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Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Al-Zarqawi, An American False Flag Operative
By Bruce Kennedy - Jihad Unspun
Over the past months, JUS has been watching a frightening trend of “false flag” operations beening waged by US intelligence. The latest in the series is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who has been accredited with everything from the Ricin attacks (which later turned out to be fake) to the resistance in Fallujah. An amazing enemy in deed for a man who has the staring role in an American “False Flag” operation.
As America escalates its “war on terrorism” which in fact is a war on Islam, the need to escalate disinformation and propaganda is also prevalent, particularly when the American public is loosing its stomach for the battle, when American lives are being lost each day and when the President continues to be caught red handed in one scandal after another.
To rouse public opinion to support America's colonial war effort, the US intelligence community has created it own terrorist organizations. War propaganda, disinformation and counterterrorism are braided together to achieve the maximum result, for “terrorism” must remain front and center in the minds of American citizens if America is going to reach its foreign policy objectives, be it under George Bush or John Kerry.
Here’s how it works. The disinformation is circulated to the news media and then the intelligence community creates its own terror warnings concerning the very organizations it has created. In some cases, the disinformation appears in advance, in order to pave the way for an up and coming act of “terror” that roots in a desired political outcome. This problem/solution equation always appears when the war effort is waning and serves to give a face to terror via an expensive advertising campaign.
And this is precisely what we have Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, America’s new “public enemy No 1” is. Zarqawi and his group have been used from the justification for the invasion of Iraq to the latest “barbaric” videotaped beheadings that his group claims to have carried out.
The US State Department has increased the reward for his arrest from $10 million to $25 million, which puts his "market value" at par with that of Osama. Interestingly, Al Zarqawi is not on the FBI most wanted fugitives list. http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm )
What follows are excerpts from an in-depth report from The Centre for Research on Globalization that has gone to considerable lengths to document this false flag operation. The complete article can be read at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO405B.html
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Al Zarqawi's Links to Al Qaida
Al Zarqawi is often described as an "Osama associate", the bogyman, allegedly responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in several countries. In other reports, often emanating from the same sources, it is stated that he has no links to Al Qaida and operates quite independently. He is often presented as an individual who is challenging the leadership of bin Laden.
His name crops up on numerous occasions in press reports and official statements. Since early 2004, he is in the news almost on a daily basis.
Osama belongs to the powerful bin Laden family, which historically had business ties to the Bushes and prominent members of the Texas oil establishment. Bin Laden was recruited by the CIA during the Soviet-Afghan war and fought as a Mujahideen. In other words, there is a longstanding documented history of bin Laden-CIA and bin Laden-Bush family links, which are an obvious source of embarrassment to the US government.
In contrast to bin Laden, Al-Zarqawi has no family history. He comes from an impoverished Palestinian family in Jordan. His parents are dead. He emerges out of the blue.
He is described by CNN as "a lone wolf" who is said to act quite independently of the Al Qaida network. Yet surprisingly, this lone wolf is present in several countries, in Iraq, which is now his base, but also in Western Europe. He is also suspected of preparing a terrorist attack on American soil.
He seems to be in several places at the same time. He is described as "the chief U.S. enemy", "a master of disguise and bogus identification papers". We are led to believe that this "lone wolf" manages to outwit the most astute US intelligence operatives.
According to The Weekly Standard -- which is known to have a close relationship to the Neocons in the Bush administration: "Abu Musab al Zarqawi is hot right now. He masterminded not only Berg's murder but also the Madrid carnage on March 11, the bombardment of Shia worshippers in Iraq the same month, and the April 24 suicide attack on the port of Basra. But he is far from a newcomer to slaughter. Well before 9/11, he had already concocted a plot to kill Israeli and American tourists in Jordan. His label is on terrorist groups and attacks on four continents." (Weekly Standard, 24 May 2004)
Al-Zarqawi's profile "is mounting a challenge to bin Laden's leadership of the global jihad."
In Iraq, he is said to be determined to "ignite a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites". But is that not precisely what US intelligence is aiming at ("divide and rule") as confirmed by several analysts of the US led war? Pitting one group against the other with a view to weakening the resistance movement. (See Michel Collon, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/COL312A.html , See also http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RAD308A.html )
The CIA, with its $30 billion plus budget, pleads ignorance: they say they know nothing about him, they have a photograph, but, according to the Weekly Standard (24 May 2004), they apparently do not know his weight or height.
There is an aura of mystery surrounding this individual which is part of the propaganda ploy. Zarqawi is described as "so secretive even some operatives who work with him do not know his identity."
Consistent Pattern
What is the role of this new mastermind in the Pentagon's disinformation campaign, in which CNN seems to be playing a central role?
In previous propaganda ploys, the CIA hired PR firms to organize core disinformation campaigns, including the Rendon Group. The latter worked closely with its British partner Hill and Knowlton, which was responsible for the 1990 Kuwaiti incubator media scam, where Kuwaiti babies were allegedly removed from incubators in a totally fabricated news story, which was then used to get Congressional approval for the 1991 Gulf War.
What is the pattern?
Almost immediately in the wake of a terrorist event or warning, CNN announces (in substance): we think this mysterious individual Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is behind it, invariably without supporting evidence and prior to the conduct of an investigation by the relevant police and intelligence authorities.
In some cases, upon the immediate occurrence of the terrorist event, there is an initial report which mentions Al-Zarqawi as the possible mastermind. The report will often say (in substance): yes we think he did it, but it is not yet confirmed and there is some doubt on the identity of those behind the attack. One or two days later, CNN may come up with a definitive statement, quoting official police, military and/or intelligence sources.
Often the CNN report is based on information published on an Islamic website or a mysterious Video or Audio tape. The authenticity of the website and/or the tapes is not the object of Discussion Or Detailed Investigation.
History Of Al Zarqawi
The first time Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi's name is mentioned was in relation to the thwarted attack on the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman, Jordan, during the millennium celebrations (December 1999). According to press reports, he had previously gone under another name: Ahmed Fadil Al-Khalayleh, (apparently among other aliases).
According to the New York Times, Al Zarqawi fled Afghanistan to Iran in late 2001, following the entry of US troops. Official US reports suggest that he was protected at the highest levels of the Tehran government.
"United States intelligence officials say they are increasingly concerned by the mounting evidence of Tehran's renewed interest in terrorism [and support to Al Zarqawi], including covert surveillance by Iranian agents of possible American targets abroad. American officials said Iran appeared to view terrorism as deterrent against possible attack by the United States.
Now, Iranian actions to destabilize the new interim government in Afghanistan, its willingness to assist Al Qaida members and its fueling of the Palestinian uprising are prompting a reassessment in Washington, officials say." (NYT, 24 March 2002)
In 2002, his presence in Tehran, allegedly "collaborating with hardliners" in the Iranian military and intelligence apparatus, is part of an evolving disinformation campaign which consists in presenting Iran as a sponsor of the "Islamic terror network". In February 2002, he was allegedly involved in planning terror attacks inside Israel.
Colin Powell's Address to the UN Security Council
In the months leading up to the war on Iraq, Al Zarqawi's name re-emerges, this time almost on daily basis, with reports focusing on his sinister relationship to Saddam Hussein.
A major turning point in the propaganda campaign occurs on February 5, 2003. Al-Zarqawi was in the spot light following Colin Powell's flopped WMD report to the UN Security Council. Powell's speech presented "documentation" on the ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, while focusing on the central role of Al-Zarqawi:
“Our concern is not just about these illicit weapons; it's the way that these illicit weapons can be connected to terrorists and terrorist organizations...
But what I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder. Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network, headed by Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida lieutenants...
When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqawi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp, and this camp is located in Northeastern Iraq. [there were no WMDS at this camp according to ABC report]
Those helping to run this camp are Zarqawi lieutenants operating in northern Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein's controlled Iraq, but Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization Ansar al-Islam, that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000, this agent offered Al Qaida safe haven in the region. After we swept Al Qaida from Afghanistan, some of its members accepted this safe haven. They remain there today.
We know these affiliates are connected to Zarqawi because they remain, even today, in regular contact with his direct subordinates, including the poison cell plotters….
From his terrorist network in Iraq, Zarqawi can direct his network in the Middle East and beyond. [Note he is present in several countries at the same time]
We are not surprised that Iraq is harboring Zarqawi and his subordinates. This understanding builds on decades-long experience with respect to ties between Iraq and al Qaida." (US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the UN Security Council, Excerpts, 5 February 2003)
The statement of Secretary Powell regarding Al-Zarqawi consisted in linking the secular Baathist regime to the "Islamic terror network," with a view to justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Meanwhile, network TV had warned that "American hotels, shopping malls or apartment buildings could be al Qaida's targets as soon as next week…". Following the announcement, tens of thousands of Americans rushed to purchase duct tape, plastic sheets and gas-masks.
It later transpired that the terrorist alert was fabricated by the CIA, in all likelihood in consultation with the State Department (ABC News, 13 Feb. 2003). The FBI, for the first time had pointed its finger at the CIA. While tacitly acknowledging that the alert was a fake, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge decided to maintain the ‘Orange Code’ alert:
"Despite the fabricated report, there are no plans to change the threat level. Officials said other intelligence has been validated and that the high level of precautions is fully warranted." ( ABC News, 13 Feb. 2003 ).
A few days later, in another failed propaganda initiative, a mysterious Osama bin Laden audio tape was presented by Sec. Colin Powell to the US Congress as ‘evidence’ that the Islamic terrorists "are making common cause with a brutal dictator". (US official quoted in The Toronto Star, 12 Feb. 2003). Curiously, the audio tape was in Colin Powell's possession prior to its broadcast by the Al Jazeera TV Network. (Ibid.)
