Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines and other news from around the internet.
Land Theft and Destruction
Sheikh Jarrah: Gawi family tent demolished as tension builds, gathering to rebuild tent today at 4PM
Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem – At 4PM in a showing of solidarity with the forcefully evicted families of Sheikh Jarrah, Israeli, Palestinian and international supporters will gather to rebuild the Gawi family tent after it was demolished by police earlier today.
At 9AM police raided and removed the living space of the Gawi family in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. Local residents scrambled to remove personal belongings before police confiscated the Gawi tent where the family has been living since their forceful eviction in August of last year.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Routine: Israeli army forces shepherds off their lands
Writer David Shulman of Ta’ayush accompanied Palestinian shepherds in the Hebron Hills near the illegal colony, Maon, the other day. The army came in to force the shepherds, who had three flocks of sheep, including two from Um Zaituna, off their own lands.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Nabi Saleh Chaos in Pictures
What began as a peaceful demonstration ended with dozens of injuries, including young children. Others were forced to flee their homes under fire from Israeli soldiers. All photos by Lazar Simeonov.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Despite Police Threats, East Jerusalem Protests Continue
Despite police plans to end the demonstration with force, more than 300 Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli activists gathered in Sheikh Jarrah on Friday afternoon to protest the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Carleton University students launch campus divestment campaign
For the past several months, Students Against Israeli Apartheid - Carleton (SAIA), a student group at Carleton University in Ottawa that is committed to supporting the Palestinian struggle for freedom, has been conducting research on Carleton's investments in Israeli apartheid. In light of its findings, SAIA has launched a campaign calling on Carleton to immediately divest from the offending corporations, as well as to adopt a socially responsible investment policy for all of its investments.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Jewish Anti-Occupation Activists Send Forceful Message to Israel
For some Upper West Side residents, their usual stroll down Broadway this evening had a surprise: a group of 20 New York Jews denouncing Israel’s occupation of Palestine were standing with thought-provoking signs while a few passed out flyers. Challenging the assumption that all Jews support Israel no matter what, the action, organized by Jews Say No, called on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and to end the longest running military occupation in recent history. The group was founded last year during Israel’s war on Gaza.
http://www.indypendent.org/
Trees Against
Planting trees against occupation, settlement expansion and land expropriation – this is the symbolic action carried out by popular committees of resistance who joined a tree-planting action in Aboud, North-West of Ramallah, last Sunday.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Violence
Israeli attacks on Palestinians this week
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Mizan center: IOF killed 8 Palestinians, wounded 5 in January
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed eight Palestinians including a child and wounded five others in the Gaza Strip in the past month of January, the Mizan center reported on Monday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Gaza blast destroys Hamas official's car
Gaza – Ma'an – The private car of Hamas leader Yousif Sarsour (known as Abu Omar) was destroyed by explosives in front of his home in Khan Younis on Tuesday morning, medics said. Palestinian medical sources said two children, hit by shrapnel and flying glass, were evacuated to the An-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, while Abu Omar remained unharmed. Medical sources described the childrens' injuries as light.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Two Palestinians injured by IOF soldiers in West Bank
Hebron, February 2, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Israeli occupation soldiers beat and wounded two Palestinians, a man and a woman, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Local sources said that Alaa Ibrahim Sabarna, 22, from Beit Omar, was referred to a hospital for treatment after Israeli soldiers beat him. Also beaten and sent to a hospital was Nalah Fadel Ghazi, who was beaten by Israeli soldiers in Al-Boqa village, east of Hebron.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Detentions
Hamas: PA forces detain 3 supporters across West Bank
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority security services of detaining three of the movement's supporters across the West Bank on Tuesday in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli forces detain group east of Bethlehem
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli forces reportedly detained a group of Palestinians on Monday who were in the Jeb Al-Theeb village east of Bethlehem to plant almond trees on lands near the Tekoa and Noqedim settlements. Local sources said an Israeli military force of about 20 soldiers, along with 25 settlers and police dogs, arrived to the land and made the volunteers sit in small groups away from one another.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israelis 'chained pregnant prisoners to beds'
A PALESTINIAN human rights group slaed Israeli treatment of female prisoners in a new UN-sponsored report, saying pregnant women are often shackled on their way to hospitals to give birth. The women prisoners are held in "Israeli prisons and detention centres which were designed for men and do not respond to female needs", a report by the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.
