Israel killed 180 Palestinians including 21 children in 2011
Palestine Information Center – 29/12/2011
RAMALLAH — The Israeli occupation forces killed 180 Palestinians in 2011 including 21 children and arrested 3300, a report by the Palestine liberation organization (PLO) said on Wednesday.
It said that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) endorsed in the same year the construction of 26837 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian land including 1774 in occupied Jerusalem and its environs.
The IOA confiscated 15525 dunums of Palestinian land, razed 495 homes, and destroyed 18764 trees, the report, carrying the name of people under occupation, said.
It pointed to the Jewish settlers’ attacks in the same year, noting that they escalated attacks in December and launched a series of “terrorist” assaults on mosques and violated the sanctity of a Christian Orthodox church on the Jordan River.
Israeli airstrike destroys Gaza training base
Ma’an – 29/12/2011
GAZA CITY – Israeli war planes bombed central and northern Gaza Strip early Thursday, with no injuries reported.
Israeli forces struck a training site of Islamic Jihad armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades in Al-Zahra district of central Gaza, flattening the compound and damaging nearby houses.
Another airstrike hit a location in the northern Gaza Strip.
A statement from the Israeli army said it hit a “terror activity site” and “terror tunnels.”
“The targeting of these sites was in response to the firing of rockets at Israel on Wednesday,” the statement said.
Rockets fired by Gaza militant groups have hit southern Israel in recent days, without causing injuries or damage.
An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed one person and wounded ten others, as the coastal enclave commemorated the third anniversary of Israel’s large-scale ground invasion of the coastal strip.
On Wednesday, an Israeli tank fired an artillery shell which landed in an open area in the north of Gaza, without causing damage or injuries.
Israel launched an unprecedented three week war on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27, 2008 which killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the military assault, including over 300 children. The majority of those killed were civilians and over 5,000 people were wounded.
Hamas vowed on Tuesday that it would not be intimidated by Israel’s threats to launch a new invasion, as Israel’s army chief called Operation Cast Lead an “excellent” operation and said any repeat attack must be “swift and painful.”
Israeli war ministry’s budget rises after approved by Knesset
Palestine Information Center – 29/12/2011
NAZARETH — The Knesset committees of finance and security approved the Israeli government’s decision to raise the budget of the war ministry on Wednesday, although some Israeli officials called earlier for slashing it.
The official Hebrew radio said these two Knesset committees sanctioned the financial plan of the Israeli war ministry by about one billion and 600 million shekels.
Knesset member and head of its security committee Shaul Mofaz had expressed his opposition to this budget increase and demanded cutting it, but Benny Gantz, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, warned the Israeli government of cutting the budget because this would affect the military readiness of the Israeli army.
Israel cancels pardon of former militant leader
Ma’an – 29/12/2011
JENIN – Israel has canceled the pardon of a former Fatah militant leader in Jenin and instructed him to hand himself in to the Palestinian Authority, he told Ma’an on Thursday.
Zakaria Zubeidi, who headed the Al-Aqsa Brigades during the second intifada and set up The Freedom Theater in Jenin, said he had stuck to all the conditions of the amnesty deal granted him by Israel three years ago.
Israel informed Palestinian Authority security forces on Thursday that Zubeidi’s pardon had been revoked, and that Israeli forces would detain him if he did not turn himself in, Zubeidi told Ma’an.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
Zubeidi established the ground-breaking theater in Jenin refugee camp in 2006 with Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was shot dead outside the venue in April.
He led the Fatah-affiliated brigades during some of the fiercest fighting of the intifada, or uprising, and was wanted by Israel for many years before authorities granted pardons to hundreds of Fatah militants in 2007.
Whatever happened to Tom MacMaster, the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoaxer?
By Benjamin Doherty – The Electronic Intifada – 12/29/2011
Tom MacMaster on a tour of Damascus, Syria in 2008.
Last June The Electronic Intifada exposed the identity of the person behind the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoax. The perpetrator was Tom MacMaster a 40-year old American graduate student at the University of Edinburgh.
After a surge of media attention, MacMaster disappeared from the public eye. The University of Edinburgh promised to investigate. But what happened and was MacMaster ever held accountable for a hoax that many believe caused genuine harm?
