2004-05-22

• Aljazeera.Net - German shot dead in Riyadh
  A German national was gunned down in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Saturday. "We are not sure if this is a terrorist attack or only a personal crime," an Interior Ministry official said, adding that the German worked for a Saudi catering company. A Western expatriate quoted a witness as saying the man was gunned down when he left a supermarket in Riyadh at 6:15 pm (15:15 GMT). "A car pulled up. They shot him in the head and body and escaped," the expatriate said.

• DEBKAfile - Annual Arab Summit - a fading Institution
  A shrinking elite of Arab rulers gathered for their delayed annual summit in Tunis Saturday, May 22, amid a shared sense that it might be their last. Out of 22 Arab League members, thirteen were represented by gloomy heads of state and three by prime ministers. The others sent junior representatives instead of attending for what used to be a striking demonstration of unity and strength by a powerful world bloc.

• Häftlingsmissbrauch in den USA: "Willkommen in der Hölle" - SPIEGEL ONLINE
  Schon unmittelbar nach den Terroranschlägen von 2001 kamen vor allem in New York Hunderte Muslime in monatelange Haft. Viele davon wurden brutal gequält - teils mit ähnlichen Methoden wie später auch die Insassen von Abu Ghureib. Jetzt fordern einige Betroffene Schadenersatz.

• Aljazeera.Net - Fresh violence in Thailand's south
  A policeman has been killed and an explosion has ripped through a village road in Thailand's troubled Muslim south where Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said the security situation was getting better. The policeman was shot by unknown gunmen as he rode his motorcycle home in Narathiwat province, one of three southern provinces where authorities are on alert for possible attacks ahead of a key Buddhist holiday. "One policeman was shot dead by two bandits riding motorcycles. We want everybody to be on high alert," a report on a police radio station said.

• Aljazeera.Net - US army probes more prison deaths
  The US military admits it has been investigating the deaths of 33 inmates in Iraq and Afghanistan - eight more than previously reported. A senior military official on Friday said the eight new prisoner deaths under investigation had been "classified by medical authorities as homicides, which involve suspected assaults of detainees either before or during interrogation sessions that may have led to the detainees' death." These deaths are in addition to two homicides of Iraqi prisoners, which the US army earlier this month said had been committed by its soldiers.

• Aljazeera.Net - Basque party barred from European elections
  Spain's Supreme Court has banned a Basque nationalist party from participating in European elections next month. It has ruled that the party is a successor to a group outlawed as the political wing of armed separatists ETA. The court said in its ruling that ETA and its banned political branch Batasuna were organising political, social and financial support for the Herritarren Zerrenda party. Herritarren Zerrenda, whose name in Basque means 'the list of the people', said it would appeal the decision in the Constitutional Tribunal, Spain's highest court.

• Right of Return is Sacred, ...
  Dr. Zkria Al Agha, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the chairman of the National Committee To Mark Al Nakba 1948, delivered a speech at “The Popular Conference Of The Palestinian Refugee Right Of Return To Their Homeland” at the Gaza-based Rashad Al Shawa Cultural Center Saturday morning, asserting that the right of return is inalienable and sacred and neither authoritative individual or body have the right to cede it.
  • Avram Kokhaviv: Das Recht auf Rückkehr. Weniger Staaten, nicht mehr

• WHO says investigating suspected Ebola in Sudan
  NAIROBI (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it was sending a team to investigate an illness in southern Sudan which local officials fear could be Ebola and has killed at least seven people. A WHO officer for Sudan said he had received information on May 6 that seven adults had died in Eastern Equatoria province from an illness whose symptoms were fever, diarrhoea and vomiting blood, but said there was no evidence it was Ebola. "For now no one can talk about Ebola," Nairobi-based Abdourahmane Sow told Reuters. "We know that seven people were dead as of May 6. I am waiting for news to see if there are any more. We do not know exactly how many people are ill."

• UNreformable? United Nations drops the ball
  With the United States getting day by day increasingly bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire and the future role for the United Nations in that country as uncertain as ever, the after-effects of the bombing last August 19 of the organization's headquarters in Baghdad, which saw the death of 23 of its staff including special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, continue to bedevil the world body. At a time when the UN is facing its most serious crisis in its 50-year history, the handling of the aftermath of the attack by a UN Secretariat that appears to be increasingly disconnected with reality and only concerned with self-preservation is turning, in the opinion of many observers in New York, into a saga of literarily all the ills that bedevil the organization.

• Miami vice and virtue
  MIAMI - This is not your average US city. This is a city where almost everybody seems to be an expat - always ready to tell a harrowing story involving dangerous escape to freedom, political exile, starvation or all of the above. Political volcanoes in any part of the world reverberate in Miami - as trauma or as a new beginning. And so we have children of Haitian political prisoners studying at Miami Dade College, Sandinistas going capitalist in Hialeah, former Peruvian victims of the Shining Path playing their version of "El Condor Pasa", survivors of torture in Honduras opening shops on Biscayne Boulevard. Miami has also the highest rate of violent crime in the United States. But most of the victims are not expats: they are black Americans.

• Aljazeera.Net - Peruvian grave site pre-dates Inca
  A 1000-year-old burial site has been discovered among an archeological complex of Inca and pre-Inca temples near the Peruvian capital. Experts say they have already unearthed the remains of 30 people, including 19 still intact as mummies, which are likely to be some of the oldest ever found in Peru. The discovery is exceptional because some of the dead were religious sacrificial offerings and the site had not been plundered by grave robbers.

• Aljazeera.Net - Anti-US demonstrations shake Bahrain
  Bahrain's interior minister has been sacked after police attacked protesters angry at the presence of US-led forces in Shia Muslim holy cities in Iraq. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on Friday replaced Shaikh Muhammad bin Khalifa al-Khalifa with another member of the royal family, Rashid bin Abd Allah bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, the official news agency said. "We share the anger of our people over the oppression and aggression taking place in Palestine and in the holy shrines (in Iraq). People had a right to peaceful protests. We are investigating," the agency quoted the king as saying. Police earlier clashed with thousands of angry demonstrators in the capital Manama. More than 20 people were hurt, including Jawad Firuz, a Shia opposition activist and member of Manama city council. "He received a rubber bullet in the head and is now in hospital undergoing an operation," his brother Jalal Firuz said. "Many women and children fainted from inhaling gas. This is completely unjustified. It was a peaceful rally."

• Aljazeera.Net - Six dead in blast at Iraqi official's home
  A car bomb has exploded outside the home of the Iraqi deputy interior minister in Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring ten others including the official. The blast damaged the home of Abd Al-Jabbar Yusuf, located about 200 metres from the headquarters of the former Iraqi general security service. More than an hour after the blast, Iraqi police were still picking up body parts and putting them in plastic bags for burial. Five cars were burnt out, two of them upside down. Thick black smoke could be seen pouring into the air and half a dozen cars were ablaze after the bomb detonated just before 8 am (0400 GMT), as residents were leaving homes in the area to go to work.

• AP: Database measured 'Terrorism Quotient'
  Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists — sparking some investigations and arrests. The "high terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the involvement of the database company, Seisint Inc., in the Matrix project. Public records obtained by The Associated Press from several states show that Justice Department (news - web sites) officials cited the scoring technology in appointing Seisint sole contractor on the federally funded, $12 million project.

• Haaretz: Arab leaders to condemn attacks on Israelis for first time
  International Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported Friday that a conciliatory resolution condemning attacks on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians would be approved at the Arab summit meeting set to begin Saturday in Tunis.

• Pentagon urged to release Guantanamo Tapes
  The Pentagon is reportedly holding an unidentified number of videotapes capturing the actions of a US military squad assigned to subdue disobedient prisoners at a US base in Guantanamo Bay.

