Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Settlements/Land Theft and Destruction
IOA razes around 1,000 Palestinian homes in 10 years
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has razed 969 Palestinian homes in the West Bank in the period from 1-1-2000 till 31-12-2009, the land research center said in a report on Sunday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Sale of refugee property and Ongoing construction in the colonies
From Rana Bishara in Al-Quds, who received it from Sami Hawary in Haifa. English translation and contacts follow. This email is very urgent and needs your immediate attention. A friend of mine forwarded that to me and we both are shocked to see that Old Akka is being sold: Old Akka development company is offering properties for sale, sea front showing tours from one o'clock, 3/1/2010. This act is part of the ethnic cleansing happening in front of our eyes, selling the properties of the refugees (absentees) to create facts on the ground and Judaize the city of Akka like what happened in Yafa and Haifa and many other cities.. happening very silently and without us even knowing. We need to stop such crimes and protect the properties of our families in exile. If anybody has an idea how we can stop it, let us work together and act quickly. Possibly finding Arab investors quickly might be a good solution?
http://groups.google.com/
Ma’ale Adumim: Annexation and the Architecture of Apartheid, Michael Ratner
Today we came away stunned, shocked and almost numb from our trip to East Jerusalem with Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. And when I say we, I mean my family—my wife and two children, 19 and 21. We have spent the last 10 days trying to get into Gaza from Egypt; demonstrating against the Gaza siege and joining demonstrations in Israel at the Erez crossing and protesting the evictions in the Sheikh-Jarrah area of East Jerusalem. But nothing and I mean nothing prepared me for today and our trip through East Jerusalem and to Ma’ale Adumim, a city a few kilometers away. It was not the Palestinians we met, although each had heart breaking stories. Rather it was our seeing first hand the deliberateness of the Israeli annexation project and its seeming inevitability. If you want to be made almost speechless stand at the edge of East Jerusalem and look out at a vast construction project on someone else’s land. Look out at the commission of a monstrous crime, open and notorious. As one of my children asked, “Why have the countries of the world done nothing to stop this?” I said, “It’s worse, the U.S. and others have aided and abetted this crime.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Are West Bank Settlements Illegal? According to Zionist Lawyers, No; According to Every Other Legal Expert In the World, Yes
Perhaps it is fitting that one year after the Gaza fiasco, the Israeli Hasbara crowd – those on the right wing of it, anyway – are resurrecting some very old chestnuts, like: the West Bank is not Occupied Territory, or that if it is, the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply to it, or that if it does, Israel is not violating it through settlements, blah, blah, blah. These are pre-Intifada positions that date from the seventies and the eighties, and even then were advanced only by Israeli apologists, albeit some people who had distinguished themselves in other spheres, like Eugene Rostow and Julius Stone. In Israel, some of them may still be the official position, but no thinking person takes them seriously, certainly not in public discourse. The Israeli High Court, heck, even Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, considered the Palestinian population of the West Bank be under occupation. George W. Bush called upon Israel to end the occupation. Until Vladimir Lieberman took over the Foreign Ministry, that particular chestnut weren't even roasting on an open fire.
http://themagneszionist.
IOA continues to desecrate Mamanullah cemetery
The IOA is still unearthing and destroying the ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, the Mamanullah graveyard, the committee for reconstruction of Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
LOCATION CHANGED: OFAR PRISON
December 31st, 2009-- January 4 is date of Jamal’s court hearing. The gathering outside the court will remind Israeli authorities that we will not sit silently while they attempt to repress those who are speaking out against the Wall. Join the rally outside Ofar prison, on Road 443, close to the Beituniya commercial checkpoint on 4 January 2010 at 9 am!
http://stopthewall.org/
Anti-wall activists rally outside prison
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Anti-wall activists demonstrated outside Israel’s Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to demand the release of detained activist Jamal Juma to concide with the convening of his military court hearing.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Al-Ma’sara protests despite threats
January 2nd, 2010-- Over 150 local activists protested Friday in al-Ma’sara and the neighbouring villages against the construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and settlements. The demonstration comes following threats issued two days ago to the Popular Committee warning that its members would be blacklisted and arrested if the protests in al-Ma’sara continued in 2010. During the demonstration, soldiers fired on protestors with tear gas and sound bombs, subsequently invading the village.
