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AP photojournalist injured in Hebron

Ma’an – 18/03/2010

Hebron – An photojournalist sustained injuries to his back after being struck by a tear-gas canister on Wednesday during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

Nasser Shiyoukhi, a photographer for The Associated Press, was critically injured, witnesses said. A Palestine Red Crescent ambulance reportedly transferred the journalist to a nearby hospital, although it was not immediately clear which one.

Shiyoukhi was among several photojournalists covering ongoing confrontations around the Tarek Bin Ziab street in southern Hebron when he was struck by the projectile.

An Israeli military spokesman told Ma’an that a photojournalist was lightly injured during a riot. Palestinians in the area hurled rocks at Israeli forces, who responded with riot dispersal means, the spokesman said. He added that, in the Israeli army’s view, all journalists and others covering violent events do so at their own risk.

Shiyoukhi was arrested near the Ibrahimi Mosque in late February over allegations he assaulted a settler in Hebron two months earlier, a move that drew the ire of local media advocates.

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemned what it termed Israeli attacks against a group of journalists in the West Bank and Jerusalem in recent days.

March 18, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

EFF Posts Documents Detailing U.S. Law Enforcement Collection of Data From Social Media Sites

By Marcia Hofman | Electronic Frontier Foundation | March 17, 2010

EFF has posted documents shedding light on how law enforcement agencies use social networking sites to gather information in investigations. The records, obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice Criminal Division, are the first in a series of documents that will be released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case that EFF filed with the help of the UC Berkeley Samuelson Clinic.

One of the most interesting files is a 2009 training course that describes how IRS employees may use various Internet tools — including social networking sites and Google Street View — to investigate taxpayers.

The IRS should be commended for its detailed training that clearly prohibits employees from using deception or fake social networking accounts to obtain information. Its policies generally limit employees to using publicly available information. The good example set by the IRS is in stark contrast to the U.S. Marshalls and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Neither organization found any documents on social networking sites in response to EFF’s request suggesting they do not have any written policies or restrictions upon the use of these websites.

The documents released by the IRS also include excerpts from the Internal Revenue Manual explaining that employees aren’t allowed to use government computers to access social networking sites for personal communication, and cautioning them to be careful to avoid any appearance that they’re speaking on behalf of the IRS when making personal use of social media.

The Justice Department released a presentation entitled “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites.” The slides, which were prepared by two lawyers from the agency’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, detail several social media companies’ data retention practices and responses to law enforcement requests. The presentation notes that Facebook was “often cooperative with emergency requests” while complaining about Twitter’s short data retention policies and refusal to preserve data without legal process. The presentation also touches on use of social media for undercover operations.

Over the next few months, EFF will be getting more documents from several law enforcement and intelligence agencies concerning their use of social networking sites for investigative purposes. We’ll post those files here as they arrive.

March 17, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

Yet Another Political Show Trial: Why the Prosecution of Demjanjuk is Malicious

By Dirk Steil | Aletho News | March 17, 2010

John Demjanjuk, who turns 90 next month, is on trial in Munich for having allegedly been an accessory to the killing of 27,900 people at a labor camp at Sobibor in Poland during the second World War. This trial is for the benefit of a group of obsessive Jews within the holocaust industry and as a shallow public relations stunt by the German government to “atone”, as it were, for having failed to prosecute known mass murderers many decades ago.

In a proper court case, the prosecution would have to prove that the numbers of people alleged were murdered at the camp during the period in question, that Demjanjuk was present there, and that he assisted willingly, in the sense of having had an option to simply refuse such activities.

The first point, the alleged murders, was not subject to challenge, even though much controversy and opaqueness surrounds the circumstances there at that camp.

The second point, that Demjanjuk was present there, has not been proven conclusively either because Demjanjuk denies having been at the location, and no affirmative corroboration has been presented.

Even if one accepts the first two points above, the court must present evidence that Demjanjuk was a willing participant. This central aspect is now unravelling. Yesterday and today, an expert witness associated with the University in Munich, who had written a doctoral dissertation on the circumstances during that period in Galicia, appeared at the trial to answer questions. This mainstream scholar has corroborated the following key arguments maintained by Demjanjuk and his defense for years:

The testimony from decades ago – by a man (now dead) claiming that he and Demjanjuk participated in the killing of prisoners – is unreliable because it is very likely, that it was coerced under torture.