• Aljazeera.Net - US grapples with worse abuse images
  In a fresh blow to the image of the US, photographs, videos and testimony obtained by The Washington Post show American soldiers taking delight in abusing Iraqi detainees. The new pictures and videos go beyond the photos previously shown in the media, displaying a variety of abusive techniques at the US-run prison near Baghdad, the newspaper said on Friday. The latest photographs and videos, and 13 previously secret sworn statements by detainees, obtained by The Washington Post, further undermine American efforts to influence the Arab world and added a darker dimension to the abuse decried worldwide. The statements showed an overt anti-Islamic dimension to the abuses, with prisoners forced to renounce their religion, eat pork and drink liquor in contravention of Islamic religious tenets.

2004-05-21

• Guardian Unlimited | 'US soldiers started to shoot us, one by one'
  Survivors describe wedding massacre as generals refuse to apologise.

• Cyprus: Saying No to the Future
  In April 76% of Greek Cypriots voted against the United Nations reunification plan and 65% of Turkish Cypriots voted in favour, rejecting Turkish nationalism. This Greek chauvinism means the island stays divided, though its entry to Europe would have helped reunification. THERE was a lump in President Tassos Papadopoulos’s throat as he addressed Greek Cypriots on television on the evening of 7 April: "I call on you to reject the [United Nations] Annan plan. I call on you to say a resounding no on 24 April. I call upon you to defend your dignity, your history and what is right. I urge you to defend the Republic of Cyprus, saying no to its abolition." The Greek Cypriot president then removed his spectacles to make sure everyone could see his tears and wished his compatriots a happy Easter. The melodrama was designed to make Greek Cypriots see the UN plan as a dangerous trap. Papadopoulos spent 55 minutes outlining its flaws and barely five seconds on its advantages. The state television station RYK then split its screen - on one side a nationalist crowd noisily saluted its hero in front of the presidential palace; on the other, party representatives debated the pros and cons of the deal. Then, in a telephone poll, 81.2% of viewers declared they would give Papadopoulos his hoped-for resounding oxi (1). But media management (2) alone does not explain why the majority of Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan plan in Cyprus’s April referendum. It is true that Papadopoulos made great play with Greek Cypriots’ memories of the struggle against British colonial power in the 1950s and against the Turkish invasion of 1974. But rejection of the Annan plan is entrenched in the republic’s mind because of the need for security and a fear of all political risk, as well as a perception of Turkish Cypriots as competitors rather than as partners in the shared wellbeing of a re-unified island.

• Uncle Sam reaches out to Indian students
  NEW DELHI - Stung by an increase in the number of Indian students heading for other destinations, the United States is making a concerted attempt to de-fog young minds about any fears they may engender about pursuing an education in the US. Leading the campaign to draw students is US Ambassador to India David Mulford, as well as US business houses pushing the Bush administration to make things easier in the job market for non-US students who have studied in US colleges. Tightening of visa norms post-September 11, 2001, an outcry against US jobs being filled by Asians, as well as reducing the cap on H1-B visas - the bread-and-butter work permit for Indians - have created an atmosphere wherein more and more Indian students are looking to pursue their education elsewhere. The international degree market is a very lucrative business, with several developed countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, going out of their way to lure students, especially Chinese and Indian, who form the bulk of the international student population worldwide. The problem with the United States has been to balance the need for security as the leading nation in the "war on terrorism" with a competitive environment wherein the student is made to feel at home. Then there is the added problem of the shrill anti-outsourcing protests. Further, in an overall atmosphere of falling job opportunities until recently and the cap on H-1B visas set at 65,000, graduate students are finding it increasingly tough to land placements.

• Chalabi: From White House to dog house
  The precipitous fall from grace of Iraqi National Congress head Ahmed Chalabi, the darling of the neo-conservatives, signifies a State Department victory over the Pentagon. It also means that the US has made itself a bitter and dangerous enemy. WASHINGTON - It was just last January that Ahmed Chalabi occupied the coveted balcony seat next to First Lady Laura Bush and gazed out at Washington's glittering elite who had gathered to hear President George W Bush deliver his State of the Union address from the Capitol's imposing rostrum. The darling of the neo-conservative hawks around Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, Chalabi had long been touted by his champions as the future leader of a democratic Iraq, if not its "George Washington". Indeed, he could legitimately claim credit for having been the Iraqi who was most responsible for persuading the Bush administration to oust Saddam Hussein. So how is it that exactly five months later Chalabi was rudely interrupted when US agents and soldiers burst into his bedroom in Baghdad on Thursday morning as part of a series of coordinated raids at his residence and offices?

• Berg beheading: No way, say medical experts
  American businessman Nicholas Berg's body was found on May 8 near a Baghdad overpass; a video of his supposed decapitation death by knife appeared on an alleged al-Qaeda-linked website (www.al-ansar.biz) on May 11. But according to what both a leading surgical authority and a noted forensic death expert separately told Asia Times Online, the video depicting the decapitation appears to have been staged. "I certainly would need to be convinced it [the decapitation video] was authentic," Dr John Simpson, executive director for surgical affairs at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said from New Zealand. Echoing Dr Simpson's criticism, when this journalist asked forensic death expert Jon Nordby, PhD and fellow of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, whether he believed the Berg decapitation video had been "staged", Nordby replied: "Yes, I think that's the best explanation of it."

• Aljazeera.Net - Spanish newsman released, troops leave Iraq
  A Spanish radio journalist has been released from the Iraqi city of Najaf by his captors as Spanish troops head out of the war-torn country. Spanish state radio said its correspondent Fran Sevilla, who reported the Spanish troops' withdrawal from their base at Diwaniya earlier on Friday, was in good health He was reportedly held by a group loyal to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr for four hours. Earlier on Friday Sevilla reported from Diwaniya that the last of the Spanish troops had left their base and were on their way to Kuwait. He said he was the last Spaniard left in the south-central Iraqi city.

• Aljazeera.Net - UK envoy hurt in Bangladesh shrine blast
  Two men have been killed and nearly 50 people injured, among them Britain's ambassador to Bangladesh, in a powerful bomb explosion at a shrine to a Muslim saint in the town of Sylhet. British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury and his bodyguard were participating in noon prayers on Friday at the Hazrat Shahjalal shrine in the northeastern town when the bomb went off, a police officer told Reuters by telephone. It was the second blast at the shrine this year, following an explosion in January that killed three people. District officials said they had no immediate idea who caused Friday's blast.

• Videos Amplify Picture of Violence
  In a collection of hundreds of so-far-unreleased photographs and short digital videos obtained by The Washington Post, U.S. soldiers are shown physically and emotionally abusing detainees last fall in the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

• New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge
  Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets.

• Aljazeera.Net - Aljazeera crew member killed in Iraq
  An Aljazeera television worker, Rashid Hamid Wali, has been killed while filming clashes in the flashpoint Iraqi city of Karbala. The assistant was shot dead in the early hours of Friday morning, reported Aljazeera. Wali, 44, was standing next to the Aljazeera cameraman who was filming fierce clashes between US occupation forces and followers of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr from the fourth floor of the hotel where the crew is staying, reported journalist Abd al-Adhim Muhammad.

• Aljazeera.Net - Spanish troops leave Iraq base
  The last Spanish troops have left their base in Diwaniya, southern Iraq, Spanish state radio has reported. "There are no longer any Spanish soldiers in the Spanish base. This base, as such, has ceased to exist," state radio's correspondent in Diwaniya said on Friday. "The last and only Spaniard in Diwaniya is this correspondent," he added. The radio said within a few hours no Spanish soldiers would be left in Iraq.

• RAND | Redefining the Enemy: The World Has Changed, ...
  We wage a "global war on terror"—a confusing conflation of threats—while we continue to concentrate on future conventional wars with hypothetical, nation-state foes. We still consign all "lesser contingencies" to the "other war" as opposed to the "real war." We still tend to view the enemy through the narrow bores and restricted optics of our existing national security structure.

• RAND | Redefining Counterterrorism: The Terrorist Leader as CEO
  Killing Osama bin Laden will not quash the terrorist threat from al Qaeda, because the group sees the war it started as an epic struggle lasting years if not decades.

• CBS News | America's 'Best Friend' A Spy?
  Senior U.S. officials told 60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl that they have evidence Chalabi has been passing highly-classified U.S. intelligence to Iran. The evidence shows that Chalabi personally gave Iranian intelligence officers information so sensitive that if revealed it could, quote, "get Americans killed." The evidence is said to be "rock solid."

• Aljazeera.Net - Scores dead in Somalia fighting
  Fighting between warring warlords has left at least 60 dead and around 200 injured in Somalia. Quoting own sources, UN officials on Thursday said that half of the victims in last week's clashes were civilians. They were caught in cross-fire and bombardment by artillery and other heavy weapons in parts of the south and in capital Mogadishu, the officials said.

• Schily übergibt 122 Fahrzeuge an Afghanistan
  Kabul - Deutschland hat als Führungsnation beim Wiederaufbau der afghanischen Polizei seine Hilfe für die Sicherheitskräfte in dem kriegszerstörten Land noch einmal aufgestockt. Bundesinnenminister Otto Schily übergab seinem afghanischen Kollegen Ali Ahmed Dschalali in Kabul 122 Polizeifahrzeuge. Am Freitag will Schily im nordafghanischen Kundus weitere 60 Polizeifahrzeuge übergeben. Am Mittwoch hatte die internationale Gemeinschaft in einer Konferenz unter Leitung Schilys im Golfstaat Katar mehr als 340 Millionen US-Dollar für den Wiederaufbau der Polizei Afghanistans bereitgestellt. Davon trägt allein Deutschland rund 57 Millionen Dollar in den nächsten vier Jahren. Mit den Zusagen von Doha sei die finanzielle Basis für künftige Polizeiprojekte gesichert, sagte Schily. Er traf bei seinem ersten Besuch in Afghanistan auch mit Präsident Hamid Karsai zusammen.

• One incident. Forty dead. Two stories. What really happened?
  A tiny bundle of blankets is unwrapped; inside is the body of a baby, its limbs smeared with dried blood. Then the mourners peel back the blanket further to reveal a second dead baby. Another blanket is opened; inside are the bodies of a mother and child. The child, six or seven years old, is lying against his or her mother, as if seeking comfort. But the child has no head. These are the images that American forces in Iraq had no answer to yesterday. They come from video footage of the burials of 41 men, women and children. The Iraqis say they died when American planes launched air strikes on a wedding party near the Syrian border on Wednesday.

• Aljazeera.Net - Five killed in Saudi gunfight
  Four armed suspects and a Saudi police officer have been killed in a shootout the Saudi city of Buraida, the interior ministry has said. "Security forces uncovered a group of wanted men who belong to the deviant group (militants) in the Khodeira area of Buraida," the ministry statement, read on Saudi television said, adding one militant and two policemen were also wounded in the exchange of gunfire. The authorities normally use the phrase "deviant group" to refer to followers of Saudi-born al-Qaida leader Usama bin Ladin, blamed for a string of bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia and the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

• NETZEITUNG DEUTSCHLAND: Schröder-Ohrfeiger kandidiert für die SPD
  Der Mann, der Kanzler Schröder in Mannheim geschlagen hat, kandidiert laut einem Pressebericht bei den Kommunalwahlen für die SPD – obwohl er bereits aus der Partei ausgeschlossen wurde. Die Motive des 52-Jährigen, der Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder (SPD) bei einer Wahlkampfveranstaltung in Mannheim geohrfeigt hat, sind nach wie vor unklar. Klar scheint dagegen zu sein, dass der arbeitslose Lehrer für die SPD kandidiert. Wie die «Badische Zeitung» berichtet, steht der Mann für die Kommunalwahlen im Juni auf der Liste des Wahlkreises Ehrenkirchen im Landkreis Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald.

• Iraq: all together against the occupation
  Washington never predicted, even never seemed to consider that the most successful way to revive Iraqi nationalism, and beyond that Arab nationalism, was to occupy the country and treat it contemptuously and rapaciously: this has created unexpected alliances between enemies.

• Khilafah.com - Egypt fires 1000s of Islamist teachers
  Thousands of Islamist teachers have been removed from their jobs in Egypt, according to Egyptian Education Minister Hussain Kamal Baha al-Din. Asked by the Saudi-owned daily, Al-sharq al-Awsat, how the government dealt with Islamist teachers in Egyptian schools, Baha al-Din on Tuesday replied: "Thousands of extremist teachers were removed." The minister said his decision to remove them was based on reports from the security services and from supervisors in his ministry as well as on complaints from students' parents

• Israeli Guards Rape Palestinian Women – Freed Detainee
  NABLUS , May 20 (IslamOnline.net) – A Palestinian female freed from Israeli detention said more than 15 fellow Palestinian women were raped by Israeli interrogators to force them to confess to charges leveled against them and collaborate with the Israeli intelligence.

2004-05-20

• FTD - Autobombe in Istanbul zerstört McDonald's-Filiale
  Bei der Explosion einer vermutlichen Autobombe vor einem Restaurant der US-Kette McDonald's in Istanbul sind zwei Autos zerstört worden. Auch in Italien gab es einen ähnlichen Anschlag. Zerstörte Autos vor der McDonald’s-Filiale in Istanbul Bei der Explosion einer vermutlichen Autobombe vor einem Restaurant der US-Kette McDonald's in Istanbul sind zwei Autos zerstört worden. Auch in Italien gab es einen ähnlichen Anschlag. Das türkische Fernsehen zeigte Bilder von zwei ausgebrannten Autowracks. Die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur Anatolien zitierte einen Sprecher der örtlichen Verwaltung, der Sprengsatz sei wahrscheinlich im Kofferraum eines der beiden Autos oder darunter explodiert. Einem Bericht des Fernsehsenders CNN Türk zufolge meldete sich 15 Minuten vor der Explosion ein anonymer Anrufer bei der Polizei. Dies habe es den Behörden ermöglicht, das Gebiet zu evakuieren. Von der Polizei, die das Gebiet schnell absperrte, war zunächst keine Stellungnahme zu der Explosion zu erhalten. Die Explosion ereignete sich in einem asiatischen Bezirk der Stadt. Am vergangenen Sonntag waren vor einem Besuch des britischen Premierministers Tony Blair vier Bomben ähnlichen Typs vor Filialen der britischen Bank HSBC in Istanbul und Ankara explodiert. Zwar war bei den Explosionen am Wochenende kaum Schaden entstanden und niemand verletzt worden, aber die Tatsache, dass HSBC Ziel der Anschläge war, rief Erinnerungen an vier verheerende Anschläge auf britische und jüdische Ziele in Istanbul im November wach, zu denen sich die Moslem-Extremisten von al-Kaida bekannt hatten. Dabei waren 61 Menschen getötet worden.

• The Bush family: Middle Kingdom rainmakers
  HONG KONG - George Herbert Walker Bush arrived in Beijing 30 years ago as the official United States representative to China with one goal above all else: expanding his buddy list. "My hyper-adrenaline, political instincts tell me that the fun of this job is going to be to try to make more contacts," he wrote in his first diary entry. "And it is my hope that I will be able to meet the next generation of China's leaders - whomever they may be. Yet everyone tells me that that is impossible."

