http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com :: News from Middle East :: E :: en-us 10-mar-2010 17:19 ECT 10-mar-2010 17:19 ECT http://rss.newsfrommiddleeast.com Weblog Editor 2.0 info@newsfrommiddleeast.com info@newsfrommiddleeast.com http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64036 March 10, 2010 - We've now been at war with, or in, Iraq for almost 20 years, and intermittently at war in Afghanistan for 30 years. Think of it as nearly half a century of experience, all bad. And what is it that Washington seems to have concluded? In Afghanistan, where one disaster after another has occurred, that we Americans can finally do more of the same, somewhat differently calibrated, and so much better. In Iraq, where we had, it seemed, decided that enough was enough and we should simply depart, the calls from a familiar crew for us to stay are growing louder by the week. The Iraqis, so the argument goes, need us... 10-mar-2010 17:19 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64036 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64035 March 10, 2010 - The stated goal of the US-led war in Afghanistan, according to the Obama administration, is to defeat the Taliban and establish a stable democratic government over the entire country. Critical to that goal is establishing a professional Afghan Army and police force that is not corrupt and that has the respect of the Afghan people. But reports out of Canada suggest that, far from creating such a military and police force, the so-called International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) is turning a blind eye to the thuggish criminality of those organizations, both to avoid growing opposition in ISAF member countries and to avoid offending those organizations in Afghanistan. The issue in question is routine rape of children by Afghan soldiers and police operating on Canadian-run bases in the Kandahar region... 10-mar-2010 17:04 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64035 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64034 March 10, 2010 - Joe Biden, the US vice president, has said that Israel's decision to expand settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem "undermines" the trust needed for peace talks. The news that Israel planned to build 1,600 new housing units came the same day Biden was in Israel to emphasise the US president's committment to Israel's security in the face of a possible Iranian nuclear threat.... 10-mar-2010 16:43 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64034 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64033 March 10, 2010 - People are hitting the streets in the U.S. in masses. Every day, we see violent demonstrations. We have seen fights and even guns brandished by some of the protestors. Speakers at "town hall" meetings have been shouted down to the point that the meeting must cease. The subject of these raucous events is the proposed overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system by Barack Obama. Let's be clear about one thing. Obama's plan is merely window-dressing for business as usual. The supporters of this scheme maintain the U.S. will finally have a national health service. This is only lip-service to the administration. On the other hand, the opponents are using outright lies to denigrate the planned changes. They accuse the Obama administration of bringing socialism to the U.S., despite Obama's unashamed affinity to capitalism.. 10-mar-2010 16:19 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64033 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64032 March 10, 2010 - With his decision to boost defense spending, President Obama is continuing the process of re-inflating the Pentagon that began in late 1998 - fully three years before the 9/11 attacks on America. The FY 2011 budget marks a milestone, however: The inflation-adjusted rise in spending since 1998 will probably exceed 100 percent in real terms by the end of the fiscal year. Taking the new budget into account, the Defense Department has been granted about $7.2 trillion since 1998, when the post-Cold War decline in defense spending ended. The rise in spending since 1998 is unprecedented over a 48-year period... 10-mar-2010 15:56 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64032 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64031 March 10, 2010 - Seven years after Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, her family was to put the Israeli government in the dock today. A judge in the northern Israeli city of Haifa was due to be presented with evidence that 23-year-old Corrie was killed unlawfully as she stood in the path of the bulldozer, trying to prevent it from demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah... 10-mar-2010 14:49 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64031 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64030 March 10, 2010 - The family of a US student activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza has launched a case against the Israeli government. Rachel Corrie, whose family is seeking $324,000 in damages from the defence ministry, was one of several foreign activists killed in confrontations with Israel in occupied territory in the past decade. She was nonviolently protesting against Palestinian home demolitions when the army bulldozer crushed her to death... 10-mar-2010 14:17 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64030 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64029 March 10, 2010 - The family of a US student activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza has launched a case against the Israeli government. Rachel Corrie, whose family is seeking $324,000 in damages from the defence ministry, was one of several foreign activists killed in confrontations with Israel in occupied territory in the past decade. She was nonviolently protesting against Palestinian home demolitions when the army bulldozer crushed her to death... 