Inside Kandahar

Seen on: YouTube

Civilians in Afghanistan have paid the heavist price for the conflict in their country, caught up almost daily in both Taliban attacks and air raids by US force.

Obama and the Middle East

Seen on: The Economist

A new approach to the Middle East is necessary, says Dr Claire Spencer of Chatham House. But first, Barack Obama must lower expectations.

The Beatles Tapes

Seen on: YouTube

Imagine if the US-Army stayed in bed for a week.., the tension would be released.

Life Is Beautiful

Seen on: YouTube

Unforgettable-fable that proves love, family and imagination conquer all.

Spotlight: Held Hostage in Colombia (2008)

From deep within the Colombian jungle, this documentary tells the story of three American defense contractors held hostage since their plane crashed in 2003.

The Most-Wanted List

On Feb. 13, Imad Mughniyeh, of Hizbollah, was assassinated in Damascus. "The world is a better place without this man in it," State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said: "one way or the other he was brought to justice."

Joy was unconstrained in Israel too, as "one of the U.S. and Israel's most wanted men" was brought to justice, the London Financial Times reported.

Under the heading, "A militant wanted the world over," an accompanying story reported that he was "superseded on the most-wanted list by Osama bin Laden" after 9/11 and so ranked only second among "the most wanted."

The terminology is accurate enough, according to the rules of Anglo-American discourse, which defines "the world" as the political class in Washington and London (and whoever happens to agree with them on specific matters).

Following the Terror Trail
In the present case, if "the world" were extended to the world, we might find some other candidates for the honor of most hated arch-criminal.

The Financial Times reports that most of the charges against Moughniyeh are unsubstantiated, but "one of the very few times when his involvement can be ascertained with certainty [is in] the hijacking of a TWA plane in 1985."

Car Bomb
the 1985 Tunis bombing was a severe terrorist crime, or the crime for which Moughniyeh's "involvement can be ascertained with certainty". But even the Tunis bombing had competitors for the prize for worst terrorist atrocity.

One challenger was a car-bombing in Beirut right outside a mosque, timed to go off as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers. It killed 80 people and wounded 256. Most of the dead were girls and women, who had been leaving the mosque, though the ferocity of the blast "burned babies in their beds," and "blew away three children as they walked home from the mosque."

The intended target had been the Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who escaped. The bombing was carried out by Reagan's CIA and his Saudi allies, with Britain's help, and was specifically authorized by CIA Director William Casey, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's account in his book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987.

Killing without Intent
Another allegation is that Moughniyeh "masterminded" the bombing of Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires on March 17, 1992, killing 29 people, in response to Israel's "assassination of former Hizbollah leader Abbas Al-Mussawi in an air attack in southern Lebanon." Israel proudly took credit for it.

The world might have some interest in the rest of the story. Al-Mussawi was murdered with a U.S.-supplied helicopter, well north of Israel's illegal "security zone" in southern Lebanon. He was on his way to Sidon from the village of Jibshit, where he had spoken at the memorial for another Imam murdered by Israeli forces. The helicopter attack also killed his wife and five-year old child.

This is only a small sample of facts that the world might find of interest in connection with the alleged responsibility of Moughniyeh for the retaliatory terrorist act in Buenos Aires. The more vulgar apologists for U.S. and Israeli crimes solemnly explain that, while Arabs purposely kill people, the U.S. and Israel, being democratic societies, do not intend to do so.

"Terrorist Villagers"
A third competitor for the Mideast terrorism prize was Prime Minister Peres' "Iron Fist" operations in southern Lebanese territories then occupied by Israel. The targets were what the Israeli high command called "terrorist villagers."

Peres's crimes in this case sank to new depths of "calculated brutality and arbitrary murder" in the words of a Western diplomat familiar with the area, an assessment amply supported by direct coverage.

To repeat once again, we can distinguish three categories of crimes: murder with intent, accidental killing, and murder with foreknowledge but without specific intent. Israeli and U.S. atrocities typically fall into the third category.

Thus, when Israel destroys Gaza's power supply or sets up barriers to travel in the West Bank, it does not specifically intend to murder the particular people who will die from polluted water or in ambulances that cannot reach hospitals.

If, for a moment, we can adopt the perspective of the world, we might ask which criminals are "wanted the world over."

Adapted via Chomsky.info

The New Arms-Race

There are two distinct versions of the operation mounted by the US Navy to shoot down a crippled military satellite over the Pacific. The official version, expounded in mind-numbing detail by Pentagon officials yesterday, is that the US had no choice but to launch a missile to bring down the satellite.

It had been out of control since its launch 13 months ago.

A supplementary argument, not broached by the Pentagon, was that the military technology loaded on to the satellite was not anything that America wanted another country to find on its territory.

The other interpretation of the mission is not incompatible with the first but far more worrying. While acknowledging that the satellite was in trouble and a missile strike was one way of dealing with it, this version has it that the operation was in fact a covert test of a space weapon.

Such tests were outlawed by the US-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty of 1972. By abrogating the treaty in one of his first acts as President, George Bush opened the way for tests of the "son" of Reagan's "Star Wars".

Since then, the US has conducted a series of experiments in which missiles have been launched to intercept other missiles, with varying degrees of success.

A year ago, China surprised America when it shot down a satellite at a very high altitude. It was the most glaring demonstration yet of China's steady rise as a military power. It is hard not to regard this week's show of missile prowess by the US as directed towards China. Beijing, for one, was in no doubt.

Via The-Independent

Once Upon a Time in Iran - One

Seen on: YouTube

A steady drumbeat of leaks suggests that the US and/or Israel may attack Iran sometime over the coming months. Once Upon a Time in Iran is a road movie featuring pilgrims and presidents: a journey to the spiritual heartlands of the Iranian people and a tale of martyrdom that defines their view of aggressors.

Kenya flashpoints

Kenya's police are struggling to restore order as ethnic-gangs are rampaging across parts of the capital, Nairobi, Rift Valley and western Kenya attacking members of rival-communities.


The violence began following last month's disputed presidential-election but now has descended into a vicious-cycle of revenge attacks, leaving scores dead.

> In pictures: Fleeing mobs

Patient-Musharraf

Pervez-Musharraf has promised that Pakistan will hold fair elections next month and urged the West to be more patient.

He also sought to ease worries about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal as Islamic-extremists step up their fight with his government, insisting that tight security would prevent the weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

"We have a multilayer custodial and command system," Musharraf told the European Parliament as he began an eight-day European-trip.

European Union foreign-policy chief Javier-Solana said after meeting with Musharraf that Feb. 18 parliamentary elections must be "free, fair and secure" and that their conduct would determine the bloc's relations and engagement with Pakistan.

Via Time-Magazine

Osama bin-Laden: Son seeks peace

Osama bin-Laden's son has said he wants to become an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.

Omar 'Osama bin-Laden', 26, said that he was planning a horse race across North-Africa to promote peace between nations.

"A lot of people think Arabs - especially the bin-Ladens - are all terrorists. This is not the truth," Omar told AP in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Via BBC

Kenya's bloody protests

Seen on: YouTube

Protests across Kenya against Mwai-Kibaki, the Kenyan president, have seen over 20-people lose their lives. Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reports from Nairobi on the third-day of opposition-backed demonstrations.

Apocalypse Now: Opening Scene

Seen on: YouTube

"Apocalypse Now" remains an important artistic-statement. The title of the movie appears as graffiti late in the film, which reads, "Our motto: Apocalypse Now".

Image Day - Sri Lanka bus bomb

More than two dozen people have been killed in a bus-blast in the south-east of Sri-Lanka on the same day the government formally withdrew from a ceasefire.

Via BBC

Image Day - Kenyan protests

Opposition Orange Democratic Movement supporters in Kenya began three-days of protest at the allegedly rigged presidential-elections in December.

Via BBC

Islam & Democracy

Seen on: YouTube

Abdur Rahim Green talks about Islam and Democracy.

Born in Dar-es-salaam in Tanzania to British parents, Green's father, Gavin-Green, was a colonial-administrator in the then extant British-Empire.

Whilst in Britain his father got a job in 1976 working for Barclays-Bank International and was subsequently sent to Cairo, Egypt, to set up a branch.

His study of the Qur'an attracted him to Islam, and he-embraced Islam in 1988.

Image Day - A Child's Play

A US soldier from the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, plays with a young girl during a patrol in Baghdad, 13 January 2008.

After talks yesterday with General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan-Crocker, US President Geroge W. Bush told reporters that his goal of reducing troop numbers in Iraq by July was on track but called on Syria and Iran to stop fuelling-violence in Iraq.

> AFP/Getty Images

Iraq-Offensive: Clear out militants

US forces are solidifying control over some of the most persistent militant strongholds of Al-Qaeda in Iraq northeast of Baghdad, drawing on a new counterinsurgency model.

In Kuwait, President-Bush conceded that until last year, "our strategy simply wasn't working," with Iraq riven by sectarian violence and Sunni and Shiite militants strengthening their grip.

"Al-Qaeda ... will continue to target the innocent with violence," Mr. Bush said. "But we've dealt Al Qaeda in Iraq heavy blows, and it now faces a growing uprising of ordinary Iraqis who want to live peaceful lives."

Via CS-Monitor

Baghdad's First Snow

It snowed in Baghdad. The flakes melted-quickly, but the smiles, went on.

After weathering nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they'd pretty much seen it all. But as muezzins were calling the faithful to prayer, the people here awoke to something certifiably-new.

"For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, a 63-year-old retiree from the New Baghdad area.

"When I was young, I heard from my father that such rain had fallen in the early '40s on the outskirts of northern Baghdad," Mr. Abdul-Hussein said.

Q & A: President-Bush

Q: Mr. President George Bush — you launched war against Iraq after the Iraqi leadership refused to implement UN resolutions.

My question now is, what is the problem to ask Israel just to accept and respect the United-Nations resolutions relating to Palestine?

Bush: Yes, but tell me the-part about the U.N. thing again?

> Read full-text from IHT