Siege/Human Rights Abuses/Discrimination
MIDEAST: Helpless in Gaza
JERSUALEM, Feb 1, 2010 (IPS) - Scores of Palestinian women and their children carefully sift through the desert sands. They are looking for hard nuggets.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.
Gaza suffering severe shortage of medical supplies
February 2, 2009 ( Pal Telegraph) - The General Department of Pharmacy is reporting that 104 essential drugs --including treatments for cancer, heart conditions, kidney disease and psychiatric disorders -- and 123 types of medical supplies have completely run out due to the Israeli blockade and ongoing closure of the crossings. The Ministry of Health in Gaza calls on all local and international organizations, including the World Health Organization, International Committee of the Res Cross and other human rights organizations, to intervene to bring in the necessary medical supplies.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Fighting for an education in Gaza
Ayman Talal Quader is a blogger from the Nuseirat refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip. On his blog titled "Voice From Gaza," Aywan chronicled eyewitness accounts of the war and the continuing siege of the territory as well as his own attempts to leave Gaza in order to further his education in Spain. Although classes start on 8 February, he has yet to receive approval from the Egyptian government to travel to Cairo for his flight to Spain. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre recently spoke with Ayman in Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/
OPT: Psychological trauma, nightmares stalk Gaza children
GAZA, 2 February 2010 (IRIN) - Mona al-Samouni, 12, is depressed and has nightmares about the day - just over a year ago - when she witnessed her parents and a number of relatives being shot by Israeli soldiers in their home in Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Egypt's Wall
Ursula Lindsey - MERIP - By highlighting the role of Egypt in maintining the siege on Gaza, the Gaza Freedom Marchers put the Egyptian government in a distressing position.(...) Egypt's leadership and legitimacy in the region have come under considerable fire. There have been demonstrations at Egyptian embassies in Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan and Lebanon - where the newly formed Campaign to Stop the Wall of Shame is targeting the Egyptian construction company Arab Contractors, which is reportedly building the wall. For his part, President Mubarak announced flatly: We do not accept debate on this issue with anyone.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
NAZARETH // Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities. The warning came after Said Nafaa, a Druze member of the Israeli parliament was stripped of his immunity last week, clearing the way for him to be tried for a visit to Syria three years ago.
http://www.thenational.ae/
On the delegitimization of human rights groups in Israel and the essence of democratic life. The ongoing attack on Israel’s human rights organizations is a misunderstanding of the importance of government oversight – and an even more lethal offence to Israel’s image as a democracy.
http://coteret.com/2010/02/01/
Israeli "Justice"
No one is accountable in maiming of Tristan Anderson
I can hear the US consulate protest from here. Imagine if the same happened in Tehran.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Settler's murderer gets life sentence
Jafar Braham, who murdered Ido Zoldan of Shavei Shomron in 2007 never expressed remorse for his actions. Trial of his two accomplices continues.
Refugees
UN closes Palestinian refugee camp in Iraq
Damascus – The main UN refugee agency closed the Al-Tanf refugee camp between the borders of Syria and Iraqi on Monday and relocated the last of the Palestinian refugees who had been stranded in the bleak no-man's land for nearly four years. UNHCR, working in cooperation with the Syrian authorities, transferred the last 60 camp residents on Monday morning. They will be housed temporarily at another refugee camp, Al-Hol, inside Syria.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Why We Petition For Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon
We Petition because we believe that alongside Statehood, and the exigency of lifting the criminal siege of Gaza, immediately granting the right to work and the right to purchase a home to Palestinians in Lebanon, after 62 years of indignity and degradation, is a fundamental imperative of basic morality and justice. We Petition because as British journalist Robert Fisk wrote in the UK Independent on January 16, 2010 after a camp visit: “ The Sabra and Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camps are repulsive, obscene, outrageous, filthy, stinking slums and a place of such squalor that the gorge rises that human beings even live there.” The reason why Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian Refugee camps are the worst of the 58 camps in the Middle East is due primarily to the fact that unlike occupied Palestine, Jordan, and Syria, Palestinians in Lebanon do not possess the most basic civil rights.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
War Criminals
UN find challenges Israeli version of attack on Gaza flour mill
Rory McCarthy - The Guardian - The official Israeli response the the Goldstone Reports asserts that the flour mill serving much of the Gaza Strip pupulation was not deliberately targeted but hit by artillery during fighting in the area. However, a UN team found among the mill`s ruins remains of aircraft-dropped bombs, contradicting the Israeli account.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Report: UN finds remains of IDF bomb at Gaza mill
