Canada, U.S. acting just as bad as al-Qaida, says ex-general

By John Ward, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Canada and the United States have sunk to the moral equivalent of terrorists in their handling of a young Canadian held at Guantanamo Bay, says Liberal senator and ex-general Romeo Dallaire.

Dallaire says the two countries have flouted human rights and international conventions in dealing with Omar Khadr and are no better than those who don't believe in rights at all.

He told a House of Commons committee Tuesday that Khadr is a victim - a child soldier who should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society and not tried before what he called an illegal court.

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By THERESE MUGHANNAM-WALRATH

May 13, 2008



Palestinians participate in a West Bank ceremony to commemorate the Nakba, or the catastrophe, describing the uprooting of Palestinians with the 1948 creation of the state of Israel.

Celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel are already under way all over the world. President Bush is scheduled to go to Israel to add American support and congratulations to the Israelis.

Even though I recognize the importance and the need for an Israeli state for Jewish people, I will not be celebrating. I and many other people will be remembering the nakba or catastrophe that happened in 1948. I am a Palestinian-American, born in Jerusalem right before the United Nations decided to divide the country of my birth and give over half of it to the creation of a Jewish state. Because our media have kept alive, and rightly so, the plight of the Jewish people culminating in the Holocaust, I would like to recount the other side of the story, which has been carefully kept out of our awareness in the United States.

Many people still have no idea why those people have been fighting each other for centuries. That is the first myth I'd like to eradicate. People in my family remember what life was like in pre-1948 Palestine. They remember how Palestinians and Jews worked in orange groves together, how the women shared clubs and their children shared nurseries. One of my relatives fondly remembers how her father would often sit with his Jewish friend under an olive tree outside their kitchen. The two men would spend hours playing backgammon and sipping lemonade, laughing loudly and enjoying each other's company. The conflict in Israel/Palestine is not centuries old, nor is it a religious conflict. The conflict is about land.

For those who want to learn, there is plenty of declassified material published by brave Israeli historians, such as Ilan Pappe, which paints a very different picture of what took place in 1948 when more than 750,000 Palestinians were displaced. My family fled the terror and chaos of war and went to Jordan where we stayed for a few years until we were able to come to America. Other refugees, now numbering millions, are still living in diaspora, most in refugee camps all over the Arab world.

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Tuesday 13 May 2008

Feature

Sixty years since the Palestinians were expelled, Anne Alexander and John Rose examine the roots of the Israeli state

The state of Israel was founded 60 years ago out of a monstrous crime – the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians from their homes.

This violence is known to Palestinians as the Nakba – the Arabic word for “catastrophe”. It was followed by a second humanitarian disaster in 1967 when Israel seized the whole of Jerusalem and the entirety of historic Palestine – leading to over 40 years of military occupation and wave after wave of killings in defence of the Zionist state.

The events surrounding the Nakba and the creation of Israel in 1948 are crucial to understanding the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.

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US confirms KBR Nigeria bribes

By Upstream staff

US authorities say they have evidence that an agent used by Halliburton’s former subsidiary KBR did issue bribes to Nigerian officials in connection with a Shell project in that country, according to a filing made by Halliburton to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) at the end of last month.

The SEC launched a formal investigation into the matter, which dates back to the 1980s, last year after a March 2007 Halliburton government filing disclosed it.

The more recent filing stated that Halliburton and KBR suspended their agent in Nigeria and another agent who had worked for KBR on “several current projects and on numerous older projects going back to the early 1980s”.

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May 13, 2008

EXCLUSIVE: Fmr. Military Intelligence Officer Reveals US Listed Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as Target Prior to Killing of Two Journalists in 2003

Guest:

Adrienne Kinne, former Army sergeant who worked in military intelligence. Served for ten years, from 1994 to 2004.

Related
A bill under consideration in the U.S. Congress would add Israel to a select group of countries entitled to expedited arms exports.


U.S. reviewing Israel's trade status

Published: 05/13/2008

The United States is conducting a rare interim review of Israel's place on a trade list that incurs possible sanctions.

Susan Schwab, the U.S. Trade Representative, is keeping Israel on her office's priority watch list this year because of alleged trade violations. Placement on the list subjects Israel to greater scrutiny and possible sanctions.

