Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

British cluster bombs used in Saudi Arabia’s Yemen campaign, research finds

RT | December 19, 2016

Despite strenuous denials, UK-made cluster bombs are indeed being used by Britain’s theocratic ally Saudi Arabia in its war on impoverished Yemen, according to the government’s own inquiries.

The new details have emerged through a leak to the Guardian from sources which claim that internal investigations support claims in the media that the outlawed munitions are in use.

The source said that the findings had been known by the government for up to a month.

However, the paper has also been told that Saudi Arabia – a major UK ally and one of its top arms customers – has not confirmed itself that the banned munitions are being used.

The revelations seem set to pile even more pressure on the UK to stop selling arms to the authoritarian regime.

The UK is a signatory to the 2010 treaty banning cluster munitions, which drop many tiny bomblets from the main device and can create what is in effect a minefield.

A senior defense source told the Guardian that the issue had been “raised at the highest possible levels and we have been trying to establish definitively for some time [if cluster bombs have been used].”

The “highest levels” are said in this case to include Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.

In statement Monday after a spokesman for the military said: “The Government takes such allegations very seriously.

“We have analysed the case carefully using all available information, considering all possibilities, and raised the issue with the Saudi-led coalition.”

The UK has also been involved in training Saudi forces in air warfare skills and artillery, it emerged in 2016. Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel are also embedded in Saudi operations headquarters.

It was reported in April that courses were being run by RAF officers as recently as 2015 on ‘international targeting’ over three separate three-week blocks.

This included training on the Storm Shadow missile, which is launched from aircraft to destroy enemy bunkers.

Gunnery instruction on targeting and locating enemy gun batteries was also carried out by a seven-strong detachment of personnel from the Royal Artillery.

The artillery team delivered 52 hours of training to Saudi gunners and included a senior major, a captain, a sergeant major and a sergeant.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the course had been delivered to “a mixed group of soldiers and officers” from the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) field artillery.

The military said its personnel were not involved in “carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets, and are not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process.”

December 19, 2016 Posted by | War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

We are all Palestinians

adelson

By Gilad Atzmon | December 18, 2016

Theresa May and her prime Shabbos Goy, Eric Pickles, insisted this week that we don’t conflate between Israel and Jews. I wonder why? Is it because they actually admit that Israel equals modern day evil? Or is it because they actually know very well that Israel and the Jews are one?

The vast majority of Jews actually want to be conflated with Israel. World Jewry supports Israel institutionally. Pickles and May who are subject to constant Jewish lobbying know it very well. However, more troubling is the fact that the few Jews who openly oppose Israel also operate in ‘Jews only’ cells. So if Israel is wrong for being a racially exclusive society, the Jewish anti Zionists are at least as bad as the Jewish State.

But the real issue is slightly different. By now we, and I mean all of us, except a few oligarchs, are all Palestinians. We are subject to the dirty games inflicted on us by the likes of Goldman Sachs, Soros, Saban, Adelson, and a few others. By now we are all subject to the tyranny of correctness that stops us from shouting out, loudly, that troubling truth which we all see.

By now we are all Palestinians and this even includes the deprived Israelis. We are all Palestinians and this includes the Greek, the Syrians, and the peoples of Detroit and Glasgow. And if we are all Palestinians, we can’t not see the glaring continuum between Athens and Baltimore… between Aleppo and Detroit, as much as we can’t turned a blind eye to the bloody silk road between Wall Street and Tel Aviv.

When we look at it with open eyes, when we examine those ZioCon wars with no end, growing poverty worldwide, we can’t stop conflating between ourselves and the Palestinians for the simple reason that we are one.

December 18, 2016 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

Russia launched ‘cyberwar & propaganda campaign’ against UK – media

RT | December 17, 2016

The UK is facing a cyberwarfare and a propaganda campaign from Russia, British newspaper The Times is claiming. The Russian embassy in the UK has demanded “proof” as critics label the allegations “psycho propaganda” and say the accusations are “a new low.”