Circumstances in the camps for Soviet red army prisoners, of which Demjanjuk was one, were so awful that millions (more than half of them) died, and that volunteering to assist the Nazis instead was a means of avoiding death by starvation or disease.

Prisoners from the Red Army who volunteered were not told what they would be required to do.

Once these prisoners were sent to other camps to work as guards, refusing orders or being caught after an unsuccessful attempt to escape would have likely resulted in death.

These key facts should not come as a revelation because this information was already known beforehand. The prosecution certainly must have know this too but decided to proceed nonetheless. That is why this case is another political show trial, just as a prior case Demjanjuk had to endure decades ago in Israel was also a propaganda show trial, for the sake of shamelessly perpetuating the Jewish holocaust narrative. Demjanjuk was exonerated on appeal in that case in which he had initially been sentenced to death.

It is rather interesting to note, that thus far there has still not been any independent report in the German news media about the proceedings during the past two days. Telling the public that the prosecution’s case has fallen apart in light of the expert testimony is apparently not “politically correct”.

As has already been suggested by legal experts before the trial got underway, Demjanjuk cannot be legitimately convicted of the charges brought against him. However, that does not mean that the court will not convict him anyway because, after all, this is a political show trial, where facts are secondary and propaganda is what matters.

March 17, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | Leave a comment

Masked soldiers post closed zone signs in Bil’in, Ni’lin

Ma’an – 15/03/2010

Bethlehem – Dozens of masked soldiers raided the West Bank villages of Bil’in and Ni’ilin Monday morning to post decrees designating the village’s lands closed military zones on Fridays for a period of six months, residents said.

The areas between the wall and built up villages will be declared closed military zones every Friday between 8am and 8pm for six months, the military decrees read.

According to a statement issued by Bil’in’s Popular Committee, the move comes one week after the head of the Israeli Shin Bet threatened to step-up action against the Palestinian popular struggle in the two villages that see weekly protests against the separation wall’s construction.

The Popular Committee said the decrees went into effect on 17 February, before their distribution, and were signed by Commander of the Israeli Central Command Avi Mizrahi.

According to the Israeli army spokesperson’s unit, “The closed military zone order in the area between the security fence and the villages of Naalin [sic] and Bilin was signed three weeks ago in hopes of preventing the arrival of inciting elements,” the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharanoth wrote.

“The order does not apply to the residents of the villages and they will be allowed to move freely.”

Israeli citizens and international passport holders will not be allowed access to the area according to the decree, which includes the area where weekly protests are held.

Lawyer Gaby Lasky, who represents residents of the villages, told the Popular Committee, that “this is yet another illegal measure taken by the Army, which makes ill use of its authority in order to suppress dissent and infringe on the already volatile freedom of speech in the Territories. Closed military zone orders are not meant to deal with demonstrations, which are clearly in the civic rather than the military realm.”

The statement said the issuing of the decrees happens amidst an ongoing persecution campaign against Palestinian activists in an attempt to suppress “the rising tide of West Bank popular resistance to the Occupation,” which include the detention of 17 Israeli activists in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, on Friday as they protested home evictions in the area.

Photo from the Popular Committee
dated 15 March 2010 shows
an Israeli soldier posting the notices
[MaanImages/Popular Committee, HO]

March 15, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Israel bars Palestinians under 50 from Al-Aqsa

Press TV – March 14, 2010

Israeli police enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.‎

Israeli police have barred men under 50 from attending prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem Al-Quds on Sunday due to fear of another round of clashes.

On Friday, Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian worshipers after Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, injuring one Palestinian and arresting three others.

In a measure meant to prevent more violence, on Saturday the Israeli police issued an order stating that no male under the age of 50 and no visitors from other religions will be allowed to enter Islam’s third holiest site for prayers on Sunday. Women will not be affected by the order.

