By James Corbett
Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney
Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.
The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."
Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.
State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.
Bush has never visited the state as president, though he has spent vacations at his family compound in nearby Maine.
Roughly 12,000 people live in Brattleboro, located on the Connecticut River in the state's southeastern corner. Nearby Marlboro has a population of roughly 1,000.
(Writing by Andy Sullivan, editing by David Wiessler)
Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/05/us-usa-politics-vermont-idUSN0454699420080305
Read more
The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."
Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.
State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.
Bush has never visited the state as president, though he has spent vacations at his family compound in nearby Maine.
Roughly 12,000 people live in Brattleboro, located on the Connecticut River in the state's southeastern corner. Nearby Marlboro has a population of roughly 1,000.
(Writing by Andy Sullivan, editing by David Wiessler)
Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/05/us-usa-politics-vermont-idUSN0454699420080305
Robert Fisk in Manama: Bahrain – an uprising on the verge of revolution
B
ahrain is not Egypt. Bahrain is not Tunisia. And Bahrain is not Libya or Algeria or Yemen. True, the tens of thousands gathering again yesterday at the Pearl roundabout – most of them Shia but some of them Sunni Muslims – dressed themselves in Bahraini flags, just as the Cairo millions wore Egyptian flags in Tahrir Square.
But this miniature sultanist kingdom is not yet experiencing a revolution. The uprising of the country's 70 per cent – or is it 80 per cent? – Shia population is more a civil rights movement than a mass of republican rebels, but Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa had better meet their demands quickly if he doesn't want an insurrection.
Indeed, the calls for an end to the entire 200-year-old Khalifa family rule in Bahrain are growing way ahead of the original aims of this explosion of anger: an elected prime minister, a constitutional monarchy, an end to discrimination. The cries of disgust at the Khalifas are much louder, the slogans more incendiary; and the vast array of supposedly opposition personalities talking to the Crown Prince is far behind the mood of the crowds who were yesterday erecting makeshift homes – tented, fully carpeted, complete with tea stalls and portable lavatories – in the very centre of Manama. The royal family would like them to leave but they have no intention of doing so. Yesterday, thousands of employees of the huge Alba aluminium plant marched to the roundabout to remind King Hamad and the Crown Prince that a powerful industrial and trade union movement now lies behind this sea of largely Shia protesters.
Yet Crown Prince Salman talks more about stability, calm, security and "national cohesion" than serious electoral and constitutional reform. Is he trying to "do a Mubarak" and make promises – genuine ones for the moment, perhaps, but kingly pledges do tend to fade with "stability" and time – which will not be met?
In an interview with CNN, he acknowledged the Belfast parallels, exclaiming that "what we don't want to do, like in Northern Ireland, is to descend into militia warfare or sectarianism". But the crazed shooting of the Bahraini army on Thursday evening – 50 wounded, three critically, one already pronounced brain dead – was a small-size Bloody Sunday and it didn't take long for the original civil rights movement in Northern Ireland to be outrun by a new IRA. Clearly, the royal family has been shocked at the events of the last week. Sultan al-Khalifa's admission that "this is not the Bahrain I know, I never thought I would see the day that something like this would happen" proves as much. But his words suggest that this huge manifestation of public fury was merely provoked by television pictures of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. For the record, the Shia rebellion against the country's Sunni rulers has been going on for years, with hundreds of political prisoners tortured in four prisons in and around Manama, their tormentors often from the Jordanian army – just as many Bahraini soldiers come from the Punjab and Baluchistan in Pakistan. Yesterday, there were repeated demands for the release of political prisoners, banners carrying photographs of young men who are still in jail years after their original sentencing: they run into the hundreds.
Then there are the disturbing stories of the refrigerated trucks which reportedly took dozens of corpses for secret burial, perhaps in Saudi Arabia. These could be part of the carapace of rumour that has settled over the events of the past few days, but now some of the names of the disappeared – men who were present at the shootings near the Pearl roundabout last week – are known.
Twelve of their names have just been released. So where is 14-year-old Ahmed Salah Issa, Hossein Hassan Ali, aged 18, Ahmed Ali Mohsen, 25 and Badria Abda Ali, a woman of unknown age? And where is Hani Mohamed Ali, 27, Mahdi al-Mahousi, 24, Mohamed Abdullah, 18, Hamed Abdullah al-Faraj, 21, Fadel Jassem, 45, and Hossein Salman, 48? English residents of a nearby apartment block were warned before the shooting that if they took photographs of the soldiers, they would be shot.
Matar Ibrahim, one of 18 Bahrain Shia MPs, agrees that there is an increasing gap now between demonstrators and the official political opposition that is being sought out by Crown Prince Salman.
"We are waiting for an initiative from the Crown Prince," he told me. "He has not mentioned reform or constitutional monarchy and a fully elected parliament. If people have a properly elected government, including the prime minister, they will blame their representatives if things go wrong. Now, they blame the King.
"What we are suggesting is a removal of the barriers between the people and the ruling family. When Hillary Clinton came to Bahrain, I told her that we don't want to see the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain [its military headquarters] as an obstacle to change, but currently, Bahrain is the worst strategic ally for the US."
