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NOVANEWS

Did Australia cover-up Afghan deaths?

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Australian Wikileaks connection:

Classified US Defence Department documents leaked to the WikiLeaks website this week suggest the Australian Defence Force covered up the killing of an Afghan policeman by Australian troops.

Buried among the 90,000 intelligence documents is a log entry about the killing of an Afghan man by an Australian mentoring and reconstruction taskforce (MRTF) patrol in the southern province of Oruzgan in December 2008.

The initial report says a suspected suicide bomber approached the patrol and was shot dead. The report was amended later in the day to show the man was a policeman, was not carrying explosives of any kind and that he was twice ordered to stop before he was shot. The Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Houston, said in a statement five months later that the man had a ”suspicious wire leading across his body”, and he was ordered twice through an interpreter to stop.

But Air Chief Marshal Houston did not disclose in the statement that the man was a police officer, or that he was not carrying explosives.

”A review of the operational circumstances found that the man behaved and appeared in a manner that was consistent with intelligence reporting of a suicide bomber that was planning an attack,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

”The MRTF patrol had been involved in a combat operation the previous day and an [improvised explosive device] had exploded in the vicinity of the patrol. The review officer found that the MRTF patrol had acted appropriately, in accordance with the threat and within their rules of engagement.

”I stress, however, that I regard the completion of these inquiries as a high priority and I assure you that I will make the findings available to you soon as I can.”

How the public can help examine the Wikileaks documents and give context

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Guardian offers a fascinating explanation of how they processed the massive amount of documents given to them by Wikileaks.

Britain realises that Israel isn’t perfect and Zionists are shocked

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The kind of debate over Palestine that seems almost impossible here in the US or Australia. Unthinking Zionism helps nobody but unthinking Zionists:

David Cameron‘s forthright description of Gaza as a “prison camp” – and its implied criticism of Israel – has struck a chord with many Conservatives but infuriated some commentators.

During a state visit to Turkey the prime minister stoked up the rhetorical pressure on Netayahu’s government without a balancing comment apportioning any blame for the seige of Gaza to Hamas, which controls the territory.

The Conservative Home website recorded strident views from both sides of the debate.

“The Liberal Democrats in the coalition government will approve of Mr Cameron’s tone on Israel but the government in Jerusalem will take a very dim view of the intervention,” the website noted.

“The use of such an emotive term and the lack of any balancing condemnation of the Hamas regime that terrorises Gaza will also disappoint Conservative supporters of Israel.”

One commentator on the site said: “For once I agree with Cameron. It’s about time a leader had the guts to stand up to this terrorist state and condemn it for its brutal actions.”

Others were less keen: “Cameron is clearly sucking up to the Muslim world and bashing Israel is the best way of doing so,” said one.

On the Daily Telegraph website the columnist Mary Riddell supported the prime minister. “[The prime minister] has indicated that Britain will not humour the Netanyahu government over Gaza. There are some encouraging signs that Mr Cameron, oppportunistic and Europhobic in opposition, may evolve a firmer and more creditable foreign policy than many supposed.”

The paper’s executive foreign editor, Con Coughlin, took a contrary view. “The real culprit is the militant Palestinian group Hamas which, having seized control of Gaza through force of arms, has persisted with its policy of campaigning for the destruction of the state of Israel,” he said.

The Liberal Democrats have long supported a loosening of the Israeli stranglehold on Gaza, allowing greater access for construction materials to help citizens rebuild their homes and businesses.

Last month the deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, called on Israel to lift its “unjustifiable and untenable” blockade of the Gaza Strip, following the storming by Israeli commandos of a ship carrying aid to the Palestinian territory.

“Whilst, of course, Israel has every right to defend itself and its citizens from any attack, it must now move towards lifting the blockade in Gaza as soon as possible,” Clegg said.

Children are real in Gaza, read all about it

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

UNRWA image from the Summer Games in Gaza:

Iraqi state boosted by American money (but details gone missing)

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

What a jolly good war. Money well spent:

The Defense Department is unable to properly account for $8.7 billion out of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007, according to a newly released audit that underscores a pattern of poor record-keeping during the war.Iraq Reconstruction, which is responsible for monitoring U.S. spending in Iraq. The rest of the money was not properly deposited in special accounts as required under Treasury Department rules, making it difficult to trace how it was spent.

Of that amount, the military failed to provide any records at all for $2.6 billion in purported reconstruction expenditure, says the report by the Special Inspector General for

Pentagon says that stories about Pentagon aren’t true

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

Never trust a “Pentagon official”. Journalists should know better than trusting such anonymous sources. But of course they don’t. Hence this story:

An ongoing Pentagon review of the massive flood of secret documents made public by the WikiLeaks website has so far found no evidence that the disclosure harmed U.S. national security or endangered American troops in the field, a Pentagon official told NBC News on Monday. The initial Pentagon assessment is far less dramatic than initial statements from the Obama White House Sunday night after three major news organizations – The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel — published what was touted as an unprecedented “secret archive” of classified military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan.