http://stopthewall.org/
YouTube: Israel's Anti-Apartheid Prisoners
AIC - " Jamal Juma the coordinator of Stop the Wall campaign was arrested by the Israeli security at midnight of 15 December. After searching his house the parting words of the soldiers directed at his wife were you would only see you husband again through a prisoner exchange. Since then, Juma has been detained. No explanation has been given for his arrest. "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
"End the Siege of Gaza!" - Demonstration in Tel Aviv January 2, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
SAN FRANCISCO’S FREE GAZA MARCH, By Greta Berlin
Over five hundred supporters of Gaza marched across San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge today, New Year’s Eve. We filled the walkway from San Francisco to Marin County. People in wheel chairs, children, students, and senior citizens lined up single file, taking an hour to walk across the 1.5 miles. Several of us walked with huge letters that said, “FREE GAZA”, then, on cue, we would flip them to say, “FREE PALESTINE.” The bridge was windy and sometimes we had to hang on to each other to make sure the letters didn’t become kites sailing over the edge.
http://intifada-palestine.com/
Moderate Jordan Picking Up Israeli Boycott
Jordan, which has signed a peace agreement with Israel, maintaining relatively open borders with Israel [albeit with restrictions] is showing its true colors, working to increase the scope of its anti-Israel boycott, seeking to halt Israeli produce from the Hashemite Kingdom. In line with the strict state policy, the Jordanian minister of agriculture is working to trace the origin of some Israeli produce found in his country, and the law demands imports exhibit labels indicating the country of origin. It should be pointed out that the minister’s actions are in violation of the trade agreements that exist between Amman and Jerusalem, but there do not seem to be any cries of outrage or objections from King Abdullah II as it now appears that the unofficial policy is to limit Israeli imports as much as possible.
http://theyeshivaworld.com/
Violence and Aggression/Detainees
1.3.10 Bil'in Village Daytime Military Invasion
At approximately 12pm today two Israeli military jeeps invaded Bilin village in the West Bank of Palestine. Jeeps had been sighted around 9am, south of the yellow gate (the entrance used by the army to enter the village during invasions) where weekly demonstrations are held on Friday. The jeeps turned onto a dirt road to follow a group of children, and began shooting metal tear gas canisters into the fields and olive trees where the kids stood yelling back. The invasion lasted about 15 minutes, and the soldiers continued firing tear gas at the kids when videographers and photographers arrived. At 2:30pm and again at 6pm military helicopters flew over the village. Children often play near what is now the edge of the village. This is only the edge of the village due to the installation of the Israeli apartheid fence (a.k.a. apartheid wall) which separates Bilin residents from approximately 60% of their land. When Palestinians are sighted near the wall by the high-powered surveillance camera (which is outside the wall between the village and Modin Illit Israeli Settlement) for even a short period of time, soldier and/or jeeps arrive to investigate. Children will sometimes throw rocks at the soldiers, who then generally respond by shooting tear gas at them from short range. Many people from Bilin take evening walks to the fence or along the road near the fence with their families to enjoy the beauty outside the residential part of the village. In the last year there have been multiple serious injuries as well as one death from short-range tear gas shootings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
A slice of life in Sheikh Jarrah
Later I discovered that earlier that morning settlers had broken into the As-Sabbagh family’s home and attacked them. As we heard more of the story, media began to show up in small numbers. I ran up the side road a bit toward the homes (Israeli settlers & Palestinians now living side by side) and took photos of the commotion that ensued higher up. Then I noticed an angry Palestinian man screaming as he came down. He was limping badly and was blood red in the face. The first policeman on the scene spoke perfect Arabic and calmly reassured the residents, but did nothing else, making no efforts to apprehend any one of the settlers. The limping Palestinian man shouted something to the effect of “You ask us to do nothing, but then they attack us and YOU do nothing. This is what you want from us? You’re not going to protect us? Then don’t complain when we protect ourselves!” I thought this was rather brazen as I couldn’t picture myself shouting at a policeman holding such a large semi-automatic weapon.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
IOF troops round up six Palestinian citizens, 46 workers
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up six Palestinian citizens at dawn Monday in Jenin and Al-Khalil districts, locals reported.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Israeli Troops Kidnap Eight Palestinians in Hebron, Bethlehem
Israeli occupation forces kidnapped on Sunday five Palestinians in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and two in Bethlehem.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Palestinians End Torture of Hamas Prisoners
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the decision to halt any abuse was part of an effort to make sure a future state is built on the right foundations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/
Israeli Racism
Rabbis to US Ambassador: Time to 'Go Biblical' with Arabs
The ambassador was visibly moved by Rabbi Sholom Gold, a leading rabbi in Jerusalem, who described the suffering that the Jewish People have endured ever since the implementation of the Oslo Accords and the agreements that followed.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
In Israel, a highway that divides
Highway 443 cuts through Palestinian territory but has been closed to Palestinians since 2002, after several Israeli drivers were fatally attacked. Now it's reopening, and so are some national wounds. Cruising down this disputed four-lane highway, with all its twists and turns, is like taking a road trip through the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You pass the walls and barriers that keep Palestinians from accessing Highway 443 as it slices through their land. Then there are the hazardous corridors where Israeli drivers have been shot and killed.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
Israel's free media?
