UPDATE 3. URGENT – Hiba Al-Shamaree Iraqi Writer/Blogger.
Layla Anwar
February 5, 2010 – I have received fresh information concerning the arrest and detention of Hiba Al-Shamaree, whose real name is Hanan Al-Mashadani, 33 years old, and a medical doctor, arrested on the 20th of January 2010, upon her arrival in Baghdad from Jordan. Hiba was arrested after her laptop and her mobile phone were searched and her articles as well as her medical files/reports were read. Articles that are critical of the present government and medical reports that point to the failure of the health system due to endemic corruption of the current government. Hiba Al-Shamaree was arrested and then transferred to the notorious, infamous Al-Kadhimiya prison, the sectarians favorite detention center where formidable torture and executions regularly take place. She now detained by Nouri Al-Maliki’s special forces – guards and secret service men…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62955

Human Rights Abuses in Israel and Occupied Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
February 5, 2010 – Founded in 1972, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) is its leading human and civil rights organization through activities involving litigation, legal advocacy, education, and public outreach. Each year it publishes an annual report covering flagrant violations, positive trends, if any, and “significant human rights-related processes” affecting Israelis and Palestinians. Its latest December 2009 one is examined below, discussing “a disturbing (government-sponsored) trend that has (gained) currency in Israel over the past year – both in public discourse and sometimes in practice – to make human rights conditional: on fulfilling some obligation, having financial means, or belonging (or not belonging) to certain groups.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62954

Afghanistan: Lethal Nato bombing details leaked
Aljazeera.net
February 5, 2010 – A deadly airstrike in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province last September did not comply with Nato’s rules of engagement, according to the military organisation’s own investigators. In a leaked document published by the German newspaper Der Spiegel this week, it was revealed that crucial information was withheld from US pilots by the German military, who ordered the attack that killed scores of Afghan civilians…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62957

TALIBAN: RETURNED KIDNAPPED AND RAPED HOUSEWIFE OR WE WILL EXECUTE AMERICAN POW
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
February 5, 2010 – …The Taliban is holding an American soldier prisoner and is threatening to execute him. The process being used is Jirga, a council of Afghani leaders who the family has asked to support them in getting the justice America has denied Mrs. Siddiqui. The problem I have is that an innocent American soldier is being threatened when the criminals who kidnapped, raped and tortured this woman, then lied to convict her in an illegal court will never have to face justice. Mrs. Siddiqui is innocent as is the man you are holding. We can’t do anything to stop the suffering of the innocent, these two and so many more until we agree to take power ourselves…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62974

“Use of mercenaries masks scope of US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq”
RussiaToday
February 5, 2010 – There has been a massive increase in the funding of US war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and private military contractors are flourishing in its wake, even though their reputations are at an all-time low. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky told RT that there are at least as many contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan as there are military. “So when the President asks for a 30,000 troop increase in Afghanistan, we are talking about at least that number of contractors too, which makes the mission much bigger. We don’t even count them when they get killed,” she said…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62973

Rights group outraged at Ban for dragging war crimes issue
Ma’an News
February 5, 2010 – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said “No determination can be made on the implementation of the resolution by the parties concerned,” during the meeting of the General Assembly on Thursday, prompting an outcry from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Ban made the statement, PCHR said, “despite the fact that Resolution A/Res/61/10 explicitly called for the Secretary-General to ‘report on the implementation of the present resolution’.” The organization, based in Gaza, continued, saying “As representatives of the victims of the atrocities committed during the Israeli attacks on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, PCHR is shocked and appalled by this lack of responsibility.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62970

No Direction Home: Pakistan and the Imperial Principle
Chris Floyd
February 5, 2010 – Here’s the way the game works. First you get the outright lie, then later, in dribs and drabs, you get a few, grudging crumbs of the truth. For example, first you get: “No, there are no Blackwater operatives in Pakistan. None. That’s just a conspiracy theory, terrorist propaganda. These kinds of lies just make it harder for us to do good in the region.” Then later: “Well, yes, we do have Blackwater operatives in Pakistan. But, uh, we don’t actually cut their checks directly in the Pentagon.”Or what about this more recent example? First: “The United States has no troops in Pakistan. None. We are not going to send troops to Pakistan. That’s just wild talk, a conspiracy theory. And it makes it harder for us to do good in the region.” Then later: “Well, yes, we do have a few troops in Pakistan. All right, a couple hundred. But that’s is”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62969

