Israeli army still using children as human shields in 2010
Defence for Children International | 22 November 2010
One day after an Israeli military court imposed a suspended sentence on two Givati Brigade soldiers for using a nine-year-old boy as a human shield in Gaza, DCI-Palestine has just obtained an affidavit from a 13-year-old boy who reports being used as a human shield on 19 August 2010. This brings to three, the number of human shield cases documented by DCI-Palestine in 2010.
18 February 2010 – Voices From The Occupation (16-year-old girl from Nablus)
16 April 2010 – Voices From The Occupation (14-year-old boy from Beit Ummar)
19 August 2010 – Voices From The Occupation (13-year-old boy from near Nablus)
The practice of using human shields involves forcing civilians to directly assist in military operations or using them to shield an area or troops from attack. Both of these circumstances expose civilians to physical, and sometimes, mortal danger. Civilians are usually threatened and/or physically coerced into performing these tasks, most of the time at gunpoint. The practice is illegal under both international and Israeli domestic law.
In the latest case documented by DCI-Palestine, a 13-year-old boy from a village near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, was beaten and then forced at gunpoint to search and open doors in a house where the army suspected a wanted person might be hiding – Nazzal A. – Voices From The Occupation.
Since April 2004, DCI-Palestine has documented 16 cases involving Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli army. Fifteen of the 16 cases, occurred after the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled the practice to be illegal in October 2005, suggesting that the army is not effectively implementing the Court’s decision, or simply disregarding the Court’s order altogether.
On Sunday, 21 November 2010, two soldiers from the Givati Brigade became the first soldiers to be charged and convicted of using a child as a human shield. The two soldiers were demoted from the rank of staff sergeant to sergeant and each given a three-month suspended prison sentence. DCI-Palestine is of the view that the lenient sentences handed down on Sunday are unlikely to deter the future use of children as human shields – Majed J. – Voices From The Occupation.
Israel has put 200,000 Palestinians before military tribunals since 1990
MEMO | November 26, 2010
A report from the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs has claimed that 200,000 Palestinians have been tried by Israeli military tribunals since 1990. What the report describes as “unfair and arbitrary” trials in Israel have led to thousands of Palestinians languishing in the Zionist state’s prisons.
“Military court rooms surrounded by the fences of military bases have operated since the beginning of the Occupation shrouded in mystery,” said the report. “Journalists are prevented from attending the trials and so the proceedings are not reported.” The sentences passed in these courts don’t provoke any discussion or controversy inside Israel; neither the judicial nor academic communities take any interest, it added.
The military tribunals are, claims the report, the backbone of Israel’s occupation apparatus. The official and civic silence about the courts’ affairs strengthens the Israeli security forces by allowing violations of international law to occur with impunity. Israel’s military courts reject international law although the latter obliges occupying powers to implement its provisions.
German government imposes police state ahead of austerity budget
The Flu Case | November 20, 2010
As the economic implosion of Germany due to the banking fraud approaches, the government has started to put large numbers of armed police onto the streets under the pretext of having to ensure security against “Isalmic terrorists.”
Police wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying machine guns have started patrolling stations and airports throughout Germany. Security around the Berlin government buildings has also been strengthened. Police are also patrolling high speed ICE trains, reports Bild. Travellers can expect more checks.
The imposition of a police state comes just ahead of the government’s announcement of a key austerity budget that is expected to stir protests among the German people even larger in scale than the Castor and Stuttgart 21 protests.
On top of all the other payments to banks, Germans will now also be expected to foot a large part of the multi-billion euro bill for the Ireland “bailout” pushed on the country by the IMF and EU.
The Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was forced today to backtrack over claims that a bomb with a detonator and a timer had been found in a suitcase in a plane in Namibia, stating that the device had been planted as part of a “test.”
