PEACE NEWS

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LATEST NEWS

Three people including at least one international
are arrested in Ni'lin, near Ramallah in the
central West Bank today, at a peaceful demonstration
against the separation wall. The protest is
organized and participated in solely by women.

The demonstration started at 11:30 when the women
made their way to the construction site of the wall
carrying banners. They were met with fierce resistance
from Israeli forces who fired tear gas at the crowd.

One international on the demonstration says, "The
use of force was totally disproportionate, we
put our hands up to show we had no weapons,
but the soldiers continued to assault us."

There are twice weekly demonstrations at Ni'lin
in recent months, but this is the first women
only protest. Organizers say it will become a regular event.


******************************


MERCY FOR GAZANS

The Head of UNRWA for Gaza, John Ging, at a press
conference in Gaza today, announces $6,330,000 of
support for 93 Palestinians who will open several
UN centres across the Gaza Strip.

ِThe centres are meant to give much needed services
to the 1.5 million Gazans living in the area.
According to Ging, UNWRA and the new centres will
support about 56% of the people's needs in the Gaza Strip.
He also calls on the international community to intervene
to ensure that no individual goes without food or fuel.

At the same time, Ging announces UNRWA's continued efforts
to re-open crossings to the Gaza Strip.
Specifically, he says, they are asking that the crossings
let in at least 75% of the necessary food and fuel.

"After a month on the truce," he says, "people
feel there is still no benefit and just 25% of
basic goods are being transferred to the sector."

Ging dscribes life in Gaza as one of "harsh human
and economic reality," and says that as he spoke he
"stood amongst the poorest people in the world."
He says no matter what acts some Gazans might have perpetrated,
the entire people of Gaza should not be punished.
Denying people essential goods is unfair, he concludes.

Ging sends a message to the world;- that the
situation in the Strip is "miserable" and that
UNRWA promises to help. The only long term solution,
he adds, is to reopen the crossings.

UNERWA has about $200 worth of projects currently
underway in the Gaza Strip. But most of the projects
are frozen because even UNRWA cannot get
access to adequate building materials.


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A British soldier has been killed by a mine after
his patrol was ambushed in southern Afghanistan,
the Ministry of Defence says today.

The soldier was from the Royal Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers, attached to 2nd Battalion
the Parachute Regiment. The ambush took place in
Kajaki district of Helmand province yesterday,
a statement from Nato says.

The death takes the number of British military
killed in the country to 111.

He died last night and two other soldiers from
2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment are injured.
An MoD spokesperson says their routine patrol
came under enemy fire at 6.18pm (2.48pm BST).

"Whilst returning fire one soldier from 2nd Battalion
the Parachute Regiment was injured by a mine.
While leaving the scene after suppressing the
enemy, a vehicle other soldiers were travelling
in hit a suspected improvised explosive device.

"One soldier from 2nd Battalion the Parachute
Regiment was injured and one soldier from the
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
sustained serious injuries.

"The soldier from the Royal Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers, despite the best medical
efforts at the scene, died a few minutes later.

"All casualties were extracted to Bastion medical
facilities where they received medical care.
Their injuries are not life threatening."

Militants also killed a district police chief in
the eastern Nangarhar province early today after
striking his convoy with a roadside bomb, says
Sayed Mohammad, a provincial official.


*********************************


STONES, BEATINGS, FIRES, NOW CHEMICAL ATTACKS

Israeli settlers spray chemicals on a group of Palestinian farmers
while attacking them in the Qalqilia area of the northern West Bank
human rights fieldworkers report.

According to a report by the International Women's Peace Service,
five settlers, two of them riding horses, from an outpost called Havat Gilad
approached two farmers working their land in the village of Immatin.

As the settlers surrounded the two Palestinian farmers,
they phoned their family for help. In the meantime,
an additional fifteen Palestinians from Far'ata
who had been working in their land nearby
rushed to the aid of the other farmers.

The farmers told IWPS that the settlers threw stones at the Palestinians,
threatened to beat them, and set small fires on the hillside.
Approximately 15 more masked settlers joined them.

Fifteen Israeli soldiers arrived, looking on while the settlers
continued their assault, the farmers say.

When a 54-year-old Palestinian farmer approached the soldiers,
a settler came between the soldier and the Palestinian
and sprayed the Palestinian with an unknown chemical substance
on his arms, hands and eyes, causing a burning sensation and loss of vision.

When the farmer's 22-year-old-son attempted to protect his father,
the settler sprayed his arms and hands with the same unknown substance.

According to the victims, the soldiers did nothing
to stop the settlers from assaulting them, instead
shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at the Palestinians.
A 34-year-old Palestinian was shot with a rubber bullet
at the top of his thigh from approximately thirty meters away.
After this, a soldier threw a tear gas bomb directly in front of him.

The farmers reported that the fires, some started by the settlers
and others caused by the heat of the teargas canisters, destroyed
a total of 60 olive trees before Palestinian firemen could put them out.

After the confrontation had ended, the injured
Palestinians were treated at a local clinic.

Both Palestinian men who had been sprayed with
the unknown chemical substance report that the
burning sensations caused by the spray had not
subsided by the following day.


**********************************


FIFTY MILLION STARVE

DURING 2007 the number of hungry people in the world
increased to more than 50 million, a figure
that could continue to rise this year.
The food crisis has taken on ominous and tragic tones.
Its consequences speak for themselves and it has provoked
a wave of protest as hunger has worsened around the planet.

Dr. Jack Diouf, director general of the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says food
prices have experienced a notable increase "52%
on average", Diouf reports and notes that, in
addition to this "particularly worrisome phenomenon",
the prices of agricultural supplies are also rising.
For example, on a global level, the cost of fertilizer
has risen 98% this year, seed 60% and animal feed 72%.

If appropriate measures are not taken immediately,
he says, the situation could become even more
difficult over the next 50 years as the world’s
population exceeds "the more than six billion of
today to reach nine billion by 2050." He also
criticizes the diverting of grains to the energy market.

This scenario is compounded by the effects of climate change,
which are beginning to be perceived, as well as
the presence of speculators, he says.

For the high-ranking UN official, the volatility of food prices,
"which we have witnessed over the last few years,
will continue for a long time" and he concludes
with an urgent message, affirming that we need
to act, "RIGHT NOW", since many promises have yet to be kept.

Diouf points out that the crisis is "not only
being felt in developing countries, but also
within the developed" and that it is possible
to reverse the situation. "Obviously, it is a
problem of political will," he says, although
he notes that 57 countries have taken steps to
alleviate the current crisis.

In this context, he emphasizes the need to
produce more, cultivate more land;
"these problems are priorities," he says.



**********************************


U.S. troops shoot dead two relatives of the governor
of Salahudin province on Sunday morning, U.S.
military and local police sources say.

A police source says the killed men are a son
and a nephew of Hamad Hamoud al-Qaisy, Governor
of Salahudin province, in Northern Iraq.

Qaisy, who is in Turkey, condemns the "incident",
and is demanding that U.S. and Iraqi authorities investigate.

Qaisy orders a "suspension of cooperation"
with U.S. troops in the province.


****************************


ISRAEL "REPEATEDLY BREAKS CEASEFIRE"

Israeli warships open fire at Gazan fishermen
for three hours on Sunday morning.

Security sources in the Hamas de facto government
in the Gaza Strip say Israeli warships fired a
number of anti-tank missiles at fishermen's boats
and opened fire heavily at them while fishing in
the Sudaniyya area north of Gaza City and Ash-
Shati camp west of Gaza City.
The shots were fired between 3 and 6 in the morning.

Sources explain that the missiles horrified fishermen
and damaged several boats.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents of Ni'lin and nearby villages,
along with international and Israeli peace activists
participate in a peaceful demonstration against
the Israeli separation wall.

The rally takes to the main streets of the village,
marching from the village center to bulldozers
that have been uprooting orchards on village lands
for the past 70 days. As the protesters approach
the bulldozers, Israeli soldiers discharge tear gas.
Seven people, including international peace activists,
are hit with rubber coated steel bullets and
dozens of others suffer the effects of tear gas.

The spokesperson of the popular committee against
the Wall in the village, Salah Al-Khawajah;
"The Israeli army have started to put marks for
the construction of a tunnel that will extend
from the first third of the village to the wall
and will be close to the homes in the north of the village.
In the south of the village it will cut off 200
dunums of village lands, making it difficult for
farmers to reach their lands." (4 dunums = 1 acre)
Al-Khwajah calls on government and non-governmental agencies
to support the residents of Ni'lin, whose economy,
education and health are gradually being destroyed
by the wall's construction. Now the military realize
that violence on the ground cannot stop the residents'
emancipatory drive, it is arresting both Palestinian
and Israeli protesters in the hope that hefty legal costs
will do the job. To support the legal expenses
incurred at Ni'lin, please paste this into your browser;

http://www.awalls.org/donations.


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USUK TROOPS OUT A.S.A.P. !

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says troops
should leave Iraq "as soon as possible,"
and calls Obama's suggestion of 16 months
"the right timeframe for a withdrawal."

In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel
released Saturday, al-Maliki says he is not
seeking to endorse Obama, who pledges to withdraw
combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, if elected.

"...the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with
the possibility of slight changes," al-Maliki is
quoted as saying. "Those who operate on the premise
of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic.
Artificially prolonging the tenure of U.S.
troops in Iraq would cause problems."

