SarCRAZY - the imbecile from France

It's been a bad few weeks for Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France. Last Monday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sarkozy telling Israeli Prime Minister Ehud that "Palestinian refugees should be resettled in a Palestinian state, not in Israel"

"Each side should have its own nation-state," he said, according to Israeli officials who were present at the two leaders' meeting. "It is not reasonable for the Palestinians to demand both an independent state and also the refugees' return to the state of Israel, which even today has a minority of one million Arabs."



There are the about three generations of Palestinians that reside in refugee camps in Lebanon and other neighbouring countries of Israel. These are the people that had to flee whilst terrorists took over their country whilst the British Mandate ruled over Palestine. People were killed, women and children were raped by these terrorists, homes, mosques, coffee shops, libraries ever aspects of society were destroyed by these terrorists - some of these terrorists later became Prime Ministers of Israel.

Here are the quotes from David Ben-Gurion, Israels First Prime Minister [1949 – 1954 and 1955 – 1963]

"We must expel Arabs and take their places." -- David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.


"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." -- David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

"There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" -- Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122.

"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." -- David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99.

"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country." -- David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

THESE REFUGEES SHOULD BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES AND BE COMPENSATED BY THE ISRAELI REGIME AND IT'S SUPPORTERS.

It is ironic that Jews from London, Moscow, New York (who have no ties to the state of Israel) can live in Israel but those who were born in Israel are prevented from returning to their homes - why should they suffer? Israel's policy of bringing just about anyone that has Jewish links has caused them embarrassment recently when it was found out that a few neo-Nazis (that have Jewish roots) have been causing mayhem in Israel (destroying Jewish cemeteries, placing Swastika everywhere, abducting people and beating them up and much more).

Sarkozy, who hosted Olmert at the Elysee Palace, expressed strong support for Israel, describing its establishment as "a miracle" and "the most significant event of the 20th century." "They say that I support Israel because my grandfather was Jewish, but this isn't a personal matter," he continued, according to the Israeli sources.

"Israel introduces diversity and democracy to the Middle East. It's a miracle that out of the remnants of the ... scattered Jewish people, such a state has arisen." "Israel's security is a clear red line, which is not up for negotiation," he added. "That is an inviolable condition, which we will never concede."

The only miracle is that American Taxpayers have not stopped funding billions of dollars into Israel (reported to be over $100billion since it's creation). With funding like that anyone can be successful, yet Israel is not a democracy. Human rights group such as btselem expose these myths. There is also a hierarchy amongst citizens. Jews from the United States and Europe are considered to be intellectual, with all the wealth are first class citizens, Jews from the Arab region (those whose generations of families have lived in the Middle East) are treated as second class citizens, followed by Arab Christians and Ethiopian Jews as third class, followed by the Druze community then Muslims and so on.

Non Jews such as Muslims are discriminated when applying for jobs, studying, getting medical almost everything. It was only recently that employment laws were changed to stop dissemination against Muslims but that hasn't changed anything. It is much worse in occupied Palestine where taxes (Palestinian government money) are withheld by Israeli government preventing the economy from running and causing hardship for everyone: Teachers, civil servants, schools, hospitals staff were sometimes not being paid for long periods, even money from foreign countries in terms of grants and aid were sometimes blocked by Israel making necessities such as food - water and electricity being rationed - that is a Miracle Mr Sarkozy, a miracle that all these people are alive against the most severe conditions placed by an illegal occupier that no one condemns.

The miracle as Sarkozy states is nothing but a well co-ordinated plan by the Zionist to wipe Palestine off the Map and have a poodle doing the dirty work for the colonials superpowers. The genocide that took place is clearly emphasised by Ilan Pappe (Jewish Historian from Israel) in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - this book is a must read!

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This week, France's president abruptly ended a "60 Minutes" interview aimed at introducing him to U.S. audiences, dubbing it "stupid" and a "big mistake" and refusing to answer questions about his wife.

Before the CBS news show interview in Paris even began, Sarkozy called his press secretary "an imbecile" for arranging the session on a busy day.

"I don't have the time. I have a big job to do, I have a schedule," Sarkozy said through a translator before the interview began. In English, he added: "Very busy. Very busy."

Before he left he said his Hungarian father had worried that his surname would be an obstacle in France, "That's what he thought. That a name like Sarkozy was a handicap," the president said. "That's the reason why I like the United States. You can have a name like Schwarzenegger and be governor of California. You can be called Madeleine Albright and be secretary of state. You can be called Colin Powell or Condi Rice, and succeed."

The truth of the matter is that you can do well in America if you support the policies of the Christian right, The Zionists or you have Jewish roots - these are the simple FACTS!

We must bomb Iran, says US Republican guru

Taken from Daily Telegraph, UK, 27/10/2007
By Toby Harnden in New York

A senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has urged that Iran be bombed using cruise missiles and "bunker busters" to set back Teheran’s nuclear programme by at least five years.


Podhoretz is a founder of neoconservatism

The tough message at a time of crisis between the United States and Iraq was delivered by Norman Podhoretz, one of the founders of neoconservatism, who has also imparted his stark advice personally to a receptive President George W. Bush.

"None of the alternatives to military action - negotiations, sanctions, provoking an internal insurrection - can possibly work," said Mr Podhoretz."They’re all ways of evading the terrible choice we have to make which is to either let them get the bomb or to bomb them."In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Podhoretz said he was certain that bombing raids could be successful."People I’ve talked to have no doubt we could set it back five or 10 years. There are those who believe we can get the underground facilities as well with these highly sophisticated bunker-busting munitions."

Although Mr Podhoretz said he did not speak for Mr Giuliani, the former New York mayor whom he briefs daily appears to have embraced at least the logic of his hard-line views.

During a visit to London last month, Mr Giuliani said Iran should be given "an absolute assurance that, if they get to the point that they are going to become a nuclear power, we will prevent them or we will set them back five or 10 years".

Mr Podhoretz said: "I was very pleased to see him say that. I was even surprised he went that far. I’m sure some of his political people were telling him to go slow ... I wouldn’t advise any candidate to come out and say we have to bomb - it’s not a prudent thing to say at this stage of the campaign."

But Mr Podhoretz’s 77 years and his position as a pre-eminent conservative foreign policy intellectual means he can not only think the unthinkable but say the unsayable.