The head of the Alba factory trade union, Ali Bin Ali – who is a Sunni – warned that his members could go on strike if they wanted to. "Now that people have been shot down on the roads, we will be political," he said.
Which, of course, is not what the Crown Prince wants to hear.
Read more
ahrain is not Egypt. Bahrain is not Tunisia. And Bahrain is not Libya or Algeria or Yemen. True, the tens of thousands gathering again yesterday at the Pearl roundabout – most of them Shia but some of them Sunni Muslims – dressed themselves in Bahraini flags, just as the Cairo millions wore Egyptian flags in Tahrir Square.
But this miniature sultanist kingdom is not yet experiencing a revolution. The uprising of the country's 70 per cent – or is it 80 per cent? – Shia population is more a civil rights movement than a mass of republican rebels, but Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa had better meet their demands quickly if he doesn't want an insurrection.
Indeed, the calls for an end to the entire 200-year-old Khalifa family rule in Bahrain are growing way ahead of the original aims of this explosion of anger: an elected prime minister, a constitutional monarchy, an end to discrimination. The cries of disgust at the Khalifas are much louder, the slogans more incendiary; and the vast array of supposedly opposition personalities talking to the Crown Prince is far behind the mood of the crowds who were yesterday erecting makeshift homes – tented, fully carpeted, complete with tea stalls and portable lavatories – in the very centre of Manama. The royal family would like them to leave but they have no intention of doing so. Yesterday, thousands of employees of the huge Alba aluminium plant marched to the roundabout to remind King Hamad and the Crown Prince that a powerful industrial and trade union movement now lies behind this sea of largely Shia protesters.
Yet Crown Prince Salman talks more about stability, calm, security and "national cohesion" than serious electoral and constitutional reform. Is he trying to "do a Mubarak" and make promises – genuine ones for the moment, perhaps, but kingly pledges do tend to fade with "stability" and time – which will not be met?
In an interview with CNN, he acknowledged the Belfast parallels, exclaiming that "what we don't want to do, like in Northern Ireland, is to descend into militia warfare or sectarianism". But the crazed shooting of the Bahraini army on Thursday evening – 50 wounded, three critically, one already pronounced brain dead – was a small-size Bloody Sunday and it didn't take long for the original civil rights movement in Northern Ireland to be outrun by a new IRA. Clearly, the royal family has been shocked at the events of the last week. Sultan al-Khalifa's admission that "this is not the Bahrain I know, I never thought I would see the day that something like this would happen" proves as much. But his words suggest that this huge manifestation of public fury was merely provoked by television pictures of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. For the record, the Shia rebellion against the country's Sunni rulers has been going on for years, with hundreds of political prisoners tortured in four prisons in and around Manama, their tormentors often from the Jordanian army – just as many Bahraini soldiers come from the Punjab and Baluchistan in Pakistan. Yesterday, there were repeated demands for the release of political prisoners, banners carrying photographs of young men who are still in jail years after their original sentencing: they run into the hundreds.
Then there are the disturbing stories of the refrigerated trucks which reportedly took dozens of corpses for secret burial, perhaps in Saudi Arabia. These could be part of the carapace of rumour that has settled over the events of the past few days, but now some of the names of the disappeared – men who were present at the shootings near the Pearl roundabout last week – are known.
Twelve of their names have just been released. So where is 14-year-old Ahmed Salah Issa, Hossein Hassan Ali, aged 18, Ahmed Ali Mohsen, 25 and Badria Abda Ali, a woman of unknown age? And where is Hani Mohamed Ali, 27, Mahdi al-Mahousi, 24, Mohamed Abdullah, 18, Hamed Abdullah al-Faraj, 21, Fadel Jassem, 45, and Hossein Salman, 48? English residents of a nearby apartment block were warned before the shooting that if they took photographs of the soldiers, they would be shot.
Matar Ibrahim, one of 18 Bahrain Shia MPs, agrees that there is an increasing gap now between demonstrators and the official political opposition that is being sought out by Crown Prince Salman.
"We are waiting for an initiative from the Crown Prince," he told me. "He has not mentioned reform or constitutional monarchy and a fully elected parliament. If people have a properly elected government, including the prime minister, they will blame their representatives if things go wrong. Now, they blame the King.
"What we are suggesting is a removal of the barriers between the people and the ruling family. When Hillary Clinton came to Bahrain, I told her that we don't want to see the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain [its military headquarters] as an obstacle to change, but currently, Bahrain is the worst strategic ally for the US."
The head of the Alba factory trade union, Ali Bin Ali – who is a Sunni – warned that his members could go on strike if they wanted to. "Now that people have been shot down on the roads, we will be political," he said.
Which, of course, is not what the Crown Prince wants to hear.
High-ranking members of US military part of ‘Knights of Malta,’ ‘Opus Dei,’ reporter claims
Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has broken some massive stories in his day, but uncovering secret societies within the highest echelons of America's military would probably be the biggest of his career.