Meanwhile, Al Zarqawi had been identified as the mastermind behind the (thwarted) ricin attacks in several European countries including Britain and Spain.
In London, in January 2003, there was a ricin terror alert, which had apparently also been ordered by Al Zarqawi. The ricin had allegedly been discovered in a London apartment. It was to be used in a terror attack in the London subway.
British press reports, quoting official statements claimed that the terrorists had learnt to produce the ricin at the camp in Northern Iraq. Yet when US Special Forces in March 2003 raided the camp in Northern Iraq, nothing resembling biological or chemical weapons was found (see ABC report quoted above).
It is worth mentioning, in this regard, that news stories on the chemical weapons plant in Northern Iraq have continued to be churned out, despite the fact that US Forces said that it did not exist. In a recent story in the Washington Times:
“Zarqawi stands as stark evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein's autocratic regime and bin Laden's al Qaida terror network. Zarqawi, 38, operated a terrorist camp in northern Iraq that specialized in developing poisons and chemical weapons”.(Washington Times, 8 June 2004)
The Link To Ansar Al-Islam
Following Powell's February 2003 presentation to the UNSC, Al-Zarqawi immediately gained in public notoriety.
Since early 2004, his name appears almost daily in CNN reports. All in all, his name is linked to some 25 "terrorist attacks" in Iraq, not to mention numerous terrorist warnings, threats or alerts. Already before the war in Iraq, he was presented in media reports as an ally of Saddam Hussein.
The press reports, which quoted Colin Powell's UNSC 5 Feb 2003 speech, confirmed that Al Zarqawi was back in Iraq, working hand in glove with Ansar Al-Islam, which was held responsible for the attack on the UN in Baghdad. In August 2003, Zarqawi was identified, without supporting evidence, as having played a role in the attack on the UN, which led to the death of the UN head of mission and 24 other people.
Bear in mind Ansar was also said to be behind the alleged ricin plant in Northern Iraq, which was confirmed to be a fake.
It is useful to recall that Ansar al-Islam, which constituted a pre-existing Islamist group, developed into a paramilitary organisation, only after the 9/11 attacks. Ironically, it was allowed to develop in a region of Iraq, which was already under US military control, namely Kurdish held Northern Iraq.
Ansar was largely involved in terrorist attacks directed against the secular institutions of the Kurdish regional governments. It was also involved in assassinations of members of the Kurdish PUK. And the US military and intelligence were present in the region.
In other words, prior to the war, Northern Iraq -which was in "the no fly zone"-- was already a US protectorate. According to one report "Al Qaida affiliates coordinating the movement of people, money and supplies for Ansar al-Islam have been operating freely in the [regional] capital." (Midland Independent, 6 February 2003).
Responding to Colin Powell's February 2003 UN address, an Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman had stated at the time that:
"the Iraqi government helped the [PUK] Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani against the Ansar al-Islam group. He [the spokesman] accused Ansar al-Islam of carrying out acts of sabotage inside Iraq…[and] that the United States had turned down an Iraqi offer to cooperate on the issue of terrorism." (News Conference by Lieutenant-General Amir al-Sa'di, adviser at the Iraqi Presidency; Dr Sa'id al-Musawi, head of the Organizations' Department at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry; and Major-General Husam Muhammad Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate. BBC Monitoring Service, 6 February 2003).
The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal
Was it a coincidence? At the very outset of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, there were rumors of an Al Zarqawi terrorist attack on American Soil, in Jordan as well as in Iraq.
Al Zarqawi identified by CNN as "the lone wolf" was, according to these reports, planning terrorist attacks simultaneously in several countries. Then there was the mysterious video on the Nicholas Berg execution.
The Attacks in Jordan
A mysterious tape released by CNN pointed to Al Zarqawi's plan to attack the Jordanian intelligence headquarters in an attack using chemical weapons which could have been more deadly than 9/11. Again the evidence is based on a mysterious tape.
Alleged Al Zarqawi "Attack on America"
Two days later, following the alleged terrorist threat on Jordanian intelligence, the State Department announced that Al Zarqawi was planning an attack on America (29 April 2004, CNN Report). Note that the rumours of an attack on America and the attack in Jordan took place virtually at the same time.
The State Department today said the number of terrorists attacks around the world declined last year, but the government's annual report on terrorism includes a chilling warning about the year ahead.
“The State Department says terrorists are planning an attack on U.S. soil. High on their anxiety list, terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He is representative of a very real and credible threat. His operatives are planning and attempting now to attack American targets, and we are after them with a vengeance.” CNN
Bear in mind that the Attack on America report, focusing on "We are after them with a vengeance", was published one day following the CBS 60 minutes program on torture at the Abu Ghraib prison. (Complete transcript at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CBS405A.html ).
The Nicholas Berg Video
Barely a couple of weeks later (11 May 2004), Al Zarqawi is reported as being the mastermind behind the execution of Nicholas Berg on May 11, 2004.
Again perfect timing! The report coincided with calls by US Senators for Defense Sec Donald Rumsfeld to resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. It occurs a few days after President Bush's "apology" for the Abu Ghraib prison "abuses" on May 6.
The Nicholas Berg video served to create "a useful wave of indignation" which served to distract and soften up public opinion, following the release of the pictures of torture of Iraqi prisoners.
CNN coverage of the Nicholas Berg execution was based on a mysterious report on an Islamic website, which CNN upholds as providing "evidence" of Al-Zarqawi's involvement:
“The Web site claims that the killing was done by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist whose al Qaida affiliated group is held responsible by U.S. intelligence for a string of bombings in Iraq and for the killing of an American diplomat in Amman. CNN Arab linguists say, however, that the voice on the tape has the wrong accent. They do not believe it is Zarqawi. U.S. officials said the killers tried to take advantage of the prison abuse controversy to gain attention.”
A subsequent more definitive report by CNN was aired 2 days later on 13 May 2004.
“The CIA confirms that Nicholas Berg's killer was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; The CIA acknowledges sticking to strict rules in tough interrogations of top al Qaida prisoners." (CNN)
“Blitzer: Because originally our own linguists here at CNN suspected that -- they listened to this audiotape and they didn't think it sounded like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But now definitively, the experts at the CIA say it almost certainly is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? Ensor: They say it almost certainly is. There's just a disagreement between the CNN linguists and the CIA linguists. The U.S. Government now believes that the person speaking on that tape and killing Nick Berg on that tape is the actual man, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.”
Did the US officials check the mysterious website or was it CNN?
The video footage published on the website was called “Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi shows killing of an American". Then the CIA experts released a statement saying that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was the man in the mask who beheaded the US citizen Nick Berg in front of a camera. Yet several reports question the authenticity of the video.
Al Zarqawi is Jordanian. Yet the man in the video posing as Jordanian native Zarqawi does not speak the Jordanian dialect. Zarqawi has an artificial leg, but none of these murderers did. The man presented as Zarqawi had a yellow ring, presumably a golden one, which Muslim men are banned from wearing, especially so-called fundamentalists. Another report states that Zarqawi was dead (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4446084/)
Immediately when the issue of his artificial leg was mentioned in relation to the video, US officials revised their story, stating they were not sure whether he actually lost a leg: "U.S. intelligence officials, who used to believe that Zarqawi had lost a leg in Afghanistan, recently revised that assessment, concluding that he still has both legs." (News and World Report, 24 May 2004).
There were a number of other aspects of the video, which suggest that it was a fraud: there was no blood when Nicholas Berg was beheaded. The audio was not in synchrony with the video, indicating that the film might have been manipulated.
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In addition to this research, there are several other clues, including the alleged nine page letter that Al-Zarqawi was said to have written to Osama bin Laden that was conveniently found just as the administration was coming under attack for the lack of evidence linking Al-Qaida to Saddam. In that letter, Al-Zarqawi bears not one hallmark of a Mujahideen, the text lacks the phraseology of Islam and there is no way that any Mujahideen would complain of his pending martyrdom as is indicated in this pitiful diatribe. (see http://www.iraqcoalition.org/transcripts/20040212_zarqawi_full.html)
We now also have the Kim Sun-Il beheading to add to Al-Zarqawi “list”. The video tape strikes a close resemblance to that of Nick Bergs and raises just as many questions about its authenticity, with almost the same individuals appearing, the same orange prison gear and the same bloodless execution. It appeared on a website hosted in California and boasted links to Reuters, to the March of Dimes and the National Wildlife Federation. Both “barbaric” incidents have curiously occurred in quick succession following the Abu Ghraib atrocities.
While the US State Department has increased the reward for Al Zarqawi’s arrest from $10 million to $25 million, which equals that of Bin Laden, he is not on the FBI most wanted fugitives list. http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm ). That’s because Al-Zarqawi is a product of American intelligence and the main actor in this covert false flag operation.
America is both creator and defender in this war on terrorism that exists only because of its greed for global dominance. While hatred is now raging against Muslims who are being attributed with the brutal acts the American government is in fact staging, Muslim anger is also growing as is the number of those who are prepared to stand in legitimate resistance against an enemy that respects no lawm no human life or moral code. Rest assured, we will fight this enemy justly, as we are required to do under the laws of the Sunnah of our Prophet (pbuh), not under a false flag of America’s, but under the Black flag of Islam in the Name of Allah.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 6:09:00 pm |
Friday, June 25, 2004
Reporters In Mindanao.. Targeted By 'All'
By Rexcel Sorza, IOL Correspondent
ILOILO CITY, June 24 (IslamOnline.net) - Filipino journalists reacted with anger to the killing of a reporter working in the southern turbulent region of Mindanao last week.