The 19 Senators Who Voted To Censor The Internet
TechDirt | November 18, 2010
This is hardly a surprise but, this morning (as previously announced), the lame duck Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to move forward with censoring the internet via the COICA bill — despite a bunch of law professors explaining to them how this law is a clear violation of the First Amendment. What’s really amazing is that many of the same Senators have been speaking out against internet censorship in other countries, yet they happily vote to approve it here because it’s seen as a way to make many of their largest campaign contributors happy. There’s very little chance that the bill will actually get passed by the end of the term but, in the meantime, we figured it might be useful to highlight the 19 Senators who voted to censor the internet this morning:
- Patrick J. Leahy — Vermont
- Herb Kohl — Wisconsin
- Jeff Sessions — Alabama
- Dianne Feinstein — California
- Orrin G. Hatch — Utah
- Russ Feingold — Wisconsin
- Chuck Grassley — Iowa
- Arlen Specter — Pennsylvania
- Jon Kyl — Arizona
- Chuck Schumer — New York
- Lindsey Graham — South Carolina
- Dick Durbin — Illinois
- John Cornyn — Texas
- Benjamin L. Cardin — Maryland
- Tom Coburn — Oklahoma
- Sheldon Whitehouse — Rhode Island
- Amy Klobuchar — Minnesota
- Al Franken — Minnesota
- Chris Coons — Delaware
This should be a list of shame. You would think that our own elected officials would understand the First Amendment but, apparently, they have no problem turning the US into one of the small list of authoritarian countries that censors internet content it does not like (in this case, content some of its largest campaign contributors do not like). We already have laws in place to deal with infringing content, so don’t buy the excuse that this law is about stopping infringement. This law takes down entire websites based on the government’s say-so. First Amendment protections make clear that if you are going to stop any specific speech, it has to be extremely specific speech. This law has no such restrictions. It’s really quite unfortunate that these 19 US Senators are the first American politicians to publicly vote in favor of censoring speech in America.
Federal Judge Orders CIA to Release Records on Secret Experiments on Soldiers
By David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | November 19, 2010
The CIA is being forced to produce specific information regarding secret tests conducted on thousands of soldiers over a 25-year period.
In response to a lawsuit filed by three veterans groups and six individual veterans, a federal judge, James Larson, ordered the CIA and other government agencies to turn over documents about testing programs and the substances used on soldiers from 1950 through 1975. The plaintiffs allege that the government used about 7,800 military personnel as human guinea pigs to research biological, chemical and psychological weapons at Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick in Maryland.
The soldiers volunteered for the testing, but were not told at the time to what they were being exposed. They also were required to sign an oath of secrecy about their participation.
The CIA has put forth a variety of arguments to avoid revealing information about the 35-year-old experiments, including privacy protections, state-secrets privilege, the fact that the Department of Defense is conducting its own investigation, the passage of time, the fact that witnesses no longer work for the government, that the gathering of relevant information would take too much time, and the questionable claim that it never funded or conducted research on military personnel.
Judge Larson has insisted that the CIA must produce evidence relating to a 1963 CIA Inspector General report on an experiment called MKUltra; the basis for each redaction in that report; the doses and effects of certain substances administered to test subjects; any payments made to contractors or university researchers, any outside-party proposals concerning the experiments; a confidential Army memo about the use of volunteers in research; all government-led human experiments from 1975 to date involving specific drugs; and whether the government secretly administered MKUltra materials to “the patrons of prostitutes” in safe houses in New York and San Francisco, as the veterans allege.
Shin Bet Torture ‘Investigator’ Moved to Israeli Justice Department
By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News – November 18, 2010
The Israeli secret service, or Shin Bet, has always depended on ‘internal investigations’ to respond to allegations of torture and mistreatment. Now, the Shin Bet officer in charge of complaints will be moved under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department.
Israeli activists demonstrate Shin Bet torture technique (photo by ‘Abolish Torture’)
The ‘internal investigations’ have, in 100% of cases, resulted in a dismissal of complaints, often with a single sentence reply to the complainant: “There is no basis for the complaints in your letter.” The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel recently released a report showing that every single one of the 650 complaints brought to the Israeli government’s legal advisors were dismissed out of hand.
After the report’s release, Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein announced that he will move the employee who deals with complaints from within the Shin Bet to the Justice Department for “the sake of appearances”.
According to the Attorney General’s office, it is unlikely that the shift in jurisdiction will result in any actual change in how ‘investigations’ of complaints are conducted.
The Shin Bet has a reputation among Israeli military branches for harsh interrogation and torture of prisoners. Palestinians who have been abducted by the Shin Bet report horrific techniques used by the Shin Bet officers during interrogations, and officers within the organization have publicly admitted their use of certain techniques including the so-called ‘Palestinian hanging’, in which prisoners are hung by their handcuffed hands from a wall.
Despite the violations of international law and human rights conventions, Shin Bet officers continue to authorize the use of torture against Palestinian prisoners, including children, on a regular basis.