Well, get ready for the media storm, because that's essentially what Hersh told an audience in Doha, Qatar recently, according to a report published earlier this week by Foreign Policy.
Speaking at a campus operated by Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Hersh said he was working on a new book that details "how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government."
"It's not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it -- how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced," he continued, according to the published quotes.
Hersh also lamented President Obama's continuance of the Bush administration's worst abuses.
"Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn't get one," he reportedly said.
The Foreign Policy report added that in 2003, those "in the Cheney shop" were not concerned about the havoc the invasion of Iraq was destined to cause.
"[The] attitude was, 'What's this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they're all worried about some looting?" Hersh was quoted as saying. "Don't they get it? We're gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."
He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta" and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.
"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally," Hersh reportedly continued. "They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."
He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture war" between religions.
It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.
The "Knights of Malta" were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.
"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.
Doubts, denials and a distinctive trend
Raw Story reached out to Hersh and The New Yorker to confirm the accuracy of his quotes, placing this report on hold until they responded. Both declined to make any further statement, neither confirming nor denying the quotes.
However, one source close to Hersh who spoke to Raw Story off the record, suggested that Foreign Policy's report was indeed correct.
Raw Story followed-up on the quotes due to a widely-reported false claim attributed to Hersh in May 2009, where he'd allegedly said former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The report, which appeared to have originated in Pakistan, was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the conservative-leaning American Spectator, but both removed the links after Raw Story published a denial from Hersh. A link to Raw Story's original report was unavailable due to a database malfunction.
Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author and reporter, has previously reported that the JSOC was set up by former Vice President Cheney as something of an "executive assassination squad" that operated outside of congressional authority.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings quoted him mocking the US civilian command, led JSOC before taking command of America's war effort in Afghanistan.
In an email to the military's Stars and Stripes publication, McChrystal's spokesman, David Bolger, panned Hersh's claim.
“The allegations recently made by Seymour Hersh relating to General McChrystal’s involvement with an organization called The Knights of Malta are completely false and without basis in fact,” he reportedly wrote. “General McChrystal is not and has never been a member of that organization.”
The religious indoctrination of US soldiers has been in headlines in recent weeks as soldiers who "failed" the "spiritual fitness" portion of the "comprehensive soldier fitness" test claimed they were forced to attend Christian ceremonies and become "born again" by professing love for the Christian deity.
Similarly, GQ magazine uncovered last year a series of top-secret military briefings prepared by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that included passages from the Bible.
Trijicon Inc., a defense contractor, was also discovered last January to have been for years placing scriptural references on gun sights used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their actions revealed Trijicon was forced to provide the Pentagon with kits to remove the codes.
Source : http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/21/highranking-members-military-part-knights-malta-opus-dei-reporter-claims/
Read more
Well, get ready for the media storm, because that's essentially what Hersh told an audience in Doha, Qatar recently, according to a report published earlier this week by Foreign Policy.
Speaking at a campus operated by Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Hersh said he was working on a new book that details "how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government."
"It's not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it -- how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced," he continued, according to the published quotes.
Hersh also lamented President Obama's continuance of the Bush administration's worst abuses.
"Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn't get one," he reportedly said.
The Foreign Policy report added that in 2003, those "in the Cheney shop" were not concerned about the havoc the invasion of Iraq was destined to cause.
"[The] attitude was, 'What's this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they're all worried about some looting?" Hersh was quoted as saying. "Don't they get it? We're gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."
He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta" and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.
"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally," Hersh reportedly continued. "They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."
He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture war" between religions.
It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.
The "Knights of Malta" were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.
"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.
Doubts, denials and a distinctive trend
Raw Story reached out to Hersh and The New Yorker to confirm the accuracy of his quotes, placing this report on hold until they responded. Both declined to make any further statement, neither confirming nor denying the quotes.
However, one source close to Hersh who spoke to Raw Story off the record, suggested that Foreign Policy's report was indeed correct.
Raw Story followed-up on the quotes due to a widely-reported false claim attributed to Hersh in May 2009, where he'd allegedly said former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The report, which appeared to have originated in Pakistan, was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the conservative-leaning American Spectator, but both removed the links after Raw Story published a denial from Hersh. A link to Raw Story's original report was unavailable due to a database malfunction.
Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author and reporter, has previously reported that the JSOC was set up by former Vice President Cheney as something of an "executive assassination squad" that operated outside of congressional authority.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings quoted him mocking the US civilian command, led JSOC before taking command of America's war effort in Afghanistan.
In an email to the military's Stars and Stripes publication, McChrystal's spokesman, David Bolger, panned Hersh's claim.
“The allegations recently made by Seymour Hersh relating to General McChrystal’s involvement with an organization called The Knights of Malta are completely false and without basis in fact,” he reportedly wrote. “General McChrystal is not and has never been a member of that organization.”
The religious indoctrination of US soldiers has been in headlines in recent weeks as soldiers who "failed" the "spiritual fitness" portion of the "comprehensive soldier fitness" test claimed they were forced to attend Christian ceremonies and become "born again" by professing love for the Christian deity.
