of bomblets and other endearing words

Doesn’t the word ‘bomblets’ sound so endearing.. something like pigs and piglets? Except bomblets kill and maim of course. Just a minor difference I would say.

Washington conlcuded this week that Israel has used US-made cluster bombs and bomblets in its war against Lebanon [umm.. is this news to anyone?].
The bomblets are designed to disperse over large areas, but their danger is that many of them remain unexploded until someone actually touches them, hence the great civilian casualties during and following the war against Lebanon. The United Nations and human rights groups such as New York based Human Rights Watch estimate Israel scattered as many as 4 million bomblets over southern Lebanon.

Apparently the US provides the bomblets but ‘restricts how they could be used.’

Uh huh. As in… what? They may be used against Arabs but not against Israeli civilians? Or perhaps they may be used against Palestinians but not against the oil-providing Saudis?

In any case.. that’s not the point. The Seattle PI reports that US State Department officials sent a preliminary, classified report to Congress this past Monday regarding this matter [link]. While they would not reveal the report to the press, they merely commented that it is ‘likely that there could have been some violations.’

No kidding?

But wait, there’s more. Here’s what’s funny:

Stewart Tuttle, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv, said that any U.S. concerns over Israel’s wartime practices would be discussed privately with Israeli officials. “But this isn’t going to undermine our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security or hamper our excellent bilateral cooperation in many areas.”

You see, this is a simple private matter between the US and Israel. The victims in this case – ie the Lebanese – have no right to know the details of any of this. Nor does the rest of the world. This is, as one US official called it, just an ‘irritant’ that will not spoil US-Israeli relations.

No, nothing ever will. Not Israeli spying on the US, nor the deliberate murder of US soldiers on the USS Liberty, not the murder of the Lebanese, and certainly not the murder of Palestinians.

Nothing ever will, until the American people themselves wake up and see what their administration is doing.

Meanwhile, would you like some omlette with your bomblet?

sami al haj – prisoner #345 – سامى الحاج: السجين رقم ثلاثمائة خمس وأربعين

Sami al Haj, al Jazeera photographer and Gitmo prisoner number 345, is currently on hunger strike and has been for the past 21 days. This is a tragic case of blatant miscarriage of justice and abuse of one man’s basic human rights… the right to life! ِAl Haj’s only crime is that he worked for al Jazeera channel which this US administration considers an enemy only because it exposes its activities – and that of its allies – in Iraq and Palestine. To us, Al Haj may be just another statistic, but to his family he is the only father and only husband they know. Who will save Sami al Haj from this grave injustice? His American lawyers are desperately trying to help him, but what can they do against this tyrannical administration? [To learn more about Al Haj's case, click on this link.].

المواطن السودانى الجنسية سامى الحاج – السجين رقم 345 بسجن جوانتانامو ومصورقناة الجزيرة - فى حالة إضراب عن الطعام منذ واحد وعشرين يوما . إنه حالة من حالات كثيرة لفقدان العدالة وحقوق الإنسان وجزء من الجرائم التى ترتكبها الإدارة الأمريكية الحالية باسم الحرب على الإرهاب – وصلة.

جريمة سامى الحاج أنه يعمل لدى قناة الجزيرة التى تكرهها الإدارة الأمريكية لأنها ليست تحت طوعها ولأنها تكشف خبايا ما يحدث فى العالم العربى وبشكل خاص فى العراق وفلسطين

من ينقذ هذا الرجل الأب لطفل صغير , من هذه المأساة الكبيرة – فهو سجين منذ خمس سنوات بدون توجيه أية إتهامات له. بالنسبة لنا ربما يكون حالة من كثير- ولكن بالنسبة له فهى حياته التى تضيع أمامه وبالنسبة لعائلته فهو الأب والزوج الذى حرموا منه كل هذه السنوات دون وجه حق

من ينقذ سامى الحاج من كل هذا الظلم المجحف؟ يحاول محاميه الأمريكي إنقاذه ولكن من يستطيع التصدى لهذه الإدارة المهووسة بفكرها الإستبدادى؟

global warning of global fever: another indictment of the bush administration

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is issuing its 4th report, a scientific assessment of the status of global warming and climate change. The report is due out this week. The report will provide comprehensive and up-to-date information about climate change, its causes, impacts and possible response measures based on the latest scientific technical and socio-economic literature. The Report of Working Group 1 will be released in Paris, on 2nd February 2007. According to their website, the Working Group 2 Report will be completed in early April 2007, the Working Group 3 Report in early May 2007 and the Synthesis Report by mid-November 2007.

