Articles

Military Marshal Law, Police State, Islamophobic Fears: Real or Hysteria?

May 12, 2011

NOVANEWS by Tommy Tucci Military Martial Law, Police State, Islamophobic Fears: Real or Hysteria? Real hysteria is forced, documented and confirmed ...Read more

Al-Aseifar and Susya

May 12, 2011

Human Rights

NOVANEWS Two things strike you immediately, closely followed by a familiar third. The first is the sheer brazenness of the ...Read more

Iraq Veteran Comes Home to Warm Welcome Then Apathy!

May 12, 2011

USA

NOVANEWS By: Robert L. Hanafin Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Come Home to War We’ve done a series of ...Read more

9/11-2B: Ghost Troop, the Holy Horde vs. the Cabala Cabal and Judas Jones

May 12, 2011

USA

NOVANEWS posted by CPT MAY “Cabala is the signal and signature of the Cabal. Without their Cabala, there can be ...Read more

Apocalypse When???

May 12, 2011

Politics

NOVANEWS by Bob Johnson According to the Christian organization Family Radio Worldwide, Jesus is coming back on Saturday, May 21, 2011,guaranteed! ...Read more

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine, Trade Not Aid

May 12, 2011

Gaza

NOVANEWS by Ken O'Keefe NOTICE – I am blatantly promoting my own project here, which I believe should be more than ...Read more

FAX to President Obama RE: Netanyahu and Peres Vis-a-Vis Vanunu Mordechai

May 12, 2011

ZIO-NAZI

NOVANEWS by Eileen Fleming FAXED to White House tel: 202-456-2461 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-456-2461end_of_the_skype_highlighting @ 8:51 AM May 9, 2011 Dear President Obama, Thus far I ...Read more

SELLING THE BIN LADEN LIE

May 12, 2011

USA

NOVANEWS PHONY BIN LADEN WATCHING PHONY BIN LADEN FROM THE REAL KILLERS OF 9/11, SELLING THE BIN LADEN ...Read more

A Time for Truth

May 12, 2011

USA

NOVANEWS by Susan Lindauer Bin Laden’s Death Won’t End the War on Terror Until Americans Understand the Threat Was Always Us ...Read more

The Targeted Assassination of Osama Bin Laden

May 12, 2011

USA

NOVANEWS By Marjorie Cohn When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal ...Read more

Dorothy Online Newsletter

May 12, 2011

Middle East

NOVANEWS Dear Friends, A bit more tonight than I feel comfortable sending. I almost omitted no. 10, as I did indeed ...Read more

A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

May 12, 2011

Middle East

NOVANEWS Supporting Palestinian rights makes you “anti-Israel” What the US and the West isn’t helping in Yemen Palestinian rights barely ...Read more

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Military Marshal Law, Police State, Islamophobic Fears: Real or Hysteria?

NOVANEWS

by Tommy Tucci

Military Martial Law, Police State, Islamophobic Fears: Real or Hysteria?

Real hysteria is forced, documented and confirmed upon ‘We the People.’ The fears are intended to result in total polarization and collapse of American society.

The rule of law defined a great nations principles handed down from the legacy of past centuries. Consequently, the daily U.S. contempt for law, civilization, society, religion, morals, family, and community is a documented self admitted historical fact. The positive dynamics of a past nation is now focused on attacking its citizenry ‘We the People.’

Military Marshal Law, Police State Reality

Following up on the murder of Osama Bin Laden, the Obama administration today announced the formation of a joint Military/Domestic Police Force (MDPF) to carry out a War on Humanity. US Constitution Marshal Law
“The Obama brain trust decided that by consolidating into one simple war, encompassing all of humanity, the corporations that profited and built their empires upon these rationalizations could justify endless oppression, imprisonment, deportation, torture and accumulation of the wealth of the entire nation.” Read Full Article Posted by Luke Hiken

Contempt, Disdain, For Civilizations Rule of Law

‘We the People” have nothing. The global community has nothing, if we do not have nations that defines, obeys, pledges, and applies justice to the rules of law. The U.S. by repressing the inherent rights to self dignity as outlined in the U.S. Constitution Articles Bill of Rights ceases to exist as a great nation of laws. America has declared itself irrelevant an enemy “within” that threatens to unleash the horrors of c.1942 “Trinity” atomic destruction. Total annihilation of the worlds spectrum masses of humanity. For 66 years no nation, entity, individual, religion, creed, or forum has ever delivered nuclear devastation, mass murder, and genocide on civilians except the U.S. c.1945 to 2011.
Consequently, the U.S. self anointed paranoia including an extreme reverse victim pretext accuses humanity of alleged attempts to attack and harm its nation. Please! This ruse of accusing others of Holocaust denial and terrorism is tired and fatigued!!!!! Read Full Article “Islamophobic Distraction Alibi” Posted by Veterans Today
Here is an example of how to denounce application to the rule of law and justice and deflect pretext terror to others. “When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, “Justice has been done.” Mr. Obama misused the word, “justice” when he made that statement. He should have said, “Retaliation has been accomplished.” A former professor of constitutional law should know the difference between those two concepts. The word “justice” implies an act of applying or upholding the law.” Read Full Article Posted by Prof. Marjorie Cohn.

Islamophobic Hate Speech Increases

Distraction deception of unjustified reasoning for infinite war. An unhinged uncontrolled nation expending finite assets, labor, and property to manufacture a culture of contempt and hatred. The rule of law is absolutely suppressed. Hollywood movie productions perpetuate propaganda infused nauseous reverse victims complex. Marketing Islamophobic fear apprehension and insecurities in all modes of transportation. Air travel searches and seizures against the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution. Now buses and trains. See Full Details Website Clarion Fund
News headlines announce further assaults against personal liberty by ratcheting up phony fear methodology from the only nation delivering terror death and destruction daily. “Sen. Charles Schumer said he would push as well for added funding for rail security and commuter and passenger train track inspections and more monitoring of stations nationwide. A senator on Sunday called for a “no-ride list” for Amtrak trains after intelligence gleaned from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound pointed to potential attacks on the nation’s train system.” Read Full Article Posted by Reuters.
Side bar to Senators, go back to robbing pocketbooks and purses, underachieving and under performance is the best of the Senate abilities to muster. Polarization and deceptions used as functional tools for instilling hatred and derisive attitudes is worn out. The movie “Third Jihad” was financed by the Clarion Fund, an organization that spent millions of dollars in 2008 to distribute its last anti-Islam movie free of charge in many presidential swing states. Read Full Article Posted by brennancenter.org. Nevertheless, “U.S. citizenry chances of getting killed in a bathtub by lightning is greater than by an attack of so called “Al-CIAduh” terrorists. Latest news flash promoting assault on self dignity with new searches and seizures. Watch youtube Video Here.. Senators turn in resignations, as soon as possible, there is no bottom to your personal under performance.

Control of Prices, Profits, Rigged Markets

Why is the U.S.arrogantly operating above the law?? What motivates the nation to pariah global status? The answer is U.S. underachievement will never negotiate or honor the rules of law. The perverted dynamics relating to law, civil, and business legal contracts are of no concern when illegal militarily force can be applied to steal and rob global assets, natural resources, property. Therefore, the primary principal of U.S. imperialism operates hoaxes masking unaccountable illegal belligerent military war machine, threatening to unleash the antiquated c.1942 ”Manhattan Project” nuclear Armageddon, diverting focus to imaginary enemies and away from legal enforceable negotiations. Resulting in a broken down perversion for total monopoly of syndicate cartels controlling rigged prices profits and global markets.
By eliminating competition between nation states and their various interests, confiscating global raw materials and natural resources, the U.S. monopoly parasites eliminate all price caps and free markets. Negotiating and honoring legal contracts merely lock in place a parameter or range for commodities, natural resource prices and profits for crony insiders rigging controlled markets.. Through invasions, oppression, perpetuating eternal imaginary enemies, and aggressive thefts an exemplary cost of petrol range is rigged at higher $4 to $10 per gal so that Exxon/Mobil quarterly profits at some $3-4 billion.
On the future oil pipeline construction in Afghanistan including opium market for illegal drugs the rigged control range of the U.S. cartels and syndicates control on prices and profits are infinite.
The U.S. by diverting attention away from the rule of law and focusing on comedic parodies of imaginary enemies increases peoples real fears, accelerates Islamophobic hysteria, immobilizes hope, confiscates labors, tears apart the fabric of society, and dominates threats of war. Exponentially creates it’s very own vise of destruction in a finite world. Consequently, the U.S. by operating above all laws brands itself a supreme syndicate of corruption.
Advancing into the second decade of infinite war on humanity for control and consolidation of rigged prices, profits, and markets. Manufacturing a cartel of imminent disaster for global masses of humanity and their assets, natural resources , and property that continues unabated. America, sadly a rubric that propels disrespect, perpetuates divisive conflicts to the rule of law set down through the centuries, ignores the inherent rights of all men, suppresses freedom, liberty, and democracy. A nation existing without restraints to law justice self dignity promoting genuine fear death destruction and hysteria is nothing.
Sources:

Al-Aseifar and Susya

NOVANEWS

Two things strike you immediately, closely followed by a familiar third.

The first is the sheer brazenness of the theft—or, rather, of the thief, who

stands before you jeering, smug, sure of his power, eager to hurt.

He has already taken some 95% of your family’s land, and now he bullies

his way into the tiny patch that is left in order to harass you and humiliate

you further, for this evidently gives him joy. Then there is the pure racism,

purer perhaps than what one sees anywhere else in the world today.

The thief regards you as barely human, an object capable only of feeling

pain,though he needs you as his victim, for without you he is incomplete,

profoundly frustrated, lonely, unfulfilled. Thus the settler in his Shabbat

white, a huge knitted skullcap on his head, takes a pebble and holds it out

on his fingertips to a Palestinian woman from Susya as he clucks his tongue

at her, beckoning her, teasing her, as one would a dog, then tosses the pebble

at her in contempt, as one throws a dog a biscuit, and he laughs.

I saw him do it this morning in Susya, and I wasn’t the only witness.

The third thing is the system that protects the thief and ensures that no harm

will come to him and that he will never be punished, for the system is built upon

his theft.

None of this is new, only somehow starker, more palpable, yet hardly credible,

on this perfect spring morning in south Hebron. Drops of bitter-sweet dusty rain

fell in Jerusalem as I left home, but here in Susya we witness a shocking choreog-

raphy of cloud and sun, and the air lingers on my tongue and the light caresses my

eyes and the wind is here, too, to welcome us back. The stubborn barley is a bit higher

than it was when I was here three weeks ago. It is 9:00, and there is no time to lose.

We rush from the van over the hill to the olive grove in the wadi; a donkey brays.

Past the trees, up the slope, on Palestinian land, a group of ten or twelve settlers is

enacting a brutal ritual of mockery, singing, snarling, making obscene gestures,

sneering at the Palestinians who stand in disarray just below them.

The leader—the one of the dog-gesture—literally dances in and out of the

Palestinian clusters, daring them to stop him, taunting them, and from time to

time he lashes out at them with his fists, pushes, shoves, pounds at them,

demonstrating his absolute superiority, relishing this moment of his power and

the precious opportunity to insult. The three soldiers who have clambered down the

hill from the settlement cannot stop him, nor do they seem very eager to do so.

They struggle vainly to separate the settlers from their victims, but this is not a

static setting; the settlers push ever more deeply into the tiny Palestinian enclave,

and movement swirls and spills out over the hill, an alternative, ugly human choreo-

graphy to match that of clouds and sun above as we ebb and flow in arcs and circles,

trying to shield the Palestinians from their attackers, and the soldiers bark their futile

threats and orders, and soon we’re already half a mile north of the olive grove where

we began and the settlers are closing in now on the sheepfold and the tents and the

access road, still very much in control.

More soldiers—Border Police—arrive. They begin, as usual, by arresting, more or

less at random, an elderly Palestinian gentleman, whom they spirit away to a

makeshift holding area among the trees. By now a second Ta’ayush contingent has

arrived, a large group. Amiel strides straight into the battle zone and, within seconds,

is arrested and handcuffed; as always, he is calm, self-possessed, and unafraid, but

the Border Police officer tells him he is resisting arrest and will suffer the consequences.

Why, one wonders, should the officer want to lie? No one touches the rampaging settlers.

So it goes for a long time, maybe two hours or so of dashing madly over the hills to head

off one settler attack after another, and then the settlers send their large herd of sheep to

graze, where else, in the Palestinian fields and the soldiers force them back uphill, and a

vast line of settlers from Susya, women, children, men, some armed with machine guns,

emerge for their Shabbat stroll through the lands of their Palestinian neighbors with four

or five army command-cars to protect them—as if the Palestinians and not these settlers

were the threat to peace and quiet on this bright windy morning. “They always want to

make trouble, and the soldiers go with them,” says a dignified Palestinian shepherd,

watching this long column in disgust as he holds high the upper row of a make-shift

barbed-wire fence so we can pass through. It’s been some time since I’ve run so far and

so fast over these rocks.

We’ve got it all down in high-quality digital films. Someday, I think, not yet but someday,

some of the criminals will yet pay for their crimes. Their time will come.

When at last it’s over and we’re no longer needed, we split into two groups. One crosses

the road to what’s left of the Jbur family’s encampment, which the Civil Administration

demolished on Thursday. Yesterday the family itself was driven out with stun grenades

and tear gas and blows—one woman was wounded in the leg. I won’t repeat the whole

story, which I’ve described before. But I take this demolition as a personal affront, since

among other acts of violent destruction the army obliterated a large well that I helped

dig out from the stones and dirt left by its previous demolition. We worked for hours

that day, and it looked like the well would eventually be serviceable again. My back

hurt for weeks. There’s nothing left there now. The Civil Administration prides itself

on its efficiency.

The other group, which I join, heads for the Abu Kbeita fields on the slopes under

a small khirbeh called al-Aseifar. This is another long and tortuous story.

We are close to the Green Line—and, indeed, the main checkpoint on the road,

recently privatized, is several kilometers north of the border, as if Palestinian lands

lying to the south had already been annexed to Israel. What this means in practice is

that the Abu Kbeita family, among others, have been turned into Illegal Aliens

(shabachim) while residing in their own homes. They’re not the only ones to suffer

this fate, heavy with consequences for daily survival; but in addition, they have to

deal with a settler, Danny, who claims that the Abu Kbeita fields, leased from the

original owner, Hawamdi, in Samu’a, belong to him. He is wrong: the case went to

the Supreme Court, which decided in 1991 in favor of the Palestinians. None of this

has stopped the settlers, including those from Beit Yatir just across the main road,

from trying to drive Mahmud Abu Kbeita and his three brothers off the land.

These settlers, like so many others in south Hebron, are often violent; they have

stoned the Abu Kbeitas when they felt like it, broken the arm of Osama, one of

Mahmud’s sons, and even penetrated into the family house in al-Aseifar where,

according to some testimonies, they drove a large knife or other weapon right through

the wall.

Here’s a lesson in reality in the south Hebron hills. In November the family plowed

the main field and sowed it with barley and wheat. In December settlers came and

plowed over the fledgling shoots. The family sowed again, and now it is harvest time—

but two weeks ago the settlers invited the police to arrest Mahmud on some trumped-up

charge, and the police acceded with alacrity to this request. He spent 24 hours in one of

the ugliest lock-ups in the country, handcuffed and footcuffed much of the time. When

they finally brought him before a judge, the latter could find no evidence of any possible

violation that could be attributed to this man, but the judge fined him anyway with a

5000-shekel “bond”– a huge sum of money for a Palestinian family of small-scale farmers–

and also ruled that he could not approach his fields for 14 days. If you have ever met a

farmer, you know what this means.

Mahmud is that rarest of beings, a really good man. You know this from the first

instant you meet him. Decency and goodness and good cheer radiate from him, and

from his sons as well. He tells me the sorry story without acrimony but with a kind

of aching bewilderment. “I don’t understand the judge. He could find nothing against

me, but still he ruled that I have to pay and have to stay away from my fields.