Christian Zionists and Tea Party folk want more war in the Middle East

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Tea Party essentially backs an Israeli strike against Iran.

How to spin away the Wikileaks blues

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Wikileaks revelations are a spin problem to be solved, according to the White House mouth piece, Politico:

The White House is dismissing the 92,000 Afghan war reports posted by WikiLeaks as old news — but the document dump poses a potent new threat to President Barack Obama’s delicately balanced Afghanistan policy.

The field reports — raw, classified documents that portray Pakistani officials as double agents, working with both the United States and the Taliban — have rekindled long-standing doubts about the reliability of America’s most important strategic partner in the region.

As important, the reports are prompting a new wave of scrutiny of the war among Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill — with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry saying Monday they might initiate new “calibrations” of U.S. strategy in an unpopular and bloody war.

That’s bad news for Obama, who needs time, patience and congressional elasticity if his new commander, Gen. David Petraeus, is to have any chance of implementing his Afghanistan surge strategy before the planned start of troop withdrawals next summer.

“Whether WikiLeaks uncovered anything new isn’t actually important — it’s on the front page of every newspaper in the country; the media is now focused on Afghanistan, and that makes it a big deal,” said Daniel Markey, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on India and Pakistan.

“The public is now more skeptical about the administration’s strategy in Afghanistan than they were last week, and that makes it real,” said Markey, who was a South Asia analyst during the Bush administration.

Added one Senate aide: “Anyone who’s been paying even the vaguest attention to this issue found nothing new in this thing, but there’s also no doubt that this ratchets up the level of anxiety in the Democratic Caucus.”

More spinning here.

Thank God for Goldstone

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

An Haaretz editorial that should be read by every Zionist organisation in the world; the smearing brigade should think again:

Israel’s third report in response to the Goldstone report, which was submitted to the United Nations last week, consists of changes and updates in the Israel Defense Forces’ standing orders following Operation Cast Lead.

The army will restrict the use of white phosphorous bombs in the future, appoint officers for “humanitarian” issues to accompany every battalion and update its directives on protecting civilians and their property during warfare.

After questioning 500 officers, examining 150 complaints and the Military Police’s 47 investigations that generated a number of indictments – including one for manslaughter and one for using a child as a human shield – the IDF’s investigation of itself is almost over.

At first the IDF insisted that everything in the operation had been in order, that white phosphorus or human shields had not been used illegally, that no civilians were killed for no reason and there was no unnecessary destruction. Now the army has been forced to renege and open investigations it would not have conducted had it not been for the Goldstone report, human rights groups’ reports and coverage in the Israeli and international media.

Now, when it turns out the censure of Israel had plenty of truth in it, it is time to thank the critics for forcing the IDF to examine itself and amend its procedures. Even if not all of Richard Goldstone’s 32 charges were solid and valid, some of them certainly were.

It is regrettable that so much time had to be wasted on false denials. It is also doubtful whether it is proper for the IDF to investigate itself.

Hence, after the public incitement campaign (some of it conducted by the IDF Spokesman’s Office ) against the critics and whistle-blowers, the IDF would do well to recant and admit that the censure helped it redraft the ethics code by which it will act from now on. Better late (and little ) than never. The senior command must also come out now against the complaints recently made by officers for being investigated. These investigations are also part of the reason for the IDF’s possibly changed conduct in the next war.

The IDF’s belated inquiries and the willingness to change its directives hold an important lesson for the political leadership as well. It is better to display openness and cooperate with international committees than to boycott them and then accept some of their demands under pressure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak should consider this lesson in their response to the international investigations into the Turkish flotilla affair.

Is Wikileaks head Assange a serious target?

Posted: 26 Jul 2010

Leaker of the Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg on Democracy Now! talks about what Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assanage could be facing:

I speak from an unusual perspective there. In May 3rd, 1972, when I was on trial, in a major political trial with tremendous publicity on me, Richard Nixon, President Nixon, sent a dozen CIA assets up from Miami to Washington, where I was giving a—addressing a rally on the steps of the Capitol with a number of Congress persons there and a large crowd, with orders to incapacitate me totally. Those were the orders given to them. So I can hardly assure Assange that nothing like that could happen again.

NOVANEWS

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Australian Wikileaks connection:

Classified US Defence Department documents leaked to the WikiLeaks website this week suggest the Australian Defence Force covered up the killing of an Afghan policeman by Australian troops.

Buried among the 90,000 intelligence documents is a log entry about the killing of an Afghan man by an Australian mentoring and reconstruction taskforce (MRTF) patrol in the southern province of Oruzgan in December 2008.

But Air Chief Marshal Houston did not disclose in the statement that the man was a police officer, or that he was not carrying explosives.

”A review of the operational circumstances found that the man behaved and appeared in a manner that was consistent with intelligence reporting of a suicide bomber that was planning an attack,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

”The MRTF patrol had been involved in a combat operation the previous day and an [improvised explosive device] had exploded in the vicinity of the patrol. The review officer found that the MRTF patrol had acted appropriately, in accordance with the threat and within their rules of engagement.