After Israeli response to Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead denies intentional aerial attack on Strip's flour mill, Guardian reports UN mine action team found remains of 500-pound bomb in mill's ruins last year.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Holes are shot in army's denial of Gaza attack
Doubts have been cast on the Israeli rebuttal of the Goldstone Report, after it emerged last night that a bomb was defused last year at a Gaza flour mill that Israel had officially said did not come under air attack in the war.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Latest white phosphorus tale is Israel’s 4th
Israel has announced that it has reprimanded two senior army officers for their role in an attack on a UN facility during last year’s Gaza offensive. Large amounts of fuel were stored in both underground and above-ground tankers at the facility, and 600-700 civilians were taking shelter there, so the risk of catastrophic civilian casualties was enormous; remarkably, there were no deaths and only three injured. However, a warehouse full of hundreds of tons of food and medicine was destroyed by fire, with untold effects on a desperate population.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
IDF downplays action against officers
Study units on the rules of war, international law and combat ethics in populated areas that are taught in senior command courses in the Israel Defense Forces have recently been greatly expanded. The change is one effect of Operation Cast Lead. On Monday it was revealed that two senior officers involved in the Gaza military operation last year were subject to disciplinary proceedings.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Political Developments/Diplomacy
Hamas parliamentarian: "We accept existence of Israel within 1967 borders"
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Palestinian politics are at an impasse. The four-year term of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) ended on 25 January with no new elections planned. Presidential elections, meant to be held last year, were also postponed indefinitely. IPS spoke with Dr. Mahmoud Ramahi, a neurosurgeon and secretary-general of the PLC, on the political deadlock.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Swap talks over, Hamas official says
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Prisoner swap negotiations with Israel will be stopped for an undetermined period of time, a Hamas official said, blaming the alleged assassination of a military wing co-founder, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Hamas 'ready for Fatah unity deal': Egypt (AFP)
AFP - Egypt on Tuesday welcomed statements by Hamas leaders that they were ready to seal a unity deal with the rival Fatah faction but said Cairo's blueprint for Palestinian reconciliation was not up for negotiation.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Abu Zuhri: Abbas's rejection of resistance reveals his role in liquidating it
Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, on Tuesday said that the statements by Mahmoud Abbas, the former PA chief, against resistance proved his involvement in liquidating it in the West Bank.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Excerpts from the PA cabinet meeting
Ramallah – Ma’an - The cabinet of the Ramallah-based Palestinian government called on the international community to exert effective pressure on Israel in order to end the crippling siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, enabling the PA to start reconstruction.
During its weekly meeting, caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told ministers that civil servants' salaries would be paid on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Jordan King Abdullah to Obama: Speed up Mideast peace drive
Abdullah told Obama to intensify efforts for achieving progress towards a two-state solution.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Netanyahu risks Muslim wrath over Jerusalem holy site
Will Netanyahu use a court decision to forgo a plan to alter the Mughrabi Gate? King Abdullah of Jordan is distancing himself from Israel's prime minister because of the violation of the status quo in East Jerusalem. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is waiting in the corner for the slightest provocation against Islamic holy places by the Israeli government. The only trouble Benjamin Netanyahu is still missing is that of the Mughrabi Gate, at the entrance to the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary compound.
Other News
The most unsafe place for people opposed to Israel is...Syria, it seems
"According to Middle Eastern sources, al-Mabhouh, who was the official responsible for arranging arms supplies from Iran to Gaza, was tracked from the moment he boarded Emirates flight EK 912 at Damascus at 10.05 on January 19."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Hamas: Dubai assassins were likely Arabs, not Israelis
Inquiry finds murdered Gaza arms smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh had enemies across the Middle East and was wanted by Jordan and Egypt.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iran accuses Israel of killing Hamas leader (AFP)
AFP - Iran accused its arch-foe Israel on Tuesday of being behind the killing in Dubai last month of a top militant of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, branding the murder "state terrorism."