Documents released by the University of Edinburgh under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act, reveal that not only was MacMaster allowed to stay on as a student, but that the university sought as much as possible to gag him while never publishing any results of its investigation. The documents are highly redacted because the University is “subject data protection legislation which restricts the information [they] are allowed to disclose about [their] students” (page 1 of documents).
A hoax that could have put lives at risk
MacMaster’s blog, “Gay Girl in Damascus,” featured a character named Amina Arraf who was a US citizen, lesbian, literate and leftist. Tom had written Amina Arraf before, but this time his work would achieve international notoriety and similarly earn him international scorn.
The “Gay Girl in Damascus” was written to appeal directly to liberal, English-speaking readers. Moreover, Syria has been in a state of near media blackout especially since the breakout of revolts there in March.
In June before going on vacation to Turkey with his wife Britta Froelicher, MacMaster introduced a plot twist: Amina Arraf was mysteriously seized from the streets of Damascus. This led to genuine and global concern that a real person had been seized and faced imminent harm at a time when activists and bloggers were facing repression by Syrian authorities.
The subsequent disclosure that Amina was a fictional character led to concern that the plight of real activists would be discounted or ignored and thus real lives would be endangered by MacMaster’s deception.
Moreover, MacMaster had not only created the Amina character, but other fake identities, particularly Amina’s “cousin” Rania O. Ismail. It was “Rania” who announced Amina’s abduction.
The characters Rania Ismail and Amina Arraf had Facebook and other social media profiles that were linked to and engaged in conversations with Palestinian and other activists in the solidarity movement. When the Amina character was kidnapped before Tom went on vacation and doubts surfaced about the veracity of the story, members of this community became very suspicious and uncomfortable with this intricate attempt to infiltrate their networks.
MacMaster exploited vulnerable audiences and real communities to perpetrate his hoax.
The University of Edinburgh investigates
After the hoax was exposed by The Electronic Intifada, worldwide media attention focused on Tom MacMaster and also the University of Edinburgh where he was enrolled in a masters program in Medieval Studies. Many people wondered how the University would respond to MacMaster’s behavior, which many felt violated ethics and perhaps even the US law.
San Francisco activist and blogger Michael Petrelis obtained highly redacted documents related to the university’s two investigations of Tom MacMaster. From these documents, it is clear that Tom MacMaster was allowed to remain a student at The University on condition that he not continue to create deceptive, fictitious personas on the internet and that he not discuss his activities with the media or in public.
MacMaster may have continued to use sockpuppets after the hoax was exposed. On 24 June, someone posted defensive comments on Mondoweiss from the same IP address associated with “Amina Arraf.” MacMaster denied making the comments himself but concedes that he enlisted friends to defend his reputation online.
The first evidence of discipline is the University’s official statement on 13 June 2011, the day after the hoax was exposed.
The University will investigate whether the student has breached University computing regulations. The Principal has directed Vice Principal Knowledge Management and Chief Information Officer [CIO] Jeff Haywood to suspend the student’s computing privileges pending the outcome of the investigation.
Finally a letter written by Vice Principal for Equality and Diversity, Professor Lorraine Waterhouse and CIO Jeff Haywood (28 June 2011 on page 29) demands of MacMaster
You must give, in writing, an unequivocal assurance that you will not engage in any further actions of this kind whilst a student of this university.
MacMaster responded on 1 July 2011 in a letter (page 30) that says in part:
I will not engage in any further actions of this kind whilst a student of the university.
Another message to a third party (page 32) on 4 July 2011 suggests that the University has gagged Macmaster from talking about the hoax. CIO Jeff Haywood writes:
I have a written committment from Mr. MacMaster to refrain from any engagement in public with this subject.
Enormous press interest
The material also includes a list of press coverage from the University of Edinburgh’s Press Office (page 7) from 17 June 2011. The Tom MacMaster affair dominates the list with 40 international mentions. Several messages in the released material show inquiries from journalists asking basic questions about Tom MacMaster’s status at the University, the University’s plans to investigate or discipline him as a student. However, the University avoided making any comments, and administrators even tried to avoid confirming that MacMaster was even a student (page 22).
