Malteseken

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons

2012-01-13T22:53:00.003+01:00

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons: Asking Questions - part 1 Asking Questions - part 2 Verbs AR - Present - Past (Preterit) - Past (Imperfect) - Preterite & Imperfect -...

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons

2012-01-13T22:53:00.002+01:00

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons: Asking Questions - part 1 Asking Questions - part 2 Verbs AR - Present - Past (Preterit) - Past (Imperfect) - Preterite & Imperfect -...

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons

2012-01-13T22:53:00.001+01:00

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons: Asking Questions - part 1 Asking Questions - part 2 Verbs AR - Present - Past (Preterit) - Past (Imperfect) - Preterite & Imperfect -...

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons

2012-01-13T22:53:00.000+01:00

Verbs in Spanish: Spanish Lessons: Asking Questions - part 1 Asking Questions - part 2 Verbs AR - Present - Past (Preterit) - Past (Imperfect) - Preterite & Imperfect -...

Paradise Found

2011-04-22T09:11:00.000+02:00

Islamic Architecture and Art

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Paradise Found : Islamic Architecture and Arts

2011-04-22T08:58:00.002+02:00

A documentary on arts and architecture in Islam

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Cocineros argenitinos 29 03 11

2011-03-31T03:28:00.000+02:00

LA RABIA - comunicación popular - Jóvenes Al Frente: Se marcha contra el hambre

2011-03-29T20:06:00.000+02:00

LA RABIA - comunicación popular - Jóvenes Al Frente: Se marcha contra el hambre

Jovenes Al Frente M.D.P.: Marchamos contra los genocidas de ayer y de hoy

2011-03-29T19:58:00.000+02:00

Jovenes Al Frente M.D.P.: Marchamos contra los genocidas de ayer y de hoy: " A 35 años del Golpe Cívico Militar de 1976, jóvenes al frente marchó contra los genocidas de ayer y hoy, desde el polideportiv..."

La historia oficial

2011-03-25T16:46:00.002+01:00

Primera producción argentina ganadora del Oscar a la Mejor Película Extranjera. Alicia es profesora de historia. En su profesión, como en su casa, ha aceptado siempre la versión oficial sobre la Dictadura Militar de 1976–1983. Un día, la fachada del régimen y su propia vida comienzan a resquebrajarse y, aunque vislumbra un doloroso e inexorable viaje hacia la verdad, se atreve a sospechar.

Planeta Finito - Malta

2011-03-20T20:51:00.000+01:00

AIPAC of Raving Lunatics

2010-03-12T03:48:00.005+01:00

Friday, 12 March 2010 Keith Johnson

Without regard for the severe economic devastation and loss of life that a war with Iran would create, Israel’s agents in the United States continue to aggressively stoke the fires of anti-Iranian rhetoric and mobilize their minions on the floor of the House. The Brzezinski-Soros machine failed in their attempt to effect regime change in Iran by way of a “color revolution” in the summer of 2009. This has only emboldened the Israeli lobby to pursue more drastic measures. There is only one card left for them to play before provoking conflicts that will most certainly catapult the United States into direct military action against the Islamic state.

Tuesday, the American Israeli Political Action Committee gave their marching orders to their congressional War Hawks. The message was short, concise and clear. Here is the text of the letter AIPAC sent to members of Congress:

Dear Congressman XXXX,

We are writing to every member of Congress to express outrage at the U.S. government’s continuing relationship with dozens of companies doing business with Iran. These ongoing financial dealings undermine longstanding American efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, the federal government during the past decade has awarded $107 billion in contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that are doing business in Iran. More than two-thirds of these contracts have gone to companies involved in Iran’s energy industry despite American law to discourage such involvement.

The time has long since passed this policy to change. Unfortunately, as the Times points out, three successive American administrations have failed to enforce the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which mandates U.S. sanctions on firms investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector. While Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama may have discouraged some investment in Iran through their rhetoric, the United States has sent the American and international business community a contradictory message by failing to enforce the law.

Despite publicly acknowledged investments by several companies of hundreds of millions of dollars in Iran’s energy sector, the U.S. Government has inexplicably failed to make even one determination of an investment of $20 million during the course of the past decade. Yet, throughout this entire time, Iran has pursued a nuclear weapons capability, flouting its international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and presenting the international community with a growing, and now urgent, threat.

As Iran continues to reject U.S.-European engagement efforts and to defy U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring that it halt its illicit uranium enrichment efforts, the United States must take action now.

We call on Congress to:

1. Investigate why successive administrations have failed to implement the law by failing to determine what companies have invested in the Iranian energy sector;

2. Enact—without delay—the Iran sanctions legislation currently before Congress, which, inter alia, contains provisions barring federal contracts to companies which are investing in Iran’s energy sector or providing sensitive technology, and their parents or subsidiaries who are engaged in such activity;

3. Demand that the U.S. Government enforce existing sanctions law and impose crippling new sanctions on Iran.

In addition to these actions, we hope you will join with us in urging the administration to impose tough new multilateral sanctions with like-minded states without delay while continuing to pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N. Security Council.

Sincerely,

David Victor
President

Howard Kohr
Executive Director

These are pretty strong words coming from an organization which has stood in defiance of U.S. law that requires them to register as agents of a foreign power. It proves once again that the “A” in AIPAC really should be removed from their acronym. There is nothing “American” about them. This is the Israeli lobby, plain and simple. They represent Israel first and last. The United States is nothing more than a host to their endless parasitism. This letter should be an insult to anyone familiar with the State of Israel and it’s long history of refusing to comply with International laws and treaties. It reeks of hypocrisy. It’s an exercise in contempt. There is no country on the face of this earth with less justification to level these charges or make such demands.

First of all, Iran has no nuclear weapons capability. As recently as February 11, 2010, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a claim by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran had produced the first stock of 20 percent enriched uranium. Gibbs said, “The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.” The enriched uranium that Ahmadinejad was referring to was not for building a nuclear weapon but rather for medical isotopes used to treat cancer patients. And even if they did have the capability of enriching to 20 percent, it still falls far short of the nearly 98% that is required for building a weapon of mass destruction. As a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has a legal right to enrich uranium in the manner that they are claiming. On the other hand, Israel has refused to sign the NNPT and has no right to make demands of anyone pertaining to nuclear technology.

While the author of this letter points out that “the federal government has awarded $107 billion in contracts and grants to more than 70 companies that are doing business in Iran,” it fails to recognize that 14 of those companies have already pulled out and that 11 plan no future investment. Of the 49 remaining, only 3 are suspected of being in violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”. Those three companies are Daelim (South Korea), Dutch Royal Shell (Netherlands) and Total (France). Of the $174 million that Daelim received in contract money from the U.S., $111 million was used to build family housing towers for the U.S. Army. Dutch Royal Shell received $11.2 billion in contracts and that investment was instrumental in supplying a significant amount of gasoline to the U.S. military. Not one American company currently doing business and planning future investment in Iran is suspected of being in violation of the “Iran Sanctions Act”.

The author demands that Congress enact current legislation that bars companies from investing in Iran’s energy sector. But this is in direct conflict with Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran is a signer of that treaty, and that obligates the United States to help them build power plants and other facilities for non-military purposes.

If anyone should be barred from receiving federal contracts or aid it is the State of Israel, who has refused to sign the NNPT and have illegally pursued a nuclear weapons program of their own. The 1976 Symington Amendment to the Foreign Appropriations Bill of 1961 forbids the United States from giving foreign aid to any nation that is developing nuclear technology outside the NNPT. Despite this, approximately 1/3 of the total foreign aid budget of the United States is annually sent to Israel even though they comprise less than .001 of the world’s population and has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes. Former Congressman James Traficant rightly pointed out recently that between the direct foreign aid grants to Israel, along with all of the other benefits including trade compacts, economic and military assistance, “Israel gets approximately $15 billion a year from the American taxpayers. That $15 billion is $30,000 for every man, woman and child in Israel.”

In his list of demands, the author urges Congress to “pursue the widest possible sanctions through the U.N. Security Council.” This is the height of hypocrisy. Neither the State of Israel nor its agents have any standing with the United Nations in this regard. Since its inception, the State of Israel has been in violation of more UN resolutions than any other nation on earth.

Who else but a raving lunatic would even dare to write such a letter in light of the insurmountable evidence that contradicts each and every line of their text? There is no other explanation; a lunatic wrote this letter. And if Congress acts in lock step to their demands, then it should be abundantly clear to all of us that the lunatics, have indeed, taken over the asylum.

Source : Rebel News

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Settlers destroy natural spring used by Palestinians for farming near Salfit

2010-03-10T03:39:00.004+01:00

International Solidarity Movement
8 March 2010

A group of Israeli settlers today destroyed a spring by the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the Salfit district. The settlers poured sand and cement into the spring, guarded by five armed members of the Israeli military.

Palestinians from the village were forced to watch helplessly as events unfolded, prevented by the soldiers from moving close to the spring or from filming what was happening. International Solidarity Movement volunteers were able to secretly film for a short time before the soldiers noticed, and made both Palestinians and Internationals leave, saying that the area was now designated as a Closed Military Zone.

Last Friday, a large group of both Palestinians and internationals spent the day clearing the area around the spring to make it more accessible from the village. This followed previous attacks from settlers on nearby springs and farmland, during which a child suffered serious head wounds, from which he is still recovering in hospital, and an elderly man had his arm and leg broken.

Locals intend to continue their attempts to keep the spring open, and to turn the area around it into a park for the use of the village.

Under international law, the settlement next to Qarawat Bani Hassan is illegal, as are all other settlements in the occupied West Bank.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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UN envoy: Gaza is an open-air prison

2010-03-08T06:21:00.005+01:00

John Holmes, the United Nation's humanitarian chief, has revisited the Gaza Strip, a year after Israel's assault on the territory ended.

He told Al Jazeera that it was disappointing how little has changed since the war and that there has been no real possibility of reconstruction, mainly because of Israel's siege of the Strip.

He said the blockade resulted in misery for the Palestinians.

"They're living in a kind of open-air prison. They're still suffering this kind of collective punishment they've been suffering for three years now."

Source Aljaseera english

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Gaza in Plain Language

2010-03-02T12:19:00.005+01:00

Photo by DALIDA

The article "Gaza in Plain Language", by Joe Mowrey, first published by Dissident Voice was brought to my attention by Robert H. Stiver, and I immediately agreed to do a video treatment of it. Joe and I shared the research effort, and we would like to thank all of those whose video and photographic work is included in this chilling tale of a fledgling nation gone mad. We have used this material in good faith; as fair comment; for no personal gain and in the interests of truth and justice.

We have not been able to contact and thank every contributor, personally, but we do so now. Without your efforts, which were so much more harrowing than ours, because you saw the slaughter, the devastation and the grief first hand, this video would not have been possible. We dedicate this video to the people of Gaza, and to all of those decent people who are trying to help them.

Although some people will attempt to characterised it as such, what I have read and the pictures put to Joe Mowrey's words do not amount to anti-Semitism. If it needs an "ism", call it anti-Nasty-Peopleism. Which is an ism that decent people, the world over, should adopt and develop, because if we don't, the nasty people will always win.

Many thanks to Kim Petersen, Joshua Frank and Sunil K. Sharma of Dissident Voice, where one will always find unflinching commentary in support of human rights and social justice. Also thanks to the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights (CPR), in Santa Fe, New Mexico

http://www.realcostofprisons.org/coal...
The seed for "Gaza in Plain Language," as well as other articles by Joe Mowrey, was originally planted in the form of a brief commentary called, "Crime of the Month" in the monthly CPR newsletter.

Source links for the statistics relayed in this presentation are available on request from Joe Mowrey,
jmowrey@ix.netcom.com
Or better yet, do your own research. You will discover documentation for many more horrors concerning the fate of the children of Gaza than have been elucidated in this video.

Source for researce and video by alawson911

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Gaza in Plain Language

2010-03-02T12:19:00.000+01:00

Children of War, Voices for Peace

2010-02-23T09:29:00.004+01:00

Killed, maimed,orphaned, raped, trafficked,...... 1 billion children under 18 years of age are reported to be living in countries or territories affected by armed conflict*.
Robbed of physical, social, emotional and cultural needs to begin their young lives, the impact of armed conflict is devastating. Yet children and youth across World Vision's Middle East, Eastern European and Central Asia Region are asking to take part in changing the violent societies they live in. By becoming active stakeholders these children and youth are today's unheard peacebuilders - and the leaders of tomorrow. From the classroom to community, these children are challenging you to witness the impact of conflict on their lives, and find ways we can work with them to create more peaceful societies. Are you listening?
*Machel study 10 Year Strategic Review: Children and Armed Conflict in a Changing World 2009

Source: wvmeero

Picture by DALIDA

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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The Falseness of the Zionist State of Israel

2010-01-11T11:26:00.005+01:00

This Video is to show the deception that has gone on for more then 61 years, The Palestinians were robbed of there Land by Zionists who were aided by the US UK and the UN. The World has seen crime after crime committed by the first Irgun then IDF against innocent civilians and even human rights workers from outside and groups such as doctors with out borders. We Honour the Courage and Strength of the Palestinian People and also the many Brave Warriors who have and still are fighting for Freedom, Justice and the end of the Occupation in Palestine Inshallah. This Video also in Memory of Rachel Aliene Corrie for her work in Palestine in exposing the injustices of the Zionist who had her murdered in 2003 for trying to protect a Palestinian family.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Detention is creating unnecessary suffering

2009-12-19T13:39:00.005+01:00

Press Release 19/12/09

Moviment Graffitti, Migrants’ Solidarity Movement, Jesuit
Refugee Service, Third World Group, MAX (Moivment Azzjoni
Xellug), Kopin, Alternattiva Demokratika Zaghzagh and
Zminijietna felt they should remind the public that during
Christmas time – a time of merriment and celebration -
there are also people who are experiencing severe stress and
difficulties in Malta’s detention centres. We are doing
this by symbolically re-enacting the space of a detention
centre, where we will be raising awareness about the
detention system and where we will be sleeping in solidarity
with the migrants held in these centres.

The message we want to pass on is that the detention system
in Malta is creating unnecessary suffering. People’s
liberty is being arbitrarily taken away when they are locked
away for up to 18 months in small spaces, with lack of
hygiene, limited access to medical care, lack of fresh air
and complete uncertainty about their situation and their
future. Even those who don’t spend the full 18 months
inside detention centres, are still being locked up
needlessly for a very long time. This state of living is
causing people physical as well as grave mental damage. It
is quite inevitable that this kind of situation is creating
a lot of tension and frustration within these structures. We
acknowledge that it is not only the immigrants who are badly
affected by this situation but also the soldiers and persons
working with the Detention Services, who have to work in
very difficult conditions.

We believe that the policy of detention is unjust because
it is arbitrarily imprisoning persons who have committed no
crime. It is a fundamental human right that any individual
who flees his/her country of origin can ask for asylum in
another country. Most of the immigrants come to Malta
undocumented because they have no other way of leaving their
country.