Tension has risen since March 5, when Israeli police attacked Muslim worshipers after Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and imposed indefinite restrictions.

And the situation took a turn for the worse following Israel’s announcement last Tuesday that it plans to build another 1,600 homes for settlers in mostly Arab East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which Palestinians say should be the capital of their future state.

Israel’s illegal settlement construction continues despite international calls for a complete freeze on building on occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli officials have insisted that they will not accept a ‘complete freeze’ on settlement construction and that the plan to build homes for settlers in East Jerusalem Al-Quds will not be canceled.

March 14, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

NZ internet filter goes live – government forgets to tell public

The rise of the secret censor

By John Ozimek | The Register | 12th March 2010

New Zealand’s internet filtering system went live last month – but the government forgot to mention this to its electorate until its hand was forced by online freedom campaign, Tech Liberty.

Thomas Beagle, a spokesman for the group, said he was “very disappointed that the filter is now running” and that its launch had been conducted in such a “stealthy mode”. He added: “It’s a sad day for the New Zealand internet.”

In an interview with Computerworld this week, he claimed that the filter had gone live on February 1 but the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) delayed announcing this at until it had met with its Independent Reference Group.

The manager of the DIA’s Censorship Compliance Unit, Steve O’Brien, denied that there had been any subterfuge. The system has been undergoing trials for two years and the media have been aware of this throughout.

He said: “The Independent Reference Group has met and the filter system processes were demonstrated as set out in the code of practice, that is that the website filtering system prevents access to known websites containing images of child sexual abuse.”

While the DIA continues to be coy about exactly which ISPs are joining the filter, Tech Liberty understands that Watchdog and MaxNet have already signed-up to deploy the filter system, and that ISPs Telstra Clear, Telecom and Vodafone have said they will do so.

Orcon, Slingshot and Natcom have said that they won’t or, in the case of Orcon, that more data is needed as to how the filter will impact customer service.

ISPs also appear to take differing views of what – and when – to tell their customers. Maxnet appear not to have warned their customers officially that the filter is in place: Vodafone has said it will do so when it goes live.

The system employs the Swedish Netclean Whitebox content filter – website requests are filtered by Border Gateway Protocol against a blacklist held on a central server in the government Censorship Compliance Unit. The list is maintained by the Independent Reference Group which actively reviews banned URLs each month to eliminate false positives.

Bans must be justified and signed off by three “warranted inspectors of publications”. Government statistics, published in 2009, suggest that the blacklist includes more than 7,000 URLs featuring child sexual abuse – or over ten times the number of links recognised by the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation. It has been built by the censorship unit since 2005 and is affiliated with Europe’s Cospol Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project.

David Zanetti, technical spokesperson for Tech Liberty, said: “We fear that the filter will reduce the stability of the internet in New Zealand. It is a single point of failure, introduces a new and very tempting target for hackers, and by diverting traffic will cause issues with modern internet applications.”

Tech Liberty is also concerned by the expansion of government powers that thefilter represents. It entrenches the principle that the government can set up a new censorship scheme and block material with no reference to existing law. Worse, the filter list stays secret, in contrast to the censorship regime that operates in respect of other media, where the Chief Censor must publish decisions banning offensive material.

Cynics have also noted that the launch of the filter comes not long before the eighth round of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations, due to take place in Wellington, New Zealand in April. ®

March 14, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

Toronto Restricts Academic Freedom: ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ Not Permitted to Take Place

By Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East | March 11, 2010

Toronto Restricts Academic Freedom: ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ Not Permitted to Take Place

Last week, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Director of Education Chris Spence announced in a statement that “‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ and its activities are not permitted to take place on school or Board property, or as part of any activity under the jurisdiction of the TDSB.” Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) considers this announcement a clear attempt to discourage rational discussion of the constellation of issues addressed by Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), and therefore considers it an unacceptable restriction on the academic freedom that should be enjoyed by the TDSB’s community.

