Way Forward Peace through Ceasefire, Dialogue--Mairead Corrigan Maguire

Peace People Call for Fair Response to Palestinians
Maired Corrigan Maguire's words

Excerpt, editing for TIN by 

Carolyn Bennett

T

he Palestinian people have issued a call (we must answer)  for the support of the world’s people, asking us to stand with them.

Palestinians point out that the United Nations Security Council (permanent members U.S. UK, China, Russia, France) paralyzed by the United States will not send an observer mission so they have appealed for peace observers to go to Palestine to tell the world what is really happening to their people under Israeli military occupation. 

·     Western Leaders and mainstream media have come up with disingenuous statements repeating Israeli disinformation and blaming the Palestinian victims. 

·     Biased against Palestinians, these leaders and media outlets continue to tell the Israeli narrative. 

·     If Palestinians and Israelis, indeed the Middle East region are to be saved and to move toward peace, it is time that Israeli propaganda be shown for what it is – war propaganda. 

·    This is not an Israeli fight to stop Hamas-- who are not the aggressors. 

·      Israel has answered every occasion for dialogue with military attacks on Palestinian civilians. 

·     Israel has chosen land [grabs] and continues to annex Palestinian land, demolishing Palestinian homes. 

·      The war Israel is waging on Gaza is not about self-defense. 

·      The war Israel is waging is not about destroying Hamas; it is a war about complete control over a territory and a people and it is being conducted with complete disregard for human life. 

·      It is a war aimed at destroying the resilience of the Palestinian people whilst, all the time, illegally confiscating their land. 

P

Maired Corrigan Maguire

eace is possible.

An immediate ceasefire together with dialogue is the only way forward.

We owe it to our

Palestinian and Israeli brothers and Sisters who are working for peace and a nonviolent solution to answer their call …. Let us together as civil community around the world continue and increase our efforts to demand mainstream media talk about the real issues and reach out to all people of conscience in Europe and in the United States and elsewhere to support the Palestinians in their struggle for human rights and International law.

  

Sources and notes

“MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE CALLS UPON BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION AND mainstream western media to end bias against Palestinians and [end] their [media’s] lack of impartiality against Palestinians and in their reporting of Middle East conflicts.

“She called on the BBC, and world media to give factual, fair and balanced reporting in order that people can be informed and not continue to be subjected to Israeli propaganda. Maguire also called for an immediate ceasefire and dialogue ‘as the only way forward.’” Mairead Corrigan Maguire is in Peace People press release July 14, 2014, http://www.peacepeople.com/?p=456

U

pdate on Israel's massacre in Gaza

RT: “Israeli tank strikes on Gaza hospital kill 4, scores injured – medics,” July 21, 2014, RT, http://rt.com/news/174408-israel-hospital-strike-gaza/

The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) death toll from the hostilities in Gaza has risen to 25, with seven Israeli soldiers killed in the last 24 hours (Haaretz). Since the operation began 14 days ago, the death toll in Gaza has reached 508 with 3,130 wounded.

Press TV: “Israeli forces killing Gazans with lethal shells: Rights group,” July 21, 2014, http://www.presstv.com/section/3510202.html

Medics say some Palestinians in the besieged enclave have been wounded by a new type of weapon that even doctors with previous experience in war zones do not recognize. Israel had also used depleted-uranium and white phosphorus shells in the besieged region during their previous assaults. This is while Israeli tanks and warplanes keep pounding the besieged enclave. At least 78 Palestinians were killed on Monday alone. 

This brings to 549 the total death toll from 14 days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Over 3,000 Palestinians have also been injured in the onslaught. The majority of victims have been civilians--including women, children, and the elderly. 

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Mayday: human rights disasters ─ “not our problem”

Occupied, ignored though not without resistance
Compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett

The Electronic Intifada reports
April 29, 2010
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Walled
ActiveStills photographer Anne Paq witnessed Volvo equipment being used to destroy a home in the nearby village of al-Khader. She had taken pictures two days before of Volvo and Caterpillar equipment working between the road and the fence of Har Gilo settlement, a few meters away from Palestinian houses in al-Walaja. There was an Israeli police car parked next to the works. When Paq asked what they were building, they refused to answer.

The Electronic Intifada first reported in 2008 the use of Volvo equipment in Israel’s violations of international law in the occupied West Bank. So far, the company has taken no action to investigate the use of its equipment in Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.

Volvo Group’s vice president of media relations and corporate news, Marten Wikforss, responded to The Electronic Intifada’s report, “‘We do not have any control over the use of our products, other than to affirm in our business activities a Code of Conduct that decries unethical behavior.’”

While the villagers of al-Walaja steadfastly continue to protest construction of the wall, the confiscation of their land and the destruction of their property, Israeli forces increase the oppression. Some houses have been rebuilt three or four times. Nidal Abu Zuluf, director of the Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and YWCA, said, “‘Israel’s current repressive policies aim to prevent acts of popular resistance. They don’t want the media and internationals to be around.’

“Perhaps neither does Volvo, as its equipment continues to be photographed destroying Palestinian homes and violating Palestinian rights.”

April 29, 2010
Murder in occupied Territories
A 19-year-old Palestinian died from gunshots to the abdomen when Israeli soldiers opened fire “during a protest against a buffer zone being built between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.”

An Israeli army representative called the buffer area “a ‘war zone’ used by armed groups to carry out attacks against Israel.” Palestinians said their “peaceful protests” aim “to prevent the establishment of the zone which … is resulting in large areas of farmland being confiscated and farmers being prevented from reaching their fields.”

Since the 2008-2009 war on Gaza that left at least 1,400 Palestinians dead, “both Israel and Hamas have largely observed an unwritten truce, but in recent weeks fatal incidents in the area have increased, sparking some fears among observers that they may build up to a new cycle of violence.”

Al Jazeera reports
U.S.-Occupied Afghanistan – Kandahar
Killing
U.S. forces are massing on the outskirts of Kandahar. Top military officers are announcing that Afghan residents in the coming months can expect “an upsurge in violence.” The U.S. build-up around Kandahar is part U.S. President Barack Obama’s 30,000 increase in deployment in an invasion and occupation that is in its ninth year. By August an estimated 100,000 U.S. troops will have been deployed in Afghanistan, “more than three times” the number there when the Obama administration took office; however, since the middle of last year, thousands of additional U.S. troops had already entered rural districts of Kandahar. Nevertheless, several areas remain under Taliban control.

May 1, 2010
U.S. - Occupied PAKISTAN
Killing
An estimated two civilians died and ten suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded in a busy market in Pakistan’s Swat valley. In recent weeks, there has been a rise in killings of tribal elders, “raising fears that Taliban fighters are reasserting their control over the region less than a year after the army claimed victory in an offensive to push them out of the area.”

Agence France Presse/Yahoo Singapore reports
April 30-May 1, 2010
U.S.-threatened IRAN, UN autonomy
U.S. lawmakers on Friday denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plans to attend a UN nuclear conference in New York City. The U.S. secretary of state and 14 Republican members of the U.S. Senate are reported calling Ahmadinejad’s planned visit “preposterous” and that allowing the visit would “make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups.” These officials went on to state that there was “no compelling reason” for Iran’s president “to be allowed to enter the United States;” and that the government of the United States “has the legal authority to deny [Iran’s president’s] request and bar his entry.”

Earlier in April at an international nuclear disarmament conference hosted by Tehran, Ahmadinejad had lashed out at the current Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) structure, calling on “‘independent countries’ to review the NPT. He charged that “the presence of those possessing weapons, especially the U.S., prevents the drawing up of a fair treaty.’”

Responding Saturday to Washington’s alleged attempt to bar Iran’s president from attending the conference at New York, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters, “The issuing of visas to the delegation and officials of any country coming to participate at the UN in the United States is obligatory on the part of American officials. The U.S. government has no right to use the issuance of visas as a tool against other countries. The U.S. government... should not take the UN and the UNSC [UN Security Council] hostage.”

U.S.-occupied HORN OF AFRICA
An estimated 25 people died today. Scores suffered injuries when a bomb exploded in the crowded Bakara market area, an Islamist stronghold, near a mosque in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. People had just finished midday prayers. This incident is reported to be “the deadliest blast in five months, the worst since a suicide bombing in a hotel in December killed 57 people among them government ministers.” These latest explosions, occurring in an Islamist stronghold, the reports said, “are unlikely to be the result of explosive devices planted by insurgents.”

May 1, 2010
U.S.-neglected Americas
Avoidable Gulf of Mexico/U.S. States’ emergency ─ disastrous as coalmining and landmines, nuclear power and levees ─ U.S. government officials saw coming, feigned shock at yet another manmade “natural” catastrophe.

An estimated 200,000 and more gallons of oil are spilling daily from the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon oilrig.

Birds are coated in oil. Wildlife groups expect to receive rising numbers of fowl and animal casualties. Fears are rising that the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe will parallel the 1989 ecological disaster left by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana officials lacking prior U.S. regulation and protections have declared states of emergency. Having failed to regulate industry and protect the welfare of people, land and waters, and the environment generally, U.S. officials now wring their hands, blame and lament British Petroleum’s “ability to deal with the leak and the environmental damage it will [surely] cause.”

British Petroleum’s officials say they do not know how the “accident” happened. This assertion is as believable as snake oil or a homeless man offering to sell the Golden Gate Bridge.

Casualty sites reporting
May 1, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 166 dead; 31,790-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [April 28 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,005 – 104,722, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,394 U.S, 4,712 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,053 U.S., 1,740 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources
“Volvo equipment: Israel's weapons to destroy al-Walaja homes” (Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada), April 29, 2010, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11236.shtml
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
“Israeli troops kill Gaza protester,” April 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010428184658638631.html
“Kandahar violence ‘to get worse,’” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010511515216888.html
“Suicide blast rocks Palestine market,” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/20105112137357587.html
“Iran warns U.S. against taking UN ‘hostage,’” AFP/Yahoo Singapore,, May 1, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100501/twl-un-nuclear-npt-us-diplomacy-iran-7e07afd.html
“25 killed in blasts in Mogadishu mosque: officials,” AFP/Yahoo Singapore May 1, 2010,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100501/twl-somalia-unrest-shebab-4bdc673.html
“Pressure rises on BP over oil spill,” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201051124754529712.html

Weekend U.S. sphere, resistance, protests abroad

Aljazeera, wire reports from
America, Middle East
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

April 25, 2010
U.S. - OCCUPIED PACIFIC
Demonstrators are afoot in Okinawa, Japan, in protest to the United States’ 47,000-troop military occupation on the island nation. Many on the island have for years complained of noise, pollution and conflicts with U.S. soldiers. Japan is unhappy with the heavy American military presence. Al Jazeera reports that today’s rally is expected to include Okinawa’s governor Hirokazu Nakaima and more than 30 town mayors. The Kadena air base close to where the rally is taking place is the largest U.S. military facility in the Asia-Pacific region.

April 23, 2010
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Israel accuses Syria of supplying missiles to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Syria denies Israel’s charges. Interviewed from the Syrian embassy in Washington, spokesperson Ahmed Salkini told Al Jazeera the reports of alleged missile transfers are part of Israel’s disinformation campaign to divert the world’s attention from Israel’s actions on the ground. The representative said Israel’s charge “showed how it was evading any responsibility for building peace in the region, by pressing ahead with its occupation of Arab land. ‘Syria is calling for a comprehensive and just peace in the region whereby Israel withdraws from all occupied territories the UN and the international community have declared illegally occupied.’”

Leading on from Israel’s charge, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Middle East Jeffrey Feltman reacted, “‘If these reports turn out to be true, we’re going to have to review the full range of tools that are available for us in order to make Syria reverse what would be an incendiary, provocative action.’” In a 34-day Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, 1,200 mostly civilian Lebanese died and more than 160 mainly Israeli soldiers died.

April 22, 2010
Israel has deported two Palestinians to the Gaza Strip raising fears that more expulsions could follow under a controversial new Israeli military order. The action “fits into a pattern of Israel’s strategy to treat Gaza and the West Bank as separate geopolitical entities,” Al Jazeera’s Jackie Rowland reported from Jerusalem. An estimated 70,000 Palestinians could be at risk of deportation under an Israeli military order condemned by Arab politicians.

April 25, 2010
Jewish settlers marched in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinian protesters and Israeli police clashed. Israeli settlers living in illegal housing units on occupied Palestinian land want Arabs’ homes demolished and Arabs removed from the area to make way for Israeli construction projects.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that if the Obama administration believes in and is committed to Israel’s security together with a peace settlement that gives a state to Palestinians, the American administration has a “duty to call for steps to reach the solution, impose the solution. [But] don’t tell me it’s a vital national strategic American interest, then not do anything.”

Having pulled out of talks with the Israelis during Israel’s 22-day [December 2008-January 2009] offensive in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have refused to return until all settlement activity stops.

April 24, 2010
IRAQ
Iraqis are burying their dead. An estimated 69 people died Friday when a series bombs exploded in Baghdad and Sadr City. Funeral processions set off on Saturday from Sadr City, site of the deadliest attacks, for the holy city of Najaf. Since the start of 2010, April has been the bloodiest month in the country.

April 22, 2010
JORDAN
Rockets on Wednesday landed in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba one damaging an empty storage space, the other splashing into the Red Sea. Police found remains of a Katyusha rocket. They were trying to determine the source of the attack. Five years ago, three Katyusha rockets, missing two U.S. warships docked in the port, had been fired in Aqaba. In that incident, rockets hit a warehouse and crossed a border with Jerusalem. A Jordanian soldier died.

April 24, 2010
PAKISTAN
Four police officers died when gunmen opened fire torching twelve NATO oil tankers in Talagang, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The gunmen escaped after police returned fire. Fighters routinely attack routes and supplies supporting the war in Afghanistan in an effort to halt resources available to NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

April 24-25, 2010
MISSISSIPPI
As estimated 10 people including children died when tornadoes hit several southeastern/Gulf states of the United States ─ Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama among them.

Crews off the coast of Louisiana delayed cleaning up an oil spill that had followed an offshore oilrig explosion causing the platform to sink earlier in the week. Storms damaged a chemical plant tank in Tallulah, Louisiana, causing a nitrogen leak. The Mississippi governor declared a state of emergency in 17 counties.

Casualty sites reporting
April 25, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 165 dead; 31,785-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [April 17 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 95,965 – 104,682, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,393 U.S, 4,711 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,050 U.S., 1,736 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

CASUALTIES UPDATE
Monday April 26, 2010 update
Occupied Territories
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces destroyed a house owned by a Hamas commander’s relatives and assassinated the commander. Though an Israeli high court order has deemed the killing of Palestinian suspects not engaged in a firefight illegal, media reports indicate that the Israeli military pursues a policy of assassinating prominent Palestinian fighters. A previous alleged assassination carried out by Israeli forces was last December in Nablus in the West Bank; four members of Fatah’s military wing died. “Monday’s killing appeared likely to aggravate an already tense situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories” [“Israeli troops kill Hamas fighter,: April 26, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042610119512795.html].

Monday April 26, 2010 update
Gulf of Mexico – Louisiana USA
Off Louisiana’s coast 1,525 meters (5,003.2 feet or 0.9 miles) into the ocean, an oil well is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil a day. Eleven workers involved in last Tuesday’s “worst oil rig disaster in almost a decade” are missing and presumed dead. In the past nine years, 69 people have died, 1,349 have sustained injuries, 858 fires and explosions have occurred in oil-rig operations off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf off Mexico [“Engineers in race to seal oil leak,” April 26, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201042653915904166.html].

Monday April 26, 2010 update
Yemen
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and confronts serious political and administrative problems. The country today sustained its first suicide attack in a year. The attack by a suicide bomber occurred in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa near the British ambassador’s convoy. No one died or sustained injuries. In March 2009, a South Korean delegation sustained an attack while investigating a bombing that had occurred a few days earlier; four South Korean tourists died. In 2008, two suicide bombers set off a series of blasts outside the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Sanaa. Sixteen people died [“UK diplomat escapes Yemen attack,” April 26, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042655759873579.html].


Sources
”Japanese rally against U.S. air base,” April 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/04/201042554723575134.html
“U.S. tightens pressure on Syria,” April 23, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/20104223206497761.html
“Palestinians deported to Gaza,” April 22, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010422124915701529.html
“Clashes as Israeli settlers match,” April 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104258757856525.html
“Baghdad mourns bombing victims,” April 24, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104247396232723.html
“Rockets land in Jordanian port city,” April 22, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042210215107533.html
“NATO tankers attack Pakistan,” April 24, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010424191518201134.html
“Tornadoes hit southeastern U.S.,” April 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201042545832872872.html

Washington at war heads into Nuclear Summit sans Israel

Re-reported, compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett
A nuclear-powered state imposing overwhelming intimidation, taking liberty to proliferate, bomb and slaughter at will, has the brazen audacity to summon other states to Washington for its own photo-op on nuclear nonproliferation.

April 9, 2010
Palestine
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled plans to attend this week’s Washington conference on nuclear security.

It is “an open secret that Israel has nuclear weapons” though the country refuses to talk about its nuclear capabilities, said Dr Rebecca Johnson, director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, speaking with Radio Netherlands. “For a long time,” she said, Israelis have been “free riders on the nuclear Non-Proliferation regime,” benefiting from the fact that all their Arab neighbor states and Iran joined the NPT and pledged not to acquire nuclear weapons. “But now the fact that they’re refusing to engage on this nuclear security summit that India and Pakistan are both engaging in demonstrates that Israel is not prepared to take even the first step. I think that’s going to leave them much more politically vulnerable than they’re calculating.” The Nuclear Security Summit opens on Monday in Washington D.C.

NUCLEAR-POWERED LEADS INTO WASHINGTON SUMMIT sans Israel

The five nuclear weapon States ─ thus defined under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since they all conducted nuclear tests before 1968 ─ are China, France, the Soviet Union/Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Beyond the five Nuclear Weapon States as defined by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, there are three or four others: India (first tested in 1974); Pakistan (first tested in 1998), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (announced it had conducted a nuclear test in 2006); and Israel. Though Israel fails to report nuclear testing, it is assumed a nuclear-armed state as reported by research institutions such as the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

The United States was the first country to start testing in 1945. The second was the former Soviet Union in 1949; the third the United Kingdom in 1952; the fourth France in 1960; the fifth China in 1964.

The only time nuclear bombs have been used was when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan during World War II: one on August 6, 1945, on the city of Hiroshima and one on August 9, 1945, on the city of Nagasaki. These bombs killed an estimated 220,000 people in Japan by the end of 1945, roughly half that number on the days of the bombings themselves.

Of the five nuclear weapon States, all but two have ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. France and the United Kingdom both ratified the CTBT on April 6, 1998. The Russian Federation ratified it on June 30, 2000. Both China and the United States signed the CTBT on September 24, 1996, but neither has ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Nuclear weapons in arsenals of nuclear states as of 2007 reached an estimated 10,000 nuclear warheads held by the United States; 15,000 held by Russia; 350 by France; 200 by China; and fewer than 200 by the United Kingdom [figures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)]. In estimated arsenals of other nuclear-armed states not parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty were India (50-60 nuclear warheads), Israel (100-200), and Pakistan (60). Total nuclear weapons arsenals amounted to more than 26,000 nuclear warheads for the five “nuclear weapon States” and the “other” nuclear-armed states.

April 5, 2010
Afghanistan
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has admitted the killing five Afghan civilians among the dead three women. The killing occurred during a February 12 botched night raid on a home in the Gardez district of Paktia province.…

Two newspaper reports, the Times in Britain and the New York Times in the U.S., said the foreign troops involved in the shooting were members of U.S. special forces; and there had been signs of evidence tempering “including the removal of bullets from walls near where the women had died.” Moreover, “victims’ wounds had been washed with alcohol after the bullets were removed, presumably to erase forensic evidence.”

April 9, 2010
Afghanistan
Three U.S. soldiers and one civilian employee died Thursday when a U.S. helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan… The crash raises this year’s total of foreign troop deaths during the war in Afghanistan to 151. Also among last week’s reported dead in Afghanistan were three Taliban fighters; two were injured in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. In the neighboring province of Takhar, two more fighters died and three Afghan police officers suffered injuries.

April 11, 2010
Afghanistan
Nine people, including three Italian medical workers, have been arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly plotting to kill a provincial official.… Suicide bomb vests, hand grenades, pistols and explosives were found in a hospital storeroom run by the Italian charity Emergency where the three worked. The head of Emergency, Cecilia Strada, speaking from Milan told Al Jazeera that the claim that medical workers had plotted to kill a Helmand official was “completely groundless.”

April 12, 2010 [update]
Afghanistan (Kandahar)
Four civilians (estimated) died and 18 suffered wounds before dawn today when NATO forces opened fire on a bus in the Zhari district of Kandahar province. Though NATO authorities failed to identify the attacking forces by nationality, several Afghans said the attackers were American. Angry anti-American protests ensued on the streets of Kandahar city. Afghans blocked the main highway out of the city with burning tires. They called for the downfall of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. They chanted ‘Death to America.’

Also from Afghanistan, the Taliban have renewed threats to kill two French journalist kidnapped at the end of last year near Kabul unless a prisoner exchange is organized.… The Taliban are calling on France to arrange an exchange of the journalists for prisoners held by U.S. and Afghan authorities.

April 7, 2010
Iraq
Twelve people died. Among them were two employees of the Reuters news agency. A whistleblower website publishing anonymously sourced documents has released a video showing the U.S. military firing at a group of civilians in Baghdad three years ago and families of Iraqi civilians seen being shot and killed by U.S. forces in the leaked video are seeking justice for the deaths. The website WikiLeaks said it obtained the video from a number of ‘military whistleblowers.’ International law expert, director at the FAFO Institute for International Studies (Norway) Mark Taylor tells Al Jazeera the evidence so far ‘indicates that there’s a case to be made that a war crime may have been committed.…

‘There are precedents of U.S. soldiers being prosecuted for crimes in Iraq, for crimes of murder, rape and manslaughter so it’s not unprecedented that this could go forward both in military courts as well as in civilian criminal courts in the U.S. The case also raises larger questions about the laws of war. …’

April 11, 2010
Pakistan
An estimated 100 people died Saturday when the Pakistani military conducted air raids in the country’s northwest tribal areas. The Orazkai and Khyber regions sit close to the border with Afghanistan… The security situation in Orakzai and Kurram, deteriorationg since November of last year, according to Friday reports from the United Nations, has forced the displacement of 200,000 civilians.

Casualty sites reporting
April 11, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 162] Wounded 31,762-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day [April 10 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures documented civilian deaths from violence: 95,822 – 104,529, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,390 U.S, 4,708 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,041 U.S., 1,721 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

People and nations will not forever follow leaders who point where they themselves will not go nor will people in their hearts believe slick words of leaders whose brute force pounds them into the ground.

 Sources and notes
“Israel turns its back on nuclear talks,” April 9, 2010, Radio Netherlands-Worldwide, http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/israel-turns-its-back-nuclear-talks
http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/CTBT.shtml
http://www.ctbto.org/
http://www.ctbto.org/faqs/
“Italians arrested over Afghan plot,” April 11, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041171211170120.html
“U.S. troops killed in Afghan crash,” April 9, 2010 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010497356793401.html
“NATO admits Afghan civilian deaths,” April 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010453435608194.html
“Iraqi outrage over U.S. killing video,” April 7, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104782857326667.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/20104520036138869.html
“‘Scores dead’ in Pakistan air raid,” April 11, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041014445747250.html

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Status: countries that have signed, countries signed but not ratified
Total States 195
Total signed 182
Latest signatory: Trinidad & Tobago October 8, 2009
Total ratified 151
Not signed: 13
Latest ratified: Marshall Islands October 28, 2009
Not ratified 44
http://www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification/


State Party – Signed - Ratified
Afghanistan 24-SEP-2003 24-SEP-2003
Albania 27-SEP-1996 23-APR-2003
Algeria* 15-OCT-1996 11-JUL-2003
Andorra 24-SEP-1996 12-JUL-2006
Angola 27-SEP-1996
Antigua and Barbuda 16-APR-1997 11-JAN-2006
Argentina* 24-SEP-1996 04-DEC-1998
Armenia 01-OCT-1996 12-JUL-2006
Australia* 24-SEP-1996 09-JUL-1998
Austria* 24-SEP-1996 13-MAR-1998
Azerbaijan 28-JUL-1997 02-FEB-1999
Bahamas 04-FEB-2005 30-NOV-2007
Bahrain 24-SEP-1996 12-APR-2004
Bangladesh* 24-OCT-1996 08-MAR-2000
Barbados 14-JAN-2008 14-JAN-2008
Belarus 24-SEP-1996 13-SEP-2000
Belgium* 24-SEP-1996 29-JUN-1999
Belize 14-NOV-2001 26-MAR-2004
Benin 27-SEP-1996 06-MAR-2001
Bhutan
Bolivia 24-SEP-1996 04-OCT-1999
Bosnia and Herzegovina 24-SEP-1996 26-OCT-2006
Botswana 16-SEP-2002 28-OCT-2002
Brazil* 24-SEP-1996 24-JUL-1998
Brunei Darussalam 22-JAN-1997
Bulgaria* 24-SEP-1996 29-SEP-1999
Burkina Faso 27-SEP-1996 17-APR-2002
Burundi 24-SEP-1996 24-SEP-2008
Cambodia 26-SEP-1996 10-NOV-2000
Cameroon 16-NOV-2001 06-FEB-2006
Canada* 24-SEP-1996 18-DEC-1998
Cape Verde 01-OCT-1996 01-MAR-2006
Côte d'Ivoire 25-SEP-1996 11-MAR-2003
Central African Republic 19-DEC-2001
Chad 08-OCT-1996
Chile* 24-SEP-1996 12-JUL-2000
China* 24-SEP-1996
Colombia* 24-SEP-1996 29-JAN-2008
Comoros 12-DEC-1996
Congo 11-FEB-1997
Cook Islands 05-DEC-1997 06-SEP-2005
Costa Rica 24-SEP-1996 25-SEP-2001
Croatia 24-SEP-1996 02-MAR-2001
Cuba
Cyprus 24-SEP-1996 18-JUL-2003
Czech Republic 12-NOV-1996 11-SEP-1997
Democratic People`s Republic
of Korea*
Democratic Republic
of the Congo* 04-OCT-1996 28-SEP-2004
Denmark 24-SEP-1996 21-DEC-1998
Djibouti 21-OCT-1996 15-JUL-2005
Dominica
Dominican Republic 03-OCT-1996 04-SEP-2007
Ecuador 24-SEP-1996 12-NOV-2001
Egypt* 14-OCT-1996
El Salvador 24-SEP-1996 11-SEP-1998
Equatorial Guinea 09-OCT-1996
Eritrea 11-NOV-2003 11-NOV-2003
Estonia 20-NOV-1996 13-AUG-1999
Ethiopia 25-SEP-1996 08-AUG-2006
Fiji 24-SEP-1996 10-OCT-1996
Finland* 24-SEP-1996 15-JAN-1999
France* 24-SEP-1996 06-APR-1998
Gabon 07-OCT-1996 20-SEP-2000
Gambia 09-APR-2003
Georgia 24-SEP-1996 27-SEP-2002
Germany* 24-SEP-1996 20-AUG-1998
Ghana 03-OCT-1996
Greece 24-SEP-1996 21-APR-1999
Grenada 10-OCT-1996 19-AUG-1998
Guatemala 20-SEP-1999
Guinea 03-OCT-1996
Guinea-Bissau 11-APR-1997
Guyana 07-SEP-2000 07-MAR-2001
Haiti 24-SEP-1996 01-DEC-2005
Holy See 24-SEP-1996 18-JUL-2001
Honduras 25-SEP-1996 30-OCT-2003
Hungary* 25-SEP-1996 13-JUL-1999
Iceland 24-SEP-1996 26-JUN-2000
India*
Indonesia* 24-SEP-1996
Iran (Islamic Republic of)* 24-SEP-1996
Iraq 19-AUG-2008
Ireland 24-SEP-1996 15-JUL-1999
Israel* 25-SEP-1996
Italy* 24-SEP-1996 01-FEB-1999
Jamaica 11-NOV-1996 13-NOV-2001
Japan* 24-SEP-1996 08-JUL-1997
Jordan 26-SEP-1996 25-AUG-1998
Kazakhstan 30-SEP-1996 14-MAY-2002
Kenya 14-NOV-1996 30-NOV-2000
Kiribati 07-SEP-2000 07-SEP-2000
Kuwait 24-SEP-1996 06-MAY-2003
Kyrgyzstan 08-OCT-1996 02-OCT-2003
Lao People's
Democratic Republic 30-JUL-1997 05-OCT-2000
Latvia 24-SEP-1996 20-NOV-2001
Lebanon 16-SEP-2005 21-NOV-2008
Lesotho 30-SEP-1996 14-SEP-1999
Liberia 01-OCT-1996 17-AUG-2009
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 13-NOV-2001 06-JAN-2004
Liechtenstein 27-SEP-1996 21-SEP-2004
Lithuania 07-OCT-1996 07-FEB-2000
Luxembourg 24-SEP-1996 26-MAY-1999
Madagascar 09-OCT-1996 15-SEP-2005
Malawi 09-OCT-1996 21-NOV-2008
Malaysia 23-JUL-1998 17-JAN-2008
Maldives 01-OCT-1997 07-SEP-2000
Mali 18-FEB-1997 04-AUG-1999
Malta 24-SEP-1996 23-JUL-2001
Marshall Islands 24-SEP-1996 28-OCT-2009
Mauritania 24-SEP-1996 30-APR-2003
Mauritius
Mexico* 24-SEP-1996 05-OCT-1999
Micronesia,
Federated States of 24-SEP-1996 25-JUL-1997
Monaco 01-OCT-1996 18-DEC-1998
Mongolia 01-OCT-1996 08-AUG-1997
Montenegro 23-OCT-2006 23-OCT-2006
Morocco 24-SEP-1996 17-APR-2000
Mozambique 26-SEP-1996 04-NOV-2008
Myanmar 25-NOV-1996
Namibia 24-SEP-1996 29-JUN-2001
Nauru 08-SEP-2000 12-NOV-2001
Nepal 08-OCT-1996
Netherlands* 24-SEP-1996 23-MAR-1999
New Zealand 27-SEP-1996 19-MAR-1999
Nicaragua 24-SEP-1996 05-DEC-2000
Niger 03-OCT-1996 09-SEP-2002
Nigeria 08-SEP-2000 27-SEP-2001
Niue
Norway* 24-SEP-1996 15-JUL-1999
Oman 23-SEP-1999 13-JUN-2003
Pakistan*
Palau 12-AUG-2003 01-AUG-2007
Panama 24-SEP-1996 23-MAR-1999
Papua New Guinea 25-SEP-1996
Paraguay 25-SEP-1996 04-OCT-2001
Peru* 25-SEP-1996 12-NOV-1997
Philippines 24-SEP-1996 23-FEB-2001
Poland* 24-SEP-1996 25-MAY-1999
Portugal 24-SEP-1996 26-JUN-2000
Qatar 24-SEP-1996 03-MAR-1997
Republic of Korea* 24-SEP-1996 24-SEP-1999
Republic of Moldova 24-SEP-1997 16-JAN-2007
Romania* 24-SEP-1996 05-OCT-1999
Russian Federation* 24-SEP-1996 30-JUN-2000
Rwanda 30-NOV-2004 30-NOV-2004
Saint Kitts and Nevis 23-MAR-2004 27-APR-2005
Saint Lucia 04-OCT-1996 05-APR-2001
Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines 02-JUL-2009 23-SEP-2009
Samoa 09-OCT-1996 27-SEP-2002
San Marino 07-OCT-1996 12-MAR-2002
Sao Tome and Principe 26-SEP-1996
Saudi Arabia
Senegal 26-SEP-1996 09-JUN-1999
Serbia 08-JUN-2001 19-MAY-2004
Seychelles 24-SEP-1996 13-APR-2004
Sierra Leone 08-SEP-2000 17-SEP-2001
Singapore 14-JAN-1999 10-NOV-2001
Slovakia* 30-SEP-1996 03-MAR-1998
Slovenia 24-SEP-1996 31-AUG-1999
Solomon Islands 03-OCT-1996
Somalia
South Africa* 24-SEP-1996 30-MAR-1999
Spain* 24-SEP-1996 31-JUL-1998
Sri Lanka 24-OCT-1996
Sudan 10-JUN-2004 10-JUN-2004
Suriname 14-JAN-1997 07-FEB-2006
Swaziland 24-SEP-1996
Sweden* 24-SEP-1996 02-DEC-1998
Switzerland* 24-SEP-1996 01-OCT-1999
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan 07-OCT-1996 10-JUN-1998
Thailand 12-NOV-1996
The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia 29-OCT-1998 14-MAR-2000
Timor-Leste 26-SEP-2008
Togo 02-OCT-1996 02-JUL-2004
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago 08-OCT-2009
Tunisia 16-OCT-1996 23-SEP-2004
Turkey* 24-SEP-1996 16-FEB-2000
Turkmenistan 24-SEP-1996 20-FEB-1998
Tuvalu
Uganda 07-NOV-1996 14-MAR-2001
Ukraine* 27-SEP-1996 23-FEB-2001
United Arab Emirates 25-SEP-1996 18-SEP-2000
United Kingdom of
Great Britain and
Northern Ireland* 24-SEP-1996 06-APR-1998
United Republic of Tanzania 30-SEP-2004 30-SEP-2004
United States of America* 24-SEP-1996
Uruguay 24-SEP-1996 21-SEP-2001
Uzbekistan 03-OCT-1996 29-MAY-1997
Vanuatu 24-SEP-1996 16-SEP-2005
Venezuela (Bolivarian
Republic of) 03-OCT-1996 13-MAY-2002
Viet Nam* 24-SEP-1996 10-MAR-2006
Yemen 30-SEP-1996
Zambia 03-DEC-1996 23-FEB-2006
Zimbabwe 13-OCT-1999
http://www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification/
“NATO killings spark Afghan protests,” April 12, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/20104121321185774.html