The University was uncomfortable with MacMaster’s activities
The University was clearly uncomfortable with the attention Tom MacMaster brought to them. In one message on 1 July 2011 (page 31), an unknown person writes to CIO Jeff Haywood. Most of the message is redacted, but another message dated 30 June 2011 is quoted where Mr. Haywood writes:
I hope you understand my reasons for not writing more fully. This is a sensitive issue for the University of Edinburgh.
And later on 4 July 2011 (page 32), Mr. Haywood replies to the same person and reiterates:
Let us hope that this unfortunate episode is close to an end.
The redacted material contains very little details about how the University conducted its investigation. Much of the emails contained in the released information are efforts to schedule phone calls to discuss the affair. These phone calls of course don’t leave a paper trail that can be requested with a freedom of information request.
A concerned third party
The unknown person who communicated by email (page 31-32) with Jeff Haywood appears to have provided information about Tom MacMaster to the University, and Mr. Haywood acknowledges
We are aware of some of what you have written below and will take that, plus the new information from you, alongside our own evidence, into account when reaching a decision as to how to proceed in Mr. Macmaster’s case.
Whatever the concerns were that were raised, the don’t appear to have had much impact on MacMaster. In the end, it seems that the University of Edinburgh’s main concern was to protect its reputation.
The Electronic Intifada thanks Michael Petrelis for sharing this material he obtained.
U.S. Closing Down Its Logistics Through Pakistan
Moon of Alabama | December 29, 2011
After the U.S. November 26 attack on a Pakistani border post that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers the logistic line from Karachi into Afghanistan was shut down by Pakistani authorities.
It was expected that the line would be reopened after a few weeks. But as the U.S. is not forthcoming with the apology Pakistan demands and even partly blames Pakistan for the incident despite the fact that all the miscommunication that led to it happened on the U.S. site, the chances to reopen the line have dwindled.
Consequently the U.S. is now pulling out the equipment and wares currently stuck on the transport route in Pakistan, as reported by the Express Tribune:
“It has been a month since the Nato attack which resulted in the port and border closures with no resolution in sight, the US government intends to have all import unit cargo that is currently staged at different Container Holding Yards (CHYs) moved back to Karachi port or the nearest CHY to the port. Once we receive approval, all unit cargo will be exported out of Pakistan,” wrote Anita Rice, Chief of the OCCA SWA (595th Trans Brigade, NSA Bahrain) in an email to all ‘concerned’ persons.
…
According to sources, US cargo, stranded in Pakistan, is worth millions of dollars and US authorities have serious concerns over the safety of the cargo as it includes hammer [sic] vehicles, dumpers, anti-aircraft guns, special carriers of anti-aircraft guns, vehicles specially built to jam communications, cranes and sophisticated weapons.“We will compile information for submission to Pakistan customs for amendment for cargo export,” Rice said in her email, providing US Lieutenant Colonel Jerome Heath’s contact number for further assistance.
It will take several months to get all the stuff stuck in Pakistan back on ships and even longer to reroute it through the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) into Afghanistan.
It will also cost a lot of money.
Flying equipment into Afghanistan costs about $14,000 per (short) ton.
A 20″ container coming through the NDN through Russia and Uzbekistan costs about $12,000, double the amount it costs for the same container to be routed through Pakistan.
Additionally there is concern about the ability of the rail network in Uzbekistan, recently hit by a mysterious explosion, to carry the additional load of what so far has come through Pakistan as well as corruption and the U.S. denial of the abysmal human rights record of the Karimov regime.
Aside from that, current NDN agreements do not allow for the transport of weapons and ammunition through the NDN and it is, so far, a one way route that can not be used for the ongoing retreat from Afghanistan.
Obama’s decision to not apologize for the border incident, taken out of fear of attacks from the domestic political right, will turn out to be very expensive and will hinder future U.S. operations in Afghanistan for quite some time.
But the political impact of completely closing down the logistic line through Pakistan might even be bigger. It removes another point of common interest the U.S. and Pakistan have had.
If the U.S. is, as it seems now possible, trying to get into direct negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar that exclude Pakistani interests from the future of Afghanistan the war there is unlikely to end anytime soon.
9/11 verdict on Iran a mockery of justice
Press TV – December 29, 2011
The US has resorted to “any possible means”, ranging from implicit to explicit acts of enmity, to undermine the Iranian nation and break its resistance to subjugation, a political analyst tells Press TV.
