News and Articles 7-21-06

CONFIRMATION: ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE INSIDE LEBANON WHEN CAPTURED

In the afternoon, the scene changed in the streets of southern Lebanon, which was the target of 32 Israeli raids that mainly targeted areas near the area where the two soldiers were captured in Aita al Chaab, close to the border with Israel.


The coup attempt that started a war: Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, its causes and consequences.
On June 8, the Israeli army assassinated the recently appointed Palestinian head of the security forces of the Interior Ministry, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and three others. On June 13, an Israeli plane fired a missile into a busy Gaza City street, killing 11 people, including two children and two medics. On June 20, the Israeli army killed three Palestinian children and injured 15 others in Gaza with a missile attack. On June 21, the Israelis killed a 35-year old pregnant woman, her brother, and injured 11 others, including 6 children. Then came the Israeli capture of two Palestinians.


On the spot: Lebanese dead lie in rubble

Somewhere beneath the tangled mass of smashed concrete, steel rods, dust and the volcano-like crater left by an Israeli bomber lay the remains of Mrs Qudsi, her 30-year-old daughter-in-law and her three children aged from 4 to 11.


No sirens in Arabic

No warnings of attacks are being given to non-Jewish communities inside Israel.


The Israel Resolution

I object to terrorism committed by Hezbollah because I am a strong opponent to all violence on all sides. But I also object to the unreasonable accusations that the Government of Lebanon has not done enough, when we realize that Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years and was not able to neutralize Hezbollah.


Dahiyeh sports terrible scars from merciless bombardment

Rubble, smoke and tangled webs of dangling electrical cables now reside in an area that formerly housed over 500,000 Lebanese, the aftermath of Israeli air strikes that have ravaged Beirut's southern suburbs and show no sign of ending.

"We don't have an alternative home, we don't have a home in the mountains where most are escaping to, and we will not be turned into refugees in our own country," said Mahmoud Beydoun, who is staying with his wife and six children in an apartment building near a demolished building.


U.N. Post Hit in Israel-Hezbollah Fighting

A U.N.-run observation post near the border was struck during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants on Friday, while Israel pushed ahead with airstrikes on Lebanon and warned people in the south to flee as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.


Northern Command chief: Don’t count the casualties

Northern Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam noted Friday that the fighting in the north was highly demanding and casualties were unavoidable. “This is a demanding operation and we are at war. War costs lives. Civilians will be killed too. I suggest not counting the dead. We need to show strength and determination,” Adam said during a briefing Friday held near the site of an IAF helicopter accident Thursday night. Adam also addressed the battle in which Egoz unit fighters were killed.


France accuses US of blocking Mideast truce

French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has accused the United States of blocking a United Nations call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.


Britain and US defy demand for immediate ceasefire

Two countries, the US and Britain, defiantly refused to back the international clamour for an immediate ceasfire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. Their ambivalence about civilian deaths in Lebanon has given Israel a powerful signal that it can continue its attacks with impunity.


Israel calls up 3,000 reserves - military source

Israel on Friday ordered at least 3,000 reserve soldiers to report for duty as signs grew that the army might be preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, a military source said.

Israel has massed troops, tanks and artillery near the border with Lebanon since the crisis with Hizbollah erupted on July 12.

It could still take days before new reserves are mobilised. One possibility is that they would be sent to the occupied West Bank to relieve combat troops, who would then be sent north to Lebanon.

Israel, which has a conscript army, has been steadily calling up reserves since it launched a major offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon after the group abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid.


"Going for the long war I see..." - Nobody


Israeli tanks, troops massing at Lebanese border

An Israeli invasion could bring the Lebanese army into the conflict.


Evangelical leader pushing 'End Times' war with Iran

Hagee has spent the past six months mobilizing popular support for a war with Iran. Based on his end-times prophecy … and false claims that Iran is just months away from a viable nuclear weapon, Hagee maintains that confrontation with Iran is necessary to fulfill God's plan for the future of the world.


Kristol Suggests People of Iran Would Embrace U.S. Attack, Triggering Regime Change

This morning on Fox, Bill Kristol continued to escalate his calls for war against Iran, stating, “We can try diplomacy. I’m not very hopeful about that. We have to be ready to use force.” Kristol claimed the people of Iran would embrace “the right use of targeted military force.” He added that military force could “trigger changes in Iran,” causing them to embrace regime change. Watch it.