The fatal shooting of Eliseo Binoya on June 17 "is alarming", said Keith Bacongco, a freelance correspondent for national and international news agencies.
Binoya was already the second Filipino journalist to be killed this year. In 2003, seven journalists were murdered in the country whose journalists are considered to be the freest in Southeast Asia.
To many other Filipino journalists, the killing of a journalist is a brazen violation of press freedom in the Asian country.
Diosa Labiste, a director of the National Union of Journalists’ of the Philippines, told IslamOnline.net that warlords and politicians must accept the fact that journalists are there to report on what they see and hear.
"No journalist should be killed for the story he or she has written," as "there are venues for a party to seek grievance if he or she feels aggrieved by a journalist or a journalist’s work".
In its annual report 2004, The Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said: "The Philippines, especially Mindanao island, continued to be one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists."
Citing the murders in 2003, RWB said: "The seven journalists, most of whom worked for local radio stations, were murdered because of what they reported or commented about corruption, political violence or abuses by local officials."
A protest action was held by journalists last year appealing to stop the killings of their fellow journalists.
"Unconscionable"
Binoya’s murder was condemned as a "cowardly act" and "a blatant violation of press freedom" by Jose Torres Jr., who heads the Commission for the Protection of Journalists of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).
"Binoya's murder was unconscionable," read the statement of the NUJP, an association of Filipino journalists.
Nestor Burgos Jr., NUJP Iloilo chapter coordinator, said that generally these killings were ordered by politicians “whose illegal activities or graft and corrupt practices have been reported or commented on by the journalists.”
If not politicians, he said, the main culprits are those in the illegal trade of narcotics or other outlawed businesses such as illegal logging, who, like the politicians, did not like that “their interests or illegal businesses are being reported about or criticized by media.”
NUJP called on the authorities to "investigate this case thoroughly and resolve it quickly".
It urged President Gloria Arroyo "to make good on her promise to protect journalists. She must see to it that suspects in Binoya's case, as well as in the other cases, are brought to justice as soon as possible".
Arroyo has vowed to find justice for killings of journalists. In February this year, she assured the victims’ families that the government would not rest until the culprits are brought to justice and the senseless killings of journalists be put to stop.
"We reiterate our position that the series of unsolved murders of journalists contributes to the climate of impunity against journalists, particularly in the provinces, where most of these attacks take place," said the NJUP.
International Appeal
Filipino journalists are not alone in calling on the government to do something about the killings.
"The Philippines cannot claim to be a country that respects press freedom while journalists are killed with impunity," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
"We call on Philippine authorities to investigate Binoya's murder and bring those responsible to justice," Cooper said.
RWB also voiced dismay at Binoya’s murder and urged the authorities to do everything possible to ensure that those responsible receive an exemplary punishment.
"Some hit-men have been arrested for previous murders of journalists but the instigators have never been brought to justice," the group said in a letter to interior and local government Secretary José Lina.
"As a result, the Filipino judicial authorities allow the instigators to continue silencing their press critics with complete impunity."
Binoya is the second journalist to be murdered in the Philippines this year. In February, Ruel Endrinal, a commentator on radio station DZRC was shot and killed in Legazpi City, Albay province, in the northern Philippines.
He was going home aboard his motorcycle when two motorcycle-riding men tailed and shot him from behind. He died instantly.
The suspects, whom Binoya sued, were relatives of the town mayor he was criticizing in his radio program.
His death bring to at least 52, the number of journalists killed in their line of duty since democracy was restored in the Philippines in 1986 after 20 years of authoritarian rule. Of these deaths, no one has been prosecuted.
Despite these killings, Bacongco, who started his journalism career in 1998, goes on with his daily grind as he used to do all this years.
"I feel alarmed but the way I pursue my stories has not changed. I think it depends on the journalist and his or her dedication to the craft to be cowed by these murders."
Bacongco suggests that journalists must "organize ourselves against these crooks and politicians."
"We should organize and empower ourselves for sake of press freedom."
Source : Islam Online
Ps: 'All' including by own govt, CIA, FBI, M16, Mossad etc.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 5:04:00 pm |
Ask Palestine
Ask Palestine if Israel is Anti-Semitic
Genevieve Cora Fraser, Ramallah Online Columnist
Israel is a terrorist
State run by a terrorist
Government with liberty
And justice for Jews
Of northern European
Origin sophisticated
In torture tactics
Winning wide-spread
Support from a people
Terrorized into believing
Today may be their
Last if it were up to
The Palestinians
Israel was born
To slay Palestine
Reduce to rubble
The Terra Sancta
Made Holy to a world
Attached as a child
To mother’s love
Pastoral groves
Gentle shepherds
Arabic cities
Of charm and grace
Kept eternal vigil
On sanctuaries
Sepulchers
Ancient ruins
Mosques Temples
Dwelling places
Of saints and prophets
Martyrs memorialized
Christian churches
Stand in Tribute
To the birth
Of the Christ
In Palestine
He was crucified
Died and buried
As the Palestinians
Are crucified daily
Gunned down
In their homes
Shops and streets
Bulldozed belief
In Israel’s might
Imbues every moment
Of Israeli existence
Castigating
The existence
Of the Semites
Among them third
Class Israeli Arabs
Unwanted in the land
Of Free White
Supremacist
Ashkenazi
Dominance
Waiting for the Right
Moment to drive
The Bedouin
From their Time
Honored Province
No gentle shepherds
These but belligerent
Cattle drivers
Rounding up herds
Of Semites in Palestine
And Coming Soon
In Israel for holding
Pens and eventual
Starvation dehydration
Disease ridden
Experimental
And conventional
Slaughter
As the world
Holds its collective
Breath waiting
For Palestine
To breath
Its last
Gasp
Before
Something
Anything
Is done
# ANTENNA SHARON | 4:57:00 pm |
Bloody Day In IRAQ
At least 100 Iraqis and five US soldiers were killed and over 200 others injured in a series of coordinated attacks and clashes in several Iraqi cities Thursday, June 24.
Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel put the number of killed at 93 while other reports put it at around 75.
In a series of car bomb blasts in police stations in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Health Ministry put the number of deaths at 44 people and 216 wounded, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Fighting in Al-Anbar province, where clashes erupted in Fallujah and Ramadi, saw at least nine people killed and 27 others wounded. Fighting around Baquba killed 13 and wounded 15, the ministry was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The US military also launched air strikes on the central city of Baquba, likewise the scene of heavy fighting, firing laser-guided missiles, a military official said. There was no immediate word of casualties in the raids.
The Iraqi fighters launched a pre-dawn assault on a US military patrol and a police station in Baquba, according to the 1st Infantry Division and an AFP correspondent.
"At approximately 5:30 am (0130 GMT) ... anti-Iraqi forces attacked a 1st Infantry Division patrol with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the vicinity of the Mufrek Traffic Circle in Baquba, killing one 1st Infantry Division Soldier and wounding three," Major Neal O'Brien told AFP.
O'Brien said the city had been sealed off.
Medical sources said fifteen Iraqis were killed, including 11 policemen, and 22 civilians were wounded.
"We have received 15 dead bodies, of which 11 were policemen and the other four were civilians," said Hussein Ali, an official in charge of administration at the general hospital in Baquba, 60 kilometers (36 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
"In addition, we have 22 people with bullet wounds and injuries from bomb fragments," he said.
More Attacks
In Ramadi, the US military reported an attack on an agricultural center in the city and possibly on a police station.
US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that four soldiers had been killed in the city.
He said the servicemen were conducting operations there, and that they had failed to check in with superiors at an appointed hour. He declined further comment until the families of the dead could be notified.
In Mosul, four car bombs exploded near police stations in the northern city. The US military said a US soldier and a private security guard were killed in the string car bombings.
The first car exploded at 9:05 am (0505 GMT) in front of the Wadi Hajar police station in the south of the city, leaving "many killed and wounded," said Colonel Mohammed Seddiq Al-Karkshi.
Seven people, mainly policemen, were killed and 20 wounded in a second car bomb attack Thursday less than half an hour later, a police officer said.
"We have seven dead and 20 wounded, many of them policemen," said Lieutenant Mohammed Mohannad Abdul Karim.
Two other stationsin the central Fathi district had also been hit, police said, but there were no further details.
The western sector of the city was deserted except for Iraqi fighters posted on street corners and inside buildings.
The fighting broke out after the dawn prayers when men, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assaulted the police station.
Two dead policemen lay in the street as fighters gripped Kalashnikovs behind the windows of buildings. A black flag fluttered behind them, according to AFP.
As anti-American sentiments, fuelled by finding no weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for the invasion, are growing in the oil-rich country, ordinary Iraqis accused their compatriots working with the occupation forces as collaborators.
Renewed Fallujah Clashes
Clashes also broke out early Thursday between US forces and fighters outside the resistance bastion of Fallujah, west of the capital, forcing locals to flee from parts of the city.
"We received order to close the highway because of heavy fighting," a US marine said on the roadway.
There was no immediate news on any casualties from the fighting.
In April, Fallujah was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting since last year's US-led invasion of Iraq as US forces killed more than 600 people in massive air raids of the densely-populated areas during the offensive.
The US military said Wednesday, June 23, that it killed 20 people in an air strike. It claimed that the casualties were foreign fighters on a suspected Zarqawi safehouse in Fallujah the previous day.