Preliminary releases of the report show that scientists are saying that rising greenhouses gases will make climate change unstoppable in a decade. In effect, the world has just 10 years to reverse surging greenhouse gas emissions or risk runaway climate change that could make many parts of the planet uninhabitable. The report also claims it is more than 90 percent likely that global warming since 1950 has been driven mainly by the buildup of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases, and that more warming and rising sea levels are on the way [see New York Times article on this report].

Professor James Lovelock, who first proposed the Gaia hypothesis which states that the earth is a living organism, said that the earth ‘has a fever’, and is saying that “as conditions worsen, the global population which is currently around 6.5 billion, may sink as low as 500 million”. He urged people to drop the term ‘global warming’ and use the expression ‘global heating’ because ‘warming’ indicates something cmfortable and cozy.

He believes that those who will be able to survive this heat will be the people who will manage to live in arctic regions [link]. View also his article here entitled The Earth is About to Catch a Morbid Fever in which he states:

Perhaps the saddest thing is that Gaia will lose as much or more than we do. Not only will wildlife and whole ecosystems go extinct, but in human civilization the planet has a precious resource. We are not merely a disease; we are, through our intelligence and communication, the nervous system of the planet. Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.

President Bush of course remains in a state of denial. In 2004, MSNBC reported quoting a NASA scientist, that the Bush administration was trying to stifle scientific evidence of the dangers of global warming in an effort to keep the public uninformed.

“In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now,” James Hansen [the NASA scientist] told a University of Iowa audience. [link]

Has his position changed? If it has to do with immediate interests for large corporations and for his family, his position will not change in spite of any professed promises.

Here is an article by the Union of Concerned Scientists that explains the Bush administration’s continued pressures on scientists to suppress such reports [link]:

“The new evidence shows that political interference in climate science is no longer a series of isolated incidents but a system-wide epidemic,” said Dr. Francesca Grifo, Director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program. “Tailoring scientific fact for political purposes has become a problem across many federal science agencies.”

So what else is new?

To read the full report of the Bush administration’s suppression of reports on Global Warming, click here for the report entitled Atmosphere of Pressure [pdf document].

i am not there, i did not die

Two year old Yahia Abu Bakra died. Yet another victim of the violence that is Palestine. This time, it is the violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas.

Images of these dead Palestinian children should haunt us forever. Their blood is on our hands… each one of us, Western, Eastern, Northern or Southern. We have not been able to stop the bloodshed and more children continue to die. Mohammed from Rafah wrote to me saying that he has not seen the situation in Gaza as bad as it is today. Knowing that Mohammed has been in the middle of the daily terror that is Gaza, this is quite a statement.

But those children are not dead. They will haunt us forever.. we will wash our hands trying to get the blood out but it will be there forever. They are dead because of our failure – our failure as Arabs and our failure as governments. It is a failure of the West in protecting and upholding basic principles such as human rights in the face of greed for oil. And those innocent children are paying the price.

Once again I ask: where is the outrage?

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

- Mary Frye

when evils are most free – التحالف مع الشيطان؟

Zev Chafets is a former New York Daily News columnist. He also served as press secretary under Menachem Begin in Israel and currently lives between the States and Israel. He has recently written a book entitled A Match Made in Heaven in which he examines the relationship and alliance between Israel and the Zionist Evangelical movement in the US. I did not read the book, but I heard his interview on NPR on Fresh Air [link]. The interview was far more revealing than I expected.