Where is the law? Why should it lie? And how can Danny the settler stand in front of

me and lie to my face? I thought I’d go crazy in the jail; I’m a farmer, I am always

outside in the fields and the open air, not confined and chained. After 24 hours, your

whole body aches. Then they bring you to the court and keep you there, handcuffed,

for a whole day with nothing to eat or drink, nothing, your bones hurt, and when

you finally come before the judge you can’t find the words. I and my family own 350

dunams, all the way up to and beyond the checkpoint, and I lease this field from

Hawamdi and have all the documents to prove it; the Supreme Court also confirmed

this, but the settlers still harass us day by day. I submitted a complaint to the police,

and you know what happened? Nothing at all. But today you are here, and this is as

life should be, Arabs and Jews working together as friends.”

And indeed we are working hard: after a short lesson from Isma’il, another gentle,

good-natured son, in the ancient mysteries of ripe barley and wheat, we crouch in

the fields and pull the stalks from the caked brown earth with our fingers, brush

off the clods sticking to the roots, and pile our treasures here and there in the field

in small, slowly swelling heaps. I don’t remember the last time I harvested the spring

wheat crop, like in the Book of Ruth, but I remember well the unearthly joy of it, which

can, in my view, heal all sorrows of the soul (as I guess it did for Ruth). I’m not sure

I can tell the barley from the wheat, even after Isma’il’s lesson, but clearly both somehow

manage to emerge, in bright greens and yellows, out of this unpromising, desiccated soil.

When I’m not bending over the stalks, I steal glances at the hills and the Yatir forest and

the not-so-distant desert, a landscape that ravishes the heart– perhaps, I think to myself,

the most beautiful I’ve seen in the world. They bring us tea and fresh bread and white

cheese made this morning and the salty hard yellow cheese of this region that lasts forever,

and after a while they invite us to feast on fariki: you take the green, freshly-harvested

wheat and roast it in fire, there in the field, then you crack it open and let it rest on your

tongue, still hot and pungent, before your swallow. There’s nothing like it, take my word.

A great peace comes over me. For just a moment I let go of the questions that torment me:

how can anyone, man or woman, steal such a field and then stand before the true owner

and lie shamelessly to his face? I’m 62 years old and I don’t understand, will clearly never

understand. I can imagine greed, in all its cruelty and obsession, can even find it in myself,

but that brazen lie, eye to eye, troubles me—that and the ruthless assault on the goodness

that the earth offers those who care for it. Anyway I’ve been thinking about truth and its

intrinsic worth, and the value of the moral act, even if it goes unnoticed. It is so easy to

say in a wishful, or hopeful, romantic way that truth—speaking truth– will necessarily

leave a mark on the world. Is there a deeper, tougher way to think about it? I indulge the

romantic notion, no question. And yet to stand up to the lie, even for a moment, even on

the simplest and lowliest level, surely heals some small abrasion in the body of a wounded

world. Israel today is ruled by lies, beginning with most everything the Prime Minister says

and moving down the scale through his ministers and members of his cabinet to infect large

parts of the press and the army and the courts and thence to the soldiers who man the

checkpoints and the policeman who arrested Mahmud and the Border Police who arrested

Amiel today, on and on downwards all the way to a Hell entirely of our own making.

Yet I know indubitably from my own body that an act of truth can cut like a knife and that

in the end it will not be wasted. This I have learned in south Hebron.

When it is time to leave we gather up the stalks and sheaves and load them onto a tall cart

coupled to a tractor that Isma’il has driven down the hill. There is enough, Mahmud says,

to feed the animals for over a week, and some will be left over. And there is still a vast piece

of the field waiting to be harvested: maybe next week. You take the sheaves in your arms

and hold them to your chest, and then there is the sudden, wild movement when you fling

them upward into the cart and let them go, like the wild movement that may happen soon

when Palestine flings itself free.

Iraq Veteran Comes Home to Warm Welcome Then Apathy!

NOVANEWS

By: Robert L. Hanafin

Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Come Home to War

We’ve done a series of stories here at Veterans Today (VT) dealing with the shocking scandals that tend to plague the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system. My last update on the Dayton VA Medical Center scandal was on 25 April, also back in late April VT was contacted by a young Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Wounded Warrior asking us to tell his story.

Although this is the story of only ONE Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran, we at VT know enough about the flaws of the VA system, most recently a VA admitted failure of leadership that we believe is system wide and fixable.

However, one only need go to young Veteran blogs regardless of their own personal political views on the war(s) to find one thing they all have in common – far too many young Veterans (well old Vets too) are still falling through the cracks of a broken VA system.

OIF Veteran David Kendrick contacted our senior editor Gordon Duff noting that he came across our website looking for military friendly news sites. David told VT that he made a short documentary on You Tube that he was trying to bring some media attention to. David was shot in both legs in 2007 and now he feels as if he has nowhere to turn. He asked us to view the video and consider posting it on Veterans Today.

We have decided to do just that, because we believe David is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to young Veterans falling through the VA cracks, not getting the word about VA benefits (despite in all fairness VA outreach efforts now appearing to include excellent TV ads outreaching to younger Veterans at least here in SW Ohio).

But what do our readers believe bothered David most?

It is something that I’ve written about, read two recent academic books on, and an advocacy group has been formed to protect Veterans on college campuses against those who do not support their wars.

Just as Veterans come home from war and feel unwelcome on some college campuses, David came home to be –on one hand – overjoyed by the patriotic welcome. However – on the other hand – reality set in, David was amazed, disappointed, and angry about just how quickly the surge of patriotic zeal welcoming him home diminished intoAPATHY.

In fact the shame of this story is APATHY.

ROBERT L. HANAFIN, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, U.S. Civil Service-Retired, Veterans Issues AND Peace Activism Editor, Veterans Today News Network.

VIDEO: OIF Vet-Cry for Help

My name is David Kendrick. This is a short documentary I made with Angelo Mancuso over the summer of 2010.

I was a Cavalry Scout in the U.S. Army from 2005-2010. I was shot by a sniper in Sadir City June 17, 2007.

I got out of the military and was denied social security, and unemployment, and could not find a job. Every loophole that could be found to deny me these benefits was found.

I tried to talk to all the major media but I guess my story wasn’t interesting enough. After trying all media, I was interviewed by local New York ABC Affiliate – WHAM TV 13 reporter Sean Carroll in his story A Vet’s Online Plea for Help.

I would love to appear on the Colbert Report, or the Daily Show to talk about what’s wrong with this broken system for veterans after our patriotic welcome home.

David Kendrick

Veterans Today Interview with OIF Veteran David Kendrick

Why a Video, David?

Well I was sitting around over the summer of 2010 and instead of feeling sorry for myself I decided to do something about it – to take action. I wrote a song about everything I was going through. I recorded the song around August, and was looking for someone who knew how to make videos for You Tube.

Originally I just wanted to put some pictures up with the song and try to post it on You Tube as fast as I could.

I finally found someone who knew how to put together a decent video when Angelo came up with the idea of shooting a documentary along with the song.

So we shot a short documentary in my hometown Rochester, NY from August-September. Angelo has his own production company but he works alone so it took a while to edit.

I came up with the idea of releasing it on Veterans Day 2010, and we both agreed on it.

So we released the video and now I’m just waiting to get it to the right eyes, ears, and hands. I’m basically trying to get it to anyone who will listen.

The mainstream media does so many “feel good,” “Welcome Troops Home,” and related “positive stories” about the wars that I wanted to let the public know that there remains a downside. I didn’t think there was a downside to war until I came home to America was warmly greeted, patriotically welcomed home then boom APATHY.

I’ve been trying to get other Disabled Vets to speak up on the issue when we fall through the cracks or experience APATHY when we come home, but I could not get the support that I was looking for from them.

I’m not looking for a handout or any donations for my video. I just need the chance to speak and let other Vets and the public know what is wrong when it comes to the treatment of Veterans.

Yes, I’ve tried to get other young vets such as myself who feel mistreated and experience media and public apathy toward the wars to speak up on these issues.

Here is a paragraph from my Social Security denial letter: “After careful consideration of the entire record, the undersigned finds that the claimant has the residual functional capacity to perform the dull range of sedentary work as defined in 20 CFR 404.1567(a)”.

The Dull Range of Sedentary Work Means Ditch Digging

I was told by Social Security that there is a list of other low income jobs that I am capable of doing even with my disability. After three times, I just gave up. I had all the evidence they needed, actual physical injury not hidden wounds like PTSD, and everything else they could ask for but still nothing.

I asked Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado (when I was stationed there), and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York (when I returned home after discharge) to help me get my Social Security Disability Claim expedited only to get denied three times. I went to many different lawyers and heard many different excuses for my denial. What I heard the most is that at only twenty something years old, I didn’t work long enough to qualify for Social Security Disability. I was told that you have to work five years to receive the benefit.

You Should Have Filed a Disability Claim With the VA NOT Social Security

I filled my claim with the VA while I was still on active duty. I filed the claim in April of 2010. I did not receive a decision until February of 2011.

What I find hard to believe is that I was rated at 90% by the DOD. When I got my claim from the VA I was shocked to find out that I was rated at 60%. I thought to myself “how can this be”.

My PTSD claim went from 50% down to 30%, and I was rated only 30% for my wounded leg. I filed a letter of reconsideration with help from my State Veteran Counselor. When I went in to a second physical, the VA Doctor did two range of motions test and that was it. I was not rated for two things that greatly effect my ability to work.

I have asked the staffs of U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and NY State Senator Michael Nozzolio, as well as Senator Schumer to help me get some answers here, but that doesn’t seem to budge anybody.

I was medically discharged from the Army. I did receive an Honorable discharge, and it is on my DD-214.

I am current working full time. I work 40 hours a week and just cope with the pain that I have from my disability. I tried to receive the benefit called “Individual Unemploybility, a special benefit for disabled veterans. But to receive this benefit you have to be rated at 40% for one thing by the VA. I just missed out with my highest rating being 30% for PTSD.

I was offered more counseling, but I receive private counseling from my employer now.

In the past the combination of PTSD counseling and medication made me feel like a zombie…emotionally numb to everything around me. I’m coming out of that phase now and do not want to ever go there again. So I declined to take counseling with the VA. The first thing I was offered was drugs, and I do not want to feel like a zombie again.

I tried unemployment over the summer. I was told since I am a Disabled Veteran, I am unable to look for work. So I was denied state unemployment. They let me claim benefits for a whole month and kept telling me that I would get back pay when they look into my claim. Later on I was completely denied and had nowhere to turn.

If Folks Think I’m Whining, There Are More Vets Out There Being Mistreated Just Like Me

I know this sounds like I’m complaining a lot, and I hate to come across that way. But I just want to make other Veterans, and the buddies I still have on active duty aware of what is going on when their aspirations for a military career is over. I want to let fellow Soldiers know to have a plan when they exit the military, because it’s hard out here for us Veterans.

Everything I did in the military doesn’t mean a thing to civilian employers, and I would just love the chance to tell fellow Vets how to protect themselves, and let them know the importance of having an exit strategy when they get out of the military.

The Mainstream Media Showed No Interest in Negative War Stories Like Mine

I have had talks with reporters from the New York Times, and things were going good for a while, but I guess they lost interest.

Now I’m just looking for anyone who will listen. I finally found only one TV station that showed any interest.

A Vet’s Online Plea for Help

OIF Veteran David Kendrick Jr Wants Other Veterans and Troops to be Prepared for A short surge of Patriotism and then APATHY When They Come Home to War.

Reported by: Sean Carroll of ABC affiliate station WHAM TV-13 in Rochester, N.Y Email: scarroll@13wham.com

Mr. Carroll reported that 23 year old David Kendrick of Rochester, MY took his story public in the hopes of bringing attention to the day-to-day struggles of [Disabled] Veterans.

David wants [the public] to hear his story; a story he believes is all too common among Wounded [Warriors]. With the help of a local video producer, David documented his story in a series of videos now available on YouTube.
“I heard this loud crack and it was me getting shot and I fell to the ground and I woke up on my back and I had 2 holes in my leg,” Kendrick explained in one of those videos. “I thought, I can’t go home like this.”
Mr. Carroll reports in detail what David went through. David had “undergone numerous surgeries and rehab sessions while completing his five years of service in the U.S. Army. Earlier this year Sergeant David Kendrick was medically retired and honorably discharged,” said Carroll.
David received a Purple Heart from the two bullets that shattered his legs, a limp, and a cane. He receives a modest monthly income from the military, the V.A. helps with medical expenses, but he’s been denied social security among other benefits.
“I’m technically disabled on paper,” Kendrick explained. “That is what my medical records say so they told me that I don’t qualify for unemployment.”
Kendrick’s been on more than twenty job interviews but the economy is no help when it comes to hiring and is disability appears to be a deterrent for some employers.
“I’m still young and ambitious wanting to work,” Kendrick said. “I mean I’m disabled but it’s not the end of the world, I can still work.”
Because Kendrick knows many of fellow Soldiers [and Veterans] are encountering similar struggles, he’s taking this story public. He hopes others will see it, that society may listen to it, and that changes may come of it.
“You’ve got all these people out here that say Support the Troops, Support the Troops and it’s not up to them, it’s the system that’s broken,” Kendrick said.
“I came back and I saw everything I left behind was still there and those people are living good, all the drug-dealers are living good,” Kendrick said. “I came home and people laughed at me because I joined the military. (I) got hurt, came back, and didn’t get anything and I thought to myself why did I even sacrifice if I come back and there’s people laughing at me for the choices I made. That hurt.”
Currently a local pilot program is taking Kendrick under its wings. The CDS Unistel Warrior Salute program is currently providing Kendrick with a place to live, job-training, and other support services he may need while his job search continues.
To view Kendrick’s videos click here and here.

Veterans Today Editorial Comment:

The entire narrative above [except where I’ve emphasizes points in [brackets] is credited to Sean Carroll of ABC affiliate station WHAM TV-13 in Rochester, N.Y Email: scarroll@13wham.com
For Mr. Carroll’s full story go HERE.

We at VT feel that some of David’s reaction is due to him lacking knowledge about his VA benefits when he approached Social Security instead of the VA for his earned benefits as an American Military Veteran.

That said, it is GREAT that David is now getting advise, assistance, and guidance from the CDS Warrior Salute Program.

While the broken VA system is a situation that is easier to fix than the APATHY of a nation and people who not only cannot relate to what young Veterans like David have been through, but in the final analysis simply do not genuinely care. It is more essential now than ever for Veteran Support Groups like the CDS Unistel Warrior Salute program

This to me is something younger Veterans have in common and experience (minus feeling spit upon – for now) that us older folks experienced when we returned home to both APATHY and BLAME for the War.

One case in point has been the experience of Vets (just like their elder counterparts) are welcomed to talk about anything be it in a college classroom, on the job, at the bar or within their extended families.

HOWEVER – DO NOT TALK ABOUT YOUR WAR(S) BECAUSE NOT ONLY CAN NO ONE RELATE TO WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY – FAR TOO MANY SIMPLY DO NOT WANT TO HEAR IT.

We at Veterans Today believe that regardless if the scenario is on the grounds of an Ivy League, private, or state college, on the job (when of course Veterans can find employment), in a town hall meeting or any public setting the last thing Veterans should be doing is not talking about their war(s).

It’s a fact that the vast majority of fellow citizens cannot relate to Veterans. It is even a fact that far too many Vets do not expect our fellow citizens to relate to us. However, how in the hell will our fellow citizens – those WE defend – ever going to be able to relate to us and our wars if we remain SILENT.

Not every Veteran who feels as David did when he fell through the cracks from a cheerful and genuine welcome home – mostly of course (take note) from other Veterans and Military Families NOT the civilian communities at-large.

Not all Vets( like David) will be able to or have to make a video, but there are other ways to express your dismay and vent your anger. Join a progressive leaning Veterans group, start a blog to voice your feelings and share them with other young Vets even if they may disagree with your experience and views.

The Military Services have no realistic (smooth) transition to civilian life program,

There currently is no training or assistance that will prepare young Veterans for the public APATHY – unlike correcting lack of knowledge about VA benefits, the apathy young Vets will eventually feel is a much harder nut to crack. They have been told over and over and over again that the nation support them, then come home to the reality that the American peoples are not only split on supporting the wars, but cannot or will not relate to the precious few who volunteer.

What also attracted me about David’s video was how degraded he felt beyond simply not getting approval for Social Security Disability despite being a Wounded Warrior.

