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Editorial: Signs Economic Commentary for 25 December 2006
Donald Hunt
Signs of the Times
December 25, 2006
Gold closed at 622.30 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 0.5% from $619.00 at the close of the previous Friday. The dollar closed at 0.7617 euros Friday, down 0.4% from 0.7645 at the close of the week before. The euro closed at 1.3128 dollars compared to $1.3080 for the week. Gold in euros would be 474.02 euros an ounce, up 0.2% from 473.24 euros at the end of the week before. Oil closed at 62.41 dollars a barrel Friday, down 1.6% from $63.43 at the close of the previous week. Oil in euros would be 47.54 euros a barrel, down 2.0% from 48.49 for the week. The gold/oil ratio closed at 9.97, up 2.2% from 9.76 at the end of the week before. In U.S. stocks, the Dow closed at 12,343.22 Friday, down 0.8% from 12,445.52 for the week. The NASDAQ closed at 2,401.18, down 2.3% from 2,457.20 at the close of the previous Friday. In U.S. interest rates, the yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note closed at 4.62%, up three basis points from 4.59 for the week.
Since it's Christmas, what better time to think about the deeper significance of gift exchange? In the weeks leading up to Christmas, a steady stream of reports about retail performance is released and scrutinized for clues on the health of the economy. Any retailer knows how important the gift-giving season is for the whole year's performance. What is the meaning of all this gift exchange in a neoliberal economy? Are holidays like Christmas mere survivals of archaic practices serving contemporary economic functions in late capitalism, or is there more to the story?
The exchange of gift has always been somewhat difficult, as we will see, for classical economics to understand. See, for example, this piece by James Surowiecki:
The Gift Right Out
Christmas shopping in the U.S. has been a reliable source of anxiety and stress for well over a century. "As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is eaten, the great question of buying Christmas presents begins to take the terrifying shape it has come to assume in recent years," the New York Tribune wrote in 1894. But recently millions of Americans, instead of trudging through malls in a desperate quest for the perfect sweater, have switched to buying gift cards. The National Retail Federation expects that Americans will buy close to twenty-five billion dollars' worth of gift cards this season, up thirty-four per cent from last year, with two-thirds of shoppers intending to buy at least one card; gift cards now rival apparel as the most popular category of present. This is, in part, because of clever corporate marketing: stores like gift cards because they amount to an interest-free loan from customers, and because recipients usually spend more than the amount on the card - a phenomenon that retailers tenderly refer to as "uplifting" spending. But the boom in gift cards is also a rational response to the most important economic fact about Christmas gift giving: most of us just aren't that good at it.
We all know that bad gifts inflict a cost - just think of the rigid smiles that greet an unwanted floral tie or Josh Rouse CD - but it's surprising how big that cost can be. Since the early nineteen-nineties, Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, has been doing a series of studies in which college students are asked to put a value on the presents they receive. Waldfogel's main finding is that, in general, people spend a lot more on presents than they're worth to those who receive them, a phenomenon that he calls "the deadweight loss of Christmas." A deadweight loss is created when you spend eighty dollars to give me a sweater that I would spend only sixty-five dollars to buy myself. Waldfogel estimates that somewhere between ten and eighteen per cent of seasonal spending becomes deadweight loss, which means that billions of dollars a year is now going to waste.
Why aren't we better at gift giving? A lot of the time, we don't know the people we're shopping for all that well. Much of the deadweight loss that Waldfogel found was caused by older people, who may not be attuned to what their young relatives really want, and are therefore more likely to give gifts that recipients value less. More surprisingly, though, we're also bad at buying for the people we're closest to. A recent study by the marketing professors Davy Lerouge and Luk Warlop finds that familiarity can actually lead us astray. They ran a series of experiments with long-standing couples in which the partners tried to predict each other's taste in furniture - a sort of academic version of "The Newlywed Game" - and found that, in general, people did a poor job of it. In making predictions, people tend to rely on what Lerouge and Warlop call "pre-stored beliefs and expectations," rather than paying close attention to what their partner really liked. People did a good job of predicting their partner's preferences, in fact, only when they shared those preferences. My idea of what you want, it turns out, has a lot to do with what I want.
Does our incompetence at gift giving matter? Many would say no. Waldfogel, after all, measured the value of presents in purely monetary terms - he explicitly told his subjects to ignore sentimental attachments. But sentiment obviously has a tremendous amount to do with how we respond to gifts. A study by the economists Sara Solnick and David Hemenway shows that we value unrequested gifts more than presents we ask for, because we assume that the former show more thought. And we also go to great lengths to demonstrate that a gift is more than a dollar sign: we snip off price tags, clip the prices off book jackets, and ask for gift receipts that hide the cost of the present.
The problem is that, while we say that gift giving is about sentiment, not about money, we act as if the best expressions of sentiment came in expensive packages. Around a hundred and fifty billion dollars is spent on gifts during the holiday season every year; this year, the average American expects to spend close to a thousand dollars on presents. And, much as sentiment counts, we don't let it stand in the way of getting what we want: according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, forty per cent of America expects to return at least one holiday gift this year, and an American Express survey found that roughly a third of respondents had "re-gifted" presents. If we're spending all this time and money on gifts, the fact that so much of it is wasted matters.
An economist might suggest that the solution is to abandon the pretense and simply start exchanging small piles of money. The boom in gift cards is a kind of socially tolerable version of this: the cards are somehow more personal than cash, and they're also not going to be wasted on an unwanted gift. But Waldfogel's studies also suggest a very different solution: if most of the presents we buy are going to be less valuable in monetary terms than in sentimental ones, then there's no reason to believe that the more expensive gift is a better gift. In fact, the more we spend at Christmas, the more we waste. We might actually be happier - and we'd certainly be wealthier - if we exchanged small, well-considered gifts rather than haunting the malls. Calculating the deadweight loss of Christmas gifts is a coldhearted project, but it leads to a paradoxically warmhearted conclusion: the fact of giving may be more important than what you give. Start with "Bah, humbug" and you somehow end up with "God bless us, every one."
You can see that economists have trouble thinking in terms of gift and counter-gift. Indeed, as evidenced by the growth of gift cards, cash gifts, and gift registries, so do members of neoliberal societies. Anthropologists, starting with Marcel Mauss in the 1920s with his Essai sur le don, or in English translation, The Gift: Form and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (New York: Norton, 1967) identified gift exchange as something much more fundamental to society. It was not only a way for goods to circulate in a fashion antithetical, perhaps, to the way identified in classical economics but also a primary way that social ties are formed and maintained.
Mauss, while looking primarily at primitive and archaic societies, was explicit in his belief that the values of a gift society could be encouraged in the twentieth century. Later we will look at some contemporary work in the Maussian tradition which sees the gift economy as fundamental to even modern, neo-liberal society. They see gift exchange as one of three modes of circulation (market, state and gift). Or, as Alain Caille put it, "goods and services do not circulate only according to market laws or to the redistributive rules of the state ... There is a third form of circulation that is as important, in fact more important, than the other two - circulation according to the gift and counter-gift." (Jacques Godbout with Alain Caille, The World of the Gift, Montreal: McGill - Queen's University Press, 1998, p. vii)
Two non-conformist economists, Francois Perroux (1963) and Serge Christophe Kolm (1984), have identified three complementary economic systems: the market, ruled by self-interest; government planning, ruled by constraint; and that of the gift. (Godbout, p. 15)
Gifts are inherently paradoxical. At the same time freely given and given under obligation, for both selfless and selfish reasons, how can they be characterized? What is clear is that gift exchange can't be reduced to classical economic maximization strategies. Ties and bonds between groups and individuals are at stake, not just profit and loss. Here is Mauss:
We have repeatedly pointed out how this economy of gift-exchange fails to conform to the principles of so-called natural economy or utilitarianism. The phenomena in the economic life of the people we have studied ... and the survivals of these traditions in societies closer to ours and even in our own custom, are disregarded in the schemes adopted by the few economists who have tried to compare the various forms of economic life.
The notion of value exists in these societies. Very great surpluses, even by European standards, are amassed; they are expended often at pure loss with tremendous extravagance and without a trace of mercenariness; among things exchanged are tokens of wealth, a kind of money. All this very rich economy is nevertheless imbued with religious elements; money still has its magical power and is linked to clan and individual. Diverse economic activities - for example, the market - are impregnated with ritual and myth; they retain a ceremonial character, obligatory and efficacious; they have their own ritual and etiquette ...
On the contrary, it is something other than utility which makes goods circulate in these multifarious and fairly enlightened societies. Clans, age groups and sexes, in view of the many relationships ensuing from contacts between them, are in a state of perpetual economic effervescence which has little about it that is materialistic; it is much less prosaic than our sale and purchase, hire of services and speculations. (Mauss, The Gift, pp. 69-70)
...Let us test now the notion to which we have opposed the ideas of the gift and disinterestedness; that of interest and the individual pursuit of utility. This agrees no better with previous theories. If similar motives animate Trobriand and American chiefs and Andaman clans and once animated generous Hindu or Germanic noblemen in their giving and spending, they are not to be found in the cold reasoning of the business man, banker or capitalist. In those earlier civilizations one had interests but they differed from those of our time. There, if one hoards, it is only to spend later on, to put people under obligations and to win followers. Exchanges are made as well, but only of luxury objects like clothing and ornaments, or feasts and other things that have to be consumed at once. Return is made with interest, but that is done in order to humiliate the original donor or exchange partner and not merely to recompense him for the loss that the lapse of time causes him.
The victory of rationalism and mercantilism was required before the notions of profit and the individual were given currency and raised to the level of principles. One can date roughly - after Mandeville and his Fable des Abeilles - the triumph of the notion of individual interest ...
It is only our Western societies that quite recently turned man into an economic animal. But we are not yet all animals of the same species. In both lower and upper classes pure irrational expenditure is in current practice: it is still characteristic of some French noble houses .... (Mauss, pp. 73-4)
Jacques Godbout has taken Mauss's work and applied it to late twentieth century society. According to Godbout, the gift culture is alive and well in late capitalist society but it offers a challenge to neoliberal thinking:
The modern realist refuses to believe in the existence of the gift because the gift is seen as diametrically opposed to material, egoistic self-interest. A "true" gift can only be disinterested, freely given. And, as such a thing is impossible ("there is no free lunch"), the gift, the genuine gift, is equally impossible, with the result that their seemingly altruistic actions are really to their advantage. On the one hand, as we have said, such denial allows them to conform to the egoistic morality of the time. But, on a deeper level, by denying that their motivations are disinterested, they attest to the reality of the gift. For, as Mary Douglas has shown, the free gift does not exist - except insofar as it is a sign of antisocial behavior - for the gift serves above all to establish relations, and a relationship with no hope of return (from the individual receiving the gift or his substitute), a one-way relationship, disinterested and motiveless, would be no relationship at all. Beyond the abstract ideas of egoism and altruism and the rigid antithesis between a supposedly real moment of radical disinterest, we must think of the gift not as a series of unilateral and discontinuous acts but as an element in a relationship. (Godbout, p. 7)
Neoliberals and economists, however, will counter that,
It is true that there still are occasions set aside for the exchanging of gifts, and opportunities remain to show charity, offer rounds in bars, feel indebted, be "outdone," or, on the other hand, to free oneself of onerous, symbolic debts through recourse to money and merchandise. But these occasions are few and far between, isolated islands in a sea of utilitarian calculation. This hypothesis of the bare survival, occasional and discontinuous, of the gift, is, however contradicted by our most recent observations. These suggest that we must see the gift as the basis for a system, a system that is nothing less than the social system as a whole. The gift is the embodiment of that system of relationships that is strictly social, in that these relations cannot be reduced to factors of power of economic interest.
We are prevented from seeing this - although it is virtually self-evident - by the way contemporary thought processes associated utilitarianism, on which we all depend, lead us to formulate questions. According to that way of thinking the gift does not exist, either because only a truly disinterested gift would be a genuine gift and it is impossible to be disinterested, or because the authentic gift requires real altruism, which is unattainable since the altruist must have some egoistic reason for being an altruist. It is important to recognize that these tautological dichotomies, which force us to think only in terms of the opposition of two terms, create a smoke screen which prevents us from seeing the truth. (Godbout, pp. 13-4)
According to Godbout,
Archaic and traditional societies thought of themselves in the language of the gift, a language that defined their being-in-the-world and their distinctiveness, particularly in terms of primary social bonds (bonds desired for themselves) and refusal to lapse into historicity. It was therefore within the imaginative and sometimes frankly ideological space of the gift that they experienced and understood not only the community of humans and individual equality but also authority, law, hierarchy, exploitation, domination, and power. As modernity defines itself first and foremost by its absolute refusal of tradition, it is not surprising that it thinks it can assert its freedom by ridding itself of a language that seems coextensive with tradition, the language of the gift - and that it reserves its harshest words and most caustic sarcasm to discredit and keep in place anything that advocates generous or noble acts, such as Christian love.
We could discuss at length the historical causes for the development of the market economy and modern bureaucratic nation-states. But there is little doubt that they have much, if not everything, to do with the growing modern horror of closed communities bound together by obligatory gifts that confirm traditional hierarchies. In that sense, the market and the modern bureaucratic state, machines that destroy traditions and particularity, are above all anti-gift devices. (Godbout, p. 17)
The gift is only paradoxical from the point of view of atomized individuality. If we look at it in terms of a network of those seeking to serve self by serving others it makes sense:
How can we provide a theory of a phenomenon that has so many features - free, undecidable, contextual, spontaneous, refusing the subject-object distinction at the heart of modern thought, lacking explicit rules of conduct - that seems incompatible with any formalization? We can make some progress through the idea of the network, an idea that has already been explored in fields of research, such as artificial intelligence (AI), that have also run aground on determinist models. (Godbout, p. 197)
From the point of view of network theory, what, then, is the State and the Market?
The state is a hierarchy, but inclusive, not tangled, without a loop other that the simple minimal loop of feedback. Its channels run one way only, which eliminates certain problems (chance meetings and accidents, gift relationships based on domination, etc.) but at the same time reduces the flexibility of the system. Everything that circulates passes through a centre before moving off in the other direction, each time leaving behind a part of its contents, which mans that what circulates arrives considerably diminished compared to when it started out. The only possibility of return is feedback: in other words, the system only keeps what it wants from the outside. With the strange loop, on the other hand, the outside imposes things on the system. There is a dynamic interaction. The state apparatus makes no strange loop, for nothing may be imposed on it that has not been foreseen - things take a fixed parallel double route: concentration - redistribution. For the state apparatus, where a single individual is concerned the file is memory. For groups of individuals it is rights and the law.
For its part, the market is a tangled network but it is not hierarchical. That is why it also is a simple loop. The market is a boulevard, sometimes a freeway, where circulation is governed by a mechanism that ensures that everywhere, when an object passes by in one direction, an "equivalent" object passes by in the other direction. But on another level it is one-way, as its only goal is to transmit things from producer to consumer, at which point they disappear from the system.
The market is a network of freeways that goes off in all directions. It is tangled (Jorion, 1989, 44, 68). Unlike the state, it is decentralized. It "chooses" its path, like a telephone network. It is infinitely extensible in space, but on one plane only. It has no depth, for it is flattened by the quest for equal exchange, for perfect equivalence. It is a surface that can cover the entire planet, thanks to the fact that it also constitutes a network from which one has removed "the hazards of human relationships (Simmel 1987). It is a kind of simple tangling (Hofstadter 1980), a simple connection. What is more, the market has one starting point and one destination, one direction, from the producer to the consumer. Time for the market, its memory, is money. Of its own volition, it only draws on a tiny part of past relationships between people. It sets aside the bond and its personal history. But it is not surprising that Bateson claims that "of all imaginary organisms [dragons, gods ...], economic man is the dullest ... because his mental processes are all quantitative, and his preferences transitive" (1987, 175). It is this, however, that enables so-called economic man to be universal and to cross cultures.
Compared to the state, the market opens onto an infinite, free space. And we can easily understand that if a member of society is faced with a state apparatus that lacks a democratic loop, the mercantile network can appear to be a liberation, with its countless, seemingly endless paths. But we also understand that humans are soon dissatisfied with the absence of social ties that the market brings in its wake, that they come to feel they have been shrunken by this shallow network, diminished, a bit like a three-dimensional being flattened into two dimensions ... (Godbout, pp. 200-1)
Here we see a diabolical facet of neoliberal ideology: that there are only two alternatives, free markets or state tyranny (that was the false choice of the Cold War). Once we accept that, they've got us. It is imperative that we always look for the "third man."
The third choice, the gift, differs from the other two by its multidimensionality:
The gift combines the loop of the market and the hierarchy of the state, which makes it a tangled hierarchy. That is why anything seized from the gift by the state or the market model represents either a vertical section of the gift-giving system, retaining only its hierarchical aspect with its obligations and constraints, or a horizontal section, retaining only the simple, flat network of the market, which is governed by the single law of equivalence, which neutralizes ties and their contextual variability. (Godbout, p. 202)
And finally,
- For Hofstadter, as for most philosophers, the intelligence of the human species involves one loop in addition to those that animals have, the loop that is responsible for the fact that we know that we know, for the self-awareness that has defined humans since the Greeks.
- For some theorists in modern democracy, the difference between those in primitive societies and ourselves also resides in our having one additional loop, that which endows us with autonomy, something not available in primitive societies.
- For utilitarian liberals, the superiority of the market over the gift also implies an extra loop, the self-knowledge that teaches us that every gift is an unconscious exchange and that the donor is self-interested. On this theory, this is the loop of lucidity that enables us to move away from primitive spontaneity and naivety and accede to rationality - or rather to the consciousness of rationality, since every human is utilitarian, even if they don't know it or refuse to acknowledge it.
- The gift represents still another level: the awareness that to make the exchange explicit is one level too much, which freezes the exchange and transforms it, making it lose its flexibility by lessening the uncertainty and underdetermination, thus relegating it to a lower level. The mercantile loop, for the gift, rather than being an additional loop, is a perverse loop. To refuse this loop is to create a level superior to it. This is the level of language, of creation, of the vagueness needed to reflect the indetermination and radical incompleteness of these systems and their irreduciblity to determinist systems such as those embodied in the models for bureaucratic apparatus and the market. The gift is a conscious abandonment to the absence of calculation, a spontaneous meta-level that can be described as "behaviour that results from an effect of self-organization" (Jorion 1990, 117). If we follow the rules, we do not know how to give, any more than we know how to speak a language if we have to follow its rules while we are talking. (Godbout, p. 204)
We also discussed in previous installments the divide between primitive and civilized, to use two somewhat discredited terms. We asked if there were only two choices there as well. We wondered if there could be a non-exploitative, anarchist high-tech gift culture. We noted that large-scale exploitation of humans by other humans began with the invention of agriculture, or large scale exploitation of nature by humans. Everything seems to have changed ten thousand years ago. What happened? Why? Are there clues in that break?
To dig a little deeper into the issues of the Neolithic Revolution and our desire for open, creative networks, let's look at the ideas of Daniel Quinn, a novelist in the anthropological tradition of Marshall Sahlins, who has written with a lot of insight on just what did change ten thousand years ago. Quinn is firmly in the primitivist camp, a position which we will also call into question, but his primitivism is oriented toward the open, emergent evolution of complex systems.
In anthropological work, the anthropologist, an outsider to a culture, learns about another culture by participating in it and interviewing informants. In Quinn's most well-known novel, Ishmael ((Daniel Quinn, Ishmael, New York:Bantam, 1995), this role is played by a gorilla, Ishmael, who can speak telepathically. It sounds a bit silly, but the character of the gorilla is well-drawn. The narrator, a disillusioned middle-age person, meets regularly with Ishmael after answering an ad about saving the world.
Ishmael soon convinces the narrator that our society still operates by an overarching myth. The most fundamental parts of our myth arises from the neolithic invention of agriculture. Quinn calls the predominant myth the story of the Takers. The other myth, enacted by most humankind during the last million years or so, was the story of the Leavers.
" ...all you have to know is that two fundamentally different stories have been enacted here during the lifetime of man. One began to be enacted here some two or three million years ago by the people we've agreed to call Leavers and is still being enacted by them today, as successfully as ever. The other began to be enacted here some ten or twelve thousand years ago by the people we've agreed to call Takers, and is apparently about to end in catastrophe." (Daniel Quinn, Ishmael, New York:Bantam, 1995, p. 41)
Ishmael then asks the narrator to tell his culture's creation myth and he does, beginning with the Big Bang, continuing with the development and evolution of life on planet Earth and ending with the appearance of Man.
The narrator still doesn't see that this story is a myth, it's scientific and factual, after all. so Ishmael tells him another story, similar to the narrator's except for the fact that it is told by a jellyfish eons ago to an alien anthropologist. The story ends with the "appearance" of jellyfish:
"But finally," the creature said, turning quite pink with pride as he came to the climax of the story, "but finally jellyfish appeared!"
Ishmael continued,
"What did the jellyfish mean when it said, 'But finally jellyfish appeared'?"
"It meant ... that is what it was all leading up to. This is what the whole ten of fifteen billion years of creation were leading up to: jellyfish."
"I agree. And why doesn't your account of creation end with the appearance of jellyfish?"
... "Because there was more to come beyond jellyfish?"
"That's right. Creation didn't end with jellyfish. Still to come were the vertebrates and the amphibians and the reptiles and the mammals, and, of course, man." (Ibid., p. 56)
The implication is clear. The narrator's story ended with "and finally man appeared."
"Meaning that there was no more to come. Meaning that creation had come to an end."
"This is what it was all leading up to."
... "That seems to be the unspoken assumption."
"It's certainly not always unspoken. The religions of your culture aren't reticent about it. Man is the end product of creation. Man is the creature for whom all the rest was made: this world, this solar system, this galaxy, the universe itself."
... "Everyone in your culture knows that the world wasn't created for jellyfish or salmon or iguanas or gorillas. It was created for man."
... "But what about the rest? Did the entire cosmic process of creation come to an end three million years ago, right here on this little planet, with the appearance of man?"
"No."
Did even the planetary process of creation come to an end three million years ago with the appearance of man? Did evolution come to a screeching halt just because man had arrived?"
..."As you tell it, the birth of man was a central event - indeed the central event - in the history of the cosmos itself. From the birth of man on, the rest of the universe ceases to be of interest, ceases to participate in the unfolding drama. For this, earth alone is sufficient; it is the birthplace and home of man, and that's its meaning. The Takers regard the world as a sort of human life-support system, as a machine designed to produce and sustain human life."
..."All right. That's the premise of your story: The world was made for man." (Ibid., pp. 57-61)
Therefore, according to the Taker myth, humans rule the earth.
"Man's destiny was to was to conquer and rule the world, and this is what he's done - almost. He hasn't quite made it, and it looks as though this may be his undoing. The problem is that man's conquest of the world has itself devastated the world. And in spite of all the mastery we've attained, we don't have enough mastery to stop devastating the world - or to repair the devastation we've already wrought."
... "Only one thing can save us. We have to increase our mastery of the world. All this damage has come about through our conquest of the world, but we have to go on conquering it until our rule is absolute. Then, when we're in complete control, everything will be fine. We'll have fusion power. No pollution. We'll turn the rain on and off. We'll grow a bushel of wheat in a square centimeter. We'll turn the oceans into farms ..."
"And that's where it stands right now. We have to carry the conquest forward. And carrying it forward is either going to destroy the world or turn it into a paradise - into the paradise it was meant to be under human rule."
"And if we manage to do this - if we finally manage to make ourselves the absolute rulers of the world - then nothing can stop us. Then we move into the Star Trek era. Man moves out into space to conquer and rule the entire universe. And that may be the ultimate destiny of man: to conquer and rule the entire universe. That's how wonderful man is." (pp. 80-1)
The main difference between Takers and Leavers is this: in contrast to Takers, Leavers:
...never exterminate their competitors, which is something that never happens in the wild. In the wild, animals will defend their territories and their kills and they will invade their competitors' territories and preempt their kills. Some species even include competitors among their prey, but they will never hunt competitors down just to make them dead, the way ranchers and farmers do with coyotes and foxes and crows. What they hunt, they eat." (p. 126)
Takers, on the other hand,
" ...systematically destroy their competitors' food to make room for their own. Nothing like this occurs in the natural community. The rule there is: Take what you need, and leave the rest alone."
... "Next, the Takers deny their competitors access to food. In the wild, the rule is: You may deny your competitors access to what you're eating, but you may not deny them access to food in general. In other words, you can say, 'This gazelle is mine,' but you can't say, 'All gazelles are mine.'"
"Our policy is: Every square foot of this planet belongs to us, so if we put it all under cultivation, then all our competitors are just plain out of luck and will have to become extinct. Our policy is to deny our competitors access to all the food in the world, and that's something no other species does." (p. 127-8)
What results is the end of evolution. For Quinn, evolution can only happen when a species put itself in the hands of the gods, so to speak, in other words when it relinquishes the attempt to stop evolution in its own favor. The attempt to control all life for the benefit of one species results in a catastrophic reduction of life, and the variety that life provides and which fuels creativity and evolution. The scheme maps well onto Laura Knight-Jadczyk's opposition between creativity and entropy. The creativity and entropy distinction came about, interestingly, as a refinement of the Service to Others and Service to Self opposition (STS vs. STO). Which brings us back to the question we started this with: What would an open, STO economy look like?
"'No species shall make the life of the world its own.'"
... "That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species.'"
..."The people of your culture cling with fanatical tenacity to the specialness of man. They want desperately to perceive a vast gulf between man and the rest of creation. This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world ... But in the end this mythology is not deeply satisfying. The Takers are a profoundly lonely people. The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness." (pp. 145-6)
The Fall, then, occurred when humans tried to take the place of "the gods" or those who rule the world and make the decisions about who shall live and who shall die.
"The disaster occurred when, ten thousand years ago, the people of your culture said, "We're as wise as the gods and can rule the world as well as they.' When they took into their own hands the power of life and death over the world, their doom was assured."
"Yes. Because they are not in fact as wise as the gods."
"The gods ruled the world for billions of years, and it was doing just fine. After just a few thousand years of human rule, the world is at the point of death."
... "A minute ago, you told me that the Takers will never give up their tyranny over the world, no matter how bad things get. How did they get to be this way?
... "They got to be this way because they've always believed that what they were doing was right - and therefore to be done at any cost whatever.
... "They've demonstrated it by forcing everyone in the world to do what they do, to live the way they live. Everyone had to be forced to live like the Takers, because the Takers had the one right way."
... "Many peoples among the Leavers practiced agriculture, but they were never obsessed by the delusion that what they were doing was right, that everyone in the entire world had to practice agriculture, that every last square yard of the planet had to be devoted to it." (pp. 166-7)
The statement, "They got to be this way because they've always believed that what they were doing was right - and therefore to be done at any cost whatever. ... They've demonstrated it by forcing everyone in the world to do what they do, to live the way they live," fits the Cheney administration in this decade in the United States. They are the apotheosis of the Entropic, Service to Self, Taker orientation.
According to Quinn, if the human race adopts the Leaver story as its myth, we can discover that we can play a special role in the evolution of consciousness. The Leaver story is based on the premise that "man belongs to the world" rather than the world belonging to man.
"There is a sort of tendency in evolution, wouldn't you say? If you start with those ultrasimple critters in the ancient seas and move up step by step to everything we see here now - and beyond - then you have to observe a tendency toward ... complexity. And towards self-awareness and intelligence."
