http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2009 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:05:42 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172666-War-Crimes-du-Jour-Palestinian-child-s-body-crushed-by-Israeli-tanks-damaged-at-the-cellular-level- A UN convoy attacked, the Red Cross blocked and harassed, international journalists blocked in the apparent vain attempt to hide all the murders, dead men, women and children in the roads, all at the hands of the IDF. The list goes on and on. I hope this is all being carefully recorded to present to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172666-War-Crimes-du-Jour-Palestinian-child-s-body-crushed-by-Israeli-tanks-damaged-at-the-cellular-level- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:30:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172657-When-the-Truth-is-Anti-Semitic Thinking about what to say and not having much success is where I am today. Most of the time, I am preaching to the converted here as the commentary shows. Seldom do I ever get any negative responses and we are starting to average over a hundred comments per entry. That's a mystery to me. Out of old habit, I often will post these essays at this site where I seldom get any positive comments. The people there are mostly professionals. There are doctors and lawyers and business owners. They are all Americans except for a scattering of Canadians. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172657-When-the-Truth-is-Anti-Semitic Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:23:31 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172646-UN-Israel-Admits-Claims-About-Attacked-School-Baseless International Outrage Can Safely Resume as Israel Backs off Allegations UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness reported this evening that the Israeli army is privately briefing diplomats on the fact that its previous claims about their attack on a UN-run girls' school in the Gaza Strip, which caused over 100 civilian casualties, were baseless. The attack occurred yesterday, when Israeli mortars deliberately fired three shells at the school, which was filled with hundreds of displaced civilians at the time, killing at least 46 and wounding 55 others. As international outrage began to well over the enormous civilian toll of the attack, Israel declared the killings "according to procedures" and claimed Hamas had fired rockets from the school's courtyard, making the attack on hundreds of innocent civilians self-defense. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172646-UN-Israel-Admits-Claims-About-Attacked-School-Baseless Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:42:29 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172615-Israel-ignores-UN-cease-fire-order-presses-on-with-civilian-slaughter Israel battered Gaza with bombs and shells on Friday, vowing its offensive on Hamas would go on despite an order by the UN Security Council to stop the assault that has killed hundreds of civilians. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172615-Israel-ignores-UN-cease-fire-order-presses-on-with-civilian-slaughter Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:53:17 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172614-US-abstains-from-UN-vote-on-Gaza-cease-fire The United States says it supports a U.N. resolution that calls for a cease-fire in Gaza but abstained from the Security Council vote because it is awaiting the outcome of Egyptian-mediated talks with Hamas and Israel. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172614-US-abstains-from-UN-vote-on-Gaza-cease-fire Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:53:03 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172613-Pentagon-force-feeding-10-percent-of-Guantanamo-abductees Ten percent of captives at the US Guantanamo Bay prison -- many of whom have never been charged of a crime -- are having their heads velcroed to chairs and forced to take in nutritional supplements by a tube forcibly inserted through their noses by US guards. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172613-Pentagon-force-feeding-10-percent-of-Guantanamo-abductees Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:48:38 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172611-Former-Pentagon-chief-predicts-Iran-crisis-soon William Perry, who headed the Pentagon during a 1994 nuclear standoff with North Korea, predicted on Thursday that President-elect Barack Obama will soon face a nuclear crisis with Iran. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172611-Former-Pentagon-chief-predicts-Iran-crisis-soon Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:38:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172609-More-about-sociopaths-psychopaths-in-American-politics Comment: Psychopaths are often mislabeled sociopaths and/or narcissists because people still don't understand psychopathy. The author below is obviously talking about psychopaths. On 11 December I wrote an Article for OEN about this: Opportunities to deal with sociopaths in American politics. Since then, I've been collecting examples to prove my point. Just recently I discovered one of the most egregious examples to date, described in a recent Mother Jones blog by Jonathan Stine in which he wrote this: "Alberto Gonzales: Pathetic? Deluded? Crazy? Short fiction writer Alberto Gonzales is confused, asking in a recent interview, "What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?" If Gonzales is trying this unctuous nonsense in an attempt at image-rehabilitation, he needs to hire a professional PR company. If he's asking this question in earnest, he is demonstrably insane. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172609-More-about-sociopaths-psychopaths-in-American-politics Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:22:35 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172608-Sociopathy-Means-Never-Saying-Sorry- Sociopaths sometimes get caught for their crimes, but they never accept responsibility or express real contrition. We saw two examples this week from AG Gonzales and President Bush. Gonzales seemed angry and intensely resentful as he delivered his odd resignation statement. He gave no reason for his resignation, but he did praise Bush, while he implicitly boasted about his own achievements by pitying his father. But the visibly angry Bush upstaged Gonzales in asserting: "It's sad we live in a time when a talented, honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding [sic] from doing important work because his name has been dragged through the mud for political reasons." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172608-Sociopathy-Means-Never-Saying-Sorry- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:22:06 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172598-Inquiry-into-Spain-s-missing-children - Thousands kidnapped under Franco regime - Human rights judge opens cases across the country A magistrate investigating the human rights crimes of Francisco Franco has ordered an inquiry into the fate of children kidnapped from leftwing families by the dictator's henchmen. Judge Baltasar Garzón, the controversial national court magistrate, has asked judges to add the missing children to more than 136,000 cases of people who disappeared under the Franco regime. An unknown number of children were allegedly stolen from "red" families by Franco's supporters, but details of individual cases have recently been sent to courts in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Burgos, Málaga and Zaragoza. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172598-Inquiry-into-Spain-s-missing-children Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:00:40 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172594-Middle-East-Israel-May-Face-Charges-for-War-Crimes Ramallah - Israel has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted in an international court, says Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza. "The repeated bombing of clearly marked civilian buildings, where civilians were sheltering, crosses several red lines in regard to international law," Sourani told IPS. Palestinian Authority (PA) delegate to Britain Professor Manuel Hassassian has said the PA will launch legal proceedings against Israeli leaders it says are responsible for war crimes in Gaza, according to a Palestinian news report. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172594-Middle-East-Israel-May-Face-Charges-for-War-Crimes Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:49:43 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172592-How-the-U-S-Army-s-Field-Manual-Codified-Torture-and-Still-Does Buried in Appendix M of the Army Field Manual, the Guantanamo virus is spreading, and eradicating it will require all of us to spread the word. In early September 2006, the U.S. Department of Defense, reeling from at least a dozen investigations into detainee abuse by interrogators, released Directive 2310.01E. This directive was advertised as an overhaul and improvement on earlier detainee operations and included a newly rewritten Army Field Manual for Human Intelligence Collector Operations (FM-2-22-3). This guidebook for interrogators was meant to set a humane standard for U.S. interrogators worldwide, a standard that was respectful of the Geneva Conventions and other U.S. and international laws concerning treatment of prisoners. While George W. Bush was signing a presidential directive allowing the CIA to conduct other, secret "enhanced interrogation techniques," which may or may not have included waterboarding, the new AFM was sold to the public as a return to civilized norms, in regards to interrogation. Before long, opponents of U.S. torture policy were championing the new AFM as an appropriate "single-standard" model of detainee treatment. Support for implementing the revised AFM, as a replacement for the hated "enhanced" techniques earlier championed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the CIA, began to appear in legislation out of Congress, in the literature of human-rights organizations and in newspaper editorials. Some rights groups have felt the new AFM offered some improvements by banning repellent interrogation tactics, such as waterboarding, use of nudity, military dogs and stress positions. It was believed the AFM cemented the concept of command responsibility for infractions of the law. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172592-How-the-U-S-Army-s-Field-Manual-Codified-Torture-and-Still-Does Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:21:09 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172591-Israel-Massive-Demonstrations-against-the-war At the same time as Ehud Barak was ordering the army to start the bloody ground offensive against Gaza, some ten thousand protesters from all over Israel marched in Tel-Aviv in a massive demonstration against the war. All four lanes of Ibn Gvirol St., one of the city's main throughfares, were packed full of demonstrators who marched the two kilometres from the Rabin Square to the Cinemateque, chanting and waving banners all the way. "One does not build an election campaign over the dead bodies of children!" shouted the protesters in Hebrew rhymes. "Orphans and widows are not election propaganda!", "Olmert, Livni and Barak - war is no