Hell, when immigrants coming to America (the Hmong in California for instance) can get SSI easier than a wounded American born combat Veteran – what’s WRONG with this picture?

I am not saying that legal immigrant groups coming to America, especially refugees for S.E. Asia do not warrant SSI, but that that getting access to Social Security Disability is easier for them than American born troops and Veterans is not right!

The notion that a Veteran, any Veteran regardless of age, war, or era would think to turn to the Social Security System before approaching the VA is beyond me, but somehow young Vets like David are NOT GETTING THE WORD on is their VA benefits, be it how to file a VA Claim, a home loan, or educational assistance.

In all fairness to the VA, they have launched what appears to me to be an Outstanding TV Ad campaign focused on younger Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan so maybe, just maybe the entire experience David went through will diminish.

9/11-2B: Ghost Troop, the Holy Horde vs. the Cabala Cabal and Judas Jones

NOVANEWS

posted by CPT MAY

“Cabala is the signal and signature of the Cabal. Without their Cabala, there can be no Cabal. When it is exposed they are exposed, and they must scurry like cockroaches when the lights are turned on. Their disconnection of the words Cabala and Cabal by changing Cabala to Kabbalah is one of their key kulturkampf achievements, right up there with turning BC into BCE.”

By Captain Eric H. May, Ghost Troop CO

American Revolution Memorial (ARM)

5/10/11, 3:39 a.m. — The crisis is upon us, and only the blind are fearless. The devil’s date of 5/11/11 comes on Wednesday, and the Cabala Cabal who were behind the 3/11/11 geo-war attack on Fukushima are fully aware of the numerology. Just this week they began programming the American people with reports of an Al Qaeda intent to carry out a 9/11/11 anniversary attack.

The Cabala Cabal were aware when they attacked Christchurch on 2/22/2011. They were aware when they enticed and sacrificed Christina Green, born 9/11/01, on the day she turned 9 years, 119 days of age. They were aware when they sent their White House servant Obama to boost his ratings and besmirch her memory on 1/12/2011.

Cabala is the signal and signature of the Cabal. Without their Cabala there can be no Cabal. When it is exposedthey are exposed, and they must scurry like cockroaches when the the lights are turned on. Their disconnection of the words Cabala and Cabal by changing Cabala to Kabbalah is one of their key kulturkampf achievements, right up there with turning BC into BCE.

“A secretive Cabal running American foreign policy is undermining American democracy” – LTC Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, 10/19/05

Real infowarriors are anxious about and preparing for these dangerous occult days:

5/11/11 6/11/11 7/11/11 8/11/11 9/11/11 10/11/1 11/11/11 12/11/11

They operate at great risk to expose and thereby preempt treasonous terror. A list of their victories, most inadvertently confirmed by the mainstream media (MSM), includes:

AJ & MAM value the troth, not the truth.

Real infowarriors should not be confused with Alex Jones and the mainstream alternative media (MAM), which can be informative until information becomes critical to expose false flag set ups. At that point they inevitably become collaborators. In my eight years as a tactical, operational and sometimes strategic commander, I have never seen AJ involved in any action, except as a fifth columnist. In the 16 events above, he and his cohorts accused those doing the fighting of being COINTELPRO, urging uncritical fans to ignore our accurate warnings. He has destroyed interviews that proved our validity and published false articles to obfuscate our historic victories. Specifically, he perpetrated one or more of these acts in items 8, 10, 12, 13 and 16. In the others he simply ignored the action to broadcast distraction.

Ghost Troop has been involved in 15 of the 16 infowar engagements above, real cyber-battles for ultimate stakes against genuinely malignant forces. We have suffered harassment, threats, violent attacks and assassinations. AJ and the MAM squeal loudly against the New World Order, then gorge proudly on NWO slops. Ultimately, they value the troth, not the truth, and they amuse us to help their masters abuse us.

“The current Wikileaks “dump” has had a number of talking point “dumps” in order to properly exploit pro-Israel press assets in the blogger world. These talking points expose “seeded” intelligence meant to support an attack on Iran, the primary purpose of the current Assange/Murdoch/Israel output. Not only do members of the mainstream press receive these talking points but dozens of “alternative” or internet media sources as well. It has become increasingly obvious that many internet news sources that describe themselves as “alternative” or even anti-Zionist are totally controlled.” — Gordon Duff, 12/13/10

Tomorrow, 5/11/11, I shall have posted my updated 9/11-2B analysis in Veterans Today, in the early morning, so that my readers can examine it before work. It will include the top 11 US/EU targets and the most likely attack dates for the rest of the month. I am well aware that my false flag analysis, leadership of Ghost Troop and use of my military rank make me a target, but I am also well past caring. Indeed, the very mission code in the title, 9/11-2B, a variation of 9/11/22, is a middle finger demonstration aimed at the Cabal, using their own Cabala. So is the date and time I posted the article.

I have no intention of failing to uphold my oath to protect my country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I urge the same resolution on all active and veteran defenders of America. I despise anyone who fails to serve the Republic out of a cowardly wish to survive its demise.

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” — Thomas Paine, 1776

Addendum: Yellow Fever

A Ghost Trooper wrote:

Subject: GHOST TROOP: Jewish Terror Alert, 5/5/11 – 5/11/11

“Perhaps THEY will go forward with their plans, despite exposure by you! Perhaps they are hoping to drown out your exposure with mass arrests after martial law is declared! And if they do that, what can you do? What can Ghost Troop do? YOU WILL ALL BE ROUNDED UP AND ARRESTED! They have to move forward with their plans, Captain May, and I DO NOT THINK YOU ARE A BARRIER TO THEM ANY MORE!!! God help us all!”

The GT CO replied:

‘If you or any other Ghost Trooper is suffering from yellow fever, kindly resign from the Holy Horde. This unit became great through daring, not despairing!’

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”

Revolutionary References

Apocalypse When???

NOVANEWS

by Bob Johnson

According to the Christian organization Family Radio Worldwide, Jesus is coming back on Saturday, May 21, 2011,guaranteed! Five months after that, on October 21, 2011, God will destroy not just planet Earth, but the entire Universe as well! These Christians believe so strongly in this that they’ve bought hundreds of billboards around the country to let people know about Jesus’ return. (Wouldn’t it be great to buy hundreds of billboards to promote Deism?!)

The root of most of the Christian belief in Armageddon or the Apocalypse is found in the last book of the Christian Bible, Revelation. There are probably hundreds of millions of dollars worth of movies, books, videos and magazines offering various interpretations of Revelation all ending in the return of Jesus, the end of the world and a new Jerusalem.

The author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, had a very low opinion of the Book of Revelation. In a letter to General Alexander Smyth dated January 17, 1825 Jefferson wrote that he “considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams. I was therefore, well pleased to see, in your first proof sheet, that it was said to be not the production of St. John, but of Cerinthus, a century after the death of that apostle. Yet the change of the author’s name does not lessen the extravagances of the composition; and come they from whomsoever they may, I cannot so far respect them as to consider them as an allegorical narrative of events, past or subsequent. There is not coherence enough in them to countenance any suite of rational ideas. You will judge, therefore, from this how impossible I think it that either your explanation or that of any man in ‘the heavens above, or on the earth beneath,’ can be a correct one. What has no meaning admits no explanation; and pardon me if I say, with the candor of friendship, that I think your time too valuable, and your understanding of too high an order, to be wasted on these paralogisms. You will perceive, I hope, also, that I do not consider them as revelations of the Supreme Being, whom I would not so far blaspheme as to impute to Him a pretension of revelation, couched at the same time in terms which, He would know, were never to be understood by those whom they were addressed.”

So based on the genius of the Deist Thomas Jefferson, trying to figure out the Bible’s Book of Revelation is a waste of time and it is blasphemy to attempt to tie it to God.

Over the years so many Christian leaders were self-deluded enough to believe they knew when the return of Jesus and the Rapture would take place that complete new Christian denominations have been formed by those waiting for his return trip. The Seventh Day Adventists were started this way. They were a group of Christians who were caught up in the emotionally charged Second Awakening and falsely believed that Jesus would come back between the Spring of 1843 and the Spring of 1844. He did not return. However, the Christians stuck together and created the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

In a similar error the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, believed that Jesus would come back in 1914. He didn’t.

Russell and the others should not feel bad about making mistakes about the return of Jesus. After all, Jesus himself made the same mistake! In Luke 9:27 we read that Jesus told his followers that some of them standing there that day would not “taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God.”

All of the Bible prophecies regarding Armageddon involve the Jewish state of Israel. The Christian Zionist John Hagee believes the Jewish rabbi Jesus will return to Earth and restore Israel as the leader of nations. On his site he lists many reasons why Gentiles should serve the Jews and Israel. Like the Bible itself, everything is based on fear and greed. We should bless Israel so God will bless us. If we curse Israel, God will curse us. The ancient Hebrews who wrote this nonsense were masters at psychological warfare. They wrote many calls for Gentiles to promote Israel and the Jews. Greedy people like Hagee promote these Jewish lies for financial gain and superstitious believers thoughtlessly obey Hagee’s and the Bible’s teachings. They even obey at the peril of their own children. Not only do the U.S. politicians sacrifice their children on the alter of Judaism through wars for Israel’s benefit such as in Iraq and Afghanistan (the primary reason al Qaeda attacked us was due to U.S. politicians arming Israel with powerful deadly weapons even though Israel uses them to kill Muslim men, women and children), the sheeple don’t even question such anti-Gentile Torah teachings as the Hebrews/Jews being allowed by their god to own, buy and sell Gentiles/heathens as slaves. Leviticus 25:44-46 instructs, “Both thy bondmen, and they bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with rigor.” It appears Jews owning Gentiles as slaves is kosher.

If Gentiles turn to their God-given reason and embrace Deism the violent and detrimental realities of the Bible, Torah and Koran will be short-circuited. As the American Revolutionary leader and Deist Thomas Paine wrote inCommon Sense, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine, Trade Not Aid

NOVANEWS

by Ken O’Keefe

NOTICE – I am blatantly promoting my own project here, which I believe should be more than acceptable because the achievement of this mission is inherently beneficial to the Samouni family and Palestine as a whole; and we will succeed.

Today my team heard from mothers, fathers and children of the Samouni family their story of the Hell on Earth created by Operation Cast Lead. Twenty-nine people were killed in this family: children shot in front of parents, parents shot in front of children, 97 people in one home blasted to bits by rockets and mortars. They were made to live amongst the mutilated and dead for several days; while ambulances were kept away some died slowly over hours and even days.

Ken O’Keefe (Gaza, March 2011)

Samouni Inter Trade Palestine Logo

Our Mission

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine (SIP) is a social enterprise international trade mission. We endeavour to catalyse the end of Gaza’s charitable dependency through import and export trade. We do not seek simply to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza. Our ultimate objective is to eliminate preventable, blockade-derived suffering. We recognise the loss of dignity that is inherent in compelling a people to live on aid. We are focused on the root of the problem and thus we are committed to replacing aid with trade.

First Board Meeting for the Samouni Project

Our motives are humanitarian and non-profit. Our objective is to regularly transport people and cargo through Rafah Crossing without obstruction, which is an essential prerequisite for viable trade. In the long-term, our goal is for Gaza to be rebuilt with its infrastructure functioning to capacity, for an egalitarian economy to develop and a transformation from despair to prosperity to take place.

Our Method
We will take an international trade convoy from London on July 2, 2011, intending to arrive in Gaza on July 22. Among our drivers will be members of the Samouni family. Our cargo will include raw materials such as textiles and building materials, industrial machinery and equipment geared towards economic development and the rebuilding of Gaza. Upon offloading our cargo we will immediately begin to reload our trucks with ‘Made in Palestine’ products. Our task then will be to export these products to markets abroad.

Aloha Palestine CIC & the Samouni Project

This convoy is comprised of two primary partners, Aloha Palestine CIC and the Samouni Project. Both are EU registered, non-profit companies, with Aloha Palestine being a community interest trading company.

Samouni family members authorising Samouni Project Mission

The Samouni Project mission is to provide long-term quality education along with community services to over 200 members of the Samouni family, as well as residents of the surrounding community of Zeitoun in Gaza. To date the Samouni Project has planted an olive tree orchard, built a playground, procured our classroom/community centre, and recruited teaching staff who are currently developing the curriculum. In addition, we have painted the classroom and collected textbooks, computers, arts and crafts, school supplies, a microscope, telescope, globe, screen projector, and musical instruments in order to create a welcoming and well-supplied classroom. Our next essential task is to transport all these materials from London and to secure running costs for teaching staff and administration of approximately £2400 a month.

The aims of the Samouni Project complement and empower the mission of Aloha Palestine, whose function is to transport the cargo in order to complete the classroom and begin classes. Any attempt to block Aloha Palestine will be publicised as highly injurious to the Samouni family, and tantamount to denying this family and its children the education they deserve.

Trade Not Aid
Many people do not appreciate the damage caused to a society when citizens are compelled to live long-term on hand-outs as opposed to being able to provide for themselves. Normally aid is provided to people in the aftermath of a natural disaster. But in the case of Gaza it is political corruption and the failure to defeat this corruption that has resulted in the people of Gaza enduring more than four years as a charitable dependency. The result of this is devastating. In simple terms the parents are not only unable to protect their children from Israeli aggression, but are also incapable of providing even the bare essentials without aid. Children become both witnesses to and victims of this reality. Many begin to lose respect for their parents, which in turn causes parents to suffer from diminishing self-respect and depression. If no other options exist and aid becomes institutionalised, as it has become in Gaza, people begin to see it as their only means to live. Dignity is stolen from the recipients, and an insidiously destructive weapon becomes self-feeding, destroying a society from within.

Wael Samouni holding the first Samouni export of Chilies

At the root of this all is the blockade and the inability to conduct trade. At a certain point, it becomes arguably criminal to relegate people to living on hand-outs. SIP’s position is that Palestinians are more than capable of standing on their own two feet, but our collective failure to direct our energy at the root of the problem has relegated them to the status of beggars. Doctors and engineers are picking up trash in Gaza today because it is the only job they can find. And they are the lucky ones who at least have a job. SIP intends to confront the problem head-on, to strike at the heart of the problem and eliminate this injustice by proactive, as opposed to reactive, means.

Social Enterprise

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine is a social enterprise collaboration. The nature of a social enterprise is to confront social problems and effect solutions through intelligent business models. Contrary to the standard business model, financial profits are not “the bottom line”. The key here is self-sufficiency and social impact. Social Enterprises do not rely upon donations for survival; this makes them much less susceptible to coercion from large donors.

Most of all, success for a social enterprise is measured by it’s impact on society.

SIP’s success will translate to the creation of jobs in Egypt, Europe and Palestine and intrinsically, stimulating the economies of each nation. Among the Palestinian jobs created in Gaza, 10 positions for teachers, counsellors and administrators for the Samouni Project’s education program, 2 positions for truck drivers, both to be filled by men of the Samouni family. Within our business model we work with the Palestinians as partners, as equals, not benefactors.

The “Mukhtar” gives direction for the Samouni Project

As the Managing Director of the Samouni Project I answer to the members of the company, who happen to be the Samouni family, if I do not carry out their will, they have the power to remove me.

We are not a charity; we are a partnership of Palestinians and internationals working together for common and mutually agreeable goals. Together we have the wisdom of Palestinian culture, the understanding of the Western market and mind-set. We are young and old, we are Internet and social media savvy, and we have significant backing from around the globe.

Ken O’Keefe takes direction for the Samouni Project

Make no mistake, the people of Palestine have determined SIP’s priorities and they are the primary stakeholders in our mission. As a social enterprise our success will not be measured by profits. It will be measured by the ability of the people of Gaza to work in dignified jobs, create and run their own businesses, rebuild their homes and factories, conduct international trade profitably, and develop their economy in order to shed their charitable dependency status. That is our ultimate mission.

Self-Determination

All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

We are committed to manifesting the transformation of the world’s largest open-air prison into a thriving Mediterranean metropolis. We will not celebrate the ‘breaking of the siege’ upon arrival in Gaza; instead we will offload our cargo, reload our trucks with cargo ‘Made in Palestine’, and then set off to export these products to markets abroad. Then we will repeat the cycle.