Spence’s announcement came on the heels of a motion on IAW introduced by Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman which condemned the use of the term Israeli Apartheid Week; that motion was passed by 30 members of the Ontario Legislature on February 25. Shurman’s motion had no legal weight, and stopped short of actually urging that IAW activities themselves be prohibited. Spence’s statement, however, went further by prohibiting IAW activities at TDSB schools. It thereby limits the discussion of Middle East issues – of vital interest to TDSB students and their families and meriting informed and open debate – within public education institutions.

“This is a disturbing precedent on several counts,” notes CJPME President Thomas Woodley. “First, however, singling out IAW activities and prohibiting them at TDSB schools or properties restricts freedom of expression, thereby violating Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” CJPME believes that limiting discussion on Israeli institutions of apartheid – institutions well-documented by human rights organizations and internationally respected figures – will only exacerbate the sense of frustration felt by many Torontonians who disagree with many actions of the Israeli government and its institutions. Spence’s decision appears to have been reached without public consultation or even a full and open debate by TDSB trustees. “The TDSB trustees need to insist that the right to freedom of expression be respected in TDSB schools,” continued Woodley. “Singling out IAW activities and censoring them is counterproductive with respect to both the intents and principles of our educational institutions,” concluded Woodley.

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is one of many organizations which have catalogued some of the numerous manifestations of Apartheid in Israel. These include racially-based family reunification laws, racially-based municipal development practices, racially-based approval of building permits, non-recognition of Palestinian villages, racially-based inequalities for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and discriminatory policing of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Many Israeli human rights organizations are at the forefront in terms of documenting such practices, and scores of these practices have been highlighted in highly public reports, including the Israeli Or Commission of 2003.

March 11, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties | Leave a comment

The Beginning of the End of Data Retention

By Eddan Katz | Electronic Frontier Foundation | March 10, 2010

Last week, the German Constitutional Court issued a much-anticipated decision, striking down its data retention law as violating human rights. It was an important victory for Europe’s Freedom Not Fear movement, which was formed to oppose the EU Data Retention Directive. But it was also a reminder of the political work which remains to be done to defeat it.

When the European Union first passed the Data Retention Directive in 2006, despite a hard-fought campaign by European activists, it seemed like the beginning of the end for Internet privacy. The directive sought to require telecommunications service providers operating in Europe to retain a detailed history of each of their customers’ activity for up to 2 years for possible use by law enforcement; including phone calls made and emails sent and received.

The response from European citizens was swift and outraged. Under the banner of Freedom Not Fear, mass protests were held in cities all across Europe and beyond. The charge was led by the German Working Group on Data Retention (AK Vorrat), which in 2007 filed a class-action lawsuit of nearly 35,000 people challenging the German law.

The suit’s complaints were mostly upheld by last week’s German Constitutional Court decision. The court held that the blanket data retention mandated by the EU directive violated Article 10 of the German Constitution, which guarantees the basic right to private life and correspondence. The Court said that an infrastructure of exploratory surveillance results in an exceptional intensity of interference with human rights, which must be proportionately protected with appropriate safeguards. It also significantly narrowed the options for similar EU retention laws on other types of data. The court ordered the immediate deletion of all the data stored since the law went into effect in 2008 and ordered the suspension of data collection until a revised national law is proposed.

However, the court did choose to leave many important questions about the EU directive unanswered. In highlighting the need for increased safeguards, the court failed to recognize that the storage of data itself is what violates human rights. For instance, a survey of German citizens in 2008 found that 1 in 2 people would not have conversations with counselors or therapists by phone or email because of their concern about data retention.

A bolder stance was taken in October 2009 by the Romanian Constitutional Court, which ruled that the EU directive fundamentally violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to respect for private life and correspondence. Data retention itself, the court wrote, is “likely to overturn the presumption of innocence and to transform a priori all users of electronic communication services or public communication networks into people suspected of committing terrorism crimes or other serious crimes.” As a result, all citizens would become “permanent subjects to this intrusion into their exercise of their private rights to correspondence and freedom of expression.”

The rulings in Romania and now Germany set the stage for an imminent series of decisions on the status of national data retention laws across Europe. The recent Bulgarian vote on data retention legislation met with sharp criticism and protests. Petitions against the Belgian data retention law are available in both French and Flemish. The constitutional challenge against the Retention of Data Bill brought by Digital Rights Ireland may be referred to the European Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, despite the fact that the European Commission won its lawsuit against the government of Sweden for failing to implement the directive, the minimal penalty turns out to be worth the political risk.

In order to overturn a directive, the European Commission, Parliament, and Council have to agree. Viviane Reding, the incoming European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights, and Citizenship, declared at her confirmation hearings her dedication to defending the right to privacy. The members of the European Parliament, inaugurating their new term, flexed their political muscle when they recently rejected assenting to the SWIFT agreement that would have enabled the wholesale transfer of Europeans’ financial data to the US. The European Council, representing the ministries of the individual Member States, will respond to the political climate in their home countries.

All in all, the threats to privacy and free speech posed by the Data Retention Directive are on their way to being nullified. In Germany, AK Vorrat launched its campaign against the new law being devised and set its sights on ending data retention on the European level. They will need the help of citizens across Europe to raise awareness and speak out for their rights on national levels.

Freedom Not Fear is planning another series of protests later this year – stay tuned to Deeplinks or sign up for FNF’s mailing list to find out what is being planned near you.

March 11, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

The Rogue Nation

By Philip Giraldi | March 11, 2010

In spite of the fact that the United States faces no enemy anywhere in the world capable of opposing it on a battlefield, the Defense budget for 2011 will go up 7.1 percent from current levels.  A lot of the new spending will be on drones, America’s latest contribution to western civilization, capable of surveilling large areas on the ground and delivering death from the skies. It is a peculiarly American vision of warfare, with a “pilot” sitting at a desk half a world away and pressing a button that can kill a target far below.  Hygienic and mechanical, it is a bit like a video game with no messy cleanup afterward. The recently released United States Quadrennial Defense Review reports how the Pentagon will be developing a new generation of super drones that can stay airborne for long periods of time and can strike anywhere in the world and at any time to kill America’s enemies.  The super drones will include some that can fly at supersonic speeds and others that will be large enough to carry nuclear weapons.  Some of the new drones will be designed for the navy, able to take off from aircraft carriers and project US power to even more distant hot spots.  Drones are particularly esteemed by policymakers because as they are unmanned and can fly low to the ground they can violate someone’s airspace “accidentally” without necessarily resulting in a diplomatic incident.

Washington’s embrace of drones as the weapon of choice for international assassination is one major reason why the United States has become the evil empire.  Drones are the extended fist of what used to be referred to as the Bush Doctrine.  Under the Bush Doctrine Washington asserted that it had a right to use its military force preemptively against anyone in the world at any time if the White House were to determine that such action might be construed as defending the United States.  Vice President Dick Cheney defined the policy in percentage terms, asserting that if there was a 1% chance that any development anywhere in the world could endanger Americans, the United States government was obligated to act.  It should be noted that President Barack Obama has not repudiated either the Bush doctrine or the 1% solution of Dick Cheney and has actually gone so far as to assert that America is fighting Christianity-approved “just wars,” a position disputed by Pope Benedict XVI among others.  Far from eschewing war and killing, the number and intensity of drone attacks has increased under Obama, as has the number of civilian casualties, referred to by the splendid bloodless euphemism “collateral damage.”

Drones are currently killing people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.  It should be noted that the United States is not at war with any of those countries, which should mean in a sane world that the killing is illegal under both international law and the US Constitution. America’s Founding Fathers used constitutional restraints to make it difficult for Americans to go to war, requiring an act of war by Congress.  Unfortunately it has not worked out that way.  The US has been involved in almost constant warfare since the Second World War but the most recent actual declaration of war was on December 8, 1941. And then there are the special and clandestine operations that span the globe. Apart from Israel, no other country in the world has an openly declared policy of going around and killing people.  One would think that the international community would consequently regard both Tel Aviv and Washington as pariahs, but fear of offending the world’s only super power and its principal client state has aborted most criticism.  Most nations are resigned to letting assassination teams and hellfire armed drones operate as they please.  If Iran were operating the drones and bumping off its enemies in places like Dubai you can be sure the reaction would be quite different.