In consonance with its animus-charged measures against the Islamic Republic, “a US court in Manhattan made a mockery of justice, issued a default judgment against Iran, and accused Tehran of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” Ismail Salami, a Middle East expert, said, citing one such anti-Iran push in an article published on Press TV on Tuesday.
Such an allegation “stands in stark contrast to reason in view of the plethora of evidence pointing with force and logic to the joint role of the CIA and the Mossad in the tragic incident,” he added.
On December 22, a US federal judge in Manhattan alleged that Iran, together with Taliban and al-Qaeda, had been involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The court, meanwhile, withdrew Saudi Arabia’s name from the 10-year-old case, even though 15 of the 19 attackers were of Saudi nationality.
The Iranian author went on to say that the association of the Islamic Republic of Iran with Taliban and al-Qaeda was a move aimed to “further drag Iran into the margins of isolation.”
The US government’s effort to incriminate Iran in the 9/11 case followed another attempt in early October, when the US Justice Department accused Tehran of involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
Pointing to the full-throttle push by Zionist top officials in Washington and Tel Aviv to devise anti-Iran scenarios, Salami noted, “Any time there is a new allegation against Iran, one should not ignore the prominent role the Zionist lobby plays in the matter. In this case too, a Zionist-funded Birmingham law firm had an important part to play in contributing to the warps and wefts of the plot.”
He further explained that the findings of the US- and Israeli-funded “Wiggins Childs Quinn & Pantazis” firm were based on its interviews with “’defectors from Iran’s intelligence agencies’, namely the members of the anti-Iran MKO [Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization] which is widely branded as a terrorist group and one which is readily available to corroborate the allegations leveled against the Islamic Republic.”
However, it goes without saying that “their henna is void of any valid color,” the Iranian expert insisted, referring to the testimonies of the MKO terrorists.
The allegations of Iran’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks also come as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently removed the name of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar from the list of “most wanted terrorists.”
Salami said the US efforts to bend Iran to its will “is gradually unfolding in every imaginable area ranging from sabotaging Iranian computer systems to hiring spies and assassins.”
In 2010, two Iranian nuclear scientists were killed in assassination attempts, which, upon comprehensive investigations, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry traced back to Israel — the United States main ally.
The ministry announced on December 13 that it had arrested a CIA agent of Iranian descent, named as Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, foiling an intricate American plot to carry out espionage activities in the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian author also cautioned that “Washington’s literature of threat shuts the window to any meaningful dialogue with Iran.” The Islamic Republic has always expressed readiness to hold negotiations with the United States and European countries on the basis of mutual respect and without any precondition in order to reach an understanding on the issues of mutual concern.
Lebanon PM: We Have No Solid Evidence of al-Qaeda Presence
Al-Manar | December 29, 2011
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati has denied recent information that the al-Qaeda terrorist group has any presence in Lebanon.
He said before reporters on Wednesday: “We don’t have solid evidence that al-Qaeda is present in Arsal.”
He made his comments in reference to Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn’s recent statements that the group had entered the Bekaa town and later infiltrated Syria.
The minister said that he had received some information of such a development, to which Miqati noted: “Talk of such information does not mean that they are actual facts.”
“Such a critical issue should not be addressed in a manner that may harm Lebanon,” stressed the premier.
The security authorities that have been charged to verify Ghosn’s allegations will provide the Lebanese with the truth in the matter, he added.
“The army is doing its utmost in protecting the border with Syria,” he stated.
Complaint filed over secret donors to “friends of Israel”
By David Cronin – The Electronic Intifada – 12/28/2011
Last week I wrote about how Labor Friends of Israel (LFI) – a lobby group within Britain’s largest opposition party – appears to be breaking a law on political donations. I am happy to report that the UK’s Electoral Commission has now received a formal request to investigate the LFI and similar organizations affiliated to the country’s ruling coalition.
Jenny Tonge, a member of the House of Lords, has alerted the Commission to the lack of transparency over how Zionist support groups are funded.
Tonge’s letter draws attention to apparent omissions in the information that the “friends of Israel” groups within Labor and the senior government party, the Conservatives, have submitted to the Commission. Under legislation dating from 2001, all donations exceeding £7,500 ($11,600) to “member’s associations” within political parties have to be disclosed.