• Aljazeera.Net - Taliban in new hit-and-run raid
  Taliban fighters have briefly seized a district in southeast Afghanistan, but disappeared when government troops returned in greater numbers.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israeli court convicts resistance leader
  In a classic trial of the "occupied" by the "occupier", a Tel Aviv court on Thursday convicted imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghuthi on five accounts of murder. He was also found guilty of commanding a "terrorist organisation", a reference to Palestinian resistance attacks against Israeli occupation. The court, however, acquitted Barghuthi on charges relating to 33 attacks, saying there was no evidence proving his involvement. Barghuthi has all along rejected Israel’s right to try him, arguing that Israel is an occupying power and the Palestinians are victims of an immoral military occupation that dehumanizes and denies them basic human rights, including the right to life.
  • Koresh Kukafka: An die neuen Schreibtischtäter

• Outhouse
  The Kremlin has never been depreciated like this throughout the entire history of the Russian state by any ruling monarch. Even the looniest tyrants, whether they were born retarded or they went insane by the end of their reign, were treating this main edifice of Russia with care and were doing anything for the spirit of solemnity to always hover in the interiors of its chambers and halls. But this one has turned the Kremlin into a real outhouse. Ever since Tsar Boris (Yeltsin) declared Putin as his successor on TV, Putin drove away the spirit of solemnity since that moment. Right now the Kremlin is filled with the atmosphere of prison and thieves. If it wasn't for marble and gold all around, any hall in the Kremlin could have been mistaken for a public restroom in Moscow.

• U.S. Troops, Iraqi Police raid Chalabi's Home and HQ
  U.S. troops and Iraqi police raided the home and party offices of Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday, taking computers and private files from the man once considered Washington's top Iraq ally.

• C.I.A. cut Nick Berg's Head off?
  The video of execution of American hostage Nick Berg in Iraq is threatening to develop into a major scandal. During a press conference the father of the beheaded American accused Bush and Rumsfeld of killing his son. There are more and more suspicions that Nick Berg was really executed not by Arab militants, but by the US intelligence services in order to divert the attention from the scandal about the tortures in Baghdad prison.

• Abu-Ghraib is a Resort compared to Chechnya
  A storm of outrage caused by the atrocities that the Americans committed against Iraqi prisoners is getting stronger day after day all around the world. The New Yorker magazine had an article titled "The Grey Zone" by famous publicist Seymour Hersh, where he claimed that a secret group of commandos operating in Iraq was transferred to Abu-Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The rules of these commandos are "Grab whom you must. Do what you want".

• Moscow keeps mum on Iraq
  The United States has secured assurances of Russia's support for its efforts to pacify Iraq, despite the two nations remaining divided over a variety of Iraq-related issues. When US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice visited Moscow last Friday through Sunday, she received word that Moscow will support a United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the transition of power from US administration to the planned Iraqi government on June 30.

• Taliban Attack Government Buildings; Sixteen Afghan Soldiers Killed
  In the district of Mezan in Zabul, Taliban Mujahideen have attacked a government building. The fighting was fierce as government troops tried to defend the building. Two Afghan soldiers were killed and two Taliban Mujahideen were martyred. No other details are available. In Paktika, another government building was attacked in Waza Khuwa. A police officer and a driver for the government were killed in the attack. The fighting also resulted in martyrdom of two Taliban Mujahideen. Sana News reports that sixteen Afghan national army soldiers were killed in two separate Taliban attacks. The first was in Mezan, Zabul and resulted in the deaths of three Afghan soldiers and four others were also wounded. Two Taliban were martyred in the battle and three were captured by enemy forces. Taliban sources have said that six vehicles being used by the afghan troops were also destroyed.

• N24.de - Fahnenflüchtiger bezeugt Folter
  Den Krieg in Irak hatte sich Camilo Mejia ganz anders vorgestellt. "Ich dachte, wir würden einen genau bestimmten Feind angreifen, und dass umgekehrt Soldaten vom Feind getötet würden", sagt der in Nicaragua geborene US-Unteroffizier. Doch stattdessen sah er "viele unschuldige Menschen sterben, viele Zivilisten". Und noch mehr Schockierendes erlebte der 28-Jährige: Schon im Mai vergangenen Jahres sei er Zeuge gewesen, wie US-Soldaten irakische Gefangene misshandelt hätten, berichtet Mejia. Für den Soldaten von der Nationalgarde in Florida war nach rund sieben Monaten Einsatz in Irak klar, dass er nach einem Heimaturlaub nicht mehr zurück an die Front gehen würde. Wegen Fahnenflucht wird ihm am Donnerstag der Prozess gemacht.

• The Olive Tree: A Symbol of Peace?
  There are many legends surrounding the genesis of the olive tree. Greek mythology credits the creation of the olive tree to the goddess Athena who, in a dispute with Poseidon, struck her spear into the ground where it turned into an olive tree. Some Greeks still believe that all olive trees are descended from Athena's creation. Also, according to Biblical tradition, a dove carried an olive branch to Noah's Ark, signaling the end of the great flood and a return to peace and prosperity.

• Singapore Air Force Plane goes missing in US
  A Singapore Air Force F-16 plane has gone missing in the United States during a routine training mission, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

• Verwirrung um Luftangriffe im Irak
  Bei zwei US-Luftangriffen auf das Dorf Makar el Dhib im Westirak sind nach irakischen Angaben 41 Zivilisten getötet worden, darunter zahlreiche Frauen und Kinder. Die USA widerspricht den Darstellungen, das Ziel seien vielmehr aufständische Kämpfer gewesen. (20.05.2004, 16:35 Uhr) Bagdad/Washington - Zwei blutige US-Angriffe auf ein Dorf im Westirak und die Veröffentlichung neuer schockierender Bilder im Folter-Skandal haben den Druck auf die amerikanische Besatzungsmacht verstärkt. Einen Tag nach dem ersten Urteil im Skandal um die Misshandlung von Irakern im Abu-Ghoreib-Gefängnis sorgten am Donnerstag Bilder von lächelnden US-Soldaten und einem angeblich zu Tode gefolterten Iraker für Aufsehen.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israel continues killing in occupied Rafah
  A defiant Israel has continued its bloodletting in the occupied Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah, leaving at least seven Palestinian civilians dead. Undeterred by a United Nations resolution condemning its invasion and mounting international fury, Israel unleashed another volley of missiles in the Brazil neighbourhood early on Thursday. The latest killings raise the toll to 46 Palestinians killed since Israel launched its invasion into Rafah on Tuesday.

• Aljazeera.Net - Rabbi supports killings in Rafah
  A prominent rabbi has supported the killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli occupation troops in the Gaza Strip, saying killing non-Jewish civilians is compatible with religious laws. Rabbi Dov Lior, Chairman of the Jewish Rabbinical Council, was quoted as saying "during warfare, killing non-Jewish civilians is permitted if it saves Jewish lives". According to Lior's ruling, which was made public on Wednesday, Israeli occupation troops in Gaza are allowed to kill and harm "so-called innocent civilians" during warfare.

• How the Middle East is really being remade
  The US saw the invasion of Iraq as a transcendental moment of transformation that would bring the region to democracy and free trade. The Gulf states saw the US action purely in terms of realpolitik. But with everyone's expectations proving hopelessly wrong, the Middle East is in a state of serious readjustment.

