Tortured Logic: Obama Writes Off Old Crimes While Promoting New Outrages
Chris Floyd
…Barack Obama is being given great credit for releasing the memos, although as the president himself points out in his statement, their release was actually required by law. I suppose it’s true that the United States government has become so degraded that we must be surprised and glad when a president actually obeys the law when it suits him, but I must say that I can’t find any great cause for rejoicing — especially as Obama’s stateme nt immediately and definitely ruled out prosecuting any of the direct perpetrators of these criminal actions… This story will be buried in a day, or less, just as all the other many, many stories about the American torture program have been buried, year after year after year. And even this story — as morally repulsive as it is — deals only with the tip of the iceberg of America’s global gulag. It refers only the CIA’s treatment of a very limited number of high-profile prisoners. Yet tens of thousands of people have passed through the belly of the gulag beast, where many have been tortured, held captive for years, even murdered. And not only is this still going on, but the Obama Administration is moving strenuously in court to drive these captives even deeper into limbo, asserting that no one who is plunged into the netherworld of America’s little Gitmos in Afghanistan has the slightest right to any tincture of legal redress — even they had been kidnapped from the streets of som e foreign city and “renditioned” to Afghani! stan. Th e old crimes are being written off; the new crimes keep going on…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53484
|
|
Bush Torture Memos Released By Obama: See The Complete Documents
Sam Stein
As part of an ongoing court case, the Department of Justice released on Thursday memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005, detailing techniques used for interrogation of terrorism suspects. In doing so, President Obama declared: ”While I believe strongly in transparency and accountability, I also believe that in a dangerous world, the United States must sometimes carry out intelligence operations and protect information that is classified for purposes of national security.…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53482
|
|
Obama assures intelligence officials they won’t be prosecuted over torture
Mark Silva
The Obama administration, in releasing Department of Justice memos the Bush administration used to justify harsh interrogation techniques, assured intelligence officials today that they will not be prosecuted for the methods they employed. “In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prose cution,” President Obama said in a statement issued by the White House. “The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world,” said Obama, who has barred such interrogation techniques as “water-boarding” — a simulation of drowning that was authorized during President Bush’s administration…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53481
|
|
“Some 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967″
Marian Houk
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD) “estimates that some 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967, based on information gleaned from the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Civil Administration, OCHA and other UN sources, Palestinian & Israeli human rights groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, our field work and other sources. Last updated on 7 April 2009″. ICAHD says, in that report, that punitive demolitions are when “houses [are] demolished as punishment for the actions of people associated with the houses. The actions in questions have been everything from political organizing to attacks on Israeli civilians. This policy was suspended by the IDF in February, 2005 after it reached the conclusion that rather than deterring attacks, punitive demolitions only enflame the people and lead to more attacks. The practice was resumed on 19 January 2009″…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53477
|
|
IRAQ: More Than Two Million Refugees Waiting to Come Home
Marina Litvinsky
…The report, “Iraq: Preventing the Point of No Return,” issued last week, notes that despite encouraging returns, the government of Iraq has not realistically assessed the country’s ability to absorb large numbers of returns. RI found that Iraqis who have returned struggle to find shelter, electricity, water, jobs and access to health care. “There is immense pressure on displaced Iraqis to return home. The problem is that they return home to eth nically cleansed neighbourhoods and poor government services,” said RI President Ken Bacon. Completed during RI’s mission to Baghdad, Eskanderia, Fallujah, Karbala and Hilla to assess the humanitarian situation inside Iraq, the report says the aid community is unable to get a comprehensive picture of conditions and that restrictions placed on U.N. staff need to be adapted to the actual security climate in individual regions…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53476
|
|
Settlers Destroy Palestinian Water Tanks as Soldiers Look On
Palestine Solidarity Project
A little after 4pm, four or five masked settlers youth climbed onto the roof of the Awaywi family home and punctured six large metal water tanks in open sight of a manned Israeli military tower. Basma Awaywi, the mother of the family, was on the outside passage way of the house when she saw the masked settlers on the roof, she was frightened and went into the house. About than 15 meters from the roof of the house is an Israeli milita ry tower staffed with soldiers that have a clear view of the roof. Several other Israeli military watchtowers also have full view of the Awaywi family roof top…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53475
|
|
Yes, the U.S. is still a racist state
Marcy Newman, Body on the line
It is official. Okay, well, that is a lie. It always has been a racist state. But those who drank the obama koolaid and think that somehow having a black president equals the “post-racism” are particularly delusional. I’ve been following the world conference against racism (a.k.a. “Durban 2) religiously, but i haven’t really written much about it because most of that material is in a chapter in my book so i’ve put all my energy into that. but now that th e conference will begin this weekend and that the final decision from the White House has been made i think it warrants some discussion….
