World-News

by Stephen Zunes, TomPaine.com

The Bush administration's callous Middle East policy finds support on both sides of the aisle.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/15/the_democrats_lebanon_failure.php

Christian Science Monitor
by Ann Zwicker Kerr

08/14/06

America is murdering the values it taught us,' my former fellow classmate from the American University of Beirut (AUB) cried out when I visited her in Amman this spring. Salma's words echoed the pain my family and I had been living with for 22 years, since two unidentified gunmen assassinated my husband on the campus of the American University of Beirut -- pain that is reinforced with each day of bombing in Lebanon and Israel and underscored by the many recent deaths in Qana and elsewhere, as well as the insubstantial cease-fire. 'Oh, how I miss Malcolm,' Salma said to me, referring to my husband. She was implying that he was an American in a position of influence whom she could trust and who could interpret the Muslim world to the West. 'Islam is so distorted and misunderstood -- it makes me feel more Muslim than I ever felt before'...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0814/p09s01-coop.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

UK: Guardian [UK]

08/14/06

Police are pressing ministers for radical new powers to dispense instant justice, including the immediate exclusion of 'yobs' from town centres at night, and bans on street gang members associating with each other, the Guardian has learned. Senior officers say the powers would be the 'modern equivalent of a clip round the ear from the local bobby' and would ensure the introduction of neighbourhood policing across England and Wales has 'bite' and meets public expectations. ... But the proposals have alarmed human rights campaigners. Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said: 'This looks like instant police justice and a return to the infamous sus laws. Surely the many officers who are proud of our consent-based policing tradition will resent the idea of being legislator, judge and jury on the cheap?' Alan Gordon, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said he was not sure that he was in favour of the police imposing any form of sentence: 'The enforcement of the law and then a form of punishment should be two separate processes'...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1844813,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/4954/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Ein Versuch, den Libanon-Krieg rational zu erklären

Was steckt hinter dem neuen Libanonkrieg? Was sind die wirklichen Kriegsgründe? Was die finalen Kriegsziele? Die bisherigen offiziellen Erklärungen taugen nicht viel. Eine bessere Erklärung betrachtet diesen Krieg im größeren Kontext: Der Libanonkrieg ist ein Vorab-Präventivkrieg zum bevorstehenden direkten Präventivkrieg gegen den Iran: Mithilfe des Libanonkriegs wollen die USA & Israel ihre Ausgangsposition im Krieg gegen den Iran optimieren. Die geplante UN-Stationierung von Truppen (inklusive von Truppen aus NATO-Staaten) im Libanon ist eine wesentliche Komponente dieser Strategie…“ Artikel von Georg Meggle auf telepolis vom 08.08.2006

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23286/1.html



Der Krieg und die Medien

Wahrheit in der Wüste - Wie Berichte über Krisen und Kriege entstehen

„Wie aus Todes-Schwadronen "Elite-Formationen" werden: Die Regierungen im Nahen Osten sind Meister der Desinformation - viele Medien sind nicht in der Lage, die Lügen aufzudecken…“ Artikel von Rudolph Chimelli in der Süddeutschen Zeitung vom 09.08.2006

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ausland/artikel/464/82382/



Aus: LabourNet, 14. August 2006

David Halpin MB BS FRCS

Dr. Bashir Sham, member of "French Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons", explains that the way the corpses look when they reach the hospital, especially those from the 'air strikes' in Doueir and Rmayleih, is very abnormal. "One might think they were burnt , but their colour is dark, they're inflated, and they have a terrible smell.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14530.htm

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060821fa_fact


Informant: Lew Rockwell

--------

Washington’s Interests In Israel’s war

By Seymour M. Hersh

The Bush Administration, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14526.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060814/wl_afp/mideastconflictus_060813183058


Informant: Richard



Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/081206.html


Informant: Gary



As the 6am ceasefire takes effect the real war begins
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1219037.ece


Informant: Bob Banner

According to Seymour Hersh, President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah's heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081306Y.shtml

It’s amazing really that nobody sees the paradox of Reid calling for the abolition of what’s left of our civil rights in order to preserve them but then there’s nothing logical about the ‘war on terror’, it is itself a contradiction of terms.

http://www.williambowles.info/ini/2006/0806/ini-0445.html


From Information Clearing House

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1842894,00.html


From Information Clearing House

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14523.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=barbarism

Looking into the face of war - Warning - Images show the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14503.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0811-03.htm