... "That is, all sorts of creatures on this planet appear to be on the verge of attaining that self-awareness and intelligence. So it's definitely no just humans that the gods are after. We were never meant to be the only players on this stage. Apparently the gods intend this this planet to be filled with creatures that are self-aware and intelligent."
... "man is the first of all these. He's the trailblazer, the pathfinder. His destiny is to be the first to learn that creatures like man have a choice: They can try to thwart the gods and perish in the attempt - or they can stand aside and make room for all the rest. But it's more than that. His destiny is to be the father of them all - I don't mean by direct descent. By giving all the rest their chance - the whales and the dolphins and the chimps and the raccoons - he becomes in some sense their progenitor ... Oddly enough, it's even grander than the destiny the Takers dreamed up for us." (pp. 241-2)
But back to our original question, what is the answer? How can we avoid the catastrophe? Can we have a high-tech gift culture that lives by the creative principle, or serving self by serving others? Earlier we saw that there was something about hunter-gatherer society that allowed them to live "affluent" lives without exploitation of their fellow human-beings. What can we learn from them. Quinn's work, along with Mauss's helps point the way to an answer. Open networks that have the ability to evolve without developing pathological concentrations of power need to be created. Of course they can't be imposed they would have to grow naturally. Perhaps some of the ideas we saw in David Graeber's Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, specifically the idea of "engaged withdrawal" from dominant, hierarchical institutions. The pulling away from the mainstream media in the internet age is a good example of the power of this, as is the whole "wiki" movement and open source software development.
We also need to examine an issue brought up by Quinn: are humans completely of organic life or not? According to Quinn, the answer would be 'yes' but is that really the case? On one side of the question are lined up primitivists, pagans and radical ecologists. Is the only position on the other side of that question the Taker position? Or can there be a third one?
Tied up with this question is another: Is there only one human race? The best scientific estimates today see around 6% of the human population as irredeemably psychopathic. Esotericists like Boris Mouravieff and Laura Knight-Jadczyk have suggested that the human race is divided equally in two between the Adamics and Pre-Adamics. The Adamics have the possibility of further individual soul development beyond this lifetime, even. According to this scheme, psychopaths are a particularly extreme variant of the pre-Adamics. If we don't take these issues account in devising utopian scenarios, we will be adding to the problem. Schemes that would work for Adamics would not for pre-Adamics. And, great care needs to be taken to be aware of and contain the damage that can be caused by psychopaths, those among us with no conscience. As Andrew Lobaczewski argued in Political Ponerology, the more our model of human nature is incorrect, the easier it is for psychopaths to undermine society and take it over. So rather than mere philosophical or theological speculation, these questions have to be confronted before we suggest practical solutions.
Networks of individuals, with knowledge of psychopaths, who are willing to submit to shocks to the ego, to having the network help them root out mechanical programs, might be able to enact a gift-economy circulation of goods and services, a high-tech gift economy. Such a thing might make real both Jesus's Kingdom of Heaven and Marx's True Communism. But psychopaths must be contained and one's own inner psychopath or predator must also be rooted out for such a utopia to be enacted.
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Editorial: Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby is so Important
James Petras
December 22, 2006
"It's no great secret why the Jewish agencies continue to trumpet support for the discredited policies of this failed administration. They see defense of Israel as their number-one goal, trumping all other items on the agenda. That single-mindedness binds them ever closer to a White House that has made combating Islamic terrorism its signature campaign. The campaign's effects on the world have been catastrophic. But that is no concern of the Jewish agencies."
December 8, 2006 statement by JJ Goldberg, editor of Forward (the leading Jewish weekly in the United States)
Introduction:
Many Jewish writers, including those who are somewhat critical of Israel, have raised pointed questions about our critique of the Zionist power configuration (ZPC) in the United States and what they wrongly claim are our singular harsh critique of the state of Israel. Some of these accusers claim to see signs of 'latent anti-Semitism', others, of a more 'leftist' coloration, deny the influential role of the ZPC arguing that US foreign policy is a product of 'geo-politics or the interests of big oil. With the recent publication of several widely circulated texts, highly critical of the power of the Zionist 'lobby', several liberal pro-Israel publicists generously conceded that it is a topic that should be debated (and not automatically stigmatized and dismissed) and perhaps be 'taken into account.'
ZPC Deniers: Phony Arguments for Fake Claims
The main claims of ZPC deniers take several tacks: Some claim that the ZPC is just 'another lobby' like the Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club or the Society for the Protection of Goldfish. Others claim that by focusing mainly on Israel and by inference the 'Lobby', the critics of Zionism ignore the equally violent abuses of rulers, regimes and states elsewhere. This 'exclusive focus' on Israel, the deniers of ZPC argue, reveals a latent or overt anti-Semitism. They propose that human rights advocates condemn all human rights abusers everywhere (at the same time and with the same emphasis?). Others still argue that Israel is a democracy - at least outside of the Occupied Territories (OT) - and therefore is not as condemnable as other human rights violators and should be 'credited' for its civic virtues along with its human rights failings. Finally others still claim that, because of the Holocaust and 'History-of-Two-Thousand-Years-of-Persecution', criticism of Jewish-funded and led pro-Israel lobbies should be handled with great prudence, making it clear that one criticizes only specific abuses, investigates all charges - especially those from Arab/Palestinian/United Nations/European/Human Rights sources -- and recognizes that Israeli public opinion, the press and even the Courts or sectors of them may also be critical of regime policies.
These objections to treating the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict and the activities of Zionist Lobbies as central to peace and war serve to dilute, dissipate and deflate criticism and organized political activity directed at the ZPC and its directors in Israel.
The response of the critics of Israel and the ZPC to these attacks has been weak at best and cowardly at worst. Some critics have responded that their criticism is only directed toward a specific policy or leader, or to Israeli policies in the OT and that they recognize Israel is a democracy, that it requires secure borders, and that it is in the interests of the Israeli 'people' to lower their security barriers. Others argue that their criticism is directed at securing Israeli interests, influencing the Zionist Lobby or to opening a debate. They claim that the views of 'most' Jews' in the US are not represented by the 52 organizations that make up the Presidents of the Major Jewish Organizations of America, or the thousands of PACs, local federations, professional associations and weekly publications which speak with one voice as unconditional supporters of every twist and turn in the policy of the Zionist State.
There are numerous similar lines of criticism, which basically avoid the fundamental issues raised by the Israeli state and the ZPC, and which we are obliged to address. The reason that criticism and action directed against Israel and the ZPC is of central importance today in any discussion of US foreign policy, especially (but not exclusively) of Middle East policy and US domestic policymaking is that they play a decisive role and have a world-historic impact on the present and future of world peace and social justice. We turn now to examine the 'big questions' facing Americans as a result of the power of Israel in the United States.
The Big Questions Raised by the ZPC and Israeli Power in the USA:
War or Peace:
Critical study of the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq, US involvement in providing arms to Israel (cluster bombs, two-ton bunker buster bombs and satellite surveillance intelligence) prior to, during and after Israel's abortive invasion of Lebanon, Washington's backing of the starvation blockade of the Palestinian people and the White House and Congress' demands for sanctions and war against Iran are directly linked to Israeli state policy and its Zionist policy-makers in the Executive branch and US Congress. One needs to look no further than the documents, testimony and reports of AIPAC and the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations to observe their claims of success in authoring legislation, providing (falsified) intelligence, engaging in espionage (AIPAC) and turning documents over to Israeli intelligence (now dubbed 'free speech' by liberal Zionists).
If, as the overwhelming evidence indicates, the ZPC played a major role in the major wars of our time, wars capable of igniting new armed conflicts, then it ill behooves us to dilute the role of the Zionist/Jewish Lobby in promoting future US wars. Given Israel's militarist-theocratic approach to territorial aggrandizement and its announced plans for future wars with Iran and Syria, and given the fact that the ZPC acts as an unquestioning and highly disciplined transmission belt for the Israeli state, then US citizens opposed to present and future US engagement in Middle East wars must confront the ZPC and its Israeli mentors. Moreover, given the extended links among the Islamic nations, the Israel/ZPC proposed 'new wars' with Iran will result in Global wars. Hence what is at stake in confronting the ZPC are questions which go beyond the Israeli-Palestine peace process, or even regional Middle East conflicts: it involves the big question of World Peace or War.
Democracy or Authoritarianism
Without the bluster and public hearings of former Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Jewish Lobby has systematically undermined the principal pillars of our fragile democracy. While the US Congress, media, academics, retired military and public figures are free to criticize the President, any criticism of Israel, much less the Jewish Lobby, is met with vicious attacks in all the op-ed pages of major newspapers by an army of pro-Israeli 'expert' propagandists, demands for firings, purges and expulsions of the critics from their positions or denial of promotions or new appointments. In the face of any prominent critic calling into question the Lobby's role in shaping US policy to suit Israel's interests, the entire apparatus (from local Jewish federations, AIPAC, the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations etc) go into action - smearing, insulting and stigmatizing the critics as 'anti-Semites'. By denying free speech and public debate through campaigns of calumny and real and threatened repercussions the Jewish Lobby has denied Americans one of their more basic freedoms and constitutional rights.
The massive, sustained and well-financed hate campaigns directed at any congressional candidate critical of Israel effectively eliminates free speech among the political elite. The overwhelming influence of wealthy Jewish contributors to both parties - but especially the Democrats - results in the effective screening out of any candidate who might question any part of the Lobby's Israel agenda. The takeover of Democratic campaign finance by two ultra-Zionist zealots, Senator Charles Schumer and Israeli-American Congressman Rahm Emanuel ensured that every candidate was totally subordinated to the Lobby's unconditional support of Israel. The result is that there is no Congressional debate, let alone investigation, over the key role of prominent Zionists in the Pentagon involved in fabricating reports on Iraq's 'weapons of mass destruction', and in designing and executing the war and the disastrous occupation policy. The Lobby's ideologues posing as Middle East 'experts' dominate the op-ed and editorial pages of all the major newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post). In their pose as Middle East experts, they propagandize the Israeli line on the major television networks (CBS, NBC,ABC, Fox, and CNN) and their radio affiliates. The Lobby has played a prominent role in supporting and implementing highly repressive legislation like the Patriot Act and the Military Commission Act as well as modifying anti-corruption legislation to allow the Lobby to finance congressional 'educational' junkets to Israel. The head of Homeland Security with its over 150,000 functionaries and multi-billion dollar budget is none other than Zionist fanatic Michael Chertoff, head persecutor of Islamic charity organizations, Palestinian relief organizations and other ethnic Middle Eastern or Moslem constituencies in the US, which potentially might challenge the Lobby's pro-Israel agenda.
The biggest threat to democracy in its fullest sense of the word - the right to debate, to elect, to legislate free of coercion - is found in the organized efforts of the Zionist lobby, to repress public debate, control candidate selection and campaigning, direct repressive legislation and security agencies against electoral constituencies opposing the Lobby's agenda for Israel. No other lobby or political action group has as much sustained and direct influence over the political process - including the media, congressional debate and voting, candidate selection and financing of congressional allocation of foreign aid and Middle East agendas as the organized Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) and its indirect spokespeople heading key Congressional positions. A first step toward reversing the erosion of our democratic freedoms is recognizing and publicly exposing the ZPC's nefarious organizational and financial activities and moving forward toward neutralizing their efforts.
Their Foreign Policy or Ours?
Intimately and directly related to the loss of democratic freedoms and a direct consequence of the Jewish lobby's influence over the political process is the making of US Middle East policy and who benefits from it. The entire political effort of the Lobby (its spending, ethnic baiting, censorship and travel junkets) is directed toward controlling US foreign policy and, through US power, to influence the policy of US allies, clients and adversaries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The Lobby's systematic curtailment of our democratic freedoms is intimately related to our own inability to influence our nation's foreign policy. Our majoritarian position against the Iraq War, the repudiation of the main executioner of the War (the White House) and our horror in the face of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and destruction of Gaza are totally neutralized by Zionist influence over Congressional and White House policymakers. The recently victorious Congressional Democrats repudiate their electorate and follow the advice and dictates of the pro-Zionist leadership (Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Rahm Emmanuel, Stephan Israel and others) by backing an escalation of troops and an increase in military spending for the war in Iraq. Bush follows the war policy against Iran proposed by the zealous Zionist fanatics in the American Enterprise Institute, repudiating the diplomatic proposals of the bi-partisan Baker Commission. Congress quadruples US arms stored in Israel (supposedly for dual use) in the aftermath of Israel's bombing of Southern Lebanon with one million anti-personnel bomblets from cluster bombs in direct defiance of US electoral opinion. While hundreds of millions of undernourished women and children suffer and die in Africa, Latin America and Asia, the Lobby ensures that over half of US foreign aid goes to Israeli Jews with per capita incomes of over $22,000 USD.
No other organized political action group or public relations firm acting on behalf of the Cuban and Venezuelan exiles or Arab, African, Chinese or European Union states comes remotely near the influence of the Zionist lobby in shaping US policy to serve the interest of Israel.
While the Lobby speaks for less than 2% of the US electorate, its influence on foreign policy far exceeds the great majority who have neither comparable organizational nor financial muscle to impose their views.
Never in the history of the US republic or empire has a powerful but tiny minority been able to wield so much influence in using out nation's military and economic power and diplomatic arm-twisting in the service of a foreign government. Neither the Francophiles during the American Revolution, the Anglophiles in the Civil War and the German Bund in the run-up to World War Two, nor the (anti-China) Nationalist Taiwan Lobby possessed the organizational power and sustained political influence that the ZPC has on US foreign and domestic policy at the service of the State of Israel.
Confronting the Lobby Matters
The question of the power of the Lobby over US policies of war or peace, authoritarianism or democracy and over who defines the interests served by US foreign policy obviously go far beyond the politics of the Middle East, the Israeli-colonial land grabs in Palestine and even the savage occupation of Iraq. The playing out of Zionist influence over the greatest military power in the world, with the most far-reaching set of client states, military bases, deadly weapons and decisive voice in international bodies (IMF/World Bank/United Nations Security Council) means that the Lobby has a means to leverage its reach in most regions of the world. This leverage power extends over a range of issues, from defending the fortunes of murderous Russian-Jewish gangster oligarchs, to bludgeoning European allies of the US to complicity with Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
The ZPC represents a basic threat to our existence as a sovereign state and our ability to influence whom we elect and what agendas and interests our representatives will pursue. Even worse, by serving Israeli interests, we are becoming complicit with a State whose Supreme Court legalizes political assassinations across national boundaries, torture, systematic violations of international law and a regime which repudiates United Nations resolutions and unilaterally invades and bombs its neighbors and practices military colonist expansionism. In a word Israel resonates and feeds into the most retrograde tendencies and brutal practices of contemporary American politics. In this sense the Lobby through its media, Congressional influence and think tanks is creating an Israeli look-alike. Like Israel, the US has established its own Pentagon assassination teams; like Israel, it invades and colonizes Iraq; like Israel, it violates and rejects any constitutional or international legal restraints and systematically tortures accused but untried prisoners.
Because of these fundamental considerations, we cannot oblige our Jewish 'progressive' colleagues and compatriots and refrain from confronting the Zionist Lobby with force and urgency. Too many of our freedoms are at stake; too little time is left before they succeed in securing a greater military escalation; too little of our sovereignty remains in the face of the concerted effort by the Lobby and its Middle Eastern 'expert-ideologues' to push and shove us into a new and more devastating war with Iran at the behest of Israel's pursuit of Middle East dominance.
No other country, abuser or not, of human rights, with or without electoral systems, has the influence over our domestic and foreign policy as does the state of Israel. No other Lobby has the kind of financial power and organizational reach as the Jewish Lobby in eroding our domestic political freedoms or our war-making powers. For those reasons alone, it stands to reason, that we American have a necessity to put our fight against Israel and its Lobby at the very top of our political agenda. It is not because Israel has the worst human rights agenda in the world - other states have even worst democratic credentials - but because of its role in promoting its US supporters to degrade our democratic principles, robbing us of our freedom to debate and our sovereignty to decide our own interests. The Lobby puts the military and budgetary resources of the Empire at the service of Greater Israel - and that results in the worst human rights in the world.
Democratic, just and peaceful responses to the Big Questions that face Americans, Europeans, Muslims, Jews and other peoples of the world passes through the defeat and dismantlement of the Israeli-directed Zionist Power Configuration in America. Nothing less will allow us to engage in an open debate on the alternatives to repression at home and imperialism abroad.
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Editorial: Gambling to Save Face on Iraq
December 25, 2006
by Rodrigue Tremblay
"Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
Hermann Goering (1893-1946), SS Nazi leader
"Americans will speak of the battles like Fallujah. with the same awe and reverence that we now give to Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima."
President George W. Bush, November 10, 2006
"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing but only after they've exhausted every other possibility."
Winston Churchill(1874-1965), former Prime Minister of England
Sometimes, when a snake tries to swallow a porcupine, it gets stuck in its throat and the predator has no choice but to spew it out. The neoconservative Bush-Cheney administration, under the pro-Israel Lobby's influence, thought that Iraq would be an easy meal, to be savored while doing an easy "cakewalk", in the words of neocon Ken Adelman: "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk." Now, the Bush-Cheney administration will spend the next two years it has left attempting to extricate itself from the morass they have brought upon Iraq and upon the United States.
According to departing U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan, the U.S. is 'Trapped in Iraq', and faces a no-win situation. This is reminiscent of what former Secretary of State Colin Powel is reputed have said to George W. Bush before the military invasion of Iraq: "If you break it; you own it!" How long and after how many more deaths will this Iraq quagmire last? The geopolitical consequences of having a country like the United States trapped in Iraq are enormous. The Iraqi conflict is turning into another Vietnam war-like fiasco. Already, the Iraq war costs more in nominal terms than the Vietnam war and 58 percent of Americans now believe that George W. Bush led them into a new Vietnam-like mess.
Even though the 10-wise-persons Baker-Hamilton Commission has unanimously recommended that the U.S. terminate its open-ended presence in Iraq and begin its disengagement and “redeployment†from the country, and even though fewer than 30 percent of Americans approve Bush's policies in Iraq, you can bet the house that George W. Bush will not follow the recommendation of his father's advisors. Instead of beginning an orderly troop withdrawal in 2007, as recommended by the Baker-Hamilton Commission, G. W. Bush will rather gamble and raise the ante, and will risk turning Iraq into an even bigger mess than it is today. It's like Bush's SUV has got no reverse gear!
In a last attempt to salvage a losing and misguided enterprise, and deep in his continuous state of denial, Bush will throw good money after bad and will send thousands of additional American troops to "secure Baghdad" and give the impression of some stability in Iraq. In reality, Bush's "new approach" for Iraq may well have the consequence of enlarging the conflict, possibly bringing Iran, Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia into the inferno. In other words, the Neocon inspired Bush-Cheney team will do exactly the reverse of what the Baker-Hamilton Commission has recommended. No wonder former president George H. Bush is crying aloud in public.
The Bush-Cheney administration invaded a foreign country illegally and now thinks that its presence there has become indispensable. —That takes some gall. Trying to save face with "a last big push" to give the impression of “salvaging†the situation is not a real policy for solving the Iraqi mess. This will only perpetuate the on-going civil war in that country and pile up more deaths on the already high mountain of deaths. It is a cop-out, but sadly in line with what one would expect from a dysfunctional administration.
Rodrigue Tremblay lives in Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com
Also visit his blog site at www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.
Author's Website: www.thenewamericanempire.com
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Editorial: Why did Russia and China vote to sanction Iran?
By Jorge Hirsch
12/26/06
Information Clearing House
In the aftermath of the Dec. 23 United Nations Security Council unanimous vote imposing sanctions or Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment (see text of resolution here), one has to wonder: why did Russia and China go along with it?
Iran's pursuit of uranium enrichment for civilian nuclear purposes is allowed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the IAEA has found no indication that Iran has diverted any nuclear material to military purposes. While Russia may prefer for its own reasons that Iran not enrich uranium, it fully recognizes that Iran's pursuit is legal under international law. Furthermore, as Western news media constantly emphasize, Russia and China have extensive commercial ties with Iran, hence it is not in their interest to antagonize Iran. Their support of UNSC1737 doesn't seem to make sense.
The UNSC vote is ominous because it allows Bush to cut and paste from his March 17th 2003 speech on the impending Iraq attack, substituting "q" for "n":
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The (Iraqi) Iranian regime has used diplomacy as a ploy to gain time and advantage. It has uniformly defied Security Council resolutions
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[The regime] has a deep hatred of America and our friends. And it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al Qaeda. (see 9/11 commission report)
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Recognizing the threat to our country, the United States Congress voted overwhelmingly last year (to support the use of force against Iraq) to "hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior".
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America tried to work with the United Nations to address this threat because we wanted to resolve the issue peacefully.
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For the last four-and-a-half months, the United States and our allies have worked within the Security Council to enforce that Council's long-standing demands. Yet, some permanent members of the Security Council have publicly announced they will veto any resolution that compels (the disarmament of Iraq) the denuclearization of Iran. These governments share our assessment of the danger, but not our resolve to meet it.
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The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours.
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Should (Saddam Hussein) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad choose confrontation, the American people can know that every measure has been taken to avoid war, and every measure will be taken to win it.
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[T]he only way to reduce the harm and duration of war is to apply the full force and might of our military, and we are prepared to do so.
In the case of Iran, this last statement would be especially ominous, because it would signal that the US will use nuclear weapons against Iran. Recall that Bush has explicitly refused to take the option of a US nuclear strike against Iran off the table.
Many other statements in the March 17th 2003 speech apply even better to Iran than they did to Iraq. "Inteligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised" was false, but that Iran is enriching uranium is true. Saddam could not disarm of weapons it didn't have, but Iran could bow to Bush's demand and stop its nuclear enrichment program, hence the statement that by refusing to do so it would be "choosing" war is somewhat less farfetched. Iran's alleged threats against Israel will undoubtedly be prominently featured in Bush's speeches defending military action against Iran.
Iran will not stop its enrichment program, certainly not as a precondition to negotiations. This should be obvious to Bush, as well as to Russia and China. Hence one must ask: why is Bush pursuing this approach, and why are Russia and China, albeit reluctantly, supporting it?
What are Bush's intentions toward Iran?
If Bush had any intention of reaching a negotiated agreement with Iran, he had plenty of opportunities to pursue such options, as recently detailed by Flynt Leverett (see complete article here) [pdf]. In the absence of any concession by the US, Iran will not submit to US demands, and weak sanctions resolutions do not exert any real pressure on Iran. This has been clear to many observers including this author for many months. The only rational explanation to understand the US push to pass resolutions against Iran, no matter how weak, is that its purpose is to lay the ground for planned military action.
If the intention is to attack Iran, it was important for Bush to have this UNSC resolution ( and the preceding one of July 31st) approved unanimously, that makes a demand on Iran that Iran will not meet, to provide a fig-leaf argument that "the world" demands action, as UNSC 1441 did in the case of Iraq.
Why did Russia and China support sanctions?
Russia and China could have chosen to veto the resolution, or at least abstain. Instead, after negotiating to water it down, they voted for sanctions. Why?
One could argue that they sincerely would prefer that Iran stops enriching uranium, permanently or at least temporarily, to defuse tensions. That may well be so. However, there has never been any indication that Iran would be inclined to stop enriching uranium if such sanctions are imposed, quite the contrary. These sanctions have essentially no effect on Iran, and Iran is in a position where it could live with even much stronger sanctions without much problem. So Iran's defiant reaction to the latest UN resolution was entirely predictable.
So I argue that Russia and China's vote is understandable only under the assumption that private discussions have been going on between them and the US. Their vote is understandable if in those private discussions:
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Bush strongly indicated that he would use military force if Russia and China didn't agree to support sanctions.
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Bush gave private assurances to Russia and China that he would not initiate military action against Iran without UNSC consent.
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Bush demanded that his private assurances remain private, arguing that making them public would underminde the diplomatic effort by reducing the pressure on Iran.
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Bush said that if his private assurances were made public deliberately or accidentally after the UNSC vote, they would no longer be binding.
A hint suggesting that such private assurances have been given is that Bush and Putin have publicly stressed the importance of a "unified position" on Iran. As long as there is a "unified position" Iran will not be attacked, because Putin would never agree to such a course of action.
Are Bush's private assurances believable?
I will not make a judgment of how trustworthy President Bush is. However I argue that the evidence clearly indicates that any private assurances given by Bush to Russia and China that he will not resort to military action against Iran without Security Council approval were only given to induce them to support the UN action, and that he has no intention of honoring them.
The reason is simply that there is no other way to understand what Bush's purpose is in the approach being pursued, other than to reach a diplomatic impasse and subsequently resort to military action. The more sanctions are imposed, the less inclined and the less likely Iran will be to engage in compromise.
On the other hand, any private and public assurances that Bush may have given Israel regarding US support of Israel against Iran are likely to be honored by Bush, with Congress' full support.
The final conditions for the impending military action are being rapidly put in place as we speak:
How will it get started? Either a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like incident, or an attack by Israel, or an incident in Iraq that will be blamed on Iran. Anything to provoke an Iranian response, argue "self-defense", and escalate the confrontation till it leads to taking out our big guns, nuclear weapons.
How can it be prevented?
As I and other authors have argued, a military confrontation with Iran is bound to lead to the US use of nuclear weapons. That is the only way the US can hope for "rapid and favorable war termination on US terms". In the absence of a "nuclear option" the US is highly unlikely to attack Iran because it would carry a huge military cost. However it should be clear to most rational people that a US use of nuclear weapons, no matter how small, against Iran would have disastrous consequences for the future of the world.
Consequently I argue that to prevent a military confrontation with Iran and facilitate a diplomatic solution it is essential to focus on getting the US nuclear option against Iran off the table.
Russia and China may already have privately assured Bush that a US use of nuclear weapons against Iran would not be acceptable to them under any circumstances, no matter what the "military necessity" or the "surprising military developments" are, and that any US preparations planning for contingency use like forward deployment of tactical nuclear weapons would not be acceptable to them. Russia and China may already have privately warned Bush of actions they may take in response to a US nuclear use against Iran, from diplomatic to economic to military. Russia and China could ask that Bush publicly takes the "nuclear option" off the table as a condition to support any further diplomatic action against Iran. The US nuclear option against Iran is not going to pressure Iran to abandon enrichment, quite the contrary, and taking it off the table would certainly help to defuse tension.
The newly elected democratic Congress could take the US nuclear option against Iran off the table. Congress could pass a law prohibiting the US military from using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states. Here is an example of such a bill. While the Constitution makes the President the "Commander in Chief", it assigns Congress the responsibility to "make rules for the government and regulation" of the armed forces. Hence Congress could pass a law removing the authority of Bush to order the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, unless Congress first declares Iran to be a nuclear power.
Members of Congress should bring this issue to the forefront of public attention, call for hearings and introduce bills addressing the US nuclear weapons use issue. Representative Dennis Kucinich has taken the lead by publicly calling for the US to renounce nuclear first-strike policy. Any private assurances that members of Congress may have been given regarding US plans for nuclear weapons deployment and use should be made public. The public has a right to know.
The US use of nuclear weapons against Iran will affect America for generations to come. It is the responsibility of every member of Congress to do everything possible to remove the possibility that such a momentous decision could be made singlehandedly by a President that has earned a record low approval rating. Just as "obeying orders" is no excuse under international law for committing illegal and immoral acts, each member of Congress will be fully responsible for choosing to ignore this issue.