"My role has simply been to say what I think," he said, explaining that he takes part in weekly conference calls and is in daily email contact with the Giuliani campaign.

He is the most eminent of a clutch of uncompromisingly hawkish aides assembled by Mr Giuliani. They include Daniel Pipes, who opposes a Palestinian state and believes America should "inspire fear, not affection", and Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official who has argued that Condoleezza Rice’s diplomacy is "dangerous" and signals American "weakness" to Teheran.

"Does Rudy agree with me?" Mr Podhoretz asked rhetorically. "I don’t know and I don’t wish to know." But he added that "Rudy’s view of the war is very similar to mine."

Mr Podhoretz’s thesis is that the war on terror is in fact World War Four and that the 42-year-long Cold War should be more properly described as World War Three.

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest honour, by President George W. Bush in 2004, Mr Podhoretz later sought a rare one-on-on audience with the US commander-in-chief. They met in New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel in the spring.

The author of the recent World War IV: the Long Struggle Against Islamofacsism spent about 35 minutes outlining his case for air strikes against Iran as Mr Bush’s then chief adviser Karl Rove took notes.

"Whether I had any effect on him I truly don’t know but I sure tried my best to persuade him," he said.

"He was very cordial. He was warm. He listened. He occasionally asked a question as I made the case but he was truly poker faced."

Mr Podhoretz left the meeting unshaken in his belief that Mr Bush would attack Iran before he leaves office.

"The spirit of the questions was not to try to refute or contradict what I was saying. I didn’t get any negative vibes."

He said that now "the debate [over Iran] is secretly over and the people who are against military action are now preparing to make the case that we can live with an Iranian bomb".

Neither Mr Bush nor Mr Giuliani, however, would countenance Teheran acquiring a nuclear weapon and either one would authorise military action once they were convinced Iran had passed the point of no return with its uranium enrichment programme.

"Unlike a ground invasion where you’ve got to mass hundreds of thousands of troops, it takes six months and everybody knows you’re mobilising, with air strikes, we’ve got three carriers in the region and a lot of submarines," Mr Podhoretz said.

"I would say it would take five minutes. You’d wake up one morning and the strikes would have been ordered and carried out during the night. All the president has to do is say go."

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So what do we know about this neo-con warmonger? Podhoretz was said to be born on January 16, 1930, in a working-class section of Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants Julius and Helen Podhoretz. He received an A.B. degree in literature and criticism in 1950 at Columbia University and concurrently earned a degree in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. I wonder if he is a member of AIPAC?

Why is he wanting to bomb Iran? (apart from the obvious reasons) Have we forgotten what happened in Iraq - Where were the Weapons of Mass Destruction? The only WMD were in the hands of the US military as it destroyed Iraqi infrastructure when there was no threat from the Iraqi regime of Saddan Hussein. The only chemical weapons used in Iraq came from US troops against Iraqi civilians. So do we really want to bomb Iran? WHY NOT ASK THE EXPERTS? Dr Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an inter-governmental organization under the auspices of the United Nations is such an expert. He has repeatedly stated that Iran does not have any Nuclear weapons. Who do we believe an expert or a crazy warmonger?

There are currently 189 states party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty including Iran. Countries that don't abide by the rules are the likes of India, Pakistan, and Israel - all so called friends of the USA. Who is the only country in the world to use real Weapons of Mass Destruction? Well it would be easy to ask the citizens of the city of Hiroshima unfortunately I belive most of those are all dead.

With regards to the crazy Podhoretz, Dr ElBaradei gave one of his sternest warnings against using military action against Iran -Referring to "the extreme people who have extreme views" he said: "...You do not want to give additional argument to some of the 'new crazies' who want to say let us go and bomb Iran" -

SO with Iran NOT having anu Nuclear weapons and experts believe it will take 3 to 8 years to make any weapons why are we so worried? And even if they did have any weapons so what? (has Pakistan ever attacked India and vice versa even though they are perseved to be enemies?) Who are Iran going to attack considering the other Superpower that exists in the Middle East? (It was only because brave Mordechai Vanunu exposed this Israel secret in the Sunday times in 1986) It is belived Isreal has over 200 Nuclear weapons.

So my queston is shouldn't we be reducig our own weapons before dictating to others what they could do? Shouldn't we trying to get Pakistan, India and Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? The only threat to the world comes from these neo-cons, these fools should be banished to Siberia, their only goal is to make money and they will do whatever it takes to achieve that.

Guantanamo military lawyer breaks ranks to condemn 'unconscionable' detention

Taken from the Independent, UK, 27 October 2007
By Leonard Doyle in Washington

An American military lawyer and veteran of dozens of secret Guantanamo tribunals has made a devastating attack on the legal process for determining whether Guantanamo prisoners are "enemy combatants".

The whistleblower, an army major inside the military court system which the United States has established at Guantanamo Bay, has described the detention of one prisoner, a hospital administrator from Sudan, as "unconscionable".

His critique will be the centrepiece of a hearing on 5 December before the US Supreme Court when another attempt is made to shut the prison down. So nervous is the Bush administration of the latest attack – and another Supreme Court ruling against it – that it is preparing a whole new system of military courts to deal with those still imprisoned.

The whistleblower's testimony is the most serious attack to date on the military panels, which were meant to give a fig- leaf of legitimacy to the interrogation and detention policies at Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. The major has taken part in 49 status review panels.

"It's a kangaroo court system and completely corrupt," said Michael Ratner, the president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which is co-ordinating investigations and appeals lawsuits against the government by some 1,000 lawyers. "Stalin had show trials, but at Guantanamo they are not even show trials because it all takes place in secret."

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held for 558 detainees at the Guantanamo in 2004 and 2005. All but 38 detainees were determined to be "enemy combatants" who could be held indefinitely without charges. Detainees were not represented by a lawyer and had no access to evidence. The only witnesses they could call were other so-called "enemy combatants".

The army major has said that in the rare circumstances in which it was decided that the detainees were no longer enemy combatants, senior commanders ordered another panel to reverse the decision. The major also described "acrimony" during a "heated conference" call from Admiral McGarragh, who reports to the Secretary of the US Navy, when a the panel refused to describe several Uighur detainees as enemy combatants. Senior military commanders wanted to know why some panels considering the same evidence would come to different findings on the Uighurs, members of a Muslim minority in China.