Naturally Chafets rode the wave of Carter-bashing. He fell short of calling Carter an ‘Arab-lover’ but he did say that Carter was adopting the Arab point of view and the terminology Arabs use. But that was not his most revealing.

Throughout his interview, Chafets continued to invoke the Holocaust, with the prefix that ‘I don’t want to keep referring to this, but…’ and then he goes on to talk about it and how relevant it is to what is happening to the Jews today. Again, that was expected as well.

Chafets also used the idea of ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ sparingly. He repeated it several times, and in particular said how Israel was the only country in the ME that had women’s rights and where women could vote and how they allowed rights such as gay rights. Typically, misinformation of the first degree.

But here is the most revealing of the interview. When the host asked him if he believed what Christian Zionist Evangelist Hagee said following Katrina [Hagee had stated that Katrina was caused because of the sinfulness of New Orleans] Chafets agreed. He said he did agree to that, but not necessarily to other things Hagee believed in. And in this last statement lies the true nature of this mindset: Chafets said that Israel needed to make alliances with anyone who was willing to make an alliance with it because it could not pick and choose its allies. It needed to be re-enforced through such alliances even if they disagreed on other principles – even other major principles. For him, the fact that Christian Zionists have no interest in real ‘peace’ because they believe in the concept of the final battle and the end of times is irrelevant to him. He said this was a ‘time of war’ and we need to take whoever stands by us and use it to accomplish our goals.

Just like that. So in essence what he is saying is that he is ready to make a pact with the devil in order to win. [Ah, if only the Christian-Zionist zealots could hear what he said about them!]

But here is my question then based on his rationale: do Muslims then have a right to invoke the support of extemists such as Al Qaeda in order to achieve their goals too and to ‘win’?

Something to think about, huh?

O conspiracy,
Sham’st thou to show thy dang’rous brow by night,
When evils are most free?
- Julius Caesar (Brutus at II, i)

زيف شافيتس مراسل صحفى سابق بصحيفه ديلى نيوز فى نيو يورك, كما أنه شغل منصب السكرتير الصحفى لمناحيم بيغن في اسرائيل ، وهو يعيش حاليا بين الولايات المتحدة واسرائيل. وقد صدر له مؤخرا كتابا باسم زيجة سماوية, يتناول فيها العلاقة والتحالف بين دولة اسرائيل وبين الحركة الصهيونية الانجيليه في الولايات المتحدة.

لم أقرأ الكتاب ولكني استمعت لحوار له حول الكتاب على إذاعة إن بى آر , وقد كشف الحوار الكثير من طريقة تفكير الدولة الإسرائيلية فى تحالفها الغريب مع ما يعرف باسم المسيحية الصهيونية .

طبعا كما هو متوقع, قام شافيتس بهجوم غنيف على الرئيس الأمريكى السابق جيمى كارتر وكتابه حول التمييز العنصرى ضد الفلسطينيين. وكما هو متوقع قام شافيتش بالحديث عن الهولوكوست ومعاناة اليهود منه, وكذلك قام بالحديث عن الديمقراطية الوحيدة بالمنطقة العربية, وهى دولة إسرائيل بالطبع – أمال هتكون مين يعنى؟

لكن لم يكن كل ذلك هاما فى الحوار بل كان مكررا وسمعناه حتى سئمنا الإستماع إليه. أما الشىء ذو الدلالة الحقيقية فكانت عندما سألته المذيعة عن ما اذا كان يوافق نجم المسيحية الصهيونية القس هاجى فيما قاله بعد إعصار كارتينا [كان هاغي قد صرح بان كاترينا كان مرده الاثم الذى ترتكبه مدينة نيو اورليانز] فقال شافيتس أنه يتفق معه فى ذلك إلا أنه يوجد الكثير مما لا يتفق عليه, ولكن – وهذا هو مربط الفرس – على اسرائيل أن توافق مع أى تحالف يتقدم لها ليساعدها مهما كانت آراءه وأغراضه وأهدافه لأنها الآن فى حالة حرب وهى مستعدة لتشكيل أية تحالفات مع من كان مستعدا لاجراء تحالف معها لأنها لا تختار حلفائها. وأضاف أنه ثمة حاجة الى هذه التحالفات وان كانت تختلف معها فى مبادئها. فهاجى كغيره من المؤمنين بالمسيحية الصهيونية ليست لديهم مصلحة حقيقية في السلام لأنهم يعتقدون في مفهوم المعركه الأخيرة وفكرة نهاية العالم المتصلة بهذه المنطقة. وقال شافيتز إن هذا هو وقت الحرب – ونحتاج الى من يقف معنا وسنستخدمهم لتحقيق اهدافنا.

. أى باختصرا شديد انه مستعد لتقديم اي تحالف مع الشيطان حتى شيطان التطرف من اجل الفوز.

فهذا الآن سؤالي للأخ شافيتز استنادا الى منطقه هذا : هل يحق إذا للمسلمين إلتماس الدعم من مجموعة مثل القاعده مثلا لتحقيق أهدافهم ؟

شيء يدعو للتفكير – أليس كذلك؟

empire and its errand boys

In an excellent article entitled Empire Marches On published in Z-Mag, well-known Marxist literary theorist and political commentator Aijaz Ahmed* makes some very disturbing revelations that lead to even more disturbing analysis of the neocon strategies and agenda for the Middle East. Ahmed begins with a discussion of the events leading to, and following, the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent hanging of Saddam Hussein. But there is much more to his article than a reiteration of what many other commentators have said.

From the detailed analysis of the meddling in Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Lebanon, Aijaz Ahmed discusses Palestine following the election of Hamas. He claims that the US began channelling funds to Abbas and Dahlan in order to undermine and bring down the Hamas government. This is not speculation, but is rather based on what is known as the Abrams Plan, in reference to neocon Eliot Abram’s plan for a civil war among Palestinians. Here is what Aijaz Ahmed writes:

The Abrams program was initially conceived last February [2006] by a group of White House officials who wanted to shape a coherent and tough response to the Hamas electoral victory of January. These officials, the authors were told, were led by Abrams, but included National Security Advisers working in the office of the Vice-President, including prominent neo-conservatives David Wurmser and John Hannah. The policy was approved by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice… . The President then signed off on the program in a Central Intelligence Agency “finding” and designated that its implementation be put under the control of the CIA… . The recipients of U.S. largesse have been Abbas and Mohammad Dahlan, a controversial and charismatic Palestinian political leader from Gaza. The U.S. has also relied on advice from Mohammad Rashid, a well-known Kurdish/Palestinian financier with offices in Cairo.
These few extracts speak for themselves, and we need not comment, except to say that the designated errand boys in this plan (Mubarak of Egypt, the Jordanian and Saudi royals) are said to be highly nervous and uncertain of repercussions that might ensue for themselves as they get seen fanning the flames of a fratricide among the Palestinians so openly, in the service of Israel.

And who pays the price of all this? It is we, the people. We, the Arab people. We, the American people. We, the people of the world. Here are some statistics that Ahmed details in his article:

• A million and a half Iraqis, most of them women and children, had died as a result of the sanctions against Iraq even before full-scale invasion.
• The most recent estimate of deaths since the invasion put the number at 665,000. That is quite aside from the probably much higher number of the maimed, the injured, the malnourished.
• The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says there are 1.6 million internal refugees in Iraq now
• Another 1.8 million have left the country
• 100,000 leave the country every day and Syria alone – which requires no entry visas from others Arab states – receives a daily influx of 2,000 refugees.
• The last reliable Census in Iraq put the population at 23 million.
• Over two million dead and over three million rendered homeless thus constitute roughly 20 per cent of the population – and the process continues.
• The bulk of the country’s intelligentsia has fled, and documented evidence exists to show that close to a thousand academic professionals, journalists, judges and doctors have been murdered.
• Tens of billions of dollars have disappeared into the coffers of the new, U.S.-made ruling elite, but the vast majority of the surviving population has been pauperised in a country that was once the Arab world’s most advanced welfare state.

And if these statistics are not worrisome enough for the American people – AND the wavering American Congress – because they belong to some nation out there they had probably never heard of before invading it, then how about the following:

• Expenditures on the Iraq war alone are now running at close to $8 billion a month and the accumulated expenditures incurred thus far are now close to $2 trillion;
• Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning former Chief Economist of the World Bank, whose detailed study of the likely cost of the Iraq War put it at $3 trillion, now says that the figure was much too low and accumulated costs, not just to the U.S. economy but to the economies of other participating countries, are likely to be considerably higher.
• As regards the general economy, the U.S. national debt now hovers around $70 trillion if all future obligations are included.
• The real budgetary deficit in 2005 alone was closer to $750 billion, while the current accounts deficit exceeded $800 billion.
• In November 2006, Business Week pointed out that in a year or so the U.S. shall arrive at a point where it will import a dollar value of goods and services exceeding what the federal government collects in revenues that now amount to $2.4 trillion.
• There are any number of such indicators, and Stiglitz warns that unless truly fundamental changes are introduced into micro-management of the U.S. economy on an emergency basis, a crisis of very considerable proportions shall start looming in 12 to 24 months – just as the U.S. enters into its next presidential campaign.

NOW will this make Americans stop and listen?

Aijaz Ahmed ends his article with the following deeply disturbing statement:

All the documentary evidence seems to suggest that Bush is more keen to invade them now than he was before. He has only two more years in office; after that, he cannot run for the presidency again. By the same token, he must perpetrate in these two years all the evil he intends.

*Aijaz Ahmed is based in India. He is a Professorial Fellow at the Centre of Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi and is visiting Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto. He also works as an editorial consultant with the Indian newsmagazine Frontline.

[To read more on the Abrams Program, click here]

we

We is a fast-paced 64 minute documentary that covers the world politics of power, war, corporations, deception and exploitation. We is a documentary narrated by and spoken in the words of Arundhati Roy, renowned Indian activist and novelist. Its main theme is ‘power and powerlessness’ – of the dangers of the accumulation of unfettered power, regardless of ideology that results in excesses.

Among other things, Roy addresses the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the making of Palestinian refugees. She speaks of the US unconditional support of Israel [to view this section, click here]. Among the most astounding quotations she mentions is one spoken by Winston Churchill, where he says that he does not believe that a ‘dog living in a manger’ has the right to the manger!!!

You may watch the entire documentary for free on Google Video at this link, and/or  download it at this link from Roy’s website to view on media player. On Google Videos, you may also view Roy’s famous speech entitled Come September [link] upon which the video We is based.

The following is the trailer from We:

DO NOT MISS THIS VIDEO!!!

watch for the signs – perception management and the war against iran

Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner is speaking out again. He is warning against the impending attack against Iran and is claiming that ‘the pieces are all in place’. Scott Ritter, former UN inspector, said in his book that the war has already started through violating Iranian war space in order to provoke Iran to a response. Meanwhile, Grand Provocateur Benjamin Netanyahu announced: “I want to call on the world that didn’t stop the Holocaust last time to stop any attempt this time and what needs to be done is divest genocide” [link] in a consistent and persistent attempt at provoking the US into action against Iran.

But let us first paddle back. In 2003, Gardiner wrote a paper entitled Truth From These Podia – Summary of a Study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management, Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations in Gulf War II. The paper exposes the Pentagon’s propaganda methods in selling a war. Although written about Iraq, it could not be more relevant now, as the neocons prepare the attack against Iran [PDF link].

In his paper, Gardiner claimed that the war against Iraq was not a case of bad intelligence, but rather ‘an orchestrated effort’ that ‘began before the war, was a major effort during the war, and continues as post war distortions.’