Similarly, GQ magazine uncovered last year a series of top-secret military briefings prepared by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that included passages from the Bible.
Trijicon Inc., a defense contractor, was also discovered last January to have been for years placing scriptural references on gun sights used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their actions revealed Trijicon was forced to provide the Pentagon with kits to remove the codes.
Source : http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/21/highranking-members-military-part-knights-malta-opus-dei-reporter-claims/
Libya protests: 140 'massacred' as Gaddafi sends in snipers to crush dissent
Snipers shot protesters, artillery and helicopter gunships were used against crowds of demonstrators, and thugs armed with hammers and swords attacked families in their homes as the Libyan regime sought to crush the uprising.
"Dozens were killed ... We are in the midst of a massacre here," a witness told Reuters. The man said he helped take victims to hospital in Benghazi.
Libyan Muslim leaders told security forces to stop killing civilians, responding to a spiralling death toll from unrest which threatens veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi's authority.
Mourners leaving a funeral for protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi came under fire, killing at least 15 people and wounding many more. A hospital official said one of those who died was apparently struck on the head by an anti-aircraft missile, and many had been shot in the head and chest.
The hospital was overwhelmed and people were streaming to the facility to donate blood. "Many of the dead and the injured are relatives of doctors here," he said. "They are crying and I keep telling them to please stand up and help us."
Saturday's new deaths are in addition to the 84 people believed to have been killed by Friday night, in the brutal government response, with fears that the eventual toll will prove much higher.
The five-day uprising in eastern Libya has been the greatest challenge to the 42-year rule of Col Gaddafi, the world's longest-serving ruler. With internet and phone lines to the outside world disrupted, it was unclear whether the revolt inspired by the revolutions in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt was spreading from the impoverished east of Libya to the capital Tripoli, or whether it was being successfully extinguished.
It was centred on Benghazi, 600 miles east of the capital, where a human rights activist lawyer was arrested on Tuesday. Chanting crowds, tens of thousands strong, filled the streets and police reportedly fled or joined the protesters, as unrest spread to surrounding towns. Fighting also broke out in the cities of Al-Bayda, Ajdabiya, Zawiya, and Darnah, with witnesses reporting piles of dead. Hospitals made frantic appeals for blood to treat wards full of wounded people.
Libyan special forces launched a dawn attack on Saturday against hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, camped in front of the courthouse in Benghazi. "They fired tear gas on protesters in tents and cleared the areas after many fled carrying the dead and the injured," one protester said by phone from the city.
Video clips on the internet showed jubilant crowds at the start of the protest smashing down concrete statues of their ruler's Little Green Book, containing his sayings, and fighting running street battles with security forces. There were smaller protests in Tripoli, a stronghold of the Gaddafi family whose population received a much better share of Libya's oil wealth.
Colonel Gaddafi himself was shown on state-run television driving in a motorcade through Tripoli, surrounded by cheering supporters pumping their fists in the air and chanting slogans of support.
The pro-government Al-Watania newspaper praised Colonel Gaddafi, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1969, and insisted the people were uniting with the government against "traitors of the West". Foreign media were exaggerating the scale of the violence, it said.
Reports from Benghazi gave a very different picture of the crisis, describing how the city's residents battled brutal security forces sent from the capital. One man, who gave his name only as Mohammed, told the BBC: "The army are joining the people, the people are going out of their homes and fighting street by street and they are winning."
A Benghazi cleric, Abellah al-Warfali, said he had a list of 16 people who had been killed, most with bullet wounds to the head and chest. "I saw with my own eyes a tank crushing two people in a car," he said. "They didn't do any harm to anyone."
Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8335934/Libya-protests-140-massacred-as-Gaddafi-sends-in-snipers-to-crush-dissent.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d6160096b34e051%2C0
Libya ruling dictator has been in power for over 42 years and says he is for the people. The obvious lie is clear and his tactics against the protesters show how much he is there to serve the people.
Sending snipers and ordering to shoot to kill, many of the protesters consider him insane and libya is not the beautiful place Gaddafi wishes to display.
Cairo protesters: 'we're not Muslim Brotherhood'
The Telegraph reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo where, despite the violence this week, Egyptian demonstrators are determined to continue their protest until they see the back of President Hosni Mubarak.
Adrian Bloomfield talks to the demonstrators about the motivations behind their protests to end President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule why they are prepared to put their lives on the line to bring change to their country.
Egypt has now faced from 11 days of unrest and protests, with more than 100,000 anti-government demonstrators filling Cairo's giant Tahrir Square chanting after Friday prayers "today is the last day" for President Hosni Mubarak.
Source
Read more
Adrian Bloomfield talks to the demonstrators about the motivations behind their protests to end President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule why they are prepared to put their lives on the line to bring change to their country.
Egypt has now faced from 11 days of unrest and protests, with more than 100,000 anti-government demonstrators filling Cairo's giant Tahrir Square chanting after Friday prayers "today is the last day" for President Hosni Mubarak.
