A BAD NIGHT FOR THE MACHINES

The decision to entrust American democracy to computers is likely to come under scrutiny in the wake of yesterday's elections as widespread reports of glitches in new electronic voting machines raised the spectre of legal challenges to the results.

"We're getting reports from all over the place. I can't get them up on our website fast enough," said Warren Stewart, the policy director of VoteTrustUSA, a watchdog organisation. "Machines of all different makes are breaking down." (Guardian, 8 Nov. 2006)

NEOCON DEFIANT TAIL-BETWEEN-LEGSISM:

Richard Perle and Kenneth Adelman, both neocons who served as Pentagon advisers at the time of the invasion, told Vanity Fair magazine that the war had been botched by an incompetent administration, and that in hindsight they would not have backed the war. "We'll have to let Richard Perle and Ken Adelman make whatever comments," Mr Snow said. "But if the quotes are accurate, it means that they're at war with the advice that they gave some time ago."

A DEMO FOR IRAN

The Administration had several reasons for supporting the Israeli bombing campaign. Within the State Department, it was seen as a way to strengthen the Lebanese government so that it could assert its authority over the south of the country, much of which is controlled by Hezbollah. He went on, “The White House was more focussed on stripping Hezbollah of its missiles, because, if there was to be a military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel. Bush wanted both. Bush was going after Iran, as part of the Axis of Evil, and its nuclear sites, and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in democratization, with Lebanon as one of the crown jewels of Middle East democracy.”

...“The big question for our Air Force was how to hit a series of hard targets in Iran successfully,” the former senior intelligence official said. “Who is the closest ally of the U.S. Air Force in its planning? It’s not Congo—it’s Israel. Everybody knows that Iranian engineers have been advising Hezbollah on tunnels and underground gun emplacements. And so the Air Force went to the Israelis with some new tactics and said to them, ‘Let’s concentrate on the bombing and share what we have on Iran and what you have on Lebanon.’ ” The discussions reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he said.

“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” a U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel said. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.” (Seymour Hersh, 'Watching Lebanon', New Yorker 14 Aug 06)

UP TO THEIR NECKS IN SEWAGE

The ACLU has issued a report describing a history of neglect at Orleans Parish Prison.  This culture of neglect was evident in the days before Katrina, when the sheriff declared that the prisoners would remain "where they belong," despite the mayor's decision to declare the city's first-ever mandatory evacuation.  OPP even accepted prisoners, including juveniles as young as 10, from other facilities to ride out the storm. 
 
As floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, power was lost, and entire buildings were plunged into darkness.  Deputies left their posts wholesale, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests.
 
Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan.  Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.
 
The prisoners were finally evacuated by order of the state after days of fear and chaos.  The report follows the prisoners as they were transferred to jails and prisons around Louisiana.  Thousands of the men were first transported to the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, where they were placed outdoors in a yard with inadequate food, medical care, and protection from other prisoners, many of whom were armed with makeshift weapons.  According to the report, at several other facilities, prisoners were subjected to systematic abuse and racially motivated assaults by prison guards.

Prisoners include Ashley George, a 13-year-old girl housed in OPP's Youth Center, who was moved to an area adjacent to an adult male holding area where the men watched her use the toilet. As the building began to flood, Ashley spent days in water up to her neck. Adult prisoners rescued Ashley and the other children from the waters.

DRIVEN NUTS

"Cold food didn't kill that family. Personnel assignments didn't rape and murder that 14-year-old little girl. They gathered together over cards and booze and came up with a plan to rape and murder that little girl."

A prosecutor told a U.S. military court on Tuesday four soldiers should be court-martialled on charges of murder and the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl because the case had nothing to do with the strains of war.

"Murder, not war. Rape, not war. That's what we're here talking about today. Not all that business about cold food, checkpoints, personnel assignments," the prosecutor, Captain Alex Pickands, said as the court heard closing arguments. (Washington Post, 8 Aug 2006)

WHO'S TELLING THE TRUCE?