Briefly, the paper is about how the US and UK conducted a strategic influence campaign that distorted perceptions of the situation both before and during the conflict; caused misdirection of portions of the military operation; was irresponsible in parts; might have been illegal in some ways; cost big bucks; and finally, will be even more serious in the future.

While the study is worth reading in detail, his recent take on the current situation regarding Iran is equally highly disturbing [link]. Here is what Gardiner sees is already happening:

1. Two carriers have already left the US.
2. They will be joined by naval mine clearing assets from both the United States and the UK.
3. Patriot missile defense systems have also been ordered to deploy to the Gulf.
4. As a guard against North Korea seeing operations focused on Iran as a chance to be aggressive, a squadron of F-117 stealth fighters has just been deployed to Korea

More significantly, Gardiner warns of the following signs to watch for, because those indicate an impending strike:

1. There is a National Security Council staff-led group whose mission is to create outrage in the world against Iran. Just like before Gulf II, this media group will begin to release stories to sell a strike against Iran. Watch for the outrage stuff.
2. The Patriot missiles going to the GCC states are only part of the missile defense assets. Expect to see the deployment of some of the European-based missile defense assets to Israel, just as they were before Gulf II.
3. Deployment of additional USAF fighters into the bases in Iraq, maybe some into Afghanistan.
4. We will read about the deployment of some of the newly arriving Army brigades going into Iraq being deployed to the border with Iran. Their mission will be to guard against any Iranian movements into Iraq.
5. And finally, as one of the last steps before a strike, we’ll see USAF tankers moved to unusual places, like Bulgaria. These will be used to refuel the US-based B-2 bombers on their strike missions into Iran.

When that happens, Gardiner assures us, we’ll only be days away from a strike.

Watch for the signs.

Will insanity finally win?

وإتفق الوزراء العرب

هذا الكاريكاتير من موقع عرب تايمز – وعلى مسؤولية العرب تايمز – مش أنا يا بيه والله – ولا موافقة على الكلام ده لا سمح الله ولا حاجة. وكمان أنا لا قريته ولا حاجة. أنا لقيت الصور وعجبتنى فحطيتها وخلاص. او كى؟ ماشى الكلام؟

These cartoons are from Arab Times online.

Arab Interior Ministers have agreed to curse the Arab peoples

Bush: Let us bomb al Hurra TV station
Rumsfeld: Man, al Hurra is our station. You are confusing it with Hizbollah’s and al Jazeera’s

Israeli Foreign Minister: As women, we need to stand together against the terrorist Lebanese people
Condi: Indeed. That is why Arab leaders stood by you because they are all women.*

*Naturally ‘women’ here is used in a sexist and derogatory manner, but you get the point of the joke.

acinetobacter baumannii – the bugs of war

[The bug] preys exclusively on the weakest of the weak and the sickest of the sick, slipping into the body through open wounds, catheters, and breathing tubes. Colonization poses no threat to people who aren’t already ill, but colonized health care workers and hospital visitors can carry the bacteria into neighboring wards and other medical facilities. [link]

This is an explosive story from Wired News today on a bacteria accidentally created by the US in hospitals in Iraq. Initially, soldiers and their families thought – and were told – that the infections they had were from some ‘bug’ they acquired and picked up from Iraqi soil. An investigative team began tracing the bug and they discovered that it was widespread in American hospitals and ICU combat facilities located in Iraq. In essence, the soldiers were not bringing it into the compounds but were actually taking it out and spreading it, and even transferring it to Europe and the United States.

The problem is that this is a drug-resistant bacteria. The investigators concluded that

some of the medical equipment used at the two facilities [two combat hospitals that they pinpointed was the origin of this] was originally packed in Germany and may have been contaminated before it was shipped to Iraq. But the “index case” that set the whole process in motion may never be known.

This bacteria is know as the Supergerm, and it “spread without warning and seemingly without official notices since they are infections instead of diseases”, according to the website dedicated to spreading awareness of the issue. “The government is taking advantage of this technicality.”[link]