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Palestinian universities, colleges go on partial strike
Ramallah – Ma'an – The Union of Palestinian Public Universities and Colleges undertook a partial strike on Tuesday in two universities and three colleges across the occupied Palestinian territories.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Zionists in Congress want to dictate to Arabs what they can watch
"The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill to censor some of the Arab news media, particularly satellite channels if Washington deemed, with Israeli backing, that these satellite channels are broadcasting content that is in conflict with American and Israeli interests in the region." If the Zionist fanatics in Congress keep this up, it is inevitable that there would be campaigns to censor Arab propaganda media throughout the Middle East. Even conservative pro-US dictatorship are opposed to this bill now.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
This casts us in the role of the enabler, forever
Haaretz says that Turkey is warning Israel that it must mull a future without Turkey as an ally, following the disrespectful treatment of the Turkish ambassador and the horrors of the Gaza war.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Breaking: Hagee and CUFI fund anti-NIF campaign organizer
The Im Tirtzu movement accuses the New Israel Fund of financing anti-Zionist organizations, but all the while enjoys donations from an evangelist preacher who believes “Hitler was carrying out God’s will”.
http://coteret.com/2010/02/01/
Palestinian woman raises Palestinian flag in Antarctica
Dubai, February 2, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - A Palestinian woman living in Dubai, Susan Al-Hobi, recently climbed Vinson Mount and became the first Arab to reach the highest point in Antarctica. The peak is 4,898 meters (16,050 feet) high. Al-Hobi previously raised the Palestinian flag on the top of a number of other "highest peaks": Kilimanjaro (Africa), Elbrus (Europe), Mont Blanc (Alps of Western Europe), Aconcagua (South America) and Toubkal (Northern Africa). According to The Gulf newspaper, Al-Hobi loves adventure and looks forward to climbing all of the seven highest mountains in the world. Remaining for her to climb are the summits of Denali (Alaska, US), Carstensz Pyramid (Papua, Indonesia) and Everest (Nepal). She says she wants to prove to the world that Arab women can conquer the impossible.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Let us discuss this passage, if you will, As`ad Abukhalil
“Unless and until the Arab states are democratic and progressive, they will have a bad image. Israel for all of its colonial policies, for all the racism that is part of the structure of governance within Israel itself, has a positive image because there are positive aspects to Israel. It is a democracy for at least the Jewish and Arab citizens of the state. It’s a discriminatory democracy, but it’s a democracy.”"Well, first of all, Arab states deserve the worst image. They have earned it. Secondly, Arabs--as people--have a bad image because of Western prejudices and religious bigotry. And that, no democracy can change. Much of Latin America is democratic, and yet there are horrible stereotypes of Latinos right here in land stolen from Latinos. Thirdly, image is not relevant here. Israel, contrary to what Rashid is implying, has a bad image around the world, except here in the US (and Marshall Islands and Micronesia). Image does not account for Israeli victories and occupation: war crimes do. No matter what images Arabs have, Israel conquer by force of arms. And American support for Israel has nothing to do with images. And Taiwan and Shah's Iran had great images here in the US, simply because they were allies of the US. Image is not always based on actual record. If Israel is tomorrow taken over by religious nuts (who do inhabit the government), Israel's image would not change. Lastly, Rashid's characterization of Israeli democracy is way too charitable. Israel is a democracy for its Jewish citizens (especially those from European countries) full stop.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Robert Fisk: Israel feels under siege. Like a victim. An underdog
So the propaganda war is on. Forget Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the 15,000 Lebanese and Palestinian dead. Forget the Sabra and Shatila massacre that same year by Israel's militia allies as their troops watched. Erase the Qana massacre of 1996 – 106 Lebanese killed by Israeli shellfire, more than half of them children – and delete the 1,500 in the 2006 Lebanon war. And forget, of course, the more than 1,300 Palestinians slaughtered by Israel in Gaza last year (and the 13 Israelis killed by Hamas at that time) after Hamas rockets fell on Sderot. Israel – if you believe the security elite of Israel's right wing here in Herzliya – is now under an even more dangerous, near-unprecedented attack.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
MIDEAST: Corrupt Arab Regimes - Who is to Blame?, Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, Feb 2, 2010 (IPS) - The Mideast continues to be plagued by autocratic Arab regimes where human rights, democracy and freedom of speech are a pipe dream for the average citizen. But who is to blame and what can be done to amend this situation?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.
