers in remote Pacific island camps.
The legislation has alarmed the United Nations refugee agency and critics say it would effectively close Australia's borders to boatpeople.
Three members of Howard's Liberal Party voted against the legislation and one abstained -- the worst breach of party loyalty Howard has seen since winning office in 1996.
The Migration Amendment Bill still comfortably cleared the House of Representatives, where Howard's coalition government has a strong majority, by 78 votes to 62.
But it faces a rougher ride and possible defeat next week in the Senate, which the government controls with a majority of just one.
The bill is seen by many as a sop to Indonesia, which temporarily withdrew its ambassador after Canberra granted temporary protection visas to 42 Papuan separatists earlier this year.
It seeks to tighten immigration laws so that asylum-seekers who arrive in mainland Australia by boat would be sent to detention centers in the island state of Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea while their claims are processed.
Even those found to be genuine refugees could be refused asylum in Australia and sent instead to other countries.
Currently only asylum-seekers who arrive on outlying islands or are intercepted at sea are processed offshore.
Critics see the bill as an effort to discourage further Papuan separatists from heading to Australia for asylum, a charge Canberra and Jakarta reject.
"The passing of your amendments of your immigration bill is very much an Australian matter. We don't interfere in your internal matters just as you don't interfere in our internal matters," Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told reporters during an official engagement in Canberra Thursday.
Indonesia won sovereignty over Papua, formerly a Dutch colony, in 1969 after a referendum widely seen as a sham. Papuans have long accused Indonesia's military of violating human rights in the province.
The legislation marks a significant hardening of Howard's immigration policy and a revival and widening of the so-called "Pacific Solution."
The policy of detaining asylum-seekers for processing on Nauru and Manus Island was introduced in late 2001 after an influx of boatpeople, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Nauru centre hit worldwide headlines in early 2004 when a number of detainees staged a hunger strike and sewed their lips in protest at their incarceration.
Under pressure from the opposition Labor Party and some of his own backbenchers, Howard softened his stance last year and agreed that children and families could be released into the community while their cases were processed.
The offshore camps were effectively mothballed last year, after more than 1,200 asylum seekers held there had been processed. Some 700 gained refugee status and were allowed into Australia while the remainder were returned home.
Opponents of the bill fear it will again see women and children kept behind razor wire. Critics also say the law would restrict access to lawyers for asylum-seekers and breach Australia's international refugee obligations.
Passions ran high at parliament on Thursday as Liberal lawmaker William Tuckey -- a hardline Howard loyalist -- angrily confronted Labor leader Kim Beazley, whose party opposes the legislation.
In a chin-jutting controntation captured on TV cameras outside Parliament House, Beazley mocked Tuckey as "weak" and "worthless," and was called a "fat so and so" in return.
The government now faces a week of closed-door negotiations with a handful of senators, whose vote could scupper the legislation.
The son of the last ruler of part of present-day Saudi Arabia said Tuesday he was setting up an opposition party in Paris to seek democratic rule in the oil-rich kingdom.
"We announce the birth of the 'Saudi Democratic Opposition Front' which will struggle by peaceful means for the establishment of democracy in the country," said Prince Talal Mohammad al-Rashid, son of the last ruler of the independent Rashidi emirate which reigned in the northwestern region of Hail from 1835 to 1921.
"The Al-Saud (family ruling Saudi Arabia) must either respect liberties and introduce democracy or give up the power they usurped," Prince Talal, who has been living in exile in France since
1980, told AFP.
Talal, son of Mohammad II bin Talal al-Rashid, said his opposition group would launch a satellite television channel within three months which will broadcast from a European country to "call on Saudis to rise up against the tyrants and usurpers plundering public funds."
The Rashidi emirs, who were ousted by the Saud family during its struggle to unite Saudi Arabia, are a branch of the Shammar tribal confederation.
Prince Talal, who has retained his title, said that the confederation was backing his new movement.
He said his group, with "some 2,000 active members, mostly in Saudi Arabia," would coordinate its activities with other opponents of the Saudi government at home and abroad, chiefly the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA) which calls for a regime change in the kingdom.
Members of the Shammar confederation are believed to number "hundreds of thousands living mainly in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria but also in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates," said Talal's daughter, Madhawi al-Rashid, a London-based academic.
Cuba's Communist government has signaled a crackdown on the use of black-market satellite dishes, just over a week after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother.
The Communist Party newspaper Granma on Wednesday warned that the dishes, which many Cubans use to watch Spanish-language television programs from Miami, could be used by the U.S. government to broadcast subversive information.
"They are fertile ground for those who want to carry out the Bush administration's plan to destroy the Cuban revolution," said the newspaper, the official voice of the government. Such an article in Granma usually signals that action is on the way.
The article also decried the "avalanche" of capitalist advertising in commercial television programs.
Since Castro provisionally relinquished power to his brother Raul on July 31 after undergoing gastric surgery, Cubans have been anxious for more information on his condition and the political direction of their country.
Those who get black-market television by cable have watched with amazement images of Miami's exile community celebrating in the streets what they see as the end of Castro's 47-year rule.
Cuban officials say Castro, who will be 80 on Sunday, is recovering from his operation. But neither he nor his brother have been seen in public.
Castro said in an August 1 statement that details of his health were a state secret due to the threat of U.S. intervention in Cuba.
The Bush administration has stepped up pressure for political change in Cuba by increasing broadcasts of U.S.-funded radio and television to the island.
The transmissions are sent from a plane but the Bush administration would like to start beaming its TV Marti broadcasts by satellite.
Anecdotal accounts indicate there are more than 10,000 illegal dishes in use in Cuba. The owner of a dish usually sells the service to others - sometimes hundreds of clients.
for $10 a month via hidden cables that crisscross roofs.
Concerned Women for America says that poor women are being paid up to $200 dollars to have their unborn children killed between 8 and 12 weeks gestation when the foetuses are "harvested" for their stem cells, which are then sold to exclusive cosmetic clinics.
LONDON - The ancient quest of fashionable women to stave off the effects of age has always left them open to the claims of swindlers. The latest edition of the snake oil chronicles, according to the UK's Daily Mail, has a more "scientific" cachet and involves injecting stem cells gleaned from aborted babies as well as umbilical cord blood directly into the skin.
Scores of British women are opting for a procedure that stem cell experts are condemning as charlatanry. A private British clinic makes arrangements for well-to-do English women to travel to Rotterdam in the Netherlands for the treatment, which is as yet illegal in the UK. Treatment centres can be found online, the Mail reveals, offering "aesthetic stem cell treatments" for between £150 and £20,000.
The Daily Mail, however, only mentions the use of umbilical cord stem cells in these treatments and describes this as "barbaric," while the paper's editorial policy is in full support of abortion and embryonic stem cell research. The Mail conflates the debate on stem cells calling all stem cell research "controversial," including ethically unproblematic and medically successful umbilical cord stem cell treatments.
Under the headline, "A Barbaric Kind of Beauty," The Mail's Andrea Thompson writes, "In America, President Bush has denounced stem-cell therapy even for medical purposes as 'godless', vetoing any public funding." Bush, however, along with the pro-life community, has condemned only that stem cell research that results in the death of human beings at the embryonic stage of life.
While the Daily Mail misrepresents the nature of the stem cell debate, a US group has found the real barbarism. Concerned Women for America has discovered that the practice of abortion being used to provide tissue for beauty treatments in such exclusive clinics is widespread.
Concerned Women for America says that poor women are being paid up to $200 dollars to have their unborn children killed between 8 and 12 weeks gestation when the foetuses are "harvested" for their stem cells, which are then sold to exclusive cosmetic clinics.
Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow of CWA's Beverly LaHaye Institute, said "It is hard to believe that such atrocities are going on today. These exclusive and exorbitant treatments are available in such varied locales as Barbados, Moscow, Dominican Republic and in Rotterdam."
"Not only is the origin of the foetuses immoral and inhumane; there are medical problems and complications associated with the injections. This savage and repulsive 'brave new world' of human sacrifices in the quest for eternal youth is a prime example of the end results when all moral boundaries are destroyed," Crouse continued.
Two Belarus nationals, top officers in Regpay, which prosecutors described as an international child-pornography and money-laundering enterprise, have each received 25 years in federal prison.
Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh of the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey also fined Yahor Zalatarou, 27, of Minsk, Belarus, president of Regpay Co. Ltd., and Aliaksandr Boika, 30, also of Minsk, Regpay's technical administrator, $25,000 each. Authorities have seized $1.15 million from the operation, AP reports.
The day before jury selection was to start in 2005, Zalatarou pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport and ship, by way of computer, images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct; Boika pleaded guilty to conspiracy to advertise child pornography. Both men also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money-laundering.
Regpay ran an Internet porn business that had thousands of paid memberships to dozens of Web sites featuring children. Along with operating several Web sites, the company earned millions of dollars processing credit-card fees for more than 50 other Web sites. The Regpay sites were operated from Minsk and hosted by Internet service providers in the United States and abroad.
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Thursday August 10, 2006
The Guardian
You're approaching a busy roundabout in a bustling Spanish city, minding your own business. Suddenly a rogue figure lurches out into the road and reels towards you. You swerve, skid, narrowly avoid collision, and go on your way, cursing perhaps. Then you learn that it was a deliberate stunt, staged to film road accidents and post them on the internet.
