be just

Rights Group: Evidence Emerges of Revenge Killings Across Tripoli -- News from Antiwar.com As the city of Tripoli was falling to the rebel forces, Human Rights Watch is reporting “strong” evidence that the Gadhafi regime troops launched a series of arbitrary killings citywide, including massacring 120 civilians held in a hangar near a military base .

Who funds Muslim-baiting in the US? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English It has been just about a decade since Islamophobia exploded in this country. That was the moment that the World Trade Center and Pentagon were hit by al Qaeda terrorists. It existed prior to 9/11, but the losses that day and the general terror it inflicted upon this country made many, many Americans much more wary of Arabs and, fairly quickly, fearful of the religion the terrorists professed. The first sign that 9/11 would be exploited to advance various agendas came from Binyamin Netanyahu, who was quoted in the New York Times as saying the attacks would be good for Israel: Asked tonight [September 11, 2001] what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.'' Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.'' He predicted that the at...

Ethiopia: The forbidden territory for males - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan What follows is a brief excerpt from my forthcoming book (planned to be a little over 300 pages), “The Ethiopian Revolution and the Generation of the 1970s: Dreams, Memories and Harsh Realities.” The two main characters – Jembernesh and Kurat – were childhood lovers in the 1970s. After being apart for many decades, they unexpectedly met at a conference in May 2006. The Kitchen Story takes place while Kurate is visiting Jembernesh in Paris, where she lives. By Maru Gubena August 23, 2011 — It was a sticky, hot July, and we had spent a long and extremely tiring day visiting the Eiffel Tower and many other museums and sights of Paris. Immediately after arriving home, my Jember of the 1970s and I went upstairs to rest for a while. A little more than an hour later, we went downstairs to prepare and eat some food. Jember held my right hand tightly and pulled me towards the kitchen. ...

FBI Organizes Almost All Terror Plots In the US : Information Clearing House News August 24, 2011 " Russia Today " -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation employs upwards of 15,000 undercover agents today, ten times what they had on the roster back in 1975. If you think that’s a few spies too many — spies earning as much as $100,000 per assignment — one doesn’t have to go too deep into their track record to see their accomplishments. Those agents are responsible for an overwhelming amount of terrorist stings that have stopped major domestic catastrophes in the vein of 9/11 from happening on American soil. Another thing those agents are responsible for, however, is plotting those very schemes. The FBI has in recent years used trained informants not just to snitch on suspected terrorists, but to set them up from the get-go. A recent report put together by Mother Jones and the Investigative R...

Libya: Ex-Gaddafi Mercenaries Describe Collapse of Regime - TIME Right from the start, Mario, an ethnic Croatian artillery specialist from Bosnia, suspected it was a lost cause. "My men were mainly from the south [of Libya] and Chad, and there were a few others from countries south of Libya," said Mario, who spoke on condition that his last name not be published. A veteran of the wars of the former Yugoslavia, he had been hired by the Gaddafi regime to help fight the rebels and, later, NATO. "Discipline was bad, and they were too stupid to learn anything. But things were O.K. until the air strikes commenced. The other side was equally bad, if not worse. [Muammar] Gaddafi would have smashed the rebels had the West not intervened." Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090205,00.html#ixzz1W5xV6sKE

With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in Muslim areas - Yahoo! News NEW YORK – Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Police Department has become one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies, targeting ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government, an Associated Press investigation has found.

US Envoy Rushes Back as Pakistan Ties Seen Collapsing -- News from Antiwar.com Tensions between the US and Pakistan have been a constant theme in south Asian foreign policy over the past several months, but Ambassador Cameron Munter is cutting his vacation short and rushing back to Pakistan amid reports that the relationship is on the brink of collapse.

Thousands of Bahrainis Lose Jobs for Protesting -- News from Antiwar.com About 2,500 state workers in Bahrain have been fired from their jobs for taking part in recent protests against the ruling of Al-Khalifa dynasty. The firings have reportedly affected a total of over 13,000 people in the Persian Gulf sheikhdom. Rights groups have criticized the Bahraini regime and state-linked firms for unlawfully terminating employees. Meanwhile, 40 people detained in connection with anti-regime protests have been formally charged with illegal assembly and trying to distort Bahrain’s image. These developments mark continuing abuse by the US-supported Bahraini dictatorship. After initially responding with brutal violence and martial law to counter the largely peaceful uprisings, Bahrain then arrested and charged medical professionals for having treated injured protesters as patients. The US still supports the Bahrain government , allocating another $26 million in aid for 2012 , plus ...