Ultimately this is a matter of the people of Gaza being able to exercise self-determination, which inherently includes the ability to conduct viable international trade and commerce.

Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

The declaration is intended to establish a comprehensive Euro-Mediterranean partnership in order to turn the Mediterranean into a common area of peace, stability and prosperity through the reinforcement of political dialogue and security, an economic and financial partnership and a social, cultural and human partnership.

Euro-Mediterranean Partnership/Barcelona Declaration

Reading the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) agreements reveals continuous proclamations compelling respect for “human rights”, “democracy”, “free-trade” and “shared prosperity”.

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership claims to focus on three key objectives:

fostering “peace and stability”

“promote understanding between cultures and exchanges between civil societies”

and the “creation of an area of shared prosperity” in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Under the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Israel has done extremely well, prospering to the tune of roughly 25bn Euros a year in trade with the EU. Palestinians, on the other hand, conduct a miniscule amount of trade by comparison. Even worse, the people of Gaza are almost completely barred from international trade and have been made to endure a brutal and illegal blockade for over four years.

Adding insult to injury, the Palestinians of Gaza are compelled by lack of choice to increase the profitability of their Israeli oppressors by buying the products Israel exports to Palestine.

Samouni Children
EU Obligations with Regard to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

There are 27 Member States of the European Union who have entered into treaties that mandate a ‘Free Trade Zone’ in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The multi-lateral and bi-lateral treaties are contracts with ‘partner countries’ in the region. These countries include Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, all of which we will travel through en route to Gaza. Importantly, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership includes a treaty between the EU and the Palestinian Authority, identifying the ‘Palestinian Territories’ as a partner country, under this treaty, import/export bans are prohibited and free trade is sacrosanct, at least when it comes to Israel.

Legal precedents have been established to protect against import/export bans. Over the course of two years Aloha Palestine has been committed to due diligence by investing nearly one third of its entire budget on legal advice, with emphasis in public international law, human rights law, and international trade law. We have retained some of the top legal minds in preparation for the trade mission we are set to conduct this June.

Cultural Imperialism
Cultural imperialism is domination through policies that exploit the economic and/or technological superiority of one over the other, in this case the West over the Arab world. The EU and Israel are partners in cultural imperialism and the EMP has been one of their primary tools, especially with regard to Palestine. No significant challenge to this injustice has been conducted by trading with Palestine as Israel does with the EU, but that is exactly what SIP intends to do. We shall challenge the cultural imperialism of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership while citing the agreement itself. And we shall expose the hypocrisy of the EU should it not protect the interests of an EU-based trading company.

SIP intends to have top attorneys on retainer, prepared to take legal action should SIP be blocked or unjustly delayed.

Historic Role of the European Union

As an occupying power controlling Gaza’s air, land and sea space, Israel has been in grave breach of its obligations under international law. In addition, Israel has continuously violated the stated principles of the Euro–Mediterranean Partnership. Despite this, the EU has supported Israel without pause, firmly establishing its complicity in the crimes committed against the people of Gaza. Making this particularly reprehensible is the presence of over 800,000 children in Gaza. The reality is that innocent children in the eyes of the EU do not warrant even a fraction of the favour that the EU affords Israel.

The justification for the EU’s complicity in Israeli crimes is the democratic election in which Hamas came to power, since Hamas is listed as a terrorist organisation. A worthwhile comparison to Hamas however would be the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the African National Congress (ANC), both of which were deemed to be terrorist entities, both eventually having the opportunity to utilise politics as an alternative to violent resistance. Hamas, however, has repeatedly been denied this opportunity, despite making repeated offers for a long-term truce and a negotiated settlement.

It bears repeating, the EU has collaborated in collectively punishing the people of Gaza while rewarding the state that is guilty of the crime.

As an EU-based company, Aloha Palestine will demand the right to trade with Palestine just as other EU companies trade with Israel. If the EU fails to do this, we will employ every means possible to expose the EU not just for complicity, but active participation in the collective punishment of the people of Gaza.

First Bag of Cement through Rafah Crossing Since Blockade

Egyptian Blockade of Gaza
It must be said that the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza is in itself useless unless Egypt conducts its own blockade of Gaza. Under Mubarak Egypt did precisely that, justifying the blockade by citing agreements brokered for Israeli/US interests and at a terrible cost to Palestinians. However with the rising of the people of Egypt and the subsequent fall of Hosni Mubarak, the people of Egypt, especially the youth movements, hold the key to Gaza’s future.

Egypt’s new Foreign Minister Nabil al Arabi has stated that the time to end the Egyptian blockade of Gaza is now, and he further clarified that the blockade “is contrary to the rules of international humanitarian law which prohibits the siege of civilians, even in times of war.”

In this context we shall cooperate with the post-Mubarak government so as to ensure the economic and human rights of the people of Palestine are finally respected. On April 28 2011 Egypt formally announced the end of the Egyptian blockade. The stage is set for SIP to conduct a historic mission that should spell the end of a shameful chapter in Egypt’s history.

The timing of our mission could hardly be better.

Regional Security

…it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law…

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

SIP’s position is that respect for human rights, ending of the blockade, normalising trade and the establishment of legitimate security procedures at the Rafah Border Crossing is in the best interest of security for every nation in the region. We argue that by reviving the crippled economy of Gaza/Palestine and boosting the ailing economy of Egypt, stability through prosperity will develop. Stability is a prerequisite for security and we must not ignore the fact that corrupt economic and political systems, inequitable distribution of wealth and the deep poverty that results, are at the heart of the civil unrest reshaping the Middle East at this critical point in human history. Therefore, the development of the Egyptian and Palestinian economies is essential for a just and peaceful Middle East.

Safe Trade

Aloha Palestine is committed to enhancing regional security by conducting Safe Trade:

The commercial exchange of non-hazardous items; trade that stimulates economic growth while posing no danger to society. Trade involving transparency, fairness and social responsibility that fosters prosperity while enhancing security in the regions of the world in which it is conducted.

SafeTrade – No Guns – No WMD

Unlike the free trade that is conducted between Israel, the EU and the United States, there will be no trading of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction.

Conclusion
… recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine is indeed a trade mission, but our motives are grounded in humanitarian principles. While the past is characterised by a system of tyranny, concentrated wealth, power in the hands of the most corrupt and violent, and ceaseless suffering and injustice, the future holds great promise for a better world.

Like the mythical phoenix, a symbol of rebirth, immortality, and renewal, we see Gaza/Palestine at the end of its period of fire. From the ashes Gaza will be rebuilt, and the people will rise to claim their inherent right of self-determination. And it will start with connecting Gaza to the world once more with viable international trade.

FAX to President Obama RE: Netanyahu and Peres Vis-a-Vis Vanunu Mordechai

NOVANEWS

by Eileen Fleming

FAXED to White House tel: 202-456-2461 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-456-2461end_of_the_skype_highlighting @ 8:51 AM

May 9, 2011

Dear President Obama,

Thus far I have received snail mail acknowledgments from VP Biden, the Knesset Archives, President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu [see attached] regarding the receipt of their copies of BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010, but as you and Secretary of State Clinton have ignored me, this FAX has been published on the WWW, because dissent is the only thing that can ensure a healthy democracy.

And by the way, Israel is NOT and NEVER was a Democracy:

“The terms ‘democracy’ or ‘democratic’ are totally absent from the Declaration of Independence. This is not an accident. The intention of Zionism was not to bring democracy, needless to say. It was solely motivated by the creation in Eretz-Isrel of a Jewish state belonging to all the Jewish people and to the Jewish people alone. This is why any Jew of the Diaspora has the right to immigrate to Israel and to become a citizen of Israel.”– Ariel Sharon, May 28, 1993 edition of Yedioth Ahronoth.

On 5 May 2011, Israel’s Moroccan born Nuclear Whistle Blower, Mordechai Vanunu petitioned the State of Israel regarding another racist law passed by the Knesset on 28 March 2011, which allows for the revocation of citizenship of anyone convicted of espionage or treason. Vanunu wrote, “I am asking and expecting the enforcement of this law to its letter to revoke my Israeli citizenship.”

In 1987, Vanunu was convicted of “Aggravated Espionage, High Treason and Assisting the Enemy.”

Vanunu served nearly all of his 18 years in prison in solitary, he has been subjected to 24/7 surveillance ever since he emerged from a windowless tomb sized cell on 21 April 2004, and he has been denied the right to leave the‘only democracy in the Middle East’.

The establishment of Israel’s statehood was contingent upon upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On 6 May 2011, Professor of international law, Francis A. Boyle emailed me:

“Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mordechai has the perfect right to renounce his Israeli citizenship: Article 15(2): No one shall be denied the right to change his nationality. Article 13(2): Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”

Because America is a Member State of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the USA is responsible to hold ALL Member States accountable and this Citizen of Conscience is beseeching you to honor that commitment and give US some change we can really believe in!

Most sincerely and very flamingly yours,

Eileen Fleming, A Citizen of Conscience for House of Representatives
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com

Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”

Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory” and BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010

Paper copy of the above with a copy of BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010

Posted to:

President Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

###

While Vanunu was locked up for 78 days in solitary in 2010-punishment for speaking to foreign media in 2004 , I received my first reply from Israel since I began petitioning them in 2005 to FREE VANUNU NOW!

View PDF of State of Israel Ministry of Justice Response

Response to Israel Minister of Justice vis a’ vis Human Rights of Mordechai Vanunu

My Open Letter Response to State of Israel Ministry of Justice The Human Rights and Foreign Relations Department-which has yet to be acknowledged:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Ref: 952

Thank you for your letter dated July 21, 2010, that I received in my gmail on July 29.

I would now like to address all “relevant authorities” and the State of Israel Ministry of Justice The Human Rights and Foreign Relations Department regarding points 1-13:

On April 30, 2007, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, convicted Vanunu on 14 [out of 21] counts of violating a court order prohibiting him from speaking to foreign journalists in 2004. Vanunu was also convicted for traveling the four miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem when he hoped to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, his first Christmas after being released from 18 years in jail [most of it in solitary] on April 21, 2004.

On July 2, 2007, Israel sentenced Vanunu to six more months in jail for speaking to foreign media in 2004.

On September 23, 2008, the Jerusalem District Court reduced Vanunu’s six-month jail sentence for speaking with foreign media in 2004, to three months, “In light of his ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country’s security in jeopardy.”

After appealing that sentence, the Israeli Supreme Court returned Vanunu to jail on May 23, 2010, after they refused his counter-offer to do three-months of community service in Arab east Jerusalem, the only community he has known since 21 April 2004.

The Court insisted Vanunu must serve in west Jerusalem, which is 99% Jewish-populated, but Vanunu feared attack there by angry Israelis, most of whom consider him a traitor, and thus his three month sentence in solitary began on 23 May 2010.

The restrictions that have subjected Vanunu to 24/7 surveillance [his movements, phone calls and emails] for the last six years come from the Emergency Defense Regulations, which were implemented by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II.

Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel’s Minister Of Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as “unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in Nazi Germany.”

Israel also kidnapped Vanunu in 1986, but Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: “No one shall he subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention”, including abduction of a person by agents of one state to another state.

Vanunu was charged with and convicted of treason and espionage.

Section 99 of the Israeli Penal Code, treason is defined as “an act calculated to assist (an enemy) in time of war…delivering information with the intention that it fall into the hands of the enemy.”

Section 113 defines aggravated espionage as “deliver(ing) any secret information without being authorized to do so and with intent to impair the security of the state” and a sub-clause provides for a penalty of seven years for the unauthorized collection, preparation, recording or holding of secret information; if this is done with intent to impair the security of the state and then, the penalty is increased to 15 years.

On November 24th, 2006 Vanunu wrote:

“My lawyer succeeded to reveal a few very important facts: This General of the Army also was not allowed to see all the secrets that he is required to protect by these restrictions that they claim I know them. So, he gave orders of restrictions without knowing what he is protecting or that he is also following orders blindly, and Mossad Sheen Bet using its authority for just punishing me. He testified that it is not a crime for me to talk with foreigners in general anywhere. He testified that I can speak freely to any Israeli citizens about anything; it is not his concern what I am saying to them. These Israelis can give this information to any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to understand why this dichotomy exits between foreigners and Israelis. It means that it is not about secrecy but about something else.”

In 2004, Yossi Melman wrote for Haaretz:

“This is the secret that hasn’t yet been told in the affair: the story of the security fiasco that made it possible for Vanunu to do what he did, and the story of the subsequent attempts at cover-up, whitewashing and protection of senior figures in the defense establishment, who were bent on divesting themselves of responsibility for the failure. The 18-year prison term to which Vanunu was sentenced is almost exactly the same period as that in which Yehiel Horev has served as chief of internal security in the defense establishment [who has been] involved in the affair as deputy chief of security at the Defense Ministry, and also after Vanunu’s abduction and arrest, as a member of an investigative commission.

“Shortly after taking office as chief of security at the Defense Ministry, Horev began to take punitive measures to hobble Vanunu. He is responsible for the harsh conditions in which Vanunu was held, which included years in solitary confinement, and the sharp limitations on the number of visitors he could have…[and has fought] a rearguard battle to prevent Vanunu from leaving Israel and to place him under supervision and restrictions that will be tantamount to house arrest. Horev has always been considered the strictest of all the security chiefs in Israel, especially in regard to the protection of institutions such as the Dimona facility and the Biological Institute. He is apprehensive that if Vanunu goes abroad, he will continue to be a nuisance by stimulating the public debate over Israel’s nuclear policy and the nuclear weapons he says Israel possesses…all the hyperactivity being displayed by Horev and those who support his approach is intended only to divert attention from what has not yet been revealed: the security blunders and their cover-ups.”

On July 29, 2010, Mordechai Vanunu’s American parents, Nick and Mary Eoloff wrote, “Please advise Mr. Radzyner that Mordechai Vanunu has never been told what ‘secret information’ he holds that ‘constitutes a relevant threat to the security of the State of Israel’ after the passage of 20 years. At court hearings those matters are dictated to the court in its chamber by the Mossad without Mordechai being present. But, of course, that is how the ‘only democracy’ in the Middle East operates…”

On February 22, 2006, in a Jerusalem court it was revealed that Israel had asked Microsoft to hand over all the details of Vanunu’s Hotmail account before a court order had been obtained, while eluding that Vanunu was being investigated for espionage

Vanunu wrote:

“Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details…three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated. It is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe, with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.

“The State came to the court with two special secret Government orders; Hisaion [documents or information that are deemed confidential by the government and kept from the court, the defendant, and lawyers.] This allows the prosecution to keep documents related to my court hearing secret. One was from the Minister for Interior Security and one from the Minister of Defense.

“The policeman did not have any answers and said that he brought all the evidence to the court. When Sfard asked him again about any material related to the espionage [charge] Peterburg had no answers.

“Sfard proved that the police had misled the judges who gave the orders to arrest me: to search my room, to go through my email, to confiscate my computers and [that they] misled Microsoft to believe they are helping in a case of espionage.

Israel claims Vanunu received a fair trial; the facts prove other wise and the point remains that on 18 June 2010, Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East Programme announced:

“Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals. He suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading. Mordechai Vanunu is a prisoner of conscience. The prison authorities might claim that he has been put in isolation to protect him from the risk of attack by other inmates, but if the Israeli government is really concerned for his safety it should release him without delay. His re-imprisonment is both harsh and unjustified. The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore in breach of international law. They should be lifted and he should be allowed to start his life again as a free man.”

SELLING THE BIN LADEN LIE

NOVANEWS

PHONY BIN LADEN WATCHING PHONY BIN LADEN

FROM THE REAL KILLERS OF 9/11, SELLING THE BIN LADEN “TERROR MYTH”

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

I pity those who cheered or felt relief at the announced death of Osama bin Laden. It isn’t just that the real bin Laden died years ago. It’s that Osama bin Laden was never a terrorist in the first place. Nearly a decade of investigation failed to connect bin Laden to 9/11 with a single shred of evidence. Instead, when that original cover-up, the 9/11 Commission proven categorically to be a “white wash,” to the extent that even Fox News reported it openly, all evidence pointed to the Bush White House and Israeli intelligence services.