Moscow is resorting to a campaign of “propaganda and unconventional warfare,” The Times , citing unnamed officials in Whitehall. “Moscow is behind a concerted drive to undermine the UK through espionage, misinformation, cyberattacks and fake news, senior Whitehall figures believe,” the newspaper writes.

According to the outlet, citing a source with a knowledge of the matter, the UK will now “assess and formulate options” on how to deal with the alleged threat. To address the issue, British Prime Minister Theresa May is also set to chair a national security meeting in the coming weeks.

“We will be happy to finally see some proof,” the Russian embassy said, responding via its official Twitter account.

An example of the suspected Russian “hybrid” warfare – as cited by The Times – is what UK’s intelligence services call “propaganda” by RT and Sputnik news agency to “influence” a British audience. Labour MP Ben Bradshaw recently said that Moscow “probably” influenced the UK referendum on leaving the EU (known as Brexit). Yet the allegations on alleged Russian hacking did not sit well with the vocal advocate of Brexit and a former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage.

“Ever since June 23 when we voted for Brexit, there have been all sorts of excuses that have been rolled out. But to now blame it on Russian cyber-hacking, I think they have reached a new low,” he recently .

In a bid to be prepared for potential Russian propaganda warfare, the UK even went as far as to stage drills covering a scenario where Moscow would spread “false information” in the Baltic states, harming British troops there, according to another Times .

However, the result of the drill was rather upsetting for the UK Ministry of Defense, as it acknowledged that lengthy bureaucratic procedures would prevent effective counteraction, the media revealed.

‘Ridiculous’ accusations

As Britain is joining the ranks of those claiming Russia is meddling in the internal affairs of Western states, the US has already made its point clear. Earlier this year, Washington officially accused Moscow of hacking servers and private computers of the Democratic Party, which Kremlin denied as “nonsense” and “myth making.”

As no evidence was ever presented to the public, whistleblowing website WikiLeaks suggested on Friday that the US should publish the proof on its platform to verify the serious accusations.

And on December 9, the Washington Post  unnamed CIA officials as claiming that Russia not only directed the hacking, but did it with the goal to secure Donald Trump’s election.

But in an  to Fox News, President-elect Trump blasted the information as “ridiculous” and yet “another excuse.” The US President-elect stressed that the accusations on Russia prove the Democrats were simply “embarrassed” since they “suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country.”

Speaking to RT, former US presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul said that Americans “should be worried about the influence of our CIA in other people’s elections, I mean probably hundreds. It’s constant.”

Talk Radio host and columnist John Gaunt called the British allegations on Russia’s cyberwarfare “psycho propaganda,” saying the EU is simply “unhappy” with the Brexit and Americans electing Donald Trump.

“So, they started off with these ridiculous stories that Vladimir Putin and the Russians tried to stir the American election,” Gaunt told RT.

“Next they are telling us that the Russians are going to come and eat our babies. It’s completely and utterly ridiculous.” Gaunt went on to say that the British public and those who he spoke to simply “see straight through this” since the allegations are “pure propaganda.”

“The European Union needs a new enemy. They’ve decided that new enemy is Vladimir Putin and so they are poking him with their biggest stick,” Gaunt said. Yet instead of portraying the Russian president as a “James Bond villain,” the West and UK should talk to Russia, since the British population does not believe the accusations, he added.

Read more:

WikiLeaks calls on Obama to submit proof of Russian hacking for verification

December 17, 2016 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | Leave a comment

Ocean Waves and Breakdowns

By Brian Cloughley | Strategic Culture Foundation | 13.12.2016

The West’s propaganda campaign against Russia is surging along on the crest of the waves and is having some success in convincing a trusting public that the Russian Bear is a massive threat to the Free World.  It’s just like old times, but on occasions the psychological operations experts go overboard and sink (to continue the metaphor) in their own counter currents of disinformation.

