Human Rights Investigator, Attorney John Sifton: Torture Investigation Should Focus on Estimated 100 Prisoner Deaths
Democracy Now!
We get reaction to the Senate hearing on torture from private investigator and attorney John Sifton, executive director of One World Research, which carries out research for law firms and human rights groups. Sifton has conducted extensive investigations into the CIA interrogation and detention program. He says any investigation of Bush administration torture and rendition should include an e stimated 100 homicides of prisoners in US custody. …
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Torture continues at Israel’s ‘Guantanamo Bay’?
By Jonathan Cook
The United Nation’s watchdog on torture has criticised Israel for refusing to allow inspections at a secret prison, dubbed by critics as “Israel’s Guantanamo Bay”, and demanded to know if more such clandestine detention camps are operating. In a report published on Friday, the Committee Against Torture requested that Israel identify the location of the camp, officially referred to as “Facility 1391″, and allow access to the International Committee of the Red Cross…
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Slave labor build Baghdad US embassy
Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar
In this posting I will be addressing the issue of migrant workers in Iraq. I will talk briefly about their conditions before the 2003 war on Iraq. They entered Iraq legally with approval of the Iraqi government and hence were protected by the Iraqi labor law. After the 2003 occupation migrant workers were “smuggled” into Iraq by contractors working for the US military. Some of them entered Iraq flying directly to American bases in Iraq. Others were taken directly fro m airport to US installations without going through the Iraqi passport control. Similar procedure is used for those entering Iraq by road…
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From the Land of Darkness.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
They say the Sun rises in the East, in Al-Sharq in Arabic and sets in the West, in Al-Gharb. Ghareeb, Ghorba, Ghorab…Strange/Foreign, Exile, Crow — all derivatives from the same word. The Sun no longer rises here. This has become the land of Darkness. Of Strangeness, of Foreigners, of Exile, of Crows and Vultures…feeding off carcasses. An all pervading darkness decorated with your multi-colored banners, colored in white, red and blue, but really all there is , is but a deep black. The black of turbans and chadors and self flagellation in the name of some Mahdi, some Messiah, who if he ever resurfaces, will spit on all of you. The land of Darkness. A land blackened by Deceit. Obscured with Lies. Occulted with Omissions…
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Af-Pak Is Obama’s War
Margaret Kimberley
President Obama, who campaigned behind a thin veil of peace, dragged two heads of client states into the White House to demand “that both Afghanistan and Pakistan allow their citizens to be murdered and or displaced in the thousands” – or else. Obama read Presidents Zardari and Karzai “the riot act” to let them know who is boss in the military theater called “AfPak.” Obama claims to “want to respect their sovereignty, but” – there’s always the imperial ‘but’ – America has “huge nat ional security interests” in the region. Afghanistan’s Karzai later wondered, “How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?”
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Landmark study finds Israeli control in occupied territories ‘a breach of the prohibition of apartheid’
Mondoweiss
The following exclusive on an international report concluding that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories “has become a colonial enterprise which implements a system of apartheid” was sent to us by journalist Ben White. Another stinging statement from the report: “The Wall and its infrastructure of gates and permanent checkpoints suggest a policy permanently to divide the West Bank into racial cantons .” …
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Obama Continues Torture and Torture-related Murder in the Bogus War on Terror
Kurt Nimmo
Lost in all the blather about Nancy Pelosi, the CIA, and torture is a stark fact generally ignored by the corporate media and the Sunday news show talking heads — not only did the United States torture, it murdered the tortured. John Sifton, a reporter and researcher for Human Rights, wrote about the estimated 100 detainees murdered in May 5 for The Daily Beast, but his report was more or less ignored. David Edwards and Stephen Webste r picked up the story on May 15 for Raw Story after Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed Sifton..
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Bible quotes adorned covers of top-secret Rumsfeld intelligence reports
By David Edwards and Jeremy Gantz
Top secret military intelligence briefings prepared by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and often hand-delivered to George W. Bush featured Crusades-like Bible quotes above triumphant photos of the U.S. military effort in Iraq. Less than one month after U.S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, a “Worldwide Intelligence Update” reached then-President Bush with the following quote on the cover of th e briefing, above photos of jubilant Iraqi crowds in newly liberated Baghdad: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him…To deliver their soul from death.”..