But according to the local hospital and witnesses, the strike killed three people - a local garage owner and his two sons - and wounded 10 others.
At least 24 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed in a US air strike of the western Baghdad city of Fallujah on Saturday, June 19.
Iraqi Defense Minister Yassin Sawid said the attacks are meant to obstruct the transfer of power from the US occupation forces to the Iraqi government.
ISLAM ONLINE
# ANTENNA SHARON | 1:30:00 pm |
Monday, June 21, 2004
DEAD, RECOVERED, BEHEADED, WEBSITES, VIDEOS & PICTURES
Anyone who can confirm this. Esspecially anyone from CIA, Mossad, AP or Saudi Authorities.
1) Al-Muqrin DEAD. Never heard before. We just know Osama Bin Laden, CEO of al-qaeda Inc.
2) Paul Johnson's body RECOVERED or still in search by Saudi Authorities? So who said "we caught Al Muqrin while he was dumping the body"
3) Whose BEHEADED who. Al-Muqrin beheaded Paul Johnson, Saudi authorities beheaded or kill Al-Muqrin?
4) How they discovered this WEBSITES? that shows this so called "uncivilized act" first.
5) Anyone have seen this VIDEOS & PICTURES before... before that website shut down.
Need all your comments, to clear all doubt. TQ.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 7:23:00 pm |
JOHNSON'S BODY FOUND
Jun 18, 2004
(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-AP) -- A slain American's body has been found in Saudi Arabia.
Security officials say police have cordoned off the area where Paul Johnson's body was found, about 25 miles northeast of Riyadh (rih-YAHD').
An al-Qaida group announced earlier that it had killed the American -- and posted pictures online showing his beheaded body.
The militants had kidnapped the Lockheed Martin worker last week, and threatened to kill him by today unless Saudi Arabia released al-Qaida suspects.
The statement posted online today said Johnson was killed as a warning to foreigners to stay out of Saudi Arabia.
Johnson is the second American to be kidnapped and killed in the Mideast in just over a month. Nicholas Berg was beheaded in Iraq last month.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Source : NBC News
Ps: See AP found his body first from Saudi authorities. Is it the same tactics again??
# ANTENNA SHARON | 12:06:00 pm |
Police seal off area looking for beheaded American's body
10:02 PM EDT Jun 20
SALAH NASRAWI
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Police in armored vehicles and a helicopter sealed off three neighborhoods of the Saudi capital Sunday in a search for the body of a slain American hostage and Islamic militants involved in his death.
One of the areas searched was al-Malaz, site of a gunbattle Friday that ended with the death of Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the main suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Paul M. Johnson Jr.
There was no immediate word on the results of the operation, which began Saturday night and involved dozens of police on the ground and in the air. Any cars that tried to leave the areas were stopped and searched.
On Saturday, Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, said agents were looking for Johnson's body on the northern outskirts of the capital.
Saudi security officials, however, said they have been searching desert areas around Riyadh. Houses and apartments also were being searched, they said.
Al-Moqrin, reputedly al-Qaida's point man in Saudi Arabia, was killed in a shootout Saturday with security forces a few hours after the terror group posted photographs of Johnson's beheading on an Internet site.
Three other militants also died in the gunbattle, which lasted several hours and began when security forces tracked down al-Moqrin and his associates in a car in al-Malaz.
The others killed were identified as Faisal Abdul-Rahman al-Dikheel, Turki bin Fuheid al-Muteiry and Ibrahim bin Abdullah al-Dreiham. Al-Jubeir said al-Dikheel was believed to be the No. 2 al-Qaida militant in Saudi Arabia ``working closely and immediately under al-Moqrin.''
One security officer was killed and two were wounded in the gunbattle, the official Saudi news agency reported.
The Interior Ministry said 12 suspected militants also were arrested in a sweep of the capital.
They have not been identified, though a Saudi security official told The Associated Press early Saturday that Rakan Mohsin Mohammed al-Saikhan, listed second among Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted men, had been wounded and arrested.
The English-language Arab News, quoting an unidentified security source, reported Sunday that one of the 12 arrested was suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, which killed 17 U.S. sailors.
Saudi TV broadcast pictures of four bloodied bodies it said were the militants, apparently to refute initial denials by Islamic militants that al-Moqrin was dead. Late Saturday, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Moqrin's group, issued an online statement confirming its leader and the three others had been killed.
According to the Saudi news agency, al-Dikheel - also on the kingdom's list of the top 26 wanted militants - was involved in a number of killings and apparently was featured in video footage of Johnson's killing.
Al-Muteiry was among the militants to flee the scene of a May 29 shooting and hostage-taking attack on the oil hub of Khobar that killed 22 people and al-Dreiham was linked to a Nov. 8, 2003, suicide bombing at Riyadh housing compounds that killed 17, the statement added.
The Interior Ministry said authorities had confiscated forged identity papers, $38,000 in Saudi and American currency, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, hand grenades, automatic rifles and other weapons, the Saudi news agency said.
Also confiscated were three cars used by al-Moqrin's cell, including one believed to have been used in the June 6 killing of Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers, who was filming for the British Broadcasting Corp. when he was shot. A BBC correspondent was seriously wounded.
Johnson was seized June 12, the same day that Islamic militants shot and killed Kenneth Scroggs of Laconia, New Hampshire, in his garage in Riyadh. Earlier that week, militants in the capital also shot and killed another American, Robert Jacobs of Murphysboro, Illinois.
Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler, and other top officials have described the recent violence as a last gasp of terrorism that has killed scores of people and scared away some of the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who work in this oil-rich nation. Yet many remained skeptical about Saudi Arabia's ability to end terrorism.
U.S. Ambassador James C. Oberwetter praised Saudi security forces for their work, including the killing of al-Moqrin - ``among the most vicious of the current al-Qaida thugs on the peninsula'' - but said Saudi Arabia remains a dangerous place for Westerners.
Al-Jubeir acknowledged there are likely more terror cells in the kingdom besides the one headed by al-Moqrin.
Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo expert on Islamic militants, said Saudi Arabia's conservative Islamic traditions make it fertile ground for extremism. ``There are always new generations who can take over and continue their course,'' he said.
Rashwan said, however, that the replacement terrorists may lack the combat skills and expertise of their predecessors, who, like al-Moqrin, trained in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Attacks by al-Moqrin, known as a smart and brutal tactician, have shown tactical flexibility - devastating car bombs as well as pinpointed strikes like the kidnapping of Johnson, a first in the kingdom.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 12:02:00 pm |
Saudis search for body of beheaded American
By Dave Montgomery
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
and Shannon Mccaffrey
Knight Ridder News Service
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Thousands of Saudi security forces combed Riyadh and the surrounding area Saturday searching for the body of beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., contradicting earlier reports that it was dumped on a darkened street in the capital.
Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler, told reporters in Washington, D.C., that Saudi forces were concentrating their search in the northern sections of Riyadh. "We think we know the area where it is," al-Jubeir said.
Even without the body, however, al-Jubeir said there is no doubt that Johnson, 49, had been killed. He said Johnson had been identified by a detailed technical analysis of grisly photos of the kidnapped Lockheed Martin employee's decapitated corpse posted on the Internet.
The al Qaeda cell that called itself al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fulfilled its threat to kill Johnson. The slaying drew a chorus of condemnation worldwide, with even one of America's staunchest foes, Syria, calling it a "shameful crime."
Hours after Johnson's slaying, security forces at a roadblock intercepted the cell's leader Abdelaziz al-Moqrin and other militants, sparking a gunbattle that ended with four militants dead and 12 others captured, al-Jubeir said. One of the cars is believed to have been used in the June 6 killing of Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers, the Interior Ministry said.
A Saudi security official said one of those caught was Rakan al-Saikhan and identified him as a planner of the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
An Interior Ministry official identified the four dead as al-Moqrin, the kingdom's most wanted terrorist; Faisal Abdul-Rahman al-Dikheel; Turki bin Fuheid al-Muteiry; and Ibrahim bin Abdullah al-Dreiham.
Al-Dikheel, also on the kingdom's list of the 26 most-wanted militants, was thought to be al-Moqrin's top deputy. Al-Dikheel was involved in a number of killings and was apparently featured in video footage of Johnson's slaying, the Saudi Press Agency said.
Al-Muteiry was among the militants involved in an attack May 29 in the oil hub of Khobar that killed 22 people, the report said. Al-Dreiham was linked to the Nov. 8 suicide bombing at Riyadh housing compounds that killed 17.
This report includes material from the Associated Press and The New York Times.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 11:59:00 am |
Al Qaeda chief killed after American beheaded
Jordan Times, Sunday, June 20, 2004
RIYADH (Reuters) — Saudi authorities said on Saturday they had killed Al Qaeda's leader in the kingdom and three other prominent Al-Qaeda members, hours after the group carried out its threat to behead US hostage Paul Johnson. State television broadcast pictures of four bloodied corpses. It named the dead men as Abdulaziz Muqrin, Saudi Arabia's most wanted man, and three others behind the recent surge of violence against foreigners in the kingdom.
Twelve others were arrested, including one senior Al-Qaeda member believed to have been involved in the 2000 bombing of the US warship Cole off the coast of neighboring Yemen.
"This is a massive blow to Al-Qaeda," a source close to Saudi security officials said. "A huge number of the group around Muqrin were taken out last night — killed or arrested."
The men were killed in a shoot-out on Friday night as they tried to dispose of the body of Johnson, who was beheaded after the Saudi government refused to free prisoners by a Friday deadline set by Muqrin's cell.
