Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett
HOMELAND USA
Three-term U.S. Member of Congress Gabrielle Giffords died today in Tucson, Arizona, “after being shot in the head at point-blank range outside a supermarket.” In the state she represents, Giffords was holding a public event when she was gunned down in cold blood.
Six other people died. During her tenure in office, Congresswoman Giffords focused on immigration reform, military issues, stem cell research and alternative energy.
CORRECTION AND UPDATE Sunday January 9
Daily Mail UK January 9: Congresswoman Giffords “survived, despite the shooters’s bullet passing through her brain.” She is still in a critical condition. “Federal judge John Roll, 63, and Christina Green, a nine-year-old schoolchild, are among the dead. Others who died were Giffords’ aide Gabe Zimmerman, Dorothy Murray, 76, Dorwin Stoddard, 76, and Phyllis Scheck, 79.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345413/Arizona-shooting-Gabrielle-Giffords-fights-life-judge-schoolgirl-dead.html?ITO=1490
A 22-year-old white male American, Jared Loughner, with an arrest history, is being reported as alleged Tucson shooter. http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110108/pl_dailycaller/allegedarizgunmanjaredloughnerhadpriorruninswithpolice
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
West Bank
A 67-year-old Palestinian civilian died Friday when Israeli troops in the southern West Bank city of Hebron opened fire on while he was sleeping at home. The dead man’s son, Rajaeh Kawasme, told Agence France Press, “Troops entered the house while his mother was praying and his father was asleep. They had locked her in another room then opened fire on his father in his bed. ‘They murdered him in cold blood with 13 bullets in the head without even checking his identity. After they killed him, they asked for his identity card.’” An AFP correspondent at the scene said “the shooting took place in a bedroom on the building’s first floor [and] the bed was drenched in blood.”
West Bank
The Electronic Intifada reports that although a 2005 Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions urges a complete economic, academic and cultural boycott of Israel — modeled on the one that helped end apartheid in South Africa — until Israel respects and recognizes Palestinian rights and complies with international law, a Palestinian is pushing continued development.
“Bashar Masri, a Palestinian and CEO of the company that is developing the Rawabi luxury real estate project in the occupied West Bank, appears to be actively helping Israel deepen its hold on the Palestinian economy despite his earlier claims that he is trying to help end this relationship.”
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, says, “Masri as well as other Palestinian business men who promote normalization with Israel seem to be doing all they can to undermine the [boycott, divestment and sanctions] campaign, while making handsome profits along the way.”
West Bank Bil'in — Abu Rahmah Family: three dead and wounded in as many years
Israel’s army in late 2004 ordered construction of the “separation wall.” The wall would annex almost 60 percent of Bil'in's land — mostly agricultural land essential to the villagers and the village’s economy.
The Bil'in Committee of Popular Resistance Against the Wall and Settlements (Bil'in Popular Committee) was formed in February 2005 and the group carried out weekly non-violent demonstrations.
Despite harsh reactions from Israeli military personnel who, among other things, “raided the homes of and arrested protest organizers in the middle of the night, the demonstrations continued.”
The Abu Rahmah siblings, non-violent activists in Bil'in’s Popular Committee, began taking fatal hits from the military.
- Ashraf Abu Rahmah in July 2008 was detained by Israeli soldiers in the nearby village of Ni'lin. The soldiers tied him up, blindfolded him and, as their commander watched, shot him in the foot at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The rubber coating of these weapons “is paper-thin and encases a marble-sized steel ball that can break bones or even kill.” The shooting was videotaped “making it impossible for the Israeli military to deny responsibility.” The Israeli Supreme Court handed down a strong indictment against the commander. The soldier who committed the deed was investigated. Two weeks after the investigation, the charges against him were dropped and he resumed Israeli military duty.
- Bassem Abu Rahmah in April 2009 was participating in the weekly protests. An Israeli soldier shot “a high-velocity teargas canister directly at [Bassem’s] chest from a distance of about 40 meters [44 yards]. Many protesters and media had been driven away by the billowing teargas but those still present heard a desperate call for an ambulance. There was no ambulance in the village that day. After a few drawn out minutes, a small beat-up car sped down the road to the spot where Bassem lay. As it approached, the soldiers shot at it with teargas canisters. Bassem’s limp body, his chest covered with blood, was carried to the car and driven 30 minutes to the nearest hospital.
- Jawaher Abu Rahmah died on the eve of 2011 after inhaling teargas that had targeted the Bil'in Committee of Popular Resistance Against the Wall and Settlements’ weekly protest.
