Occupiers’ impunity persists amid world outrage, UNSC meets

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Blood on our hands...

Israeli commandos today off the coast of the Gaza Strip attacked the “Freedom Flotilla,” a convoy of six aid-carrying ships. This Israeli attack early Monday killed up to 19 people and injured dozens on board the vessels.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said nothing justifies the appalling outcome of this operation. She went on to “unequivocally condemn what appears to be disproportionate use of force, resulting in the killing and wounding of so many people attempting to bring much-needed aid to the people of Gaza, who have now been enduring a blockade for more than three years.” Without the blockade, she said, “there would be no need for flotillas like this.” She also called for an investigation and accountability.

The blockade, Navi Pillay said, “lies at the heart of so many of the problems plaguing the Israel-Palestine situation, as does the impression that the Israeli Government treats international law with perpetual disdain.”

The UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk charged that “Israel is guilty of shocking behavior by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians on ships that were situated in the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the seas.” He went on to say that “unless prompt and decisive action is taken to challenge the Israeli approach to Gaza all of us will be complicit in criminal policies that are challenging the survival of an entire beleaguered community.”

Palestinian Civil Society Organizations and International activists are calling for worldwide pressure on governments to end Israel’s abductions and killings in attacks against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and pressure on governments to begin global efforts to “hold Israel accountable for the murder of civilians at sea and the illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.”

Amnesty International today recounts “the nearly three years, Israel, the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, has implemented a policy of banning all movement of goods and people, except for the most basic humanitarian necessities, which are imported by international aid agencies. A fraction of patients needing treatment outside Gaza are allowed to leave and dozens have died while waiting for a travel permit from Israel.”

By restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials, Israel’s blockade does not target armed groups but rather punishes Gaza’s entire population. The impact falls heaviest “on the most vulnerable among Gaza’s 1.5 million people: children, the elderly, and the sick.” Under international law, Israel’s “blockade constitutes collective punishment and must be lifted immediately.”

In its latest assault, the Israeli government persisted in claiming self-defense but Al Jazeera reporters found something else. From aboard the flotilla’s lead ship, the reporters said a white surrender flag had been raised from the ship but “Israeli troops assaulted with “live ammunition.” About 50 flotilla activists (among them students, Nobel laureates, children, and Jewish holocaust survivors) were subjected to extensive security checks and imprisoned, the goods they carried taken and placed in a terminal. Activists were given the choice if going home immediately, in which case they would be taken by bus to Tel Aviv airport; or, if they resisted deportation, taken to a nearby detention center and held for at least 72 hours.

International solidarity movement’s call from Gaza for global response has been signed by several organizations: The One Democratic State Group, University Teachers Association, Arab Cultural Forum, Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, Association of Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Info, Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, International Solidarity Movement, Palestinian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations, Palestinian Women Committees, Progressive Students Union, Medical Relief Society, The General Society for Rehabilitation, Gaza Community Mental Health Program. General Union of Palestinian Women, Afaq Jadeeda Cultural Centre for Women and Children, Deir Al-Balah Cultural Centre for Women and Children, Maghazi Cultural Centre for Children, Al-Sahel Centre for Women and Youth, Ghassan Kanfani Kindergartens, Rachel Corrie Centre, Rafah, Rafah Olympia City Sisters, Al Awda Centre, Rafah, Al Awda Hospital, Jabaliya Camp, Ajyal Association, Gaza, General Union of Palestinian Syndicates, Al Karmel Centre, Nuseirat, Local Inititiative, Beit Hanoun, Union of Health Work Committees, Red Crescent Society Gaza Strip, Beit Lahiya Cultural Centre, Al Awda Centre, Rafah [Updated on May 31, 2010].

People of Gaza are calling on people across the world to

Demonstrate and support the courageous men and women who went on the Flotilla, many now murdered on a humanitarian aid mission.
Insist on severing diplomatic ties with Israel, bringing to trial for war crimes, securing International protection of the civilians of Gaza
Join the growing campaigns of international boycott, divestment and sanction of a country proving again to be so violent and yet unchallenged
Join the growing critical mass around the world with a commitment to the day when Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as any other people, when the siege is lifted, the occupation is over, and the six million Palestinian refugees are finally granted justice.

By the afternoon today Eastern Time, reports from international waters were still coming in. In New York City, the UN Security Council was meeting to discuss Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla. The League of Arab States also was expected to hold an urgent session on the matter.

Sources and notes
“Deadly Israeli raid on aid,” May 31, 2010 fleethttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053113252437484.html
“Israeli killings of Gaza ship activists must be investigated,” May 31, 2010, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israeli-killings-gaza-ship-activists-must-be-investigated-2010-05-31
“Call from Gaza for global response to killings on the freedom flotilla,” May 31, 2010, http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/12597/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
“Secretary-General 'shocked' by deadly raid on Gaza aid flotilla,” May 31, 2010, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34863&Cr=gaza&Cr1=

Irony
Today in history: Adolf Eichmann was hanged ─ On May 31, 1962, Israel hanged German official Adolf Eichmann for his part in “the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.” Eichmann had escaped from a prison camp in 1946 and spent some 14 years in hiding [Britannica].

West inflames, East cools down ─ U.S. v. Asia again

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

A hundred thousand (100,000) people gathered today in Pyongyang, North Korea, to condemn the United States and South Korea’s behavior against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) concerning the sinking in March of a South Korean warship. Also at a summit in South Korea today, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama exchanged views on the Cheonan warship incident and offered condolences over the deaths of 46 sailors in that incident. The Chinese and Japanese leaders further stated that “they attached importance to the joint investigation by South Korea and some other countries into the incident and have noted the responses from concerned parties.”

At the rally held on the Kim Il Sung Square, Choe Yong Rim, chief secretary of the Pyongyang City Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said the “inter-Korean relations have been driven into a situation, in which a war may break out anytime.”… Other speakers at the rally expressed the “determination to react with a rapid retaliatory strike if South Korea shows the slightest sign of ‘punishment’ and ‘retaliation’ together with foreign forces.” The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), state news agency of North Korea, reported a bulletin released by the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea denouncing South Korea for “persistently linking the warship sinking with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”

Also responding to latest East-West actions, reactions

Russian Federation: energy superpower
Russia (the Russian Federation) extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40 percent of Europe, spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments, and is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of Earth’s land area. Russia is the ninth most populous nation in the world, with 142 million people. Russia has the world’s largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world’s fresh water. This country possesses the world’s largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is an energy superpower.

Friday May 28 (AFP) ─ “Russia will not support efforts to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship until it is fully convinced Pyongyang was behind the incident, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. ‘We need to receive 100 percent proof of North Korea’s role in the sinking of the corvette.’” Russia has a short land border with North Korea. As a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, it has the power to veto any new sanctions against North Korea in the warship incident. In June, Russia will hold “major naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, close to the Korean Peninsula”; these exercises “had been planned before the current tensions broke out.”

Diplomats from Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) also confirmed their continuing consultations in search of ways out of the ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

People’s Republic of China: export powerhouse, most peopled 
China (The People’s Republic of China or PRC) lies in East Asia and is the most populous state in the world with more than 1.3 billion people. Under a single-party system, China is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Sunday May 30 ─ Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for the proper handling of the serious consequences of the March sinking of a South Korean warship and efforts to gradually ease tensions in the region over the incident.

Koreas: China, Russia neighbors
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK, capital is Seoul) lies in East Asia on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its western neighbor is China, eastern Japan, and northern North Korea.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, capital and largest city Pyongyang) lies in East Asia and occupies the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. The Korean Demilitarized Zone is the buffer zone between North and South Korea.