When the whistleblower suggested over the phone that inconsistent results were "good for the system ... and would show that the system was working correctly", Admiral McGarragh, he said, had no response. The latest criticism emerged when lawyers investigating the case of a Sudanese hospital administrator, Adel Hamad, who has been held for five years, came across a "stunning" sworn statement from a member of the military panel. The officer they interviewed was so frightened of retaliation from the military that they would not allow their name to be used in the statement, nor to reveal whether the person was a man or woman.

Two other military lawyers have also gone public. In June, Army Lt-Col Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran in US military intelligence, became the first insider to publicly fault the proceedings. In May last year, Lt-Com Matthew Diaz was sentenced to six months in prison and dismissed from the military after he sent the names of all 551 men at the prison to a human rights group.

William Teesdale, a British-born lawyer investigating Mr Hadad's case, said he was certain of his client's innocence, having tracked down doctors who worked with him at an Afghan hospital. "Mr Hamad is an innocent man, and he is not the only one in Guantanamo."

Palestinian inmate dies of wounds

Extracted from BBC, Tuesday, 23 October 2007

A Palestinian prisoner has died of wounds he suffered in a riot at a jail in southern Israel.

Israeli prison officials said the man had been hit by what they called non-lethal objects fired by guards during Monday's riot.

They did not disclose the precise devices used on security grounds.

Palestinians say the guards provoked the riot by searching sleeping quarters at night, and then used unacceptably violent methods to regain control.

The Israeli authorities described the search as routine and said guards had used the correct response in view of the danger to their lives.

Fifteen Palestinians and 15 guards were hurt in Monday's riot, Israeli officials said.

More than 2,000 Palestinians are held in Ketziot Prison, in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

There are more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, many being held without ever having faced trial, the BBC's correspondent in Ramallah, Aleem Maqbool, says. While some have been charged with security offences, most here consider them all to be political prisoners and their release is a key Palestinian demand in the negotiations aimed at ending the conflict, he adds.

Angry demonstrations
Prison authorities identified the man dead inmate only as a 30-year-old male serving a two-year sentence.

Ashraf Ajrami, the Palestinian Authority's minister for prisoner affairs, identified him as Mohammad al-Ashkar, a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Hundreds of Palestinians have come out in protest in the West Bank and Gaza against Ashkar's death and calling for Palestinian prisoners to be released.

At one point early on Monday, some of the prison was on fire as inmates battled with their guards.

Palestinian officials say they believe the number of wounded is far higher and that 10 of the injured prisoners needed hospital treatment.

Gujarat riots a genocide; Modi sanctioned it: Tehelka

Taken from rediff.com, October 25, 2007 21:19 IST
By Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Investigative weekly Tehelka on Thursday claimed to have unravelled the truth behind the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Tehelka claimed it had 'irrefutable' evidence that the killings of Muslims post-Godhra train carnage in Gujarat was 'not a spontaneous swell of anger but a genocide' planned and executed by top functionaries of the Sangh Parivar and state authorities 'with the sanction' of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Tehelka Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal claimed that the magazine had carried out a sting operation over the last six months by talking to a number of Sangh Parivar leaders, including Godhra BJP MLA Haresh Bhatt, Shiv Sena leader Babu Bajrangi, who was earlier in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and VHP leaders Anil Patel and Dhawal Jayanti Patel, to bring out the truth.

"We have evidence that bombs were being made in the VHP office premises," Harinder Baweja, Editor (Investigations), told rediff.com.

"In Tehelka's ground breaking investigations, for the first time, hear the truth of the genocidal killings from the men who actually did it. In shocking disclosures, Chief Minister Narendra Modi came and patted the back of criminals, and told them that they had done a good job," Baweja said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has reacted sharply to the magazine's report stating that Tehelka was acting as CIA (Congress Investigating Agency) and it was a collusive sting, which could hardly be called investigative journalism.

Party spokesman Prakash Javedekar said the 'dirty tricks department' of the Congress was at work again in view of the assembly elections in Gujarat.

None of the leaders caught on camera in the expose was available for comments, except Gujarat VHP leader Dhawal Jayanti Patel who said Bajrangi had not talked to him during the riots and that he had not seen the sting operation.

Bhatt was purportedly caught on tape saying he was present in a meeting in which Modi allegedly gave him three days time 'to do whatever they wanted.'

"After three days, he (Modi) asked to stop and everything came to a halt," Bhatt said, adding that the chief minister thanked them after the Naroda Patiya masssacre.

The magazine claimed that Dhawal Jayanti Patel told its undercover reporter that the VHP activists made lots of bombs in a factory owned by him. A BJP MLA was shown as saying they even made rocket launchers, which were used in the pogrom.

It also claimed that it has exposed 'a trail of lies and coercions' that establishes the fire in coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002 was a case of spontaneous mob fury and not a pre-meditated conspiracy as stated by the Gujarat government.

Additional Reportage: PTI

Shin Bet prevented medical care to Palestinian cancer patient

Taken from Haaretz, Israel, 24/10/2007
By Amira Hass

The Shin Bet is refusing to allow a 21-year-old Rafiah man who is sick with cancer and in need of immediate medical care to come to Israel, even though he obtained permission from the Israeli Defense Forces' Coordination and Liaison Administration.

The Shin Bet also arrested the patient's father, who accompanied him to the hospital. Mahmoud Abu Taha was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine in August 2007. Treatment in Gaza was unsuccessful, and he lost a third of his body weight. In addition, he is not taking all of the vitamins he needs because of the shortage of medications in Gazan hospitals.

Because of his serious condition, the doctors decided to postpone chemotherapy and send him to Tel HaShomer hospital in Ramat Gan. According to Mahmoud's brother, Hanni Abu Taleh, on October 18, they received permission shortly after they filed a request with the IDF. The father and his sick son drove in an ambulance to Erez Crossing, and after a half-hour wait, the father's name was called on the loudspeaker. According to the brother, the patient continued to wait in the ambulance, lying on a stretcher and attached to an oxygen tank and an infusion. After two hours, it was announced on the loudspeaker that he was denied entrance into Israel.