ISRAEL: Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz says Israel cannot agree to an immediate ceasefire, despite a partial halt to air strikes on south Lebanon. Mr Peretz told parliament that if the offensive stopped, "the extremists will rear their heads anew". He said Israel intended to "expand and strengthen" its operations in Lebanon. (BBC, 31 July 06).

LEBANON: 'The [Lebanese] cabinet, in which Hizbollah is represented, voted late on Thursday to back proposals calling for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, followed by an exchange of prisoners and a withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Lebanon. Israeli troops would then be replaced by UN forces in the Shebaa Farms region... The government plan reasserts its intention to extend its authority to the south of the country, now controlled by Hizbollah, by sending the army to the area and stipulates that no group will be allowed to bear arms.' (Financial Times, 29 July, p. 6)

'Hizbullah wants an immediate ceasefire and is ready to swap the two abducted Israeli soldiers “in six hours” after it comes into force, according to officials from Amal, a Shia party... a ceasefire has been part of Hizbullah's position virtually from the start of Israel's air attacks and before Israeli ground troops crossed the border in strength.' (Guardian, 28 July, p. 4)

FREE-FIRE ZONE

The Israeli position (as of 29 July) is that 'All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hizbollah' (Israeli Justice Minister, Haim Ramon). The Telegraph: 'the area would now become effectively a free-fire zone and that anyone found in it would be regarded as a target.' (28 July, p. 16) 'The mass-circulation Yedioth Aharonoth headlined a quote from an unnamed military commander: "Every village from which a Katyusha is fired must be destroyed." ' (FT, 28 July, p. 5) (from the JNV Briefing, 31 July 2006)

clearly related to Hizbollah

"TOTAL OIL SOLUTIONS, FROM DRILLING TO DETENTION."

The controversy over the US-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is to erupt anew with confirmation by the Pentagon that a new, permanent prison will open in the Cuban enclave in the next few weeks.

Camp 6, a state-of-the-art maximum-security jail built by a Halliburton subsidiary, will be able to hold 200 prisoners. Commander Robert Durand, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said the $30m, two-storey block was due to open at the end of September. He added: "Camp 6 is designed to improve the quality of life for the detainees and provide greater protection for the people working in the facility." (Independent, 30 July 06)

A fucking Halliburton subsidiary! Now that's what we call corporate
innovation.

VACUUM BOMBS, WHISKY PETE, AND DEPLETED URANIUM

U.S. military intelligence sources have told Wayne Madsen Report that the artillery shell shown above being used by an Israel Defense Force member in Lebanon, is a type of dual and multi-use weapon the neocons falsely accused Saddam Hussein of possessing. Although the canister artillery shell is marketed as an anti-land mine fuel-air bomb, its payload can also include the chemicals used in thermobaric bombs, white phosphorous weapons, and chemical weapons. Thermobaric bombs contain polymer-bonded explosives or solid fuel-air explosives in their payloads. Thermobarics use a fuse munition unit (FMU) such as that seen on the nose of the Israeli artillery shell. The shell penetrates buildings, underground shelters, or tunnels, creating such a blast pressure that all the oxygen is sucked out from the spaces and the lungs of anyone who happens to be in proximity. Israel's use of such "vacuum" weapons has been reported from across Lebanon.

and from Reuters: A Belgian doctor of Lebanese descent, Bachir Cham, heads the Assairane Hospital in the southern city of Sidon. "Following a bomb attack near Sidon, we had eight bodies brought to the hospital," said Cham. "Normally, people killed or injured by a bomb explosion or in a car accident show traces of burns or blood. But these bodies showed neither. The skin was completely black, while the muscle underneath was intact." Cham, a heart and vascular specialist who taught at universities in Brussels and Paris, took 24 skin samples from the bodies and sent them to the World Health Organization in Geneva. He also took photos. According to Cham, similar burns cases have been reported in other hospitals. Doctors say many patients have been treated with severe burns in the southern city of Tyre. The emergencies' director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Peter Boukhaert, who is currently in Lebanon, said HRW researchers in Israel had been able to confirm Israel's use of phosphorus bombs along the border with Lebanon.