Sunday May 30 ─ South Korea’s military suspended a plan to fly “anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Sources and notes
“100,000 people gather in Pyongyang to protest against U.S., S. Korea over warship sinking,” English.news.cn May 30, 2010, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-05/30/c_13323973.htm

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA, December 5, 1946-) is the state news agency of North Korea headquartered in the capital city of Pyongyang.
Also Wikipedia

Educators decry bull invasion

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

The State Board of Education’s final approval of new social studies curriculum standards makes clear that the Texas way of deciding curriculum content for public school children is seriously flawed, writes Texas education activist Kathy Miller.

“Teams of teachers and scholars labored throughout much of last year to draft new social studies curriculum standards,” she says. “Then the politicians on the Texas State Board of Education sent the experts home.” Took the drafts and in short shrift made “detailed, ill-considered and blatantly political” changes leaving proper professionals dumbfounded.

Board members voted on hundreds of changes in the social studies curriculum ─ without one historian, economist or any other social studies expert in the room to advise them; and though individual board members claimed to have vetted their revisions with experts before the meetings, other members said they had been forced to cast votes on changes they had never seen. The result was that many decisions, Miller reports, were based on members’ “Google and Wikipedia” searches, their “limited personal knowledge and personal and political biases.…

“Educators could only watch in despair.… Schoolchildren deserve far better.”

The social studies and history curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education last Friday, the Associated Press reported, “amends or waters down the teaching of religious freedoms and the United States’ relationship with the United Nations.” Students are required to “evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.” The board increases requirements for “teaching Judeo-Christian influences” on U.S. founders and mandates references to U.S. government not as democratic but as a “‘constitutional republic.’” Students are required “to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar and the abandonment of the gold standard.” Voting 9-5 along political party lines, the board’s action targeting high school government courses waters down “the rationale for separation of church and state and requires students to compare and contrast the judicial language with wording in the First Amendment.”

A study by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund found that “78 percent of parents want teachers and scholars ─ not elected state board members ─ to be responsible for writing curriculum standards and textbook requirements for public schools.”

In her opinion piece this week, Miller as president of the Texas Freedom Network declares that it is time to fix a flawed system the state board is “clearly unwilling to fix.” The Texas Legislature so far has considered but failed to pass bills putting primary responsibility for the adoption of curriculum standards and textbooks in the hands of classroom teachers and academic experts. It is time for lawmakers to revisit those recommendations to “ensure that public schools are focused on educating children ─ not promoting the personal and political agendas of elected state board members.”


Sources and notes
“Kathy Miller: ‘Time for Texas to fix flawed curriculum process,’” May 25, 2010, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-miller_26edi.State.Edition1.244ea05.html
Kathy Miller is president of the Texas Freedom Network, a public education and religious liberties watchdog based in Austin, Texas.
“Texas board adopts new social studies curriculum,” April Castro, Associated Press May 21, 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPQ3ktQNqImWyQ23yXKoCFXWrN1QD9FRK9E01



“The chemicals we manufacture for modern needs are complex synthetic compounds. Most are untested and some are toxic to nature and the human body. But the new science of green chemistry offers the possibility of products that are ‘benign by design,’ modeled on natural processes” [http://aworldofpossibilities.org/]

School uniforms > equal footing, “shot at meritocracy” ─ Sachdev

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Should schoolchildren have the right to wear what they want?
Mathematics teacher Sapna Krishan says, No, You’re not going for a party!

“Everybody wants his or her children to [learn discipline],” Sapna Krishan said. “As a parent I would love my son to be disciplined. Discipline starts in school. School has certain rules laid out. Wearing uniform is one of them. It leads to uniformity amongst the children.”

The conspicuous disparity effect in students’ wearing what they want is seen when “in certain schools children come from different sections of society. Four children: A, B, C, and D. A and B come from industrialized families; D comes from working-class families, professional [class]. C’ and D’ parents move all over the world getting various things from different parts of the world. A’s and B’s parents do not because they do not travel so much all around the globe. What happens? Some have branded [brand-name] jeans. Others do not have and they feel, ‘Oh, she’s wearing branded jeans, why can’t I wear it.’”

Schools are places for concentration and study, she says.

You’re going to school, you’re going there to study. You’re not going for a party!
So when you go to study, you concentrate on what is happening in the class not what others are wearing.
This definitely effects how students are treating each other: Competition comes and difference is created.

Journalist Chhavi Sachdev writes, “Even if we didn’t think so [while] in school, there really is a rationale behind wearing these uniforms. Uniforms may be stifling to the kids but they inculcate them with fundamental values of respect and discipline.

“Uniforms give kids a chance to be seen on equal footing with everyone else ─ at least, for the time they’re in school.”

Nearly every schoolchild in India is required to wear a uniform. Chhavi Sachdev grew up in India, wore a uniform, and hated it.

“I wanted to wear jeans to school,” she said. “I wanted to wear my new earrings, and wear my hair open, not confined in silly braids. Back then, I desperately envied the expat kids who went to the American School and could wear whatever they wanted. They got to show off their own identities while ours were hidden behind the sameness of grey tunics and blue ties.” Sachdev later saw the wisdom behind the school uniform rule.

“[E]ven with uniforms on, you can tell who’s stinking rich and who’s not so well-off, but these bland outfits give the have-nots a fighting chance to blend in, to achieve without worrying about unvoiced, even unknown prejudice.

“[E]specially where the chasm between the haves and have-nots is so wide and so glaringly obvious, little things like standardized clothing are what give us a shot at being a meritocracy.”


Source and notes
Chhavi Sachdev is a writer and independent journalist.
“Uniformity and equality” (Chhavi Sachdev), The State We’re In - India Edition, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, December 12, 2010, http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/tswi-081212-unifroms-india-redirected

One Apartheid State to another ─ nuclear-armed and dangerous

From the Guardian edited excerpts with comment by Carolyn Bennett
In the era of apartheid, South Africa was years away from building nuclear weapons. Apartheid Israel apparently was not and was more than willing to sell these weapons to apartheid South Africa. This deadly deal, the countries dubbed “the Jericho project codenamed Chalet.” So says a new book reported in the Guardian.

Previously secret South African documents uncovered in research by American academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky (reported today in The Guardian) show a close “nuclear” relationship between Israel and South Africa. That Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa’s apartheid regime. The declassified documents make clear also, according to The Guardian, that Israel possesses and has for a long time possessed nuclear weapons despite its persistent policy of “‘ambiguity’” ─ neither affirming nor denying possession of nuclear weapons.

“‘Top secret’ minutes of meetings in 1975 between Israeli and South African senior officials reveal that PW Botha, South Africa’s minister of defense at the time asked Israel for the warheads (Jericho missiles fitted with nuclear weapons)” ; and that then-Israeli minister of defense Shimon Peres (currently Israel’s president) offered Botha the weapons ‘in three sizes.’ These defense ministers also bound their countries with a “military ties” agreement sworn to secrecy ─ the agreement contained a sinister clause sealing in secrecy “‘the very existence of this agreement.’”

Earlier revelations lacked evidentiary proof of Israel’s blood-drenched mendacity. After the collapse of apartheid, a former South African naval commander, Dieter Gerhardt, said there had been an agreement between Israel and South Africa called Chalet that involved an offer by the Jewish state to arm eight Jericho missiles with ‘special warheads.’ Gerhardt said these were atomic bombs.