Oil refinery planned for Iraqi Kurdistan

Here is another motive for Israel to make a grab for Lebanon right now. A Lebanese company is building the refinery and pipelines to get the oil to the Mediterrainian, pipelines that will NOT go through Israel.


Lurching Toward Regional War in the Middle East

Falk Israeli moves toward all out war in Gaza and Lebanon seem linked to wider dangers of a regional war with severe global consequences. By interpreting these wider dangers it is not meant to minimize the human suffering and regressive political effects of current carnage in these two long tormented war zones. Looking at this bigger picture is crucial for its own sake, but also helps us understand the immediate crises more fully than if as officially presented by Israel, and unfortunately echoed by many governments around the world.

Whatever else, this outbreak of major two-front violence is not about Israel’s right to defend itself against an enemy that is seriously threatening its territorial integrity or political independence, the only grounds for justifiable war. To treat border incidents, involving a few casualties from rockets and the abduction of a single Israeli soldier by a Gazan militia and two by Hezbollah in south Lebanon, as if it were an occasion of war is a gross distortion of well-accepted international law and state practice. To justify legally a claim of self-defense requires a full-scale armed attack across Israeli borders. If every violent border incident or terrorist provocation were to be so regarded as an act of war, the world would be aflame. If India had responded to the recent Mumbai train explosions that killed some 200 Indian civilians as a Pakistani act of war, the result would have been a devastating regional war, quite possibly fought with nuclear weapons. There are many other flashpoints around the world that might justify police methods in reaction to provocations, and in extreme instances, specific military responses across borders. If such occasions were viewed as acts of war, the consistent result would be catastrophe. Recent Hamas/Hezbollah provocations, even if interpreted through a self-serving Israeli lens, were not of a scale or threat that warranted large-scale military actions that are directed at a wide array of targets unrelated to the specific incidents and causing severe damage to civilians and the entire civilian infrastructure of society (water, electricity, roads, bridges).


Opposition Gives Full Support to Cross-border Operation

Opposition parties in the parliament have given their full support to the Turkish Cabinet’s statement that “Turkey is going to make full use of its international rights to prevent terrorist attacks against the country.

”The Republican People's Party (CHP) said the decision may even be called a belated one, while the True Path Party (DYP) said they would fully support the government in a “cross-border operation.”

The Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) said Turkey should risk everything for the unity of the country.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stated Turkey’s legitimate defense right is fully supported in international law, while the Great Union Party (BBP) announced Turkey should enter northern Iraq and eradicate terrorism by implementing permanent measures.


Row over antiterror fight mars Turkish-US relations

Asked if Washington would back a Turkish cross-border offensive to eliminate the PKK bases in Iraq, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Tuesday, I don't believe that that's something that we have supported in the past.


Stay out of northern Iraq, US tells Turkey

WASHINGTON has warned Turkey that the US opposes any attempt by Istanbul to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels into northern Iraq.

The statement came a day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his security forces were drawing up such plans.

The US statement, issued by its embassy in Ankara, said Turkey had a right to defend itself against Kurdish rebels but warned against unilateral action across the border.Mr Erdogan said: "There is no point in endlessly discussing the issue. Our security forces are getting on with their task. Whatever steps need to be taken will definitely be taken."


"But Israel gets to go across borders to kill people why can't we?" - Turkey


Negroponte Blocks CIA Analysis of Iraq “Civil War”

I reported in May that despite the deteriorating situation in Iraq, no National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has been produced on that country since the summer of 2004. The last NIE, a classified document that the CIA describes as “the most authoritative written judgment concerning a national security issue,” was rejected by the Bush Administration (after being leaked to the New York Times) as being too negative, though its grim assessment subsequently proved to be highly accurate.

The situation has gotten even darker since my initial story—a United Nations report cited in Wednesday's New York Times found that an average of more than 100 Iraqi civilians were killed each day in June—and I've learned from two sources that some senior figures at the CIA, along with a number of Iraq analysts, have been pushing to produce a new NIE. They've been stonewalled, however, by John Negroponte, the administration's Director of National Intelligence, who knows that any honest take on the situation would produce an NIE even more pessimistic than the 2004 version. That could create problems on the Hill and, if it is leaked as the last one was, with the public as well.

“What do you call the situation in Iraq right now?” asked one person familiar with the situation. “The analysts know that it's a civil war, but there's a feeling at the top that will complicate matters.” Negroponte, said another source regarding the potential impact of a pessimistic assessment, “doesn't want the president to have to deal with that.”


"Aw isn't that sweet...He just doesn't want the pressident to have to deal with bad press" - Nobody


Iraq's police overwhelmed by violence

At her home in central Baghdad, Niran al-Sammarai frets over the fate of her husband, kidnapped Saturday with 30 of his colleagues from a conference hall in one of the most heavily patrolled parts of Baghdad.

In Rasafah district, a police captain says he and colleagues are contemplating mass resignations in frustration over mistrust from US forces and orders from Iraqi politicians to release known criminals.

In the once fashionable Mansoor shopping district, metal grates are drawn over half of the businesses. And in Karada, one of Baghdad's safest neighborhoods, many of the businesses are shuttered too. The remaining shopkeepers complain that poor security is driving customers away.

In Baghdad and across much of the center and south of the country, the rhythms of normal life and commerce are rapidly breaking down in a sign that US and Iraqi government plans to build an effective security force are faltering. Reports of police standing aside as civilians get attacked are common, as are claims by survivors that government security forces, infiltrated by sectarian militias, took part in the killings.


Curfew extended as Baghdad violence mounts

Iraqi authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad on Friday in an apparent effort to prevent violence after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.State television announced that a four-hour traffic ban in force every Friday of late to curb car bomb attacks on mosques during weekly prayers would be extended through most of the day.

A gun and grenade attack on a market just outside Baghdad on Monday and a suicide car bombing to the south of the capital killed 120 people this week. U.S. data showed attacks on security forces in Baghdad has averaged 34 a day over several days, compared to an average of 24 in recent months.

Baghdad morgue alone has taken in 1,000 bodies this month.

U.S. commanders are speaking about a looming fight to the finish in the capital between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's two-month-old unity government and Sunni Arab rebels with links to al Qaeda and ousted president Saddam Hussein.


U.S. general: Insurgents planning 'all-out assault' on Baghdad

Bombings and shootings soared by 40 percent in the Baghdad area in the past week, the U.S. command said Thursday. An American general said extremists were preparing "an all-out assault" on the capital in a decisive battle for the future of Iraq.

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued his strongest call yet for an end to Shiite-Sunni bloodletting, urging all Iraqis to wake up to the "danger threatening the future of the country" and stand "side-by-side against it.

"Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman, said there had been an average of 34 attacks a day involving U.S. and Iraqi forces in and around the capital since Friday -- up sharply from the daily average of 24 registered between June 14 and July 13.

"The only way we're going to be successful in Baghdad is to get the weapons off the streets," Caldwell said. He said insurgents were streaming into the capital for "an all-out assault against the Baghdad area."

"Clearly the death squad elements, the terrorist elements, know that Baghdad is a must-win for them," he said. "Whoever wins the Baghdad area, whoever is able to bring peace and security to that area, is going to set the conditions to stabilize this country."


2 Iraqi women, child die in U.S. raid

U.S. troops raided a neighborhood northeast of Baghdad early Friday, killing five people — including two women and a child — after gunmen fired from the rooftops of buildings, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. statement said troops were looking for "terrorists" associated with the al-Qaeda in Iraq network during the raid in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Iraqi police said a single man fired warning shots because he believed the soldiers were militiamen.

The Americans said ground troops and a helicopter fired at the buildings after occupants ignored repeated warnings to leave. As troops secured the area, they were fired at from a rooftop.

"The terrorists attempted to reposition themselves between, and on top of, the adjacent buildings," the statement said. "Several men were seen moving around on the rooftops. The ground force twice gave verbal instructions for all occupants to exit the target buildings. These instructions were ignored."


"...and we spoke real loud and slow so they could understand our english...Then we shot them" - Nobody


Soldiers say ordered to kill young men

Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.

The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.

"The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name.

That target, an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province, was believed to be an al-Qaida training camp. The soldiers said officers in their chain of command gave them the order and explained that special forces had tried before to target the island and had come under fire from insurgents.


"military age is 16-60 +/- a few years each way...This is an act of genocide" - Nobody


Plucked to Safety From Lebanon, American Evacuees Return, Lament the Dead

Haggard and wearing clothes they had slept in, but otherwise healthy and in good spirits, many of the roughly 150 evacuees exulted and applauded when the government-chartered DC-10 touched down at Baltimore/Washington International Airport.

Some wept tears of joy; others, tears of sadness. Some had worried that they and their loved ones would never make it out of Lebanon alive, while others feared for the safety of kin and friends left behind.

“We lived through horror; I’ve seen little kids burned alive,” said Tom Charara, 50, an aerospace engineer from Long Beach, Calif., who with his wife, Rola, and two young children went to visit ailing relatives in Beirut. “A country is being destroyed, people are being killed, and the whole world is watching.”


ACLU wants Katrina probe revealed

The Louisiana branch of the America Civil Liberties Union wants the state attorney general to release the results of his investigation into a police roadblock on the Crescent City Connection after Hurricane Katrina.In a letter to A-G Charles Foti, Louisiana A-C-L-U Executive Director Joe Cook said the delay in wrapping up the investigation "makes no sense."


Open Letter Issued to Attorney General Foti on Long Overdue "Gretna Bridge Incident" Investigation


Musharraf: Taliban gaining power

Pakistan's president calls on Afghanistan to take action

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar remained in control of his Afghan Islamic militia, which was gaining strength in the south of the country, Pakistan's president said Thursday.

General Pervez Musharraf said the growing strength of the Taliban, which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion that followed al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, was having negative effects in Pakistan.

He demanded that Afghanistan's government take immediate steps to stop the infiltration of fighters across the border, warning that the spread of violence could threaten Pakistan.


We have no control over ISI: Pakistan Defence Minister

Amid allegations that ISI and Military Intelligence (MI) kidnapped several people for interrogation, Pakistan's Defence Ministry has said it had no operational control over the two intelligence agencies and was unable to enforce court orders to provide information about those ‘abducted’ or ‘detained’ by them.

In a sworn affidavit filed before the Sindh High Court(SHC) yesterday, Defence Secretary General (retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi said his ministry had no operational control over the ISI and MI and, therefore, it could not enforce the court's direction on both agencies in detention matters.

He was responding to the court's order over the detention of Munir Mengal, the head of Dubai-based TV channel 'Voice of Baloch'. Mengal was reportedly whisked away by intelligence personnel on his arrival in Karachi recently.

The Pakistan Army has also already informed the court that it too had no control over the two intelligence agencies, even though they were headed by top generals of the Army.


"This is like the US saying that it has no control over the CIA or Israel saying that it has no control over Mossad...Hey wait a minute!..." - Nobody


Why I'll vote for Bolton

By George V. Voinovich

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have had the rare opportunity to witness firsthand how the diplomatic process works and, in some cases, how it fails. Recently, despite our nation's best efforts, the world - and particularly the Middle East - has become a more dangerous and volatile place.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, and our nation's initial response in Afghanistan, the global war on terrorism has taken many twists and turns.

First, Iraq became the primary focus of our troops and our public attention. Then, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea reached critical mass, followed by the quickly changing and deteriorating situation with Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas.Meanwhile, the administration nominated John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations...

"Translation: The world is on fire so lets throw a little gasoline on it...Fire pretty...ooooh...aaaah" - Nobody


Joe Lieberman: Running Against Himself

This week Lieberman seemed to think it was a Really Big Deal that Ned Lamont owned some Halliburton stock, that this was some sign of abject moral depravity as he defaulted to his usual finger-wagging scold mode (seen in YouTube above) as local journalist Mark Davis tossed him a softball:

LIEBERMAN: From the limited disclosure he had under the ‘Senate ethics’ that he has stock in ‘Halliburton,’ and he has stock in, more stock in some of the big oil companies. That’s something for everybody to judge.

MARK DAVIS: That would be a crime?

LIEBERMAN: Oh no, this is just public right to know. None of this is about illegality. I think when you get into public office you’ve got an obligation to disclose all your financial holdings.

Now it turns out that Lieberman was playing Mark Davis for a fool, and he himself holds Halliburton stock. It is the third largest holding, in fact, in his "Victory Fund" mutual fund (PDF of Lieberman’s 2005 Personal Finance Disclosure Statement, p. 7, line 7).


Bill Kristol Donates to Lieberman Campaign

According to the Stamford Advocate, 82% of Joe Lieberman's second quarter campaign contributions came from out-of-state. Those out-of-state contributions include $500 from neoconservative luminary Bill Kristol, as well as even larger amounts from pharmaceutical industry and energy industry interests:


Lieberman Finds Favor Among Donors That Usually Support G.O.P.

When it comes to supporting candidates for public office, the Associated General Contractors of America gives 90 percent of its campaign contributions to Republicans.

And then there is Senator Joseph I. Lieberman.


Pro-Israel Groups Rally in Support of Lieberman

Pro-Israel groups, afraid of losing one of their staunchest supporters in Congress, are pouring money into beleaguered Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaign as he tries to fend off a tougher-than-expected primary challenge.

The three-term lawmaker is struggling to dispatch millionaire businessman Ned Lamont in the Aug. 8 primary. Lamont's fierce criticism of Lieberman's backing of the Iraq war and perceived closeness to President Bush have won him followers among hard-core Democrats. The primary is Aug. 8 and Lieberman has said he will run as an independent if he loses.

Pro-Israel political action committees have donated to his campaign and have urged their national membership to give generously now and later, if Lieberman is forced to run as an unaffiliated candidate."


80% of Lieberman's contributions have come from out of state

In-State $3,630,224 (20.4%)

Out-of-State $14,199,065 (79.6%)

No State $50,800 (0.3%)


Former President to campaign for Lieberman

One of the Democratic Party's biggest guns, former President Bill Clinton, is coming to Connecticut to campaign for Senator Joe Lieberman.

Clinton's visit, planned for July 24 in Waterbury, comes as a new Quinnpiac Poll shows Lieberman and his Democratic primary challenger, businessman Ned Lamont, in a statistical dead heat.

Lieberman's campaign has not yet revealed details of the planned visit. The two politicians have known each other since Clinton worked on Lieberman's first campaign for state Senate in 1970.

"Bill Clinton...The best republican ever" - Nobody


Democrats Narrow Fundraising Gap With GOP

National Democratic Party committees closed a fundraising gap with their Republican counterparts in June, raising more money and improving their cash on hand, according to reports filed Thursday.The data is the latest sign that that neither party would hold a financial edge in this year's contest for control of Congress.


"And this is without selling out liberal ideals and bending over backwards for the right wing" - Nobody


Democrats pressing Blackwell to quit post

National Democratic leaders are calling for Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell to step down as secretary of state, saying he can’t be trusted to fairly administer the election this fall...

Rahm Emanuel, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, and Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman, sent a letter to Blackwell yesterday urging him to "take immediate action to protect Ohio voters," including not overseeing this fall’s elections.

Emanuel and Schumer also said that in the wake of myriad election problems in the 2004 general election in Ohio, it is important to ensure that there are enough voting machines in all Ohio precincts this fall and to provide better training for poll workers.

Democrats also want the secretary of state’s office to publish all registration and Election Day policies and directives to discourage the illegal challenging of voters...


RFK Jr. Blows the Whistle on Diebold

The environmental lawyer-turned voting-rights advocate has found Diebold employees who may link the company to election fraud.

On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a "qui tam" lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were "unhackable."


Two N.J. Casinos Sued Schlesinger Over Debts

When Alan Schlesinger gave a fake name while playing blackjack at Foxwoods in the early 1990s, he had already been sued over a gambling debt by one Atlantic City casino and was on the way to racking up an even bigger debt that led to a second lawsuit.

Schlesinger, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in the Nov. 7 election, paid a total of more than $28,000 in 1990 and 1994 to settle the two lawsuits, according to New Jersey court records reviewed by The Courant.


HHS Chief's Fund Gave Little to Charity

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his relatives have claimed millions of dollars in tax deductions through a type of charitable foundation they created that until recently paid out very little in actual charity, tax records show.

Instead, much of the foundation's money has been invested or lent to the family's business interests and real estate holdings, or contributed to the Leavitt family genealogical society.

Rick Cohen, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, said that "the Leavitts are using the foundation as a personal piggy bank, and that's not what the public -- or Congress -- ought to tolerate." Cohen reviewed the family foundation's records and tax returns at the request of The Washington Post.


Bush administration sells off public forests to energy companies


FOX Commentator Threatens 9/11 Activist

Bill O'Reilly, the host of "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel, has suggested that Kevin Barrett, an outspoken 9/11 truth activist, belongs "in the Charles River floating down".