This happened when it was decided to treat Russia’s deployment of ships to the Mediterranean as a forewarning of global destabilization, and Western governments’ briefings to their media succeeded in production of some remarkable headlines and reports.

In October Russia deployed eight ships to the Mediterranean to support Syria in its fight against Islamic jihadist rebels, a collaborative strategy condemned by the governments and media of some countries in the US-NATO military alliance.

This was not surprising, because several Syrian rebel groups are supported with money, training and weapons by Washington, and the West’s propaganda operation against the deployment made it clear that novel methods of denigration were being employed in order to portray Russia not only as a villain, but as militarily incompetent in its support of the Syrian government.

Typical of the crusade was a headline on October 21 in the ultra-right-wing British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph.  It read “BELCHING SMOKE THROUGH THE CHANNEL, RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER SO UNRELIABLE IT SAILS WITH ITS OWN BREAKDOWN TUG.”  This was followed by the disparaging statement that “The ageing Russian aircraft carrier that sailed through the English Channel escorted by the Royal Navy has been plagued by years of technical problems and is accompanied everywhere by a tug in case it breaks down.  The plumbing is so bad on the 55,000 ton Admiral Kuznetsov that many of its toilets cannot be used, while it has had repeated problems with its power and a string of accidents, naval experts said.”  The British public were not informed that many large naval vessels are accompanied by tugs and other support craft, or that smoking funnels are not unknown, but most UK newspapers are not now, alas, given to providing facts if these conflict with policy.

Another headline was “ROYAL NAVY HEROES STALK PUTIN’S NUKE FLEET AS IT HEADS FOR ENGLISH CHANNEL” and one tabloid informed its readers excitedly that “ROYAL NAVY RACES TO INTERCEPT HEAVILY-ARMED RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER HEADING FOR ENGLISH CHANNEL.”

All these captions and comments illustrate the difficulties of propaganda as practiced by amateurs, because the editors of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun (and Times), Viscount Rothermere’s Daily Mail, and the spooky Barclay Brothers’ Daily Telegraph found it impossible to combine spreading anxiety and alarm about a fearsome military threat from Russia with a parallel message of patronizing derision concerning Russia’s supposed lack of military competence.   You can’t do both, no matter how hard you try, because if you declare condescendingly that your chosen enemy — your target — is unskilled and technically flawed, you can’t with credibility in the next breath pronounce that your country and the world are being threatened by what you describe conflictingly as that supposed enemy’s menacingly formidable military machine.  You just look obnoxious, malicious and foolish, which is not unusual in the case of the proprietors and editors of the pantomime press.

The British government provided details of the impending movement of Russian vessels through international waters and Britain’s jingoistic media were encouraged to portray the event as a threat to world stability. While this was laughable, the fact remains that the British people were exposed to yet more anti-Russia sentiment, which was the object of the exercise.

It was interesting that the Kuznetsov was “escorted by the Royal Navy” because, although Royal Navy ships may have lots of lavatories, some of them have difficulty in staying at sea for extended periods.  As noted by Naval Technology in November — immediately after “Royal Navy Heroes stalked Putin’s Nuke Fleet” —  the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan “suffered a total propulsion failure off the Devon coast . . .  Built by BAE Systems, the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers have experienced more than 5,000 engine faults with total loss of propulsion, as well as electrical failure.”  Even the ultra-nationalistic Daily Mail newspaper had to acknowledge that “Britain’s cutting-edge £1 billion warships are breaking down in the Persian Gulf because they are not designed for the heat . . .  the six warships have an engine which keeps cutting out in the middle of the sea, leaving servicemen stranded for hours in total darkness.”

It must be hoped they could navigate to the rest rooms in the dark.

In fact the BBC had reported, months before this embarrassing farce, that “the Royal Navy’s most modern warships are to be fitted with new engines because they keep breaking down. In an email seen by the BBC, a serving Royal Navy officer wrote that ‘total electric failures are common’ on its fleet of six £1 billion Type 45 destroyers. The Ministry of Defense said there were reliability issues with the propulsion system.”