• Chicken Hawks do have a Plan
  The cabal that drives US foreign policy is taking stick over Iraq, but the critics have got it all wrong. There is a plan, for Iraq, for Israel, for the Persian Gulf. It's just that it will take some time - and the public may not be ready to hear about it.

• heise online - Sicherheitsnetz der Bundesregierung mit großen Mailproblemen
  Der Informationsverbund Berlin-Bonn (IVBB), eine Art internes "Hochsicherheitsnetz" für die nach wie vor auf zwei Standorte verteilte Bundesregierung, leidet unter akuten Problemen beim E-Mail-Versand. "Es gab eine riesige Spamflut auf die Server am Wochenende", erläuterte Michael Dickopf, Sprecher des Bundesamts für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI), das Erliegen der E-Post zwischen den Ressorts des Kabinetts gegenüber heise online. Die für den Mailversand zuständigen Rechner seien daher "am Wirbeln". Dickopf rechnet aber damit, dass ab Dienstag alles wieder normal läuft im Behördenverkehr. Am Montag mussten die Staatsdiener auf private Webmail-Accounts zurückgreifen, um mit der Außenwelt per E-Mail zu kommunizieren. Probleme mit dem World Wide Web gab es nicht. Man sei gewarnt worden, dass eine über die normalen Server abgeschickte Mail "bis zu drei Tage" unterwegs sein könnte, berichtete ein Mitarbeiter. Zunächst hatte es geheißen, dass eine Viren- oder Wurm-Attacke am Ausfall des Mailsystems schuld sei. Dies konnte und wollte Dickopf allerdings nicht bestätigen.

• Al-Ahram Weekly | Front Page | One law for US
  A new storm of images flooded media channels this week. CBS aired more evidence of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. This time it's a video diary of a female officer showing her disdain for Iraqi detainees who died in her charge in Camp Bucca, southern Iraq. Meanwhile, from Iraq, a different kind of video was released: the murder by beheading of Nicholas Berg, a 26-year old American who went to "rebuild" Iraq. This video's authenticity has not yet been verified. It was released to the world on the "Islamic" web site Muntada Al- Ansar, which previously posted statements by Osama Bin Laden. Save for one who claimed to be the West's new bogeyman, Abu Musab Al- Zarqawi, the top Al-Qaeda suspect, the identities and nationalities of Berg's hooded captors was not revealed. Whoever they might be has become irrelevant in the wake of the hysteria their video has caused. Not only does the beheading of an American divert attention from the Abu Ghraib scandal, it gives more moral justifications for those who support the war.

• SPEAKING FREELY The dilemmas of Iran's policy toward Iraq
  As the occupation forces battle Shi'ite insurgents in several Iraqi cities, most notably in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in what a United States general has admittedly described as a "minor uprising", the question of Iran's policy toward post-Saddam Hussein Iraq looms particularly large in the policy circles of Washington and London.

• Corporate Mercenaries Part 2: Myths and Mystery
  The war in Iraq is exposing private military companies (PMCs) to an unprecedented degree of public scrutiny. Many old assumptions are being questioned and heretofore conventional wisdom is being shattered. For example, in regard to the party line that PMCs are more cost-effective and more flexible in offering military services, Eric J Fredland, a professor at the United States Naval Academy, writes in a forthcoming article in Defence and Peace Economics that even if there are cost savings, inevitable contractual hazards sharply limit the combat/combat support role of these companies.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israel ignores UN and world condemnation
  Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians in Rafah as Israel threatens to continue demolitions despite a sharp rebuke from the UN Security Council. Reacting to Wednesday's Security Council resolution that criticised it for the death and destruction in Gaza, Israel vowed to continue to do whatever it considers appropriate.

• Aljazeera.Net - Stopping the carnage in Rafah
  Palestinian leaders have made an urgent appeal to the international community to intervene to stop the Israeli army onslaught on city of Rafah. Deputy Foreign Minister Abd Allah Abd Allah appealed to the European Union to "act now, not tomorrow, to stop this massacre".

• Aljazeera.Net - More Abu Ghraib abuse pictures surface
  More images of US occupation forces in abusive acts at the Abu Ghraib prison have surfaced in an on-going investigation.

• Aljazeera.Net - Singh to be first Sikh PM
  The father of India's economic reforms, Manmohan Singh, has been designated prime minister after Sonia Gandhi rejected appeals to take the job. Singh, a 71-year-old Sikh who will be India's first non-Hindu prime minister, immediately pledged to turn the world's largest democracy into an economic model that "makes new opportunities available to the poor."

• 'The country is in the safe hands of Dr Singh'
  NEW DELHI, MAY 19: The formal election of Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) and the nomination of Manmohan Singh as the next prime minister paves the way for a new dynamic in party-government relations, never experienced before in the Grand Old Party’s post-Independence history. With the swearing-in expected on Saturday, the first fallout of Sonia’s decision to decline the PM’s post was the absence of the usual mad scramble for ministerships. Several Congress MPs privately claimed that under the new circumstances, getting party posts is as, if not more, attractive as being part of the government.

2004-05-19

• Foreign Policy In Focus: Outsourcing Torture and the Problems of "Quality Control"
  In October 2001 a Yemeni student by the name of Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, who was suspected of involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole, was captured and turned over to the United States by Pakistan. U.S. authorities then flew him to Jordan for interrogation. Other “high-value” prisoners in our “Global War on Terrorism” have been shipped off to Egypt, Morocco and Syria at the request of the United States. What all four countries have in common is a history of using torture to extract information from suspected enemies of the state.

• Irak: Mehr als 40 Tote bei Angriff auf Hochzeit
  BAGDAD/KERBALA (red./ag.). Bei einem Luftangriff auf eine Hochzeitsgesellschaft im Irak sind nach Polizeiangaben bis zu 45 Zivilisten getötet worden. Der stellvertretende Polizeichef von Ramadi, Sijad el Dschburi, teilte mit, dass ein US-Kampfhubschrauber auf die Gruppe feuerte. Unter den Opfern seien auch 15 Kinder. Die Feier habe in einer abgelegenen Wüstengegend nahe der syrischen Grenze stattgefunden.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israel stands condemned
  There has been worldwide condemnation after Israel massacred more than a dozen Palestinians in the city of Rafah on Wednesday.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israeli forces massacre protesters in Rafah
  Israeli forces have fired on thousands of Palestinians peacefully protesting in the occupied Gaza Strip, leaving up to 20 dead and dozens injured.

• Aljazeera.Net - Berg's father backs anti-war camp
  The father of slain American Nicholas Berg has, in a message of support to the Stop the War Coalition, blamed the policies of the Bush administration for the death of his son.

• NEWS.com.au | Arafat slams 'atrocious crimes' (May 20, 2004)
  PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat today lambasted Israel for its "atrocious crimes" in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and called for an international observer force to protect his people.

• Irak: US-Hubschrauber greifen Hochzeitsgesellschaft an - Dutzende Tote
  Mehr als 40 Menschen sind einer Meldung der Nachrichtenagentur AP zufolge bei einem US-Luftangriff im Irak ums Leben gekommen. Kampfhubschrauber sollen eine Hochzeitsgesellschaft beschossen haben.

• Amerikas Tor zur Hölle | stern.de | Politik | Ausland
  Wenn die Schlagzeilen bedrohlich werden wie in diesen Tagen im Mai, wenn seine Umfragewerte rapide sinken und die Welt von systematischer Folter spricht, wenn schließlich selbst in der eigenen Partei Zweifel aufkommen an seiner Mission, greift Präsident George W. Bush zu einem altbewährten Rezept: Er haut ab. Er entflieht der Hauptstadt, die ihn nie ins Herz geschlossen hat, und fährt raus aufs Land, raus in den Süden, zu einfachen, gottesfürchtigen Menschen, die ihn auch dann noch verteidigen würden, wenn er die Verbreitung amerikanischer Werte auf dem Mars einforderte.