Asked when U.S. forces should leave Iraq, he says,
"As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned."

McCain's campaign did not return calls Saturday.


********************************


IRAQ IMPROVING LINKS WITH WORLD

Maliki is touring the world this week,
with trips to Europe, and - as the Sunni
Accordance Front rejoins his government,
TODAY, he opens a new civilian airport...
in Najaf.
Millions of pilgrims, mostly Iranians, travel
to Iraq every year to visit Shiite shrines in Najaf
and Karbala. The new airport could boost these numbers.

At a ceremony now underway, al-Maliki describes
the airport as important in Iraq's economic development.
A military airfield was renovated for the new airport,
and several flights are expected to land TODAY.


*******************************


U.S. ON "WRONG TRACK".

A stunning 85% of Americans believe the U.S. is
on the wrong track. The survey shows black and Latino
dissatisfaction at 96% and 88%, respectively.

It also finds most Americans now support major
government investment to create jobs, with 82%
favoring public works projects and 70% saying
more government programs should help those now struggling.

Pollsters attribute the unhappiness to;
falling house prices, a wobbly stock
market, and the Iraq war.


**************************


PALESTINIAN PRISONERS PLAN?

Knesset member Mohammed Barakah, head of the
Democratic Front for Peace and Equality,
welcomes the prisoner swap between Hizbullah
and Israel and calls on Israel to release
thousands of Palestinian detainees.

Barakah says the deal was brokered years ago but
Israel, wanting to damage the Lebanese position,
had delayed the exchange.

He expresses his happiness at the release of the
Lebanese prisoners, particularly Samir Al-Quntar.

Barakah stresses that to create a better atmosphere
for progress in the peace process, some 11,500
Palestinian prisoners could be released.


***************************


LEST WE FORGET !

As Israel and Lebanon hold funerals and vow to
fight on in God's name, the Pope speaks to Youth;
He says the world's natural resources are being
squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption."

"Some of you come from island nations whose very
existence is threatened by rising water levels;
others from nations suffering the effects of devastating drought."

"Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that
there are also scars which mark the surface of
our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering
of the world's mineral and ocean resources in
order to fuel an insatiable consumption."

"Poisons" afflicting the world's social environment,
he stated, include substance abuse, and the exaltation of
violence and sexual degradation, by TV and the Internet.

"The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development,
justice and peace, and care for our environment
are of vital importance for humanity."

Pope Benedict XVI urges religious leaders to unite
against those who use faith to divide communities —
an oblique reference to the anti-Muslim hatred encouraged by
"leaders" like Cheney and Bush, and a gutter journalism.

Pope Benedict is meeting representatives of
Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist faiths.

He stresses; "In a world threatened by sinister
and indiscriminate forms of violence, the unified
voice of religious people urges nations and communities
to resolve conflicts through peaceful means and
with full regard for human dignity." - No torture then !

The pontiff says creating harmony between religion
and public life is "all the more important at a time
when some people have come to consider religion
as a cause of division rather than a force for unity."

Sheikh Mohamadu Saleem, National Imam's Council of Australia,
with a sideswipe at past race-riots in Sidney,
states that Muslims could be more understanding
of other religions. "At the same time, a
significant number of Christian groups and other
religions, must overcome prejudice towards Muslims and Islam."

The pope agrees; "We must guard against any temptation
to view doctrine as divisive and hence an impediment
to the seemingly more pressing and immediate task
of improving the world in which we live."



***********************


THE WATER OF LIFE

Residents of the West Bank village of Al-Jiftlik,
in the Jordan valley north of the city of Jericho,
stage a demonstration to demand water and electricity
at the Palestinian Prime Minister's office in Ramallah.

The villagers say their community has been cut off
from water and electricity, and are demanding that
the Palestinian Authority take action.

After rallying in front of the Prime Minister's office,
the demonstration moves to the headquarters of
the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

Mustafa Barghouthi, sec.-general of the Palestinian National Initiative;

"We are here to demand that the Palestinian government help."

Much of the West Bank is suffering a severe water
shortage this summer, due to a drought, a reduction
of supplies from the Israeli national water company,
and an overall lack of Palestinian water infrastructure.



*************************


CANADIAN FIRMS SUED FOR BUILDING ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS

A Palestinian village is sueing two Canadian companies
for building in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank,
the village's lawyer says.

This is the first time a private company is being sued
for investing in settlements which violate international law,
says Michael Sfard, the attorney representing Bilin village.

The claim was filed on Wednesday in a Canadian court
against Green Park International and Green Mount
International, sister companies registered in Quebec.

The construction is taking place on land seized from Bilin
after Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 -
a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
which forbids an occupying power from transferring
its own civilians into occupied territory.

The suit asks the court to halt all construction
and to demolish the homes the companies have built
in Modiin Illit, Israel's largest settlement.

About 250 apartments in 30 buildings are at issue, Sfard says.

The village also seeks punitive damages of $1.98m.

The unprecedented suit "will serve as a blinking
red light for any investors and corporations that
are considering doing anything in the settlements," Sfard says.

Bilin is best known for its weekly protests
against Israel's West Bank separation wall,
which is being built to stop suicide bombers,
but has also taken half of the village's land.


**************************


QUESTIONS ARE BEING ASKED !

This is a copy of the cross-party oral question
delivered in the U.K. Parliament Wednesday afternoon,
regarding the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israel...

In the latest report on the situation of human
rights in the Palestinian territories, the UN
Special Rapporteur John Dugard states that "since
1967 over 700,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned.
At present, there are some 11,000 prisoners in
Israeli jails, a number which includes 376 children,
118 women, 44 members of the Palestinian Legislative
Council and some 800 administrative detainees".

In late January 2008, Israel held 813 Palestinians
in administrative detention. These people are held,
for renewable periods of up to six months, solely
as a result of an administrative decision.

Administrative detention is allowed under international law,
but only with rigid restrictions on its application,
to prevent the danger posed to state security by
a particular individual. Israel, however, has never
defined the criteria for what constitutes "state security."
Israel's use of administrative detention
therefore violates these restrictions.

Most Palestinian prisoners are held in jails
in Israel. This - besides making family visits
frequently impossible - violates article 76 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires
persons from an occupied territory to be detained
in the occupied country, and if convicted, to
serve their sentences therein.

"Prisoners are subjected to humiliating and
degrading treatment". The interrogation is
carried out in an inhuman manner, sometimes
amounting to torture. Food is poor, and there
is serious overcrowding. In 2007, two reports
published by Israeli NGOs have shown that
arrested persons are subjected to physical ill-
treatment and deprived of basic needs, such as
sleep for more than 24 hours. The treatment of
children is equally disturbing.

The arrest, interrogation and imprisonment of
Palestinian children have become systematic in
the last years. As at the end of July 2007, there
were approximately 385 Palestinian children in
Israeli custody. These children are usually
prosecuted under the same military system which
is used with Palestinian adults. This is of course
in violation of the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which entered
into force in Israel in November 1991. However,
Israel denies its applicability to the Palestinian territory.

Is the Council aware of the above mentioned
violation of the International Law?

Taking also into consideration article 2 of the
EU-Israel Association Agreement, what kind of
action does the Council envisage in order to
ensure the respect of the International law, as
well as of the International Conventions by the State of Israel?


************************************


TUNE OFF, TURN OFF, DROP OFF !

Iranian President Ahmadinejad says;
the Group of Eight wealthy nations' policies will
"accelerate them along the road to a precipice."

Ahmadinejad says the world has entered an era
of fundamental change, ending a world order
controlled by a single powerful nation.

"It is possible for people to assemble who are
unaware of the state of people's lives and who
do not understand the changing times," he says.

"They (the Group of Eight members) may imagine
they can solve their own problems without
respecting others or paying any attention to
their interests. But this attitude is just a
series of failures that will accelerate them
along the road to a precipice."


******************


WHY IS CHENEY STILL OUT OF PRISON ?

In an article released by the New Yorker,
we learn that the White House has met,
considered, and is probably working to
fabricate a situation that can be used by
the US as a pretext for attacking Iran.

Hersh tells us of a brainstorming session in
the Vice President’s office. The topic was;
How can they get the Iranians to do something
that will make it appear as if THEY started it;
as if Iranians were the bad people ?


***********************


A DATE FOR WITHDRAWAL - WHICH BIT DON'T USUK UNDERSTAND?

Iraq will not accept any security agreement with
the United States unless it includes a date for
the withdrawal of foreign forces, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie,
the government's national security adviser, says.

Rubaie says Iraq is waiting "impatiently for the
day when the last foreign soldier leaves Iraq."

"We can't have a memorandum of understanding with
foreign forces unless it has dates and clear horizons
determining the departure of foreign forces.
We're UNAMBIGUOUSLY talking about their departure,"
Rubaie says in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.

He speaks after meeting Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

"I informed the clerical leaders about some of
the advances in the talks. There are real problems
and difficulties, and we have many roadblocks ahead.
There is a big difference in outlook between us
and the Americans," Rubaie says.

The Bush administration has always opposed
setting a withdrawal timetable.

The White House replies that the talks are not
aimed at setting a "hard" deadline for withdrawal.