Next came news that Britain’s Prince Harry, an engaging if sadly hirsute youth representing Her Majesty the Queen on a tour of the Caribbean on the same day that HMS Duncan was towed to port because of engine failure, was unable to leave the island of St Vincent.

The Daily Mail, torn between vulgar obsession with Celebs and concentration on quasi-patriotic bigotry, chose to report that “Prince Harry was left stranded after the Navy ship he is travelling on broke down . . . The Prince was due to leave the island of St Vincent on Saturday evening but the ship, RFA Wave Knight, would not start.”  The newspaper did not mention availability of tugs for the Wave Knight — or that it was not alone in experiencing engine problems, because not far away, in the Panama Canal, a little-reported drama was taking place, involving a much more modern and expensive ship of astonishing combat capability.

The 4.4 billion dollar USS Zumwalt is a stealth destroyer described by the US Navy as “the largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world. Zumwalt is the lead ship of a class of next-generation multi-mission destroyers designed to strengthen naval power from the sea. These ships feature . . . the latest war fighting technology and weaponry available.”

And the Zumwalt broke down in the Panama Canal on November 21.

Defense News reported that “The new, high-tech destroyer Zumwalt suffered an engineering casualty Monday evening while passing through the Panama Canal and had to be towed to a berth.”  The report did not indicate if the Zumwalt had an escort tug, but it was fortunate that the Canal has many of these available for use in the event of breakdown of brand-new warships that cost 4 billion dollars.

The Zumwalt was towed to Balboa dockyard at the Pacific end of the Canal where it had to remain for repairs until November 30, when it left for San Diego, reaching there on December 7, the same day that the BBC broadcast that Britain’s only aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, “sailed out of its home port of Portsmouth for the final time. The Ministry of Defense announced earlier this year it had been sold for £2 million to a ship recycling company in Turkey.”

But the Free World need not despair about Britain’s lack of sea-borne airpower.  The replacements for HMS Illustrious, the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales, are due in 2020 and 2022, respectively, and meantime the oceans’ waves will continue to be dominated by the US Navy which records that “On any given day, around 50,000 Sailors are deployed globally aboard any one of approximately 100 ships.”

It is to be hoped that that some of the 100 ships are tugs and that the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers will be designed for the heat of the Persian Gulf, but one sure thing is that the West’s propaganda teams will gear up to mock the next deployment of Russian ships in spite of the embarrassing fact that they seem to be able to keep going without having to be towed back to port.

December 17, 2016 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular | , , | Leave a comment

Put Media Scoundrels Out of Business

By Stephen Lendman | December 15, 2106

The simple way is by ignoring them. Stop buying their publications – newspapers, magazines and other material.

Why waste good money on rubbish. Tune out their fake news broadcasts. Why put up with their antics?

If enough people follow this advice, they’ll wither, die and disappear. They feature managed news misinformation deception, not full and accurate coverage of what’s vital to know.

So far, it’s readily available from reliable independent sources, mostly online. Go there exclusively. Walk away forever from rubbish not fit to print or broadcast.

Western media never were reputable and trustworthy. In recent years, they’ve sunk to lower than ever depths – especially coverage of Washington’s geopolitical agenda, its imperial wars of aggression called humanitarian intervention and democracy building, its toppling of independent foreign leaders for pro-Western puppets, and the 2015-16 US presidential campaign, one-sidedly supporting Hillary over Trump, a disgraceful display of partisanship over unbiased reporting.

These events and numerous others display deplorable advocacy and willful deception, legitimate journalism abandoned entirely, “the media” exclusively serving powerful interests at the expense of truth and full disclosure on vital world and national issues.

One of Gerald Celente’s top 10 trends for 2017 is the fourth estate’s death, saying “(t)he daily newspaper dies in 2017. (Polls show) trust rates well below 10 percent.”

US presidential race coverage perhaps lost them all credibility. Their revenues are down, Celente explained. They’re losing money, laying off staff, dying a slow death.

