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.

Image Day - Jabalia Camp

Palestinians read a sign on the gate of the United Nations distribution center at the Jabalia refugee camp. The camp was established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict for 35,000 refugees who had fled from villages in southern Palestine.

>> Photo by AP

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.

Selling-War to America

What do the arch hawks of the Bush administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz, have in common with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard?

Answer: they both fêted Ahmad Chalabi, the former Iraqi banker who put “regime change” in Baghdad at the top of US agenda. Chalabi attracts adoration and enmity in equal measure and has courted controversy through his life.

Chalabi comes across here as a charismatic, Machiavellian individual, fascinated with the world of intelligence from the beginning. He moved the Washington establishment towards the invasion of Iraq but appears to have paid no thought about what to do afterwards, except that he wanted a central role.

There is much detail here about how he took tens of millions of dollars, first from the CIA, with whom he fell out; then from the State department, with whom he fell out; and then from the defence department, with whom he fell out. Government auditors struggled in vain to discover how this money was spent.

Chalabi often promised more than he delivered. He was to provide troops for the Free Iraqi Forces, which the Pentagon would train to enter Iraq.

A training centre was established, where 1,100 US soldiers and trainers waited, but Chalabi sent nobody. The programme cost an estimated $200m and the number of Iraqis trained was, in the words of a general, “teeny-tiny”.

Via FT

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.

Impact of Israel's Gaza-intrusion

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The impact on Gaza's 1.5 million lives, due to the 'Lockdown' of Gaza by Israel.

Israel plays with 'power' in Gaza

Residents in the Gaza-Strip are facing the closure of the territory's only power plant as Israel continues a shutdown of its border crossings. "There is no fuel coming in and we have no reserves," Kanaan Abeid, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority in the Gaza Strip, said.

However, Arye-Mekel, the Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said that supplies of petrol used in cars, as well as diesel, had been halted but not essential-fuel.

The UN organisation supporting Palestinian refugees, warned that the shortages would drastically affect hospitals and water facilities. "The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards," Christopher Gunness, UNRWA spokesman, said.

Via Al-Jazeera

RIP - Bobby Fischer

Former world chess champion Bobby-Fischer, considered by many to be the greatest player of all time, has died at the age of 64.

American-born Fischer was the US's first and only world chess champion, winning the title in the classic Cold War showdown against Russian Boris Spassky in 1972.


Fischer - the youngest international grandmaster ever at 15 - settled in Iceland in 2005 having been granted citizenship after eight months in detention in Japan.

Via ITN

Anti-Zionist group condems "Gaza-Massacre"

The ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist group, Neturei Karta, on Thursday condemned "the recent Zionist terrorist massacre" in Gaza.

The statement read, "Anti-Zionist Jews condemn the Zionists in no uncertain terms for their violent and bloodthirsty behavior."

"We cannot understand why great world powers seem to give the Zionists a free hand to commit such crimes against the indigenous Palestinian people from the comfort of their F-16 fighter jets, helicopter gun ships and Merkava tanks."

It went on to call on "great world powers" to "restore the rights of the Palestinians throughout historic Palestine."

The statement concluded: "Zionism is doomed!

Via Jerusalem-Post

UN urges Israel to end "Gaza-Lockdown"

The UN agency for Palestinian-refugees on Friday appealed to Israel to lift its lockdown of Gaza and open crossings into the impoverished territory where most of the residents depend on food aid.

"It is imperative that these crossings are opened so that the dire situation in Gaza does not deteriorate further, inflicting further misery on one and half million people" who live there, Christopher Gunness, the spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told AFP.

Gaza violence escalates

Seen on: YouTube

Two Palestinians, including a woman, were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Thursday. More than two dozen people have now been killed in the three days of military action. Al Jazeera's David Chater reports from Jerusalem.

In Time: Iraqi scuds hit Israel

1991: Iraqi Scud missiles hit Israel
Iraq has attacked two Israeli cities with Scud-missiles, prompting fears that Israel may be drawn into the Gulf-War.

Israel's largest city, Tel-Aviv, and Haifa, its main seaport, were hit in the attacks, which began at 0300 local time, when most residents were asleep.

In-Context
Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israeli cities again the next day and throughout the Gulf War, but failed to provoke Israel into unilateral retaliation.

After more than a month of intensive air attacks, the Allies launched a land offensive on 24 February. One day later, the Iraqis began retreating.

Via BBC

Apocalypse Now: Opening Scene

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"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

The Truth About Iran

Re > “Bush Urges Unity Against Iran”

President-Bush continues to beat a dead horse in his attempts to persuade the Arab world to take a hostile stance against Iran. The Arab states of the Gulf region are deeply tied to Iran by historical ethnic and economic ties.

The United Arab Emirates alone are the repository for hundreds of millions of dollars (and euros) of Iranian investment. Powerful bilingual trading families span the Gulf, with members in both Iran and Arab states.

The idea that a little jawboning by a United States president could change centuries-old patterns is patently absurd.

The United States would do well to first understand the culture of the regions in which it hopes to hold sway, and then work with the existing cultural-patterns, rather than trying to turn-nations against those with whom they have longstanding interdependent relations.

William O. Beeman

Minneapolis, Jan. 14, 2008

Chairman of the department of anthropology at the University of Minnesota.

Via NYT

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

Estimating 'Iran'

Seen on: YouTube

Is the Bush-Administration planning to manipulate the estimate for Iran?