Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Land Theft and Destruction
Barak eases settlement freeze restrictions, okays 100 more units
Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave settlement leaders the power to issue building permits, further relaxing an already loose and unenforced moratorium applying to some construction in West Bank settlements. Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz reported Friday that Barak issued a "revised" version of the settlement freeze that "dictates that the planning powers be returned to local authorities."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli Theft of Palestinian Property - by Stephen Lendman
demolitionsUS, January 7, 2010 (Pal Telegraph)- Adalah, meaning justice in Arabic, is the legal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel advocating through Israeli Supreme Court petitions; lawsuits and appeals to the District, Magistrate and Labor Courts; pre-petitions to the Attorney General; and various other ways to serve its constituency in a nation where only Jews have rights.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Palestinians from Burin complain settlers cut down their trees
Palestinians from the West Bank village of Burrin complained to the Coordination and Liaison Authority that settlers from Yitzhar cut down their fig trees and an olive tree on Wednesday night. A number of authority representatives arrived on the site in order to look into the complaint.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
'Neighborhoods east of fence no longer part of Jerusalem'
Speaking at Hebrew University, Segev, seen as a right-winger, said Thursday that the reality that has formed in the region is irreversible, and that the separation fence, which many Israelis credit with the dramatic drop in terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, was built for political and demographic reasons not just security concerns. "The Jerusalem municipality has no hand in managing these neighborhoods, and doesn't have the power to address the difficult situation facing the 55,000 people who live there," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Provocation in East Jerusalem
Through the fog Benjamin Netanyahu is creating around the new Egyptian-American initiative, one can discern the outlines of the emerging formula to resume the peace process. The formula consists of accelerated negotiations to establish a Palestinian state, with the 1967 lines as its borders (with territory exchanges) and East Jerusalem as its capital.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Israeli detention of Palestinian activists must end
The Israeli authorities must immediately release, or bring before a fair trial, three Palestinian human rights activists detained in Israel following their protests against the construction of the West Bank fence/wall, Amnesty International said on Friday. In a letter sent to Ehud Barak, Israeli Defence and Deputy Prime Minister on Thursday, Amnesty International expressed concern that Jamal Juma', Abdallah Abu Rahma and Mohammed Othman were prisoners of conscience, held for legitimately voicing their opposition to the fence/wall.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
Two Palestinians, Israeli demonstrators injured in Bil'in
Ramallah – Ma’an – Two Palestinians and an Israeli were injured and dozens of other suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation as confrontations erupted during a peaceful protest in the village of Bil'in.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Friday Protest in al-Ma’sara village ends with Military Aggression
Today’s weekly non-violent protest in the village of al-Ma’sara, West Bank, ended with a violent outburst by the Israeli military as they marched in to the village. The protesters, with numerous local residents, internationals, and anti-Zionist Israelis in attendence, marched peacefully through the village to the sounds of chants calling for the end of the construction of the separation wall being constructed at the edge of their village, separating the local farming communities from their lands.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Israeli army attacks West Bank rally: witnesses
RAMALLAH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Tens of Palestinian protestors and international activists were injured when Israeli army shot and tear-gassed them near the West Bank city of Ramallah Friday, witnesses and medical sources said. Most of the injured, including Palestinian Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud al-Habbash, suffered from the tear gas, hospital officials said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Viva Palestina Convoy Report On Democracy NOW!
Report on the Convoy and interview with George Galloway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Gaza convoy greeted with open arms
Hundreds of Palestinians gave a warm welcome to international solidarity activists as they finally entered Gaza on Wednesday, nearly a month after the Viva Palestina aid convoy left Britain. As the intrepid activists passed through Egypt's Rafah border crossing, they were greeted with cheers from well-wishers carrying flowers and chanting "Viva Palestina."
http://www.morningstaronline.