Jerusalem is Palestinian Too
The policy is so obvious that if it were a physical manifestation it would certainly represent itself as a literal slap in the face. Israel’s goal of emptying Jerusalem of its Jerusalem residents has become so blatant even the simplest of minds can see it. This article is inspired by the story of a man who, like so many others, is now facing deportation from his own land. Elias Khayyo, a 41-year old native of Jerusalem, whose entire family comes from the Old City’s Christian quarter, is now being told by Israel’s infamous interior ministry that he is no longer eligible to live in the place where he was born.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
"A different kind of occupation": an interview with Elia Suleiman
Nazareth-born filmmaker Elia Suleiman is one of the darlings of Cannes and stands out from the pack of contemporary Palestinian filmmakers for his unique style of filmmaking based on sewing together a series vignettes, silence -- an emphasis on visual storytelling versus dialogue, and deadpan comedy found in often grim humor in the lives of everyday people living under the tyranny of what he calls a "pathetic occupation." Sabah Haider recently interviewed Suleiman for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
A question for Bronner, Philip Weiss
I see that Ethan Bronner, the controversial Times bureau chief in Jerusalem,spoke at Brandeis today. I wonder if anyone asked about his son in the Israeli army. And he is speaking at Vassar College in NY on Wednesday afternoon. The Jewish Studies program. My question: I gather Bronner used to be something of a liberal a few years back (James North tells me). His politics have clearly changed. He’s more conservative today. How did it happen? What was Israel’s role in his shift? I wonder if he can go there…
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
American writer Norman Finkelstein is soon to release his new book, “This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion“, a concise examination of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. (It’s also worth noting that Finkelstein has chosen a relatively new publisher, OR Books, to release his work, a print on demand and online distributor).
Quote of the Week: Elisheva Michaeli
"In 1948 I was nineteen years old, with a five-month old baby, when a soldier knocked on the door and told me that I had just become a widow. Since then, Independence Day is for me a day of mourning.
http://lawrenceofcyberia.
Scary Black People
It was only yesterday, as I was weeding through some old articles I'd once bookmarked as potential posts in my Ha’aretz-is-a-piece-of-crap series, that I finally managed to really put my finger on what it was that had irked me about this piece when I first read it: Jerusalem police Wednesday arrested two men suspected of vandalizing the city's Israel Defense Forces memorial Tuesday, the day of Tisha Be'av on which Jews lament the destruction of the Temple. The men, aged 55 and 58, admitted to committing the crime, but offered no explanation for their actions. They told police they intend to write a letter of apology to the families of those commemorated by the monument…-- Two men arrested, admit defiling war memorial with swastikas, by Jonathan Lis [1]; Ha'aretz, 24 July 2007. When I first read that piece, I knew something wasn’t right, though I wasn’t sure what. But this time after reading it, my immediate reaction was that Ha’aretz would have made this a much bigger story if only the perpetrators had been Arabs or Russians. Then I stopped and asked myself why I was so sure that that the suspects couldn’t be Russian immigrants or Israeli Arabs, but had to be non-immigrant Jewish Israelis: after all, the article grants the perpetrators complete anonymity. Ironically, it was the complete anonymity that convinced me. And the reason it convinced me is that I’ve seen that kind of weaselly, racially-biased reporting before; in fact I was raised in a time and place when it was the norm.
http://lawrenceofcyberia.
Iraq
Monday: 56 Iraqis Killed, 138 Wounded
The first major bomb attack against Shi'ite pilgrims took place in northern Baghdad today, leaving scores dead or wounded. Overall, at least 56 Iraqis were killed and 138 more were wounded across the country. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims continue to make their way to Karbala for Arbaeen observances despite the attacks.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Attacks by female suicide bombers in Iraq (AP)
AP - A look at some recent attacks by female suicide bombers in Iraq.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraq to sue US, Britain over depleted uranium bombs
Iraq's Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the lawsuit will be launched based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Iraq's Basra city to ban beggars to prevent attacks
BASRA, Iraq, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Iraq's southern oil hub of Basra will ban beggars from streets and other public places to help prevent attacks in the lead up to a parliamentary election in March, a security official said on Tuesday.
http://www.alertnet.org/
China cancels 80% of Iraq debt (AFP)
AFP - China has agreed to cancel 80 percent of the 8.5-billion-dollar debt it is owed by Iraq, the finance ministry in Baghdad said in an official statement on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Fake doctors in Iraq take people’s lives for granted
A new scandal of forged certificates and fake doctors hits Baghdad. While terrorism targets innocents, dishonesty takes grip of the most humanitarian profession.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/
Lebanon
Lebanon's FM to Feltman: Ask Your Questions to Israel!