Source
Settlers kill 2 Palestinian teens, soldiers attack funeral
Iraq Burin
An Israeli settler allegedly from the illegal Barkha settlement shot and killed 19-year-old Uday Qadous after they engaged in a verbal altercation, on 27 January in the northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus.
Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq investigated the shooting and stated that Uday and his cousin, Umar, were working in their fields when Uday went looking for some of their sheep that had gone missing ("Updates on the Killing of Udayy Qadoush by a Settler in Iraq Bourin," 1 February 2011).
"Shortly after, Umar became worried about his cousin and went to look for him in the fields," Al Haq stated. "He found Uday standing near an unpaved military road (connecting Barkha settlement and the local military base) and a settler was standing opposite him, about 10 meters away; the two were quarreling verbally."
"As they moved away, Umar could no longer see them but heard a bullet shot and saw the settler running away from the scene of the incident. The settler had a light-complexion, blonde hair and wearing a Kippa, carrying a black backpack and a pistol on the side of his waist," Al Haq reported.
The shooting was caught on Israeli military cameras, and was made public on YouTube (IDF Camera 28-Jan-2011: Israeli Settler Kill a Palestinian (Uday Qadous) in Iraq Burin). The brief video appears to show Uday fall to the ground suddenly as he is moving away from the settler.
Medical officials in the Rafadiya hospital in Nablus confirmed that Qadous was shot at point-blank range in the upper torso, with a bullet ripping through his lung, Ma'an news agency reported ("Autopsy on teen slain by settler completed," 28 January 2011).
Beit Ommar
The next day in the southern West Bank village of Beit Ommar, a large group of Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal Bat Ayn settlement descended on the outskirts of the village and opened fire. Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, aged 17, was shot in the head while standing in his family's vineyard.
Another 16-year-old boy from Beit Ommar was shot in the arm, but survived the attack.
Ikhlayl remained brain-dead in a hospital in Hebron before succumbing to his wounds early the next morning, according to Beit Ommar-based activism group Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP). PSP reported that at least 100 settlers took part in Friday's attack, which began when armed members of the group began firing at Palestinian homes in the Saffa area adjacent to Beit Ommar. At the same time, PSP added, other settlers opened fire in the Jodor neighborhood, where Ikhlayl was standing ("Beit Ommar youth killed by Israeli settlers," 28 January 2011).
Dozens of villagers from Beit Ommar and nearby Surif immediately came to the area "to defend their communities," PSP stated, adding that seven Israeli military jeeps arrived and "escorted the settlers back to Bay Ayn [settlement]."
Ikhlayl was recently a participant in a youth photography class sponsored by the village-based Center for Freedom and Justice, and had been active with PSP in educational projects and community service-oriented initiatives.
Bekah Wolf, co-founder of PSP, worked closely with Ikhlayl and stated in the press release that "Yousef was a kid who hoped for a better future for Palestine."
Wolf continued, "His life was ended prematurely by right-wing extremists. People around the world should be outraged by his shooting, and should work to bring his attackers to justice."
Approximately 10,000 people filled the streets of Beit Ommar as residents carried Ikhlayl's body and held Palestinian flags in his funeral on 29 January, PSP reported.
As the crowd marched closer to the Israeli sniper tower at the entrance to the village, on their way to the cemetery, Israeli soldiers attacked the funeral procession with sound grenades and tear gas canisters, while some residents threw stones at the fortified tower ("Funeral of Yousef Ikhlayl attacked by Israeli military, dozens injured," 29 January 2011).
Soon afterwards, Israeli military jeeps arrived and soldiers "began shooting live [ammunition] and rubber bullets," PSP added. "Most of the crowd dispersed at this point, carrying the injured people away. Several residents stayed and continued to confront the occupying army with stones."
Dozens were wounded in the attacks.
PSP reported that Israeli soldiers also fired on a Palestinian ambulance attempting to give medical relief to an injured person.
Days before Ikhlayl's killing, settlers from the same illegal settlement destroyed several hundred olive trees in Beit Ommar, PSP stated ("Settlers destroy more trees in Beit Ommar," 28 January 2011).
Earlier in the week, on 27 January, the Israeli military arrested two young boys from Beit Ommar. PSP reported that 11-year-old Hamza Ahmed Abu Hashem and 12-year-old Bilal Mahmood Awad were arrested while they played soccer near their homes ("Israeli forces arrest two Palestinian boys ages 11 and 12 in Beit Ommar," 27 January 2011).
"Bilal and Hamza were taken to the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur and then transferred to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron," PSP stated.
Hamza is the son of a community activist with the Beit Ommar-based National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, a group that organizes weekly unarmed demonstrations against the Israeli occupation and the encroaching settlements.
At press time, PSP said that Hamza was released but Bilal was still being held in Israeli detention.
Bekah Wolf told The Electronic Intifada that on 3 February, another two Palestinian youths were arrested by Israeli soldiers, who detained them at Karmei Tsur settlement. Both of the boys are 17 years-old, according to Wolf.
Family members of one of the youths were badly beaten, she reported, when the soldiers entered their house. PSP members were also assaulted by Israeli soldiers when they attempted to find out information about the two boys. Another 26-year-old man was arrested also on 3 February by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ommar, Wolf added.