Attn LA Activists: Israeli Products at Valley Produce and Farmers Ranch Market
For activists in the San Fernando Valley looking for something to do… Valley Produce on Vanowen Street and Farmers Ranch Market on Sepulveda Blvd are both small, non-chain markets with an extensive inventory of Israeli products… from pretzels to frozen food. It would be worthwhile to educate your communities to avoid this store and to initiate a public campaign pressuring the stores to stop supporting apartheid by selling the products.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/
Remember Palestine
The famous song, Va pensiero by Giuseppe Verdi was first performed in 1842 when the Northern part of Italy was under the thumb of the Austrian empire. It is a song about the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar). The song has become a plaintive cry for freedom for all occupied people and is dedicated to the Palestinian fight for justice, from the Occupied West Bank to besieged Gaza. Supporters from around the world marched on December 31, 2009 and January 1, 2010 to demand of their governments, "Break the siege on Gaza, let them live in peace and with dignity"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Aggression and Violence
Israeli strikes kill three Palestinians: medics (AFP)
AFP - Israeli air strikes hit seven targets in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip early Friday, killing three men and wounding another, Palestinian medics said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Mubarak Abu Shluf Killed
Tunnel worker Mubarak abu Shluf killed in the airstrikes in the Jaradaat area in Rafeh. He's a resident of southern region of the strip and was taken to Abu Yusuf el Najjar hospital. One other F16 very strong airstrike explosion took place in a Sheikh Ijleen area in Gaza city on a uninhabited building that the occupation forces say was used to make rockets.
http://gaza08.blogspot.com/
Israeli air raids kill one in Gaza
Jets hit several targets after rockets from Palestinian territory hit Israel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
bombing khan younes now
radio el aqsa just reported that there are a number of F16 planes roaming around gaza's skies right now, over gaza city and the rest of gaza's districts. bombings on the bani suheila, and elqarara eastern khan younes, occured. No reports of killings yet. Ambulances are rushing to the areas of bombings. Radio stations warning civilians to stay out of danger... but, really now, where is "out of danger" in Gaza?!
http://gaza08.blogspot.com/
Israeli forces shoot Hebron teen
Hebron – Ma’an – Three Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint north of the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, medical officials said. A boy named Majid Muhammad Abdul Rahman Jaradat, 16, was shot in the hand and the abdomen, medics said, and was transported to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Nine Palestinians Wounded By the Israeli Military in Hebron
Nine Palestinian residents were wounded in separate Israeli military attacks targeting the villages of Sa’ir and Yatta, in the Hebron district, in the southern part of the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Elderly man hospitalized after settler attack in north
Qalqiliya – Ma’an – Settlers attacked 70-year-old Husein Ibrahim Hamad on Wednesday, leaving him with deep head wounds, he said from the Darwish Nazzal Hospital in Qalqiliya. Hamad said a group of proximately 20 settlers, some on horseback, left the Hafet Gilad settlement outpost of the Qedumim/Immanu'el settlement area descended from the hilltop, many carrying batons and several with dogs. "They came toward me and Arafat Suwan while we were working on the land," Hamad said. "I don't know what they wanted from us, but I was beaten harshly."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Troops attack a Palestinian family in Hebron
Israeli soldiers attacked on Thursday a Palestinian family in Al Tawana, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped one family member. Local sources reported that soldiers attacked six family members after breaking into their homes. Soldiers attacked the residents with batons and rifle-butts; five were hospitalized in Abu Al Hasan Al Qasem hospital in Yatta city.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Israeli army attacks Palestinian shepherds and representatives of US Campaign member group
This morning, Thursday 7 January, 2010, Israeli soldiers attacked and injured Palestinian shepherds from the Musa Raba’i family, as they grazed their sheep in Humra valley, near the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. The soldiers also attacked the two CPTers accompanying the shepherds and broke a video camera. Before leaving the area the soldiers arrested one of the shepherds, Musab Musa Raba’i.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Detainees
Wave of arrests continue in Burqa village
The Israeli army has abducted another young man from the northern West Bank village of Burqa. Muhammad Samir, 21 years old, was stopped outside the village by soldiers as he returned from his workplace in Tulkarem and arrested. Arrests and military invasions have surged this past month in Burqa, with Samir becoming the 22nd person taken since the beginning of December.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Israeli Racism/Human Rights/Siege
Gaza: hope betrayed
It has been a year since we huddled in our homes in the dark, waiting sleeplessly for the sound of the bombs to stop. It is a year this week since my father, a 48-year-old lawyer with no link to Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs Gaza, was killed by an Israeli air strike, supposedly on Hamas militants. And it will soon be a year since my first child was born, as fleets of ambulances queued up outside the A&E unit of the same Gaza City hospital with the wounded, maimed and dead.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Arbitrary occupier’s law used to clamp down on Palestinian life, Alice Rothchild
On January 4th, the health and human rights delegation that I’m on was scheduled to meet with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Legislative Council member, former Palestinian Authority Minister of Information, and founder of Palestinian Medical Relief Society. We arrive at the modern PMRS offices in Ramallah, only to be informed that he is attending a rally at the Ofer Prison to call attention to the case of Jamal Juma’, Coordinator of the Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. Jamal Juma’ is a human rights activist from East Jerusalem who was arrested approximately three weeks ago and has yet to be charged. In East Jerusalem Palestinians have Israeli residency cards, but not Israeli citizenship. This was to be his first hearing in the process.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Report: Mideast conflict has harmed education in area
TORONTO (JTA) -- The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has harmed university education and academic freedom in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, a Canadian-authored study alleges. The report, conducted by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, says Israel's restrictions on travel in the West Bank and Gaza create an insurmountable hurdle for students and infringe upon scholarly pursuits there, frustrating hopes for a regional peace.
http://jta.org/news/article/
Egypt's war against Gazans
Galloway: New Gaza convoys won't cross Egypt
British lawmaker George Galloway says no more aid convoys destined for the besieged Gaza Strip will pass through Egyptian territory as its authorities caused troubles for Viva Palestina convoy to enter the Palestinian enclave. "I cannot see any more visits to Egypt since we find it very difficult to deal with the officials who cheated us. They signed a binding agreement with us in Aqaba, Jordan, and they broke it," Galloway said in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.
Gaza smugglers defiant as anger grows over new wall (AFP)
AFP - Gaza's tunnellers have been watching the cranes burying the iron fence along the border, but few believe Egypt will succeed in its latest bid to shut down the territory's economic lifeline.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Hamas squeezed between Iron Dome and steel wall (AP)
AP - Gaza's Hamas rulers have suffered back-to-back setbacks with Israel's successful test of a rocket shield and Egypt's push to block smuggling tunnels.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Haneya calls for talks with Egypt after Gaza borders tension
GAZA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya on Thursday called for an immediate meeting between Hamas and Egypt to discuss the tension on the Gaza Strip borders. "I call for an urgent meeting between us and the Egyptian leadership to talk about the situation" which worsened after Egypt started to build an underground barrier on its borders with Gaza to curb smuggling into the Hamas-controlled coastal strip, Haneya said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Egypt bars British lawmaker Galloway from country
CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Egyptian security escorted British lawmaker George Galloway to take a flight out of the country on Friday and he was barred from returning after violent protests over an aid convoy he led into Gaza, MENA news agency said. The Foreign Ministry declared the left-wing politician an "unwelcome individual", the agency said.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Mubarak Creates PR Disaster for Egypt and Himself
Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, has plumbed new depths and caused deep offence with his shameful bullying of the Viva Palestina convoy bound for Gaza, which had driven for weeks and thousands of miles from many countries to bring medical aid and other relief to women and children cruelly shut off from the world and under endless lethal bombardment by Israel.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Protest in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Athens, Greece
January 8, 2010 (Pal Telegraph)- The solidarity movement in Greece gave an immediate response to the aggressions of the Egyptian regime. Only two days after the attack on the Viva Palestina convoy in Al Arish, and the following day after the Rafah border clashes, between Palestinian protesters and Egyptian guards, about a hundred Greeks and Palestinians have gathered in front of the Egyptian Embassy, in the center of the Greek capital, just opposite of the Greek Parliament. The protest was organized by several groups that are in solidarity with the Palestinian people, among them the Greek Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian people Intifada, the Stop the War Coalition, members of the Greek delegation of the Gaza Freedom March and others.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Egypt's oppression of the Palestinians: The Galloway eviction and the "Israeli/Egyptian" blockade of GazaReports of George Galloway's eviction from Egypt - where he "was reportedly trying to return to Gaza to help members of a humanitarian convoy who had been arrested" - remind me of a text I received from a politically-active Muslim friend earlier this week:
Dear all. Egypt has systematically been doing Israel's dirty work by besieging the Palestinians. And it has employed every dirty trick and used shameless force on humantiaran aid convoys and peace activists trying to enter Gaza. We should start a 'boycott Egypt' campaign now.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Pro-Gaza activists under siege - imposed by Egypt and Hamas, Amira Hass
The departure from Ramses Street in Cairo, in about 20 buses, was set for the morning of Monday, December 28. However, the organizers of the Gaza Freedom March knew the buses would not arrive. Just as on Sunday night, the buses hired by a group of French activists never made it to their starting point - Cairo's Charles de Gaulle Street, near the French Embassy and across from the zoo.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Free Gaza, in a number of senses, Amira Hass
The departure from Ramses Street in Cairo, in about 20 buses, was set for the morning of Monday, December 28. However, the organizers of the Gaza Freedom March knew the buses would not arrive. Just as on Sunday night, the buses hired by a group of French activists never made it to their starting point - Cairo's Charles de Gaulle Street, near the French Embassy and across from the zoo.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Political Developments
Netanyahu to Hamas: No further flexibility on Shalit
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message on Thursday to Hamas saying he would not allow 'dangerous' terrorists freed in the Shalit prisoner exchange deal to return to the West Bank and that no further flexibility will be given to the team negotiating the deal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Chutzpah
Israel to White House: Stop anti-Israel Palestinian incitement
The Prime Minister's Office issued a complaint to the White House several days ago lamenting ongoing incitement against Israel by Palestinian leaders.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Other News
Chinese workers sue Israeli company they say bilked them of millions
A NIS 6.7 million lawsuit filed in Tel Aviv District Court Thursday on behalf of dozens of Chinese workers alleges that a business entrusted with the money of hundreds of migrants failed to transfer the funds to their families in China. The suit against the company and the husband and wife who reportedly own it alleges major fraud against the foreign workers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Rabbi suspected of making 1,200 obscene calls to children
A Modi'in Ilit rabbi was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of making 1,200 obscene phone calls to children, Channel 10 news reported. The rabbi, 36, who is also a school teacher, is suspected of impersonating an Education Ministry official and calling children in the afternoon when he believed their parents not to be at home. Police began investigating after four children complained about a man who had called them in the afternoon and asked them frank sexual questions. The children's parents then alerted police.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
An impressive ignorance of history
In an opinion piece published last week in Haaretz ("Just like Rosa Parks," Dec. 29, 2009), columnist Karni Eldad compared the government's 10-month freeze on construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank with institutionalized discrimination against blacks in the United States. She called on her fellow settlers to ignore the freeze, equating such proposed civil disobedience with Rosa Parks' refusal to "move to the back of the bus," in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 - one of the touchstone incidents in the civil rights movement.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iraq
Thursday: 1 US Soldier, 12 Iraqis Killed, 31 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 7:50 p.m. EST, Jan. 7, 2009 At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 31 more were wounded during attacks in three cities. A U.S. soldier died of non-combat injuries.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq’s Interior Ministry’s calls for public executions
Iraq’s judicial council has passed 77 more death sentences on convicts charged with different offenses, namely terror. Hundreds of Iraqis are on death row but the penalty is only administered after being approved by the country’s presidency. Scores are reported to have been executed in 2009, according to Amnesty International.
http://www.azzaman.com/
US security company (Blackwater) reaches deal over compensation for killings in Iraq
Settlement amounts to implicit admission that guards were responsible for series of unjustifiable killings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Iraq bars major Sunni party from election
The party's leader, Saleh Mutlak, is alleged to have ties to the former Baathist Party of Saddam Hussein, disqualifying him and his party from the March ballot. The move could roil sectarian tensions. In a development that bodes ill for the prospects of national reconciliation in Iraq, a prominent Sunni party has been barred from participating in March elections because of its leader's alleged ties to the outlawed Baath Party that ruled the country under Saddam Hussein, officials said Thursday.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/
Iraqi archaeologists find ancient Sumerian settlement (AFP)
AFP - Iraqi archaeologists said on Friday they have discovered a 2,000-year-old Sumerian settlement in southern Iraq, yielding a bounty of historical artefacts.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Lebanon
Israel Cuts Off Trees in Lebanon under UNIFIL Eyes
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri criticized some Lebanese groups for raising the issue of UN Resolution 1559 while ignoring Israel’s non-commitment to every international resolution related to the zionist state. Speaking to Assafir daily, last Tuesday, Berri said he ‘has a surprise for those who still believe in the validity of UNSCR 1559,” without elaborating. UN Security Council Resolution 1559 stipulates the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon and the withdrawal of all foreign forces. The resistance question in Lebanon has been agreed on by the government to be dealt with as an internal issue within the framework of national dialogue. The policy statement of PM Saad Hariri’s government gave legitimacy to the arms of the resistance as a need to defend Lebanon from Israeli threats. Moreover, Syrian forces have pulled out of Lebanon in 2005, thus rendering UNSCR 1559 no longer valid.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Hamas ready to cooperate with Beirut blast investigation: report
BEIRUT, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Hamas said it is willing to "fully cooperate" with Lebanese authorities in the investigations into the bomb blast late last month which killed two Hamas members, local newspaper Daily Star reported Friday. Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan Thursday said the group will help discover who was behind the December explosion in the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the report.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Suspected Fatah al-Islam terrorist arrested in Lebanon: report
BEIRUT, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army intelligence arrested a suspected Fatah al-Islam member and seized devices and equipment during a raid in Beirut, local An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday. The report said the army intelligence raided a house in the Beirut area of Aisha Bakkar and arrested a man, who was suspected of being involved in terrorist activities in Lebanon, after monitoring his activities for eight months.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Lebanon United against US Plan to Punish "Anti-American" Media
The United States claims to be the "pioneer" of the "democracy" in the region… Its officials do their best to "exploit" all "opportunities" to "teach" the democracy to the world… Yet, they are unable to even accomplish their lessons… When the "democracy" serves the American "interests" in the region, it turns to be "sacred"… However, when it doesn't, the whole "principle" of American democracy changes…
http://almanar.com.lb/
Afghanistan
2 Ex-Blackwater Guards Charged With Murder Of Afghans: AP
RALEIGH, N.C. — Two former Blackwater contractors were arrested Thursday on murder charges in the shootings of two Afghans after a traffic accident last year, according to an indictment obtained by The Associated Press.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Deadly Explosion Arouses New Afghan Anger at U.S.