Here's an interesting spat between an Arab member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset), Jamal Zahalka and veteran Israeli reporter, Dan Margalit. It's unpleasant viewing but the MK manages to expose the racism and bias of the Israeli media and the history of the zionist project in a short space of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://jewssansfrontieres.
War Crimes/Gaza War/Siege
Gaza Infant Dying due to Siege
Pal Telegraph- As the last Galactomin 19 can, a nutritionally complete infant formula, is almost used up, death threatens the life of Yahia Ahmad Abu Shabab, a 4-year-old infant, residing in Ezbet Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza, who has been ill since he was born.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Operation Cast Lead: a Critical Study of the Goldstone Report
It has been one year since Israel launched its 22-day long attack codenamed Operation Cast Lead (OCL) on the Gaza Strip. Last week a British court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Kadima opposition leader Tzipi Livni for her role in orchestrating the assault. Livni, who was Israel’s foreign minister at the time, was scheduled to visit the UK but ended up calling off her trip; the arrest warrant was cancelled as a result. However the issuing of the warrant in and of itself is an incredible feat. It is also a direct result of recommendations made in the Goldstone Report concerning how to bring justice to the Palestinian victims of OCL.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
Operation Cast Lead one year on posted by lenin
Operation Cast Lead was launched on 27 December 2008 on the spurious pretext of preventing Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel. It followed months of pledges by senior Israeli ministers to level parts of Gaza, and inflict a "Holocaust" on the territory. It followed Israel's most explicit violation of a ceasefire agreement on November 4th, when it launched a series of raids on Gaza. It followed the intensitification of a blockade that left 9 out of 10 Gazans living below the poverty line, with some families forced to live on grass to survive. Mary Robinson, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and fairly conventional supporter of a two-state settlement, described how the blockade was affecting Gaza: "their whole civilisation has been destroyed, I'm not exaggerating ... It's almost unbelievable that the world doesn't care while this is happening." There is a great deal more to be said about context but, suffice to say, the aggression was merely the latest phase in a war on the civilian population of Gaza, a sustained punishment beating it was enduring for resistance: specifically, for having maintained its elected government despite a successful Israeli-backed Fatah putsch in the West Bank in the summer of 2007, which one would infer had been planned since Hamas' electoral victory in early 2006. That this punishment is continuing - of which, more later - is reason in itself to revisit the last year's blitzkrieg.
http://leninology.blogspot.
Video: Gaza war: One year on, Palestinians struggle to rebuild life from the rubble
Inigo Gilmore returns to Gaza to explore the fate of families who are trying to piece together their lives and want Israel to be prosecuted for war crimes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Egypt against the Palestinians
While Mubarak builds his wall, he allows 'thousands of Israelis' into Egypt to revere a rabbi .....
In past years, Egypt limited the number of pilgrims visiting the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. But Israeli newspapers reported that President Hosni Mubarak accepted a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Egypt last week to allow unlimited numbers.
http://friday-lunch-club.