Jorge Hirsch is a Professor of Physics at the University of California at San Diego, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and organizer of a recent petition, circulated among leading physicists, opposing the new nuclear weapons policies adopted by the US in the past 5 years. He is a frequent commentator on Iran and nuclear weapons. Email to: jorgehirsch@yahoo.com
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Framing Iran
Iraq and Iran protest US arrest of Iranian officials
AFP
23/12/2006
The Iraqi government has protested after US forces arrested a number of Iranian officials in Baghdad, allegedly because they were planning to incite attacks in the already war-torn country.
"Two people who were invited by the president to
Iraq have now been apprehended by the Americans, and the president is unhappy with the arrests," Hiwa Osman, President Jalal Talabani's media adviser, told AFP Monday.
"The invitation was within the framework of an agreement between Iran and Iraq to improve the security situation," he added.
It was not clear how many Iranian officials are still in US custody.
Osman confirmed two had been arrested, but the New York Times reported four were still being held even after two with diplomatic status had been released.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said: "A few days ago we became aware that US forces, contrary to international laws, had arrested Iranian diplomats who were invited by the Iraqi government.
"This action is not compatible with international law and it will have unpleasant consequences," he warned, according to the Mehr news agency.
Separately, leading Iraqi lawmaker and imam, Sheikh Jalal Eddin al-Saghir of the Baratha mosque, told AFP that two Iranian diplomats had been seized by US forces in Baghdad last Thursday, but were later released.
"Two diplomats from the Iranian embassy came to see me at the mosque to offer condolences on the death of my mother," he said.
"After they left the mosque and were travelling back to the embassy they were arrested by the Americans, with two of their guards. I don't know why. I later heard that they'd been released," he said.
Confirmation of arrests came after the New York Times, citing senior US officials, reported that several Iranians were detained by US forces in Iraq last week on suspicion of planning attacks on Iraqi troops.
"We continue to work with the government of Iraq on the status of the detainees," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, told the New York Times, according to its report.
Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie declined an AFP request for comment on the arrests, which the Times reported had put strain on the relationship between the Iraqi government and its American allies.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Baghdad also declined to comment.
US commanders in Iraq regularly accuse Iran of fomenting unrest in its troubled neighbour, but the Shiite-led Baghdad government has insisted on pursuing a policy of closer security ties with Tehran.
According to White House officials cited in the Times report, the Iranians include two "senior military officials" with links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit which trains Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla movement.
If US authorities produce evidence against the detainees it could be the first proof of their longstanding charge that Iranian agents are stirring violence in Iraq by arming and training illegal militias.
The arrests come amid mounting diplomatic tension between Iran, the United States and the international community, after the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Iran's nuclear programme.
In response to the vote, Iran defiantly vowed to start work immediately on drastically expanding its capacity to enrich uranium.
Washington accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, a charge vehemently denied by the oil-rich Islamic republic, which says it only wants to provide atomic energy to a growing population.
Several of the Shiite parties that have risen to power in Iraq since the downfall of former dictator
Saddam Hussein have ties to Iran.
Shiite cleric Abdel Aziz Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) was founded by Tehran to mobilise Iraqi exiles against their own government during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Today, the movement is an important part of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition.
Comment: The US, the occupying force with over 140,000 troops in Iraq, is accusing Iran of "meddling"! And remarks like that aren't seen for the hypocrisy they are!!! So much for Iraqi sovereignty!
Such is the control of the US government in Iraq and the impotence of the "Iraq government", that when the Iraq president invites two Iranian politicians to Iraq, he can do nothing to stop US troops arresting the Iranian officials. But why has the US government taken this action?...
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U.S. investigating Iranians detained in Iraq
Malaysia Sun
Tuesday 26th December, 2006
The White House says the detention in Baghdad of several Iranians suspected of inciting attacks against Iraqi troops validates the U.S. claim of Iranian meddling in Iraq.
A spokesman said Monday U.S. officials want to finish their investigation of the detained Iranians before characterizing their activities.
He said two detainees with diplomatic immunity were handed over to Iraqi authorities, and that U.S. officials are working with Iraq's government on the status of the remaining ones.
U.S. forces in Baghdad detained several Iranians in raids last week.
Iraqi officials say President Jalal Talabani had invited two of the Iranians to the capital, and that he was unhappy American forces had detained them.
The New York Times reported that at least four Iranians remain in U.S. custody, and that the U.S. says they are senior Iranian military officials.
The United States has accused Iranian agents of stirring up sectarian violence in Iraq by arming and training Shi'ite militias. Tehran says it only has political and religious links with Iraqi Shi'ites.
In other news, British troops killed seven gunmen and demolished an Iraqi police station in the southern city of Basra early Monday to stop rogue officers from using the site to commit crimes.
In Baghdad, Iraqi police say a car bomb exploded in a mainly Shi'ite neighborhood, killing at least 10 people.
Comment: There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. "Onward Christian soldiers!" Of course, no one in the mainstream media will ask how the presence of the Iranian officials in Iraq could constitute evidence that Iran is involved in attacks on US troops in Iraq when the Iranian officials were invited to Iraq by the Iraqi president, because that is called entrapment, and everyone knows that the US government does not engage in such disreputable behavior.
Of course, it is no coincidence that this abduction of Iranian officials in Iraq comes at about the same time that the US government ordered Iran to pay $254 million for allegedly carrying out the Khobar towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996, in which 19 US service men were killed...
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Propaganda Alert! Iran ordered to pay $254 million in Khobar Towers bombing
Fri Dec 22, 2006
Reuters
WASHINGTON - A U.S. federal judge on Friday ordered the Islamic Republic of Iran to pay $254 million to the family of 17 U.S. servicemen killed in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia.
The default judgment was entered against the Iranian government, its security ministry and the Revolutionary Guards after they failed to respond to the lawsuit, which was initiated more than four years ago.
In issuing the $254.4 million judgment in the case, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the Khobar Towers attack was carried out by people recruited by Gen. Ahmed Sharifi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The truck bomb involved in the attack was assembled at a base in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley operated by Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards, and the attack was approved by Ayatollah Khameini, the supreme leader of Iran, the 209-page ruling found.
The decision relied heavily on an investigation of the attack by the FBI under director Louis Freeh. The FBI probe led to the grand jury indictment of 13 members of Hezbollah in June 21, 2001.
"The totality of the evidence at trial, combined with the findings and conclusions entered by this court ... firmly establishes that the Khobar Towers bombing was planned, funded and sponsored by senior leadership in the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Lamberth wrote.
"The sheer gravity and nature of the attack demonstrate the defendants' unlawful intent to inflict severe emotional distress upon the American servicemen as well as their close relatives," he added.
The bombing of Khobar Towers, a residence on a U.S. military base in Dhahran, killed a total of 19 servicemen.
Comment: Attacks on American interests in the 1990s by "Islamic terrorists" also included the bombing of the WTC, the bombing of the USS Cole and the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. All of these were blamed on "al-Qaeda" while the Khobar Towers attack has now been categorically laid at the door of Iran (with a little help from Hizb'allh juts for good measure). Of course, the US and Israeli governments would have us believe that there is no difference between these groups, that they are all interwoven in a scary web of evil.
By now readers should be aware that most "Islamic terrorist" attacks over the past 15 years were the work of Israeli or American intelligence agencies (or a combination of both). All "al-Qaeda" attacks are in fact self-inflicted wounds by the aforementioned intelligence agencies in order to justify American and Israeli aggression in the Middle East. This is a simple and very logical theory and is backed up by a wealth of evidence that is deliberately ignored by the mainstream media.
The Khobar Towers "truck bombing" bears all the hallmarks of an Israeli Mossad operation, the Mossad having an extensive network of agents in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi regime long ago having sold its soul (if it ever had one) to US-Israeli interests in the Middle East.
The mainstream media is asserting that the Judge Royce Lamberth's ruling that Iran is to blame is the first time a branch of the U.S. government has officially blamed Iran for the deaths of Americans at Khobar. In reality however, the investigation into the Khobar towers attacks by then FBI director Louis Freeh (more or less a self-investigation) established long ago that Iran was to be the chosen fall-guy for the attack. In an indictment filed by the Justice Department in 2001, though it does not name specific Iranian officials, alleges Iranian direction of, and logistical support for, the attack - and notes that conspirators stated that the purpose of the attack was to strike the United States on behalf of Iran.
So why is this "indictment" being published now by the US government and its media complete with carefully chosen words and carefully chosen omissions about the reality of the case?
You already know the answer. There will be war with Iran in 2007, by hook or by crook ... or should that be by a bunch of crooks...
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Iran's claim to need nuclear power may be genuine
Reuters
26/12/2006
, given that it could run out of oil to export as soon as eight years from now, according to an analysis published on Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences.
The study's author, Roger Stern, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said investment in Iranian oil production had been inadequate to offset oil field declines and the explosive growth in domestic demand.
"I'm not saying that Iran will have no oil in eight years," Stern said in a telephone interview. "I'm saying that they will be using all of it for themselves."
The analysis, published in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said the Iranian government could become "politically vulnerable" from declining exports.
Oil exports account for about 70 percent of Iranian government revenue, said Stern, of the university's department of geography and environmental engineering.
He projected that in five years, Iranian oil exports may be less than half their present level, and could drop to zero by 2015.
"It therefore seems possible that Iran's claim to need nuclear power might be genuine, an indicator of distress from anticipated export revenue shortfalls," he wrote. "If so, the Iranian regime may be more vulnerable than is presently understood."
Iran has vowed to boost its uranium enrichment drive despite new U.N. sanctions approved on Saturday aimed at rolling back a nuclear program that the West fears is a prelude to atomic weapons.
Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns called on Japan, Europe, Russia and China to stop "business as usual" with Iran "to drive up the cost to the Iranians of essentially doing what they're doing" with uranium enrichment.
Comment: So no need for war, right?
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Iran backed dangerously into a corner
By Linda S. Heard
12/25/06 "Gulf News"
American and Israeli machinations have once more put this region under threat. Following months of barking from Bolton the bulldog the United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution designed to slow the Iranian nuclear programme.
It isn't as comprehensive as the former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and his masters would have liked, concentrating, as it does, on banning the import and export of nuclear-related materials and freezing the assets of certain companies, but it's the best he could prize out of reluctant China and Russia.
Moscow held out the longest and only caved in after a call made by George W. Bush to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. One is driven to wonder about other topics discussed: Russia's proposed WTO membership, perhaps?
Israel is ecstatic at this rap over the knuckles and the Bush administration is already touting the resolution as a positive first step towards comprehensive sanctions.
For Iraq watchers this is déjà vu. Here we go again. Another of the region's main players becomes an official pariah, scolded and condemned for enriching uranium, which it has an inalienable right to do under Article 4 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Another, Israel, overturned its policy of nuclear ambiguity when its prime minister inadvertently admitted his country's capability and the so-called international community plays deaf and dumb.
Iran has responded predictably to the sanctions. The country's authorised nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Iran is even more set on realising its nuclear aims than before while Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Hussaini vows to revise Iran's relationship with the international nuclear watchdog the IAEA. Plus there is talk that Iran may expel the ambassadors of nations with a seat on the UNSC.
In other words, instead of opening up, Iran feels unfairly singled out and under siege. It's little wonder, therefore, that it's poised to withdraw further into its own shell and accelerate its nuclear programme with the addition of 52,000 centrifuges.
In the meantime, Britain's Tony Blair has become an expert flip-flopper.
Just a few weeks ago he was advocating unconditional direct talks with Iran but then he went to Washington where he was assigned a new message: Iran is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East by supporting terrorists in Iraq, attempting to oust Lebanon's democratically-elected government, and denying the Holocaust.
Moderate Muslim states should unite in combating extremist regimes, such as Iran's, Blair said.
Final leg
Blair neglected to mention that like Iraq during the final leg of Saddam's tenure Iran has begun selling its oil in euros, thus undermining the petrodollar.
In the meantime, the US and Britain are moving warships to the Gulf to join the aircraft carrier Eisenhower and the US is set to send more troops to neighbouring Iraq, despite General John Abizaid's insistence that more isn't necessary. This is naked aggression with the possibility of a disastrous outcome - yet another all out war.
Right-wing Israeli elements that view Tehran as an existential threat have been pushing for a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities for some time, warning that if the US doesn't move Israel might do the job itself. The US Vice-President Dick Cheney has made similar warning noises in the past.
Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector turned peace activist and author of Target Iran: The Truth about the White House's plans for regime change believes there is no evidence to suggest Iran is pursuing anything other than a nuclear programme for civilian purposes.
He suggests both CIA and Mossad agents are swarming all over Iran but have been unable to unearth any proof of nefarious activity other than deep underground tunnels.
During a conversation with investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, broadcast on Democracy Now, Ritter puts Washington's anti-Iran sabre-rattling down to a nexus between the neoconservatives and the right-wing of Israel's Likud Party.
As occurred in Iraq, Ritter says the White House is hyping the Iranian nuclear peril as an excuse for its real neoconservative-inspired goal regime change as part of the broader pursuit of global hegemony.
Unfortunately, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has played right into the hands of his enemies with his anti-Israeli rhetoric that gave grist to the Bush administration's mill when negotiating the UNSC Resolution.
Israeli and right-wing American spokespeople are working the "wipe Israel off the map" statement as hard as they can as "evidence" that Israel is seriously menaced. It's ironic that while Iran does not possess that kind of capability Israel does and showed its willingness to use it in 1973 and 1991 when the country was on nuclear alert.
If either the US and its allies or Israel decides to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, comparisons with Iraq will end there. The sectarian conflict that has possessed Iraq will likely ignite the entire region where nations will be asked to take sides. Worse, in some cases public sentiments and governmental policies could deviate.
Washington and Tel Aviv, aided by London, are taking this region on a collision course. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa once warned that the invasion of Iraq would open the gates to Hell.
They opened alright but if there is war with Iran they may take a long time to swing shut.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com
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Blair was dangerously off target in his condemnation of Iran
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
Two things occurred last week, apparently unconnected. In the first, Tony Blair, at the end of his tour of the Middle East and the Gulf, issued a thunderous denunciation in Dubai of the 'threat' posed by Iran. He painted a scary picture. (Doesn't he always?)
Iran, he said, was 'at war' with the 'moderate' Arab world and Western forces trying to bring peace and stability to the region. If it was not for evil Iran, Blair implied, Iraq and Afghanistan could become holiday hotspots for tourists, following the example set by Dubai, which has had more than a million British visitors this year. Iran at war with the Arab world? The last statesman who framed it in that ugly context was ... Saddam Hussein.
The second event was unconnected, but only in the Prime Minister's mind. Iran held local elections and polls for the influential Council of Experts. Elections. That democracy thing that Blair and President George W Bush keep saying they intend to deliver to our poor benighted Arab and Persian brethren.
And as the results emerged, it was clear that ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - he of the Holocaust denials and alleged nuclear ambitions - had been given a trouncing. In cities such as Shiraz and Bandar Abbas, not a single pro-Ahmadinejad candidate won a council seat. In Tehran, too, candidates supporting Mayor Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative, won seven of 15 council seats, while reformists were set to win four. Which has left Ahmadinejad loyalists with only three seats.
Anti-Ahmadinejad sentiment was visible in elections for the Council of Experts - 86 clerics who monitor Iran's supreme leader and choose his successor. There, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani polled the most votes of any Tehran candidate to win re-election to the assembly. Also re-elected was Hasan Rowhani, Iran's former nuclear negotiator whom Ahmadinejad has accused of making too many concessions to the Europeans.
So what will Blair's comments have achieved? Certainly they will not have bolstered Iranians like the students who recently heckled Ahmadinejad for his poor record on jobs and confrontational attitude to the West. Instead, Blair's comments fit precisely into Ahmadinejad's narrative of 'them and us'.
And what happened to Downing Street's insistence barely two weeks before that we should be talking to Iran about Iraq? It was rejected by George Bush. So apparently it has been forgotten.
None of this is to say that there are not problems over Iran. Its tutelage of the increasingly powerful Shia crescent has sometimes seemed disruptive for the hell of it - in Iraq and Lebanon in particular.
But is it a war on 'moderate' Arabs, or is it that the Tehran leadership - to which Shias look - has yet to mature into something more politically responsible as Iran becomes a regional power? It may indeed be maturing: Iran appears, over Iraq at least, belatedly to be recognising that the last thing it needs as a neighbour is a failed state and a proxy war with Saudi Arabia.
Others have been asking these questions. Not Tony Blair.
But then Blair's performance in Dubai was the inept conclusion to a clumsy trip that seemed to break the fundamental rule of prime ministerial diplomacy - only to go on these kinds of tours when there is something to achieve.
Instead, Blair blundered round without much purpose. He met a cool welcome in Egypt and later a rebuke from Turkey over Palestine.
And if his trip was calculated to prove to Muslims, particularly at home, that Britain does care about the plight of Palestinians, that too spectacularly backfired.
Whatever you think about Hamas and its victory in the Palestinian elections in January, it won fairly in elections that the West insisted on. And while the Arab street has equally mixed views about Hamas, it also sees the hypocrisy of insisting on Arab democracy, then undermining the result and offering to support the losing party in something close to civil conflict.
All of which leads one to conclude that something pretty terrible has happened to British diplomacy.
As Downing Street has further and further encroached on Foreign Office territory, we have been left not so much with a foreign policy that has been thought through, but a policy made by hunches and 'feel-good' ideas on the Number 10 sofas. All of them have been designed, it would appear, to bolster the reputation of a lame-duck Prime Minister in his last months in office.
As Blair has travelled to Washington and to the Middle East, his journeys increasingly have been accompanied by the sense that no one - in the White House, Turkey, Tel Aviv or in the Arab world - much listens or cares what he thinks or does these days.
Comment: So what is the conclusion? Blair is not interested in finding a peaceful solution to the Iran "crisis". He, like Olmert, Bush and the Neocons, want war.
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UN sanctions hit Iran after call by Bush
Peter Beaumont and Robert Tait in Tehran
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
The UN Security Council unanimously approved a tough resolution yesterday evening authorising sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, bringing to an end two months of often fractious negotiations aimed at pressuring Tehran to clarify its nuclear ambitions.
The resolution orders all countries to ban the supply of specified materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programmes. It also imposes an asset freeze on key companies and individuals involved in the programmes named on a UN list.
The resolution did not include a full travel ban which the US, in particular, had been seeking on individuals involved in Iran's nuclear programme. Instead states have been asked to inform the Security Council of movements across their borders by named individuals on the list. Diplomatic sources told The Observer last night that it should be seen as an interim step towards a full travel ban if Iran fails to comply.
'There has obviously been a lot of horse-trading and conversations between experts up to heads of state. This is an interim measure that would allow us to go back and seek further sanctions in future if Iran fails to comply,' a source said last night.
The final breakthrough came after a telephone call yesterday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President George Bush to break the deadlock on the Security Council.
The unanimous vote took place as the US warned 'it would not hesitate to return to this body to seek further action should Iran fail to comply'.
Iran's Foreign ministry immediately condemned the Security Council decision as illegal. Earlier in the day Iran had warned that it would reconsider its relationship with the UN and, in particular, its commitments to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency if sanctions were imposed. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign ministry spokesman, told state-run television that the resolution 'cannot affect or limit Iran's peaceful nuclear activities, but will discredit the decisions of the Security Council, whose power is deteriorating'.
The resolution was immediately welcomed by Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, who said Iran now faced a critical choice. Beckett said: 'Today's resolution marks an important moment. Iran faces a choice, between a route that allows it to develop a modern civil nuclear power programme and brings many benefits to its people, or further defiance and the costs of isolation. I hope it will choose the positive path.'
Until the last moments before the vote, it was not clear whether all 15 Security Council members would support the resolution.
Until now Russia had expressed severe reservations over imposing sanctions on Iran and had attempted to persuade the regime in Tehran to help dispel international suspicions over the nature of its nuclear programme that Iran has insisted is peaceful. Iran has made its position more difficult in recent months following comments by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad apparently threatening Israel.
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Iran says to maintain oil export even sanctioned
www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-26 19:29:00
TEHRAN, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran promised Tuesday that it would still maintain the current oil export to the world market though the UN Security Council decided last Saturday to sanction against Tehran's nuclear program, local Fars news agency reported.
Oil Minister Seyed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying that though Iran lived under sanctions, the world "should not be worried about the free flow and export of Iran's oil to the world markets because we are doing normal transactions as before and we will even embark on signing new contracts as well."
"They (global oil consumers) don't have to worry because theyare one of the two decision-making parties in such transactions and they can prevent adoption of irrelevant decisions," Hamaneh stressed, adding the UN decision would have no impact on Iran'soil industry and exports.
The top oil official, meanwhile, vowed that "when necessary, the country will use any kind of weapon to defend itself, the ruling system has decided not to give in to pressures and force, and as a part of this system the oil ministry will do everything possible to pursue the government's policies."
Iran is the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the fourth largest oil producer in the world.
The UN Security Council on Saturday adopted unanimously the resolution 1737, demanding that Iran "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, and work on all heavy water-related projects."
The resolution also called on all states to impose a ban on trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear programs and ballistic missile delivery systems, while freezing the funds, other financial assets and economic resources owned or controlled by officials and companies in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
Shortly after the adoption, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement lashing out at the resolution as an "illegal measure."
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Gov't backs bill on revising relations with IAEA: FM
Tehran, Dec 26, IRNA
The government supports a bill to revise Iran's relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), currently under review by the Majlis, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Tuesday.
Mottaki made the remark at the end of Majlis session held Tuesday behind closed doors.
The minister attended the session to brief MPs on the latest developments with respect to Iran's nuclear case and the 1737 UN Security Council resolution adopted Saturday.
"I should have given information to the Majlis deputies on nuclear issues," he said.
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U.N. Resolution on Iran Does Not Hurt Russian Commercial Interests - Foreign Minister
Created: 25.12.2006 15:36 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:59 MSK
MosNews
Russia's foreign minister on Monday hailed the U.N. Security Council's resolution that imposed sanctions on Iran, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Sergey Lavrov said the resolution approved unanimously over the weekend was a compromise that would allow diplomatic efforts to continue.
"The resolution fully reflects economic interests of Russia and other partners of Iran," Lavrov said at a Cabinet session chaired by President Vladimir Putin, according to the ITAR-Tass, Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies.
He emphasized that the resolution allowed the fulfillment of all contracts signed prior to its passage. Russia is building a nuclear power plant in the Iranian port of Bushehr, which is set to come on line next fall, and it demanded that both the plant and the nuclear fuel intended for it be exempt from sanctions.
The resolution orders all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs and also freezes assets of related Iranian companies and individuals.
The U.S. administration had pushed for tougher penalties, but Russia and China, which both have strong commercial ties to Tehran, balked. To get their votes, the resolution dropped a ban on international travel by Iranian officials involved in nuclear and missile development and specified the banned items and technologies.
Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at the peaceful production of nuclear energy, but the U.S. and European nations suspect that it serves as a cover to produce nuclear weapons.
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3000 Centrifuges To Become Operational "soon" - Iran
02:19 PM, December 26th 2006
by News Staff
Iran claimed Tuesday that 3000 centrifuges would "soon" become operational, the Fars news agency reported.
Member of parliament (MP) Ali Asgari said that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki delivered the information to the deputies in a closed-door session.
Iran has so far succeeded in operating two cascades of 164 centrifuges each at the uranium enrichment plant of Natanz plant in central Iran and increasing the number to 3,000 would be a major step for the country towards enrichment at industrial scale.
The MP added that Mottaki and the deputies discussed the pros and cons of revising the governmental cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the MPs rejected adopting "political considerations".
"Any concession would just encourage the West to increase its demands and the MPs therefore spoke in favour of resistance and decisiveness," Asgari said.
According to the report, some of the MPs asked the foreign minister why the government did not avail itself of the experience of former presidents Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami.
The factions of the two ex-presidents have formed a coalition of moderates and reformists and gained victory in the Experts Assembly, municipality and parliamentary by-elections held on December 15.
Although both Rafsanjani and Khatami support Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology, they oppose the uncompromising policies of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in this regard.
Mottaki on Tuesday discussed in a closed-door parliamentary session the next steps to be taken following United Nations Security Council resolution 1737 which imposes sanctions against Tehran for defying suspension of its uranium enrichment programmes, the news network Khabar reported.
After the session, Mottaki told reporters that the government would approve the probable parliamentary bill obliging the government to revise cooperation with the IAEA as a sign of Iran's protest to the UN resolution.
The deputy of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Saeidi, however told Khabar on Monday that all nuclear programmes would stay under IAEA supervision.
Observers say that even if the parliament approved the bill, it would be a symbolic gesture rather than seriously binding the government as the nuclear issue is regarded in Iran as "state-matter" which means that it is decided at the highest level and in line with national interests.
According to the Iranian constitution, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all state affairs, including the nuclear issue, and could anytime overrule governmental and parliamentary decisions.
President Ahmadinejad has termed the UN resolution as "solely a piece of paper" that would not stop Iran's nuclear programmes but observers believe that despite the harsh rhetoric, Tehran was still seeking resumption of negotiations with the West through its allies China and Russia.
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Iraq Through US Eyes
Congressman Hayes Says Win Iraq By "Spreading The Message of Jesus Christ" There
12/20/2006
Blue NC
Robin Hayes has the solution to the Iraq war: have our soldiers convert all Muslims to Christianity.
Having won the election by only a hair's width and almost getting himself kicked out of Congress seems to have had some profound psychological effects on poor Mr. Hayes. A speech that flip-floppin' Robin gave last week at the Concord Rotary Club seems to prove he has finally gone off the deep end.
Our local weekly newspaper the "Concord Standard and Mount Pleasant Times" reported on Mr. Hayes speech in his hometown:
First there's the usual talk of how we're "winning" over there: "The war in Iraq has got to be won; it's being won" (A couple of months ago Hayes said that the rise in violence in Iraq was an indication that we're winning.)
Then comes the real kicker: "Stability in Iraq ultimately depends on spreading the message of Jesus Christ, the message of peace on earth, good will towards men. Everything depends on everyone learning about the birth of the Savior."
So if we just turn our soldiers into missionaries everything will be okay, Mr. Hayes?
First we sent our men over there to take out the WMD's, then it was to "spread democracy", now you want them there to "spread the message of Jesus Christ"? It so happens that people in Iraq already have a savior but unfortunately for Mr. Hayes it's Muhammed, not Jesus.
If we can't keep Muslims from killing each other over there, I don't think that trying to make them all Christian is going to be any easier.
With this kind of talk Hayes just plays into the hands of Al-Qaeda by confirming what their leaders have always been saying: those American soldiers are just modern Crusaders. He is thereby strengthening the beliefs of terrorists that want to kill every American soldier they come across.
Comment: Ok, think about this: what possible future for humanity can there be when our elected representatives think that they can solve the world's problems if non-Christians would only "accept Jesus into their hearts". Clearly such people, (including the president of America) are woefully ignorant of history, (or perhaps they are aware and just don't care) because there has never been a time or place where one group of people accepted the religion of another without massive death and suffering. So we can only conclude that what "leaders" like Hayes really mean by "spreading the message of Jesus Christ", is the mass murder of those who do not bow down to fundie American militant Christianity - Jesus with an Uzi rather than an olive branch.