American forces inspecting an engineering project in eastern Afghanistan paused to toss candies to a clutch of curious Afghan children on Wednesday when a large explosion tore through the crowd.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/
Afghan govt. demands arrest of US "death squad"
Kai Eide, UN Representative to Afghanistan confirmed the Afghan government’s investigative conclusions that US troops handcuffed and then executed eight students enrolled in grades 6 through 10 in a night raid on December 27, 2009. The US military and NATO responded the troops involved were non-official. The most likely source of para-military “non-official” troops in Afghanistan is Blackwater/Xe.
http://www.examiner.com/x-
Three children killed daily in Afghanistan
At least three children are killed in Afghanistan every day in attacks, bombings and armed clashes between insurgents and US/NATO occupying forces, Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM),a non-governmental organization said on Wednesday.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/
U.S. and other world news
Al Jazeera: Analysts discuss Obama's plan on US security - 08 Jan 10
Saying a failure to connect and understand critical intelligence led to the attempted airline bombing in Detroit on Christmas Day, Barack Obama, the US president, has ordered changes in security measures. In a national address, he said the country's security was ultimately his responsibility, as he unveiled a series of steps to better collect and analyse intelligence in the wake of the botched plot. Al Jazeera's Ghida Fakhry talks to PJ Crowley, a spokesperson for the US state department, and Jack Rice, a former CIA agent and field operations officer, on Obama's measures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Al Jazeera: Inside Story - New airline security measures: Safe or discriminatory? - 5 Jan 2009
The United States has introduced strict new security measures for airline passengers. It follows the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up an American passenger jet. All travellers on U.S.-bound flights will be subject to random screening. But visitors from 14 countries, dubbed 'of interest,' face additional scrutiny. Is this a manoeuvre by the Obama administration to avoid US domestic criticism over security? What is the likely impact on countries like Cuba and Lebanon and their relations with the Obama administration and is it any different from its predecessor?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Report: Few U.S. Muslims radical
A new report released Wednesday by scholars at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill says the number of radicalized Muslim-Americans remains small.
http://www.heraldsun.com/
Ed Koch: ‘Hundreds of millions’ of Muslims are terrorists
Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, told Fox News' Neil Cavuto on Thursday that "hundreds of millions" of Muslims are terrorists. Taking up the now-standard conservative political talking point, in the wake of the Christmas Day bombing attempt, that political correctness prevents the US from identifying Muslim terrorists as such, Koch said: We're afraid of calling them Muslim, Islamist terrorists. We'll call them anything but. Because we don't want to alienate Muslim countries. That's ridiculous. Of course the vast majority of Muslims -- there are a billion, four hundred million -- are not terrorists, but there are hundreds of millions who are. They want to kill every Christian, every Jew, every Hindu who won't convert. And we ought to put it on the table.
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/
'Blackwatergate' - Private Military Firm in Firestorm of Controversy Over Involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany
Blackwater is all over the news. In the last 72 hours, a series of breaking developments involving the notorious private military firm have come to light, ranging from their involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even Germany, as well as legal cases here at home. We speak with investigative journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D–IL), a leading member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, who is launching an investigation into why two Blackwater contractors were among the dead in the December 30 suicide bombing at the CIA station at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Mideast Water Crisis Brings Misery, Uncertainty
The Middle East is facing its worst water crisis in decades. For three summers, the annual rains have failed to come. Farmland has dried up in Iraq, Syria, southeast Turkey and Lebanon. The dire conditions are creating a new phenomenon: water refugees.
http://www.npr.org/templates/
Amman dilemna
Jordan's pro-US stance is both an asset and a liability.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
www.TheHeadlines.org
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