INNER STRENGTH

The campaign we are engaged in these days is against the terror organizations operating from Lebanon and Gaza. These organizations are nothing but "sub-contractors" operating under the inspiration, permission, instigation and financing of the terror-sponsoring and peace-rejecting regimes, on the Axis of Evil which stretches from Tehran to Damascus.

...Citizens of Israel, This is a difficult time of trial for all of us. The State of Israel has withstood much more complex trials - and triumphed. We have always known how to mobilize our inner strength, equanimity, wisdom and patience, in order to overcome our enemies.

...Unfortunately, pictures of three boys now stand in my room.  Many times during the day I look in their faces, into their eyes, and embrace them in my heart.  I do not forget them for one minute.  They were there on our behalf and for our sake.  We will do everything and make every effort to bring them home.  We will do this, but not in a pattern that will encourage more kidnappings. 

There is almost no one who can understand the place you are in.  Even when we do not talk directly, I feel and hear what you want to say to me, and I embrace you with love, understanding and agreement. The place I am in compels me, ultimately, to make fateful decisions, for life, and sometimes even for death.

MARGARET BECKETT WE HAVE ALWAYS HATED YOU

from an interview with Margaret Beckett, the FOREIGN SECRETARY for crying out loud, Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 18 July 2006.

James Naughtie: ‘Do you believe that Israel’s response has been proportionate?’

Margaret Beckett: “I don’t think it’s helpful to get into that. ..It’s not proportionate to be firing rockets into Israel all the time either.  It is clear that Israel has been under attack and is now responding in Lebanon.  It is also clear that this is inflicting huge damage, both on civilians in Israel and civilians in Lebanon, and that this is exactly what was intended in particular by Hezbollah, who poured petrol on a bonfire.”

JN: “Mr Blair talks about an arc of extremism, curving through the Middle East.  And isn’t it the case that in Iraq, what’s happened as a result of the invasion is not that terrorism has been obliterated, but a new generation of militants has been created?”

MB: “No it’s not as simple as that.  And I might have known that you’d somehow drag the situation back to Iraq, Jim.  Let’s concentrate on what is happening in the Lebanon...”

JN: “Foreign secretary, if I may say so that is ridiculous.  To say that is to ‘drag the situation back to Iraq’... The Middle East is in flames.  Lebanon is being destroyed, Israel is being attacked, the President of the United States is saying that Syria has to stop all this ‘shit’ (I quote the President), Mr Blair wants to go there, the President doesn’t want him to go, 60 – 100 – 150 people are being killed every day in Iraq, and you say to me ‘You’re dragging Iraq into it’!”

MB: ‘I speak just as one of your humble listeners, Jim, who listens to you every morning, and most mornings I turn and I say – unh unh – I might have know – we’re talking again about the situation in Iraq.  The situation in Iraq is difficult, but Iraq has an elected government, and many things are improving in Iraq, and that is something we need to keep working on.  We just had the handover of the first province in Iraq to Iraqi security forces.  The situation in the Lebanon is actually deteriorating....’

(It’s even more offensive when you hear her ‘withering sarcasm’ and the slurps of her ‘smug complacent felching’.)

UPS SPECIAL DELIVERY

WASHINGTON, July 22, 2006 (AFP) - The United States is expediting a shipment of precision bombs to Israel from an arms deal struck last year amid the Jewish state's ongoing assault on Lebanon, a US official said Saturday.

A decision to rush the delivery of the weapons following an Israeli request was made around the time Israel began pounding Lebanon by air and sea on July 12 after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah militia, the official said.

"It's part of an arms sale that was made in 2005," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said the shipment "has either been made or is in the process of being delivered" but refused to specify whether it was being delivered by air or by sea.

Last year's arms deal allows Israel -- which agreed to purchase about one billion dollars in US military equipment in 2005, according to a congressional report -- to tap into the package depending on need.

The package also provides for satellite-guided munitions, The New York Times said.

One US official said normal procedures usually do not include rushing deliveries within days of a request. That was done because Israel is a close ally in the midst of hostilities, the official told the Times.

...VIA GLASGOW PRESTWICK

Britain has been used as a staging post for major shipments of bunker-busting bombs from America to Israel. The Israelis want the 5,000lb smart bombs to attack the bunkers being used by Hizbollah leaders in Lebanon.

Two chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes filled with GBU 28 laser-guided bombs landed at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, for refuelling and crew rests after flying across the Atlantic at the weekend, defence sources confirmed. The airport has also been used by the CIA for rendition flights carrying terrorist suspects. (26 July 2006)

BOLTON's MORTAL EQUATIONS

"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts... It's simply not the same thing to say that it's the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense."
--John Bolton, US Ambassador to the UN

RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT

"The Guardian reports that Bush gave Israel the green light to attack Lebanon and has given Olmert another week to pound Lebanon. U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice has announced that she will go to the Middle East to resolve "the crisis" when it is appropriate." --Paul Craig Roberts, 'A Handful of Neocons are Orchestrating a Wider War'

SMALL PLASTIC SANDALS

"Whatever the Israelis' intended target, the bomb fell on a small water canal next to the Qasmia refugee camp, home to about 500 Palestinians. Its victims were 11 children taking an afternoon swim in the canal. The first blast left a crater nearly four metres deep, burying many of the swimmers deep under the orange earth. Seven of the children were injured, three critically. Three others have not been found. The scene was littered with small plastic sandals, several caked in blood. Ismael, the father of one of the children, sat on the edge of the crater, his head in his hands weeping. "Children! Children!" he roared through his tears, "Children here! My son here." He stood and looked down into the crater: "Is Hizbullah here? Only children here," he said. ...Another man staggered around behind Ismael, also unable to control his grief. The children were taken to the intensive care unit, many caked in earth, having been buried deep in the ground." (Guardian, 18 July 2006)

KICKING AND SCREAMING

"With security council members examining French-backed resolution plans calling for a ceasefire and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force, the US congress was expected to pass a resolution stating Washington's unwavering support for Israel and condemning Lebanon. ...The Los Angeles Times reported today that a furious round of diplomatic negotiations has secured Washington's tacit approval of plans for a UN-backed security force in Lebanon, although an official was quoted as saying the administration had been drawn "kicking and screaming" into the undertaking." (20 JULY 2006)

CHOMSKY ON ISRAELI AGGRESSION

What's happening in Gaza, to start with that -- well, basically the current stage of what's going on -- there's a lot more -- begins with the Hamas election, back the end of January. Israel and the United States at once announced that they were going to punish the people of Palestine for voting the wrong way in a free election. And the punishment has been severe.

At the same time, it's partly in Gaza, and sort of hidden in a way, but even more extreme in the West Bank, where Olmert announced his annexation program, what's euphemistically called "convergence" and described here often as a "withdrawal," but in fact it's a formalization of the program of annexing the valuable lands, most of the resources, including water, of the West Bank and cantonizing the rest and imprisoning it, since he also announced that Israel would take over the Jordan Valley. Well, that proceeds without extreme violence or nothing much said about it.

Gaza, itself, the latest phase, began on June 24. It was when Israel abducted two Gaza civilians, a doctor and his brother. We don't know their names. You don't know the names of victims. They were taken to Israel, presumably, and nobody knows their fate. The next day, something happened, which we do know about, a lot. Militants in Gaza, probably Islamic Jihad, abducted an Israeli soldier across the border. That's Corporal Gilad Shalit. And that's well known; the first abduction is not. Then followed the escalation of Israeli attacks on Gaza, which I don't have to repeat. It's reported on adequately.

The next stage was Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers, they say on the border. Their official reason for this is that they are aiming for prisoner release. There are a few, nobody knows how many. Officially, there are three Lebanese prisoners in Israel. There's allegedly a couple hundred people missing. Who knows where they are?

But the real reason, I think it's generally agreed by analysts, is that -- I'll read from the Financial Times, which happens to be right in front of me. "The timing and scale of its attack suggest it was partly intended to reduce the pressure on Palestinians by forcing Israel to fight on two fronts simultaneously." David Hirst, who knows this area well, describes it, I think this morning, as a display of solidarity with suffering people, the clinching impulse.

It's a very -- mind you -- very irresponsible act. It subjects Lebanese to possible -- certainly to plenty of terror and possible extreme disaster. Whether it can achieve any result, either in the secondary question of freeing prisoners or the primary question of some form of solidarity with the people of Gaza, I hope so, but I wouldn't rank the probabilities very high."

Gaza/Lebanon/Israel/Palestine, by Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman; Democracy Now; July 15, 2006

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

12 July 2006: Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told Israel's Channel 10, "If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years."

JERUSALEM COUNTDOWN: DEATH'S TOP 40

More than 3,400 evangelical Christians have arrived in Washington to lobby lawmakers as part of the first annual summit of Christians United for Israel. Delegates have come from all 50 states and have 280 meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Pastor John Hagee said. Pastor Hagee, the main organiser, said the event was the first of its kind. "For the first time in the history of Christianity in America, Christians will go to the Hill to support Israel as Christians," he said.

The thousands of Christians in Washington - who came and are staying at their own expense - will be urging the US government "not to restrain Israel in any way in the pursuit of Hamas and Hezbollah", he said. "We want our Congress to make sure that not one dime of American money goes to support Hamas and Hezbollah or the enemies of Israel."

John Hagee's latest book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World, interprets the Bible to predict that Russian and Arab armies will invade Israel and be destroyed by God. This will set up a confrontation over Israel between China and the West, led by the anti-Christ, who will be the head of the European Union, Pastor Hagee writes. That final battle between East and West - at Armageddon, an actual place in Israel - will precipitate the second coming of Christ, he concludes." (BBC News)

ELECTRONIC LEBANON

"The BBC apparently considers their Beirut reporter's first duty to find out what meals HMS Gloucester's chef will be preparing for the evacuees. Lebanese and Palestinian civilians die unnoticed by the Western media (though not by the Arab channels) while we learn of onboard sleeping arrangements on the ship bound for Cyprus." --Jonathan Cook, 'The Racist Subtext of the Evacuation Story'

"Suppose Israel didn't occupy the Shebaa Farms and it didn't frequently incite and intimidate the Lebanese population with military operations, sonic booms, border attacks, and the abduction of Lebanese civilians -- Israel's recent attacks would still constitute war crimes. Under no circumstance is a nation allowed to attack another sovereign nation's civilian population with the use of physical force, economic strangulation and collective punishment due to a "provocation" caused by a non-government entity -- particularly when the aggressor state is accusing other nations of orchestrating the attacks." --Remi Kenazi, 'The Politics of Proportionality"

Photos of some recent anti-war activity are available here.

DEMO SATURDAY 5 AUGUST 12 NOON
DEMO FRIDAY, 28 JULY 5.00-7.00 PM
DEMO SUNDAY 30 JULY, 1.00-3.00 pm
PICTURES OF DEMO in London, from Whitehall Place to Hyde Park via the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square

DIRECT ACTION AGAINST ISRAEL/US/UK INVASION

Emergency assembly called for direct action against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Palestine

JNV BRIEFING ON THE GAZA SIEGE
Europe's Shameful Complicity In Israeli War Crimes
JNV Anti-War Briefing 90 (8 July 2006)

ISRAELI CRIMES AGAINST PEACE
The Israeli Government bombs power stations (a war crime), bombs bridges with no military value (a war crime), kidnap ordinary citizens, elected representatives and Government ministers (more crimes), overflies the Syrian capital without permission (more criminality) and re-invades the Gaza Strip (another war crime). These crimes are not designed to secure the release of a captured Israeli soldier, but to destroy the threat of peace, and especially the growing moderation of the elected Hamas Government.