Putting the independence of the British judiciary to the test
Zulaikha Abdullah
February 5, 2010 – In December last year, Westminster magistrates’ court issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, under Britain’s universal jurisdiction laws. It was granted in the wake of conclusions by the United Nations fact-finding mission on the conflict in Gaza which found evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinians committed acts that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It also found that Israeli military planners followed a doctrine aimed deliberately at causing massive damage, destruction and suffering to civilian populations and in addition, that grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killing by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) gave rise to individual criminal responsibility…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62968

Fateh and Hamas Form Field Committee
Saed Bannoura
Friday February 05 – The rival Fateh and Hamas movements managed to form a committee that would be in charge of discussing field issues that are preventing reconciliation. The committee was formed after Fateh official Nabil Shaath met on Thursday with Ismail Haniyya of Hamas and several Hamas leaders in Gaza. The meeting is the first of its kind conducted by a Fateh official to the Gaza Strip since June of 2007.,,

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62972

Taliban say ready for Nato’s major surge in Helmand
The News International
February 05, 2010- The Afghan Taliban have said that they have made preparations for a long battle in the southwestern Helmand province. “Taliban are not afraid of the planned major offensive by foreign forces in Helmand. We are happy that foreigners would come out of their bases and our fighters would attack them,” Mulla Sharfuddin, Taliban commander in Helmand, told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) by phone from an undisclosed location. “Taliban are well aware of the enemies’ plan and they have already made preparations,” he claimed. Asked what kind of weapons the Taliban would use in the expected fighting, the Taliban commander said: “We have made all arrangements and divided the area under different commanders…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62966

Taliban reject “deal” with Afghanistan, West
Reuters
February 5, 2010 – The Taliban have said they will not enter into any “deal” with the Afghan government or the West to bring peace to Afghanistan, and their fighters will continue to die to achieve a victory they say is around the corner. At a conference in London last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai invited the Taliban to a peace council and set out plans to lure fighters down from the hills in return for cash and jobs. But in a statement posted on the Islamists’ website (alemarah.info/english) on Thursday, the Taliban vowed to “collude” with no one…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62956

Iraqis claiming abuse by British forces
AFP
February 5, 2010 – Lawyers for scores of Iraqis who claim they were abused by British soldiers called on Thursday for a public inquiry into how the country’s forces have treated detainees during the US-led war. A law firm representing 66 Iraqis said claims that British troops mistreated prisoners during the Iraq conflict were so numerous and similar that defence officials must hold a single inquiry into Britain’s detention policy. British soldiers are accused by the claimants of subjecting Iraqis to rape, sexual humiliation and torture.” “There are so many cases and so many have so much in common – similar allegations at similar facilities, often involving the same people,” said lawyer Phil Shiner, from the firm Public Interest Lawyers…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62965

The Ghosts of Iraq
Hussein Al-alak, The Iraq Solidarity Campaign
The Ghosts of Iraq is the fantastic new painting by British soldier and war artist Martin Webster, who has donated the original print for auction, to raise money for the Collateral Repair Project, which works to assist Iraqi refugee’s who have been left isolated and destitute, as result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The painting, which is the haunting image of a child crying, depicts both the physical and psychological trauma which war has brought to the lives of millions of Iraqi children and with over five million of those children now being orphans, or victims of trauma, malnutrition and poverty, The Ghosts of Iraq is an image that represents the catastrophic horror which the invasion has actually brought…The Collateral Repair Project is a grassroots movement, created to address the displacement of the five million Iraqis who have had to leave behind their homes and communities because of the violence, political instability and ethnic cleansing. Between 500,000 and 1 million Iraqi refugees are now in the kingdom of Jordan…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62963

Gazans Denied Justice as Rights Take a Beating
By Mel Frykberg
February 5 2010 – Gazans hoping for a modicum of justice following Israel’s indiscriminate military assault on the coastal territory during December 2008 and January 2009 – which left 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead – could be waiting in vain. The Israeli government has taken the offensive in the propaganda battle and attacked United Nations-appointed Justice Richard Goldstone’s report into war crimes committed during the war. The report alleges that Israel was responsible for the lion’s share of human rights abuses…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62964

US intelligence chief claims right to assassinate Americans overseas
By Joe Kishore
February 5, 2010 – US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said on Wednesday that government agencies have a policy of assassinating Americans overseas as required by the “war on terror.” In testimony before the House intelligence committee, Blair said the assassinations would be justified if US citizens were “taking action that threatens Americans.” This is an extremely broad category, giving the US intelligence apparatus general authority to engage in what amount to extra-judicial executions…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62961

Gaza schoolchildren struggling to learn
IRIN News
February 5, 2010 – Nearly half a million children in Gaza returned to overcrowded and dilapidated schools on 1 February, many attending in a shift system, with missing textbooks, stationery or uniforms. “I don’t have a school uniform because my Dad doesn’t have a job and said he doesn’t have enough money to buy me one,” said Mohammed al-Khouli, a nine-year-old at the government-run al-Mu’tasem primary school in Gaza City. “I have to borrow pens and pencils from other kids in my class because I don’t have any.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62971

Video: Aafia Siddiqui’s “missing years”
Aljazeera.English
February 5, 2010 – Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani scientist found guilty of attempting to kill American servicemen by a US court, “disappeared” from Karachi in March 2003. Her family says she was held at the US military’s Bagram airbase in Afghanistan…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62962

Video – MSF: Gaza, One Year On
In Gaza, the effects of last years Operation Cast Lead is still being felt
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
February 5, 2010 – …The health care system’s ability to function properly has been weakened considerably. Most medical equipment is unreliable and the embargo makes it impossible to obtain certain spare parts. Similarly, medical units also face drug shortages. More than 5,000 people were wounded during the January war. Many are disabled and the only rehabilitation center in the Gaza Strip also finds it difficult to import raw materials and the components required to manufacture artificial limbs. The waiting time for a prosthetic now extends to mid-2010. Even as the 150 disabled patients await theirs, unexploded munitions continue to kill and wound “Two children have been killed and at least three wounded while playing with these weapons,” says Jean-Luc Lambert, MSF head of mission. “One year later, the children of Gaza are still losing their lives to the war.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62960

Video: Soldiers attack Palestinian Shepherds and Torture Musab Raba’i
AtTuwaniProject
February 5, 2010 – On the morning of Thursday 7 January 2010, Israeli soldiers attacked and injured Palestinian shepherds from the Musa Rabai family, as they grazed their sheep in Humra valley, near the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. Five members of the family were hospitalized. Before leaving the area, the soldiers arrested one of the shepherds, Musab Musa Rabai. Raba’i was interrogated and tortured for four hours…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62959

US jury convicts Aafia Siddiqui
Protests erupt across Pakistan over torture victim’s frame-up
By Bill Van Auken
February 5, 2010 – Pakistanis took to the streets in angry protests Thursday after a New York jury convicted Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated neuroscientist who was subjected to rendition and torture, on frame-up charges of shooting at US soldiers. Thousands demonstrated in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, chanting slogans demanding Siddiqui’s freedom and the return of her disappeared children. The protesters denounced the US, while burning American flags. Demonstrators carried banners reading “We hate America” and “Shame on the US judiciary.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62953

Deadly blast in Iraq’s Karbala city
Aljazeera.net
February 5, 2010 – At least 40 people have been killed and more than 75 others wounded after two explosions in the Iraqi city of Karbala as hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims observed a major religious rite. Friday’s attack came on the final and most important day of the Arbaeen festival and was the third major strike this week against Iraq’s Shia Muslim pilgrims. The blast took place near one of three main entrances to Karbala, wounding at least 60 people, a police official said…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=62958