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U.S. military casualties in Iraq exceeds 9.11 victims
www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-26 17:19:48
BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Since the Iraqi war started in 2003, the number of U.S. troops killed there in the passing four years has reached 2,974, exceeding the grim toll of victims from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, according to an media count on Tuesday.
The Sept. 11 death toll includes the 2,749 killed at the World Trade Center, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 passengers aboard United Flight 93. While all these were killed within a few hours that morning, the deaths in Iraq have stretched across 45 months -- with no end yet in sight.
The victims came from across the United States. More than 50 residents of Alabama have died. More than 30 of the dead lived in Nebraska. More than 40 went to Iraq from Kentucky.re
On Monday, three more U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq in the past two days, the U.S. military said on Monday.
One was killed in a bombing attack in Baghdad Monday, while the other two died from wounds sustained during fighting on Sunday, the military said in a statement.
Media reports said that at least 86 U.S. military personnel died in Iraq in December now.
While U.S. military casualties climbs, the death and wounded Iraqi people increase continually as well.
According to a team of U.S. and Iraqi public health researchers, 600,000 civilians have died in the violence across Iraq since the war, the highest estimate ever for the war's death toll.
The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report on Iraq.
Comment: In fact, the actual death toll is much higher because the wounded whpo are flown out of Iraq and die elsewhere, such as in US military hospitals in Germany, do not figure in the death toll. If all the fatalities are taken into account, the total US death toll may well be over 10,000.
Of course, that figure pales against the Iraqi dead of over 600,000, a figure that is still well below the total death count for the period of sanctions between the first Gulf war in 1991 and the invasion in 2003, which is thought to exceed one million deaths, so the total Iraqi deaths between 1991 and today stands are close to 2 million individuals.
How do you react when you read those figures? Are you more deeply touched at the idea that 10,000 US soldiers have died? Is the figure of two million Idauqi dead just too large that you cannot understand it? Two million individuals, like you and me, with lives, with families, parents, children, husbands and wives. How many more does it make whose lives have been shattered?
The Iraqi population was about 21 million in 1998. So almost one-tenth of the population has died because of the United States. that would be comparable to close to 30 million Americans dying. If you are an American, and if one out of ten of your compatriots died, what are the chances that you would know at least one of them? It is likely that every Iraqi has been directly touched by these deaths. Would you welcome such an occupying force as liberators?
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U.S. military deaths in Iraq pass 9/11 toll
Reuters
26/12/2006
The deaths of six more American soldiers in Iraq pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 2,978 -- five more than the number killed in the September 11 attacks -- as bombs killed more than 20 people in Baghdad on Tuesday.
At least 89 U.S. soldiers have died so far this month, making it the deadliest this year after October's toll of 106, and adding pressure on President George W. Bush to find a strategy to extricate 135,000 U.S. troops from the messy war.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, which Bush said was an integral part of the "war on terror" following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
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U.S. officials say 2,973 people were killed in those attacks, excluding the 19 hijackers.
The U.S. military reported the six deaths on Tuesday.
Three soldiers taking part in a patrol looking for roadside bombs were killed northwest of Baghdad on Tuesday, while two soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack southwest of Baghdad on Monday. A sixth was killed in another attack in the same area on Monday, the U.S. military reported.
Stung by Republicans' defeats in congressional elections in which voter discontent over Iraq was a major issue, Bush has said he will announce a new strategy in January after listening to his military commanders and State Department officials.
More than three years after an invasion Bush said was to remove the threat that Saddam posed to America, Iraq is gripped by violence between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis. [...]
Comment: Given the officially acknowledged number of over 15,000 seriously wounded (and a published total of 25,000 wounded overall), the actual US troop death toll in Iraq is likely closer to 15,000.
Note also this comment:
"More than three years after an invasion Bush said was to remove the threat that Saddam posed to America, Iraq is gripped by violence between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis."
Oh! So according to the mainstream press, Iraq is not gripped by violence as a result of the US occupation of that country but by "civil war"! Seriously people, are we going to continue to believe this blatant BS??!
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Gates visited Baghdad to quell US soldiers mutiny in Anbar
Roads to Iraq
December 24, 2006
US attack on Ramadi imminent
According almoharrer newspaper quoting an Iraqi Military sources:
Iraqi military sources told the newspaper that the reason that the American Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Baghdad urgently after two days he received his new post as a Defense Minister; is to extinguish a military mutiny carried out by American VI battalion based in Anbar, after refusing to obey orders and prefer not to leave their base in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.
The sources pointed out that the US military base is exposed to daily heavy tactical attacks and attempts to storm the walls of the base by Iraqi resistance.
The sources added that Washington and specifically Military, and intelligence in the American Congress, designedly sending Gates to rectify the mistakes that were made by his predecessor Ramsifeld and the most serious is; the American soldiers surrendering to the Iraqi resistance in Ramadi, which is what happened a month and a half before, while Iraqi resistance clashed with American patrol and managed to burn their military vehicle, US soldiers had no choice but surrender and hope for safety.
With a help of an interpreter, the American POW explained they do not wish to fight the Iraqis and asked their captors to help them to smuggle them to Turkey across Mosul, Syria-Iraq borders in order to request political asylum.
Also reported by Qudspress that a mass exodus take place right now in the city of Ramadi after reports of an imminent American attack on the city following the visit of the American Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to Iraq.
The city filled with people searching for taxis and trucks to flee the city, bringing with them some simple belongings, especially after the American forces announced to the residents of Al Althelh and Al-Mulameen, the need to leave and evacuate their homes.
US forces took control of many houses in the area by force. It also closed schools in the city after electricity was lost completely. American forces also cut off water from the city center, with the continued armed confrontations between the American forces and Iraqi resistance in the city.
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Saddam loses death sentence appeal-govt official
26 Dec 2006 13:53:26 GMT
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD, Dec 26 (Reuters) - An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Saddam Hussein should hang for crimes against humanity, Iraq's national security adviser told Reuters.
Under the statute governing the Iraqi High Tribunal, the death sentence must be carried out within the next 30 days.
The former Iraqi leader and two former aides were sentenced to death in November for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after he escaped assassination there in 1982.
"The court just upheld the verdict and sentence," Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Reuters.
When asked if the court had confirmed a Nov. 5 verdict, court spokesman Raed Juhi said: "Yes, I think so."
He said he expected the tribunal head to make a statement within an hour.
Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander also received the death penalty for their part in the killing, torturing and deporting of hundreds of Dujailis. It was not immediately clear whether they too had lost their appeals.
In a comprehensive report last month, New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial had been impossible.
It said the court lacked the expertise for such a complex trial, had failed to give the defence advance notice of key documents, while statements by government officials had undermined its independence and perceived impartiality.
Comment: If "Saddam" is executed, it will put an end to one of the most audacious yet crass US government cover ups in recent history. See this article for the inside story on who's who in the capture, trial and sentencing of "Saddam Hussein"
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British troops raid Iraq police station, rescue prisoners
Last Updated: Monday, December 25, 2006 | 4:15 PM ET
CBC News
British forces stormed a police station in Basra in southern Iraq on Monday, rescuing prisoners on death row and killing seven Iraqi gunmen during the pre-dawn raid.
More than 1,000 British troops backed by tanks then demolished the building with explosives.
The military called the police headquarters a symbol of oppression for the city's residents and said the unit was suspected of torturing and murdering prisoners.
Many of the 127 people rescued - all of whom were suspected criminals - were crowded together in a small cell, living in "appalling conditions," the military said.
But the Basra council has stopped co-operating with the military in protest of what the council described as an illegal raid.
Mohammed al Abadi, head of the city's council, said the Christmas Day operation was in violation of earlier agreements and the council had not been forewarned.
A British military spokesman countered that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had voiced support for the mission to destroy the station, which had allegedly been carrying out illegal activities.
Maj. Charles Burbidge said al-Maliki "made a very clear indication that he wanted the serious crimes unit to be disbanded."
The operation came days after Iraqi officers were arrested Friday on suspicions of leading death squads. The unit is also accused of being responsible for murdering both local and international troops.
Comments: If the Brits are so upset at the conditions in Iraqi jails and prisons, maybe they could do their next raid on Abu Ghraib.
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Torture victims rescued in raid on renegades
Scotsman
26/12/2006
A THOUSAND-strong troop of British soldiers stormed a renegade police unit in Iraq yesterday in a dramatic operation to rescue dozens of prisoners feared to be facing execution.
Jameat police station, in the southern city of Basra, was completely destroyed in the Christmas Day raid - part of a major military operation aimed at ridding the country's law-enforcement agencies of "anti-coalition elements".
Seven Iraqi gunmen were killed when the army returned fire as they approached the station, according to Major Charlie Burbridge, a British military spokesman.
A total of 127 prisoners, many of whom showed signs of having been tortured, were rescued in the operation.
The raid followed the decision by the Iraqi government to do away with the serious crimes unit, which was said to be terrorising the local population.
Seven high-ranking members of the serious crimes unit were arrested by British troops last week, raising fears that its captives would be targeted in retaliation. Members of the unit had fled by the time the British troops had captured the police station yesterday.
Meanwhile, 12 Iraqi civilians and three police officers were also killed in three separate bombings on another day of death and destruction in the country.
Yesterday's military operation was part of a larger joint British-Iraqi drive dubbed Operation Sinbad, which is aimed at "culling and rehabilitating" southern Iraqi police units of criminal elements.
Lieutenant Jenny Saleh, of the Royal Navy in Basra, said: "We had intelligence to indicate that the serious crimes unit would execute its prisoners in the coming days, so we decided to intervene."
Major Burbridge said the operation was "a very significant move".
He said: "We identified the serious crimes unit as, frankly, too far gone. We just had to get rid of it.
"For some time we've been talking about culling the police force; well this is exactly what we've done.
"We've removed a very significant and nasty part of the police force which has been scaring people in Basra, and ultimately it's going to make Basra a better place."
Troops from 19 Light Brigade, supported by Iraqi forces, surrounded the police station at 2am local time.
Royal Engineers then used a combat tractor to breach the walls, before Warrior vehicles from the Staffordshire Regiment entered the compound and infantry troops stormed three buildings.
A spokesman for the MoD said: "Some 1,000 British troops were involved altogether, including those manning an extensive cordon, set up to ensure a robust response if those criminals targeted attempted a counter strike. When the compound was secure, Royal Military Police entered the house to detain the errant police.
"They had all fled before the British arrived."
The spokesman said forces then destroyed the police station, which had been a "powerful symbol of oppression and corruption" for much of the Basra population.
He said: "Royal Engineers from 38 Engineer Regiment laid bar mines and plastic explosive against the major supports of the building.
"After taking away the prisoners for processing and having removed all the necessary evidence, the engineers detonated the charges."
The prisoners, many of whom were "likely to have been falsely imprisoned", the army said, were taken to other secure locations while hundreds of files and computers were seized to be examined for evidence.
Many of the prisoners were found crowded into a small cell, living in "appalling conditions", the army said.
Some had "classic torture injuries", according to Major Burbridge, such as crushed hands and feet, cigarette and electrical wounds and gunshot wounds in the knees.
An Iraqi security official said the government decided two days ago to eliminate the serious crimes unit and punish some officers.
The official said: "The interior minister decided to cancel the serious crimes unit in Basra city and replace it with a new one based inside the headquarters of Basra police.
"The decision was made two days ago on the grounds of security violations by the serious crimes unit," added the official.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Iraq, a car bomb exploded beside an open air market in Baghdad yesterday, killing nine civilians and injuring 11 others.
The explosion happened in Jadida, a mostly Shiite district in the eastern part of the Iraqi capital.
The targeted area often attracts crowds of shoppers, as well as labourers looking for work.
In another part of eastern Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up a minibus, killing three people and injuring 19 others.
A suicide bomber also attacked a police checkpoint at the entrance to a university in the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and a stronghold of the Sunni-dominated insurgency.
Three officers died, a day after Iraq's interior minister said that attacks targeting police had killed some 12,000 officers since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
In other violence yesterday, a suicide bomber blew up an Iraqi army checkpoint south of Ramadi, and clashes then erupted between gunmen and soldiers. Mortars exploded in the area.
A sniper also shot and killed a police commando in Samarra, north-west of Baghdad.
Other British troops in Basra made the best of Christmas Day away from their loved ones by planning a Boxing Day rat hunt and brightening up their camps with decorations.
Officers also served their squaddies a traditional Christmas lunch, while army padres organised carol services.
The UK has 7,200 troops in the south of Iraq, mostly in the Basra area.
Captain Tane Dunlop, an army spokesman in Basra, said that while the troops were mindful of the time of year, their top priority remained attempting to ensure the safety and stability of Iraq.
"It is Christmas and obviously we are still here," he said.
"We have got a few things going on but that is going to come second to what we are doing out here. There is no day off. We are still on patrol, supporting patrols, working on logistics and so on."
The 'Station of Death' brought no justice, only terror, agony and extortion
FEW in Basra will mourn the passing of the Jameat police station, which was blown up yesterday as part of a joint British-Iraqi operation.
Known locally as the "Station of Death", its destruction will be seen as a major step in British troops' ongoing battle with organised militia attempting to take control of the southern city.
As long ago as February 2004, it was reported that the station had become a focal point for the most corrupt elements of Basra's new British-trained police forces.
But either through complicity or fear, the politicians were reluctant to act to crack down on the rogue officers.
The fact that UK forces felt able to act so decisively against the compound - as demanded by many before - signals a significant strengthening in their position.
Previously they have appeared powerless to tackle commanders from the serious crime and internal affairs units, who were believed to have once controlled a force of more than 10,000. Although nominally part of Iraq's law-enforcement agencies, the serious crimes unit was in actual fact "a force within a force", extorting money from local people and settling scores that dated back to the days of Saddam Hussein.
The militia members who make up the police force are issued with uniforms, but operate outside the law, torturing locals who do not obey them and demanding "protection" payments from businesses.
Captain Tane Dunlop, a British military spokesman in Basra, described the unit as "a criminal enterprise" which had been taking the law into its own hands.
"Crimes unit? That's pretty much what it does, rather than prevent," he said.
In September last year the serious crime unit captured two British soldiers, thought to be members of the SAS who were gathering information on the unit's mistreatment of prisoners.
British troops attempting to rescue the pair were initially repelled by an angry mob of locals throwing stones and petrol bombs.
They were recovered from militia at a nearby private house only after armoured vehicles were brought in to smash through the station walls.
That caused a major rift with Basra authorities, and the Ministry of Defence eventually had to express "regret" over the way the incident was handled.
This time, officials are stressing that Iraqi forces were fully involved, and have been working closely with them on the ongoing Operation Sinbad - which aims to purge rogue elements from the police.
Seven senior members of the serious crimes unit were arrested by British soldiers in raids last Friday, and commanders believe that reduced the opposition they faced when storming Jameat under cover of darkness yesterday morning.
Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for Iraq's defence ministry, said yesterday's operation was closely co-ordinated with the Iraqi government.
"Multi-national forces got approval for this raid from this ministry and with participation of the Iraqi army," Mr Askari said.
Comment: US and British troops rescuing members of the death squads that they finance to create "civil war" in Iraq.
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Pressed in Iraq, U.S. Army turns out interrogators (Torturers)
Reuters
26/12/2006
The U.S. Army has stepped up its training of interrogators to get a clearer picture of Iraq, where attacks on American and Iraqi targets have been running at unprecedented levels -- almost 1,000 a week.
The number of soldiers going through a 93-day course to become Human Intelligence Collectors, the army term for interrogators, has quadrupled over the past three years -- from 265 in 2003 to 1,070 in 2006 -- and is projected to rise to just over 1,500 by 2009. The increase reflects an urgent need to plug gaps in intelligence.
"We needed to change, adapt and expand the training here," said Major General Barbara Fast, who commands the U.S. Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. "We have significantly increased our humint (human intelligence) capability and will increase it even more."
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According to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's December report, "our ... government still does not understand very well either the insurgency in Iraq or the role of the militias." It said there had been too little investment in intelligence gathering and analysis.
The army, by far the biggest branch of the armed forces, has about 37,000 military intelligence soldiers, about a quarter of whom are in human intelligence. That is a larger share than in the past, when the U.S. intelligence community focused on satellite imagery and monitoring communications.
"But especially since September 11," Fast said in an interview, "we know how important it is to understand that which cannot be seen or monitored."
The training at Fort Huachuca is designed to mimic Iraq as closely as possible -- complete with Arabic-speaking Americans playing the role of the Iraqis dressed in robes and keffiyehs, the checkered headdresses widely worn in the Arab world.
During an exercise toward the end of a course in December, a tall man in flowing robes argued heatedly in Arabic with soldiers at a sandbagged roadblock at the entrance to a cluster of houses and huts resembling a military base in Iraq.
In interrogation booths, soldiers tried to extract information on car bombs and mortar attacks from reluctant "detainees," their questions and answers relayed through interpreters.
The training is based on rules of interrogation laid down in a field manual on "Human Intelligence Collector Operations," a 336-page document issued in September, the first new manual since 1992.
The manual applies to all four branches of the armed forces and bans harsh interrogation techniques, including the use of dogs, placing hoods over a detainee's head and forcing detainees to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner.
ABU GHRAIB
In April 2004, pictures that showed American soldiers using such techniques at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad shocked the world, damaged America's image and prompted contentious debates over the definition of torture.
Fast, one of the few army women to make major general, was the highest-ranking U.S. intelligence officer in Iraq at the time of the Abu Ghraib scandal. An army investigation cleared her of wrongdoing and she was promoted to command the Intelligence Center in March 2005.
"There is no way you can rule out misbehavior entirely," Fast said, "but there are measures in place now, checks and balances, which make it very difficult."
The Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners and the protection of civilians are part of the curriculum at Fort Huachuca. The field manual expressly bans eight interrogation techniques that had been used at Abu Ghraib and the U.S. detention and interrogation camp at Guantanamo Bay.
During their Arizona training, future interrogators practice 19 "approaches" to detainees. Explained in detail in the field manual, these techniques range from the "emotional love approach" and the "incentive approach" to the "emotional fear-up approach."
To avoid incidents that could backfire on the interrogator -- or America's image -- the instructions carry warnings. For example: "The HUMINT collector must be extremely careful that he does not threaten or coerce a source. Conveying a threat may be a violation of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice)."
The manual lists three interrogation techniques that require specific approval from a senior officer.
These are: "Mutt and Jeff", a version of the good cop-bad cop routine used by police; "false flag", a technique to trick a detainee into believing his questioners are from a country other than the United States; and "separation" to keep detainees apart from each other. That approach requires approval from a four-star general.
In the arduous debates that led to the new manual, according to officials involved in the process, a sizable body of opinion held that making details of interrogation techniques public handed an advantage to Iraqi insurgents and other anti-U.S. forces because they would know what to expect.
But that view did not prevail and the army posted the manual on its Web site in September.
Comment: But remember! The US government and military DO NOT CONDONE torture!
So despite the new manual on interrogation (torture) the torture will continue.
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Mother Earth's Revenge
Duck die-off in Idaho sparks fears
Dec 14 2006
AFP
BOISE, Idaho - The number of mallard ducks that have died along a creek in southeastern Idaho has climbed to 2,500, as puzzled wildlife officials awaited test results they hoped would provide clues to what is killing them.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Department of
Homeland Security officials expected to have results Thursday from the tests on tissue samples from the ducks' abdominal tract and on water samples from the creek.
The battery of tests at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's national laboratory in Wisconsin, the University of Idaho and Washington State University were expected to rule out an avian flu outbreak.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were testing tissue samples Wednesday, hoping to rule out an avian flu outbreak.
The ducks mysteriously began dying last week around Land Springs Creek, near the remote town of Oakley, about 180 miles southeast of Boise.
Some migratory mallards from Canada and their local cousins were still perishing at the creek Wednesday, staggering and struggling to breathe before collapsing, said Dave Parrish, regional supervisor for Fish and Game.
"I've never seen anything like this in 20 years here," he said. "There were dead mallards everywhere - in the water and on the banks. It was odd, they were in a very small area."
The massive outbreak is vexing scientists because only mallard ducks are dying. Golden eagles, geese, magpies, crows and other birds in the area all remain healthy.
Tissue from the ducks' intestinal tract and water samples from the creek were sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service national laboratory in Wisconsin, the University of Idaho and Washington State University. The agencies expect to review test results Thursday to determine the cause of death.
Mark Drew, a wildlife veterinarian with the state
Department of Agriculture, said the ducks likely were exposed to a single contamination source and gathered at the creek, their mutual roosting point, to die. He did not suspect the mallards were passing a contagious virus.
The ducks may have contracted a bacterial or fungal infection by eating grain treated with pesticides by local cattle farmers, Drew said. Farming chemicals may also have spilled into the small spring-fed creek, which measures just 3- to 6-inches deep.
In addition to Idaho Fish and Game and Homeland Security officers, representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the local health district were investigating the deaths.
The agencies posted signs warning hunters not to eat any birds killed near the creek.
"I'd say there's no reason for alarm in the sense that literally the sky is falling and there's disease spreading," Drew said. "It's unusual in the number of birds and the sense that it's only mallards, but it's nothing that would cause anyone to panic."
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Flashback: Hundreds of seagulls killed mysteriously
www.chinanews.cn
2006-12-19
Chinanews, Jinan, Dec. 19 - Hundreds of seagulls were found dead on the beach of Zhouge Village, eastern China's Shandong Province.
The remains of these seagulls were found on December 16, which still kept white feathers and red claws without any wounds.
Relevant authorities reveal that all the seagull remains have been cleared away and samples have been made. A careful investigation shows that their death was not related to bird flu. Experts suspected that they were infected by a kind of mysterious disease. Further results have to be revealed in a few more days.
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Flashback: Lewiston residents unnerved by dead crows
19/12/2006
Maine News
LEWISTON - Residents unnerved by the unexplained deaths of dozens of crows in a neighborhood next to the Promenade Mall hope tests by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide some answers.
To residents, it seems almost as though dead crows were falling from the sky. Damien Perreault, 71, said he disposed of 10 dead crows he found on a walk Monday. That didn't count crows dead in the trees.
Ray Beaudoin, a resident of Summit Avenue, called animal control officials when the dead crows started appearing a couple of weeks ago.
State environmental control officials were not interested in testing them because the season for West Nile virus is over. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture accepted a couple of the birds last week and will run tests.
For now, residents have no answers but plenty of theories involving pollution, bird illnesses - or intentional poisoning. Dan Marquis of the Stanton Bird Club said the notion of intentional poisoning is worth looking into.
For now, Beaudoin said there's no noisy cawing.
Hundreds used to roost in a tree line that separates the parking lot of the Promenade Mall and Summit Avenue. "In the last three or four days, the crows are nowhere to be found," he said. "It's quite eerie," he said.
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Christmas storm brings devastation
Erin Ailworth and Sara A. Fajardo | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted December 26, 2006
A powerful weather system, including at least one tornado, tore through the state Monday as Floridians were celebrating Christmas.
Volusia County seemed hardest hit in Central Florida, though Lake, Osceola and Sumter counties also were slammed by the fast-moving storm. On the leading edge of a cold front, the deluge trampled the region with rain and high winds that knocked down trees and power lines and damaged dozens of homes.
In Volusia, a twister walloped four DeLand-area mobile-home parks -- damaging 100 to 200 homes -- then went on to clobber a Daytona Beach apartment complex, where 200 people were evacuated. Two people were critically injured and five others received minor injuries because of the storm, said EVAC Ambulance spokesman Mark O'Keefe.
"I've heard the damage is widespread and pretty significant," said Volusia County Fire Services spokeswoman Shelley Szafraniec. Search-and-rescue teams were expected to work throughout the night.
About 50 of 65 airplanes at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach were damaged when heavy winds threw them against buildings, snapped off wings or caused them to overturn, according to school spokesman Jim Hampton.
Roads were closed in both the DeLand and Daytona Beach areas because of downed power lines and storm debris.
National Weather Service forecasters in Melbourne said they had been expecting the El Nino-influenced deluge. Winds were clocked in some areas at tropical-storm speeds.
"The computer models have been advertising this storm for quite a while," meteorologist Bart Hagemeyer said.
For some Central Floridians, however, the weather was like an unannounced holiday guest who arrives just in time to disrupt dinner.
Carol Izzo of DeLand had just finished taking the Christmas turkey out of the oven when two trees toppled in her yard on North Clara Avenue, near Mercers Fernery Road, hitting her neighbor's home.
"I heard the wind, and it was beating against the front windows and the door. It was like a hurricane," Izzo said. "This has never happened before. . . . We are lucky the house is fine. We all have our lives."
Residents without power, as well as those from the damaged mobile-home parks -- Orangewood, Fernwood, Meadowlea Estates and Rosewood -- were being sheltered at Liberty Independent Baptist Church, 1365 W. Plymouth Ave. Another had been opened at Daytona City Church, 211 Bay St., to house residents with damaged homes and evacuated from Sutton Place apartments.
The storm also dropped trees in Lake County and snapped branches that littered the roadways like tossed Christmas wrappings.
In Leesburg, about a dozen homes and mobile homes were damaged, said Lake County sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Christie Mysinger. The brunt of the damage was confined to broken carports and screened porches, but one home in Leesburg near U.S. Highway 441 lost its roof.
There were no reports of injuries in Lake.
And in Osceola, nearly 2,200 residents lost power briefly when heavy rain and gusty winds took out three electrical feeders, said Kissimmee Utility Authority spokesman Chris Gent.
At least three homes were destroyed elsewhere in Florida -- two in Columbia County and one in Pasco -- and dozens more were damaged from what weather-service officials suspect was a tornado. Several people also were hospitalized with minor injuries.
"It's amazing we don't have serious injuries or deaths," Columbia County sheriff's spokeswoman Laurie Windham said. "We are incredibly blessed today."
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service reported 5.58 inches of rainfall at the Tallahassee Regional Airport. That's the most rain reported on Christmas Day since 1897.
Wilbert Hernandez, who lives at the Fernwood Estates mobile-home park in DeLand, had never seen anything like the storm.
He was online, looking for storm information, when a tornado roared through his neighborhood.
"It seemed like a canoe in the ocean for like 10 to 15 seconds of terror. It was unforgettable for me," Hernandez said in Spanish. He spent those seconds hugging his wife and three daughters close, then went outside to survey the damage.
"You couldn't see anything, just pure trash," Hernandez said. "It's something indescribable. I can't tell you how I felt."
The Hernandez family sought help at the Brandywine Shopping Village, where an aid station had been set up.
Myra Durfee, a visitor from Rhode Island, arrived at Brandywine in search of ice. When she saw all the displaced people milling about the parking lot, she knew she needed to help.
Back at the house where she was staying, Durfee said, she commandeered the dinner leftovers, saying, "OK, guys, the turkey sandwiches are gone for the year."
"And we packed up the food and brought it down," Durfee said. "This is the Christmas I'll always remember."
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Taiwan warned of tsunami after strong quakes
December 26 2006 at 03:35PM
Taipei - Two earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 6.7 on the Richter scale jolted Taiwan on Tuesday evening, causing Japan's Meteorological Agency to issue a tsunami warning for both Taiwan and the Philippines.
The first quake, measuring 6.7, struck at 8.26 pm (12H26 GMT) with its epicentre 22.8 km off Henghcun on Taiwan's southern tip, 22 km under the sea, the Seismological Observation Centre said.
It was followed by a second quake, measuring 6.4, in the same area, occurring at 8.34 pm (12H34 GMT), the centre said.