They returned to the hospital in Khan Yunis. At the same time, a person who identified himself as an officer with the Shin Bet called Hanni and told him that his father had been arrested. The family filed another request for Mahmoud to come for medical treatment at Tel HaShomer, but they still have not received a reply. The Shin Bet maintains that "Abu Taha arrived at the Erez Crossing during a specific warning of a terror attack at the border crossing. Due to the fact that it was not allowed to carry out a security check on him, he was prevented from exiting to Israel." The Shin Bet also said that the father of Mahmoud was arrested on suspicion of involvement in terror acitivites.

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The Shin Bet security service have a history of preventing medication going into occupied Palestine as well as allowing medical treatment of Palestinians into Israel. Only a few weeks ago Israeli rights group - Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reported due to the the Shin Bet organization, in many cases, patients have been denied urgent, life-saving treatment. The report says that the Shin Bet automatically refuses entry permits, and reconsiders its decisions only if legal action is begun. SO why is healt care so rubbish in Occupied Palestine? Could it be that Israel refuses to hand over Palestinian tax payers money so that Palestinians cannot finance themselves? Maybe. Here is a good talkback found in

A jewish racise on the website talkback asked "Give one example of a Jew treated in an Arab WB or Gaza hospital"

Here was a good reply from a sensible person...
Title: #17 Pt 1 - No Israeli would need it,
Name: Rebekah S, City:Washington DC
because Israeli healthcare has not been systematically undermined as it has for Palestinians under Israeli rule. In contrast, healthcare in Gaza was stripped so bare between 1967 and the Oslo Accords, that the PA - which cannot possibly afford to build from scratch an advanced health care system, and which in the case of cancer patients would not be able to do so anyway seeing as Israel refuses to allow radiotherapy equipment into Gaza for "security reasons" - has to pay for advanced treatments abroad. About one-sixth go to Israel, and the PA pays for it. About two-thirds go to Egypt, but the Rafah crossing to Egypt remains closed as long as Israel does not allow the EU monitors based in Ashqelon to enter the Strip and reach the crossing. So a cancer patient today cannot get advanced treatment in Gaza because the Israelis say that would be a security risk, he cannot go to Egypt for it because Israel keeps Rafah closed to punish the Gaza coup, and now he cannot enter Israel either.


LATEST UPDATE: 30 OCTOBER 2007
This week it has been reveale dthat Prime Minister Olmert is to undergo operation for prostate cancer but at the same time the Cancer patient that was prevented from entering the hospital has died.

6 soldiers suspected of beating Druze comrades

Soldiers repeatedly kick Druze soldier who was late for guard duty; his friend also beaten up. Military judge: Incident has racist overtones

Taken from Ynet news, Israel, Hanan Greenberg
20.10.07,

Six IDF soldiers have been detained by Military Police over the past few days on suspicion of beating two of their Druze comrades at the Samaria Division headquarters in the West Bank, Ynet learned Saturday.

One of the Druze soldiers testified that he sustained blows to his entire body and that his friend was also beaten after trying to come to his aid.

"I'm very scared, because I believe they will try and take their revenge; they are very dangerous," the soldier told army investigators.

During a court hearing on the extension of five of the six soldiers' remand, Jaffa Military Court President Colonel Avi Levy described the incident as "a vile act" and said it had "racist overtones."

In the next few weeks Military Police will apparently file an indictment against the five soldiers whose remand was extended.

'Stab him, stab him already'
The scuffle broke out following an argument over guard duty. Apparently, one of the Druze soldiers was late in replacing one of his comrades and hurled insults at another soldier who confronted him on the matter.

A few hours later, one of the soldiers on the base approached the Druze soldier as he was coming out of the shower. According to the Druze soldier, the soldier who approached him summoned one of his friends and then said to him, "Is this how you talk to my brother?"

"Then he cursed me and headbutted me," the Druze soldier told army investigators. "I felt dizzy and then fell to the ground; I was kicked in the neck, back, stomach, hips – wherever – they kept kicking me all over."

The soldier said the assailants spewed racial epithets and threatened to "butcher" him.

Eventually the battered soldier managed to run toward the base's commissary while screaming for help, but the soldiers chased after him.

At a certain point one of the soldiers who took part in the beginning of the fight appeared and proceeded to throw the Druze soldier down on the ground and beat him along with the others.

"They continued to kick me, and one of them said 'stab him; stab him already'," the Druze soldier recounted.

The Druze soldier then fled to a nearby Border Guard base, where he informed an officer of what had transpired.

Immediately following the incident an impromptu lineup was set up, during which the Druze soldier identified his attackers. He was then transferred to a hospital for treatment.

"I'm still in need of additional medical treatment; I have nightmares," he told Military Police.

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Well it was only a few months ago that Senior IDF officers & Israeli government officials gatherd in Carmiel to honor IDF's Druze soldiers (there are currently 110,000 Druze soldiers in its ranks). The truth of the matter is that anyone that is not a Jew in Israel is considered an outsider even those who have lived there (includes occupied areas) for centuries. Non jews are prevented from proper medical, eduction and even jobs in the state. They have little hope in a country where European and American jews are First Class Citizens, followed by Jews who have lived in the Middle East for centuries (second class citizens), then Christians are third class, then follwed by Eithopean black jews, then Druze, then Muslims are the lowest class. So much for Democracy in the Middle East and all that!

Palestinians: Settlers hurling stones at us

Dozens of right-wing activists living in illegal West Bank outpost constantly harassing local residents, Palestinians say

Taken from YNetnews Israel, 13.10.07
By Amit Schneider

Dozens of settlers living in the illegal West Bank outpost of Shvut Ami have been harassing Palestinians and hurling stones at their cars, local residents told Ynet on Saturday.

Shvut Ami is one of the five outposts built by right-wing activists during the holiday of Sukkot. About 200 people arrived at the area on the day of construction, but most of them left.

The following day, IDF forces began evacuating the outposts, but the soldiers were forced to return to Shvut Ami the week later after a number of right-wing activists returned to the area.
It appears, however, that there are several settlers still living in the illegal outpost and disrupting the lives of the local residents traveling on nearby roads.

"The road goes under the outpost, and the settlers throw stones from 5 meters above, "said Zakaria Seda, a resident of the village of Jit, near Kedumim. "Palestinians from the Qalqilya and Nablus area who pass by are harassed by the settlers."

Seda said that many drivers were injured on the road as their car windows were shattered by the stones, and that a settler even caused a road accident this week by hurling a stone at a moving car.