Above all we cannot understand the reasons for the use of a
detention system. Surely, it is not going to deter people
from landing in Malta as many of the immigrants end here
only after encountering difficulties at sea during their
journey to Italy. Malta was not their destination of choice,
not because of detention, but because it is a very small
island. The argument that detention is needed for the
identification of persons doesn’t hold water. The
detention system doesn’t in any way help to identify
undocumented migrants. This identification can be carried
out more effectively if immigrants are in open centres. It
is also quite obvious that people with criminal intentions
will travel with passports, and not on little rickety boats
whose possibility of drowning is quite high. Furthermore,
detention gives an impression that immigrants are criminal
and dangerous. We believe that this contributes to the
presence of racism and xenophobia in Malta,
because it criminalizes people who are seeking refuge. The
detention system is therefore also a waste of financial and
human resources.

Because of all the reasons stated above, the eight
organisations here today are appealing to the Maltese
authorities to re-consider the detention policy. Moreover,
we insist that while this system is still in place, the
Maltese government should ensure that:

1) the time migrants spend in detention
is drastically reduced

2) the conditions inside detention
centres are improved

3) vulnerable groups, such as pregnant
women, children, persons with a disability and people
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, are not sent
to the detention centres.

Andre’ Callus

Moviment Graffitti, Migrants’ Solidarity Movement,
Jesuit Refugee Service, Third World Group, MAX (Moivment
Azzjoni Xellug), Kopin, Alternattiva Demokratika Zaghzagh
and Zminijietna

Sex Crimes And The Vatican

2009-09-14T15:43:00.001+02:00

A secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church is examined by Panorama. Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope. It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders.

Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes. It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act ... with youths of either sex." It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church.

Reporting for Panorama, Colm O'Gorman finds seven priests with child abuse allegations made against them living in and around the Vatican City. One of the priests, Father Joseph Henn, has been indicted on 13 molestation charges brought by a grand jury in the United States.

During filming for Sex Crimes and the Vatican, Colm finds Father Henn is fighting extradition orders from inside the headquarters of this religious order in the Vatican. The Vatican has not compelled him to return to America to face the charges against him. After filming, Father Henn lost his fight against extradition but fled the headquarters and is believed to be hiding in Italy while there is an international warrant for his arrest.

Colm O'Gorman was raped by a Catholic priest in the diocese of Ferns in County Wexford in Ireland when he was 14 years old. Father Fortune was charged with 66 counts of sexual, indecent assault and another serious sexual offence relating to eight boys but he committed suicide on the eve of his trial. Colm started an investigation with the BBC in March 2002 which led to the resignation of Dr Brendan Comiskey, the bishop leading the Ferns Diocese.

Colm then pushed for a government inquiry which led to the Ferns Report. It was published in October 2005 and found: "A culture of secrecy and fear of scandal that led bishops to place the interests of the Catholic Church ahead of the safety of children."

RACHEL CORRIE 1979- 2003

2009-03-15T23:21:00.004+01:00

Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She was killed by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during a protest against the destruction of Palestinian homes by the IDF in the Gaza Strip.[1] The details of the events surrounding Corrie's death are disputed.

"Rachel corrie" performed by ten foot pole

lyrics

You heard of Rachel Corrie?
The press won't tell her story
Caught between a house and bulldozer
She found out that Israel
Hates gardens and it will kill
Americans who help rebuild the Gaza Strip.

Let's pretend that everything will be OK
It's not our fault let's look the other way
And go to films or dance lessons or baseball
games at night
and trust elected leaders to choose right

I hurt for Rachel's father
To bury his young daughter
And her belief in human goodness
He taught her to fight violence
Now all that's left is silence
And the memory of her dignity

Let's pretend...

Rachel I hope you find justice or even a
Garden where anyone can grow some food in peace
No guns, no need to fight. No poor, no black no white,
Heaven, you deserve a break from misery

CLOSED ZONE: 'Waltz With Bashir' Animator Makes Film On Gaza

2009-03-06T22:59:00.003+01:00

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- An Israeli creator of the Oscar-nominated "Waltz with Bashir" released a short film Wednesday about the effects of his country's Gaza blockade on Palestinians.

Yoni Goodman said he hoped the 90-second animated film, "Closed Zone," would draw attention to the plight of Gaza's civilians.

"People talk about Hamas, but there are many civilians there who are not Hamas supporters but who are suffering from this blockade," the animator said.

Israel has kept Gaza's borders largely sealed since the Islamic militant Hamas took over the seaside territory in June 2007. Since then, Israeli has heavily restricted Palestinians from leaving Gaza and limited the goods that can enter.

The closed borders are a major issue in both peace talks and proposals to reconstruct Gaza after Israel's three-week offensive ended in January. Both Palestinians and international aid groups say the borders must be opened to allow in much-needed living supplies.

Goodman said he began the film before Israel launched its offensive against Gaza's ruling Hamas militants in December, but the conflict affected the story.

The film, a combination of animation and real-life scenes, follows a boy chasing a blue bird while large hands block his way. The hands cut Gaza's borders in the ground with a giant cookie-cutter, then prevent the boy from crossing.

At one point, missiles arc over the boy's head, exploding in a city on the horizon.

The film was commissioned by the Israeli human rights group Gisha. Goodman said that as an Israeli, he hoped the film could challenge the view that most Israelis favor violence.

"I want people in the West to see it, to see that there are people in Israel who are against war, who want peace," he said.

Goodman was animation director for "Waltz with Bashir," which followed a soldier struggling to recall suppressed memories of his involvement in Israel's 1982 war with Lebanon. The film won a Golden Globe award and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film.

"Closed Zone" has been released on the Internet at closedzone.com and on YouTube, but Goodman hopes it will have wider distribution.

The BJ's Music Marathon 2009 at BJ's Night Club : Ball Street : Paceville : Malta

2009-02-25T09:15:00.005+01:00

The BJ`s Music marathon will this year start on the 13th of April. All musicians and artists that would like to take part please contact Mr Philip Fenech on 99493534 or at BJ`s every day after 10 pm.

I will update on here every time I will have new information and confirm the SMS numbers for donations.

History

The History BJ's live music marathon was first held 1989 to help a friend who needed medical intervention overseas. It started off with a humble beginning of one night and grew steadily to a 100 hour annual event. The last few years we have extended it to a week because of popular demand. Over 200 musicians of all styles of music participate. Veteran musicians, students and upcoming musicians take the stage and show off their talent. For some musicians this marathon would be the first time they would have played publicly. All musicians play for free, some for as much as 30 hours during the whole week. Until last year we have collected a Lm 100,000 , which have been donated to various philantropic organisations and individuals in need. Amongst other top celebrities, the well-known guitarist and singer Bon Jovi, while filming in Malta, found time to play for this worthy cause to everyone's disbelief! Many music enthusiasts see this event as Malta's Woodstock or Live Aid. Donations are collected at the door, through sponsorship and telephonic donation lines. Various organisations that benefited throughout the last 19 years include: - Caritas Malta - Dar tal-Providenza - IBIC - Institute for Brain Injured Children - Eden Foundation - Torball and also for various individuals who needed medical intervention overseas.

Israels war on Gaza - Sir David frost - Frost over the world

2009-02-16T05:58:00.001+01:00

Sir David and his guests discuss the political and humanitarian crisis facing Gaza.

Obama's Legal Team Copies Bush's 'State Secrets' Trick to Cover Up Torture and Renditions

2009-02-12T10:49:00.003+01:00

Attorneys representing the Obama administration are defending one of the most controversial practices of the Bush administration.

On Monday in San Francisco, attorneys representing the Obama administration did what many of the president's supporters would have considered unthinkable on election day: they arrived in a federal courtroom and defended one of the most controversial practices of the Bush administration.

"Eric Holder's Justice Department stood up in court today and said that it would continue the Bush policy of invoking state secrets to hide the reprehensible history of torture, rendition and the most grievous human rights violations committed by the American government," Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union said in an impassioned statement. "This is not change. This is definitely more of the same."

The case was Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen Dataplan, a lawsuit originally brought in 2007 by the ACLU on behalf of five victims of extraordinary rendition, the notorious CIA program in which terror suspects are kidnapped, thrown on a plane and flown to another country to be tortured and interrogated.

Jeppesen Dataplan, a subsidiary of Boeing, is said to have provided the logistical support for the rendition of all five plaintiffs, among them, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian national who, in July 2002, was taken from Pakistan to Morocco, where for 18 months he was imprisoned and brutally tortured, including being cut with razorblades on his testicles. Mohamed was later sent to Guantanamo Bay, where he supposedly awaits imminent plans for his release. He has never stood trial.

Under Bush, the ACLU's lawsuit was thrown out multiple times on "state secrets" grounds -- a bogus excuse according to human rights lawyers who have long argued that the real goal was to keep evidence of the sort of torture endured by Mohamed away from a courtroom.

"To date, not a single torture victim has had his day in court in the United States," ACLU attorney Ben Wizner told reporters last week. Thus, the objective of yesterday's hearing was simple: the ACLU was asking that the lawsuit move forward. But to the dismay of many who believed Obama would open the door to justice for torture victims in the so-called war on terror, it appears his administration is instead following in Bush's footsteps.

"This case cannot be litigated," Department of Justice lawyer Douglas Letter said on Monday. "The judges shouldn't play with fire in this national security situation."

For those who spent the past eight years fighting back against cynical claims of "national security" to justify illegal and inhumane practices, the words smack of the Bush era.

"If the Obama administration, so early on, is toeing the Bush line," Romero warns, "that speaks volumes for where we might end up years from now."

The Debate Over Rendition

The Jeppesen hearing came on the heels of a week that saw the topic of extraordinary rendition -- and Obama's approach to it -- under particular scrutiny. On Feb. 1, the Los Angeles Times ran a story that caused a stir around the issue in the media, the blogosphere and the human rights community.

"The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered," the article began. "Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

"But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counterterrorism tool.

"Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States."

The article quoted an anonymous administration official, who said,

"Obviously you need to preserve some tools -- you still have to go after the bad guys.

"The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."

The official's statement was backed up with a quote from a representative from Human Rights Watch: "'Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place'" for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch."

The article sparked anger and controversy from op-ed pages to the blogosphere. ("So, it would appear that we will not see the end of torture under this administration after all," lamented blogger Digby.) But backlash against the LA Times quickly followed.

In a post titled "Renditions Buffoonery," attorney Scott Horton, who writes the Harpers blog "No Comment," called it a "breathless piece of reporting," which, among other problems, "misses the difference between the renditions program, which has been around since the Bush 41 administration at least … and the extraordinary renditions program which was introduced by Bush 43 and clearly shut down under an executive order issued by President Obama in his first week."

The earlier renditions program regularly involved snatching and removing targets for purposes of bringing them to justice by delivering them to a criminal justice system. It did not involve the operation of long-term detention facilities and it did not involve torture. There are legal and policy issues with the renditions program, but they are not in the same league as those surrounding extraordinary rendition.

The LA Times, said Horton, "got punk'd."

Constitutional lawyer and blogger Glenn Greenwald had his own criticisms about the article, and got into an e-mail debate with its author, Greg Miller, whose response defending his report was posted on Greenwald's blog.

"The story made clear that Obama intends to administer the rendition program in a very different way," Miller argued. "… This is not a story saying it's business as usual under Obama."

"Nevertheless, the rendition program is controversial. Even if administered in the most enlightened manner, it is a program that involves the use of the CIA in secret abductions and prisoner transfers."

Even as some backpedaled on their initial reactions ("You'd think I'd know better than to take a newspaper article about the intelligence community at face value by now," Digby wrote), for some who have closely followed the Obama administration's handling of torture in his first days in office, the discussion was far from over.

"Liberal bloggers have jumped on the bandwagon defending President Obama's executive order calling for a review of the practices of transferring individuals to other nations in order to ensure that such practices comply with the domestic laws, international obligations, and policies of the United States," wrote psychologist and blogger Jeffrey Kaye, who has spent the past few months waging a one-man crusade against the torture loophole embedded in the Army Field Manual. "Forget that Obama did not outlaw the practice of rendition. But this is because, according to certain liberal bloggers, and a few human rights spokespeople (like Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch), 'Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place' for renditions."

According to Horton et al., extraordinary renditions are war crimes, because the government sends prisoners to foreign countries to be tortured. (That is certainly correct, so far as that goes.) "Legal" renditions -- as defined by Richard Clarke in a recent article … are examples of "renditions performed by the American government [and] are legal, effective and done within the scope of human rights" (emphasis added). And if you think differently, then you are "ridiculously misinformed," a "buffoon," a "moron" (the latter by a Daily Kos commenter to yours truly).

Like other defenders of Obama's right to maintain some version of the policy in place, Clarke, a counterterror advisor to Bill Clinton, sought to clear up "the confusion over rendition." Rendition "proved workable before the Bush administration," Clarke wrote, "And it need not be something to fear in the future."

What Is Really at Stake

The differences between Bush-era rendition and its precursors are not insignificant -- in fact, Horton and Center for Constitutional Rights President Michael Ratner debated them on Democracy Now! last week. But, given that they largely boil down to what the CIA did as a matter of policy under Bush (torture) versus what was allegedly done under Clinton unofficially (torture), neither are they the most urgent issue at hand. Obama's much-lauded executive orders are vague enough to elicit endless speculation when it comes to rendition and other intelligence policies. But the actions of his Department of Justice on Monday were not.

"This was an opportunity for the new administration to act on its condemnation of torture and rendition, but instead it has chosen to stay the course," Ben Wizner said. "Now we must hope that the court will assert its independence by rejecting the government's false claims of state secrets and allowing the victims of torture and rendition their day in court."

Indeed, at stake in the Jeppesen case is not only justice for the victims of a hideous policy -- one that, in whatever form, should not be exercised by a country that claims to be a beacon of democracy and human rights -- but a changing of course when it comes to the flagrant abuse of the state-secrets doctrine, which was repeatedly used by the Bush administration to stamp out lawsuits against the government for its myriad abuses, from torture to illegal spying.

Both Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have vowed to review the Bush administration's use of the state secrets privilege. As a DOJ spokesperson told the Washington Post yesterday. "It is vital that we protect information that if released could jeopardize national security, but the department will ensure the privilege is not invoked to hide from the American people information about their government's actions that they have a right to know."

But as Romero told reporters last week, the actions of the Obama administration "are unfortunately speaking louder than their words."

"What this is clearly about is shielding the U.S. government and Bush officials from any accountability," wrote Glenn Greenwald following the Jeppesen hearing Monday. "Worse, by keeping Bush's secrecy architecture in place, it ensures that any future president -- Obama or any other -- can continue to operate behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy, with no transparency or accountability even for blatantly criminal acts.

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted February 10, 2009.

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Keith Olbermann SAVAGES Dick Cheney on continued interference

2009-02-09T03:46:00.005+01:00

Dick Cheney You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!

Keith Olbermann looks back at what Cheney has been saying and finds the old pot of poison wrong on ALL accounts. Cheney tried to scare the World into backing his and Bushs terrible regime, this is a superb counterblast to an age of paranoia not seen in the West since McCarthyism

Jewish Peace News: A vital, groundbreaking resource for resistance

2009-02-07T23:39:00.000+01:00

Jewish Peace News: A vital, groundbreaking resource for resistance

The Men Behind Obama

2009-02-05T18:23:00.004+01:00

n this interview, conducted by Deep Journal before the 4 November elections, Webster Tarpley expounds on the topic of his recently published book "Obama, The Postmodern Coup,The Making of a Manchurian Candidate". Does Obama represent a real change or is it the same old imperialism with cosmetic surgery?

