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استنكار لقانون التشهير والقذف في ليبيا - *منظمة الراية لحقوق الانسان* *E mail : **arayahro@yahoo.ie* *Blog: arayaarabic.blogspot.com* *التاريخ/ 01/01/2014 * *رقم اشاري / 0001177* *إستنكار* *لق...
May 27, 2009
Speak Up in the Face of Appalling Silences,
Speak Up in the Face of Appalling Silences, Celebrated Human Rights Lawyer Tells Santa Clara University School of Law 2009 Graduating Class SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Use your diplomas as microphones to speak up in the face of “appalling silences,” Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) told the 280 graduating members of Santa Clara University School of Law. The law school’s 98th commencement took place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the University’s Mission Gardens, on a sunny day attended by a jubilant and multi-ethnic crowd of about 3,500 family, friends and supporters of the Class of 2009. Santa Clara Law’s Class of 2009 is nearly evenly split between male and female graduates, with 49 percent women and 51 percent men. One of the top-ranked schools for diversity, 23 percent of SCU Law’s graduates are Asian or Pacific Islander; 6 percent each Hispanic and African American; 5 percent Mid Eastern; and 43 percent Caucasian. Twenty one already have advanced degrees. Speaking extemporaneously from a dais under crisp white awnings, Stevenson spoke to his rapt audience about “the importance of recognizing your power.” He said he could trace his own empowerment to his grandmother’s doting love, saying she taught him to respect words, to consider them your identity. “There is power in identity,” he said. “If we say something, with the identity that we have, we can change the way people think, we can change the way people behave,” he added, telling a story about a racist and abusive prison guard who eventually came to treat Stevenson respectfully after hearing him passionately defend an unfairly treated client in court. “Nothing is impossible if you speak up,” he said. Stevenson has won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal justice system, and for working to overturn unjust death penalties, especially in the South where the legacy of racism persists. Under his leadership, EJI has assisted in securing relief for at least 75 condemned prisoners in Alabama, advocated for poor people, and developed community-based reform litigation aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice. Stevenson has argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Summarizing some of the core lessons he’s learned, Stevenson repeated his oft-stated belief that “each person is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done,” and “the opposite of poverty is justice.” He said one “appalling silence” he is currently trying to break is the trend toward the permanent disenfranchisement of black males, as more and more of them lose the right to vote due to laws stripping convicted offenders of that basic right. He is also fighting to stop 13 and 14-year-olds from being tried as adults and sentenced to life in prison, and to help give hope to extremely poor youth in inner cities. “If we don’t say something there will be costs; there will be consequences,” he said. He also made the crowd laugh with a story of how in a fit of frustration he filed an unsuccessful motion to have his teen client tried, not as an adult, but as “a 75-year-old privileged white corporate executive.” Stevenson was introduced by Santa Clara Law Dean Don Polden, and his speech followed a welcome by Santa Clara University’s president Michael Engh, S.J. Engh issued his own request to the students to “be heroes” like Stevenson, to “inspire us by your lives as lawyers,” and perform works that will inspire emulation in children. Although Stevenson has spent decades speaking up for “the hated,” the wrongfully convicted or shoddily defended poor, he urged students to be vocal no matter which field of law they practice. “You have the capacity, you have the power, you have the ability when you leave this place today to say things that can change the world around you,” said Stevenson, who received an honorary doctor of law degree on Saturday. He graduated magna cum laude from Eastern University in Pennsylvania, before attending Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government, from which he graduated in 1985. Stevenson received a standing ovation from the entire audience, including the graduating class. About Santa Clara University School of Law Santa Clara Law, founded in 1911 on the site of California’s oldest operating higher-education institution, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. One of the nation’s most diverse law schools, Santa Clara Law offers its 975 students an academically rigorous program, including graduate degrees in international law and intellectual property law; a combined J.D./MBA degree; and certificates in intellectual property law, international law, and public interest and social justice law. Santa Clara Law is located in the world-class business center of Silicon Valley and is distinguished nationally for its highly ranked program in intellectual property. For more information, see www.law.scu.edu. About Santa Clara University Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,758 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.
May 25, 2009
US neo-conservatives are undermining Obama's attempts to close Guantanamo Bay
US neo-conservatives are undermining Obama's attempts to close Guantanamo Bay and put an end to torture. We urgently need to respond with visible public pressure -- let's chip in to create a massive 'Stay Strong Obama' billboard right in the centre of Washington: President Obama's commitment to reverse and investigate Bush's brutal and illegal detention and interrogation policies is under real threat. Torture advocates like former Vice-President Dick Cheney, perhaps fearing personal consequences for their actions, have launched a massive campaign to oppose Obama -- and, incredibly, they're winning. Even many members of Obama's own party are now withdrawing support for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. If a country like the US refuses to reject these policies, it will be a massive global step backwards for the cause of human rights. Obama officials say visible public pressure is vital for them to stay strong on this issue. To make sure we're heard, let's put up a massive billboard right in the middle of Washington DC, where all the political staffers pass by every day. For $25 each of us can buy one square foot of support for President Obama; for $1000, we can own a letter -- click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stay_strong_obama?cl=242734529&v=3364
May 19, 2009
Human rights How to safeguard?
Some right-wing Latin American military dictatorships were notorious for "death squads" who abducted college students, labor leaders and other suspected "subversives" in the night, partly with CIA awareness. The victims often were tortured, murdered and disposed of secretly, putting them in the ranks of the "disappeared."
Bush-Cheney treatment of Muslims in the wake of the 9/11 suicide attacks was much milder, yet it raised some similar human rights questions.
The administration's "extraordinary rendition" policy became an international scandal. CIA agents kidnapped young male Muslims in several nations and shipped them secretly to foreign prisons where they were tortured in a search for information.
The movie "Rendition" told of a German citizen of Lebanese descent who was abducted in Macedonia and handed to CIA agents who stripped, beat, shackled, diapered and drugged him, then chained him to the floor of an airplane that flew him to a hidden Afghan lockup. He was beaten for five months - until U.S. interrogators realized he was innocent. They took him to Albania and left him by a remote mountain road.
German authorities filed criminal charges against 13 CIA operatives, but the Bush-Cheney White House said it wouldn't extradite them to Germany for trial.
The Lebanese-German sued former CIA Director George Tenet and other Washington spooks. But in the federal Fourth Circuit Court at Richmond, former Charleston Judge Robert King led three judges in quashing the suit for "national security" reasons. The U.S. Supreme Court rubber-stamped King's decision.
Now a similar outcome has scuttled an attempt to sue former Attorney General John Ashcroft and ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller in behalf of more than 1,000 Muslims who were mistreated in a Brooklyn prison soon after 9/11. A 2003 Justice Department inspector general probe found "widespread abuse of detainees" there. Several of them have lawsuits pending.
Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistan native working as a cable installer on Long Island, says he was thrown into solitary confinement where, on his first day, guards "picked him up and threw him against a wall, kicked him in the stomach, pushed him in the face and dragged him across the room." He was called a "Muslim killer" by guards who stripped him naked, beat him regularly, performed body-cavity searches and exposed him to chill, he alleged. He lost 40 pounds during six months of confinement. He finally was deported for an immigration violation.
From Pakistan, Iqbal sued Ashcroft, Mueller and numerous other U.S. officials, alleging religio-ethnic discrimination. A U.S. appeals court in New York ruled that his case may proceed, but Bush administration lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court. Monday, five conservatives on the high court said the suit lacked clear proof of prejudice by Ashcroft and In today's era of suicide bombing, when some young Muslim fanatics are eager to throw away their lives to massacre their perceived enemies, it isn't easy to protect Americans without treating every young male Muslim as a potential suspect. However, we hope that some of the current human rights lawsuits succeed in restoring the basic American democratic principle that people are deemed innocent until proven guilty.
Burma's democracy leader
Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of detention was due to expire. She and thousands of fellow monks and students have been imprisoned for bravely challenging the brutal military regime with peaceful calls for democracy.Risking danger to speak out for their jailed friends, Burmese activists are demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and calling on the world to help. We have just six days to get a flood of petition signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon calling on him to make their release a top priority -- he can make this a condition of any renewed international engagement. Follow the link to sign the petition, and forward this email on to friends to ensure Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are freed. Burmese activists will present the global petition to the media on May 26th:http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyiOn May 14th, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and sent to jail, charged in connection with an American man who allegedly sneaked uninvited into the compound where she is being held in Yangon. The charges are absurd -- it is the Burmese military, now accusing her of breach of house arrest, that are responsible for the security of the compound. It is a pretext to keep her detained until after elections which are set for 2010.The Burmese regime is renown for its vicious repression of any threat to full military control - thousands are in jail in inhumane conditions and denied any medical care, there are ongoing abuses of human rights, there is violent repression of ethnic groups, and over a million have been forced into refuge across the border.Aung San Suu Kyi's is the greatest threat to the junta's hold on power. Her moral leadership of the democracy movement and the legacy of her landslide victory in 1990 elections means that she is the only figure who could face down the military in elections next year. She has been detained over and over again since 1988 -- under house arrest and allowed no contact with the outside world. But this scandalous new detention in the notorious Insein Prison without medical care could be very dangerous because she is seriously ill. Sources say that the military regime is fearful of this unified and massive online call to the UN -- over 160 Burma exile and solidarity groups in 24 countries are participating in the campaign. And the Secretary General and key regional players that are looking to re-engage with the Burmese regime, can influence the fate of these prisoners. Last week Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said: 'Aung San Suu Kyi and all those that have a contribution to make to the future of their country must be free'. Let's overwhelm him with a global call to urgently act on his words and stop the arrests and brutality:http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi
May 17, 2009
U.S. joins to reform U.N. council
The United Nations Human Rights Council has proved a "flawed body," in the words of the Obama administration. Several of the 47 member states violate the rights of their own people.
The presence of countries such as Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Cameroon led the Bush administration to avoid joining the panel. While focusing on Israel's treatment of Palestinians, the group often turns a blind eye to human rights abuses of its own members.
The Obama administration, however, is taking a different approach, and will try to change the council from within.
"We have not been perfect ourselves," said Susan E. Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "But we intend to lead based on the strong principled vision that the American people have about respecting human rights, supporting democracy
The presence of countries such as Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Cameroon led the Bush administration to avoid joining the panel. While focusing on Israel's treatment of Palestinians, the group often turns a blind eye to human rights abuses of its own members.
The Obama administration, however, is taking a different approach, and will try to change the council from within.
"We have not been perfect ourselves," said Susan E. Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "But we intend to lead based on the strong principled vision that the American people have about respecting human rights, supporting democracy
May 15, 2009
NAACP must still wage civil rights war
While sharing stories of his civil rights efforts and victories, Congressman John Lewis, keynote speaker at the 55th annual NAACP Human Rights Dinner, pleaded for the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP to continue the fight.
“Yes, we have come a long way, but we still have a distance to go,” Lewis said. “We didn’t give up and I say to you tonight we must never give up until we create a racial democracy in America.”
Lewis did not attend the dinner on May 7, as scheduled, and instead delivered his keynote speech via satellite thanks to the efforts of WPXI/TV general manager Ray Carter. Earlier in the day when Carter learned Lewis would be unable to attend he arranged for Lewis to give his speech from WPXI’s Washington, D.C. bureau and provided the technology to make it possible.
“I’m so very proud to work with someone who was dedicated and committed to making this happen,” WPXI anchor Darieth Chisholm said. “I’m so glad we were able to do this because (John Lewis’) speech was wonderful.”
Lewis began by telling the audience how he had decided to become involved in the fight for civil rights after hearing about the work of Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the NAACP.
As a child, Lewis said his mother and father dissuaded him from questioning the system of prejudice by telling him to “stay out of the way.” Despite their guidance he went on to participate in some of the most notorious civil rights movements on the 1960s and 1970s, including the Freedom Rides in 1961.
“Since the days of slavery, we as people of color have been standing up and speaking out,” Lewis said. “We’ve been finding a way to get in the way.”
Of his many protests and marches, Lewis highlighted his involvement in the march on Washington when he was just 23 years old. The impetus for the march, Lewis said, came after a talk with then President John Kennedy.
“We told him the people were restless. Too many of them had been beaten and jailed,” Lewis said. “We told him we were going to march on Washington.”
He also recounted his march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. on the day known as “Bloody Sunday.” He reminded the audience of how many people had given their lives for the cause that day and over the years.
“I thought I saw death. Forty-four years later I don’t know how I made it back across that bridge,” Lewis said. “Without Selma, without the NAACP, without the suffering of so many people, there would be no President Barack Obama.”
Before Lewis began Robert Hill, vice chancellor of public affairs at the University of Pittsburgh gave his introduction. Hill painted a picture of Lewis’ life from his experiences as a student in the segregated Jim Crow South, to his ultimate rise as a member of the House of Representatives where he continues to serve Georgia’s 5th district.
“After a lifetime of challenging elected officials, our hero became one,” Hill said. “Today he is one of the most important men and women in Washington.”
Lia Epperson-Jealous, wife of NAACP National President Benjamin Jealous, attended the dinner to give remarks on his behalf. She echoed Lewis’ cry for continued involvement in the NAACP, saying there are still many obstacles to overcome.
“I’d like to thank those who work daily to defend the principals of the NAACP,” Epperson-Jealous said. “We’re at a critical moment in history. In order to turn this tide we have to go back to the NAACP.”
Among the several issues Epperson-Jealous said her husband was taking on, she focused on the high number of African-American children living in poverty. She also said segregation in schools today is the highest it has been in recent years.
During dinner the guests were also entertained with a performance by the Kuntu Repertory Theater highlighting the struggles of African-Americans over the decades.
Alma Harris received the Judge Homer S. Brown Award in recognition of her lifelong service to the NAACP. The Duquesne University Law School Bill of Rights Clinic received the President’s Award for their efforts to guarantee fairness, freedom, equity, and other civil rights of the underserved population.
Six students were also awarded scholarships sponsored by Birdie Nicholas Glorious Rebirth, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, WPXI/TV Channel 11, Pennsylvania State Education Association - National Education Association, Nancy Washington, Milton Washington, and the Human Rights Dinner Committee. The awardees were high school graduates; Monica Jones, Zakera Barnes, Denise Lynn Jones, Elliot Blackwell, Dorietta Fuller, Angelo Hazlip and college graduate Carlena Gatewood
Source: New Pittsbourg Courier
“Yes, we have come a long way, but we still have a distance to go,” Lewis said. “We didn’t give up and I say to you tonight we must never give up until we create a racial democracy in America.”
Lewis did not attend the dinner on May 7, as scheduled, and instead delivered his keynote speech via satellite thanks to the efforts of WPXI/TV general manager Ray Carter. Earlier in the day when Carter learned Lewis would be unable to attend he arranged for Lewis to give his speech from WPXI’s Washington, D.C. bureau and provided the technology to make it possible.
“I’m so very proud to work with someone who was dedicated and committed to making this happen,” WPXI anchor Darieth Chisholm said. “I’m so glad we were able to do this because (John Lewis’) speech was wonderful.”
Lewis began by telling the audience how he had decided to become involved in the fight for civil rights after hearing about the work of Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the NAACP.
As a child, Lewis said his mother and father dissuaded him from questioning the system of prejudice by telling him to “stay out of the way.” Despite their guidance he went on to participate in some of the most notorious civil rights movements on the 1960s and 1970s, including the Freedom Rides in 1961.
“Since the days of slavery, we as people of color have been standing up and speaking out,” Lewis said. “We’ve been finding a way to get in the way.”
Of his many protests and marches, Lewis highlighted his involvement in the march on Washington when he was just 23 years old. The impetus for the march, Lewis said, came after a talk with then President John Kennedy.
“We told him the people were restless. Too many of them had been beaten and jailed,” Lewis said. “We told him we were going to march on Washington.”
He also recounted his march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. on the day known as “Bloody Sunday.” He reminded the audience of how many people had given their lives for the cause that day and over the years.
“I thought I saw death. Forty-four years later I don’t know how I made it back across that bridge,” Lewis said. “Without Selma, without the NAACP, without the suffering of so many people, there would be no President Barack Obama.”
Before Lewis began Robert Hill, vice chancellor of public affairs at the University of Pittsburgh gave his introduction. Hill painted a picture of Lewis’ life from his experiences as a student in the segregated Jim Crow South, to his ultimate rise as a member of the House of Representatives where he continues to serve Georgia’s 5th district.
“After a lifetime of challenging elected officials, our hero became one,” Hill said. “Today he is one of the most important men and women in Washington.”
Lia Epperson-Jealous, wife of NAACP National President Benjamin Jealous, attended the dinner to give remarks on his behalf. She echoed Lewis’ cry for continued involvement in the NAACP, saying there are still many obstacles to overcome.
“I’d like to thank those who work daily to defend the principals of the NAACP,” Epperson-Jealous said. “We’re at a critical moment in history. In order to turn this tide we have to go back to the NAACP.”
Among the several issues Epperson-Jealous said her husband was taking on, she focused on the high number of African-American children living in poverty. She also said segregation in schools today is the highest it has been in recent years.
During dinner the guests were also entertained with a performance by the Kuntu Repertory Theater highlighting the struggles of African-Americans over the decades.