"The driver had to suddenly brake, and was hit in the back by another car."

'Police looking into incident'
According to Seda, he filed four different complaints with the local District Coordination Office (DCO) this week, but was ignored.

"There were many complaints to the Israel Police and the DCO, and no solution was provided.

They told me they were working on it and that they would be evacuated, but unfortunately this has not happened. The Palestinians here live in fear. We seek a solution and wish to live in peace with the Israelis."

According to Seda, this was not the first time settlers disrupted Palestinians' lives in the area.

"The Palestinian residents are harassed, mainly by residents of the Havat Gilad outpost who uproot trees or set fire to their property," he claimed.

The Judea and Samaria police said in response that a report filed by a Palestinian claiming that stones were hurled at moving cars near the Jit junction was received on Friday through the DCO, and that the incident was being looked into by the police.

Efrat Weiss and Roee Nahmias contributed to this report

End olive harvest attacks

If understanding with PA to be reached, settler rioters at olive groves should be dealt with

Taken from Ynetnews, israel, 10.10.07
By Yehuda Litani

"A Palestinian farmer residing in the Tal village adjacent to Kedumim was stoned by settlers from the Gilad outpost while harvesting olives. The man was treated at the site and evacuated to hospital. The Rabbis for Human Rights organization lodged a complaint with the IDF and the Coordination and Liaison Authority."

This laconic report by the French news agency Tuesday is just the opening shot ahead of another season of trouble at West Bank olive groves.

Each year during this season the harsh events carried out by settlers attacking the Palestinian olive harvesters are repeated, and each year security officials repeatedly assure they will do their utmost to prevent such attacks. However, both the Palestinian farmers and the settlers know how "serious" these assurances are.

The olive tree was selected this year as Israel's "national tree." Some 8,800 Ynet surfers voted for it ahead of the Olympics in Beijing next year. However, similar to several other matters, the Olive tree is also the national tree of our Palestinian neighbors-enemies. They didn’t select it in an online competition ahead of the Olympics: Since the 1950s the majority of Palestinians have regarded the olive tree as their national emblem. Being torn from their olive trees is a motif that is repeated in Palestinian literature and poetry in the past 10 years.

Each year skirmishes between Jewish settlers and Palestinian farmers take place adjacent to these trees in the West Bank. The farmers blame the settlers for attempting to steal their "single prized possession" – the olive and oil yield on which the livelihood of tens of thousands of families are dependent throughout the long winter months.

In the eyes of the farmers, these attacks are the continuation of another harsh abuse: During the construction of the separation fence in recent years, construction contractors uprooted thousands of olive trees, the vast majority of which were sold to Israeli nurseries.

The attack on harvesters, the damage to the olive groves and the uprooting of trees are perceived by the Palestinian public as an attempt to uproot them from their land. Moreover, the security forces are exhibiting an unfathomable helplessness wherever protecting the Palestinian farmers and in warding off settler aggression is concerned.

The incumbent government is seeking to reach understandings with the Palestinian Authority regarding the West Bank and Jerusalem. The prime minister is seeking to strengthen the heads of the Authority so that the Hamas takeover of Gaza will not be repeated in the West Bank.

Yet while secret understandings are being reached at the covert meetings between Olmert and Abbas, life goes on as usual at the West Bank olive groves.

It is worth noting that this year very low yields are expected (last year there was an abundance of olives, and this year the opposite is expected due to the trees' biennial cycle), and each yield harvested is rare and its price set accordingly.

If this year the security establishment does not show some determination in its handling of the attacks, cabinet representatives will find it difficult to convince Palestinians that their intentions are indeed serious in more critical matters such as establishing a Palestinian state, transfer of land and reaching an agreement on Jerusalem.

Despite the matter being seemingly marginal, perhaps our cabinet leaders should remember that which is written in the bible: A good name is better than precious oil.

Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality against Palestinians

A psychologist blames assaults on civilians in the 1990s on soldiers' bad training, boredom and poor supervision

Taken from The Observer (Guardian online), UK
By Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem

A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the country's soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor training and discipline. In her recently published report, co-authored by Professor Yoel Elizur, Yishai-Karin details a series of violent incidents, including the beating of a four-year-old boy by an officer.

The report, although dealing with the experience of soldiers in the 1990s, has triggered an impassioned debate in Israel, where it was published in an abbreviated form in the newspaper Haaretz last month. According to Yishai Karin: 'At one point or another of their service, the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of danger.'

In the words of one soldier: 'The truth? When there is chaos, I like it. That's when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into Rafah, and if there isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go nuts.'

Another explained: 'The most important thing is that it removes the burden of the law from you. You feel that you are the law. You are the law. You are the one who decides... As though from the moment you leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God.'

The soldiers described dozens of incidents of extreme violence. One recalled an incident when a Palestinian was shot for no reason and left on the street. 'We were in a weapons carrier when this guy, around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason - he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look,' he said.

The soldiers developed a mentality in which they would use physical violence to deter Palestinians from abusing them. One described beating women. 'With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke everything there. She can't have children. Next time she won't throw clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the rifle butt in the face. She doesn't have what to spit with any more.'

Yishai-Karin found that the soldiers were exposed to violence against Palestinians from as early as their first weeks of basic training. On one occasion, the soldiers were escorting some arrested Palestinians. The arrested men were made to sit on the floor of the bus. They had been taken from their beds and were barely clothed, even though the temperature was below zero. The new recruits trampled on the Palestinians and then proceeded to beat them for the whole of the journey. They opened the bus windows and poured water on the arrested men.

The disclosure of the report in the Israeli media has occasioned a remarkable response. In letters responding to the recollections, writers have focused on both the present and past experience of Israeli soldiers to ask troubling questions that have probed the legitimacy of the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces.

The study and the reactions to it have marked a sharp change in the way Israelis regard their period of military service - particularly in the occupied territories - which has been reflected in the increasing levels of conscientious objection and draft-dodging.

The debate has contrasted sharply with an Israeli army where new recruits are taught that they are joining 'the most ethical army in the world' - a refrain that is echoed throughout Israeli society. In its doctrine, published on its website, the Israeli army emphasises human dignity.

'The Israeli army and its soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity. Every human being is of value regardless of his or her origin, religion, nationality, gender, status or position.'

However, the Israeli army, like other armies, has found it difficult to maintain these values beyond the classroom. The first intifada, which began in 1987, before the wave of suicide bombings, was markedly different to the violence of the second intifada, and its main events were popular demonstrations with stone-throwing.

Yishai-Karin, in an interview with Haaretz, described how her research came out of her own experience as a soldier at an army base in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. She interviewed 18 ordinary soldiers and three officers whom she had served with in Gaza. The soldiers described how the violence was encouraged by some commanders. One soldier recalled: 'After two months in Rafah, a [new] commanding officer arrived... So we do a first patrol with him. It's 6am, Rafah is under curfew, there isn't so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from the combat engineers.

'He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock...

'The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers are already starting to do the same thing."

Yishai-Karin concluded that the main reason for the soldiers' violence was a lack of training. She found that the soldiers did not know what was expected of them and therefore were free to develop their own way of behaviour. The longer a unit was left in the field, the more violent it became. The Israeli soldiers, she concluded, had a level of violence which is universal across all nations and cultures. If they are allowed to operate in difficult circumstances, such as in Gaza and the West Bank, without training and proper supervision, the violence is bound to come out.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that, if a soldier deviates from the army's norms, they could be investigated by the military police or face criminal investigation.

She said: 'It should be noted that since the events described in Nufar Yishai-Karin's research the number of ethical violations by IDF soldiers involving the Palestinian population has consistently dropped. This trend has continued in the last few years.'

Private equity funds risk destabilising poor countries: UNCTAD

Taken from Yahoo News, Tuesday, October 16
By William French, AFP

Private equity funds are an increasing force among global investors but their short-term approach risks destabilising some developing countries, the United Nations trade and development agency said on Tuesday.

Private equity funds were involved in 889 merger and acquisition deals in 2006, some 18 percent of the global total and worth a record 158 billion dollars (111 billion euros), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its "World Investment Report 2007."

Overall, global foreign direct investment (FDI) reached 1,306 billion dollars in 2006, up 38 percent and close to the record 1,411 billion dollars set in 2000.

Investment growth occurred across all regions of the global economy, from developed countries to the developing world and the "transition" economies of Southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union, the report said.

Mergers and acquisitions remained the driving force behind FDI and private equity's growing role in this field merits serious study given its different investment strategy, UNCTAD said.

"We need to understand the role and the behaviour of the private equity funds more," UNCTAD director general Supachai Panitchpakdi told journalists.

"To me, they do not look like long-term investors," he said.

Private equity groups specialise in raising cash from private investors and banks, which they then use to buy underperforming publically listed companies, which are taken private, restructured and re-sold, often at great profit.

Britain and North America are the most important regions for fundraising and investments by private equity firms but continental Europe and Asia are gaining ground, the UNCTAD report said.

The largest private equity takeover to date is the 45 billion dollar purchase of Texas utility TXU by a consortium including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Texas Pacific Group and major Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs.

"Private equity funds have typically shorter time horizons than public companies engaged in buyouts as they are inclined to look for options that offer quick returns," the UNCTAD report said.

Supachai warned that the short-term investment strategy inherent in private equity deals "can sometimes destabilise countries if they are overly dependent on these equity funds.

"They dismantle companies and sell plants ... unlike the kind of greenfield investment we like to see," he added.

"Greenfield" investments are projects such as new power plants or factories constructed from scratch.

UNCTAD said that growing competition in the private equity market and the soaring cost of investments casts some doubts as to the sustainability of the high level of their FDI activity.

Private equity funds have long been criticised by trade unions and left-wing politicians for so-called "asset stripping" and a cavalier attitude towards the workers in companies they acquire.

Two years ago, Germany's Social Democrat party chief Franz Muentefering, currently the government's labour minister, famously likened the investment funds to "locusts" for allegedly stripping companies of their most valuable assets and then moving on.

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It is true that Private equity firms are nothing but asset strippers. Their main aim is to make money in the short run. Unfortunately that is the life we live today, everybody looking after themselves and not others as a famous economist once said... in the long run we are all dead!

US silent on Israel grab of Arab land

Taken from Yahoo News, 10, October 2007
By AFP

The United States refused to immediately comment Wednesday on Israel's decision to confiscate Arab land near Jerusalem, one day before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to head to the region. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Washington had not yet determined what its official reaction would be.

"(I'm) still looking into it," he said. "I want to understand better the facts on the ground from our people in the field."

"As soon as I have those, I'll be happy to provide you with a reaction."

Israel on Tuesday ordered the confiscation of Arab land outside east Jerusalem, officials said, reviving fears that the occupied West Bank could be split in two and challenging peace overtures.

The appropriation orders came as Israelis and Palestinians prepare for a major US-sponsored international peace summit widely expected in Maryland next month, and were immediately criticized by Arab authorities.

Washington's silence contrasts with the reaction by France, Egypt and Jordan, all of which have denounced the land grab.

Rice was due to depart Washington Thursday for Moscow and the Middle East, hoping to lay the groundwork for the peace meeting.

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I doubt if Condoleezza Rice will make any statements, after all this is nothing new. The US has vetoed every UN resolution condemning Israel for criminal acts - so don't expect anything to happen with this issue.

Argentina 'dirty war' priest jailed

Taken from Al-Jezeera News Agency,
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2007

The first Roman Catholic priest charged for crimes committed under Argentina's past military government has been sentenced to life in prison.

Christian von Wernich was convicted on Tuesday of involvement in torture, kidnapping and murder during a trial that focused attention on the church's role in the 1976-1983 "dirty war".



The former police chaplain was found to have been a "co-participant" with police in seven homicides, 31 torture cases and 42 kidnappings during the military rule that critics say the church did little to oppose.

One judge described the offences as crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors said he extracted information from prisoners during the Catholic practice of confession and took money from families of prisoners ostensibly to help send the detainees into exile when they had already been killed.

Verdict welcomed
Fireworks exploded outside the federal courthouse after Judge Carlos Rozanski announced the conviction and prison sentence handed down by a three-judge federal panel. Inside the court, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a human rights group still seeking "missing" sons and daughters from the period, cheered loudly.



"Justice has been done. This is a historic day we Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo never thought we'd live to see," Tati Almeyda, a member of the group said. Adriana Calvo, of the association of former detainees and the missing, said: "That a court has acknowledged that genocide exists in our country is an encouragement for us to carry on and justifies so many years of struggle."
Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman said von Wernich showed little emotion when the verdict was read out.

