Attack on Iran would be ‘very destabilizing’ — US military chief AFP A US military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be “very destabilizing,” top US military commander Admiral Mike Mullen said Sunday, warning that any attack could have serious “unintended consequences.” “I’ve been one who has been concerned about a strike on Iran for some time, because it could be very destabilizing, and it is the unintended consequences of that which aren’t predictable,” the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Fox News Sunday television program… continua / continued  [55725] [ 06-jul-2009 04:26 ECT ]

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PFLP: National dialogue must not be subject to U.S./Israeli conditions Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -PFLP Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, spoke on July 4, 2009 at a soccer tournament commemorating the martyr Mansour Thabet, where he commented on the breakdown of the Hamas-Fateh talks in Cairo, stating that no agreement that fails to address the fundamental issues of the division is acceptable. Comade Mizher stated that the Front cannot be a “false witness” to these kinds of bilateral negotiations, when they ignore and undo previous agreements reached on a comprehensive national level including all factions in previous meetings. He compared these kinds of negotiations to the Mecca agreement, a previous Hamas-Fateh bilateral agreement, which led to the current state of division. He noted that the occupier only exploits these divisions and attempts to increase them, and that such an agreement would only place a new power in the hands of the occupier to block the hope of the Palestinian people and exacerbate the suffering of our people in Gaza and the West Bank… continua / continued  [55722] [ 06-jul-2009 01:59 ECT ]

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Third British soldier killed in Afghanistan The Press Association. A British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan while taking part in one of the UK military’s biggest co-ordinated air operations of modern times, the Ministry of Defence said. The soldier from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards is the third to be killed in southern Afghanistan this weekend and his death takes the number of UK service personnel killed in the country since the start of operations in October 2001 to 174. Next of kin has been informed… continua / continued  [55720] [ 06-jul-2009 01:41 ECT ]

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Afghan Offensive to Destabilise Balochistan: PM Afzal Khan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has voiced Pakistani concern that the latest offensive by US forces in Helmand, south of Afghanistan, will destabilise the situation in Balochistan. “We fear a spill-over effect on Balochistan of surge in the number of US troops and their latest massive offensive in Helmand that is likely to push Taleban to cross over to Pakistan,” the prime minister told reporters here. He said he has conveyed his reservations to US officials and they had assured him that no extremist would be allowed to cross into Pakistan… continua / continued  [55719] [ 06-jul-2009 01:31 ECT ]

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Nilin sends eyewitnesses to UN to testify about Occupation assassination policy By the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza assault that investigates violations of human rights and international law committed in the context of the Israeli assault on Gaza in December 08/January 2009 will hear as well accounts of the repression meted out in the West Bank during this period. As during any war and large scale assault conducted by Occupation forces, during the attack on Gaza. which alone killed over 1400 people, soldiers also brutally repressed any protests and acts of solidarity by Palestinians anywhere within their reach. On the 28th of December, during a demonstration in Ni’lin in solidarity with Gaza, Border Police shot and killed two young men in Ni’lin. Arafat Khawaje, 22, was shot in the back and was killed instantly. 20-year-old Mohammed Khawaje was shot in the forehead. He was pronounced brain-dead on the evening of the 31st December… continua / continued  [55718] [ 06-jul-2009 01:28 ECT ]

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Biden: Israel free to set own course on Iran ROBERT BURNS, AP Vice President Joe Biden signaled that the Obama administration would not stand in the way if Israel chose to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, even as the top U.S. military officer said any attack on Iran would be destabilizing. Biden’s remarks suggested a tougher U.S. stance against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Nonetheless, administration officials insisted his televised remarks Sunday reflected the U.S. view that Israel has a right to defend itself and make its own decisions on national security. In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden also said the U.S. offer to negotiate with Tehran on its nuclear program still stands… continua / continued  [55717] [ 05-jul-2009 22:56 ECT ]

The Israeli Idea of a ‘Palestinian State’ By Saree Makdisi To judge by the next day’s headlines, Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy speech last month was a great success. “Israeli Premier Backs State for Palestinians,” declared the New York Times. “Israel Endorses Two-State Goal,” said the Washington Post. “Netanyahu Backs Palestinian State,” announced The Guardian. He did no such thing, of course, unless by “state” one understands an amorphous entity lacking a definite territory, not allowed to control its own borders or airspace, shorn of any vestige of sovereignty (other than a flag and perhaps a national anthem), not allowed to enter into treaties with other states—and permanently disarmed and hence at the mercy of Israel. It would make about as much sense to call an apple an orange or a piano a speedboat as to call such a construct a state, and yet those are the conditions that Netanyahu imposed on the creation of such an entity for the Palestinians (if they get that far in the first place).. continua / continued  [55715] [ 05-jul-2009 22:42 ECT ]

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Hiyam, a Gaza teenager killed as she offered aid Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip Thursday was as normal and quiet an afternoon as you get in Johr al-Deek village in the central Gaza Strip. “Prepare yourself for I will be taking you to the dentist in half an hour,” Salim Abu Ayish recalled telling his 17-year-old daughter Hiyam. Moments later everything changed. “At 5:30 PM an Israeli shell landed on my brother’s house,” the father told visitors who had come to offer condolences for his daughter at the family’s home on Friday. The shell injured a nephew and Salim Abu Ayish rushed to render aid… continua / continued  [55714] [ 05-jul-2009 22:39 ECT ]

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1948 refugee dies as result of negligence at Iraqi camp Ma’an News An elderly Palestinian died of a heart attack at an Iraqi refugee camp on Sunday, according to the Palestinians of Iraq Association. The refugee, Shehad Mohamed Issa Abo-Hamd, was born in 1948 in the village of Ein Gazala near Haifa, but was expelled with his family the same year by pre-Israel Zionist forces shortly following the UN’s partition of Palestine. Since then, Abo-Hamd had resided in the Al-Waleed Refugee Camp in the Al-Anbar Al-Iraqia Desert in Iraq’s western Anbar province… continua / continued  [55713] [ 05-jul-2009 18:56 ECT ]