Israel Asks US to Ship Rockets With Wide Blast, Fast
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0811-08.htm

http://www.charlesglass.net/archives/2006/07/a_clear_sign_of.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/4943/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Israel has been using illegal cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon. Human Rights Watch researchers working on the ground confirmed that an attack with cluster weapons was carried out on the village of Blida on July 19, killing one and wounding at least 12 civilians, including seven children.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081106L.shtml

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=21


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the United States and the West were losing credibility in the Middle East because they were dragging their feet on a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. In an interview with the Egyptian magazine October, released on Thursday, Mubarak also said it would be impossible to implement quickly a UN resolution which requires Hezbollah to disarm - one of the steps Israel and the United States want to see in a political settlement of the month-old conflict.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006R.shtml

The UK might have to modify its freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their "misuse and abuse" by terrorists, John Reid has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5257518.stm



British Lose Their Minds

I'm sitting in Europe, scheduled to take British Air back to the states on Friday, and I'm watching British Authorities meltdown in the face of an alleged terrorist plot. Rule of thumb--initial, panicked reports are usually unreliable.

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/08/british_lose_th.html#more



Fake Terror Obfuscates Lebanon and Iraq Failures

Unable to window dress the obvious failure to eradicate growing resistance in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan—even with the mighty propaganda power of a complaisant media—the neocon intelligence apparatus has staged yet another terrorist event, or would be terrorist event.

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=513



Toying With Terror Alerts?

In the Bush era, the timing and quality of "arrests" and "warnings" have a suspicious ring.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1211369,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The government today suffered the first resignation over its stance on the Lebanon crisis. The Scottish MP Jim Sheridan resigned from his post within the defence team over the use of Prestwick airport for flights supplying arms to Israel.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14476.htm

By Fouad Siniora
Prime Minister of Lebanon.

A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic. We in Lebanon call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support my country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, which it has repeatedly and willfully violated.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14490.htm



Picture: Mass Funeral

Lebanese carry dead bodies in Beirut 09 August 2006 during a mass funeral of people killed in Israeli bombardment.

http://tinyurl.com/hvocf



Picture: 10 day old baby pulled from the rubble

Rescue workers use their bare hands to remove the dead body of ten day-old Lebanese baby Waad, liying in her mother's arms 08 August 2006, in the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike in Beirut late 07 August 2006.

http://tinyurl.com/hkq9r



Agencies warn of looming health crisis in Lebanon

Almost two-thirds of hospitals in the country could “cease to function” this week due to a shortage of fuel to run the generators, the World Health Organization said.

http://tinyurl.com/lf2p4



Israel destroying Lebanon, not Hizbullah

Israel could be destroying Lebanon while leaving the guerrilla group Hizbullah intact, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said on Thursday.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3289453,00.html


From Information Clearing House



Lebanon’s Descent into Hell

By Mike Whitney

The ghastly specter of mutilated corpses crushed beneath the twisted iron and powdery debris of bombed-out buildings only whets the appetites of the imperial warlords. They won’t be happy until the fire they started in Iraq consumes the entire Middle East in a pyramid of flames.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14471.htm



Why the Dems Have Failed Lebanon
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14480.htm



It is Lebanon, not Israel, that faces a threat to its existence in this war
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14488.htm



Lust for war
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14492.htm

Israel has approved a major escalation of war by voting to send thousands more troops deeper into Lebanon in an expanded offensive echoing its invasion nearly a quarter of a century ago.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006K.shtml

says Reid
Guardian [UK]

08/10/06

John Reid yesterday accused the government's anti-terror critics of putting national security at risk by their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain. "They just don't get it," he said. The home secretary yesterday gave the thinktank Demos his strongest hint yet that a new round of anti-terror legislation is on the way this autumn by warning that traditional civil liberty arguments were not so much wrong as just made for another age."Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse and abuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms in the modern world," he said... [Editor's note: 'Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety end up trading freedom for security'-Franklin-MLS]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1841019,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Called up to serve in the conflict against Hezbollah, Israeli reserve soldier Tom Mehagel decided he couldn't fight. "I don't believe that Hezbollah has any goal but destroying Israel," the artillery staff sergeant told IRIN. "But we shouldn't use our force against civilians."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080906T.shtml

A former CIA contract worker charged with beating an Afghan detainee who later died was "full of rage" during the man's interrogation and later admitted assaulting the prisoner, witnesses at the ex-contractor's trial said Tuesday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14438.htm