She added that in theory, von Wernich, 69, had the right to be moved to house arrest once he turned 70.

Earlier, using biblical language, the priest professed his innocence during mere minutes of final testimony after his defence spent hours in closing arguments.

"False testimony is of the devil because he is responsible for malice and is the father of evil and lies," he said, prompting murmurs in the courtroom packed with torture survivors and human rights activists.

Detention centres
Prosecutors said von Wernich had been linked by survivors to at least five clandestine detention camps in Buenos Aires province.

During the three-month trial, more than 70 witnesses testified and judges toured former torture centres at police stations with survivors.

The "dirty war" officially left some 13,000 dead or missing, although human rights groups have put the toll at nearly 30,000.

Juan Martin Cerolini, von Wernich's defence lawyer, argued that as part of his duties as a priest, the defendant was obliged to visit police detention centres but that did not mean he played any part in the state crackdown. He rejected survivor testimony suggesting von Wernich - who wore a bullet-proof vest over his clerical collar during the trial - conspired with police to help extract information from prisoners under the guise of giving them spiritual assistance.

Von Wernich said in his last words to the judges that he never violated the priestly prohibition against revealing information obtained in the Roman Catholic practice of confession.

"No priest of the Catholic church ... has ever violated this sacrament," he said.

Stricken with pain
The Catholic church, in a statement issued immediately after the verdict was announced, said it was stricken with pain at seeing "a priest participating in very serious crimes." "If any member of the church ... by recommendation or complicity, endorsed the violent repression, he did so under his own responsibility, straying from and sinning gravely against God, humanity and his own conscience," Jorge Bergoglio, Buenos Aires archbishop, said.

Rights organisations allege that the church turned its back to the atrocities committed during military rule and even covered up rights violations, which included the deaths and disappearances of priests and nuns.

The von Wernich case is the biggest human rights trial in Argentina since former police chief Miguel Etchecolatz was convicted in September 2006 in the same La Plata courthouse.

The trials came after the Supreme Court in 2005 annulled amnesty laws blocking prosecution of scores of former state security agents or their civilian allies.

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Torture Appeal

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Torture Appeal

Taken from New York Times, October 9, 2007
By DAVID STOUT

A German citizen who said he was kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency and tortured in a prison in Afghanistan lost his last chance to seek redress in court today when the Supreme Court declined to consider his case.

The justices’ refusal to take the case of Khaled el-Masri let stand a March 2 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. That court upheld a 2006 decision by a federal district judge, who dismissed Mr. Masri’s lawsuit on the grounds that trying the case could expose state secrets.

The Supreme Court’s refusal, without comment, to take the case was not surprising, given that a three-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit was unanimous. Nevertheless, today’s announcement prompted immediate expressions of dismay, and it could exacerbate tensions between the United States and Germany.

The Fourth Circuit acknowledged the seriousness of the issues when it dismissed Mr. Masri’s suit. “We recognize the gravity of our conclusions that el-Masri must be denied a judicial forum for his complaint,” Judge Robert B. King wrote in March. “The inquiry is a difficult one, for it pits the judiciary’s search for truth against the executive’s duty to maintain the nation’s security.”

The ordeal of Mr. Masri, who is of Lebanese descent and was apparently the victim of mistaken identity, was the most extensively documented case of the C.I.A.’s controversial practice of “extraordinary rendition,” in which terrorism suspects are abducted and sent for interrogation to other countries, including some in which torture is practiced.

The episode has already caused hard feelings between the United States and Germany, whose diplomatic ties were already frayed because of differences over the war in Iraq. Mr. Masri’s lawyer in Germany, Manfred Gnjidic, said the high court’s refusal to consider the case sends a message that the United States expects other nations to act responsibly but refuses to take responsibility for its own actions.

“We are very disappointed,” Mr. Gnjidic said in an interview today with The Associated Press.

“It will shatter all trust in the American justice system.”

Mr. Masri contended in his suit that he was seized by local law enforcement officials while vacationing in Macedonia on New Year’s Eve 2003. At the time, he was 41 years old and an unemployed car salesman.

“They asked a lot of questions — if I have relations with Al Qaeda, Al Haramain, the Islamic Brotherhood,” Mr. Masri said in a 2005 interview with The New York Times. “I kept saying no, but they did not believe me.”

After 23 days, he said, he was turned over to C.I.A. operatives, who flew him to a secret C.I.A. prison in Kabul. There, Mr. Masri said, he was kept in a small, filthy cell and was shackled, drugged and beaten while being interrogated about his supposed ties to terrorist organizations.

At the end of May 2004, Mr. Masri said, he was released in a remote part of Albania without ever having been charged with a crime.

The C.I.A. has never acknowledged any role in Mr. Masri’s detention. But investigations in Europe, as well as news reports in the United States, have bolstered his version of events. German prosecutors issued arrest warrants in January for 13 suspected C.I.A. agents believed to have taken part in the operation that swept up Mr. Masri.

As a practical matter, it is extremely unlikely that President Bush would ever agree to turn the 13 agents over to German authorities. But the warrants against them could hinder their ability to travel in Europe.

When the Fourth Circuit dismissed Mr. Masri’s suit, Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the action “truly unbelievable” and “reminiscent of third-world countries.”

The Constitution Project, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to focus attention on constitutional issues, called the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the case “profoundly disappointing.”

“The government’s treatment of Mr. El-Masri has been appalling, and the executive branch should not be permitted to hide its mistakes behind the so-called state secrets privilege,” said the organization’s senior counsel, Sharon Bradford Franklin. “Now that the court has declined to consider this issue, Congress should immediately take up legislation to reform the state secrets privilege and clarify that it does not authorize unchecked power to disregard individual rights.”

Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has introduced legislation to ban extraordinary rendition, said today that “the Bush administration reflexively responds with the ‘state secrets’ defense whenever it is caught bending or simply ignoring the law.”

The chief White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said later that, on the contrary, the administration is “judicious” in citing state secrets to avoid lawsuits. “And the fact that the Supreme Court agreed with us is, in our opinion, a good thing,” Ms. Perino said.

For his part, Mr. Masri was arrested by the German police in May on suspicion of setting a fire that caused $675,000 in damage to a market in a Bavarian town. His lawyer said Mr. Masri had had a dispute with the store, and that his action was the result of not receiving psychological counseling that he had sought. A German judge ordered him held in a psychiatric ward.

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Angela Merkel is no Gerhard Schroder, so I doubt Germany will be doing anything that benefits the interest of its people - this will all probably be forgotten in the interest of national security (US National Security that is). Maybe Merkel should be the one ordered by the German judge to be held in a psychiatric ward! ...by the way does anyone know what happened to the Italian case against the CIA agents?

Another security firm involved in Iraq shooting

Taken from The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 10 October 2007
Reuters/AFP/AAP

A foreign security company staffed mainly by Australian guards said one of its security teams was involved in Tuesday's fatal shooting in central Baghdad.

The Iraqi government said two women were shot dead by foreign security guards.

The scene of the incident was near a base of Unity Resources Group (URG), which is staffed mainly by Australian guards.

The Australian head of the security company, Michael Priddin, confirmed the company had been involved in the shooting incident.

"We deeply regret this incident and we will continue to pass on further information when the facts have been verified and the necessary people and authorities have been notified," Mr Priddin told ABC Radio this morning.

Mr Priddin said the exact circumstances of the incident were still to be determined and the company was working with Iraqi authorities to do so.

"In essence, what we know is that one of our security teams was involved in a shooting incident on Tuesday at approximately 1.40 in the afternoon in the Karrada area of Baghdad," he said.

"One of our security teams which was mobile was approached at speed by a vehicle which had failed to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and signal flares.

Finally shots were fired at the vehicle and the vehicle itself stopped."

Security organisations in Iraq are under intense scrutiny after guards from the US security firm Blackwater allegedly opened fire without provocation in Baghdad last month and killed 17 people while escorting a convoy of US diplomats.

Several witnesses said the convoy had headed in the direction of the URG base - a hotel complex sealed off behind high concrete walls and sand bags.

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Well you couldn't make it up... The fact is that over the years while British and American soldiers have faced courts martial over alleged crimes carried out in Iraq, not one security contractor has been prosecuted at home or in Iraq despite a significant number of allegations of abuse. The media have only recently been tuning into these stories.

Iraq seeks $9m for each Blackwater victim

Taken from The Sydney Morning Herald, October 10, 2007
By Anne Davies and agencies

IRAQI authorities have demanded $US8 million (8.9 million Australian dollars) in compensation for the families of each of the 17 people killed when Blackwater USA guards opened fire on a crowded square last month.

A report issued by the Iraqi Government, which calls on the US Government to end its relationship with the controversial security firm within six months, is set to further raise tensions between the Government of the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and the White House.
The report said the compensation - totalling $US136 million - was so high "because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country".

The US military pays compensation to the families of civilians killed in battles or to cover property damage, but at far lower amounts. The Iraqi Government has called on US authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts and has disputed US claims that a law agreed to in 2004 grants the Blackwater guards immunity.

"The investigation committee appointed by [Mr Maliki] has finished its inquiry and has found that there was no evidence that the convoy of Blackwater came under fire directly or indirectly," a Government statement said, quoting the inquiry's findings. "Employees of the company violated the rules governing use of force by security companies. They have committed a deliberate crime and should be punished under the law."

The Iraqi Government would now take "judicial measures to punish the company", the statement said.

The US embassy was tight-lipped on whether those involved in the killings would be handed over for prosecution in a case that has thrown the spotlight on the murky world of private security operators in Iraq.

"This and other matters will be discussed by the joint commission as they proceed with their work [so it is] best not to prejudge the outcome of their discussions," an embassy spokeswoman, Mirembe Nantongo, told AFP, referring to a joint Iraq-US inquiry into the shootings.

Blackwater USA has more than 1000 contractors in Iraq protecting US diplomats, reconstruction and aid officials. On September 16 an operation went horribly wrong when a convoy entered the crowded Nisoor Square and the square was sprayed by machine-gun fire.

Since then, it has been revealed that the company has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2004.

Blackwater officials have claimed that the convoy on September 16 was under attack from gunfire, but no Iraqi witnesses have corroborated the report.

The report found that Blackwater guards also had killed 21 Iraqi civilians and wounded 27 in previous shootings since it took over security for US diplomats in Baghdad after the US invasion.The Iraqi Government did not say whether it would try to prosecute in those cases.

The US has not made conclusive findings about the shooting, though there are multiple investigations under way and Congress has opened inquiries into the role of private security contractors.

US university urged to lift ban on Tutu

well - what happened to "freedom of speech" in America? This is an interesting article...

Taken from The Jerusalem Post, Oct 6, 2007
By Associated Press

Faculty members, students and others have urged the University of St. Thomas to reconsider its decision opposing a campus visit by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

University spokesman Doug Hennes said the situation will be discussed next week with the school's president, the Rev. Dennis Dease.

Dease defended his decision to oppose the visit in a statement Friday, saying that a speech Tutu delivered in 2002 was offensive to the Jewish community because it compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to Adolf Hitler's policies.

"I spoke with Jews for whom I have a greatrespect," Dease said. "What stung these individuals was not that Archbishop Tutu criticized Israel, but how he did so, and the moral equivalencies that they felt he drew between Israel's policies and those of Nazi Germany, and between Zionism and racism."

Dease has received more than 1,800 e-mails, encouraged by Oakland, California-based Jewish Voice for Peace, asking him to reverse his stand and invite Tutu to the campus. The e-mails also asked Dease to reinstate Cris Toffolo as director of the school's peace and justice program, the group said.

Toffolo has said her support for Tutu's visit was cited as a reason for her removal from the post, but Dease denied that. Toffolo is still a faculty member at the school.

On the campus of the private Catholic university in St. Paul, students have put up fliers supporting Tutu.

St. Thomas theology professor David Landry called Dease's stance "very regrettable." Landry added that "a lot of Jews have written they don't find Tutu's remarks terribly offensive, and I've read his speech and I don't think he equates the state of Israel with Hitler, and I don't think he referred to Zionism as racism."

Mordecai Specktor, publisher and editor of American Jewish World, a weekly Jewish newspaper in Minnesota, said: "The Jewish community can survive a speech by Archbishop Tutu. We've endured worse."