ISRAELI STATE TERRORISM
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy writes in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: 'It is not legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is not legitimate to call on 20,000 people to run from their homes and turn their towns into ghost towns. It is not legitimate to kidnap half a government and a quarter of a parliament. A state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror organisation.'

The British group 'Jews for Justice for Palestinians' took out a full-page advertisement in The Times on 6 July (p. 33). It said, in part: 'We watch with horror the collective punishment of the people of Gaza. Everything reasonable must be done to secure [Israeli] Corporal Gilad Shilat's safe release but nothing Israel is doing contributes to that end. Instead it is using its enormously superior military might to terrorise an entire people.'

We are witnessing Israeli state terrorism - and EU/British complicity.

HOSTAGE SHALIT AND THE KIDNAPPED PALESTINIANS
Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured, in uniform and on armed duty near a checkpoint, on 25 June 2006. Chris McGreal of the Guardian reported: 'To Palestinians he is a prisoner of war - a legitimate target as a soldier in the uniform of an army that has killed dozens of civilians in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks - and a bargaining chip.' McGreal pointed out that 'Israel holds about 9,000 Palestinian prisoners. One thousand of them are detained without charge or trial, and often exist in a Kafkaesque world of having to prove their innocence without ever being told what it is they are accused of.'

The Israeli military see Cpl Shalit's capture by Palestinian militiamen as an act of war. 'But the Israelis themselves crossed the border just a couple of days before the corporal was taken to apprehend two Palestinian militiamen.' (McGreal, Guardian, 30 June)

BREAKING THE PEACE
Time magazine observes: 'it's difficult to see how some Israeli tactics, particularly the strike on the Gaza power supply, can do much other than deepen the Palestinians' misery.' (10 July, p. 35) What else can 'these tactics' do? They can break the elected Palestine Authority, and they can break the hope of peace. That is their purpose:

'A senior Israeli security official says some members of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government believe the crisis is an opportunity to smash the authority of Hamas, the militant organization that won control of the Palestinian Authority earlier this year. That aim became evident when Israeli forces arrested eight Palestinian Cabinet ministers and 40 Hamas parliamentarians in the West Bank, who may be charged with membership in terrorist organizations, affiliation with terrorist leadership and other violations. Israeli Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On tells Time that the arrests had been planned for weeks and that the ministers would not be used as bargaining tools to win Shalit's release.' (p. 34)

According to knowledgeable Palestinians, bringing down the Hamas Government 'could boost the group's more militant factions, which would prefer to abandon the political process and return to armed struggle.' Time quotes Saied Zourob, an official from Gaza belonging to the Fatah party that was displaced from government by Hamas: 'now the Israelis are pushing people toward Hamas and the resistance.' (p. 35) Time notes: 'The fallout from the Shalit saga is only hardening attitudes on both sides.' (p. 34)

These were the predictable, and therefore intended, consequences of the actions Israel has taken - actions which have undermined rather than strengthened Cpl Shalit's chances of survival. Journalist Con Couglin points out that when the last Israeli soldier was abducted - Nachshon Waxman in 1994 - all that happened was the West Bank was closed off to allow a rescue attempt by Israeli special forces. (Telegraph, 30 June)

Pushing Hamas as an organization, and the Palestinians as a people, away from negotiations and towards violence is a rational goal for Israeli policy (in the short term), if Israel is set on domination rather than peace.

HAMAS-FATAH
Undermining the elected Government and the Hamas leadership was a particularly urgent task because of the signs that Hamas moderates were building a united front with the Fatah movement. On 27 June, after months of tortuous negotiation between the two political rivals, a deal was finally struck on the basis of a document drawn up by Palestinian political prisoners:

'Fears of an Israeli assault on Gaza have all but overshadowed the agreement between Hamas and Fatah over the so-called "prisoners' document", which brings to an end months of tensions that have seen gun battles between armed forces loyal to the two groups... the "prisoners' document" is hoped to address international concerns by toning down Hamas' insistence on armed force and its implacable opposition to the existence of Israel. Negotiator Salah Zeidan said preparations were being made for a formal signing ceremony. "All political groups are prepared for a mutual ceasefire with Israel," he said.' (Guardian, 27 June)

It was a huge step for Hamas to formally accept a Palestine on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, implicitly accepting the right of Israel to exist, and to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, which explicitly acknowledges that right. Times Foreign Editor Bronwen Maddox remarks: 'From Hamas, which has steadily advocated the annihilation of Israel, this amounts to a dramatic about-turn.' (29 June, p. 36)

The threat of a firm Palestinian ceasefire by the main armed groups, and a major diplomatic initiative from the Palestinian side involving a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders has been averted - perhaps permanently - by the violent Israeli assault on Gaza.

Author Patrick Seale comments that Israel 'abhors the recent Hamas-Fatah accord... becuse it threatens to produce a Palestinian partner ready to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Israel has no intention of ever returning to those borders. It is no accident that its assault followed immediately on the Palestinian accord. Israel will do everything to avoid a negotiation. Hence, it deliberately inflicts inhumane hardships on the Palestinians in order to radicalise them and drive the moderates from the scene.' (Guardian, 3 July, p. 29)

THE REAL HISTORY OF THE PEACE PROCESS
Western apologists portray the Middle East 'peace process' as one of Israeli offers and Arab rejection. In fact, the Palestinians and their Arab sponsors gravitated towards the international consensus - a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders - by the mid-1970s (see Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle). This solution has been blocked by the United States and Israel.

It is said that the two-state solution was rejected by the Palestinians, who walked out of negotiations at Camp David in mid-2000, after being offered an allegedly reasonable deal. In fact, Israeli scholar Ron Pundak points out that the Israeli position at the end of Camp David was that 12 per cent of the West Bank should remain in Israeli hands, in two strips dividing the West Bank into three sections, and cutting off all three fragments from East Jerusalem, the centre of Palestinian life and institutions. This was clearly absolutely unacceptable to the Palestinians. (See map on p. 46 of Pundak's 'From Oslo To Taba: What Went Wrong', available as a pdf from The Peres Center for Peace which Pundak heads.)

At subsequent negotiations in Taba in January 2001, Israeli negotiators tacitly conceded that they could have given more ground - and cut their demands in half. The talks were then called off by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, not by the Palestinians. (BBC, 29 Jan. 2001)

THE SHAMEFUL ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
The Financial Times comments: 'the lack of active mediation by the world community has made containment of the conflict all the more difficult. With the US and the EU ostracising Hamas, the scope for diplomatic intervention has been limited. Israel has apparently felt under little pressure to restrain its actions.' (30 June, p. 6)

The current assault is in part due to the European Union's imposition of collective punishment on the Palestinians, breaking off aid and diplomatic relations because the 'wrong people' won the election. By removing the small EU brake on Israeli policy, we share responsibility for Israel's actions.

WAR IS A PERFORMANCE BUSINESS

BILL O'REILLY: So because -- what you have here now is a tipping point in history. A tipping point in history. So you have to win the Iraq situation. Now, to me, they're not fighting it hard enough. See, if I'm president, I've got probably another 50-60,000 with orders to shoot on sight anybody violating curfews. Shoot 'em on sight. That's me. President O'Reilly, curfew in Ramadi, 7 o'clock at night. You're on the street, you're dead. I shoot you right between the eyes. OK?