YouTube – Veterans Today –

The undisputed evidence, Building 7, showed that massive explosive devices were planted under the World Trade Center. No newspaper reported this, even when the Fox Network carried the stories on prime time. No mention of this has been made this week. What it proved is that terrorists had nothing to do with 9/11. Simply put, if one building was sabotaged, then all the attacks were staged.

AUSSIES AIN’T BUYIN’ IT

The evidence for this, hard evidence, science, testimony, not theory but a very real conspiracy is massive and supported by the majority of Americans. One “conspiracy theory debunker,” Jon Fain of ABC, went after Kevin Braken, a political leader in Australia.

77% of Australians in a Herald Sun poll believe that 9/11 is a US government “inside job.” That number applies to Americans as well.

Then why is nothing of any of this mentioned now? Why was Obama allowed to ramble on, in what we can prove was an incoherent manner, driveling on about bin Laden and 9/11? Perhaps the most shameful of all is Geraldo Rivera, the Fox News journalist who helped break the story that proved bin Laden was never involved in 9/11. He now rants about bin Laden and ghoulishly celebrates the “mass murderer of 9/11″ that he himself helped prove innocent.

Where do you find people like that?

YouTube – Veterans Today –

THE ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

When major corporations and “interest groups” based in a small Middle Eastern non-Islamic country managed to gain control over 95% of America’s media, destroying the lines between, not only “news” and “entertainment” but “fact” and “fiction” as well, it was the end of any semblance of democracy in America. Democracy is based on public consensus. If someone controls what the public believes and thinks, if the public is continually bombarded with falsehood, there is no basis for democracy.

Simply put, the controlled media, which includes much of the internet as well, is a criminal organization directed at undermining the American government.

In 2000, when a very real conspiracy rigged a presidential election and the Supreme Court of the United States appointed a president, something well outside its constitutional venue, we started down that “slippery slope” to very real dictatorship. It wasn’t long before 9/11 and the two totally unfounded wars, all blamed on the mysterious Osama bin Laden, continually spoken of then as now as the greatest criminal mastermind in world history.

But those who heard his actual words and knew his history know better. Bin Laden worked closely with the United States but eventually became mildly critical of its policies.

“Mildly critical of its policies,” yes, this is exactly what I am saying. As close to terrorism as Osama bin Laden ever got were statements that were mildly critical of American policies.

The rest of it, the threats, the terror organizations, we made it all up.

This leaves the real job of supporting the constitution to the alternative media, a group infected by the same people who brought American down in 2000, flush with cash from their entertainment empire, the Washington law firms and public relations agencies and the powerful Israel lobby. Our investigations of one “patriotic resistance” site found these to be those responsible for paying the bills:

AETNA

AFIPAC

Alexis de Tocqueville Institution

Allied Pilots Association

American Association of Health Plans

American Association of Political Consultants

American Conservative Union

Americans for Hope, Growth & Opportunity

American Policy Center

American Public Philosophy Institute

The American Spectator

Australian Barley Board

Black America’s Political Action Committee

Blackwell Corporation

Bruce W. Eberle & Associates

Business Mail Express

Campaign Solutions

Canadian MG Lewis MacKenzie (Ret.)

CapitolWatch

The Carmen Group

Carrying Capacity Network

Center for Individual Freedom

CIGNA

Citizens for State Power

Citizens United

Club for Growth

Collegiate Network [1]

Conservative Political Action Conference

Ann Coulter

Crown Publishing

Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc.

The Honorable Pete DuPont

Employee Benefits Associates

Energy Freedom Alliance

Federalist Society

Flickers Films

Free Enterprise Fund

Free Speech Coalition

Freedom Alliance

Foley & Lardner

Forbes for President 2000

The Galen Institute

Grassfire.org

The Hawthorn Group

Heritage Foundation

Institute for Legal Reform

Institute for Policy Innovation

Institute for Socio-Economic Studies

The Keene Report

Law Enforcement Alliance of America

The Limited

The Manhattan Institute

McDonnell Douglas

McGuire/Woods Consulting, LLC.

National Audit Defense Network

National Center for Policy Analysis

National Farmers Federation of Australia

National Rifle Association

National Rifle Association-ILA

National Taxpayers Union

News World Communications

Nuclear Energy Institute

The O’Leary/Kamber Report

Playcare Incorporated

PM Consulting Corporation

Prima Publishing

Progress & Freedom Foundation

Prudential

Public Safety Systems

Republican Majority Coalition

Republican National Committee

Natan Sharansky

Small Business Survival Committee

Southeastern Legal Foundation

Starboard Response

Stevens & Schriefer

United Seniors Association

University of Phoenix

USA Weekend

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

U.S. English

Washington Times Foundation

Westinghouse Corporation

The Winston Group

WND Books

Despite the innocent sounding names, this list includes the very heart of the most anti-American elements in American society. There are 20 groups here far more dangerous than any “bin Laden” and far more dedicated to destroying the United States than “Al Qaeda.” For those who find themselves on this “rogues gallery” and were unaware they were financing an extremist group, perhaps, next time, they will look before writing a check to buy “influence.”

Along with some innocent and decent on this list are groups dedicated into turning the United States into a feudal slave labor state. These are the folks that rig elections, the folks that wrote the scandalous Patriot Acts and, especially, those responsible for crashing the stock markets, rigging our courts and controlling the news.

This is just one list, there are more. Soon after finding this, the Antisemitic/white supremacist organization they finance began hiding behind offshore proxy servers. It was too late for them. They are now “frozen in time.”

THE INDEPENDENT PRESS, BIN LADEN AND WIKILEAKS

When Julian Assange’s relationship with the powerful financial groups that control the media organizations he is now critical of was exposed, early in 2011, it became clear that Wikileaks would never be a reliable source for news. Julian Assange has always been very ‘mainstream press’ when it comes to terrorism and 9/11. His close relationship with Israel, the nation most often tied to complicity in 9/11 as a “false flag” conspiracy, seems to have deeply prejudiced him and crippled Wikileaks. It will never be seen as honest or independent as long as it remains dogmatic and joined at the hip with the big news organizations and the Israel lobby.

YouTube – Veterans Today –

Far from it, Wikileaks, at heart, always gravitates toward its center, a schizophrenic message that exposes abuses of the United States but strongly supports the extremist policies that led America to its military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange seems to love America’s use of force, openly advocating war on Iran but hides behind a veneer of controversy through leaking oddly selected documents.

Early on, Assange received considerable support from the independent press. Even later on, some organizations continued supporting him even though his allegiances to money and power became clear. The more guilty Assange seemed, the more some groups supported him.

The result was a positive one, a cleansing of the independent media and the recognition by many that their co-workers, some at least, were not who they seemed. In that sense, Julian Assange was invaluable.

Where Wikileaks demonstrated the weakness of the internet media, primarily organizations that developed around the call for an honest investigation of 9/11, the recent bin Laden episode has been different.

The moment the frozen corpse, the “Osama-sicle” was tossed into the Indian Ocean and the actors came out of the woodwork, bin Laden’s family, the spurious videos, the contradictory stories, the independent media or alternative media began to show its maturity and power.

Stories hit that were well written, facts were presented with a care to detail that the corporate press was denied, being tied to a ‘dead horse” as it were. The most recent bin Laden “death” has been an easy target for sure, so farcical that the public has begged for the truth to the point that those who have engaged in honest reporting have been flooded with traffic.

What the bin Laden story has shown is that the mantle has passed to the internet and that quality reporting of real facts is available there. The mantle that has passed to the independent media is that of trust, something the corporate media will never be able to regain.

They depended on Americans forgetting 9/11, for American to be so hungry for an attractive lie that they would lap up the crud like a starving dog.

They guessed wrong.

A Time for Truth

NOVANEWS

by Susan Lindauer

Bin Laden’s Death Won’t End the War on Terror Until Americans Understand the Threat Was Always Us

By Susan Lindauer, 9/11 Whistleblower and author of Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq

Some of our leaders think Americans don’t need the truth about 9/11 any more, because Osama’s dead and it’s over.

As somebody who got brutalized at “ground zero” of the 9/11 cover up for most of the past 10 years, I could not disagree more. I’m sick of asking for a proper Congressional investigation. Congress already knows the truth about 9/11. That’s why they’re not poking around. However, it’s a huge mistake for the rest of us who know the truth, or parts of it, to wait for permission to speak. America has trapped itself in a mythic nightmare about terrorism that exaggerates our enemies, while our leaders manipulate our sense of patriotism and effectively blind us to mistakes in national security policy. It’s not a successful policy if it weakens our country.

The United States has reached a tipping point when we have to consider the end of the “American Age.” In which case, an honest examination of 9/11 becomes imperative. Americans must understand 9/11, so that we can puncture the creepy bubble around the War on Terrorism, and sweep away the phony threat that’s got all of Washington plotting Wars in the Middle East, bankrupting our economy with runaway defense spending, and tearing down civil rights in the name of national security.

The lie itself is formidable. Valerie Plame, a lady I greatly admire, recently tried to assure Americans that the U.S. government could never keep such a huge and devastating secret for so long. Wanna bet? Myself, I got rewarded with 5 years of indictment as an “Iraqi Agent,” including one year in prison on Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas—without a trial or hearing—after I requested to testify about Iraq and 9/11.

Thirty days after I spoke with top staffers for Senator Trent Lott and Senator John McCain, the FBI showed up with a warrant for my arrest.

My 5 year indictment on the Patriot Act nicknamed me “Symbol Susan.” It was not subtle. The viciousness I suffered was purposefully designed to scare off on anybody else who might consider talking. The cover ups of 9/11 and Iraq distinguished the Patriot Act as the premiere weapon to take down whistle blowers.

To those others I say, they cannot silence us if we refuse to give up our voice. I challenge Congress to put our country on the right track by holdings hearings on 9/11 to take our testimony. I will gladly swear to all of the following under oath:

THE TRUTH: A SUMMER OF ADVANCE WARNINGS

The truth is that our team, which triangulated the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, discussed the 9/11 attack in its exact scenario and time frame throughout the summer of 2001. We talked about it practically every week at our meetings. We also discussed it on the telephone, pointedly joking “Hello NSA! Pick up the phone—” knowing the National Security Agency had wire tapped my lines.

There’s no question that the story of the 9/11 conspiracy was planted months in advance to prep the intelligence community for the government’s reaction. And it unfolded exactly as they told us it would—with a little help from an orphan explosives team. That will be explained in a second article. The two are not contradictory.

Before we get to that, Americans must first accept the motivation for 9/11, and why the U.S. government allowed it to happen. This was a Pearl Harbor Day. And it achieved an agenda, which was already well defined.

From the first moment that I was told about 9/11 in April and May of 2001, I was informed that the United States planned to declare War on Iraq immediately when 9/11 happened. The two were already linked as cause and effect.

Threats of War Against Iraq

I can testify to that absolutely, because I was the Asset commanded to deliver those threats to Iraqi diplomats at the United Nations. I was instructed to say the “U.S. intended to declare War on Iraq if Baghdad failed to provide actionable intelligence to stop the conspiracy involving airplane hijackings and a strike on the World Trade Center. We would bomb Iraq more aggressively than ever before—back to the Stone Age.”

My CIA handler further demanded that I stress the threat of War “originated at the highest levels of government—above the CIA Director and the Secretary of State.” He considered the warnings to have more potency if Iraqi diplomats understood the muscle of those issuing the threats.

As the primary back channel to Baghdad from 1996 through 2003, I delivered that message with all precision from April and May right through August 4, 2001. I can pinpoint the day, because the conversation with my CIA handler took place on the day of the Senate confirmation hearings for Robert Mueller’s appointment to head the FBI.

My CIA handler, Dr. Richard Fuisz speculated aloud that the 9/11 attack might occur before Mueller was formally instated as FBI Director.

In the same conversation, Dr. Fuisz warned that I must not go back to New York, because the attack was “imminent” and the CIA expected “mass casualties” and a “possible miniature thermo nuclear device.” Over his objections, I insisted on returning to Iraq’s Embassy at the U.N. one last time to see if diplomats had received any reports from Baghdad. Then I promised I would not go back to New York until after the attack.

My meeting with Iraqi diplomats occurred two days later on Saturday, August 4. I did not return to New York until September 18.

Let me be clear: The threat was not vague or undefined. We fully expected airplane hijackings and some sort of aerial strike targeting the World Trade Center, specifically. No other target or location was ever discussed.

Details of the 9/11 conspiracy and the full history of Iraqi Pre-War Intelligence are disclosed in my book, “Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq.” It’s a real life spy thriller, and it goes into much greater depth, whereas this article can only scratch the surface.

“Extreme Prejudice” reveals a truth that’s very different from what America has been told. I challenge Congress to put me under oath and rip me with questions. Americans have the right to hear my direct testimony, which would disclose a complete chronology of our advance discussions about the conspiracy, in addition to our considerable efforts to stop the attack.

It’s nothing like what you expect. As a life-long anti-war activist, I was highly agitated about the threats of war that I was commanded to deliver to Iraqi diplomats. And I’m not a passive individual. Adding to the tension, by the summer of 2001 the international community had developed a deep loathing for U.N. sanctions that were destroying Iraq’s social fabric and community infrastructure. The days of U.N. sanctions on Iraq—which I reviled, too—were closing fast. The international community would have condemned any rogue military action against Iraq.

The CIA was way ahead of the curve on Iraq. Unbeknownst to the public, from the opening days of the Bush administration in January 2001, our team had begun hammering out a comprehensive framework for achieving all U.S. objectives, including weapons inspections, so that the U.S could claim a major victory while ceding to pressure for the U.N. sanctions to end. Anti-terrorism was a central part of our peace framework. In fact, Iraq had agreed to invite an FBI Task Force to conduct terrorism investigations by February, 2001. The CIA had also won Iraq’s consent for major reconstruction contracts for U.S. corporations in telecommunications, hospitals and health care, transportation— and oil. Everything the U.S. wanted was ours for the taking. And the CIA wanted it all.

Our Team Efforts to Stop 9/11

When my CIA handler, Dr. Fuisz informed me on August 2 that the 9/11 attack was in play and considered “imminent,” he and I together resolved to take more aggressive action to prevent it.

I’m not telling you what somebody else did that I heard about later. I’m telling what actions I took myself in “real time” to try to stop the 9/11 attack.

On Monday, August 6, I reported to Dr. Fuisz after my trip to New York. I told him that Iraqi diplomats had thrown up their hands. They had nothing to give us. Yes, they assured me, Baghdad was fully aware that Iraq faced a threat of full scale war, if a 9/11 style of attack occurred. They understood that it would be in their greatest interest to provide us with any fragment of intelligence to help stop the attack. They understood that 9/11 would complicate our peace framework exactly at the moment when the international community was ready to throw off U.N. sanctions. Bottom line, they had nothing to give us.

I was an unusual party to this discussion, motivated by deep antipathy for sanctions, violence through terrorism and war. For those reasons, I informed Dr. Fuisz that I felt super motivated to do everything in my power to stop 9/11, both to protect the people of New York City and to prevent an unnecessary War—exactly at the moment when our team was completing this outstanding peace framework that achieved all U.S. objectives.

At the instructions of Dr. Fuisz on August 6, I personally placed phone calls to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s private staff at the Justice Department on August 7 or 8. Identifying myself as the CIA Asset covering the Iraq and Libya Embassies at the United Nations, I personally requested that Ashcroft’s Office post “an emergency broadcast alert across all agencies, seeking any fragment of intelligence on airplane hijackings, with a known target of the World Trade Center.” I described the attack as “imminent,” with the potential for “mass casualties. I asked for maximum inter-agency cooperation and urged that any information be forwarded to the CIA immediately.

Hearing my request, staff in the inner sanctum of Attorney General John Ashcroft’s office gave me a phone number at the Office of Counter-Terrorism in the Justice Department, and urged me to repeat exactly what I had just told them. I did so without delay. I dialed the number. I spoke to the staff.

I wasn’t taking any chances. A few days later, I visited the home of my cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. I waited in my car while his neighbors peeked out their windows, determined to warn him about our 9/11 scenario, and request cabinet level support to pre-empt the attack. Alas, Andy did not come home. When I drove away after two hours, I did so believing that I might be making the greatest mistake of my life.

