Saturday 25 August 2012

Iran NAM summit sends message of peace

by Finian Cunnigham

’When the Cold War between the US and Soviet superpowers ended 20 years ago, some analysts believed that the Non-Aligned Movement would become redundant, an organization no longer with purpose. Two decades on, the NAM is rising to the occasion with more relevance than ever and is perhaps realising its true moment of merit for the cause of world peace and solidarity.’

When the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement convenes in the Iranian capital this weekend, it promises to be the greatest show on earth - a show of international solidarity and peaceful coexistence - in the face of imperialist aggression and threat of all-out world war. The 16th summit of the NAM since the organization’s inception in 1961 could hardly come at a more crucial moment in world affairs.
 
Never before, it seems, have the words of Fidel Castro resonated with such urgency, when the Cuban leader declared at a previous summit in 1979 that the international movement stood for “national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism and all forms of foreign aggression”.

Fifty-one years after the NAM’s foundation in Belgrade, the world may have survived the spectre of mutually assured destruction of the Cold War. But in the unipolar world that has since emerged - dominated by the United States and its elitist allies - we are witnessing a grotesque rebirth in wars, aggression and, ironically, a renewed threat of nuclear war - the very causes of malevolence that first motivated the formation of the NAM.

Some 120 nations share membership of the movement, representing 55 percent of the world’s population and nearly two-thirds of the United Nations body. Indeed, the NAM is sometimes referred to as the “real United Nations” as it is seen to be more democratically representative of the mutual interests of the world’s majority than the Western-dominated UN with its self-appointed Security Council.

While the United States and Western allies arrogantly invoke the mantle of “the international community, “the Non-Aligned Movement can rightfully lay claim to this title, with appropriate legitimacy. When the US and former colonial powers Britain and France talk about “the international community,” what this actually refers to is their own cabal of elite power and unilateral geopolitical self-interest. Today, the Cold War’s supposed peace dividend is a cynical pipe dream. Member states of the NAM are being assaulted or suffering from the belligerent ravages of the pseudo international community - the partisan powers of the US and its NATO allies. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan among others. Unlike the NAM, which has denounced aggression and interference, when has the United Nations ever made such condemnation? In fact, the UN has shamefully given moral and diplomatic cover to these illegal wars.

Also, unlike the UN, the NAM has explicitly called for nuclear disarmament by the global elite that continues to possess tens of thousands of weapons of mass destruction in breach of their obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Syria, a member of NAM, is being assailed by a US-led axis of powers that include Britain, France, Germany, Turkey and Israel in a covert imperialist war of aggression. None of these powers are, of course, members of the NAM. They instead constitute the global gang of rogue states led by Washington.

In its attempted destruction of Syria, the US-led axis is aided and abetted by the Persian Gulf dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Arab monarchies are officially members of the NAM but it is unlikely that they will attend the conference in Tehran for obvious reprehensible reasons.

In this way, the summit in Tehran will serve to expose in the eyes of the world the nefarious, warmongering global elite. The gathering will expose the pretenders of “international community” as nothing more than a bunch of thugs who are holding the rest of the world to ransom under the threat of aggression. It will show that this elite and its claims of upholding international law and human rights is but a fraudulent clique of racketeers whose relentless, rapacious pursuit of imperialist profiteering is the scourge of the earth and of world peace.

It is poetic justice that Iran should have the honour of hosting this historic event. For nearly a decade now the Islamic Republic has had to live under the threat of war from the United States and its henchmen. Over the past year, these threats have been ratcheted up to decibel levels. In a world dominated by rogue states, the US, Britain and France and their illegal nuclear-powered attack dog, Israel, have the audacity to daily threaten Iran with military strikes and, by doing so, cast a shadow of annihilation on the rest of the world.

Iran is the other NAM member that is currently being subjected to a war of aggression. Sabotage of infrastructure, assassination of its scientists and abduction of citizens, such as Iranian mother Shahrzad Mirgholikhan, who was tortured for five years in an American prison, are part of this warfare. So too are criminal embargoes against the country’s economy, orchestrated by Washington.

This heinous criminality, based on suspicion and lies, is all because Iran is pursuing its legally entitled right to develop nuclear energy and to maintain its political independence.

But the poetic justice of the NAM summit is that the majority of the world is standing with Iran in the face of this aggression. Countries from as far as Mexico and Brazil to Indonesia and Malaysia are clearly saying that Iran has the right to develop on its own terms without interference or hegemonic spoiling.

Over 100 nations will be in attendance. Some 35 countries are sending heads of state to Tehran. A further 21 governments will be represented by foreign ministers.