CENTRAL SOUTH ASIA and MIDDLE EAST
AFGHANISTAN — Pakistan border
Sixteen (estimated) civilians and a police commander died yesterday and 20 others suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on the border with Pakistan. In separate incidents, three NATO service members died in roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan.
The United Nations reports that 2,412 civilians died and 3,803 suffered wounds between January and October of 2010. These casualties amount to a 20 percent increase over 2009. Seven hundred and eleven (711) foreign troops reportedly died in 2010 compared with 521 in 2009. A total of 1,292 (estimated) Afghan police and 821 Afghan soldiers died in 2010.
PAKISTAN — capital Islamabad
In a popular market district in Islamabad, a place popular with wealthy Pakistanis and expatriates, close to the governor’s home, populated by embassies, frequented by foreigners and considered “fairly safe” — Pakistan’s Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, died. Police said on Tuesday a member of the governor’s security detail had assassinated him. Salman Taseer was a high-profile member of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
PAKISTAN — children on a bus
Fifteen children ages eight to 12 suffered wounds Tuesday in southwest Pakistan when a “remote-controlled bomb ripped through a bus carrying children of paramilitary soldiers.” Of the 30 children traveling in a van attacked near Ata Shad Degree College, five suffered critical wounds.
IRAQ — resistance to foreign occupation
The Iraqi Shia Muslim religious leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, “has called on his followers to resist the ‘occupiers’ in Iraq. In his first public address since returning [to Iraq] from self-imposed exile, [Al-Sadr] called on the newly formed government to make sure all U.S. forces leave Iraq by the end of the year as planned.”
Al-Sadr is reported telling a crowd of thousands outside his ancestral home in Najaf on Saturday, “‘We are still resisting the occupation through armed, cultural and all kinds of resistance, so repeat after me: no, no to occupiers.’”
HORN OF AFRICA
SOMALIA — Mercenaries
“Western officials have acknowledged that a number of other private security contractors have begun operating in Somalia.” Somalis are resisting.
Somalia’s interim parliament on Thursday “called on the prime minister to explain a series of contracts given [without consultation] to foreign security firms operating in the country. They also called on Mohamad Abdullah Mohamad to suspend the deals until they can get more information as to what exactly they involve. Somali politicians have accused the prime minister and the president of making secret deals.
UN officials in separate actions have raised questions about whether some of the [mercenary] contractors might be helping organize and arm new pro-government militias, possibly in violation of the UN arms embargo on the country.
U.S.-led
WAR DEAD?
Casualty sites reporting January 8, 2011
(accurate totals unknown)
• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003
[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 204]
Wounded 32,943-100,000
U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000
Suicides estimated: 18 a day
Latest update on this site: January 2, 2011
• Iraq Body Count (civilian deaths from violence) figures:
99,341 – 108,457
• ICasualties figures:
IRAQ: 4,432 U.S., 4,750 Coalition
AFGHANISTAN: 1,449 U.S., 2,290 Coalition
Sources and notes
“U.S. politician killed in Arizona — Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot dead, along with six others, while at a community event in Tucson,” January 8, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/01/20111818478375413.html
“Israel army shoots dead elderly Palestinian in bed,” Saturday, January 8, 2011, HEBRON, Palestinian Territories (AFP), http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20110108/twl-israel-palestinians-conflict-westban-4bdc673.html
“Rawabi developer Masri helps deepen Israel's grip on West Bank” (Ali Abunimah), The Electronic Intifada, January 6, 2011, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11717.shtml
Bil'in: A village in mourning, January 7, 2011,
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/20111513358119488.html
“Civilians killed in Afghan blast — Taliban claim attack targeting a police commander inside a public bathhouse in a town close to the Pakistan border,” January 7, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/2011178365522845.html
“Pakistan’s Punjab governor killed — Police say Salman Taseer, an outspoken member of ruling party, was assassinated by an elite guard in capital Islamabad,” January 4 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201114115730846269.html
“Pakistan bus bomb targets children — More than a dozen children of paramilitary soldiers injured as a remote controlled device hits their school bus,” January 1, 2011,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/2011148381326449.html
“Al-Sadr calls on Iraqis ‘to resist’ — Shia leader urges peaceful resistance and a rejection of violence in his first address since returning from exile,” January 8, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/20111872647305497.html
“Somali MPs seek contract inquiry — Prime minister urged to explain deals with security contractors in strife-torn nation,” January 1, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201111145350763809.html
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