Nabi Saleh
Israeli soldiers also arrested several Palestinian children in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh last week according to a report from The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). On Sunday, 23 January, Israeli forces arrested 14-year-old Islam al-Tamimi in a pre-dawn raid, IMEMC reported ("An-Nabi Saleh Popular Committee Leader Beaten, Two Children Arrested," 26 January 2011).
The report added that this was the second time in three weeks that Islam was arrested, and was interrogated for eight hours during his detention last week.
Islam was "denied access to legal counsel for the first five hours, during which he confessed to throwing stones during the weekly protest against the annexation wall," IMEMC reported, "and his parents were denied access to their son during the interrogation; their legal right." Islam's brother, 10-year-old Karim al-Tamini, was arrested on Tuesday, IMEMC reported, but was released after seven hours in custody.
On 26 January, the Israeli military arrested two 15-year-old boys along with Bassem Tamimi, leader of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Nabi Saleh, IMEMC stated.
Joseph Dana, independent journalist, contributor to The Electronic Intifada, and media coordinator for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, reported that Israeli forces applied torture techniques on Islam al-Tamimi during the interrogation ("Harsh interrogations of children escalate in Nabi Saleh," 31 January 2011).
Jordan Valley
Israeli soldiers beat and arrested a 19-year-old Palestinian farmer in the Hadidiya region of the northern Jordan Valley as he grazed his livestock, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Project (JVSP) reported on 2 February ("A young man beaten and kidnapped by soldiers in Hadidiya").
After being beaten by the soldiers, Ghazi Bsharat was taken to a nearby military detention center and released several hours later.
JVSP also reported that approximately 30 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiyot attacked Palestinians in Ein al Helwe, also in the northern Jordan Valley, on 29 January. A woman and her 11-year-old daughter were beaten and threatened with future violence in what residents say are attempts by settlers to force Palestinians to leave the area ("New settler aggression in Ein Il Hilwe," 29 January 2011).
Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center (SILWANIC) reported that Israeli forces set a Palestinian home on fire on Friday, 28 January, after they fired rounds of tear gas canisters inside the house, located in the Baten al-Hawa area of Silwan ("Palestinian home set ablaze under volleys of tear gas," 28 January 2011).
Following the destruction of the home, Israeli security services, including police, opened fire on Palestinian residents who protested the presence of the armed forces. SILWANIC reported that a 12-year-old boy was injured when a rubber bullet hit him in his face.
Later on, as protests intensified in the Baten al-Hawa area, SILWANIC reported that Israeli settlers "joined the violence" perpetrated by the Israeli armed forces, while Palestinian youth threw molotov cocktails at soldiers who had occupied the roof of a nearby home. Fire bombs were also hurled at the illegal Beit Yonatan settlement inside the neighborhood ("Youth aim Molotovs at soldiers on occupied roof," 28 January 2011).
Gaza Strip
Israeli snipers stationed along the Gaza boundary opened fire on a 21-year-old Palestinian man on 31 January, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported (""Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," 27 January - 2 February 2011).
Israeli soldiers inside sniper towers near Beit Lahiya town "fired at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from a site where the evacuated Israeli settlement of 'Elli Sinai' used to stand," PCHR reported.
"Mohammed Zakaria Halawa, 21, from Jabalya, was wounded by a bullet to the left leg, when he was nearly 150 meters away from the border," PCHR added. Rising poverty and the 4-year-long Israeli blockade in the occupied Gaza Strip has forced many Palestinian laborers to collect raw industrial material and rubble from areas near the "buffer zone," a 300-meter-long militarized area along the northern, eastern and maritime boundaries.
As The Electronic Intifada has reported, Israeli planes hit Gaza tunnels, no casualties," 2 February 2011).
Dhammash
Finally, in the village of Dhammash, near Tel Aviv, Israeli police arrested and severely beat members of the Shaaban family on 22 January, accusing them of "harboring illegal workers," according to a report by independent journalist Max Blumenthal ("'The days of '48 have come again.' 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, Israel creates a new refugee camp," 26 January 2011).
Police in the town of Lydd, "violently arrested Ali, Farida, and five members of [the Shaaban] family," Blumenthal reported, adding that their detention was unknown until the following Monday, two days later. A judge then extended their imprisonment until the following Thursday "on the grounds of secret evidence the Shaaban family's lawyer was not allowed to view -- a tactic familiar to Israel's military courts in the West Bank."
A mobile phone video posted on YouTube showed Israeli police beating members of the Shaaban family.
For more than a year, the Palestinian residents of Dhammash have been living under regular police harassment and constant threat of losing their homes in their village, which has been "unrecognized" by the State of Israel since 1948. Residents of Dhammash are Israeli citizens and pay taxes, but do not receive any services as the state refuses to acknowledge their presence.
The Electronic Intifada has reported on the situation for Palestinians inside Dhammash and the adjacent segregated city of Lydd, where recent demolitions of Palestinian homes have left entire families homeless.