However, Schwab also agreed to an "out of cycle" review because of the recent passage in Israel of copyright protection legislation and other positive steps. Such a review, which may result in Israel's removal from the list before the 2009 list is prepared, is rare.

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Feds: Drugs made at kosher meat plant

Published: 05/13/2008

Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work.

The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.

In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture.

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Related
Military analysts named in Times exposé appeared or were quoted more than 4,500 times on broadcast nets, cables, NPR


Glenn Greenwald

(updated below)

On April 30, 2008 -- ten days after David Barstow's "military analyst" story was first published in the New York Times -- The Raw Story's Eric Brewer, at the daily White House briefing with Dana Perino, became the first reporter to ask the White House about it and, specifically, whether White House officials had any involvement with, or were aware of, the DoD's program. [After Brewer aggressively challenged Perino in mid-March regarding a particularly absurd claim the President had made about Al Qaeda's taking over the Iraqi oil industry if the U.S. withdraws, Perino blacklisted Brewer, refusing to call on him for questions, literally ignoring him while he had his hand raised. She allowed him to ask a question on April 30 only because radio talk show host and briefing room regular Les Kinsolving badgered her into doing so ("How about this gentleman's question? He's had his hand up all this time")].

In reply to Brewer's question -- "did the White House know about and approve of this operation?" -- Perino gave an utterly non-responsive and rather incoherent answer, during which she said that she "do[esn't] think that that should be against the law" (that, of course, is the Bush standard of Justice: anything is permissible, even if it's illegal, if the President thinks it "shouldn't be against the law"). She did not, however, indicate if the White House knew -- which was Brewer's question.

Although the official White House transcript doesn't reflect this, after Perino gave her non-responsive reply, Brewer -- as Perino began to walk out -- again asked: "Did the White House know about the operation?" The transcript and video compiled by ThinkProgress reflects that Brewer asked this question a second time.

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May 5, 2008 Issue

Copyright © 2007 The American Conservative

Mr. Zbig

Brzezinski brings wisdom—and controversy—to Barack Obama’s campaign

by Philip Weiss

To meet Zbigniew Brzezinski is to have no doubt that he is an important man. The morning of our appointment, I was informed that I would have 15 minutes, and 14 minutes and 30 seconds into the interview Brzezinski glanced at his watch and said, “One more question.” Cordial, aristocratic, precise. He wore a fine pinstriped suit and black boots in a hunter’s style, with a black strap crossing the throat. The famous hooded eyes gazed out at the street.

It was a couple of days before Brzezinski’s 80th birthday, but it didn’t seem like a landmark to him: “It doesn’t look much different from anything else.” When I asked whether he didn’t feel a sense of satisfaction, he shrugged. “I honestly don’t have any feeling about it.”

His voice crackled with age, but he was immune to all pressure, especially when the name Obama came up.

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May 5, 2008 Issue
Copyright © 2008 The American Conservative

Freedomland

by William S. Lind

In the second week in April, the world’s most elaborate kabuki theater, Washington, offered a stunning performance. America’s two consuls for Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan C. Crocker, gave Congress and the world their appreciation of the situation in that unhappy country. Senators and congressmen listened with rapt attention. The three presidential candidates, aka the three blind mice, postured and preened in the great men’s presence. The press hung on every word. Analysts and columnists parsed their meaning.

As with theater, none of it was real.

Both Crocker and Petraeus spoke of Iraq as if it were a state. Crocker referred to “The passage of the 2008 [Iraqi] budget, with record amounts for capital expenditures, [which] ensures that the federal and provincial governments will have the resources for public spending.” He spoke of “the development of Iraq’s Council of Representatives as a national institution.” He cautioned that “there is still very much to be done to bring full government control to the streets of Basra.” In a similar vein, General Petraeus repeatedly referred to Iraqi Security Forces, noting, “An increasingly robust Iraqi-run training base enabled the Iraqi Security Forces to grow by over 3,000 soldiers and police over the past 16 months.” He assured Congress, “Iraq’

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From the Los Angeles Times

The 'Long War' fallacy

By Andrew J. Bacevich

May 13, 2008

Donald Rumsfeld is today a discredited and widely reviled figure. Robert Gates, Rumsfeld's successor as Defense secretary, is generally admired for manifesting qualities that Rumsfeld lacked -- a willingness to listen not least among them. Yet on one crucial point, the two see eye to eye: Both believe that the United States has no alternative but to wage a global war likely to last decades.

