Abu Ghraib abuse photos ‘show rape’
Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.
By Duncan Gardham, and Paul Cruickshank, Telegraph
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphoresce nt tube. Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts. Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq…
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Human Rights: Ba-Humbug?
The mixed up muddled up shook up world of Human Rights politics
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
…Large sums of money have been and are being spent on creating seemingly spontaneously grown citizens’ organizations that shape and give direction to dissent among the populations over-lorded by governments not liked by the U.S. Such ‘revolutions’ as the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, the 2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or the 2005 Cedar Revolution in Lebanon — are sig hted as examples of this ‘democracy movement’ type of moving of pieces by imperialist game planners. It is natural that, in these half-covert operations, human rights are used as a wedge issue. Because of this push by the right into the discursive and practical area of ‘human rights’, some western leftists have abandoned this area of advocacy when it comes to countries they perceive as being under attack by the imperialists, and therefore most talk of human rights violations in such countries has become taboo, since it allegedly paves the way for the continuation of the imperialist interventions, and subjugation of more natives around the world. Leaving aside the unjustifiable presuppositions of such a stance, this position completely yields, uncontested, a major domain of class conflict to the dictates of the right wing ideologues, and leaves it completely up to the right wing fanatics to frame this issue…. Ironically, the more militant members of what I call the ‘Human Rights? Ba -Humbug!’ faction, actually fight most vehe! mently a gainst the advocates of human rights in countries like Iran! So we have a situation where Iranian secularists — secular liberals, democrats and radical democrats, social democrats and socialists, supporters of student activists, labor and women’s rights activists, and all others — who for the past thirty years have been fighting for more rights in Iran, not only have a medieval theocratic setup with vast oppressive capabilities to fight, but now have the western leftists to fight as well!…
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West Plots To Supplant United Nations With Global NATO
Rick Rozoff
Ten years ago it first became evident to the world that moves were afoot in major Western capitals to circumvent, subvert and ultimately supplant the United Nations, as the UN could not always be counted on to act in strict accordance with the dictates of the United States and its NATO allies. At that time in 1999 the NATO alliance was waging what would become a 78-day bombing war against Yugoslavia in flagrant contravention of the United Nations and of in ternational law in general. As two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the five permanent members being the main victorious World War II allies, with the People’s Republic of China having replaced the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1971 and with Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union – exactly China and Russia, not being NATO members states, opposed that war and in several other instances the use of sanctions and military force against nations targeted for both by the West…
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Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in West Bank
By Mel Frykberg
“I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad,” says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. “Three of them surrounded me, while a fourth threw a rock at the back of my head. Lots of blood ran down onto my clothes. Other settlers then joined them,” Wahadin told the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Wahadin and his brother Hammad, 72, had been farm ing their land, which produces olives, almonds and grapes, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin, when they were attacked on their way home. Their land in Beit Ummar is near Hebron, about 30 kilometres south of Jerusalem…
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Living with the enemy
Arwa Damon, CNN
I first met Abu Wissam at the foot of his son’s shallow grave. Never will he be able to erase the last image he has of his son’s body. “He was cut to pieces,” he said. “His hands and feet were chopped off. And he was decapitated…. Abu Wissam’s son Raed was a 25-year-old business school student. His fiancee says that one day he got a phone call from a college friend asking to meet him. Little did she know that it was a plot to lure him out of the house and that it would be their las t goodbye….The militia behind the kidnapping was the self proclaimed Mehdi Army, a Shia militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. And the militiamen were once friends and neighbors… The families of the victims often gather at Abu Wissam’s house. They don’t talk of reconciliation or forgiveness. They talk of wanting justice — and that means the killers’ detention and execution. “The government has done nothing for us,” one of the mothers gathered there says, her voice filled with anger and frustration…
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Major General Antonio Taguba: Photos Show Sodomy, Rape and Sexual Assault With Wire and Various Blunt Instruments
Washington’s Blog
…From the Taguba Report – originally published in 2004 – we know that a translator named Abu Hamid committed sodomy on prisoners under the supervision – and with the participation – of several soldiers. One of the prisoners sodomized may have been Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, who also reported sexual abuse with a “phosphoric light”. Hilas describes all of these events being photographed. Other pris oners, such as Mustafa Jassim Mustafa, also confirmed rape with a “phosphoric light”. This anonymous prisoner was sodomized with a police baton. Hilas also alleges sodomy by military personnel of an Iraqi boy. Given that Taguba says that he has seen the photographs corroroborating the other portions of Hilas’ and the other prisoners’ testimony, Hilas’ statements regarding the sodomy of the boy become a lot more credible…
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U.S. Military Investigator Confirms Women and Children Were Raped At Abu Ghraib
Paul Joseph Watson
It only took five years, but the mainstream media has finally acknowledged the truth behind why certain photos and videos from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison camp have been blocked from public release – they show U.S. soldiers and other prison guards raping female detainees as well as children. In an interview with the London Telegraph, Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the A bu Ghraib jail in Iraq, confirmed the details of his original army report, that the unreleased photos showed rape and sexual abuse of women and minors…
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Homeless in Gaza and a feat of clay
Djallal Malti
All of Amer Aliyan’s hopes of rebuilding his life are placed in a carefully folded sheet in his wallet, a document that for the foreseeable future in Gaza is nothing but a worthless piece of paper. “I’m waiting for the reconstruction, but I know it will take time,” the 36-year-old says. This is a gross understatement in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip where an Israeli blockade is preventing the rebuilding effort after the devastation caused by a brief but deadly w ar at the turn of the year…
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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 21/2009 (21 – 27 May 2009)
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting period (21 – 27 May 2009): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed two Palestinian resistance activists in the Gaza Strip, and wounded 17 civilians, including four children and an old woman in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, on 22 May 2009, IOF ki lled two members of the al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jihad) 400 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Rafah. In the West Bank, on 23 May 2009, an old woman was wounded when IOF moved into ‘Arrana village, northeast of Jenin, and opened fire at houses…
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Israel Brings Palestinians to Catastrophe AI
IslamOnline.net
With a deadly war that killed and maimed thousands, a chocking blockade, unlawful killings and land confiscations, Amnesty International is accusing Israel of bringing the life of the Palestinians to the brink of a catastrophe. “The Israeli military offensive launched in late December brought conditions to the brink of human catastrophe,” Amnesty said in its annual report on Thursday, May 28. Israeli troops killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and wounded 5,450 a nd destroyed thousands of homes in 22 days of attacks in Gaza in December. “Even before it began, the local economy was paralyzed by the lack of imports and a ban on exports,” said Amnesty. The London-based group said Israel’s crippling siege on Gaza has badly deteriorated the humanitarian situation in the strip…
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New York “terror” arrests: another government-orchestrated plot
Tom Eley
In a high-publicity “terror” arrest, authorities seized four men in New York City May 20, alleging they intended to blow up synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down jets near the US Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. The evidence against the men was marshaled by a paid government informant, who authorities admit spent nearly a year attempting to convince the men to carry out such attacks and provided them with phony weaponry. The arrested a re four impoverished African-American men from nearby Newburgh, New York. All had previously converted to Islam, at least two while in prison. They are James Cromitie—whom police describe as the ringleader—David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, a Haitian immigrant. The four are charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles…
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Palestinian prisoner blinded in Israeli jail
Saadi Al-Najar, a 25-year-old Palestinian held in administrative detention, without trial or charge, in Israeli occupation jails, has lost eyesight in his left eye due to deliberate medical neglect, the Palestinian prisoner’s club said on Wednesday. Amjad Al-Najar, the director of the club in Al-Khalil, held the administration of the Negev prison fully responsible for the loss of Najar’s eyesight. He explained that the administration refused doctors and legal societies’ reques ts for the treatment of Najar…
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Most Palestinians want unity government, poll finds
Mohammed Assadi, Reuters
Most Palestinians support efforts to forge a unity government as the way to heal an internal rift that has hurt the chances of achieving a peace deal with Israel, an opinion poll published Wednesday showed. A survey by Birzeit University, based near the West Bank city of Ramallah, found 58 percent of Palestinians thought a joint coalition of the Western-backed Fatah movement and Hamas Islamists could best resolve their crisis…The poll, for whic h 6,398 people were questioned in early April, gave a breakdown of opinion for those in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and those living in Gaza — unusual in polls of Palestinians… The overall result in such an election would be 31 percent for Fatah and 17 percent for Hamas, the poll showed. Hamas won the last Palestinian parliamentary election held in 2006…
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Millions displaced as Pakistani military extends its offensive
By James Cogan
The Pakistani military is deepening its assault against Islamist militants in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) district of Swat Valley and beginning to extend its operations into other ethnic Pashtun-populated areas. The Obama administration insisted that the Pakistani government launch the offensive as part of US efforts to crush the anti-occupation insurgency over the border in Afghanistan. The present focus of the fighting is Mingora, once the largest city in Swat with a population over 250,000. It is estimated that all but 10,000 to 20,000 of its inhabitants fled before the military assault. In the east of the valley, troops have reportedly seized the former ski resort town of Maalam Jabba. To the west, operations are continuing against the remaining militants in the Peochar Valley…
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IOF assassinates Abdul Majid Dudeen
From Khalid Amayreh in al-Khalil
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Thursday murdered Abdul Majid Dudeen, a prominent guerilla leader affiliated with Hamas’ military wing, the Izzidin Al-Qassam Brigades. Eyewitnesses said Israeli occupation troops, backed by some 16 military vehicles, stormed the small village of Skak, near Dura, 30 kilometers west of al Khalil (Hebron), and killed Dudeen at his hideout. Local sources said Dudeen was killed during a brief clash with Israeli occupati on troops. The IOF accuses Dudeen of having carried out or masterminded several military operations against Israeli targets both in the West Bank and Palestinian lands occupied in 1948…
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