And it doesn’t stop there.  Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder has effectively blocked any inquiry into the use of torture by US government officials, mostly from the CIA.  The Administration claims to have stopped the practice but has declared that no one will be punished for obeying orders to waterboard prisoners, an argument that was not acceptable at the Nuremberg trials in 1946 and should not be acceptable now.  The United States is a signatory to the international agreement on torture and there are also both federal and state laws that prohibit either carrying out or enabling the practice, so the ruling by Holder is essentially a decision to ignore serious crimes that were committed against individuals who, in many cases, were both helpless and completely innocent.  It also ignores the participation of Justice Department lawyers and CIA doctors in the process, involvement that most would consider both immoral and unethical.  Worst of all, it lets off the hook the real war criminals, people like George Tenet and those in the White House who approved the practice.  Tenet, one recalls, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a $4 million book deal.  He still teaches at Georgetown University.  Justice Department lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who made the legal arguments for torture are now respectively a tenured professor at Berkeley and a federal appeals court justice.  One assumes that the actual CIA torturers continue to be employed by the federal government or are enjoying a comfortable retirement.  So much for accountability for war crimes under President Obama.

Finally there is assassination.  On February 3rd Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair commented during a congressional briefing that the United States reserves the right to kill American citizens overseas who are actively “involved” with groups regarded as terrorist.  Involvement is, of course, a very slippery expression providing maximum latitude for those seeking to make a case for summary execution.  The death list involves a due process of sorts in that a government official makes the decision who shall be on it based on guidelines but it does not allow the accused to challenge or dispute evidence.  It should also be noted that no one in Congress objected to the Blair statement and the media hardly reported the story, suggesting that tolerance of illegal and immoral activity now pervades the system.  As former Reagan Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein has commented, the claimed authority to suspend one’s constitutional rights overseas can be extended to anyone in the United States by declaring one an enemy combatant under the terms of the Military Commissions Act.  Jose Padilla was denied his constitutional rights to a fair trial even though he was an American citizen and was arrested in Chicago, not overseas.  Can we anticipate extrajudicial killing of American citizens in America as part of the war on terror?  Of course we can.

Three strikes and you’re out, Mr. Obama.  Your government stands for preemptive killing and missile strikes on people living in countries with which America is not at war, lets torturers and torture enablers go free, and has asserted the right to assassinate its own citizens anywhere in the world based on secret evidence.  Ronald Reagan once described his vision of America as a shining city on a hill.  Over the past ten years the shining city has become the ultimate rogue nation, pumped up with power and hubris in spite of the clearly visible signs of decline and moving inexorably towards a catastrophic fall.

March 11, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, War Crimes | Leave a comment

CIA tainted French bread with LSD for test

Press TV – March 11, 2010
After 50 years of suspicions over the cursed bread of the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit and its people’s hallucinations, a journalist found CIA in the background of the tragedy.

In summer 1951, the whole quiet village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously affected by psychosis and hallucinations among its residents.

The out break of acute psychotic episodes and various physical symptoms killed at least seven residents, and admitted about 50 to asylums. The mysterious incident left hundreds of people afflicted.

Hank Albarelli, an investigative journalist, has claimed hallucination occurred for a covert experiment directed by the CIA and the US Army’s top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

He traced the alimentary intoxication to cursed bread. Albarelli discovered the US had poisoned the bread with Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) as part of a secret experiment.

The journalist came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for SOD. He fell from a 13th floor window two years after the cursed bread incident.

Albarelli published the result of his investigations in a book titled A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments in 2009.

March 11, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

Israeli Defense Ministry goes on trial for Corrie death

By Mya Guarnieri – Ma’an – 09/03/2010

Jerusalem – On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Ministry will go on trial as a court hears a case filed by the parents of an American woman run down by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza, in March 2003.

A civil suit seeks to hold Israeli forces responsible for the death of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist who was crushed to death as she protested a Palestinian home from demolition in the Gaza Strip.

“We claim that her assassination was intentional,” or, at the very least, that the army is guilty of “huge negligence,” Hussein Abu Hussein, the attorney who filed the petition on behalf of Corrie’s parents, commented.

