Bomb First, Investigate the Rubble Later

I haven't gotten any more news about the missing nukes, but my nose smells a connection here. See these posts for more: April 6, 2008 US, Israel, Syria, Korea and (maybe) Loose Nukes, November 6, 2007 Disappearing Nuclear Reactor!, November 3, 2007 Only the Traitors Know, Who's Bombing Who?
US rebuked over Syria nuclear case
The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency has criticised the US for withholding intelligence information that it says showed the construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Friday also hit out at Israel for bombing the site before inspectors could investigate.
[...] The White House said in a statement on Thursday that Syria "must come clean" over its alleged secret co-operation with North Korea on the reactor.
It also described the alleged assistance as a "dangerous manifestation'' of North Korea's nuclear proliferation activities, but said it would continue six-party talks to try to resolve the nuclear standoff with the isolated nation.
The claims follow a briefing of US congressional officials in Washington DC by intelligence chiefs, including William Hayden, the CIA director. [my bold]
However, some US legislators earlier warned that the claims could wreck vital six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.
Later on Thursday, Syria's ambassador to the US dismissed claim as a "ridiculous story".
Imad Moustapha told Al Jazeera that his government maintained there was no evidence of any alleged secret nuclear activity.
Timothy Savage, an analyst from the Nautilus Institute, told Al Jazeera that the US claims could be treated with a degree of sceptism.
"The Bush administration doesn't have a great track record with intelligence, so it's natural that people will approach this with some scepticism," he said.
[...] The controversy began last September, when an Israeli air raid destroyed a target in Syrian territory which some reports later said was a nuclear facility being built with North Korean help.
Syria, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has maintained in the past that the site was an unused military facility.
It later razed the site and built a larger building in its place.
The target of Israel's raid has been veiled in secrecy, with US intelligence and government officials refusing to confirm for months that such a raid even took place.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E007835C-444C-47E4-AB72-3FBF4641384C.htm

BushCo “Hoodwinked" General Myers

Could this be the story that opens the eyes of the "faithful?" To deliberately undermine and deceive the chief of command in Iraq, BushCo's only goal was the complete destruction of Iraq and destabilization of that region. I hope the American "faithful" will begin to see that the monsters in the White House planned the Iraq chaos as far back as Richard Nixon's White House days with one purpose: to fill their personal coffers and ensure their own comfort and security as the world reels from the troubles brought to them by BushCo. I agree with Mr. Wilkerson that they must be brought to an international criminal court. Read on, from The Guardian:
Top Bush aides pushed for Guantánamo torture
Senior officials bypassed army chief to introduce interrogation methods
· Richard Norton-Taylor · The Guardian, Saturday April 19 2008

US military chief General Richard Myers.
Photographer: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP

America's most senior general was "hoodwinked" by top Bush administration officials determined to push through aggressive interrogation techniques of terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, leading to the US military abandoning its age-old ban on the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the Guardian reveals today.
[...] In his new book, Torture Team, Philippe Sands QC, professor of law at University College London, reveals that:
· Senior Bush administration figures pushed through previously outlawed measures with the aid of inexperienced military officials at Guantánamo.
· Myers believes he was a victim of "intrigue" by top lawyers at the department of justice, the office of vice-president Dick Cheney, and at Donald Rumsfeld's defence department.
· The Guantánamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the exploits of Jack Bauer in the American TV series 24.
· Myers wrongly believed interrogation techniques had been taken from the army's field manual.
The lawyers, all political appointees, who pushed through the interrogation techniques were Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes. Also involved were Doug Feith, Rumsfeld's under-secretary for policy, and Jay Bybee and John Yoo, two assistant attorney generals.
[...] The Bush administration has tried to explain away the ill-treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by blaming junior officials. Sands' book establishes that pressure for aggressive and cruel treatment of detainees came from the top and was sanctioned by the most senior lawyers.
Myers was one top official who did not understand the implications of what was being done. Sands, who spent three hours with the former general, says he was "confused" about the decisions that were taken.
Myers mistakenly believed that new techniques recommended by Haynes and authorised by Rumsfeld in December 2002 for use by the military at Guantánamo had been taken from the US army field manual. They included hooding, sensory deprivation, and physical and mental abuse.
"As we worked through the list of techniques, Myers became increasingly hesitant and troubled," writes Sands. "Haynes and Rumsfeld had been able to run rings around him." [my bold]
[...] Larry Wilkerson, a former army officer and chief of staff to Colin Powell, US secretary of state at the time, told the Guardian: "I do know that Rumsfeld had neutralised the chairman [Myers] in many significant ways.
"The secretary did this by cutting [Myers] out of important communications, meetings, deliberations and plans.
"At the end of the day, however, Dick Myers was not a very powerful chairman in the first place, one reason Rumsfeld recommended him for the job".
He added: "Haynes, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzalez and - at the apex - Addington, should never travel outside the US, except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel. They broke the law; they violated their professional ethical code. In future, some government may build the case necessary to prosecute them in a foreign court, or in an international court." [my bold]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/19/guantanamo.usa