That's how I'd run that country -- just like Saddam ran it. Saddam didn't have explosions. He didn't have bombers, did he? Because if you got out of line, you're dead.

Now, is that the kind of country I want for Iraq? No. But you have to have that for a few months to stabilize the situation so the Iraqi government can get organized, can get security in place and get the structure going. So, any area that is giving you trouble, you have a 7-to-7 curfew. And you can't come out of your house. That's it. And if you do, we shoot you. That's how you control it. All right?

Later in the broadcast, responding to a caller who identified himself as a former Marine who had been stationed in Tal Afar, Iraq, O'Reilly reiterated his plan for Iraq: "The curfews work. You shoot on sight. That's it. And if the Italian press doesn't like it, tough. The New York Times doesn't like it? Too bad. War is a performance business."--From the June 19 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly

LOOK WHAT THE FANG FAIRY LEFT

Now here's a surprise! "Radical Islamism arises from the loss of identity that accompanies the transition to a modern, pluralist society. More democracy will mean more alienation, radicalisation and terrorism." -- Francis Fukuyama.

INDEFINITE DETENTION IS NOT ARREST

Robert Potts forwarded this story, about the arrest (oops we mean detention) of the Tipton Three and the actors who play them in the film The Road to Guantanamo. Riz Ahmed describes being interrogated under TACT 2000. So far, only the Guardian has picked up the story.

GET UP OFF THAT COUCH:
it's time to go to Iran

The Sunday Telegraph is as scary as ever, but this time because it's reporting that the US is "drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb". "The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling." A report by the Oxford Research Group predicts that such an attack "would kill up to 10,000 people and lead to war in the Middle East."

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports that neocons are urging the US to sow dissent in Iran and bulk up the $4 million it spends on furthering democracy in the country. Apparently Condi isn't hawkish enough.

BEACH BOYS

This was passed on to Conspiracy Practice by Tom Raworth.

DEATH PORN

A video on 'The Hidden Massacre' by Sigfrido Ranucci

Fallujah: scroll about a third of the way down. The file AC-130U (Spooky) attacking terrorist camp in Fallujah (9:46) is the first of a series of military deathporn videos, including:

Close Air Support Mission on a Large Enemy Force with a 385 lbs. Smart Bomb (:53). Five-part series of "house to house fighting".

CHEMICAL WAR BURNS THEIR SKIN OFF

The use of White Phosphorous in Fallujah explained in acronymic detail.

'they ran through the drill again and again, sending a mixture of burning white phosphorus and high explosives they call "shake 'n' bake" into a cluster of buildings' Darren Mortensen told the world.

This is shake 'n' bake: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSo is this.

A blast from the past! From a declassified document of the US Department of Defense via Cat's Blog:

SUMMARY: IRAQ HAS POSSIBLY EMPLOYED PHOSPHOROUS CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION IN AREAS ALONG THE IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN BORDERS. KURDISH RESISTANCE IS LOSING ITS STRUGGLE AGAINST SADDAM HUSSEIN'S FORCES. KURDISH REBELS AND REFUGEES' PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS ARE PROVIDED.

(…) DURING THE BRUTAL CRACKDOWN THAT FOLLOWED THE KURDISH UPRISING, IRAQI FORCES LOYAL TO PRESIDENT SADDAM ((HUSSEIN)) MAY HAVE POSSIBLY USED WHITE PHOSPHOROUS (WP) CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST KURDISH REBELS AND THE POPULACE IN ERBIL (GEOCOORD:3412N/04401E) (VICINITY OF IRANIAN BORDER) AND DOHUK (GEOCOORD:3652N/04301E) (VICINITY OF IRAQI BORDER) PROVINCES, IRAQ.

Meanwhile, the UN reports that the death toll in Iraq
has risen every month this year.

It totalled 5,818 in May and June.

Conspiracy Practice will be developing as a resource for people thinking critically about capitalism's most famous product: war.

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