There was still plenty of time for action to pre-empt the attack. Americans have a right to know how top leaders in government handled our warnings, and effectively thwarted those best efforts in August of 2001.

There was a lot of action that August—including a second set of events that I would learn about years later, involving an unidentified orphan team that would lay explosives in the Twin Towers. My next article will explain how those two conspiracies converged. Contrary to what the 9/11 Truth Community supposes, these two operations do not cancel out each other.

But first Americans must understand that 9/11 was a “stand down” operation, a true Pearl Harbor Day, meaning that U.S. and foreign intelligence understood what was coming. The leadership at the top of the U.S. government made an active decision to let the attack go ahead— because the decision was already made that 9/11 would provide a pretext for War in Iraq. With peace breaking out in the Middle East at that very moment, the War Party required a massive scale threat to overturn the peace process. Clearly they decided that nothing would be allowed to interfere with that objective.

Once that factor’s understood, 9/11 becomes comprehensible.

Some of my testimony would surprise America—like efforts by Saddam Hussein’s government to guarantee Iraq’s complete cooperation with global anti-terrorism efforts before and after 9/11. That will be addressed in another article.

Finally, my book, EXTREME PREJUDICE provides a full scope of the brutality by the Justice Department to silence me and other Assets, using the Patriot Act as a weapon to guarantee the success of its deception. (A hint: Assets watched the cover ups of 9/11 and Iraq on prison television. And I wasn’t the only prisoner).

Oh it wasn’t all bad! My CIA handler got $13 million tax-free from emergency appropriations for the 9/11 investigation in November, 2001— He built himself a grand mansion a stone’s throw from CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Not a dollar or a dime got spent on 9/11. Mind you, the government’s not complaining. But shifting tax dollars away from Iraq’s cooperation with the 9/11 investigation took food off my table. I paid a terrible price for it. More later in this series.

Democracy Requires Accountability

All parts of the 9/11 warnings, the cover up— the arrests and pay offs— should disturb Democrats and Republicans alike who brag about their leadership support for Assets engaged in anti-terrorism. It makes a lie of their pledge of loyalty, for sure. And it denigrates their performance as stewards of national security, which ought to be a litmus test for the 2012 Campaigns. Those who don’t care for the people’s business don’t belong in government.

Simply put, democracy requires accountability to the people. Americans have a fundamental right to possess the truth about 9/11 and the decision to declare War on Iraq months before the attack—because national security does matter in this age. Americans require that knowledge, so as to assess the leadership performance and quality of policy making on our behalf.

Good leaders don’t have to be afraid. Bad leaders should be sent packing for the betterment of government.

Most alarmingly, 9/11′s legacy has proved detrimental to the security of our country. According to the National Journal, fighting this phantom demon of terrorism today involves 1,271 government agencies, producing 50,000 intelligence reports a year that for the most part nobody reads.http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20110506/pl_yblog_exclusive/the-cost-of-bin-laden-3-trillion-over-15-yearsMeanwhile, “black budgets” for intelligence operations have mushroomed to $75 billion a year, financing both domestic and international surveillance that monitors law-abiding citizens across the country. There’s no federal auditing authority or Congressional oversight over “black budgets.” It’s all tax free and unregulated. It’s a secret government gone wild.

Osama’s death has been a great victory for the CIA. But it will not bring U.S. soldiers home from Iraq and Afghanistan, where military operations have cost $1.6 trillion and counting. It won’t end the nonsense War against Libya, which has no justification at all.

Osama’s death will not quash the planning stages for future wars against Syria, and God help us, Iran.

Is it really patriotic to stay silent while the military industrial complex devours our economy for its own profits? Without producing benefits for U.S. soldiers? Admiral Mullen, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn’t think so. He has described America’s national debt as “the greatest threat to our national security.”

Our country is teetering on the abyss. If we’re going to succeed in restoring the great traditions of liberty and moral authority, we’ve got to relearn the history of 9/11.

We must acknowledge the real threats to our quality of life are not “out there.” They start right here. And those threats are perpetuated by the myths that are leaders invented that tragic morning.

There is no better time for truth than today. The success of our national security policy—and our ability to avoid future wars that are guaranteed to destroy this earth—very well depend on it.

The Targeted Assassination of Osama Bin Laden

NOVANEWS

By Marjorie Cohn

When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, “Justice has been done.” Mr. Obama misused the word “justice” when he made that statement. He should have said, “Retaliation has been accomplished.” A former professor of constitutional law should know the difference between those two concepts. The word “justice” implies an act of applying or upholding the law.

Targeted assassinations violate well-established principles of international law. Also called political assassinations, they are extrajudicial executions. These are unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of, or with the acquiescence of, a government, outside any judicial framework.

Extrajudicial executions are unlawful, even in armed conflict. In a 1998 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted that “extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war.” The U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Commission, as well as Amnesty International, have all condemned extrajudicial executions.

In spite of its illegality, the Obama administration frequently uses targeted assassinations to accomplish its goals. Five days after executing Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama tried to bring “justice” to U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has not been charged with any crime in the United States. The unmanned drone attack in Yemen missed al-Awlaki and killed two people “believed to be al Qaeda militants,” according to a CBS/AP bulletin.

Two days before the Yemen attack, U.S. drones killed 15 people in Pakistan and wounded four. Since the March 17 drone attack that killed 44 people, also in Pakistan, there have been four drone strikes. In 2010, American drones carried out 111 strikes. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that 957 civilians were killed in 2010.

The United States disavowed the use of extrajudicial killings under President Gerald Ford. After the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disclosed in 1975 that the CIA had been involved in several murders or attempted murders of foreign leaders, President Ford issued an executive order banning assassinations. Every succeeding president until George W. Bush renewed that order. However, the Clinton administration targeted Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, but narrowly missed him.

In July 2001, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel denounced Israel’s policy of targeted killings, or “preemptive operations.” He said “the United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that.”

Yet after September 11, 2001, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer invited the killing of Saddam Hussein: “The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less” than the cost of war. Shortly thereafter, Bush issued a secret directive, which authorized the CIA to target suspected terrorists for assassination when it would be impractical to capture them and when large-scale civilian casualties could be avoided.

In November 2002, Bush reportedly authorized the CIA to assassinate a suspected Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. He and five traveling companions were killed in the hit, which Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described as a “very successful tactical operation.”

After the Holocaust, Winston Churchill wanted to execute the Nazi leaders without trials. But the U.S. government opposed the extrajudicial executions of Nazi officials who had committed genocide against millions of people. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, told President Harry Truman: “We could execute or otherwise punish [the Nazi leaders] without a hearing. But undiscriminating
executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt, fairly arrived at, would . . . not set easily on the American conscience or be remembered by children with pride.”

Osama bin Laden and the “suspected militants” targeted in drone attacks should have been arrested and tried in U.S. courts or an international tribunal. Obama cannot serve as judge, jury and executioner. These assassinations are not only illegal; they create a dangerous precedent, which could be used to justify the targeted killings of U.S. leaders.

Dorothy Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Dear Friends,

A bit more tonight than I feel comfortable sending. I almost omitted no. 10, as I did indeed several others. But have left it in just in case you want to read it. None of the items below are extensively long.

The first item furnished the headline in today’s Hebrew Haaretz. The Guardian report is more complete, so am sending it. We learn that between 1967 and 1994, Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of residency rights. Why Israel should have the prerogative to decide who resides in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem is beyond me. Unfortunately the Oslo accords signed by Arafat left that privilege in Israel’s hands so that it could continue its ethnic cleansing! Of course no Jewish Israeli loses citizenship no matter how many years he/she resides abroad. Apartheid? You bet.

In item 2 Amira Hass iterates the point of view that I expressed yesterday: Israel gets by with whatever it does. Oh, yes, the EU and the United States might shake their fingers at Israel. So? Does that change Israel’s behavior? No.

As for item 3–all the news today—radio, TV, newspaper—is full of ‘fear’ of what will take place this year during the commemoration of the Nakba on Sunday. I don’t understand why. Palestinians (along with some Jews who join to show solidarity) have been commemorating the Nakba for years. Last year the police did stir things up for some unknown reason. It was awful. Families come to these affairs with babies and small children. There was tear gas, horses, and beatings. The police have no right to make trouble where there is none. All the attention that the Nakba is receiving now makes me feel very uncomfortable. It’s as if in preparation for really mean behavior on the part of the police and military. Hope I am wrong. I might only add, Israel is probably the only country in the world that when holidays are in the offing, that we are warned of the dangers from ‘terrorist’ attacks. Fear mongering! That’s what all this is. I hope that it will not turn out to be more!

Item 4 tells us that the court for now protects 27 or more Palestinian homes from destruction—the emphasis being on “for now.”

Item 5 informs us that Hamas will honor the ‘truce’ but will not recognize Israel. Should Israel nevertheless agree to a pact with the Hamas-Fatah government? Yes, of course it should. If the truce goes well, if Palestinians have freedom and a degree of justice, have some future to look forward to, it is more than likely that Hamas will diminish in power. Most human beings—be they Palestinians, Israelis, or other–want just to live, to have a modicum of security. If they have that and also eventually justice, then peace will come. I still prefer a single secular state, but also think it likely that if 2 states initially emerge, they will eventually become one.

In item 6 Neve Gordon discusses some of Israel’s new laws that promote repression.

Item 7 informs us that construction of a portion of the ‘wall/fence’ has stopped for now. Also included in the report are the cost of the wall. Meanwhile, today’s TV news on channel 2 informed us that a premature baby had died in one Israeli hospital and others were infected with the virus that killed the one, partly because there are not enough nurses and doctors to attend to them. But Israel prefers stealing land rather that putting money in health, education, and other small basics as these.

Item 8 is a typical story of a political prisoner. So many Palestinians sit in jail for years not because they have committed a crime but because . . .just because. Ahmad Qatamesh is one such. Amnesty International has taken up his case. Will that help?

Item 9 informs us that guitarist Andy Mckee will not perform in Israel. He makes a point of saying that this is his decision, as if to imply that he is not bowing to bds pressure. Maybe.

Item 10 is Amy Goodman’s commentary on the case of Tony Kushner. I really hadn’t intended to send more about it. But Amy Goodman is always worth reading, even if she does not add much information that you did not already know.

All the best,

Dorothy

============================

1. The Guardian,

11 May 2011

Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of residency rights, document reveals

Thousands of Palestinians who left the West Bank to work or study between 1967 and 1994 had residency rights revoked

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/11/israel-palestinians-residency-rights

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

An Israeli soldier watches Palestinians flee the West Bank across the Allenby bridge into Jordan after the 1967 war. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.

Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.

Those leaving the West Bank across the Allenby bridge border crossing to Jordan were required to deposit their identity documents with Israeli officials. In return they were given a card, valid for three years, which could be extended three times for an additional year.

If they stayed abroad more than six months beyond the expiration of the card, Israel deemed them “NLRs” – no longer resident – and their right to return was revoked.

“The mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law,” said Hamoked, an Israeli NGO that filed the freedom of information request.

Some of the 140,000 were later allowed to return, but an estimated 130,000 are still deemed NLRs. “I doubt there is a family in the West Bank that does not have a relative who lost their residency rights in this way,” Dalia Kerstein of Hamoked said. Requests to extend residency rights while abroad nearly always went unanswered, she added.

Saeb Erekat, the former Palestinian chief negotiator whose brother lost his residency rights after leaving to study in the US, described the policy as a war crime.

Israel was “engaging in a systematic policy of displacement … to change the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territories”, he said in a statement.

“This policy should not only be seen as a war crime as it is under international law; it also has a humanitarian dimension. We are talking about people who left Palestine to study or work temporarily but who could not return to resume their lives in their country with their families.”

The process began at the start of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and ended in 1994 when the Palestinian Authority was established under the Oslo accords.

However, the practice of revoking the residency rights of Palestinians in east Jerusalem has accelerated in recent years.

Following the annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel distributed identity cards giving residency status – not citizenship – to Palestinians living in the city. They were permitted to apply for Israeli citizenship, but the vast majority refused on political grounds.

However, if they leave the city for more than seven years, their east Jerusalem residency rights are revoked. Israeli citizens are allowed to leave indefinitely without penalty.

Since 1995, Palestinians have also been required to prove their “centre of life” is in east Jerusalem or face having their residency rights revoked.

In 2008, more than 4,500 Palestinians had their east Jerusalem identity cards revoked, compared with 229 the previous year, according to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.

Richard Falk, an investigator for the United Nations human rights council, described this as “the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians … [which] can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing”.

In a recent high-profile case, the Palestinian owner of a bookshop at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem is facing deportation after having lost his residency rights. Munther Fahmi, 56, who left Jerusalem in 1973 for 20 years, has since been given a series of tourist visas which will no longer be renewed. Among the signatories to a petition demanding he be allowed to stay are the authors Ian McEwan, Roddy Doyle and Orhan Pamuk.

==============

2, Haaretz,

May 11, 2011

Israel is getting away with robbing Palestinian taxes

Israel is getting away with ‘robbing’ the Palestinians of $105 million bu withholding tax funds; we all know that the robber will not be punished.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-is-getting-away-with-robbing-palestinian-taxes-1.360975

By Amira Hass

Once again, Israel is showing everyone who the real man is here. It is busy carrying out (yet another ) robbery in broad daylight of $105 million from the Palestinians. And as usual, it is going off without a hitch.

The sum that is being stolen consists of customs duties on Palestinian imports that were collected at border crossings under Israeli control. According to the Oslo accords, this money must be transferred at the start of every month to the Palestinian Authority treasury, where it constitutes some two-thirds of the PA’s revenues. The remainder is collected directly inside the West Bank.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz instructed Israeli treasury officials to freeze the transfer of the money because of the reconciliation agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas. Ostensibly, the goal is to ensure that the money does not reach terrorist hands. This is not merely robbery; it is also a false pretext.

First, the Palestinian unity government has not yet been established. Second, the money is mainly earmarked for paying the salaries of PA employees. These are the same employees who received their salaries when Fatah and Hamas were still publicly cursing each other.

Steinitz’s order follows warnings against the reconciliation agreement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. I won’t say those warnings constituted “blatant intervention” in another people’s internal affairs, because what is Israeli domination of the Palestinian people if not blatant intervention, to put it mildly?

The sum of $105 million is peanuts compared to the value of the lands that Israel has stolen, and continues to steal, from the Palestinians. It is nothing compared to the economic and social damage that Israel causes by its policy of restricting freedom of movement. But confiscating this sum does create a series of immediate problems.

The PA, for all the talk about its institutions’ preparedness for statehood, suffers from chronic financial crisis and is dependent on donations and charity in order to survive from year to year. Those who marvel at the prosperity in Ramallah ignore the fact that it is artificial, stemming mainly from international assistance. Owing to Israel’s policy of closure and separation and its control over more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank, the occupied Palestinian economy cannot increase its revenues from independent productive activity.

The head of the Ramallah government, Salam Fayyad, has decided that instead of paying only part of the salaries, he will wait until the entire confiscated sum is released – or for a miracle – in order to pay all of them. Now, at the end of the second week of May, 151,000 employees in the Palestinian public sector still do not know when their salaries will arrive in their bank accounts (a total of NIS 527 million ). Another NIS 193 million has not reached some 100,000 people who get monthly stipends (families of prisoners, families of the fallen, welfare recipients ).

With the PA’s encouragement, tens of thousands of families have in recent years taken out bank loans to buy apartments. True, the Palestinian Monetary Authority has instructed the banks not to fine those who can’t make their payments this month, but even without a fine, these families will find themselves with checks that bounce and accounts in overdraft.

Moreover, even when paid on time, PA salaries (NIS 2,000 for a teacher, for example, or NIS 3,400 for a department head in a government office ) have not kept up with the cost of living. Thus more families will now have to give up basic expenditures such as travel, medical care, cultural events and so forth.

We have been here before. As usual, the freeze has led to a rebuke from the UN secretary general, pleading from Quartet envoy Tony Blair and a statement that the move was premature on the part of the U.S. State Department. It would have been better if they had kept quiet.

We all know that the robber will not be punished. The robber will even get encouragement in the form of an emergency budget for the PA, put together by the United States and Europe. That budget will then enable them to make even more political demands of the Palestinians.