game!"' "All cabinet ministers are war criminals!!" Barak, Barak, don't worry - we shall meet you in The Hague!", "Enough, enough - speak with Hamas!" http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172591-Israel-Massive-Demonstrations-against-the-war Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:52:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172566-Joe-the-Plumber-to-Become-Propaganda-Point-Man-for-US-Right-Wing-Israeli-Apologists "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio man who shot to fame last year after he challenged then presidential candidate Barack Obama over his tax proposals, is morphing into "Joe the War Correspondent" and heading to the Middle East Thursday, he told US television. Joe, whose real name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, will travel to Israel to report for US conservative website pjtv.com, giving the perspective of ordinary Israelis on the conflict in Gaza. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172566-Joe-the-Plumber-to-Become-Propaganda-Point-Man-for-US-Right-Wing-Israeli-Apologists Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:01:13 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172564-Atrocities-in-Gaza-Piecing-Together-the-Story A week ago, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that "Operation Cast Lead," as the current bombing of Gaza has been dubbed, "will continue until all its goals are met." Whatever those goals are, exactly, they are clearly incomplete; Barak told Israel's Army Radio, the strikes would intensify "as much as needed to meet the goals we set for ourselves, to bring quiet to the south." Over a week after the start of this blood-soaked chapter in the Israel/Palestine saga, there is no quiet but the silence of the dead -- over 530, and counting. On Sunday, Israeli ground troops entered Gaza, escalating the violence. "At least 75 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday," the AFP reported on Monday, "when Israel upped a weeklong bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza by pouring in ground troops into the densely populated territory." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172564-Atrocities-in-Gaza-Piecing-Together-the-Story Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:54:26 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172559-The-Myth-of-Precision-Bombing It takes a while to get to the point of this video, but frankly only the serious and tough minded are going to be able to look at the footage when it arrives. This is the reality of war. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172559-The-Myth-of-Precision-Bombing Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:16:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172557-Israeli-Foreign-Ministry-Coordinating-Propaganda-Media-Campaign The Israeli assault on Gaza has been in planning for months, even down to the propaganda details. Wayne Madsen has been documenting the Israeli propaganda campaign in support of "Cast Lead", and here is some of what they are up to. It is incumbent upon journalists, reporters, bloggers and progressives in general working for truth, justice and peace to take note of these strategies so they can effectively counter them. Here is an excerpt from today's (01/07/09) Wayne Madsen Report Israel's Foreign Ministry is coordinating a worldwide campaign to flood blogs and media web sites with propaganda in support of Israel's Cast Lead military operations against Gaza. The Foreign Ministry has sent out a three page "talking points" memo to be used by Israeli sympathizers in their comments posted to blogs and major media web pages. The Israeli campaign encourages its supporters to vote in on-line polls and respond to postings that are opposed to Israel's actions and supportive of Palestinian Gazans. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172557-Israeli-Foreign-Ministry-Coordinating-Propaganda-Media-Campaign Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:38:33 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172555-Essential-viewing-Peace-Propaganda-and-the-Promised-Land-Media-and-the-Israel-Palestine-Conflict This video presents clearly the propaganda tactics that have been (and continue to be) used by Israel to control the media representation of their illegal occupation, settlement expansion and continuing genocide of the Palestinian population. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172555-Essential-viewing-Peace-Propaganda-and-the-Promised-Land-Media-and-the-Israel-Palestine-Conflict Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:29:18 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172544-Gaza-Catastrophe-Resource-Conflict-Natural-Gas-Palestinian-Elections-and-Israel-s-Subversion-of-the-Peace-Process- "Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine is supported by the US, Britain, and Western Europe, through financial aid, extensive supplies of arms and military equipment, diplomatic support. The global social justice movement needs to extend its support for Gaza far beyond marching and demonstrations, by pressuring media, government and civil society institutions to recognize that the Gaza crisis is an outcome of long-term policies that can only be understood in the context of recognizing the reality of Israel as a Setter-Colonial Apartheid regime sponsored by Anglo-American power." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172544-Gaza-Catastrophe-Resource-Conflict-Natural-Gas-Palestinian-Elections-and-Israel-s-Subversion-of-the-Peace-Process- Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:46:28 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172542-Priorities-Israel-will-pay-for-medical-treatment-for-cats-and-dogs Ynet reports that the Israeli government will pay for medical care for dogs and cats wounded by Palestinian rocket fire: Last week a Qassam rocket hit a house in Sderot and killed the family's dog, which was at the building's yard during the attack. The dog was rushed to the veterinarian for treatment, but died due to severe shrapnel injuries and massive loss of blood. Following this incident and in light of the fact that like their human owners, pets in Israel's south are also under the constant rocket threat, the Agriculture Ministry has decided it would help pay for the medical care of dogs and cats injured by rocket fire from Gaza. According to Ben-Dov, the ministry will also consider funding the treatment of street cats and dogs without owners." (via Bat) Meanwhile Palestinians wounded by Israeli bombing and shelling are dying because Israel, together with the PA, is refusing to fund their treatment: "The head of Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights, Ron Yaron, said: "Palestinian physicians in Gaza want to transfer patients to Israel for life-saving care, but the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah [controlled by Fatah] does not want to pay for their care. Patients are suffering from the bombing and from internal political strife. Israel has given the green light for Palestinians to enter Israel via Erez for medical care as long as the funds for their treatment are secured, said Defence Ministry spokesperson Maj Peter Lerner." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172542-Priorities-Israel-will-pay-for-medical-treatment-for-cats-and-dogs Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:29:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172539-Israel-fires-five-rockets-into-Lebanon-in-retaliation-for-Lebanon-s-defense-of-its-airspace Tel Aviv has fired five rockets into Lebanon, claiming that the assault was in retaliation for rocket attacks on its northern towns. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172539-Israel-fires-five-rockets-into-Lebanon-in-retaliation-for-Lebanon-s-defense-of-its-airspace Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:13:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172535-Israeli-Occupied-Senate-to-Consider-AIPAC-Resolution-Endorsing-War-against-Gaza The Senate could consider as early as today a resolution promoted by AIPAC intended to effectively endorse the continuation of the Israeli military assault in Gaza. (You can find the text of the draft resolution on AIPAC's web page.) http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172535-Israeli-Occupied-Senate-to-Consider-AIPAC-Resolution-Endorsing-War-against-Gaza Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:02:38 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172518-Israel-Created-Hamas-to-Split-Palestine Israel's False Flag Operations Know No Bounds One thing that truly made me ill while perusing the photos of the world-wide anti-Israel protests in the last few days is the repeated use of Hamas flags/posters, as if Hamas is somehow fighting for the freedom of the Palestinians. Give me a god damn break... For those unaware, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were the government of Palestine until the Israelis invaded, only leaving in 2005, when Hamas had been secured in power. And hey presto! they are still the ruling party in Palestine! Not only that, but all the Hamas fighters have (wisely) holed up and hidden themselves in anticipation of the Israeli massacre. Gee, how very convenient for them that the Israelis are content with killing 1.3 million civilians (the population of Gaza)... The Israeli Mossad (their CIA) created Hamas in 1987, with the frontmen Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, because, as Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says: "Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172518-Israel-Created-Hamas-to-Split-Palestine Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:21:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172514-War-and-Natural-Gas-The-Israeli-Invasion-and-Gaza-s-Offshore-Gas-Fields The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon's Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority. The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172514-War-and-Natural-Gas-The-Israeli-Invasion-and-Gaza-s-Offshore-Gas-Fields Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:52:46 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172513-Israel-s-Monopoly-on-Psychological-Suffering Hello, brave Israeli airman. What's it like, firing missiles at people you can't see? Does it help to keep saying that you are not deliberately targeting civilians? Does this enable you to sleep well at night or do you have nightmares of the women and children you killed, in their homes, in their beds, in their kitchens and living rooms, in their schools and markets and mosques? What do you feel when the mission is over? That you did a good job? Would you still think that you had done a good job if you were made to look at the dead and dismembered bodies that are your particular contribution to the Middle East 'peace process'? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172513-Israel-s-Monopoly-on-Psychological-Suffering Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:50:54 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172510-The-Real-Estate-War-in-Gaza The History and "Morals" of Ethnic Cleansing I arrived in Israel 40 years ago. It took me many years to understand that the very existence of my country, as it is today, is based on an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The project started many years ago. Its seed can be traced to the basic fallacy of the Zionist movement, which set out to establish a Jewish-national state in a location already inhabited by another nation. Under these conditions, one has, at most, a moral right to strive for a bi-national state; establishing a national state implies, more or less by definition, ethnic cleansing of the previous inhabitants. Albert Einstein grasped this fallacy a long time ago. A short time after WWI "Einstein complained that the Zionists were not doing enough to reach agreement with the Palestinian Arabs...He favored a binational solution in Palestine and warned Chaim Weizmann against ' 'Prussian style' nationalism"[1] http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172510-The-Real-Estate-War-in-Gaza Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:03:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172370-Robert-Fisk-Why-do-they-hate-the-West-so-much-we-will-ask So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night's work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised? Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead - almost all civilians, most of them children and women - in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians? What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172370-Robert-Fisk-Why-do-they-hate-the-West-so-much-we-will-ask Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:54:21 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172500-Brainwashing-the-masses-Israeli-media-focus-on-Hamas-rockets-keep-gore-to-a-minimum Coverage is also heavy on soldiers and their families, emotional issues in a country with mandatory military service and thousands of reservists in combat. Reporting from Jerusalem -- There's no visceral wartime imagery; details on injured Israeli soldiers are handled delicately. Bloody scenes such as the carnage after Tuesday's shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip appear only in snippets, and often in the context of analysis as to how the world will react. There is, however, round-the-clock coverage of the Israeli south, where rockets fired by Gazan militants have killed three Israeli civilians and injured dozens since the conflict began Dec. 27. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172500-Brainwashing-the-masses-Israeli-media-focus-on-Hamas-rockets-keep-gore-to-a-minimum Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:46:39 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172496-A-Satanic-Genocidal-Israel For years, I have been warning that Israel is psychologically and morally capable of carrying out a holocaust or a genocide against the Palestinian people. Needless to say, the horrible events of the past two weeks in Gaza seem to have enforced and vindicated my convictions in this regard. Israel, government and people, seem to possess the psychological propensity that would make her embark on such a monstrosity. Yes, there is a minority of Israeli Jews and non-Israeli Jews who say "No" to all the evils and crimes Israel is doing in the name of their name. However, let us be honest and realistic. These people are a small minority and have very little influence if any on the Israeli government and army. Today, what many people had thought would be unthinkable or far-fetched in terms of the extent to which Israel would be willing to go in savaging the Palestinian people seems quite possible in light of the Jewish state's Nazi-like behavior in the Gaza Strip. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172496-A-Satanic-Genocidal-Israel Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:14:23 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172487-US-responsible-for-war-on-Gaza- US Congressman Dennis Kucinich lashes out at Washington's arm support for Tel Aviv and Israel's violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Kucinich in a statement on Wednesday lambasted Israel's disproportionate use of force against defenseless people of Gaza with US weapons, paid for by American taxpayers. The disproportionate and collective punishment nature of the attacks on Gaza assure an escalation of conflict in violation of the AECA, the Ohio senator said. In a letter to the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday Kucinich informed the US administration of a violation of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) of 1976. The breach, under AECA law, should result in a Presidential report on the violation. According to the AECA any defense articles sold or leased by the United States must not be used to escalate conflict. "We can not truly celebrate a New Year, a new Congress and a new administration if all we see is the same old destruction in the Middle East with US weapons being illegally used to kill children," Kucinich said in his statement. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172487-US-responsible-for-war-on-Gaza- Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:42:24 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172484-Digging-For-The-Dead-Israeli-terror-attack-on-4-storey-building-in-Gaza-kills-25 Israeli F-16 planes hit a 4-storey apartment building belonging to civilians in Gaza on Tuesday. While the building was razed to the ground, 25 people were killed in the building. Added to LiveLeak January 06, 2009 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172484-Digging-For-The-Dead-Israeli-terror-attack-on-4-storey-building-in-Gaza-kills-25 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:25:28 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172481-Ban-Ki-moon-avoids-condemning-Israel-over-UN-school-massacre-Mubarak-calls-on-Palestinians-to-stop-defending-themselves Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations has deliberately avoided issuing a condemnation of the Israeli army bombing of an UNRWA school in Gaza city that killed and wounded hundreds of civilians. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172481-Ban-Ki-moon-avoids-condemning-Israel-over-UN-school-massacre-Mubarak-calls-on-Palestinians-to-stop-defending-themselves Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:07:24 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172478-European-diplomacy-in-Gaza-crisis-prepares-trap-for-Palestinians ... [N]o European government has condemned the Israeli aggression and called it by its real name - a war crime. Instead, they have justified the actions carried out by Israel - its 18-month blockade of the population of Gaza, its targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders and its bombardment of the densely populated and virtually defenseless territory - as legitimate acts of self-defense. In appealing for a cease-fire, the European governments are first and foremost pursuing their own geo-political interests. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172478-European-diplomacy-in-Gaza-crisis-prepares-trap-for-Palestinians Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:32:32 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172465-Israeli-Militants-Poised-to-Resettle-Gaza-After-Assault As Israeli troops fight their way into Gaza, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" is reported to have overwhelming support among the Israeli public, but few are as enthusiastic as the former residents of the Israeli settlements in Gaza. As tens of thousands of Israeli troops descend on Gaza in an apocalyptic frenzy, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. Settler activists are counting on their historically strong ties to the Israeli military, with some units composed entirely of settlers, to help in their fight. Indeed, some soldiers and reservists currently in Gaza were there three years ago living in cherished settlement communities. On Monday, an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz described the bittersweet reactions of soldiers who had lived in Gaza settlements and are now back in uniform, noting, "Some see it as a first step toward returning to their former homes." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172465-Israeli-Militants-Poised-to-Resettle-Gaza-After-Assault Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:12:07 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172463-Claiming-Impartiality-Europe-Leans-Towards-Israel BRUSSELS - In carefully crafted official statements, diplomats have portrayed the European Union as something of an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet even though almost all of the people killed over the past fortnight have been Palestinians, some top-ranking leaders in the 27-country bloc have tacitly offered their support for Israel's bombing and invasion of Gaza. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, the Union's largest country, has stated that Hamas "clearly and exclusively" bore responsibility for the fighting because it had fired Qassam rockets on Israel. The Czech Republic, which took over the EU's rotating presidency Jan. 1, described Israel's actions in Gaza as "more defensive than offensive." Prague subsequently retracted that remark after it emerged that France, the previous holder of the presidency, had a more nuanced position. But while Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has spent much of this week seeking to secure a truce between Hamas and Israel, he too has been eager to develop closer political and economic ties with the Israeli government. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172463-Claiming-Impartiality-Europe-Leans-Towards-Israel Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:02:15 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172454-KBR-Knowingly-Expose-Troops-To-Toxin-in-Iraq The military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR, has won more than $28 billion in U.S. military contracts since the beginning of the Iraq war. KBR may be facing a new scandal. First, accusations its then-parent company Halliburton was given the lucrative contract. And later, allegations of shoddy construction oversight that resulted in Americans getting electrocuted. Now, some other American soldiers say the company knowingly put their lives at risk, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian exclusively reports. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172454-KBR-Knowingly-Expose-Troops-To-Toxin-in-Iraq Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:41:35 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172453-Lawyers-who-advised-torture-should-be-investigated-for-war-crimes-too John Yoo and other lawyers who were involved in developing the Bush administration's interrogation policies have been roundly criticized for the shoddy and controversial nature of their legal advice. And yet even some of the critics have rejected the notion that Yoo and his former colleagues should be investigated for their role in the commission of torture and other war crimes. Writing recently in the Washington Post, Jack Goldsmith, the lawyer (and now law professor) who repudiated much of Yoo's work at the Office of the Legal Counsel, dismissed calls for further probes for fear that government lawyers would become excessively cautious in offering legal advice. The country is better served by moving on, Goldsmith suggested. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172453-Lawyers-who-advised-torture-should-be-investigated-for-war-crimes-too Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:41:12 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172436-Gideon-Levy-And-there-lie-the-bodies The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place. Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172436-Gideon-Levy-And-there-lie-the-bodies Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:29:30 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172435-Gazing-at-Gaza-s-Destruction-Israelis-Sip-Pepsi-US-Progressives-See-Silver-Lining- Here we see Israelis in Sderot - the chief target of the homemade bombs which we are told are the cause of the current ravaging of Gaza. These Hamas "terror bombs" are so frighteningly powerful and destructive that no response against them can be "disproportionate," we are told by Israeli and American leaders; everything is justified in "retaliation," including the complete destruction of the social, civic and physical infrastructure of an entire human community, and the killing and terrorizing of innocent people. It's those homemade bombs falling on Sderot, you see; they are such an overwhelming, ever-present, inescapable threat. So threatening, in fact, that some of the Israelis in this picture drove down to Sderot from Jerusalem to sit out in the open air - on a hilltop - in plain sight of the Gaza village from which many of the rockets have been launched, and calmly sip Pepsi as they watch the military action taking place not two miles away. Shouldn't "terror" be made of sterner stuff? Especially terror which merits the widespread slaughter and suffering of innocent people? Could there possibly be some - how to put it? - disconnection between the stated cause of the military action and its true purpose? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172435-Gazing-at-Gaza-s-Destruction-Israelis-Sip-Pepsi-US-Progressives-See-Silver-Lining- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:21:27 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172431-Beware-Ceasefires-Israel-Planned-Gaza-Attacks-Six-Months-Ago-While-Negotiating-Ceasefire Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172431-Beware-Ceasefires-Israel-Planned-Gaza-Attacks-Six-Months-Ago-While-Negotiating-Ceasefire Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:58:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172417-The-Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising-2009-style-Another-little-girl-in-a-red-coat- Being sick at heart over the slaughter in Gaza, I went to the United States Holocaust Museum's website to see if there was any similarities between the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943 and what is happening in Gaza right now. This is what I found: "Many Jews in ghettos across eastern Europe," stated the website, "tried to organize resistance against the Germans and to arm themselves with smuggled and homemade weapons. Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance movements formed in about 100 Jewish groups. The most famous attempt by Jews to resist the Germans in armed fighting occurred in the Warsaw ghetto." Does that or does that not sound like what has been happening in Palestine for the last 60 years -- as Palestinians have been continuously and systematically killed, deported and rounded up into camps? I mean seriously. Isn't Gaza today the largest concentration camp in the world? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172417-The-Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising-2009-style-Another-little-girl-in-a-red-coat- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:51:53 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172416-Israel-stocks-gain-8-7-percent-since-Gaza-offensive Investors in Israeli stocks are disregarding a war less than 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the commercial center in Tel Aviv, helping the TA-25 index rebound from its worst year since 1983, on bets fighting will be limited. The benchmark TA-25 index climbed 8.7 percent since Dec. 27 when Israel began its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, tracking a global rally. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index gained 6.1 percent in the same period. Israel's index rose 0.9 percent today and 1 percent yesterday even as the government broadened its offensive by sending ground forces into Gaza, and protests in the Muslim world against the invasion spread. Shares also rose in Egypt and the Gulf. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172416-Israel-stocks-gain-8-7-percent-since-Gaza-offensive Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:45:00 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172387-Occupation-101-Voices-of-the-Silenced-Majority The film details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets. The film covers a wide range of topics -- which include -- the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880's, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172387-Occupation-101-Voices-of-the-Silenced-Majority Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:03:25 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172385-Kucinich-Israel-may-be-using-American-weapons-illegally Responding to media reports that Israel had bombed a UN school serving as a refuge for Palestinian civilians, Congressman Dennis Kucinich is calling for a Congressional report on Israel's possibly illegal misuse of US weapons. His letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice follows. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172385-Kucinich-Israel-may-be-using-American-weapons-illegally Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:49:08 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172380-UK-Palestine-For-The-Jews-Official-Sympathy Mr. Balfour has sent the following letter to Lord Rothschild in regard to the establishment of a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people:-- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172380-UK-Palestine-For-The-Jews-Official-Sympathy Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:25:51 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172375-Trinidad-Where-Are-the-Missing-People- PORT OF SPAIN -Lalman is among a record number of more than 600 people reported missing in this twin-island state last year. Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert insists that there is no evidence "to suggest people are being trafficked". "People just don't disappear into thin air. We know that human trafficking exists, but the police are probably too embarrassed to come out and say so," said MPA chairman Nathifa Mitchell in a statement to the media. "The evidence is there. If there is no human trafficking, as Philbert suggests, then we have a serial killer on our hands. Where have all these missing persons gone?" Mitchell said, insisting that women, children and men were being lured by human traffickers and shipped to foreign countries, where they worked as sex slaves or were forced into pornography. Mitchell, whose 36-year-old niece, Lena Johnson, was last seen on Nov. 8, 1998, said her organisation is determined to help other families deal with the trauma of missing loved ones and has created a web site to sensitise the public on human trafficking. "We are not going to rest until something is done. The world ought to know the truth," Mitchell said, as she and other executive members, including a pastor, embarked on a media blitz here. "Almost all the women who disappeared left behind a pattern. Their cell phones were switched off. We also heard that they were transported from one house to another before being shipped out." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172375-Trinidad-Where-Are-the-Missing-People- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:57:51 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172374-Ex-Guant-namo-detainee-describes-torture LAHORE, Pakistan: When Muhammad Saad Iqbal arrived home here in August after more than six years in U.S. custody, including five at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he had difficulty walking, his left ear was severely infected, and he was dependent on a cocktail of antibiotics and antidepressants. But the full stories of individual detainees like Iqbal are only now emerging after years in which they were shuffled around the globe under the Bush administration's system of extraordinary rendition, which used foreign countries to interrogate and detain terrorism suspects in sites beyond the reach of U.S. courts. Iqbal was never convicted of any crime, or even charged with one. He was quietly released from Guantánamo with a routine explanation that he was no longer considered an enemy combatant, part of an effort by the Bush administration to reduce the prison's population. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172374-Ex-Guant-namo-detainee-describes-torture Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:28:27 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172354-EU-sends-mixed-message-as-Gaza-death-toll-mounts The Czech EU presidency this weekend retracted its support for Israel amid the ground attack on Gaza, while France switched its criticism from Israel to Hamas. The Czech Republic on Saturday (3 January) published a statement on behalf of the EU, saying the ground assault was "more defensive than offensive." But it pulled the line on Sunday, blaming it on a youthful mistake by its spokesman, Jiri Potuznik. "Even the undisputable right of the state to defend itself does not allow actions which largely affect civilians," the second communique said. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who last week complained about Israel's disproportionate use of force, laid the lion's share of blame on Hamas in an interview on Monday. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172354-EU-sends-mixed-message-as-Gaza-death-toll-mounts Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:12:54 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172353-Henry-Kissinger-on-CNBC-calling-for-a-New-World-Order-1-5-09 Kissinger on Economy http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172353-Henry-Kissinger-on-CNBC-calling-for-a-New-World-Order-1-5-09 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:12:22 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172343-Israel-bars-International-Red-Cross-from-entering-Gaza For a second day running, Israeli authorities have barred a Red Cross medical team from entering Gaza to help treat residents injured in bombings. "The ICRC had notified the authorities of the team's arrival in advance, but they have been awaiting authorization to enter the (Gaza) Strip since Friday morning," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Saturday. The same border crossing has been opened for other aid workers and foreigners seeking to leave Gaza, the Red Cross said, even as its own members -- including a surgeon tasked to help with complex operations at Gaza's Shifa Hospital -- were denied access. "It is absolutely essential that this team get into Gaza now, as this is when they are most needed," said Pierre Wettach, who heads Red Cross operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172343-Israel-bars-International-Red-Cross-from-entering-Gaza Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:14:39 +0000