In a variant of "happy slapping" - when people beat someone up and capture what they are doing on phone cameras - albeit one with a kamikaze aspect to it, four French pranksters in Benidorm have been risking their lives to provoke traffic accidents while one of their number films the mayhem.
Screeching brakes, skidding cars and angry drivers were captured on film by the four, who fled before passengers or police could catch them.
They chose a busy roundabout in the eastern coastal city on the road to La Nucia as their preferred hunting ground and, according to local police, risked their own lives to provoke sudden reactions. Three of them took it in turns to jump out at drivers while a fourth hid in some bushes and filmed. Police said the men, all 18, caused at least two accidents before being caught.
The antics normally took place early in the morning, as the Frenchmen indulged their exuberance after a night of drinking, police said. "They risked their physical integrity, as well as that of the drivers and traffic in this busy road," a spokesman told the local Las Provincias newspaper. Nobody was hurt in the accidents.
Spain has recently seen the arrival of happy slapping and other versions of crimes in which the perpetrators record what they are doing. The country, where more than 100 forest fires were burning yesterday, has also seen cases of people starting fires and filming the results.
NEW YORK - U.S. stocks fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday, tumbling in the last hour of trading, as worries about slowing economic growth, higher oil prices and a stumbling housing market drove selling.
The three major U.S. stock indexes started the day on a positive trend as network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.'s stronger-than-expected profit fueled a rebound in technology shares.
By mid-afternoon, though, stocks stumbled as economic growth concerns resurfaced and crude oil prices topped $77 a barrel. The Nasdaq, which at one point was up nearly 2 percent, held its gains for most of the day before slipping marginally into negative territory in the session's final minutes.
Shares of companies sensitive to shifts in economic cycles, such as heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. and industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp., led the declines. The shares of American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, dropped 2 percent and dragged on both the Dow and the S&P 500. AIG's earnings were set for release after the bell.
"There's just too many things facing investors right now, Besides the Fed, it's the economy, where it's going and what's happening with real estate," said Angel Mata, managing director of listed equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore.
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve paused after raising interest rates for more than two years.
"People also just didn't believe in any rally off the Fed's decision to pause from raising interest rates yesterday. Oil continuing to be in the mid-$70s also just doesn't bode well for a strong market."
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 97.41 points, or 0.87 percent, to end at 11,076.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 5.53 points, or 0.43 percent, to finish at 1,265.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index inched down just 0.57 of a point, or 0.03 percent, to close at 2,060.28.
AIG shares dropped 2 percent, or $1.19, to close at $58.49 on the
New York Stock Exchange.
After the closing bell, AIG shares rose 1.6 percent to $59.43 on the Inet electronic brokerage network after the insurer reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations.
During the regular session, Cisco's stock jumped 14.4 percent, its biggest one-day percentage gain in more than four years. The stock ended up $2.49 at $19.78 on the Nasdaq.
Caterpillar shares dropped 4.3 percent, or $3.08, to $68.52, while United Technologies shares fell 2.5 percent, or $1.57, to $60.31, both on the NYSE. They were the Dow's two biggest decliners, followed by AIG. Caterpillar was the top drag on the Dow, followed by AIG.
Shares of home builders also took a hit, pushing the Dow Jones U.S. home construction index down in its biggest one-day percentage slide in three months after luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. posted a decline in new orders and warned about the outlook.
Shares of Toll Brothers dropped 6.4 percent, or $1.70, to $24.88 on the NYSE. Worries about housing, a key pillar of consumer spending, also weighed on shares of home improvement chain and Dow component Home Depot Inc., whose stock dropped 2.7 percent, or 93 cents, to $33.40.
U.S. crude oil futures rose after the government reported drawdowns in crude oil, gasoline and distillate supplies and amid a production outage in BP Plc's Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska, the largest in the nation.
Crude for September delivery rose 4 cents to settle at $76.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The NYMEX September crude contract retreated from its session high of $77.40 as investors took profits.
Trading was active on the NYSE, where about 1.71 billion shares changed hands, exceeding last year's daily average of 1.61 billion. On the Nasdaq, about 2.13 billion shares traded, exceeding last year's daily average of about 1.80 billion.
Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a ratio of about 7 to 5, while on Nasdaq, about eight stocks fell for every five that rose.
The mayor of a remote Russian Arctic city that was home to some of the most feared Soviet prison-camps plans to build a replica forced-labor camp and charge tourists hundreds of dollars for a few nights of incarceration, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Igor Shpektor, the mayor of Vorkuta, is looking for investors for his proposal to reconstruct one of the Stalin-era labor camps - complete with watchtowers, barbed wire, guard dogs and gruel.
He believes that there are plenty of extreme tourists who would be willing to fork over at least $450 for a three-day stay.