• Erster US-Soldat schuldig gesprochen
  Das Militärgericht in Bagdad hat im Folterprozess den ersten Angeklagten Jeremy Sivits schuldig gesprochen. Der Militärpolizist war wegen "Beteiligung an einer Verschwörung zur Misshandlung von Gefangenen" angeklagt.

• Staatsanwaltschaft ermittelt wegen Kanzler-Ohrfeige
  Stuttgart/Berlin (Reuters) - Die Staatsanwaltschaft in Mannheim hat ein Ermittlungsverfahren wegen des Verdachts der Körperverletzung und Beleidigung gegen das SPD-Parteimitglied eingeleitet, das Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder auf einer Parteiveranstaltung am Dienstagabend geohrfeigt hatte. Die Sicherheitsvorkehrungen für Schröder sollen nach Regierungsangaben nicht verschärft werden.

• DEBKAfile - Mofaz: No Time Limit on Rafah Operation
  Israel’s large-scale Israel military operation in Rafah, which was launched Tuesday, May 18, in the terrorist hotbed of Tel Sultan, did not start out on the Philadelphi Route marking the Egyptian-Gazan-Israeli international border. It began attacking the lawless core of the entire Rafah frontier region where illegal trafficking has run out of control.

• CNEWS - World: Schroeder slapped at campaign stop
  MANNHEIM, Germany (AP) -- A man slapped Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the face during a campaign rally Tuesday, causing no apparent injury, police said.

• Blair attacked in Commons
  A protester hit Tony Blair with a bag of purple paint powder as he spoke in the Commons today - sparking a full-scale security scare. A special barrier recently erected to shield MPs against a possible anthrax attack failed to protect the Prime Minister. A man threw two missiles from a balcony, one of which landed on Mr Blair's shoulder.

• BerlinOnline: Der Papst - Proletarier und Kanute
  Malerische Szene aus dem Jahr 1958: Ein Fluss in Polen, darauf Kanus. In einem davon sitzt der Priester Karol "Lolek" Wojtyla, 38 Jahre alt, eine Sportlernatur mit Leidenschaft fürs Paddeln. Wojtyla musste seinen Ausflug unterbrechen. Gerufen hatte Kardinal Stefan Wyszynski aus Warschau. Der Priester wusste, was ihn erwarten würde. Er hatte bei Freunden in der Stadt einen Festtalar bereitlegen lassen. Auf einem mit Mehlsäcken beladenen Laster fuhr er zum nächsten Bahnhof, dann mit dem Zug weiter nach Warschau. "Eminenz, ich bin doch zu jung", soll er dem Kardinal gesagt haben. Und der meinte lakonisch: "Das ist eine Schwäche, derer sie sich bald entledigen werden."

• Win-win: Manmohan Singh gets the nod
  KOLKATA - Sonia Gandhi's refusal - twice in two days - to become India's next prime minister may be as surprising as her Congress party's election win itself, but Manmohan Singh as the replacement candidate may just be what the doctor ordered for the country's economy, stock markets, industry chiefs and foreign experts say.

• Aljazeera.Net - Huge Iranian demos against US, UK
  Demonstrators angry about the US-led occupation of Iraq have been protesting in front of the British embassy in Tehran.

• Aljazeera.Net - Fresh fighting in Karbala, more casualties
  US occupation troops and followers of Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr have continued fighting in Karbala, raising the toll to six.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israel targets protesters in Rafah assault
  Israeli helicopters have fired missiles at Palestinians peacefully protesting against a massive raid in the occupied Gaza Strip, leaving up to 20 dead and dozens injured.

• Ohrfeige für Schröder
  Der Bundeskanzler verteilte auf einer Wahlveranstaltung in Mannheim Autogramme, als ein 52-Jähriger zum Schlag ausholte

• Al-Ahram Weekly | Front Page | Stuck in Gaza
  The killing of six soldiers in Gaza has exposed the weakness of Ariel Sharon's leadership, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem. It began as another routine Israeli army incursion into Gaza. On Monday night dozens of armoured vehicles, flanked by tanks and helicopters, invaded Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood in a forlorn hunt for "weapons factories", Palestinian guerrillas and "terrorists" generally. Three Palestinians were killed in this phase of the operation and scores wounded, most of them civilians, as Israeli soldiers went from vehicles to rooftops to metal workshops. Resistance was stiff and well coordinated. According to Palestinian sources, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters purposely drew the army into areas freshly laid with roadside bombs. At around 6.15am Tuesday morning one bomb weighing 110 lbs detonated under an APC, leaving six soldiers dead, pulling down three four-storey buildings, spraying body parts and armour over a radius of several hundred metres. It was the deadliest attack on the Israeli army in the occupied territories since an Islamic Jihad ambush killed nine soldiers and three armed settlers in Hebron in November 2002.

• Aljazeera.Net - Fierce clashes erupt in Nablus, Jenin
  A member of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has been shot and killed by Israeli occupation troops during fierce battles in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

• TRUE TORAH JEWS - Jews Against Zionism
  ZIONISTS DO NOT REPRESENT JEWS This site was created to provide historical documentation refuting the misconception that all Jewry supports Zionism (the existence of the so-called "State of Israel") for website visitors seeking information on the history of Zionism, its historical and current day impact on the Jewish community worldwide and the danger it presents to us all.

• Busharon the Barbaric Monster will Disappear in the Jungle of Hell
  The strange creature named the Busharon is in serious trouble. The front half of this animal - George W. Bush - is having trouble with nude photos. Not only those of the hapless Iraqi prisoners, with the exuberant female soldier pointing at their genitals, but also of Bush himself, whose nakedness was exposed for all to see. The savior of the Iraqi people from a cruel tyrant, the gallant leader bestowing democracy on Mesopotamia, the representative of Western civilization fighting against barbarism - has himself been exposed as a cruel barbarian.

• DEBKAfile - Israel Readies Military Solution for Rafah Terror and Tunnels
  The gap between Israeli politics and security was never so strikingly articulated as Saturday night, May 15, after Israel lost 13 servicemen in action between Tuesday and Friday. While an estimated 100,000-150,000 (depending on who is asked) rallied in Tel Aviv in favor of quitting the Gaza Strip, a full IDF armored division supplemented by artillery battalions were making last preparations to go into the Gaza Strip to clean out the Palestinian terrorist strongholds daily harassing the Israeli-controlled Gaza-Israel-Egyptian border sector.

• Pakistan: After the hammer, now the screws
  KARACHI - The "Hammer and Anvil" operation was designed by the United States to trap foreign and Afghan fighters between US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan troops across the border.

• Aljazeera.Net - Reuters: US abused our journalists
  A British news agency has claimed three of its Iraqi employees suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of US jailers.

• ABCNEWS.com: Abu Ghraib - "Definitely a Cover-Up"
  Dozens of soldiers — other than the seven military police reservists who have been charged — were involved in the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and there is an effort under way in the Army to hide it, a key witness in the investigation told ABCNEWS.

2004-05-18

• Spengler: Does Islam have a Prayer?
  Why is it that civilizations quarrel? Mainstream Western thinking rejects the question, treating culture as an arbitrary existential choice (Martin Heidegger) or a language sui generis (Ludwig Wittgenstein). In the mind of the 20th century, cultures, like lifestyles, simply exist and do not bear comparison. I shall argue, on the contrary, that common modes of prayer provide a standard for identifying cultural conflicts.