======================

3. Ynet,

May 11, 2011

Arab-Israeli rally Photo: AFP

Israel braces for ‘Nakba Day’

IDF boosts West Bank deployment as Palestinians prepare to mark ‘disaster’ of Jewish State’s establishment; police bracing for possible violence within Green Line, Arab-Israelis hold major rally Tuesday

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4066929,00.html

Ynet reports

Independence Day over, ‘Nakba Day’ looming: Israel’s defense establishment is preparing for a possibly turbulent weekend as Palestinians mark what they view as the disaster inherent in Israel’s establishment.

The annual ‘Nakba Day’ will be marked on May 15th, the date of the Jewish state’s inception.

Security officials have been assessing the volatile situation in the past week, and as of Wednesday the IDF will be boosting its deployment throughout Judea and Samaria. The army is preparing for various scenarios, including extreme violence, despite estimations that Palestinian security forces will aim to keep tensions low.

Several IDF regiments will be joining units already in place, in case Palestinian rallies turn violent and prompt dangerous friction with Israeli forces and settlers.

“We don’t want to be surprised or improvise a response at the last moment,” a military official said, while expressing his hope that quiet will prevail throughout ‘Nakba Day.’

Meanwhile, Israel Police officials are preparing for the possibility of Arab Israelis joining the protests and resorting to violence within the Green Line. Police officers fear that planned rallies and marches will turn into mass riots and will discuss the option of boosting police deployment over the weekend.

As opposed to previous years, the Palestinians have been calling for civil disobedience both in the West Bank and outside Israel, in states sharing a border with the Jewish state. The trend got underway with the launch of a Facebook page urging the Palestinians to embark on a third Intifada on May 15.

Elsewhere online, several groups are organizing with the aims of reaching Israel’s borders. One such initiative is being organized by the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, with university students expected to depart from Cairo Friday en route to the Gaza Strip border.

‘Kfar Saba is occupied’

Tuesday evening, some 15,000 Arab Israelis took part in a ‘Nakba Day rally in the western Galilee region. The event was attended by Arab Knesset members and senior Islamic Movement figures.

Participants held up Palestinian flags and signs with anti-occupation slogans. Cities within Israel’s Green Line, including Kfar Saba and Petach Tikva, just north of Tel Aviv, were also declared as “occupied.” The rally also endorsed the recent Hamas-Fatah unity deal.

Unhappy on Independence Day (Photo: AFP)

However, it appears that there is no consensus on the Arab side, after the Islamic Movement walked out of the event because a female singer took the stage.

Speaking at the event, MK Ahmed Tibi said: “In 1948, ethnic cleansing was carried out through the destruction of 531 villages, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands, and the pulverizing of the Palestinian people.”

Referring to the so-called Nakba Law, aimed at combating displays rejecting the Jewish state’s existence, Tibi said: “This is an open wound in our heart, a narrative that is alive and kicking, and no law would change that. The Nakba Law deserves to be violated, and that’s what we did.”

Hasan Shaalan, Hanan Greenberg, Elior Levy and Omri Efraim contributed to the report

==============================

4. Ynet,

May 11, 2011

Jerusalem News

Al-Bustan neighborhood Photo: Noam Moskowitz

Court protects Palestinian homes, for now

Judge delays demolition of 22 homes in east Jerusalem until mayor’s plans for park approved

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4067176,00.html

Ronen Medzin

Palestinian homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Bustan are not to be demolished until plans are finalized and approved for the park that is to be established in their stead, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Wednesday.

Mayor Nir Barkat is promoting the plans, which require the demolition of 22 illegally-built homes. In exchange, the Arabs who reside in these homes will receive permits to build new homes legally on the other side of the neighborhood, at their expense. In addition, the 66 other homes in the neighborhood will be legalized retroactively.

Judge Yoram Noam said that according the municipality’s plans, there was no need to raze the homes yet. But municipality officials say the approval would take up to two years. “We will meet again when the plans are approved in 2012-2013. Debating it today is just unnecessary,” Noam said at the hearing.

Arab residents of al-Bustan have also filed construction plans of their own, and the planning and construction committee will have to decide between the two.

“I am pleased with the judge’s decision not to carry out the demolitions,” said Dr. Ziyad Kawar, who represents the residents. He said the plans they have offered will turn the neighborhood into “a nice place to visit, with infrastructure, coffee shops, hotels, paths, and running water”.

‘Al-Bustan lacks infrastructure, schools’

Kawar added that he believes the municipality will end up demolishing more than the 22 homes it has so far listed “because the archaeological-national-religious park Nir Barkat wants to establish requires demolishing many more (homes)”.

“It’s unfortunate that the Jerusalem Municipality is ignoring the suffering and neglect the residents must deal with in addition to the lack of infrastructure, roads, and schools. It is an unacceptable reality for people to dream at night of bulldozers come to destroy their homes,” he said.

Amnon Merhav, Jerusalem Municipality’s legal consultant, told a crowd of upset men and women from al-Bustan that the plans for the park will improve the quality of life for many of the city’s residents.

Regarding claims that the residents do not have the money to rebuild their homes on the other side of the neighborhood, Merhav said the municipality would discuss the issue after the plans are approved and that residents are invited to “negotiate the matter”.

“In any case, they are currently building homes so they must have most of the resources,” he said, defining the problem as “solely hypothetical”.

===================

5. Haaretz,

May 11, 2011

Hamas accepts 1967 borders, but will never recognize Israel, top official says

Speaking to Palestinian news agency Ma’an, Mahmoud Zahar says recognition of Israel would deprive future Palestinian generations of the possibility to ‘liberate’ their lands.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-accepts-1967-borders-but-will-never-recognize-israel-top-official-says-1.361072

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel news Gaza Hamas Middle East peace

Hamas would be willing to accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, a leader of the militant group, Mahmoud Zahar, told the Palestinian news agency Ma’an on Wednesday, adding, however, that Hamas would never recognize Israel since such a move would counter the group’s aim to “liberate” all of Palestine.

Zahar’s comments come amid Palestinian efforts to form a unity government that would include former rivals Fatah and Hamas, following a reconciliation agreement the two factions signed last week in Cairo.

Speaking to Ma’an on Wednesday, Zahar, hinting at the possible political line of a future Palestinian unity cabinet, said that recognizing Israel would “preclude the right of the next generations to liberate the lands,” wondering: “What will be the fate of the five million Palestinians in the diaspora?”

The Gaza strongman went on to tell Ma’an that Hamas would be willing to recognize a Palestinian state “on any part of Palestine,” as opposed to the group’s proclaimed aim to form a state “from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

Zahar also referred to the future of Hamas’ military truce with Israel, confirming that the movement would continue to honor the cessation of fighting, following a joint decision made with its new Fatah partners. The Hamas leader, however, reiterated that the truce was “part of the resistance not its rejection,” adding that a “truce is not peace.”

A top Palestinian official said on Tuesday that a new unity government between recently reconciled Hamas and Fatah will be formed in 10 days.

In an interview with Ma’an news agency, Fatah leader Nabil Shaath said that although the prime minister of a future interim unity government has yet to be announced, current PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is still in the running for the position.

Fayyad has taken unprecedented steps in recent months toward Palestinian statehood, recently presenting proposal in Brussels delineating a three-year aid plan that would allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future.

Palestinian leaders plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state in all the lands Israel occupied in 1967.

Fayyad has made it clear that in the event that Israel and the Palestinians do not reach a negotiated settlement, a Palestinian state will be declared unilaterally.

===============================

6, Al Jazeera Last Modified: 10 May 2011 15:23

Israel’s new laws promote repression

As Arabs across the region struggle for freedom and democracy, Israeli law seems to be headed in the opposite direction.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201151094314585794.html

Neve Gordon

The Israeli Knesset has passed some 20 new laws that have been characterised as undemocratic and racist – and target the country’s Arab minority and the occupied Palestinians [GALLO/GETTY]

“Bad laws,” Edmund Burke once said, “are the worst sort of tyranny.”

The millions of people who have been protesting – from Tunis, Egypt and Libya, to Bahrain, Yemen and Syria – appear to have recognised this truism and are demanding the end of emergency law and the drafting of new constitutions that will guarantee the separation of powers, free, fair and regular elections, and basic political, social and economic rights for all citizens.

To put it succinctly, they are fighting to end tyranny.

Within this dramatic context it is also fruitful to look at Israel, which is considered by many as the only democracy in the Middle East and which has, in many ways, been an outlier in the region. One might ask whether Israel or not stands as a beacon of light for those fighting tyranny.

On the one hand, the book of laws under which Israel’s citizenry live is – with the exception of a handful of significant laws that privilege Jews over non-Jews – currently very similar to those used in most liberal democracies, where the executive, legislative and judicial powers are separated, there are free, fair and regular elections, and the citizens enjoy basic rights – including freedom of expression and association.

Israel’s double standard

However, on the other hand, the Israeli military law used to manage the Palestinians are similar to those deployed in most Arab countries, where there is no real separation of powers and people are in many respects without rights. Even though there has been a Palestinian Authority since the mid-1990s, there is no doubt that sovereignty still lies in Israeli hands.

One accordingly notices that in this so-called free and democratic country, there are in fact two books of laws, one liberal for its own citizenry and the other for Palestinians under its occupation. Hence, Israel looks an awful lot like apartheid or colonialism.

But can Israel’s democratic parts serve as a model of emulation for pro-democracy activists in the neighbouring Arab countries?

The answer is mixed – because as Arab citizens across the region struggle against tyranny, in Israel there appears to be an opposite trend, whereby large parts of the citizenry are not only acquiescent but have been supportive of Knesset members who are drafting new legislation to silence public criticism and to delegitimize political rivals, human rights organizations, and the Palestinian minority. The idea is to legally restrict individuals and groups that hold positions at odds with the government’s right-wing agenda by presenting them as enemies of the State.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel recently warned that the laws promoted by the Knesset are dangerous and will have severe ramifications for basic human rights and civil liberties. The association, which is known for its evenhanded approach, went on to claim that the new laws “contribute to undemocratic and racist public stands, which have been increasingly salient in Israeli society in the past few years”.

New wave of repressive laws

Here are just a few examples of approximately twenty bills that have either been approved or are currently under consideration.

• The Knesset approved a new law stating that organisations and institutions that commemorate Nakba Day, “deny the Jewish and democratic character of the State”, and shall not receive public funds. Thus, even in the Arab schools within Israel, the Nakba must be erased. So much for democratic contestation and multiculturalism.

• Another new law states that “acceptance committees” of villages and communities may turn down a candidate if he or she “fails to meet the fundamental views of the community”. According to ACRI, this bill intends to deny ethnic minorities’ access to Jewish communities set up on predominantly public lands. So unless the new Arab pro-democracy movements want to base their countries on apartheid-like segregation, this is also not a law to emulate.

• The Knesset has approved a bill that pardons most of the protesters who demonstrated against Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Although legislation easing punitive measures against persons who exercise their right to political protest is, in principle, positive, this particular bill blatantly favours activists with a certain political ideology. This does not bode well for the basic notion of equality before the law.

• An amendment to the existing Penalty Code stipulates that people who publish a call that denies the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state shall be imprisoned. This extension of the existing law criminalises political views that the ruling political group does not accept. It is supported by the government and has passed a preliminary reading. Burgeoning democracies should definitely shy away from such legislation.

• There is currently a proposed bill to punish persons who initiate, promote, or publish material that might serve as grounds for imposing a boycott. The bill insists that these people are committing an offence and may be ordered to compensate parties economically affected by that boycott, including fixed reparations of 30,000 New Israeli Shekels (US$8,700), without an obligation on the plaintiffs to prove damages. This bill has already passed the first reading.

• Finally, a bill presented to the Knesset in October would require members of local and city councils, as well as some other civil servants, to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Democracy for a few

There is a clear logic underlying this spate of new laws; namely, the Israeli government’s decision to criminalise alternate political ideologies, such as the idea that Israel should be a democracy for all its citizens.

Hence, one witnesses an inverse trend – as the Arab citizens in the region struggle for more openness and indeed democracy, toppling dictators and pressuring governments to make significant liberal reforms, the Israeli book of laws is being rewritten so as to undercut democratic values.

Israelis celebrating the state’s 63rd birthday should closely examine the pro-democracy movements in Tahrir, Deraa and across the Arab world. They might very well learn a thing or two.

Neve Gordon is the author of Israel’s Occupation and can be reached through his website.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

================================

7. The Guardian Wednesday 11 May 2011 15.52 BST

A section of the West Bank barrier under construction. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Israel has suspended construction work on a 25-mile section of its controversial separation barrier in the West Bank in order to save money, it says.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/11/israel-west-bank-barrier

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk.

A defence ministry document, revealed by Army Radio, says work near a group of settlements known as Gush Etzion has been frozen but is expected to resume at the end of next year.

Construction of the barrier – mainly an electrified fence, but in some places an eight metre-high concrete wall – has slowed considerably in the last few years after starting at a frenetic pace in 2003.

When complete, it will take about 12% of the West Bank on to the Israeli side of the barrier.

The area in which work has been suspended is close to a settlement bloc that Israel is intent on keeping in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians under which final boundaries would be drawn.

Israel has long maintained that Gush Etzion, along with Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel, other major settlements, will not be relinquished.

Army Radio quoted the defence ministry document as saying Israel “realises the importance of erecting the fence and retains all of the claims to its construction despite a lack of funding”.

The cost of the barrier is thought to have risen considerably since it was estimated to be about $3.5bn (£2.1bn) five years ago.

A spokesman for the defence minister, Ehud Barak, said “the construction of the fence continues and will continue” but acknowledged the project was “complex from both a judicial and engineering point of view”.

The section of the barrier around Gush Etzion has been the subject of several legal challenges. Its planned route would cut off at least 20,000 Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank.

As well as the mounting cost of the barrier, continued construction around Gush Etzion is politically highly sensitive and would be seen as pre-judging the outcome of negotiations on the borders of a future Palestinian state.

The route of the barrier has been the subject of numerous legal challenges in the Israeli courts brought on behalf of Palestinian villages that faced losing access to their land or being cut in two.

Israel has always argued that the barrier is necessary to prevent suicide bombers reaching targets and to protect its settlements, all of which are illegal under international law.

However, Palestinians and many in the international community say its purpose is to annex territory and create a de facto border in advance of any peace deal. In 2004, the international court of justice ruled that the barrier was “contrary to international law”.

Along most of its route – which, in places, juts deep into the West Bank – it is an electrified fence with a border of barbed wire and patrol roads, cutting a 60 metre-wide swath through what is often prime Palestinian agricultural land.

In urban areas, it is a reinforced concrete wall that often slices through Palestinian neighbourhoods.

=========================

8. From Amnesty International eastmed@amnesty.org

Palestinian writer detained without charge by Israeli authorities

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/palestinian-writer-detained-without-charge-israeli-authorities-2011-05-10

Ahmad Qatamesh is being held for posing an unspecified security risk

© Private

10 May 2011

Israeli authorities should release or charge a Palestinian writer and academic held for almost three weeks in the occupied West Bank, Amnesty International said today.

The Israel Security Agency (ISA) say they want to keep Ahmad Qatamesh in detention in connection with allegations of involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which he denies.

“We fear that Ahmad Qatamesh may be behind bars for no reason other than the peaceful expression of his political views,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“If this is so, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

Israeli security forces raided Ahmad Qatamesh’s family home in Ramallah at around 1am on 21 April. When they did not find him at home they arrested him at his brother’s house nearby. He was questioned for 10 minutes after his arrest, the only time he has been asked about the allegations.

Ahmad Qatamesh became one of Israel’s longest-serving administrative detainees in the 1990s. He was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1992 and reportedly tortured, then placed in administrative detention more than a year later. Despite a lack of evidence presented against him, his detention orders were continually renewed until 1998 when he was freed in the midst of a sustained international campaign for his release.

Ahmad Qatamesh is known for his memoir of this time in detention, entitled “ I shall not wear your tarboosh [fez]”.

Twelve days after his recent arrest, Ahmad Qatamesh was issued with a six-month administrative detention order after a military judge refused a request from the ISA to extend, for the second time, his detention for questioning.

The detention order appeared to have been produced for another person entirely – a Hamas suspect whose name was erased using correction fluid and replaced with that of Ahmad Qatamesh.