Carter Decries Israeli Atrocities in Gaza

Carter meets Hamas political chief
Jimmy Carter, a former US president, has met Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader, in the Syrian capital, despite strong opposition from Tel Aviv and Washington.
The controversial meeting was being held at a Hamas office in Damascus and attended by Musa Abu Marzuq and Mohmmed Nazzal, senior figures from the Palestinian movement.
Carter arrived in Syria on Friday and held talks with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, before meeting Meshaal.
[...] On Thursday, Carter met a delegation of Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip in Cairo and held talks with Husni Mubarak, the Egyptian president.
Speaking to the media, Carter defended his meetings, calling them necessary in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The former US president also described Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip as a crime and an atrocity.
He said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death", receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.
"It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza," he said. "It's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on."
Carter said that US attempts to undermine Hamas have been counterproductive.
His meeting with leaders of Hamas, a group he insists must be included in peace negotiations, has angered many in Washington and Israel, who call the Palestinian group a "terrorist" organisation.
[...] Israel has meanwhile sealed off the West Bank and Gaza for 10 days as it prepares to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Tanks and soldiers moved into position at the crossings following the shutdown that took effect early on Friday, barring Palestinians from the occupied territories from entering Israel.[...]
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AAE23DE4-60F5-4A05-B2B8-949E9E60FF67.htm

EU Parliament VP Calls for Justice in Gaza

PRESS RELEASE, BY LUISA MORGANTINI
(GUE/NGL) Vice President of the European Parliament
Why is there no protest when a former US President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate is denied entry to Gaza?
20 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been killed, and in the Gaza Strip people continue to die. The International Community and EU must work for a cease-fire and an end to the siege. Rome, 17th April 2008
"While the Israeli Government continues its policy of isolation and collective punishment towards the Palestinian civil population in Gaza, it has also prevented to a former Head of State to visit the Gaza Strip. This unprecedented decision was adopted in the case of Jimmy Carter, former US President and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Carter has always declared himself a sincere supporter of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, based on the creation of two people and two states, and has denounced the policies of Apartheid.
Moreover, Carter was a mediator in the 1978 Camp David negotiations; the first agreement signed by Israel and an Arab State, Egypt. If this decision had been made by any other country, it would have provoked a real protest in the international media. Meanwhile, the situation in the Gaza Strip becomes more desperate every day: the International Community and the European Union must work for an immediate cease-fire and toward an end of all acts of violence. Once again, the price is paid by the civilian population.
Each military action that involves civilians, as was the case yesterday in the Gaza Strip, must be condemned in adherence to International Humanitarian Law.
In addition, essential services are nearing collapse due to a lack of fuel supplies. This is the result of Israel's April 9th decision to cease the fuel distribution to Gaza, although today the fuel supply only for the Gaza's only electric power station was reopened. In a press release yesterday, 8 UN Agencies denounced the fuel restrictions because they endanger the basic needs of the civil population. PMRS, one of the major NGO's providing health services in Gaza and the West Bank, has also launched an appeal regarding the immediate "humanitarian disaster" and is at risk of having to suspend all its activities. A statement by the Popular Committee against the Siege of Gaza (PCAS, part of the ongoing campaign in Gaza, www.freegaza.ps) says that more than 85 % of private vehicles and more then 65% of sanitary transport vehicles are unusable because of the lack of fuel.
Palestinians in Gaza are denied the most basic necessities and the possibility to lead a dignified life. Once again the Palestinian population is suffering from massive collective punishment, explicitly illegal under International law. Yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO, and the Campaign for the end of the siege in Gaza (www.end-gaza-siege.ps) denounced the DCO's (Israeli Defence Coordination Office) umpteenth refusal to allow Palestinian medical patients to enter Israel or the West Bank for medical care and treatments. Since the siege started 133 Palestinians have died as a result of these kinds of refusals and today 1,562 patients are waiting to leave Gaza for urgent medical care.
On April 13th for the forth time Islam Alassouli, a 4 years old child from Khan Younis was not allowed to pass the Eretz crossing into Israel for a bone marrow transplant. He received no explanation for the refusal.
The kind of transplant needed by Islam is impossible in Gaza's hospitals: because of the total closures imposed by Israel, elaborate medical equipment is unavailable and even vital medicines are nowhere to be found.
The International Community and the European Union have no more excuses: they must intervene immediately, in a stronger and more effective way, for the immediate opening of all of Gaza's border crossings (according to the obligations of an occupying army under International Law), and for an immediate cease-fire by both sides.