Tarpley argues that there is more to Obama than his charismatic appearance. Exit the "neo-cons", the real power behind the throne is now Zbigniew Brzezinski whose policies, he claims, are far more dangerous and insane. There will be an immediate shift in the hit-list of countries, starting with Pakistan, widely expanding the theatre of war operations in the pursuit of a global geostrategic agenda where Russia and China are the ultimate targets. Tarpley foresees a catastrophic outcome for the entire world should Brzezinski’s plans be allowed to go through. Whether his views are correct for now is a matter of opinion and remains to be seen, but for the public debate it is relevant to take note of his facts and arguments. It would nevertheless appear that, so far, his analysis is being borne out by the recent developments in South West Asia.

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IDF "subcontracted" by extremist settlers

2009-02-04T18:49:00.003+01:00

An Israeli soldier inspects a wall of a mosque desecrated by suspected Jewish settlers, reading "Muhammad is a pig," West Bank city of Qalqiliya, December 2008. (Khaleel Reash/MaanImages)

Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics.

In a process one military historian has termed the rapid "theologization" of the Israeli army, there are now entire units of religious combat soldiers, many of them based in West Bank settlements. They answer to hardline rabbis who call for the establishment of a Greater Israel that includes the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Their influence in shaping the army's goals and methods is starting to be felt, say observers, as more and more graduates from officer courses are also drawn from Israel's religious extremist population.

"We have reached the point where a critical mass of religious soldiers is trying to negotiate with the army about how and for what purpose military force is employed on the battlefield," said Yigal Levy, a political sociologist at the Open University who has written several books on the Israeli army.

The new atmosphere was evident in the "excessive force" used in the recent Gaza operation, Dr Levy said. More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, a majority of them civilians, and thousands were injured as whole neighborhoods of Gaza were leveled.

"When soldiers, including secular ones, are imbued with theological ideas, it makes them less sensitive to human rights or the suffering of the other side."

The greater role of extremist religious groups in the army came to light last week when it emerged that the army rabbinate had handed out a booklet to soldiers preparing for the recent 22-day Gaza offensive.

Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, said the material contained messages "bordering on racist incitement against the Palestinian people" and might have encouraged soldiers to ignore international law.

The booklet quotes extensively from Shlomo Aviner, a far-right rabbi who heads a religious seminary in the Muslim quarter of East Jerusalem. He compares the Palestinians to the Philistines, the Biblical enemy of the Jews.

He advises: "When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers ... This is a war on murderers." He also cites a Biblical ban on "surrendering a single millimeter" of Greater Israel.

The booklet was approved by the army's chief rabbi, Brig Gen Avichai Ronsky, who is reportedly determined to improve the army's "combat values" after its failure to crush Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006.

Gen Ronsky was appointed three years ago in a move designed, according to the Israeli media, to placate hardline religious elements within the army and the settler community.

Gen Ronsky, himself a settler in the West Bank community of Itimar, near Nablus, is close to far-right groups. According to reports, he pays regular visits to jailed members of Jewish terror groups; he has offered his home to a settler who is under house arrest for wounding Palestinians; and he has introduced senior officers to a small group of extremist settlers who live among more than 150,000 Palestinians in Hebron.

He has also radically overhauled the rabbinate, which was originally founded to offer religious services and ensure religious soldiers were able to observe the sabbath and eat kosher meals in army canteens.

Over the past year the rabbinate has effectively taken over the role of the army's education corps through its Jewish Awareness Department, which co-ordinates its activities with Elad, a settler organization that is active in East Jerusalem.

In October, the Haaretz newspaper quoted an unnamed senior officer who accused the rabbinate of carrying out the religious and political "brainwashing" of troops.

Levy said the army rabbinate's power was growing as the ranks of religious soldiers swelled.

Breaking the Silence, a project run by soldiers seeking to expose the army's behavior against Palestinians, said the booklet handed out to troops in Gaza had originated among Hebron's settlers.

"The document has been around since at least 2003," said Mikhael Manekin, 29, one of the group's directors and himself religiously observant. "But what is new is that the army has been effectively subcontracted to promote the views of the extremist settlers to its soldiers."

The power of the religious right in the army reflected wider social trends inside Israel, Levy said. He pointed out that the rural cooperatives known as kibbutzim that were once home to Israel's secular middle classes and produced the bulk of its officer corps had been on the wane since the early 1980s.

"The vacuum left by their gradual retreat from the army was filled by religious youngsters and by the children of the settlements. They now dominate in many branches of the army."

According to figures cited in the Israeli media, more than one-third of all Israel's combat soldiers are religious, as are more than 40 percent of those graduating from officer courses.

The army has encouraged this trend by creating some two dozen hesder yeshivas, seminaries in which youths can combine Biblical studies with army service in separate religious units. Many of the yeshivas are based in the West Bank, where students are educated by the settlements' extremist rabbis.

Ehud Barak, the defense minister, has rapidly expanded the program, approving four yeshivas, three based in settlements, last summer. Another 10 are reportedly awaiting his approval.

Manekin, however, warned against blaming the violence inflicted on Gaza's civilians solely on the influence of religious extremists.

"The army is still run by the secular elites in Israel and they have always been reckless with regard to the safety of civilians when they wage war. Jewish nationalism that justifies Palestinian deaths is just as dangerous as religious extremism."

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 4 February 2009

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Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

A version of this article originally appeared in The National, published in Abu Dhabi.

Gaza zoo destroyed

2009-02-03T14:13:00.005+01:00

Zookeeper Emad Jamil Qasim looks at the remains of a pregnant camel at the Gaza zoo. A missile fired by Israelitroops shot through the back of the camel. In every corner of the zoo and in every cage lie dead animals.

Monkeys and camels were among many animals killed by Israeli fire at a Gaza zoo.

Israeli troops shot and killed zoo animals

The Gaza Zoo reeks of death. But zookeeper Emad Jameel Qasim doesn't appear to react to the stench as he walks around the animals' enclosures.

A month ago, it was attracting families - he says the zoo drew up to 1,000 visitors each day. He points at the foot-long hole in the camel in one of the enclosures.

"This camel was pregnant, a missile went into her back," he tells us. "Look, look at her face. She was in pain when she died."

Around every corner, inside almost every cage are dead animals, who have been lying in their cages since the Israeli incursion.

Qasim doesn't understand why they chose to destroy his zoo. And it's difficult to disagree with him. Most of them have been shot at point blank range.

"The first thing the Israelis did was shoot at the lions - the animals ran out of their cage and into the office building. Actually they hid there."

The two lions are back in their enclosure. The female is pregnant, and lies heavily on the ground, occasionally swishing her tail. Qasim stands unusually close to them, but they don't seem bothered by his presence.

As he takes us around, he is obviously appalled at the state of the animals. The few animals that have survived appear weak and disturbed.

"The foxes ate each other because we couldn't get to them in time. We had many here." There are carcasses everywhere and the last surviving fox is quivering in the corner.

The zoo opened in late 2005, with money from local and international NGOs. There were 40 types of animals, a children's library, a playground and cultural centre housed at the facility.

Inside the main building, soldiers defaced the walls, ripped out one of the toilets and removed all of the hard drives from the office computers. We asked him why they targeted the zoo. He laughs. "I don't know. You have to go and ask the Israelis. This is a place where people come to relax and enjoy themselves. It's not a place of politics."

Israel has accused Hamas of firing rockets from civilian areas. Qasim reacts angrily when we raise the subject.

"Let me answer that with a question. We are under attack. There was not a single person in this zoo. Just the animals. We all fled before they came. What purpose does it serve to walk around shooting animals and destroying the place?"

Inside one cage lie three dead monkeys and another two in the cage beside them. Two more escaped and have yet to return. He points to a clay pot. "They tried to hide", he says of a mother and baby half-tucked inside.

Qasim says that his main two priorities at the moment are rebuilding the zoo and taking the Israeli army to court. For the first, he says he will need close to $200,000(Dh734,000) to return the zoo to its former state - and he wants the Israelis to cover the costs. "They have to pay me for all this damage."

We ask him why it's so important for Gaza to have a zoo. "During the past four years it was the most popular place for kids. They came from all over the Gaza Strip. There was nowhere else for people to go."

Has Israel gone berserk and lost all sense of reasoning? Should it be tried for war crimes at The Hague?

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By Ashraf Helmi, Videographer, and Megan Hirons, Photographer for Gulfnews

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire

2009-02-03T03:48:00.003+01:00

Now that U.S. government has stop searching the weapons of mass destruction, it is not very delighting to hear Bush, Cheney and others say that there is "no doubt that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction". Of course they won't be saying it anymore, but it's all here, in Hijacking Catastrophe.

The war against Iraq is also a never-ending subject for debates between left-wing and right-wing, but this documentary shows and reminds us all from the facts and reasons, that drove U.S. to attack middle-east once again. Michael Moore gave his personal view with Fahrenheit 9/11 and successfully told what he thinks about Bush and his friends in Capitol Hill. Hijacking Catastrophe on the other hand, gives us much more and goes very deep into economy of America and history and presence of Project for the New American Century (yes, there is a "project" that has a website at http://www.newamericancentury.org). If Fahrenheit 9/11 was disturbingly great political stance, Hijacking Catastrophe is frightening experience that gives you emotions of anger, sadness and also fear.

Direction of Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally is strong with perfectly controlled and respectable use variety of persons interviewed. Those who are first to blame Hijacking Catastrophe as left-wing slander propaganda, should know that you can hear and see ex-Delta Force, Rangers and Special Forces soldier Stan Goff, Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski from U.S. Air Force and Scott Ritter, a ballistic missile technology expert telling what they have been seeing and experiencing during their years in military. Of course, they are sharp interviews of Noam Chomsky, Norman Mailer and many other intelligent individuals who are credible enough to open our eyes. The fact that there are no fanatic and overblown preaching involved, makes Hijacking Catastrophe a strong experience that needs to be seen many times. On top of interviews and TV news flashes, the narration of civil rights activist Julian Bond tightens the information that doesn't leave you with many questions. In the end, you can understand the reasons of these neo-conservatives but you don't have to accept them.

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire is intelligent piece of documentary cinema, that deserves a lot of more attention. It raises up many interesting views between the acts of U.S. government and Nazi leader Herman Goering. Quote of Goering from Nuremberg trials: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.". Just visit the before-mentioned website of Project for the New American Century, watch Fox News Channel or their website at foxnews.com and take a look what Dubya have recently said (about Iran and Syria, for example). Or just watch Hijacking Catastrophe. It's all here, before Bush said anything. The makers of the film are not prophets, they have only collected visible information into one film in very intelligent way.

Media Education Foundation does a great and respectable job producing critical documentaries to people (and living up to its name!), who are all alone with corporate-controlled media - television and newspaper. If you are in doubt, check Hijacking Catastrophe out as soon as possible. There are fine examples of TV propaganda included in this documentary, that you haven't been noticing. Until now.

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Machssomim-israel-gaza Strip Checkpoint (palestinians Abuse) (2003)

2009-02-01T21:54:00.003+01:00

This is the shocking video footage Machssomim - Israel-Gaza Strip Checkpoint (2003) which simply provides a "fly on the wall" account of various checkpoints on the Palestine-Israel border. Miles from anywhere, people travel frequently, walking long distances, to go to hospitals or to work. The Israeli guards like to 'show them' and routinely harass them by making them stand in the blazing sun, driving rain, or deep snow for many hours (eg up to ten hours) before returning their papers and often sending them home. They are polite, but admit to the cameras that this is how they deal with people - force them to stand in the rain. It could almost be a laid back Palestinian expose of what is happening at the checkpoints except - and here is the double-whammy - it is made by an Israeli, with Israeli funding - and it has been snapped up and promoted by the Israelis in cinemas but also the Palestinians - what is perhaps even more shocking it is now being used by the Israeli forces as training material for their guards. See for yourself the level of harrasment ordinary Palestinians have to endur to simply get from one part to the other of a country which used to belong to them but is still under Israeli occupation. 1h long. long. A must see for everyone.

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Palestine is still the Issue

2009-01-30T05:24:00.003+01:00

In 1974, John Pilger made the film 'Palestine Is Still The Issue'. It was about a nation of people - the Palestinians - forced off their land and later subjected to a military occupation by Israel. An occupation condemned by the United Nations and almost every country in the world, including Britain.

But Israel is backed by a very powerful friend, the United States.

In 2002 Pilger made another film of the same name. "In 25 years," said Pilger, "if we are to speak of the great injustice, nothing has changed. What has changed is that the Palestinians have fought back. Stateless and humiliated for so long, Palestinians have risen up against Israel's huge military machine, although they themselves have no arms, no tanks, no American planes and gun ships or missiles.

"Some have committed desperate acts of terror, like suicide bombing. But for Palestinians, the overriding, routine terror, day after day, has been the ruthless control of almost every aspect of their lives, as if they live in an open prison. This is the story of the Palestinians and a group of courageous Israelis united in the oldest human struggle - to be free."

Click here to read John Pilger's articles on Palestine

John Pilger's reporting from Palestine and Israel is the centrepiece of his new book, Freedom Next Time

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The zionist

2009-01-29T19:23:00.003+01:00

A montage made from different news sources (news channels, web sites, interviews) summing up all the hate, Terrorism the state of Israel possess inside a corrupted Creed created by Hijacking the religion of Judaism and forming a man-made Religion called Zionism based on Aggression, Brutality and terrorism opposing the basic Teaching in the Torah , And how ugly the Zionist civilians in the state of Israel. if only the Western Media makeup stopped hiding the truth from us. We would have realized ages ago that Israel has no right to Exist in the middle East with such Corrupted Agenda carrying the Venom Zionism into action For over 60 years.

source futuredoc

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Who Created the Modern Day State of Israel? When Did All This Killing Start? Who's Idea Was this?

2009-01-26T16:44:00.003+01:00

The Balfour Declaration and the Zimmermann Note

By John Cornelius

In trying to unravel the puzzle of why Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, perhaps the first need is to establish that a puzzle really exists. It has been suggested that it can all be explained by money, but I find this hard to accept. At least two statements lead one to believe that the true reason for the issuance of the Balfour Declaration remains hidden. The first is a statement to Parliament in 1922 by Winston Churchill, then colonial secretary, that it should not be thought that, in the Balfour Declaration, Britain gave something to the Jews for which she received nothing in return. The second is Fromkins statement that, in his memoirs, written in the 1930s, Lloyd George says that he issued the Balfour Declaration in gratitude for Weizmanns contributions in wartime acetone production. Fromkin calls this fiction. Usually when people tell lies, it is for the purpose of concealing the truth.

A possibility that should be considered is that Britain issued the Balfour Declaration in exchange, not for something she hoped would happen in the future, but for something that had already happened in the past. If we look back a few months before the time of the Balfour Declaration we find an event of extreme value to Britain—Americas entry into the war. What I suggest is that the Balfour Declaration was a reward to the Zionists for their part in having brought the United States into the First World War at Britains side.