"Negotiations and discussions are ongoing every day,"
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe says;

"It is important to understand that these are not
talks on a hard date for a withdrawal."

In a further complication, Iraq's deputy parliament speaker
Khalid al-Attiya says lawmakers must approve any
deal the Iraqi government reaches and will probably reject
the document if American troops are immune from Iraqi law.

It will be "almost unthinkable" for USUK to allow
its soldiers to be subject to Iraqi law.

Maliki's preference for a memorandum of understanding,
contrasts with earlier talks which have all been leading to
the signing of a formal Status of Forces Agreement.

Attiya;
"Without doubt, if the two sides reach an agreement,
this is between two countries, and according to
the Iraqi constitution a national agreement must
be agreed by parliament by a majority of two thirds."

Desmond Browne, of USUK, commits us to the same
arrogant course: "Conditions on the ground..."
he repeats, which opposes Maliki's stand -
does Desmond know something the elected Prime
Minister of the "sovereign" country of Iraq, doesn't ?
When the puppet in South Vietnam tried to turn
on his "superiors" - he was deposed in a coup !

Bring our boys and girls HOME, Des !


*************************


CURFEW TRIES TO KILL RESISTANCE

Israeli troops are imposing a curfew on the
entire West Bank village of Nil'in, northwest
of the city of Ramallah, forcing residents
inside their homes and blocking the community's
three main entrances, witnesses inside the
village say.

Witnesses say that Israeli forces are using tear
gas, rubber-coated metal bullets and occasional
live rounds to enforce the curfew.

The villagers of Nil'in and their international
and Israeli supporters have been staging weekly
demonstrations against the construction of
Israel's separation wall. The Israeli military
has violently cracked down on these
demonstrations, resulting in scores of injuries.

Former Palestinian Minister of Information
Mustafa Bargouthi calls the closure "collective
punishment aimed at breaking the popular, non-
violent struggle against the wall."

Expecting another weekly protest, Israeli soldiers
moved in at 5am on Friday, declaring the village
a "closed military zone." At noon, six hundred
villagers defied the curfew, holding the Friday
Muslim prayer and a demonstration which lasted until 6pm.

Israeli troops once again attacked Friday's protest.
In the course of the day, 24 people were injured
by bullets and tear gas. Four Israeli activists
and one journalist were arrested.

Witnesses add that Israeli soldiers blocking
the roads into the village halted an ambulance
transporting a 65-year-old woman named Fayqa
Hussni Khawaja to a nearby hospital.


*********************


ISRAEL OPENS GAZA FOR HOW LONG ?

Israel re-opens crossings Sunday, but most
Palestinians in Gaza are losing confidence that
the truce is bringing an improvement in their lives.
Even when the crossings open, not enough supplies
are making their way in to improve the situation.

The crossings, closed on Thursday, remained shut until Sunday.


************************


PUNISHING CONTEMPT OF COURT, "FUTILE" !

A federal judge in Riverside, Calif., orders
two Marines released from jail despite their refusal
to testify before a grand jury investigating
the killing of Iraqi detainees in 2004.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson says that
Sgt. Jermaine Nelson and Sgt. Ryan Weemer are
still in contempt of court, but that keeping
them jailed is futile.

Nelson and Weemer face charges in military court
relating to the alleged killing of detainees
during the U.S. destruction of Fallujah.


*************************************


LET THE PALESTINIANS DRINK ....WHAT ?!

A new study conducted by Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem,
says average water consumption in Israel is 3.5 times that in the West Bank.

This discrepancy, the study says, will "have
serious repercussions on the economy and the
health of tens of thousands of Palestinians."

Already, according to the report released Tuesday,
water consumption in parts of the West Bank is
only one-third of what the World Health Organization
(WHO) states as the minimum per capita usage.
Since the past winter and spring saw little rainfall in the region,
this summer's water shortage is expected to be severe.

Access to water is hampered by a number of factors.

ONE - Israel's discriminatory distribution policy.
During water shortages, supplies are diverted to settlements.

TWO - the Palestinian Authority is prevented from drilling.

THREE - Water is stolen in those territories that
remain under full Israeli control, and Israeli authorities
have been "unable" to apprehend or stop the thefts.

The B'Tselem report calls Israeli water policies
"a violation of its obligations under International Humanitarian Law."
The organization calls on the government of Israel
"to ensure the immediate, regular, adequate
supply of water to every resident of the West
Bank without discrimination, and to allow the
Palestinian Authority to develop new water sources."


***********************


IT'S PEOPLE NOT JUST POLITICIANS WHO COUNT !

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi urges Iran and the U.S.
to find a peaceful resolution to their standoff
warning that military action will harm both countries' people.

Ebadi, winner of the peace prize in 2003 for her work
advocating greater rights for women and children in Iran,
speaks at the launching of a new anti-war group
she is helping to create with the aim of
averting an Iranian-U.S. conflict.

Ebadi warns against any military action and
further economic sanctions against Iran,
saying both will just hurt ordinary people and
accelerate the flight of Iran's most educated
and skilled professionals.

"We expect Iran and U.S. to settle their disputes
through negotiation. This is in the interests of
both the Iranian and American people," she says.

Ebadi, who became one of Iran's first female judges
before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution,
also stresses that the issue should not be left to politicians.

"Decision-making about peace and war is not a
restricted right of governments anymore.
People also have the right to discuss it."


***************************


"MARRIAGE AND LOVE THREATEN ISRAEL"

Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset Muhammad Barakeh,
representing the Democratic Front, says that
"those who prepared the racial Israeli law
of citizenship must be tried in an international court
because it is a racial and dangerous law."

Barakeh speaks before the Knesset as it discusses
a one year extension of the emergency citizenship law.
Under the law, Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza,
married to Israeli citizens, are prohibited from living in Israel.
The law was passed for the first time in 2002,
and has been extended several times since.

The law has been discussed several times recently,
Barakeh adds, and even the Israeli High Court
criticizes it and warns against its continuation.
However, he says, the Israeli government and an
overwhelming majority of Knesset members are
insisting on going ahead with the extension.
The fact that the law is clearly racist, says
Barakeh, is likely the reason that it has not yet
been ratified as a permanent feature of Israeli law.

"Only in Israel," Barakeh concludes, can
"marriage and love threaten the state's existence;
it's craziness itself."



******************


RACISM THRIVING IN ISRAEL

A new program in one Israeli city warns
Jewish girls not to date Israeli Bedouin boys.
The southern Israeli city is pushing the program in schools
by using a video called "Sleeping with the Enemy."

The video shows a Kiryat Gat city representative
warning girls not to take part in dating Bedouin
boys - something he calls "abnormal."

There are about 160,000 Bedouin living in the Negev.
They are Israeli citizens and many serve in the Israeli military.
But they are often treated as second-class citizens.


*************************


UK ACTIONS ILLEGAL.

An Iranian MP accuses Britain of "illegal acts."
"Britain's move on imposing further sanctions against Iran
beyond the UN Security Council resolutions
is an illegal act against the Iranian nation,"
head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission
of the Iranian Parliament, Alaeddin Boroujerdi says,
in a meeting with British Ambassador to Tehran Geoffrey Adams.

He says Iran will give the response unfriendly
and illegal actions necessitate, Press TV reports.

Gordon Brown has decided that Britain will
"freeze the assets" of Melli, the biggest Iranian bank,
and will start new sanctions on Iran's oil and gas industry.

Boroujerdi points out that "Iran is ready to hold
serious talks aimed at reaching an understanding
- in line with international regulations."

The MP also strongly protests against British lawmakers'
decision to remove the MKO from its list of terrorist groups.

Adams said Britain has "no intention to damage mutual relations"
and that London calls for an "expansion" of relations.


*********************


ISRAEL HAS NO WILL

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa says
Israel has "no genuine will to settle the Palestinian issue,"
the Egyptian state MENA news agency reports.

Addressing the inaugural session of the Interim Arab Parliament,
Moussa says there is a small amount of progress
in the Mideast peace process; but this is not enough.

Israeli settlements still proliferating in the disputed lands,
spoil all peace efforts, he says.

The Israeli settlement plans have drawn harsh criticism
from the Palestinian side and the international community,
including Israel's ally the United States.

Few tangible results have been achieved since
Israel and the Palestinians revived their peace talks
at a U.S.-sponsored conference last November.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that
"We consider settlement activities a major obstacle
that obstructs any development in the peace process."



***************************


THROWING U.S. "AID" OUT.

Bolivian President Evo Morales expresses his support
for the decision by coca growers in the Chapare region of Cochabamba
to expel the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) and reaffirms that he will not
"kneel down before the empire."
"I salute the decision by the growers’ movement."

Celebrating the delivery of ambulances donated by Spain,
Morales again denounces USAID and the U.S. embassy in Bolivia
for the destabilization efforts they are leading against the elected government.
Bolivian Minister of Defense Walker San Miguel,
asserts that the intention is to carry out a coup.



**************************


GOOD NEWS !

The US has removed its nuclear weapons from Britain.
The Federation of American Scientists report that
the last 110 American nuclear weapons on UK soil
were withdrawn from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk
on the orders of President George Bush.

Hans Kristensen, the report's author, says
withdrawals took place over the past few years.
Kristensen says the first sign the bombs had left
showed up in a US airforce document dated January 2007.

The document lists inspections of US nuclear sites,
and notes "not applicable to Lakenheath".

Kristensen's report is posted at fas.org/blog/ssp.

Kristensen: "It's so puzzling why Nato goes about
the reduction in total secrecy. Keeping this secret
completely undercuts our foreign policy interests."

The FAS was founded by scientists on the Manhattan Project.



**************************


BRITISH USES ARMAMENTS "WORST IN UNIVERSE" !

British forces are using thermobaric weapons in Afghanistan.

Apache attack helicopters fire the thermobaric
weapons against fighters in buildings and caves,
creating a pressure wave which sucks the air out of victims,
shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies.

Their use by Russia against civilians in Chechnya
in the 1990s was condemned worldwide.

The MoD admits using the weapons on "several occasions".

They are now to be fired from RAF Reaper unmanned drones
controlled by "pilots" at Creech air force base in Nevada.

These weapons are so controversial that MoD legal experts
spent 18 months debating whether British troops
could use them without breaking international law.

Eventually, they got round the ethical problems
by redefining the weapons:

"We no longer accept the term thermobaric, as
there is no internationally agreed definition,"
says an MoD spokesperson....
"We call it an enhanced blast weapon."

Human Rights Watch says they are "particularly brutal"
and their blast "makes it virtually impossible
for civilians to take shelter".

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman:
"It is staggering the MoD has added these weapons
to Britain’s arsenal in cloak-and-dagger secrecy.
Parliament has never assented to their use.
Gordon Brown claimed the moral high ground when
Britain supported a ban on cluster munitions
but leaving a loophole for these weapons casts
a different picture on the true position."

The MoD:
"We are conscious of the controversial aspects,
but it is being used sparingly and under strict
circumstances where it is deemed appropriate by
the commander on the ground."

A spokesperson adds that it can "achieve objectives
with the minimum coalition casualties and reduced collateral damage".


********************


WE'RE A DEMOCRACY, RIGHT?

Imagine the world as democratic... with a UN parliament.
In a world parliament of, say, 500 members,
China, with 20% of the global population, would have 100 M.P.s.
India, with 17% of the population, would have 85.
All the countries of the European Union combined,
with 7.4% of the global population, would have 37 M.P.s.
The U.S and Israel, with 5% of the world’s population,
would have 25 world parliament M.P.s.

Asia, with an estimated 60% plus of the global population,
in a democratic world parliament, would
have 303 out of the 500 seats.



*****************************



WEST IS OPENLY WARNED TO CHANGE DIRECTION...

Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani
says the West should listen hard to ElBaradei's warning
and stop provoking Iran, the Press TV satellite channel reports.

"There is little chance for interaction. You
have reached the final minutes of your defeated game," Larijani says.

"Why do you tread the path of confrontation if
you intend to hold negotiations with Iran?"
Larijani asks the West, referring to the package
of incentives drawn up by the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

The Iranian speaker recommends that the West
does not carry out measures which will result in higher costs.

"Western powers are on the threshold of an impasse.
The Iranian and regional nations are
scrutinizing their moves," Larijani says.

He states further, that Iran will change its policies
on the nuclear issue, if the West intends to use
negotiations as a means to justify "its illegal measures."

Larijani adds that the issues of human rights
and Iran's nuclear program have been changed into
a pretext for certain Western countries for their
diplomatic and media fraud.

"You know that your wrong strategies in Iraq,
Lebanon and Afghanistan have borne not fruit,
but hatred. The little chance for interaction
with Iran requires rational and constructive signs," he says.

　 In an interview with the Austrian newspaper "Die Presse"
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mahdi Safari,
points out that the EU's sanctions against Iran
will lead to serious consequences, namely, Iran
withdrawing money from EU countries.

He believes that once "more than 100 billion U.S. dollars"
are withdrawn from European banks, it will
certainly lead to a money shortage on the continent,
which will have an impact on the global economy.

The EU will suffer a "loss" if it takes part in
implementing further sanctions against Iran, says
Safari, because Iran has "gas and oil resources
that everyone wants to buy."



********************************



IRAN ISOLATED ?

The Organisation of Islamic Conference is endorsing
Iran’s bid to occupy a seat on the Security Council for 2009-2010.
Al Baradei, the Chief nuclear negotiator, warns
that he will resign immediately, if Iran is attacked.


*************************


BRITISH EQUIPMENT "GROUND DOWN"

712 of the 2,136 Warrior, Saxon and Scimitar vehicles,
which could be used to transport and protect troops,
are either being repaired or have been destroyed.



*********************************



SISTANI REJECTS PACT WITH USUK

"Political entities should stick to their stand
of rejecting the pact," says Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei,
a representative of Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Karbala on Friday.



*******************************



USUK "PROVIDE NO LEADERSHIP".


A survey of the world's refugees reports
that half a million Iraqis fled in 2007, the
third consecutive year more Iraqis were displaced
than any other nationality in the world.

The survey by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
says the U.S. accepted just over half the 3,000
it had promised to resettle.

"While the Bush administration and the United Kingdom
are busy trying to win the war, they have provided
no leadership toward ensuring the rights and
well-being of the victims of this war.
Europe, which for the most part warned of the
dire humanitarian consequences of the war, has also
done nothing to help the people they were so concerned about."

In its "Report Card" section, it gives the U.S.
an "F," the lowest grade, for returning refugees
to their home countries without hearing them out.

"We gave the United States an F in refoulement
entirely for its treatment of Haitians,"
Merrill Smith, editor of the report, says.

Cubans but not Haitians are told they have the
right to seek asylum. Haitians are sent back.

"The mistreatment of refugees is not limited to
poor countries or undemocratic regimes.
Wealthy industrial nations utilize policies
designed to limit the number of refugees that
enter their territory, explaining that they
have limited resources, that refugees are unable
to integrate or that some other country has primary responsibility."

Europe appears in the section entitled "Worst Places for Refugees."

"European countries have crafted policies that
essentially deny access by making it as difficult
as possible to enter their territory.
Countries on the periphery of Europe have the
harshest policies, protecting their wealthy neighbours
to the north and west, often for money."

It faults European countries for forcibly returning
refugees "to manifestly dangerous situations."


* * *


UN CRITICISES SEX OFFENCES (by others)

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution
demanding warring nations stop using sexual violence
as a tactic of war, saying the problem has reached
"unspeakable and pandemic proportions".

The document - passed during a special meeting on Thursday -
says rape is no longer just a by-product of war
but a military tactic that poses a threat to
international security and stability.

The resolution calls on warring governments to protect
civilians from sexual violence saying that such crimes
should be excluded from amnesty after conflicts.

The council also warns that special measures will be considered
against the perpetrators when imposing or renewing sanctions.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, says the
problem of sexual violence has
"reached unspeakable and pandemic proportions...."

UN officials say the problem is currently worst
in eastern Congo but a survey of 2,000 women and
girls in Liberia shows that 75% had been raped
during the country's civil war.

MIND, THEY'VE GOT A BLOODY CHEEK !
U.N. PEOPLE ARE AMONGST THE MOST GUILTY OF ABUSE !!!

(SEE ARTICLE FURTHER BELOW ON CONGO)



*************************


WILL USUK BE FOREVER REMEMBERED AS WORSE THAN THE NAZIS ?

The General who probed Abu Ghraib says
Bush officials committed war crimes:

"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the
current administration has committed war crimes,"
retired Army Major Gen. Antonio Taguba writes,
in a new report on medical evidence that U.S. troops
abused prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo.
"The only question that remains to be answered
is whether those who ordered the use of torture
will be held to account."

Here's a short extract from an article by McClatchy;
"John Yoo wanted to use military commissions in
the manner they were used in the Indian wars,"
Romig said. "I looked at him and said, 'You know,
that was 100-and-something years ago. You're out
of your mind; we're talking about the law.'"

The military commissions that the U.S. used
against Native Americans during the mid-19th
century were often ad hoc and frequently
resulted in natives being hanged or shot.

(Yoo is now a professor at BERKLEY, California !!!)

YOU CAN LOOK AWAY, BUT TO READ THE TRUTH . . .
PLEASE PASTE THIS INTO YOUR BROWSER:-

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/



**************************



BIG HITCH FOR METRIX TRANSFER TO ST ATHAN

The planned switch of military training to Wales
to set up a £11bn new facility could be put back
eight years, BBC Wales suggests.

Building on the centre at St Athan in the Vale of
Glamorgan was due to start next year, but massive
opposition could be having an effect....
Now, union leaders fighting to keep work in Hampshire
say the Metrix consortium is considering
keeping open HMS Sultan in Hampshire.

It was due to close and transfer its work to
south Wales in 2017, but a leaked e-mail suggests
it could stay open until 2025.

PCS's Paul Bemrose;
"There are a lot of problems with the programme
now in terms of affordability, which the MoD are
not talking about, because they don't want to
raise the spectre of the project collapsing."


*******************************



THE CEASEFIRE STICKS - JUST! - IN GAZA,
BUT DON'T FORGET THE WEST BANK !

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian civilians and
burn three dunums of agricultural land near the
Israeli settlement of Yatsahar, south of Nablus.

Around 200 settlers attack civilians, say witnesses,
destroying property and setting fire to agricultural lands.
They also throw stones at houses causing a large
amount of damage to the house owned by 'Atallah
Taqo, a resident of Huwwara.

The settlers also disrupt the movement of pedestrians,
erecting checkpoints. They attack Arab cars
passing through the area.

The Israeli army launches simultaneous attacks
in Hebron, Jenin, Tulkarem, and Qelqilia.



****************



WORLD'S BIGGEST GUN RUNNERS !

Britain is now the world's biggest arms exporter,
overtaking the US, the Financial Times reports
Wednesday, quoting government figures.

Britain "earned" £10 billion from new defense orders
from overseas in 2007, giving it 33% of the
world export market, figures released Tuesday show.
In 2006, UK export orders totalled £5.5 billion.


*************************


IGNORING THOSE WE "LIBERATE" !

MONTHS AGO, the Afghan Senate urged Taleban talks and a Ceasefire.

The Afghan Senate called on the Kabul government
to open direct talks with the Taleban, and said
Nato must stop attacking them.


The draft distinguishes between the Taleban,
and Pakistani and al-Qaeda fighters,
who it says are enemies of Afghanistan.


The Senate still says NOW, that while efforts
get under way to open talks, Nato-led military
operations against the Taleban should CEASE.

"If the need arises for an operation, it should be
carried out in co-ordination with the national army
and police and after consultation with the government
of Afghanistan," the National Reconciliation Bill states.

It also says that when the Afghan army and police force
are up to full strength, a timetable should be drafted
for "coalition forces to leave the country."



&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&



NEVER MIND RUMSFELD - ARREST CHENEY & BUSH !

"Physicians for Human Rights" alleges evidence
of U.S. torture and war crimes, and accuses
U.S. military health professionals of;
allowing the abuse of detainees, denying them
medical care, and providing confidential information
to interrogators that they can then exploit.

The top military lawyer at Guantanamo now says
prisoners WERE exposed to forbidden techniques,
such as sleep deprivation, but that such treatment
was hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Lieutenant-Colonel Diane Beaver, says the US
defence department hid prisoners who were
being treated harshly, or abusively.

Beaver also says the military was secretly using
previously forbidden techniques, such as sleep
deprivation, but hiding them so as not to draw
"negative attention", according to minutes of one meeting.

"The ICRC is a serious concern. They will be in
and out, scrutinising our operations, unless they
are displeased and decide to protest and leave.
This would draw a lot of negative attention."
Beaver also said interrogators should "curb the
harsher operations while ICRC is around".

A senior CIA lawyer at that meeting, John Fredman,
said that whether harsh interrogations amount to
torture "is a matter of perception.
If the detainee dies you're doing it wrong."

Beaver wrote the Oct. 11, 2002, memo that said
abusive methods could be used against detainees
at Guantanamo Bay because they were "not prisoners of war".
Her proposed methods included extended isolation,
20-hour interrogations, death threats and waterboarding.

Now she says she is "shocked" that her memo became
the justification for Rumsfeld's approval to use harsher methods.

(The committee she spoke to, heard that Senior
Allied Commanders "left the room" when torture
was discussed, for fear of "guilt by association".)

This is just the FIRST day of evidence...

Look out Rummy, they're comin' to getcha !


*****************


PEW ! - WE DON'T LIKE AMERICA.

The latest Pew report on attitudes to the US;-

"...with few exceptions, the American economy is
now seen as having a negative impact on national economies,
both large and small, in all parts of the world."

The majority of countries also think that the U.S.
is extremely influential in their nations —
and see that influence as bad.



**********************


FAIR SWAP?

After a couple of hundred dead or seriously injured
in Afghanistan, UK soldiers can welcome some fresh faces.

Some 230 engineers, logistical staff and military training experts
are reported to have been picked to begin a "tour".



*********************



"DECLARATION OF WAR ON ALL MUSLIMS"

The de facto Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip
says they are monitoring Israeli settlement expansion
in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem with concern,
and that they reject any entrenchment of Israel's illegal settlements.

The de facto Hamas government points out that the
Israeli government recently decided to build 1,300
new residential units in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo,
near the Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Hanina
in East Jerusalem, which already has 2,000 housing units.

The Hamas de facto government describes the
Israeli decision to expand the settlement
as new evidence that the continuing meetings between
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are "futile."

The statement adds that the Israeli government
exploits these meetings to cover its criminal
acts and to expand settlements in and around
Jerusalem, as part of its ongoing attempts to
Judaize the city. The statement describes the
continuing Israeli settlement expansion in Jerusalem
as a "declaration of war against Muslims all over the world."

The de facto Hamas government calls on the
international community to end its silence
regarding the aggressive practices of the Israeli
occupation, and reminds them that constructing
settlements on occupied territory is a war crime
under international law and the Fourth Geneva
Convention. The statement calls for serious
international intervention to stop the ongoing
Israeli violations, and urges countries to stop
treating Israel as if it is immune from
international penalties or sanctions.

Finally, the statement calls on the Arab and
Islamic countries to assume their
responsibilities towards occupied Jerusalem and
intervene urgently to save the holy and
multicultural city from the Israeli attempts to
Judaize it, which have intensified since the
Annapolis conference in November 2007.



**************************


EEC MOVE TO UPGRADE RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL CONDEMNED

The National Committee for Grassroots Resistance in Palestine
condemns recent discussions in the European Union
on upgrading relations with Israel and urges the EU
to act against Israel's ongoing human rights violations
and settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement to European and EU representatives,
the Committee says that while Palestinians appreciate
the EU's longtime support for a just peace based on UN resolutions,
they are dismayed at recent deliberations over upgrading Israel-EU relations.

The National Committee for Grassroots Resistance,
notes that Israel continues to disregard the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) 2004 decision
condemning construction of the separation wall inside the West Bank,
and that the ICJ recommends that states take punitive action
against Israel if it fails to dismantle the wall.

As the Committee puts it, "serious pressure should
be put on Israel to bring an end to these illegal measures…
Israel should not be rewarded for its unlawful practices."

The Committee adds that Israel continues to pursue
"expansionist, colonial, and discriminating policies"
in the occupied Palestinian territories, including
land confiscation, home demolitions, settlement and
wall construction, Judaisation of Jerusalem, restrictions
on Palestinian movement, exploitation of Palestinian
water resources, assassinations and mass imprisonment.
The statement warns that in the West Bank, Israel
is establishing "an apartheid regime based on
transforming areas into isolated ghettos and cantons."

Earlier in June, Palestinian P M Salam Fayyad
sent a strongly worded letter to the EU opposing
any potential upgrade of EU-Israel relations
while Israel continues to expand settlements in the
West Bank and violates its commitments under the Road Map.

Israel is reportedly seeking to attain a status in the EU
similar to that of Switzerland, which is not an EU member
but benefits from a free trade agreement with the EU
and easy access for its citizens to EU countries.
As an interim measure, Israel wants to upgrade its
relations with the EU under the European Neighbourhood Policy
(ENP) framework, strengthening economic and institutional ties
and enabling Israelis to receive EU research funding.



******************************



UK MILITARY 'INFLUENCING' UNIVERSITIES.


The UK is the world's third biggest spender
on military research and development,
yet there is considerable secrecy surrounding
the growing influence of the military on the
research agenda in British universities,
according to a new report by a UK-based organisation.

Among the 16 universities investigated by
Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR)
are Oxford and Cambridge, and Imperial College
and University College in London.

Chris Langley, one of the report's authors, says:
"The creeping influence of the military establishment
is deeply disturbing... We encountered secrecy
and evasiveness while researching this report.
There must be transparency if public confidence
in science is to be maintained."

The report, entitled Behind Closed Doors, claims
that the average level of military funding of UK
universities is up to five times larger than
government figures suggest.

The most recent government figure for military
funding of British universities is £44m in 2004.

The report says that since 2002, new military
research groups that are supported by publicly-
funded research councils, military corporations
and the MoD have surfaced in many universities.

The UK is the world's third biggest spender on
military research and development, receiving $5bn
net expenditure from the MoD alone in 2005 to 2006.

Langley says the growing influence is reflective
of how universities in the UK are becoming increasingly commercialised.


"If you're undertaking research, and receiving
commercial funding for it, you're expected to
produce results which have a short-term economic goal.
Whereas if you're funded by a research group
which is not tied to an agenda then you're more
likely to be motivated by scholarship and interest."

Langley, an independent scientific consultant,
says research students today are "largely"
funded by commercial organisations, particularly
in the areas of science and engineering.

He says staff in universities worry about
the power of vested interests, especially large
corporations, in influencing the research agenda
and making it more "conformist".

Corporations known to develop military technology
and provide funding to UK universities include
BAE Systems, Boeing, GKN, General Dynamics,
Lockheed Martin, QinetiQ and Rolls Royce.

The rising involvement of such companies means
that high-technology, weapons-based approaches
are given priority over political or diplomatic methods, says Langley.

"The staff we spoke to were not prepared to go
public with this, they felt very uncomfortable," he says.

"Individual researchers wouldn't raise their
voices against this – they're caught between
the universities and their funders."

Universities deny the military is playing a
greater role in research agendas.

Hurrah for this report ! Psychology courses, for example,
at "red brick" universities throughout the UK,
for decades, have focussed on conformity studies,
with some interested specifically in torture and
even how to "break" a religiously motivated person.
Most universities in the UK have all faculties spied on.

Free country ? Not a glimmer !


******************************


IT COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE ?

Ethiopia spends 50 million dollars on armaments,
as US aid pours in to feed starving people...
that's a strange priority, but it couldn't happen
in Britain - could it !?!
As Brown fought for 42 days prison wthout charges
or trial, (and spends billions bombing Iraq
and Afghanistan,) we read that a rise in both child
and pensioner poverty has left Britain a more unequal
country than when Labour came to power in 1997.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says that
the prime minister will have to divert money
from "other areas" to have any chance of
hitting his 2010 target for halving child poverty.
Armaments like nuclear tipped missiles, couldn't be
one of those "other areas", could they?

David Phillips, researcher at the IFS: "We
estimate that it would need to spend a further
£2.8bn a year by 2010-11 to give itself a 50-50
chance of meeting its next child poverty target".

The IFS says inequality in Britain is now equal
to the highest level since figures were available in 1961.


*******************


SOMALIA SUFFERS AS "PEACE DEAL" SIGNED.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, former leader of
Somalia's Islamic Courts' Union, rejects the
new peace agreement between the country's
interim government and its main political rivals.
Aweys calls it "a trap" to derail the Somali resistance.

Although the Ethiopian-backed Somali government
and some members of the opposition Alliance for
the Liberation of Somalia (ALS) signed a
cessation of hostilities accord on Monday,
the deal faces criticism hours after it is signed.

Aweys: "We encourage the insurgents and the
Somali people not to be tired of combating the enemy.
I do not believe that the outcome of this conference
will have any impact on the resistance in Somalia.
The aim of the meeting was to derail the holy war in the country."

Najum Mushtaq, a Somalia analyst;
"There are two external factors that I think are
very critical; one is, during the last four and
five months we have had US air strikes in Somalia.
Although in one of them they have been able to
kill a so-called al Qaeda leader … there has been
a lot of collateral damage.
The Islamic insurgency in Somalia should be seen
to be directed against two enemies. The Ethiopian
occupiers [as the resistance sees them] and the
American war against terrorism.
On both cases this peace deal has little value."

Clashes between Muslim fighters and Somali-Ethiopian forces
killed at least 28 people over the weekend.
Aid workers say the violence has triggered a
humanitarian crisis which may be the worst in
Africa, with at least a million people displaced.



****************************************



YOUR MOVE, MR PRESIDENT.

Iran is being threatened by Bush - and we
all fret, because he IS crazy enough to do it.
What we've missed - and it was barely reported -
is a letter from U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr.,
chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on May 8th,
to George W. Bush, warning the President that
any attack on Iran without Congressional approval
will be grounds for impeachment.



*****************



BEHAVE . . . OR IT'S ONE STATE !

The head of the Palestinian Negotiations Unit, Ahmad Qurei',
says the Palestinian negotiating team totally reject Israel's decision
to initiate new construction in the Jerusalem settlements.
He describes the American stance on settlements as unfair,
the European position as hypocritical,
and the Arab posture as weak.

He says that if Israel wants to impose 'facts on the ground'
by force, "I will tell them that we spent 30 years
persuading Palestinians to accept a two-state solution,
and if we do not succeed in achieving it,
we will return to the idea of one state."



*******************


ALGERIA WAITS FOR EGYPT TO SHOW SOLIDARITY

Algeria expresses support for the proposed Palestinian unity talks,
and re-extends its offer to supply free fuel to the Gaza Strip.

The offer of support took place during a phone call
between deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
and Algerian Prime Minister Abdel Aziz Belkhadem.

The offer depends on Egypt’s cooperation in opening
the Rafah border crossing. Israel controls Gaza’s main
crossing point for liquid fuels, often forcing the crossing to close.



***********************


The US is trying to threaten the Iraqi government
into signing a military agreement by holding hostage
some 50 billion U.S. dollars of Iraq's money
in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

American negotiators are using the existence of
20 billion U.S. dollars in outstanding court
judgments against Iraq in the United States,
to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into
accepting the terms of the military deal
which is seen by many Iraqis as prolonging
the U.S. occupation indefinitely.

U.S. negotiators in talks with the Iraqi side
have suggested that if the UN mandate, under which
the money is held, lapses and is not replaced by
the new agreement, Iraq's foreign reserves,
currently protected by a U.S. presidential order
giving them immunity from judicial attachment,
would lose this immunity, and the cost to Iraq
would be the immediate loss of 20 billion U.S. dollars.



*********************



Iran and Syria sign a new defence agreement
as Hamas holds talks in Tehran, and Hezbollah
leader Nazrallah suggests;

"There are two dreams; a Lebanese dream and an American dream;
The Lebanese dream speaks about a calm and peaceful summer
and the American dream speaks about a hot summer.
Come and let us realize our dreams, and not
the dreams of our enemies."



****************


FULL WITHDRAWAL - OR SOD OFF !


A majority of the Iraqi parliament has written to Congress
rejecting a long-term security deal with Washington
if it is not linked to a requirement that U.S. forces leave.

Rep. William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat
and Iraq war opponent, was handed a letter by
Iraqi parliamentarians laying down conditions for
the security pact that the Bush administration seeks.

"The majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject
any military-security, economic, commercial,
agricultural, investment or political agreement
with the United States that is not linked to
clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying
American military forces to fully withdraw from
Iraq," the letter to leaders of Congress says.

The signatures represent just over half the
membership of Iraq's parliament, says Delahunt,
a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee chairman.

Iraqi lawmakers testified to Delahunt's panel on Wednesday
that talks on a long-term security pact
should be postponed until after troops are gone.

"What are the threats that require U.S. forces to be there?"
asked Nadeem Al-Jaberi, speaking through a translator.

"I would like to inform you, there are no threats on Iraq.
We are capable of solving our own problems."

A Sunni Iraqi lawmaker, Khalaf Al-Ulayyan;
"We prefer to delay until there is a
new administration in the United States."

So after all that violence, hatred and pain -
the U.S. ends up getting nothing !?!



****************************



"SMALL POCKETS OF BULLSHIT"

In 2006, former Defence Secretary John Reid
suggested operations in Afghanistan could be
completed within three years 'without firing one bullet'.

In 2007, between May and September, 29 British
men were killed in an almost continuous offensive.

In Iraq it took four years to reach 100 British casualties.
In two years, 95 men have died in Afghanistan.

Last summer, frontline troops in Helmand had a one in 36 chance
of not surviving a six-month tour of duty. During the Korean war it was one in 58;
In Vietnam, one in 46.

During 2007 British troops fired almost four million rounds.


**********



After months of dedicated pressure from peace campaigners,
Reed Elsevier has finally stopped organising arms trade fairs.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade argued long
that Reed's involvement in the arms trade was
incompatible with its position as the number-one
publisher of medical and science journals.

Reed drew particular criticism over its defence links
from its top title, the Lancet.

They've now sold the DSEi, ITEC and LAAD defence exhibitions
to Britain's largest independent exhibitions group,
Clarion Events, for an undisclosed sum.

Clarion Events' chief executive, Simon Kimble;
"The events we have acquired in the defence-and-security sector
are a valuable and profitable addition to our portfolio
and fit perfectly with our strategy for international expansion.

"Defence and security is a legitimate business like any other
and we will apply the same very high standards,
rigour, experience and skill to organising events
in this sector as we do in all of our others."



****************

World leaders have sent messages of support
to the new government in Nepal - except the US -
which continues to list the Maoists as a
foreign "terrorist" organisation.

The decisive win for Maoists in Nepal,
re-aligns Nepal, away from India and towards China.
Their manifesto calls for scrapping all major treaties,
especially those with New Delhi,
and stopping the recruitment of Gurkhas
into the British and Indian armies.



*************



UNASUR - the Union of South American Nations -
is formed - a regional version of the European Union.
Meetings of the country’s heads are to be annual,
and ministers’ meetings are to be quarterly.
The headquarter is to be in the capital of Ecuador, Quito.
Chile’s president Michelle Bachelet, is the first
president of the Union of South American Nations.
Lula da Silva; ‘South America will no longer be
a mere geographical concept. Beginning today
it is a political, economic and social reality,
with its own means of functioning’.



**************



BRITAIN SHOULD LEAD "BY EXAMPLE"

Amnesty International calls for Guantánamo Bay
to be shut by the end of the year.

Secretary general, Irene Khan, says she hopes
the next US president will announce its closure
on December the 10th - the 60th anniversary of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"It would be a great occasion for the new US president
to announce the closure of Guantánamo on that day," she says.

You can find Amnesty's annual report at;
http://thereport.amnesty.org/

The report renews criticism of the UK
for deporting refugees to unstable countries,
holding secret terror hearings and failing to
investigate state collusion in killings in N.Ireland.

She calls on Britain to "clean up its act"
and says world leaders "cannot be seen to
be leaders unless they do so by example".



***************



"CANNOT BE TOUCHED"

Sexual abuse of children by aid workers and peacekeepers
is rife and efforts to protect young people are inadequate,
says a report published this week.

The study by charity Save the Children UK
says there are "significant" levels of abuse,
much of it unreported and unless the silence ends,
attempts to stamp it out will "remain fundamentally flawed."

Accusations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers
around the world have increased in recent years
and the United Nations is investigating claims.

The report agrees that the U.N. and some non-governmental organizations
are stepping up efforts to address the problem,
but argues for a global watchdog to be established this year,
because so many "humanitarian" organizations
are now faced with
"an endemic failure to respond to reports of abuse"

The study finds a huge range of exploitation and abuse:
children trading sex for food, forced sex,
verbal sexual abuse, child prostitution,
child pornography, sexual slavery,
sexual assault and child trafficking.

U.N. peacekeepers are identified as the most likely perpetrators,
although a total of 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping
and security organizations were associated with
sexual abuse in just three countries.

"ALL humanitarian and peacekeeping agencies
working in emergency situations, including
Save the Children UK, must own up to the fact
that they are vulnerable to this problem
and tackle it head on," says Jasmine Whitbread,
chief executive of Save the Children UK.

The report says official U.N. statistics
underestimate the scale of abuse, because
much of the exploitation is not reported.

"Clearly there is a significant disparity
between the low levels of abuse cited in these statistics
and the high levels suggested in field investigations and other evidence."

Save the Children says there are many reasons
why abuse is not reported:
fear of losing material assistance,
threats of retribution, stigmatization,
negative economic impacts, lack of legal help,
resignation to abuse, lack of information about
how to report abuse and, critically,
lack of faith in a response.

Anecdotal evidence from ALL the groups studied points to
"an endemic failure to respond to reports of abuse".

"Many U.N. agencies and NGOs working here feel
they cannot be touched by anyone,"
reports one aid worker in the Ivory Coast.



**********************


ISRAEL STOPS WEST BANK FROM MOVING

Israel added a net 44 obstacles to Palestinian
movement in the West Bank since last September,
a new report from the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) shows.

The Israeli military removed 103 barriers, but
imposed another 144 checkpoints, roadblocks and
other obstacles, a net increase of 7%.

Despite pledges from Israeli leaders to ease
restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank,
there are now a total of 607 obstacles,
including staffed and unstaffed checkpoints,
earth mounds, gates, concrete roadblocks, walls,
trenches, and electric fences throughout the territory.

UN teams carried out a survey to evaluate a claim,
made by the Israeli government in April,
that 61 roadblocks had been removed.
The teams found that only 44 of the barriers were actually removed.
Six were still in place and 11 could not be located.
Of those that were removed, OCHA reported that
only five had significant impact on movement
and access in the West Bank. Nine were of
"minimal significance," and seventeen were
of "no significance."

Thirteen were "questionable in regard to
the circumstances of their removal."



************



SMALL, DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES "MOST PEACEFUL"

Iceland is the world's most peaceful country,
according to the Global Peace Index survey.

Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, Iceland's foreign minister;
"We are very pleased that the index confirms
the core values of a small democratic society,
which has never had a military and has effectively
practised peace for hundreds of years.
We can feel that other states also find this of importance
and it is in fact a driving force in our first-time candidacy
for a non-permanent seat on the UN security council."

Denmark and Norway come second and third,
followed by New Zealand and Japan.

France comes 36th, Britain 49th, and the US is 97th.
Iraq, Somalia and Sudan come last.

The survey warns that the world's militaries are growing,
as is the technical sophistication of armaments.

Steve Killelea, founder of the Global Peace Index;
"...it takes small steps by individual countries
for the world to make greater strides on the road to peace."



*****************


NEW LABOUR - NEW MILITARY BRITAIN !

A Tory who "defected" to New Labour, says in his report
- published now - that State school pupils
should be encouraged to sign up with the cadet corps, for military training.

Quentin Davies' review is also expected to recommend
a national armed forces day, which could become a public holiday.

Davies is also calling for a re-examination
of the way the military is portrayed in schools.

Part of the plans involve leading football clubs
being called on to host parades by troops.

Brown is behind these plans, and also wants to create
a British "Purple Heart" - the medal awarded
to American troops injured in battle

Brown is said to have been impressed at the way
the US celebrates its armed forces through homecoming parades,
appearances at major sporting events,
and regular mainstream television coverage.

Last year the head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt,
warned that a lack of public appreciation
for Britain's military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan
was in danger of "sapping" the willingness of troops to serve.

Currently there are about 60 cadet forces
in comprehensives in England and Wales,
and 200 in the grammar and independent sector.

The proposal to expand them, which would see pupils
who sign up given weapons training, is likely
to prove highly controversial.

In March teaching unions denounced schools-based cadet forces
as a "questionable recruiting tactic".



*************



President Bush, however happy he may be to strike Iran,
cannot act without Congressional approval,
and Congress is now moving against him.

In a major setback for President Bush’s war preparations,
with Republicans in Congress now wary of more confrontation,
the U.S. Senate has voted 97 to 1 to stop putting oil
in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the rest of this year.
The House has approved a similar bill by a vote of 385 to 25.
President Bush cannot veto these measures,
passed as they were, by overwhelming majorities.



*******************


Gaza's population has been reduced to a "subhuman existence",
according to a senior UN official.

John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for the UN Refugee and Works Agency;

"It is a disaster for everybody because it's
touching everybody in every aspect of their life,
from the moment you get up in the morning until
you go to bed at night. The way things have been
reduced here, there's a very sub-human existence
for the general population."

Israel has reduced the amount of fuel so much
that many cars run on cooking gas or vegetable oil
and many schools can now longer transport their pupils to class.

More than two-thirds of Gaza's water wells
rely on fuel-powered pumps, and crops are dying.

The World Bank says that poverty rates in Gaza
are now close to 67% and that economic growth
last year was zero.

Ging says the delivery of aid is
"inadequate for the basic needs of the population.
The definitions of a humanitarian crisis are rather obscene
when compared with just how people are having to
struggle to survive here at the moment.
For everybody here, they have a daily crisis in their life
to survive and that crisis is created by a policy
to close the Gaza Strip off from the outside world."

Gaza's crisis can be eased if the crossings are opened;
"The solution is simple: open the crossings," Ging says.

"The civilian population are not lost to civilisation.
They have not given in to violence as the only way.
They are actually struggling to protect themselves
against that and they are getting no support.
If this were understood - that Gaza is not lost to violence,
that Gaza is not hopeless rather that
the majority of people in Gaza are civilised -
then the whole equation would change.
People respond much more positively to help
than they do to force, coercion or violence."



*****************



USUK TRAINS AND FINANCES TERRORISTS

Iran arrested 12 people over a deadly mosque bombing
in April in the southern city of Shiraz,
who confessed to being trained and financed
by the United States and Britain.

Now, the U.S. Congress has voted - ILLEGALLY -
to MASSIVELY INCREASE terrorist activity in Iran.



**************


Carter says, the Palestinians in Gaza are being
“starved to death, receiving fewer calories per day
than people in the poorest parts of Africa.”

“Its an atrocity what is being perpetuated
as punishment on the people of Gaza.
It’s a crime … I think it is an abomination
that this continues to go on.”



*************************


Poll says: Bush most unpopular president EVER !

U.S. President George W. Bush's public disapproval rating
is higher than any other president's in American history,
according to a new poll.

The survey by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation
suggests that 71% of Americans disapprove of
how the president is handling his job.

"This is the first time that any president's
disapproval rating has cracked the 70% mark,"
says CNN polling director Keating Holland.

The previous record, 67%, was set by
Harry Truman in January 1952, and by Nixon in August 1974
... just before he resigned.



****************



HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH says,
that the USUK detention of Iraquis without trial is illegal,
because three years ago Bush "pushed" the UN Security Council
into passing a binding resolution.........
"that the US-led occupation of Iraq had ended in June 2004."

"And the end of occupation means that
international human rights standards apply -
judicial review, access to legal counsel
and family members, and a fair trial."

THAT MEANS, says HRW, "NO TORTURE - it's ILLEGAL" !



**********


THEY WOULDN'T LIE TO US ABOUT DEATHS - WOULD THEY?

The US military's toll in Iraq rises to 4,529.

Or does it ? We've grown so used to lies...
don't we believe the US would lie about casualty statistics?
Officially, 29,780 US troops have been wounded in Iraq.
Experts argue that these numbers are underestimates.

A new study released by the RAND Corporation concludes that;

“some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from
major depression or post traumatic stress
from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and 320,000 received brain injuries.”

An internal email from Gen. Michael J. Kussman,
undersecretary for health at the Veterans Administration,
to Ira Katz, head of mental health at the VA,
confirms a McClatchy Newspaper report
that 126 veterans per week commit suicide.
On that basis alone, more than 500 deaths
could be added to reported fatalities each month.



******************



Twentythree UK soldiers are reported killed in
south Afghanistan ...in the past nine weeks.



***************



IRAN UPS THE ANTE AS WAR GROWS "MORE LIKELY".

Iran has submitted a formal request for membership
of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The Euro-Asian alliance, a counterweight to NATO,
includes China, Russia and the Central Asian states of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.

Although China and Russia oppose sanctions against Tehran
they are wary of admitting Iran as a full member of the SCO.

Ass't Sec. of State for S. and Central Asian Affairs,
Richard Boucher, says if the SCO moves in the direction of
"becoming a Warsaw Pact", the U.S. will "take action".

Chinese analysts warn that, as containment
of Iran proves increasingly futile, the risk
of military conflict is growing.

"The prospect of a US military strike against Iran is increasing,
partly caused by the serious misjudgement
of each other’s strategies," argues GaoZugui,
of the journal Peace And Development.