Muqrin's group had posted photographs of Johnson's severed head on a website, six days after the 49-year-old aviation engineer was kidnapped in Riyadh.
The televised pictures of the four dead Al-Qaeda members appeared aimed at refuting a purported Al Qaeda statement posted on a website which denied Muqrin was dead.
An interior ministry statement read out on television named the other three dead militants as Faisal Dakheel, Turki Muteiri and Ibrahim Dreihim. Dakheel was wanted for killings including that of an American in Riyadh, it said. Muteiri was one of the militants who escaped after an attack on foreigners in the Gulf city of Khobar in May and Dreihim had been involved in preparation of the bombing of an expatriate residential compound in Riyadh in November, it said.
The statement said the four men were tracked down to a petrol station in the Malazz district of central Riyadh.
"Immediately security forces surrounded them and there was a fierce exchange of fire which resulted in the deaths of all four. It also resulted in the death of one member of the security forces and the wounding of two others," it said.
Security forces found three cars, including one used in an attack earlier this month on a British Broadcasting Corporation television crew in Riyadh, it added. They also found guns, three rocket propelled grenades, 16 pipe bombs, 10 handgrenades and currency worth around $37,000.
Most wanted
The 32-year-old Muqrin, driven by hatred of Washington and its Arab allies, was Saudi Arabia's most wanted Al Qaeda leader.
He was a veteran of Bosnia's 1992-95 war and one of a hit squad that tried to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995, said militant expert Mohsen Awajy.
"He's a killer. He wanted to kill as many people as he could before he died," Awajy said. Muqrin spent two years in an Ethiopian jail before extradition in 1988 to Saudi Arabia where he was tortured in prison, he added.
Saudi officials, once chided by their US allies as being soft on terrorism, are expected to portray his killing as a major setback for Saudi-born Osama Ben Laden.
Prince Salman Ben Abdulaziz, governor of Riyadh, said Saudi Arabia was working to "wipe out this corruption." But he said he could not rule out a violent response from Al Qaeda.
Johnson was the third American killed in Riyadh in the past 10 days, stepping up pressure on thousands of US citizens and other foreigners vital to the economy of the world's biggest oil exporter and on the Saudi royal family, which Ben Laden has sworn to overthrow for its close alliance with Washington.
Al-Qaeda attacks have afflicted the birthplace of Islam for more than a year but this was the first kidnapping of its kind in Saudi Arabia and raised fears that Al-Qaeda members who killed dozens of people in suicide bombings last year had switched tactics.
Three pictures of what looked like Johnson's severed, bloodied head were published on a website late on Friday. They showed the head placed on the back of a body in orange overalls and with a knife propped up against the mustachioed face.
Johnson worked for defense contractor Lockheed Martin making Apache helicopter gun ships, used by the US and Israeli military — a job his killers said justified his execution.
His family said Johnson had loved the Saudi people and that his killers were extremists who did not represent the kingdom.
The beheading followed a spate of bombings and attacks on oil companies and expatriate workers blamed on Muqrin's men. Militants killed 22 foreigners at oil offices and residential compounds in the eastern oil city of Khobar last month.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 11:55:00 am |
US hostage in Saudi beheaded
Islamist sites show US hostage Paul Johnson beheaded by "Al-Qaeda" in Saudi Arabia.
DUBAI - Islamist websites on Friday night showed gruesome pictures of US national Paul Johnson, who was taken hostage by Al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia, beheaded and his head placed on his back as he lay in a pool of blood.
"Delivering on our promise, the mujahedeen from the Fallujah Squad slaughtered the American prisoner Paul Marshall Johnson after the ultimatum set by the mujahedeen to the tyrants of the Saudi government expired," said a statement signed by "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula."
The sites carried three pictures of the beheaded captive, one of which showed him in a pool of blood with his head placed on his back.
Another showed the head on the back with a knife resting against the forehead, point first.
Johnson "met a just punishment ... by getting a taste of what he inflicted on Muslims (bombed) by US aircraft and missiles," the statement said.
The aeronautics engineer with top US defense contractor Martin Lockheed was "one of four Americans overseeing the electronic programs of those same aircraft in the land of the Two Holy Mosques (Saudi Arabia)," it said.
The statement and photos were posted on http://www.qal3ah.org and other Islamist websites.
A US embassy spokesman in Riyadh said only: "we're aware of the report."
There was no immediate official comment from the Saudi government, but CNN television quoted Saudi authorities as saying that "from our end we cannot confirm this. We have not found a body yet."
"Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula" had posted a video on a website Tuesday night threatening to kill the 49-year-old Johnson unless the Saudi government freed detained militants, estimated at more than 700, within 72 hours.
Telephone numbers listed in that video showed Johnson worked, possibly on a contract basis, with a Saudi electronics firm.
Riyadh said it would not negotiate with terrorists and security forces scoured the Saudi capital in an unsuccessful bid to locate him. Washington also ruled out talks with the hostage-takers.
Johnson was abducted in Riyadh last Saturday, the same day another US national was killed in the Saudi capital as Al-Qaeda extremists escalated their attacks on Westerners in a campaign aimed at driving "infidels" from Saudi Arabia.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 11:51:00 am |
Beheading website shut down
This image taken from an Islamic Web site shows a frame from a video of blindfolded American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. being held in Saudi Arabia. Johnson, 49, was beheaded Friday.
Dubai - Administrators have shut down an internet forum that carried statements by militants - including the photos of the beheaded American hostage in Saudi Arabia - as well as opinions of Saudi dissidents and supporters of the fight against Westerners.
Users who tried to access www.qal3ati.net/vb/ found "a note to the media" by the webmaster, in English and Arabic, explaining that the site is a public discussion board and the webmaster "is not responsible for any posting unless it is posted by the administrator."
The move was apparently aimed at distancing the site from militants after several claims of responsibility from Islamic militants appeared there, notably grisly photos of slain American hostage Paul Johnson , letters allegedly by killed al-Qaeda associate Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, and his group's claim of responsibility for the May 29 Khobar attack that killed 22 people.
Often, the authenticity of the statements was hard to verify.
Websites carrying similar material have been frowned on as propagators of violence. In May, an al-Qaeda-linked site, www.al-ansar.biz, was shut down by the Malaysian company that hosted it after it posted the video of American Nicholas Berg's beheading in Iraq.
The webmaster of Qal3ati - Arabic for "My Fort" - said the opinions on the site did not reflect the administrator's views and that it was the site's policy to remove any material that "contains incitement for violence."
"However, moderators are not in the site 24 hours and postings can stay for some time before being removed," the statement said.
"We would like to confirm that this unintentional temporary stay of the postings in no way means approval of their content."
# ANTENNA SHARON | 11:45:00 am |
Thursday, June 17, 2004
"Israel": Unpardonable wall of silence
The unpardonable wall of silence behind which the international community hides is an injustice to human rights and an affront to the notion that the condition of basic human dignity is a birthright.
As Pope John Paul II embodies the feelings of outrage felt around the globe in reaction to the implacable wave of violence unleashed by the hatred of Ariel Sharon-s regime, reports from the occupied territories tell of unspeakable acts of barbarism and cruelty perpetrated by the Israeli Armed Forces.
Referring to the siege of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pope John Paul II declared that ?The Basilica is a place of refuge for everyone...We reject the unjust conditions and humiliations imposed on the Palestinian people and also the revenge attacks and reprisals which serve no purpose except to feed the feeling of hatred and frustration¦.
The Vatican took the opportunity to reiterate its official line on the issue, translated in five points: the unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, condemnation of the injustice, humiliation and reprisals imposed on the people of Palestine; respect for UN Resolutions; proportional use of means of defence (by Israel) and the respect for protection of people in holy places.
Meanwhile, reports start to stream in to international press circles about the horror inflicted on civilians and foreign journalists by the Israeli armed forces. The photographs speak for themselves v savage beating of unarmed pacifists, male and female alike, the shooting of civilians as they enter and leave hospitals, the refusal to allow aid into the besieged areas, bodies lying around unburied and summary detentions and executions.
The director of the organisation Seeds of Peace, the American paramedic Adam Shapiro, declared in an interview to the Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias, that the situation in Ramallah is catastrophic. ?There are people wounded. There are Israeli marksmen all around the hospital and it is very difficult for us to move about. The Israelis are arresting medical staff from the Red Crescent and are stopping ambulances from circulating¦.
He declared that while their governments do nothing, there are personnel from the USA and EU countries putting their lives at risk trying to help the Palestinian civilians who are being murdered before their eyes. Civilians ?cannot reach the hospital¦ because the Israeli troops are not allowing them through, despite their wounds. They have taken to the churches, where they are being treated by nuns.
Worse,in a flagrant act of wanton violence, a war crime to add to the growing list perpetrated by Ariel Sharon and his armed forces: ?Yesterday a 56-year-old woman who had come for treatment (to the hospital) tried to go home, which is near the hospital. When she left, an Israeli sniper shot her in the face. She died, instantly¦.
Journalists are also being prohibited from circulating freely, against the norms of international press rules, which require the authorities to do everything within their power to assist in their free circulation. This is printed on the International Press Card.
Atta Isawat, a Palestinian photographer working with two journalists from AFP, arrested along with him, was subjected to acts of torture before the eyes of his co-workers, in broad daylight. The Israeli soldiers told him ?You are walking strangely, we will have to shoot you¦. He suggested that he should take off his clothes to prove that he was not carrying explosives. This he did, but was forced to lie in the street, under torrential rain, for over an hour, with his face in the mud and his hands behind his back, before an Israeli soldier smashed his face into the mud with his boot, shouting ?This is a war zone¦.