10-mar-2010 14:17 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64029 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64028 March 9, 2010 - A public inquiry opened in London yesterday into claims that up to 20 Iraqis were unlawfully killed and others tortured by British troops after a firefight in 2004. The inquiry, chaired by a retired High Court judge, got under way less than 24 hours after the armed forces minister, Bill Rammell, announced a wide-ranging investigation into all allegations of abuse by UK forces after the 2003 invasion.... Lawyers for about 60 Iraqis claiming maltreatment by UK forces yesterday expressed their dissatisfaction at the investigation announced by Mr Rammell, as it will be conducted by Ministry of Defence personnel, rather than under the auspices of an independent, public inquiry... 10-mar-2010 09:21 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64028 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64027 March 9, 2010 - Many women at the Jean-Marie Vincent site for displaced people (IDPs) in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince wash themselves inside their makeshift tents because the only alternative is to do so out in the open. Given the overcrowding and meagre security, this exposes them to the risk of attack or rape. Going to the site's latrines is also risky, especially at night, for there is no lighting and some toilets are isolated. "We have not yet reached a standard of organization that respects women's rights," Smith Maxime' of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Haiti told IRIN... 10-mar-2010 09:09 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64027 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64026 March 9, 2010 - Trying to make a living as a farmer in Gaza these days is taking a toll on the family ties so integral to the Palestinian culture. Traditionally, occupations are passed from father to son for generations, and their tie to the land is particularly strong. Before Israel imposed a suffocating blockade on the 14-kilometer-long Gaza Strip in 2007 (as punishment for electing Hamas as its governing party), farmers could make a good living growing carnations and strawberries for export and vegetables for the local market. But now, sons are watching their fathers struggle just to make ends meet, and are either forced to get second jobs or are looking for different futures for themselves and their families - at the same time that their fathers need them on the farm more than ever, because they can no longer afford to hire additional help... 10-mar-2010 08:58 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64026 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64025 March 9, 2010 - Reports in the Israeli media claim that the Israeli security forces have threatened to increase their incursions into the West Bank unless the Palestinian Authority (PA) suppresses popular protests against settlements and Judaisation policies. According to the head of Shin Bet (Israel's internal security service chief), Yuval Diskin, he has conveyed several messages to the PA Prime Minister, Ismail Fayad and other senior officials... 10-mar-2010 08:33 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64025 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64024 March 9, 2010 - Israeli troops notified on Tuesday the villagers of Beit liqya, central West Bank, the army intentions to take over part of their land to build the wall. Beit liqya, a small Palestinian village located near Ramallah city, will lose up to 2.5 Acers of land, according to the military order. The army says the lands will be used to reroute the wall section built near the village. The lands slated for takeover are privately owned by local farmers and it's is considered to be their only sources of income... 10-mar-2010 08:26 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64024 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64023 March 9, 2010 - As expected, the investigation into a Hamas leader's assassination in Dubai now involves U.S.-based credit card companies. One of those companies is Payoneer, a firm on Park Avenue which has a research and development center in Tel Aviv. The AP reports that it called Payoneer's Tel Aviv office and "got a recording listing extensions, but when these were pressed, there was only dead air."... 10-mar-2010 07:41 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64023 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64022 March 9, 2010 - Experiencing the Lenten season in Palestine is unique. It carries with it incredible feelings of closeness and concreteness as one visits sites such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem-the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected. Yet, those feelings of closeness are easily swallowed up by a sense of separation and forsakenness as one considers the current situation. In the recently released "Kairos Document," Palestinian Christians take this situation as their starting point in challenging theological interpretations of those "who use the Bible to threaten our existence as Christian and Muslim Palestinians," trying to "attach a biblical and theological legitimacy to the infringement of our rights." ... 10-mar-2010 07:34 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64022 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64021 March 9, 2010 - A group of Israeli settlers destroy a spring by the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the Salfit district of the occupied West Bank. Palestinian villagers were forced to watch helplessly as settlers poured sand and cement into the spring, guarded by five armed members of the Israeli military... 10-mar-2010 07:22 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64021 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64020 March 9, 2010 - ...The flipside of this (necessary but insufficient) standard is our widely held, but rarely examined, notion of anti-racism. Again, we "know" we're anti-racist because, in my case for example, back in the eighties we organized against South African apartheid. Or because recently we contributed to Haiti earthquake relief. But such notions of racism/anti-racism don't go deep enough. It takes work to fathom racism's breadth and subtlety and to perceive the social and economic forces fostering the de facto segregation that warps our social fabric. Equally essential, we must recognize and resist the racism pervading U.S. foreign policy. The Pentagon's current military adventures - whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia - were foreshadowed, in the 19th century, by relentless Indian wars and by U.S. invasions of Mexico and the Philippines... 