In the wake of 9/11, Rumsfeld wasted no time in telling Americans what to expect. "Forget about 'exit strategies,' " he said on Sept. 28, 2001, "we're looking at a sustained engagement that carries no deadlines." Speaking at West Point last month, Gates echoed his predecessor's assessment: "There are no exit strategies," he announced. Instead, Gates described a "generational campaign" entailing "many years of persistent, engaged combat all around the world."

For the United States, the prospect of permanent war now beckons.

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Glenn Greenwald

Tuesday May 13, 2008

Finding Obama guilty of insufficient devotion to Israel

(updated below - Update II)

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg conducted what he's calling an "interview" with Barack Obama regarding Israel, but it sounded much more like an inquisition. Goldberg repeatedly demanded that Obama swear his devotion to Israel and affirm prevailing orthodoxies ("I'm curious to hear you talk about the Zionist idea. Do you believe that it has justice on its side?"; "Go to the kishke question, the gut question: the idea that if Jews know that you love them, then you can say whatever you want about Israel, but if we don't know you –- Jim Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski –- then everything is suspect. There seems to be in some quarters, in Florida and other places, a sense that you don’t feel Jewish worry the way a senator from New York would feel it"; "Do you think that Israel is a drag on America's reputation overseas?"; "If you become President, will you denounce settlements publicly?"). Afterwards, Goldberg pronounced himself satisfied: "Obama expressed -- in twelve different ways -- his support for Israel to me."

Marty Peretz, after a telephone conversation with Obama devoted primarily to Israel, similarly clears Obama of any suspicions of disloyalty, approvingly noting that Obama "recognizes" that Israeli settlements of the West Bank are not "the core problem" for the conflict with the Palestinians (to Peretz, such settlements "are very much a side-issue"). Peretz further decrees that Obama's "exhilarating experience with American Jews and with their bonds to the dream and realities of Israel" was evident in both Goldberg's interview and in Obama's call with Peretz.

Needless to say, Obama's vows of devotion to Israel were not enough for the right-wing polemicists who endlessly play on the fears of American Jews and exploit Israel-related issues for political gain. GOP leaders in the House -- such as House Minority John Boehner -- issued highly inflammatory statements regarding Obama's interview with Goldberg, condemning Obama for describing Israel as a "constant sore" when, in fact, Obama used that term to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- not Israel (that lie by Boehner and others was so severe that Goldberg, to his credit, embraced Andrew Sullivan's description of Boehner's statement as a "flat-out lie" and added that it was "mendacious, duplicitous, gross, and comically refutable").

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Related
GOP Congressman Unveils Bill to Limit Presidential 'Signing Statements'
McCain and the 'Unitary Executive'
The Republican Dictatorship

Who can we blame for the radical expansion of executive power? Look no further than you and me.

Gene Healy | June 2008 Print Edition

“I ain’t running for preacher,” Republican presidential candidate Phil Gramm snarled to religious right activists in 1995 when they urged him to run a campaign stressing moral themes. Several months later, despite Gramm’s fund raising prowess, the Texas conservative finished a desultory fifth place in the Iowa caucuses and quickly dropped out of the race. Since then, few candidates have made Gramm’s mistake. Serious contenders for the office recognize that the role and scope of the modern presidency cannot be so narrowly confined. Today’s candidates are running enthusiastically for national preacher—and much else besides.

In the revival tent atmosphere of Barack Obama’s campaign, the preferred hosanna of hope is “Yes we can!” We can, the Democratic front-runner promises, not only create “a new kind of politics” but “transform this country,” “change the world,” and even “create a Kingdom right here on earth.” With the presidency, all things are possible.