To test this hypothesis we must ask what actually did bring the U.S. into the war. Long-term anti-German propaganda by the British certainly helped to set the stage. But there is little doubt that the actual trigger was the publication of the so-called Zimmermann Note or Zimmermann Telegram. This was a message sent on Jan. l6, 1917, by the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, via the German ambassador in Washington, to the German minister in Mexico City. It stated that Germany planned to begin unrestricted submarine warfare (meaning not restricted to British ships though still restricted to a war zone around the British Isles) on Feb. 1, that Germany would attempt to keep America neutral, but that should that attempt fail and war become inevitable, the German minister should propose a formal German-Mexican alliance to the Mexican president. One of the aims of the alliance would be the restoration of Mexican sovereignty over Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

The mere fact that the Zimmermann Note was sent had no effect whatever on Americas going to war. At no time did the German government want war with America, and the Zimmermann Note represented no change. It only represented contingency planning. Had it remained secret, and had America remained neutral, it would never have come into play.

What did have a dramatic effect was that the note was made public. Let us see how this came about.

Accepted history is that the Zimmermann Note was sent encrypted on Jan. 16, 1917, intercepted by the British and subsequently decoded. In late February the text was given to the U.S. Embassy in London. It was transmitted to Washington and was released to the press on March 1. An uproar followed in the press and in Congress, leading to a declaration of war against Germany on April 6, l9l7.

The Germans must have known that the Zimmermann Note, though only a contingency plan, could be used to their great disadvantage if it were to fall into British hands. The note is said to have been sent, encrypted, to Washington by three different routes, including direct radio transmission. The German Embassy in Washington then sent it, re-encrypted, on to the German legation in Mexico City in an ordinary Western Union telegram. The British should have had no difficulty in intercepting the original Berlin-to-Washington telegram, but the Germans must have been confident that they would be unable to decipher it. The Germans had themselves been intercepting and deciphering Allied radio messages since 1914, so they must have had a good idea what could and could not be done. We should examine the possibility that the Germans were right. We do not actually know that the British were able to decipher the Zimmermann Telegram. All we know is that somehow or other the unenciphered text of the Zimmermann Note came into British hands.

There is at least one other way in which this could have happened. The Zimmermann Note could have been betrayed by Zionists or into Zionist hands in Berlin and smuggled to England and there used for bargaining with the British government.

There were Jews in high places in the Germany of 1917, and some of them no doubt believed in Zionism rather than in assimilation.

Deir Yassin Remembered

2009-01-24T12:36:00.005+01:00

Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.

In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

Part of the struggle for self-determination by Palestinians has been to tell the truth about Palestinians as victims of Zionism. For too long their history has been denied, and this denial has only served to further oppress and deliberately dehumanize Palestinians in Israel, inside the occupied territories, and outside in their diaspora.

Some progress has been made. Westerners now realize that Palestinians, as a people, do exist. And they have come to acknowledge that during the creation of the state of Israel, thousands of Palestinians were killed and over 700,000 were driven or frightened from their homes and lands on which they had lived for centuries.

Deir Yassin Remembered seeks similar progress on behalf of the victims of the Deir Yassin Massacre . . .

The Doomsday Code

2009-01-23T07:42:00.003+01:00

In this Channel 4 documentary Tony Robinson investigates the people with powerful political friends in the White House, who are trying to bring about the end of the world. Julia Bard reports

Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, is filled with bizarre, violent and terrifying images. Its origins are unclear and its content is controversial. Some say it is the work of St John but many others believe he could not have been the author. But whoever wrote it, described apocalyptic visions of plagues, famines, wars, devils, wild beasts and rivers of blood. It is so strange and complex that scholars down the centuries have continually reinterpreted its message and meaning.

Today, though, a growing number of American evangelical Christians reckon they have cracked the code. These End Timers believe that every weird word of Revelation predicts real events. Like a Hollywood sci fi movie they say that any time now the world will end. And when it does, true believers in Christ will be whisked up to heaven in an event called The Rapture while non-believers are left behind on earth to face famine, war, terror and destruction as the forces of good and evil fight to the bitter end.
Political implications

If this was confined to the personal beliefs of a few fundamentalists it would be of little significance but, says Tony Robinson, the leaders of the End Time movement are rich, well-connected and very powerful. Though the USA constitution enshrines the separation of church and state End Timers are frequent visitors to the White House. No one knows if George W Bush is an End Timer himself, but his policies are at one with those of the evangelical Right and his language is often apocalyptic, such as when he describes the 'war on terror' as 'the epic struggle of good and evil'.
Jerusalem

According to the prophecy, Jerusalem is where this final battle is to be played out. No stranger to conflict and violence, this city is the focus of End Timers' dreams of eternal paradise, because, according to their beliefs, this is where Christ will come back to earth. But first, they say, the Jews must return. End Timers believe that the establishment of the State of israel in 1948 was a fulfilment of the biblical prophecy and that since then 'the last days clock has been ticking'.

Many of them interpret the US government's policies on Israel and the Middle East from a biblical point of view. Before the war in Iraq, the USA supported a negotiated settlement in which Israel would return the Occupied Territories to the Palestinians. By 2004, after a torrent of criticism of the Roadmap to Peace, Bush's position had changed and now there is no call for a large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank.

End Timers parade through the streets of Jerusalem and take large amounts of cash to illegal West Bank settlements to encourage the residents to entrench themselves more deeply on this Palestinian land. In Jerusalem itself, Jews are being bankrolled by Christian fundamentalists to reside in Arab houses. The End Timers think that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke ('was removed from the scene') because he wanted to give back some of the Palestinian land.

Many Israelis are very worried about the kind of 'support' they are being offered. One journalist says that this is not based on Israel's needs and that there is no support for peacemaking. On the contrary, the agenda of the Evangelicals is war, so as to fulfil violent prophecy of Revelation.

Provocatively, some End Timers have joined forces with a fundamentalist Jewish group who want to rebuild the Temple of Solomon – touching on the ancient Jewish yearning for their destroyed Temple. But the place where they plan to build it has deep meaning for the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Temple Mount, where Islam's 3rd most holy site, Al-Aqsa Mosque, is situated, is the spot where Muslim, Jewish and Christian believers think that God created Adam, Abraham prepared his son Isaac to be sacrificed, and according to his vision, Muhammed was carried on a winged horse.

Mainstream Christians in the locality are appalled. They say attempts to rebuild the Temple are inflammatory and threaten to unleash even more bloodshed in the Middle East.
Predictions of war

Could it be that this is precisely what they are trying to provoke, in order to hasten the end of days? According to End Timers, when the believers are whisked up to heaven those left behind will face the ultimate battle between good and evil. It will take seven years to count the dead, they say – the time of Tribulation, a hell on earth. Israel will survive, according to this story, but will have a sudden victory only after a long war. Some say this means nuclear war and they support the war in Iraq because they believe that will bring it closer. Megiddo is the Hebrew name for Armageddon: the town where this carnage will occur.

For some End Timers, all this is big – very big – business. Tim LaHaye's Christian fiction series, Left Behind, has sold 63 million books, and movies of the books have been made by Cloud Ten Pictures. The internet is awash with websites which tell you how to prepare for The Rapture, and there are American shops to sell you everything you need to survive (for around $3,000) if you're unfortunate enough to be left behind.

The concept of the Antichrist originated in Medieval times, and is not found in the Bible. Nevertheless these evangelical Christians believe that the Antichrist is 'walking among us right now', the incarnation of evil, luring people to his cause with false promises of peace. For End Timers, the United Nations, whose role is to seek and maintain peace across the world, fits this description perfectly.
Undermining Africa

Now End Time beliefs are now spreading to Africa, with dire consequences. Uganda's President, Yoweri Museveni, is a born again Christian who is lionised by American End Timers. An American preacher in the capital, Kampala, says that the answers to Uganda's problems are not political, economic or educational, but can be found in the Bible, which he describes as 'God's constitution for the planet'.

Newspaper editor Andrew Mwenda is appalled by these Doomsday preachers, who he believes are converting young people and diverting them from fulfilling their potential and pursuing their careers. He says: 'This country is on a highway to hell.'

Uganda was a model in Africa of AIDS education and prevention and the rate of infection was falling. Now Museveni is promoting abstinence rather than safer sex, the number of cases is rising.Teacher Julius Othieno describes children being taken out of school, and not taking medicine when they are ill, in order to hasten their death.
Revelation

What is the real source of these ideas that so many people attribute to the book of Revelation? Whoever wrote it sheltered in a cave on the Greek island of Patmos, probably a refugee from Roman occupied Palestine. He is also likely to have consumed the local hallucinogenic magic mushrooms. So rather than taking these bizarre visions literally, it might make more sense to try to understand them in their historical context.

There are some 40 apocalyptic books from this era but this was the only one that made it into the Bible. If the author was writing about the hated Roman Empire, it could be that the seven heads of the beast meant the seven emperors. The mark of the beast could be the head of the emperor on the coins. The dreaded 666 very likely represented three letters indicating the Emperor Nero – representing letters by numbers was, and is, common in Hebrew. If so, instead of being a description of a world in chaos, it could be seen as a book of morality, optimism and faith.

Let's hope the End Timers start to see it like that before their actions really do bring about the end of the world.

First shown on Channel 4 in September 2006

Israel and Palestine: Roots of Conflict, Prospects for Peace

2009-01-19T14:49:00.002+01:00

Recorded in the Ford Auditorium on December 11th, 2008 at Case Western Reserve University.

Sponsored by The Hallinan Project for Peace and Social Justice

Speaker- Norman Finkelstein

SIR Gerald Kaufman. "Israel was born out of Jewish Terrorism"

2009-01-19T05:59:00.002+01:00

"Israel was born out of Jewish Terrorism" Tzipi Livnis Father was a Terrorist" Astonishing claims in the Hous of Parliamnet. SIR Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour MP, yesterday compared the actions of Israeli troops in Gaza to the Nazis who forced his family to flee Poland.

During a Commons debate on the fighting in Gaza, he urged the government to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, said: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town a German soldier shot her dead in her bed.

"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."

He said the claim that many of the Palestinian victims were militants "was the reply of the Nazi" and added: "I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants."

He accused the Israeli government of seeking "conquest" and added: "

They are not simply war criminals, they are fools."

OCCUPATION 101

2009-01-17T06:57:00.002+01:00

A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets.

The film covers a wide range of topics -- which include -- the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880's, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy.

Featured Interviews

Occupation 101 features a leading list of some of the most credible Middle East scholars, historians, peace activists, journalists, and humanitarian workers.

For a complete listing, please click here.

Norman Finkelstein vs Martin Indyk over Gaza and the "Peace Process"

2009-01-16T01:59:00.003+01:00

The Israeli assault on Gaza is entering its thirteenth day. Some 700 Palestinians have been killed, with many thousands more wounded, and a humanitarian crisis is mounting. Ten Israelis have died, four by friendly fire. A ceasefire has not been reached, and the offensive continues. We host a debate between Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton administration, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and author of, Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East, and Norman Finkelstein, author of several books, including The Holocaust Industry, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and Beyond Chutzpah.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Media bias about the Israeli - Palestine conflict EXPOSED!

2009-01-14T20:51:00.001+01:00

Why is the American (and Canadian) media so biased in the coverage of the Israeli - Palestine conflict?

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com

PALESTINE DREAMS OF A CHILD

2009-01-13T19:56:00.002+01:00

For the last 18 days like many of you I have been living in shook an disbelieve from seeing of what`s happening. I still find it hard from watching Press TV (the only station in Gaza) and reading my friend`s Sameeh who is the only journalist living in Gaza city.

As for here in Malta I have been taking part in all activities both with Moviment Graffiti and the Arabic center and will blog about that later on when I will have more information as why the police took such actions as asking and wanting to know and make sure that we chant no slogans against Israel or the USA. In my opinion it was from the government that is so lost in trying to look good and licking asses to these people that he even forgot the principles of Demochristianity that formed his party.

Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out

2009-01-10T06:14:00.001+01:00

A searing interview with Avichai Sharon and Noam Chayut, both veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces and members of Breaking the Silence. Sharon and Chayut served during the second intifada, an on-going bloodbath that has claimed the lives of over three thousand Palestinians and nine-hundred-fifty Israelis. After thorough introspection, these young men have chosen to speak out about their experiences as self-described "brutal occupiers of a disputed land." Producer: Sat Gwin

The Painful realities in "Gaza"

2009-01-05T19:52:00.001+01:00

The story of what happens in "Gaza" told by,the .."CHILDREN" of Gaza in their own words! I can't wait more...to hear someone defend Israel on this one! Any soldier that likes taking pop shots at kids is a disgrace to the uniform and his country! I don't care what the nationality is...Oh yeah, I'm anti ignorant not anti semitic,..As if you guys that use that word really know the true meaning of it

The Painful realities in "Gaza"

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

2009-01-04T10:31:00.000+01:00

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict How Israel manipulates and distorts American public perceptions Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-12-31T22:17:00.000+01:00

Happy Chritmas everyone

2008-12-22T02:39:00.002+01:00

For the last couple of months I have been having problems on this blog. And as you all know I`m not very good at fixing problems on here, one of the main problems is that I can`t embed anything. I will try again later and see what happens as it can be that the problem was from Google video since I was not the only one that had this problem.

Aerial photos show bird trapping at Ta' Ċenċ - Birdlife

2008-10-19T13:58:00.000+02:00

Aerial photos show bird trapping at Ta' Ċenċ - Birdlife

Japan's Mysterious Pyramids

2008-10-15T03:58:00.000+02:00

Most historians and archaeologists maintain that civilization as we know it began about 5,000 years ago with the emergence of the earliest Egyptian dynasty. But, a small yet persuasive number of scientists believes that a highly advanced civilization, nearly twice as old, flourished during the last Ice Age. Solid evidence of this 10,000-year-old civilization is difficult to produce, but some feel a recent discovery off the coast of a tiny Japanese island, Yonaguni, may be the proof they seek.

The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America

2008-10-02T03:27:00.002+02:00

"The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole...Their secret is that they have annexed from governments, monarchies, and republics the power to create the world's money..."

." THE MONEY MASTERS is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the world today. The modern political power structure has its roots in the hidden manipulation and accumulation of gold and other forms of money. The development of fractional reserve banking practices in the 17th century brought to a cunning sophistication the secret techniques initially used by goldsmiths fraudulently to accumulate wealth. With the formation of the privately-owned Bank of England in 1694, the yoke of economic slavery to a privately-owned "central" bank was first forced upon the backs of an entire nation, not removed but only made heavier with the passing of the three centuries to our day. Nation after nation, including America, has fallen prey to this cabal of international central bankers.

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 3 - To the Ends of the Earth

2008-09-21T17:12:00.003+02:00

This Month of September marks the 26th anniversary of the massacre that happened in the camps of Sabra and Shatila, I am posting these Blog in three parts with two parts from two different blogs at a time.

One blog is from Palestinian Facts with information and the second is The from Beirut to Bosnia Documentaries by Robert Fisk.

What happened at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982? Part 3

In May 1985, Muslim militiamen attacked the Shatila and Burj-el Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps. According to UN officials, 635 were killed and 2,500 wounded. There is no record of any protests or public investigation.

In 2001, Palestinian survivors of the massacre demanded that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon be indicted on war crime charges in Belgium under a 1993 Belgian law that allows this type of complaint to be filed by non-nationals. This case is unlikly to proceed since, under international law, heads of state and prime ministers cannot be brought to trial while serving. There may also be other legal barriers based on Belgian non-conformity with international law and that would deny them jurisdiction.

