International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

On the 64th Anniversary of UN Resolution 181 Lebanon’s Palestinians Continue Their Descent

Franklin Lamb, uruknet.info, Nov 29, 2011

Embassy of Palestine, Tripoli, Libya

Every year on November 29, approximately a quarter million Palestinian refugees who were forced into Lebanon, along with those in more than 130 countries where they have sought refuge following their ethnic cleansing from their land, commemorate the infamous United Nations Resolution 181.

Between Nov. 29, 1947, and Jan. 1, 1949, Zionist terrorists depopulated and destroyed more than 530 Palestinian villages and towns, killing more than 13,000 Palestinians and expelling 750,000,  approximately half the population.

UN General Assembly resolution 181, adopted on November 29, 1947, purported to divide Palestine between the indigenous inhabitants and European colonists who arrived seeking to occupy and exploit Palestine and create an exclusive Jewish homeland.

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Should we allow Nato free rein to attack and kill people?

The airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers is just the latest in a series of mistakes that raise doubts about Nato’s credibility

• • Pratap Chatterjee
  • guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 November 2011 13.30 GMT

An unmanned Predator drone of the type operating along the Afhanistan-Pakistan border. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex

Why did Nato forces kill two dozen Pakistani soldiers at a border post in the Mohmand region, some 300 yards across the frontier from Afghanistan early on Saturday morning? The US military claims the attack was in response to hostile fire, and the Pakistanis are demanding proof of that.

There is a very simple explanation of what happened: the US military makes deadly mistakes all the time, and for all its technological wizardry and tremendous firepower, it has very little intelligence on the ground.

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Seymour Hersh: Propaganda Used Ahead of Iraq War Is Now Being Reused Over Iran’s Nuke Program

Longtime investigative journalist Seymour Hersh questions the growing consensus on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

Amy Goodman, Alternet, November 22, 2011  

Photo Credit: Democracy Now!

 While the United States, Britain and Canada are planning to announce a coordinated set of sanctions against Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry today, longtime investigative journalist Seymour Hersh questions the growing consensus on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. International pressure has been mounting on Iran since the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency revealed in a report the “possible military dimensions” to Iran’s nuclear activities, citing “credible” evidence that “indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.” In his latest article for The New Yorker blog, titled “Iran and the IAEA,” Hersh argues the recent report is a “political document,” not a scientific study. “They [JSOC] found nothing. Nothing. No evidence of any weaponization,” Hersh says. “In other words, no evidence of a facility to build the bomb. They have facilities to enrich, but not separate facilities to build the bomb. This is simply a fact.”

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Kuala Lumpur tribunal: Bush and Blair guilty

A war crimes tribunal in Malaysia offers a devastating critique of international criminal law institutions today.

Richard Falk, Aljazeera,  Last Modified: 28 Nov 2011

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A tribunal in Malaysia’s capital found George W Bush and Tony Blair guilty of war crimes in Iraq [GALLO/GETTY]

In Kuala Lumpur, after two years of investigation by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), a tribunal (the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, or KLWCT) consisting of five judges with judicial and academic backgrounds reached a unanimous verdict that found George W Bush and Tony Blair guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and genocide as a result of their roles in the Iraq War.

The proceedings took place over a four-day period from November 19-22, and included an opportunity for court-appointed defense counsel to offer the tribunal arguments and evidence on behalf of the absent defendants. They had been invited to offer their own defense or send a representative, but declined to do so. The prosecution team was headed by two prominent legal personalities with strong professional legal credentials: Gurdeal Singh Nijar and Francis Boyle. The verdict issued on November 22, 2011 happens to coincide with the 48th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy.

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Palestinian Unity: A Threat, Says Israel

By Stephen Lendma, MWC News, Nov 29, 2011

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Palestine is sovereign territory. In 1987, Law Professor Francis Boyle drafted its Declaration of Independence. On November 15, 1988, the Palestine National Council (PNC) adopted it, affirming Palestinian statehood.

Nonetheless, Israel’s illegal occupation continues. Gaza’s under siege. Israeli forces attack repeatedly. Deaths and injuries result. Dozens of weekly West Bank incursions harass Palestinians ruthlessly. Numerous arrests follow. Innocent civilians are imprisoned, including children young as 10.

Peaceful protesters are assaulted violently. Settlement expansions continue on stolen land. Dispossessed Palestinians have no redress. Police state repression terrorizes millions of people. World leaders yawn and do nothing.

Last April in Cairo, Hamas and Fatah leaders proclaimed unity. Palestinians hoped it signaled rapprochement between the two sides.

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Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic

UN Human Rights Council, uruknet.info, Nov 28, 2011

Several testimonies reported the practice of sexual torture used on male detainees. Men were routinely made to undress and remain naked. Several former detainees testified reported beatings of genitals, forced oral sex, electroshocks and cigarette burns to the anus in detention facilities, including those of the Air Force Intelligence in Damascus, the Military Intelligence in Jisr Al Shughour, the Military Intelligence and the Political Security in Idlib and Al Ladhiqiyah and the intelligence detention facilities in Tartus. Several of the detainees were repeatedly threatened that they would be raped in front of their family and that their wives and daughters would also be raped . Testimonies were received from several men who stated they had been anally raped with batons and that they had witnessed the rape of boys. One man stated that he witnessed a 15-year-old boy being raped in front of his father. A 40-year-old man saw the rape of an 11-year-old boy by three security services officers… Reliable sources indicated that 256 children had been killed by State forces as at 9 November. The commission spoke with several children who had witnessed the killing of adults and of other children, and also met a 2-year-old girl whose mother was killed by the Syrian military in August while trying to cross the border. The commission saw several children whose mental health was seriously affected by their traumatic experience… Continues >>

Amira Hass: Israeli Demolition Firm Takes Pride in West Bank Operations

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Having relatives in the West Bank is a problem. So is a school in the South Hebron Hills. The list of prohibitions is endless.

By Amira Hass, Haaretz, Nov 29, 2011

They passed by us proudly in their shiny shields and glittering wheels, these pot-bellied, gas-guzzling SUVs and a few jeeps with more modest engine sizes. They were returning from their operation’s destination. It was Thursday, November 24, 2011. We didn’t manage to see them in action, but we knew they were returning from routine demolition activity that doesn’t get reported in our parts and understood as yet another detail in the ever-expanding historical reckoning this land’s residents have with its masters.

The banal key words: Area C (South Hebron Hills), Civil Administration, military, Border Police, police, two bulldozers. Demolition orders for ICs (illegal construction), trampled tents, tiny concrete structures in pieces. An adjacent water tanker, because hooking up to the water grid is against the law. And nearby, the glittering rooftops, set amid greenery, of the Jews’ houses at the settlement Susya. And the little pool for taking a dip that the occupants of Mitzpeh Avigail fill with water from the adjacent spring.

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IAEA Exposed as Israeli Spy Front

 Veterans Today, Nov 25, 2011

 By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

IAEA Cries ‘Wolf’ Over Iran Nukes

This week, the media, all of it, traced stories about Iran’s nuclear weapons program to its real source. 

The IAEA, which has been unable to locate the vast Dimona nuclear facility in Israel or even begin to ask questions about Israel’s illegal nuclear arsenal, has put together a “rigged” report built of rumors and spin. 

The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), a “quasi-official” group is, in fact, an Israeli intelligence organization, long infiltrated, long engulfed, long ago a force for propaganda and, primarily, an organization tasked with helping Israel “hide” its nuclear arsenal “in plain sight” while fabricating evidence.

To make it more plain, the IAEA is, in fact, a clandestine intelligence organization tasked by Israel to bring about a conflict between the United States and certain European powers and Iran.

It is a conflict that may eventually involve Russia, China, a conflict that is intended to manipulate fuel markets, crash currencies, sell arms and do everything but make the world more secure.

Were the IAEA to put out a report based on known falsehoods and spin under such circumstances, and we believe this fact to be easily supportable, members of the IAEA would be war criminals and should be considered combatants were any conflict to be entered upon based on their transgressions.

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Annals of Israeli Blacks Ops: Lebanon, Iran Continued

Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, November 28th, 2011

Lots of explosions big and small today in different parts of the region.  In Isfahan, there was a major blast at a facility that stores uranium gas which centrifuges use in the enrichment process for Iran’s nuclear program.  Damage to this plant could cause heavy delays in its ability to further refine the nuclear fuel necessary to produce a nuclear weapon (if it isproducing one).

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Pakistan: US Attack on Base Lasted ‘Almost Two Hours’ as Calls to Stop Were Ignored

Pakistani Military Spokesman Angrily Rejects Claim They Started It

by Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com, November 28, 2011

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Questions continue to grow over the Friday night US attack on a Pakistani military base today, with new reports coming out of Pakistan saying that the air attacks against the base lasted for almost two hours.

The Army statement says that the base repeatedly broadcast calls for a ceasefire over the course of the two hours and that those calls were repeatedly ignored, with the attack, carried out by warplanes and helicopters, killing 24 soldiers.

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