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53474
|
|
Report: US Air Strikes in Iraq Kill Mostly Women, Children
39 Percent of Those Killed Were Children
Kim Sengupta, Independent
Air strikes and artillery barrages have taken a heavy toll among the most vulnerable of the Iraqi people, with children and women forming a disproportionate number of the dead. Analysis carried out for the research group Iraq Body Count (IBC) found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53472
|
|
Peres dismisses talk of Israeli attack on Iran
Dan Williams, Reuters
Israeli President Shimon Peres rejected speculation on Thursday his country might attack Iran to deny it the means of making nuclear weapons and said U.S.-led diplomacy was the solution… The advent of Israel’s rightist Netanyahu government has redoubled international concern that Israel could go it alone with preventive strikes against its arch-foe’s nuclear sites, even at the cost of falling foul of the Obama administration. But Peres’s office quoted him as telling visiting U.S. envoy George Mitchell: “All the talk about a possible attack by Israel on Iran is not true. The solution in Iran is not military.”…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53473
|
|
Israeli warplanes bomb house in central Gaza Strip
Ma’an news
Israeli jetfighters shelled and destroyed a deserted house in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, according to local witnesses. No injuries were reported in the strike. The home apparently belonged to the Abu Safiya family in eastern Deir Al-Balah. Witnesses also reported that Israeli drones were hovering over the area following the airstrike…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53478
|
|
Hope For Gaza Convoy (Update 2)
Organizations and Reputable figures join the Convoy in Holland
Sameh A. Habeeb
Days after the announcement of launching Hope for Gaza Convoy, many organizations and supporters joined the convoy in European countries. Hundreds of people and charitable organizations have expressed their readiness to leave with the convoy. Humanitarian and Relief Coordinator, Amin Abu Rashed, said that many important organizations decided to participate in the “Hope for Gaza Convoy” “We have secured a number of trucks loaded by many aids and medical kits for Gaza children. We expect to have more people and Organizations with us in few days.”…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53464
|
|
Gaza Patients protest at the Rafah Border Crossing
Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC
Scores of patients from various parts of the Gaza Strip protested on Thursday at the Rafah Border Crossing located between Egypt and southern Gaza. Local sources said people carried banners calling for Egypt to open the crossing and to keep it free of politics. The patients demanded that they be allowed to travel for treatment outside the Gaza Strip since the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza have left the hospitals there unable to treat many illness es. According to the Department responsible for Borders and Crossings at least 700 Palestinian patients are waiting for the opening of the Rafah border crossing in order to access treatment outside the Strip…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53471
|
|
PPS releases report on Palestinian detainees
Saed Bannoura – IMEM
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) issued a detailed report on the Palestinian detainees imprisoned by Israel as the Palestinians prepare for commemorating the Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17. The report revealed that Israelis are still holding 10500 Palestinians captive…Al Zaghari added that Israel increased its violations and restrictions against the detainees after prisoner-swap talks failed to achieve a deal, placing dozens of detainees in solitary confinement in addition to imposing high fines on dozens of detainees. Israel also barred the detainees from their visitations rights as punishment after prisoner-swap talks failed. Other violations against the detainees include denying basic medical rights to sick and wounded detainees as well as regular ransacking of their cells…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53470
|
|
Troops Stole Boxes of Iraq Reconstruction Cash … Literally … But There’s a Lot More to the Story
Liliana Segura
This weekend the Los Angeles Times ran an article titled “Some U.S. troops tempted by reconstruction cash,” reporting that the Department of Justice is pursing some “three dozen prosecutions” of soldiers and others involving bribery for “reconstruction” projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. The piece tells the story of one Army captain, a 28-year old graduate from West Point, who according to a federal indictmen t, “managed to skim more than $690,000 in cash as the civil affairs officer overseeing millions of dollars intended for reconstruction projects and payments to private Iraqi security forces northeast of Baghdad.” In a particularly brazen move, Capt. Michael Dung Nguyen allegedly packed the cash into boxes, which he then mailed to his home in Beaverton, Oregon…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53468
|
|
From Iraq to Appalachia
Ronald Teska
What do the Iraq and Appalachia have in common? More than you may think. Both are occupied by U.S. energy corporations, resulting in colonization. It’s oil in one case and coal in the other, but make no mistake about it: The modus operandi and consequences are strikingly similar. Soldiers and coal miners have a shared camaraderie as both are enforcers of the will of the oil and coal corporations for the purpose of increasing bottom-line profits at any cost. This is depicted on a billbo ard in Beckley, W. Va., showing soldiers and coal miners arm in arm. The major difference being that coal miners do not have to kick down the doors of Appalachians to get the coal, as the coal companies already own most all of it…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53465
|
|
International Seeds Day on April 26
to advocate for Patent-FREE seeds, biodiversity farmers rights and to challenge Iraq’s Order 81
Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS)
- Organizations, activists, farmers and organic food advocates around the world have endorsed and will observe April 26 as International Seeds Day (ISD). The purpose of the ISD is to educate the public and inform the media about:
- Order 81 and how it had and will devastate the future of IRAQ’s agriculture;
- how to resist the ability of giant agricultural corporations’ to control seed resources;
- the importance of biodiversity and how to practice seed saving; and
- the dangers of genetically modified food and patent seeds
Join us to learn and educate about patent-free seeds and farmers’ rights, to mobilize a worldwide movement to challenge the giant agricultural corporations and to revoke Order 81.
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=53479
|
|
|