When a society loses sight of the path which is right and reason, its death-knell begins to toll. Israel has isolated itself from world public opinion. Now, if it does not change course rapidly, it is ponly a question of time. The palestinians have won their cause, paid in the blood of their men, women and children.
Source : Pravda.ru
# ANTENNA SHARON | 7:20:00 pm |
Another Scapegoat Story - "female goat"
Abu Ghraib General Says She's Scapegoat
LONDON (AP) - The American general who was in charge of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison said she was being made a scapegoat for the abuse of detainees and claimed her counterpart at Guantanamo Bay once told her that prisoners were ``like dogs.''
In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio that was broadcast Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski said Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller told her prisoners ``are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them.''
Miller was in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and now oversees U.S. prisons in Iraq.
Karpinski was suspended last month from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade after she and other officers were faulted by Army investigators for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers for violating standard procedures.
Several soldiers are facing courts-martial over abuse allegations at the jail, which flared when pictures of troops abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees were published in the media.
In her defense, Karpinski has said that interrogations at the prison were not under her command but were run by a military intelligence unit.
``I believe that I was a convenient scapegoat,'' she said.
``The interrogation operation was directed, it was under a separate command and there was no reason for me to go out to look at Abu Ghraib at cell block 1a or 1b or visit the interrogation facilities.''
Source : Guardian UK
# ANTENNA SHARON | 7:02:00 pm |
Tout Torture, Get Promoted
Defending cruelty can be a career booster in Bush's administration.
By Robert Scheer
June 15, 2004 "Los Angeles Times" -- What a revelation to learn that the Justice Department lawyer who wrote the infamous memo in effect defending torture is now a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge. It tells you all you need to know about the sort of conservative to whom George W. Bush is turning in his attempt to pack the federal courts.
Conservatives once were identified with protecting the rights of the individual against the unbridled power of government, but this is not your grandfather's conservatism. The current brand running things in D.C. holds that the commander in chief is above all law and that the ends always justify the means. This has paved the way for the increasingly well-documented and systematic use of torture in an ad hoc gulag archipelago for those detained anywhere in the world under the overly broad rubric of the "war on terror."
Those still clinging to the hopeful notion that photographic evidence of beatings, dead detainees, sexual degradation and threats of electric shock were all the work of a few twisted reservists aren't reading the newspapers. Press accounts are following the paper trail up the chain of command to a heated and lengthy debate inside the White House about how much cruelty constitutes torture.
On Sunday, the Washington Post published on its website an internal White House memo from Aug. 1, 2002, signed by then-Assistant Atty. Gen. Jay S. Bybee, which argued darkly that torturing Al Qaeda captives "may be justified" and that international laws against torture "may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations" conducted under President Bush. The memo then continued for 50 pages to make the case for the use of torture.
Was it as a reward for such bold legal thinking that only months later Bybee was appointed to one of the top judicial benches in the country? Perhaps he was anointed for his law journal articles bashing Roe vs. Wade and legal protection for homosexuals, or for his innovative attack on the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides for the popular election of U.S. senators. But it's hard to shake the notion that his memo to Counsel to the President Alberto Gonzales established Bybee's hard-line credentials for an administration that has no use for moderation in any form.
This president has turned his war on terror into an excuse for undermining due process and bypassing Congress. For Bybee and his ideologue cohorts, however, the American president is now more akin to a king, and legal or moral restraints are simply problems that can be overcome later, if anybody bothers to question the tactics: "Finally, even if an interrogation method might violate Section 2340A [of the U.S. Torture Convention passed in 1994], necessity or self-defense could provide justification that would eliminate any criminal liability."
In fact, though, this was an argument of last resort for Bybee, whose definition of torture "covers only extreme acts … where the pain is physical, it must be of an intensity akin to that which accompanies serious physical injury such as death or organ failure…. Because the acts inflicting torture are extreme, there is [a] significant range of acts that, though they might constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, fail to rise to the level of torture."
Bybee's generous standard should bring comfort to the totalitarian governments that find the brutal treatment of prisoners a handy tool in retaining power or fighting wars. Even Saddam Hussein, who always faced the threat of assassination and terrorism from foreign and domestic rivals, can now offer in his defense Bybee's memo that his actions were justifiable, on the grounds of "necessity or self-defense."
When confronted by the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee with the content of Bybee's torture defense, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft responded that the memo did not guide the administration. Yet, the Bybee memo was clearly the basis for the working group report on detainee interrogations presented to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a year later. And if Bybee's work was rejected as reprehensible, why was he rewarded — with Ashcroft's deepest blessings — with a lifetime appointment on the judicial bench only one level below the Supreme Court?
Frighteningly, the Bybee memo is not some oddball exercise in moral relativism but instead provides the most coherent explanation of how this administration came to believe that to assure freedom and security at home and abroad, it should ape the tactics of brutal dictators.
Robert Scheer writes a weekly column for The Times and is coauthor of "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq" (Seven Stories Press/Akashic Books, 2003).
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
# ANTENNA SHARON | 6:53:00 pm |
Riyadh Captors Threaten to Kill Hostage
Mohammed Rasooldeen, Arab News
RIYADH, 16 June 2004 — An Islamist website yesterday carried a statement purportedly from Al-Qaeda threatening to execute American hostage Paul M. Johnson if its supporters held in the Kingdom are not released within 72 hours.
“If the Saudi government wants Paul Marshall Johnson to be released, it must release the mujahedeen held in the prisons in Hair, Al-Ruwais and Allecha within 72 hours... Otherwise, we will execute him to avenge our Muslim brothers whose blood has been spilled in several parts” of the world, the statement said.
The statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, was signed “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula”.
Johnson, a 49-year-old aeronautics engineer working for top US defense contractor Lockheed Martin, has been missing since Saturday, the same day another American was killed in Riyadh.
Johnson’s wife, Thanom, says she will not leave the Kingdom until she finds out what happened to her husband. Thanom, a Thai from the capital Bangkok called Num by her friends, made the statement to a senior diplomat at the Thai Embassy here.
When contacted by Arab News yesterday, Thanom sounded frail. “I am not in a mood to talk in this state of mind,” she said.
“Num is not prepared to talk to any stranger at this moment since she has still not recovered from the shock from her husband’s sudden disappearance,” a first secretary at the Embassy of Thailand, Sawai Pidmuang, said.
Thanom, 31, had decided to return to her country for good only a couple of weeks before the kidnapping of her husband.
Source : Arab News
Ps : Another fake so called "Islamist Website". Trend of "CIA Wicth Hunter Project". So nice try.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 6:49:00 pm |
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Abu Gharib's and Nick Berg video failure. Scapegoat must go II
James Pavitt, the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy director of operations, is the second top-tier official to resign in as many days, the agency announces.
Although the CIA's announcement comes less than a day after agency chief George Tenet unexpectedly resigned, the intelligency agency insists no link exists between the two.
"Pavitt made the decision to retire about a month ago, and his departure is unrelated to director of central intelligence George J. Tenet's resignation announcement yesterday," a CIA statement said on Friday.
Pavitt, 58, has worked for the CIA since 1973 and held various positions in Europe and Asia before his rise to deputy director of operations since 1999.
As spymaster and the man responsible for covert operations conducted by the CIA, his identity remained a secret until recently.
Pavitt's deputy Stephen Kappes is expected to take over as deputy director of operations.
Source : AlJazeera
# ANTENNA SHARON | 6:10:00 pm |
Abu Gharib's and Nick Berg video failure. Scapegoat must go
The Washington Post reports that President Bush announced that CIA Director George J. Tenet has submitted his resignation:
CIA officials said the resignation was for personal reasons, denying that Tenet quit, or was pressured to leave, because of criticism of U.S. intelligence over the failed search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or missed clues to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot.
"He told me he was resigning for personal reasons," Bush said. "I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people."
Bush said he had accepted Tenet's letter of resignation, which Tenet submitted at a White House meeting Wednesday night.
Speaking to reporters briefly before leaving on a trip to Europe, Bush said Tenet would serve as CIA director until mid-July, then give way to the current CIA deputy director, John E. McLaughlin, who will take over as acting director. Bush did not indicate who would be Tenet's permanent successor.
[. . .]
Tenet was appointed by President Bill Clinton and has served as CIA director since July 1997.
This is good news. I only wish President Bush announced that he had asked for Tenet's resignation.
UPDATE: Tenet's resignation may have been prompted by the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-war intelligence failures. ABCNews reports the findings in the not yet released report on pre-war intelligence failures are "devastating" for Tenet. According to ABC:
Democratic sources confirm Tenet was losing support among Democrats because of the conclusions reached by this report. One Republican source predicted Wednesday Tenet might resign before it is released. The report is currently being declassified by the CIA and is expected to be made public on June 17.
UPDATE II: A former CIA Director thinks President Bush asked tenet to resign. According to the New York Times:
The official announcement was unconvincing to a former C.I.A. chief, Stansfield Turner, who held the post under President Jimmy Carter.
Mr. Turner said the resignation is "too significant a move at too important a time" to be inspired by nothing more than personal considerations.
"I think he's being pushed out," Mr. Turner said in an interview on C.N.N. "The president feels he has to have someone to blame."
Mr. Turner went on, "I don't think he would pull the plug on President Bush in the midst of an election cycle without being asked by President Bush to do that."
Turner's analysis makes sense to me. Again, I just wish President Bush announced that he fired Tenet.