“The use of someone else’s detention order to hurriedly renew Ahmad Qatamesh’s detention seems to be a sign of the Israeli security forces’ cavalier attitude to due process for Palestinian detainees,” said Philip Luther.

On 8 May, the authorities replaced the flawed administrative detention order with a fresh one and presented it to a military judge, who will decide whether to reduce, cancel or confirm the period of detention.

The order now says Ahmad Qatamesh is being held for posing an unspecified security risk, but no evidence has been presented.

The judge has asked to see any secret evidence against Ahmad Qatamesh, which the ISA must present at a hearing on Thursday. The hearing will be closed with neither Ahmad Qatamesh nor his lawyer allowed to be present.

Israel’s administrative detention procedures allow for indefinite detention without charge or trial.

The authorities say that the detainees are a “security risk”, but do not tell them or their lawyers how they have made this assessment in order to allow them an effective opportunity to contest it.

“The Israeli authorities have used administrative detention to lock up hundreds of Palestinians arbitrarily for prolonged periods,” said Philip Luther. “Ahmad Qatamesh must either be released or be charged and given the chance to have his case heard in an open court.”

The PFLP is a left-wing Palestinian political party which also has an armed wing. While Ahmad Qatamesh was a political and intellectual supporter of the PFLP in the 1990s, he says he has not been involved with them for 13 years.

To Amnesty International’s knowledge, he has never been involved with the PFLP’s armed wing or advocated violence.

Palestinian facing indefinite detention (Urgent Action, 6 May 2011)

Five years after the Oslo Accords: Human rights sacrificed for security (Report, 31 August 1998)

=========================

9. [forwarded by Ruth]

Attention to my Israeli Fans and Friends: Important announcement concerning the June concerts

http://www.andymckee.com/news/attention-to-my-israeli-fans-and-friends-important-announcement-concerning-the-june-concerts/

Hey guys. Well I’ve got some bad news, the shows this summer in Israel are canceled. I absolutely hate to have to say those words to you all as I know many of you have been waiting many months, or even years to come to a show.

Over the last week on tour, I’ve come to realize that I can not be away from home for a month or more at a time with my new son back at home. The maximum is probably more like less than 3 weeks. Right now I am scheduled for a full month of touring in June so I’ve had to shorten my away time from home.

The rest of 2011 is pretty relaxed compared to the first half, so no other dates should be affected but of course I will let you know immediately if anything else changes.

Additionally, I try to always be transparent with you guys so I should also say that at least part of the decision to cancel the shows also concerns the stability of the region. I’m becoming more aware that I am very sensitive (perhaps a character flaw) to traveling to areas that are in turmoil or that are facing geo-political threats and other discord. My booking agents arrange shows up to a year in advance and I commit to shows at that time. However, if things come up that give me reason to be uncomfortable performing in a region (the bus attack in Jerusalem last march, the Fatah-Hamas pact and Netanyahu’s labeling it a “victory for terrorism”, the 48 rocket attacks on the Gaza Strip so far this year) than I won’t be performing there until peace and acceptance are the norm.

I am very sorry if this impacts you. You have every right to be upset, but I hope this explanation helps in some small way. This decision is entirely my own and was made only after much thought and discussion with my immediate and extended family.

With sincerest apologies,

Andy McKee

This entry was written by andymckee, posted on May 9, 2011 at 2:55 am, filed under News. Bookmark the permalink.

=======================

10. The Guardian Wednesday 11 May 2011 07.30 BST

Tony Kushner: an angel in AmericaKushner’s drama has explored the McCarthyite witchhunts. How ironic that he was persecuted for criticising Israel’s government

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/11/tony-kushner-cuny-honorary-degree

Amy Goodman

Playwright Tony Kushner speaks out on the CUNY controversy, academic freedom and Israel. Video: DemocracyNow!

Tony Kushner will be receiving an honorary degree from John Jay College of criminal justice in New York City. This shouldn’t be big news. Kushner is a renowned playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, along with an Emmy award and two Tonys. The degree became big news when it was abruptly shelved by the City University of New York board of trustees during its 2 May meeting, after a trustee accused Kushner of being anti-Israel.

A campaign grew almost immediately, first calling on previous recipients of honorary degrees from CUNY colleges (of which John Jay College is one) to return them. Within days, what would have been a quickly forgotten bestowal of an honorary degree erupted into an international scandal. The chair of the board, Benno Schmidt, former president of Yale University, convened an emergency executive session of the board, which voted unanimously to restore the honour to Kushner.

The controversy exposed the extreme polarity that increasingly defines the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the willingness by some to suppress free speech and vigorous dialogue to further rigid, political dogma. The trustee who attacked Kushner, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, began his tirade at the original board meeting with an attack on Mary Robinson, who was formerly both the president of Ireland and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. He then went on:

“There is a lot of disingenuous and nonintellectual activity directed against the state of Israel on campuses throughout the country, the west generally, and oftentimes the United States, as well.”

He presented several quotes that he attributed to Kushner to make his case, ending with, “I don’t want to bore you all with the details.”

Tony Kushner told me:

“[W]hat he’s doing is sparing them not boring details, but the full extent of the things that I’ve said about the state of Israel that would in fact make it clear to the board that I am in no way an enemy of the state of Israel, that I am, in fact, a vocal and ardent supporter of the state of Israel, but I don’t believe that criticism of state policy means that one seeks the destruction of a state. I’ve been very critical of the policies of my own government.”

First, a little history on Kushner’s work. He won the Pulitzer for his play “Angels in America”. The play is subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes”, and addresses the HIV/Aids epidemic and the struggle that many gay and lesbian people endure in the United States. A key character in the play is a fictionalised version of Roy Cohn, a prominent attorney who, early in his career, was a key adviser to Senator Joseph McCarthy. Cohn helped McCarthy with his fanatical pursuit of suspected communists in the US government and beyond. He was considered a lifelong closeted gay man, despite the fact that he helped target people for political persecution for being gay. Cohn died in 1986 of complications due to Aids, although he publicly described his illness as liver cancer. Thus, in a dramatic, real-life turn of events, Kushner, who has written extensively on the witchhunts of the McCarthy era, has now become the object of such a witch hunt himself.

The CUNY Board of Trustees’ version of Roy Cohn here is Wiesenfeld, appointed by a former Republican governor of New York, George Pataki.

I interviewed Tony Kushner soon after he got word that his honorary degree had been restored. He said US policy toward the Middle East “based on rightwing fantasies and theocratic fantasies and scripture-based fantasies of what history and on-the-ground reality is telling us, is catastrophic and is going to lead to the destruction of the state of Israel”. He went on:

“These people are not defending it. They’re not supporting it. They’re, in fact, causing a distortion of US policy regarding Israel and a distortion of the internal politics of Israel itself, because they exert a tremendous influence in Israel and support rightwing politicians who, I think, have led the country into a very dark and dangerous place.”

During the McCarthy era, the US was a dark and dangerous place as well. Now, amid the uprisings in the Arab and Muslim world, the recent rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas, and the likely recognition of Palestinian statehood by the United Nations general assembly, there is no more urgent time for vigorous and informed debate.

The future of peace in the Middle East depends on dissent. Those, like Tony Kushner, with the courage to speak out are the true angels in America.

• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column

A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Supporting Palestinian rights makes you “anti-Israel”

Posted: 11 May 2011 05:58 PM PDT

This weekend I’m speaking at the Sydney Palestine conference organised by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. I’m talking about the Arab revolutions and their effect on Palestine, the myopic Australian Jewish community and the media’s inability to speak honestly about Palestinians (I’m looking at you, Murdoch press, who seem to believe that they have to wear a mask before speaking to Palestinians).
Today’s Australian features another non-story about Greens NSW-Senator elect Lee Rhiannon for (gasp!) speaking at the conference. I guess that makes her a rabid anti-Semite who simply believes in peace in the Middle East.

Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon has again been accused of pushing an anti-Israel agenda after accepting an invitation to speak at a “Palestine solidarity” conference, while the Senate yesterday condemned the Greens’ support of a boycott against the Jewish state.
Opposition senator Eric Abetz successfully moved a motion raising concerns about the Greens, Labor and union support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel after Marrickville council’s brief adoption of the policy. “The Senate condemned those in the Labor Party, the Greens and unions who are supporting the BDS campaign against Israel,” Senator Abetz said.
The motion led to some fiery discussion, and Greens leader Bob Brown called on the Senate to spend an entire day debating the violence in the Middle East and finding ways to help people in the region.
Ms Rhiannon’s invitation to a two-day conference at the University of Technology Sydney, organised by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine, is promoted as a forum for discussing “how to make Australian solidarity with Palestinian self-determination more effective”.
“Now that campaigns to isolate Israel are front-page news, the conference is designed to re-focus on the core rights of Palestinians: national freedom, equality, democracy, land, peace and the end of exile of the refugees,” said one of the event’s co-ordinators, Ken Davis.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff slammed Ms Rhiannon’s involvement with the forum, which he described as “an activist conference lacking any hint of balance or academic integrity on a divisive and complex issue”.
Ms Rhiannon, who will take up her Senate spot when the Greens gain the balance of power on July 1, earned a rebuke from Senator Brown last month over her support for the campaign to boycott Israel.

What the US and the West isn’t helping in Yemen

Posted: 11 May 2011 06:13 AM PDT

Palestinian rights barely exist for Australian politicians

Posted: 11 May 2011 06:07 AM PDT

It takes a certain kind of chutzpah for corporatised leaders to continue praising “democratic” Israel.
Today in the Australian parliament the following was put on the record.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Liberal Senator Eric Abetz): To move—That the Senate—
(a) notes:
(i) its decision on 23 March 2011 to acknowledge that Israel is a legitimate and democratic state and a good friend of Australia and to denounce the Israeli boycott by Marrickville Council and condemn any expansion of it,
(ii) the response by the Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, to this decision of the Senate, which
was to ask that the Australian Greens’ opposition to this motion be recorded,
(iii) subsequent statements by Senator Brown that it was a mistake for the New South Wales Greens to advocate this policy and that it was neither the Federal Greens, nor his policy to boycott Israel, and
(iv) Marrickville Council’s decision on 19 April 2011 to rescind its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
policy against Israel;
(b) rejects the policy of the New South Wales Greens which calls on all Australians and the Australian Government to boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and academic events;
(c) notes with concern:
(i) the resolution carried at the 2010 Regional Conference of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to support the BDS campaign against Israel,
(ii) initial support for the support for the BDS campaign against Israel by four Labor councillors on Marrickville
Council,
(iii) the decision by the New South Wales ALP to preference Greens candidate and Marrickville Mayor, Fiona
Byrne, in the seat of Marrickville at the New South Wales state election, and
(iv) reports that Mr David Forde, Convenor of Labor 4A Just Palestine, who supports the BDS campaign, is a
frontrunner for ALP preselection for the Queensland state seat of Stretton;
(d) denounces support lent to the BDS campaign against Israel by the: Victorian Trades Hall Council; Geelong
Trades Hall Council; Newcastle Trades Hall Council; South Coast Labour Council; Queensland Council of Unions;UnionsACT and branches of the Australian Services Union; Teachers’ Union; Liquor, Hospitality and
Miscellaneous Workers Union; Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union; Maritime Union of Australia;
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union; Electrical Trades Union; Finance Sector Union; Health and Community Services Union; and Rail, Tram and Bus Union;
(e) calls on the Australian Council of Trade Unions to oppose this campaign; and
(f) in light of events and information available to the Senate since 23 March 2011, reaffirms its decision that Israel is a legitimate and democratic state and a good friend of Australia.

and

PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS
Notices for Wednesday, 11 May 2011
1 MS Julie. BISHOP [Liberal MP]: To move—That this House:
(1) restates its support for the motion moved by the then Prime Minister and passed by this House on the* sixtieth anniversary of the State of Israel, and in particular:
(a) acknowledges the unique relationship which exists between Australia and Israel, a bond highlighted by the commitment of both societies to the rights and liberty of our citizens and to cultural diversity;
(b) commends the State of Israel’s commitment to democracy, the rule of law and pluralism; and
(c) reiterates Australia’s commitment to Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, and our continued support for a peaceful two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue; and
(2) notes with concern the fraying of the traditionally bipartisan support amongst Australia’s political parties for the State of Israel, and in particular the:
(a) resolution by Greens councillors on Marrickville Council for a boycott of Israel, supported by Labor councillors;
(b) policy adopted by the NSW Greens for an Israel boycott;
(c) decision by the NSW Labor Party to preference the Greens candidate for Marrickville ahead of other candidates who did not support an Israel boycott; and
(d) decision by Labor and Greens councillors on Moreland City Council, Melbourne, to allow the anti-semitic group Hizb ut-Tahrir to use Council premises in August 2010 despite
Hizb ut-Tahrir publicly calling for the slaughter of Jewish people, and its enthusiasm for Osama bin Laden. (Notice given 10 May 2011.)

Only craven politicians feel the need to continually praise a nation that occupies another people. What does it say that there are no mainstream politicians (apart from a few Greens) who oppose this slavishness?
Apartheid Israel continues on its merry way.

Assad associate warns of chaos if he goes

Posted: 11 May 2011 05:27 AM PDT

Of course they would say this but note the warning to Israel. The essential Anthony Shadid in the New York Times:

Syria’s ruling elite, a tight-knit circle at the nexus of absolute power, loyalty to family and a visceral instinct for survival, will fight to the end in a struggle that could cast the Middle East into turmoil and even war, warned Syria’s most powerful businessman, a confidant and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.
The frank comments by Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon who has emerged in the two-month uprising as a magnet for anger at the privilege that power brings, offered an exceedingly rare insight into the thinking of an opaque government, the prism through which it sees Syria, and the way it reaches decisions.
Troubled by the greatest threat to its four decades of rule, the ruling family, he suggested, has conflated its survival with the existence of the minority sect that views the protests not as legitimate demands for change but rather as the seeds of civil war.
“If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel,” he said in an interview Monday that lasted more than three hours. “No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”
Asked if it was a warning or a threat, Mr. Makhlouf demurred. “I didn’t say war,” he said. “What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do.”
His words cast into the starkest terms a sentiment the government has sought to cultivate — us or chaos — and it underlined the tactics of a ruling elite that has manipulated the ups and downs of a tumultuous region to sustain an overriding goal: its own survival.
…
Mr. Makhlouf suggested that economic reform would stay primary.
“This is a priority for Syrians,” he said. “We have to ask for economic reform before speaking about political reform.” He acknowledged that change had come late and limited. “But if there is some delay,” he added, “it’s not the end of the world.”
He warned the alternative — led by what he described as Salafists, the government’s name for Islamists — would mean war at home and perhaps abroad.
“We won’t accept it,” he said. “People will fight against them. Do you know what this means? It means catastrophe. And we have a lot of fighters.”

Reminding the establishment why Wikileaks enables us all

Posted: 11 May 2011 01:20 AM PDT

Last night in Britain Julian Assange won the Sydney Peace Foundation award for his commitment to democracy and human rights:
Video streaming by Ustream

How did Serco end up convincing Australian government of its brilliance?

Posted: 10 May 2011 11:15 PM PDT

Peter Chambers gives a convincing argument:

By all accounts, Serco probably was the least worst choice; what we are dealing with here is the political equivalent of Steven Bradbury’s win in the 2002 Winter Olympics. It’s not so much that Serco won the contract, it’s that there were no other viable contenders. This connects to the de facto situation in Canberra surrounding tender processes like this one. In practice, the leading contenders are those corporations large and wealthy enough to afford highly skilled, well-connected lobbyists capable of gaining access to and maintaining good relationships with their key counterparts in the government.
This is effectively Serco’s business model with governments around the world: aggressive lobbying, savvy corporate communications, underbidding, cost-cutting, sub-sub-sub-sub contracting, and a willingness to provide ‘support services’ for all those things governments cannot or will no longer do. Its workers – often inadequately trained and prepared for their tasks, as a recent 7.30 report detailed – do the dirty, dangerous, difficult, repetitive, boring, traumatic work of dealing with things and caring for people that we would rather not think about.
Serco’s yellow-vest-wearing grunts are the frontline workers of the latest wave if the privatisation boom.