William Bowles.info

New weapons experimented in Gaza: population risks genetic mutations
New Weapons Committe
May 12, 2010 – Toxic and carcinogenic metals, able to produce genetic mutations, have been found in the tissues of people wounded in Gaza during Israeli military operations of 2006 and 2009. The research has been carried out on wounds provoked by weapons that did not leave fragments in the bodies of the victims, a peculiarity that was pointed out repeatedly by doctors in Gaza. This shows that experimental weapons, whose effects are still to be assessed, were used. The researchers compared the quantity of 32 elements present in the tissues through ICP/MS (a type of highly sensitive mass spectrometry) . The job, carried out by laboratories of Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Chalmer University (Sweden) and Beirut University (Lebanon), was coordinated by the New Weapons Research Group (Nwrg), an independent committee of scientists and experts based in Italy, who is studying the use of unconventional weapons and their mid-term effects on the population of after-war areas. The relevant presence of toxic and carcinogenic metals found in the wound tissues points to direct risks for survivors, but also to the possibility of environmental contamination…

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EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Ex-CIA Official Reveals New Details About Torture, Plame Leak
Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t
May 12, 2010 – In a wide-ranging video interview with Truthout, former CIA counterterrorism official John Kiriakou reveals new information about the capture and torture of “high-value” detainee Abu Zubaydah and discloses, for the first time, his role in the events that led to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. On March 28, 2002, at exactly 2 AM, CIA, FBI and Pakistani intelligence agents raided 14 houses in Faisalabad, Pakistan and captured 52 alleged terrorists, including one who the Bush administration had wrongly claimed was the No. 3 person in al-Qaeda and one of the planners of the 9/11 attacks: Abu Zubaydah…

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Report: Israel training to block Freedom Fleet
Ma’an News
May 12, 2010 — Israel’s naval forces are allegedly in training to prepare to seize eight boats scheduled to dock in the Gaza Strip on 24 May from Europe, Arabic-language media reported on Wednesday. “About half of the Israeli naval forces will participate in an operation that was approved by the cabinet. [Israeli] Defense Minister Ehud Barak will supervise the operation,” an Israeli official told the Arabic-language satellite TV station Al-Hurra. An Israeli security source told Ma’an that authorities will prevent the arrival of the boats “at any price.”..

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Sympathy for the Oval: Seeking Shreds to Cover the Naked Truth of Power
Chris Floyd
May 12, 2010 – … In any case, Obama has been intensely involved in the Afghanistan war since the very beginning of his term. Indeed, he has already masterminded not one but two “surges” of the conflict, as well as greatly expanding the murderous campaign of assassinations in Pakistan, killing hundreds of people, terrorizing hundreds of thousands, and exacerbating hatred and extremism at every turn. Afghanistan is Obama’s war — he asked for it during the campaign, and he has willingly made it his own. He has his own hand-picked commander in charge (plucked from the pool of Bushist brass, of course), and he — he alone — made the decision not only to keep Bush’s Pentagon warlord, but to make him one of his closest advisers. So I ask again: why would anyone feel compelled to give the Obama Administration the “benefit of the doubt” when it comes to atrocities in Afghanistan — especially those reported by “respectable,” mainstream media institutions? …

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Our Monstrous Culture, and the Monsters Who Rule You (I): What the Monster Said
Arthur Silber
May 12, 2010 – …The monster sees us watching. His eyes open wider as he registers our presence. He looks directly at us, and smiles. Blood and pieces of flesh fall out of his mouth. He chuckles quietly. Then, suddenly, he looks at us with an expression suffused with sincerity. He’s about to say something, and he wants us to know that what he’s about to say is important. He wants to be sure we understand this. “I take extraordinary measures to avoid killing these people,” the monster solemnly says. “I have an interest in reducing these killings, and I’m doing everything I can to prevent them. But sometimes I can’t avoid them altogether. When that happens, it’s their fault. They leave me no choice.” The monster looks very sad. We hear him sigh deeply, regretfully. A few pieces of bloody, torn flesh fall out of his mouth to the ground. He looks directly at us once more. The monster wants to add another thought, one of special significance. “And when I have to kill them — but only because they leave me no choice — I’m sorry. I’m truly very, very sorry.” The monster sits very still for a few moments. He sighs again. Then he plunges his hands deep into the guts of the body in front of him once more. He leans over and begins shoveling bits of flesh and entrails into his mouth…