End of Free Internet: US Senate Committee Approves Internet “Blacklist” Bill
Activist Post | November 18, 2010
It seems the lame duck Congressional session is becoming anything but unproductive. Yesterday, we saw the cloture of the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), and today the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act was unanimously approved by the US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday with a 19-0 vote. The COICA has been overwhelmingly viewed by bloggers as a corporate hijacking of the Internet by mega-media cartels. Indeed, its eventual passage will be the end of the free Internet as we now it.
The Associated Press reported on the COICA vote:
The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which has the support of the entertainment industry but has been strongly criticized by digital rights and other groups, was approved by a vote of 19-0.
“Few things are more important to the future of the American economy and job creation than protecting our intellectual property,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont who co-sponsored the bill.
“That is why the legislation is supported by both labor and industry, and Democrats and Republicans are standing together,” Leahy said.
The bill gives the Justice Department an expedited process for cracking down on websites engaged in piracy or the sale of counterfeit goods including having courts issue shutdown orders against domains based outside the United States.
“Rogue websites are essentially digital stores selling illegal and sometimes dangerous products,” Leahy said. “If they existed in the physical world, the store would be shuttered immediately and the proprietors would be arrested.”
“We cannot excuse the behavior because it happens online and the owners operate overseas,” he said. “The Internet needs to be free — not lawless.”
This legislation may be the most dangerous weapon against free speech in modern history. The infringing activity that may land a website on the “Blacklist” is defined very broadly. It appears that the blacklist can be enforced without a court order via ISPs. This is total information tyranny and all independent voices need to stand up and protest or surely we’ll face the arbitrary blacklist. David Segal reported on the blacklist regulations:
COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list.
The lists are for sites “dedicated to infringing activity,” but that’s defined very broadly — any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are “central to the activity of the Internet site” could be blocked.
Segal has also established a petition against this hijacking of the free internet which can be signed here. However, given that this bill passed out of committee unanimously proves that our corporate-owned public officials will surely jam this legislation down our throats. It will likely change the Internet as we know it, essentially redirecting the flow of free information to media conglomerates. The bill is proposed as a piracy protection bill where according to AP:
The US Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill on Thursday that would give US law enforcement more tools to crack down on websites abroad engaged in piracy of movies, television shows and music.
Clearly this was funded by media cartels, but this has a lot more to do with Internet censorship as it does about copyright infringement. Further, this law gives the Department of Justice power to block access to websites located outside the United States. This self-appointed global power grab is explained by activist Francis Anthony Govia:
The Justice Department will be granted power to serve court orders upon the registry where the domain name registrar is not located in the United States, and upon receipt of such an order, the domain registry must suspend operations of, and lock, the domain name of the infringing site.
During the action intended to “lock the domain name,” a court may determine, at a minimum threshold, that an Internet site is not conducting business to residents in the United States if the Internet site “states that it is not intended, and has measures to prevent, infringing materials from being accessed in or delivered to the United States,” including other provisions in subsection (d)(2)(B). The owner or operator of the “infringing site” shall also have recourse to petition the Justice Department to remove his domain name from an offending list, or petition the court to modify, suspend, or vacate the order in accordance with subsection (h)(1)(B).
This is very bad news for alternative voices and news aggregators. Although it may be futile, we encourage everyone to call the Senate switchboard and voice their strong objection to this legislation, or we and many other “truth” sites may be essentially finished. The U.S. Capitol Hill Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.
Israeli Police Commander To TV News Director: ‘We Know Where You Live, Will Lie In Wait For You’
Israel is a democracy, right? That’s what all the press releases say, don’t they? But I wonder how those who praise said democracy to the skies manage to reconcile that with horror stories like the ones I’m about the recount.
Israel’s Channel 10 News ran a series on police violence and abuse. It featured incidents between citizens and police officers which escalated into extreme violence. Before it aired the national deputy police commander called the news director, Reudor Benziman, and threatened him and his staff with violence if it wasn’t cancelled. In fact, this very threat should be investigated as a violation of the law. When Benziman declined, the officer bellowed:
We too can act against you. We know where your studios are and your personal vehicles and we can [lie in] wait for you.
The police also refused to provide any statistics to the station for its report including the number of complaints filed and those found to be justified (presumably this is publicly accessible information required to be made available by the police–which would make the refusal an act of mere petulance). Local police commanders also routinely refuse to allow access to any of the Channel’s reporters.