• ND - Prost Kameraden, wir sind die Größten - 19.05.04
  Die Wacht am Hindukusch – Bundeswehr bleibt ein vorrangiges Mittel deutscher Außenpolitik / Auslandsdienst ist Soldaten-Normalität.

• FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Canada's Anti-Gay Violence Law Worries Some
  OTTAWA, Canada — Some of Canada's religious leaders are worried about the recent passage of a national law that makes it illegal to advocate violence against gays and lesbians.

• DEBKAfile - In the Middle East, Its Good Fences for Bad Neighbors
  Manmade barriers are springing up around the Middle East at points where manmade conflicts are most intractable. Be they security fences, earthworks, moated ramparts, steel walls, razor wire – or combinations thereof, their purpose is to apply division and separation to breaking up difficulties into manageable elements. Will this device work? Some think it’s worth a try.

• Salvaging the nuclear non-proliferation regime
  MONTEREY, California - Signatory states to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on May 7 wrapped up a two-week Third Preparatory Committee meeting in New York to prepare for next year's NPT Review Conference. With all the media attention focused on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, this important meeting - the last one to be held prior to next year's conference - passed without much notice. However, the future of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime hangs in the balance.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israel's bloody assault on Gaza continues
  Israeli ocupation forces have killed at least 19 Palestinians in a prolonged military assault in the southern Gaza Strip.

• Nein zur Europäischen Union - Ja zu den Vereinigten Sozialistischen Staaten von Europa
  Der britische Premierminister Tony Blair hat mit dem Referendum zur geplanten EU-Verfassung eine Kehrtwende vollzogen und dadurch eine politische Krise in Großbritannien und Europa ausgelöst.

• Asia Times - Corporate Mercenaries Part 1: Profit comes with a price
  The unfolding scandal of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Gharib and other Iraqi prisons, and the involvement of personnel from private companies in the jails, has cast a new wrinkle on the subject of private military companies.

• Asia Times Online - How India funds Bush's campaign
  NEW DELHI - There is more than one reason US President George W Bush should thank Indians, whether in the United States or India, as the buildup to elections in the US slated for November gathers steam.

• Aljazeera.Net - MP 'were told how to treat prisoners'
  The officer in charge of interrogations at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison confirms intelligence officers have instructed the military police on pre-interrogation techniques.

• Aljazeera.Net - Children slain in Israel's Gaza onslaught
  An 11-year-old boy and his 15-year-old sister have been shot dead in the southern Gaza Strip, raising to at least 16 the number of Palestinians killed in the latest Israeli operation.

• Aljazeera.Net - Lebanon cracks 'Israeli spy ring'
  Lebanon has cracked a spy ring recruited by Israel to help assassinate the head of the resistance group Hizb Allah, a Beirut newspaper has said.

• New York Times - Interrogations: M.P.'s Received Orders to Strip Iraqi Detainees
  The American officer who was in charge of interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison has told a senior Army investigator that intelligence officers sometimes instructed the military police to force Iraqi detainees to strip naked and to shackle them before questioning them. But he said those measures were not imposed "unless there is some good reason."

• Großoffensive im Gazastreifen
  Die israelische Armee ist mit Dutzenden Panzern in das Flüchtlingslager von Rafah im Süden des Gazastreifens eingedrungen. Mindestens 18 Palästinenser wurden dabei getötet, 50 Menschen wurden verletzt. Die Offensive stieß international auf scharfe Kritik.

• FindLaw Legal News - Israel Kills 13 Palestinians in Big Gaza Raid
  RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians Tuesday in the biggest raid on the Gaza Strip for years as tanks and infantry thrust into a militant stronghold despite an international outcry. The assault on the Rafah refugee camp, by one of the largest Israeli forces in action since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, drew condemnation because of threats to destroy hundreds of Palestinian homes in the occupied territory.

• News: Many killed as Israeli bulldozers roll into Rafah
  Israeli helicopters pounded the refugee camp of Rafah in the Gaza strip with missiles and machine gun fire today, killing at least 12 Palestinians as troops searched houses in the largest Israeli offensive in Gaza in years.

• KAVKAZ CENTER: Statement / Kadyrov
  Kavkaz Center's editors have received a statement via e-mail. The statement was signed by Commander (Amir) of Islamic Brigade of Shaheeds 'Riyadh as-Salihiin' ('Gardens for the Righteous'), Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris. The statement points out that the operation of removal of the head of the invaders' administration Kadyrov was carried out on the sentence pronounced by the Shariah.

• Aljazeera.Net - US wakes up to Islam, many less informed
  Since 9/11, Americans attempting to learn more about Islam have discovered that even the road to knowledge is not easy.

• Jordanien: König Abdullah legt Arafat Rücktritt nahe - Politik - SPIEGEL ONLINE
  Jordaniens König Abdullah II. hat den palästinensischen Präsidenten Jassir Arafat aufgefordert, über seinen Rücktritt nachzudenken. Indirekt warf er Arafat vor, ein Hindernis auf dem Weg zu einem Frieden im Nahen Osten zu sein.

• Der Krieg der Maulwürfe | stern.de | Politik | Ausland
  © David Blumenfeld/DPA Bis zu zwölf Meter unter der verbotenen Zone: Israelische Soldaten entdecken bei einer Razzia in der palästinensischen Grenzstadt Rafah im Gazastreifen einen verborgenen Tunneleingang An der Grenze des Gazastreifens zu Ägypten tobt ein Kampf um die Herrschaft unter Tage. Ein Tunnelnetzwerk, das palästinensische Schmuggler gegraben haben, macht die Stadt Rafah zu einem Brennpunkt im Konflikt mit den Israelis. Soldaten gehen mit Panzern, Bulldozern und unterirdische Sprengungen gegen die Erdbauten vor, um Waffen- und Sprengstoffschmuggel zu unterbinden. Geheimhaltung und das Untertauchen in der Zivilbevölkerung sind Trümpfe der Schmuggler.

• Gefoltert bis zum Tode?
  Nach Informationen von Amnesty International haben die Besatzungstruppen in Irak mindestens vier Menschen zu Tode gefoltert. Ferner wurde bekannt, dass die Soldaten in Afghanistan schriftlich angewiesen wurden, Schlafentzug, Hunde und Mörsergranaten als Verhörmethoden einzusetzen.

• FTD - Linde-Hauptversammlung wegen Bombendrohung unterbrochen
  Die Hauptversammlung des Industriegasespezialisten und Gabelstaplerherstellers Linde ist wegen einer Bombendrohung unterbrochen worden. Die rund 1400 Aktionäre mussten die Halle auf dem Münchner Messegelände verlassen.

• BerlinOnline: Fortschreitender Kontrollverlust
  IRAK - Direkt vor dem US-Hauptquartier tötet ein Attentäter den Präsidenten des Übergangsrates. Vielerorts sind Widerstandsgruppen aktiv. Die Alliierten reagieren ratlos und wirr.

• Aljazeera.Net - Billionaire condemns 'war on terror'
  Philanthropist George Soros has criticised US President George Bush's 'war on terror', claiming it has taken more innocent lives than the 9/11 attacks.

• Asia Times: US: Where have all the terrorists gone?
  NEW YORK - Two years and eight months after September 11, 2001, no one knows for certain why al-Qaeda hasn't succeeded in carrying out another attack on the US homeland. While strikes on Western-associated targets overseas have multiplied, and some have argued that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have swelled al-Qaeda's ranks, not a single attack has been carried out inside the United States, nor has any major plan to do so been upset.

• Aljazeera.Net - US forces close in on Najaf centre
  Loud explosions followed by gunfire continue to shake the Iraqi city of Najaf, hours after a US military spokesman confirmed the deaths of at least 50 Shia militiamen.