10-mar-2010 07:10 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64020 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64019 March 9, 2010 - In mid-October, hundreds of thousands of Vietnam-era veterans got some good if grim news: The Veterans Administration announced it was adding three more diseases to the 11 others it automatically presumes to have been caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the dioxin-laced herbicide spread by the U.S. military across much of South Vietnam to deny crops and cover to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters during the war. Newspapers and radio and TV news programs across America ran stories announcing that veterans of the jungle war who now suffer or may eventually suffer from Parkinson's Disease, ischemic heart disease or a type of cancer called hairy-cell leukemia will henceforth automatically be offered free medical care by the VA if they'd spent at least one day in uniform on the ground in Vietnam... 10-mar-2010 07:02 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64019 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64018 March 9, 2010 - Two months after a massive earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti and left the Caribbean island in ruins, the country's president travelled to the US seeking billions of dollars in aid. Rene Preval's visit comes three weeks before donor nations meet at the United Nations in New York to map out a multi-billion dollar reconstruction plan for Haiti...Back in Haiti, more than a million people are still in desperate need of immediate help. 10-mar-2010 06:18 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64018 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64017 March 19, 2010 -- A controversy over the disqualification of candidates threatened Tuesday to undermine the legitimacy of Iraq's recent elections and inflame supporters of a coalition seeking to topple the alliance led by the prime minister. U.S. officials, who had deemed the elections historic, were growing increasingly concerned by the dispute Tuesday evening, fearing it could lead to violence... If the votes for the newly barred candidates are annulled, it could give the Iraqiya coalition powerful ammunition to allege vote-rigging by rival politicians, including some in the Shiite-led camp of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "It will be a very violent reaction," Allawi said in an interview Tuesday. "A lot of violence will take place, and God knows how this will end. I will tell you there is already an existing feeling that there was widespread rigging and widespread intimidation."... 10-mar-2010 05:52 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64017 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64016 March 9, 2010 - Ahmed Chalabi and Ali al Lami, the men responsible for the purge of hundreds of candidates with Baathist links from the Iraqi elections, said they are taking the country's Independent Higher Electoral Commission to court in a bid to have votes for 55 candidates voided. Mr Chalabi and Mr al Lami dominate the controversial Accountability and Justice Commission, in charge of the country's de-Baathification process, which handed down an order to ban 511 candidates just weeks before the election... The pair, both affiliated with the Shiite-dominated Iraqi National Alliance coalition, have been accused of working with a sectarian agenda to marginalise Sunni candidates and take out political rivals in collaboration with Nouri al Maliki, the incumbent prime minister... 10-mar-2010 05:39 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64016 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64014 March 9, 2010 - Today, Gaza completes the day No. 1000 of the Israeli siege and the disaster is eating the land and the citizens of Gaza. All of that was because they didn't want to leave their lands, they didn't give up to the settlers who wants to occupy their land, they said loudly, NO for Israel and no for the occupation!... Israelis, the most professional criminals in the world have stopped the support for Gaza, they even denied medications to enter Gaza Strip! The Palestinians in Gaza were suffering and they still suffering from the lack of the least requirements of life that anybody needs to live. A continuous and daily misery hitting the citizens. Stresses, sicknesses are all are working together and killing the citizens so slowly, and the disaster still increasing over and over, giving citizens noway to survive. Siege gives only 2 choices die or live and the first choice is very easy but the second one is totally hard... 10-mar-2010 04:56 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64014 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64013 March 9, 2010 - 2010 is the last year of the new century and millennium and is the tenth consecutive year of the United States' war in Afghanistan and in the 15-nation area of responsibility subsumed under Operation Enduring Freedom. In early March American military deaths in the Greater Afghan War theater -Afghanistan, Cuba (Guantanamo Bay), Djibouti, Eritrea, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Yemen - surpassed the 1,000 mark... 10-mar-2010 04:37 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64013 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64012 March 9, 2010 - In her 2002 book titled, "Water Wars," noted author, social activist, and ecologist Vandana Shiva called privatizing water: -- ecological terrorism; -- a global water crisis; -- along with overuse, waste and pollution, it can cause "the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth;" -- the road to "an ecological crisis with commercial causes but no market solutions; (they) destroy the earth and aggravate inequality; the solution to an ecological crisis is ecological, and the solution for injustice is democracy;" and -- water rights are natural and "usufructuary....water can be used but not owned;" it belongs to everyone as part of the commons as an essential "basis of all life....under customary laws, the right to water has been accepted as a natural, social fact."... 10-mar-2010 03:54 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64012 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64011 March 9, 2010 - ...Some initial thoughts: voter turnout was 62 percent, according to initial reports from Iraq. That's down from about 75 percent in the 2005 election. In Baghdad, the key province with 70 seats in parliament at stake, turnout was the lowest in Iraq, at 53 percent. It isn't clear, yet, if that total includes any or all of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fled Baghdad during the sectarian purge of 2005-2007, mostly Sunni voters who either fled to Syria and Jordan or to safer provinces in western Iraq. According to initial reports, again, election officials at polling places were ill-equipped to handle displaced voters, meaning that many internally displaced persons didn't get to vote. If the election is close, and perhaps even if it isn't, the disputes over the votes of refugees and displaced persons will be bitter and explosive...It's also too early to evaluate the impact of the pre-election purge by Iran's friends in Iraq, including Ahmed Chalabi, who prevented hundreds of secular, nationalist, and anti-Iranian candidates from running for office... 10-mar-2010 03:41 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64011 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64010 March 9, 2010 - The killing of Palestinian activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19 was clearly a well-planned act, committed by Israeli assassins in the supposed safety of a sovereign country, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Yes, Mabhouh was a Palestinian activist. We have no reason to believe otherwise. He spent years of his life in Israeli prisons - and one year in an Egyptian jail - for his political activism. This, however, gives no credibility to Israel's accusation that Mabhouh was a killer of Israelis. This assertion becomes even more problematic when considering that Mabhouh's assassination was, according to British media, ordered by Israeli rightwing politicians. According to the Sunday Times, Meir Dagan, the current director of Mossad, briefed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the assassination plan during a meeting in early January. "The people of Israel trust you. Good luck," Netanyahu reportedly said at the end of this meeting... 10-mar-2010 03:26 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64010 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64009 March 9, 2010 - A heavy-handed crack down on Israeli dissidents is drawing sharp criticism by human rights organizations and at least a mild judicial slap on the wrist for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The authorities are targeting such groups as B'Tselem, New Israel Fund (NIF), the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), as well as foreign activists in the occupied West Bank. "There is an attempt to silence and crack down on dissent," B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli told the Tobias Buck of the Financial Times. "Since [the Gaza war], the political climate in Israel has become extremely polarized. And this polarization has reached a level where anyone who is critical is presented as a traitor."... 09-mar-2010 17:47 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64009 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64008 March 9, 2010 - Israeli Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem David Harari attempted to forcibly enter the Sheikh Jarrah home of Rifqa Al-Kurd on Tuesday morning, but was halted by a number of Jerusalemites, Fatah's Jerusalem affairs chief Hatem Abdul Qader said. Reports from residents say Harari was in the area on a solidarity visit with the settlers, and was exploring the possibility of taking over part of the Al-Kurd home for an office... 09-mar-2010 17:40 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64008 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64007 March 9, 2010 - Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday began an effort to heal strained ties with Israel, pledging a total U.S. commitment to Israel's security and declaring that the bonds between the nations were "unbreakable." Opening a day of consultations with Israeli leaders, Biden also promoted indirect peace talks, set to begin soon, saying they offered "a moment of real opportunity" in the search for a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. Biden, the highest-ranking administration official yet to visit Israel, was dispatched by President Obama to try to restore Israeli confidence in the American government that has deteriorated over the last year... 09-mar-2010 17:21 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64007 http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64006 March 9, 2010 - Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday began an effort to heal strained ties with Israel, pledging a total U.S. commitment to Israel's security and declaring that the bonds between the nations were "unbreakable." Opening a day of consultations with Israeli leaders, Biden also promoted indirect peace talks, set to begin soon, saying they offered "a moment of real opportunity" in the search for a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. Biden, the highest-ranking administration official yet to visit Israel, was dispatched by President Obama to try to restore Israeli confidence in the American government that has deteriorated over the last year... 09-mar-2010 17:21 ECT http://www.newsfrommiddleeast.com?new=64006