Even though Republican nominee John McCain tends to eschew rainbows and uplift in favor of the grim satisfaction that comes from serving a “cause greater than self-interest,” he too sees the presidency as a font of miracles and the wellspring of national redemption. A president who wants to achieve greatness, McCain suggests, should emulate Teddy Roosevelt, who “liberally interpreted the constitutional authority of the office” and “nourished the soul of a great nation.” President George W. Bush, when passing the GOP torch to his former rival in March, declared that the Arizona senator “will bring determination to defeat an enemy and a heart big enough to love those who hurt.” Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, suggests she is “ready on Day 1 to be commander in chief of our economy.”

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Cop: 'We really don't fully understand and know the risks'


Tase Me, Bro

What I learned while trying to get tasered by the RCMP.

By Danielle Egan

Published: May 8, 2008
TheTyee.ca

The shooting was premeditated. Cpl. Gregg Gillis plotted it out a month in advance. Two weeks later, he nailed down the date and location: the RCMP Richmond detachment. My first thought upon waking that morning: What to wear to my own zapping?
En route to Richmond, I half expect a last-minute call to cancel my appointment with 50,000 volts of electricity. Gillis, the RCMP's use-of-force coordinator, agreed to my request just weeks after Robert Dziekański died at YVR on Oct. 14, after being tasered twice by Richmond-based RCMP officers.

A provincial government inquest on taser safety started this week, while the coroner's inquest into Dziekański's death set to start this month has been pushed back until the RCMP investigation concludes.

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IDF soldier documented shooting demonstrator at close range in Bil’in

(Video) Footage obtained by Ynet shows soldier firing rubber bullet at close range at young protestor demonstrating near Palestinian village; ‘I’ll continue showing up,’ says youngster, who religiously attends Friday Bil'in rallies against security fence

Ali Waked

Latest Update: 05.13.08, 16:56 / Israel News

VIDEO - The IDF has launched an investigation after a video acquired by Ynet showed a soldier firing a rubber bullet at a protestor for no apparent reason. The findings will be handed over to the Military Advocate General's office, which will decide on the next moves.

In a video shot by B’Tselem (The Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), a young Israeli is seen standing near a group of soldiers, when he is suddenly shot at close range. B’Tselem members claim they approached the Military Advocate General's office with the footage, and the latter responded by saying it would investigate the case.

The youth was shot in his thigh by an officer while attending a rally in mid March. According to the victim, the rubber bullet penetrated his thigh, and he is suffering from a severe wound in his leg.

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Series of massive explosions rip through downtown Jaipur minutes apart. Death toll expected to rise

News agencies

Latest Update: 05.13.08, 20:18 / Israel News

At least seven bombs exploded in the western Indian city of Jaipur Tuesday evening, most within a few minutes of each other, killing at least 80 people and injuring around 100, police, officials and witnesses said.

The bombs all exploded in Jaipur's crowded walled city, an area often frequented by tourists. One was beside a Hindu temple.

The Foreign Ministry said that inquiries by Israeli embassy personnel in New Delhi showed that no Israelis were hurt in the blasts.

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Town Halls should map race and religion to identify 'tension hotspots', says Hazel Blears

By STEVE DOUGHTY 12th May 2008

More than 10 million people are to have their everyday disputes, their politics and their business lives checked by new "tension monitoring" committees.

The committees are to be set up to try to cut the risk of riots or disturbances in the aftermath of terrorist outrages or outbreaks of local racial trouble.

They will ask for and file reports on named troublemakers whose political activities are considered to be raising community tensions.

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May 13, 2008

Unnecessary Wars

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

In a new book that will infuriate the fake conservatives who inhabit the Republican Party, Patrick J. Buchanan documents how British self-righteousness, delusion, and hubris destroyed both the British Empire and Western ascendancy in two unnecessary wars launched by a small cabal of morons that ruled Britain

Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War shows that the two world wars that destroyed European civilization began when England declared war on Germany, thus dragging in the Empire, Commonwealth, and United States. This was a strategic blunder unparalleled in history. Mighty Britain emerged from World War II as an American dependency.

Buchanan cites such British notables as F.J.P. Veale, B.H. Liddell Hart, and C.P. Snow to document that it was Winston Churchill who committed, in Veale’s words, “the first deliberate breach of the fundamental rule of civilized warfare that hostilities must only be waged against the enemy combatant forces.” It was Churchill, not Hitler, who first targeted civilian populations in World War II and caused the structure of civilized warfare to collapse in ruins.

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