Documents seized by Iranian students from the U.S. embassy in Tehran after the 1979 revolution revealed the Shah of Iran had expressed to Israel his country’s interest in developing nuclear arms, but the South African documents confirm that Israel was in a position to arm Jericho missiles with nuclear warheads. Now there is documentary evidence.


Sources and notes
“Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons ─ Exclusive: Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons” (Chris McGreal in Washington for The Guardian-UK), May 24, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons; Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s book is The Unspoken Alliance Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, official release May 25, 2010, http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=79855; Sasha Polakow-Suransky holds a doctorate in modern history.
“Jericho,” according to Wikipedia, “is a general designation given to the Israeli ballistic missiles, a name taken from the first development contract signed between Israel and Dassault [French aerospace firm that builds Mirage and Rafale families of fighters and Falcon business jets] in 1963, with the codename as a reference to [bible story city called Jericho].” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(missile)
Britannica
Dassault Industries is a French company with major aerospace-related subsidiaries specializing in the production of military and civil aircraft; computer-based design, manufacturing, and product-management systems; and aviation simulators. Its primary subsidiary, founded by French aircraft designer Marcel Dassault at the end of World War II, is Dassault Aviation, which adopted its current name in 1990. Headquarters are in Vaucresson, France.

Al Jazeera
Update Iran and West
In a letter to the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog IAEA, Iran describes its nuclear swap deal with Turkey and Brazil as a ‘breakthrough.’ Signed by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, the letter applauds the move to send 1,200kg of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel. Without comment on the deal, the IAEA said it would convey Iran’s letter to the United States, France and Russia (part of the “Vienna Group”). Western powers believe Iran wants highly enriched uranium to make an atomic weapon. Tehran says its program is designed simply to meet its civilian energy needs. [“Iran notifies IAEA over atomic deal,” May 24, 2010, Al Jazeera, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/05/20105249542504394.html]

Violent “justice” USA ─ Chicago's Abu Ghraib

Democracy Now’s Interview with tortured, wrongly accused, 23-year sentenced Darrell Cannon
Excerpted and edited for Today’s Insight News by Carolyn Bennett

Before it happened to me, I didn’t know anything like this happened in the United States and the more we screamed about the use of torture by police the less people cared to do anything about it. It also amazes me that in the United States there is a statute of limitation on torture [Darrell Cannon].

Darrell Cannon says Chicago police tortured him in 1983 and forced him to confess to a murder he did not commit. He is one of dozens of men alleging abuse by the Chicago police. Cannon spent 23 years in prison and though a prosecutorial hearing in 2004 dismissed the case on the grounds that officials had tortured Darrell Cannon into confessing, Cannon was not released until 2007. Here is some of his story told on today’s Democracy Now program.

It was the 2nd of November 1983 between the hours of 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning. The initial torture and verbal abuse and intimidation started then but did not end until probably well after 3:00 in the afternoon of that day.

It began when white [police] detectives kicked open the door to an apartment I shared with my common-law wife and my son. They cursed her, ransacked the entire apartment and found nothing. They searched for me and finally found me. They took me downstairs, placed me on my knees to wait in the hall while other detectives searched other apartments.

After their apartment searches, they put me in a car and drove around looking for another guy they said was complicit in this particular crime. Not finding the other person, they took me to the police station where I stayed for a short time before they took me on another drive around.

They double-handcuffed me in the back seat of a car while they ate their breakfast at restaurant catering to truckers and police officers. After eating their breakfast, they drove a distance, through a pipe and came out on the opposite end. The area was isolated ─ nothing around but water and railroad tracks.

They took me from the car’s back seat and started asking more questions about a homicide. I told them I had no knowledge about the homicide.

Torture series one: mock hanging

They then began a mock hanging: The detectives cuffed me behind my back and one of them got on the detective car’s bumper; the other two detectives lifted me up to him and he grabbed me from behind by the handcuffs that bound me. They dropped me, causing my arms to go up backwards ─ almost wrenching the inside of my shoulders. This [torture] went on for — I don’t know how long. Ultimately, it wasn’t successful because there was a fine-mist rain that morning and Detective John Byrne, the tallest of the detectives, kept slipping off the back of the bumper.

Torture series two: shotgun roulette, mock execution

The detectives switched to a second torture treatment involving a shotgun. The took their pump shotgun from the trunk of the car. Detective Peter Dignan, the most vicious one of the detectives, asked me some more questions about the murder. He told me what they knew had already occurred and wanted me to fill in the gaps. I refused to do so. Detective Dignan then took a shotgun shell, showed it to me, and said (his exact words), ‘Listen, Nigger’—and turned his back to me. I heard a clicking sound that seemed like the shell being placed in the chamber. Detective Dignan turned back around to face me. I no longer saw a shotgun shell. They continued asking me questions. I refused to answer.

One of the detectives said, ‘Go ahead; blow that Nigger’s head off.’

Peter Dignan then forced the shotgun in my mouth. He said, ‘You’re not going to tell me what I want to hear? You’re not going to tell me?’
I said, ‘No.’
That’s when he [Detective Dignan] pulled the trigger.
The detectives did a mock execution three times.
When I heard the trigger pull the third time, I thought in my mind he was blowing the back of my head  off. Hearing that click, the hair on the back of my head stood straight up.

Torture series three: genital electrocution
Since they were unsuccessful in getting me to tell them what they wanted to hear, they began a third treatment. They put me in the backseat of a detective car, unlocked the handcuffs from behind and locked them in front of me. Detective John Byrne put a gun to my head and told me, ‘Don’t move,’ and redid the handcuffs.

The detectives put me sideways in the backseat of a detective car and made me lie across the seat. They pulled my pants and my shorts down. Then Detective Byrne [electrocuted my genitals] took an electric cattle prod, turned it on, and shocked me on my testicles.

They did this for what seems like forever with me but it wasn’t that long. At one point, I was able to kick the cattle prod out of the detective’s hands. That movement knocked the batteries out. The detective retrieved the batteries and loaded the prod.

One of the detectives tried to hold my feet down with his feet to stop me from kicking. Then they resumed shocking me with the electric cattle prod, all the while telling me they knew I was not the one they wanted; but I had information that could lead them to the other person that they did want.

They continued electric shocks until finally I agreed to tell them anything they wanted to hear ─ anything, it didn’t matter to me. … If they said, ‘Did your mother do it?’ ─ ‘Yes, yes, yes.’

The diabolical treatment I received was such that I had never experienced in my life. I didn’t even know anything like this existed in the United States.

[Torturers] should not be able to hide behind any kind of alleged statute [of limitations]. Wrong is wrong. Right is right. What these despicable detectives did could never be justified in the United States under any shape, form or fashion [Darrell Cannon].

Sources and notes 

“Trial Begins for Ex-Chicago Police Lt. Accused of Torturing More than 100 African American Men, May 24, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/24/trial_begins_for_ex_chicago_police

A former Chicago police commander Jon Burge accused of overseeing the torture of more than 100 African American men goes on trial today in Chicago for lying under oath and obstruction of justice ─ not for torture. The police department fired Burge in 1993 for mistreatment of a suspect, but did not press charges. For decades, Berge has avoided prosecution but torture accusations have been made against him for forty years. Beginning in 1971, “Burge was at the epicenter of what’s been described as the systematic torture of dozens of black men to coerce confessions. More than a hundred people in Chicago say they were subjected to abuse, including having guns forced into their mouths, suffocation with bags placed over their heads, and electric shocks to their genitals” [Democracy Now].