Hamas dismayed at Azhar edict
Hamas has expressed dismay at the fatwa passed by the Egyptian Al-Azhar's Islamic research complex in which it endorsed Egypt's construction of a steel wall along its borders with Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Dweik: Cast lead and cast steel wall two faces of one coin
Dr. Aziz Al-Dweik, the speaker of the PLC, has said that the operation cast lead launched by the IOF against Gaza and the cast steel wall being built on the Gaza borders were two faces of one coin.
Egypt’s Steel Wall Sparks ‘Fatwa War’
“This fatwa is not legitimate,” critical clerics of Al-Azhar said. “It contradicts previous decisions made by the Islamic Studies College in 1965 and in 1970, which prompted the defense of Palestine and the provision of assistance to Palestinians.”
http://www.themedialine.org/
Jordanians protest Egypt's plan to construct steel wall on Gaza border
AMMAN, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Jordanians held a sit-in near the Egyptian embassy in the Jordanian capital on Sunday to protest against Egypt's plan to construct a steel wall along its borders with the besieged Gaza Strip. The protestors called on the Arab governments to stand up to their responsibilities in ending the siege on the Gaza Strip and helping the Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Jordan’s Security Forces Disperse Protest Near Egypt’s Embassy
Jordanian security forces installed on Sunday several roadblocks on roads leading to the Egyptian Embassy in Amman to prevent protesters from reaching the Egyptian Embassy to protest Cairo’s construction of the steel wall along its borders with Gaza.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Political Developments
Report: Obama backs Egypt plan for Mideast peace
Barack Obama's administration supports Egypt's vision for a Middle East peace plan that would include a complete halt of construction in West Bank settlements as well as the release of senior Palestinian officials from Israeli prisons, the Qatar-based news network Al-Jazeera reported on Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israeli FM says unrealistic to reach peace deal with Palestinians within two years
JERUSALEM, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday poured cold water on a reported two-year time frame for his country and the Palestinians to realize peace, saying that the goal is unrealistic.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Other News
Hamas approves $540 mln budget for Gaza (AFP)
AFP - The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip on Monday announced a 540-million-dollar (377-million-euro) budget for 2010 with just 55 million dollars coming from taxes and other local sources of revenue.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
“Israeli Reserve Troops to Replace Regular Forces in West Bank”
04/01/2010 The Israeli occupation forces have decided to replace regular combat troops in permanent positions in the West Bank with reserve troops, according to Israeli reports. The move is aimed at allowing combat troops move faster to frontlines in case of any eventuality in the future, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on its website, Ynet Sunday. It will strengthen the combat unit garrisoning in the northern frontline, close to the borders that separate Lebanon from the Palestinian occupied territories, and the southern frontline near the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The 10 battalions of the reserve unit will be deployed across the West bank, the report confirmed, noting that the army would finalize the redeployment plan within a few days.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Noam Chomsky Says Media is Blacking Out Effort to Aid Gaza
(SALEM/CAIRO) - U.S. and British media sources have been laying low in their coverage of a humanitarian aid mission to help the people of Gaza. They were under an Israeli siege one year ago at this time called "Operation Cast Lead" that left more than 1,400 residents of Gaza dead, among them several hundred children.
http://www.salem-news.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Witness - A girl called Jewel - 3 Jan 10 - Part 1
Just days into Israel's war on Gaza, in early January, the extended Al Samouni family, some 48 men, women and children, was attacked in the homes they occupied together in the south of Gaza - and almost all of them were killed. Thirteen-year-old Almaza - 'jewel' - is one of the very few who survived the attack in which 30 members of her family died, many before her own eyes. A Girl Called Jewel is Almaza's story, a heart-breaking eye-witness account of the war in Gaza.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Witness - A girl called Jewel - 3 Jan 10 - Part 2
Just days into Israel's war on Gaza, in early January, the extended Al Samouni family, some 48 men, women and children, was attacked in the homes they occupied together in the south of Gaza - and almost all of them were killed. Thirteen-year-old Almaza - 'jewel' - is one of the very few who survived the attack in which 30 members of her family died, many before her own eyes. A Girl Called Jewel is Almaza's story, a heart-breaking eye-witness account of the war in Gaza.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Akiva Eldar / Is there really a difference between Israel and apartheid South Africa?