Lest you doubt the level of violence of which these people are capable, listen to the police “explanation” of its behavior:
It’s already been a half-year since the Channel began a shameful, partisan campaign to recruit citizens and amass material against those who uphold the law. The fantastical complaints raised by the news reports of alleged threats [by the police] reflect the level of journalistic integrity of the entire project…
Israeli police officers receive the unconditional backing of the national command for the full-fledged use of force as permitted by law. In a nation that functions properly, the law-abiding citizenry stands beside its police and not against them.
This reminds me so well of the response by Dick Cheney to the civil liberties whiners who complained about the civil liberties violations brought on by the USA Patriot Act: no one who obeys the law has anything to worry about; only those who break the law will be affected by it. Except that didn’t turn out to be true and never does in a police state. The innocent are as likely to be dredged up from the sea bottom as the guilty. And the innocent are treated no differently than the guilty. In fact, because of the presumption of guilt in such cases, the innocent find it difficult, if not impossible to prove their innocence.
You’ll notice in the passage quoted above that the police have stabbed two targets at once. They’ve smeared the Israeli media as being not only their enemy, but in effect an enemy of the state (because who do the police represent if not the state?). Alongside the media, those citizens who register complaints against the police are in effect on the side of criminals (and certainly little better than them).
The sentiment above is confirmed by this Haaretz report on a Knesset hearing at which the boss of the police bully above testified about the record of police abuse and violence against the said citizenry:
Police Commissioner David Cohen…appearing before the State Control Committee, spent much of the meeting speaking out against critics that have alleged a pattern of abuses by the Israel Police. He said the organization “works with its head, not with its hands.”
…The police commissioner expressed outrage that citizens who have complained of police violence were allowed to attend the meeting, saying “they shouldn’t be here.” Committee chairman MK Yoel Hasson told Cohen they could not be barred from attending.
This is the nation’s top police officer appointed, as one of my Israel apologist commenters tutored me recently, by democratically-elected representatives, who himself doesn’t believe in democracy. The state police chief believes no citizens who complain about the police should be allowed to attend a public hearing about the police. Once again, he feels these citizens are offenders who should be barred and that their very complaints are an act of disloyalty against the police and by extension, the state. Apparently, the only citizens who should be allowed to scrutinize the police are those who approve of the job he’s doing. As the old song lyrics go: “Nice work if you can get it.”
As I wrote here recently, the police are a state unto themselves. They run roughshod over those they are sworn to protect. They face virtually no public control as this salient passage from the Haaretz story reveals:
The Justice Ministry has never run an internal inquiry into the operation of the department, according to presenters at the meeting. The State Comptroller’s office looked into the department’s work in 2005…
The Israeli equivalent of the U.S. Justice Department has never run an internal inquiry into the actions of the national police force. The State Comptroller last reviewed its work five years ago. Think about that. Who polices the police? In Israel? No one. Just as no one polices the intelligence agencies nor the IDF. Which is why the claim that Israel is a democracy is so completely divorced from the everyday reality. When you are an Israeli and you encounter naked police power and aggression you might as well be walking down a Mississippi highway in the dark circa 1962. They will do with you what they will. And you will thank them for it. If not, you might end up wedged in an Israeli equivalent of an earthen dam.
FBI Pushes For Expanded Wiretapping Capabilities
ACLU | November 17, 2010
WASHINGTON – According to a report in The New York Times today, the FBI is lobbying technological companies including Google and Facebook to win support for an Obama administration proposal to expand its Internet wiretapping capabilities. The administration is urging Congress to revise the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), claiming that law enforcement needs to keep pace with technological changes. The original law, passed in 1994, compels telecommunications and broadband companies to make their services wiretap-ready.
Today’s report states that the administration is hoping to submit proposed legislation to Congress early next year to overhaul CALEA in order to ensure telecommunications companies’ networks can be wiretapped as soon as they receive a government order. According to today’s report, the proposal could also mandate that any communications service based overseas ensure its communications are routed through an American server so that the government is able to collect and wiretap those communications.
The American Civil Liberties Union warned that the administration’s proposal could grant the government the means for extensive surveillance and is urging Congress to reject any proposal that does not protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.
The following can be attributed to Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
“It is important to realize that this proposal isn’t simply applying the same sort of wiretap system we have for phones to the Internet; it would require reconfiguring and changing the nature of the Internet. We remain very concerned that this proposal is a clear recipe for abuse and will make it that much easier for the government to gain access to our most personal information. Americans should not simply surrender their privacy and other fundamental values in the name of national security. We strongly encourage Congress to not simply rubberstamp this proposal that will grant the government the ability to conduct broad surveillance on innocent Americans.”