UPDATE III: The June 4th edition of the Christian Science Monitor suggests many factors contributed to Tenet's resignation:
* The upcoming 9/11 commission report is almost certain to hit the CIA for failures prior to the Sept. 11;
* Recent controversies concerning various intelligence leaks;
* The mistaken US predictions about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction;
* The inclusion of the assertion in a State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking uranium in Niger; and
* Tenet has also been tarred by the Wilson affair.
The Monitor wonders if the Chalabi investigation was the last straw:
More recently, federal investigators have begun looking into which US government official might have leaked the fact that the US had broken Iranian codes to Ahmed Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile who has long been a favorite of some in the Pentagon.
"Maybe [the Chalabi investigation] was the one that broke the camel's back" and convinced Tenet to leave.
The Monitor's list sums up why everyone seems pleased Tenet is leaving.
Source : California Yankee Blogs
# ANTENNA SHARON | 5:51:00 pm |
Thursday, June 03, 2004
South Africa Style Sanctions Against Israel?
I think there are many reasons why the South African analogy does not apply to this case.
One, commonly overlooked, is that sanctions against South Africa did not become a really significant issue with a major impact until after years of education and organization had aroused enormous opposition to Apartheid, even in the corporate sector and mainstream political echelons, and certainly among the public. Corporations were coming to oppose Apartheid for business reasons. Mayors were getting themselves arrested in demonstrations. And so on. This was, in fact, all seen as an outgrowth of the mass civil rights movement, then peaking. When South Africa set up homelands ("Bantustans") 40 years ago, it received virtually no support, only worldwide condemnation, even from its supporters (US and Britain in particular). When Israel does the same, it is largely protected from criticism, so much so that public opinion in the US on these matters -- which is highly critical -- is effectively suppressed and unknown, and within the media (including liberal media) and political arena there is essentially nothing. That tells us that there is a long way to go in education and organizing before it makes any sense to raise the issues of sanctions. In the current real-world circumstances, a call for sanctions, even if it were justified, would be greatly welcomed by the right wing extremists and hard-liners, because they could easily convert it into another "proof" that everyone wants to kill the Jews and so we must rise to the support of embattled Israel to prevent another Holocaust. People who do not pay serious attention to prevailing circumstances may cause serious harm to the people they are trying to protect. That happens over and over.
We agree that the Jewish population of Israel overwhelmingly opposes sanctions. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no meaningful call for sanctions among the non-Jewish population of Israel. So I think it is far to say that opposition to sanctions would range from substantial to extremely strong across the Israeli spectrum.
What about support for sanctions against Israel in the territories under military occupation, or the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, say. I haven't seen a study, but I'd be surprised if they did not support sanctions against Israel. I presume they would also support invasion and destruction of Israel. But I do not see what policy conclusions we can draw from that, apart from narrow ones: it makes very good sense to bar any aid to Israel that helps implement the occupation, meaning virtually all military aid and much economic aid. That is a principled position, and could be effective. It conforms to the majority opinion in the US even without the issue being publicly raised. Hence if this does not enter the political agenda -- and it doesn't -- that is our fault, the fault of organizers, including those who focus attention on probably harmful and at best pointless issues like sanctions rather than on real issues where progress is possible, with plenty of effects.
By Noam Chomsky
Source : ZBlogs
# ANTENNA SHARON | 8:31:00 pm |
Israel's Wall: Bad Fences Make Bad Neighbors
“[The] formula for the parameters of unilateral solution are: To maximize the number of Jews; minimize the number of Palestinians; not to withdraw to the 1967 border and not to divide Jerusalem.”
– Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister.[1]
1. What’s wrong with the Wall?
The Wall is not being built on Israel’s border but rather well within Occupied Palestinian Territory, thereby de facto annexing Palestinian land and ensuring that Israel’s colonies remain. It is estimated that approximately 43.5% of the Occupied West Bank (containing approximately 88% of the illegal Israeli settlers) will be de facto annexed by Israel and ensuring that Israel’s colonies not only remain but also expand.
In addition, the Wall is being built in such a way as to divide Palestinian population centers from their adjacent agricultural land and water resources. Israel’s strategy is to annex as much Palestinian land as possible while militarily encaging as many Palestinians as possible, all in an attempt to continue Israel’s colonization and occupation of Palestinian territory. At the same time, Israel will effectively isolate Palestinian population centers from one another and restrict not only freedom of movement of individuals but also of goods and services, thereby worsening an already crippled Palestinian economy.
Upon the Wall’s completion, it is estimated that approximately 343,000 Palestinians will be trapped between the Wall and Israel’s 1967 Pre-Occupation Border (the “Green Line”), 93,000 of whom will be trapped in “double-walled” ghettos or enclaves.
2. Is it a “wall” or a “fence”?
The Wall takes many forms. In some areas (notably in Occupied Palestinian Jerusalem and around the Palestinian city of Qalqilya) the Wall is an eight-meter high Wall of solid concrete (twice the height of the Berlin Wall) with armed sniper towers positioned every 300 meters. In other areas, the Wall is an entire regime of obstacles comprised of trenches (up to four meters deep), electrified fences, razor wire and military roads. There is also a 30-100 meter wide “buffer zone” east of the Wall with electric fences, trenches, sensors and military patrol roads.
Whether it is called a “wall”, “barrier” or “fence” is irrelevant because the effect is the same: Israeli de facto confiscation of Palestinian land, forced impoverishment of Palestinian communities and a coercion of Palestinians to abandon their homes and their property.
3. Isn’t the Wall necessary for Israel’s security?
No. The Wall is not protecting Israeli citizens inside Israel; it is instead consolidating Israel’s occupation, its illegal colonies and the ongoing colonization of Palestinian land. The Wall has been routed around Israel’s illegal colonies and their planned expansion and is therefore a land grab rather than a security measure.
If Israel were truly interested in its security it would: (i) abide by international law and withdraw completely from the Occupied Palestinian Territory it occupied in 1967 and/or (2) build the Wall on the Green Line (or inside Israel) rather than in Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Israel has long used the façade of “security” for the continued colonization of Palestinian land, and the notion of a “security” Wall neatly fits into Israel’s long-term goal of annexing as much Palestinian land as possible with as few Palestinians as possible.
4. What is Israel really trying to do by building the Wall?
Israel wants Palestinian land but it does not want the Palestinian people. Consequently, the Wall is part of a strategy to annex large parts of Occupied Palestinian Territory while caging in large Palestinian population centers. Once complete, the indigenous Palestinian population will be restricted to reservations constituting less than 13% of historic Palestine while illegal Israeli settlers will be able to freely travel throughout Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In addition, Israel is encouraging the migration of the Palestinian population from lands confiscated by the construction of the Wall. On October 2, 2003, the Israeli Army issued an order declaring all Occupied West Bank land between the Wall and the Green Line as “closed” (the “Closed Zone”). The Order states that “No person will enter the [Closed Zone] and no one will remain there.”[2] Free access to the Closed Zone (which represents approximately 2% of the Occupied West Bank) will only be granted to “Israelis” (defined as Israeli citizens, Israeli residents and anyone permitted to immigrate to Israel (i.e., anyone who is Jewish)). The Order requires Palestinian residents of the Closed Zone to obtain permits to live in their houses, farm their land, and to travel. Nothing in the Order guarantees that permits will be granted or even respected if indeed granted. Palestinians not residing in the Closed Zone but whose agricultural lands or jobs are within the Closed Zone will also be required to apply for a permit to farm their land or go to work. The Order effectively grants anyone in the world who is Jewish the right to freely travel throughout the Closed Zone while denying the same rights to the Christians and Muslims who live on, farm and own the land. The Order affects approximately 86,500 Palestinians (13,500 living in the Closed Zone and 73,000 who own land in the Closed Zone) in 18 villages and hamlets.
For an English translation of the Israeli Military Order, see www.nad-plo.org/hborders3.php
5. Israel claims that the Wall is a temporary measure and can always be removed when a peace agreement is reached – what’s wrong with that?
Defining measures as “temporary” is a strategy often used by Israel to justify illegal actions which become permanent. In 1967, when Israel began violating the Fourth Geneva Convention by transferring Israeli civilians into illegal Israeli colonies in Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel claimed the colonies were a “temporary” security measure. More than 36 years later, these colonies have not only become permanent but continue to expand. Israel has never dismantled any of these “temporary” colonies and there are now approximately 410,000 settlers living illegally in Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Furthermore, the damage that is being caused by the Wall cannot be reversed: Palestinian farmers have already lost their crops, their land and their primary source of livelihood and Palestinian homes and businesses have been demolished for the Wall’s construction (such as in Nazlat Issa where 124 shops and 7 homes were demolished).
In his recent report on the Wall, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, stated:
Israel has repeatedly stated that the Barrier is a temporary measure. However the scope of construction and the amount of occupied West Bank land that is either being requisitioned for its route or that will end up between the Barrier and the Green Line are of serious concern and have implications for the future….The placing of most of the structure on occupied Palestinian land could impair future negotiations.[3]
For the full UN report, see www.nad-plo.org/pdf/unnew1.pdf
6. Given that Israel has built agricultural “access gates” so that farmers can access their land, how can it be argued that the Wall is about confiscating land?
If Israel really wanted to facilitate access of Palestinian farmers to their land, the Wall would have been built on Israeli territory rather than between Palestinian farmers and their land.