”I stress, however, that I regard the completion of these inquiries as a high priority and I assure you that I will make the findings available to you soon as I can.”

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Guardian offers a fascinating explanation of how they processed the massive amount of documents given to them by Wikileaks.

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The kind of debate over Palestine that seems almost impossible here in the US or Australia. Unthinking Zionism helps nobody but unthinking Zionists:

David Cameron‘s forthright description of Gaza as a “prison camp” – and its implied criticism of Israel – has struck a chord with many Conservatives but infuriated some commentators.

During a state visit to Turkey the prime minister stoked up the rhetorical pressure on Netayahu’s government without a balancing comment apportioning any blame for the seige of Gaza to Hamas, which controls the territory.

The Conservative Home website recorded strident views from both sides of the debate.

“The Liberal Democrats in the coalition government will approve of Mr Cameron’s tone on Israel but the government in Jerusalem will take a very dim view of the intervention,” the website noted.

“The use of such an emotive term and the lack of any balancing condemnation of the Hamas regime that terrorises Gaza will also disappoint Conservative supporters of Israel.”

One commentator on the site said: “For once I agree with Cameron. It’s about time a leader had the guts to stand up to this terrorist state and condemn it for its brutal actions.”

Others were less keen: “Cameron is clearly sucking up to the Muslim world and bashing Israel is the best way of doing so,” said one.

The paper’s executive foreign editor, Con Coughlin, took a contrary view. “The real culprit is the militant Palestinian group Hamas which, having seized control of Gaza through force of arms, has persisted with its policy of campaigning for the destruction of the state of Israel,” he said.

The Liberal Democrats have long supported a loosening of the Israeli stranglehold on Gaza, allowing greater access for construction materials to help citizens rebuild their homes and businesses.

Last month the deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, called on Israel to lift its “unjustifiable and untenable” blockade of the Gaza Strip, following the storming by Israeli commandos of a ship carrying aid to the Palestinian territory.

“Whilst, of course, Israel has every right to defend itself and its citizens from any attack, it must now move towards lifting the blockade in Gaza as soon as possible,” Clegg said.

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

UNRWA image from the Summer Games in Gaza:

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

What a jolly good war. Money well spent:

Of that amount, the military failed to provide any records at all for $2.6 billion in purported reconstruction expenditure, says the report by the Special Inspector General for

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

Never trust a “Pentagon official”. Journalists should know better than trusting such anonymous sources. But of course they don’t. Hence this story:

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Tea Party essentially backs an Israeli strike against Iran.

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

The Wikileaks revelations are a spin problem to be solved, according to the White House mouth piece, Politico:

The White House is dismissing the 92,000 Afghan war reports posted by WikiLeaks as old news — but the document dump poses a potent new threat to President Barack Obama’s delicately balanced Afghanistan policy.

The field reports — raw, classified documents that portray Pakistani officials as double agents, working with both the United States and the Taliban — have rekindled long-standing doubts about the reliability of America’s most important strategic partner in the region.

As important, the reports are prompting a new wave of scrutiny of the war among Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill — with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry saying Monday they might initiate new “calibrations” of U.S. strategy in an unpopular and bloody war.

That’s bad news for Obama, who needs time, patience and congressional elasticity if his new commander, Gen. David Petraeus, is to have any chance of implementing his Afghanistan surge strategy before the planned start of troop withdrawals next summer.

“The public is now more skeptical about the administration’s strategy in Afghanistan than they were last week, and that makes it real,” said Markey, who was a South Asia analyst during the Bush administration.

Added one Senate aide: “Anyone who’s been paying even the vaguest attention to this issue found nothing new in this thing, but there’s also no doubt that this ratchets up the level of anxiety in the Democratic Caucus.”

More spinning here.

Posted: 27 Jul 2010

An Haaretz editorial that should be read by every Zionist organisation in the world; the smearing brigade should think again:

Israel’s third report in response to the Goldstone report, which was submitted to the United Nations last week, consists of changes and updates in the Israel Defense Forces’ standing orders following Operation Cast Lead.

The army will restrict the use of white phosphorous bombs in the future, appoint officers for “humanitarian” issues to accompany every battalion and update its directives on protecting civilians and their property during warfare.

After questioning 500 officers, examining 150 complaints and the Military Police’s 47 investigations that generated a number of indictments – including one for manslaughter and one for using a child as a human shield – the IDF’s investigation of itself is almost over.

Now, when it turns out the censure of Israel had plenty of truth in it, it is time to thank the critics for forcing the IDF to examine itself and amend its procedures. Even if not all of Richard Goldstone’s 32 charges were solid and valid, some of them certainly were.

It is regrettable that so much time had to be wasted on false denials. It is also doubtful whether it is proper for the IDF to investigate itself.

The IDF’s belated inquiries and the willingness to change its directives hold an important lesson for the political leadership as well. It is better to display openness and cooperate with international committees than to boycott them and then accept some of their demands under pressure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak should consider this lesson in their response to the international investigations into the Turkish flotilla affair.

Posted: 26 Jul 2010

Leaker of the Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg on Democracy Now! talks about what Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assanage could be facing:

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