Source : http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11780.shtml
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An Israeli settler allegedly from the illegal Barkha settlement shot and killed 19-year-old Uday Qadous after they engaged in a verbal altercation, on 27 January in the northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus.
Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq investigated the shooting and stated that Uday and his cousin, Umar, were working in their fields when Uday went looking for some of their sheep that had gone missing ("Updates on the Killing of Udayy Qadoush by a Settler in Iraq Bourin," 1 February 2011).
"Shortly after, Umar became worried about his cousin and went to look for him in the fields," Al Haq stated. "He found Uday standing near an unpaved military road (connecting Barkha settlement and the local military base) and a settler was standing opposite him, about 10 meters away; the two were quarreling verbally."
"As they moved away, Umar could no longer see them but heard a bullet shot and saw the settler running away from the scene of the incident. The settler had a light-complexion, blonde hair and wearing a Kippa, carrying a black backpack and a pistol on the side of his waist," Al Haq reported.
The shooting was caught on Israeli military cameras, and was made public on YouTube (IDF Camera 28-Jan-2011: Israeli Settler Kill a Palestinian (Uday Qadous) in Iraq Burin). The brief video appears to show Uday fall to the ground suddenly as he is moving away from the settler.
Medical officials in the Rafadiya hospital in Nablus confirmed that Qadous was shot at point-blank range in the upper torso, with a bullet ripping through his lung, Ma'an news agency reported ("Autopsy on teen slain by settler completed," 28 January 2011).
Beit Ommar
The next day in the southern West Bank village of Beit Ommar, a large group of Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal Bat Ayn settlement descended on the outskirts of the village and opened fire. Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, aged 17, was shot in the head while standing in his family's vineyard.
Another 16-year-old boy from Beit Ommar was shot in the arm, but survived the attack.
Ikhlayl remained brain-dead in a hospital in Hebron before succumbing to his wounds early the next morning, according to Beit Ommar-based activism group Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP). PSP reported that at least 100 settlers took part in Friday's attack, which began when armed members of the group began firing at Palestinian homes in the Saffa area adjacent to Beit Ommar. At the same time, PSP added, other settlers opened fire in the Jodor neighborhood, where Ikhlayl was standing ("Beit Ommar youth killed by Israeli settlers," 28 January 2011).
Dozens of villagers from Beit Ommar and nearby Surif immediately came to the area "to defend their communities," PSP stated, adding that seven Israeli military jeeps arrived and "escorted the settlers back to Bay Ayn [settlement]."
Ikhlayl was recently a participant in a youth photography class sponsored by the village-based Center for Freedom and Justice, and had been active with PSP in educational projects and community service-oriented initiatives.
Bekah Wolf, co-founder of PSP, worked closely with Ikhlayl and stated in the press release that "Yousef was a kid who hoped for a better future for Palestine."
Wolf continued, "His life was ended prematurely by right-wing extremists. People around the world should be outraged by his shooting, and should work to bring his attackers to justice."
Approximately 10,000 people filled the streets of Beit Ommar as residents carried Ikhlayl's body and held Palestinian flags in his funeral on 29 January, PSP reported.
As the crowd marched closer to the Israeli sniper tower at the entrance to the village, on their way to the cemetery, Israeli soldiers attacked the funeral procession with sound grenades and tear gas canisters, while some residents threw stones at the fortified tower ("Funeral of Yousef Ikhlayl attacked by Israeli military, dozens injured," 29 January 2011).
Soon afterwards, Israeli military jeeps arrived and soldiers "began shooting live [ammunition] and rubber bullets," PSP added. "Most of the crowd dispersed at this point, carrying the injured people away. Several residents stayed and continued to confront the occupying army with stones."
Dozens were wounded in the attacks.
PSP reported that Israeli soldiers also fired on a Palestinian ambulance attempting to give medical relief to an injured person.
Days before Ikhlayl's killing, settlers from the same illegal settlement destroyed several hundred olive trees in Beit Ommar, PSP stated ("Settlers destroy more trees in Beit Ommar," 28 January 2011).
Earlier in the week, on 27 January, the Israeli military arrested two young boys from Beit Ommar. PSP reported that 11-year-old Hamza Ahmed Abu Hashem and 12-year-old Bilal Mahmood Awad were arrested while they played soccer near their homes ("Israeli forces arrest two Palestinian boys ages 11 and 12 in Beit Ommar," 27 January 2011).
"Bilal and Hamza were taken to the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur and then transferred to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron," PSP stated.
Hamza is the son of a community activist with the Beit Ommar-based National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, a group that organizes weekly unarmed demonstrations against the Israeli occupation and the encroaching settlements.
At press time, PSP said that Hamza was released but Bilal was still being held in Israeli detention.
Bekah Wolf told The Electronic Intifada that on 3 February, another two Palestinian youths were arrested by Israeli soldiers, who detained them at Karmei Tsur settlement. Both of the boys are 17 years-old, according to Wolf.
Family members of one of the youths were badly beaten, she reported, when the soldiers entered their house. PSP members were also assaulted by Israeli soldiers when they attempted to find out information about the two boys. Another 26-year-old man was arrested also on 3 February by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ommar, Wolf added.