The quakes caused power cuts in Kaohsiung, a port city in south Taiwan.
Although the quake struck south Taiwan, buildings in Taipei in north Taiwan swayed and windows rattled.
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Second Volcano Erupts in Russia's Far East in Two Days
Created: 26.12.2006 13:37 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:37 MSK
MosNews
According to a local seismology center a second volcano has erupted on the Kamchatka Peninsula - Russia's Far East, spewing out ash up to an altitude of 6 miles, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.
A village 31 miles away from the Shiveluch volcano, was covered with ash, and volcanic tremors were registered in the area, the seismology center spokesman said.
Officials have instructed local residents to avoid leaving their houses as particles of volcanic ash hanging in the air could cause poisoning and serious diseases.
Shiveluch, the northernmost active volcano on Kamchatka, is the second to erupt on the Pacific peninsula in two days. Another volcano which has erupted recently is Bezymyanny, which is about 62 miles from Shiveluch.
Experts said the outbursts are not linked as the volcanoes belong to different magma chambers and their almost simultaneous eruptions are a coincidence.
According to experts, there are more than 150 volcanoes on Kamchatka, 29 of them active. Volcano's activity has recently increased on the Kamchatka peninsula.
About 450 minor quakes were registered daily near Karymsky, Kamchatka's most active volcano in the southeast of the peninsula, which rises to 5,039 feet above sea level.
This year more than 1,200 people, including 542 children, were evacuated from the north of Kamchatka after a series of earthquakes. The first 7.8-magnitude quake, the strongest in the north of the peninsula since 1900, injured 31 people on April 21. It also damaged about 380 houses and 25 administrative facilities in four other towns.
Experts from the Moscow International Institute for Earthquake Prediction and Computing Geophysics earlier said there was a 30% probability that an earthquake of more than 7.2 will hit Kamchatka in December.
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Fourth small earthquake in 6 days rattles San Francisco Bay area
Associated Press
25/12/2006
SAN FRANCISCO - The fourth small earthquake in six days rattled the San Francisco Bay area on Monday, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
The temblor that struck at 10:07 a.m. had a preliminary magnitude of 2.6 and was centered about three miles northeast of Union City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It is considered a "microearthquake" by the USGS.
The quake occurred along the Hayward Fault, which runs underneath the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay and was the site of three other small earthquakes last week.
Two of those quakes had a magnitude of 3.7, and the other had a magnitude of 3.5.
Seismologists said the activity is not unusual for the area and does not necessarily mean the "Big One" will strike soon.
Comment: Of course, it doesn't mean that "the big one" will not strike soon.
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Prayers and perseverance, the Asian tsunami remembered
Reuters, The Associated Press
Published: December 26, 2006
ACEH, Indonesia: Thousands of people joined in Indonesia's largest- ever tsunami drill on Tuesday as nations across Asia remembered the moment two years ago when devastating waves crashed into coastlines and killed 230,000 people.
Elsewhere in the region, survivors and mourners visited mass graves, lit candles along beaches, observed two minutes of silence and erected warning towers in hopes of saving lives in the future.
ut as Thai authorities prepared to open a cemetery for unidentified tsunami victims, foreign donors claimed that nearly $1 million intended for DNA sampling and other testing appears to have been misused.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra Island on Dec. 26, 2004, and spawned monster waves that fanned out across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds, killing people in a dozen countries and leaving millions homeless.
On a bright Sunday morning at a mosque in Ulee Lheue, Aceh, the worst- hit Indonesian province, an imam, Usman Dodi, told worshippers the tsunami was a religious warning. "Please forgive the people who have left us for their wrongdoing," Imam Usman prayed, returning to a sermon some religious leaders preached after a disaster that killed 169,000 people in northern Sumatra and left half a million homeless.
Entire villages were swept out to sea in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, luxury resorts and fishing communities submerged in Thailand and thousands of homes destroyed in southern India - where commemorations were small and subdued.
"I cannot forget the events of two years ago, it feels like they happened just yesterday," said an Aceh resident, Zaldi Setiawan.
Like many other Acehnese, he prayed Tuesday at mass graves where tens of thousands of people were buried after the disaster, remembering his two children that were ripped from his hands by the waves. "I can still imagine their faces," he said.
In stark contrast to Aceh, where the disaster led to a landmark peace settlement of a three-decade insurgency, commemorations in rebel-held areas of Sri Lanka were muted.
A resurgence in Sri Lanka's two-decade civil has forced thousands of Tamils, including tsunami survivors, to flee homes and camps for the second time in two years.
"There isn't much to show for by way of reconstruction," said a Western aid official involved in the tsunami relief. "There isn't much to commemorate when you have barely moved an inch.
"The tsunami could have been a turning point in the conflict, if both parties had agreed on an aid-sharing pact. Instead, it has now become another point of division."
Temple bells chimed to mark the exact time the first wave crashed ashore, and all cars and trucks came to a standstill for two minutes. Looking to the future, the first of 100 warning towers was erected on a beach.
The tsunami drill on Indonesia's resort island of Bali - which involved warnings sent from the capital to radios along the beach - was as much about raising awareness as testing technology to mobilize people. Sirens wailed as crowds, many of them schoolchildren, briskly walked inland from the shore, accompanied by Indonesia's minister of research and technology and a handful of foreign tourists.
"The biggest challenge is working with the people to make them aware," said Harald Spahn, a German geologist who is helping Indonesia set up its alert network. "It is a really complex job that many people underestimate."
In Thailand, ceremonies were held along the Andaman coast with Buddhist prayers to remember more than 8,200 killed, many of them foreign vacationers.
The 2004 tsunami generated an unprecedented outpouring of generosity, with donor pledges reaching some $13.6 billion, but many of those made homeless complain they are stuck with poorly built structures that leak, are termite-infested or are located in flood zones.
Corruption has also marred the process, with several nongovernmental organizations forced to delay projects or rebuild homes after contractors and suppliers ran off with the funds.
Thailand faced fresh questions about possible graft on Tuesday. Seven Western nations sent a letter to Thai police saying up to 60 percent of the $1.6 million set aside to help identify the dead appeared to have been misused.
The money may have gone toward travel and other miscellaneous costs, an unnamed U.S. diplomat was quoted as saying in the English-language daily The Nation, calling for an investigation.
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Israel's Islamic Terrorism
Palestinian farmer shot in knees and legs by Israeli army
IMEMC
26/12/2006
A Palestinian farmer was shot and injured by the Israeli army in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday morning.
Palestinian medical sources in the town reported that Isma'el Ghubun, 27, was shot in his knees and legs, and was transported to Kamal Adwan hospital for treatment. His injuries were described as "critical", due to severe internal bleeding.
Eyewitnesses stated that Ghubun was working on his land, adjacent to the northern Gazan-Israeli borders when Israeli troops opened fire on him from a nearby military position, which overlooks farm lands there.
Also on Tuesday morning, a group of Palestinian resistance fighters fired two homemade projectiles at the Israeli town of Sderot. A statement from the Al Quds Brigades of the Islamic Jihad movement said that these attacks come in response to the ongoing Israeli military attacks on the Palestinian people.
Late on Monday night, Israeli soldiers controlling the Beit Hanoun crossing, which connects Gaza with Israel, detained a Palestinian ambulance for over three hours. Israeli troops alleged that a plastic bag inside the vehicle contained explosives, but after a controlled detonation, the bag the bag turned out to contain the clothes of the patient.
Comment: Oh come on! It's gets boring in an Israeli army look out post! These proud fighters for Israel need some diversion now and again, so what's wrong with shooting the odd Palestinian farmer in the legs? Sure, he may well die, but so what? He's only a Palestinian, and Jews are, after all, the chosen people, (or so their leaders have tried to convince them) so they are allowed to shoot non-Jews, and especially Palestinians, who are little more than cockroaches, at least according to one of Israel's most decorated war heroes:
"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.
Of course, then there is the honorable opinion of the honorable former Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin:
"The Palestinians are beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.
And of course, how could we forget former Israeli PM Ehud Barak when he said:
"The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more..."
Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000
The problem, you see, is that Zionist leaders just love to murder Palestinians, but they usually need a pretext, an excuse, to really get their teeth into it, and at the moment the best available excuse seems to be the more or less harmless "Qassam" rockets that "somebody" keeps firing into Israel...
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Flashback: Confusion in PA: Who launched Qassam?
Ynet
27/11/2006
There has been general confusion in the Palestinian Authority after a Qassam rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev. One of the cells of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military arm, has taken responsibility for the firing.
However, Abu Ahmad, one of the group's senior officials in the northern Gaza Strip, said to Ynet that he had no knowledge that his people carried out the shooting.
"As of now, we continue to be committed to the truce, but are reserving our right to respond to Israeli infractions," said Abu Ahmad.
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Flashback: Portraits of Palestinian Resistance
Electronic Intifada
Rima Merriman
8 June 2006
Rima Merriman, a Palestinian American living in Ramallah, wrote this series, "Portraits of Palestinian Resistance", telling the stories of the four Palestinians killed and one of the 57 wounded in Ramallah on 24 May 2006, as they struggled to protect a Palestinian activist and political prisoner from an Israeli undercover unit.
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Palestinian men at Alsa'a Square, a few hundred yards from Al Manarah Circle. (Al-Quds Newspaper) |
Palestinian resistance to the occupation comes in many shapes and forms, some of which involves armed resistance undertaken by organized groups with various ideologies. These groups are composed of barely trained young men who pit their meager and crude resources against one of the best trained and best equipped military body in the world, the Israeli Occupation Forces. Of the 76 Israeli soldiers who died in 2005, only six were killed as a result of Palestinian attacks. The rest died of illness or accidents. Thirty of them committed suicide.
The imbalance in the resources between the two sides of the conflict predictably yields a steady mowing down on the part of the Israelis of one young Palestinian martyr after another. Most Palestinian deaths, however, are of civilians (and children) simply going about their daily lives, getting caught up in Israeli ground and air attacks, Israeli indiscriminate fire and Israeli raids.
Israel's control of and entrenchment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, its continual attempts to stamp out Palestinian resistance to the occupation at any cost, relies heavily on intelligence gathered by Shabak, the 5,000-strong Internal General Security Service of Israel, whose motto is "Defender who shall not be seen".
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Lu'lu'a Building, which houses the Internet Café on the sixth floor. (Rima Merriman) |
With a cadre of well-trained, Arabic-speaking Israeli informants who are indistinguishable physically from the Palestinian population, Shabak has little problem gathering intelligence on a people whose every movement is regulated by hundreds of check points and by total Israeli control on their borders. These infiltrators prey on Arab innate hospitality and friendliness. The Palestinians call them "musta'ribeen", i.e., "those who appear to be Arabs". Palestinians are not surprised when someone, somewhere comes up to them and says: Got you!
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The interior of the Internet Café. (Rima Merriman) |
On May 24th at about 2:30 in the afternoon, three musta'ribeen walked into the Al Karmi Internet Café on the sixth floor of the Lu'lu'a (meaning "pearl") building on Al Manara Circle in downtown Ramallah. They went up to the snack bar and ordered juice and then coffee. Their quarry, Mohammad Hamed Al Shobaki, leader of Islamic Jihad in Qalqilya, was at one of the computers of the Café.
In the meantime, a white van with tinted windows and a Palestinian license plate came barreling down the street against traffic, parked at the entrance of the building and disgorged 10-15 Israeli soldiers in full gear, four of whom had on black clothes and black caps. They stormed up the stairs and into the Café, herded everybody into a corner and arrested Al Shobaki. They also "arrested" the three musta'ribeen and covered all four with the black garb.
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Palestinian man trying to prevent Israeli Jeeps from getting to Al Manarah Circle. (Al-Quds Newspaper) |
The outcry on the street was immediate and spontaneous. Palestinian youth who were in the area started gathering stones and rocks and whatever else they could get their hands on. Someone drove the white van away and was stopped by a hail of stones. The van was promptly set on fire, as the driver, shouting that he was a Palestinian, jumped out.
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Palestinian men running towards Lu'lu'a Building. (Al-Quds Newspaper) |
Soon, Israeli reinforcements arrived on the scene, though not without being challenged on the way by crowds of angry Palestinian youth, who tried to block their passage. A handful of young Palestinian men who had weapons used them in the attempt. To get their quarry and retreat, it took the Israelis more than two hours, fifteen Israeli armored vehicles, two helicopters and an arsenal of weapons that included tear gas, sound bombs, rubber and specifically designed live bullets that explode inside the victim's body causing severe harm and tissue damage (called dom-dom bullets). Four young Palestinians were shot dead and scores were wounded. Israeli live fire was reported to be indiscriminate.
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Rocks, glass bottles and stones by the Lu'lu'ah Building (Al-Quds Newspaper) |
For the Israelis, it all must have seemed like a minor inconvenience, easily brushed off, with no loss of life on their well-armored parts. The Palestinian security forces, who are hugely out gunned (they are allowed nominal amounts of ammunition) and outnumbered by the Israeli forces, understand in military fashion the terrible consequences of any engagement they might choose to conduct with their occupiers. Their orders are always to withdraw from any confrontation.
But for the young men who spontaneously rushed to defend Palestinian freedom on May 24th, there was no question of looking on helplessly as the Israelis marched into their town in broad daylight to pluck off one of their leaders. The incident was a battle that showed off their mettle, the battle, as they are now calling it, of endurance and defiance.
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Ja'far Khaled Betilla, one of the martyrs. (Al-Quds Newspaper) |
Already, the events are slipping into legend, the courage and numbers of the participants expanding with every telling. The men and boys proudly recall how fearlessly they fought, what damage they inflicted. They admire the courage of their fallen comrades whom they commemorate with posters and slogans that convey the spirit of their resistance: "The National Liberation Movement 'Fateh' does not forget the blood of its men. Tomorrow, giant-like men will avenge me." So says the legend on Milad Atallah Abu Al Arayes's commemoration poster. He is one of the four young Palestinian men who lost their lives at Al Manarah on May 24th.
[NEXT...]
Rima Merriman is a Palestinian-American living in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
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Flashback: PA police fire on undercover IDF unit in Bethlehem
Ha'aretz
11/30/2005
Palestinian policemen opened fire at undercover Israel Defense Forces soldiers during an operation in Bethlehem yesterday. No soldiers were hurt during the incident, and the IDF said its inquiry revealed that no policemen were hurt. However, the Palestinians said one policeman was wounded. According to the army's initial inquiry, the Palestinian police had not been informed about the army operation. Thus, when the soldiers, who were disguised to look like Arabs, came to arrest a wanted man not far from City Hall, the policemen took them for members of an armed Palestinian gang.
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Flashback: Israeli Arab-lookalike Team Murders Palestinian Man and Boy in Tulkarm
Ynet
05/12/2006
Palestinians say special IDF force raided café in town, shot to death Mahmoud Abed al-Al, Fatah activist from Gaza; witnesses report 12 year-old child critically injured
A special Border Guard police force killed a Fatah activist in the West Bank town of Tulkarm Monday evening. According to witnesses, the man killed is Mahmoud Abed al-Al, a Fatah member from Gaza who is currently residing in Tulkarm.
The Palestinians also reported that 12 year-old Muhammad Abu Shweish was critically injured in the operation, and that a seniorFatah activist - Annan Yaish, sustained moderate wounds.
Immediately after news of the incident broke out, hundreds of the town's residents arrived at the hospital and gathered outside.
The IDF reported that the force encircled a house and called on gunmen hiding inside to come out. During the operation two suspects tried to escape and were fired at. One of the suspects was killed, and the other one was evacuated to an Israeli hospital.
A senior al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades official threatened in a conversation with Ynet that the group's members will not responds with restraint to the killing. "Despite the Brigades' commitment to the calm, although it has only been declared in the Strip, Israel continues to kill the organization's members," he stated.
The Islamic Jihad's military wing announced Sunday that in light of the IDF's continued operations in the West Bank, the group will resume rocket attacks against Israel. A senior member of the organization told Ynet that his men will also carry out suicide bombings inside Israel.
The commander of the group's military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, Walid Abeidi, declared that his operatives will soon carry out suicide bombings inside Israel, in response to the escalation in the military's strikes against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Comment: This is the work of the well-known Israeli military team who are called "musta'ribeen", i.e., "those who appear to be Arabs" by Palestinians. Ask yourself, what is to stop such teams firing rockets from Palestine into Israel and allowing the blame to fall on Palestinians? You think Israeli politicians would not sanction the murder of Israeli citizens to further their political goals?
Time to get real!
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Flashback: Israeli agents accused of creating fake al-Qaeda cell
Sophie Claudet in Gaza City
AFP
December 9 2002
A senior Palestinian security official says his services have uncovered an Israeli plot to create a fake al-Qaeda cell in the Gaza Strip, a charge Israel has dismissed as absurd.
The head of preventive security in Gaza, Rashid Abu Shbak, said Israeli agents posing as operatives of al-Qaeda recruited Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"Over the past nine months we've been investigating eight [such] cases," Mr Abu Shbak said.
His claims came after the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said al-Qaeda militants were operating in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon, raising fears of an intensification of Israeli military occupations.
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry branded the Palestinian claim as ridiculous and "some kind of propaganda campaign", adding that "the Palestinian territories have become a breeding ground for terrorism".
"There is no need for Israel to make up something like this because [the hardline Islamic movements] are all the same as al-Qaeda," the spokesman said.
Mr Abu Shbak said three Palestinians used by Israeli intelligence had been arrested, while another 11 were released "because they came and informed us of this Israeli plot".
Mr Abu Shbak said his services had traced back to Israel mobile phone calls and emails - purportedly from Germany and Lebanon - asking Palestinians to join al-Qaeda. One email had even been "signed" by the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.
"We investigated the origin of those calls and found out they all came from Israel."
The Palestinians recruited were then paired, unbeknown to them, with Israeli collaborators in Gaza, and received money and weapons, "although most of these weapons did not even work".
The money was provided by "Palestinian collaborators with Israel" directly to the recruits or "was transferred from bank accounts in Jerusalem or Israel", said Mr Abu Shbak, who did not dispute that as many as 11 Palestinians had welcomed the call to join al-Qaeda.
"Those who accepted were mostly members of the military wing of Palestinian organisations," he said, adding that although he could not say "there will never be al-Qaeda here, but at least not for now".
The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has called Mr Sharon's al-Qaeda claim "a big, big, big lie to cover [his] attacks and his crimes against our people everywhere".
The Lebanese Government and Hezbollah have also dismissed the accusations.
Mr Sharon's announcement marked the first time Israel has officially claimed that al-Qaeda was operating in the Palestinian territories, and came as a surprise because the Gaza Strip is virtually sealed off by Israeli troops.
Israel has came under heavy international criticism for a raid on a Gaza Strip refugee camp on Friday that left 10 Palestinians dead, including two United Nations employees. The European Union and Arab states joined the UN in condemning the incursion into the densely populated Al-Bureij camp.
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Three days of callousness
Haaretz
25/12/2006
Last Tuesday, Doaa Abd al-Qadr, 14, left her home near Tul Karm and walked toward the separation fence. It was a spring day, her mother says, and she decided to visit relatives, Israeli Arabs who live on the other side. Doaa and a 12-year-old friend were walking in a ditch on the Palestinian side, about 100 meters from the fence, when Israel Defense Force soldiers spotted them and fired warning shots - as far as is known. When the two girls came out of the ditch, an IDF marksman fired another shot. Doaa Abd al-Qadr died on the way to the hospital.
The IDF responded harshly to the firing against orders; the marksman and his commander were suspended, and a military police investigation started. Urgency, however, did not typify the subsequent treatment of the mourning family. The custom of callousness to the suffering of the Palestinians is ingrained so deeply in the Israeli establishment that there was no basic human sensitivity that would have made it possible to treat the mourners in a manner concomitant with their suffering and with our guilt.
When it became clear that Doaa's father had been held for two months in the Abu Kabir lockup for entering Israel without a permit, his lawyer requested that he be released to attend his daughter's funeral. Although no one claimed that the father, Nasser Abd al-Qadr, was involved in terror activities or that his early release would harm the security of the state, the courts, in three instances, were not persuaded that it would be possible, beyond the letter of the law, to allow a man who had lost his daughter due to an IDF mistake to take part in mourning her death. For three days of excruciatingly complicated and unnecessary legal procedures, the father remained incarcerated. Concern that Abd al-Qadr, who was suspected of stealing a car, would not return from his mourning to prison, hardened the hearts of the judges.
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Israel threatens a large operation in the Gaza strip if Qassams continue
IMEMC & Agencies
25 December 2006
During a session for Israel's "security Cabinet" on Sunday, several Israeli ministers warned that Israeli would carry a large military offensive in the Gaza Strip if Palestinian fighters continue to fire homemade shells into Israeli settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Minister of Transportation, Shaul Mofaz, stated that Israel will operate against the leaders of Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip if the firing does not cease.
Mofaz added that Israel will carry all of the needed measures "to secure the lives of Sderot residents, and residents of other Israel town in the Negev".
Israeli Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, said that "the Israeli self-restraint policy" is weakening Israel"
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It's Genocide
Israel approves removal of 27 roadblocks in W Bank
www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-26 05:50:17
JERUSALEM, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed on Monday to dismantle 27 roadblocks in the West Bank, local media reported.
Local newspaper Ha'aretz quoted Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh as saying that Olmert has approved the removal of 27 roadblocks across the West Bank.
Sneh made the comments to Channel 2 TV following a meeting between the prime minister, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and several other senior defense officials.
In addition to the removal of roadblocks, security screening of Palestinian pedestrians and vehicles will be eased at 16 main checkpoints throughout the West Bank, the report said.
Sneh said the prime minister accepted all of Peretz's proposals for easing restrictions on the Palestinians in order to help strengthen Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
He added that the proposals also included dramatically increasing the flow of goods into and out of the Gaza Strip through the Karni and Kerem Shalom crossings.
The decisions came two days after a meeting between Olmert and Abbas on Saturday, during which Olmert promised to dismantle a number of roadblocks in the West Bank so as to give Palestinians in the West Bank greater freedom of movement.
Comment: Palestine is occupied territory. The Israelis make and enforce the rules. When it is pragmatic to do so, they ease up on the pressure ever so slightly, trumpet their 'concession' in the Western press, while preparing to take it back doubled or tripled in the near future when they deem it convenient.
There are over 400 of these roadbloacks in the West Bank, according to another report from the CBC and AP. So less than 4% of the roadblocks are being removed. Some concession.
The Palestinians do not have 'freedom of movement'. They are imprisoned in a rapidly shrinking West Bank, as illegel settlements continue to be built on stolen land, land owned by Palestinians. What would you do if a foreign power decided to move in next door to you and spent fifty years stealing your land?
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Soldier shoots and kills Palestinian construction worker in West Bank
Israeli Info Center For Human Rights
20/12/2006
On Thursday, 14 December, at around 10:45 in the morning, an Israeli soldier shot to death Wahib a-Dik, a twenty-eight-year-old Palestinian laborer, and father of 4.
The IDF Spokesperson issued no statement on the incident. The press quoted anonymous military sources who said that a-Dik was shot by a Paratrooper Unit that entered a courtyard in a-Dik Village while chasing youths who had thrown stones.
According to these sources, "the company commander saw a-Dik about to throw a brick at soldiers from the top of a flight of stairs. The commander fired two shots at the man, killing him."
The sources also contended that a-Dik was still conscious after he was shot and was taken to the hospital by a Red Crescent ambulance. These comments differ sharply from the findings of B'Tselem's investigation.
B'Tselem conducted a thorough investigation including examination of the site and testimonies from eye witnesses. The medical report that the deceased's family received from the hospital was also inspected. The investigative findings indicate that some twenty to thirty laborers were engaged in restoring an archeological site in the center of a-Dik, a village in Salfit District, in the northern part of the West Bank . The laborers heard gunshots and shouting by school children outside the worksite. Then a group of some seven soldiers entered the site. Nabih Naji, one of the laborers, told B'Tselem that he asked the soldiers what they were doing there, and a soldier stated they were looking for stone-throwers.
Suddenly, Wahib a-Dik, carrying two empty pails, came out of an upper level of the site and stood next to the stairs. A-Dik managed to say a few words, apparently to declare his innocence. The soldier went down on one knee, aimed his rifle, and fired a volley of bullets at a-Dik. Hit by the bullets, a-Dik dropped the pails, collapsed, and fell about five meters to the ground, apparently dead.
His father, Muslah a-Dik, and Naji demanded that the soldier give the injured man first-aid and help evacuate him, but the soldier refused. The soldiers left the site. Residents came and took a-Dik to the hospital in Ramallah.
The medical report states that a-Dik, who was dead on arrival, was killed by two bullets that struck the middle of his body. A third bullet hit him in the hand.
These facts indicate that a-Dik was killed by illegal gunfire. The troops who entered the archeological site were on a policing mission to catch suspected stone throwers. In such situations, both Israeli law and international law permit the use of firearms only where actual and immediate danger to life is involved and other means are not available to thwart the danger. In any event, for the firing to be legal, the degree of danger inherent in firing the weapon must be proportionate to the result that the action seeks to prevent. A-Dik was standing high above the ground, holding two empty pails and posing no threat to the soldiers. Clearly, the shooting was unjustified.
On 17 December, B'Tselem wrote to the chief military prosecutor, demanding an immediate investigation into the killing and the refusal of the soldiers to provide first-aid.
Other cases of lethal shooting have taken place in similar circumstances in the past month, raising the concern that soldiers are receiving rules of engagement that contradict the law.
In December, B'Tselem learned of three additional cases in which soldiers opened fire in response to stone-throwing, or in the area of the separation barrier.
* On 3 December, Jamil al-Jabji was shot in the area north of the 'Askar refugee camp, which overlooks the Huwarra - a-Badan road. Al-Jabji threw stones at an army jeep. The soldiers in the jeep fired twice in the air as the jeep proceeded in the direction of the stone throwers. A third shot, fired from a distance of about twenty meters, hit al-Jabji in the head and killed him.
* On 7 December, Saji Husam Mahmud a-Sheikh was shot near the separation barrier, two kilometers south of Beit 'Anan, al-Quds district. Saji and his friends had attacked the fence with sticks and threw stones. Soldiers who lay in wait nearby opened fire from a distance of fifty to seventy meters. One of the shots hit Saji, breaking the bone in his leg. He underwent surgery in a Ramallah hospital and will require further surgery to repair the injury.
* On 19 December, soldiers fired at two Palestinian girls who approached the separation barrier by Far'un, a village near Tulkarm. The shooting killed Da'ah 'Abd al-Qadr, 14, and wounded her friend Saha Shalbi, 12. The Military Police are investigating the incident. On 24 December 2006, OC Central Command dismissed the platoon commander from his position and reprimanded the company commander. The soldier who fired the shot was suspended until completion of the Military Police investigation.
In all of these cases, the soldiers' lives were apparently not in danger. In its letter to the chief military prosecutor, B'Tselem demanded an investigation into whether soldiers were issued orders that could be understand in a way that contravenes the law, by giving them the dangerous impression that they are allowed to open fire at stone throwers.
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Israeli platoon commander dismissed over killing of girl, 14
Haaretz
24/12/2006
An initial investigation into the Tuesday incident showed that the girl and a 12-year-old friend were in the area of the fence when they were spotted by a force of soldiers, who reported two "suspicious figures" west of the barrier. The force' platoon commander then fired into the air. As the two girls tried to flee, a soldier who served as a marksman fired two bullets, hitting the 14-year-old Doaa.