Celente: “The industry is closing in on a decade of dramatic cutbacks in reporting and editing power.”

“According to estimates from The American Society of News Editors and Poynter Institute, those reductions add up to about half of all newsroom jobs being eliminated in less than 10 years.”

Expect more cutbacks, continued abysmal reporting – truth, accuracy, integrity and journalism the way it’s supposed abandoned entirely.

Celente added “when when upstart or existing alternative-news sites begin to make news, the mainstream media, taking their last breaths, will label it ‘fake news.’ “

Truth-telling today is called “fake news” or Russian propaganda. Managed news misinformation masquerades as the real thing in print and through the electronic media.

Why put up with it any longer! Walk away. Make a clean break and feel the refreshing difference – the way ex-smokers feel after licking the habit, never wanting to be hooked again.

Stephen Lendman can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.

December 15, 2016 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , , | Leave a comment

British military specialists arrive in Middle East to train Syrian rebels

RT | December 15, 2016

Their arrival was announced as the UK hosts a conference of defense ministers from countries involved in the coalition fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The 20 trainers – who are likely to be special forces soldiers – will teach so-called ‘moderate’ fighters infantry skills, combat first aid and other battlefield tactics.

The existing deployment is thought to be made up of around 500 soldiers from the 4 Rifles infantry regiment, which is based near the Kurdish-held city of Erbil alongside specialist soldiers from the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has previously stated that anyone receiving UK training would be vetted to ensure that no knowledge was passed on to jihadist groups.

The deployment of UK special forces has come under increasing scrutiny, with critics claiming that it has now become the basic form of UK military operations and as such should be brought under democratic oversight.

The UK is one of the few countries which flatly refuses to comment on covert military activities to either the media or to questions by elected lawmakers in parliament.

Calls for a new war powers act have been backed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, among others, who made his case to the Middle East Eye website in August.

“I’m very concerned about this because [former Prime Minister] David Cameron – I imagine [Prime Minister] Theresa May would say the same – would say parliamentary convention requires a parliamentary mandate to deploy British troops. Except, and they’ve all used the ‘except,’ when special forces are involved,” Corbyn said.

His comments were immediately attacked by former soldier-turned-Tory MP Bob Stewart, who told the Times that the PM must have the opportunity to deploy troops “when they think it’s crucial.”

December 15, 2016 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Spies recruited me then ‘threw me to the wolves’ – terrorism convict

RT | December 12, 2016

A convicted terrorist suspect who aided the Brussels bombers has claimed that he was recruited and groomed by UK spies before being thrown “to the wolves” once he was no longer deemed useful.

Zakaria Boufassil, who was sentenced to three years in jail on Monday after being convicted of aiding terrorism, had handed £3,000 to a jihadist named Mohammed Abrini in the city of Birmingham in July of 2015, just months before Abrini was involved in the 2016 Brussels bombing.

Moroccan-born Abrini became known as ‘the man in the hat’ after being spotted on CCTV in the Belgian capital ahead of the suicide bombings that killed 32 civilians. Abrini was also connected with the 2015 Paris attacks.

Boufassil claims that he was groomed by MI5 – Britain’s internal security agency – starting six weeks after Abrini was arrested in April of 2016, when Boufassil was approached and befriended by spies, who allegedly bought him cigarettes, clothes, and a phone, and also gave him £3,000.

He was later arrested upon returning from a Moroccan holiday that he claimed to have paid for with the MI5 money.

Despite vain attempts by prosecutors to keep his claim from being reported, the Guardian reported on Monday that his barrister said, “in Zakaria’s eyes, he feels he was effectively picked up by MI5 and was pumped and dumped.

“He found himself approached by the security service and he was reluctant at first, then more gradually, he told them what he knew about Abrini and the meeting in the park,” Dorian Lovell-Park QC argued in court.

“He was told by MI5 he wasn’t in any trouble and was told they were interested in signing him up or having him on their books.