Among those attending is Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accompanied by a delegation of 150 officials. Delegates from the NAM’s observer countries, including China, Russia and Brazil, are also expected.

One historic presence will be Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi. This will be the first top-level visit between the two countries since relations were severed in 1978 when the Egyptian regime aligned then with the US against the Iranian revolution.

In defiance of arm-twisting by Washington and its lynch mob, nations from Latin America, Africa and Asia are making their way to Tehran. Underscoring their independence and solidarity, and fitting for the occasion, many of these nations are now reported to be resuming export contracts for Iranian oil, shaking off recent American and European sanctions.

It is a sign of the times that even the hapless secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has announced his attendance. Israel’s megalomaniac Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Ban’s decision to go to Iran as “a big mistake,” while Washington sullenly described it as “a bit strange”.

However, Ban needs to do more than just show up. He needs to somehow find the backbone to speak out categorically against the US-led violence against Iran and Syria. That is doubtful given his supine silence over Washington’s criminal depredations and drone assassinations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and Somalia. But nevertheless, the mere fact that Ban is going to Tehran, despite Washington’s pressure, is in itself testimony to Iran’s righteousness.

In the face of US-led imperialist aggression in several regions, the countries of the world are standing up and saying: “Enough is enough”. Ironically, Washington’s death wishes on the world are being exposed for what they are, and in its attempt to isolate Iran it is the one ending up being isolated, diminished and disgraced. So long vilified by Washington and its quislings, Iran is now being vindicated by the rest of the world.
 
One final irony is that when the Cold War between the US and Soviet superpowers ended 20 years ago, some analysts believed that the Non-Aligned Movement would become redundant, an organization no longer with purpose. Two decades on, the NAM is rising to the occasion with more relevance than ever and is perhaps realising its true moment of merit for the cause of world peace and solidarity.

Its founding fathers, Josip Tito of Yugoslavia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Egypt’s Gamal Nasser, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Sukarno of Indonesia are no doubt smiling broadly and having the final laugh.

'Qatar & Turkey's participation in Iran's NAM summit'


"Forget the value of Ban Ki Moon’s participation at the NAM summit against Israel’s protests, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani will also likely attend, as well as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.  
Mursi’s participation makes a lot more sense now. While this doesn’t necessarily indicate a policy shift, it does imply a growing realization on the part of some in the US/NATO/GCC axis that neither a military victory, nor a strategic one whereby Assad is toppled, are anywhere in sight. This is even more so the case considering that Iran will be presenting a proposal to resolve the Syrian crisis on the sidelines of the summit. The Syrian army’s military successes in Aleppo will surely not suffice to defeat the insurrection/civil war/proxy war, but they have strengthened the bargaining position of the Syrian government and its allies. Perhaps the summit will serve as a prelude to a wider regional “bargain” between the major powers, which ultimately, is the only way this conflict ever going to be resolved. More often than not, such deals are only struck after matters reach a tipping point."

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Bomber Erdugan



 When Assad sends his army against armed thugs and armed protesters in different areas to establish order and protect the population he is called a dictator and a terrorist but when Erdogan who is a pet to the world order sends his Air Force to shell the Turkish Kurds with his bombs , this is considered a legal action on behalf of Turkey that does not seem to bother anyone . Erdogan has a green light from the super powers but president Assad who never used aircrafts to shell Syrians and whose aim is to establish order in the areas threatened by mercenaries and arms thugs is summoned to leave office because he is defending his country ; but when you are a pet to the super powers , this is an altogether different story.

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It was only yesterday ...

FLC

... that many in Lebanon, especially in 2006' when Israel aggressed Lebanon, started saying that they have had it with Lebanon having to pay the dearest in lives & treasure in the Arab-Israeli conflict, ...  
and even some went so far as asking the rhetorical question, "seriously, what did Israel do to us?", totally discarding the monumental & many decades' old plight of the Palestinian People, & the cruel history of Lebanon's experience with that usurping huge settlement called israel...
Basically, they (Culture of Life) were saying that Lebanon is suffering economically from Israeli aggressions BUT mostly, from the insolence of 'some' (Culture of Death) who decided to stand up and resist. The sectarian schism between the 'moderate pragmatists' & the 'insolent resisters' saw the most major plates shift since the War on Iraq! 
TODAY, the SAME 'moderate pragmatists' who were all about 'Lebanon First', Love Of Life, reconstruction, business opportunities & 'stability-uber alles', have taken upon themselves to bring down the regime of a neighboring Arab country, even if that risked generating spasms of regional & sectarian clashes.
 