The gates are an Israeli attempt to make the Wall look humane. In reality however, the “gates” are irregularly open if at all. For example, all agricultural gates were closed from October 4 - 20, 2003 during the olive harvest, causing many farmers to lose their annual olive crops and related revenue. In the case of the northern gate in Qalqilya, the gate has never reopened since October 4, 2003. The closure of the gates in Qalqilya has caused livestock (particularly poultry) to die. Palestinians regularly endure long, grueling waits, and are often denied access. Many farmers have decided to camp and live in their fields in order to ensure access to their land, but Israeli soldiers have arrested the farmers and sent them back to their villages.
Furthermore, Palestinians must apply for “permits” to access their own land and the criteria for receiving such permits is unclear. Such permits are not guaranteed and even if granted, are for a limited duration (typically for only one to six months) and may not be honored. For example, in Qalqilya during November 2003, 1,200 farmers applied for permits and only 300 permits were issued (approximately 25% of which were issued to dead Palestinians or those residing abroad). Indeed, the very existence of the permit system demonstrates that Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land has taken legal form.
In addition, Israel reserves the right to confiscate Palestinian agricultural land if it is not being regularly farmed, thereby changing the status of the land. Consequently, by denying Palestinian farmers the right to farm their land, Israel is setting the stage for invoking the “use it or lose it” laws to later justify the illegal land confiscation.
7. But hasn’t a wall been successful around the Gaza Strip?
With a population of approximately 1.2 million Palestinians, and a land mass of approximately 365 km2, the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated areas in the world. Since 1994, a wall has been in place around the Gaza Strip, cutting off the Gaza Strip’s Palestinian residents from the rest of the world. Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are unable to leave the Gaza Strip unless they obtain Israel’s permission to do so, whereas Israeli settlers living illegally in the Strip have complete freedom of movement.
The wall surrounding the Occupied Gaza Strip is different from that currently being built in the Occupied West Bank: the wall around the Gaza Strip does not separate Palestinians from their lands or from one another, unlike in the Occupied West Bank.
Despite the wall’s presence, Israel continues to carry out “security” related attacks in the Gaza Strip including: (i) military invasions; (ii) aerial bombings (iii) killing of 1,400 Palestinian civilians (including 350 children); (iv) land confiscations; (v) home demolitions that have made 17,000 Palestinians homeless and (vi) assassinations of “ticking time bombs,” even though there has only ever been two suicide bombers entering Israel from the Gaza Strip. In other words, Israel continues to use claim of insecurity to justify its attacks on Palestinians even though it has been secure.
8. If Israel only builds the Wall on the western portion of the Occupied West Bank and not on the eastern portion in the Jordan Valley, would the Wall be acceptable?
No. There is no such thing as a “humane” wall if it operates as a de facto annexation of Palestinian land, denies Palestinians freedom of movement or the ability to earn an income. Even without an eastern portion of the Wall, 16.6% of the Occupied West Bank (home to approximately 320,000 Palestinians), will lie between the Wall and the Green Line. The western portion of the Wall alone has already caused the uprooting of more than 102,000 trees, the demolition of scores of homes and the destruction of more than 124 businesses. Key Palestinian natural resources (including water and agricultural land) are in the portion of the Wall that has already been built or that is slated for construction.
In addition, even without building the eastern portion of the Wall, Israel is still able to pursue its policy of caging in Palestinian population centers. With the exception of Jericho (itself surrounded by trenches and Israeli soldiers) the Jordan Valley is not densely populated though the Palestinian living there have been subjected to regular curfews in their movement is severely restricted. Consequently, by restricting Palestinian freedom of movement into the Jordan Valley through currently existing road blocks and curfews, Israel can still effectively cage in the Palestinian population while effectively annexing the Jordan Valley.
9. Is there any proof that Israel is attempting to annex Palestinian land?
Yes. In some places, such as Qalqilya, checkpoints have been moved further into Occupied Palestinian Territory with Palestinians requiring permits to “enter Israel” even if they want to travel throughout Occupied Palestinian Territory beyond the checkpoint. Israel has also confiscated some 9,000 dunums (2,250 acres) for the construction of an “industrial zone” which will serve as a source of cheap Palestinian labor for Israeli companies. Additionally, some Palestinian landowners have received expropriation orders in which Israel claims that it will “correct the border.” Thus, while Israel has not passed annexation laws, it has nevertheless de facto annexed Palestinian land in violation of international law.
Furthermore, Israel has attempted to coerce the migration of the Palestinian population in the Closed Zone: approximately 20% of homes in these areas are under threat of demolition, including in the area of Arab Ramadin, south of Qalqilya where one-third of the village’s 33 homes are under threat of demolition.
10. Is the Wall legal under international law?
No. The Wall violates the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention governing occupied territory. For a full legal analysis of the Wall’s violation of international law, please visit www.palestine-un.org
>>Prohibition on the Acquisition of Territory by Force
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. (UN Charter, Article 2(4))
The prohibition on the use of force to acquire territory has been in place since 1928 and is now enshrined in the UN Charter. This prohibition applies irrespective of whether the territory is acquired in alleged “self-defense” or in aggression. Through the Wall’s de facto annexation of Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel is violating this basic principle of international law.
>>Prohibition on the Use of Collective Punishment
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. (Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33(1))
The Wall will serve to divide the Occupied Palestinian Territory with movement from one area to another controlled entirely by the Israeli Army, in effect punishing the entire Palestinian population. Jewish Israelis illegally living in Occupied Palestinian Territory will, however, continue to enjoy total freedom of movement. “Military necessity” cannot be invoked to circumvent this prohibition.
>>Obligation to Ensure the Humane Well-Being of the Palestinian Population
Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.(Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 27)
The International Committee of the Red Cross stated that:
The West Bank Barrier [the Wall], in as far as its route deviates from the “Green Line” into occupied territory, is contrary to IHL [international humanitarian law]. The problems affecting the Palestinian population in their daily lives clearly demonstrate that it runs counter to Israel’s obligation under IHL to ensure that humane treatment and well-being of the civilian population living under its occupation. The measures taken by the Israeli authorities linked to the construction of the Barrier in occupied territory go far beyond what is permissible for an occupying power under IHL.[4]
>>Prohibition on Changing the Status of Occupied Territory
The Security Council.calls once more upon Israel, as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical natures and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territory occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem(UN Security Council Resolution 446 (1979))
By constructing the Wall and putting into place new regulations whereby Palestinians must obtain permits to remain in their homes or to travel between their homes and places of work, education and health care, Israel is changing the status of Occupied Palestinian Territory.
>>Violation of Palestinian Right to Self-Determination
By virtue of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined by the Charter of the United Nations, all people have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every State has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the Charter. (Declaration of Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States, UN Resolution 2625 (XXV), 24 October 1970).
The Wall violates the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination as recognized by the international community and the United Nations by: (1) de facto annexing Palestinian land in which the Palestinian people have a right to live freely; (2) changing the demographic composition of Occupied Palestinian Territory through the establishment and maintenance of Israeli colonies; (3) breaking up the territorial integrity of Occupied Palestinian Territory through the creation of enclaves and (4) denying Palestinians use and sovereignty over their natural resources, including their water resources.
11. Is the Wall legal under the Oslo Agreements?
No, the Wall violates the Oslo Agreements.
>>Obligation to Preserve the Territorial Integrity of the Occupied Palestinian Territory
The two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, the integrity and status of which will be preserved during the interim period. (Interim Agreement, Chapter 2, Article XI)
The construction of the Wall within Occupied Palestinian Territory violates the territorial integrity of the Occupied West Bank.
>>Prohibition Against Restricting Freedom of Movement
Without derogating from Israel’s security powers and responsibilities in accordance with this Agreement, movement of people, vehicles and goods in the West Bank, between cities, towns, villages and refugee camps, will be free and normal and shall not need to be effected through checkpoints or roadblocks. (Interim Agreement, Annex I, Article IX, para 2(a))
12. What is the international community doing to stop this?
Despite world-wide condemnation of the Wall (including a UN General Assembly Resolution demanding that Israel stop and reverse the Wall’s construction) and even United States and European concerns, the international community has taken no action that has had any effect to stop the construction of the Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Fourth Geneva Convention obliges the international community to ensure that the Convention, the primary purpose of which is to protect a population under occupation, is respected:
The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances. (Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 1)
The international community’s inaction in stopping Israel’s construction of the Wall continues to teach Israel that it is above the law.
Israel’s security powers, with respect to freedom of movement, extend only to prohibiting or limiting the entry into Israel of persons and of vehicles from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Building a Wall within the Occupied West Bank affects Palestinian freedom of movement not only into Israel, but also within and throughout Occupied Palestinian Territory.
[1] In an interview with Ha’aretz newspaper, Deputy PM Olmert describes his vision for “peace” with the Palestinians. David Landau, Maximum Jews; Minimum Palestinians, Ha’aretz GA Coverage, Online Edition 5 December 2003. http://www.haaretz.com/GA/pages/ShArtGA.jhtml?itemNo=360533
[2] Israel Defense Forces Order Concerning Security Directives (Judea and Samaria)(number 378), 1970 Declaration Concerning the Closure of Area Number s/2/03 (Seam Area), Section 3a.
[3] Report of the Secretary-General Prepared Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution ES-10/13, UN Doc. A/ES-10/248 at 7. (24 November 2003).
[4] International Committee of the Red Cross, Press Release: Israel/Occupied and Autonomous Palestinian Territories: West Bank Barrier causes serious humanitarian and legal problems 18 February 2004. http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5WACNX
Source : PLO Negotiations Affairs Department
WORLD, are we aware of this ISRAELI WALL...? Maybe we're now are overlooking to Iraqi issue. Fight against another backstep effort from Israeli to settled their problem.
# ANTENNA SHARON | 7:10:00 pm |
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