"Even if Washington is to fully pursue the containment policy,
it may still resort to a military strike
to debilitate Tehran’s military power."



***********


Japan's dispatch of air force troops to Iraq
DOES breach the country's pacifist constitution,
a Japanese court says, but the government says
illegality will not stop the current dispatch.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura;
"We will consult.... but this will not influence
the current activities of the air force in any way."

Japan seems to have learnt well, from its conquerors !!!



*********!!!!!!!!!!************


Hamas praises a decision by Mauritania
to reconsider diplomatic relations with Israel.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum calls the move
"courageous," and "a step in the right direction."
Barhoum says he hopes Mauritania, and all Arab and Islamic nations,
will follow through and sever relations with Israel completely.

Barhoum calls for the creation of an Arab-Islamic coalition
with the power to support the Palestinian cause
against a US axis that supports Israel and
its crimes against the Palestinian people.

Mauritania, along with Egypt and Jordan,
are the only members of the Arab league
that normalized relations with Israel.
Mauritania "recognized" Israel in 1999.



**************



UK GOVERNMENT "RACIST, SPITEFUL, and INSANE"?

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, a non-elected body,
has given the British government what it wants;
the right to deport innocent civilians fleeing war zones.

The UN accuses "our" government of holding
a 'sword of Damocles' over the heads of Iraqi refugees.

The Refugee Legal Centre has launched
an urgent appeal against the ruling.

'If we didn't appeal the tribunal's decision,
the government would have a free hand to
forcibly remove hundreds of Iraqi civilians to Baghdad,'
says Caroline Slocock, chief executive of the legal centre.

"Our" (racist, spitefully insane) government's response?

"We are pleased that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
has agreed with our view and found that conditions
in Iraq are such that an ordinary individual Iraqi civilian
is not at serious risk from indiscriminate violence,"
a spokesperson for the Home Office says.

'We will continue to consider every asylum and
human rights claim on its individual merits in
accordance with our international obligations.
We will ensure that we continue to monitor the
situation in Iraq carefully so that our asylum
and human rights decisions continue to reflect
the latest available information."

The government argues that there is no
"internal armed conflict" in Iraq.
Home Office lawyers successfully argued
the risks to a refugee in a "test case"
- a man known as KH - are "not sufficient"
for him to be granted protection.

The tribunal ruling:
"Neither civilians in Iraq generally,
nor civilians even in provinces and cities
worst affected by the armed conflict,
can show they face a "serious and individual threat"
to their "life or person"... merely by virtue
of being civilians."

Jacqueline Parlevliet, UN High Commission for Refugees;
"We strongly advise against the return of anyone to central or southern Iraq.
As things now stand a sword of Damocles
hangs over the head of every Iraqi in the UK.
The way this ruling has been phrased means their protection needs
are no longer recognised by the Home Office."

The European Council for Refugees and Exiles
notes that 13% of Iraqis' asylum claims
were approved in the first instance in the UK last year,
compared with 82% in Sweden and 85% in Germany.

Last year just 500 Iraqis were allowed to remain in the UK.

More than two million people have fled Iraq since 2003.


****************


Bush says "So what!" to news reports that
his officials approved harsh interrogation.
"Interrogating terrorists" is reason enough, he insists.
Not in law, it isn't, Mr Bush !

Bush administration officials from Cheney on down
agreed to using harsh interrogation techniques
after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official confirms details.
The intelligence official speaks on condition of anonymity.

Between 2002 and 2003, the Justice Department issued several memos
that justified using the interrogation tactics,
including ones that critics call torture.

"If you looked at the timing of the meetings
and the memos you'd see a correlation,"
the former intelligence official says.
Those who attended the dozens of meetings agreed that
"there'd need to be a legal opinion on
the legality of these tactics"
before using them on al-Qaida detainees,
the former official says.

Attending the sessions were Cheney,
exBush aides, Attorney General John Ashcroft,
Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet,
and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy;
"Who would have thought that in the USA in the 21st century,
the top officials of the executive branch
would routinely gather in the White House
to approve torture?"
"Long after President Bush has left office,
our country will continue to pay the price
for his administration's renegade repudiation
of the rule of law and fundamental human rights."

ACLU legislative director Caroline Fredrickson;
"With each new revelation, it is beginning
to look like the torture operation was managed
and directed out of the White House.
This is what we suspected all along."

Cheney and top national security officials
are described as "deeply immersed" in developing
the CIA's interrogation program during months of
discussions over which methods to use and when.

At times, CIA officers would demonstrate methods,
or at least detail how they worked,
to make sure the small group of "principals"
fully understood what al-Qaida detainees would undergo.
The principals eventually authorized physical abuse
such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding.
The group then asked the Justice Department
to examine whether using the interrogation methods
would break domestic or international laws.

"No one at the agency wanted to operate under
a notion of winks and nods and assumptions,"
says a second former senior intelligence official.
"People wanted to be assured that everything
that was conducted was understood and approved
by the folks in the chain of command."

The Office of Legal Counsel issued at least
two opinions on interrogation methods;
the second, a still-secret memo, in October 2001.
The "Justice" Department refuses to release it,
citing attorney-client privilege.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to outline it
on Thursday at a Senate panel where Democrats
described it as a "torture memo."

An ABC News report portrays ONE MAN, Ashcroft,
as troubled by the discussions:

"Why are we talking about this in the White House?"
ABC quotes Ashcroft as saying;
"History will not judge this kindly."



**************


The number of people who want to bring the troops home,
has risen sharply in the US, among both men and women.
Fifty-nine percent of men want the troops home within a year,
up four points from two weeks ago,
and sixty-nine percent of women want the same,
up seven points from two weeks ago.

This is the highest level recorded so far, by the pollsters.



***************


JOIN THE NAVY - AND SEE IRAQ !

America IS using the DRAFT... by the back door.
6,000 US AIR FORCE personnel are due in Iraq this coming year.
Similar numbers of sailors are being ordered to Iraq.
Back-door draft? The US military must be desperate.



***************************


The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)
approves plans for a new law
enabling Palestinians to try Israeli war criminals.
The PLC's legal committee is now drafting the bill.

Lawmakers, lawyers, international law experts,
and humanitarian activists all took part in the discussions.


******************


And just to cheer you up.... !

here's the latest Harris Poll taken in Europe;
Mr. Bush's "approval" rating in five representative countries:

Italy: 8%
UK: 7%
Spain: 7%
Germany: 5%
France: 3%.


****************


The US spends more money on its military NOW
than it did during the war against Hitler or the Cold War.

The US Defense Department "requests" $515.4 billion for 2009.
This sum - a 5% increase over 2008 -
EXCLUDES the war costs of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US alone accounts for 50% of world military spending,
which is historically unprecedented.
Most countries don't come anywhere near close.

The second country, the United Kingdom,
spends $55 billion, followed by France ($45 billion),
Japan ($41 billion), and Germany ($35 billion).

China spends $35 billion, and Russia, $24 billion.
Iran...? $6.6 billion.


************



THE death rate of Welsh soldiers in Iraq
is second only to US losses, figures reveal.

As the US casualty figure passes 4,000,
Plaid Cymru reveals statistics showing that
more Welsh soldiers have died in Iraq
as a proportion of the population
than any other coalition country, except the US.

13 Welsh troops have been killed – a ratio of
one death per 231,123 people.
Only the US has a higher ratio - with one death for every 78,076 people.

The statistics are revealed as the House of Commons
refuses an inquiry into the war.

Adam Price, MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr;
"Every casualty in this war is a tragedy
regardless of where they come from.
However, it is saddening to see that Wales –
as in so many other conflicts in the past –
is suffering a military casualty rate
disproportionate to our population.

For me this is one more reason for a
proper inquiry into this senseless, endless war.

We need to know why we were dragged into
this illegal and immoral conflict,
why the occupation has been so badly handled
and why Welsh service personnel have suffered in such numbers.

Our brave servicemen and women have served
with great bravery and distinction, but
have been let down by a Labour Government
who sent them, in many cases sadly, to their deaths.

Tony Blair took this fatal decision together with Gordon Brown
who, if he has any integrity on this issue,
should stop prevaricating over an inquiry
and agree to one immediately."



************


UK Teachers vote to oppose "MISLEADING"
military recruitment in schools.

The NUT conference says that ONLY when
recruiting materials give a true picture of war
will they welcome them into schools.

Executive member Martin Reed says young people
should have the means to make an informed choice.
He gives the example of school careers service Connexions
which warns on its website that young people
should not make this decision lightly.
It warns that war can be dangerous and that
there are humanitarian casualties, he says.

The NUT is now convening a meeting
of teachers, educationalists and others
to study the issue.

Teachers who oppose recruitment based on "misleading propaganda"
will - from now on - have union support.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR FURTHER ARTICLE..)



******************



If people don't press Bush and Brown
for peace - through courageous ACTION -
we're all looking at a Third World War ...

Happy with that? Then just carry on doing what you're doing.



*************


Demonstration report:
Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan,
Don't attack Iran -
40,000 attend mass protest

A week Saturday demonstrators marched to show
the British people's opposition to war.
Speakers expressed concerns about British troops in Afghanistan,
the danger of an attack on Iran and
the continuing tragedy in Gaza.

Click BELOW if you'd like to see a video of the demo;