The investigation further showed that the marksman had acted on his own, had received no permission to open fire, and had ignored the presence of the officer, who was a meter away from him. The marksman said that he believed that the figure was a terrorist, mistaking the girl's backpack for a combat vest. He admitted that he saw no weapon, and was unable to explain why he opened fire on people escaping away from the fence and toward the village. He said that he had shot at their legs, although in fact he hit the girl's forearm.
The IDF dismissed a platoon commander from his post on Sunday, five days after a soldier in his unit mistakenly (??) shot dead a 14-year-old girl, Doaa Abd al-Qadr, near the West Bank city of Tul Karm.
The case had received particular attention because the girl's father, Nasser Abd al-Qadr, was in custody in Israel at the time of the shooting, and a court refused to allow him to attend his daughter's funeral or be at home in Tul Karm for the mourning period.
On Sunday, GOC Central Command Major-General Yair Naveh, who commands IDF troops in the West Bank, conducted an investigation into the incident. The probe was carried out at the site of the shooting, beside the separation fence by the Tul Karm-area village of Faroun. A parallel probe by Investigations Military Police is continuing.
The Naveh investigation ordered the dismissal of the platoon commander. It also instructed that the commander of his company, a part of the Nahshon infantry battalion, receive an official reprimand. The soldier who shot the girl has been suspended from duty until further notice.
Nasser Abd al-Qadr was freed on bail on Friday, two months after he was arrested on suspicion of being in Israel illegally and of stealing a vehicle.
On Saturday, Abd al-Qadr visited his daughter's grave and met his three other children, whom he last saw two months ago. "I wanted to see her for the last time, to kiss her for the last time," he said of his dead daughter.
Nasser Abd al-Qadr will return to the lock-up on Tuesday morning and will remain there until his trial begins. He said he has no intention of trying to flee, and that he was merely seeking work in Israel.
"I hope that Israel will look at my family. I had four children, and now I have three. I hope they will set me free," he said.
An initial investigation into the Tuesday incident showed that the girl and a 12-year-old friend were in the area of the fence when they were spotted by a force of soldiers, who reported two "suspicious figures" west of the barrier. The force' platoon commander then fired into the air. As the two girls tried to flee, a soldier who served as a marksman fired two bullets, hitting the 14-year-old Doaa.
The investigation further showed that the marksman had acted on his own, had received no permission to open fire, and had ignored the presence of the officer, who was a meter away from him. The marksman said that he believed that the figure was a terrorist, mistaking the girl's backpack for a combat vest. He admitted that he saw no weapon, and was unable to explain why he opened fire on people escaping away from the fence and toward the village. He said that he had shot at their legs, although in fact he hit the girl's forearm.
The Tel Aviv District Court last week had refused the father bail on the grounds that the law did not provide for this, after the prosecution objected to his release. On Thursday evening, his lawyer petitioned the High Court of Justice, but Justice Asher Grunis postponed the hearing until Monday, which would have been after the mourning period concluded.
On Friday morning, however, the state prosecution changed its mind about the father's release. His attorney, Rami Othman, received an offer from the prosecution to release him. The Justice Ministry explained the change of heart by saying the petitioner had originally approached the wrong court, and that the matter had been reconsidered after the petition was submitted to the High Court.
Abd al-Qadr was ordered to post NIS 5,000 bail and to bring two people to sign a guarantee of his return. The money was transferred by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Othman found one person to sign but spent many hours searching fruitlessly for a second. On Friday afternoon, MKs Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al) and Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) announced they would serve as the guarantors. Tibi then drove with Othman to the Abu Kabir lockup and signed.
The police refused to set Abd al-Qadr free at Abu Kabir, where the media was waiting, and insisted on driving him in a police van to the Taibeh roadblock, saying otherwise he would again be in Israel illegally.
"The judicial system displayed a total lack of sensitivity, and the girl was killed a second time when her father was not allowed to participate in the funeral," Tibi said.
Abd al-Qadr was set free at the roadblock but his waiting relatives on the other side were dispersed by soldiers who said they feared a crowd would gather.
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Poverty-struck Palestinians turn to drugs (supplied by Israel)
25 Dec 2006
IRIN
GAZA CITY - Palestinian refugee Samir Hassan [not his real name] never imagined he would one day replace his UN food coupons with marijuana and heroin, despite the hunger of his children.
"My life was normal, everything was normal, but unemployment is difficult and poverty is more difficult. Bad conditions led me down a worse path. I have even had to beg for money," he said.
Hassan, a 35-year-old from the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, cares for nine family members including his sick mother. Before 2000, he used to work in Israel's shipping industry, but with the outbreak of the second intifada [Palestinians' uprising against Israeli occupation] in that year most Palestinian labourers from Gaza were banned from entering Israel.
Since then he has been unemployed, a situation that drove him to drug addiction. To fund his habit, he first sold his wife and children's clothes before stealing his brothers' property to be able to pay for his drugs.
Overall, drug dependency in the Palestinian territories is on the rise, according to drugs police and doctors. This, they say, is due to a sense of hopelessness among ordinary Palestinians and the lack of both effective policing to catch the dealers and of a clinical safety net to help those already addicted.
According to the Palestinian Anti-Narcotics Administration (ANA), there were more than 850 drugs seizures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2005. This year, up to October, there were 555 seizures, including 394 in the West Bank and 161 in Gaza.
The ANA said a type of hashish, known locally as Bango, was the most popular and easily-available type of drug in the Gaza Strip, while in the West Bank Palestinians can also get hold of hallucinatory drugs such as LSD.
Hassan told IRIN that his spiral into addiction began when he made acquaintance with two rich friends and began spending long nights with them smoking marijuana and taking heroin.
As he spoke, he began to cry and his blood pressure increased, turning his face red. He left the house abruptly, leaving his wife, M, also in tears.
"My husband has been lost. It is now 4pm and he will come back at midnight after having taken drugs. He wanted the drugs to help him forget our miserable living conditions but now we are living an infinitely worse nightmare," she said.
She told IRIN she had tried to divorce her husband but her children dissuaded her.
Husni Shaheen, secretary general of the Palestinian Supreme National Committee Against Drugs, said the socio-economic conditions brought about by Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which was ended last summer, had pushed Palestinians to drugs.
Shaheen added that most of the drugs in the Palestinian territories came from Lebanon and the Sinai desert in Egypt.
"Planting drugs in Palestinian Territories is very little, only for personal use and for small trading," he said.
Now local NGOs run three drug rehabilitation centres in the West Bank and one in Gaza.
But Abed al-Jawad Zyadah, head of the Hope and Life Society in Gaza, said their drug rehabilitation efforts had been greatly hampered by the international economic embargo imposed on the democratically-elected Hamas government. The West wants Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce violence before it will resume funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
"We are limited to simply advising the people that come to us - there's really nothing more we can do," he said.
The stigma of drug addiction, a source of shame among Palestinians, also prevents the addicted from seeking help until their drugs habit is well-advanced, Zyadah added.
"They want to come to us in a secret way without anyone knowing. Often they wait until they are really in big trouble. Such reticence makes the work of NGO more complex," he said.
Nevertheless, Zyadah said NGOs like Hope and Life had helped some 400 drug addicts in the West Bank.
Dr Adel Aouda, a psychologist in Gaza City, said he had treated some drug addicts because there was no dedicated drugs rehabilitation centre in the Gaza Strip run by the PA Ministry of Health.
"Drugs are spreading because we don't have a plan to deter its use or stop the smuggling," he said.
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Israeli forces besiege northwestern West Bank
Palestine News Network
Monday, 25 December 2006
Israeli forces imposed several military barriers throughout the night at the entrances to villages east of Tulkarem. Also to the southeast of the northwestern West Bank town major numbers of Israeli forces held residents under siege.
At the checkpoints Israeli forces stopped cars, forcing Palestinians to stand in the cold for hours. At the tunnel that is now the route for Palestinians in and out of the city of Tulkarem, Israeli forces occupying the West Bank brought dogs to search the people.
Concerned citizens reported that the continuation of the situation, particularly with the Eid Al Adha approaching and Christmas upon the region, is leading to a serious dilemma in how to reach relatives for any sort of festivities. The economic situation is also being negatively impacted, more so than before, as reported by residents.
Israeli forces continued invasions throughout Christmas Eve and into Christmas day, arresting several Palestinians, including from Bethlehem.
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Israel plans W.Bank homes for Gaza settlers
By Jeffrey Heller
Tue Dec 26, 5:22 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will turn a former army base in the occupied West Bank into a settlement for 30 Jewish settler families evacuated from Gaza last year, a government official said on Tuesday.
A settler official said fewer than 20 families had been waiting to move into Maskiot, in the Jordan Valley, under a months-old government promise to build the first permanent housing in the West Bank for Gaza evacuees.
A U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan known as the "road map" calls for a halt to settlement construction in the West Bank, land Palestinians want for a state.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz has decided to allow the construction of 30 homes in Maskiot, a former army base that currently houses a military academy for high school students, the government official said.
"The decision was taken by then-Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz in the previous government and it wasn't possible to prevent this," the official said after Israel Radio reported Peretz, leader of the centre-left Labor Party, had given the final nod.
A regional council official in the Jordan Valley said building work in Maskiot would begin in two weeks, Israel Radio said.
The families planning to move to Maskiot lived in two of the 21 settlements Israel dismantled in the Gaza Strip in 2005 under a "disengagement plan" promoted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Some 8,500 settlers were pulled out of the Gaza Strip, along with Israeli troops, after 38 years of occupation.
Emily Amrusy, a spokeswoman for the Jewish settlers' umbrella YESHA Council, said 42 of the 1,700 families evacuated from the Gaza Strip have been living in temporary housing in two settlements in the West Bank.
She said the rest had opted to reside in Israel.
"The explanation is that most of the families wanted to live in southern Israel to be close to working places and relatives," Amrusy said.
She said the government had promised to build "a neighborhood" for Gaza evacuees in Maskiot and they planned to move into caravans at the site to await the construction of permanent housing.
Some 260,000 settlers live in the West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians. The World Court has branded Israeli settlements on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal. Israel disputes this.
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Israeli army abducts six Palestinian men during morning invasions in West Bank
IMEMC & Agencies
26 December 2006
The Israeli army invaded several cities, villages and refugee camps in different parts of the West Bank and abducted six Palestinian men on Tuesday morning.
Troops invaded Al Khader village south of Bethlehem and abducted Mustafa Salah, after searching and ransacking his home, eyewitnesses reported. Moreover in the nearby Aida refugee camp, Israeli troops attacked several residents homes and searched them and abducted Mohamed Harz-Allah, 18, local sources reported.
Meanwhile, Mujahid Abu Rumi resident of Al Ezaria east of Jerusalem, said troops surrounded his home, searched it and forcefully locked the family in one room of then took prisoner his son Hakam, 18. The father added the soldiers beat his son with their patons while forcing him in their jeep and took him to unknown location.
Israeli forces also invaded the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, searched scores of residents' homes down town, then abducted Rafiq Nufal, 20, and took him to unknown destination.
Also in north of the West Bank, Israeli soldiers invaded the city of Jenin and its Refugee camp, searched and ransacked a number of homes and shops and abducted Mahmoud Al Sa'di, leader in the Islamic Jihad Movement, from Jenin refugee camp and Iyad Al Sayed, from the city of Jenin, both were moved to detention camps, sources in the city reported.
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Zionism, Inc.
Muslims forced to lift veil at airports
Scotsman
24/12/2006
Veiled women will be forced to reveal their identities at UK airports under a government plan to tighten security, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
Home Office insiders last night confirmed that immigration officials will be ordered to impose their legal right to lift the veils of passengers after it emerged a suspected police killer may have escaped the UK dressed as a Muslim woman.
But the plan has been attacked by unions, which claim it would impose intolerable demands on their members, particularly female officers who would be the only ones allowed to look under veils.
Ministers have been forced on to the back foot in the past week after it was revealed that asylum seeker Mustaf Jama, wanted for the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky, flew from Heathrow to Somalia using his sister's passport. He is believed to have been wearing a niqab, which has just a slit for eyes.
It subsequently emerged that immigration staff are legally entitled to ask any female passenger to lift her veil to verify her identity against passport photographs. But officers usually wave passengers through because they do not have the time to check everyone.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair yesterday joined the growing calls for change, saying airline passengers must remove any head-dress that covers their face. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has consistently warned of the grave terror threat facing the country, said: "We must find methods of allowing people to take off the veil in a way that's dignified."
But a senior Home Office source insisted that existing law gave immigration officers wide-ranging rights. However, the department told Scotland on Sunday last week that it does not hold any centralised records of those checked or refused entry for failing to meet entry requirements.
Home Secretary John Reid is planning to enforce these legal rights before considering any more significant changes.
"Immigration officers can check beneath veils and they do this at every port of entry, every day of the week," the source added. "It is done sensitively and in private.
"Where they don't do it, I suspect it is more often to do with a lack of suspicion than lax procedures or overwork. But we recognise that this sort of thing should be the rule, not the exception."
The Immigration Act 1971 requires everyone entering the UK to satisfy an immigration officer as to their nationality and identity. Where there are sensitive or cultural reasons why it is not possible for a person to remove a veil or other garment at the immigration control, they will be taken to a private area where their identity can be verified.
Comment: It is important to notice that there is no suggestion that Muslim British women do not already lift their veils when asked to. Why then is an issue being made of Muslim women, and Muslims in general? You know the answer of course, and this story gives us an insight into the insidiousness of the mind progaramming that is currently underway in the UK:
Step one: Create a "problem": Create a problem or take one that does exist and build it up out of all proportion to its real importance;
Step Two: Publicise the "problem": Make sure a story about the "problem" appears in the news media each and every day, in newspapers, news magazines, radio, and television. Hit it again and again in a "steady drumbeat" in such a way that very soon, people who don't usually pay attention to politics (which is the majority), begin to clamor for a "solution" to the problem.
Step Three: Offer a "solution": A "solution" that takes away one or more of our rights and further undermines the constitutional protections we all are supposed to enjoy. A "solution" that involves higher taxes (to pay for the "solution," of course), and one the public would not have allowed their "leaders" to implement without this relentless conditioning of the public mind.
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'O little ghetto of Bethlehem'
Chicago Tribune
24/12/2006
The beloved words of the Nativity story evoke reverence and awe. But a recent visit to Bethlehem left me wondering: If Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem today, would they get in? Would they make it to the manger, or would the holy child be delivered at an Israeli checkpoint?
The city of Christ's birth is now partially surrounded by a wall, much of it 25 or more feet high, an unbroken expanse of solid, gray concrete, a medieval city wall updated with 21st Century cameras and razor wire. The wall snakes through Bethlehem and the nearby countryside, separating farmers from their fields, workers from their jobs and families from their neighbors.
The wall around Bethlehem is part of an Israeli security barrier designed to separate occupied Palestine from Israel.
But instead of following the Green Line--the 1949 armistice line between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories--it snakes deep into the Palestinian West Bank. Palestinians call it a land grab.
The wall effectively annexes Israeli West Bank settlements, although they are considered illegal under international law. The settlements are fast-growing Israeli enclaves built on Palestinian land, their close-packed dwellings marching up once-forested hillsides like monochromatic Lego blocks. Bethlehem is surrounded by 27 settlements containing 73,000 people, according to Open Bethlehem, a local advocacy group. The settlements are connected by bypass roads that are off limits to Palestinians.
The wall and other Israeli restrictions on movement have made Christian and Muslim areas of the West Bank such as Bethlehem virtual ghettos.
Once, Bethlehem was easily accessible from Jerusalem. Now, for Palestinians, it's an ordeal of checkpoints, with their prison-style walkways covered with wire mesh, multiple turnstiles, baggage X-rays, metal detectors and document scrutiny. On any given day no one can predict when or even if he or she will be allowed to pass. It's a cruel roulette in which Palestinians gamble daily on getting to work or school on time, or getting a sick child to the hospital.
Foreign tourists see little of this from their buses on the way to Manger Square. These visitors get only a glimpse of a city withering under Israeli occupation. Tourism, traditionally Bethlehem's economic mainstay, has dropped dramatically. The Christian population, which was 80 percent in 1948, is now less than 20 percent. Christians traditionally have been among the more prosperous citizens, those with means to move elsewhere.
Less fortunate are residents of the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. On a recent visit to the camp, my companions and I climbed to the roof of an apartment house. Here we could see over the wall to a lush olive grove on the other side. "That was a park for the children from the camp," said Ayed Alazzeh, who runs the Lajee Center, a recreation and educational center in the camp. Now the wall makes the olive grove, which belongs to a local church, inaccessible to the children.
In December Alazzeh's 12-year-old nephew was shot and seriously wounded while playing on the balcony of his home. The shots came from Israeli soldiers manning a guard tower on the wall nearby, Alazzeh said.
The reality of life in Bethlehem today confounds the traditions of the Christmas story: How could the shepherds, abiding in their fields beyond the wall, visit the Christ child? And what about the Magi? Would they have the proper travel documents to enter Bethlehem? Would their gold, frankincense and myrrh be confiscated at a checkpoint? In the troubled "little town" of Bethlehem, the angels' song of "Peace on Earth" seems faint indeed.
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Americans back Bethlehem - but not sure where it is
Open Bethlehem
23 December 2006
Two Nation survey: America vs Bethlehem.
Most Americans believe Bethlehem is an Israeli town inhabited by a mixture of Jews and Muslims, a pre-Christmas survey of US perceptions of the town has shown.
Only 15 per cent of Americans realise that it is a Palestinian city with a mixed Christian-Muslim community, lying in the occupied West Bank.
The nationwide survey, carried out by top US political pollsters Zogby International, canvassed 15000 American respondents. The poll was commissioned by the campaign organisation Open Bethlehem to coincide with a survey carried out in Bethlehem itself - canvassing 1000 respondents from the three urban centres of Bethlehem, where the population splits almost equally between Muslims and Christians.
The surveys have put the spotlight on the plight of the town, which has been fast losing its indigenous Christian population since the construction of the Israeli wall plunged Bethlehem into economic crisis.
The two surveys show that American perceptions of the town are wildly at odds with the perceptions of those who live there.
While the Christians of Bethlehem overwhelmingly (78%) blame the exodus of Christians from the town on Israel's blockade, Americans are more likely (45.9%) to blame it on Islamic politics and are reluctant (7.4%) to blame Israel.
And while four out of ten Americans believe that the wall exists for Israel's security, more than nine out of ten Bethlehemites believe it is part of a plan by Israel to confiscate Palestinian land.
The Zogby survey shows strong support for the town in the US, where 65.5% of the population want the UN to list it as a world heritage site. Americans are also strongly in favour (80.6%) of Bethlehem retaining a strong Christian presence.
Americans are also ambivalent about the Israeli wall, with 31.5% in favour of it, with another 31.6% opposed.
But more than two-thirds of Americans believe Bethlehem is unsafe to visit, while 80% of Bethlehemites consider their town safe for visitors.
While the US survey showed that Americans are skeptical about Muslims and Christians living contentedly alongside each other - only 17% thought they lived together in peaceful coexistence - the Palestinian survey showed they do: around 90% of Christians said they had Muslim friends, and vice-versa.
The Israeli government could well be shaken by the discovery that Americans' tolerance of the wall would be strained by the discovery that it separates communities and families, cuts Bethlehem off from Jerusalem, and requires the seizure of privately-owned land.
US Christians, meanwhile, are likely to be shocked by the discovery that seven out of ten Christians in Bethlehem believe Israel treats the town's Christian heritage with brutality or indifference.
The Bethlehem poll, which was carried out by the Palestinian Centre for research and Cultural Dialogue, shows on the other hand that more than two-thirds (73.3%) of Bethlehem's Christians believe that the Palestinian Authority treats Christian heritage with respect. That result will surprise some who believe that the election of Hamas has strained Christian-Muslim relations in the town.
Leila Sansour, Open Bethlehem's Chief Executive, says:
"Our US poll shows overwhelming support for Bethlehem's Christian heritage, yet our survey of Bethlehem's own citizens shows the city cannot retain this heritage and its Christian community while the wall remains.
"The choice is stark. Either the wall stays and Bethlehem ceases to be a Christian town. Or Bethlehem retains its Christian population - in which case the wall has to come down. The international community needs to wake up to what is happening and choose."
KEY FINDINGS OF THE TWO SURVEYS
1) 59.1 % of Americans thought that the population of Bethlehem was either Muslim or Jewish or a mix of both. Only 15.6 % knew it was a mix of Christians and Muslims.
2) When asked where the city was located 58% of Americans thought it was in Israel. Only 26% knew that the town of Jesus birth was located in the Occupied Territories.
3) When told that the population of Bethlehem is a mix of Christians and Muslims 25.1% of Americans thought that they lived together in bitter dispute while only 17 % thought they lived together in peaceful coexistence. 26.4 % thought it was neither.
4) In the Bethlehem survey 87.5% of Muslims said they had Christian friends and 92.2% of Christians said they had Muslim friends.
5) The Bethlehem poll shows that 22.4% of Bethlehem residents regard unemployment as their main problem, 5.9% cite emigration, 4.3% think it is the expropriation of their land by Israel - and 67.4% see it is as a combination of these four factors. When asked about the key current factor in the crisis: 38.1% of respondents said the Israeli occupation, 39.7% blamed the Israeli wall while 19.2% looked to the rifts within their own society.
6) A large number of Americans respondents (36.9%) were not aware of the Israeli wall in and around Bethlehem. Of those who knew, equal numbers of Americans either supported or opposed the wall: 31.5% supported 31.6% opposed.
7) The American poll showed that 40.6% of Americans thought that the wall is there for Israel's security, while 19.4% thought that the wall is there to confiscate land from Bethlehem residents for the sake of Israel's expansion.
8) In Bethlehem, 6% of respondents believe the wall is a temporary measure, while 91.1% regard it as a premeditated plan by Israel to confiscate their land. The wall features as a bigger problem for Christians: 42.1% of Christians refer to it as the key problem facing the city, as opposed to 36.3% of Muslims.
9) In the last 5 years about 400 Christian families left Bethlehem. When asked for the reason 45.9% of Americans thought it was the rise of Islamic extremism while only 7.4% attributed their exodus to the Israeli occupation.
10) In stark contrast, 78% of Bethlehem's Christians said they were leaving because of the Israeli occupation - while only 3.2% blamed the rise of Islamic movements. 12.5% attributed it to both.
11) 75% of people in Bethlehem said they are depressed by family members moving abroad. Among those who chose to stay, 20.5% said that work or family commitments were the major deterrents.
12) 63.2% of Bethlehem Christians have at least one relative who has emigrated, against 32,8% of Muslims. When asked if many of their relatives have left the country, the contrast sharpens: Christian respondents stand at 20.1%, against 5.4% among Muslims.
13) 50.7% of Bethlehem Christians have thought of emigrating, against 43.6% among Muslims.
14) 15.7% of Bethlehem Christians said they are in the process of emigrating - against 8.3% among Muslims. Worryingly, 19.2% of those are young and 36% have BA degrees or above. Of those in the process of emigrating, 72.45% are male.
15) Americans think that more Muslim lands than Christian lands have been confiscated by Israel: Muslims 18.4% Christians 3.6% Both: 34.5%.
16) 54.7% of Bethlehem Christians said they had relatives whose land was confiscated by Israel. 41.7% of Muslims said the same .
17) 65.3% of people in Bethlehem said they have had family members or friends arrested for political reasons. (74.5% muslim, 59%Christian)
18) 41.5% of people in Bethlehem said they had either a member of their family or a friend killed by the Israeli army- 53.9% muslim, 32.9% Christian
19) 65.9% of Christians in Bethlehem think Israel treats Christian heritage with either brutality or indifference. (rising to 76% for those respondents over the age of 60)
20) 73.3% of Christians in Bethlehem believe PA treats Christian heritage with respect.
21) 86.1% of people in Bethlehem think churches should do more to help the city. 74.7% think the world knows little about situation.
22) 43.1% of people in Bethlehem see "Fear of the pro Israeli lobby" as the key factor behind the lack of action among international community while 14.2% think it is lack of understanding. 17.9% attribute it to general indifference .
23) 53.2% of people in Bethlehem believe that international pressure is key to resolving the situation while 18.9% think that the solution will come through a change in Israeli politics. Only 7.6% trust that help will come from Arab countries.
24) 75.7% of people in Bethlehem thought that most people in the world would like to visit Bethlehem while only 17.1% of Americans said they are likely to do so.
25) Americans saw the major interest in Bethlehem in the following order:
59.6% Visit the church of the Nativity
44.9% Walk the biblical route of the Holy family
36.8% experience the life of the local community
30.7% Visit Solomons pools
29 % Visit Desert monasteries
26.8 % Visit Shepherds Fields.
A majority - 60.4% - said they would visit Bethlehem for the historic nature of the city, against those interested in pilgrimage (30.8%).
26) A 69% majority of Americans thought Bethlehem was unsafe and saw safety as a key deterrent to visiting while 81.3% of people in Bethlehem believed that Bethlehem was either very safe or somewhat safe.
27) When asked about what factors would make them less supportive of the wall in Bethlehem Americans put the their reasons in the following order of importance:
1- the wall hurts the life of communities regardless of their faith or ethnic background 48.7%.
2- The wall separates some Bethlehem families from one another 40%.
3- The wall requires the seizure of privately owned land 38.7%
4- The wall separates Bethlehem and Jerusalem, two cities that have been historically interlinked and interdependent. 36.6%
5- The wall jeopardizes the sustainability of Bethlehem's Christian community. 30.5%
6- The wall has been condemned by local and International churches 25.8%
7- The wall has been condemned by the international court of justice. 25.2%
28) 74.4% of Americans believe it is necessary to protect the rights of Christian communities wherever they are. 71 % agree that preserving the Christian community in Bethlehem will protect and strengthen the Christian heritage of Bethlehem. 42.8% say believe that preserving the Christian heritage of Bethlehem will strengthen Christian communities worldwide.
29) 84.5% of people in Bethlehem said they were proud of being Bethlehemites and only 4.8% said they would have preferred to come from somewhere else.
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Cluster bombs injure 5 in Lebanon
Mon Dec 25, 5:26 PM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Cluster bombs injured five people in southern Lebanon over the weeklend, the latest casualties from ordnance left over from a summer war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, officials said Monday.
In the southern port city of Tyre, three men were being treated for wounds from a cluster bomb explosion on Sunday, said Dr. Jawad Najem, the owner of Najem Hospital. He did not say what caused the bomb to detonate. Officials said two other people were injured in a village near Nabatiyeh when a cluster bomb exploded.
At least 28 people have died in cluster bomb and land mine explosions in Lebanon since Israel's war with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas ended in a U.N.-brokered cease-fire on Aug. 14.
The rights group Amnesty International and U.N. human rights experts have accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilian areas and indiscriminate use of cluster bombs during the July-August war. The groups allege Israel laid mines and dropped as many as 4 million cluster bombs on Lebanon.
Cluster bombs scatter scores of tiny explosives over an area the size of a football field and many of the small bombs failed to explode, in effect littering Lebanon with thousands of small land mines. U.N. ordnance clearing experts have said that up to 1 million cluster bombs failed to explode and continue to threaten civilians.
Israel says use of cluster bombs is permitted under international law.