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‘Why Fauci Must Rot in Prison’: A Tale of Two Diaries
By Jill Erzen | The Defender | October 13, 2026
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s private diary reveals a “mind-numbing” contradiction between what the former top U.S. infectious disease official knew about COVID-19 and what he told the public, senior White House adviser Peter Navarro, Ph.D., said last week on “American Thought Leaders.”
In his new book, “Why Fauci Must Rot in Prison,” due out Oct. 20, Navarro compares Fauci’s private entries to his own pandemic-era diary, and uses what he calls “a tale of two diaries” to argue that Fauci should face criminal prosecution.
“I show, actually, how a prosecution can and should happen … at the state level, most likely,” Navarro said. “He should wind up in prison, and we’ve got the receipts in this book to put him there.”
Navarro said Fauci repeatedly acknowledged important facts in private, then publicly pursued policies that contradicted those facts — with devastating consequences.
“What he says many times privately in his diary is so at odds with both his public behavior and public statements that it’s mind-numbing,” Navarro said.
Navarro examines the lasting damage caused by lockdowns and other pandemic policies, and the ongoing toll of long COVID.
His book also addresses questions about vaccine safety, including why healthy young people faced COVID-19 vaccination mandates despite concerns about myocarditis, and why women were not warned about miscarriage risks linked to the shots. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Jennifer Kavanagh: Why the U.S. Should Pull Back From the First Island Chain
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- UAE and Saudi Arabia move toward renewed coordination against Sanaa
- How Iran’s two-week retaliatory strikes exposed cracks in US military architecture in Persian Gulf
- The mother of all propaganda: Why the hype over US MOAB strike against Iran is nothing but theater
- Iran says it possesses technology behind US 14-ton GBU bunker-buster
- Trump asks Iran not to retaliate after he strikes Pickaxe Mountain – w/ Prof. Marandi
- Vice President J.D. Vance’s Deceptive ‘Antiwar’ Campaign Speech
- Iran: Palestinians’ rights must not be compromised in Gaza’s future; US, Israel to blame for Hormuz situation
- Ongoing tales of Syrian chemical weapons
- If Americans Knew
- Israeli rabbi permits occupiers to steal Palestinian olive harvest in West Bank
- Netanyahu’s spin on latest settler attack is laughable – Daily Update
- Israeli soldiers debunk Israel’s talking points
- In West Bank, Israeli settlers are totally out of control – Daily Update
- NPR investigation finds evidence of widespread fraud at mall kiosks tied to Israeli skincare brand
- Tucker Carlson exposes Israeli Lies about the Oct 7th attack, Charlie Kirk, and the U.S.
- Israel has detained thousands of Palestinian children since Oct 7th – over half spent time in solitary, many uncharged
- Israeli Analysis: Is Netanyahu Planning an ‘October Surprise’ Attack Before Israel’s Election?
- Israeli settlers brutally attack Palestinians and Washington Post female photographer, 65
- Words Have Changed, Occupation Continues: The Reality of the Gaza Ceasefire
- No Tricks Zone
- Predictions Made By Renowned Climate Proifessor Over Past Decades Have Been Proven To Be Poor
- New Study Suggests Large Regions Of The Pacific Ocean Have Been Cooling For The Last 80 Years
- Germany’s Green Energy Debacle: High Energy Costs Force Kahla Porzellan to Close After 182 Years!
- New Study: 50 Years Of The Most Aggressive ‘Net Zero’ Policies Can Only Affect The Global Climate By 0.03°C
- US September “Heat” Was No Record…Many Records Set Decades Ago
- Latest European Green Energy Debacle; Portugal’s Largest Flagship Solar Park Insolvent!
- Green Energy Debacle: German Expert Professor Fritz Vahrenholt Warns Of Severe Economic And Social Consequences
- Two More Paleo Reconstructions Affirm Meters-Higher Sea Levels Across Ireland, Brazil 7000-6000 Years Ago
- New Study: Earth And Venus Surface Warmth Largely Explained By Convection And Lapse Rate, Not CO2 Or Radiation
- 2025 Nature Paper Claiming Worsening Global Drought Gets RETRACTED …Heavily Flawed