US, Israel, Syria, Korea and (maybe) Loose Nukes

Is it sloppy journalism that the date of the attack doesn’t appear in the article, or a deliberate attempt to distance our “loose nukes” (Aug, 29) episode with the Sept. 8 event in Syria? The Israelis sure are worried about releasing details, despite some thinking it would “enhance” the Israeli government’s image as powerful and in control of things. But their power comes at our cost. Read on, citizens, courtesy of Haaretz...
Israel, U.S. plan to release details on Syria attack
By Barak Ravid and Amos Harel
Israel and the United States are coordinating the release of details on the air force strike in Syria last September, which foreign reports claim targeted a nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. American officials may reveal details of the strike later this month during congressional hearings.
Even though the defense establishment in Israel is opposed to any publication of details of the attack, the Prime Minister's Bureau and U.S. President George W. Bush's administration are of the opinion that it is now possible to reveal details because there is little chance of a conflagration as a result of a Syrian decision to avenge the attack.
[...] Intelligence analysts in Israel maintain that any further release of the details on the strike will contribute to the already tense situation between Syria and Israel, which has been exacerbated in part because of Hezbollah's plans to avenge the assassination of the group's terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyah.
Any official release of the details of the attack and the nature of the installation may push Syria's Bashar Assad into a corner and put pressure him to respond, say intelligence officials.
[...] The hearings at the House Intelligence Committee may be held in the coming weeks. Congressmen have included in the bill on the intelligence budget that American intelligence agencies will not be given large portions of their budget unless they reveal in full the details of the strike in Syria and the nuclear cooperation between Pyongyang and Damascus.
This has led U.S. and Israeli officials to conclude that American officials will release details of the strike during the hearings.
Talks between the U.S. and North Korea are schedule to resume tomorrow in Singapore. One of the American conditions for lifting the sanctions on Pyongyang is for it to expose its nuclear collaboration with other countries, which North Korea maintains does not exist. According to South Korean media sources, Pyongyang has agreed to provide the U.S. with information on its nuclear cooperation with Syria, on condition that Washington will not make this public. The same sources stated that the U.S. has given North Korea a list of engineers that are suspected of involvement in the construction of the installation that was targeted in Syria. [...]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/971914.html

Now Zionists Divide Christian Land and Limit Their Movement

FROM SAM / RAMALLAH

Stop Israel before it's too late

Karin, MUNICH - AND A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

January 18, 2008

Dear friends,

Gaza is burning. Gaza is cold. Gaza is in the dark. Maybe you can sleep. I can't!

Below is an important statement on how Israel's denied entry policy is affecting the church community here, in the holy land.

Also, I pass two interviews with me, one audio on a US radio show, and the other a print one.

Lastly, I pass a picture that was on our local Arabic newspaper's front page yesterday. It shows an Israeli solider, part of the 4th most powerful military force in the world, dealing with those habitual Palestinian terrorists.

One can only imagine what world view this young boy will have when he reaches 21 years old.

Stop Israel before it's too late,

Sam

http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=40239&s2=19

There is an object on the ground but the boy has his back turned. Was he playing with it before the soldier came along? Is he ashamed, scared, angry? I can only hope the soldier used a kind tone of voice with a reassuring gesture to say go home. Let us hope.

And so now, citizens, please read how the Zionists are starting to treat Christians like the Palestinians. Could it be the Christian community sees the horrors of the Zionist regime?

Restrictions by Israel on Christians Threatening the Future of the Church

by Fr. Firas Aridah

The Israeli Ministry of Interior decided to limit the entry of holders of valid visas to "one entry" or "no entry". Initially, this measure was meant to prohibit entry to those coming from "enemy countries". Now however, it includes Jordanians and Egyptians as well, the only two Arab countries who signed a peace agreement with Israel; among those holders of visas being restricted are priests, religious men and women, seminarians and other church personnel.

What may seem a normal restriction imposes grave consequences:

- The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which includes Palestine, Israel and Jordan, will be divided, as Jordanian priests and church personnel will not be allowed to move between Jordan and Israel/Palestine. The same applies to the Custody of the Holy Land, the Melkite Church and the religious congregations.

- Seminarians at the Latin Patriachal Seminary in Beit Jala, most of whom are Jordanians, will not be allowed to visit their families for Christmas, Easter or any other occasion including family emergencies. If they do visit them, they will loose their residence visa. Applying for a new visa while they are outside the country, according to the new Israeli regulations, will take 3-4 months. Jordanians can leave the country, but re-entry is not guaranteed.