• Aljazeera.Net - Israel brings death to Rafah refugee camp
  Israeli occupation forces have killed 12 Palestinians at the start of a major ongoing raid into occupied Gaza Strip's Rafah refugee camp.

• Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Bremer knew
  The heinous scandal of Abu Ghraib is not the only violation of human rights and international law in Iraq. According to Baghdad's Red Cross (ICRC) Spokesperson Nada Doumani, Abu Ghraib is but the tip of the iceberg, and of these and other violations Chief Civil Administrator L Paul Bremer was well aware.

• Zeitgeschichte : DDR bildete DKP-Kampfgruppen aus
  Die Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (DKP) baute zwischen 1972 und 1989 insgeheim einen militärischen Arm für Sabotageakte und gezielte Tötungen auf - zu Killern ausgebildet wurden DKP-Kader in der DDR. Wieder zusammengesetzte Stasi-Aktenschnipsel aus der Birthler-Behörde werfen jetzt neues Licht auf den brisanten Pakt.

• Die Körpersprache von Condoleezza Rice: "Hypnotische Vorgehensweise"
  Ihre Hände sind ausgerichtet wie eine Waffe, ihr Lächeln zeigt Zynismus: Der Psychotherapeut Ulrich Sollmann analysiert für SPIEGEL ONLINE die Körpersprache der US-Sicherheitsbeauftragten Condoleezza Rice.

2004-05-17

• Israel Readies Military Solution for Rafah Terror and Tunnels
  While an estimated 100,000-150,000 (depending on who is asked) rallied in Tel Aviv in favor of quitting the Gaza Strip, a full IDF armored division supplemented by artillery battalions were making last preparations to go into the Gaza Strip to clean out the Palestinian terrorist strongholds daily harassing the Israeli-controlled Gaza-Israel-Egyptian border sector.

• U.S. Finds Shell With Nerve Gas in Iraq
  It was the first sarin shell the American military has found since the invasion of Iraq last year, the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, said in a televised news conference. It appeared to be the first confirmed finding of the sort of chemical weapons on which the United States built its case to go to war, according to Gary Samore, a nonproliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

• The new beat generation
  "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked ..." Allen Ginsberg, "Howl", 1956

• Egypt and its diplomacy dilemmas
  Boundaries of the effectiveness of Egyptian mediation were on display this past week.

• Rechte Folterallianzen
  Bundestagsabgeordneter und CDU-Rechtsaußen Hohmann verteidigt Wolffsohn

• Israel invades, seals off Rafah
  Israeli occupation forces, using tanks, bulldozers and helicopters, opened fire as it invaded the refugee town of Rafah, cutting it off from rest of the Gaza Strip.

• Blasts ahead of Blair Turkey visit
  Explosions caused no injuries ahead of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Turkey to discuss its EU application and the situation in Iraq.

• Aljazeera.Net - IGC head killed in car blast
  The current head of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, Izz al-Din Salim, has been killed in a car bomb attack near a US checkpoint in Baghdad.

• Besatzu ng: Irakischer Innenminister bittet USA zu bleiben
  Verwirrung um die amerikanische Irak-Politik. Erst stellte US-Außenminister Powell einen Truppenabzug aus dem Irak in Aussicht, sollte die neue Übergangsregierung dies wünschen. Dann sprach Präsident Bush ein Machtwort, man werde den Job zu Ende bringen. Und nun bitten auch die Iraker artig, die Besatzungsmächte mögen bleiben.

• Guantanamo abuses 'were filmed'
  A Briton who was held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay has narrated horrifying tales of abuse that were videotaped.

• Ex-inmate identifies himself in photo
  Saddam Salih says his US torturers told him he was one of the hooded Iraqi prisoners shown in a picture standing in a row as a grinning female soldier pointed at their genitals.

• Hizb Allah TV mimics The Passion
  The Lebanese Islamist resistance group Hizb Allah is mimicking the trailer from Mel Gibson's controversial crucifixion epic, The Passion of the Christ, to highlight the suffering of Iraqis under US occupation.

• Chechnya: seat of main traitor still vacant
  It has been noted that on the top of the disgrace, the list of Chechen traitors has become a subject of some pride among the people.

• From Red Terror to Putin's Terror - 2
  On November 10, 1918 Lockhart wrote that Bolsheviks restored the vile practice of Czarist servants to take hostages. And worse yet, they are crushing their political opponents by taking it out on their wives and their children.

• On reasons to hate
  Among the circles that have been calling themselves the «Judeo-Christian civilization» lately there was a quite predictable reaction to the facts of tortures that Iraqi inmates are undergoing.

• The Third Voice: A Hopeful Sign
  The 911 attack on Washington and New York brought friends and foes alike to the same world arena. Condolences and sympathies poured in from every direction. This world unity only lasted a short span.

• The Best Damage Control Is Impeachment
  Pick your favorite. A naked Iraqi in a dog collar, a hooded guy on a box wired to electrodes, naked men in a heap, and then they get worse. The latest round features a prisoner, naked, of course, threatened by attack dogs; in the next shot, he's on the ground, bleeding, with a GI pressing a knee into his back. And let's not forget the corpses. Or the women.

• Jagd auf NS-Verbrecher: "Operation letzte Chance"
  Das Simon-Wiesenthal-Zentrum startet in Deutschland eine neue Suchaktion nach NS-Kriegsverbrechern.

• USA: Tödliches Abenteuer
  Ein israelischer Einreisestempel im Pass scheint das Todesurteil für den von al-Qaida enthaupteten Amerikaner gewesen zu sein. Doch dessen Reise ins Verderben gibt neue Rätsel auf.

• Israel commits 'war crimes' in Rafah
  The Israeli occupation army has destroyed dozens of civilian homes in Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.

• Report: Rumsfeld approved abuse
  US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a secret programme that encouraged interrogation methods used at Abu Ghraib prison, reports The New Yorker magazine.

• Israel will verstärkte Offensive im Gazastreifen
  Israel hat angekündigt, den Militäreinsatz im Gazastreifen deutlich auszuweiten und die Lage «eskalieren» zu lassen. Verteidigungsminister Mofas sprach von einer «neuen Wirklichkeit», die dort geschaffen werden solle.

• Innere Sicherheit: Diplomatische Zensur
  Die Förderung militanter Islamisten durch Saudi-Arabien belastet das Verhältnis zwischen Berlin und Riad - aber im Verfassungsschutzbericht soll davon nichts stehen.

• UN: Israel must stop orgy of destruction
  UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has strongly condemned Israel's continued destruction of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

• Aljazeera.Net - US says nerve gas bomb explodes in Iraq
  The statement on Monday was the first announcement of a discovery of any of the weapons on which Washington made its case for war.

• Taliban in Texas: Big Oil hankers for old pals
  HOUSTON - The Taliban must have had a ball in this Texas city when they came to visit the control tower of Planet Oil in the late 1990s to negotiate the Trans-Afghan Pipeline (TAP). One can imagine Mullah Omar's finest, in full black-turbaned regalia, at the Houston Galleria - amid all those blond, dermatologically sublime trophy wives credit-carding their way to the Valhalla of conspicuous consumption at Saks, Macy's, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Not to mention all those steak houses! And all those sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) - not only Kandahar-friendly Toyota Land Cruisers but Durangos, Silverados, Pajeros, Discoveries and even BMWs!

• US-Militär meldet Nervengas-Explosion
  Nach Angaben der amerikanischen Militärführung im Irak ist nahe eines US-Konvois eine mit dem Nervengas Sarin gefüllte Granate explodiert. Das zur Bombe umgebaute Geschoss war am Straßenrand versteckt worden.

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