Category: War Crimes

Deja vu all over again

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

PKK

And yet, no one in power seems to have learned anything at all — because insiders never criticize other insiders!

WASHINGTON — The violent ambitions of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been condemned across the world: in Europe and the Middle East, by Sunni nations and Shiite ones, and by sworn enemies like Israel and Iran. Pope Francis joined the call for ISIS to be stopped.

But as President Obama prepares to send the United States on what could be a yearslong military campaign against the militant group, American intelligence agencies have concluded that it poses no immediate threat to the United States. Some officials and terrorism experts believe that the actual danger posed by ISIS has been distorted in hours of television punditry and alarmist statements by politicians, and that there has been little substantive public debate about the unintended consequences of expanding American military action in the Middle East.

Daniel Benjamin, who served as the State Department’s top counterterrorism adviser during Mr. Obama’s first term, said the public discussion about the ISIS threat has been a “farce,” with “members of the cabinet and top military officers all over the place describing the threat in lurid terms that are not justified.”
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Who pays the pro-war pundits?

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

http://youtu.be/T3aDFFh0OOE

Lee Fang is one of a handful of reporters I always read, and he does a great job with this Nation piece:

If you read enough news and watch enough cable television about the threat of the Islamic State, the radical Sunni Muslim militia group better known simply as ISIS, you will inevitably encounter a parade of retired generals demanding an increased US military presence in the region. They will say that our government should deploy, as retired General Anthony Zinni demanded, up to 10,000 American boots on the ground to battle ISIS. Or as in retired General Jack Keane’s case, they will make more vague demands, such as for “offensive” air strikes and the deployment of more military advisers to the region.

But what you won’t learn from media coverage of ISIS is that many of these former Pentagon officials have skin in the game as paid directors and advisers to some of the largest military contractors in the world. Ramping up America’s military presence in Iraq and directly entering the war in Syria, along with greater military spending more broadly, is a debatable solution to a complex political and sectarian conflict. But those goals do unquestionably benefit one player in this saga: America’s defense industry.

Keane is a great example of this phenomenon. His think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which he oversees along with neoconservative partisans Liz Cheney and William Kristol, has provided the data on ISIS used for multiple stories by The New York Times, the BBC and other leading outlets.
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Another reason to despise 9/11 hysteria

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

dronepainting

Insane legal cases like this, where a man is serving a 65-year-sentence for charity work:

Yesterday, on the eve of the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, I received an email from my father saying that the photos affixed to the walls of his prison cell were ripped down and called “contraband” by the officer who took them.

My father is a political prisoner, convicted of terrorism charges in the vacuum of post-9/11 hysteria and incarcerated at a federal prison in southern Illinois—all under allegations stemming from his indisputable philanthropic work.

Until recently, the walls of my father’s 9-by-5-foot cell were covered with eleven photos of children from all over the world—children who were injured or killed during recent political events. My father wrote my family, heartbroken, to say that even though he had collected these images from The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and other publications, they were still seized—with no notice.

My father, Ghassan Elashi, is currently serving a 65-year-prison-sentence at the Communications Management Unit in Marion, Illinois for conspiracy to send Material Support in the form of humanitarian aid to charities in the West Bank and Gaza that prosecutors claimed were associated with designated terrorists; our biggest defense thus far (and the reason my father may be vindicated in due time) is that his charity, the Holy Land Foundation, used the same exact Palestinian charities that our own government agency —the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—used to distribute its aid.

Mohammed is 14

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

mohammedgaza

He has been in intensive care for three weeks and lost 12 members of his family in the Rafah bombing in Gaza. Now he dreams of the day he can have artificial legs. Look at this half-starved kid smile, it just breaks my heart.

Please give to one of these Gaza relief organizations, as much as you can spare:

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Organization for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is the UN organization that runs those schools that the Israeli’s keep shelling, most recently two days ago when ten people were killed and many wounded, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call it “a moral outrage and a criminal act.” UNRWA staff have been among the victims of this and other violence. Global News reports that the staff of UNRWA, which runs 82 schools and provides food, shelter to over 200,000 displaced Palestinians, are at a “breaking point” trying to deal with this humanitarian crisis. Tax deductible donations in the US can be made through US Friends of UNRWA, a 501(c)(3) .

For those who prefer to donate through a somewhat smaller organization,
The Jerusalem Fund is a Washington based 501(c)(3) that does cultural, educational and humanitarian work on behalf of Palestinians in particular those living in the Occupied Territories and surrounding refugee camps. Its “Humanitarian Link” gives small grants to needy hospitals, schools, orphanages and human rights groups. Its Emergency Gaza Appeal promises that 100% of donations to this appeal will be earmarked for humanitarian relief and rebuilding in Gaza.

Another smaller but effective organization, Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is a US-based non-profit humanitarian aid organization that has delivered millions of dollars in food, medicine and medical supplies to children in the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq and Lebanon. According to its web site, MECA provides financial assistance for community projects in the West Bank and Gaza such as sports teams, arts programs, English classes, computer technology, media training, playgrounds and psychosocial support. MECA is currently seeking emergency aid for children in Gaza– food, milk, medicine.

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund has an urgent Gaza fund. “PCRF is responding to this ongoing crisis by identifying injured kids and providing them with critical medical care, as well as providing poor, displaced families with the urgent humanitarian aid that is needed.” Writes one donor on the site: “I hope this sand grain will be useful, somehow…”

Three other larger organizations that do critical work on behalf of the Palestinians are: Save the Children-Gaza Children in Crisis; Medecins sans Frontieres (call 1-888-392-0392 to earmark your gift to their Gaza relief efforts which appear to be mostly in the important area of trauma counseling); the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies); and CARE (West Bank/Gaza crisis).

A website called Gaza Siege lists these and other organizations that work in Gaza and seems very comprehensive both in terms of the relief organizations it lists as well as background and current information and reports.

Update: Since the August 5th posting of “Where You Can Donate to Help Gaza”, readers have identified a number of other organizations working to provide relief in Gaza, all of which really need support at this time of such unimaginable suffering at the hands of the Israelis: Medical Aid For Palestinians, a UK based organization;  Catholic Relief Services , a 501(c)(3) which allows for earmarking donations to Gaza as a “special request” on its web site; ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), a 501(c)(3) operating since 1968 with over 80 full time staff operating in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon; United Palestinian Appeal, a 501(c)(3); Islamic Relief USA, a 501(c)(3); and the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, a 501(c)(3) (contributions by check only/no credit cards).

U.S. officers were ‘stunned’ at extent of Gaza bombing

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Salvaged from debris of the el-Yazje apartment building which was destroyed following an overnight Israeli missile strike in Gaza, a young boy carries out his favorite toy.

Link:

“Eleven battalions of IDF artillery is equivalent to the artillery we deploy to support two divisions of U.S. infantry,” a senior Pentagon officer with access to the daily briefings said. “That’s a massive amount of firepower, and it’s absolutely deadly.” Another officer, a retired artillery commander who served in Iraq, said the Pentagon’s assessment might well have underestimated the firepower the IDF brought to bear on Shujaiya. “This is the equivalent of the artillery we deploy to support a full corps,” he said. “It’s just a huge number of weapons.”

Artillery pieces used during the operation included a mix of Soltam M71 guns and U.S.-manufactured Paladin M109s (a 155-mm howitzer), each of which can fire three shells per minute. “The only possible reason for doing that is to kill a lot of people in as short a period of time as possible,” said the senior U.S. military officer. “It’s not mowing the lawn,” he added, referring to a popular IDF term for periodic military operations against Hamas in Gaza. “It’s removing the topsoil.”

“Holy bejeezus,” exclaimed retired Lt. Gen. Robert Gard when told the numbers of artillery pieces and rounds fired during the July 21 action. “That rate of fire over that period of time is astonishing. If the figures are even half right, Israel’s response was absolutely disproportionate.” A West Point graduate who is a veteran of two wars and is the chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C., he added that even if Israeli artillery units fired guided munitions, it would have made little difference.

Gaza goyim jailbreak

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Blue dusk on Goose Pond

Phillip Weiss of Mondoweiss on how non-Jews aren’t willing to keep quiet about Gaza anymore:

Later the next-door cabin’s argument about Gaza spilled into our cabin. The neighbor said that Israel was justified in firing missiles because of the rockets, and his sister took sharp exception. I listened and nodded. Then an older relative of my wife pulled me aside, a rockribbed conservative, to offer me advice. “When they start up about the rockets, you have to talk about the siege. The siege. The siege. The siege. Those people are in a prison. How big is it? 140 square miles?  Don’t give me that– square miles means nothing to people. Six miles by 25 miles? Say that! Say 2 million people are under siege inside 6 by 25 miles.”

I was surprised. I’ve never heard her speak so forcefully or knowledgeably on this subject.

Gaza has hit home for non-Jews in a way that nothing before has. They’re upset and they’re going to say something at last. My wife’s clan are privileged but civic-minded people, and what’s stopped them in the past is the Don’t-criticize-someone-else’s-family taboo, plus the anti-Semite label. It’s not going to work anymore. Maybe because they see so many Jews like myself engaged in the issue; maybe because they’re sick of the repeating wanton violence. But they’re going to break loose, and it’s an important trend. The church divestment measures are going to pass. The politicians are going to start feeling the heat from non-Jews who are tired of the well-worn loop they’ve walked: I hate this/I can’t say anything because my Jewish friends will be upset/I’ll wait till it goes away.

I remember when the divestment measure at Harvard and MIT in 2002 failed after Harvard President Lawrence Summers declared it anti-semitic. I talked to a professor who’d signed it who said he wanted to hide under the desk. He didn’t want to be accused of anti-Semitism; Jews were part of the fabric of elite academic settings, he didn’t want to be alienated from his Jewish colleagues. I remember when Steve Walt and John Mearsheimer spoke out as establishment non-Jews in 2006. I thought they were going to open the floodgates. But they didn’t; they were pioneers, the territory was still too dangerous. They were willing to get hit by the anti-semitic smear, but others weren’t. That was eight years ago, and there have been two Gaza massacres in between. As Mearsheimer said back in July, “How can any person with a shred of decency support what Israel is doing in Gaza?” As Jim Fallows said at the same time, this is like napalming kids in Vietnam. Some of my wife’s extended family feel the same way, and they want the freedom to say so.

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Cognitive dissonance

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Freddie DeBoer:

The emails filling my box about Israel function as a remarkable document. They are a record of seemingly reasonable people who have completely lost track of basic moral reasoning. And that represents itself nowhere more consistently or powerfully than here: treating what could possibly happen to Israelis as more important than whatalready is happening to Palestinians. It’s such a profoundly bizarre way to think, that only this maddening issue could bring it about.

“Hamas denies Israel’s right to exist!”

Indeed– and Israel not only denies Palestine’s right to exist, it has achieved the denial of a Palestinian state in fact. What kind of broken moral calculus could cause someone to think that being told your existing state should not exist is the same as not having a state of your own?

“Israelis will become second class citizens!”

Arab Israelis already are second class citizens, and Palestinians in the territories no citizens at all. They are denied freedom of movement, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly. They are systematically discriminated against for jobs, especially in government. They lack adequate representation in government. Their leaders arekicked out of Knesset meetings for questioning the IDF. Racist, ultra-nationalist mobsmarched through their streets, chanting “death to Arabs!” Their weddings to Jews are the subject of vicious protests. They live side-by-side with racist teenagers who unashamedly trumpet ethnic warfare. They must live in a society where men like Avigdor Lieberman, an explicit racist and literal fascist, serves in a position of power and prominence. Where Meir Kahane is memorialized by groups receiving state funds,where the JDL’s thugs march, where Lehava preaches against miscegenation. A society where the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset openly calls for ethnic cleansing. Palestinians live in a society where a tiny fraction of government funding is spent on their communities or their people. Where human rights organizations like B’Tselem are oppressed by the state. Where they have to endure Kafkaesque application processes to prevent their homes from being bulldozed, if they are given that opportunity at all. Where they live under fear of reactionary, fundamentalist Orthodox settlers who call for death to the Palestinian race.

“Israel is diplomatically isolated unfairly!”

Palestine is diplomatically isolated in a way Israel cannot imagine. The United States uses its veto power to unilaterally deny even the possibility of full membership status for Palestine in the United Nations. The US has used its foreign aid programs and incredible diplomatic leverage to marginalize Palestine and protect Israel. Israel enjoys the protection of the most diplomatically powerful country on earth; Palestine cannot even claw out formal recognition of its borders.

“Israelis will be rounded up and put into camps!”

Palestinians are already in camps, open-air prison camps like Gaza, tiny, beleaguered cantons that lack access to drinkable water or transportation infrastructure, blockadedfrom receiving food and essential supplies, prevented from fishing their own waters, their movements harshly restricted, forced to go through humiliating and threatening checkpoints to get to work. They travel in segregated buses. They are frequently denied access to Eastern Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian commercial and cultural life. They endure constant calls for “Greater Israel,” the call for ethnic cleansing to establish a unitary ethno-nationalist state. They live in unrecognized villages in the Negev and the North which the Israel state provides no services for. They, unlike Israeli Jews, have no “right to return.” They endured the Nakba.

And so on.

Pressure on Israeli anti-war activists

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Human Interest

This is what it was like after 9/11, and that public attitude led to the founding of Drinking Liberally — a place where the small anti-war minority could speak openly. But keeping people out of bomb shelters? That’s criminal:

For Jewish Israelis, and even more so for Palestinians inside Israel, opposing war is a dangerous act. With 86 percent of Israelis opposed to a ceasefire, the overwhelming public attitude leaves anti-war activists in a precarious position. One woman shouting in a pro-war counter-demonstration inadvertently described the tolerance for dissent during times of conflict: “You can protest after the war, but not during it!”

Michael Sappir, 26, a Jewish Israeli member of Da’am, an Arab-Jewish socialist party, told VICE News: “Even though it’s normally scary to publicly voice radical leftist positions in Israeli society, now there is a sense that everyone is united against you.”

Mimi, a Jewish anti-war activist using a pseudonym, echoed Sappir’s sentiments: “People like to say that Israeli society is half right-wing and half left-wing, but this is not true. The center is extremely right-wing.”

For many Jewish Israeli anti-war activists, the night of July 12 was a turning point in being able to safely protest in public. As Israel launched airstrikes and shelled the Gaza Strip, demonstrators gathered in Habima Square in Tel Aviv. A pro-war counter-demonstration appeared and the police maintained a buffer between the two. As a siren rang out, indicating a rocket had been launched from Gaza, police fled the scene. Left unprotected, many of the anti-war demonstrators attempted to make their way into the bomb shelters, but were blocked and attacked by pro-war mobs.

‘When it’s right-wing people doing stuff, we look aside, and when it’s leftist people like you, we will hunt you down.’

“We were left out there [by the police],” said Sappir. “Some of us formed a human chain which actually worked pretty well in keeping the ultra-Zionists from attacking us. Some people fled into a cafe and were attacked there, and someone had a chair broken over their head.”

The activist who was beaten with a chair spent the night in the hospital before returning to the scene the following day to apologize to the owner. He was again attacked in plain daylight and then blamed for events by the cafe’s owner.

Richard Nixon was a traitor

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

40 years later, the Gift that keeps on giving...

It drives me crazy when people try to rehabilitate this crook:

The new release of extended versions of Nixon’s papers now confirms this long-standing belief, usually dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” by Republican conservatives. Now it has been substantiated by none other than right-wing columnist George Will.

Nixon’s newly revealed records show for certain that in 1968, as a presidential candidate, he ordered Anna Chennault, his liaison to the South Vietnam government, to persuade them to refuse a cease-fire being brokered by President Lyndon Johnson.

Nixon’s interference with these negotiations violated President John Adams’s 1797 Logan Act, banning private citizens from intruding into official government negotiations with a foreign nation.

Published as the 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s resignation approaches, Will’s column confirms that Nixon feared public disclosure of his role in sabotaging the 1968 Vietnam peace talks. Will says Nixon established a “plumbers unit” to stop potential leaks of information that might damage him, including documentation he believed was held by the Brookings Institute, a liberal think tank. The Plumbers’ later break-in at the Democratic National Committee led to the Watergate scandal that brought Nixon down.

Nixon’s sabotage of the Vietnam peace talks was confirmed by transcripts of FBI wiretaps. On November 2, 1968, LBJ received an FBI report saying Chernnault told the South Vietnamese ambassador that “she had received a message from her boss: saying the Vietnamese should “hold on, we are gonna win.”

As Will confirms, Vietnamese did “hold on,” the war proceeded and Nixon did win, changing forever the face of American politics—-with the shadow of treason permanently embedded in its DNA.

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