An army man, who is not suspected of belonging to a human rights organization, thus upsets the simplistic and most accepted formula: restrictions on Arabs means more security for Jews. The Supreme Court ruling last week to lift the ban on Palestinians using Route 443 shows that members of the judiciary also no longer stand at attention when they hear the magic word security. Nonetheless, the judiciary members, like politicians and the media, still find it hard to let go of their paralyzing dependency on this term. This is intentional: If discrimination is not mandated by security considerations stemming from the threat of Palestinian terrorism, how can we diagnose this regime as segregationist? If it is not diagnosed as such, there is no need to treat it.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
A Palestinian corrects the New York Review of Books, by Philip Weiss
The latest New York Review of Books publishes a review by Tom Segev, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which Segev suggests that the West Bank should become part of Jordan so that the oppressed Palestinians at last obtain rights in a viable state. (Sorry I can’t excerpt; my copy’s back home.)
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Palestine 2010: Grab the Ball
2009 was finally supposed to bring positive change to the Middle East. US President Barack Obama conjured hope by promising responsible exits from Iraq and Afghanistan and, more profoundly, to pursue a two-state solution starting day one. Instead an Israeli-Hamas prisoner swap came to dominate headlines as 2009 fell flat, a fitting end to a lost decade. Not the progress had Obama had in mind. Beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he won’t seek re-election less than a year after Obama assumed office; Gaza remains similarly besieged. Muslims and non-Muslims alike are losing confidence in his ability to engage the Middle East.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Lebanon
Hamas will fight alongside Hezbollah in next war
The Hamas political representative in Lebanon says the Palestinian resistance group will fight alongside Hezbollah should Israel launch a new offensive against Lebanon. "We are guests in Lebanon and our policy will not change," Ali Baraka said during a memorial service held on Sunday to mark one week since the death of two Hamas members in an explosion in Beirut's southern suburbs.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Maronite bishop accepts Saudi Arabian apology
Okaz Saudi daily issued an apology to Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar on Friday after journalist Abdel Aziz Bartawi criticized him in an article published by the paper regarding Matar's sermon on Christmas day."Bartawi's article contradicts the principles and the foundations of the paper and alters the path of honesty which the paper has adopted and still holds on to," the paper said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Report: Grenade explodes at Fatah office in Lebanon
Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies - A hand grenade reportedly exploded at the office of Fatah official Sultan Abu Al-Aynayn in the city of Tyre, Lebanon on Monday. A correspondent for the Beirut-based news site NOW Lebanon said no injuries were reported, but that the explosion caused property damage in the Rashdiyeh refugee camp in south Lebanon.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Assad: Hariri's Visit to Damascus Return to Normal
04/01/2010 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s visit to Damascus didn't only open a new page between the two countries, but also moved off a new stage and was a return to normal. Speaking to French journalist Alain Griche, Assad stated that Hariri's visit to Damascus had nothing to do with the past, but addressed the future and the work to do. The Syrian President also said that Eurip was more objective in the seventies and the eighties than nowadays, emphasizing that Europeans were enjoying more independence. "However, today, they are adopting the wrong path," he said. "They are unable of sending airbus planes that we need because of the American siege," he added.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Iraq
Three policemen killed in north Iraq blasts (AFP)
AFP - Three policemen were killed and eight people were wounded on Monday by two explosions in Iraq's northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, police said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Sunday: 4 Iraqis Killed, 2 Wounded
At least four Iraqis were killed and two more were wounded in light violence. Several political stories are still in the headlines, including those of the Blackwater case, the bombing in Ramadi last week, and the resolution of the Peter Moore abduction. Also, a mass grave dating to the Saddam regime was found in Karbala.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq PM slammed for 'Iran loyalty' - 3 Jan 10
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi president, has come in for criticism from opposition groups over what they describe as his "weak response" to Iran's seizure of an oil well that Baghdad considers its own. Iranian soldiers seized the well in December and critics of al-Maliki say his "weak response" illustrated the prime minister's loyalty to his fellow Shia majority across the border in Iran. Following decades of border disputes between the two countries. the Iraqi opposition is seeking to exploit the incident to its advantage ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March. Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Inside Story - Iraq vows to fight blackwater ruling - 3 Jan 2009
The angry Iraqi government says it's determined to appeal a controversial court ruling in the U.S. that dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Security guards. They're accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007. The security personnel claim to have fired in self-defence when a convoy they were protecting came under attack. Witnesses, however, say the men opened fire without provocation indiscriminately into a crowd. But how can this case now move to appeal? And what's fall out of the ruling for U.S.-Iraqi relationships?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Iraq to support Blackwater lawsuit in U.S. courts (Reuters)
Reuters - Iraq will help victims of the 2007 shooting of civilians in Baghdad to file a U.S. lawsuit against employees of security firm Blackwater, an incident that turned a spotlight on the United States' use of private contractors in war zones.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailyne
U.S. and other world news
US Attacks in Pakistan Killed 700 Civilians in 2009
Of the 44 Predator strikes carried out by the American drones in the tribal areas of Pakistan in 12 months of 2009, only five were able to hit their actual targets, killing five key Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of around 700 innocent civilian lives.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.