The LFI has reported spending nearly £77,000 on trips to the Middle East for members of Parliament between 2003 and 2009 and is known to have at least two full-time members of staff. The Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) have reported expenditure of more than £110,000 on travel since 2011, yet have indicated that they only received donations totalling £29,350 in that period.
Tonge wrote, “The Commission surely has an obligation to examine their finances, together with those of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, to ensure that they have not failed to declare any donations above the threshold, as it does seem remarkable to have this level of expenditure without significant donations from groups or individuals.”
Pounding the drumbeat of war
The LFI’s reticence over its funding is at odds with its determination to prove that it is shaping policy. Its 15 December newsletter gloated at how the first visit to Israel and the West Bank by Douglas Alexander, since his appointment as shadow foreign secretary in January, was hosted by the LFI. During the visit Alexander met Israel’s chief spindoctor Mark Regev, a man who has perfected the art of looking suave while telling lies. Alexander showed just how amenable he was to Israeli propaganda by going to see a high school in southern Israel — where, in his words “classrooms doubled up as bomb shelters.”
His itinerary did not include an excursion into the nearby Gaza Strip, where he could have inspected schools destroyed by the highly-equipped Israeli military during Operation Cast Lead three years ago. At least 353 Palestinian children were killed by Israel in that three-week offensive.
The same newsletter illustrates that LFI – like its beloved Regev – has a tenuous relationship with the truth. It brands Iran’s nuclear programme “illegal” and notes that the Labor hierarchy has pledged support for sanctions against the Tehran regime. Readers are not provided with any background details about how it was Israel, not Iran, that introduced nuclear weapons to the Middle East and how it is Israel, not Iran, that has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The newsletter proceeds to recommend an article by Alan Johnson from the Britain Israel Research Center (BICOM), who praised the British government’s determination “to end the diplomatic merry-go-round, to see Iran plain and to act, now and decisively, to confront it.”
If the “friends of Israel” are pounding the drumbeat of war against Iran, then it is vital that they be closely monitored.
Israeli occupation forces round up 17 Palestinians including journalist, minors
Palestine Information Center – 28/12/2011
NABLUS — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blasted their way into the home of Palestinian journalist Amin Abu Warda at the entrance to Balata refugee camp east of Nablus city on Wednesday before taking him away.
The wife of the journalist said that the soldiers encircled the building before dawn and isolated all males, her husband and his brothers who are all living in the same building but in different apartments, and checked their IDs then took away Abu Warda.
Abu Warda, 46, was about to obtain a doctorate in electronic journalism from Malaysia and is considered one of the most prominent Palestinian bloggers. He worked for Quds Press as a correspondent for 15 years and owns a media office in Nablus.
Local sources said that IOF troops rounded up 16 other Palestinians citizens in a rabid arrest campaign on Wednesday including two minors in Al-Khalil province and four Jerusalemites from Alezariye village to the east of occupied Jerusalem.
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Does Kevin Barrett Seek to “Absolve Islam of a Terrible Crime”?
The Kevin Barrett-Chomsky Dispute in Historical Perspective – Last part of the series titled “9/11 and the Zionist Question”
By Prof. Tony Hall | American Herald Tribune | August 28, 2016
Amidst his litany of condemnations, Jonathan Kay reserves some of his most vicious and vitriolic attacks for Kevin Barrett. For instance Kay harshly criticizes Dr. Barrett’s published E-Mail exchange in 2008 with Prof. Chomsky. In that exchange Barrett castigates Chomsky for not going to the roots of the event that “doubled the military budget overnight, stripped Americans of their liberties and destroyed their Constitution.” The original misrepresentations of 9/11, argues Barrett, led to further “false flag attacks to trigger wars, authoritarianism and genocide.”
In Among The Truthers Kay tries to defend Chomsky against Barrett’s alleged “personal obsession” with “vilifying” the MIT academic. Kay objects particularly to Barrett’s “final salvo” in the published exchange where the Wisconsin public intellectual accuses Prof. Chomsky of having “done more to keep the 9/11 blood libel alive, and cause the murder of more than a million Muslims than any other single person.” … continue
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