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* "Put a bra and panties on this guy's head" * His "Do This" List for Abu Ghraib * Driving Jose Padilla Insane
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Today's Stories March 15, 2007 Patrick Cockburn March 14, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Philip Agee Bruce Dixon John Walsh Sunsara Taylor William Johnson Richard Thieme Jeffrey Klein Nicola Nasser Dave Lindorff Website of
the Day
March 13, 2007 Catherine Wilkerson,
M.D. Jonathan Cook Robert Bryce Corporate Crime
Reporter Pierre Rimbert Dave Lindorff Elizabeth Schulte Norman Solomon Kevin Zeese Jeff Conant Website of the Day
March 12, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Col. Dan Smith Paul Craig Roberts Ingmar Lee Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Ralph Nader John Ross Stephen Fleischman Eva Carazo Vargas Website of
the Day
March 9 / 11, 2007 Sameer Dossani Jeffrey St.
Clair Dave Marsh Patrick Cockburn Jennifer Van Bergen James P. Stevenson Arthur J. Versluis Corporate Crime
Reporter Missy Beattie Michael Simmons Kevin Zeese David Swanson John A. Murphy Dave Lindorff Nikolas Kozloff Christopher
Fons Mike Roselle Mike Mejia Susie Day Michael Donnelly Tao Ruspoli Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
March 8, 2007 Elaine Cassel Yifat Susskind Corporate Crime Reporter Col. Dan Smith William S. Lind Mark Engler Roger Burbach Dana Cloud Isabella Kenfield Lucinda Marshall Tao Ruspoli Website of
the Day
Christopher Ketcham Christopher
Ketcham Alexander Cockburn / Jeffrey
St. Clair Winslow T.
Wheeler Sean Donahue Dave Lindorff Evelyn Pringle Tao Ruspoli Website of the Day
March 6, 2007 Gary Leupp Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Saul Landau Corporate Crime Reporter Ron Jacobs Mike Roselle P. Sainath Joshua Frank Aniket Alam Dave Zirin Website of
the Day
March 5, 2007 Greg Moses Patrick Cockburn James Petras Frida Berrigan Marjorie Cohn Douglas Kammen
and S.W. Hayati Sen. Barack Obama Michael Young Dave Lindorff Sonja Karkar Website of the Day
March 3 / 4, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Corporate Crime
Reporter Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader M. Shahid Alam Gilad Atzmon Fred Gardner George Ciccariello-Maher Rock &
Rap Confidential Gillian Russom Michael McPhearson Kevin Zeese Sunsara Taylor Wendy Thompson Kenneth Rexroth Missy Beattie Don Monkerud Tina Louise Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
March 2, 2007 Roger Morris Phil Gasper Mike Roselle Robert Bryce John V. Walsh Sherwood Ross China Hand David Rosen Chris Genovali Peter Harley Website of the Day
March 1, 2007 Laura Carlsen Paul Craig
Roberts Ray McGovern Christopher
Brauchli Najum Mustaq Brent Bowden Tina Richards Ethan Nadelman Mike Stark Wadner Pierre
/ Jeb Sprague Mike Whitney Website of
the Day
February 28, 2007 Peter Linebaugh Tao Ruspoli China Hand Marjorie Cohn Sarah Olson Susan Van Haitsma Nicole Colson Harvey Wasserman William S. Lind Nicola Nasser Website of the Day
February 27, 2007 Tariq Ali Tom Barry Uri Avnery Antonia Juhasz / Raed Jarrar Jeff Nygaard Hugh O'Shaughnessy Mitchell Kaidy Carl Finamore Anne McElroy
Dachel Ramzy Baroud Andrew Rouse Website of the Day
February 26, 2007 Franklin Lamb Bill Quigley Greg Moses Col. Dan Smith Ralph Nader Paul Buchheit Jeff Leys Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Michael Dickinson Website of the Day
February 24 / 25, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair R. T. Naylor Gary Leupp Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Jeffrey Blankfort Chris Sands Gary Freeman Larry Portis P. Sainath Lee Sustar Kevin Wehr Ken Couesbouc Soffiyah Elijah Kathlyn Stone Dave Lindorff Jason Kunin Kevin Zeese Remi Kanazi Missy Beattie Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
February 23, 2007 Franklin Spinney Jonathan Cook Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Chris Dols Evelyn Pringle Stephen Pearcy Dan Brook Yifat Susskind Website of
the Day
February 22, 2007 Robert Fantina Tariq Ali Michael Shank John Ross Christopher Brauchli Cindy Litman Niranjan Ramakrishnan Kevin Zeese Aseem Shrivastava Reza Fiyouzat Illinois Students Against the
War Website of
the Day
February 21, 2007 Maass / St.