Bomb plot suspect described as 'gentleman' - 04 Jan 10
The director of the Arabic language institute in Sana'a, Yemen, where Umar Farouq Abdelmutaleb studied, says he did not have any reservations about the Nigerian citizen. And his teacher describes him as a "gentleman and very polite ... not a fanatic or radical". Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
US and UK shut embassies in Yemen - 04 Jan 10
The US and Britain have closed their embassies in Yemen, citing fears of an al-Qaeda attack. The moves come as Washington gives the country renewed focus following the failed bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day. The suspect in that attempted attack has been linked to a group, calling itself al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is believed to be based in Yemen. For now, the US is only talking about increasing aid to Yemen's military, but speculation is growing about whether Washington will take its own military action in the Middle East country. Patty Culhane reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
French media caught red-handed
Honduras coup protest photo presented as Iranian: The German daily Junge Welt reported [1] that the French public national television channel "France 2" has diffused an image of a protest in Honduras against the June 2009 military coup and portrayed it as young Iranians resisting security forces during the Ashura day protests in Tehran.
http://www.campaigniran.org/
Retired US general wants Muslim men ’strip searched’ at airports
domerockislammuslim Retired US general wants Muslim men strip searched at airportsRetired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney wants to get young Muslim men naked in the worst way. Awkward as that sentence sounds, it is an accurate description of the former US Air Force general's comments during a recent Fox News broadcast.
http://rawstory.com/2009//01/
UK can't cover up abuse forever | Phil Shiner
The government wants to keep human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan out of court by cutting legal aid. It won't succeed. The period since the attacks of 9/11 represent another chapter in the UK's long history of human rights abuses abroad. The interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have been followed with clear evidence of UK complicity in torture by the US in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and the secret prisons at the heart of the extraordinary rendition scandal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Violence against women is not a tenet of the Muslim religion
Listening to the radio one day, I was shocked to hear the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on widespread occurrence of rape in Afghanistan. As a Muslim who knows that the core of her religion is about justice and mercy, I asked myself how the perpetrators of these acts could have strayed so far from the Muslim faith and from basic humane principles.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Egypt court upholds ban on veils in exams - 3 Jan 10
A court in Egypt has ruled in favour of the government's decision to ban students from wearing the face veil (niqab) while taking university examinations. But female students who had appealed the ban when it was originally imposed by the government last October have vowed to appeal the verdict. The students said the ban on niqab infringed on their religious rights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
House of Saud hearts Bin Laden
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
War is brutal and impersonal. It mocks the fantasy of individual heroism and the absurdity of utopian goals like democracy. In an instant, industrial warfare can kill dozens, even hundreds of people, who never see their attackers. The power of these industrial weapons is indiscriminate and staggering. They can take down apartment blocks in seconds, burying and crushing everyone inside. They can demolish villages and send tanks, planes and ships up in fiery blasts. The wounds, for those who survive, result in terrible burns, blindness, amputation and lifelong pain and trauma. No one returns the same from such warfare. And once these weapons are employed all talk of human rights is a farce.
http://www.truthdig.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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