 
'Life-Lovers in Tripoli'


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Egypt Blocks 120 Tunnels in Sinai


Egyptian military engineers have blocked 120 tunnels used for smuggling to and from the Gaza Strip since the start of operations in the neighboring Sinai Pensinsula, security officials said on Saturday.
from sinai attack
"Tunnel entrances are being demolished every day and the operation will continue until all underground passageways are shut," one official told AFP.

No less than 12 tunnels were blocked in the past two days on the Egyptian side, the source said, adding that the most of the tunnels lie in a four-kilometre (2.5 mile) stretch of the border.
Seven homes sitting on top of tunnel exits were leveled and two massive underground passages used to smuggle cars into the Gaza Strip were sealed, security officials said.

Hamas Delegation Heads to Egypt for Security Talks

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Gaza: Musings on Double Standards

25.08.2012

by Felicity Arbuthnot

Gaza: Musings on Double Standards. 47826.jpeg"Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others."(Marcus Tullius Cicero,106-43 B.C.)

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality." (Dante, c1265-1321.)

One of the haunting images of Jewish heroism, lauded in history books and holocaust commemorations, is the courage of those, especially the young, in the Warsaw Ghetto, when in 1940, Jewish Warsaw residents were ordered by the German invaders in to a small section of the city.

The courage of those who dug tunnels, smuggled goods necessary for survival in, and communications in and out, has rightly become a legendary act of resistance and courage, defiance in the shadow of despotism and repression.

The people of Gaza (roughly seventy-five percent of whom are under twenty-five) have had even the water in their natural springs stolen by a population to whom James Arthur Balfour's sparse words promised: "the establishment of a home in Palestine for the Jewish people ... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ..."

The Jewish families were contained in their enclave by an up to three metre high wall.The people of Gaza, ironically, are largely contained by a wall up to eleven metres high - twice the height of the Berlin Wall.

The Palestinians, their lands, homes, even cemeteries, stolen and destroyed, their ancient olive groves - some trees a thousand years old - burned or stolen to grace often illegal settlements, their people spat at, imprisoned, tortured, bombed, walled in, is now also near land-locked by Israel's maritime aggression in Gaza's territorial waters. Even fishing, unfettered access to their bountiful fish stocks are often denied, threatened by gun boats.

Gaza, since 2000 especially, has become a sunnier Warsaw Ghetto. Imports are strangulatingly controlled or totally prohibited by Israel, thus lifeline tunnels have also been dug between Gaza and Egypt.

In the building of one such desperation-driven structure, "in the cold, often trapped and suffocating under water or collapsing walls of dirt and concrete, eighty-two people died," working in shifts, twenty-four hours a day, Hyam Noir and Fady Adwan write graphically.

Goods brought through the tunnels, as in Nazi occupied Warsaw seventy years earlier, are life's necessities for survival and include medicines, food, clothes, vital spare parts and foreign currency.

World governments either collude with this ongoing humanitarian tragedy and legal shame, or simply ignore Gaza's plight. That Balfour stated clearly that the Jewish people were to be guests in Palestine, not jailers and conquerors, has been ignored from literally, day one. For building their subterranean mainstay, the rightful residents of Palestine are called terrorists.

Shame on every politician of any country who colludes with or ignores this ongoing obscenity.
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Fake Al-Manar Website Account on Twitter

Local Editor
Al-Manar website-TwitterA fake Al-Manar Website account on twitter is on air now and is publishing inaccurate positions to delude audience that Al-Manar Website is the one publishing it.

As a reminder, the right account for the website on twitter is: https://twitter.com/almanarnews.

However, the fake address is https://twitter.com/almanartv.
We advise our audience to pay attention that the fake account puts on top of the page “almanarnews” to confuse the reader and puts an alert message that other accounts are fake, just as we put a message in our real account. So, be sure to differentiate between the two pages on the address as we mentioned before.
Source: Al-Manar Website
 
Hackers Attribute False News to “Al-Manar” on Fake Twitter Account
 
Local Editor
 
The Fabricated Twitter account in the name of Al-Manar TVOne of the fabricated pages on Twitter social network website continues to post false news under Al-Manar signature, which could ignite a crisis between Iran and Kuwait.

It is an act of hacking that Al-Manar faces on Twitter, the disinformation which started two months ago, has been boosted by fabricated news, but of regional dimension this time.

This fake Twitter account posted false statements on behalf of Al-Manar, which caused confusion in the Islamic Republic, Kuwait and Syria, the preferred material of disinformation.

Attention: @almanartv Is a Fake Account“After what happened two months ago, one of the parties has created a false account of Al-Manar on the social network site of Twitter under the name of Almanar TV. It has adopted the same design that we adopt as a channel,” said Wael Karaki, Programs Department Manager at Al-Manar website.