UN Warns Rebels Amid Signs of Tripoli Executions -- News from Antiwar.com A grisly scene was discovered in Tripoli today, when reporters came across a former Gadhafi camp in central Tripoli where pro-regime fighters were found massacred, including a number that were bound before their execution. In a discovery the UN termed “alarming,” a number of the victims were also found in the field hospital , having been executed there while receiving treatment for wounds. Reports have the death toll in this single incident at over 30. UN spokesman Rupert Colville promised an investigation into the killings, and urged rebel leaders to “take active steps to ensure that no crimes, or acts of revenge, are committed.” One rebel ambassador insisted the leadership had already ordered fighters “not to kill anybody” and that it couldn’t possibly have been the rebels who massacred the Gadhafi troops. Yet the growing concern about the behavior of the rebels hardly begins or ends with this s...

Israel kills 15 in Gaza then tries to shift blame to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada Quoting from Haaretz : “In response to the ongoing rocket fire, an IDF spokesperson stated that the military will not tolerate any attempt at harming Israeli civilians or soldiers, and will continue to “act with determination and strength against any source of terror.” The spokesperson also claimed that Hamas must be “held responsible” for the ongoing attacks.” Israel is quickly trying to shift the blame for the war crimes it is committing in Gaza to Hamas. Suddenly those firing rockets (after 10 were killed for no reason last night, now 15) are the bad guys and Israel is the good guy doing self defense in this equation.

Arms industry promoter latest recruit for UK Israel lobby | The Electronic Intifada What is the next career move for a promoter of the arms industry? Join the Israel lobby, it seems. Over the past few days, I have been writing about how the Britain Israel Communications and Research Center ( BICOM ) has indicted war criminal Michael Herzog on its staff . Herzog’s newest colleague at the center is Luke Akehurst , until recently a “defense” specialist with the public relations giant Weber Shandwick. Enticing Akehurst to work for her is quite a coup for Lorna Fitzsimons , BICOM ’s chief executive. He was named “ UK consultant of the year” at the 2008 Public Affairs News Awards. The prize was in recognition for his invaluable services for several companies that arm dictators. Libya connection Finmeccanica, one of his clients, cultivated strong links with Muammar Gaddafi lately. While it has predicted that its revenues for 2011 will exceed €18 billion, the civil war in Libya will i...

Young Americans flock to Israel to join army Hundreds of new immigrants from the U.S. landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Tuesday. An unprecedented 104 of the 360 new arrivals, came to enlist in the Israeli army. Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister, the Chief Education Officer, was among a delegation of officials on hand to greet the 18 to 22 year olds. "It's an honor to have you join the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the Israeli nation," the Brig. Gen. said. "There are no words to describe my appreciation for you, your courage and the Zionistic values you hold. The State of Israel is coping with security threats every day and defending its security is the main goal of the IDF." The Chief Education Officer told the new immigrants he is proud that the IDF "is an army that focuses on educating the youth and building Israeli society. Those of you who will soon be soldiers, I promise you: there is a special place for every single one of you...

Shiite cleric: Gulf ignores Bahrain's reform cries - Yahoo! News MANAMA, Bahrain – A senior Shiite cleric in Bahrain says Sunni Gulf leaders are showing double standards by supporting Arab uprisings elsewhere while aiding Bahrain's crackdown on its pro-reform protests. Sheik Isa Qassim says Shiite-led calls for greater rights in Bahrain are being ignored by Gulf neighbors that have backed other revolts, such as those in Syria and Libya. Qassim's Friday sermon did not cite specific countries, but Saudi Arabia leads a Gulf military force supporting Bahrain's Sunni rulers. Last week, Saudi Arabia strongly denounced Syrian President Bashar Assad for trying to crush protesters. Qatar, meanwhile, has led Gulf aid to Libyan rebels. Bahrain's majority Shiites began protests in February inspired by other Arab uprisings.

BBC News - South Sudan attacks 'leave 500 dead' At least 500 people have been killed in ethnic clashes in the eastern state of Jonglei, according to the South Sudanese authorities. A senior official told the BBC hundreds of people had been wounded and more than 200 abducted, mainly children. The clashes took place on Thursday when members of the Murle group are said to have attacked the majority Lou Nuer, stealing nearly 40,000 cattle.

Israel launches strikes on Gaza after attacks - Middle East - Al Jazeera English An Israeli air strike on the Gaza town of Rafah has killed six people, Palestinian medics and news agencies said, just hours after a series of deadly attacks in southern Israel. Israeli military sources confirmed on Thursday that air strikes were carried out in Gaza shortly after the attacks in Israel that killed at least seven people. Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem Cal Perry reported that another attack occurred later on Thursday in southern Israel, even after the Israeli military unleashed its air strikes.

Two Killed as Israeli Warplanes Bomb Gaza Strip -- News from Antiwar.com Israeli warplanes launched at least five air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least two people and wounding several others . The slain were both termed “militants” by Israeli reports, but at least one of the wounded was a five year old child.

Sen. Leahy Seeks to Pull Military Aid from Israeli Special Forces -- News from Antiwar.com In a move that has Israeli officials scrambling, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D – VT) is pushing a bill that does the unthinkable, holds Israel to the same standard as other nations with respect to military aid. The bill would halt aid to certain Israeli “elite forces” units, including the Shayetet 13 unit involved in the attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, over growing evidence that the units are responsible for major human rights violations in the occupied territories .

Nation & World | Golden decade ending for defense companies | Seattle Times Newspaper NEW YORK — The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, Osama bin Laden is dead, and the federal government is deeply in debt. This spells the end of what was a golden decade for the defense industry. In the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks, the annual defense budget has more than doubled to $700 billion and annual defense-industry profits have nearly quadrupled, approaching $25 billion last year. Now military spending is poised to retreat, and so are industry profits. "We're about to go into the downhill side of the roller coaster here," said David Berteau, a defense-industry analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Congress agreed last month to cut military spending by $350 billion over the next 10 years. The defense budget will automatically be cut by an additional $500 billion over that period if lawmakers fail to reach a deficit-cut...

US Congressman: US Economic Woes Won’t Affect Israel Aid -- News from Antiwar.com U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said Wednesday that financial challenges “will not have any adverse effect on America’s determination to meet its promise to Israel .” The blunt statement by the second-highest ranked Democrat in the House of Representatives underscored recent news that subsidies to Israel remained untouched by the debt crisis . Hoyer is currently leading a delegation of 26 US Democratic congressmen on a tour of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, funded by an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He insisted his message was bipartisan and that a similar message will be brought to Israel next week when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) leads a Republican delegation to the country, numbering 55 congressmen.

America In Decline -- In These Times “It is a common theme” that the United States, which “only a few years ago was hailed to stride the world as a colossus with unparalleled power and unmatched appeal is in decline, ominously facing the prospect of its final decay,” Giacomo Chiozza writes in the current Political Science Quarterly. The theme is indeed widely believed. And with some reason, though a number of qualifications are in order. To start with, the decline has proceeded since the high point of U.S. power after World War II, and the remarkable triumphalism of the post-Gulf War ’90s was mostly self-delusion.

U.S. pro-democracy effort rubs many in Egypt the wrong way - latimes.com The Obama administration's plan to pour $65 million into Egypt this year to help organize new political parties has sparked a powerful backlash from Cairo's interim military government, its Islamist parties and even some reform-minded activists. The military government has portrayed groups that take U.S. funding as agents of a foreign government and has battled behind the scenes for months to try to stop Washington from giving money to pro-democracy groups outside Cairo's direct supervision. The dispute exploded into the open Wednesday when the State Department decried a "creeping" anti-Americanism in Egypt and complained that Cairo's criticism of U.S. aid and motives is inaccurate and unfair.

Israel to build 1,600 more settler homes - Middle East - Al Jazeera English Israel's interior minister has given final approval for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem, his spokesman said. Eli Yishai will also approve 2,700 more homes shortly, Roei Lachmanovich, the spokesman, told the AFP news agency on Thursday. Palestinians have refused to take part in peace talks while the Israeli government continues to construct settlements in the occupied West Bank. Lachmanovich said the construction of 1,600 units woud take place in the Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood in northern East Jerusalem. "He has approved 1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo and will approve 2,000 more in Givat Hamatos and 700 in Pisgat Zeev," Lachmanovich said, referring to two additional israeli neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. Lachmanovich said the final approvals were "economic" not political, linking the interior minister's decision to demonstrations over...

Big Brother Has Arrived by Philip Giraldi -- Antiwar.com Leading neoconservative Richard Perle has said that one of the many reasons he admires the Israelis is the moral clarity that they exhibit on the issue of terrorism. What exactly that means is not itself clear, but it would appear to be a carte blanche for any and all Israeli punitive responses to groups that question Tel Aviv’s legitimacy. Perle has never criticized Israelis for disproportionality or for committing war crimes. He has only admonished them when, in his opinion, they have not gone far enough.

A National Debt Of $14 Trillion? Try $211 Trillion : NPR "If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That's the fiscal gap," he says. "That's our true indebtedness." We don't hear more about this enormous number, Kotlikoff says, because politicians have chosen their language carefully to keep most of the problem off the books. "Why are these guys thinking about balancing the budget?" he says. "They should try and think about our long-term fiscal problems." According to Kotlikoff, one of the biggest fiscal problems Congress should focus on is America's obligation to make Social Security payments to future generations of the elderly. "We've got 78 million baby boomers who a...