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U.S. Special Forces Sent to Train Pakistanis
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and SIOBHAN GORMAN
The U.S. is sending Special Forces teams into one of Pakistan’s most violent regions as part of a push to accelerate the training of the Pakistani military and make it a more effective ally in the fight against insurgents there. Senior U.S. officials said 25 to 50 Special Forces personnel are deploying to two new training camps in Baluchistan, a Taliban stronghold on the porous Afghan-Pakistani border. The deployment brings U.S. personnel deeper than before into tribal regions of Pakistan, which the Obama administration views as among the world’s most-dangerous flashpoints…
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The U.S. to Raise Military Aid to Israel
Sergio Yahni, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Despite expectations that the Obama administration will pressure Israel to accept a two-state solution and implement practical measures, the U.S. administration has sent signals that aid to Israel will, in fact, be raised. At the same time, the budget also imposes harsh conditions on the Palestinian Authority in order to receive aid. According to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, the budget proposed to Congress for 2010 includes $2.775 b illion in aid to Israel, compared to $2.5 billon budgeted for 2009. This is more than a 10% increase in total U.S. aid to Israel…
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Glimpses of Post-War Gaza (A Diary)
May 2-9, 2009
Eva Bartlett
…I go to visit Rafiq, where there is a fisherman who was shot twice in the back at close range on February 14, 2009 when Israeli naval soldiers attacked his small rowboat-sized fishing boat. The exploding ‘dumdum’ bullets broke into numerous pieces around his spine and lungs, causing serious damage. They remain in his back to this day. The impact of the shots caused him to fall out of his boat, sinking 7 meters into frigid waters. His family, inc luding his pregnant wife, depended on his income. Now out of work and convalescing, he has no relief from the biting poverty affecting over 80% of Palestinians in Gaza. The fishing industry in particular is near-finished, because of constant daily Israeli shooting attacks, shelling, arresting of fishermen and confiscation of fishing boats and equipment. Israeli authorities have also unilaterally decided that Palestinians do not have the right to fish beyond a few miles offshore; drastically downsized from Israel’s Oslo agreement to 20 miles….
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US and Israel at odds
By Rob Reynolds, Aljazeera
Differences over how to deal with Iran are likely to dominate Tuesday’s meeting between Barack Obama, the US president, and Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, at the White House on May 18. Obama has taken a softer line on Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions, emphasising diplomacy over sabre-rattling and threats of military action. Further, the Obama administration wants Netanyahu to engage with the Palestinians and work quickly towards a two-state solution as a wa y of defusing the perceived threat from Tehran. Netanyahu has shown little interest in reviving dialogue with the Palestinians and has still not endorsed a two-state solution…
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Israel bans books, music and clothes from entering Gaza
Amira Hass
Israel allows only food, medicine and detergent into the Gaza Strip. Thousands of items, including vital products for everyday activity, are forbidden. Altogether only 30 to 40 select commercial items are now allowed into the Gaza Strip, compared to 4,000 that had been approved before the closure Israel imposed on Gaza following the abduction of Gilad Shalit, according to merchants and human rights activists….
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The Russell Tribunal on Palestine
Stephen Lendman
After two years of “underground” work, it was launched with a “successful press conference” and announcement that: “The Russell Tribunal on Palestine seeks to reaffirm the primacy of international law as the (way to settle) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Its work will focus on “the enunciation of law by authoritative bodies. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its opinion on the (Separation Wall in Occupied Palestine, addressed relevant) “International Humanit arian Law and International Human Rights Law, as well as dozens of international resolutions concerning Palestine.”….
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GI Special 7E14: The Butcher Of Granai [ 17 may 2009 ]
Thomas F. Barton
Barack Hussein Obama: The Butcher Of Granai: “The Dead Were So Many”.
The number of civilians killed by the American airstrikes in Farah Province last week may never be fully known. But villagers, including two girls recovering from burn wounds, described devastation that officials and human rights workers are calling the worst episode of civilian casualties in eight years of war in Afghanistan. The bombs were so powerful that people were ripped to shreds. Survivors said they collected only pieces of bodies. Several villagers said that they could not distinguish all of the dead and that they never found some of their relatives.
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Zionist group planning to build homes on top of demolished Palestinian homes in Jerusalem
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
Hatim Abdul-Qader, Jerusalem Affairs advisor to the Palestinian Prime Minister, stated that the Ateret Cohanim Zionist group is planning, in collaboration with the Jerusalem Municipality, to build homes for Jewish settlers on top of Palestinians homes demolished by the municipality. The planned construction would talk place on top of Palestinian homes in Batn Al Hawa (Al Yaman Neighborhood) in Silwan town, sout h of the Old City of Jerusalem…
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US tells Israel to calm down on Iranian rhetoric
South Korea News.Net
The Jerusalem Post has reported the US has told Israeli officials to tone down rhetoric on Iran and stop threatening a military strike on Iranian nuclear installations, especially ahead of presidential elections on June 12th. The Obama administration, while saying it recognises that a nuclear Iran poses a threat to the stability of the Middle East, it still plans to offer Iranian leaders new approaches in return for freezing their nuclear program. Obama administration officials have also said the new policies, while risky, should not be allowed to fail and might require Iran’s neighbours to accept the fact of a nuclear Iran…
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Fighting oppression in the West Bank
Ronnie Barkan
A lot of my friends tell me it’s dangerous to come to the West Bank, and that the vast majority of Israelis are brainwashed and think all Palestinians are terrorists. I keep responding that it is dangerous because there are Israeli soldiers here. When I cross over into the West Bank – and sometimes I come here on my scooter, so I’m totally exposed – the only people I’m afraid of are the Israeli soldiers, who are armed and dangerous. Very dangerous actually. My friends don ’t believe me when I say this, but when such a horrible incident like 31-year-old Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma’s death here in Bil’in [on 17 April], or when my good American friend Tristan Anderson was critically injured; when you show them video footage of all this, some still try to deny it and come up with all kinds of excuses, but some people are genuinely shocked by what they see…
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