- Jordanians, and other Arab priests, have to stay in the country without leaving it, and when their residence visa expires, they have to leave the country, apply for a new visa before they can go back to their parishes and ministries. The waiting period can be 3-4 months, with no guarantee they will obtain it. The whole work and life of the Church is in jeopardy by this policy.

- If Israel continue with the new regulations, the consequences will be dire: 1. by June 2008, the Catholic Church will loose many of its clergy, many of whom are Jordanians; 2. the Seminary, founded in 1852 and which formed all the clergy and bishops of the Latin Patriarchate (256 since 1852), will be closed; 3. and many parishes will be left priestless.

These new restrictions are added to the already existing ones:

- We witness long delays and complicated bureaucratic procedures to obtain visas for the personnel the Church needs for its work; the refusal to give or renew visas without any explanation. The freedom of the Church in the matter is stated in the Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel in 1993, and never ratified by the Israeli Parliament (the Kenesset).

- Palestinian priests are not allowed to enter Israel or Jerusalem; they may be given "permits" by the Israeli military authorities, restricting the entry points, the duration of their stay, restricted hours, no use of a car, being subject to humiliating search on checkpoints, and canceling the permits any time or with the frequent closures "of the Territories". This restriction does not allow any normal pastoral work or any participation at the religious ceremonies in the Holy Places or the monthly meetings/spiritual retreats at the Latin Patriarchate.

- Palestinian Christians, as it is the case of all Palestinians, are not allowed to go to Jerusalem and/or visit the Holy Places. When new restrictions are imposed on the pastors, seminarians and the Church personnel, the life of the Church will be gravely affected. What is needed now is for Israel to:

- respect religious freedom;

- respect the status of the Holy Land as the center of the life of the Church;

- respect the freedom of the Church to exercise her pastoral work;

- respect the engagement taken in the "Fundamental Agreement" with the Holy See;

- allow the Church personnel to move freely, by simply giving them "Multi-entries" on their residence visas.

If the restrictions continue, the future of the Church in the Holy Land is gravely threatened.

God bless you

Yours in Christ

Fr. Firas Aridah

Parish of Our Lady Mother of Sorrows - Aboud, West Bank

http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=40239&s2=19

Disappearing Nuclear Reactor!

Gosh Gee Willickers, Batman! Where did it go? Here's an old report which lies dead in newsrooms across the globe:
Alleged Syrian atomic reactor 'vanishes'
By JPOST.COM STAFF, Updated Oct 26, 2007
New satellite images published by The New York Times overnight Thursday show that the installation allegedly attacked by Israel on September 6, and considered by experts to be a fledgling nuclear reactor, has disappeared without a trace.
…A senior intelligence official said the evacuation of debris was not a pre-planned clearing up, which usually lasts up to a year. It was "amazing" that the Syrians made such efforts to make evidence "vanish" so quickly, the official said.
…The White House spokesperson in Washington refused to respond to the report.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1192380657735&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Who's Bombing Who?

Is it's possible that the Aug. 29 "Loose Nukes from North Dakota" story was a diversion from our own strike on Syria, using Israel as cover?
USAF struck Syrian nuclear site'
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
The September 6 raid over Syria was carried out by the US Air Force, the Al-Jazeera Web site reported Friday. The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that two US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a suspected nuclear site under construction.
The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.
The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed.
At the beginning of October, Israel's military censor began to allow the local media to report on the raid without attributing their report to foreign sources. Nevertheless, details of the strike have remained clouded in mystery. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380718519&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Chomsky, Interrupted?

The following two reports are just a dip into a growing pool of information about the Israel lobby AIPAC and Noam Chomsky’s role promoting their power by minimizing and/or diverting attention away from it.
WANTED
Who killed the anti-war movement?
By Gabriele Zamparini, Wednesday, October 03, 2007
http://www.thecatsdream.com/blog/2007/10/wanted-who-killed-anti-war-movement.htm

The Chomsky/Blankfort Polemic
"The anti-war movement has failed"

Silvia Cattori interviews Jeffrey Blankfort in this reprint of the Feb. 23, 2006 issue of Voltairenet.org. Mr. Blankfort is a US journalist and radio producer.

... all Americans pay their taxes and thus support Israel. And this is an American issue. And by putting it out that Jews are the leaders, that Jews, anti Zionists Jews are doing this, what it says to non-Jews is: “they can do this [criticize] because they are Jewish”. It has been tried, so far it has been a failure.

So when I speak, I speak not as a Jew, but as a human being.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article136002.html