"I want to make a camp like those that existed in the times of the Gulag," the mayor said by telephone from the city 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. "The same regime will be followed as it was in those camps."
That doesn't mean he foresees using visitors as slave-labor in coal-mines or to work outside in minus-40 Celsius (minus-40 F) degree weather - the fate of many of the more than one million people sent to the Vorkuta camps.
Shpektor casts the idea as a way to remember the city's tragic past while pulling Vorkuta out of its post-Soviet slump that saw it lose some 80,000 residents in a decade.
Many people are appalled by the mayor's idea. "It's blasphemy, and that's putting it lightly," said Yevgeniya Khaydorova, the co-director of the Vorkuta branch of Memorial, a human rights group that has worked to uncover the history of the Gulag. She chastised the mayor for pushing his project while not caring for what remains of the real camps.
Russia's Gulag-camps largely have been demolished or abandoned, and public recognition of them is far less than for the Nazi concentration-camps such as Auschwitz and Buchenwald that have been turned into museums.
Shpektor's proposal doesn't stop with the recreated camp: he also suggests building a five-star hotel where those who suffer through the camp can be pampered afterwards.
"It's definitely way off the grid of the beach-cruise, Las Vegas-type of circuit, which I think is fantastic," says Shannon Stowell, the president of the Seattle-based Adventure Travel Trade Association.
"I think the smartest thing for them would be to make sure there are other things there for people - not many people would go clear out of their way just to stay at a concentration camp."
Anatoly Ushakov, who heads the internal tourism department of Russia's federal tourism agency, doesn't object in principle to the idea, but cautions: "I don't think that this can be economically viable in Vorkuta. It's a pretty far-away region and it's a long road there."
But Shpektor is sticking to his dream, while admitting it's far from being realized. Right now he's looking for an investor - and he says that a million dollars should cover the initial phase.
Vorkuta has fallen on hard times as much of Russia's population and industry flees the country's far-flung regions for Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city's population dropped from 213,700 in 1992 to 143,300 in 2003, and coal production plummeted nearly 60 percent.
Khaydorova, of Memorial, says Vorkuta's history could attract tourists without the construction of a brand-new Gulag.
"Not allowing the remnants of that time to fall into disrepair would be much more educational," she says.
"Why isn't that being advertised, why is that being hidden?" Khaydorova asks, saying that Shpektor could never truly recreate the horror of the camps.
But Shpektor insists his camp would serve the goal of remembrance. "What I want to do is for the good of all the people," he said.
The precise spot where Claude Monet produced his atmospheric paintings of the Houses of Parliament has been traced by two scientists who say that his art might help reveal the composition of the polluted skies of Victorian London.
Monet's paintings of a gothic building dissolving into a ghostly light were based on observations in London rather than created from his imagination back in his studio in Giverny, France, according to the study carried out at the University of Birmingham.
In an analysis of his paintings, letters and architectural drawings, published today in the Royal Society Proceedings A, the team has pinpointed Monet's vantage point as a second-floor covered terrace of the former Governor's Hall at St Thomas's Hospital.
The building has not survived but it is possible to get the same view today from the south-east corner of Westminster Bridge.
The parliament skyline provided the team with markers for determining the position of the sun. Solar geometry calculations were then used to determine the dates and times of the represented scenes to within minutes.
The results are in "excellent agreement" with information in Monet's letters in which he grumbles about London's "sad and drab weather" and the elusive Victorian sun. "I am so pained by it!" he wrote.
One of the authors of the study, John Thornes, said: "Monet's paintings contain accurate quantitative information, providing support to the theory that his aim was to capture, as accurately as he could, the visual effects that he observed while he painted the pictures in London."
In short, the work confirms what Cezanne supposedly said of him: "Monet is just an eye - but God, what an eye!"
Monet was known for being a fast worker and the team estimates that it could have taken as little as two hours for him to produce each of his London series. As a result, the browned and yellowed skies provide snapshots that are "a proxy indicator for the Victorian smogs and atmospheric states they depict," Mr Thornes reports with Jacob Baker, suggesting that they can inform meteorologists about the climate and air pollution.
"Monet's series may represent the best coloured record of the Victorian fogs," said the team. "The colour potentially provides information on the transmitted and scattered light passing through the atmosphere, which can in turn provide information on the composition of the fogs."
Light absorption by grease and oil droplets from smoking chimneys may have been responsible for the yellows and browns of some fogs, while the blues and reds may have been produced by the light-scattering effects of nano-particles.
The 95 paintings in the series show three views of London - two from the Savoy Hotel and the third of the Houses of Parliament. In 2004, one of them sold for almost £11 million. They were produced during three trips made by Monet to London between the autumn of 1899 and early 1901.
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