Human Rights at Home: The Chicago Police Torture Archive

Excerpt from a timeline prepared by Students for Human Rights and based on material from the People’s Law Office whose lawyers have represented many of Burge’s torture victims http://humanrights.uchicago.edu/chicagotorture/timeline.shtml

• 2004 – In furtherance of the code of silence, Burge, Byrne, and more than 30 other Area 2 detectives and supervisors invoke the constitutional right against self-incrimination on each and every allegation of torture when they are questioned at depositions in the pardoned inmates’ civil cases.
• 2004 – Several African-American former Area 2 detectives who worked under Burge come forward and break the code of silence, admitting in sworn statements given in the civil cases that they saw or heard evidence of torture, saw implements of torture, including Burge’s shock box, and that torture by Burge and his men was an “open secret” at Area 2.
• April 2004 – The States Attorney’s Office finally dismisses Darrell Cannon’s prosecution rather than rebut his evidence of a tortured confession.
• January 2005 – In a habeas corpus case brought by torture victim Leonard Hinton, Federal Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood likened Area 2 torture to that of Abu Ghraib, writing:

“[A] mountain of evidence indicates that torture was an ordinary occurrence at the Area Two station of the Chicago Police Department. Eventually, as this sorry tale came to light, the Office of Professional Standards Investigation of the Police Department looked into the allegations, and it issued a report that concluded that police torture under the command of Lt. Jon Burge — the officer in charge of Hinton's case — had been a regular part of the system for more than ten years. And, in language reminiscent of the news reports of 2004 concerning the notorious Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq, the report said that ‘[t]he type of abuse described was not limited to the usual beating, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture.’” 

“Veils” ─ Art inspires the courageous to think

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Art is provocation.
We need provocation to move forward.

I’m trying to highlight the ambiguity
and the complexity of the situation

Majida Khattari

Heavily veiled women and men walk down the catwalk while nude white women wearing large turbans and high heels walk up on the opposite side. The two models at one point face each other. The pace is slow. The nude models all look alike. The all-body veils are like sculptures, each different from the other. One model discards layers of the veil as if peeling off its skin, while another veiled model moves in an erratic pace, struggling to get out of the garment.

Those who saw the performance in Paris were describing Franco-Moroccan artist Majida Khattari’s April fashion show at the Cité Internationale. Press reports said the artist “successfully brings the audience to look at her interpretation.” Khattari told the French press that this fourth show was her most radical.

“These are extreme situations … extreme images extracting issues of the burqa and captivity outside the religious realm … Women are subdued not only because of religion. We also have to comply and conform to aesthetic norms to look young and beautiful, always.”

Laws are unnecessary to decide people’s dress. “It’s absurd to create laws to tell us that veils need to be banned in public places” [as France and Belgium have done]. “We are in France because it protects our freedom,” Khattari said. It is as if governments are saying women are “[incapable] of making their own decisions.” It is as if governments are assuming that women “must have chosen to wear the veil because they are completely dominated ─ that there could be no other reason for such a choice. I’m sorry, there are many women who wear the veil out of their own free will.…”

The commotion around the burka goes beyond that piece of cloth. It is far more complex, Majida Khattari says.

“I’m trying to highlight the ambiguity

and the complexity of the situation.”

Sources and notes
Franco-Moroccan artist Majida Khattari was born (1966) in Erfoud, Morocco, and lives in Paris. She completed her studies in Casablanca, Morocco, and Paris, France. Since 1996, Khattari has been organizing performance art runway shows centered on current affairs and politics, women and society, women in Islam, and religion. Her work, in some way relating to a variety of veils, spans more than a decade and is particularly relevant amid contemporary debates.

The Martine and Thibault de la Châtre art gallery is showing a selection of her photographs until June 19. One of the photographs at the gallery revolves around the issue of the burqa, the veil worn from head to toe by some Muslim women.

“Franco-Moroccan visual artist Majida Khattari unveils her burqas” (Daphné Segretain), April 12, 2010, http://www.france24.com/en/20100412-franco-moroccan-visual-artist-majida-khattari-unveils-burqas
J’adore Chador: Majida Khattari’s Art (Nicole Cunningham Zaghia), May 11, 2010, http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/r/3702/
“Burka crosses over to art” (bagnetto, Radio France Internationale, English service), May 16, 2010, http://www.english.rfi.fr/culture/20100516-burqa-crosses-over-art
http://www.english.rfi.fr
The French government on May 19 approved a draft law to ban garments that cover the face in public. Said to target the burka and niqab worn by some Muslim women, the bill will be debated by the parliament. With passage of a law in April, Belgium became the first European country to ban the burka.
“French government adopts burka ban bill,” May 19, 2010, http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20100519-french-government-adopts-burka-ban-bill

“Just war,” Sanctions, Punishment masked as “Peace”

In siege warfare, armies surround cities. With sanctions, international powers prohibit migration and sale or purchase of goods. Both are types of war that destabilize and fail states, inflict and exacerbate injustice: human rights abuse, hunger and homelessness, sickness, disease and perpetual poverty. Warfare and sanctions do what they purport to undo. The current administration in Washington carries on its predecessors’ legacy of punishment and hegemony.
Re-reporting, editing, commentary by Carolyn Bennett

Describing sanctions as a means of ‘peacekeeping’ or ‘enforcing human rights’ is counterfactual
Sanctions are bureaucratized, internationally organized siege warfare. 
Gordon

Punishment for its own sake

 Punishment is the deliberate infliction of harm to the punished party (and thus stands in clear contravention of anything like a Hippocratic Oath, writes journalist Helena Cobban in “Economic sanctions, just war doctrine, and the ‘fearful spectacle of the civilian dead.’” She was writing during the previous regime in Washington. Two central problems with the punishment constituted by the present bombing campaign are the dimension of the harm being caused,” she writes, “and to whom this harm is happening. The infliction of harm ─ or at the very least, a severe curtailment of rights ─ is not a by-product of punishment. It is intrinsic to it.

“Many theorists of punishment have tried to predicate the right to punish on a claimed right to undertake actions of self-defense but the right to self-defense is not a license to inflict any amount of harm on another person or persons. If it were, then the effect of repeated iterations of people acting in self-defense would be to fuel a rapidly escalating cycle of violence such as we have seen over the past year in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.… Bombings of Afghanistan… and the massive military preparations that preceded bombings are seriously problematic at a number of levels.

“They have not abided by the jus in bello [“just war”] constraints of proportionality and discrimination. In particular, they have resulted in the infliction of widespread harm on Afghan civilians who bore no relationship to the Bin Laden networks ─ harm, even if it was not directly intended, was still fairly easily foreseeable and was indeed foreseen by many international aid agencies.”

Sanctions: punishment, acts of war
Fairfield University Professor Joy Gordon also takes punishment in warfare to punishment in economic sanctions. “Economic sanctions violate ‘just war’ principles of both jus ad bellum and jus in bello,” she says. “Jus ad bellum requires that a belligerent party have valid grounds for engaging in warfare, whereas jus in bello requires that the war be fought in accordance with certain standards of conduct. To engage in warfare at all, the belligerent party must have a just cause.

“‘Just cause’ requires ‘a real and certain danger’ such as protecting innocent life, preserving conditions necessary for decent human existence, and securing basic human rights. Under the requirement of proportionality, the damage inflicted ‘must not be greater than the damage prevented or the offense being avenged.’ There must also be a probability of success. The ‘probability of success’ criterion prohibits resort to force when the outcome will be futile.”

Sanctions serve hegemony and serve the punisher. They are raw acts of aggression cloaked in a “peace” mask, but aggression nevertheless ─ aggression for its own sake (U.S. v. Iran or Iraq or Haiti or Somalia; Israel v. Palestinians or Gazans); acts of war crafted by entrenched power perpetuating itself.

Sanctions of the kind imposed by the United States and Israel, Cobban writes, “have usually had the effect [a seeming irrational or unintentional opposite effect] of … strengthening regimes these states do not favor.” [The] primal urge to punish, punish, punish is so strong in these countries [the United States and Israel],” Cobban says, that simple rationality is set aside. The main aim is the sanctions themselves ─ often seen, “over the past 17 years [in the character of] Martin Indyk [the Clinton administration’s Secretary of State], as an important way of weakening the regime prior to overthrowing it ─ rather than resolving the questions and uncertainties around Iran’s avowedly civilian nuclear program.”

Gordon reinforces the thought that “in certain respects, sanctions are obviously the modern version of siege warfare. Each [war and sanctions] involves the systematic deprivation of a whole city or nation of economic resources. Although in siege warfare this is accomplished by surrounding the city with an army, the same effect can be achieved by using international institutions and international pressure to prevent the sale or purchase of goods, and to prevent migration.

“To the extent that we see sanctions as a means of peacekeeping and international governance, sanctions effectively escape ethical analysis ─ we do not judge them by the same standards we judge other kinds of harm done to innocents. Yet, concretely, the hunger, sickness, and poverty, which are ostensibly inflicted for benign purposes, affect individuals no differently than hunger, sickness, and poverty inflicted out of malevolence. [Therefore] to describe sanctions as a means of ‘peacekeeping’ or ‘enforcing human rights’ is an ideological move, which, from the perspective of concrete personal experiences, is simply counterfactual.

“Sanctions are, at bottom, a bureaucratized, internationally organized form of siege warfare.

They should be seen and judged as such.”

Sources and notes
“Economic sanctions, just war doctrine, and the ‘fearful spectacle of the civilian dead’ (Joy Gordon): “Sanctions like siege intend harm to civilians and therefore cannot be justified as a tool of warfare,” (Cross Currents), http://www.crosscurrents.org/gordon.htm

Dr. Joy Gordon is Professor in Philosophy, Director of Legal Studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, http://www.fairfield.edu/about/about_contact.html

“Having an effect on vulnerable others: Two aspects of the present U.S. actions toward Afghanistan” Digest of remarks by Helena Cobban, columnist, The Christian Science Monitor [from Teach-in panel discussion on ethical dimensions of crisis held at the University of Virginia, October 9, 2001], http://helenacobban.org/

Helena Cobban is a veteran writer, researcher, and program organizer on global affairs. She is author of Re-engage! America and the World after Bush (2008); and publishes the blog “Just World News” centered on international issues.

Martin Sean Indyk
Vice President for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Martin Sean Indyk (b. 1951 - ) was the Clinton administration’s U.S. ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. Indyk was a lead U.S. negotiator at the Camp David talks and framer of the U.S. policy of dual containment [U.S. policy of ‘dual containment’ (isolating both Iran and Iraq) sought to depict Iran as a ‘rogue’ state that supported terrorism.]. Iraq and Iran were viewed as Israel’s two most important strategic adversaries [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Indyk] and Britannica

Camp David [Maryland] Accord
Agreements between Israel and Egypt signed on September 17, 1978, which led in the following year to a peace treaty between those two countries, the first such treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors. The accord was brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sādāt. The accord was officially titled ‘Framework for Peace in the Middle East’ and the agreements became known as the Camp David Accords because the negotiations took place at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. Britannica

Britannica:
Concept from the Middle Ages
Just war (jus ad bellum) is a notion, rising from Classical Roman and biblical Hebraic culture containing religious and secular elements, which first coalesced as a coherent body of thought and practice during the Middle Ages.

The idea is that the resort to armed force (jus ad bellum) is justified under certain conditions; and the notion that the use of such force (jus in bello) should be limited in certain ways.

In the Western context, “just war” is a by-product of canon law and theology: the ideas of jus naturale (Latin: ‘natural law’) and jus gentium (Latin: ‘law of nations’) from Roman law that established practices of statecraft, and the chivalric code.

A “just war” most scholars agree must meet several jus ad bellum requirements. Four most important ones are:

• The war must be openly declared by a proper sovereign authority ─ the governing authority of the political community in question
• The war must have a just cause ─ e.g., defense of the common good or a response to grave injustice
• The warring state must have just intentions ─ i.e., it must wage the war for justice rather than for self-interest
• The aim of the war must be the establishment of a just peace

“Just war” conditions added at the end of World War II:

• There must be a reasonable chance of success
• Force must be used as a last resort
• The expected benefits of war must outweigh its anticipated costs

Western thought distinguishes the “just war” concept from the Islamic concept “jihad” (Arabic: ‘striving’ or holy war) which is, in Muslim legal theory, the only type of “just war.”

Golf balls for fragile ecosystem BP lays waste?

Will U.S. governance reinstate and empower regulators and get it right this time or will government officials continue acquiescing to corporate-decreed emergencies?
Re-reporting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

Michigan Representative John Dingell says he wants answers. “This is not [British Petroleum’s] first time appearing before the Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee, Dingell said at the opening of his committee’s hearing on Wednesday.

In 2007, a hearing focused on “corrosion in pipeline leading up to the Alaska Pipeline [resulting in] one million liters of oil leaking in Alaska’s North Slope. [But] The North Slope disaster is only one example of BP being before this subcommittee.

“We also investigated BP’s Texas City operations. Back in 2007, BP and its subsidiaries agreed to pay $50 million in criminal fines because of the 2005 explosions at its Texas City refinery. … This fine is equal to less than a day’s corporate profits. …

“A little more than a year ago, in April 2009, the Minerals Management Service exempted BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon from an environmental impact statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. BP called the prospect of an oil spill ‘unlikely’ and stated that ‘no mitigation measures other than those required by regulation and BP policy will be employed to avoid, diminish or eliminate potential impacts on environmental resources.’

“This is outrageous. NEPA is the law of the land for a reason. I know because I wrote it.…

“… Like the explosions at BP’s Texas City refinery, we not only have an environmental disaster [in the Gulf of Mexico], we have the tragic loss of lives.…

“Since BP’s effort to get the containment dome in place didn’t work, the company has resorted to golf balls, knots of rope and other miscellaneous materials to try and plug the hole. … It strikes me as odd that with all the technology we have, golf balls are our best hope. … It is critically important that we understand what happened to the Deepwater Horizon rig and well and what additional precautions we need to take to prevent anything like this from happening again…

“The Gulf Coast is one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the country. There are more than 400 species, including rare birds, waterfowl and sea turtles that are at very serious risk from this disaster. The coastal wetlands are a very fragile ecosystem that deserves protection.”

Presenting yesterday before the Subcommittee Briefing on “Sizing up the BP Oil Spill: Science and Engineering Measuring Methods,” Purdue University professor Steve Wereley gave evidence that the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico is leaking 95,000 barrels of oil (or four million gallons) a day ─ an estimate 19 times the 5,000-barrel-a-day estimate reported by British Petroleum.

Steve Wereley is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, author of the book on optical flow measurement with 18 years experience in flow measurement using image analysis. He has “no involvement with the petroleum industry.” Wereley’s “Oil Flow Rate Analysis (and comparative data of) the Deepwater Horizons Accident” that reportedly began April 20, 2010 was:

Surface analysis BP: 5, 000 bbl/day

Comparison: All outsider estimates higher than BP’s

MacDonald (FSU): 25, 000 bbl/day

Video analysis Chang (UCB): 20,000-100,000 bbl/day

Crone (Columbia): 20,000-100,000 bbl/day

Wereley (Purdue): 56,000-84,000 bbl/day

Sources and notes
Representative John Dingell has spent years investigating BP – between the Texas City incident and Prudhoe Bay pipeline closure due to corrosion in pipelines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline which led to one million liters of oil in Alaska’s North Slope. In a hearing in 2007 regarding Prudhoe Bay, Dingell said:

“‘Workers were often forced to forgo safety measures to save money and to ultimately increase BP’s profits’ and ‘yet these [safety] programs in many cases appear to have been halted or cut due to budgetary reasons. This is the core of what we’ve learned about the way BP managed Prudhoe Bay. Until BP fully acknowledges the role cost cutting and budget pressure played in creating this mess, I fear other problems, like this, may be [occurring] at other BP facilities throughout the United States.’”

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives John D. Dingell is Chairman Emeritus of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, “one of five ‘exclusive’ committees in the House. John Dingell is an avid conservationist and outdoorsman; senior member on the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission; and he has successfully passed legislation to create North America’s first international wildlife refuge, protecting thousands of acres of natural habitat in Southeast Michigan and Canada. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Nature Conservancy of Michigan, http://www.house.gov/dingell/bio.shtml

Britannica: “Prudhoe Bay is a small inlet of the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean, indenting the northern coast of Alaska, U.S. It is situated about 200 miles (320 km) east-southeast of Point Barrow. The bay has been the center of drilling activities since the discovery of vast petroleum deposits on Alaska’s North Slope in 1968. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline links the area to Valdez, an ice-free port on Prince William Sound (Pacific Ocean) 800 miles (1,300 km) to the south. Deadhorse, located near the bay, is the center of much of the area’s oil production. Working conditions in the desolate Arctic Circle are severe, particularly in winter when crews face subzero temperatures.”

Britannica: Texas City is a city in Galveston County, Texas, U.S; part of the Galveston–Texas City complex on Galveston Bay. Texas City is a deepwater port on channels to the Gulf of Mexico. After World War II, its industrial activities have expanded considerably to include the production of petrochemicals, tin smelting, and oil refining.

Britannica: The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish Golfo de México) is a partially landlocked body of water on the southeastern periphery of the North American continent. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Straits of Florida, running between the peninsula of Florida and the island of Cuba, and to the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatán Channel, which runs between the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba. Both of these channels are about 100 miles (160 km) wide. The gulf’s greatest east-west, north-south extents are approximately 1,100 and 800 miles (1,800 and 1,300 km), respectively; it covers an area of some 600,000 square miles (1,550,000 square km). To the northwest, north, and northeast it is bounded by the southern coast of the United States, while to the west, south, and southeast it is bounded by the east coast of Mexico.”

The Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Subcommittee Briefing on “Sizing up the BP Oil Spill: Science and Engineering Measuring Methods, Wednesday, May 19, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building

Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing “Inquiry into the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast Spill”: Dingell Statement from BP Oil Spill Hearing Wednesday, May 12, 2010, http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/mi15_dingell/20100512bpoilspill.shtml

http://energycommerce.house.gov/documents/20100519/Wereley.Presentation.05.19.2010.pdf
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=868&catid=67&Itemid=58
“BP Oil Spill Enters Loop Current as Leak Estimate Rises,” May 20, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/20/headlines#1

Hot Hegemony ─ U.S. proxies, occupation update

Re-reporting, editing, commentary by Carolyn Bennett

“Anti-Americanism is deeply rooted in the country and, if anything, it seems to be growing. Many ─ possibly a majority ─ of Pakistanis believe the USA is actually leading a war against the Muslim world in the name of an anti-terror campaign.

“For many Pakistani soldiers, the Taliban are not the enemy, but rather, fellow countrymen. …

“In order to create a wide alliance of democratic and moderate powers against the extremists, it has to be clear that the fight against terror is not being led by foreign powers, and that such a fight is being led in accordance with the rule of law” [Thomas Baerthlein].

The U.S. government, however, ignored rational thought, spurned nonviolent, diplomatic engagement; heated up and bore down in violence against peoples of the Middle East, Horn of Africa and Gulf of Aden, and South/Central Asia regions.

AF/PAK/INDIA

May 19, 2010
AFGHANISTAN
Seven Taliban fighters have died and nine NATO troops wounded in an assault on Bagram air base, one of the biggest military bases in Afghanistan housing mainly U.S. troops and a detention center where al-Qaeda-linked fighters and ‘terror’ suspects are held, a place widely publicized in the past few years as a center where detainees are tortured. Today’s attack involved “rockets, small arms and grenades.”

Yesterday 24 people died among them six foreign troops, five American, one Canadian, when a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO-led military convoy during rush hour in Kabul.

Two hundred and two (202) NATO soldiers have died making January to mid-May the deadliest period in the U.S.’s Afghan war. Five hundred and twenty troops (520) died in 2009, averaging one or two daily, “the deadliest year so far for the U.S.-led foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime.”

Today’s attack follows the Taliban’s announced spring offensive against the Afghan government and foreign forces in Afghanistan in response to NATO’s plans for a military campaign on the group’s southern stronghold of Kandahar.

May 17, 2010
A prominent Muslim religious leader Rahman Gul had been pushing for peace in Afghanistan. On Monday he, his brother and a relative died. These deaths in eastern Afghanistan resulted from assassinations.

Chief religious leader in his district and member of a religious leaders’ council for eastern Afghanistan, Rahman Gul in recent days had been stressing the importance of ‘peace and stability’ across Afghanistan. The deaths of Gul and his relatives are part of a series of killings targeting Afghan government figures and others aligned with international forces. This month Afghanistan has seen a reported 27 NATO-troop deaths including 16 U.S. soldiers. Many of these deaths have occurred “in the south where NATO forces are moving in as part of a stepped-up security operation in Kandahar.”

May 19, 2010
PAKISTAN
In fighting that began today, 28 Pakistani Taliban fighters and 2 Pakistani soldiers have died in clashes with the Pakistani military in the northwestern tribal region of Orakzai. Taliban fighters had attacked a security checkpoint in the densely forested Dobbari area in Orakzai. Violence has risen in Orakzai since the army drove the Taliban from its strongholds in South Waziristan, Swat and Bajaur. Yesterday 12 people died including three police officers after a roadside bomb exploded in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan. Taliban fighters have carried out a wave of bomb attacks, killing hundreds of people, mainly in the northwest.

May 17, 2010
INDIA
Thirty-five people including 24 civilians and 11 police officers died on Monday in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state when a landmine exploded under a bus in the center of the country. Twenty-nine more people among them police officers suffered wounds. Thousands of people have died in the 40-year Maoist insurgency described by the Indian government as the country’s gravest internal security threat. Senior Maoist figures have said they will talk only if the government puts an end to the national offensive against them.

IRAN/IRAQ

May 19, 2010
IRAN
A U.S. attempt to push for further sanctions against Iran will not work, says Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s vice-president and head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization. The action will moreover “serve to ‘invalidate’ Western powers.

“‘[Western countries] invalidate themselves in the view of public opinion by issuing sanctions… [W]ise people among them [would] avoid doing such irrational actions,’ Salehi said. ‘They feel that for the first time in the world, developing countries are able to defend their rights in the world arena without resorting to the major powers and that is very hard for them.’”

Countering the U.S. and allies claim that Iran wants highly enriched uranium to make atomic weapons [as has Israel and Pakistan and India, the U.S. and others], Tehran claims its nuclear program “is simply designed to meet its civilian energy needs.”

According to the U.S. Secretary of State, members of the UN Security Council have agreed on a package (resolution) of strong new sanctions to impose on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. The draft resolution includes elements of an incentive package for Iran to cooperate with nuclear inspectors and international demands and touches upon Iran’s finance and shipping industry, the Revolutionary Guards, and contains a blanket ban on Iran’s importing any conventional arms. This draft resolution, which does not preclude further discussions with Iran, has not yet been adopted.

May 14, 2010
IRAQ
Twenty five people died on Friday in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar near the city of Mosul when suicide bombers exploded. Dozens of people had died in July and October. In March 2007, 152 people died when truck bombs targeted markets in the town. The latest bombing incidents are part of a series of coordinated attacks carried out on Monday in 10 cities. One hundred and nineteen (119) people died in that incident.

May 22, 2010, update IRAQ - Violence rises, election results not yet certified
Ten to 20 people have died. Thirty suffered injuries today after a car loaded with explosives detonated. Shops and cars were also damaged. According to news reports, the area of this latest incident, Diyala province, stretching from eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border has been, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, “a stronghold for al-Qaeda militants and other insurgent groups despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations” [“Car bomb attack kills 10, wounds 30 in Iraq’s,” May 22, 2010 Diyalahttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-05/22/c_13309020.htm]

U.S. PROXIED occupied TERRITORIES

Walls, Weapons, War
May 14, 2010
U.S. president Barack Obama has asked the Congress for $205 million to help Israel speed up construction of a new short-range anti-missile defense system. What has been called the ‘Iron Dome’ project is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells from the Gaza Strip and neighboring Lebanon.

U.S. military aid to Israel in 2009, according to the State Department, totaled $2.55 billion. New funds will raise that amount in 2012 to $3 billion. For the years 2013 to 2018, the total annually will amount to $3.15 billion.

May 17, 2010
Hundreds of international activists protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza will be aboard eight vessels carrying 5,000 tons of reconstruction materials, school supplies and medical equipment to Gaza. Representatives from six organizations said on Monday that they were determined to enter the area regardless to pressure from Israel. A high-level Israeli official has warned the Israeli government will stop the flotilla of cargo ships and passenger boats activists are planning to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

Israel says its blockade aims to prevent the political movement that has controlled Gaza since 2007 from acquiring weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. The majority of Gaza’s 1.5 million people suffer impoverished living conditions.

GULF OF ADEN/HORN OF AFRICA REGION

May 16, 2010
YEMEN
Two soldiers died and five others suffered wounds after suspected separatist fighters reportedly ambushed a convoy in the Radfan district of southern Lahj province. Yemen’s president was in the convoy. Several soldiers, separatist gunmen and bystanders have died in recent escalating tension in the south. The government is struggling to stabilize a fractious country.

U.S. WAR ON TERROR

May 19, 2010
Targeting, assassinating own
The White House confirmed in last month that U.S. President Barack Obama had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency “to assassinate cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.”

In a 10-minute audiotape posted Sunday on the Internet, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) ─ speaking of al-Qaeda’s ‘religious duty’ to protect U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki accused of recruiting for al-Qaeda ─ vowed to protect the cleric accused U.S. government of terrorism. “He also threatened attacks against the United States if al-Awlaki was harmed.”

Though the CIA and U.S. military maintain lists of alleged terrorists subject to capture or killing, “it is extremely rare for American citizens to be added to these lists.” The cleric’s family has sought to have his name removed from the list and offered a guarantee that al-Awlaki would stop issuing anti-American messages.

Casualty sites reporting

May 19, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 169 dead; 31,790-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [May 8 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,264 – 104,997, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,397 U.S, 4,715 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,080 U.S., 1,777 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources and notes
Opinion “The War on Terror Can’t be Won by Military Might Alone, September 22, 2008, Thomas Baerthlein, deputy head of the South Asia service at Deutsche Welle, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3662078,00.html
“Taliban attack Afghan air base,” May 19, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201051922930146436.html
“Afghan religious leader killed,” May 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201051743554977652.html
“India bus blast ‘kills dozens,’” May 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010517125439433390.html
“Iran dismisses UN sanctions push,” May 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201051913252230903.html
“UN discusses sanctions deal,” May 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010518151434418587.html
“Obama urges funds for Israeli shield,” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201051412713367443.html
“Israel warns against Gaza flotilla,” May 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/05/2010517155117976235.html
“Blast hits Iraq football match,” May 14, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010514161932327374.html
“Deadly attack on Yemeni convoy,” May 16, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010515172110455185.html
“Pakistani military battles Taliban,” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010519792870554.html

U.S. should heed EU Greens’ progressive “Manifesto”

Excerpt, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett from “A Green New Deal for Europe”

PROVIDE SAFE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
Uranium is a finite fuel source and the EU is overwhelmingly dependent on imports from unstable countries, so nuclear is clearly not the answer to our long-term energy security. On top of this, the associated risks of nuclear are as real now as they have always been, whether in terms of operation, fuel production or managing nuclear waste. This is not to mention the possibility of terrorist attacks and nuclear proliferation to questionable regimes and even rogue groups.

Revolutionizing how we use energy and ending our damaging dependence on oil means we must also move green. Transport is the fastest growing source of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. The EU needs to actively work to create a sustainable transport system.
PROVIDE AND SECURE, ACCESSIBLE, SAFE FOOD FOR ALL
Farming and food policies should promote local markets for agricultural products, eliminating unnecessary transportation. They must encourage more sustainable production methods that aim to conserve biodiversity and water resources, and enhance soil fertility, reducing the use of toxic and polluting pesticides and fertilizers. This approach will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from intensive agriculture. It will also reduce the risks to public health caused by industrial farming. Animals must be treated ethically, in agriculture as in all other contexts.
REGULATE BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL MARKETS
The system needs change. The Greens want to end the careless deregulation that has enabled big business to dictate its own terms regardless of the real impact on the economy and society at large. This approach encouraged the risky speculation and overexploitation that has trapped us in a damaging boom to bust cycle. We want to take this opportunity to develop a new economy driven by long-term prosperity, not short-term profiteering. We want a responsible and stable Europe, which invests ethically and where prosperity is defined by the wellbeing of all its people.

Financial markets must be put on a leash, so they cease to be casinos in which people’s homes and livelihoods are the chips on the table. Their transnational nature demands a coordinated European response that leads and links in to international efforts. We need an EU-level watchdog with teeth – a body to scrutinize and regulate financial markets and services. EU regulations must rule out any kind of tax evasion and prevent harmful tax competition for corporate revenues and savings, which undermines social justice.
ENSURE FAIRER SOCIETY
A truly prosperous, innovative, stable and sustainable economy requires a fairer society guaranteeing fair working conditions, equal opportunities and a decent standard of living for all.
ERADICATE POVERTY
Nobody should suffer the indignity of living in poverty. The Green New Deal aims to reverse the widening gap between rich and poor and guarantee a decent minimum living standard for all Europeans. Governments should introduce minimum wages by law or collective agreements and a minimum income above the poverty line, guaranteed by social security, for all in need. The EU should be guided by the principle of equal pay for equal work and not be a battleground for the lowest wage.

Europe must offer greater stability to people of all ages. Senior citizens must be guaranteed a voice in society, enabling them to actively participate in economic, social and civic life. This implies guaranteeing sound pensions. Community-based services must exist to address the individual needs of the frail and vulnerable. Young people must have access to more secure jobs and better access to education, training and housing.

Europe must also play its part in building fairer societies and eliminating poverty in other parts of the world.
DECRIMINALIZE IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM SEEKERS
Immigration is an opportunity, not a threat. We need positive-minded policies that will allow people to come here legally and efficiently. Immigrants who work in the EU deserve equal rights and equal pay, as well as the opportunity of European citizenship and the right to participate in the political process.