“He feels he ceased to be of any use to them and he was effectively thrown to the wolves,” Boufassil’s lawyer said.

The prosecution has refused to confirm or deny the defendant’s claims, as is standard MI5 procedure.

Boufassil was convicted along with another man, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, who was given eight years for the same offences.

December 12, 2016 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism | , , | Leave a comment

Russia ‘strategic competitor’ to West, no business as usual – UK Defense Minister

RT | December 11, 2016

Britain’s Defense Minister Michael Fallon said that Russia is a strategic competitor to the West and hence should not be treated equally. Fallon noted that there is still a need for the de-escalation of tensions, but there can be “no business as usual.”

“Russia is a strategic competitor to us in the West and we have to understand that,” Fallon told the BBC.

He noted that this is essentially the reason why the West “can’t be treating Russia as an equal.” Speaking about joint work with the future US counterpart Jim Mattis (recently appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump), Fallon said that the West should be strong against Moscow.

“I’m ready to work with the new Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis … to be strong against Russian aggression towards NATO,” the British Defense Minister stressed.

However, he added that at the same time he is ready to work with Washington “to de-escalate tensions with Moscow” and “to continue to work with Russia on how we get towards a settlement in Syria.”

“There are things we have to talk to Russia about, of course: to de-escalate tension, to explain the purpose of our deployment within NATO, to reassure the Eastern members and to persuade Russia to use its influence, where it has great influence. And one of those countries is Syria,” Fallon went on to say.

Yet he highlighted that “it can’t be business as usual.” Relations between Moscow and the West have been tense over the past few years, with the US and its allies accusing Russia of building up forces on its western borders. Moscow said that it has done so only on its own territory and in response to US and NATO troops amassing near its borders.

In July NATO members agreed to the “biggest reinforcement since the Cold War,” posting four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. And in November Washington announced the deployment of nearly 6,000 troops, along with tanks, infantry vehicles, heavy howitzers, and combat helicopters to eastern Europe.

READ MORE:

Britain joins biggest European military buildup since Cold War

Trump must stand up to Russia, not treat it as equal – UK defense secretary

December 11, 2016 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Demand action to free British citizen Fayez Sharary from Israeli prison

layla-sharari

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network – December 11, 2016

Fayez Sharary, a British citizen of Palestinian descent, has now been held in Israeli prisons for nearly three months. He traveled with his wife Laila and their daughter, Aya, 3, to Palestine, to visit Laila’s widowed mother and to mark Eid al-Adha in Jerusalem, reports Inminds, the British organization currently leading a campaign to free Sharary. As the family attempted to leave Palestine on 15 September at the bridge to Jordan, they were stopped by Israeli forces; they had a flight scheduled for 17 September to return to the UK.

Sharary was separated from his wife and daughter, while he was interrogated for five hours while his daugher was refused access to a toilet. Laila’s mobile phone was confiscated and Sharary was detained; when she attempted to refuse to leave and stay with her husband, Israeli soldiers screamed at her.

Sharary was held for three weeks in Petah Tikva interrogation center and subject to ill-treatment, abuse and torture throughout that time. He was denied access to a lawyer until he signed a forced confession on 6 October and was moved to Ofer prison. Sharary’s torture by Israeli forces was further substantiated by Judge Azriel Levi, who ordered his release in a hearing in Ofer military court on 26 October, citing his confession as a result of “the method of interrogation, which included pained and prolonged shackling, threats, and a blatant exploitation of the defendant’s demonstrated weakness.” The military judge further said that the confession had a value of “less than zero” and that some of the allegations against Sharary were not prosecutable in the military courts.

However, as is frequently the case when on the rare occasion a military judge orders the release of a detainee, the Israeli military prosecution appealed and Sharary has remained imprisoned ever since.

Daniel Zeichner, the British Labour Party’s Shadow Minister for Transport, raised a parliamentary question regarding the involvement of the British consulate in providing support for Sharary’s case; Tobias Ellwood, under-secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, replied that “Our Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised, and continues to raise, the detention of Mr Sharary with the Israeli authorities, most recently on 15 November. Consular officials continue to provide consular support to Mr Sharary and his family.”