Nabi Saleh
Israeli soldiers also arrested several Palestinian children in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh last week according to a report from The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). On Sunday, 23 January, Israeli forces arrested 14-year-old Islam al-Tamimi in a pre-dawn raid, IMEMC reported ("An-Nabi Saleh Popular Committee Leader Beaten, Two Children Arrested," 26 January 2011).
The report added that this was the second time in three weeks that Islam was arrested, and was interrogated for eight hours during his detention last week.
Islam was "denied access to legal counsel for the first five hours, during which he confessed to throwing stones during the weekly protest against the annexation wall," IMEMC reported, "and his parents were denied access to their son during the interrogation; their legal right." Islam's brother, 10-year-old Karim al-Tamini, was arrested on Tuesday, IMEMC reported, but was released after seven hours in custody.
On 26 January, the Israeli military arrested two 15-year-old boys along with Bassem Tamimi, leader of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Nabi Saleh, IMEMC stated.
Joseph Dana, independent journalist, contributor to The Electronic Intifada, and media coordinator for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, reported that Israeli forces applied torture techniques on Islam al-Tamimi during the interrogation ("Harsh interrogations of children escalate in Nabi Saleh," 31 January 2011).
Jordan Valley
Israeli soldiers beat and arrested a 19-year-old Palestinian farmer in the Hadidiya region of the northern Jordan Valley as he grazed his livestock, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Project (JVSP) reported on 2 February ("A young man beaten and kidnapped by soldiers in Hadidiya").
After being beaten by the soldiers, Ghazi Bsharat was taken to a nearby military detention center and released several hours later.
JVSP also reported that approximately 30 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiyot attacked Palestinians in Ein al Helwe, also in the northern Jordan Valley, on 29 January. A woman and her 11-year-old daughter were beaten and threatened with future violence in what residents say are attempts by settlers to force Palestinians to leave the area ("New settler aggression in Ein Il Hilwe," 29 January 2011).
Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center (SILWANIC) reported that Israeli forces set a Palestinian home on fire on Friday, 28 January, after they fired rounds of tear gas canisters inside the house, located in the Baten al-Hawa area of Silwan ("Palestinian home set ablaze under volleys of tear gas," 28 January 2011).
Following the destruction of the home, Israeli security services, including police, opened fire on Palestinian residents who protested the presence of the armed forces. SILWANIC reported that a 12-year-old boy was injured when a rubber bullet hit him in his face.
Later on, as protests intensified in the Baten al-Hawa area, SILWANIC reported that Israeli settlers "joined the violence" perpetrated by the Israeli armed forces, while Palestinian youth threw molotov cocktails at soldiers who had occupied the roof of a nearby home. Fire bombs were also hurled at the illegal Beit Yonatan settlement inside the neighborhood ("Youth aim Molotovs at soldiers on occupied roof," 28 January 2011).
Gaza Strip
Israeli snipers stationed along the Gaza boundary opened fire on a 21-year-old Palestinian man on 31 January, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported (""Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," 27 January - 2 February 2011).
Israeli soldiers inside sniper towers near Beit Lahiya town "fired at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from a site where the evacuated Israeli settlement of 'Elli Sinai' used to stand," PCHR reported.
"Mohammed Zakaria Halawa, 21, from Jabalya, was wounded by a bullet to the left leg, when he was nearly 150 meters away from the border," PCHR added. Rising poverty and the 4-year-long Israeli blockade in the occupied Gaza Strip has forced many Palestinian laborers to collect raw industrial material and rubble from areas near the "buffer zone," a 300-meter-long militarized area along the northern, eastern and maritime boundaries.
As The Electronic Intifada has reported, Israeli planes hit Gaza tunnels, no casualties," 2 February 2011).
Dhammash
Finally, in the village of Dhammash, near Tel Aviv, Israeli police arrested and severely beat members of the Shaaban family on 22 January, accusing them of "harboring illegal workers," according to a report by independent journalist Max Blumenthal ("'The days of '48 have come again.' 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, Israel creates a new refugee camp," 26 January 2011).
Police in the town of Lydd, "violently arrested Ali, Farida, and five members of [the Shaaban] family," Blumenthal reported, adding that their detention was unknown until the following Monday, two days later. A judge then extended their imprisonment until the following Thursday "on the grounds of secret evidence the Shaaban family's lawyer was not allowed to view -- a tactic familiar to Israel's military courts in the West Bank."
A mobile phone video posted on YouTube showed Israeli police beating members of the Shaaban family.
For more than a year, the Palestinian residents of Dhammash have been living under regular police harassment and constant threat of losing their homes in their village, which has been "unrecognized" by the State of Israel since 1948. Residents of Dhammash are Israeli citizens and pay taxes, but do not receive any services as the state refuses to acknowledge their presence.
The Electronic Intifada has reported on the situation for Palestinians inside Dhammash and the adjacent segregated city of Lydd, where recent demolitions of Palestinian homes have left entire families homeless.
Source : http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11780.shtml
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