01/02/2010 Lebanon's Foreign Ministry commented on Monday on the latest statements delivered by US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman over the Israeli recurrent threats to Lebanon. The Lebanese FM said that the greatest challenge to the international resolution comes from Israel itself, noting that the Israeli violations to the mentioned resolutions exceeded the number 6000 since the year 2006. "One of the latest breaches is the kidnapping of Rabih Mohammad Zahra from Lebanese soil on Sunday," the statement read. The Foreign Ministry added that if Feltman called on Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory then there would be no concerns regarding the implementation of the resolution. Feltman has claimed reports indicate large quantities of weapons are being smuggled to Hezbollah in the South, which would be a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. "We don't find any seriousness in the implementation of this resolution in south Lebanon. This honestly is a source of concern," he said. [end]
http://almanar.com.lb/
U.S. and Other World News
US drones killed 123 civilians, three al-Qaeda men in January
LAHORE: Afghanistan-based US predators carried out a record number of 12 deadly missile strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan in January 2010, of which 10 went wrong and failed to hit their targets, killing 123 innocent Pakistanis. The remaining two successful drone strikes killed three al-Qaeda leaders, wanted by the Americans.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/
Plan to oust Saddam drawn up two years before the invasion
A secret plan to foster an internal coup against Saddam Hussein was drawn up by the Government two years before the invasion of Iraq, The Independent can reveal. Whitehall officials drafted the "contract with the Iraqi people" as a way of signalling to dissenters in Iraq that an overthrow of Saddam would be supported by Britain. It promised aid, oil contracts, debt cancellations and trade deals once the dictator had been removed. Tony Blair's team saw it as a way of creating regime change in Iraq even before the 9/11 attack on New York.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Torture, Rendition Victim Maher Arar Asks Supreme Court to Allow Suit Against U.S. Gov't
Lawyers for the Canadian torture and rendition victim Maher Arar are asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling blocking him from suing the U.S. government. In 2002, Arar was seized by US officials at Kennedy Airport in New York and rendered to Syria, where he was tortured, interrogated and detained in a tiny underground cell for nearly a year. Last year a federal appeals court ruled allowing the lawsuit to proceed would “offend the separation of powers and inhibit (US) foreign policy.”
http://www.democracynow.org/
Backtracking on Earlier Findings, Justice Dept. Said to Clear Bush Admin Attorneys of Authorizing Torture
A Spanish court has opened formal criminal investigations into the suspected torture of Guantanamo prisoneer Ahmed Abderrahman Hamed. The court described six Bush administration lawyers including John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Alberto Gonzales as the “intellectual authors” of the torture to which Hamed and four other prisoners were subjected. The probe comes as the Justice Department will reportedly clear Yoo and Bybee of professional misconduct for crafting memos that justified waterboarding and other forms of torture. Senior Justice Department official David Margolis reportedly softened an earlier finding that Bybee and Yoo had violated their professional obligations when they wrote a crucial 2002 memo approving so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Spanish judge to probe Guantanamo torture claims
The judge will be acting on complaints lodged by a number of associations, focussing on one prisoner, Ahmed Abderraman Hamed, who has Spanish nationality, the source added, confirming a report published in daily El Pais.
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/
"America's Secret Afghan Prisons": Investigation Unearths New U.S. Torture Site, Abuse Allegations in Afghanistan
A new investigation by journalist Anand Gopal reveals harrowing details about U.S. secret prisons in Afghanistan, under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Gopal interviewed Afghans who were detained and abused at several disclosed and undisclosed sites at US and Afghan military bases across the country. He also reveals the existence of another secret prison on Bagram Air Base that even the Red Cross does not have access to. It is dubbed the Black Jail and reportedly run by US Special Forces.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Chinese diplomat: Ties with US deteriorating since Obama
In a special interview with Ynet, deputy Chinese ambassador to Israel presents communist regime's outlook on crisis with Washington, Middle East and Google affair. In respect to Iran, Zhang Xiao'an says sanctions won't help.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
'Nine to die' over Iran protests
Official says more protesters will be hanged "soon" over last year's election unrest.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
Iran marks anniversary of Khomeini's return
Iran is marking 31 years of the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to the country that triggered the Islamic Revolution. Ten days of celebrations, known as the Fajr festival, are being held. Hundreds of people gathered at the shrine of Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, on Monday. Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri reports from the cemetery in the capital, Tehran.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
www.TheHeadlines.org
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