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Iran is executing young protesters, please write to put a stop to this!
Palestine Think Tank
Dear Friends, Islamic Republic is executing young protesters. Five Iranian activists were hung over the weekend and on Monday there was a protest in DC Please send emails to: Interest Section of the Islamic republic in DC: (requests@daftar.org ) Mohammad Khazaee Ambassador to the UN: ( iran@un.int )and rc.office.iran@undp.org Tell them to stop murdering children of Iran whose only fault is to demand safety for political discussion and dissent…

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Pakistan: 28 die in NWA drone attack
By Malik Mumtaz & Mushtaq Yusufzai
May 12, 2010 – The US spy planes on Tuesday launched the biggest missile attack in North Waziristan tribal region and killed 28 suspected militants and villagers in the wake of heightening tension in the Pak-US relations over Faisal Shahzad’s alleged involvement in the botched New York car bombing. Official sources in Miramshah, the principal town of North Waziristan, said the unmanned US spy planes fired the biggest number of missiles at a time against a single target. “It’s terrible. They intend to intensify the drone attacks as the number of planes hovering over the area has gone up dramatically,” remarked an official in Miramshah, who declined to be named…

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Palestinian girl (16) used as a human shield while searching her house in the old city of Nablus
Defence for Children International
May 12, 2010 – Dua’a Abboud (16) lives with her family in the old city of Nablus. On 18 February 2010, at around 3:30am, they woke up to the sound of banging on the door. As the door got stuck when trying to open it, the Israeli soldiers who were outside ordered them to step away, broke down the door, and stormed the house. Most of them were wearing masks on their faces…

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Civilian casualties rising in Afghanistan
Reuters
May 12, 2010 – The number of civilians killed by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has risen this year, despite efforts to limit fallout from the widening war against the Taliban, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Citing NATO statistics, the Pentagon said U.S. and NATO forces killed 90 civilians from January to April — a 76 percent rise from the 51 deaths in the same period of 2009…

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Netanyahu: “Jerusalem Is Ours, We Will Build And Develop It”
Saed Bannoura
May 12, 2010 – Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that Israel will always build and develop the city of Jerusalem is order to make it a “viable, developed and advanced city”. Netanyahu said the relation between the Israelis and Jerusalem cannot be questioned and the Jews around the world look forwards to return to it and live it. He also stated that the “Jewish struggle for Jerusalem is a struggle of existence”. Netanyahu was speaking at a Jewish center in Jerusalem marking the 43rd anniversary of “unifying Jerusalem”…

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Israel plans Jerusalem expansion over Green Line
Ma’an News
May 12, 2010 – Plans for Israel’s expansion of Jerusalem’s borders were revealed on Wednesday, which include a 12,000 housing unit complex on land belonging to the West Bank village of Al-Walaja, south of Jerusalem, The Islamic Christian Commission for Support of Jerusalem and the holy Places (ICC). ICC Secretary-General Hasan Khatir said during a news conference that the new settlement would be called Giv’at Ya’el, and house approximately 45,000 Israelis, with plans laid for a large park…

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Haitians demand president resigns
Aljazeera.net
May 12, 2010 – Protesters in Haiti have demanded the resignation of the president, accusing him of using January’s devastating earthquake as an excuse to remain in power. About 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets on Monday to criticise Rene Preval after he said he would remain in power until next May if a presidential election is not held in November as scheduled. Rene Preval’s term is due to end in February, but officials have said a November ballot is in doubt because the 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed voting records and polling places…

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Farming in Gaza Is “a Kind of Resistance”
Max Ajl
May 12, 2010 – That Thursday morning was odd weather in Gaza. Gaza is pretty arid. Thick cloud cover is unusual in late April, so is rain. The slate storm-front sliding over the horizon in Farraheen was even weirder. We were in Abasan Kabeera, on the farmland of the Tabash family. Peasant women picked the golden bunches of lentils from the ground swiftly underneath the quickly darkening sky, pulling neat bundles of stalks and beans from the earth with practiced motions, quick, smooth grabs, and leaving them on their side in the newly-bare dirt. Six women and two men cooperated to harvest the six dunums or so of lentils growing in that sector of the field, as we watched over them…

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Egyptian workers demand a living wage
Joel Beinin
May 12, 2010 – On May 11 the Egyptian government extended the State of Emergency, which has been in effect continuously since 1981, for an additional two years. The Emergency Law gives the regime broad powers which it has used to try to suppress dissent of all sorts. But the law and other repressive measures have been ineffective in stemming the tidal wave of public protests by workers and others that have severely eroded the legitimacy of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. Since February workers from over a dozen workplaces have sat-in nearly continuously in front of Egypt’s parliament. Each group has its own demands related to wages and working conditions in their workplace…

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Israel’s Tightening Grip On The Jordan Valley
Palestine Monitor
May 12, 2010 – The Jordan Valley is an area under urgent threat of annexation. During the last few weeks Israel has considerably tightened its grip on its local Palestinian population. On the 11th of April the Israeli Army shut off the main water source to the village of Bardala (Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate), jeopardising its viability as a farming community. On the 12th of April they declared the area of Al Maleh a closed military zone, preventing shepherds from grazing their animals. Three days later, on the 15th of April, Israeli soldiers raided the community of Al Farisiya and stole four water pumps in a further attempt to control all water resources in the area…

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Obama on Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan: “I Am Accountable”
Jeremy Scahill
May 12, 2010 – During his White House press conference Wednesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama addressed the issue of civilian deaths caused by US operations in Afghanistan. “I take no pleasure in hearing a report that a civilian has been killed,” said Obama. “That’s not why I ran for president, that’s not why I’m Commander in Chief.” “Let me be very clear about what I told President Karazi: When there is a civilian casualty, that is not just a political problem for me. I am ultimately accountable, just as Gen. McChrystal is accountable, for somebody who is not on the battlefield who got killed,” said Obama. That statement is quite remarkable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it is not true…

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Arrest of 13 CIA Agents Sought in Spain
By Scott Horton
May 12, 2010 – Prosecutors attached to the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid are reportedly requesting that Judge Ismael Moreno issue an order for the arrest of thirteen CIA agents involved in an extraordinary rendition operation from 2004, the newspaper El País reports this afternoon, citing sources within the court. The case relates to Khaled El-Masri, a greengrocer from Neu-Ulm, Germany, seized by the United States as a result of mistaken identity while he was on vacation in the former Yugoslavia. El-Masri was placed on a CIA-chartered jet that arrived in Macedonia from Palma de Majorca in January 2004, en route ultimately to Afghanistan…

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Aharonovitch: No more delays, we will demolish Arab homes in J’lem
Amnon Meranda
May 12, 2010 – Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch revealed during a Knesset session on Wednesday that the police will soon be providing security to inspectors slated to demolish illegal Arab homes in east Jerusalem. The minister’s comments came in response to a query submitted by Knesset Member Yariv Levin (Likud). He claimed the Jerusalem Municipality was not executing demolition orders issued against Arab houses, and asked if an order was given to the Israel Police not to carry out the orders at this time…

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Irish activists urge divestment at CRH annual meeting
Adri Nieuwhof and John Dorman
May 12, 2010 – Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) activists are pressuring the Ireland-based international building materials group CRH to divest from its Israeli subsidiary Mashav. Last week, IPSC members attended the annual CRH general shareholders meeting as activist shareholders. Their aim was to discuss the involvement of CRH subsidiary Mashav in illegal construction activities in the occupied West Bank. The four IPSC shareholders dominated the hour-long question and answer session and received support from actual CRH shareholders for the company to divest from Israel…

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Gaza fisherman killed
Middle East Monitor
May 12, 2010 – A Gazan fisherman was killed early Wednesday morning after an Egyptian patrol boat forcefully collided with the fisherman’s boat on the sea border between Rafah and Egypt. Mohammed Ibrahim al-Bardaweel (44 years) was killed and two of his relatives were seriously wounded. Witnesses said that Al-Bardaweel had been fishing in his engineless boat when the Egyptian boat rammed into it, injuring him and his two relatives, who were all taken to Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, where Al-Bardaweel later died. Their fishing nets were later confiscated by the authorities…

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What is Behind “Despotic Tolerance”
Samir Karan
May 12, 2010 – …Arab authorities curbing in relation to Arab foreign policies is more dangerous than that in local affairs. All Arab governments that concluded peace with the Zionist entities – whether they signed treaties or not yet – are interested in showing that they can pay the price internally. This is what is demanded by America before being demanded by the Zionist entity. They are asked (not to say ordered) to prove that they are able to crush any opposition to peace with “Israel”, and any support to resistance against it. And within the framework of proving this ability, meetings are taking place with the “Israeli” prime minister, his minister of defense or whoever “Israel” wishes to delegate. How would Barack Obama’s policies in relation to “Israel” and Palestinians become bearable if they are not approved by the rulers of Egypt, Jordan and the “Palestinian Authority”. If Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcomed in Cairo (Sharm EL-Sheikh is better for weather and security wise) whenever he wishes?! Is this not alone proof that the peace process is “passing” without stopping?…

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