Alma Harris received the Judge Homer S. Brown Award in recognition of her lifelong service to the NAACP. The Duquesne University Law School Bill of Rights Clinic received the President’s Award for their efforts to guarantee fairness, freedom, equity, and other civil rights of the underserved population.
Six students were also awarded scholarships sponsored by Birdie Nicholas Glorious Rebirth, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, WPXI/TV Channel 11, Pennsylvania State Education Association - National Education Association, Nancy Washington, Milton Washington, and the Human Rights Dinner Committee. The awardees were high school graduates; Monica Jones, Zakera Barnes, Denise Lynn Jones, Elliot Blackwell, Dorietta Fuller, Angelo Hazlip and college graduate Carlena Gatewood
Source: New Pittsbourg Courier
May 14, 2009
A Letter to Ban Ki-moon
A Letter to Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Regarding the Crimes Committed in Palestine, the Holy Land
Posted by M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D. on May 12, 2009 at 2:30pm
View M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D.'s blog
His Excellency,All humanity is appealing to you to take action immediately to stop the terrible wars, and embargos which are committed against the children of Palestine, the Holy Land, and to help the victims and survivors who have suffered inhuman conditions since 1948 in Palestine and in the Diaspora.Attachment:A huge number of photographs of these crimes have been collected by M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D. Please see them on the website of poets for human rights at the following URL:http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/photo/photo/slideshow?
Tags: m.t. al-mansouri, ph.d. po...
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5 Comments
Comment by val magnuson 7 hours ago
good luck- stay close to the lifeboats-val magnuson
Comment by David Matthews 6 hours ago
hey you guys, Re Palestine issues - I post to Guardian and Independent (I can see my firends who recieve my posts adding somewhat wearily, "he posts continually". At present it is a propaganda war - if anyone wants to be added to my list (I send my postings to many) please let me know.
Comment by MonaA 5 hours ago
Good job Dr. Al-Mansouri. Here is the latest.http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=94656§ionid=351020202The UN Security Council has rejected an appeal made by Libya to issue a resolution against Israel over its war crimes in the Gaza Strip.Libya along with a number of Arab countries made an appeal to the UN Security Council after a recently published UN report blamed Israel for six major crimes committed during the Gaza war.Libya demanded an emergency meeting to discuss Israeli crimes including "death, injuries and damage" which were "caused by military actions, using munitions launched or dropped from the air or fired from the ground, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)," according to the UN report.The members of the Council, however, rejected the request and only "expressed their concern about the findings of the report" commissioned by UN Chief, Ban Ki-moon, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after a closed-door council meeting on Wednesday.Churkin said Libya was now unlikely to push for a vote on its draft resolution, which would condemn "the direct and intentional Israeli military strikes against United Nations premises."Israel attacked several UN schools where hundreds of civilians took refuge during the all-out war launched against the coastal sliver in December. The 22-day war left at least 1,350 people killed in Gaza.
Comment by HISSA ALBADI 3 hours ago
Good job Dr. Al-Mansouriall the best .. keep it up we should all repeat it again and again they may listen to all these voices around the worldregards
Comment by sedney lolita 2 hours ago
I Am agree that was is done in Ghaza is an international crimes against the humanties ??but the real provlembs come from us alls ??in begining from the brothers undestood convention and agreement betteween Hamas An the Faths???when we have an important un friend like the seionists goverenemnt d Israel ???the palestines must be unified ???Associeted???Seconf important pouint is the arbics Countries who alls have an important resposabilities in this Big Genocides ???Eypt and daudia arabia are the 2 important protogonistes whcih have allowed to Livini to Attaks Hamas ??but how is Hamas is the poloticis elected by all plestines democracy choice to show to the world that this peapoles are existants in the Worl Maps???so at my vision ???all will be start from us and the time that the world see that arabics are here to more helps ??so then all the world and come to negociate peace with the palestines pepoleSuch as the visit of the PAPa , this path will open a new possibilities to let a new open discussions , debates , on the peace procesus in this important are of the middle east the heart of the world???
Allh With usSedeny lolitta&afritvcine@yahoo.fr
Posted by M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D. on May 12, 2009 at 2:30pm
View M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D.'s blog
His Excellency,All humanity is appealing to you to take action immediately to stop the terrible wars, and embargos which are committed against the children of Palestine, the Holy Land, and to help the victims and survivors who have suffered inhuman conditions since 1948 in Palestine and in the Diaspora.Attachment:A huge number of photographs of these crimes have been collected by M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D. Please see them on the website of poets for human rights at the following URL:http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/photo/photo/slideshow?
Tags: m.t. al-mansouri, ph.d. po...
Share
<>
5 Comments
Comment by val magnuson 7 hours ago
good luck- stay close to the lifeboats-val magnuson
Comment by David Matthews 6 hours ago
hey you guys, Re Palestine issues - I post to Guardian and Independent (I can see my firends who recieve my posts adding somewhat wearily, "he posts continually". At present it is a propaganda war - if anyone wants to be added to my list (I send my postings to many) please let me know.
Comment by MonaA 5 hours ago
Good job Dr. Al-Mansouri. Here is the latest.http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=94656§ionid=351020202The UN Security Council has rejected an appeal made by Libya to issue a resolution against Israel over its war crimes in the Gaza Strip.Libya along with a number of Arab countries made an appeal to the UN Security Council after a recently published UN report blamed Israel for six major crimes committed during the Gaza war.Libya demanded an emergency meeting to discuss Israeli crimes including "death, injuries and damage" which were "caused by military actions, using munitions launched or dropped from the air or fired from the ground, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)," according to the UN report.The members of the Council, however, rejected the request and only "expressed their concern about the findings of the report" commissioned by UN Chief, Ban Ki-moon, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after a closed-door council meeting on Wednesday.Churkin said Libya was now unlikely to push for a vote on its draft resolution, which would condemn "the direct and intentional Israeli military strikes against United Nations premises."Israel attacked several UN schools where hundreds of civilians took refuge during the all-out war launched against the coastal sliver in December. The 22-day war left at least 1,350 people killed in Gaza.
Comment by HISSA ALBADI 3 hours ago
Good job Dr. Al-Mansouriall the best .. keep it up we should all repeat it again and again they may listen to all these voices around the worldregards
Comment by sedney lolita 2 hours ago
I Am agree that was is done in Ghaza is an international crimes against the humanties ??but the real provlembs come from us alls ??in begining from the brothers undestood convention and agreement betteween Hamas An the Faths???when we have an important un friend like the seionists goverenemnt d Israel ???the palestines must be unified ???Associeted???Seconf important pouint is the arbics Countries who alls have an important resposabilities in this Big Genocides ???Eypt and daudia arabia are the 2 important protogonistes whcih have allowed to Livini to Attaks Hamas ??but how is Hamas is the poloticis elected by all plestines democracy choice to show to the world that this peapoles are existants in the Worl Maps???so at my vision ???all will be start from us and the time that the world see that arabics are here to more helps ??so then all the world and come to negociate peace with the palestines pepoleSuch as the visit of the PAPa , this path will open a new possibilities to let a new open discussions , debates , on the peace procesus in this important are of the middle east the heart of the world???
Allh With usSedeny lolitta&afritvcine@yahoo.fr
Human Rights and WrongsA CIA insider on what the agency did
An NRO Q&A
‘Ishmael Jones” is a former deep-cover officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He is author of The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture, published last year by Encounter Books.KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Should citizens be concerned with the CIA interrogation memos that we’ve all been talking about involving insects and waterboarding?ISHMAEL JONES: Americans should be concerned about the use of the CIA memos to advance political agendas. Release of the CIA interrogation memos seems designed to please the American Left and to attack the Bush administration, not to bring about any real accountability.
The torture/interrogations issue was never about ethics or the humane treatment of prisoners. Choking a person on water is nasty stuff, all right, but I’ve never heard any voices from the Left express concern about the enemy’s behavior. Al-Qaeda in Iraq uses far more aggressive forms of torture in its interrogations. Before the surge, the Baghdad morgues filled with a hundred murders a day, many showing evidence of having been tortured to death using power drills and saws.LOPEZ: Today supposedly begins the first of the interrogations about interrogation. Will the release of the memos trigger more investigations?JONES: It will all just fizzle out. Ever since it came up several years ago, the purpose of the interrogations/torture issue has been purely political, and it has served its purpose. The Republicans have been defeated, and Bush administration officials have been put out to pasture.Pragmatic Democrats should recognize that they’re in charge now and that they need good foreign intelligence, not political show trials. Foreign-policy crises — North Korea, Iran, Somalia — are coming up faster than expected. A foreign-policy debacle or a major terrorist attack, and not the economy, may be the real threat to President Obama’s re-election and the Democrats’ hold on power.LOPEZ: But if the United States is in any possible way guilty of human-rights violations, shouldn’t there be a full accounting? JONES: The Senate Intelligence Committee has already announced that the CIA employees involved in the actual interrogations — the low- and mid-level employees and contractors — will not be targets of investigations. That’s generous, because these people are patriotic Americans who were doing their best for their country, in remarkably difficult jobs, away from home and family. There are a lot of innocent people alive today because of what they did. The interrogations produced information that repeatedly stopped terrorist attacks from happening.The CIA has mutated from being a “red” or conservative organization dedicated to toppling communist dictators into a bureaucracy that is “blue” and supportive of the American political Left. Through the Plame incident, bad intelligence on Iraq, and leaks on torture/interrogations issues, the CIA bureaucracy did more to help Democrats win in the last election than ACORN or MoveOn.org.Investigations inspired by congressional Democrats will seek to avoid targeting political allies within the CIA. Having already announced that low- and mid-level CIA employees will not be targeted, this really just leaves Bush administration officials and CIA employees without close ties to politicians and the media. Prosecutions will be so selective and so obviously politically driven that they will not be convincing to impartial juries.LOPEZ: When all is said and done, is there something constructive that can be learned from all of this review? Something constructive for American intelligence?JONES: The interrogations controversy has served the CIA bureaucracy. A top goal of bureaucracy is to look busy, and whether one agrees with the interrogation methods or not, the impression given is that the CIA is both busy and aggressive. It relishes this “cowboy” image, and its greatest fear is that the taxpayer might figure out how little it actually is doing. Bans or restrictions on interrogations would have the constructive effect of removing this smokescreen, this distraction, and redirecting focus to what exactly the CIA is doing to provide the foreign intelligence the president needs.
Sri Lanka
A modern day bloodbath is unfolding on the small island of Sri Lanka, where a thousand civilians were reported killed over the weekend and tens of thousands of innocent people are literally at risk of being killed this week, as government and rebel forces battle it out over the last small patch of rebel held territory. Now that the US has begun to increase its pressure, the solution to stopping this humanitarian disaster lies with Sri Lanka’s key donor and closest partner in the region -- Japan. It has powerful political and economic influence over the Sri Lankan government and a swing vote at the UN Security Council, which up until now has turned a blind eye to this mounting catastrophe. Click here to send a message to the Japanese Foreign Minister, who is deciding his government's next steps. Japan cares about its international reputation and a flood of messages from abroad would encourage them to act. If Japan moves then the Sri Lankan government will be forced to immediately respond to protect civilians: http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_bloodbath
May 12, 2009
EU says no progress with Cuba on human rights
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and Cuba disagreed over the communist island's human rights policy on Monday but a senior EU official made clear he opposed any move to resume sanctions lifted last year.
EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel called instead for more dialogue with the Caribbean island and diplomats said the Union was unlikely to revert to sanctions next month when it reviews the decision to lift them.
"Our views did converge on the issues of climate change and U.N. reform; they did not in the area of human rights," Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said after EU officials held talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
"We came back to the issue of political prisoners in Cuba and their health, and the answer we got was that in Cuba there are no political prisoners," he told reporters.
Despite this, Kohout said the talks had been "a real dialogue, not just two monologues."
The 27 EU member states agreed last June to scrap sanctions on Cuba to try to encourage democratic reforms, but decided to review the decision annually.
"OBSOLETE" CRITICISM
"Cuba is ready to normalize relations, to establish a new start in the relationships between the European Union and Cuba," Rodriguez said
EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel called instead for more dialogue with the Caribbean island and diplomats said the Union was unlikely to revert to sanctions next month when it reviews the decision to lift them.
"Our views did converge on the issues of climate change and U.N. reform; they did not in the area of human rights," Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said after EU officials held talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
"We came back to the issue of political prisoners in Cuba and their health, and the answer we got was that in Cuba there are no political prisoners," he told reporters.
Despite this, Kohout said the talks had been "a real dialogue, not just two monologues."
The 27 EU member states agreed last June to scrap sanctions on Cuba to try to encourage democratic reforms, but decided to review the decision annually.
"OBSOLETE" CRITICISM
"Cuba is ready to normalize relations, to establish a new start in the relationships between the European Union and Cuba," Rodriguez said
May 8, 2009
Internet allies combining forces to battle censorship by oppressive regimes.
Business & Human Rights Summit at which she acknowledged that the US Internet pioneer made some mistakes in foreign markets.
Internet companies must learn when not to hide behind the notion "We are corporations so it is our Number One obligation just to do business," Bartz said.
"It isn't our Number One obligation," she maintained. "Our Number One obligation is to be good world citizens."
Activist bloggers writing about affairs in Africa, India and the Middle East joined executives from Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft at the one-day summit at Yahoo!'s campus in Sunnyvale, California.
"It is really going to take all of us working together to learn better how to act as good world citizens," Bartz said.
"We don't want to impinge on anybody's rights. We don't want to force our beliefs versus someone else's beliefs but we do have a responsibility."
The US technology giants and a coalition of human rights and other groups late last year unveiled a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy.
The "Global Network Initiative" (GNI) commits the technology firms to "protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users."
The initiative, which follows criticism that the companies were assisting censorship of the Internet in nations such as China, requires them to narrowly interpret government requests for information or censorship and to fight to minimize cooperation.
GNI provides a way for participants to "work together in resisting efforts by governments that seek to enlist companies in acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards."
A number of US companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo!, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China."
Yahoo! was thrust into the forefront of the online rights issue after the company helped Chinese police identify cyber dissidents whose supposed crime was expressing their views online.
China exercises strict control over the Internet, blocking sites linked to Chinese dissidents, the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, the Tibetan government-in-exile and those with information on the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Internet firms contend they must comply with China's laws in order to operate there.
GNI sets a stage for industry peers to stand by Internet firms in face-offs with governments demanding topics be censored or online critics be exposed, Google deputy general counsel Nicole Wong said at the summit.
"There are a number of things a company might do when they get that first demand from government X saying 'take that down and identify that blogger for me'," Wong said during a panel discussion.
"At some point in those countries you will run out of your legal and policy cards. That is where the promise of GNI lies. With companies and human rights groups working together we have another way to put pressure on governments."
Burma topped a Committee to Protect Journalists list of "The 10 Worst Places to be a Blogger," with Iran, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia, China, Turkmenistan, and Egypt following in that order.
Western countries have been striving to "close the Internet" in the names of causes such as fighting pornography or cyber crime, said Gaurav Mishra who blogs about happenings in India.
"There is an absolute need for GNI to expand its international perspective," said Microsoft senior policy counsel Chuck Cosson.
"It is particularly important that the governments we traditionally speak of as aggressive with free rights continue to do that and are not backsliding."
Internet companies must learn when not to hide behind the notion "We are corporations so it is our Number One obligation just to do business," Bartz said.
"It isn't our Number One obligation," she maintained. "Our Number One obligation is to be good world citizens."
Activist bloggers writing about affairs in Africa, India and the Middle East joined executives from Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft at the one-day summit at Yahoo!'s campus in Sunnyvale, California.
"It is really going to take all of us working together to learn better how to act as good world citizens," Bartz said.
"We don't want to impinge on anybody's rights. We don't want to force our beliefs versus someone else's beliefs but we do have a responsibility."
The US technology giants and a coalition of human rights and other groups late last year unveiled a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy.
The "Global Network Initiative" (GNI) commits the technology firms to "protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users."
The initiative, which follows criticism that the companies were assisting censorship of the Internet in nations such as China, requires them to narrowly interpret government requests for information or censorship and to fight to minimize cooperation.
GNI provides a way for participants to "work together in resisting efforts by governments that seek to enlist companies in acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards."
A number of US companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo!, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China."
Yahoo! was thrust into the forefront of the online rights issue after the company helped Chinese police identify cyber dissidents whose supposed crime was expressing their views online.
China exercises strict control over the Internet, blocking sites linked to Chinese dissidents, the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, the Tibetan government-in-exile and those with information on the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Internet firms contend they must comply with China's laws in order to operate there.
GNI sets a stage for industry peers to stand by Internet firms in face-offs with governments demanding topics be censored or online critics be exposed, Google deputy general counsel Nicole Wong said at the summit.
"There are a number of things a company might do when they get that first demand from government X saying 'take that down and identify that blogger for me'," Wong said during a panel discussion.
"At some point in those countries you will run out of your legal and policy cards. That is where the promise of GNI lies. With companies and human rights groups working together we have another way to put pressure on governments."
Burma topped a Committee to Protect Journalists list of "The 10 Worst Places to be a Blogger," with Iran, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia, China, Turkmenistan, and Egypt following in that order.
Western countries have been striving to "close the Internet" in the names of causes such as fighting pornography or cyber crime, said Gaurav Mishra who blogs about happenings in India.
"There is an absolute need for GNI to expand its international perspective," said Microsoft senior policy counsel Chuck Cosson.
"It is particularly important that the governments we traditionally speak of as aggressive with free rights continue to do that and are not backsliding."
May 7, 2009
Britain Identifies 16 Barred From Entering U.K.
LONDON — Eager to showcase new border controls aimed at keeping advocates of extremist views out of the country, the British government published what it called a name-and-shame list on Tuesday. It was the first time the government had publicly identified any of the 101 people who had been placed on an exclusion list since new powers to bar people who were deemed undesirables were adopted in 2005.
The list, which named 16 people, covered only those who had been barred from entering Britain in the past six months, and it shielded the identity of 6 others also barred during the period on the grounds that naming them would be contrary to “the public interest.” The Home Office said one of the purposes of publishing the list was to draw attention to the increased use of the government’s barring powers, which had more than doubled since the 2005 restrictions were further tightened last year.
Eight of the 16 named were Muslim clerics, writers and political advocates identified in brief sketches on the Home Office Web site as “engaging in unacceptable behavior” by “seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence.” Several on the list were Americans linked by the Home Office to right-wing extremist groups that promote hatred against racial or religious groups, or against homosexuals.
The eight Muslim men named included Yunis al-Astal, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza; Safwat Hijazi, an Egyptian cleric; and Samir al-Quntar, a former member of the Palestine Liberation Front who served nearly 30 years in an Israeli prison for his part in the killing of four Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl, in 1979.
The list also included Nasr Javed, a Pakistan-based commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that has been linked to terrorist attacks.
The others named on the list were Abdullah Qadri al-Ahdal, a Saudi Arabian religious scholar; Wadgy Abd el-Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, a militant, Egyptian-born cleric who fled California to return to his homeland in 1994 amid a deportation battle; Abdul Ali Musa, an American-born Muslim cleric who served prison time in the United States; and Amir Siddique, a militant Pakistani cleric.
The Americans on the list included a San Francisco-based radio talk-show host, Michael A. Weiner, known to radio audiences as Michael Savage, who was described by the Home Office as “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.”
Mr. Savage said he was considering filing a lawsuit against Jacqui Smith, the British home secretary, for defamation, according to WorldNetDaily.com, a conservative Web site. “She’s linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses?” the Web site reported that he said. “For my speech?”
Also barred were the Rev. Fred Phelps, a Baptist pastor based in Topeka, Kansas, where he is a leading spokesman for the Westboro Baptist Church, and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper. The Home Office said they were barred for “fostering hatred.” Mr. Phelps is known for his antigay positions.
Another American listed was Eric Gliebe, a former boxer and Ohio-based Web-radio broadcaster who was identified as “provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred” by vilifying “certain ethnic groups.” Also barred was Stephen Donald Black, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who was said to have set up a Florida-based “racist Web site,” Stormfront, and to have used it to promote views that the barring notice said could lead to “inter-community violence” in Britain.
Also on the list was an American-born activist, Michael Guzofsky, a former leader of a militant Jewish group that had been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States State Department.
Although Britain had traditionally used common-law powers to bar entry to people considered undesirable because of their extreme views, the grounds for doing so were extended and codified in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, which killed 56 people, including the four bombers.
Last year, the government further tightened the controls, introducing what it called “a presumption in favor of exclusion” that placed the burden of proof on the barred individuals to show that they had “repudiated their previous extremist views” and posed no threat to public order.
Ms. Smith said in a television interview the list would serve to notify people of the “values and standards” Britain stands for, and “if you can’t live by the rules that we live by, we should exclude you from this country.”
But the action stirred protests from British Muslim groups. Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, told the BBC that people should be allowed to enter Britain regardless of their views.
The list also included two Russian skinheads, Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, who were convicted for racially motivated attacks that killed 19 people.
By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: May 5, 2009
The list, which named 16 people, covered only those who had been barred from entering Britain in the past six months, and it shielded the identity of 6 others also barred during the period on the grounds that naming them would be contrary to “the public interest.” The Home Office said one of the purposes of publishing the list was to draw attention to the increased use of the government’s barring powers, which had more than doubled since the 2005 restrictions were further tightened last year.
Eight of the 16 named were Muslim clerics, writers and political advocates identified in brief sketches on the Home Office Web site as “engaging in unacceptable behavior” by “seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence.” Several on the list were Americans linked by the Home Office to right-wing extremist groups that promote hatred against racial or religious groups, or against homosexuals.
The eight Muslim men named included Yunis al-Astal, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza; Safwat Hijazi, an Egyptian cleric; and Samir al-Quntar, a former member of the Palestine Liberation Front who served nearly 30 years in an Israeli prison for his part in the killing of four Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl, in 1979.
The list also included Nasr Javed, a Pakistan-based commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that has been linked to terrorist attacks.
The others named on the list were Abdullah Qadri al-Ahdal, a Saudi Arabian religious scholar; Wadgy Abd el-Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, a militant, Egyptian-born cleric who fled California to return to his homeland in 1994 amid a deportation battle; Abdul Ali Musa, an American-born Muslim cleric who served prison time in the United States; and Amir Siddique, a militant Pakistani cleric.
The Americans on the list included a San Francisco-based radio talk-show host, Michael A. Weiner, known to radio audiences as Michael Savage, who was described by the Home Office as “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.”
Mr. Savage said he was considering filing a lawsuit against Jacqui Smith, the British home secretary, for defamation, according to WorldNetDaily.com, a conservative Web site. “She’s linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses?” the Web site reported that he said. “For my speech?”
Also barred were the Rev. Fred Phelps, a Baptist pastor based in Topeka, Kansas, where he is a leading spokesman for the Westboro Baptist Church, and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper. The Home Office said they were barred for “fostering hatred.” Mr. Phelps is known for his antigay positions.
Another American listed was Eric Gliebe, a former boxer and Ohio-based Web-radio broadcaster who was identified as “provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred” by vilifying “certain ethnic groups.” Also barred was Stephen Donald Black, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who was said to have set up a Florida-based “racist Web site,” Stormfront, and to have used it to promote views that the barring notice said could lead to “inter-community violence” in Britain.
Also on the list was an American-born activist, Michael Guzofsky, a former leader of a militant Jewish group that had been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States State Department.
Although Britain had traditionally used common-law powers to bar entry to people considered undesirable because of their extreme views, the grounds for doing so were extended and codified in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, which killed 56 people, including the four bombers.
Last year, the government further tightened the controls, introducing what it called “a presumption in favor of exclusion” that placed the burden of proof on the barred individuals to show that they had “repudiated their previous extremist views” and posed no threat to public order.
Ms. Smith said in a television interview the list would serve to notify people of the “values and standards” Britain stands for, and “if you can’t live by the rules that we live by, we should exclude you from this country.”
But the action stirred protests from British Muslim groups. Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, told the BBC that people should be allowed to enter Britain regardless of their views.
The list also included two Russian skinheads, Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, who were convicted for racially motivated attacks that killed 19 people.
By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: May 5, 2009
May 4, 2009
Motions for Anti-War Movement AGMA
Motions for Anti-War Movement AGMA fully formatted version of All the motions before the AGM can be found athttp://www.irishantiwar.org/files/IAWM_Motions%20AGM%202009%20Final.pdf1 IRAQThe Irish Anti-War Movement calls on the United States to withdraw from Iraq without leaving anyresidual forces in place.Proposed: Julien Mercille IAWM Steering Committee2 AFGHANISTAN2.1 Motion 2.1: The IAWM notes with concern the escalation of the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan.The US’s decision to send 21,000 extra troops with possibly an additional 10,000 more next year, NATO’scommitment of 58,000 troops in the region, a steeply rising overall death toll of more than 20,000 with over50,000 injured, the obscene escalation of cost of the war in time of recession, the overspill of the war intoPakistan, all these mean that we are experiencing an alarming new chapter in the war on terror. The newUS Administration, dashing the hopes of the international anti-war movement, have merely shifted the focusfrom Iraq to Afghanistan, which has now become “Obama’s war”.The European dimension to the Afghan war is of direct to concern to Ireland. NATO has enthusiasticallyendorsed Obama’s increased troop commitment, NATO spends $250 million a year for the Afghan military,and may now appoint Rasmussen, a avowed anti-Muslim, to its top civilian post. Greater EU –NATOcooperation means that even non-NATO countries are directly involved in the war. Ireland has sent militarypersonnel to work on counter-terror operations with NATO forces in Kabul.The IAWM therefore calls on the Irish government· To immediately withdraw its involvement in this war by recalling its military personnel from Afghanistan,and· To stop the use of Shannon for the passage of military troops to the war zone.It also resolves to bring pressure to bear on our representatives in Europe to bring EU troops home and,through public demonstrations and campaigns, to highlight Irish involvement in this disastrous war.Proposed: Marnie Holborow IAWM Steering Committee2.2 Motion 2.2: Get the troops out of Afghanistan.In the last few weeks thousands of anti war protesters converged on the NATO conference in Strasbourg tomarch against NATO expansion and the Obama surge in Afghanistan. As the fighting intensifies inAfghanistan and more troops are despatched there the IAWM accepts the need for a campaign to inform thepublic of the real situation in Afghanistan/Pakistan: that this is not a "good war" and that Irish troops areinvolved- exposing their roles working with US armed forces as part of NATO aggression, and exposing therealities of the NATO agenda and its expansion programme.We need a national tour with an informed speaker, preferably from the area or who has connections there,exposee information on Irish troops role in Afghanistan, more coverage on the USUK/NATO operation andthe opposition against it around EU/world.Proposed: Galway SWP branch3 SHANNON CONFERENCEThe IAWM supports the proposal by PANA and others to hold a conference at Shannon on 5thSeptember 2009 with the title: 'War, NATO and The Lisbon Treaty', and undertakes to organise adelegation from Dublin to attend the conference, and to take part in the planning of the conference,and to make submissions to the conference as appropriate.Proposed: Mark Price IAWM Steering Committee4 WAR CRIMINALS4.1 Motion 4.1: Declaring War Criminals:The Irish Anti-war Movement declares and recognizes former US President Mr. George W. Bush,Former US Secretary of Defense Mr. Donald Henry Rumsfeld and Former British Prime MinisterAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair as war criminals due their actions which led their countriesinto an illegal war and occupation of Iraq, and the killing thousands of civilians throughout theoccupation.As John Pilger has reported: “Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley compared the status ofGeorge W. Bush with that of Pinochet. “Outside [the United States] there is not the ambiguity about what todo about a war crime,” he said. “So if you try to travel, most people abroad are going to view you not as‘former President George Bush’ [but] as a current war criminal.”Rumsfeld has twice been indicted for war crimes in Germany.The International Criminal Court, to which Britain is a signatory, has received a record number of petitionsrelated to Blair’s wars. Spain’s celebrated Judge Baltasar Garzon, who indicted Pinochet and the leaders ofthe Argentinian military junta, has called for George W. Bush, Blair and former Spanish prime minister JoseMaria Aznar to be prosecuted for the invasion of Iraq - “one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes inrecent human history: a devastating attack on the rule of law” that had left the UN “in tatters”. He said,“There is enough of an argument in 650,000 deaths for this investigation to start without delay.”Proposed: Memet Uludag IAWM Steering Committee4.2 Motion 4.2: Bringing War Criminals to JusticeAccording to Reuters, the Israeli government communicated to the UN Human Rights Council that itwill not cooperate with an investigation into alleged Israeli and Hamas crimes surrounding theDecember 2008-January 2009 Israeli incursion into Gaza. The inquiry is to be lead by Judge RichardGoldstone, a highly regarded South African jurist and international humanitarian law scholar.Considering the honourable reputation of Judge Richard Goldstone in his work with South African tribunals,the IAWM considers an investigation led by this man highly credible. Therefore, if Israel has nothing to hide,it should allow this UN led investigation to go ahead. It is in the interest of not only Palestinians, but alsoIsraelis, that any war crimes committed during the assault on Gaza be exposed.Furthermore, the IAWM demands that the trial of all cases about possible war crimes committed during theGaza assault, and that are brought to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, be accepted by the court.To date, 220 separate cases have been brought to the court. Hesitation in deciding whether to takeon these cases is because the ICC has jurisdiction only in cases where the accused is a national or a stateparty. The IAWM calls on all European parties signed up to the ICC to support the notion that Palestine is anation and therefore urge the ICC to accept cases relating to the Gaza assault.Proposed: Claudia Saba IAWM Steering Committee5 IRANThe Irish Anti-War Movement calls on the United States and European governments to engage Iranimmediately regarding its nuclear activities, without preconditions. The IAWM also calls on the United Statesand Israel in particular to stop threatening Iran militarily. Finally, the IAWM calls on the US, Israel and allother states possessing nuclear weapons to eliminate them.Proposed: Julien Mercille IAWM Steering Committee6 OBAMA PRESIDENCYThe Irish Anti-War Movement warmly welcomes the end of the administration of George W Bush inthe US. The Bush Presidency marked a new low in the recent history of US/western imperialism.Through its own actions and working through proxies such as Israel, Ethiopia and other "allies" the Bushadministration was responsible for destroying the lives of countless hundreds of thousands in Iraq,Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia and devastating those countries in a manner that will takedecades to repair. The Bush administration also sought consistently to undermine the democraticallyelected governments of Venezuela and Bolivia and provoke a entirely unnecessary conflict with Iran. TheBush administration also contributed to an alarming and deliberate escalation of political and militarytensions in central and Eastern Europe and the Caspian region, through its expansion of NATO and movesto encircle Russia - part a strategy to gain influence in the oil rich Caspian region and surrounding countriesthrough which oil and gas pipelines currently travel or may travel in the future.In this context, the IAWM acknowledges the election of Barack Obama and the widespreadglobal celebration of his victory as evidence that a majority in the US and elsewhere reject thewarmongering policies pursued by the Bush administration.However, the IAWM is gravely concerned at the policy statements and inaction of Barack Obama before,during and after his election in moving to decisively break from the warmongering and imperialist policies ofthe Bush administration.Specifically, the IAWM:· Calls on the Obama administration to unequivocally condemn Israel's slaughter in Gaza at the beginningof this year and retract statements of unconditional support for the state of Israel.· Calls on the Obama administration to recognise the democratically elected PalestinianHamas government and end its continuing calls for the disarmament of Hamas· Calls on the US to cease it's massive military and financial support for the state of Israel and to exert itsinfluence to end the occupation of Palestine and the denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination.· Condemns the escalation of the US/NATO led conflict in Afghanistan and increased troop deploymentsto that conflict and calls for immediate withdrawal of western troops from that country.· Condemns the continuing US bombing of Pakistan and calls for this to cease immediately and an end toall interference in the sovereign affairs of Pakistan.· Calls for an immediate US military withdrawal from Iraq and war reparations to the people of Iraq.· Calls for an end to US military, political and financial support to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.· Calls for an end to all US military and political interference in Somalia.· Calls for an end to political interference in the sovereign affairs of Venezuela and Bolivia.· Calls for the disbandment of NATO· Calls on the US to redirect the massive resources now being spent on its military machine and weaponsarsenal to be redirected into socially useful civilian purposes.· Pledges full support, solidarity and co-operation with the US anti-war movement and other forces in theUS that are campaigning for similar policy changes.Finally, the IAWM recognises that while the US is the pre-eminent militaristic and imperialist power, it is notalone in pursuing militaristic and imperialist polices and we must also, therefore, condemn and demandchange in the same and similar polices from Russia, the EU, China or any other military power.Proposed: Richard Boyd-Barrett Chair IAWM and Steering Committee7 EU MILITARISATION7.1 Motion 7.1: Strasbourg Anti-NATO protest, April 2009The IAWM abhors the brutal suppression by the police of the recent peaceful and democratic anti-war rallyin Strasbourg, and proposes to make a formal complaint to the French and German governmentsconcerning this issue.Proposed: Mark Price IAWM Steering Committee7.2 Motion 7.2: Billy Timmins/Fine Gael statement on Ireland joining the EU Common DefenceIn a statement to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis on Saturday 4th April 2009 Billy Timmins TD Fine Gael’sspokesperson on Foreign Affairs stated; “Fine Gael believes that Ireland can no longer operate in theTwilight Zone and that we should be full participants in a European Common defence.”The Irish Anti-War Movement opposes this statement and calls on Billy Timmins and Fine Gael to withdrawit.This statement can be found on the Fine Gael web site.http://billytimmins.finegael.ie/representatives/common/index.cfm/type/statementdetails/nkey/37157/pkey/0/page/2/Proposed: Kieran O’Sullivan IAWM Steering Committee8 EUROPEAN ELECTIONSThe Irish Anti-War Movement will try to raise the issue of neutrality in the European elections andwill organize a debate between those for and against Neutrality. To this end we will work withgroups such as PANA and others who have a track record of opposing the growing militarization ofIreland.Proposed: Kieran O’Sullivan IAWM Steering Committee9 LISBON TREATYThe IAWM re-affirms its opposition to the proposed EU Constitution – revamped as the Lisbon Treaty. TheCampaign to oppose the Treaty, the CAEUC, with its 14 affiliated Irish and European organisations, will beour main focus for mobilization in the forthcoming Referendum Mark II imposed on our people. We willargue that NO Means NO to Lisbon and will work tirelessly in order to defeat this new attempt by theEuropean elites to bypass democracy. We will continue to mobilize and struggle for a democratic, social andde-militarised Europe.Proposed: Michael Youlton, Secretary IAWM and Steering CommitteeSeconded: Mark Price IAWM Steering Committee10 PALESTINE10.1 Motion 10.1: Allowing aid into Gaza and ending the blockade of Gaza.After the killing of 1400 people and wounding of 5000 in Gaza in Dec-08/Jan-09, Israel is flagrantlyhampering aid efforts into Gaza. According to a report released in March 2009 by the UN Office forthe Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on average 127 aid trucks a day are entering Gaza.OCHA stated that this was insufficient, as illustrated by the fact that 475 trucks entered daily prior to June2007. The crossings are opened on a seemingly arbitrary basis. Waste water, water plant spare parts andrepair equipment are some of the many essential items still not allowed into Gaza. About 150,000 Gazansare still deprived of access to sufficient quantities of safe drinking water, while 90 percent experienceintermittent power cuts. Gazans in need of medical attention abroad are struggling to get permits.The IAWM asks that Israel immediately stop restricting aid from entering Gaza. The IAWM also asks theIrish government to formally ask the Israeli government to stop hampering international aid efforts into Gaza.Proposed: Claudia Saba IAWM Steering Committee10.2 Motion 10.2: Ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians must stop and Palestine must be freed fromoccupation.Increasingly more eviction notices have been sent out to families in East Jerusalem near the OldCity, warning that because their homes had been built without proper council approval, they wouldbe demolished. In February of 2009 alone, 90 houses were pinpointed for demolition. Israelpurposely withholds building permission to Palestinians and at arbitrary times decides to evict themand demolish their homes.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on 9 April 2009: "We view with real concern the proposeddemolitions in east Jerusalem (al-Quds),". Miliband further stressed that Jerusalem should be the capital ofboth the Palestinians and Israelis.According to the Palestinian Authority officials, the current destruction of Palestinian houses in the WestBank would leave some 1,500 people homeless.The IAWM calls for the halt of continued evictions of people from their homes in the West Bank andJerusalem. The IAWM views the actions of the Israel government in this regard as an extension of itsunannounced policy of Palestinian ethnic cleansing. Another aspect of this policy are the continued illegalIsraeli settlements being built on Palestinian land.The IAWM continues to condemn the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine, the Apartheid Wall,the continuous land grab, the daily harassment at checkpoints throughout the West Bank and the denial offundamental human rights to the Palestinian people.The IAWM continues to call on the Irish Government to use its influence to censure Israel for its inhumaneactions and collective punishment of the entire Palestinian population.The IAWM pledges to work with members of the Palestinian Community in Ireland and with the IrelandPalestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) over the coming year to continually raise the issue of the plight of thePalestinian people within Ireland and to bring pressure on the Irish Government to take meaningful actionagainst Israel. Meaningful action by the Irish government should include a boycott of Israeli goods untilIsrael complies with International Law and use its influence in the European Union so that the EU terminatesits partnership agreements with Israel as the latter has continuously breached its human rights obligationsinherent in these agreements.Proposed: Claudia Saba IAWM Steering Committee10.3 Motion 10.3: One state solution and Billy Timmins/Fine Gael statement on Israel/Palestine.In a statement to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis on Saturday 4th April 2009 Billy Timmins TD Fine Gael’sspokesperson on Foreign Affairs stated; “The Israel and Palestine conflict is one of the mostemotive and divisive foreign affairs issues in this country. We should seek to move the friends ofPalestine and the friends of Israel to the friends of Palestine and Israel. We should seek to join andnot divide. The Fine Gael position is based on four very clear pillarsA. A Two State solution.B. A return to pre-1967 borders unless amended by agreement between the two parties.C. An agreed solution to the issue of Palestinian Refugees who fled/left their houses in 1948 and 1967.D. Israel to cease settlement activities and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.In order to achieve this all Palestinians must cease all acts of violence and commit to peace. Fine Gael alsorecognises Israel's right to protect its citizens from attacks, but in doing so it should act within InternationalLaw. The EU should establish a special trade agreement with Israel and Palestine to assist in the economicdevelopment of the area. It is difficult to see Hamas as part of the process while one of their central aims isthe destruction of the State of Israel.”Fine Gael’s policy is constructive and clear. I am aware of the Hamas tactic of using children as shields andI am also aware that they see the propaganda benefit of their death as being of more importance than theirsafety. However punishing a whole population is not the solution. The Middle East question will alwayspresent strong and emotive responses. There is a responsibility on the conflicting parties to put in place theconditions to facilitate peace.The Irish Anti-War Movement opposes this statement and calls on Billy Timmins and Fine Gael to withdrawit. We oppose it for the following reasons:1. The two state solution is unworkable and it essentially endorses an apartheid system separatingpeople on the basis of religion.2. Calling on all Palestinians to cease all acts of violence is essentially blaming the Palestinians for theconflict. It is not Palestinian violence which is the problem it is the occupation of Palestine and theblockade of Gaza.3. Hamas was elected by the people of Palestine in a Free and Fare election they have to be part ofthe process otherwise it will fail.4. There is absolutely no evidence that Hamas put children in danger for propaganda value. There isevidence that Israel deliberately targeted civilian areas.This statement can be found on the Fine Gael web sitehttp://billytimmins.finegael.ie/representatives/common/index.cfm/type/statementdetails/nkey/37157/pkey/0/page/2/Proposed: Kieran O’Sullivan IAWM Steering Committee11 BURMAThe military dictatorship in Burma have been waging war on their own people since they took powerin 1962. This AGM of the Irish Anti- War Movement unresevedly condemns the savage oppression,rape, forced labour, murder and imprisonment, by the junta, of innocent people whoseonly 'crime' has been to peacefully call for the return of democratic rule.We call upon UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to stop pussy-footing with this brutal regime and to makeit his personal priority to go to Burma and demand the immediate and unconditional release of democraticleader, Freeman of Dublin and Galway Aung San Suu Kyi, and all political prisoners. We also call upon ourown government to continue to urge its European partners to strengthen the EU 'common position' inrelation to sanctions, in order to persuade the recalcitrant Burmese generals to come to their senses.Proposed: Gearoid Kilgallen IAWM Steering Committee12 ECONOMIC CRISISThe IAWM, in the current economic and political environment, opposes the all-out attack on working classpeople of Ireland and the actions of fraud and corruption in the financial system. These attacks haveresulted in severe levies for workers - both in the public and private sector - pay cuts, taxes and job losses.We therefore call for the IAWM to affiliate and work with organizations, trade unions, political parties tosupport any democratic opposition by the workers on these issues.Proposed: Memet Uludag IAWM Steering Committee13 RAF RED ARROWS INVITATIONThe Volvo Ocean Race is a wonderful example of human ingenuity and human endeavour combining toharness the natural elements so as to propel these sailing crafts across the seven seas.What a contrast the Ocean Race is to the British RAF's Red Arrows that are participating in the Galway stopover of the race in an air display on 30th May 2009. Tear away the 'glamour' that shrouds the planes andpilots and what you have is a recruiting sergeant for the British military and an apology for war, death andterror; what you have are pilots who in their day jobs are trained to terrorise and kill people. Their CVscontain the details that nearly every one of them has combat service in Iraq or Afghanistan. Pilots andplanes that kill other people's children are not family entertainment.In the present economic climate of growing unemployment the last thing we need is the recruiting sergeantof the British Armed Forces screaming over our skies to coax naive young Irish men and women to go fightand die in Britain’s foreign wars.Not only do the Red Arrows have no connection whatsoever with the unique character and culture ofGalway or Ireland, but their display is both a polluter of the environment and the international body politic.As an Anti-War Movement the IAWM agrees to campaign against the RAF Red Arrows display in Ireland, tohighlight the alterior motives behind such displays, to denounce these British armed forces as suitablefamily entertainment to represent Ireland, to participate in the campaign by Galway Alliance Against Waropposing this invitation to these killers, and participate in the protest to be held on the day.Proposed: Dette McLoughlin, Galway
May 1, 2009
The FBI, the Islamic Center of Irvine and Craig Monteilh: Who Was Conning Whom?
Published on April 29, 2009
Who Was that Mosqued Man?Craig Monteilh insists he was hot on the trail of terrorist plots at OC mosques. Count the victims of his earlier con games among the skeptics
If there’s a precise moment when the FBI first began to have a sinking feeling about Craig Monteilh, it likely occurred sometime in the spring of 2007, when his handlers read a small detail buried in one of his surveillance reports. Monteilh had been spying on the Islamic Center of Irvine and other mosques for several months. He’d earned the friendship and trust of a small group of Muslims, all of whom, he claims, were actually terrorists bent on carrying out violent attacks in Orange County. Their targets included shopping malls such as Fashion Island, South Coast Plaza and the Irvine Spectrum and, somewhat improbably, abandoned buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
According to his report, Monteilh was walking into a mosque in Tustin with a couple of the terrorists whose cell he’d infiltrated when he noticed a group of young Middle Eastern-looking men unloading several barrels from a van and hauling them into the mosque. At the time, Monteilh insists, he didn’t really think too much about what he saw. He was too busy focusing on the terror plot that he and the terrorists planned to discuss at the mosque that day.
“I looked at them like this, really quick, ‘Salaam aleikum,’” Monteilh recalls two years later in an interview at his house in Irvine, re-enacting the casual sideways glance and standard Islamic greeting—“Peace be unto you”—that he says he uttered that spring day. “I kept walking because we had other business. But I put it in my report that I observed six to eight young Middle Eastern Muslims loading barrels in the back of the mosque.”
But when Monteilh’s FBI handlers read his report, he claims, they began arguing about whether or not he was a liar. “They went, ‘What the hell is this?’” Monteilh recalls. “‘He’s lying.’” The FBI refuses to comment on anything Monteilh says, so assuming any of this happened the way Monteilh says it did, one could easily imagine what went through his handlers’ minds when they read his report: Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to hire a convicted felon and con artist to spy on Orange County’s Muslim community after all.
* * *
Craig Monteilh’s self-declared status as an FBI informant first became public three months ago, shortly after the bureau arrested a 34-year-old Afghan immigrant named Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, charging him with perjury and passport fraud for allegedly lying about previous trips to Pakistan and the fact that his brother-in-law was a high-ranking member of a Taliban faction allied with al-Qaeda. In his sworn affidavit against Niazi, Special Agent Thomas J. Ropel III stated that, in a tape-recorded conversation, Niazi had referred to Osama bin Laden as “an angel.” On Feb. 21, the day after Niazi’s arrest, Monteilh told the LA Times that he was the informant who gave the FBI that tape and that the FBI had paid him to spy on Orange County mosques.
Although the FBI never responded to the latter claim, a week after Niazi’s arrest, Ropel testified in Niazi’s bail hearing that Monteilh had in fact provided the FBI with the tape recording. Ropel’s admission didn’t surprise the leadership of the Islamic Center of Irvine, of which Niazi had been a member. In June 2007, Niazi and another mosque member had reported Monteilh to the FBI, claiming that Monteilh was espousing terrorist rhetoric and trying to draw them into a plot to blow up shopping malls and abandoned buildings. When the FBI refused to investigate, the congregants suspected Monteilh might have been an agent provocateur; the Islamic Center sought and won a restraining order barring Monteilh from entering the mosque. (See Matt Coker’s “Talkin’ Jihad With Craig Monteilh,” March 5.)
Ropel’s admission that the FBI had been working with Monteilh all along led to a firestorm of controversy among Muslims in Orange County and beyond. It flew in the face of a June 2006 promise by J. Stephen Tidwell, an assistant director with the FBI, in a speech before an angry crowd at the Islamic Center of Irvine, that the bureau would never spy on mosques. That promise followed an Orange County Register story that quoted an FBI agent telling a group of Republicans in Newport Beach that the bureau was monitoring “extremists” affiliated with UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union. (See Derek Olson’s “Against the Wall,” Oct. 19, 2007.)
The only confirmed cases of Orange County residents joining al-Qaeda involve Khalil Deek, a Palestinian exile, and Adam “Yahiye” Gadahn, a Jewish American teenager, both of whom fled to Pakistan before 9/11. Deek spent time in a Jordanian prison for his alleged role in a terrorist plot there but was freed months later. He has since disappeared and is believed to be dead. (See “So I Married a Terrorist . . .” April 20, 2007.) Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, has appeared in several al-Qaeda videos and is rumored to be hiding out near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
By N Schou
Who Was that Mosqued Man?Craig Monteilh insists he was hot on the trail of terrorist plots at OC mosques. Count the victims of his earlier con games among the skeptics
If there’s a precise moment when the FBI first began to have a sinking feeling about Craig Monteilh, it likely occurred sometime in the spring of 2007, when his handlers read a small detail buried in one of his surveillance reports. Monteilh had been spying on the Islamic Center of Irvine and other mosques for several months. He’d earned the friendship and trust of a small group of Muslims, all of whom, he claims, were actually terrorists bent on carrying out violent attacks in Orange County. Their targets included shopping malls such as Fashion Island, South Coast Plaza and the Irvine Spectrum and, somewhat improbably, abandoned buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
According to his report, Monteilh was walking into a mosque in Tustin with a couple of the terrorists whose cell he’d infiltrated when he noticed a group of young Middle Eastern-looking men unloading several barrels from a van and hauling them into the mosque. At the time, Monteilh insists, he didn’t really think too much about what he saw. He was too busy focusing on the terror plot that he and the terrorists planned to discuss at the mosque that day.
“I looked at them like this, really quick, ‘Salaam aleikum,’” Monteilh recalls two years later in an interview at his house in Irvine, re-enacting the casual sideways glance and standard Islamic greeting—“Peace be unto you”—that he says he uttered that spring day. “I kept walking because we had other business. But I put it in my report that I observed six to eight young Middle Eastern Muslims loading barrels in the back of the mosque.”
But when Monteilh’s FBI handlers read his report, he claims, they began arguing about whether or not he was a liar. “They went, ‘What the hell is this?’” Monteilh recalls. “‘He’s lying.’” The FBI refuses to comment on anything Monteilh says, so assuming any of this happened the way Monteilh says it did, one could easily imagine what went through his handlers’ minds when they read his report: Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to hire a convicted felon and con artist to spy on Orange County’s Muslim community after all.
* * *
Craig Monteilh’s self-declared status as an FBI informant first became public three months ago, shortly after the bureau arrested a 34-year-old Afghan immigrant named Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, charging him with perjury and passport fraud for allegedly lying about previous trips to Pakistan and the fact that his brother-in-law was a high-ranking member of a Taliban faction allied with al-Qaeda. In his sworn affidavit against Niazi, Special Agent Thomas J. Ropel III stated that, in a tape-recorded conversation, Niazi had referred to Osama bin Laden as “an angel.” On Feb. 21, the day after Niazi’s arrest, Monteilh told the LA Times that he was the informant who gave the FBI that tape and that the FBI had paid him to spy on Orange County mosques.
Although the FBI never responded to the latter claim, a week after Niazi’s arrest, Ropel testified in Niazi’s bail hearing that Monteilh had in fact provided the FBI with the tape recording. Ropel’s admission didn’t surprise the leadership of the Islamic Center of Irvine, of which Niazi had been a member. In June 2007, Niazi and another mosque member had reported Monteilh to the FBI, claiming that Monteilh was espousing terrorist rhetoric and trying to draw them into a plot to blow up shopping malls and abandoned buildings. When the FBI refused to investigate, the congregants suspected Monteilh might have been an agent provocateur; the Islamic Center sought and won a restraining order barring Monteilh from entering the mosque. (See Matt Coker’s “Talkin’ Jihad With Craig Monteilh,” March 5.)
Ropel’s admission that the FBI had been working with Monteilh all along led to a firestorm of controversy among Muslims in Orange County and beyond. It flew in the face of a June 2006 promise by J. Stephen Tidwell, an assistant director with the FBI, in a speech before an angry crowd at the Islamic Center of Irvine, that the bureau would never spy on mosques. That promise followed an Orange County Register story that quoted an FBI agent telling a group of Republicans in Newport Beach that the bureau was monitoring “extremists” affiliated with UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union. (See Derek Olson’s “Against the Wall,” Oct. 19, 2007.)
The only confirmed cases of Orange County residents joining al-Qaeda involve Khalil Deek, a Palestinian exile, and Adam “Yahiye” Gadahn, a Jewish American teenager, both of whom fled to Pakistan before 9/11. Deek spent time in a Jordanian prison for his alleged role in a terrorist plot there but was freed months later. He has since disappeared and is believed to be dead. (See “So I Married a Terrorist . . .” April 20, 2007.) Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, has appeared in several al-Qaeda videos and is rumored to be hiding out near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
By N Schou
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