Laila Sharary has participated in several protests in London demanding that the UK government act to free her imprisoned husband, 49, who has lived in the UK for 23 years. Sharary is allegedly accused of “contact with an enemy organization,” “services to an illegal organization,” and “bringing money into the region from an enemy.” Part of these allegations allegedly relate to Sharary’s time in Lebanon in 1993 or earlier; Sharary is not a resident of Palestine.  The initial judge in the case who ordered Sharary released also dismissed the allegations of financial involvement due to irrelevant claims by the military prosecutor.

Despite these flimsy charges and his experience of torture – all too common, but publicly confirmed in this case by an Israeli military judge – Sharary remains imprisoned and will face a military court in Ofer on Wednesday, 14 December.

TAKE ACTION:

Please take action to urge the UK government to intervene and pressure Israel to release torture victim Fayez Sharary. This includes asking for UK representatives to attend the hearing in Sharary’s case at Ofer Military Court.

Email the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk and the British Consulate in Jerusalem at britain.jerusalem@fco.gov.uk to express your concern about the case of Fayez Sharary.

You can use the sample letter below or write your own letter:

SAMPLE LETTER

To whom it may concern,

I am writing in regard to the urgent case of Fayez Sharary, a British citizen currently imprisoned by Israel in its military court system for the occupied Palestinian territories. Sharary, 49, was previously ordered released due to the torture he experienced under interrogation.

Nonetheless, he remains imprisoned and will once again face a military court at Ofer prison on Wednesday, 14 December from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.

It is critical that the British government support its citizen Fayez Sharary by pressuring Israel for his immediate release. It is particularly critical that there is a British official presence at the military court hearing on 14 December.

Israeli military trials do not meet international standards for fair trials and can rely on evidence obtained through torture. Please act to release Fayez Sharary and reunite him with his wife and family in Britain.

Sincerely,

December 11, 2016 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

May speaking in interest of US, Israel rather than UK: Analyst

Press TV – December 11, 2016

Iran has summoned the British ambassador to Tehran over the recent meddlesome remarks made by UK Prime Minister Theresa May against the Islamic Republic. Speaking at the annual summit of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] in the Bahraini capital of Manama on Wednesday, May said Britain would help the GCC states “push back” against what she claimed to be Iran’s “aggressive regional actions.”

An investigative journalist says Theresa May seems to be from the school of “foot in mouth” diplomacy, adding that she is speaking more in the interest of foreign powers such as the United States and Israel than Britain.

“Right at the moment, there is a very important deal being struck between Royal Dutch Shell and Iran as she should know, and she cannot go around talking about Iran’s aggressive actions in the region where actually it is a bit rich coming from her, [because] Britain’s aggressive actions in the region along with the United States have been going on since the First World War. There is also problems because Britain and America have been interfering in the region for a long, long time and so she has been totally hypocritical,” Tony Gosling told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

He stated that the British premier is ruining the good relations built between Tehran and London.

The analyst also noted that Theresa May represents an “authoritarian” government at the moment in Britain, adding that she neither represents the views of ordinary British people, nor of her own cabinet.

Golsing further opined that UK’s ulterior motive for increasing its presence in the Middle East is arms sales to the Persian Gulf states such as Bahrain.

He also argued that Theresa May has effectively been implanted by the “securocrats” in Britain, that is to say the secret services and the top echelons of the civil service.

“She is walking around the world saying silly things and what is worse she is supping with some of the worst regimes on the planet. We are talking about people like Saudi Arabia with an appalling human rights record, which is smashing poor Yemen, a beautiful country, incredibly historic place, [and also] the poorest country in the Middle East,” he said.

December 11, 2016 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , , , | Leave a comment

UK in panic over Johnson’s remarks against Saudi regime

Press TV – December 11, 2016

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s recent criticism of Saudi Arabia has worried British officials, with various government figures trying to gloss them over as Johnson’s own personal views.