Clair Sharon Smith Greg Moses Margaret Kimberly Ralph Nader Nicola Nasser Mike Whitney Tao Ruspoli Byeong Jeongpil Corporate Crime
Reporter Josh Mahan Website of
the Day
February 20, 2007 Sgt. Martin
Smith Werther Corporate Crime Reporter Carl G. Estabrook China Hand Joshua Frank Megan Boler John Feffer Daryll E. Ray Alan Gregory Website of the Day
February 19, 2007 Paul Craig
Roberts Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Michael F.
Brown Robert Jensen Roger Burbach Monica Benderman Sonja Karkar John Walsh Talli Nauman Website of the Day
Feburary 17 / 18, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Tao Ruspoli Gary Leupp Jeffrey St.
Clair Roger Morris Uri Avnery James Brooks Sen. Russell
Feingold Linn Washington, Jr. Michele Brand Fred Gardner Mitchel Cohen Mike Ferner David Swanson P. Sainath Mike Stark Missy Beattie Jonathan Franklin Website of the Weekend
Marc Levy Andrew Cockburn Glen Ford Greg Moses Ron Jacobs John W. Farley James Marc Leas Tim Rinne Albert Wan Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Saul Landau Stephen Lendman Evelyn Pringle Michael Simmons Kevin Zeese Dave Lindorff Pete Shanks Peter Rost Lenni Brenner
/ Gilad Atzmon Website of the Day
February 14, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Dick J. Reavis Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross Michael F.
Brown Dave Lindorff J.L. Chestunut,
Jr. Don Fitz Michael Donnelly Dr. Susan Block Website of
the Day
February 13, 2007 Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Marjorie Cohn Col. Dan Smith Col. Douglas
MacGreagor Thomas Power Nicola Nasser David Swanson Columbia Coalition
Against the War Website of the Day
February 12, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts John Walsh Dr. John Carroll,
MD Greg Moses Nicole Colson Dave Lindorff Ray McGovern Doug Giebel David Swanson Website of the Day
February
10 /11, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Gabriel Kolko Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Kevin Alexander Gray M. Shahid Alam Greg Moses Paul Craig
Roberts George Ciccariello-Maher Kevin Zeese Turner / Kim George Duke Walter Brasch Shepherd Bliss Missy Beattie Peter Harley Pat Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Conn Hallinan Gary Leupp Lee Sustar Nikolas Kozloff Newton Garver Yitzhak Laor Dave Lindorff David Swanson Website of the Day
February 8, 2007 John V. Walsh Marjorie Cohn Trish Schuh Ron Jacobs Laura Carlsen Ramzy Baroud Brenda Norrell Bryan Farrell Judith Scherr Website of
the Day
February 7, 2007 Daniel Wolff Tao Ruspoli Tony Swindell Sharon Smith Ken Couesbouc Jeff Cohen Col. Dan Smith Tom Kerr Joshua Frank Adam Elkus Stephen Fleischman Website of
the Day
February 6, 2007 Diana Johnstone Gregory Wilpert Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff William Blum Mike Ferner CP News Service Evelyn Pringle Christopher Brauchli Alan Cabal Website of the Day
Dave Zirin Uri Avnery Ron Jacobs Paul Craig Roberts Newton Garver Bruce Anderson Saul Landau Ralph Nader James T. Phillips Mike Whitney Kenneth Rexroth Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Tao Ruspoli Jeffrey St.