International law experts believe it is highly unlikely Sharon will be brought to trial, given the rulings contained in the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with the protection of people in times of war. Sanctions apply only to a person who either has committed the acts himself or has ordered them to be committed, not the kind of indirect responsibility Sharon is alleged to have.

On the question of a failure to act to prevent a war crime, the International Committee of the Red Cross' interpretation of the Geneva Convention suggests no legal responsibility is incurred by those who do not intervene to prevent or to put an end to a breach of the convention.

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 3 - To the Ends of the Earth

Why have so many Muslims come to hate the West? In this controversial three-part series filmed in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel, Egypt, and Bosnia, Robert Fisk—award-winning Middle East and Balkans correspondent for the London Independent—reports on Muslim unrest as ideology, religion, history, and geography come into conflict. To the Ends of the Earth compares the plight of Muslims in Egypt and Bosnia. Though separated by geography and the distinct cultures in which they live their lives, this video reveals the feeling of betrayal by the West experienced by these two Muslim communities. Interviews with Islamic freedom fighters and war casualties shed light on the dynamics of the ongoing struggle for the survival of these communities. http://www.islamictorrents.net

David Letterman's Global Warming Rant: We are dead meat!

2008-09-12T13:48:00.001+02:00

Dave tells it like it is with his typical subdued tone. "We are so screwed!"

read more | digg story

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 2

2008-09-09T20:26:00.005+02:00

This Month of September marks the 26th anniversary of the massacre that happened in the camps of Sabra and Shatila, I am posting these Blog in three parts with two parts from two different blogs at a time.

One blog is from Palestinian Facts with information and the second is The from Beirut to Bosnia Documentaries by Robert Fisk.

What happened at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982? Part 2

When the scale of the massacre became known and photographs of the bodies in the refugee camps began to be published in the world press, Israel was held directly responsible for the atrocity. The Israeli public was shocked. On September 25, a huge demonstration of 300,000 Israelis was held in Tel Aviv demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Menahem Begin and Sharon and the establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the massacre.

A commission was appointed to investigate, headed by Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan, and its members included Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak and Major General (Res.) Yona Efrat. The Kahan Commission issued its report on February 8, 1983. With regard to Sharon, the panel recommended that he:

... draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office" - in other words, that he resign; or, if necessary, that the prime minister exercise his authority to remove a minister from office.

The key paragraphs relating to Sharon's responsibility are these:

In our view, the minister of defense made a grave mistake when he ignored the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population in the refugee camps ... It is our view that responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for having disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and having failed to take this danger into account when he decided to move the Phalangists into the camps.
In addition, responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps. These blunders constitute the non-fulfillment of a duty with which the defense minister was charged.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said of the Kahan Commission:

[It was] a great tribute to Israeli democracy... There are very few governments in the world that one can imagine making such a public investigation of such a difficult and shameful episode.

Although Sharon insists that he had received no intelligence and could not have known that the Phalangists were about to commit a massacre in the camps, he was forced to resign his post as Defense Minister and faced widespread public opprobrium that nearly ended his political career. Sharon is still asking for release of all classified documents from the Kahan Commission, saying he would be vindicated if they were released. Elie Hobeika, the Phalangist leader directly responsible for carrying out the massacres (and other gruesome acts over the years) became a crucial ally of Syrian subjugation of Lebanon, and had a long career until he was killed in a massive bomb attack at his house in a Beirut suburb in January 2002.

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 2 - The Road To Palestine.

Why have so many Muslims come to hate the West? In this controversial three-part series filmed in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel, Egypt, and Bosnia, Robert Fisk—award-winning Middle East and Balkans correspondent for the London Independent—reports on Muslim unrest as ideology, religion, history, and geography come into conflict. The Road to Palestine provides the viewer with a glimpse into the ongoing conflict in the region around Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Through interviews with members of the militant Islamic group Hamas, as well as Zionist settlers and Jewish refugees, this documentary succeeds at revealing some of this tragic situation.

See Also

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 1

THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY

2008-09-05T13:52:00.002+02:00

'The War on Democracy' is John Pilger's first major film for the cinema - in a career that has produced more than 55 television documentaries. Set in Latin America and the US, it explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

"The film tells a universal story," says Pilger, "analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called war on terror".

THEWAR ON DEMOCRACY

2008-09-05T13:44:00.001+02:00

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 1

2008-09-03T12:31:00.003+02:00

This Month of September marks the 26th anniversary of the massacre that happened in the camps of Sabra and Shatila, I am posting these Blog in three parts with two parts from two different blogs at a time.
One blog is from Palestinian Facts with information and the second is The from Beirut to Bosnia Documentaries by Robert Fisk.
What happened at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982? Part1

On September 16, 1982 the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia entered the Beruit refugee camps called Sabra and Shatila. Their mission was authorized by the Israeli IDF, under the command of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, that held the territory around Beruit at that point in time as a result of the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The Phalangists were looking for PLO fighters who, it was feared, had avoided evacuation from Beruit by hiding among the refugees. There were estimates of perhaps 200 armed men in the camps working out of the countless bunkers built by the PLO over the years, and stocked with generous reserves of ammunition.

The Phalangists, whose Maronite Christian president, Bachir Gemayel, had just been assassinated on September 14, entered the camps on the afternoon of the 16th and carried out a 62-hour rampage of rape and murder until Saturday morning, September 18th. They were motivated by revenge for the Gemayel killing and also for the years of brutality Lebanese suffered at the hands of Palestinians during the PLO occupation of Lebanon. [Later information revealed that Gemayel was assassinated by the Syrians, who opposed his alliance with the Israelis, and not by the PLO].

When Israeli soldiers were alerted to the massacre and ordered the Phalangists out, they found hundreds dead, including as many as 35 women and children. The rest were men: Palestinians, Lebanese, Pakistanis, Iranians, Syrians and Algerians. This was a small toll when compared to the tens of thousand who had died in the years of civil war and fighting with the PLO in Lebanon, but these deaths kindled crys of outrage in Israel, and internationally outside the Middle East. Curiously, there was little protest at the time in the Arab world, although "Sabra-Shatila" has now become a mantra of the Palestinian Arabs as a code word for their allegations of Israeli brutality. Most protests were (and are) directed at the Israelis, not the the Phalangists, who perpetrated the crime.

Estimates of the number killed range from 460 according to the Lebanese police, to 700-800 calculated by Israeli intelligence. Palestinians claim 3,000 to 3,500 dead and call the action "genocide".

From Beirut to Bosnia - PART 1 - The Martyr's Smile - by Robert Fisk

Why have so many Muslims come to hate the West? In this controversial three-part series filmed in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel, Egypt, and Bosnia, Robert Fisk—award-winning Middle East and Balkans correspondent for the London Independent—reports on Muslim unrest as ideology, religion, history, and geography come into conflict. This Films for the Humanities production focuses its capable eye on Lebanon's guerilla war that aims to liberate southern Lebanon from Israeli control. The scope of this tragic conflict is brought into sharp focus in this documentary through the use of extensive interviews with participants from the Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad movements, views of civilian casualties caused by Israeli air attacks, and photographic evidence of the ongoing destruction of life and property in the region. The viewer should be advised that this video contains some disturbing scenes of this conflict.«

New Orleans: Nobody Asked, Why Not Sooner?

2008-09-01T05:22:00.003+02:00
Why isn't New Orleans ready for a storm everyone knew would eventually come?

Of course, the primary hope is that this question remains, if not rhetorical, at least not forensic. The hope is that Hurricane Gustav doesn't prove the fragile repairs of the deeply defective levee and floodwall system in New Orleans have been repairs in name only, that the storm goes west, or east, that it peters out, or, most miraculously, that the repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers actually strengthened the system to a point where it can protect the city.
But one question does need to be raised now, before we know next week's outcome. After Katrina, the Corps wasted nine months in lying and refuting the findings of expert teams of engineers -- the Corps insisted the levees were over-topped, while the teams reported disturbing evidence of construction and design flaws. Finally, after denigrating the experts for months, calling them liars in the local press, the Corps issued its own report in June 2006, calling the system it had designed and constructed "a system in name only."
Most crucially, the Corps announced that the system would be repaired, up to the advertised level of the pre-K system, the so-called 100-year storm, by 2011.

Maybe somebody in Congress asked, in some hearing, why will this take six years? But nobody asked that question in public, nor the obvious followup: what's the city, and its citizens, supposed to do in the meantime, say, in 2008?
The old slogan, in engineering as in many other lines of work, is that you can have it good, fast, and cheap -- pick two out of three. Is money the reason New Orleans has to wait three more years before even the semblance of protection is in place? If so, what politician, Democratic or Republican, will speak up to suggest that that schedule needs to be accelerated, that good and fast has to replace good and cheap?
UPDATE: For those new to this subject, or for those who cling to misinformation about the 2005 disaster, here's a video that should be enlightening:

Few people understand what really happened in New Orleans or what caused it. Fewer still realize that they too may be living under a similar or an even greater threat. This video exposes the key myths and misunderstandings about the New Orleans flood.

Posted by Harry Shearer, Huffington Post at 12:10 PM on August 31, 2008.

I HAVE A DREAM

2008-08-28T23:10:00.004+02:00

"I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites among others would coexist harmoniously as equals. King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over two hundred thousand civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.^[1] According to U.S. Congressman John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee , "Dr. King had the power, the ability and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a modern day pulpit. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."^[2]
At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry "Tell them about the dream, Martin!".^[3] He had delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Rev. C.L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts.^[4]

THE STORY OF GOD

2008-08-28T09:03:00.003+02:00

Professor Robert Winston presents a definitive three-part documentary series on the history of mankind's quest to understand the nature of God.

The Story of God is an epic journey across continents, cultures and eras exploring religious beliefs from their earliest incarnations, through the development of today's major world faiths and the status of religious faith in a scientific age.

The series examines the roots of religious beliefs in prehistoric societies and the different ways in which humanity's sense of the divine developed.

It looks at the divergence between religions that worship a range of deities and those that represent strict monotheism.

Professor Winston says: "However you define God, and whether you believe in God or not, the world we live in has been shaped by the universal human conviction that there is more to life than life itself; that there is a 'god' shaped hole at the centre of our universe.

"We have come up with many different ways to fill that hole, with many gods or just one, with gods of hunting, gods of farming, gods of war and gods of sea and sky."

The series begins with Professor Winston examining the religions which believe in many different gods and explores why mankind started to believe in God at all.

The answer to that question, says Professor Winston, can be found in the caves where our ancestors first approached their gods and in the fields where people still call on them for help, in the cities where our ancestors have been honoured and in the temples where the gods have been appeased with sacrifices.

"But most of all the answer," says Professor Winston, "lies in the human desire to be united with something bigger than ourselves."

He travels to the Gargas Caves in South West France where, he says, if the story of God has a beginning, it is to be found.

He examines mysterious stencilled hand prints from 27,000 years ago which appear to have one or more fingers missing - do these represent early humans' attempts to reach out to God?

In India, Professor Winston explores the origins of Hinduism and the emergence of Brahman as the supreme being with many different forms.

Some experts believe that there may be 330 million gods across the Hindu faith and he looks at the notions of karma and reincarnation, also popular in Buddhism.

While there are those who believe in many gods there are also those who believe there is only one true God and Professor Winston delves into the past to discover the beginnings of monotheism.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are examined in order to understand the ideas they share about God and the issues that divide them.

Professor Winston goes in search of an answer to the centuries old question: 'If God created humanity why does God allow humanity to suffer?'

Finally he explores how belief in God has been challenged in the modern world by secular ideas, in particular science.

He looks at those scientific disciplines (nuclear and astro-physics) where a convergence between faith and science seems possible.

Professor Winston ventures into vast underground laboratories in Switzerland where they are trying to prove the existence of the 'God particle' and speaks to an American geneticist who believes there is a God gene which predisposes some people to have religious or spiritual beliefs.

He also puts his own belief in God to the test with a mathematical formula that has been adapted to calculate the probability of God's existence.

THEY CHOSE CHINA

2008-08-26T11:21:00.004+02:00
It is January 1954. The Korean War is over. Captured UN soldiers held in POW camps are free to return home. Those who refuse repatriation to their homeland are transferred to a neutral zone and given 90 days to reconsider their decision. Among them are 21 American soldiers who decide defiantly to stay in China. Back in the United States, McCarthyism is at its height. Many Americans believe these young men have been brainwashed by Chinese communists through a new form of thought control. But what really happened? Featuring never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps as well as interviews with former POWs and their families, They Chose China tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents. With the Cold War fading into memory, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang (Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square) aims his camera on this astonishing story. In They Chose China, we meet and begin to understand a group of courageous men who fought for and then cut ties with the USA.

UNDERCOVER IN TIBET

2008-08-25T11:47:00.004+02:00

As Tibetan protesters take to the streets in the biggest and most bloody challenge to Chinese rule in nearly 20 years, Dispatches reports on the hidden reality of life under Chinese occupation after spending three months undercover, deep inside the region. Dozens are feared dead after the recent clashes and crackdown by Chinese troops, but with reporting so rigidly controlled from the region little is known of living conditions inside Tibet. To make this film, Tibetan exile Tash Despa returns to the homeland he risked his life to escape 11 years ago, to carry out secret filming with award-winning, Bafta-nominated director Jezza Neumann (Dispatches Special: China's Stolen Children). Risking imprisonment and deportation, he uncovers evidence of the "cultural genocide" described by the Dalai Lama. He finds the nomadic way of life being forcefully wiped out as native Tibetans are stripped of their land and livestock and are being resettled in concrete camps. Tibet reveals the regime of terror which dominates daily life and makes freedom of expression impossible. Tash meets victims of arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and "disappearances" and uncovers evidence of enforced sterilisations on ethnic Tibetan women. He sees for himself the impact of the enormous military and police presence in the region, and the hunger and hardship being endured by many Tibetans, and hears warnings of the uprising taking place across the provinces now

Channel 4/ Undercover in Tibet

Pink Floyd: The Making of "Wish You Were Here"

2008-08-22T21:37:00.003+02:00
With the release of the landmark "Dark Side of the Moon," Pink Floyd shot to superstardom and earned a reputation as the next great thing in rock -- which only intensified expectations for the success of their follow-up record, "Wish You Were Here." Relying on rare footage, critical analysis and interviews with band insiders, this program examines the production of the legendary album and assesses its impact on rock 'n' roll history.

The Boy With The Incredible Brain

2008-08-21T13:36:00.005+02:00

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’. (2005)

The Boy With The Incredible Brain

2008-08-21T13:27:00.001+02:00

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world's few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world's most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman's character in the Oscar winning film "Rain Man". (2005)

See More Videos at JohnLocker.com

Bush Covered up Musharraf Ties with Qaeda, Khan

2008-08-20T23:27:00.004+02:00
Analysis by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (IPS) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests.

It is well known that Bush repeatedly praised Musharraf as the most loyal ally of the United States against terrorism, even though the Pakistani military was deeply compromised by its relationship with the Taliban and Pakistani Islamic militants.

What has not been reported is that the Bush administration covered up the Musharraf regime's involvement in the activities of the A. Q. Khan nuclear technology export programme and its deals with al Qaeda's Pakistani tribal allies.

The problem faced by the Bush administration when it came into office was that the Pakistani military, over which Musharraf presided, was the real terrorist nexus with the Taliban and al Qaeda. As Bruce Riedel, National Security Council (NSC) senior director for South Asia in the Bill Clinton administration, who stayed on the NSC staff under the Bush administration, observed in an interview with this writer last September, al Qaeda "was a creation of the jihadist culture of the Pakistani army".

If there was a state sponsor of al Qaeda, Riedel said, it was the Pakistani military, acting through its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate.

Vice President Dick Cheney and the neoconservative-dominated Bush Pentagon were aware of the intimate relationship between Musharraf's regime and both the Taliban and al Qaeda. But al Qaeda was not a high priority for the Bush administration.

After 9/11, the White House created the political myth that Musharraf, faced with a clear choice, had "joined the free world in fighting the terrorists". But as Asia expert Selig S. Harrison has pointed out, on Sep. 19, 2001, just six days after he had supposedly agreed to U.S. demands for cooperation against the Taliban regime and al Qaeda, Musharraf gave a televised speech in Urdu in which he declared, "We are trying our best to come out of this critical situation without any damage to Afghanistan and the Taliban."

In his memoirs, published in 2006, Musharraf revealed the seven specific demands he had been given and claimed that he had refused both "blanket overflight and landing rights" and the use of Pakistan's naval ports and air bases to conduct anti-terrorism operations.

Musharraf also famously wrote that, immediately after 9/11, Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage had threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" if Musharraf didn't side with the United States against bin Laden and his Afghan hosts. But Armitage categorically denied to this writer, through his assistant, Kara Bue, that he had made any threat whatsoever, let alone a threat to retaliate militarily against Pakistan.

For the next few years, Musharraf played a complicated game. The CIA was allowed to operate in Pakistan's border provinces to pursue al Qaeda operatives, but only as long as they had ISI units accompanying them. That restricted their ability to gather intelligence in the northwest frontier. At the same time, ISI was allowing Taliban and al Qaeda leaders to operate freely in the tribal areas and even in Karachi.

The Bush administration also gave Musharraf and the military regime a free ride on the A. Q. Khan network's selling of nuclear technology to Libya and Iran, even though there was plenty of evidence that the generals had been fully aware of and supported Khan's activities.

Journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins wrote in their book "The Nuclear Jihadist" that one retired general who had worked with Khan told them there was no question that Khan had acted with the full knowledge of the military leadership. "Of course the military knew," the general said. "They helped him."

But the Bush administration chose to help Musharraf cover up that inconvenient fact. According to CIA Director George Tenet's memoirs, in September 2003, he confronted Musharraf with the evidence the CIA had gathered on Khan's operation and made it clear he was expected to end its operations and arrest Khan.

The following January and early February, Khan's house arrest, public confession of guilt and pardon by Musharraf was accompanied by an extraordinary series of statements by high-ranking Bush administration officials exonerating Musharraf and the military of any involvement in Khan's activities.

That whole scenario had been "carefully orchestrated with Musharraf", Larry Wilkerson, then a State Department official but later Colin Powell's chief of staff, told IPS in an interview last year. The deal that had been made did not require Musharraf to allow U.S. officials to interrogate Khan.

But the Bush administration apparently conveyed to the Pakistani military after that episode that it now expected the Musharraf regime to deliver high-ranking al Qaeda officials -- and to do so at a particularly advantageous moment for the administration. The New Republic magazine reported Jul. 15, 2004 that a White House aide had told the visiting head of ISI, Ehsan ul-Haq, that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of any HVT [high value target] were announced on 26, 27 or 28 July." Those were the last three days of the Democratic National Convention.

The military source added, "If we don't find these guys by the election, they are going to stick the whole nuclear mess up our a**hole."

Just hours before Democratic candidate John Kerry's acceptance speech, Pakistan announced the capture of an alleged al Qaeda leader.

Meanwhile, Musharraf was making a political pact with a five-party Islamic alliance in 2004 to ensure victory in state elections in the two border provinces where Islamic extremist influence was strongest. This explicit political accommodation, followed by a military withdrawal from South Waziristan, gave the pro-Taliban forces allied with al Qaeda in the region a free hand to recruit and train militants for war in Afghanistan.

Yet another deal with the Islamic extremists in 2006 strengthened the pro-Taliban forces even further.

But Bush chose to reward Musharraf by designating Pakistan a "Major Non-NATO Ally" in 2004 and by agreeing to sell the Pakistani Air Force 36 advanced F-16 fighter planes. Prior to that, Pakistan had been denied U.S. military technology for a decade.

In July 2007, a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that al Qaeda's new "safe haven" was in Pakistan's tribal areas and that the terrorist organisation had reconstituted its "homeland attack capability" there. That estimate ended the fiction that the Musharraf regime was firmly committed to combating al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Had the Bush administration accurately portrayed Musharraf's policies rather than hiding them, it would not have avoided the al Qaeda safe haven there. But it would have facilitated a more realistic debate about the real options available for U.S. policy.

*Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006.

Source IPS

FDR Pearl Harbor Conspiracy

2008-08-18T18:35:00.002+02:00
ilm investigates theorys on pearl harbor and possible conspiracy(s) there has been much debate as to how and why the United States had been caught unaware, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans and related topics. Some argue that various parties knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force America into war. film includes issues of The Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge debate and others. tags keywords include conspiracy theorys, FDR, ww2, World War two, prior knowlege, 911, september 11, december 7th 1941, history channel

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

2008-08-13T15:40:00.004+02:00
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

Controlling Our Food

2008-08-11T17:19:00.001+02:00

On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television - a documentary that Americans won’t ever see. The gigantic bio-tech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years

Street Food - Jerusalem

2008-08-02T11:29:00.003+02:00
It is a city torn by politics and war, but whatever a citizens' race or religion, much of their customary street food is the same. Street Food asks what this says about a shared identity and how much hope it offers for the future?

Part 1

Part 2

Al Jazeera\English

To Provoke War: Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians & Shoot At Them

2008-08-02T10:15:00.002+02:00
Sy Hersh at Campus Progress journalism conference

faizshakir

Dandelion Salad

Think progress

Labour MPs want 'lost' PM Gordon Brown to go soon

2008-07-30T05:22:00.003+02:00

Labour backbenchers broke ranks yesterday to call on Gordon Brown to quit - with Gordon Prentice saying it was time for the party to realise giving him the top job was a mistake.

The MP for Pendle, Lancs, declared: "A PM needs a different set of skills from a Chancellor. He must be able to communicate, per-suade and enthuse. If not, the message is lost. I hope Gordon reflects on things in August and accepts it is in the party's best interests, and perhaps his own, to stand down."

Merseyside MP George Howarth added: "We are in a perilous situation and need to think how we got into it and how we can get out of it.
"And as part of that process the PM's role has to be up for discussion."
But female Cabinet ministers rallied around Mr Brown, with deputy Leader Harriet Harman telling GMTV he is "the solution, not the problem".
29.07.2008 . Mirror.co.uk

Le Pen - The Strasbourg speech about Europe (July, 10. 2008)

2008-07-29T20:22:00.004+02:00
10 July 2008 : Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the Front National, the leading French nationalist Party, addresses the European Parliament in Strasbourg and denounces the European policy of President Sarkozy.
Translated and subtitled by

http://fdesouche.com

THE EMPIRE OF "THE CITY" (World Superstate)

2008-07-28T23:34:00.001+02:00
City of London + City of Vatican + City of columbia are the 3 independent states within states which composes the empire of the city. The first is financial control over earth economy, the second is religion control over the earth and the third one is military control over the earth. Together they make the very unholy trinity which forms the Egyptian pyramid that we can see on the back of the privately owned federal reserve note that is used as American dollar to maintain the colony in debt and under the Queen. Many people realize that this mystifying situation, in which an alleged democratic and self-governing nation is actually controlled against the will of the people, is a clear indication that there must be a very powerful and well-financed occult organization which plans and directs world affairs, and for lack of a more specific identification the suspected secret organization is popularly referred to as the International Financiers, Banksters cartel or "The Crown corporation".

Part 1

Part 2

VOCES INOCENTES

2008-07-24T19:43:00.005+02:00

Last night on TV I watched this Film, for some reason the Italian station changed the name of the film to "Figli della guerra". The film is about the war in El Salvador and the impact it has on the kids.

After watching the film I looked on Google for the real name of the film and tried to find more information about it since it is a Biography and found some really interesting information.

The film, set in El Salvador during the years of civil war in the ‘80s, is told through the voice and eyes of 11-year old Chava. He lives with his mother, two brothers and a sister in a cardboard-house in a village, and at age 12 will be ‘eligible’ to be taken into the “ejercito” (army). He tries to avoid it so that he can have a “normal” childhood. Winner of many awards.

Voces inocentes (English title: Innocent Voices) is a 2004 Mexican film directed by Luis Mandoki. The plot is set during the Salvadoran Civil War in 1980s, and is based on writer Oscar Torres's childhood. The film serves as a general commentary on the military use of children. The movie also shows injustice against innocent people who are forced to fight in the war. It follows the story of the narrator, a boy named Chava.

Here is the official website on which you can watch the trailer.

And this is the best part that I found on youtube.

At the moment I`mtrying to find a version of the film with English Subtitles

MUSIC VIDEO TRIBUTE Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

2008-07-23T02:29:00.000+02:00

Israel "Iz" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole (May 20, 1959 -- June 26, 1997) (pronounced [ka-maka-vi-vo-ole]) was an Hawaiian musician.

He became famous outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993 with his medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World", which was subsequently featured in several films, television programs, and commercials.

From childhood, his family called Israel by his Hawaiian middle name, Kaʻanoʻi, the "beloved one". His name would later become the title name of his first solo album, Kaʻanoʻi, and also foretells the greatness of this "cherished one". It is interesting to note here that part of his name, anoʻi, when simplified to noʻi may be a contraction of the Hawaiian word, nohi. Nohi means "bright-colored, vivid, as the rainbow" (see Hawaiian Dictionary, Pukui and Elbert). Nohi, rainbow, beloved one, and cherished one are powerful symbols in his life. Iz's recording of the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" would become renowned throughout the world and continues to garner high acclaim. The song has come to be known as Izʻs "signature song", the most renowned of all his songs.

Kamakawiwo`ole was nicknamed "The Gentle Giant" by his admirers. He was described as always cheerful and positive, and he was best known for his love of the land and of the people of Hawaiʻi. Through his consummate ukulele playing and incorporation of other idioms (such as jazz and reggae), Iz remains one of the major influences in Hawaiian music over the last 15 years.

Israel's recording of "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" reached #12 on Billboard's Hot Digital Tracks chart the week of 1/31/04 (for the survey week ending 1/18/04), possibly due to its use in the Adam Sandler film 50 First Dates, and the Brad Pitt film Meet Joe Black.

In 2006, a version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", in an arrangement based on Iz', was performed by The Worthless Peons in "My Way Home", the 100th episode of Scrubs, over the closing montage. A recording of the same song by Iz was used in the closing scenes of the final episode of Life on Mars (TV Series). It is also a featured song in the movie Finding Forrester. In 2002, the song was used to powerful effect in the closing scenes of Anthony Edwards' last appearance in ER as Dr. Mark Greene, in the episode "On the Beach". On week 8 of American Idol (season 7), Jason Castro performed his own version of this song except that he left out the "What a Wonderful World" line, but still gave credit to Israel for the song.

DEATH:
Throughout the later part of his life, Iz was obese and at one point carried 758 pounds (344 kg) on his 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 m) frame. He endured several hospitalizations and died of weight-related respiratory illness on June 26, 1997 at 12:18 am at the age of 38.

The Hawaiʻi State Flag flew at half-staff on July 10, 1997, the day of Iz's funeral. His koa wood coffin lay in state at the Capitol building in Honolulu. He was the third person in Hawaiian history to be accorded this honor (the other two were Governor John A. Burns and Senator Spark Matsunaga) and the only non-politician. Over 10,000 people attended his funeral. Thousands of fans gathered and cheered as his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean at Mākua Beach on July 12, 1997.

On September 20, 2003, hundreds paid tribute to Iz as a 200-pound bronze bust of the revered singer was unveiled at the Waianae Neighborhood Community Center on O'ahu. The singer's widow, Marlene Kamakawiwo'ole, and sculptor Jan-Michelle Sawyer were present for the dedication ceremony.

I would like to dedicate this blog to my friend Lino who died last Saturday at the age of 55

The picture that shames Italy

2008-07-22T18:52:00.003+02:00

By Peter Popham in Rome
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

It's another balmy weekend on the beach in Naples. By the rocks, a couple soak up the southern Italian sun. A few metres away, their feet poking from under beach towels that cover their faces and bodies, lie two drowned Roma children.

The girls, Cristina, aged 16, and Violetta, 14, were buried last night as the fallout from the circumstances of their death reverberated throughout Italy.
It is an image that has crystallised the mounting disquiet in the country over the treatment of Roma, coming after camps have been burnt and the government has embarked on a bid to fingerprint every member of the minority. Two young Roma sisters had drowned at Torregaveta beach after taking a dip in treacherous waters. Their corpses were recovered from the sea – then left on the beach for hours while holidaymakers continued to sunbathe and picnic around them.
They had come to the beach on the outskirts of Naples on Saturday with another sister, Diana, nine, and a 16-year-old cousin, Manuela, to make a little money selling coloured magnets and other trinkets to sunbathers. But it was fiercely hot all day and, about 2pm, the girls surrendered to the temptation of a cooling dip – even though they apparently did not know how to swim.
"The sea was rough on Saturday," said Enzo Esposito, the national treasurer of Opera Nomadi, Italy's biggest Roma organisation. "Christina and Violetta went farther out than the other two, and a big wave came out of nowhere and dashed them on to the rocks. For a few moments, they disappeared; Manuela, who was in shallow water with Diana, came to the shore, helped out by people on the beach, and ran to try and get help."
Other reports said that lifeguards from nearby private beaches also tried to help, without success. "When Manuela and Diana came back," Esposito went on, "the bodies of her cousins had reappeared, and they were already dead."
It was the sort of tragedy that could happen on any beach. But what happened next has stunned Italy. The bodies of the two girls were laid on the sand; their sister and cousin were taken away by the police to identify and contact the parents. Some pious soul donated a couple of towels to preserve the most basic decencies. Then beach life resumed.
The indifference was taken as shocking proof that many Italians no longer have human feelings for the Roma, even though the communities have lived side by side for generations.
"This was the other terrible thing," says Mr Esposito, "besides the fact of the girls drowning: the normality. The way people continued to sunbathe, for three hours, just metres away from the bodies. They could have gone to a different beach. It's not possible that you can watch two young people die then carry on as if nothing happened. It showed a terrible lack of sensitivity and respect."
The attitudes of ordinary Italians towards the Roma, never warm, have been chilling for years, aggravated by sensational news coverage of crimes allegedly committed by Gypsies, and a widespread confusion of Roma with ordinary, non-Roma Romanians, who continue to arrive. The Berlusconi government has launched a high-profile campaign against the community, spearheaded by the programme announced by the Interior Minister, Roberto Marroni, to fingerprint the entire Roma population. The move has been condemned inside Italy and beyond as a return to the racial registers introduced by the Fascist regime in the 1930s. The fingerprinting of Roma in Naples began on 19 June.
The most senior Catholic in Naples, Cardinal Crescenzo Sepe, was quick to point out the coarsening of human sentiment which the behaviour on the beach represented. But the Mayor of Monte di Procida, the town on the outskirts of the city where Torregaveta beach is located, defended his citizens' behaviour.
When the Roma girls got into difficulties, he said: "There was a race among the bathers and the coastguard and the carabinieri to try and help them." He rejected the claim that the indifference of the bathers was due to the fact that the girls were Roma.
The two cousins were given a Christian Orthodox funeral service in the Roma camp in Naples, attended by 300 Roma and city and regional representatives.
In a speech yesterday, Mr Maroni proposed, "for humanitarian reasons", granting Italian citizenship to all Roma children in Italy abandoned by their parents.
The Italians and the Roma
Roma have been living in Italy for seven centuries and the country is home to about 150,000, who live mainly in squalid conditions in one of around 700 encampments on the outskirts of major cities such as Rome, Milan and Naples. They amount to less than 0.3 per cent of the population, one of the lowest proportions in Europe. But their poverty and resistance to integration have made them far more conspicuous than other communities. And the influx of thousands more migrants from Romania in the past year has confirmed the view of many Italians that the Gypsies and their eyesore camps are the source of all their problems. The ethnic group is often blamed for petty theft and burglaries. According to a recent newspaper survey, more than two thirds of Italians want Gypsies expelled, whether they hold Italian passports or not.
The Independent

Myanmar hints at Suu Kyi release

2008-07-22T08:29:00.001+02:00
The Myanmar ruling military has hinted that it might release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in six months time. But critics argue the words are just empty rhetoric.

Al Jazeera's Hannah Belcher reports.

MAD WORLD

2008-07-22T07:17:00.002+02:00

Gary Jules Lyrics
Mad World Lyrics

NOW THAT THE STRIKE IS OVER

2008-07-18T13:13:00.005+02:00

Now that from today the public transport is back in service let`s analyze what had caused all that happened.

First of all no Government should make promises that he knows he cant keep and the one with the transport authorities was not the only one.

Before the Election Letters like the one sent by the ex minister Jesmond Mugliette where sent from basically every department to all kinds of people with all kinds of promises.

It was only days after the election that young couples found out that the "Equity Sharing scheme" in which new couples could have saved thousands of Euros when buying a new apartment was stopped, the next thing was He did not want to negotiate with the University staff about there agreement ( And they ended up with industrial action as well) .

On another note he said that he will fix things up at MEPA ( Malta Environment Planning Authority) just a few days ago they issued a press release about the permits for Fort Cambridge before that the same MEPA held a public meeting to hear what the area residents had to say.

Now just last week we had Mr John Dalli saying that "Mater Dei" the Hospital that took 17 years to be built and is supposed to be a "state of the Art" kind of hospital is only a part time hospital and that the waiting lists are unacceptable, in the mean time these waiting lists keeps growing.

Now that the Opposition party have a new Leader and by next week will have all the people that are taking other places in the party hopefully it will move in some direction because till know it had not done much, One thing I would like to know from the Labour Party is the real reason why it had agreed with the Lisbon treaty, A treaty that everybody knows is not much more than the EU constitution under a different name the same constitution that was rejected where it was put to a referendum.

Malteseken ,Friday July 18 ,2008

Back to work

2008-07-17T11:30:00.000+02:00

Malta Bus Drivers

2008-07-15T01:51:00.003+02:00
Hi everyone,

What we Maltese people had to witness today is something that should not happen in this day and age, Everybody should have a right to Strike but nobody have the right to stop other people from doing their Job, nobody have the right to block the roads and nobody should consider himself above the law.

On these video`s you can see some of the inconvenience that has been caused to day all over Malta .

Bus Drivers, Taxi drivers, Mini bus drivers trying to go in the Prime Minister`s office.

Buses , white Taxis and Mini Buses Blocking the Roads going in and out of Valletta

Bus drivers stopping a private Coach full of tourists from entering Valletta.

Some private coaches has had their windscreens broken and other mini buses had been attacked as well. These actions should be condemned and whoever took part should be prosecuted. Every body knows that bus drivers in Malta along with Taxi drivers hardly have any manners and that all efforts done by authorities to upgrade the service giver have4 resulted in nothing.I think it`s about time that these people have to be stopped. You cant have a public service run by a bunch of people with manners that you only can compare them with old time Pirates.

Inakadate Rice Fields

2008-07-08T19:29:00.006+02:00

Yesterday a friend of mine EMDexreme on the Virgin Radio Community where apart from listening to good music you can create your own blog as well shared with us some really nice pictures of the rice fields in Inakadate so I decided to do some more research about this.

To tell you the truth this was something that I never heard about, that`s why I decided to do a little bit of searching and to share it over here, While doing my search I found a blog called Life in Inakadate which have more information on many other aspects about the culture and the people of Inakadate.

Another good article that I found is called Homegrown art on The Japan Times by Yoko Hani a journalist that writes a lot about agriculture among other articles which you can find here on this link.

EARTHLINGS

2008-07-07T02:28:00.004+02:00
EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby. With an in-depth study into pet stores, puppy mills and animals shelters, as well as factory farms, the leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, and finally the medical and scientific profession, EARTHLINGS uses hidden cameras and never before seen footage to chronicle the day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit. Powerful, informative and thought-provoking, EARTHLINGS is by far the most comprehensive documentary ever produced on the correlation between nature, animals, and human economic interests. There are many worthy animal rights films available, but this one transcends the setting. EARTHLINGS cries to be seen. Highly recommended! Other languages and download at: http://veg-tv.info/Earthlings

Earthlings official website

Exclusive: secret film reveals how Mugabe stole an election

2008-07-05T05:45:00.004+02:00

A film that graphically shows how Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged Zimbabwe's election has been smuggled out of the country by a prison officer. It is believed to be the first footage of actual ballot-rigging and comes as Zimbabwe's president faces growing international pressure.
Shepherd Yuda, 36, fled the country this week with his wife and children. He said that he hoped the film, which was made for the Guardian, would help draw further attention to the violence and corruption in Zimbabwe.
Much of the footage was shot inside the country's notorious jail system. Yuda, who has worked in the prison service for 13 years, was motivated by the intensifying violence directed towards the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the murder, two months ago, of his uncle, a MDC activist.
Initially he intended to chronicle secretly what life was like inside Zimbabwe's jails but he found himself present when a war veteran and Mugabe supporter organised the vote-rigging by getting prison officers to fill in their postal ballots in his presence.
Using a hidden camera, Yuda filmed for six days prior to last Friday's run-off election in which Mugabe claimed victory with 90% of the vote. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, had earlier said his party would not be participating in the run-off because of intimidation.
"I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda, of the run-up to the election. "How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?"
The film, made for Guardian Films, shows how Yuda and his colleagues at Harare central jail had to fill in their ballots in front of Zanu-PF activists.
Yuda also obtained footage of Zanu-PF rallies where voters were told they should pretend to be illiterate so that an official could fill in their ballot for them on behalf of Mugabe.
He was able to film the MDC's general secretary, Tendai Biti, in leg irons in jail. Biti, now on bail, faces treason charges which carry the death penalty.
Having completed filming, Yuda left Zimbabwe with his family for a new life and is now at a secret destination.
"I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken," he said. "We can live without the memories of seeing dead bodies in the prison, dead bodies in the street, dead bodies in my family.
"I've lost my uncle. My father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. I am praying to God: please God deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."
Mugabe has now been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president, a process which Tsvangirai described as "a complete joke". More than 130,000 voters spoiled their ballot papers in the election.
International pressure is mounting against Mugabe. It emerged yesterday that a US draft resolution to the UN will call for sanctions against Mugabe and demand that his government immediately begin talks with the MDC.
If adopted by the Security Council, the resolution would freeze the financial assets of Mugabe and 11 other Zimbabwean officials and ban them from travelling.
Duncan Campbell and Paul Lewis
The Guardian, Saturday July 5 2008

Woman left to die on hospital floor

2008-07-03T20:56:00.003+02:00
After the good news of yesterday about Ingrid Betancourt release today I decided to check Sitemeter and I found out that my blog has been visited by the (IOWA HEALTH SYSTEM) because of a blog that I did about how the people that wanted to return home after the flooding where treated by the so called strike teams.

What irritated me today is that the Health system in the states can find people to can spend the whole day looking at blogs but cant find decent people to employ in their own hospitals.

A women was left to die in the Hospital waiting room with nobody doing nothing for more than an hour after that she fell from the chair she was sitting on.

A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.

After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."

The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.

A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19 death.

Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have been fired, along with four other staffers.

Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other patients were in the room.

Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20 seconds and then walks away.

She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the bathroom."

Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.

He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.

The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death is still under investigation.

"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

read more on Metro news uk

FREE AT LAST

2008-07-03T04:16:00.003+02:00
Today like everybody else I was very happy to hear about the release of Ingrid Betancourt. Since I found the Flash news on BBC rss feed I first started checking other news sites just to check if it`s true. Then started checking all the TV news channel and on one of them there was a conference from her sister Astrid and her two children Lorenzo and Melanie.

Just now on Al Jazeera English they are showing, Ingrid Betancourt and the other 14 hostages that where released, She looks a lot better than the last video that was released and she thanked one of the other hostages wich she said was her doctor in the jungle where they where being held captive for the last six years.

While checking for any videos on youtube for the latest events I didn`t find any, but there was this video wich is (Hommage à Ingrid bétancourt et à toutes les femmes otages dans le monde) dedicated to Betancourt and all the other women held captive in the world.

THE GIRL WHO SILENCED THE WORLD FOR 5 MINUTES

2008-07-02T02:10:00.002+02:00
Raised in Vancouver and Toronto, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been camping and hiking all her life. When she was 9 she started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many projects before 1992, when they raised enough money to go to the UN's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their aim was to remind the decision-makers of who their actions or inactions would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12 yr old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech that received a standing ovation.

Mercosur anger at EU migrant laws

2008-07-01T18:27:00.003+02:00

Leaders attending an Argentine summit of South American trade bloc Mercosur are expected to strongly criticise new European Union immigration laws.
A directive passed by the EU last month could see illegal immigrants detained for up to 18 months and if expelled they face a five-year ban on re-entry.
There are hundreds of thousands of South Americans working in EU countries, many of them illegally.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has called the EU measures "shameful".
The Bolivian leader, Evo Morales, said they did nothing to combat discrimination and racism, while Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said the region did not accept the concept of migration as a crime.
South American leaders often find it difficult to reach agreement on many things but they appear to be united in their anger at the new EU immigration rules, reports the BBC's Daniel Schweimler from Argentina.

Most of South America's leaders are in the Argentine city of Tucuman where their summit plans to issue a declaration condemning the EU measures.
The European Union last month adopted the rules, which could come into force in 2010.
The law will oblige EU members to choose between issuing residency permits to the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants who enter each year, or returning them to their country of origin.
Under the new rules, an illegal immigrant can be detained for a maximum of six months. This period is extendable by a further 12 months under certain conditions if, for example, the immigrant fails to co-operate with the authorities.
The rules allow for a 30-day voluntary departure period for illegal immigrants before their expulsion.
Once expelled, they may be barred from re-entering the EU for a five-year period.
Food shortages
On other issues, Mercosur says it is taking a big step towards regional integration by lifting visa restrictions, which will allow South Americans to travel freely between member and associate countries showing only their ID cards.
Other topics being addressed at the meeting which began on Monday and runs until Tuesday are regional and international food crises and on this there is no unity, our correspondent says.
The summit host, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has been facing farmers' strikes over her proposals to raise tariffs on food exports, blamed poor wealth distribution for food shortages.
"The chief cause of the world food shortage is poorly distributed wealth by oligopolies and financial institutions and lack of market access," she said on Sunday.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is against tariffs, argues that producing more food would solve the crisis.
"The more (food) we produce, the more food security we'll have. With fair prices you can increase exports," he said.

BBC NEWS

OHIO TEACHER BURNS CROSS ON CHILD`S ARM

2008-07-01T04:34:00.002+02:00
A public school teacher preached his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators.

Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater also taught creationism in his science class and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom, the report said.

School board members were scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to discuss the findings by consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc., hired by the district to investigate. The report was released Thursday.

School Superintendent Stephen Short wouldn't comment on the report before Friday's meeting, his office said. A message seeking comment was left for Freshwater's attorney, Roger Weaver.

The report comes one week after a family filed a federal lawsuit in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on their child's arm that remained for three or four weeks.

Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

"With the exception of the cross-burning episode ... I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch in a story published Friday.

comcast.netNEWS

2008-07-01T04:29:00.001+02:00

THE REAL FACE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

2008-07-01T04:12:00.001+02:00
The EU has been sold to Britain as our best hope for the future . . . But behind the scenes, has another, more unsettling agenda been unfolding? The European Economic Community (EEC) began for Britain as a free-trade agreement in 1972. Today's European Union is well on its way to becoming a federal superstate, complete with one currency, one legal system, one military, one police force â even its own national anthem. In this shocking new documentary featuring EU insiders and commentators, independent author Phillip Day covers the history and goals of the European Union, as well as the disturbing, irrevocable implications this new government has for every British citizen. Whether the viewer is for or against Britain's participation, this film asks the troubling questions the mainstream media has refused to confront.

You can download this video from Google videos

THE REAL FACE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

2008-07-01T04:12:00.000+02:00

Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding

2008-07-01T02:06:00.001+02:00

Dahr Jamail: Iraq and U.S Military expansion

2008-06-28T15:30:00.003+02:00
Posted on June 27, 2008 by dandelionsalad

talkingsticktv

Talk by independent journalist Dahr Jamail author of “Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq” given June 7, 2008 in Seattle.

see

Iraq

Israel Lobby

Jamail-Dahr

GI Resistance

It’s March 19 and Blogswarm Day! Posts on Iraq War by Lo (list of Winter Soldier posts)

Respect the Irish Vote: Aftershock in European Parliament

2008-06-26T13:27:00.003+02:00

European Parliament (Strasbourg) 16-18 June 2008.
Reactions to the Irish No to the Lisbon Treaty.

In order of appearance:

- Hans-Gert Pöttering MEP, EPP-ED, President of the European Parliament (16.06.2008)
- José Manuel Barroso, EU Commission President (13.06.2008; 18.06.2008; 10.07.2007)
- Nigel Farage MEP, Co-President, Independence/Democracy Group (IND/DEM) (17-18.06.2008)
- Martin Schulz MEP, President, PES Group (18.06.2008)
- Margot Wallström, Commission Vice-President (18.06.2008)
- Daniel Hannan MEP, non-attached (formerly EPP-ED) (18.06.2008)
- Hanne Dahl MEP, IND/DEM Group (18.06.2008)
- Kathy Sinnott MEP, Co-President, IND/DEM Group (18.06.2008)
- Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP, EPP-ED (18.06.2008)
- Poul Nyrup Rasmussen MEP, President of the Party of European - Socialists (PES)(18.06.2008)
- Tobias Pflüger MEP, European Left - GUE/NGL (18.06.2008)

NOTE - The MEPs wearing the "Respect the Irish Vote" shirts are from various countries and from different groups.

Note on the rejected EU Constitution and Lisbon Treaty:

The people of France and the Netherlands rejected the proposed EU constitution in the 2005 referendums. After this, other countries cancelled a promised referendum and the EU Constitution was re-written as an "amending treaty" or a "reform treaty" and named "Treaty of Lisbon".

On the basis of this deceit, they claimed that no referendums are necessary on the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland was constitutionally required to hold a referendum and on the 12 June 2008 the people of Ireland gave a resounding No to Lisbon. Yet this vote is not being respected and the rule of law is being ignored. The EU leaders agreed at the June 19-20 EU Summit that ratifications must go on. Moreover, no other government is asking the people.

The Lisbon Treaty establishes a new "European Union" with joint citizenship - an EU "federal" State that is technically and politically empowered to centralize more power in Brussels. The treaty also stipulates the militarisation of the Union in order to 'police the world' just like the US does today.

Credits:

- Hemicycle scenes: Audio Visual, European Parliament
- Barroso excerpt (10.07.2007) from EUX.TV (http://www.eux.tv ): "Barroso: European Union is 'empire' (short version)". Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Ralo...

- Music: Cornerstone Cues: Requiem For A Tower Mvt. II; Reprogram. From "El Morro": Drum Train, Burning Touch, Undefeated. From "Air Lyndhurt": Dark Rise, Velvet Choker.
..................................

Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol

2008-06-24T12:52:00.006+02:00
Senator Barack Obama last July in Adel, Iowa. His strong support of ethanol helped propel him to his first caucus victory there.

By LARRY ROHTER

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Senator Barack Obama .

Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.
Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.
In the heart of the Corn Belt that August day, Mr. Obama argued that embracing ethanol “ultimately helps our national security, because right now we’re sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth.” America’s oil dependence, he added, “makes it more difficult for us to shape a foreign policy that is intelligent and is creating security for the long term.”
Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.”

Mr. Obama’s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland .

Not long after arriving in the Senate, Mr. Obama himself briefly provoked a controversy by flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes, including twice on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation’s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.
Jason Furman, the Obama campaign’s economic policy director, said Mr. Obama’s stance on ethanol was based on its merits. “That is what has always motivated him on this issue, and will continue to determine his policy going forward,” Mr. Furman said.
Asked if Mr. Obama brought any predisposition or bias to the ethanol debate because he represents a corn-growing state that stands to benefit from a boom, Mr. Furman said, “He wants to represent the United States of America, and his policies are based on what’s best for the country.”
Mr. Daschle, a national co-chairman of the Obama campaign, said in a telephone interview on Friday that his role advising the Obama campaign on energy matters was limited. He said he was not a lobbyist for ethanol companies, but did speak publicly about renewable energy options and worked “with a number of associations and groups to orchestrate and coordinate their activities,” including the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition.
Of Mr. Obama, Mr. Daschle said, “He has a terrific policy staff and relies primarily on those key people to advise him on key issues, whether energy or climate change or other things.”
Ethanol is one area in which Mr. Obama strongly disagrees with his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. While both presidential candidates emphasize the need for the United States to achieve “energy security” while also slowing down the carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, they offer sharply different visions of the role that ethanol, which can be made from a variety of organic materials, should play in those efforts.
Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.
“We made a series of mistakes by not adopting a sustainable energy policy, one of which is the subsidies for corn ethanol, which I warned in Iowa were going to destroy the market” and contribute to inflation, Mr. McCain said this month in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo. “Besides, it is wrong,” he added, to tax Brazilian-made sugar cane ethanol, “which is much more efficient than corn ethanol.”
Mr. Obama, in contrast, favors the subsidies, some of which end up in the hands of the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax. In the name of helping the United States build “energy independence,” he also supports the tariff, which some economists say may well be illegal under the World Trade Organization’s rules but which his advisers say is not.
Many economists, consumer advocates, environmental experts and tax groups have been critical of corn ethanol programs as a boondoggle that benefits agribusiness conglomerates more than small farmers. Those complaints have intensified recently as corn prices have risen sharply in tandem with oil prices and corn normally used for food stock has been diverted to ethanol production.

“If you want to take some of the pressure off this market, the obvious thing to do is lower that tariff and let some Brazilian ethanol come in,” said C. Ford Runge, an economist specializing in commodities and trade policy at the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. “But one of the fundamental reasons biofuels policy is so out of whack with markets and reality is that interest group politics have been so dominant in the construction of the subsidies that support it.”

Corn ethanol generates less than two units of energy for every unit of energy used to produce it, while the energy ratio for sugar cane is more than 8 to 1. With lower production costs and cheaper land prices in the tropical countries where it is grown, sugar cane is a more efficient source.
Mr. Furman said the campaign continued to examine the issue. “We want to evaluate all our energy subsidies to make sure that taxpayers are getting their money’s worth,” he said.
He added that Mr. Obama favored “a range of initiatives” that were aimed at “diversification across countries and sources of energy,” including cellulosic ethanol, and which, unlike Mr. McCain’s proposals, were specifically meant to “reduce overall demand through conservation, new technology and improved efficiency.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has not explained his opposition to imported sugar cane ethanol. But in remarks last year, made as President Bush was about to sign an ethanol cooperation agreement with his Brazilian counterpart, Mr. Obama argued that “our country’s drive toward energy independence” could suffer if Mr. Bush relaxed restrictions, as Mr. McCain now proposes.
“It does not serve our national and economic security to replace imported oil with Brazilian ethanol,” he argued.
Mr. Obama does talk regularly about developing switchgrass, which flourishes in the Midwest and Great Plains, as a source for ethanol. While the energy ratio for switchgrass and other types of cellulosic ethanol is much greater than corn, economists say that time-consuming investments in infrastructure would be required to make it viable, and with corn nearing $8 a bushel, farmers have little incentive to shift.
Ethanol industry executives and advocates have not made large donations to either candidate for president, an examination of campaign contribution records shows. But they have noted the difference between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.
Brian Jennings, a vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, said he hoped that Mr. McCain, as a presidential candidate, “would take a broader view of energy security and recognize the important role that ethanol plays.”
The candidates’ views were tested recently in the Farm Bill approved by Congress that extended the subsidies for corn ethanol, though reducing them slightly, and the tariffs on imported sugar cane ethanol. Because Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama were campaigning, neither voted. But Mr. McCain said that as president he would veto the bill, while Mr. Obama praised it.
Published: June 23, 2008

Two Injured in Bilin Weekly Protest

2008-06-20T17:18:00.002+02:00
Israeli troops attack peace activist in Bil'in - file 2008– Photo by IMEMC's Hitham Al Khateb

Friday June 20, 2008 16:55 by Abedallah Abu Rahma - Bil'in - IMEMC News

On Friday, villagers from Bilin, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, along with their international and Israeli supporters marched in their weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli wall built on the village's land.

Protesters carried banners demanding the removal of the Israeli wall and settlements and calling upon the international community to help Palestinians retain Jerusalem. Protestors also carried photos of Ibrahim Burnat who was injured during last week's protest by three live bullets fired by an Israeli soldier at a close range. Burnat He is still receiving treatment in the hospital.

The protests started after the mid-day Friday prayers were finished in the mosque, participants marched towards the separation Wall which separates the village from its land.

Immediately after the protest reached the gate of the Wall, soldiers showered the protestors with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Scores of protesters were treated for gas canisters. Israeli troops used a new tear gas launcher which fires thirty canisters in one barrage. They also used a high pitched ‘scream’ device in an attempt to disorientate demonstrators. Two people were injured as a result of the rubber-coated steel bullets; Muheeb Albarghutee a journalist from Al Hayyat Al Jadeedah newspaper and Ranny Burnat a local activist.

In addition tear gas canisters started several fires in the olive orchards burning many of the old trees. The fields belonged Rashid Muhammed Abu Rahma and Muhammed Ali Yasin, local sources reported.

Last night Israeli occupation forces forcibly removed Palestinians inside an outpost built to monitor attempts to seize more land from the village. At midnight Abdullah Abo Rahma, Ahmad Ibrahim Abo Rahma and Farhat Ibrahim Burnat were beaten and detained before being forced back to the other side of the fence. Israeli soldiers also attacked the house of Muhammed Tawfiq Al Khatib and arrested his son Tariq.

In related newes After a joint request by residents of Bilin and Jayyos villages supported by the Adalah-NY coalition UNICEF confirmed this week that it would no longer accept financial or other support from Liv Leviev or his corporate entities.

Leviev is a financial supporter of the illegal settlements of Modin Eilat and Zofim. Modin Eilat is built on land from Bilin village and Zofim settlement is built on land from Jayyos village and Abu Ghnaim Mountain. Representatives from Dubai have also been successfully petitioned to deny Leviev permission to open two stores there.

Ramallah

Non violent action

News report

ghassanb at imemc dot org

Government “Strike Teams” Invade Homes, Harass Flood Victims

2008-06-20T08:40:00.002+02:00
People who attempt to gain access to their home before it has been "cleared" by authorities are being apprehended, and those who attempt to drive around police checkpoints that have been set up in the affected areas are arrested at gunpoint.

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee "strike teams" breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.

No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of "checking for structural damage" as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.

Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that "Law enforcement officers are not entering homes," and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken in to.

People who attempt to gain access to their home before it has been "cleared" by authorities are being apprehended, and those who attempt to drive around police checkpoints that have been set up in the affected areas are arrested at gunpoint.
"Each strike team consisted of six or seven people, including police, firefighters, utilities workers, andcity employees," reports the Iowa Gazette.

Angela Tague, a member of the STAR 1 search and rescue team from Ames, ran into any angry homeowner on E Avenue NW.

"He was saying ‘Where do you live?’ and ‘How would you like it if someone busted your door open?," Tague said.

Police Officer Josh Bell later had a heated exchange with the man, and told him that if he didn’t go back inside his house and stop harassing the strike team, he would be escorted out of the area.

The man was visibly agitated about his broken door and pointed at Bell.

"It’s wrong," the man said, over and over.

So people who are uncomfortable with jackbooted thugs breaking down their door without even knocking and express their distaste for it are to blame for "harassing the strike team"?

Respondents to the You Tube clip and the newspaper article expressed their outrage at the behavior of those in the video tasked with "helping" flood-stricken people yet doing nothing more than intimidating and invading their homes.

"You break down the door of my private residence and when I object you threaten to escort me off my own property. Fine example of police work. Did anyone think to knock first? Thomas Jefferson said that the main reason for citizens to be armed was to protect themselves from tyrannical government. If this isn’t tyranny then I don’t know what is. A man’s home is his castle," states Steve Delaloye.

"A sad day for America when government thugs abuse the trust of the citizenry like this," writes one.

"So these cops and fire fighters are part time structural engineers, or what?? What are they inspecting for in the structures? Gas and electric could be shut off at the source, and any spills are so diluted they wont catch fire. The police chief said no police would enter any homes, and what do you know, mr fat ass cop goes piling through the window thinking he’s T.J Hooker. Damn, this is just sad, sad , sad," adds another.

One Iowa resident expresses her anger that authorities will not let her re-enter her home.

"I sit here with tears streaming down my face. I have been trying to be patient and await to enter my home. Now today, I am told there will be no re-entry’s until further notice. I cannot express how ****ing mad I am. I understand the houses can be unsafe. Just let me at least see my house, so that I can assess if it hit my top floor. I have pictures and memories on my top floor of my deceased mother, all I want to do is rescue those," she writes.
As we reported in 2005 , Hurricane Katrina was exploited by the federal government and used as a martial law drill while victims were abused and treated like rats in a laboratory.

Door to door gun confiscations were ordered and cops ransacked homes and took weapons from multi-million dollar homes which were in the high and dry areas and completely unaffected by the hurricane. In some cases, residents were kicked out of their own homes for no reason.
Outrageous footage showed cops seizing handguns from the home of a grief-stricken old women as they assaulted and punched her in the face.

Where does the government think it derives the authority from to break into people’s homes whose lives have already been devastated by massive floods on the flimsiest of pretexts?

The 4th amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?
Cops immediately attempt to break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending a message - when a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you - the peasants - will yield to our tyranny.

Lawsuits need to be filed immediately by people in Iowa and elsewhere who have had cops invade their homes in complete violation of the 4th amendment and a pretext needs to be set that will put a stop to the government’s routine exploitation of natural disasters as an opportunity to impose martial law measures on needy victims that have already had their lives devastated.
With reports indicating that the Mississippi river is in danger of bursting its banks, the precedent that was set with Hurricane Katrina could be set to advance as government minions and jackbooted thugs across the country lick their lips at the prospect of kicking down more doors and harassing innocent people.

Contact the Iowa ACLU and demand they pressure the authorities to stop these illegal home invasions immediately.

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Kites rise above the divisions in Gaza

2008-06-17T13:00:00.002+02:00

Children flying kites in the Gaza Strip. (Mohammed Omer)

GAZA CITY, 15 June (IPS) - Mahmoud Abu Teior, 13, knows it's Abdullah's kite up in the skies, though he has never seen Abdullah. But that kite rises into the skies from across the Egyptian side of the border across from Gaza. And, Mahmoud knows Abdullah's voice because they speak sometimes. They have never met, and likely never will, but they are connected through their kites.

It's that time of the year. The holidays bring scores of children to play together -- across the dividing line. And despite the iron wall of separation, they form friendships.

Mahmoud has always known the border as a playground. This is where the family home was before it was demolished by Israel to make room for the border wall. "I always come here because this is where our house used to be," he says, launching his kite.

Most children still play from "home," where Block O, Yebna, Block J, or the al-Salam neighborhood used to be. The playground is that strip of no man's land known as the Philadelphia corridor, where more than 2,400 homes were razed ahead of the "disengagement" by Israel in 2005. That same "disengagement" made about 16,800 people homeless here, according to UN figures.

Only kites can now cross the border. And up in the skies one can tell some of the Gaza kites apart. They are the ones made with newspapers and plastic bags, with some thorns stuck on for the dogfight that happens in the sky. The usual materials like paper and glue used to make a kite are scarce in Gaza.

Khalid Zanoun, 12, like the others, always picks the spot where his house once stood. Up in the skies, he suddenly loses his kite in a dogfight. "He ran away from me!" he screams, looking at his disappearing kite, fists clenched. But soon he is beaming again, preparing another kite for the next battle with his unseen mates on the other side.

Curiosity led him some time back to scale the wall and see what his mates look like. "This is not allowed any more," he says. "The Hamas guards on our side and the Egyptian border guards on the other stop us."

Not entirely, though, because boys will be boys. If nothing, they climb up just to say hello to the Egyptian guards.

It's the better world on the other side. The Egyptian boys have better kites, and they have shoes. In Gaza, most children run barefoot on the sizzling hot soil. Shoes have been priced out of reach for most people, as so many things are nowadays as a result of the Israeli siege.

Mahmoud has four brothers working in Egypt. He dreams of joining them one day, of working in Egypt as an engineer, and not as day laborers as they do. "I have been to Egypt once," he says. That is when the border was breached for a few days in January. "I loved it."

But he's not so sure he can become an engineer. The family has no money to send him to university. His family came here as refugees in 1948 when Israel was created on the land where they lived. Now they have become homeless again, and are back in a refugee camp.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, helped re-house the families, and helps even to make some summer games possible for children. But it is hard to provide for about a quarter of a million children in Gaza.

Another boy comes up to join Mahmoud. He lifts his shirt to show a wound he received from shrapnel during an Israeli assault. He too lost his home. Everyone knows why. But for the moment, his thoughts are on his kite.

Mohammed Omer, The Electronic Intifada, 16 June 2008