Abu Hussein cites the state’s acknowledgment of the fact that Corrie and other members of the International Solidarity Movement—a Palestinian-led peace organization that advocates non-violent means of resistance to the Israeli occupation—were demonstrating in the area for several hours before Corrie was struck by the bulldozer. He also points out that Corrie was wearing a fluorescent orange vest to increase her visibility.

At the time of her death, the Israeli military response was that the driver of the machine did not see Corrie.

“If you see people, you should stop and think of all the needed steps not to harm [them]. Instead of stopping the D9, which weighs 64 tons, they continued. And due to that, [Corrie] was killed,” Abu Hussein said.

Four of Corrie’s fellow activists who witnessed her death were initially denied entry into Israel where they were asked to testify at the trial, but US pressure reportedly changed the Israeli position. A US citizen and three UK nationals will now be able to speak at the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

Israel will not issue an entry permit to Dr Ahmed Abu Nakira, the Gazan physician who saw Corrie after she was injured and declared her dead. The state rejected the request for his entry on the grounds that there is no coordination between Israel and Gaza, due to the Israeli blockade that began after Hamas rose to power in 2007.

“It’s an obstacle to justice,” Abu Hussein said. “On the one side, [Israel] won’t give permission [for Dr Abu Nakira] to come; on the other they won’t allow him to testify by video-conference, which is used daily by courts everywhere in the modern world.”

Speaking shortly after Corrie’s death, an Israeli military representative called the incident a “regrettable accident.” An internal investigation conducted by the Israeli army later absolved the soldier operating the bulldozer of any wrongdoing.

The report, released in April 2003, claimed that Corrie was not killed by the “engineering vehicle” but “was struck by a hard object, most probably a slab of concrete which was moved or slid down while the mound of earth which she was standing behind was moved.” The army accused Corrie and the other activists present of behaving in an “illegal, irresponsible, and dangerous” manner.

Abu Hussein says that the army’s investigation lacked transparency. The civil suit, which was filed in 2005, is the only way to hold the state accountable for Corrie’s death, he says.

While it is exceedingly rare for the Defense Ministry to take direct responsibility in such cases, the state has made financial reparations to a handful of families like the Corries. Just two months after Rachel’s death, British journalist and filmmaker James Miller, 34, was shot to death by an Israeli soldier. After an army investigation found no wrongdoing, the UK warned it would extradite the soldiers involved. Last year, Israel settled out of court with Miller’s family for approximately 1.5 million pounds (2.25 million US dollars).

“The family is not seeking money. They’re seeking acknowledgment of responsibility by the state,” Abu Hussein says. If the Corries do receive compensation from Israel, they intend to donate the sum to “the matter Rachel was struggling for—for peace.”

The Corries’ suit “underscores that Israel doesn’t prosecute” soldiers accused of wrongdoing and that the state behaves as though it is “exempt from accountability,” Abu Hussein said.

“In the cases brought by Palestinians against the IDF [Israeli forces], more than 90 percent are denied,” he says, pointing to a culture of immunity that has been criticized human rights groups.

From 2000 to 2009, the Israeli NGO Yesh Din monitored almost 2000 Israeli military investigations into incidents in which a Palestinian or international claimed the army was guilty of a criminal offense, including unlawful shooting that led to injury or death. Indictments were filed in only six percent of these cases. Many of the soldiers who were prosecuted cut deals with the court that reduced the severity of both the charges and punishments.

“When we look at the number of cases, and we look at the fact that only six percent yield indictments, it is safe to assume that a soldier in the field today will know that he can get away with pretty much anything,” Yesh Din’s research director Lior Yavne remarked.

A representative for the Corries emphasized that the family hopes the upcoming trial will bring attention to ongoing human rights abuses perpetrated by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories. “The issue is Palestine and human rights defenders,” the liaison says. “They want to highlight Gaza in light of [the UN-commissioned] Goldstone [report] and Operation Cast Lead.”

Mya Guarnieri is a regular contributor to The National (Abu Dhabi), The Huffington Post, and The Jerusalem Post.

March 9, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

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