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Banality and barefaced lies
Robert Fisk
23 December 2006
UK Independent
Here in America, I stare at the land in which I live and see a landscape I do not recognise
I call it the Alice in Wonderland effect. Each time I tour the United States, I stare through the looking glass at the faraway region in which I live and work for The Independent - the Middle East - and see a landscape which I do no recognise, a distant tragedy turned, here in America, into a farce of hypocrisy and banality and barefaced lies. Am I the Cheshire Cat? Or the Mad Hatter?
I picked up Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid at San Francisco airport, and zipped through it in a day. It's a good, strong read by the only American president approaching sainthood. Carter lists the outrageous treatment meted out to the Palestinians, the Israeli occupation, the dispossession of Palestinian land by Israel, the brutality visited upon this denuded, subject population, and what he calls "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights".
Carter quotes an Israeli as saying he is "afraid that we are moving towards a government like that of South Africa, with a dual society of Jewish rulers and Arabs subjects with few rights of citizenship...". A proposed but unacceptable modification of this choice, Carter adds, "is the taking of substantial portions of the occupied territory, with the remaining Palestinians completely surrounded by walls, fences, and Israeli checkpoints, living as prisoners within the small portion of land left to them".
Needless to say, the American press and television largely ignored the appearance of this eminently sensible book - until the usual Israeli lobbyists began to scream abuse at poor old Jimmy Carter, albeit that he was the architect of the longest lasting peace treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbour - Egypt - secured with the famous 1978 Camp David accords. The New York Times ("All the News That's Fit to Print", ho! ho!) then felt free to tell its readers that Carter had stirred "furore among Jews" with his use of the word "apartheid". The ex-president replied by mildly (and rightly) pointing out that Israeli lobbyists had produced among US editorial boards a "reluctance to criticise the Israeli government".
Typical of the dirt thrown at Carter was the comment by Michael Kinsley in The New York Times (of course) that Carter "is comparing Israel to the former white racist government of South Africa". This was followed by a vicious statement from Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, who said that the reason Carter gave for writing this book "is this shameless, shameful canard that the Jews control the debate in this country, especially when it comes to the media. What makes this serious is that he's not just another pundit, and he's not just another analyst. He is a former president of the United States".
But well, yes, that's the point, isn't it? This is no tract by a Harvard professor on the power of the lobby. It's an honourable, honest account by a friend of Israel as well as the Arabs who just happens to be a fine American ex-statesman. Which is why Carter's book is now a best-seller - and applause here, by the way, for the great American public that bought the book instead of believing Mr Foxman.
But in this context, why, I wonder, didn't The New York Times and the other gutless mainstream newspapers in the United States mention Israel's cosy relationship with that very racist apartheid regime in South Africa which Carter is not supposed to mention in his book? Didn't Israel have a wealthy diamond trade with sanctioned, racist South Africa? Didn't Israel have a fruitful and deep military relationship with that racist regime? Am I dreaming, looking-glass-like, when I recall that in April of 1976, Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa - one of the architects of this vile Nazi-like system of apartheid - paid a state visit to Israel and was honoured with an official reception from Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, war hero Moshe Dayan and future Nobel prize-winner Yitzhak Rabin? This of course, certainly did not become part of the great American debate on Carter's book.
At Detroit airport, I picked up an even slimmer volume, the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group Report - which doesn't really study Iraq at all but offers a few bleak ways in which George Bush can run away from this disaster without too much blood on his shirt. After chatting to the Iraqis in the green zone of Baghdad - dream zone would be a more accurate title - there are a few worthy suggestions (already predictably rejected by the Israelis): a resumption of serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an Israeli withdrawal from Golan, etc. But it's written in the same tired semantics of right-wing think tanks - the language, in fact, of the discredited Brookings Institution and of my old mate, the messianic New York Times columnist Tom Friedman - full of "porous" borders and admonitions that "time is running out".
The clue to all this nonsense, I discovered, comes at the back of the report where it lists the "experts" consulted by Messrs Baker, Hamilton and the rest. Many of them are pillars of the Brookings Institution and there is Thomas Freedman of The New York Times.
But for sheer folly, it was impossible to beat the post-Baker debate among the great and the good who dragged the United States into this catastrophe. General Peter Pace, the extremely odd chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said of the American war in Iraq that "we are not winning, but we are not losing". Bush's new defence secretary, Robert Gates, announced that he "agreed with General Pace that we are not winning, but we are not losing". Baker himself jumped into the same nonsense pool by asserting: "I don't think you can say we're losing. By the same token (sic), I'm not sure we're winning." At which point, Bush proclaimed this week that - yes - "we're not winning, we're not losing". Pity about the Iraqis.
I pondered this madness during a bout of severe turbulence at 37,000 feet over Colorado. And that's when it hit me, the whole final score in this unique round of the Iraq war between the United States of America and the forces of evil. It's a draw!
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Surprise Gaza talks raise hope for peace
Tracy McVeigh and Corinne Heller in Jerusalem
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last night held a surprise summit, reviving hopes that peace talks can take place after years of violence and mistrust.
Aides to Abbas and Olmert's officials simultaneously announced late yesterday afternoon that the meeting was to take place within hours, at Olmert's own residence in Jerusalem. Although the announcement caught many political figures on both sides off-guard with its timing, it came after days of intense secret negotiations and was being described as a move to build confidence between the two men.
A smiling Olmert emerged from his official home to greet Abbas last night and the two shook hands and kissed each other on the cheek. Abbas was then introduced to Olmert's wife Aliza. The two leaders then went inside to take seats opposite each other at a long table, set for a meal with Israeli and Palestinian flags as table decorations.
These were the first official talks between the leaders since Olmert took power in January, although in June the pair did meet informally in Jordan, and will be the first summit between an Israeli and a Palestinian leader for nearly two years.
The last peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in 2000 and appeared all but dead. Officials had worked for months to push for a meeting and much is at stake for both leaders, who desperately need a peace breakthrough to help with their serious political problems at home.
Abbas and his Fatah party are locked in a hostile and violent showdown with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which leads the Palestinian government. Last week, Abbas said he would seek early elections, a dramatic challenge to the 10-month-old Hamas government which immediately denounced it as a 'coup attempt'. Although backed by the international community, including Britain, his stance intensified factional fighting between Palestinian security forces and Hamas gunmen, especially in Gaza and increased fears of civil war.
Olmert has lost much of his popularity over his handling of July's war in Lebanon with Hizbollah guerrillas, which many in Israel believe was fought badly and ended inconclusively. The conflict discredited Olmert's political programme, including a promise to withdraw from much of the West Bank and settling Israel's borders by 2010.
Israel has repeatedly said it will not deal with the Hamas-led Palestinian government, elected in March, which refuses to recognise Israel, and Abbas has said that he has failed to change Hamas' position. But last night's talks will have focused on another key topic: the release of tax rebates and other monies Israel collected for the Palestinians but froze when Hamas was elected to power. The two leaders were also expected to have discussed the easing of Israeli travel restrictions in the West Bank and the fate of an Israel soldier, Gilad Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid by Hamas-allied militants in June.
'The issues on the table are the continuation of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, what is happening with the Palestinian Authority's government and the issue of Gilad Shalit,' said Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Olmert.
Palestinian officials have said in the past that Abbas will not agree to any summit unless the outcome is agreed on ahead of time. It was not clear whether he got Israeli assurances on any of the issues, although a statement was expected to be released late last night.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he hoped the meeting would help ease the suffering of the Palestinians and that Israel would release the frozen funds. However, Barhoum was sceptical. 'We have never gotten results from such meetings in the past,' he said.
In Gaza, meanwhile, factional fighting continued. In the town of Rafah, gunmen fired on the car of a senior Palestinian security official, wounding him, a bodyguard and a passer-by. The target, Hassan Jarbouh, deputy chief of the Rafah branch of the Preventive Security Service, was last night in a critical condition.
Comment: Terror, threats, and blackmail, that is what the international community is backing with Olmert and Abbas. Forget about democracy.
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Israeli spies divided over Syria's peace overtures
By Dan Williams
Tue Dec 26, 7:08 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israelis are puzzling over the prospect of peace with Syria after their two foreign intelligence agencies gave dramatically different assessments of recent diplomatic overtures from Damascus.
While the Mossad spy service said Syrian President Bashar Assad had no genuine interest in peace talks, Israel's Military Intelligence said it believed Assad was ready to negotiate if this leads to the return of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Assad has repeatedly signaled an interest in rapprochement since Israel's war in Lebanon with Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas. The situation has been complicated by U.S. charges that Syria supports Iraq insurgents -- something Damascus denies -- as well as Syria's open sponsorship of Palestinian militants.
Past talks have run aground over the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war. But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in a U.S. newspaper interview this month that new negotiations could be "without preconditions" on the Golan.
The messages elicited a mix of hope and suspicion in the Jewish state, stoked by the very government agencies charged with interpreting them.
Mossad chief Meir Dagan last week accused Assad of trying to distract from Western scrutiny on his regional alliances.
"Every time international pressure is applied, Assad puts on the same show of willingness to enter negotiations with us," a political source quoted Dagan as telling cabinet ministers. "But I still don't see Syria offering to resume talks with Israel."
Yet the chief analyst for Israel's Military Intelligence, Brigadier Yossi Baidatz, took a more upbeat tone.
"Syria is interested. Its overtures, predicated on the overall objective of recovering all of the Golan Heights, are genuine," Baidatz told Israeli lawmakers on Monday, according to an official account of the briefing.
POWER AND PERSONALITIES
The conflicting attitudes made headlines in Israel and drew exasperated critiques from some seasoned ex-spies.
"Maybe we should get the Mossad and Military Intelligence chiefs together in a room, so they can reach agreement?" said Danny Yatom, a retired army general and former Mossad director.
While Mossad and Military Intelligence differ in tradecraft -- the former favouring "human intelligence," or well-placed informants, while the latter has relied more on electronic eavesdropping -- a veteran of both agencies suggested the disagreement over Syria came down to views about the future.
"I suspect what we have here is a dispute between strong personalities on whether Assad is strong enough domestically to deliver a peace deal that will last," said retired intelligence analyst Matti Steinberg.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, seeking a new diplomatic plan since the Lebanon war and renewed fighting in Gaza put paid to his vision of unilaterally quitting some of the land where Palestinians want a state, appears for now to side with Dagan.
"If Syria agrees to stop the violence, to stop supporting Hamas, to stop supporting Hezbollah, to sever its terrible links to Iran -- then I have no doubt that it would be possible to begin a diplomatic process with it," Olmert said on Monday.
"I expect of President Assad that he not just make bombastic statements ... but that he also do something in the direction of the real diplomatic process that we would all like to see."
But it remains unclear how far Israel, which annexed the Golan in 1981 -- a move not recognised abroad -- would go to accommodate Syria's demand for the territory's ultimate return.
A poll published by the best-selling Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper over the weekend found that while 67 percent of Israelis think the Olmert government should respond to Syria's peace overtures, an almost equal number -- 66 percent -- would be opposed to giving up the Golan under a future peace accord.
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It's All in Your Mind or Body
Czech astronomers discover Perseus star outburst
www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-23 09:20:02
PRAGUE, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Czech astronomers have discovered a star outburst in the Perseus constellation, three quarters of a year earlier than expected, the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences said on Friday.
The astronomers found that the brightness of the star fluctuates in intervals of minutes to hours, Petr Sobotka from the institute said.
The star designated as GK Per outbursts once in three years, but the exact moment cannot be predicted, Sobotka noted.
Astronomers observed the first distinct brightening up of the star 105 years ago. The star was then visible easily even without a binocular.
The outburst of the star this year was first discovered by an amateur astronomer Lubos Brat a few days ago.
As the process continued next night as well, Brat informed his colleagues from the Astronomical Institute, which confirmed his discovery.
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Psychological treatments reduce back pain: review
Last Updated: Friday, December 22, 2006 | 3:03 PM ET
CBC News
Psychological treatments may help lower the intensity of chronic low back pain, a review suggests.
Researchers evaluated 22 randomized trials published between 1982 and 2003 to evaluate the effects of psychological interventions on pain.
The approaches improve outcomes such as depression and health-related quality of life as well as patients' experience of pain, the team concluded in the January issue of the journal Health Psychology.
"Because this analysis was both more inclusive and more conservative than previous reviews, we have the best evidence to date that these interventions are helpful," said psychologist and review lead author Robert Kerns of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
The trials included adults with nonmalignant low back pain lasting at least three months, with an average duration of 7.5 years.
The approaches included self-regulatory treatments, such as hypnosis and relaxation, and supportive counselling.
The largest and most consistent effect was a reduction in pain intensity, the researchers found.
When the interventions were first developed, the goal was actually to help patients to live with their pain more successfully, not reduce it.
No psychological treatment offers a cure for people with chronic pain, but people may be expecting it, said Dennis Turk, a professor of anesthesiology and pain research at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The psychological interventions are cheaper than other treatments such as surgery and opioids, he said.
"The paradox is that, despite data on the effectiveness of psychological interventions, insurers are less willing to pay for them."
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Health officials puzzled by whooping cough outbreak
By Associated Press
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - Updated: 08:24 AM EST
BOSTON - What city health officials at first thought was an outbreak of whooping cough among employees at Children's Hospital Boston may have been something else entirely.
But exactly what is still in question.
It started when a 19-month-old patient came down with the classic symptoms of whooping cough, a respiratory disease also known as pertussis. Symptoms include a runny nose, sneezing, slight fever, and mild cough, which can develop into a violent and persistent cough.
A laboratory test confirmed he had the disease.
Three dozen hospital employees and one other patient tested positive for whooping cough from late September through early November.
But further testing, different from the initial tests, could find little evidence of the highly contagious bacteria. Now no one can say for sure what made the workers sick, but pertussis hasn't been ruled out.
Federal and state health officials joined the city in trying to figure out exactly what ailed the workers, all of whom recovered.
The Children's Hospital cases were at first confirmed through a test called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.
Based on the tests, Children's moved to contain the outbreak.
"Children's, much like we do at the local health department, really relies on laboratory tests to guide us on what the diagnosis is, especially illnesses that can look like a lot of different things," said Dr. Anita Barry of the Boston Public Health Commission. "Having accurate test results early on, particularly when they're consistent with the clinical symptoms, really launches us into control steps."
State lab workers then performed other tests, including the laborious task of culturing samples and taking blood samples from hospital workers.
The additional tests were almost uniformly negative for pertussis.
Samples were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control.
"The results were inconclusive," said Dr. Amanda Cohn, a medical epidemiologist for the federal agency.
There are competing theories, ranging from a cold virus to a bacterial relative of pertussis to the virus that causes the condition commonly known as walking pneumonia.
It's unlikely that the causes of all the respiratory illnesses will ever be fully known.
"What I can say is that whatever it was, it went away," Barry said. "And that's the good news."
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Study: Gene tied to long life wards off dementia
Posted 12/25/2006 6:04 PM ET
By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY
A gene that helps people live to age 90 and beyond might also help ward off Alzheimer's, a study suggests Tuesday.
People with this "supergene" have a much higher chance of living to the century mark without developing dementia, the confused thinking and memory loss that so often plagues the oldest of the old, says Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Barzilai and his colleagues had found that centenarians were much more likely than others to have the gene variant, called CETP VV. People with the gene variant seemed to age slowly and were able to resist life-shortening ailments such as heart disease.
To see whether the gene protected the brain too, the team studied 158 people of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish descent who were 95 or older. A brain function test found that seniors who had inherited the gene variant were twice as likely to have good brain function - able to think clearly and remember new information - as seniors without the gene.
To see whether the gene protected against Alzheimer's, the team did a second study. A group of 124 Ashkenazi Jews ages 75 to 85 were followed for about eight years. Researchers noted any time a senior received a diagnosis of dementia. Participants who never developed dementia were five times more likely to have the favorable gene than those who did have dementia.
The researchers don't know yet how the supergene protects people. Previous research has shown that the gene could affect the size of the lipoproteins in the blood that deposit or clear away cholesterol. People with the gene variant tend to be at less risk of clogged arteries, Barzilai says.
The gene might protect the brain the same way. William Thies at the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association says people with wide-open arteries are more likely to be getting a good blood flow to the brain and that might help seniors maintain a mental edge.
The lucky people who inherit the gene variant can do all the wrong things and still live to be 100, Barzilai says. "I had people in the study who had smoked for 90 years."
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Giant Dinosaurs Found in Spain
Madrid, Dec 22 (Prensa Latina)
After study of the Riodeva giant dinosaur fossil, three paleontologists working for the Aragon government declared the fossils found in Teruel in 2003 belong to giant dinosaurs.
Rafael Royo-Torres, Alberto Cobos and Luis Alcala, of Teurel-Dianopolis Joint Paleontology Foundation, explain this is an important discovery for the European continent as dinosaur fossils have hitherto only been found in Asia and Africa.
These fossils belong to the group of dinosaurs called Sauropoda, which had long necks and tails and weighed some 50 tons with a length of about 118 feet.
The scientists have named this new European dinosaur (gender and species) Turiasaurus riodevensis, having bone structure and extremities less evolved than the species known until now in the Jurassic-Cretaceous periods.
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Protein key to parasite potency
Monday, 25 December 2006, 00:41 GMT
Scientists are closer to understanding why a common parasite is harmless to most people, while causing severe illness in others.
Toxoplasma is carried by cats and rats in the UK, and a large proportion of humans are also thought to carry the parasite, without any ill effects.
But it can cause toxoplasmosis, which can lead to brain damage or even death.
Stanford University scientists, writing in Nature, say the behaviour of a single protein determines what happens.
Toxoplasma is particularly dangerous for people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, and for women in the first three months of pregnancy, as it can cause severe birth defects.
Its normal lifecycle starts in cats. It is then passed, usually via the cat's faeces, to rats and then back to cats when they catch and eat the infected rats.
Humans can become infected either when they come into contact with cat faeces, or by eating undercooked mutton, as sheep can also become carriers.
Successful invader
The Stanford researchers are interested in the ability of Toxoplasma to adapt genetically to a wide variety of hosts.
Their study reveals how the parasite injects a single protein into a cell it wants to invade, and how this protein makes its way to the nucleus of the cell and interferes with the ability of the cell to trigger an immune defence.
Susan Coller, one of the researchers leading the project, said that the strategy was very effective: "The nucleus is the heart of the cell, the ultimate prize. If you want to affect the cell in a dramatic way, go straight there."
The other finding was subtle differences in this key protein between different types of Toxoplasma - each different strain perhaps tailored to infecting different types of host cell with the minimum damage.
Severe toxoplasmosis may happen when the "wrong" strain, one not suited to infecting humans, tries to invade our cells with the protein either too powerful - overwhelming and destroying them, or ineffective - triggering a massive immune system response.
Screening test
They suggest that their discoveries about how Toxoplasma is so successful could also apply to our parasite invaders - such as malaria.
Professor John Barrett, a senior lecturer in parasitology at the University of Aberystwyth, said that there were arguments for screening pregnant women for Toxoplasma to avoid birth defects.
"The effect on the foetus can be very serious and there is a reliable test for Toxoplasma, so in these higher risk groups, it may be worthwhile."
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Global Chaos
Yes, Oil From Venezuela
Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006Joseph P. Kennedy II - Boston Globe
There's been a lot of controversy lately over whether Citizens Energy Corp. should distribute -- and the poor should accept -- discount heating oil from Venezuela while that country is under the leadership of President Hugo Chávez.
But those who have no problem staying warm at night should not condemn others for accepting Venezuela's oil. Rhetoric means little to an elderly woman who has to drag an old cot from her basement to sleep by the warmth of the open kitchen stove or give up food or medicine to pay her heating bill.
For nearly 30 years, Citizens Energy has provided senior citizens and low-income families with affordable fuel oil, gas, electricity, pharmaceutical drugs, and other basic necessities. Citgo Petroleum is a US company owned by the people of Venezuela. The oil it provides to Citizens Energy, the nonprofit that I lead, acts as a safety net for hundreds of thousands.
When our partnership with Citgo was announced last year, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman praised the discount program as corporate philanthropy. "It's a charitable contribution," he said, "and I wish more companies did it." Charities like the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Muscular Dystrophy Association receive generous donations from Citgo, but no one is telling them to decline the gifts.
Meanwhile, oil companies other than Citgo have declined to share their record profits with those who most struggle to keep pace with rising energy costs.
In spite of the fact that heating oil prices have doubled over the past few years, the federal fuel assistance program faces a one-third cut this year, from $3.1 billion to $2.1 billion. Washington earns windfall tax revenues from the rising prices of petroleum products, but not a cent goes to offset rising energy costs for the poor. Nor do the poor benefit from increased royalties on gas and oil taken from federal lands and waters -- if, in fact, the energy companies pay the government at all.
Criticism of our program isn't about cheap heating oil. It's all about Hugo. While conservative interests in this country don't like him, US businesses don't mind his money and his marketplace.
Otherwise, why would General Motors and Ford sell more than 300,000 cars a year in Venezuela? Why would Chevron Texaco, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and other major corporations -- including Vice President Cheney's old firm, Halliburton -- invest and earn billions every year off of petroleum exploration, production, refining, and transportation in the country? Why would US insurance companies, banks, telecom firms, entertainment conglomerates, and consumer product manufacturers flock to our Latin American neighbor?
American consumers certainly don't mind doing business with Venezuela. More than 558 million barrels of Venezuelan crude and oil products were shipped to the United States last year. Just one-half of 1 percent of that goes into our organization's program, but that's the only portion that draws criticism.
Even though doing business with Venezuela has been very good for capitalists, the issue at hand is Chávez and his politics of socialism. Before we accept the characterizations of him as a socialist threat to our way of life, we ought to look at our own country -- ironically, a system of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor.
Banks make billions on the gap between federal lending rates and what they charge consumers to borrow for homes, cars, small businesses, and personal needs. The government guarantees their deposits, so that if the banks fail, the taxpayer is left holding the bag.
Insurance companies charge consumers with premiums that go up and up, yet expect the government to cover their losses when they get hit -- as we saw in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Student loan corporations, working closely with colleges and universities, contribute to spiraling higher-education costs with loans guaranteed by the government.
The fact is that many of the bluest of our blue chip corporations may actually be wearing a shade of Hugo Chávez red beneath their suspenders -- with one major difference: They're fine with socializing the risks of capitalism, so long as they can privatize the profits. As for the poor? They're decidedly on their own.
Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the president is socializing his nation's oil profits. Poverty has dropped by 25 percent. State-sponsored provision of basic needs like food and healthcare has expanded.
So, sure, we'll distribute Hugo's oil. Doing so is called compassionate capitalism. Right now, our country's vulnerable families fend for themselves, while the well-to-do can afford to throw snowballs at our program from the security of their warm homes and offices.
Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former member of Congress from Massachusetts, is the founder, president, and chairman of Citizens Energy Corporation.
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Castro does not have cancer, his doctor says
Updated: 8:54 a.m. ET Dec. 26, 2006
MADRID - Cuban President Fidel Castro does not have cancer, a Spanish doctor who has just examined him said on Tuesday.
Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July, but has since released little information on his condition. Castro placed his younger brother, Raul, in charge of the government.
Castro's health problem is with his digestive system but he does not have cancer, Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido told Reuters after a news conference in Madrid.
"He hasn't got cancer" said Garcia Sabrido at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon Hospital, where he is chief surgeon.
'Intellectual activity intact'
Garcia Sabrido flew to Havana last Thursday to see the Cuban leader and give his opinion on how his treatment was progressing.
Castro's disappearance from the public eye after emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding in July sparked frenzied speculation about his state of health. U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte told the Washington Post on Dec. 15 that Castro was likely to die within months.
But Garcia Sabrido said Castro did not need more surgery.
"He has his intellectual activity intact, I'd say fantastic given the recovery from the previous surgery," he said.
Castro is in great spirits and "wants to return to work every day," he said.
Raul Castro in charge
Defense Minister Raul Castro, 75, took over the government temporarily on July 31 when his more famous brother's operation to relinquish power for the first time since Cuba's 1959 revolution.
Video images released on Oct. 28 showed the once-towering revolutionary diminished to a frail and shuffling old man.
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., one of the leaders of a delegation that visited Cuba this month, said he had concluded from discussions with officials there that if Castro did resume a political role, it would probably be setting broad policy, not governing on a day-to-day basis.
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Poverty Crushes Guatemala
Guatemala, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina)
After having signed a peace agreement, extreme poverty currently affects over 60 percent of the population in Guatemala, where the war wages on, analysts said here.
Amid the armed conflict in 1989, about 80 percent of Guatemalans were poor, and 59.3 lived in abject poverty, chiefly in rural areas, a situation that experts consider has not changed in the Central American country.
"The social stage set by the war still prevails," said Nadia Sandoval, from Human Rights International Investigation Center in Guatemala City.
The representative of the European Commission in Guatemala, Jo úo Melo de Sampaio, said it was a contradiction to have an apparently stable macro-economy to international eyes while there are such domestic impoverishment exists.
According to local press, the country is not only socially divided with a high percentage of abandoned native people in the countryside, but huge differences in the concentration of wealth.
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Afghan heroin's surge poses danger in U.S.
By Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writer
December 26, 2006
Supplies of highly potent Afghan heroin in the United States are growing so fast that the pure white powder is rapidly overtaking lower-quality Mexican heroin, prompting fears of increased addiction and overdoses.
Heroin-related deaths in Los Angeles County soared from 137 in 2002 to 239 in 2005, a jump of nearly 75% in three years, a period when other factors contributing to overdose deaths remained unchanged, experts said. The jump in deaths was especially prevalent among users older than 40, who lack the resilience to recover from an overdose of unexpectedly strong heroin, according to a study by the county's Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology.
"The rise of heroin from Afghanistan is our biggest rising threat in the fight against narcotics," said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. "We are seeing more seizures and more overdoses."
According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report obtained by The Times, Afghanistan's poppy fields have become the fastest-growing source of heroin in the United States. Its share of the U.S. market doubled from 7% in 2001, the year U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban, to 14% in 2004, the latest year studied. Another DEA report, released in October, said the 14% actually could be significantly higher.
Poppy production in Afghanistan jumped significantly after the 2001 U.S. invasion destabilized an already shaky economy, leading farmers to turn to the opium market to survive.
Not only is more heroin being produced from Afghan poppies coming into the United States, it is also the purest in the world, according to the DEA's National Drug Intelligence Center.
Despite the agency's own reports, a DEA spokesman denied that more heroin was reaching the United States from Afghanistan. "We are NOT seeing a nationwide spike in Afghanistan-based heroin," Garrison K. Courtney wrote in an e-mail to The Times.
He said in an interview that the report that showed the growth of Afghanistan's U.S. market share was one of many sources the agency used to evaluate drug trends. He refused to provide a copy of DEA reports that could provide an explanation.
The agency declined to give The Times the report on the doubling of Afghan heroin into the U.S. A copy was provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
This potent heroin, which the DEA says sells for about $90 a gram in Southern California, has prompted warnings from some officials who deal with addicts that they reduce the amount of the drug they use. Many addicts seeking the most euphoric high employ a dangerous calculation to gauge how much of the drug they can consume without overdosing. An unexpectedly powerful bundle of heroin, therefore, can be deadly.
"I tell people, 'If you're using it, only use half or three-quarters of what you used to,' because of the higher potency," said Orlando Ward, director of public affairs at the Midnight Mission on Los Angeles' skid row.
Health workers in boutique rehab centers as well as health clinics for the homeless say increasing numbers of clients are addicted to more powerful heroin.
"My patients say it's more available and cheaper," said Michael H. Lowenstein, a doctor at the Waismann Method detoxification center in Beverly Hills.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, warned world health authorities in October of the increase in Afghan heroin.
"This, in turn, is likely to prompt a substantial increase in the number of deaths by overdose, as addicts are not used to injecting doses containing such high concentrations of the drug," he said.
From 1980 through 1985, Afghan heroin dominated the U.S. market, with a 47% to 54% share, according to the DEA.
AFGHANISTAN'S share dwindled to 6% for much of the 1990s, as competition from Southeast Asia and Colombia grew. Meanwhile, the Taliban was cracking down as it gained territory, virtually eliminating poppy production after taking over the country.
Once the fundamentalist Islamic government was overthrown in 2001, Afghans turned once again to the poppy trade to survive in one of the poorest countries in the world.
A report released Nov. 28 by the World Bank said U.S. and European efforts to end Afghanistan's $2.3-billion opium business were failing.
The production of opium used to produce heroin reached its highest level ever in Afghanistan this year. It accounted for more than one-third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product and 90% of the world's supply of illicit opium, mainly going to Asia and Europe, according to the report.
The poppy crop now drives the economy in some regions of the embattled nation, helping to fund a Taliban resurgence.
In the United States, Afghan and Mexican poppies tied for second place among sources of heroin in 2004, according to the DEA's Heroin Signature Program. South America, led by top supplier Colombia, held 69% of the market.
That figure had dropped 19 percentage points from the 2003 level as U.S. and Colombian efforts to eradicate the trade enjoyed success and as Afghanistan's share increased, according to the DEA.
The Department of Homeland Security also has found evidence of increasing Afghan heroin in this country. The agency reported skyrocketing numbers of seizures of heroin arriving at U.S. airports and seaports from India, not a significant heroin-producing country but a major transshipment point for Afghan drugs.
The seizure of heroin packages from India increased from zero in 2003 to 433 in 2005 - more than 80% of total mail seizures of heroin arriving in the U.S. that year.
In the meantime, although they may not recognize the product as coming from Afghanistan, addicts across the country are increasingly coming into contact with more powerful heroin.
"There is a different kind of heroin now," said Eric Wade, a 32-year-old recovering addict in Portland, Ore. "It is very, very strong, and it is cheaper than the other stuff. Not everybody has access to it, but I've seen more people overdose ... on that stuff."
In Ballwin, Mo., an affluent suburb of St. Louis, two sisters were arrested in the spring, accused of selling "China white" heroin between classes at their high school.
Capt. Tom Jackson, who leads the St. Louis County Police Department's bureau of drug enforcement, said investigators thought the heroin traveled to the campus from Afghanistan with the help of Nigerian traffickers, a Chicago gang and a downtown St. Louis drug dealer.
"This China white is so pure that they can snort it or smoke it," Jackson said. "So, no needles or track marks."
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US Immigrants Fast for Legal Protection
Washington, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina)
Immigrant organizations will perform fasts in Arizona in the coming days to demand from the US government approval of an integral migration reform that protects undocumented people, La Opinion daily reported.
"That way, we will attract the attention from January 29 to February 5, to the serious migratory problem we are suffering in the country," said Elias Fernandez, president of the group Immigrants without Frontiers.
"We are calling support groups to accompany us, including those struggling for their human rights, no matter the color of their skin or their race," he said.
The also founder of Immigrants without Frontiers said that to gain support of diverse communities in the struggle for their rights, they have performed protests, strikes, and boycotts in workplaces.
Humanitarian groups requested from President George W. Bush´s government and Congress to approve a comprehensive migratory law to legalize 11.2 million people without identity papers, many of which are discriminated and do not have a job.
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Gazprom says talks with Belarus fail, Europe safe
Tue Dec 26, 2006 7:47am ET
By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Mikhail Yenukov
MOSCOW, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday a new round of talks with Belarus on gas prices for 2007 had yielded no results, but Europe was safe as Moscow had stockpiled enough gas in Germany and Austria to guard against possible cuts.
Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile , Research) said it still hoped for a deal before the New Year to allow Belarus to receive gas in 2007 and Gazprom to transit gas smoothly via the ex-Soviet state to customers in Poland and Germany.
"There was a new round of talks today with Belarus's Deputy Prime Minister (Vladimir) Semashko. We broke up with no agreement," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told Reuters.
"But we still have a chance to meet and agree before the New Year. Talks have not been suspended," he said. Belarussian officials were not immediately available for comment.
Gazprom has repeatedly warned Belarus it has to pay higher prices from 2007 and share control of its pipelines with the Russian firm or face reduced supplies from the New Year.
Relations between Moscow and its former ally Minsk have hit a rocky patch ahead of the deadline, reviving memories of Gazprom's New Year cutoff of supplies to Ukraine which produced gas shortages in Europe in the dead of winter.
Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs. The cutoff to Ukraine prompted European leaders to raise concerns over reliance on Russia.
Like Ukraine, Belarus is a key route for Russian gas to Europe, although it ships much smaller volumes.
MORE GAS IN STORAGE
A Russian gas industry source said Gazprom has stored much more gas than last year in Germany and Austria able to cover contracts in Europe for several weeks if needed.
Kupriyanov confirmed extra gas had been stockpiled in Europe: "There are no grounds for concern among European consumers," he told state television Vesti 24.
The industry source said extra gas had been pumped into Rheden, the biggest storage facility in Germany, belonging to Wingas, a joint venture of Gazprom and Germany's petrochemical giant BASF. Extra gas had also been stored in its Haidach storage in Austria.
Kupriyanov said Gazprom had made concessions before talks on Tuesday, but that had failed to move Belarussian negotiators.
He said Gazprom had agreed to value Belarus' local pipelines, Beltransgas, at $5 billion, up from its previous estimates of $3-$4 billion.
That would remove obstacles to a joint venture to manage the links, a crucial step for Belarus to secure lower prices.
Gazprom had first sought a fourfold price increase for Belarus to $200 per 1,000 cubic metres. Kupriyanov said Gazprom now wanted $110, of which $80 would be in cash, with the remainder covered by Beltransgas shares over four years.
He said that by comparison, Ukraine would pay $130 for gas in 2007 and Georgia $235. European consumers pay over $250.
Kupriyanov said Semashko offered to pay $75 in cash and asked Gazprom to pay $2.5 billion for half of Beltransgas, also in cash, over the next four years. That would effectively leave the price of Russian gas for Belarus where it stands now.
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Litvinenko's Italian Contact Arrested on Suspicion of Violating Secrets
24.12.2006
MosNews
Police on Sunday arrested an Italian man who met with a former Russian spy the day the Russian fell ill from poisoning, news agencies reported.
Mario Scaramella was arrested in Naples after returning from London, the ANSA and Apcom agencies reported.
Rome prosecutors have been investigating Scaramella for violating secrets and possible arms trafficking, The Associated Press reports.
Scaramella met with Alexander Litvinenko at a London sushi bar on Nov. 1, the day the former KGB agent fell ill. Litvinenko died of poisoning from radioactive polonium-210 on Nov. 23.
On his deathbed, Litvinenko blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for involvement in his poisoning -- an allegation that the Kremlin denied.
Scaramella also was hospitalized for several days in Britain for exposure to polonium-210, but never became ill.
Comment: Arms trafficking...hmmm...
From Joe Quinn's article "Litvinenko: By Way Of Deception Part 2":
[...] Chairman of the Italian inquiry is Senator Paolo Guzzanti, who is also a member
of recently deposed Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
The allegation against Prodi came just before the Italian general election
this year when Berlusconi was ousted, so we might put it down to one of the
pre-election dirty tricks for which Berlusconi was famous. Scaramella claims
that his work involved a lot of Soviet issues - the dumping of
radioactive waste, and that it was for this reason that he was asked to submit
testimony to the inquiry.
Uranium
to make atom bomb sold to four Italians
BBC International Monitoring/Corriere della Sera
June 12, 2005/June 11, 2005
Rome: "During the month of September 2004 I was approached by an
Ukrainian national, whom I know by the name of Sasha, who wanted to sell
me a briefcase containing radioactive material, and, more precisely, uranium
for military use." There is enough testimony by Giovanni Guidi,
a Rimini businessman, and by other defendants - Giorgio Gregoretti, Elmo
Olivieri and Giuseppe Genghini - to fuel a spy story worthy of a novel by
Le Carre. Involved is a briefcase containing five kilos of highly
enriched uranium, half of which would be enough to build an atomic device,
which remained for months in a Rimini garage. A briefcase, however, which
eluded investigators, and which managed to get back into the hands of the
Ukrainian national, who perhaps is still in Italy. Together with another
briefcase having a similar content, and a third believed to conceal a tracking
system. The entire kit geared to the assembly of a small tactical
atomic bomb.
A mystery story fueled by information supplied the Rimini police
department by a consultant of the Mitrokhin committee, Mario Scaramella,
who, acting on behalf of the agency presided over by Paolo Guzzanti, was
trying to track illegal funds from the former USSR that had transited through
[the Republic of ] San Marino. The two defendants' defence attorney
warns that this "could be the trial of the century, but also
the century's biggest hoax". The mystery, however, continues,
and emerges from the testimony of the defendants, who were questioned Wednesday
[8 June] night and all day Thursday, and subsequently released with the charge
of possession of war weapons.
The uranium was allegedly contained in a hermetically sealed, black, leather
briefcase, along with a photo illustrating its content. Five uranium bars
weighing one kilo each. Sasha delivered the briefcase to Guidi. "My
precarious economic situation induced me to accept," explains the 46-year-old
Rimini businessman, who is married to a Russian woman, and runs an import-export
firm that has dealings with Russia and Ukraine. Guidi in turn informed Giorgio
Gregoretti, who "placed it [the briefcase] in a cardboard box, which
he subsequently stored in his garage." There it remained until it was
placed in the trunk of Gregoretti's car, where it was seen by Elmo Olivieri,
a financial consultant. Time passes "without their finding anyone interested
in the material", says Guidi, and the Ukrainian "asks for the briefcase
back".
The most interesting thing about the above is not the fact that Scaramella
was claiming that someone was smuggling components to make a small nuclear device
out of (or perhaps through) Russia and the Ukraine, but rather that the man
selling the material was known only as "Sasha". On the third page,
near the bottom of yesterday's Sunday Times article on the death of Alexander
Litvinenko, the following sentence appears:
"The morning after Litvinenko passed away, his father paid tribute
to his son, whom he called Sasha."
The title of the Times
article is "The Bastards Got Me" because that is what Litvinenko
is alleged to have whispered (off the record) to a friend in his dying
moments. He also added "but they won't get everybody". The "bastards
got me" was a strange thing to say if Litvinenko was, as is claimed,
placing the blame at the door of Putin, and it also contrasts with his alleged
message for Putin which appears to address the Russian leader only.
But as I lie here I can distinctly hear the beatings of wings of the angel
of death.
I may be able to give him the slip but I have to say my legs do not run
as fast as I would like.
I think, therefore, that this may be the time to say one or two things to
the person responsible for my present condition.
You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have
shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics
have claimed.
You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised
value.
You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of
the trust of civilised men and women.
You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around
the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.
May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved
Russia and its people.
The fact is, Litvinenko could speak only a few words of English as is evidenced
by a press conference he
gave shortly before being poisoned, where, after a brief greeting in strongly-accented
English, he asked for his comments to be translated. We are told that the above
denunciation of Putin was dictated to Berezovsky's lawyer Alexander Goldfarb,
and therefore must have been translated into English by him. Did he translate
and transcribe it faithfully?
Litvinenko was poisoned by Polonium 210, which is a rare radioactive metalloid
that occurs in uranium ores. It was discovered by Marie Curie and her husband
Pierre Curie in 1897 and was later named after Marie's homeland of Poland (Latin:
Polonia). Poland at the time was under Russian, Prussian and Austrian domination,
and not recognized as an independent country. It was Marie's hope that naming
the element after her home land would add notoriety to its plight. Enough polonium-210
to produce a lethal radiation dose of 10 sieverts if ingested, weighs just
0.12 millionths of a gram. Polonium 210 was used (together with Beryllium)
as a trigger for early nuclear bombs. It could also be used today in the
manufacture of a small tactical atomic bomb.
Polonium was used to kill Litvinenko. Was the method of his murder meant to
be a subtle warning of some sort? If so, if something 'unexpected' happens,
we'll know where to look.
Litvinenko claimed that the Moscow apartment bombings of 1999 in which almost
300 people were killed, and which were blamed on Chechen rebels, were in fact
the work of agents of the Russian interior intelligence agency the FSB. The
bombings were a classic "false flag" operation designed to demonise
the Chechen rebels. Litvinenko was involved in attempting to expose this and
had been digging into the war between the Kremlin and Chechen separatists,
but as is often the case of honest ex-spys (John
O Neill for example) did Litvinenko make the mistake of digging too deep?
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko
alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with other al-Qaeda leaders, was trained
by the FSB in Dagestan (a republic neighboring Chechnya) in 1998.
Given what we already suspect about who really controls Chechnyas "freedom
fighters" and what we know about the reality of "al-Qaeda",
did Litvinenko, in his investigations, get too close to the truth? If the event
as described by the Italian Mitrokhin committee last year
actually occur, was the mysterious "Sascha" Litvinenko? Did he believe
that he was on a mission to entrap "Islamic" or Chechen "terrorists"
and expose the FSB as a way to attack Putin? In the process of other such undercover
journalistic investigations, did he discover something about the origins of "Islamic
terror" or details of a plot to detonate a small nuclear device and blame
it on
"terrorists"?
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Stealing Us Blind
Tally for Hurricane Katrina Waste, Fraud Could Top $2 Billion in 2007, Federal Auditors Say
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON Dec 25, 2006 (AP)- The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or greater for cleanup work are being awarded without little competition.
Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse.
In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the total work.
"Based on their track record, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw another billion more in waste," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general from 2003-2004. "I don't think sufficient progress has been made."
He called it inexcusable that the Bush administration would still have so many no-bid contracts. Under pressure last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison pledged to rebid many of the agreements, only to backtrack months later and reopen only a portion.
Investigators are now examining whether some of the agreements which in some cases were extended without warning rather than rebid are still unfairly benefiting large firms.
"It's a combination of laziness, ineptitude and it may well be nefarious," Ervin said.
FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the agency was working to fix its mistakes by awarding contracts for future disasters through competitive bidding. Paulison has said he welcomes additional oversight but cautioned against investigations that aren't based on "new evidence and allegations."
"As always, FEMA will work with Congress in all aspects to ensure that we are carrying out the agency's responsibilities," McIntyre said.
The Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane swept ashore in southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, leveling homes and businesses along the Gulf Coast. Its storm surge breached levees in New Orleans, unleashing a flood that left more than 1,300 people dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and tens of billions of dollars worth of damage.
A series of government investigations in the storm's wake faulted the Bush administration for underestimating the threat and failing to prepare by pre-negotiating contracts for basic supplies in what has become the nation's costliest disaster.
Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office said its initial estimate of $1 billion in disaster aid waste was "likely understated," citing continuing problems in which FEMA doled out tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent housing assistance.
Democrats in Congress called for more accountability. When they take over in January, at least seven committees plan hearings or other oversight from housing to disaster loans on how the $88 billion approved for Katrina relief is being spent.
Among the current investigations:
The propriety of four no-bid contracts together worth $400 million to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Group Inc., CH2M Hill Companies Ltd., and Fluor Corp. that were awarded without competition.
The contracts drew immediate criticism because of the companies' extensive political and government ties, prompting a promise last year from Paulison to rebid them. Instead, FEMA rebid only a portion and then extended their contracts once, if not twice to $3.4 billion total so the firms could finish their remaining Katrina work.
The four companies, which have denied that connections played a factor, were among six that also won new contracts after open bidding in August. The latest contracts are worth up to $250 million each for future disaster work.
The propriety of 36 trailer contract awards designated for small and local businesses as part of Paulison's promise to rebid large contracts.
Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner is reviewing whether some small and local businesses were unfairly shut out in favor of winners such as joint venture PRI-DJI. DJI stands for Del-Jen Inc., a subsidiary of Fluor, which has donated more than $930,000 to mostly Republican candidates since 2000.
"It's not what you know, what your expertise is. I don't even believe it's got much to do with price. It's who you know," contends Ken Edmonds, owner of River Parish RV Inc. in Louisiana, a company of 9 people whose application was rejected.
PRI, a minority-owned firm based in San Diego, said it is the "majority partner" with Del-Jen as part of a federal mentoring program offered by the Small Business Administration. The joint venture received four Katrina contracts worth up to $100 million each based on price and "knowledge of work with the federal government," president Frank Loscavio said.
Whether small and minority-owned businesses were unfairly hurt after the Bush administration initially waived competition requirements.
For many weeks after the storm, minority firms received 1.5 percent of the total work less than one-third of the 5 percent normally required because they weren't allowed to bid for many of the emergency contracts.
The National Black Chamber of Commerce called the figure appalling because of the disproportionate number of poor, black people in the stricken Gulf Coast, prompting Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., to request GAO to investigate.
FEMA has since restored many of its competition rules, and the number of contracts given to minority firms is now about 8.8 percent, according to the agency.
On the Net:
A copy of the semiannual report on Katrina spending by the agencies' inspectors general:
http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/katovrsght/OIG pcie sept06.pdf
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Huge bonuses on Wall Street fuel luxury spending
By Jenny Anderson
Published: December 25, 2006
Millions being handed out, with warnings to avoid excessNEW YORK: It's a brisk Wednesday morning in the windy caverns of Wall Street, and Sarah Clark's toes are cold.
Dressed in a purple flight attendant outfit, Clark, a 26-year-old model, is trying to entice recent bonus recipients at Goldman Sachs into using a charter plane service, handing out $1,000 discount coupons to people in front of the investment bank's headquarters.
"Where am I going?" asks one man, heading toward the Goldman building.
Clark responds with a smile, "It's your own private jet." She adds, "You can go wherever you like."
For Wall Street's elite, the sky may well be the limit.
In recent weeks, immense riches have been rained upon the top bankers and traders. After a year of record profits, investment houses like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley are awarding bonuses as high as $60 million. And a select group of hedge fund managers and private equity executives may be taking home even more.
That is serious money, and luxury goods markets are feeling the impact.
Miller Motorcars in Greenwich, Connecticut, is fielding more requests for the $250,000 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano than it can possibly fill.
One real estate broker laments a dearth of listings for two clients trying to spend $20 million on Manhattan properties. Financiers already comfortably settled in multimillion-dollar apartments and town houses are buying $5 million apartments for their children. Vacation homes, usually shopped for in the spring, are hot this winter, including private resorts like the Yellowstone Club in Montana near Yellowstone National Park.
"Last year, everybody bought Ducatis," said one investment banker, referring to the Italian motorcycle. "This year, it's vacations. I'm on my way to St. Barts," he said, en route to the airport. Like most bankers, he spoke on the condition that he not be identified because his company had not authorized him to talk to a reporter.
The 2006 bonus gold rush has re-energized some luxury markets. The Manhattan real estate market, for example, had softened; sales of apartments fell 17 percent in the third quarter of this year from a year earlier, according to Corcoran Group.
Then came bonus day. Last week, Michele Kleier, president of Gumley Haft Kleier, received a call from a hedge fund manager in his late 30s. He had spent $6 million on an apartment two years ago and, with his bonus, wanted to upgrade. His new price range? "Not more than $20 million."
Ed Petrie, a broker at Sotheby's in East Hampton, New York, is fielding two bids for properties between $8 million and $10 million in the exclusive Georgica Pond - properties that have been on the market since last spring.
"The fall was relatively slow, and then suddenly, with news on bonuses, there has been quite a bit of activity," he said.
Many brokers noticed not just the bonus effect but the bonus-anticipation effect. Buyers who sat on the sidelines in 2006 waiting for real estate prices to come down, saw news of outsize bonuses and started signing deals to pre- empt any price increase driven by new Wall Street payouts.
Adding to the spending spree is a rash of young hedge fund analysts, their first big bonus checks in hand, scooping up the $2 million to $3 million starter apartments (most popular features: glass walls, marble bathrooms and kitchens - likely to go unused - with top- flight appliances).
"We love hedge funds; they are our favorite people," Kleier said. "They don't feel like the money is real, and they don't mind spending it - they don't mind going up by $500,000 or $1 million increments."
Hedge fund analysts are not the only ones celebrating bonus season. Private equity firms like Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts helped fuel a record deal-making year.
Private equity's deal making has trickled down to Wall Street in two ways. For one, the banks served as advisers on the deals and financed them, raking in enormous fees - Kohlberg Kravis is said to pay more than $700 million a year in fees on Wall Street.
But bankers also see a pay effect: top executives insist they must pay up because of the danger that their best deal makers could leave for higher-paying private equity firms or other hedge funds considered more flexible and fun.
Those young, single hedge fund managers are bringing holiday cheer to car dealerships as well. This year, drama surrounds the limited production of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, a car with 612 horsepower that can go from zero to 60 miles an hour, or about 100 kilometers an hour, in 3.6 seconds.
Comment: Fiddling while Rome burns... The psychopaths buy themselves new toys.
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Court halves Exxon spill damages
Friday, 22 December 2006, 20:17 GMT
A US court has almost halved the damages oil giant Exxon Mobil must pay for a 1989 oil spill off Alaska.
The San Francisco Federal appeals court reduced the payment from $4.5bn (£2.3bn) to $2.5bn (£1.3bn), saying the previous decision had been excessive.
It is the third time damages in the case have been reduced.
The case - started in 1994 by more than 32,000 fishermen, native Alaskans and property owners - is one of the longest non-criminal ones in US history.
In the original court ruling, Exxon was ordered to pay out $5bn.
Later decisions ordered the lower Alaskan court to set a lower limit for the penalty, but refused to say how much the penalty should be cut by.
However, in the latest 2-1 judgement, Chief Judge Mary Schroeder and Judge Andrew Kleinfeld declared it was "time for this protracted litigation to end."
Compensating
Exxon was not immediately available for comment.
However, the firm has previously argued that it should have to pay no more than $25m in punitive damages in the case as it has spent $3.5bn on cleaning up the affected area and compensating victims of the spill.
David Oesting, the lawyer leading the effort against Exxon Mobil for the Alaskans affected by the spill, said he was considering whether to ask for the case to be reheard by 15 judges or whether to take it to the Supreme Court.
The Exxon Valdez supertanker spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, polluting around 2,000km of coastline. Its captain, Joseph Hazelwood, admitted drinking vodka before boarding the vessel, but was acquitted of operating a ship while intoxicated.
The disaster is estimated to have killed 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, and an unknown number of salmon and herring.
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Spam surge drives net crime spree
By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website
The tussle between computer security companies trying to protect your PC and the bad guys that try to compromise it is often characterised as an arms race.
Sometimes the security companies have the upper hand as they develop and deploy novel techniques to spot and stop malicious software of all stripes.
And sometimes, such as in 2006, the bad guys are on top. And nowhere has this been more apparent than in the realm of that old favourite - spam.
In the closing months of 2006 spam volumes jumped enormously. According to e-mail filtering firm Postini, spam volumes increased by 73% in the three months to December.
"92.6% of all e-mail messages are spam," said Dan Druker, spokesman for Postini. "That's the highest it's ever been."
Other e-mail security specialists have not reported such big leaps in junk mail volumes, but all say that they are seeing more spam than ever before.
Jump in junk
The type of spam being sent has also changed, said Mr Druker. In 2004 only a small percentage of junk mail messages had images in them. Now, said Mr Druker, the figure is 25%.
"A lot of spam is in the form of images and HTML documents that are designed to get beyond the filters," he said.
Filters are good at analysing plain text to spot the tell-tale signs of spam but they struggle if the text is in an image. Techniques are being developed to help them read images but none are widely deployed yet.
Spammers are also turning out more variants of their messages than ever before. This is because tweaking the text in small ways can help to fool the anti-spam filters and get the messages through.
Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager for McAfee's Avert Labs, said some of the other reasons behind the rising tide of junk mail provided a good summary of how the digital underworld had developed in 2006.
To begin with, he said, the software tools that hi-tech criminals use to put together spam runs and craft their messages have in the last 12 months got much easier to find and use.
The bad guys have also got a lot better at managing the platform they use to send junk mail, he said. Increasingly, said Mr Marcus, junk mail is routed through home PCs that have been hijacked by viruses or booby-trapped webpages. Networks of these remotely-controlled computers, or bots, are called botnets.
"80% of spam is shot out through botnets of some form," said Mr Marcus.
Home help
Attackers are also getting better at recruiting PCs to botnets and stopping their owners finding out that their machine has been compromised and is being used to send out junk mail or malware.
The most popular way of recruiting a PC to a botnet is by getting its owner to click on the booby-trapped attachment on an e-mail. In a bid to catch more people out, virus writers are turning out more variants of their creations.
No longer do they just send out millions of copies of the same virus or malicious program. This has led to an explosion in the number of viruses and variants in circulation.
"We are seeing 150-200 new pieces of malware every day," said Mr Marcus.
The creators of the malicious software were pumping out variants, said Mr Marcus, to defeat anti-virus companies by overwhelming them with novelties they have to investigate, analyse and warn their customers about.
Paul King, a senior security advisor for Cisco, said it also showed said how malicious software was becoming more targeted.
Gone, he said, were the days when millions of e-mail addresses got the same virus. Now the viruses and trojans are being customised to catch out as many people in a target organisation as possible.
"There's less focus on what is the top virus," said Mr King, "to be quite honest it does not really matter because the criminals just do what works."
The problem for many organisations was spotting threats that only they are being hit with.
"Those types of threats are not going to be on anyone's radar," he said.
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Cocaine Traces On 94% of Spanish Euro Notes
BBC News
25/12/2006
Traces of cocaine can be found on 94% of euro banknotes circulating in Spain, a study has suggested.
Analysis of notes from a selection of Spain's major cities showed that each one carried an average of 25.18 micrograms of cocaine.
Spain has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in the world, with about 475,000 regular users, El Mundo newspaper reports.
Euro banknotes have only been in circulation since January 2002.
Scientists could not carry out tests on old peseta banknotes before 2002 for fear that they would not withstand the chemicals used in the analysis.
Now, though, armed with resilient modern euro notes, experts collected 20 notes for analysis from each of five cities - Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia and Seville.
From each city they gathered five 10 euro notes, 10 of 20 euros and five of 50 euros.
Only three of notes gathered from each of Madrid and Barcelona were found to carry no trace of cocaine.
Wider issue
Users of the drug usually snort it by rolling up a banknote into the shape of a tube.
But experts said it was difficult to tell which notes had been used for snorting cocaine and which had become contaminated with the drug in other ways, such as in counting machines.
According to El Mundo Spain has just over one billion banknotes in circulation, with estimates suggesting that 142 million have been used directly to snort the drug.
Other countries have been found to have drug problems in the past: a BBC survey in 1999 found that 99% of £5 notes tested in London contained traces of cocaine.
Euro banknotes in Germany appear especially vulnerable: a 2003 survey gave similar results to the Spanish analysis about cocaine traces.
And this month officials in Germany suggested that methamphetamine, or crystal meth, could be causing euros to "corrode" when users snort it through a rolled-up note.
Comment: Ah yes, cocaine, the opium of the masses...or is that opium?
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