During a conference in Rome last week, Johnson blasted the Riyadh regime over its “proxy wars” in the Middle East and its unprovoked military aggression against Yemen, which has killed over 11,000 Yemenis since March 2015.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokeswoman immediately rebuked the remarks back then, saying the comments did not reflect “the government’s views on Saudi and its role in the region.”

Johnson’s statements divided the UK Parliament, with many of the lawmakers saying that he was stating the truth and should not face public chastisement.

UK Defense Minister Michael Fallon lashed out at the media on Sunday, for blowing the story out of proportions and confecting an artificial row between Johnson and the Downing Street.

“Let’s be very clear about this. The way some of his remarks were reported seemed to imply that we didn’t support the right of Saudi Arabia to defend itself… and didn’t support what Saudi Arabia is doing in leading the campaign to restore the legitimate government of Yemen,” Fallon said during a BBC interview.

“Some of the reporting led people to think that,” he added. “The way it was interpreted left people with the impression that we didn’t support Saudi Arabia and we do.”

Fallon said the months-long Saudi invasion against its impoverished southern neighbor was in self-defense, a right that London thought Riyadh was entitled to.

“The government’s view is absolutely clear – that what Saudi Arabia is entitled to do is defend itself from these attacks across its own border,” he said.

Johnson’s remarks came at a time when May was in the Middle East, trying to cement military and economic ties with [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council nations – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar.

Besides helping Bahrain with a heavy-handed crackdown on its popular uprising, Britain has also been providing weapons and intelligence to Saudis in the attacks against civilian targets in Yemen.

December 11, 2016 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook is rolling out its censorship initiative

By Guilherme Schneider | The Duran | December 11, 2016

According to the latest news, Facebook began testing new tools to carry out its “censorship plan” with the convenient name of “tackling fake news.”

20161119_fbOne of the tools being tested will enable users to inform Facebook if certain news stories are using “misleading language”. Some users posted images of a Facebook survey asking them the following question: “To what extent do you think that this link’s title withholds key details of the story?”

It is still unclear what kind of actions will be carried out after this additional user data is collected, but it is likely that some sort of a database, containing the list of “misleading” news websites, will be generated.

In a not so distant past, content curators from Facebook confirmed that they received direct orders from the company to decrease the relevance or even hide from the newsfeed stories and content with conservative language. While this happened in the US, similar stories have been reported in Brazil, the United Kingdom around the time of the Brexit, and in other countries.

Recently, there were other reports that Facebook developed a special software for the Chinese market, that would enable “third parties” to authorize the contents before posting it to the users’ timelines. The initiative would aim to lift the current ban of the social network in the country.

The main difference between this new software and the current content restrictions in some countries is that instead of reacting to a government request to hide some specific content, Facebook would be giving the option to some parties to censor and take down content before it is even posted on the network.

It is true that when you create a profile on Facebook or any other social network, you have to accept their terms and conditions in exchange of the “non-paid” use of their platforms. Most of these terms and conditions allow the social networks to analyze the information you are publishing and reading for several proposes, including targeted advertisements and many others, but is it ethical to take advantage of this information in order to define what content you should or should not see?

Since Snowden’s NSA information leak we know that we can be monitored at any given time by government agencies. The realization of this fact, however, didn’t stop us from using the same networks, nor did it prompt the closure of the NSA or other agencies involved in the perpetual recording and storage of our data.

But now we are entering a whole new level in which companies and governments will attempt to define what is right and wrong for us to see, read and talk about. What’s even more bizarre is that the CEO of Facebook could potentially run for office, while retaining control over one of the most popular social networks in the world, with the capability of retrieving and accessing anyone’s data without any sort of legal process or request.

This Orwellian trend is truly scary and we should really start questioning ourselves about the extent to which we are willing to continue handing out personal data and information to these networks.

December 11, 2016 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment