Roger Waters Pink Floyd co-founder dropped by BMG over Israel comments
RogerWatersPinkFloydco-founderdroppedbyBMGoverIsraelcomments
Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters calls for Julian Assange's release
https://www.inltv.co.uk/index.php/julianassange-travestyofjustice
- Well Funded Private Group Supported by Donald Trump and other Millionaires and Billionaires Are Preparing A Private Prosecution Against USA President Joe Biden, USA Secretary Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin for Various War Crimes Which Includes Conspiracy to Murder and injure over 70,000 innocent Palestinian Women and Children in Gaza and Westbank In Palestine
Friday 21 February 2020 18:22, UK
Julian Assange compared the spread of cyber weapons to the global arms trade
iPhones, iPads, Android devices and Microsoft Windows systems were also allegedly targeted by spies, claims WikiLeaks.
https://www.inltv.co.uk/index.php/julianassange-travestyofjustice
Wikileaks: Julian Assange given permission to marry partner in prison
Julian Assange has been granted permission to marry his partner Stella Morris in Belmarsh prison, the BBC has been told.
John Waters the Founder of the Pink Floyd Rock Band says "Free Assange and Stop The Genocide in Gaza.."
John Waters, the Founder of the famous Pink Floyd Rock Band who promotes His Stop The Genocide and Free the Independent Journalist Julian Assange is a Political Prisoner, who is in Prison without any convictions ... just just for exposing CIA and USA War Crimes Messages he states at his Music Concerts says during an Al Jazeera Interview ...
" .... the Days of the Genocide Zionist Control Israel and the Manipulation of the Real Decent Jewish Population in Israel are over....."
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“Tear down this Israeli wall”
Waters pens an op-ed for the Guardian announcing that he is joining the BDS Movement. The movement encourages musicians to boycott performing in Israel. Many fellow musicians join the movement and Waters is largely praised for his piece.
Roger Waters Pink Founder Cmpares Israel to Nazi Germany
In a live conversation with BDS movement founder Omar Barghouti, Waters accuses Israel of using propaganda akin to the Nazi party’s Joseph Goebbels, stating: “The thing about propaganda – again, it’s not hard to go back to Goebbels or the 1930s. You understand the tactic is to tell the big lie as often as possible over and over and over and over again. And people believe it.”
Waters calls Sheldon Adelson the Jewish “puppet master” of the American government
Waters makes the conspiratorial claim that Republican Party donor, Sheldon Adelson is the “puppet master” controlling American politics. He says that Adelson believes that “only Jewish people are completely human … I’m not saying Jewish people believe this. I am saying that he does, and he is pulling the strings.”
Waters voices a conspiracy on the death of George Floyd
In the same interview with the Middle East Media Research Institute, he says that George Floyd was killed using Israeli military techniques. He explained that the Americans utilise the technique “to murder the blacks because they have seen how efficient the Israelis have been at murdering Palestinians in the occupied territories by using those techniques.” He says that “the Israelis are proud” of the killing.
Roger Waters denies being an antisemite
In the same interview, Waters criticises Israel and espouse that it is linked to other political unrest. He says that Jews in the west must take some responsibility because “they pay for everything.” He then says: “I’m absolutely not antisemitic, absolutely not. That hasn’t stopped all the assholes trying to smear me with being an antisemite.”
Roger Waters responds to cancelled German concerts with legal action
Following the cancellation of concerts in Frankfurt and Munich, Waters has looked to legally overturn the decisions. A press release from Mark Fenwick Management “defends freedom of speech and takes legal action against proposed concert cancellations”. The statement adds: “These actions are unconstitutional, without justification, and based upon the false accusation that Roger Waters is antisemitic, which he is not.”
He is looking to overturn the “politically motivated” and “unjustifiable decision to ensure that his fundamental human right of freedom of speech is protected.”
Eric Clapton, Brian Eno and more speak out in support of overturning Waters’ cancelled concerts
American comedian and political pundit Katie Halper has launches a petition supporting Waters which has been signed by musicians including Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, and Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. Currently, the petition has over 10,000 signatures. The petition claims: “Waters’ criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is part of his long-term advocacy on behalf of human rights across the globe. Waters believes ‘that all our brothers and sisters, all over the world irrespective of the colour of their skin or the depth of their pockets deserve equal human rights under the law’.”
Roger Waters reiterates “I am not an antisemite”
In an interview with Meron Mendel, the director of the Anne Frank Educational Centre, for the German newspaper Der Spiegel, Waters expressed surprise regarding the cancellation of his concerts and said, “I am not an anti-Semite. I have never been an anti-Semite and I will never be one. I have stressed that on many occasions. It is bizarre that my career should now be attacked on the basis of allegations made by the Israel lobby.”
He added: “[Israel] is a state in which a certain group, the Jewish people, have supremacy, and Jewish citizens enjoy rights that are denied to their fellow citizens. The government says so openly.”
Roger Waters releases statement deny accusations and vows to continue fighting “fascism”
He has now countered the latest claims of anti-semitism by stating: “My recent performance in Berlin has attracted bad faith attacks from those who want to smear and silence me because they disagree with my political views and moral principles.”
Adding that the Nazi-like character he recently portrayed in concert “has been a feature of my shows Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ in 1980.” He concluded: “Regardless of the consequences of the attacks against me, I will continue to condemn injustice and all those who perpetrate it.”
The full story of Roger Waters' antisemitism controversy (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
Suez Canal annual revenue hits record $9.4 billion, chairman says | Reuters
Suez Canal annual revenue hits record $9.4 billion, chairman says
Reporting by Ahmed Elimam and Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Alison Williams and Conor Humphries
How is the Proposed Ben Gurion Canal Tied to Israel's Gaza Invasion? - CounterPunch.org
FEBRUARY 16, 2024
How is the Proposed Ben Gurion Canal Tied to Israel’s Gaza Invasion?
The proposed Ben Gurion Canal would create an alternative to the Suez Canal. Its proximity to Gaza has raised questions about whether it is one of the motivations for the Israeli invasion. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
In the past several years, interest has revived in the Ben Gurion Canal, a proposed alternative to the Suez Canal named after Israel’s founding father running through Israel close to Gaza. Creating an incentive for removal of Palestinians from Gaza, particularly the north end, it has raised suspicions that Israel had foreknowledge of Hamas’ October 7 attacks and let them happen.
It has now been documented that Israel received multiple warnings something was about to occur. The New York Times reported that Israeli officials obtained detailed knowledge of attack plans a year before. (Link not paywalled.) Egyptian intelligence made repeated warnings as October 7 approached that a major event was about to take place.
Whether or not these facts offer definitive proof that elements of Israel’s government knew something was on the way, the new interest in creating an alternative to one of the world’s most important east-west transit points has raised questions. As the accompanying map shows, the Mediterranean end of the canal would run close to the northern boundary of Gaza. Obviously, a situation where shipping was subject to rocket attacks would make that untenable, as Houthi attacks at the southern entrance of the Red Sea have proved.
To obtain the investment capital necessary to build the canal, a secure situation would have to be established. The only options for that would be a peace settlement with the Palestinians, or their removal. An Israeli government dead set against the first option would have to exercise the second.
The concept of building a transoceanic canal through Israel dates to 1963, when the U.S. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory developed a scenario that would have used nuclear explosions to dig the canal. The classified document was not made public until 1993. That was part of a particular insanity of the time when both the U.S. and Soviet Union considered using nukes in massive excavation projects. The U.S. version was Operation Plowshare.
The idea for a new canal had been spurred by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956, taking it over from British and French interests. That resulted in a war involving both those countries and Israel against Egypt. Intervention by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower forced them to concede, but the canal was blocked to Israeli traffic for a year.
The Ben Gurion Canal concept went into abeyance for decades due to concern about radioactive releases and Arab opposition. But new prospects for cooperation between Arab nations and Israel emerged with the Abraham Accords under the Trump Administration, which saw the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates. Almost immediately after normalization in 2020, a deal was made to ship UAE oil via a pipeline from Eliat on an arm of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, but it was later blocked by Israeli environmental authorities based on concerns about oil spills.
At the September 2023 G20 meeting shortly before the Hamas attack, the India-Middle East Corridor was announced. It would create a transportation link from India to Europe across the Arabian Peninsula via Dubai in the UAE to the Israeli port of Haifa. In December 2023, even after Israel launched its invasion of Gaza, UAE and Israeli interests made a deal to create a land bridge between Dubai and Haifa.
Suez blockage leads to announcement
With the Abraham Accords in the background, an event in 2021 brought new attention to the Ben Gurion Canal, this time excavated by more conventional means. In March of that year, a massive container ship suffered a steering malfunction and grounded in the Suez Canal, shutting off traffic. The Ever Given blockage raised concerns about how this vital artery of global shipping could become a choke point. (See: Suez Crisis Highlights Fragility of Globalization.)
In April Israel announced it would begin construction of a dual-channel canal that could handle 2-way traffic in June. At 50 meters deep, 10 more than the Suez, and 200 wide, it would be capable of accommodating the world’s biggest ships, an advantage over the more limited Suez Canal. Unlike Suez with its sandy shores, rock walls would reduce maintenance requirements to a minimum. Its 181 miles in length would exceed Suez by about one-third. Around 300,000 workers would be needed to complete the project, with a wide range of estimated costs from $16 billion to $55 billion. Israel would expect to earn around $6 billion annually in transit fees, deeply cutting in Egypt’s revenues, which reached a record $9.4 billion in fiscal year 2022-23.
Despite the announcement, construction did not start. “Many analysts interpret the current Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip as something that many Israeli politicians have been waiting for in order to revive an old project,” the Eurasia Review reports. “Although it was not the original idea, according to the wishes of some Israeli politicians, the last port of the canal could be in Gaza. If Gaza were to be razed to the ground and the Palestinians displaced, a scenario that is happening this fall, it would help planners cut costs and shorten the route of the canal by diverting it into the Gaza Strip.”
The new focus on the Ben Gurion Canal coincides with a revival of interest in another Gaza-related project, the exploitation of gas reserves off the Gaza Coast. This was detailed in a recent post. The Gaza Marine field was first discovered in 1999, but proposals to tap it were blocked for many years by Israel. Then in March 2021 the Palestinian Investment Fund, a branch of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the Egyptian government signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing the field. But Hamas representatives raised objections.
On June 18 2023, a little under 4 months before the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to move forward on development in conjunction with the PA and Egypt. It had been reported that secret talks on development took place between Israel and the PA the prior month.
The PA is widely seen as complicit in Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and is a political rival to Hamas. Striking a deal to exploit Gaza Marine would further buy off the PA and strengthen it vis-à-vis Hamas. As with the revival of the canal proposal, this has also stirred suspicions that Israeli authorities deliberately ignored warnings about the October 7 Hamas attack. For development would entail getting Hamas out of the way in Gaza. Hamas would not agree to drilling unless it received a share of the earnings, something unacceptable to Israel.
Providing Israel with global shipping leverage
The Ben Gurion Canal would provide Israel with leverage over one of the world’s most important shipping points. Around 22,000 ships transited the Suez Canal in 2022, representing 12% of world trade. It is a crucial artery for shipments of manufactured goods, grain and fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency reports, “About 5% of the world’s crude oil, 10% of oil products and 8% of LNG seaborne flows transit the canal.” Though the flow from east to west is still important, increasingly fossil products move from the Atlantic basin to feed Asia’s growing economies.
Suez was closed to Israel from 1948-50 during and immediately after the first Arab-Israeli War and then again in 1956-57 as an outcome of the second conflict. After the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula up to the canal, it was closed to all traffic until a 1975 settlement when Israel pulled back. Since the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, traffic has remained unrestricted.
But the 2021 closure raised concerns by the U.S. military, for which Suez remains a vital transit point. As well, the increasing alignment of Egypt with Russia and China through its new membership in BRICS and participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative gives pause to the U.S. national security establishment. All this would provide motivation to Israel’s closest ally to see an alternative waterway created.
Did revived interest in the Ben Gurion Canal cause Israeli authorities to look the other way when they had clear warnings of a Hamas attack? When analyzing the forensics of a case, one looks at means, motive and opportunity. Between the new focus on the canal as well as offshore gas reserves that both date to around 2021, Israel clearly had motives to clear Gaza, or a large part of it, of its Palestinian population, even beyond the drive-by rightist elements to create an exclusive Jewish state throughout historic Palestine. With its military power, it had the means. The Hamas attacks of October 7 gave it the opportunity.
The actions since fortify the case. With the vast destruction of Gaza beyond any rational necessity to fight Hamas, making the strip virtually uninhabitable, it is hard to argue the goal isn’t expulsion of the population. Taken in the context of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ordering a plan to “thin” Gaza’s population “to a minimum,” as reported in Israeli media, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s calls to depopulate Gaza, the intent seems clear. Underscoring the point was Netanyahu’s display of a map of “the new Middle East” that erased Palestine and showed an Israel “from the river to the sea” when he addressed the U.N. two weeks before October 7.
It is unlikely we will ever know for sure. But the prospect of occupying a key point in global shipping, with all the leverage and money that comes with that, provides at least reasonable grounds for suspicion that Israeli officials indeed had foreknowledge of October 7 and allowed the attacks to happen. It would only be one factor playing into a general desire for an ethnically cleansed region “from the river to the sea,” but a powerful factor nonetheless.
Donate to UNRWA
The United States and other countries have opted to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on the grounds that 12 named and one unnamed employee of its 13,000 participated in the October 7 attacks. The 12 were immediately fired. But, as Responsible Statecraft reported, “ . . . while the Israelis make a number of claims and accusations that they say are based on intelligence and other source data, the document itself contains no direct evidence that these 12 identified UNRWA employees participated in or assisted the Oct. 7 attack.”
The Israeli report came immediately after another U.N. arm, the International Court of Justice, ruled there is a case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and ordered it to take measures to prevent it. The report and subsequent funding are widely seen as a way to divert attention from the ruling and discredit the U.N. in general.
Defunding the UNRWA undermines the prime agency bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza and intensifies the now widespread starvation of the population. But just because the U.S. and other nations have cut off funding doesn’t mean you have to. You can make a direct donation to UNRWA here. Please do.
This article first appeared in the Raven.
There is No Place for the Palestinians of Gaza to Go - CounterPunch.org
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City.
Emad Moussa 31 Oct, 2023
Israel’s declared objective in its merciless onslaught on Gaza is to root out Hamas. Realists understand that such objectives, if at all real, may not be attainable. What is real is the deliberate mass murder of innocent civilians, live for the world to see.
The brutality of Israel’s incessant bombardment of Gaza, which has already killed more than 8,500 Palestinians including over 3,500 children and shows no signs of abating, does not merely stem from an Israeli primal desire for revenge for Hamas’s 7th October attack, which has thus far exceeded all reasonable boundaries to bloodlust hysteria.
Embedded in it is also the desire to punish the Palestinian people so as to drive a wedge between them and the resistance groups.
The people, however, know too well that the mass murder is less about divide-and-conquer and more of a prelude to ethnic cleansing similar to the 1948 Nakba, when 750,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes in the wake of Israel’s inception.
"It is collectively understood that once Palestinians have crossed into Egypt for safety, the 'temporary stay' will turn into a permanent displacement, a second Nakba"
“Go South of Wadi Gaza,” was the Israeli order three days after the airstrikes had commenced.
Israel justified the ‘evacuation order’ on the grounds of ‘people’s safety’. Simultaneously, Israel killed hundreds of civilians in Gaza and has imposed a full blockade, cutting off water, electricity, and fuel and preventing the flow of food and medical supplies to the local residents. This includes the areas where people were ordered to evacuate to.
Soon after that came the Israeli calls for Gazans to find relief in the Egyptian Sinai Desert. Former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Al Jazeera that people in Gaza should relocate to the Sinai, to live in temporary tent cities until the onslaught has come to an end.
For Gazans - roughly 70% of whom are the descendants of refugees expelled from historical Palestine in 1948 - that has ignited deep existential concerns, but also triggered a defiant posture.
“Heaven is much closer to us than Sinai,” has now become a motto for many in the Strip.
It is collectively understood that once Palestinians have crossed into Egypt for safety, the ‘temporary stay’ will turn into a permanent displacement, a second Nakba.
“We have seen this movie before,” as Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef sarcastically described it.
Egypt has said emphatically, often angrily, that the step would be unacceptable and has the potential not only to liquidate the Palestine cause but also to undermine Egypt’s national security.
This is, reportedly, despite mounting Western pressures on Cairo coupled with economic incentives, allegedly with promises to knock down Egypt's national debt, should the Egyptians agree to resettle Gazans in the Sinai Desert.
Cairo’s refusal to open the Rafah Crossing with Gaza (except for humanitarian aid) and the redeployment of the Egyptian army in the region is meant to prevent such a catastrophic scenario. Palestinians understand that well.
Against the Palestinian and Egyptian stubbornness, Israel’s technique seems to have shifted from blunt calls for transfer to practical liquidation of the population by blanket bombing them into leaving and via threats to deem anyone who remains a ‘terror target.’
Hundreds of thousands have left Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and Gaza City to seek safety in the south. Many remained, either in defiance or because they lacked other alternatives.
But what has been happening since the evacuation order has proven that Israel’s safety pretext is brazenly false. A mass expulsion of Palestinians in Gaza is what occupies the minds in Tel Aviv.
Israel proceeded to bomb the convoys of evacuees heading south and intensify its massacres across the Southern part of the Gaza Strip where people took refuge.
“It is a trap to concentrate as many people as they could in one area so the killing would be quicker and more economically efficient for Israel,” my friend in the city of Khan Younis told me.
"The plans to push Gaza residents into the Sinai have been on Israel’s agendas for decades, well before the creation of Hamas in 1987"
Did not the Third Reich in part invent the gas chambers to economically and efficiently murder Jews in masses, to execute the Final Solution?
Holocaust survivors and genocide scholars have warned of Israel’s actions. Israel’s Final Solution did not typically require gas chambers but a long-term strategy of slow liquidation of the Palestinian population.
However, the current unapologetic calls for transfer are an opportunistic shift using the Hamas attack as a strong excuse. In fact, this is the very non-contextual scenario that several Western media outlets have embraced, and in which some Western governments are accomplices.
The plans to push Gaza residents into the Sinai have been on Israel’s agendas for decades, well before the creation of Hamas in 1987, the PLO in 1964, and the formation of meaningful resistance to Israel’s occupation shortly after the 1948 Nakba.
The first known attempt was in 1956 during the Suez Crisis. Israel then occupied the Gaza Strip and Sinai for several months.
Ben Gurion wanted to annex Gaza, and for that to work, to substantiate Israel’s ‘ethnic purity,’ Gaza’s population was set to be transferred to Sinai and beyond. Because the occupation was short-lived - thanks to international pressures - and Palestinians refused to leave, the plan failed.
Around the time of the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, IDF Major General Giora Eiland - who served as the head of the Israeli National Security Council between 2004 and 2006 - suggested a plan to transfer Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai.
The ‘Eiland Plan’ proposed that Egypt would give up territory nearly five times the size of Gaza for Palestinians, and in return, Cairo would be compensated with land in the southeast of the Negev Desert.
In 2017, former Egyptian President, Mubarak, claimed that he rejected similar offers by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010 to resettle Gaza’s Palestinians in the Sinai as part of a land swap between Israel and Egypt.
On October 24, Israeli Intelligence Minister, Gila Gamliel, leaked a document detailing a post-war plan that entails transferring Palestinians to Sinai.
The document includes three steps: establishing tent cities in Sinai, creating humanitarian corridors, and building cities in North Sinai for the Gaza refugees. A buffer zone in Egypt extending several kilometres south of the Israeli border would be created to prevent Palestinians from returning.
Defenceless Palestinians in Gaza understand that their only option to thwart another Nakba is steadfastness and perseverance in the face of Israel’s massacres and the destruction of their basic means of survival. So far, locals have not headed to the Rafah Crossing with Egypt.
Palestinians and their allies understand that a successful Gaza transfer will encourage Israel to escalate in the West Bank to drive hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into Jordan.
"Defenceless Palestinians in Gaza understand that their only option to thwart another Nakba is steadfastness and perseverance in the face of Israel’s massacres and the destruction of their basic means of survival"
For the Jordanians, the scenario is very real, so much so that Jordan’s Foreign Minister Khaled al-Safadi warned of a regional conflict should such a scenario take place.
A third step will most certainly be an Israeli internal ‘cleansing’ starting by stripping Israeli-Palestinians, nearly 20% of Israel’s population, of citizenship and forcibly transferring them to Jordan and Lebanon.
After all, eliminating the Palestinian demographic reality to achieve Jewish purity and creating territorial depth for strategic and security purposes have been the optimal objective of the Zionist scheme in Palestine.
That is a recipe for regional upheaval that could develop into a full-blown regional war. We know many parties, states and non-state actors, are preparing for that scenario now as we speak. It is no longer speculation.
Dr Emad Moussa is a Palestinian-British researcher and writer specialising in the political psychology of intergroup and conflict dynamics, focusing on MENA with a special interest in Israel/Palestine. He has a background in human rights and journalism, and is currently a frequent contributor to multiple academic and media outlets, in addition to being a consultant for a US-based th
ink tank.
Follow him on Twitter: @emadmoussa
Have questions or comments? Email us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.
iPhones, iPads, Android devices and Microsoft Windows systems were also allegedly targeted by spies, claims WikiLeaks.
By Adam Parris-Long and Andy Hayes, News Reporters
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/cia-cyber-documents-published-by-wikileaks-10793709
MI5 and the CIA colluded to develop viruses to turn Samsung smart TVs into household bugs, according to "leaked" intelligence documents published by WikiLeaks.
The documents - said to have come from the CIA's Centre for Cyber Intelligence - allegedly show that a CIA branch worked with MI5 on a project to "infest smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones".
The so-called "weeping angel" programme would trick users into thinking their TV was off when it was actually on, it is claimed.
WikiLeaks says the documents show smart TVs were then used as a bug "recording conversations in the room and sending them over the internet to a covert CIA server".
It is claimed a different CIA unit produced malware to "infest, control and exfiltrate" data from iPhones and iPads, while a similar team is said to target Google's Android operating system - allowing agents to "bypass" the encryption of messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
:: What is in WikiLeaks' 'Vault 7' release of 'CIA' documents?
WikiLeaks adds that the US intelligence agency "runs a very substantial effort to infect and control Microsoft Windows users with its malware".
Meanwhile, it is also alleged the CIA looked into "infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks", allowing it to "engage in nearly undetectable assassinations".
The CIA said it would not comment "on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents".
WikiLeaks says it obtained the "Vault 7" collection of 8,761 documents and files after they were circulated among former US government hackers and contractors "in an unauthorised manner".
It added that "Vault 7" is the largest intelligence leak in the CIA's history which shows the "scope and direction" of the agency's "global covert hacking programme".
In a statement, WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange described the spread of cyber weapons as an "extreme risk".
He said: "Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such 'weapons', which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade."
WikiLeaks and its allies have embarrassed Washington before.
Previous releases of classified material have included hundreds of thousands of documents from the Pentagon and the State Department.
WikiLeaks describes its latest release of files allegedly obtained from the CIA as the largest ever publication of confidential documents in the agency's history.
But what is in it? Here is a quick digest of the documents according to the website's report.
Disclaimer: Although WikiLeaks has proven to provide legitimate resources, the latest "leak" has not yet been confirmed to be true by US security services or other organisations involved.
Equally, the claimed provenance of the "leaks" coming from within the CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia, may be bogus. Russian intelligence have form for feeding WikiLeaks data.
WikiLeaks has called the release "Vault 7", "Part 1", and "Year Zero" - which implies it is planning on releasing further information. In their words the "leak" is a "substantial collection of material about CIA activities obtained by Wikileaks".
In total, it contains 8,761 documents and files which allegedly detail CIA hacking practices between 2013 and 2016.
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http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian resistance group says.
Damascus-based Hamas media official, Izzat al-Rishq has told Press TV that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed by Israeli agents on January 20th.
According to one of his brothers, Mabhuh was killed by electric shock after an electrical appliance was held to his head.
"The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the (United Arab) Emirates show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head," Fayed al-Mabhuh told AFP.
"Material was sent to a Paris laboratory which confirmed he was killed by electric shock," he added.
Al-Mabhouh was a founder of the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Al-Rishq warned that Israeli will pay dearly for the murder at a due time.
He further pointed out that Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, was assassinated a day after he arrived in Dubai.
Hamas can not offer more information at present about how he was assassinated, Rishq concluded.
Hamas says the burial ceremony will be held in Damascus on Friday.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Friday Tel Aviv's defiance to international calls to freeze the illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"We are continuing to build [settlements]," Netanyahu said just after he planted a tree in Ariel — the fourth largest settlement city in the West Bank.
"I came here after I was in Ma'ale Adumim and in Gush Etzion where we planted trees. We said in a clear way that we will stay here in any future final status agreement with the Palestinians. We need to help it develop," he said. "These will be an integral part of Israel and I say the same thing today in Ariel, the capital of Samaria [Israeli term for the northern West Bank]."
The pledge comes as international efforts to revive long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have reached a dead-end with Tel Aviv's persistence in refusing the precondition of a full permanent freeze on settlement expansions. Some of Israel's Arab neighbors have made peace with Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said, expressing hope that other Arab leaders would follow in their track. The Palestinian Authority Thursday ruled out negotiations with the Israeli side as a waste of time and a green light for more Israeli settlements. The Palestinians are demanding Israel to adhere to the 2002 Road Map for the Peace plan brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, which requires Israel to "dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities." There are currently 121 Israeli settlements and more than 100 Israeli outposts built illegally on Palestinian land occupied by Israel since 1967. MRS/HGH/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Although US President Barack Obama vaguely acknowledged Israel as the cause of Palestinian "plight," he affirmed that he will never waver from support for Tel Aviv.
Obama made the remarks in a speech to a crowd in a gymnasium in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday when he was asked about his policy on Israel.
"Here's my view: Israel is one of our strongest allies. It is a vibrant democracy. It shares links with us in all sorts of ways. It is critical for us, and I will never waver from Israel's security." Obama said.
Obama referred to Israel as a "vibrant democracy," while Israel does not even have a constitution, "since the Constituent Assembly and the first Knesset were unable to put a constitution together," reads a statement on the Israeli Parliament (Knesset)'s website.
Fri, 29 Jan 2010
In unusually blatant remarks aimed at China, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday assailed the country for not joining the US-led front in imposing fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear work. Clinton said she understood China's unwillingness to impose new penalties on Iran, one of the country's biggest oil suppliers, but warned against “longer-term implications” if Iran did not stop its nuclear program. "We understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs. But think about the longer-term implications."
Israel shells near UN school, killing at least 30
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and STEVE WEIZMAN –//www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HTJE00
GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) — Israeli mortar shells struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people — many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded.
The Israeli army said its soldiers came under fire from militants hiding in the school and responded. It accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of "cynically" using civilians as human shields. Residents confirmed the account, saying militants were seen staging attacks from the area.
Despite international criticism over civilian deaths and a diplomatic push to broker a cease-fire, Israeli said it would push on with the offensive against Hamas.
Israeli ground forces edged closer to two major Gaza towns, and a total of 70 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said. A top U.N. official called for an investigation into the civilian death toll.
Past Israeli ground offensives have been cut short when an errant shell or missile hit a civilian center, leading to international outcries that forced Israel to stand down.
The shelling Tuesday in the northern town of Jebaliya marked the second time in hours a U.N. school came under attack; three people were killed in an attack on another U.N. school in Gaza City on Monday night.
Tuesday's assault was the deadliest since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend as part of a larger offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 600 Palestinians, according to local hospital officials. Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.
"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the Monday night attack on the compound of a U.N. school. The school has served as a shelter for refugees fleeing the 11-day offensive.
A Palestinian rocket — one of two dozen fired from Gaza on Tuesday — wounded an Israeli infant.
Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said 36 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the U.N. school in Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured by tank shells.
In a statement, the Israeli army said an initial investigation found that "mortar shells were fired from within the school at IDF soldiers. The force responded with mortars at the source of fire. The Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields."
The army said two Hamas militants — Imad Abu Askar and Hasan Abu Askar — were among the dead.
Two neighborhood residents confirmed the Israeli account, saying a group of militants fired mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets. Israel then opened fire.
The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety, said the Abu Askar brothers were known low-level Hamas militants.
The attack occurred at mid-afternoon, when many people were out and about. Many people apparently stepped outside the shelter to get some air, thinking an area around a school was safe.
Palestinian militants frequently fire from residential areas. However, Mohammed Nassar, a medic who treated the wounded, said he saw no gunmen among the casualties.
Footage broadcast on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV showed gruesome scenes at the hospital. At first, medics carried in at least five younger boys who were laid out on the hospital floor. It was not clear whether they were alive.
Other medics then started unloading bodies of men who had been stacked up in the back of an ambulance, three high, and were dragged without stretchers. One man's legs had been turned into bloody stumps that dragged on the ground as he was pulled from the ambulance.
The emergency room was packed, with all beds occupied and barely a patch of ground unoccupied by either a body or a doctor. In other rooms, there were bloodstains and bodies on the floor. Medics ran in to take pulses.
"I saw a lot of women and children wheeled in," said Fares Ghanem, another hospital official. "A lot of the wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in pieces."
Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, said he rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. At the hospital, he said, many children were among the dead.
"I saw women and men — parents — slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead," he said. "In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded."
He said there were marks of five separate explosions, all in the area near the school.
U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel's army to ensure their buildings in Gaza are not targeted.
Speaking shortly after the first attack, Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, demanded an investigation.
"As one of the most densely populated places in the world, it is clear that more civilians will be killed," he said. "These tragic incidents need to be investigated, and if international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must held accountable."
In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it "the darkest moment yet for the Middle East." He said he had been in touch with world leaders, including from Egypt and Turkey, to discuss ways to forge a cease-fire.
Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend.
Ten Israelis have died since the operation began, including a soldier who was shot on Tuesday.
United Nations staff estimate around 15,000 people have fled to 23 U.N.-run schools they have turned into makeshift shelters. U.N. food aid has halted in the northern Gaza Strip because officials fear residents would risk their lives to reach distribution centers.
Tanks rumbled closer to the towns of Khan Younis and Dir el Balah in south and central Gaza but were still several kilometers (miles) outside, witnesses said, adding that the sounds of fighting could be heard from around the Israeli positions. Israel has encircled Gaza City, the area's biggest city.
The civilian death toll has drawn international condemnations and raised concerns of a humanitarian disaster. Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say food supplies are running thin.
"This is not a crisis, it's a disaster," said water utility official Munzir Shiblak. "We are not even able to respond to the cry of the people." He said about 800,000 residents in Gaza City and northern parts of the territory had no access to running water from Tuesday. Gaza's overall population is 1.4 million people.
Israel says it won't stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to stop the offensive soon, but said it would depend on Hamas' willingness to stop attacks and stop smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
"We have no interest in endlessly continuing the campaign. It will stop when the conditions that are essential for Israel's security are met," he said in the rocket-scarred southern Israeli town of Sderot.
The army says it has dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. Hamas is believed to have 20,000 fighters.
Israeli forces have seized the main Gaza highway in several places, cutting the strip into northern, southern and central sectors. Israel also has taken over high-rise buildings in Gaza City and destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels — Hamas' main lifeline — along the Egyptian border.
A high-level European Union delegation met with President Shimon Peres on Tuesday in a futile bid to end the violence. Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner acknowledged Israel's right to self-defense, but said its response was disproportionate.
"We have come to Israel in order to advance the initiative for a humanitarian cease-fire and I will tell you, Mr. President, that you have a serious problem with international advocacy, and that Israel's image is being destroyed," she said, according to a statement from Peres' office.
Israeli leaders say there is no humanitarian crisis and that they have allowed the delivery of vital supplies.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Israel after a day of meetings with leaders.
Sarkozy continued to Damascus, urging Syria on Tuesday to pressure Hamas to end the fighting. His Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, slammed the Israeli assault on the coastal strip as a "war crime" and "barbaric," an "aggression" that Israel must halt.
In Washington, the State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was traveling to the United Nations Tuesday to try to broker a sustainable cease-fire.
She planned meetings with Arab and European diplomats to lobby for a three-tiered U.S. truce proposal and will then attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Key elements demanded by the U.S.: an end to rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and securing border crossings between Gaza and Israel and between Gaza and Egypt.
Israel's operation has angered many across the Arab world and has drawn criticism from Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which have ties with Israel and have been involved in Mideast peacemaking.
Barzak reported from Gaza City, Weizman from Jerusalem.
Roger Waters dropped by BMG over Israel comments
Germany-based music rights company ends publishing agreement with Pink Floyd co-founder over divisive rhetoric
The music rights company BMG is parting ways with the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over comments he made about Israel, Ukraine and the United States, Variety reported on Monday.
The music rights company BMG is parting ways with the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over comments he made about Israel, Ukraine and the United States, Variety reported on Monday.
The Germany-based company had signed a publishing agreement with the 80-year-old musician in 2016 and was scheduled to release a newly recorded version of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon last year, but ultimately scrapped the release upon the hiring of Thomas Coesfeld as CEO. The re-recording was ultimately released by the UK-based record label Cooking Vinyl.
The split, unusual for a major publishing deal, is the latest fallout from Waters’ increasingly divisive rhetoric over Israel, which some have criticized as being antisemitic in recent months.
The rocker has remained defiant over numerous backlashes, such as a German police investigation over a “Nazi-style” costume worn on stage in Berlin last year. In April 2023, he won a legal battle allowing him to play in Frankfurt, after magistrates of the German city had instructed the venue to cancel a concert and accused Waters of being “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world”. He denounced the war in Ukraine but spoke to the United Nations security council at Russia’s invitation, claiming that its 2022 invasion of Ukraine was “not unprovoked”.
A 2023 investigation into Waters by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) interviewed former co-workers of Waters who alleged the musician had made repeated derogatory references to Jewish people. The CAA has also published emails from Waters in which he proposed that an inflatable pig floating above his concerts should be scrawled with an antisemitic slogan; in emails from 2010, he also suggested “bombing” audiences with confetti in the shape of swastikas, stars of David, dollar signs and other symbols.
Waters, who has always denied accusations of antisemitism, spoke of being “fired” by BMG in a video interview with Glenn Greenwald last November, deep within a conversation in which the musician characterized his separation from the company as the result of pressure by pro-Israeli interests toward BMG’s parent company, Bertelsmann, and suppression of his political beliefs.
The claim was a familiar one for Waters, who has spoken often about conspiracies against publicizing his beliefs. At a concert in Birmingham, UK, last year, Waters launched into a 10-minute rant in which he decried his “brutal” treatment in Germany and said numerous media outlets had been trying to destroy him for his support of human rights in Palestine. “They’re trying to cancel me like they cancelled Jeremy Corbyn and Julian Assange,” he said. “I will not be cancelled.”
Though it’s not uncommon for artists to be “dropped” from recording contracts, it is less common for a company to sever a publishing deal. In recent years, both R Kelly and Kanye West’s actions have put them at odds with companies managing their lucrative music catalogs. Kelly, now serving a decades-long prison term for multiple felonies related to sexual misconduct, had a judge award his royalties to numerous victims. West, who lost a multimillion-dollar deal with Adidas and representation by CAA over antisemitic comments in 2022, had deals with Universal and Sony Music Publishing expire without renewal.
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters dropped by music publisher BMG over Israel comments
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters dropped by music publisher BMG over Israel comments | Euronews
Roger Waters threatens legal action over German concert cancellations | Roger Waters | The Guardian
Roger Waters threatens legal action over German concert cancellations
Waters was accused of being ‘a widely known antisemite’ in Frankfurt council instruction to cancel concert, with other German cities also proposing cancellations
Roger Waters has said he will take legal action against city authorities in Germany over the threatened cancellation of concerts there, after the former Pink Floyd frontman was accused of antisemitism, which he denies.
In February, magistrates in Frankfurt instructed the venue for Waters’ 28 May concert in the city to cancel it, arguing that Waters was “one of the most widely known antisemites” in the world.
Waters has long been an opponent of Israel over its activity in Palestine, describing it as an “apartheid state” that is guilty of “ethnic cleansing”, and supports a cultural boycott of the country. He has long denied antisemitism and claimed that his enmity is with Israel rather than Judaism, and has accused Israel of “abusing the term antisemitism to intimidate people, like me, into silence”.
Frankfurt’s council also highlighted Waters’ historical use of a Star of David emblazoned on a pig prop as part of his stage show. In 2013, Rogers was accused of antisemitism for using the image, but he countered that the pig, which he said represented “evil, and more specifically the evil of errant government”, also featured “the crucifix, the crescent and star, the hammer and sickle, the Shell Oil logo and the McDonald’s sign, a dollar sign and a Mercedes sign … The Star of David represents Israel and its policies and is legitimately subject to any and all forms of non violent protest. To peacefully protest against Israel’s racist domestic and foreign policies is not antisemitic.”
A coalition of parties in Munich’s city council also filed a motion for Waters’ concert at the city’s Olympiahalle on 21 May to be cancelled. A similar motion was tabled in Cologne in February, with management of the concert venue Lanxess Arena claiming “there is currently no legal basis for an extraordinary termination” of Waters’ concert there.
Waters has now instructed the Höcker law firm to resist any concert cancellations. Speaking to the Guardian, the firm’s partner Ralf Höcker explained that they would file interim injunctions against the councils if venues or promoters are instructed to cancel the concerts.
“The city of Munich is wasting taxpayer money on something that cannot be successful,” Höcker said. “The legal situation is really clear and they’re still going forward with this, and that’s unacceptable.” Regarding the injunctions, he said “we’re very optimistic we’ll be successful” if they were filed.
A joint statement from Höcker and Waters’ UK manager reads: “These actions are unconstitutional, without justification, and based upon the false accusation that Roger Waters is antisemitic, which he is not … Mr Waters believes that if this blatant attempt to silence him is left unchallenged it could have serious, far-reaching consequences for artists and activists all over the world.” Tickets are currently still on sale for all of his German tour dates.
The Festhalle venue in Frankfurt, which would host the Waters concert, has a painful history: during the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, it was used to house Jewish men from the area who had been rounded up, before being deported to concentration camps. A plaque was installed in 1991 to commemorate the events there.
As well as continuing his This Is Not a Drill world tour, Waters is preparing the release of a re-recorded version of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, made solo without the involvement of his long-estranged bandmates.
Divisions intensified recently when band lyricist Polly Samson accused Waters of being “antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac” – allegations Waters denied.
Waters has been criticised more widely for his characterisation of the conflict in Ukraine, after calling it a “proxy war” that was “not unprovoked”, and claiming that Nazis were “in control of the [Ukraine] government”.
Some Historical War News from www.inlnews.com
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Iron Mountain The Unseen Hand
The Unseen Hand Chapter 22 Iron Mountain -The definition of war- The reason why war is necessary for any society
and the secret hideout in the Hudson Valley, New York State USA in case of a nuclear Fall Out
Wars are fought because
(1) one nation wants something another nation has.
(2) Protecting a nation from outside attack is another reason for war.
These two reasons for war are called the Visible Reasons for War.
Research now has concluded that there are what are called Invisible Reasons for War, as well.
One such report that has done research into the Invisible Reasons for War is a report called the Report From Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace.1
Written in 1963 and released in March 1966, this report examines the visible and invisible functions or reasons of not only war but peace as well. The report claims to have been written at an underground nuclear hideout near the town of Hudson, New York, that has been provided as a "substitute corporate headquarters... where essential personnel could presumably survive and continue to work after [a nuclear] attack..." The corporations that have created Iron Mountain include Standard Oil of New Jersey (the Rockefeller interests); Manufacturers Hanover Trust (the
Morgan interests); and the Shell Oil (the House of Orange,) amongst others.
The report dates back to at least 1961, when Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, and Dean Rusk, all members of the CFR, noticed that no serious study had been made about planning for a long-term peace. Not only were they concerned about the lasting effects of a long-term peace, they also wished to examine the functions, both visible and invisible, of war. The report states that: "War has provided... society with a debatable system for stabilizing and controlling national economies. No alternate method of control has yet been tested in a complex modern economy that has shown it is remotely comparable in scope or effectiveness." War, therefore, was not fought for the usual reasons outlined above. It
was fought to "control economies." These individuals apparently were concerned that there had been no efforts made to detail how they were to control economies during a time of peace: "War fills certain functions essential to the stability of our society; until other ways of filling them are developed, the war system must be maintained, and improved in effectiveness."
So, in a manner not detailed in the report itself, these three somehow arranged for a study of these problems. The report states that fifteen members of the investigating team got together to write the report, and that it was unanimously agreed to. Furthermore, no minutes of the meetings were maintained, as it was thought they would be "too inhibiting." The team
which wrote the report recommended that the report not be made public after it was completed.
One of those who read the report attempted to locate the authors. It was his theory that it had been written by the Hudson Institute. He wrote: "There is considerable evidence that the Report is the work of the Hudson Institute and Herman Kahn.... There is an Iron Mountain just a stone's throw [literally] from the Hudson Institute near Croton-on-Hudson, [New York.]"2
The Hudson Institute is not well known among the American public, but it is known to government officials who have used it as a "think-tank"
by hiring it to report on the issues of national concern.
The Hudson Institute was started in 1961 when Mr. Kahn, the owner, decided "to help determine the entire future of the U.S. —and, time permitting, much of the world beyond."3
The Institute primarily receives its income from the government.
Hudson listed five sources for its $1.36 million of income in 1968: The Office of Civil Defense, The Office of Secretary of Defense, the Military Services,
Other Government and Non-U.S. Government Kahn and his "think tankers" have become so important to the American government that they are frequently accused of setting older administrations on a path that new adminstrations cannot alter. "This is a process of invisible power. At its extreme this influence can commit a nation to special programs and military actions which have neither been fully explained nor publicly debated. One day, as that power pervades and grows more sophisticated, it may so affect the course of government that any nation's policies may be locked in, as if by automatic pilot, years before the men who are elected to govern ever take office."5
The Hudson Institute has a published list of what it calls "Public Members" and "Fellows." Ten of the twenty-one listed Public Members are members of the Council on Foreign Relations, as are fifteen of the thirty-four Fellows.
Two of the Fellows are known to the public: Henry Kissinger (CFR member) and Dr. Milton Friedman.
The report starts by defining the traditional view of the functions of war.
It claims that there are three:
1. to defend a nation from military attack by another or to deter such an attack;
2. to defend or advance a national interest; and
3. to maintain or increase a nation's military power for its own sake.
It continues by stating that these are the "visible" functions, and that there are "invisible, or implied, functions" as well. These are spelled out in the report, but all functions have one common purpose: "War has provided both ancient and modern society with a debatable system for stabilizing and controlling national economies. No alternate method of control has yet been
tested in a complex modern economy that has shown it is remotely comparable in scope or effectiveness. War fills certain functions essential to the stability of our society; until other ways of filling them are developed, the war system must be maintained — and improved in effectiveness."
The report then goes on to detail what the "invisible functions" of war are:
War... is the principal organizing force in most societies.
... The possibility of war provided the sense of external necessity without which no government can long remain in power.
The historical record reveals one instance after another where the failure... of a regime to maintain the credibility of a war threat led to its dissolution.
War... provides anti-social elements with an acceptable role in the social structure.
The younger, and more dangerous, of these hostile social groupings have been kept under control by the Selective Service System.
As a control device... the draft can again be defended...The level of the draft calls tends to follow the major fluctuations in the unemployment rate...
Man destroys surplus members of his own species by organized warfare.
War is the principal motivational force for the development of science...
War is a... general social release... for the dissipation of general boredom.
War... enables the physically deteriorating older generation to maintain its control of the younger, destroying it if necessary.
An excellent summation of the report is contained in a novel by Taylor Caldwell, entitled Ceremony of the Innocent. She wrote:"... there will be no peace in the tormented world, only a programmed and systematic series of wars and calamities — until the plotters have gained their objective: an exhausted world willing to submit to a planned Marxist economy and total
and meek enslavement — in the name of peace."6
Apparently the individual who wrote that "War was Peace" knew what he was talking about. -
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Northwest flight terror attack staged?Thu, 28 Jan 2010
Accounts from passengers of the Flight 253, aboard which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate explosives, suggest that the attack was staged.
According to American Free Press, the security firm in charge of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is the Israeli-owned International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) — the same security firm at the airports where the 9/11 terrorists hijacked the three planes.
Despite tight security screening procedures performed after the 9/11 attacks, passengers who boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 said they found security at Amsterdam's airport to be surprisingly lax.
Richelle Keepman, who was one of the passengers onboard Flight 253, told CNN that security did not have them remove their shoes as they walked through the scanners and metal detectors.
Keepman also said that her mother was allowed to take a large bottle of water onboard the plane.
Another passenger onboard flight 253, Detroit attorney Kurt Haskell, told CNN that he saw a polished Indian man escort Abdulmutallab to the ticket agent, and tried to convince the agent to allow Abdulmutallab board the plane without a passport.
"This man needs to board the plane, but he doesn't have a passport." Haskell quoted the Indian as telling the agent.
When the agent refused to let him board the plane, the Indian man responded, "He is from Sudan. We do this all the time."
The ticket agent, then, took them down a hallway to meet with a supervisor. Haskell said the next time he saw Abdulmutallab was when he tried to ignite the explosives hidden inside his underwear.
Keepman told CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 show that when she first boarded the plane, she noticed a man with a camcorder filming the goings-on inside the plane.
After the incident took place, Keepman said the man with the camcorder was the only one standing as he continued to film the scene. Haskell said that after the plane landed, another Indian man was led away in handcuffs after bomb-sniffing dogs detected explosives in his carry-on luggage.
To date, FBI officials have refused to acknowledge the arrest of the Indian man. Abdulmutallab has at times denied any association with the militant al-Qaeda group and claimed that he was trained in Yemen. Washington, however, alleges he was instructed in the Arab country, which US officials claim is infested with al-Qaeda militants. According to military analyst and counterinsurgency specialist Gordon Duff, "There is no al-Qaeda in Yemen. George Bush released a couple of phony operatives from Guantanamo, and after traveling to the Middle East, they hooked up with the Mossad. The only reason Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez released them is because they're assets." SES/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86029§ionid= 351020401
Report: CIA runs secret bases in PakistanWed, 18 Feb 2009
The CIA has been secretly using airbases inside Pakistan to launch strikes on targets on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was covertly using the Shamsi airfield in Pakistan's restive south-western province of Balochistan, The Times Online reported.
The base is located about 50 km (30 miles) from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and allows the US forces to launch a drone 'within minutes' of receiving actionable intelligence.
The Predator drone has a range of more than 2,000 miles and can fly for 29 hours reaching militants in Balochistan, southern Afghanistan and in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, the paper says.
The chief military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said that US forces were using Shamsi "only for logistics."
"The Americans were also using another airbase near Jacobabad, 300 miles north-east of Karachi, for logistics and military operations," the report quoted Abbas as saying.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad denied commenting on CIA operations inside Pakistan.
However, one senior Western source familiar with US operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan said that the CIA "runs Predator flights routinely" from Shamsi.
The recent delivery of unexplained 730,000 gallons of F34 aviation fuel to Shamsi base supports the claim.
Pakistan reportedly had allowed the US to use Shamsi, Jacobabad, and two other bases - Pasni and Dalbadin - for the invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime in October 2001.
In July 2006, the then military government announced that the US was no longer using the bases, although they were at Pentagon disposal in an emergency.
Islamabad has repeatedly called on the US to halt drone attacks on Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The strikes have caused hundreds of civilian casualties and have fuelled anti-American sentiment.
The latest drone strike on Monday killed 32 people in the tribal agency of Kurram. The attack was the fourth since President Barack Obama took office in January.
Both Pakistan and the US have repeatedly denied that Washington or its allies are conducting covert military operations inside Pakistani territory. JR/MMNRelated Stories:- US drone attack kills 30 Pakistanis
- Pakistan denies role in US drone attacks
- US drone attacks originate in Pakistan
- Top aide says Iran worries about Obama
- Clinton vows no peace with 'really bad guys' in Taliban
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- Peace in jeopardy, Netanyahu hails settlement work
- Strong quake reported in South Pacific
- French duel rages as Villepin acquittal is appealed
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- Biden: US to up investment in nuclear arsenal
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- Obama: I will never waver from supporting Israel
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Obama: I will never waver from supporting IsraelFri, 29 Jan 2010
Although US President Barack Obama vaguely acknowledged Israel as the cause of Palestinian "plight," he affirmed that he will never waver from support for Tel Aviv.
Obama made the remarks in a speech to a crowd in a gymnasium in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday when he was asked about his policy on Israel.
"Here's my view: Israel is one of our strongest allies. It is a vibrant democracy. It shares links with us in all sorts of ways. It is critical for us, and I will never waver from Israel's security." Obama said.
Obama referred to Israel as a "vibrant democracy," while Israel does not even have a constitution, "since the Constituent Assembly and the first Knesset were unable to put a constitution together," reads a statement on the Israeli Parliament (Knesset)'s website.
Furthermore, Israel does not have a bill of rights and has a history of legislating unequal civil rights, privileges and access to public funds. And its pursuit of a so-called "Jewish State" is an apparent discrimination against the non-Jewish.
Obama, however, went on to say that "the plight of the Palestinians is something that we have to pay attention to."
He said it was not good for the security of the US and Israel if millions of Palestinians feel hopeless.
His comments were a vague reference to numerous violations of human rights and international law by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
About 1.5 million Palestinians are suffering from a grave humanitarian crisis as a result of an Israeli-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since 2007.
This is while in West Bank, Palestinians are constantly being kidnapped during overnight raids conducted by Israeli troops.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117368§ionid= 3510203
Clinton vows no peace with 'really bad guys' in TalibanFri, 29 Jan 2010 18:03:23 GMT
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday ruled out the likelihood of talks with Taliban hardliners who she termed as "the really bad guys."
"We're not going to talk to the really bad guys because the really bad guys are not ever going to renounce al-Qaeda and renounce violence and agree to re-enter society," Clinton said in an interview with National Public Radio Broadcast.
"That is not going to happen with people like Mullah Omar and the like," she said in reference to the Taliban leader in Afghanistan, who remains at large almost nine years after the US-led invasion of the violence-weary nation.
Clinton was in London on Thursday to attend a global conference on Afghanistan, where the participants backed a multimillion-dollar fund to support Afghan President Hamid Karzai's plan to reintegrate militants who lay down their arms.
She admitted to fears among Afghan women of dealing with the Taliban whose pursuit of extremism deprived women of education, employment and traveling on their own between 1996 and 2001.
But Clinton tried to soothe the concerns, saying the "current government or any foreseeable government" would not practice the same violation of women's rights.
Afghans continue to struggle with the occupation as militancy keeps taking its toll on civilians, while drug production and trafficking remain prosperous businesses and wide-spread corruption continues to plague the government and its armed forces.
The United States and its allies plan to pour an additional 40,000 troops into Afghanistan to quash Taliban militants.
Clinton defended more boots in the field as a way to back up political efforts aimed at making peace with the enemy.
"Only a surge of military forces alone without any effort on the political side is not likely to succeed; only an effort to make peace with your enemies without the strength to back it up is not going to succeed," she said.
MRS/SAR/MD
MGH/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117333§ionid= 351020202
'Israel assassinates top Hamas commander in Dubai'Fri, 29 Jan 2010http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian resistance group says.
Damascus-based Hamas media official, Izzat al-Rishq has told Press TV that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed by Israeli agents on January 20th.
According to one of his brothers, Mabhuh was killed by electric shock after an electrical appliance was held to his head.
"The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the (United Arab) Emirates show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head," Fayed al-Mabhuh told AFP.
"Material was sent to a Paris laboratory which confirmed he was killed by electric shock," he added.
Al-Mabhouh was a founder of the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Al-Rishq warned that Israeli will pay dearly for the murder at a due time.
He further pointed out that Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, was assassinated a day after he arrived in Dubai.
Hamas can not offer more information at present about how he was assassinated, Rishq concluded.
Hamas says the burial ceremony will be held in Damascus on Friday.
HRF/DTaspx?id=117369§ionid= 351020101
Top aide says Iran worries about ObamaFri, 29 Jan 2010 18:32:32 GMT
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top aide said Friday Tehran is concerned about the direction of the US administration after President Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union address. "We have concerns Obama will not be successful in bring change to US policies," Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, the senior aide to President Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff, said.
If he cannot fulfill his promise to resolve issues between Tehran and Washington, he said, we cannot hold our breath that he would resolve other issues facing the US, the Iranian Students News Agency reported. After a year in office, the once-popular President Obama is having difficulties in saving the economy, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and fulfilling his campaign promises, including the health care reform.
In his State of the Union address to Congress on Wednesday, Obama explained about his effort in the past year to develop a new approach toward nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea.
The focus on nuclear arms control "is why North Korea now faces increased isolation and stronger sanctions -- sanctions that are being vigorously enforced," Obama said.
"That is why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated," he said. "And as Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they too, will face growing consequences."
Mashaei rejected the remarks and said Iranians are "the flag-bearers of peace."
"The Iranian nation never seeks war because beautiful people do not look for a quarrel," he said. "However, we would defend our country and religion with our blood if any danger looms over our land." Mashaei said it was time for Washington to realize it needed Tehran's help if it wanted to "get out of the quagmire it has made in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Iran and the US have had no diplomatic ties for nearly three decades. The animosity has reached a new level after the Bush administration put Tehran on the "axis of evil," and accused the country of seeking nuclear weaponry. SF/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117360§ionid= 351020202
Israeli agents raid house in search of running childFri, 29 Jan 2010 16:29:08 GMT
Israeli forces Thursday broke into a Palestinian home in a West Bank refugee camp in pursuit of a child on the run, injuring the household, among them a pregnant woman.
Undercover Israeli agents forced their way into the house of Jamal Awad, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees office in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, on Thursday night when the Awads refused to let them in. The Israelis said they were tracking up a child who had fled the scene of a crime that allegedly took place further south in the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement in Jerusalem Al-Quds. Awad said five members of his family, including his pregnant daughter-in-law, were injured as the Israeli agents fired tear gas and used batons to enter the building, Ma'an news agency reported. All of the injured were transferred to hospital by Red Crescent ambulances, where they were treated for mild to moderate injuries. MRS/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117372§ionid= 351020206
UN says Yemen humanitarian crisis deepeningFri, 29 Jan 2010
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warns of Yemen's ever-increasing humanitarian crisis as the war in the northern front between the army and Houthi fighters flares. "The fighting has gradually moved from Sa'ada city and its surroundings towards the northwest," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing. This has resulted in a steady flow of around 7,000 people, mostly from Sa'ada, arriving in Hajjah province each week over the past six weeks, he said. According to the refugee agency's estimates, the five year conflict between the Yemeni army and Houthi fighters has driven over 250,000 people from their homes.The world body's refugee agency said many of the displaced lack adequate shelter as refugee camps are already packed. In August, the Yemeni army launched a massive military offensive against the Houthis who accuse the central government of repression and discrimination against the country's Shia minority. The operation was soon joined by neighboring Saudi Arabia, who engaged in aerial bombardment of the beleaguered northern territory and deployed troops to fight the Houthi fighters along with the Yemeni soldiers. The UNHCR says the number of displaced in the Arab world's poorest country has doubled since the eruption of the fierce clashes in August as aid agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross complain the war is hampering their efforts to deliver aid into Sa'ada. MRS/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117367§ionid= 351020605
Eurozone struggling with its worst unemployment crisisFri, 29 Jan 2010 17:54:44 GMT
Unemployment in the eurozone, 16 EU countries that use the euro as their currency, has reached 10 percent, leaving approximately 15.8 million people unemployed. The December figure, according to Eurostat, is the highest since the currency was launched in 1999. At least 87,000 jobs were lost only in December in the eurozone. "Although the rise in eurozone unemployment has slowed in recent months, it still seems poised to trend higher during much, if not all, of 2010," said Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight.
Currently, 23 million people are jobless in the 27 countries of the European Union. Latvia, located in the Baltic region, holds the highest EU unemployment rate of 22.8 percent. Spain and Estonia follow with 19.5 and 15.2 percent respectively. The Netherlands and Austria have the lowest unemployment rate of 4 and 5.4 percent. The eurozone is already facing a mounting debt crisis with the European Commission expressing alarm that efforts aimed at pulling the zone out of its first recession would be hampered. SES/SAR/MDhttp://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117365§ionid= 351020101
Iran says petroleum sanctions will be futileFri, 29 Jan 2010 17:39:57 GMT
Tehran Friday rejected a bill passed by the US Senate that would restrict Iran's import of refined petroleum products as a continuation of a “wrong policy,” saying the sanction would not affect the country.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the US will not get achieve its goals by imposing sanctions.
“We have repeatedly said that the US sanctions imposed against our nation during the past 31 years … have resulted in nothing but our nations' stronger determination to assert independence and achieve self-reliance,” he said.
The US Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would allow President Barack Obama to impose new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
The measure will now move to a conference committee to iron out differences with an already-passed House version, Politico reported.
President Obama will have the power to deny loans and other assistance to US firms that export gasoline to Iran or help expand its oil-refining capacity.
The new legislation will also impose a broad ban on direct imports from Iran to the United States and vice versa, with the exception of food and medicine.
It will also require the Obama administration to freeze the assets of some Iranian officials, including those with Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).
Mehman-Parast said the move would not compel Iran to give up its “legal rights” to the civilian applications of the nuclear technology.
Iran says its nuclear program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology and is in line with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory.
President Obama on Thursday warned Iran would face "growing consequences" over its nuclear work if ignores its “obligations”. He also accused the country of "violating international agreements" by pursuing nuclear weapons. After years of extensive inspections, the UN nuclear agency has not found any evidence that would support the US allegations. AR/HGH/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117309§ionid= 351020202
'Attack on Hezbollah is attack on Lebanon'Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:13:36 GMT
Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Thursday that Israel's threats against Hezbollah are perceived as threats against Lebanon. "We consider the Israeli threats on Lebanon to be a threat to the Lebanese government as a whole, rather than to one particular person," said Hariri during a joint news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Reuters reported. He added that in his country, "everywhere is under the authority of the Lebanese government." His remarks came after Yossi Peled, an Israeli cabinet minister and a former army general who has experienced the conflict on the northern border, said on Saturday, January 23, that another confrontation with Hezbollah was almost inevitable but he could not say when it would happen. The minister without portfolio said that according to his "estimation, understanding and knowledge," it was "almost clear" to him that another conflict on the border with Lebanon was imminent. "It does not necessary have to be between us and Hezbollah, other elements may be involved in this," Peled said. Hariri, meanwhile, called for Arab solidarity with Beirut to counter the Israeli threats. Israel launched a war against Lebanon in 2006, during which more than 1,200 — mostly Lebanese civilians — were killed. Israel was forced to withdraw from the Lebanese territories after 33 days, failing to achieve any of its objectives. FTP/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117363§ionid= 351020706
Sexual abuse adds insult to Haiti quake injuriesFri, 29 Jan 2010 16:55:59 GMT
Post-quake situation in Haiti sees a rise in insecurity that threatens the life of many vulnerable women and children living in makeshift camps. With the fall of night, gangs begin roaming the capital city of Port-au-Prince to prey on women and children living in power outage hit camps. There are reports hinting at vulnerable women who have been harassed and raped by criminals who escaped prison after the 7-magnitude quake hit the Central American nation. Haiti's police chief Mario Andrésol said that 7,000 convicted criminals are responsible for the increase in violence, Germany's Bild reported. “We needed five years to catch them. Today they are running free and causing us problems,” he said. Other reports suggest that strong men are stealing the scarce food handouts collected by weaker women and children. "Only Jesus Christ is watching over us," said Mariana Merise, 40, who lives in a camp by the crumpled National Palace that residents said was plagued by gangs stealing their meager possessions. The Haitian government says child trafficking and organ theft are among other disastrous issues that plague the poor nation. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN that it is “one of the biggest problems that we have.” The reports have surfaces as the United States has dispatched thousands of troops to bring order to the quake-hit nation. "I don't think any of us are anywhere near being close to being satisfied, because so much more needs to be done," said Anthony Banbury, the deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti. RB/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117373§ionid= 351020104
US issues China ultimatum on Iran sanctions
Fri, 29 Jan 2010
In unusually blatant remarks aimed at China, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday assailed the country for not joining the US-led front in imposing fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear work. Clinton said she understood China's unwillingness to impose new penalties on Iran, one of the country's biggest oil suppliers, but warned against “longer-term implications” if Iran did not stop its nuclear program. "We understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs. But think about the longer-term implications."
The US accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weaponry. Iran says its nuclear program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology.
Clinton said from now on, China will be under “a lot of pressure” to accompany the US campaign.
"As we move away from the engagement track, which has not produced the result that some had hoped for, and move forward on the pressure and sanctions track, China will be under a lot of pressure to recognize the destabilizing impact that a nuclear-armed Iran would have in the [Persian] Gulf, from which they receive a significant percentage of their oil supplies.”
The US has been lobbying China and Russia, two veto-wielding permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to approve more sanctions against Iran.
Earlier this month, the five permanent members of the UNSC plus Germany (P5+1) met in New York but failed to agree on a new round of sanctions as Russia and China called for patience and restraint in dealing with Iran over its nuclear program. AR/HGH/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117359§ionid= 351020104
UN nuclear chief says Iran fuel swap talks ongoingFri, 29 Jan 2010 16:18:19 GMThttp://www.presstv.ir/detail.
TThe UN nuclear watchdog chief said Friday dialogue between Iran and the sides seeking to sell nuclear fuel to the country are still underway, as Iran advised the six major powers to use the opportunity to build trust.
"The proposal is on the table. Dialogue is continuing," said the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, in Davos in his first public remarks after succeeding Mohamed ElBaradei two months ago.
Under a UN-brokered proposal, the US, France and Russia want Iran to send most of its domestically-produced low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad to be converted into more refined fuel for the Tehran research reactor.
Tehran welcomed the gist of the proposal, but asked for guarantees that the fuel would be delivered in a timely manner.
The West's refusal to do so prompted Iran to devise its own proposal under which the country wants to exchange some of its LEU with the fuel under UN supervision on Iranian soil.
Amano, who urged Iran to restore international confidence in its work, expressed hope that a deal would soon be reached between the sides.
"I hope agreement will be reached and I continue to work as intermediary. This will ... help increase confidence in the [Iran] nuclear issue," said the IAEA chief.
Iran says as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. This includes producing fuel for its under-construction nuclear power plants as well as providing fuel for its research reactor in Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Friday said Tehran was ready to enhance cooperation with the IAEA and to continue talks with the West over the fuel proposal.
"The staged fuel swap deal, which has prepared an opportunity for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, is still on the table," Mottaki said in Davos.
He expressed hope that the West would deal with the issue realistically, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Mottaki said ambiguities between Iran and the IAEA had been resolved and reiterated that Tehran would continue its peaceful nuclear activities within the frameworks of the agency.
Russia and China have called for more diplomacy on Iran, warning against imposing fresh sanctions against the country for delays over the fuel exchange deal. SF/HGH/MDaspx?id=117358§ionid= 351020202
Peace in jeopardy, Netanyahu hails settlement workFri, 29 Jan 2010
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Friday Tel Aviv's defiance to international calls to freeze the illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"We are continuing to build [settlements]," Netanyahu said just after he planted a tree in Ariel — the fourth largest settlement city in the West Bank.
"I came here after I was in Ma'ale Adumim and in Gush Etzion where we planted trees. We said in a clear way that we will stay here in any future final status agreement with the Palestinians. We need to help it develop," he said. "These will be an integral part of Israel and I say the same thing today in Ariel, the capital of Samaria [Israeli term for the northern West Bank]."
The pledge comes as international efforts to revive long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have reached a dead-end with Tel Aviv's persistence in refusing the precondition of a full permanent freeze on settlement expansions. Some of Israel's Arab neighbors have made peace with Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said, expressing hope that other Arab leaders would follow in their track. The Palestinian Authority Thursday ruled out negotiations with the Israeli side as a waste of time and a green light for more Israeli settlements. The Palestinians are demanding Israel to adhere to the 2002 Road Map for the Peace plan brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, which requires Israel to "dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities." There are currently 121 Israeli settlements and more than 100 Israeli outposts built illegally on Palestinian land occupied by Israel since 1967. MRS/HGH/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117364§ionid= 351020501
Clashes in Somali capital claim 12 livesFri, 29 Jan 2010 1
The Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnessed clashes between Al-Shabab fighters and government forces on Friday, which left 12 people dead.
Somalia's State Minister for Defense, Sheikh Yusuf Mohammad Siad, said tension is still "high."
"This fighting was the worst in months," Mogadishu resident Ahmed Hashi told Reuters.
The violence in the poor African country which has escalated since 2007 has displaced some 1.5 million people. At least 19,000 lives have been lost since then.
A paramedic told Reuters that 25 people were injured, mostly in the city's Hodan Wardhigley and Howl Wadag districts.
"We were woken up by the explosions at 2 a.m. and haven't slept since because of the non-stop shelling," said Nurta Hussein, another resident. "Two mortar bombs landed in this neighborhood, killing four civilians and wounding six."
The Western-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only a few districts in the capital. For over two decades, the country has faced a rapid rise in warlord, pirating and heavy armed rebel activities. SES/SAR/MD
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117344§ionid= 351020403
Taliban launch commando assault in Lashkar GahFri, 29 Jan 2010
Fierce gun battles have raged between NATO-backed Afghan troops and heavily-armed militants targeting UN and government buildings in the city of Lashkar Gah.
Several militants armed with machine guns attacked the UN office in the capital of the volatile Helmand province on Friday.
Sound of rocket-propelled grenades and heavy gunfire could be heard from an area which houses government offices and international organizations.
Afghan forces had to call in air support after coming under fire from what they say was a large number of militants.
NATO says helicopters are over the city and firing on militants. The militants have intensified their activities in south and east of Afghanistan where US-led troops have lost grounds to the Taliban over the past few months. The fighting in Lashkar Gah comes as the US and afghan government have been laying to ground to include Taliban militants in the government. The militant launched another commando-style assault in the Afghan capital, Kabul nearly two weeks ago. JR/JG/DT
Roger Waters accused of repeated antisemitism in new documentary | Roger Waters | The Guardian
Roger Waters accused of repeated antisemitism in new documentary
Investigation interviews those who claim to have heard several derogatory references to Jews
Pink Floyd’s co-founder, Roger Waters, has been accused of repeated antisemitism, with claims he referred to “Jew food” and made up a song about his agent that called him a “fucking Jew”.
An investigation into Waters by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) interviewed those who worked alongside him, who made allegations of repeated derogatory references to Jews.
The CAA has also published emails from Waters where he proposed that an inflatable pig floating above his concerts should be scrawled with an antisemitic slogan. In the emails from 2010 he also suggested “bombing” audiences with confetti in the shape of swastikas, stars of David, dollar signs and other symbols.
Waters appeared on stage in Berlin wearing an outfit that closely resembled a Nazi uniform in May. Performing as the character Pink from the rock opera The Wall, he wore a black leather trenchcoat with a red armband bearing two crossed hammers instead of a swastika.
Waters has always insisted he is not an antisemite and said the performance was “quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms”.
In the same tour, Waters appeared to compare the killing of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, to the killing of Anne Frank by projecting the two side by side.
Norbert Stachel, Waters’ former saxophonist, alleged several instances where he said Waters displayed anti-Jewish sentiment. He claimed Waters lost his temper on tour in Lebanon after a succession of vegetarian dishes were produced at a restaurant and demanded that waiters “take away the Jew food”.
Stachel also alleged Waters mocked his grandmother who was murdered in the Holocaust, and that a colleague warned him not to react to any comments about Jews if he wanted to keep his job.
The allegations were made in an online documentary by the CAA presented by the veteran Panorama journalist John Ware.
The music producer Bob Ezrin claimed that when he was in England in the 1970s producing the album The Wall, Waters invented a ditty about the band’s agent Bryan Morrison. Ezrin said: “I can’t remember the exact circumstance, but something like you know … the last line of the couplet was ‘cos Morry is a fucking Jew’.”
He added: “Do I think he considers himself to be an antisemite? I’ll bet you dollars for doughnuts he does not and he will be the first person to say: ‘I’m not anti anything, I am in favour of everyone.’
“But as a person with a powerful public platform he has a responsibility to understand that what he does affects other people and so he may not be one but he walks like one, he quacks like one, he swims like one so from my point of view he’s functionally a duck.”
Waters is due to play at the London Palladium on 8 and 9 October. The venue was contacted for comment.
The CAA said it put its findings to the musician but he did not respond. The Guardian has also contacted his representatives for comment.
Responding to previous allegations of antisemitism, Waters said: “I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it.
“When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price.”
Explore more on these topics
Roger Waters review – embattled singer vows ‘I will not be cancelled’ | Roger Waters | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/
Roger Waters review – embattled singer vows ‘I will not be cancelled
Utilita Arena, Birmingham
Ex-Pink Floyd singer jettisons imagery that has led to accusations of antisemitism in Germany – and the result makes for a more powerful show
Dave Simpson Thu 1 Jun 2023Here, Waters tackles all this head-on. A screened statement points out that a satirical “depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue” has been part of his shows since The Wall in 1980 and that his father was killed fighting the Nazis. Then he launches into a 10-minute tirade in which he decries his “brutal” treatment in Germany and says that the Daily Mail, the Times and the Daily Telegraph are trying to destroy him over his support for human rights in Palestine. “They’re trying to cancel me like they cancelled Jeremy Corbyn and Julian Assange,” he rages. “I will not be cancelled.” By the time he thanks the crowd for their support, the 79-year-old is tearful. “I’m fucking dying here,” he pleads.
Roger Waters on stage in Birmingham.
There’s no sign of the “Nazi-style” leather coat in this performance. Nor, unlike previous tours, is there a star of David on the Pink Floyd-style flying pig or any other antisemitic tropes. When Waters wades into the Palestine/Israel situation, it’s with a sensitivity he hasn’t always demonstrated. There are images of Palestinians living in shacks and the slogan “You can’t have humanitarian rights and an occupation.” Notably, among images of people murdered by authoritarian forces such as Blair Peach and 22-year old Iranian Mahsa Amini, there’s one of Anne Frank, above the words “Her crime? Being Jewish,” though to many, this might seem belated, even insultingly so.
As ever with Waters, much of the show veers between anti-war, anti-imperialist and humanitarian. A funereal version of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb is illustrated by images of bombed out buildings, as if to suggest we’re numbed to warfare. Various US presidents are branded “war criminals”. Screen messages support everything from Black Lives Matter to trans rights. Some of the imagery – dollars for Money – feels a bit hokey, but the faces of children killed in war are haunting. Waters chillingly suggests “we’re closer to a nuclear confrontation than ever before”. However, apart from a screen slogan about “fucking oligarchs” and a fleeting image of Putin, references to Russia or Ukraine are conspicuously absent, which might be an attempt to defuse further controversy but seems an extraordinary omission from a supposed anti-war campaigner.
For all the sloganeering (“Fuck the patriarchy!”, “Free Assange!”, or “Control the narrative!” during Another Brick in the Wall) much of this show is personal. The new piano-led The Bar – composed in lockdown about the virtues of the pub – is lovely and there are touching reminiscences about Syd Barrett when they were kids. There’s lots to thrill the “I love Pink Floyd” people, with swathes of the classic Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here albums rendered by a stellar band. The latter’s title track, taken up by the entire crowd as a wider anthem of loss, is beautifully moving. The show is a triumph of staging, with remote-controlled flying sheep, cross-shaped screens the length of the arena and almost two and a half hours of music that ends with an ovation. Waters’ politics will continue to anger many, but anyone fleeing for the bar will miss a true spectacular.
At OVO Hydro, Glasgow, 2-3 June. Then touring.
This article has been updated to clarify Waters’ use of the Star of David and Anne Frank’s photograph.
Berlin police investigate Roger Waters over Nazi-style uniform at concert | Pink Floyd | The Guardian
Berlin police investigate Roger Waters over Nazi-style uniform at concert
Pink Floyd singer wore costume during performance in which he imagines himself as fictional fascist dictator
Police in Germany have launched a criminal investigation into the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over a Nazi-style uniform he wore at a recent concert in Berlin.
“An investigation has been opened over the costume displayed at the concerts on 17 and 18 May,” Berlin police spokesperson Martin Halweg told the Guardian.
Roger Waters threatens legal action over German concert cancellations
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Comfortably strum: David Gilmour's Black Strat goes on display
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‘Nobody really knew what happened’: tracing the life of Syd Barrett
Roger Waters accused of repeated antisemitism in new documentary
The Illuminati, the Jesuit CESNUR and the Communists (1/20/2007)
Paolo Fogagnolo "Salamina, Prometeus"
16.8.1985: Permission from Lamparter to found OTOA Lodges.
3.9.1986: Initiation into the Athens 'Chevaliers du Christ' Martinist Lodge, by Tr. Kotzamanis "Hieronymus". (Nothing to do with the 'Hieronymus' in FUDOESI, Émile Dantienne).
20.3.1989: Under the motto of 'Sar Voluntas Divina', Fogagnolo was nominated as a 'Supérieur Inconnu' in Sar Hieronymus's Athenian Martinist Lodge.
4.5.1989: Admission to the 'Chevaliers du Christ'/'Loge des Chevaliers Verts' Martinist Lodge in Brussels. The resultant Charter was adorned with an O.T.O. Lamen, and signed by Armand Toussaint "Raymond
Panagion".
6.5.1989: Ramirez Cifuentes from Colombia appointed Fogagnolo (now calling himself 'Ar-Thon') as the representative for, and Grand Master of, the OTOA in Italy. Two undated documents from Viola made Ramirez
IX° and agent of the OTOA.
After this, Ramirez Cifuentes made Fogagnolo the Italian Patriarch of the Krumm-Heller Church [of which Ramirez Cifuentes was only a Deacon].
4.11.1990: Fogagnolo became national Italian Grand Master of the 'Orient Universel des Rites Traditionnels' through Kotzamanis, who was now also functioning as the Greek branch of Memphis-Misraim -
from which Fogagnolo received on the same day, the 33°, 90°, 95°, and the higher 90°, 95° 96° [!] and the 33°.
Ramirez Cifuentes then furnished Fogagnolo with the three lowest F.R.A. degrees, and made him a bishop by post. Fogagnolo appointed Ramirez to the 90° and 95° on 21.3.90.
18.1.1991: Fogagnolo became a bishop in the Church of Antioch, through the laying-on of hands by the aforementioned 'Hieronymus'. In the spring of 1991 Lamparter back-dated a Charter to June 26th 1989, and
made Fogagnolo 33°, 90°, 96° (from which Lamparter got the MM 90° and 95° degrees for himself in autumn 1991!).
Introvigne and the Lodge of Thebes featuring Paolo Fogagnolo "The True Face of Secret Societies: Inquest into the Mysterious Group of Thebes"
One of the strangest episodes in the history of Jesuit runned CESNUR involved Massimo Introvigne as
co-founder of the secretive "Lodge of Thebes", a very small group of political and magical extremists who
for a short period tried to unite the quarrelsome world of French occultists. Introvigne, while indirectly confirming the episode, later made it clear that his intentions were purely scholarly. One is left wondering why a "scholar" would be allowed into secret meetings primarily aimed at strategic planning; at the same time, one wonders how far "participant observation" by scholars can be stretched.
The translation is quite rough, and the article also contains a few minor mistakes which we shall point out in a later edition, but it in the meantime it is a useful document.
by Serge Faubert
from L'Evenement du Jeudi (4 November 1993), pp. 44-52
Abridged translation by Jeffrey Bale, published in Hitlist, March-April 2001, pp. 96-97.
Paris, a weekend last May. The few masons present in the locale of the Grand Orient de France (GOF) barely
paid attention to the 30 or so people who hurried, early in the morning, toward one of the meeting rooms.
The faces passing through the hall were not familiar to them, but then one cannot know all of the "brothers". In any case, the small group had presented an official authorization form to the custodian bearing the signature of a high-ranking member of the obedience. So why worry about it?
However, there were some who were worried. None of the visitors belonged to the Grande Orient. They were
non-masons [des profanes]. And what a group of outsiders! Several old veterans of the extreme right, a former Red Brigadist, a respectable Italian university professor closely linked, at the same time, to the Vatican and to French [Catholic] integralists, a leader of a non-governmental organization and activist concerned with children, a Belgian intellectual close to the national-Bolsheviks (the "red-brown" Russians), a sympathizer of Holocaust denier Professor [Robert] Faurisson…And yet the members of the Grande Orient had had a narrow escape.
The leader of an extreme right national-Bolshevik organization, out of consideration for the group, had
not come. In contrast to the preceding year in which, during the course of a meeting also held in the Grande
Orient, he had made a brilliant presentation on…sexual magic.
Yes, this very mixed and select group occupied itself with magic as well. It was its very reason for existence. Its name? The Group of Thebes…[in this context Thebes is a reference to] the capital of the empire of the [ancient Egyptian] Pharaohs… who, to believers in the esoteric tradition, held the secrets of the universe…
A secret society besides, it is said. But the Group of Thebes is not a school of mystery like the others. The originality of this organization is that it gathers together the leaders of occultist groups or personages
recognized in the small world of the initiates. A college of chiefs of some sort, whose existence is even more secret than that of the societies they direct…
The linchpin of the group is Rémi Boyer…[An employee of a Swiss non-governmental organization in his thirties who was obsessed with occultism from an early age,] Boyer decided to work toward federating the
small world of esotericism… After holding a couple of meetings and attempting to organize a federation of esoteric grouplets, including New Age cults and chivalric orders, under the rubric Arc-en-ciel
[Rainbow], he changed his approach and tried to organize] "another type of structure which, this time, brought together individuals. He worked on this with one of his close associates, Jean-Pierre Giudicelli,
the second pillar of the Group of Thebes.
Giudicelli had authority in esoteric circles…He headed the French section of Myriam, a Luciferian obedience whose teachings made an appeal to the sexual impulses of its adepts…This Corsican was well over forty, a
sympthizer of the pro-independence FLNC [Front de Liberation National Corse], and also still a fascist: a former member of Ordre Nouveau, he took part in the neo-fascist group Troisieme Voie until the end the
1980s, and was conspicuous among the assistants [assesseurs] of the Front National in Nice after the legislative elections of 1986…[This is in contrast to the politics of Boyer, who is an active supporter of liberal human rights organizations. Boyer defended his collaboration with Giudicelli by insisting that] "that which brings us together is more important than that which divides us"… In short, magic is above politics.
[The three objectives of the Group of Thebes, as set down by Boyer and Giudicelli, were to] "preserve the
authentic traditional paths", "verify the effectiveness of initiatic techniques", [and] "intervene in the esoteric scene"
…it was a matter of warding off the fanatics of every shade and other disciples in search of gurus. The Group of Thebes wanted to be a club of serious people anchored in
tradition and orthodoxy. The Khmer Rouge of alchemy.
In order to work in peace, the most absolute secrecy had to be observed: "the group will not function according to the work modalities typical of the profane world (no declared statutes, no bank account
opened in its name, no direct interventions)…" During the process, a second structure was created: the Circle of Alexandria. An antechamber of the Group of Thebes, it was intended to welcome the pretenders and
the guests. However, "the Circle of Alexandria's associate members and guests were unaware of the name Group of Thebes."
On 3 June 1990, in Paris, the foundation meeting [of the Group of Thebes] was held. Fifteen or so participants attended this first conclave. Among them, a heavyweight: the Italian Massimo Introvigne. This
Turinese university professor is the author of a book on magical movements…and director of the Center for the Study of New Religions (CESNUR), an observation post presided over by the Archbishop of Foggia,
Monsignor [Giuseppe] Casale. In effect Introvigne is one of the principal leaders of Alleanza Cattolica, a traditionalist community which, while it has remained very close to the Vatican, has long maintained
friendly relations with Monsignor Lefebvre.
[Among the respectable participants] were Gerard Kloppel, international grand master of illuminati's Memphis Misraim lodge, a masonic obedience that claims 7000 members - 1000 in France - who arrived with his
wife. The Templars of Circe sent their number two man, Jean-Marie Vergerio. This would be his only appearance, since upon further reflection the Circe Templars preferred to pursue their path separately.
With one exception: the chancellor in Greece of the Templar obedience Triantaphyllos, Kotzamanis.
But alongside these honorable erudites or initiates, several less recommendable persons appeared. Like Georges Magne de Cressac - one of the loyalists of Giudicelli, the co-founder of the Group of Thebes -
who had participated in the organization of a Robert Faurrison meeting in Limoges on 10 September 1987. Or the Belgian Jean-Marie D'Asembourg. One turns up his name in the patronage committee of the Russian
politico-esoteric journal Milii Angel. Who is the editor and patron of this journal? Alexander Dugin, the number two man in the Russian National-Bolshevik Front.
However, these two rascals [lascars] are only retired pensioners on half pay [demi-soldes] compared to the most controversial figure of the Group of Thebes, Christian Bouchet. A former leader of the Comités
d'Action Republicaines - a satellite organization of the RPR - this Nantes native rejoined Alain de Benoist's GRECE at the beginning of the 1980s, then the extreme right group Troisième Voie, headed by
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis. A formation which, in spite of its small number of adherents, was always distinguished by its activism and by a discourse which was both anti-American and anti-Soviet. In July 1991,
the organization broke apart. Bouchet quit Troisième Voie and brought a group of militants along with him.
Several weeks later he founded Nouvelle Resistance (NR), a national-Bolshevik organization. His principal adversary: the United States, the incarnation of the capitalist system, which he accused of destroying the
identity of peoples. All those who resisted American power and industrial society could thus become potential allies. A profession of faith which has led NR, in addition to its ongoing campaigns against
Euro-Disney and McDonald's, to infiltrate [groups of] young ecologists (see Les Événements du Jeudi #428) and the Committee for Lifting the Embargo Against Iraq (see ibid #463). On the international level, the
organization is linked to the Russian National-Bolshevik Front - Bouchet has personally gone to Moscow several times - but also to a myriad of small European "red-brown" groups who have joined
together in the European Liberation Front.
How did Bouchet find himself integrated into the Group of Thebes? Quite simply, this history student is one of the most knowledgeable experts on, and biographers of, Aleister Crowley, one of the Popes of esotericism.
It is to [Crowley] that he devoted his master's thesis, which has since been published. An exegete of Crowley, Bouchet is likewise his disciple. He is a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), the
obedience founded by the English magician. A group which, by its own admission, has never exceeded fifteen members in France.
Giudicelli, Georges Magne de Cressac, Jean-Marie d'Asembourg, Christian Bouchet…[Perhaps someone will now become alarmed enough to protest.] Professor Massimo Introvigne, for example. But no, the
theologian isn't troubled. "One is aware of encountering extremists in that milieu," he explains.
"Esotericism demands an absolute commitment, something which is rarely made by politically lukewarm people. Besides, you know," continues the scholar, "I am above all a researcher. For me the Group of Thebes is a
marvellous terrain for study." [As for Gerard Kloppel, he is] delighted to count "high-ranking policemen" among the leaders of Memphis Misraim. Certain sources inside the Group of Thebes likewise took account of
the presence of a DST [the French equivalent of the FBI] official among the leaders of Memphis Misraim. Without, however, being able to determine if he was or was not on an infiltration mission…
It is therefore not surprising that as the months passed other political fanatics joined the Group of Thebes. Thierry Roche, for example, president in 1988 of the Kemit association, a satellite of GRECE. Or
even PAOLO FOGNALO, a former member of the Milanese column of the Red Brigades. After he was incarcerated, the Sefira - the equivalent of the Virgin in the esoteric tradition - appeared before him. It's also
true that during this period the revolutionary was observing a prolonged hunger strike…Today the animator of Radio Popolare, the station of the Milanese branch of Rifondazione Comunista, Fogagnolo heads
the Fraternita Rosa Croce Dorei ed Antica and its profane branch, the political-philosophical group Prometheus
with Ing.CELESTINO ANTONIO ZUCCOTTI, Sovrano Gran Ispett.Gen R:.S:.A:.A:: G:.Ierofante Mass.Egyptien
deMenphis e M.'. G:.Maest. della G:.L:.PREALPINA Rito.Simbolico.Its purposes: "…to sensitize the masses to the fact that revolutionary communism should be wedded to spiritual sacredness, like Christianity at its origins…to practice alchemy in its diverse aspects…to make a revolution." A vast program.
For its part, the Group of Thebes wishes to be more traditionalist. There one is above all in favor of magic. The "operating groups", i.e., the workshops, multiply. On the menu, "Incantations and Words of
Power", "Spiritual Hierarchies", "Angels and Demons", "Magic Wands", "The Dangers of Practical Magic"…Another satellite organization is created: the Centre International de Recherches et d'Etudes
Martinistes (CIREM), charged with diffusing those communications of the group that are accessible to the profane. Its journal, L'Esprit des Choses, nevertheless contains some surprises. In issue #4-5,
dated Spring 1993, one can find an article entitled "Pensées sur le Christ et le christianisme" which is written by Sri Chinmoy, a guru who flatters himself, among other things, for having written 843 poems in 24
hours, painted 140,000 pictures since birth, and composed 6000 musical pieces…
One also finds the extreme right leader [Bouchet, who appeared at a 1992 CESNUR conference in Paris] at the head of an internal commission called Tradition et Politis. Its object: to study the "different models of
society which have been proposed by initiatory societies since Antiquity." A workshop whose sessions must have been very animated, since the second coordinator of the group was
none other than Paolo Fogagnolo, the former Red Brigadist.
Paris en Printemps
"At the end of the 1970's, a certain Bernard Fréon-Montenay created in Paris the Ordo Argenteum Astrum, the QBLH group, the Fraternité Hermetique du Dragon Lunaire, as well as an OTO Lodge. At first he
tried to get recognition out of the Caliphate OTO, and then had pretensions to a link with the OTO Antiqua [in 1983]. Later it seems that this group became the Ordre des Anges de l'Apocalypse.' [9]
To this William W. Webb, head of the QBL Alchemist Church, and his own Argenteum Astrum stated: "In regard Bernard Fréon. In 1980 he wrote me... then I did not hear from him until 1988... he had gone out of
his mind... (he was Nuts)." [10] In any case, Motta had named Fréon in his roll of dishonour. [11]
Fogagnolo in Italy kept up a relationship with the French Order-enthusiast and collector Christian Bouchet, a member of the French section of the 'Caliphate'. Bouchet had received an MM Charter from
Lamparter on June 24th 1991, which was apparently intended to "Fuck the Caliphate" in copyright matters. Consequently Bouchet now proclaimed the National French Grand Lodge of the Krumm-Hellerian O.T.O.,
disregarding the fact that his Charter from Lamparter was wholly inadequate for this purpose, as it conferred no O.T.O. titles.
As Lamparter had first got hold of the Memphis-Misraim degrees in the autumn of 1991, the MM degrees Bouchet provided him with were null and void. Bouchet also seems to have been mixed up in the murky world of
neo-fascism; on October 1st 1991 he was expelled from the far-right 'Troisième Voie' ['Third Way'] political movement by Jean-Gilles Malliarakis. [12]
Afterwards nhe founded the 'Nouvelles Résistances' political organisation in Nantes. [13]
Bouchet's friend Remi Boyer (allegedly an adviser to the French Ministry of Justice) [14] founded a group
called the 'Cercle d'Alexandrie', which dedicated itself not [for once] to ritual practices, but to theoretical studies, such as forming a collection. It is not entirely clear whether this organisation was identical with a so-called 'Thebe Group', although the same members appear in both.
Among the motley crew who made up this circle, there could be found not only 'serious' researchers, like Serge Caillet (of Memphis-Misraim) or Robert Amadou (priest in the Église Syrienne, and a frequent guest
of the weightier Freemasons in Zurich), but also such illustrious personages as the elixir of life merchant Jean-Pierre Giudicelli de Cressac Bachelerie (of Memphis-Misraim in Nice), [15] or Jean-Pascal Ruggiu (of the 'Golden Dawn' in Paris!), [16] and so forth.
At one stage, Boyer apparently tried to obtain an F.R.A. Charter.
In the autumn of 1991 Fogagnolo severed his links with the Frenchmen, since as a radical left-winger he found
these gentlemen to be "fascistoid". Fogagnolo's 'Agape-Prometeo' group was involved in the "revolutionary political fight for Spiritual communism." Even so the Buddhist Master Namkhai Norbu, who was recognised by the Dalai Lama, frequented Fogagnolo's group connected to Grand Master Celestino Antonio Zuccotti a personal friend of the Dalai Lama.
I visited Brother Celestino not so long ago because I use to like his critical view over Freemasonry and I still do but Grand Master Celestino his still too much into the western illuminati powerstructure to completely give up and become a true Master.
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Gaza medics describe horror of strike which killed 70
Growing evidence emerged today of the bloodiest single incident of the Gaza conflict when around 70 corpses were found by a Palestinian paramedic near a bombed-out house.
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 9:25AM GMT 08 Jan 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4162193/Gaza-medics-describe-horror-of-strike-which-killed-70.html
Mohammed Shaheen, a volunteer with Palestinian Red Crescent, was in the first convoy of ambulances to reach the site of the blast in Zeitoun since it was first occupied then shelled by the Israeli army
His testimony confirmed accounts, first reported in The Telegraph, from survivors of the extended al Samouni clan who said they feared between 60 and 70 family members had been killed.
"Inside the Samouni house I saw about ten bodies and outside another sixty,'' Mr Shaheen said.
"I was not able to count them accurately because there was not much time and we were looking for wounded people.
"We found fifteen people still alive but injured so we took them in the ambulances.
"I could see an Israeli army bulldozer knocking down houses nearby but we ran out of time and the Israeli soldiers started shooting at us.
"We had to leave about eight injured people behind because we could not get to them and it was no longer safe for us to stay.'' Mr Shaheen was in a convoy led by a jeep from the International Committee of the Red Cross that made its way down war-damaged tracks past demolished houses to the town of Zeitoun.
Concerns had been growing that Zeitoun had witnessed massive civilian casualties after surviving members of the Samouni clan reached Gaza City three days ago.
They said that after the Israeli army first took the town on Saturday night soldiers had ordered about 100 members of the clan to gather in a single house owned by Wael Samouni around dawn on Sunday.
At 6.35am on Monday the house was repeatedly shelled with appalling loss of civilian life.
A handful of survivors, some wounded, others carrying dead or dying infants, made it on foot to Gaza's main north-south road before they were given lifts to hospital. Three small children were buried in Gaza City that afternoon.
According to the survivors between 60 and 70 family members had been killed by shrapnel and falling masonry.
Convoys of ambulances twice headed to the area to look for wounded but they were driven back by Israeli shooting.
During today's three hour lull in offensive operations by Israel, the ICRC led the rescue convoy in although it took a long time for the convoy to make its way down war-damaged.
According to Mr Shaheen, the death toll was as high as described by the survivors.
Israeli conflict on the web
- Aljazeera: War on Gaza
- Life must go on in Gaza and in Sderot
- A Mother from Gaza
- Tales to Tell
- A Soldier's Mother
- Isaellycool
- West Bank Mama
- Twitter on Gaza
- Twitter on Israel
World Rallies Against, For Gaza Airstrikes
As Diplomacy Fails To Halt Israeli Offensive, Protestors Lash Out Against Both Attacks On Hamas, Palestinian Rockets
(CBS/AP) Protests against Israel's airstrikes on Gaza continued around the world, as calls for a ceasefire were raised - along with cries for revenge.Meanwhile, thousands of Jews and Christians are expected at demonstrations to be held this weekend in New York, London, Toronto, Miami, Washington, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv to protest Hamas' rocket attacks from Gaza.
Some activists are billing the demonstrations as counter-rallies against what they call "assemblies of hatred for Jews and Israel."
Sunday's protest in Miami, to be held at the Holocaust Memorial, is billed as the Rally For Israel to Destroy Hamas.
The protests are ramping up as Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip enters its second week, with warplanes and gunboats blasting more than two dozen Hamas positions Saturday.
"We will do all that is necessary to provide a different reality for southern Israel, which has been under constant attacks for the past eight years," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Channel 2 TV.
The complexity of protesting military strikes in Gaza was recognized as far away from the Middle East as Sioux Falls, S.D., where about 50 people gathered in 16-degree weather Friday near the Islamic Center to denounce U.S. aid to Israel, saying Israel's actions have killed civilians.
Protester Mohamed Sharif of Sioux Falls said they want an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian aid to the people living in Gaza.
"People are being deprived of their necessities, water and medicine and food and clothes. Now they're being killed. This is what we're opposing, the killing of civilians," Sharif said.
South Dakota Peace and Justice Center director Deb McIntyre attended the rally and said the U.S. shouldn't pay for Israel's militarism.
The issue is more complex, others said.
"Certainly, the protesters in Sioux Falls have a legitimate complaint about the Israeli attacks," said Kurt Hackemer, a University of South Dakota history professor. "But the flip side is the Israelis have been taking rocket fire from Hamas for months now. There have been Israeli deaths and casualties."
The bitter divide was evident across the globe.
In Lebanon Saturday, hundreds gathered outside the United Nations compound in Beirut, carrying flags and banners supporting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
Palestinians in Lebanon have been protesting for the past eight days to show their solidarity with the people of Gaza.
A number of Hezbollah lawmakers and supporters also took part in Saturday's protest. (Hundreds of shoes lie in the street after protesters attempted to throw shoes into Downing Street in London, Jan. 3, 2009. Thousands voiced their anger at the bombing of Gaza in a series of rallies across the U.K, Saturday.)
The Head of Hezbollah's political bureau, Mahmoud Qomati vowed that Hamas' response to the Israeli military offensive will be similar to that of Hezbollah during Israel's war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
"The resistance in Gaza is preparing surprises for the Israeli enemy," said Qomati, who promised Israelis "will be surprised in Gaza with a fierce, brave, and heroic confrontation which will lead to their defeat, God willing."
Police in Berlin said about 2,000 protestors marched with banners and Palestinian flags from Adenauer Platz to Wittenbergplatz. Protestors chanted "Stop the child murder at Palestine" and "Stop the blockade at Palestine."
Protestor Achmed Otur said Israel's policy with the Palestinians "just creates distrust between East and West, between Muslims and Christians and Jews. It only divides and all trust is destroyed in this kind of world."
While international pressure for a ceasefire has been growing, protestor Malik Hamudsaid said, "We only see conferences talking about fighting terrorism one day. Is this how one fights terror, by slaughtering people and by saying you are not allowed to do something? Terror is when you spread fear and terror among the civilians, and what Israel is doing is pure terror."
In The Netherlands, thousands of people marched through Amsterdam, criticizing both the Israeli attacks and the Dutch government's failure to condemn them. One banner declared: "Anne Frank is turning in her grave."
Barbed Wire And Skulls
In Bogota, Colombia, demonstrators walking through the streets set fire to self-styled Israeli and U.S. flags, complete with drawings of barbed wire and skulls.
Ali Nofal, a protester of Palestinian origin participating at the rally in the Colombian capital, said that an end to the Gaza conflict is in the hands of the Israeli government, "because we, the Palestinian people, have nothing to say to this policy of aggression. The entire world and the U.N. Council have the way to end this, the Western world has the way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
In Cyprus, 2,000 demonstrators, including Palestinians and Greek and Turkish Cypriots, converged Saturday in the center of the Cypriot capital of Nicosia. It was the largest protest on the Mediterranean island so far on the issue of Gaza.
The peaceful rally turned violent when some protesters tried to pull away barbed wire and break through a line of riot police blocking a road leading to the Israeli embassy.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators pelted Cypriot riot police with rocks, sticks, shoes and oranges.
The demonstrators eventually stopped and dispersed after protest leaders pleaded with them to stop.
In Athens, however, a protest march turned violent, as protesters threw stones and fire bombs at riot police, who retaliated with tear gas and stun grenades.
An estimated 5,000 protesters marched from the city center to the Israeli embassy on Saturday. Police cordoned off the embassy.
Most of the protesters were Palestinians but leftist organizations and union members also joined in. Outside the embassy, anarchist youths joined the fray, targeting Greek police rather than the embassy. An Israeli flag was burned by demonstrators.
Some protesters also threw stones at the U.S. embassy without causing damage.
In Jakarta, hundreds of Indonesians from various Muslim groups staged a protest in front of the U.S. embassy on Saturday to voice their concern over Israel's military offensive on Gaza.
The protesters demanded the U.S stop their support of Israel and called for solidarity among Muslim brothers within Indonesia.
Jeje Zainuddin, a Muslim youth group leader, said, "I think all the nations agree that what Israel has done is inhuman, but the problem is, will the international community dare to condemn Israel's actions?"
"We still hope that the United Nations and America will get involved in the process, because this is not just about Muslims, it's about universal human rights," Zainuddin said.
At a protest yesterday outside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Calgary constituency office, demonstrators compared Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Adolph Hitler.
Muslim Council of Calgary chairman Nagah Hage denounced Olmert as a Nazi for what he called the "barbaric" bombing of Gaza, and said Harper's support for Israel makes him complicit in the Gaza bloodbath.
A lone counter-demonstrator defending Israel's right to stop Hamas rocket attacks was cursed by the crowd.
More Throwing Of Shoes
In London, several thousand people, many carrying Palestinian flags, marched past Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street residence to a rally in Trafalgar Square. Outside Downing Street, hundreds of protesters stopped and threw shoes at the tall iron gates blocking entry to the narrow road.
Shoe-throwing has become a popular gesture of protest and contempt since an Iraqi journalist pelted U.S. President George W. Bush with a pair of brogues in Baghdad last month.
Among the London marchers were activist Bianca Jagger, ex-Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox and comedian Alexei Sayle.
"As a Jew, it's very moving to see so many people who are so outraged at Israel's actions," Sayle said. "Israel is a democratic country that is behaving like a terrorist organization."
Rallies were being held in other British cities, including Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.
Outside the Israeli Embassy tempers flared, as protestors threw a barrier at police.
The clashes began after a small group of protesters stormed a barrier that had been penning them in. Riot police were brought in to control the crowds and demonstrators were seen being handcuffed and taken away by officers as they tried to clear the street.
Several protesters left the scene with bloodied faces, according to a reporter from the Press Association.
Brown's office said Saturday the British leader had phoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and called for an immediate ceasefire.
"Rocket attacks from Hamas must stop, and we have called for a halt to Israeli military action in Gaza," a spokesman said, on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. "Too many have died and we need space to get humanitarian supplies to those who need them."
President George W. Bush has declined to criticize Israel, branding Hamas rocket fire an "act of terror." But he has joined other world leaders in calling for an internationally monitored truce.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon also has backed a cease-fire, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to visit the region next week as part of a diplomatic push to stop the violence.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/03/world/main4696645.shtml
The clashes began after a small group of protesters stormed a barrier that had been penning them in. Riot police were brought in to control the crowds and demonstrators were seen being handcuffed and taken away by officers as they tried to clear the street.
The Head of Hezbollah's political bureau, Mahmoud Qomati vowed that Hamas' response to the Israeli military offensive will be similar to that of Hezbollah during Israel's war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
Israeli Offensive On Gaza Enters 2nd Week
Stories:
- Israeli Forces Draw Near Gaza City
- Israel, Hamas Defy Calls For Cease-Fire
- Diplomacy Efforts Struggling
- Hamas Rejects Egypt's Cease-Fire Plan
- U.N. Halts Aid To Gaza After Worker Killed
- Red Cross: Humanitarian Crisis
- Gaza Hospital In Crisis
- The History Behind Gaza Conflict
In-Depth:
Video:
Israel To Gazans: Brace For MoreLeaflets Warn Of Escalation As Offensive Begins Third Week, Forces Edge Near Gaza City; U.N. To Resume Aid Shipments
CBSNews.com Front Page |
RSS
5 Somalis Drown With Pirate BootyEscape Craft Capsizes In Storm After Ransom Paid; Freed Saudi Tanker En Route Home, Crew Safe
Demonstrators in Marseille, France, carry a large Palestinian flag in a protest against Israel's military operation in Gaza, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009. The banner reads "Israel terrorist state, Europe accomplice." (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest Israel's military operation in Gaza, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009 in Duesseldorf, Germany. (AP Photo/Roberto Pfeil)
Supporters of Israel's recent attacks on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rally at the Federal Building in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 2, 2009. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
An Israeli Arab girl joins thousands protesting Israel's military operation in Gaza, in the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin, Jan. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Ending the War in Gaza
Middle East Briefing N°26
5 January 2009
OVERVIEW
The newly-elected Congress has been sworn in?and has a chance to urge a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza that would end the violence, including Israel's shelling and ground attack and Hamas's rockets; end weapons smuggling, and open Gaza's border crossings to ease the humanitarian crisis.
Follow the link below, enter your information, and we'll connect your phone directly to the offices of your Senators and Representative. It's incredibly easy, and won't cost you any more than an incoming call:
http://www.avaaz.org/avaaz_
The bloodshed in Gaza is escalating. Israeli tanks, airplanes and artillery bombard suspected Hamas sites in the midst of thickly populated urban areas, and Hamas continues to fight and fire rockets deep into Israel. More than 600 lay dead in Palestine, including more than 100 children, and eleven Israelis have lost their lives.[1]
Amidst the violence, more than 250,000 Avaaz members worldwide have signed the emergency petition calling for an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides.[2] The idea is winning the support of leaders in Europe, the Middle East and beyond. But Bush continues to block such a step, insisting he will only support an imposed ceasefire on Israel's terms rather than one based on negotiations with all parties. Without a fair agreement, the violence will only continue.[3]
This week, your Senators and Representative will almost certainly consider statements and resolutions related to Gaza. Most in Congress feel that they can't do anything more than offer support and sympathy to Israel and reaffirm its right to defend itself.
Congress needs to know that it can and must do more?that many Americans are horrified by the current violence, and want an immediate fair ceasefire to make sure civilians on both sides are protected. Click now to call your Senators and Representative using our easy-to-use new call-in tool to urge statements of support for a ceasefire:
http://www.avaaz.org/avaaz_
Thanks for everything you've done so far to advocate for an end to this round of violence.
With hope,
Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Ben, Alice, Pascal, Milena, Paul, Veronique, Luis, Paula, Brett -- and the rest of the Avaaz team
SOURCES:
1. Associated Press: "Israel Shells Near UN School, killing at least 30" (5 January 2009)
//www.google.com/
2. See the "Gaza: Stop the Bloodshed" petition at Avaaz.org:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_
3. "Gaza: outlines of an endgame", Ghassan Khatib (6 January 2009):
http://www.opendemocracy.net/
Al-Jazeera: "Arab ministers hold UN ceasefire talks" (6 January 2009):
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Associated Press: "Diplomats seek truce as civilian toll rises" (5 January 2009): //www.google.com/
International Crisis Group's Ending the War in Gaza report (5 January 2009):
http://www.crisisgroup.org/
http://carolnovack.blogspot.com/2009/01/urge-comprehensive-ceasefire-in-gaza.html
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Urge a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza
The newly-elected Congress has been sworn in—and has a chance to urge a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza that would end the violence, including Israel's shelling and ground attack and Hamas's rockets; end weapons smuggling, and open Gaza's border crossings to ease the humanitarian crisis.
Follow the link below, enter your information, and we'll connect your phone directly to the offices of your Senators and Representative. It's incredibly easy, and won't cost you any more than an incoming call:
http://www.avaaz.org/avaaz_gaza_congress_action
The bloodshed in Gaza is escalating. Israeli tanks, airplanes and artillery bombard suspected Hamas sites in the midst of thickly populated urban areas, and Hamas continues to fight and fire rockets deep into Israel. More than 600 lay dead in Palestine, including more than 100 children, and eleven Israelis have lost their lives.[1]
Amidst the violence, more than 250,000 Avaaz members worldwide have signed the emergency petition calling for an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides.[2] The idea is winning the support of leaders in Europe, the Middle East and beyond. But Bush continues to block such a step, insisting he will only support an imposed ceasefire on Israel's terms rather than one based on negotiations with all parties. Without a fair agreement, the violence will only continue.[3]
This week, your Senators and Representative will almost certainly consider statements and resolutions related to Gaza. Most in Congress feel that they can't do anything more than offer support and sympathy to Israel and reaffirm its right to defend itself.
Congress needs to know that it can and must do more—that many Americans are horrified by the current violence, and want an immediate fair ceasefire to make sure civilians on both sides are protected. Click now to call your Senators and Representative using our easy-to-use new call-in tool to urge statements of support for a ceasefire:
http://www.avaaz.org/avaaz_gaza_congress_action
Thanks for everything you've done so far to advocate for an end to this round of violence.
With hope,
Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Ben, Alice, Pascal, Milena, Paul, Veronique, Luis, Paula, Brett -- and the rest of the Avaaz team
SOURCES:
1. Associated Press: "Israel Shells Near UN School, killing at least 30" (5 January 2009)
//www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HTJE00
2. See the "Gaza: Stop the Bloodshed" petition at Avaaz.org:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/22.php
3. "Gaza: outlines of an endgame", Ghassan Khatib (6 January 2009):
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/gaza-outlines-of-an-endgame
Al-Jazeera: "Arab ministers hold UN ceasefire talks" (6 January 2009):
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/20091522052418539.html
Associated Press: "Diplomats seek truce as civilian toll rises" (5 January 2009): //www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HCD4G3
International Crisis Group's Ending the War in Gaza report (5 January 2009):
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5838&l=1
Israel shells near UN school, killing at least 30
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and STEVE WEIZMAN –//www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HTJE00
GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) — Israeli mortar shells struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people — many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded.
The Israeli army said its soldiers came under fire from militants hiding in the school and responded. It accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of "cynically" using civilians as human shields. Residents confirmed the account, saying militants were seen staging attacks from the area.
Despite international criticism over civilian deaths and a diplomatic push to broker a cease-fire, Israeli said it would push on with the offensive against Hamas.
Israeli ground forces edged closer to two major Gaza towns, and a total of 70 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said. A top U.N. official called for an investigation into the civilian death toll.
Past Israeli ground offensives have been cut short when an errant shell or missile hit a civilian center, leading to international outcries that forced Israel to stand down.
The shelling Tuesday in the northern town of Jebaliya marked the second time in hours a U.N. school came under attack; three people were killed in an attack on another U.N. school in Gaza City on Monday night.
Tuesday's assault was the deadliest since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend as part of a larger offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 600 Palestinians, according to local hospital officials. Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.
"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the Monday night attack on the compound of a U.N. school. The school has served as a shelter for refugees fleeing the 11-day offensive.
A Palestinian rocket — one of two dozen fired from Gaza on Tuesday — wounded an Israeli infant.
Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said 36 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the U.N. school in Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured by tank shells.
In a statement, the Israeli army said an initial investigation found that "mortar shells were fired from within the school at IDF soldiers. The force responded with mortars at the source of fire. The Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields."
The army said two Hamas militants — Imad Abu Askar and Hasan Abu Askar — were among the dead.
Two neighborhood residents confirmed the Israeli account, saying a group of militants fired mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets. Israel then opened fire.
The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety, said the Abu Askar brothers were known low-level Hamas militants.
The attack occurred at mid-afternoon, when many people were out and about. Many people apparently stepped outside the shelter to get some air, thinking an area around a school was safe.
Palestinian militants frequently fire from residential areas. However, Mohammed Nassar, a medic who treated the wounded, said he saw no gunmen among the casualties.
Footage broadcast on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV showed gruesome scenes at the hospital. At first, medics carried in at least five younger boys who were laid out on the hospital floor. It was not clear whether they were alive.
Other medics then started unloading bodies of men who had been stacked up in the back of an ambulance, three high, and were dragged without stretchers. One man's legs had been turned into bloody stumps that dragged on the ground as he was pulled from the ambulance.
The emergency room was packed, with all beds occupied and barely a patch of ground unoccupied by either a body or a doctor. In other rooms, there were bloodstains and bodies on the floor. Medics ran in to take pulses.
"I saw a lot of women and children wheeled in," said Fares Ghanem, another hospital official. "A lot of the wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in pieces."
Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, said he rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. At the hospital, he said, many children were among the dead.
"I saw women and men — parents — slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead," he said. "In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded."
He said there were marks of five separate explosions, all in the area near the school.
U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel's army to ensure their buildings in Gaza are not targeted.
Speaking shortly after the first attack, Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, demanded an investigation.
"As one of the most densely populated places in the world, it is clear that more civilians will be killed," he said. "These tragic incidents need to be investigated, and if international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must held accountable."
In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it "the darkest moment yet for the Middle East." He said he had been in touch with world leaders, including from Egypt and Turkey, to discuss ways to forge a cease-fire.
Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend.
Ten Israelis have died since the operation began, including a soldier who was shot on Tuesday.
United Nations staff estimate around 15,000 people have fled to 23 U.N.-run schools they have turned into makeshift shelters. U.N. food aid has halted in the northern Gaza Strip because officials fear residents would risk their lives to reach distribution centers.
Tanks rumbled closer to the towns of Khan Younis and Dir el Balah in south and central Gaza but were still several kilometers (miles) outside, witnesses said, adding that the sounds of fighting could be heard from around the Israeli positions. Israel has encircled Gaza City, the area's biggest city.
The civilian death toll has drawn international condemnations and raised concerns of a humanitarian disaster. Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say food supplies are running thin.
"This is not a crisis, it's a disaster," said water utility official Munzir Shiblak. "We are not even able to respond to the cry of the people." He said about 800,000 residents in Gaza City and northern parts of the territory had no access to running water from Tuesday. Gaza's overall population is 1.4 million people.
Israel says it won't stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to stop the offensive soon, but said it would depend on Hamas' willingness to stop attacks and stop smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
"We have no interest in endlessly continuing the campaign. It will stop when the conditions that are essential for Israel's security are met," he said in the rocket-scarred southern Israeli town of Sderot.
The army says it has dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. Hamas is believed to have 20,000 fighters.
Israeli forces have seized the main Gaza highway in several places, cutting the strip into northern, southern and central sectors. Israel also has taken over high-rise buildings in Gaza City and destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels — Hamas' main lifeline — along the Egyptian border.
A high-level European Union delegation met with President Shimon Peres on Tuesday in a futile bid to end the violence. Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner acknowledged Israel's right to self-defense, but said its response was disproportionate.
"We have come to Israel in order to advance the initiative for a humanitarian cease-fire and I will tell you, Mr. President, that you have a serious problem with international advocacy, and that Israel's image is being destroyed," she said, according to a statement from Peres' office.
Israeli leaders say there is no humanitarian crisis and that they have allowed the delivery of vital supplies.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Israel after a day of meetings with leaders.
Sarkozy continued to Damascus, urging Syria on Tuesday to pressure Hamas to end the fighting. His Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, slammed the Israeli assault on the coastal strip as a "war crime" and "barbaric," an "aggression" that Israel must halt.
In Washington, the State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was traveling to the United Nations Tuesday to try to broker a sustainable cease-fire.
She planned meetings with Arab and European diplomats to lobby for a three-tiered U.S. truce proposal and will then attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Key elements demanded by the U.S.: an end to rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and securing border crossings between Gaza and Israel and between Gaza and Egypt.
Israel's operation has angered many across the Arab world and has drawn criticism from Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which have ties with Israel and have been involved in Mideast peacemaking.
Barzak reported from Gaza City, Weizman from Jerusalem.
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