“Thus, we decided to put a notice for all our followers at Al-Manar official page: Attention: @almanartv is a fake account,” Karaki added.

social networks' icons on Al-Manar official website“Anyone who wants to follow Al-Manar news on Twitter should make sure that the name of the official Al-Manar page is @almanarnews, and not @almanartv. It is preferable that he clicks on the Twitter icon found on Al-Manar official homepage,” he said.

Those who fabricated this page have artfully posted a series of correct news, along with some false news that provoke sedition, and far from Al-Manar policy and its mission.
Abdullah Qassir, General Manager of Al-Manar Channel“It is clear that Israel and the United States are dealing with Al-Manar as a channel hostile to the Israeli occupation and the American imperialism and hegemony in the region, and thus it became a target for the Americans and the Israelis. They fought against Al-Manar television on the internet and on smart phones as well. It is a part of the soft war launched against us,” said Abdullah Qassir, General Manager of Al-Manar Channel.

“I believe that attacking Al-Manar website and creating false accounts under the name of Al-Manar is not the whole war. It is only a part of the war, which will be complemented only by posting what the fabricated account is reporting on other mass media, like the Kuwaiti agency.”

Again, Al-Manar cautions that this is its official website, and it bears no responsibility towards any news out of this page and its related social network websites.
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Video shows Israeli police taser Palestinian man repeatedly


Published Friday, August 24, 2012
 
A video showing Israeli police tasering a 42-year-old Palestinian repeatedly during the Eid holiday last weekend was published Friday on Israeli daily Haaretz.

Talal Siad is seen rolling on the grass as officers deal him several electric shocks. Siad's five children are standing nearby while women are heard screaming apparently pleading to officers to stop.

“Every time I tried to rise to my feet, he pulled the trigger and shocked me again, even though I was handcuffed, my whole body was bleeding. I vomited and then went to the hospital,” Siad told Haaretz.
Siad reported that he received five electric shocks.


The Jerusalem resident filed a complaint to the Israeli Justice Ministry, accusing them of excessive force as they diffused a brawl that had broken out at a Tel Aviv water park.

Siad was not involved in the brawl, and was tasered when he tried to intervene, accusing police of unnecessary force in restraining one of the youths.

The policemen had reportedly sprayed the youth, who appears in the video worn out and nearly naked, with tear gas.

“I said to them 'Do you want to shoot at me?' So he answered me directly with a shock to my stomach,” said Siad.

Siad sought treatment at a nearby hospital shortly after the incident.
(Al-Akhbar, Ma'an, Haaretz)

 
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Terrorists in Syria Using Prisoners as "Human Bombs"

NYT embeds with war criminals, spin and excuse craven human rights violations as "cunning."

by Tony Cartalucci

August 23, 2012 - One can only imagine the headlines had the Syrian government been caught using blindfolded prisoners to deliver trucks to enemy targets, told freedom was at hand when in reality they were delivering vehicles packed full of explosives and were essentially unwitting "human bombs." Curt articles with headlines like "ASSAD REGIME USES HUMAN BOMBS!" would surely be splashed across the Western press.

Image: This man, identified as Abu Hilal, was told he'd be given his freedom as part of a "prisoner exchange." In reality, terrorists had planted a bomb in the bed of the truck Hilal would be driving and planned to detonate it remotely as he approached a military checkpoint. Undermining yet another myth of the fraudulent "War on Terror," it appears that Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, in Syria, Iraq, and beyond, have used unwitting "human bombs" driving vehicles or carrying parcels rigged with explosives they had no knowledge of - claiming they are "suicide bombers."
....
However, it is terrorist militants operating in Syria that are employing these very tactics, apparently so frequently the Western media has feared eventually the story would get out. What would follow was a "limited hangout" provided courtesy of the New York Times, with copious amounts of literary padding to portray the craven war criminals as "human" and their premeditated violation of human rights as "desperate," even "justified."

Even the title of NYT's article, "Life With Syria’s Rebels in a Cold and Cunning War," betrays what is essentially reported - an egregious war crime that illuminates what many have long suspected is the reality behind "suicide bombings" used by Al Qaeda and its affiliates not just in Syria, but worldwide - that they are not carried out by fanatics, but by unwitting, coerced, and ultimately innocent victims.

What NYT does, is attempt with its long-winded narrative to humanize and endear to us the militants before revealing just what they did. However, the nearly 4,000 word article boils down to just 4 sentences:
The real plan was beginning to emerge. It involved the prisoner, Abu Hilal. The assurances that he would be released had been a deception. The fighters intended to put him behind the wheel of the truck bomb near the checkpoint and tell him to drive forward in a prisoner exchange.
The NYT would claim that the bomb "failed" leaving the terrorists "disappointed." But in Syria, sectarian terrorists, many with direct ties to Al Qaeda, have been employing bombings like this for months, many of which have been categorized as "suicide bombings." Surely had NYT's terrorist hosts succeeded, yet another "suicide bombing" would have been marked down.




It had been reported in May 2012, that terrorists operating in Syria had begun using bombs to target both the military and civilians, with entire "factories" dedicated to the production of explosive devices. Many of these bombs were being built by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists who had participated in the Iraqi civil war, cultivated by the West itself to break the back of joint Sunni-Shi'ia resistance to US occupation.

Also, during the Iraq War and US occupation throughout it, there were reports of Iraqis having their vehicles impounded by Western forces, and upon securing the release of their vehicles discovering they had been rigged with explosives - in a scenario very similar to what is now being seen by US-funded, armed, and backed terrorists in Syria.

With this latest insight into the deceit with which the West wages its proxy wars, and the deceit exhibited by their terrorist legionaries, along with stories like British SAS soldiers being caught in Iraq posing as extremists and terrorizing local populations to trigger further conflict, the public must be aware that not all is what it seems, especially in regards to what is reported by the West's corporate media. NYT has reported this to portray it as an isolated incident, when in reality it is a method of operation that has transcended US theaters of war and destabilization across the region and beyond.

What the New York Times has done, and many other Western media houses like it have been doing, is observing war crimes, then promptly spinning and excusing them. Concurrently, they manipulate Syrian Army operations, or even fabricate events, to demonize the Syrian government. This is war propaganda, and it is in itself is a war crime punishable under the Nuremberg precedent. As war criminals, the Western press certainly have found ideological allies amongst the terrorists ravaging Syria.

who_me



BBC News HD – Syrian rebels try to use prisoner for suicide bombing 2012

“And the BBC tries to white was [whitewash] it. They have since removed their story and video all together. Down the memory whole”



Syrian Insurgents Force Prisoner to Become a Suicide Bomber

“This video and story has now been completely taken down by the BBC. It was originally from the new york times. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19342917 I have uploaded it on my channel in the previous video. But have also annotated my own version which is fair use incase they force me to take the other one down.

It shows how callous and blood thirsty these NATO/Israel backed warcriminals can be! So much for freedom loving unarmed protesters”
aint that jewish run media censorship wonderful?
syriangirl provided some top notch narration and commentary in the 2nd version.
 
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Sniper Fire, Energa Rockets Disrupt Tripoli Calm, Arrest Warrants against Gunmen

Local Editor

The northern city of Tripoli witnessed on Saturday cautious calm that included sniper fire, a day after state Commissioner to the Mmanar tv tripoli clashesilitary Court Judge Saqr Saqr issued arrest warrants against militants engaged in the latest clashes between the neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.

Al-Manar Correspondent reported that that the atmosphere in the city was tenser than before, because of the sniper fire and the Energa rockets.

“It’s true that the intensity of the clashes has decreased. However the situation of the city has been tough because of the sniper fire and Energa rockets,” our correspondent Fadi Mansour said.

“The people are scared because they don’t know when a sniper fire or an Energa rocket will fall on their heads.”

Mansour added that one person from Jabal Mohsen, Shehade Qaddah, was killed and four others were wounded, noting that three people of Bab al-Tabbaneh were also wounded during the last night.

He said that Energa rockets hit vegetable market, “American” neighborhood, Abu Ali river and some streets in Jabal Mohsen.

The correspondent added that the Lebanese army was during the night responding to the sources of fire, saying that it was hard to know where the snipers have been positioned.

National News Agency, NNA, said that Friday clashes killed three people, including a Salafi Sheikh and injured 14 people, including seven soldiers.

Friday clashes re-erupted at dawn Friday, following the security meeting in Tripoli, which was headed by Prime Minister Najib Miqati, who urged the army to restore calm in the city.


SAQR ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS

Meanwhile, state Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr issued arrest warrants against gunmen involved in the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli.

On Friday, he ordered the military police, army intelligence, and Internal Security Forces to identify and arrest those involved in the latest unrest.

This includes all the gunmen who appeared on media outlets as part of the coverage of the events.

Source: Al Manar TV
25-08-2012 - 10:29 Last updated 25-08-2012 -

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In Fond Remembrance of Riad

by Ariadna Theokopoulos
Saturday, August 25th, 2012

Ariadna TheokopoulosSeveral years ago, a friend told me about The Palestine Children Welfare Fund (PCWF), an organization dedicated to helping the children of Palestine, especially orphan or sick children, and also “typical” Palestinian children whose childhood is made hell by the Israelis, who go hungry, live in improvised housing, learn in bombed out schools in open air, have few books and fewer toys, are terrified by the sights and sounds of war, or need medication their parents cannot obtain.

It turned out that it was pretty much a one-man operation carried out selflessly and tirelessly by a Palestinian teacher by the name of Riad Hamad, from Texas.

You could contribute by making a donation or buying from him the olive oil from Palestine, kuffiyas, handicrafts, hand-embroidered Christmas cards made by women in Bethlehem and other such items that provided a meager thread of employment support.

The web site of PCWF he maintained featured photos of individual Palestinian children, describing their circumstances (e.g., father and older brother killed by the IDF, disabled uncle helping the mother and her 3 children), etc and listing their most pressing needs, like hearing aids for children whose hearing was severely affected by Israeli ‘booms” and real bombs. He also solicited books, old books, schoolbooks, any books and school materials, which he sent there.

Every summer he made a “fair” with a colorful cart display of Palestinian articles and traveled with it in Texas and neighboring states. He was cheerful, incurably optimistic and a delight to know.

I talked to him on the phone many times but I never got to meet him in person. He was human kindness personified and never gave up hope that someday Palestinian children may get to have a normal childhood.

When my father died I remembered that of all the Israeli inhumanities the one that had always shocked my father the most had been the theft of water and the deliberate destruction of water wells in the OTs. I talked to Riad and decided to pay for the construction of a water well, in whatever village he knew it was needed at the time. Later he sent me a picture with the well, flanked by two olive tree sapplings and with my father’s name on it. I am sure my father would not have cared to have his name on it, just to have the well there. I have no idea if the well is still there, knowing, as I learned later, that the Israelis like to come back and destroy whatever is rebuilt in Palestine, but I hope it lasted at least long enough to make a difference. This was my very personal connection with Riad.

I knew that he was being mercilessly harassed by various zionist outfits in the US, and by the FBI. Although they lost the dirty suit against him, in which they claimed that by helping orphans of “terrorists” he was encouraging more terrorism and that his site was promoting terrorism, his persecution did not stop, on the contrary, it intensified.

I also knew that he had a daughter he loved more than life and of whom he was enormously proud. Just as she was admitted to med school, when he was thrilled by her success, he…. supposedly committed suicide, according to the published police report. The details in the articles linked above are enough to make one howl in indignation. He, according to the police, did it the hardest way: first he bound his mouth, hands and feet with tape, then somehow he crawled out of his car (found abandoned) all the way to the lake, threw himself in, and drowned.

For me, beside the shock of his assassination, an almost equal shock was the fact that the MSM could publish this account of it and justify it by saying he committed suicide because when they fished him out of the lake the bindings were loose, so of course he had taped himself. Besides they claimed, acquaintances (like who?) said he had been depressed. The fact that a newspaper could carry such a story scared me. It showed a defying cynicism I had not seen before: “Here’s an absurd lie, we know you know it is a blatant lie, but there is nothing you can do about it.”

As Kurt Nimmo wrote:
“Finally, it should be remembered that back in 2003, Israel declared its intention to embark “upon a more aggressive approach to the war on terror that will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries,” according to United Press International. “The Israeli statements were confirmed by more than a half dozen U.S. foreign policy and intelligence officials in interviews with UPI. Israeli hit teams, which consist of units or squadrons of the Kidon, a sub-unit for Mossad’s highly secret Metsada department, would stage the operations, former Israeli intelligence sources said. Kidon is a Hebrew word meaning ‘bayonet,’ one former Israeli intelligence source said.”
Is it possible a neocon hit team or as likely a Mossad “bayonet” team took out the school teacher Riad Hamad?

Certainly, it makes more sense than the lame claim that Mr. Hamad wrapped himself up in duct tape and threw himself in Lady Bird Lake. “
They silenced him ad they killed PCWF, but Riad’s memory still burns bright and always will.

He has not only helped and comforted countless suffering Palestinian children but also enriched the lives of all the people who got to know him.

I remember him with gratitude and admiration and also with poignant regret for such a terrible loss to humanity.

 
For me Riad is Palestine.
 
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Aung San Suu Kyi continued silence on plight of Rohingya’s Muslims

by Jonathon Blakeley
Friday, August 24th, 2012



Published on Aug 24, 2012 by PressTVGlobalNews
In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi continued silence on the plight of Burma’s Rohingya’s Muslims sparking concern that how Noble Peace Prize is a joke. Thousands of people may have been slaughtered already and tens of thousands have been homeless.

Meanwhile clashes have erupted between protesters and government forces in Bahrain at the funeral of a young demonstrator. The sixteen years old victim was killed on Friday in a brutal attack by the Bahraini police.

An appeal court in Bahrain, has acquitted the activist Nabeel Rajab after he criticized the Prime minister in a tweet, but the founder of the Bahrain scent of human Right will remain in jail for up to three years.

Watch this video on PresssTV website: http://www.presstv.ir/Program/257926.html

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Bernard Levy calls for Western air military intervention in Syria

Bernard Levy calls for Western air military intervention in Syria

Selon Bernard-Henri Lévy, les raisons qui ont poussé, hier, à une intervention pour soutenir les insurgés libyens doivent nous amener à soutenir la rébellion syrienne. 
France | Politics - the Jewish Zionist Bernard-Henri Levy, who was one of the first workers calls for Western military intervention in Libya in 2011, "appeal" in order to enter a military air strike in Syria, in an article in "Le Monde" French entitled "aircraft to Aleppo ".
 
 The Zionist Levy, said "The bad faith in this debate has no boundaries, and some claim he understood that it would send the infantry divisions to war, as happened in Afghanistan. The reality is different."
"After that imposed the ban movement, preventing the air from armored battalions to move from city to city and sow terror in it. That the Qatari-based proposal to set up a kill zone, protected by the free elements of the Syrian army equipped with light weapons."
 
 He separates the plan "which is also the idea of the establishment of the Turkish buffer zones in the north of the country to provide a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting. A progressive package of measures"

Levy said that France was responsible for another two weeks rotating presidency of the UN Security Council. He wrote

"It is not understood in these circumstances that does not use the newly elected President of the Republic, which has a moral authority that under the full potential offered by the situation to him."(n.m)

 
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'Pour encourager les autres!"

Via FLC

"... Yes. The Syrian forces are methodically searching areas that they retake and are killing supporters of the rebellion. Why are they not hiding the bodies? They want those they do not kill to see the bodies and they don't mind if the Washington Post wants to talk about it either. This is 'pour encourager les autres." The message is that this is what happens when you take up armes against the government. An additional message is that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are impotent in the face of the defeat of their proteges....  
Last night on the "Newshour" a Saudi stringer for "Nightline" was interviewed on the subject of the war. He had recently traveled around insurgent held north Syria, He commented that the Syrian Army was "demorailised and very cowardly? because they advance a few blocks in a town and then halt. This fellow was clearly "boosting" for his side but in fact the SA is advancing from phase line to phase line in order to avoid an uneven front line that would be vulnerable to counter-attacks...."
 
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Robert Fisk: 'Rebel army? They're a gang of foreigners'

 Our writer hears the Syrian forces' justification for a battle that is tearing apart one of the world's oldest cities.


Robert Fisk

August 23 2012

A victorious army? There were cartridge cases all over the ancient stone laneways, pocked windows, and bullet holes up the side of the Sharaf mosque, where a gunman had been firing from the minaret. A sniper still fired just 150 yards away – all that was left of more than a hundred rebels who had almost, but not quite, encircled the 4,000-year-old citadel of Aleppo.
 

مرتزقة في سوريا...
 "لم نكن نعلم ان فلسطين بهذا الجمال"
"You won't believe this," Major Somar cried in excitement. "One of our prisoners told me: 'I didn't realise Palestine was as beautiful as this.' He thought he was in Palestine to fight the Israelis!"
 
Do I believe this? Certainly, the fighters who bashed their way into the lovely old streets west of the great citadel were, from all accounts, a ragtag bunch.

Their graffiti – "We are the Brigades of 1980", the year when the first Muslim Brotherhood rising threatened the empire of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez – was still on the walls of the Syrian-Armenian hotels and silver shops. A 51-year-old general handed me one of the home-made grenades that littered the floor of the Sharaf mosque; a fluffy fuse poking from the top of a lump of shrapnel, coated in white plastic and covered in black adhesive tape.
 
Inside the mosque were bullets, empty tins of cheese, cigarette butts and piles of mosque carpets, which the rebels had used as bedding. The battle had so far lasted 24 hours. A live round had cut into the Bosnian-style tombstone of a Muslim imam's grave, with a delicate stone turban carved on its top. The mosque's records – lists of worshippers' complaints, Korans and financial documents – were lying across one room in what had evidently marked the last stand of several men. There was little blood. Between 10 and 15 of the defenders – all Syrians – surrendered after being offered mercy if they laid down their arms. The quality of this mercy was not, of course, disclosed to us.
 
The Syrian soldiers were elated, but admitted that they shared immense sadness for the history of a city whose very fabric was being torn apart, a world heritage site being smashed by rockets and high-velocity rounds. The officers shook their heads when they led us into the ramparts of the immense citadel. "The terrorists tried to capture it 20 days ago from our soldiers who were defending it," Major Somar said. "They filled gas cylinders full of explosives – 300 kilos of it – and set them off by the first entrance above the moat."

Alas, they did. The huge medieval iron and wooden gate, its ornamented hinges and supports – a defence-work that had stood for 700 years – has been literally torn apart. I clambered over carbonized wood and hunks of stone bearing delicate Koranic inscriptions. Hundreds of bullet holes have pitted the stonework of the inner gate. Below, I found a T-72 tank whose barrel had been grazed by a sniper's bullet which was still lodged in the sheath, its armour broken by a grenade. "I was inside at the time," its driver said. "Bang! – but my tank still worked!"
 
So here is the official scorecard of the battle for the eastern side of the old city of Aleppo, the conflict amid narrow streets and pale, bleached stone walls that was still being fought out yesterday afternoon, the crack of every rebel bullet receiving a long burst of machine-gun fire from Major Somar's soldiers. As the army closed in on the gunmen from two sides, 30 rebels – or "Free Syrian Army" or "foreign fighters" – were killed and an undisclosed number wounded. According to Major Somar's general, an officer called Saber, Syrian government forces suffered only eight wounded. I came across three of them, one a 51-year-old officer who refused to be sent to hospital.
 
Many of the rebels' weapons had been taken from the scene by the military "mukhbarat" intelligence men before we arrived: they were said to include three Nato-standard sniper rifles, one mortar, eight Austrian machine-pistols and a host of Kalashnikovs, which may well have been stolen by Syrian deserters. But it is the shock of finding these pitched battles amid this world heritage site which is more terrible than the armaments of each side. To crunch over broken stone and glass with Syrian troops for mile after mile around the old city, a place of museums and Mosques – the magnificently minareted Gemaya Omayyad stands beside yesterday's battleground –is a matter of infinite sorrow.

Many of the soldiers, who were encouraged to speak to me even as they knelt at the ends of narrow streets with bullets spattering off the walls, spoke of their amazement that so many "foreign fighters" should have been in Aleppo. "Aleppo has five million people," one said to me. "If the enemy are so sure that they are going to win the battle, then surely there's no need to bring these foreigners to participate; they will lose."

Major Somar, who spoke excellent English, understood the political dimension all too well. "Our borders with Turkey are a big problem," he admitted. "The border needs to be closed. The closure of the frontier must be coordinated by the two governments. But the Turkish government is on the enemy side. Erdogan is against Syria." Of course, I asked him his religion, a question that is all innocence and all poison in Syria these days. Somar, whose father was a general, his mother a teacher, and who practices his English with Dan Brown novels, was as quick as a cat.
"It's not where you are born or what is your religion," he said. "It's what's in your mind. Islam comes from this land, Christians come from this land, Jews come from this land. That is why it is our duty to protect this land."
Several soldiers believed the rebels were trying to convert the Christians of Aleppo – "a peaceful people", they kept calling them – and there was a popular story doing the rounds yesterday of a Christian storekeeper who was forced to wear Muslim clothing and announce his own conversion in front of a video camera. But in wartime cities, you find talkative soldiers. One of the men who recaptured the entrance to the citadel was Abul Fidar, famous for walking between Aleppo, Palmyra and Damascus over 10 days at the start of the current conflict last year to publicise the need for peace. The president, needless to say, greeted him warmly at his final destination.
 
And then there was Sergeant Mahmoud Dawoud from Hama, who had been fighting in Hama itself, Homs, Jebel Zawi and Idlib. "I want to be interviewed by a reporter," he announced, and of course, he got his way. "We are sad for the civilians of this land," he said. "They were in peace before. We promise as soldiers that we will make sure a good life returns for them, even if we lose our lives." He does not mention all those civilians killed by army shellfire or by the "shabiha", or those thousands who have suffered torture in this land. Dawoud has a fiancée called Hannan who is studying French in Latakia, his father is a teacher; he says he wants "to serve his homeland".

But the thought cannot escape us that the prime purpose of men like Sergeant Dawoud – and all his fellow soldiers here – was not, surely, to liberate Aleppo but to liberate the occupied Golan Heights, right next to the land which the "jihadis" apparently thought they were "liberating" yesterday – until they discovered that Aleppo was not Jerusalem.
 
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