Clair Patrick Cockburn P. Sainath Sen. Russell Feingold Diane Christian Brian Cloughley Diana Barahona Timothy J. Freeman Conn Hallinan John Ross Greg Moses Missy Beattie Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Stephen Fleischman Muhammad Idrees Ahmad Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Chris Kutalik R. Gibson /
E. W. Ross Pam Martens John Feffer Daryll E. Ray Ronald Bruce
St. John Mitchel Cohen Website of
the Day
Diane Farsetta Marjorie Cohn Mark Scaramella Ranni Amiri Christopher Ketcham Winston Warfield Corporate Crime Reporter Thomas P. Healy Website of the Dau
January 31, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Jean Bricmont Tao Ruspoli James T. Phillips William Johnson Tim Wilkinson Evelyn Pringle Joshua Frank Ramzy Baroud Mickey Z. Website of the Day
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March 15, 2007 What Rachel SawRachel Corrie and PalestineBy SONJA KARKAR A slip of a girl faced one of Israel's most feared war machines in the Occupied Palestinian Territories--the armed bulldozer--and died. This deliberate killing was no accident. Maybe the Israeli authorities would have preferred it not to happen because of the public relations backlash, but the driver of the bulldozer was wielding power that day. He had a mandate from his government to clear Palestinians out of their homes at a moment's notice and he knew that he would be protected regardless of the crimes he dared to commit. Rachel Corrie was a US citizen, but even the US government closed ranks behind Israel and the bulldozer operator. Being an American did not protect Rachel, and four years later, the US administration still refuses to investigate her death denying her American family justice and closure. The bulldozer killing of Rachel Corrie was not the only case of such a death in Palestine, but it was the first time a US citizen had become the target of Israel's military. Rachel was a peace activist who had gone to Rafah in Gaza because she wanted to help bring the terrible plight of the Palestinians to the notice of the world. With others in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), she believed that non-violent resistance was a means of doing that, and tragically, she achieved that with her death more than she could have ever done with her life. Rachel was one of hundreds of foreigners who work as human shields in the Occupied Palestinian Territories--dedicated men and women committed to social justice who are seeking to keep the lines of communication open with the outside world while Israel is doing everything to close them. Rachel was trying to stop the bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian physician's family home--one of thousands that have been demolished for Jewish settlements and to make way for the Separation Wall. She wore an orange safety flap- jacket with reflective stripes, and photos clearly show her holding a megaphone. According to witnesses, she was talking to the driver and he knew that she was there. But, that did not stop him from pushing the dirt up against where she was standing into a mound with his blade and as she fell, he drove the bulldozer over her, reversed the killing machine, and ran over her again.
Israel: Scrambling for Cover Israel's investigations cleared itself of any wrongdoing: Rachel was not run over by the bulldozer, "but rather was struck by a hard object, most probably a slab of concrete, which moved or slid down while the mound of earth which she was standing behind was moved"; the driver of the bulldozer had a "blindspot" and could not see Rachel in front of him; the soldiers who should have been flanking the bulldozer were called away to deal with another emergency; the Israeli army had not intended to demolish the physician's house, but was only looking for explosives in a security zone; the peace activists "were acting very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger--the Palestinians, themselves and our forces--by intentionally placing themselves in a combat zone"; the Israeli army was not guilty of any misconduct, and therefore, was not responsible for Rachel's death. Only days before the Israeli findings were reported, another peace activist working with the ISM, Tom Hurndall lay in a London hospital with severe brain damage after being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier as he tried to protect Palestinian children from Israeli sniper fire being shot over their heads. Other internationals shot and killed by Israeli soldiers were: German doctor Harald Fischer, Italian cameraman Rafaeli Ciriello, British United Nations worker Iain Hook and British national James Miller. As for the Palestinians, more than 5,050 Palestinian men, women and children have been killed by Israeli troops and Israeli settler paramilitary units since September 2000. It is important to put Rachel's death in context. Without an understanding of the history behind the injustices being perpetrated against the Palestinians, Rachel's act of courage cannot be understood. In her writings, she believed that good and decent people everywhere would also speak out and do something, if only they knew.
Why Palestine?-- Understanding the social justice issues The Palestinians are the victims of the longest occupation in modern history. From the time that Israel was created in 1948, Israel intended to rid itself of the Palestinians. It was not a land without people like the myths and propaganda would have us believe. At that time, Palestinians were the majority population in cities, towns and villages and had been for centuries: their history goes back to time immemorial. But after World War II, the world decided to carve up Palestine and give the greater share to the Jewish refugees from Europe on the basis of a religious claim and out of guilt for what they had endured as victims of the Holocaust--a ghastly crime against humanity that had nothing to do with the Palestinians. Unwilling to accept the injustice of being "given" 47% of their homeland, the ill-equipped Palestinians, and backed by neighbouring Arab countries, found themselves fighting a war with the new Israeli army equipped and backed by the world powers. The ethnic cleansing campaign Israel had already begun in villages and towns caused many people to flee as the horrors of massacres reached them. No one who left thought that it would be permanent, but 750,000 Palestinians found themselves refugees living in tents in neighbouring countries with no attempt made by Israel to redress the catastrophic loss of their homes and their homeland in almost 60 years. By the time the 1967 war happened, Israel was firmly entrenched in the consciousness of the world and its absolute victory was so astounding that the plight of the Palestinians was drowned in the hubris. A new generation of refugees had fled their homes and those who remained--in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - came under Israeli military occupation. This occupation has continued for forty years, and, in outright violation of international law, Israel has been appropriating more and more land that was intended for a Palestinian sovereign state. It is important to understand just what the Palestinians have lost and are continuing to lose despite the talks of peace, the peace process and now the Road Map. Not only has Israel been completely intransigent in these negotiations, the US has not been an honest broker, constantly demanding the Palestinians to rein in violence while allowing Israel to violate every single aspect of Palestinian lives and doing nothing to stop Israel's illegal land grabs and illegal settlement building. The peace plans have masked Israel's true intent, which is to take all of Palestine. Under the Oslo Agreement in 1993, the Palestinians had their land reduced to a mere 22% of their original homeland and the Palestinians accepted that in the hope that they could finally have a state of their own. But that was an elaborate peace plan drawn out over years and in reality gave the Palestinians a piecemeal sovereignty and no borders that they could control. In 2000, Israel's Prime Minister Barak offered them an outrageous 80% of the 22% under what is famously known as Barak's "Generous Offer" and the Palestinians have since been severely castigated for refusing to accept it. Sharon then came along with his "Peace Plan" in 2002 and offered the Palestinians nothing more than had been offered by Barak, but the media spin encouraged everyone to wait in anticipation. The disengagement from Gaza that followed and was so enthusiastically hailed by the world was in fact nothing more than a distraction from Sharon's land theft and furious settlement building in the West Bank while Gaza became the world's largest open-air prison, totally isolated from the West Bank and the rest of the world. Today, the Palestinians are left with barely 7% of historic Palestine and a totally fragmented 7% at that. The Separation Wall that went up in 2002 on the pretext of Israel's security has been shown as just another tactic to appropriate land, to further fragment what is left to the Palestinians, and to destroy the economic and cultural life of Palestinian communities and families. In effect, Israel is unilaterally setting its own borders, and at the same time, is herding the Palestinians into the squalor of prison-like ghettoes without access to water or the fertile lands that sustained their farming communities for centuries. Not content with forcing the Palestinians into this no-man's land of 700 kms of wall, over 500 checkpoints, and constant military surveillance and intimidation, Israel is also manipulating some of the most malevolent charades designed to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from the land. It decides on who can come and go and who will get permits to visit from abroad with family reunification and re-entry being denied in alarming numbers--spouses are being separated, children are being forced to live with one or other parent or relatives, sick people cannot seek medical treatment overseas, academics cannot take study leave, and investors, professionals and tourists are being stopped from entering. Over 60,000 foreign nationals with a Palestinian heritage or married to Palestinians live in the occupied territories on tourist visas and are being denied re-entry when they leave to renew them every three months. Those who cannot afford to leave become illegal residents and are deported if caught. These were people who encouraged to come after the Oslo Agreement to re-build Palestine. In Israel itself, the 1.3 million Palestinians are also finding it impossible to live because nationality and residency laws with IDs and passes discriminate between Jews and Arabs and 93% of the land inside Israel is held in perpetuity for Jewish people anywhere in the world. Everything is set up to ensure that Israel's Jewish citizens are advantaged, which therefore, reduces Arab-Israelis to second-class citizens and makes a mockery of them having the vote and being represented in the Knesset. East Jerusalem which is supposed to become the capital of a future Palestinian state is being systematically de-Arabised through a complex system of manoeuvres under the pretext of urban planing and expansion. Building permits are rarely granted to Palestinians and by restricting movement, Israel can confiscate property under the law of absentees. And, although Jerusalem has an internationally recognised special status allowing all religious denominations free access to its holy places, Israel has denied access to Palestinian Christians and Muslims in their own city: it is becoming increasingly clear that Israel intends to make it a city and a state for Jewish citizens only.
What Rachel Saw Against this background, Rachel Corrie came to Palestine as part of an international movement which realised that Israel was creating an apartheid state out of occupation. Never has a state that describes itself as a democracy so cruelly oppressed and imprisoned a whole people in their own land in total breach of international law, all international conventions and umpteen United Nations resolutions. The full horror of Israel's practices have left many a visitor in shock and few can forget what they see. Rachel wrote stunned about her experiences in her emails home and her words continue to haunt those who hear them. "I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them. No amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it." Little would she have realised when she wrote these words that they would have the power to move people to action, so much so, that the play "My name is Rachel Corrie" had sell-out performances in London, and last year, was spectacularly banned in New York. This year, Israel's military occupation will have been ongoing for forty long years. Home demolitions are just one of the many ruthless and violent measures used by Israel to terrorise an already terrorised people. They are a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Since 1967, Israeli bulldozers have destroyed more than 11,000 Palestinian homes, injuring, killing or leaving homeless, thousands of individuals in the process. In Rafah, the homes that were bulldozed stood in the way of the Separation Wall that was being built between Rafah and Egypt, and along with the family homes, greenhouses, mosques, schools and shops were also destroyed. Today, the neighbourhood in Rafah where Rachel stayed is entirely gone. In one midnight attack, only five out of 30 homes remained standing. The house that Rachel Corrie had been trying to save has also been completely demolished. Israel's home demolition policy
is just an extension of Israel's plan to displace or transfer
the Palestinian population. Already, some 80% of Palestinians
have been pushed out of Israel. In the occupied Palestinian
territories, more than half of the Palestinian population is
being forced to live in the shanty-towns deliberately created
by Israel. It is impossible to imagine the trauma of seeing one's
family home demolished and all one's belongings ground into the
dirt by the bulldozer: seeing it happen to someone else is bad
enough. Rachel Corrie would have seen it happen many times. But
that day, the house that she was protecting was the home of a
family that had opened its doors to her and where she had been
staying. The bulldozer arrived without warning. In many cases,
the family are only given an hour at the most to remove their
belongings and if they protest, they are forcibly removed, and
if they protest too much as they watch all that they have worked
for and probably all they own, being ground into nothing, they
are beaten, jailed and even killed. This day, Rachel was killed
for protesting non-violently. Justice Denied Rachel's family is still searching for justice four years after her murder. No independent inquiry has been carried out in the US and it seems that while the FBI is supposed to carry out an investigation, it does not have any files on Rachel Corrie. US Representative Brian Baird did introduce a bill in the US Congress just a week after Rachel's death calling on the US Government "to undertake a full, fair and expeditious investigation", but no action was taken or has been taken since, despite 56 House members signing the bill. This official silence surrounding Rachel's death is disturbing. When three Americans were killed in Gaza supposedly by Palestinians, the FBI were on the scene within 24 hours. With Israel and US closing the case which such finality, Rachel's parents turned their attention to Caterpillar Inc, the corporation which manufactures the bulldozers used by Israel in its illegal demolitions. They filed a lawsuit claiming that their product violates international law, but this was dismissed by a Federal judge in November 2005 and he ruled that Israeli law offered adequate available remedies. Of course, Israel had already exonerated itself and no remedies are available to Rachel's parents. They have since appealed the decision. Blaming the victim is the way Israel and its supporters operate. Not a modicum of humanity for the Palestinians and nothing for those who dare to take up their cause. A vindictive campaign by Israel's supporters continues to dog the efforts of Rachel's family to expose the lies and distortions of the truth about Rachel's death. Promises of a transparent investigation never eventuated and only two American Embassy staff members in Tel Aviv and Rachel's parents were ever allowed to "view" the full document. It prompted Richard LeBaron, US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission in Tel Aviv, to say that "there are several inconsistencies worthy of note". If this is the way an American citizen is treated, one has to wonder how many other crimes are being treated as mistakes or the fault of the victim? And, how many excuses can continue to exonerate Israel from the crimes that are being committed every day? It is about time that Israel's crimes are recognised for what they are. Israel kills Palestinians deliberately women, children, old men, young men - decent, honourable, innocent people who go about their ordinary everyday business are being made to suffer collective punishment for anyone who dares to resist the Israeli military--with guns or in peace. Of course there are Palestinians who are fighting, just like the French resistance fought their German occupiers and just as it is the right of any people to fight those who oppress them. Resistance, as a last resort, is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a right under the UN charter's Article 51. But Rachel Corrie did not come to fight with guns. She came to resist non-violently; she came in peace. The highly politicised nature of the conflict and the fact that Rachel Corrie was American has ensured that the controversy of her death continues. Rachel's courage was perhaps born out of the idealism of youth, but it was a courage far greater than nations with bombs and arms and power to wield who have failed miserably to hold Israel accountable for the war crimes it has perpetrated against the Palestinians over decades of brutal occupation. For this reason, Rachel Corrie will always be a symbol of acting out truth to power in the struggle for Palestinian liberation against the Israeli occupier and a world long desensitised to the immorality pervading the corridors of power of all governments. You will be remembered forever, Rachel and we hope that out of your tragic death will come a better understanding of the inhumanity gripping our world and what we have to do to bring compassion and justice back into our consciousness. Palestine has waited a long time and Palestine deserves some human kindness in its 40th year of occupation. We have no doubt that Rachel Corrie would have campaigned for that too: we feel her spirit with us as the struggle goes on. Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of Women
for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia. |
The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order! Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh |