Jon Snow reports from Gaza, where thousands of children have been caught up in the conflict on one of the heaviest days of shelling so far.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
STOP KILLING THE CHILDREN
Jon Snow reports from Gaza, where thousands of children have been caught up in the conflict on one of the heaviest days of shelling so far.
Friday, July 25, 2014
BBC REPORT TAKEN DOWN - WITNESS SAW UKIE MILITARY PLANE NEAR MALAYSIAN AIRLINER
Preamble: The original BBC Video Report was published by BBC Russian Service on July 23, 2014.
Why did BBC delete this report by Olga Ivshina? Is it because the BBC team was unable to find any evidence that a rocket was launched in the area that the Ukrainian Security Service (“SBU”) alleges to be the place from which the Novorossiya Militia launched a “BUK” missile?
Or is it because every eyewitness interviewed by the BBC team specifically indicated the presence of Ukrainian military aircraft right beside the Malaysian Airlines Boeing MH17 at the time that it was shot down?
Or is it because of eyewitness accounts (like the one posted following the transcript of the BBC report) confirming that the Ukrainian air force regularly used civilian aircraft flying over Novorossiya as human shields to protect its military aircraft conducting strikes against civilian population from the Militia’s anti-aircraft units?
In the last part [video] of this entry Elena predicts that the Ukrainian military will stage the horrible catastrophe like the MH17 crash – she makes this prediction one whole month prior to the disaster.
Introductory Paragraphs to the BBC Video Report
The “black boxes” of the crashed Malaysian Boeing have finally been transferred into the hands of the experts. However, how much can they tell us?The recorders logged the coordinates and the heading of the aircraft at the time of the incident and may have recorded the sound of the explosion. However, they will not tell us what exactly caused the explosion.
The inhabitants of the nearby villages are certain that they saw military aircraft in the sky shortly prior to the catastrophe. According to them, it actually was the jet fighters that brought down the Boeing.
The Ukrainian government rejects this version of events. They believe that the Boeing was shot down using a missile from a “BUK” complex that came in from Russia.
The Ukrainian Security Service has published photographs and a video, which, in its opinion, prove that the Boeing was shot down with a “BUK” missile.
BBC reporter Olga Ivshina and producer Oksana Vozhdayeva decided to find the place from which the missile was allegedly launched.
Transcript of the BBC Video Report
DPR Representative: Here it is.Olga Ivshina, BBC: The black boxes from the crashed Boeing are finally being transferred into the hands of the experts. However, how much can they tell us?
The recorders logged the coordinates and the heading of the aircraft at the time of the incident and may have recorded the sound of the explosion. However, they will not tell us what exactly caused the explosion.
The inhabitants of the nearby villages are certain that they saw military aircraft in the sky shortly prior to the catastrophe. According to them, it actually was the jet fighters that brought down the Boeing.
Eyewitness #1: There were two explosions in the air. And this is how it broke apart. And [the fragments] blew apart like this, to the sides. And when …
Eyewitness #2: … And there was another aircraft, a military one, beside it. Everybody saw it.
Eyewitness #1: Yes, yes. It was flying under it, because it could be seen. It was proceeding underneath, below the civilian one.
Eyewitness #3: There were sounds of an explosion. But they were in the sky. They came from the sky. Then this plane made a sharp turn-around like this. It changed its trajectory and headed in that direction [indicating the direction with her hands].
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The Ukrainian government rejects this version of events. They believe that the Boeing was shot down using a missile from a “BUK” complex that came in from the direction of Russia.
Vitaliy Naida, Department of Counterintelligence of SBU [Ukrainian Security Service]: This was a BUK M1 system from which the aircraft was shot down. It came to Ukraine early in the morning on the 17th of July. It was delivered by a tow truck to the city of Donetsk. After that, it was redeployed from Donetsk, as part of a column of military equipment, to the area of the city of Torez, to the area of Snezhnoye, to the area of Pervomaisk.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The Ukrainian Security Service has published photographs and a video, which, in its opinion, prove that the Boeing was shot down with a “BUK” missile. We attempted to verify these photographs and information at the location.
One of the photographs showed a landscape not far from the city of Torez, on which smoke could be seen coming from the presumed location of the missile’s launch. We attempted to find this location, and it appears that we were successful.
We are now on the outskirts of the city of Torez. Behind me, approximately five kilometres away, is the city of Snezhnoye. And the landscape here matches the landscape that we can see on the photograph published by the Ukrainian Security Service.
To find the place from which the smoke was allegedly coming from, we adopted as markers these three poplars and the group of trees. Presumably, this is the place that can be seen on the photograph published by the SBU. And here are our markers: the three solitary poplars and the small group of trees in the distance.
The smoke that can be seen on the photograph came from somewhere over there [pointing behind her], behind my back. The SBU believes that this is a trace coming from the launch of a “BUK” missile.
However, it must be noted that there are here, approximately in the same place, the Saur-Mogila memorial, near which the fighting continues almost unabated, and a coalmine. It turns out that the smoke with the same degree of probability could have been coming from any of these locations.
Having circled around the nearby fields, we were unable to find any traces of a missile launch. Nor did the local inhabitants that we encountered see any “BUK” either.
At the ruins of an apartment building in the city of Snezhnoye, the topic of the jet fighters that may have been escorting civilian aircraft comes up again. A bomb dropped from above took away the lives of eleven civilians here.
Sergey Godovanets, Commander of the Militia of the city of Snezhnoye: They use these civilian aircraft to hide behind them. It is only now that they stopped flying over us – but, usually, civilian aircraft would always fly above us. And they hide [behind them]. [The experience in] Slavyansk had demonstrated that they would fly out from behind a civilian aircraft, bomb away, and then hide, once again, behind the civilian aircraft and fly away.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The commander of the local militia emphasizes that they have no weaponry capable of shooting down a jet fighter [flying] at a significant height. However, he says that if such weaponry were to appear, they would have tried to.
Sergey Godovanets: If we know that it is not a civilian aircraft, but a military one, then – yes.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: So, could the Boeing have been shot down by the militias that had mistaken it for a military aircraft? There is as yet no unequivocal confirmation of either this or any other version [of what took place]. The international experts are just beginning their work with the information obtained from the crashed airliner. It now appears that it is difficult to overstate the importance of this investigation. Olga Ivshina, BBC.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
DIRTY MONEY WEAPONS GAME
The US just sold $11 billion worth of Patriot missile parts and Apache attack helicopters to Qatar. Although the US considers Qatar an ally in the Middle East, the State Department recently accused the country of funding al-Qaeda in Syria as well as the organization best known as ISIS in Iraq. And according to the Washington Institute, David Cohen, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Qatar is a "permissive terrorist financing environment." So...are they a friend or foe, and should the US be arming them? The Resident discusses.
FROM THE HORSE'S... MOUTH
Note the disregard Netanyahu has for the US....which gives him $3.1 billion a year.
This video reminds me of a story that old friend Nat Kaplan told me years ago in Delray Beach, Florida. Nat had been an early union activist in the CIO when it was merged with the AFL. I would annually, for close to 20 years, be invited to speak to the predominately Jewish peace group in Nat's community. Each time, before my talk, someone would pull me aside and tell me not to mention Israel or else there would be a big fight in the group.
At the end of my talk the tall and handsome Nat would stand in the middle of the room and ask me about Israel. I'd say that Israel was essentially a military outpost for the US and that their illegal treatment of Palestinians, and their ever expanding settlements, must stop. Then the argument would begin between various members of the group.
I usually stayed at the home of Nat and his wife Grace. Besides being involved in the peace movement Nat was a great environmentalist as well. I once asked him why he stirred up the pot at each of these meetings about Israel. This is what he told me.
Soon after WWII was over and Israel was created I traveled to visit an uncle there who owned alot of land. He had servants. One day he pointed to a beautiful young Palestinian woman servant and said, "I can fuck her anytime I want to."If Nat is watching today I know he is in great pain over what Israel is doing in Gaza. I know he'd want all of us to talk more and learn more about what is actually going on there.
I was disgusted and realized how racist my uncle was toward the Palestinian people. Ever since then I've become more critical about Israeli policies. Our group wants to avoid the issue but I believe we need to face it.
CATS IN GAZA
Israel calls them feral
wild
uncontrollable
unwilling to surrender
savages
terrorists
the wild cats
Palestinians
want warm milk
and a safe place
to sleep
respect
and fair treatment
love
if possible
dignity
is a must
MORE ARRESTED AT HANCOCK DRONE BASE
Syed Wali Shah 7 years old, killed by an American Drone strike. Momina Bibi, mother and midwife, killed by an American drone strike. Tairk Aziz, 16, killed by an American drone strike… This Must Stop!
We, members of the Atlantic Life Community, come to Hancock Air Force Base [Syracuse, NY], the national maintenance and control center of the MQ9 Reaper Drone, to protest these lethal drones, the latest weapon being used in endless war. We are a community of peacemakers who resist war, racism and greed. We stand here today in solidarity with the men, women and children being terrorized by US military aggression. Our witness mourns the senseless deaths of our brothers and sisters, victims of drone strikes from this base and adds our voice to all people of the world who cry for peace.
Today we deliver to the base two important documents central to our witness: a war crimes indictment addressed to President Obama, Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel, the full military chain of command, and the local police and Sheriffs Department of the Town of De Witt, New York. By continuing to protect the war crimes of drone warfare, these public officials perpetuate a legacy of violence and racism first imposed upon indigenous people on this land. The second document is a People’s Order of Protection, which asks the 174th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard to stay away from the Children of the World and their families, including their homes, schools, places of play and work.
The terror and bloodshed caused by the Reaper drones lies on all of our shoulders. As Thomas Merton once wrote, “if you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.” Therefore, we come to the gates today in atonement for our complicity in these crimes and to resist the atrocities of drones, to resist our nation’s endless wars and to cultivate a culture of love and not fear.
Bill Ofenloch NYC Catholic Worker
Liz McAlister Jonah House, MD
Felton Davis NYC Catholic Worker
Martha Hennessy NYC Catholic Worker
Clare Grady Ithaca Catholic Worker
Joan Pleune Granny Peace Brigade
Erica Brock NYC Catholic Worker
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
U.S. DOUBLE STANDARDS
Wikipedia writes:
Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai that was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes on 3 July 1988. The incident took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. The aircraft, an Airbus A300 B2-203, was destroyed by SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired from the Vincennes.
All 290 on board, including 66 children and 16 crew, died. This event ranks seventh among the deadliest disasters in aviation history, tenth if including the 9/11 attacks, which includes ground casualties; the incident retains the highest death toll of any aviation incident in the Persian Gulf and the highest death toll of any incident involving an Airbus aircraft anywhere in the world. The Vincennes had entered Iranian territorial waters after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.[
According to the Iranian government, Vincennes negligently shot down the civilian aircraft: the airliner was making IFF squawks in Mode III (not Mode II used by Iranian military planes), a signal that identified it as a civilian craft.
ATTACKING THE MEDICS
The IDF operation enters its third week & the number of Palestinians killed has risen to 633. Gaza paramedics are working in extremely difficult conditions, as Israeli airstrikes and shelling become more intense. Harry Fear reports from Gaza.
NORMALIZING MILITARIZED CULTURE
 |
| Texas Governor Rick Perry guarding the border with Mexico to prevent children from entering the US |
The eternal race for president is on. Those first out the gate for the 2016 national election include Hillary Clinton and Gov. Rick Perry from Texas. Looming in the shadows is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (brother of G. W. Bush). The oligarchy will run two horses in the race - one from the Democrats and one from the Republicans - ensuring they pick a winner no matter who prevails.
With our mounting economic and environmental crisis the answer from the ruling class is more militarization. The photo of Rick Perry above is illustrative of that fact. Everything in America is stage managed - an endless public relations campaign – Disney style. We are being led by this PR campaign to support a particular direction and it ain't for our benefit.
During times like these the message is widely sent out to all crazies, lunatics, and violent elements of society, those who have been in hiding because their views are not acceptable in a stable and peaceful culture, that they can now come out from behind the curtain. Thus we have recently witnessed the 'open carry' rallies where gun advocates take their weapons into hamburger joints and low-end department stores. The corporate oligarchy wants to normalize the militarized culture.
Now is the defining moment. If good hearted people shirk during these important times then we will hand our children a future certain to be one of chaos and madness. If we each help push back against this cultural disintegration then just maybe we have a chance to hold back the tide.
Gov. Perry has been assigned a certain role in this public production. He gladly accepts it. Hillary Clinton also welcomes her assigned role with open arms.
We don't have to take a seat on this run-a-way train. We can resist by making better choices of who we support and how we respond to Mr. Big's plan for our future.
Most people want to be on the 'winning' team - its part of the cultural indoctrination that we've learned to internalize. Sometimes though picking the 'losing' side helps advance social progress by the sheer pressure that is built up by those collective forces. Our predecessors who demanded the eight-hour work day, unemployment insurance, child labor laws, women's right to vote, government control of banking and industry, direct election of the senate, and much more never formally took power but helped create the movement to force the oligarchy to compromise on these crucial issues.
That is our task again today as we resist endless war, work for a
sustainable future and a fair and sharing society.
'MOUNTAIN OF EVIDENCE'
Washington has a mountain of evidence but isn't disclosing it. What is Washington hiding? Will the investigation show something the West doesn't want to see? And do we hear a drumbeat of war?
CrossTalking with Vladimir Suchan, Eric Kraus and Eric Draitser.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
SWINGING IN KIEV
Footage shows a brawl between opposition Ukrainian party members in parliament today. The fight was between members of the nationalist Svoboda [Freedom] party and the Party of Regions. The fighting broke out after parliamentary members voted to call up military reserves to 'protect Ukraine's border with Russia' and one parliamentary member told an opposition politician that his party "kills its citizens."
The Svoboda party is fascistic and anti-semitic. Earlier today Ukrainian parliament banned the Communist Party. Does this remind you anything? Communist Party was banned in Nazi Germany one day after Adolf Hitler emerged triumphant in the German elections in 1933.
THE END OF DOMINATION OF GLOBAL ECONOMY BY WESTERN CAPITAL
BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa
SMART MOVE
Smart move to give the black boxes directly to Malaysian authorities. Would not have been good if US-NATO got their hands on them. Now maybe we'll get a clearer picture about what really happened.
VETS SEND MESSAGE TO ISRAEL
We had a presence at the Israeli consulate yesterday in Washington DC. Col. Ann Wright read the letter (below) out loud (we had a speaker system). I read my own statement (below) and then Tighe from Code Pink who supplied the graves spoke spontaneously condemning Israel and supporting Palestinian's right to live, then Helen Jaccard also spoke very strongly and then I spoke again off the cuff and from my heart as a Jew. Channel 9 had someone there and I was interviewed by phone by some news service. It was all filmed by the great Pali Wieland and of course Ellen Davidson took pictures. We stand with Palestine - - we will not be silent. As you all know there have been major protests here in Washington DC and around the country condemning Israel and the US Congress for it's support of Israel. All the protests supported more than ever now the call for BDS. This latest horror perpetrated by Israel will backfire upon them. As I said in my spontaneous remarks at the embassy - Israel is sowing the seeds of it's own demise.
Free Palestine!
Tarak Kauff
Veterans for Peace
LETTER FROM VETERANS FOR PEACE TO ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO
U.S.
TO BE HAND DELIVERED MONDAY, JULY 21
To:
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer
From:
Veterans For Peace National Board of Directors
Dear
Ambassador Dermer,
As
veterans who have witnessed the horror of war, we are deeply
outraged by the
state of Israel's slaughter of many innocent civilians in Gaza. The military
assault against children, women and men, by air, by sea and now by land, is a
clear violation of international laws of war and of human rights. More than 500 Palestinians have been
murdered, almost all of them civilians, nearly a quarter of them children.
Thousands are wounded, including nearly 1,000 children.
Veterans
For Peace joins millions of people all around the globe who are shocked by this
vicious, one-sided slaughter. We understand the huge injustice of the Israeli
occupation. Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed from their homes and
forced to live in the Occupied West Bank, or in the open-air prison that is
Gaza.
Mr.
Ambassador, please tell the government of Israel to stop the massacre now!
There
should be an immediate end to all bombing and an immediate withdrawal of all
Israeli military from Gaza.
Mr.
Ambassador, please remind Prime Minister Netanyahu that you can bomb the world
into pieces, but you cannot bomb it into peace.
Veterans
For Peace calls for an end to the 8-year blockade of Gaza, so that
normal trade and
travel can occur.
Mr.
Ambassador, please remind the government of Israel of the billions of dollars in
aid that is provided to Israel by the United States. Veterans For Peace will
push for an end to all military aid to Israel until such time as the Israeli
occupation gives way to real peace negotiations based on the human rights of all
the people concerned.
Veterans
For Peace recommits itself to participating in the international campaign of
boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and Israeli products.
We
encourage all parties to search for a nonviolent path to peace. We
urge both Hamas and the government of Israel to refrain from targeting
civilians. We especially call on the state of Israel to stop its massive
violence now. It is time to recognize the human rights of the Palestinian
people, including their right to return to the homes from which they were forced
to flee in 1948.
Mr.
Ambassador, the peoples of Palestine, Israel and the world deserve to live in
peace and harmony. The ultimate goal of
Veterans For Peace is to abolish war. In the meantime, we stand ready to assist
those Israelis and Palestinians who seek peace and
reconciliation.
Monday, July 21, 2014
"PUT THE PALESTINIANS ON A DIET"
Many years ago while attending the University of Florida I got a part-time job working for a disabled woman. I'd do simple chores for her and go to the library to do research for her book on genocide that she was writing. Her basic premise was that genocide takes many forms - it wasn't just Hitler's ovens that killed the Jews.
To help illustrate this point she needed a page from a particular book and I was to find and copy it for her. This important document was called the "Caloric Reduction Intake Schedule" for the Jews inside the Warsaw ghetto in Poland. I was stunned when I found it and to this day the imprint of this document is still in my mind and my soul.
The Nazi's were feeling the international pressure from their gas chambers where they were killing Jews. So they needed other ways to wipe out Jewish people - more subtle ways. They created a plan, a schedule to reduce the food intake of Jews inside Warsaw knowing that over a certain period of time the people would die from malnutrition.
Thus we see today a similar strategy, remarkably and sickly, being used by Israel to help eliminate the Palestinian people. Israel created their own version of the caloric schedule for the Palestinians. Dated from 2008 and entitled, Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - The Red Lines, it is a detailed study of how many calories Palestinians needed to eat to avoid malnutrition. In 2012 BBC reported this story and wrote:
In 2006, Israeli government adviser Dov Weisglass was widely quoted as having said: "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger."When you see Gaza today, literally bombed back into the stone age, you know that it will now be virtually impossible for them to repair their open air prison nor be able to care for the many thousands of people who will be without homes, food, water, or medical care after two Gaza hospitals were blasted by the Israeli military. The so-called tunnels that Israel wanted to shut down were primarily used to smuggle food and building supplies into Gaza so they could live. Israel is now closing that door too.
Israel knows that thousands and thousands of Palestinians will die prematurely because they will have limited access to the essentials of life.
Sadly the Israeli's have become the new Nazi's. You'd think they'd know better but their Zionist zeal has broken their link to humanity and sanity.
Much is made of Hamas trying to defend their people from constant and over whelming Israeli attacks but I can't help but think back to Jews who lived in European cities occupied by Hitler's rampaging armies. People still often wonder aloud why more Jews did not join the resistance to fight for their lives against Hitler's forces.
Israel, and their benefactors in the US, want the Palestinian people to submit, to surrender to their hopeless life of imprisonment. When they dare stand up to defend themselves they are pulverized back into submission. These are indeed war crimes and everyone who remains silent in these moments, to one degree or the other, is complicit in this genocide that we are now witnessing.
WAR CRIMES IN GAZA
Israeli snipers have been caught on camera firing upon a Palestinian civilian of Gaza while he searches for relatives among the rubble of his city. He is surrounded by medics and international volunteers who are supporting the search, and bear witness to his shooting.
He is shot first in the hand. While he writhes in shock and pain, and the others are frozen in fear, the sniper fires a second shot which appears to be near fatal – his hands flailing intermittently. Finally, a third shot appears to kill him.
This is a war crime.
- There are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees living in UNWRA camps having been displaced from their lands by Israel
- The UN has made 69 resolutions against Israel, declared its settlement program ‘deplorable’ and illegal and that its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank violates International Law
- Before and since Israel ‘withdrew’ from Gaza in 2009, it has imprisoned Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants behind an apartheid wall, and blockaded the strip of land by air and sea too. In 2006, Israeli government adviser Dov Weisglass said of the deliberate policy to cap food imports to imprisoned Gaza: “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” Nevertheless, the UN describe the blockade as making Gaza “uninhabitable”.
- The United Nations under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes states that Gaza’s citizens are “living in a large open-air prison,”
- Gaza is the 40th most densely populated place on earth.
Israel has excused itself of responsibility for these deaths – instead blaming Hamas for using Palestinians as “human shields”.
It is clear from this video and the countless others like it streaming out of besieged Gaza, that Israel is deliberately killing civilians.
This massacre is being conducted with full diplomatic and financial backing from the US and UK governments – while worldwide protests express the outrage of ordinary citizens.
Written by Kerry-Anne here
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