A Skeptical Eye: Saudi King Condemns Syrian Crackdown -- News from Antiwar.com Taken at face value the comments seem fairly uncontroversial, a simple rehash of what most other nations are saying now. Saudi Arabia, however, is not just any nation but is a regional power which has acted with upmost cynicism with regard to the Arab Spring revolts. Having eagerly taken in the first dictator ousted by protests, Zine el-Abidine bin Ali of Tunisia, the Saudi government followed up with an invasion of Bahrain to violently put down pro-democracy rallies there, while taking a very Syrian tack in their own crackdown on protesters in Qatf . Mass arrests and accusations of “sedition” were and are the order of the day for reformists within the Saudi Kingdom, and it eagerly facilitates crackdowns by neighboring regimes. The difference, then, lies in Syria’s precarious position in Middle East power struggles. The Assad regime is Shi’ite, albeit in a largely Sunni country. This would put ...

Was the Bombing of Hiroshima Necessary? Three Myths Debunked | TakePart - Inspiration to Action As the story goes, prior to unleashing the atom bomb Americans dropped millions of leaflets over various cities in Japan as a warning. But according to the Nagasaki Memorial, none of those leaflets ever mentioned the atom bomb prior to August 6, 1945. The bomb destroyed 70% of Hiroshima's buildings instantaneously. (Photo: lanl.gov) Over the summer, during the systematic bombing of 35 cities, Allied forces did drop leaflets that promised "prompt and utter destruction" if they did not "evacuate these cities immediately". But it wasn't until a full two days after the bomb had dropped that they mentioned the existence of a brand-new weapon. As John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, recalled in his Challenge to American Foreign Policy: "Not one of the Chiefs nor the Secretary thought well of a bomb warning, an effective argument being that no on...

The Great Hiroshima Cover-up | The Nation In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan sixty-six years ago this week, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included vivid color footage shot by U.S. military crews and black-and-white Japanese newsreel film.

AFP: 'Eight Afghan civilians killed' in air strike KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan civilians may have been caught up in a NATO air strike against suspected Taliban insurgents, a foreign military spokesman said Saturday, amid claims up to eight civilians died.

Nile River row: Could it turn violent? | Africa News blog The giggles started when the seventh journalist in a row said that his question was for Egypt’s water and irrigation minister, Mohamed Nasreddin Allam. The non-Egyptian media gave him a bit of a hammering at last week’s talks in Addis Ababa for the nine countries that the Nile passes through. Allam bared his teeth when a Kenyan journalist accused him of hiding behind “colonial-era treaties” giving his country the brunt of the river’s vital waters whether that hurt the poorer upstream countries or not. “You obviously don’t know enough about this subject to be asking questions about it,” he snapped before later apologising to her with a kiss on the cheek. Five of the nine Nile countries — Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya — last month signed a deal to share the water that is a crucial resource for all of them. But Egypt and Sudan, who are entitled to most of the water and can veto upstream dams under a ...

Panetta Warns Against Minuscule Defense Cuts -- News from Antiwar.com In a bold statement of bureaucratic overreach, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seemed to supersede his authority on Thursday, telling lawmakers he would not accept large military cuts under a debt deal . He compared the possibility of increasing the expected defense cuts – $350 billion in projected spending over 10 years – to a “doomsday mechanism” that would weaken America.

Syria's Assad decrees multi-party system - Middle East - Al Jazeera English President Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree authorising a multi-party political system in Syria, a day after the UN Security Council issued a statement condemning the regime's use of force against protesters. The state-controlled SANA news agency reported that the decree, issued on Thursday, was aimed at "activating the political life and citizens' participation". SANA said a party established under the new law would have to show commitment to the constitution, principles of democracy and respect liberties and international declarations of human rights. It also said a party cannot be founded on a "religious, tribal, regional, denominational, or profession-related basis" or be a "branch of or affiliated to a non-Syrian party or political organisation".

Mubarak pleads 'not guilty' at Cairo trial - Middle East - Al Jazeera English Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's ousted president, has denied charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters at the start of his historic trial in Cairo. At his first court appearance on Wednesday, Mubarak spoke from a hospital stretcher where he lay inside a cage for defendants. "I categorically deny all the charges," Mubarak said.

US Muslims More Tolerant, Opposed to Violence Than Other Faiths by Jim Lobe -- Antiwar.com Muslims in the United States express greater tolerance for members of other faiths than any other major religious group, according to a major new survey and report released Thursday by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center. They are also more likely than any other religious group to oppose violent or military attacks against civilians, according to the survey , “Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future.” Nearly four out of five (78 percent) U.S. Muslims say that military attacks against civilians can never be justified. That compares with less than two of five Protestants (38 percent) and Catholics (39 percent) and just over four out of Jews (43 percent) who take that position, the poll found.