People who seek asylum deserve to be treated better.

The Greens have opposed repressive laws on returning unauthorized migrants and will continue to fight inhumane or xenophobic legislation. Europe has a duty to provide shelter and protection to those who need it. Europe should be a bridge that will allow people to come and live here in a legal way. It will only be able to do this effectively when all EU countries share the effort instead of leaving border countries to take the strain. Europe must also do more to fight the despicable trafficking of men, women and children across its borders.
ENACT NEW STYLE FOREIGN POLICY
The European Union must lead by example in its engagement with the rest of the world: this implies a new style of foreign policy. It must devote its energy to solving root causes of international tensions and not just fighting their manifestations.

The EU should strengthen multilateral bodies and international law, focus on civilian foreign policy instruments and follow the principle of maximum fairness in all of its external policies, including trade. European policies must champion peace, democracy and human rights in the world and do so consistently and coherently. The EU should also devote more energy and resources to support the international community (particularly the UN) in addressing conflicts that have been long overlooked.

International cooperation and humanitarian aid must be a priority. Establishing a European Civil Peace Corps ready to make non-military interventions for humanitarian purposes would play an important part of this.

“The Green New Deal sets out a new direction for Europe. As economic, social and environmental crises converge, it is time to shift our course from destructive short-term profiteering towards sustainable, long-term prosperity.”

In Britain's latest national election, the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Caroline Lucas, became the first Green Member elected to the UK Parliament at Westminster. Currently a Member of the European Parliament, Lucas was elected MP in the constituency of Brighton Pavillion with a majority of 1,252 votes over the incumbent Labour MP.

Sources
“A Green New Deal for Europe,” 2009, http://europeangreens.eu/fileadmin/logos/pdf/manifesto_EUROPEAN_GREENS.pdf
http://europeangreens.eu/menu/egp-manifesto/
http://europeangreens.eu/menu/egp-manifesto/
“European greens congratulate Caroline Lucas on becoming first green mp in UK parliament… Historic achievement for Green Party of England and Wales means Greens now have a voice in Westminster,” May 7, 2010, http://europeangreens.eu/menu/news/news-single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1959&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=13&cHash=f1bee17c30

World nations fail planet species ─ UN Reports

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development enters a two-year cycle focusing on the sustainable use and management of resources. This year’s session began May 3 and ends on today. The 2011 session after reviewing this year’s focus on issues, problems, challenges, and possible solutions will look at concrete policy recommendations. Leading into the May 3-14 session, the commission issued reports of alarming concerns for biodiversity loss, interference with the nitrogen cycle, and climate change. The reports said 24 countries currently exceed their “biocapacity” contrasted with no countries exceeding their “biocapacity” in 1960.

Industrialized countries in 2005 used 50 per cent of the fossil energy, industrial minerals and metallic ores while accounting for only one-sixth of world population. The size of the rich countries’ ecological footprint continues to grow ─  resulting mostly from rising greenhouse gas emissions. Only a few countries have managed to weaken the link between economic activity and resource extraction, pollution and waste generation. Increased globalization, urbanization and rising prosperity around the world are taking increasingly greater tolls on the world’s ecosystems.

“Human progress has devastated biodiversity in the developed world and is rapidly doing the same in nations trying to emerge from poverty.”

The projected growth in population, income and wealth over the next 40 years is expected to put increasing pressure on resources and if rising middle classes of emerging economies emulate the consumption patterns of rich countries ─ “two planets would be needed by 2040.”

Though 168 countries have signed the Convention on Biological Diversity since the convention’s 1992 presentation at the UN ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro, according to the third Global Biodiversity Outlook, no single government has met its full range of ecological protection targets.

The world has collectively failed in its bid to halt the rapid loss of the planet’s species.

“‘The consequences of this collective failure, if it is not quickly corrected, will be severe for us all,’” says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “‘Biodiversity underpins the functioning of the ecosystems on which we depend.’”


Sources and notes
“Report Finds Few Countries Able to Break Link between Drive toward Prosperity and Environmental Stress,” May 3, 2010, http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/newsmedi/nm_pdfs/csd-18/pr_trends_report.pdf
“The world has failed to curb a dangerous loss of biodiversity, UN report says,”
Deutsche Welle, May 11, 2010, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5563677,00.html

Britannica, “Biodiversity and the stability of communities”
“… The development of more complex structures allows a greater number of species to coexist with one another. The increase in species richness and complexity acts to buffer the community from environmental stresses and disasters, rendering it more stable.… Diverse communities are healthy communities. Long-term ecological studies have shown that species-rich communities are able to recover faster from disturbances than species-poor communities.… The relationship between species diversity and community stability highlights the need to maintain the greatest richness possible within biological communities.… The tight web of interactions that make up natural biological communities sustains both biodiversity and community stability.”

300,000 Palestinians’ “harsh reality” ignored ─ ACRI

Edited excerpt, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel released a report today updating information on human rights violations in Occupied East Jerusalem where, at the end of 2009, approximately 303,400 Palestinians ─ 36 per cent of the city’s 835,500 total population ─ lived.

Israel seized and occupied the West Bank including East Jerusalem in 1967. The international community condemned these actions. The United Nations declared them illegal under international law. Release of the Association for Civil Rights’ report precedes Israel’s scheduled celebrations marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel’s aggression against East Jerusalem.

In the report:

Ninety-five thousand children languish below the poverty line

Less than 50 percent of schoolchildren attend public schools
A thousand classrooms are missing
Dropout rates are at 50 percent

Only three Social Service Stations operate in East Jerusalem (20 in the West)

Eighty homes were demolished in 2009 leaving 300 people with no roof over their heads
The Interior Ministry has escalated revocation of Palestinian Jerusalemites’ residency status

Fifty-km shortage of drainage pipes
Regular sewage overflow creates environmental hazards
Hundreds of streets receive no garbage collection services
Eight post offices operate in East Jerusalem (42 in West Jerusalem)

Community leaders and activists are pressure, harassed
Palestinian NGOs are shut down for undisclosed security reasons

Jerusalem residents suffer long waiting periods at checkpoints
These barriers and humiliations violate commitments made by the State to the High Court of Justice

“This past year East Jerusalem has been on everyone’s agenda, making headlines in Israel and abroad,” The Association for Civil Rights writes. “Unfortunately, despite all this attention, the harsh reality of everyday life of 300,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites remains unknown, ignored by both the authorities and the public.”

Sources and notesDetails and media inquiries to Ronit Sela, ronits@acri.org.il; http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=722
“Human Rights in East Jerusalem: Facts and Figures 2010”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel founded in 1972 takes the mandate of ensuring “Israel’s accountability and respect for human rights, by addressing violations committed by the Israeli authorities in Israel, the Occupied Territories, or elsewhere.” ACRI’s work encompasses litigation and legal advocacy, education, and public outreach as the most effective way in which to build toward a long-term vision of a just and democratic society that respects the equal rights of all its members. It holds that “as a fledgling democracy without a constitution and an increasingly segmented and polarized society, Israel needs an organization such as ACRI that is committed to promoting the universality of human rights and defending the rights of all, regardless of religion, nationality, gender, ethnicity, political affiliation, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background. As an independent and non-partisan organization, ACRI uses this multi-pronged strategy to advance the concept of civil and human rights as an integral part of democratic community building and as a unifying force in Israeli public life.”

Also: “Poverty ‘widespread’ in East Jerusalem,” May 10, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201051081849739152.html