Requests from humanitarian organisations for clearance from the Israelis are now being refused. Even the Red Cross admits there is now, in effect, a blockade on a vast area along the Lebanese border where thousands of civilians are still cowering in their homes.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14433.htm

By Scott Ritter

One should not be fooled by the "false" diplomacy being waged by the United States, fronted by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14448.htm

http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=9496


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Dahr Jamail reports from Lebanon: "Red Cross ambulances, governmental emergency centers, UN peacekeeping forces and observers, media outlets, and mobile phone towers have all been bombed, each a violation of international law. Mosques and churches have been hit; illegal weapons such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous used; and, as far as can be told at this early point, over 90% of the victims killed have been civilians."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080906M.shtml

An oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed, the United Nations has said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080806R.shtml

Lebanon pleads for ceasefire as Israeli blitz kills 69

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora made a tearful plea for an end to the four-week conflict in Lebanon as 69 people were killed in a new blitz of air raids and Israel warned of no limit to its offensive.

http://tinyurl.com/e5m9b



Red Cross: Israel denying safe passage

The Israeli military has denied permission for aid groups to move food and medicine to besieged villages in southern Lebanon for two days.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15219903.htm



IDF warns UN troops will be attacked if they repair bridges

According to the UN, Israeli officials said the engineers would become a target if they attempted to repair the bridge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1839442,00.html


From Information Clearing House


In Pictures - The Killing Continues In Lebanon

- Warning -

Images depict the reality and horror of the destruction of Lebanon. Should only be viewed by a mature audience.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14419.htm



Into the Valley of Death

"Israel Has Made Itself the Least Safe Place in the World for a Jew to Live".

http://www.counterpunch.org/llewellyn08082006.html



Morocco: Peretz charged with 'war crimes'

Three Moroccan lawyers file lawsuit against defense minister over 'war crimes' committed against Lebanon, Palestinians.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3288299,00.html


From Information Clearing House

"It's Now Considered the American War Against the Arabs..."

Democracy Now!

Calling Israel's war in Lebanon a "catastrophe," the former president of Morgan Stanley International talks about the democrats' "huge mistake" in backing the Bush administration's Israel policy.

Click here to view - listen
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14411.htm

By Jimmy Carter

There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key UN resolutions, official American policy and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14417.htm

http://www.harpers.org/sb-israels-march-of-folly-1154984970.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Claims that US troops shot and killed up to six unarmed Afghan civilians two months ago in Kabul have been given added credibility with a series of photographs offering visual evidence of military misconduct.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080806A.shtml

„Direkte Gewalt und Politik der strukturellen Gewalt beherrschen seit Jahrzehnten die Konflikte im Nahen Osten. Friedenspolitische Ansätze werden immer wieder von Gewaltpolitik überrollt. Israel setzt, wie jetzt im Überfall auf den Libanon, wie auch die Hisbollah im asymmetrischen Krieg mit ihrem Raketenbeschuss auf israelische Städte, ganz auf die militärische Karte. Auch die internationale Unterstützung setzt vor allem auf Gewaltpolitik und liefert Waffen und Munition an die verfeindeten Gruppierungen. Gerechtfertigt wird dieses Engagement mit der angeblich notwendigen Fürsorge für Sicherheit und Verteidigung. Diese ruchlose Politik der militärischen Aufrüstung – die USA, Deutschland, Syrien, Iran und andere haben kräftig dazu beigetragen – führte zu den mörderischen Untaten der Vergangenheit und zu der jetzigen Situation, in der heuchlerisch der Tod von durch Bomben und Raketen ermordeten Kindern beklagt wird. Im Libanon sind fast eine Million Menschen auf der Flucht. Dies ist eine Größenordnung, die den Flüchtlingsströmen im Kosovo nach Beginn der NATO-Angriffe auf Serbien/Jugoslawien entspricht – Früchte der Gewaltpolitik, die auf allen Seiten terroristischen Charakter hat. Gegen diese Gewaltpolitik demonstrieren in zunehmenden Maße Friedensgruppen in Nahost und in aller Welt. (…) Wir gehen davon aus, dass Israel nur in Sicherheit leben kann, wenn es die Sicherheit und Gleichberechtigung auch der anderen Staaten und Völker in der Region anerkennt und es die Besatzungspolitik aufgibt zugunsten eines selbstständigen und lebensfähigen Palästinenser-Staates in den Grenzen von 1967…“ Manifest des Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie vom 7. August 2006 http://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/ub_showarticle.php?articleID=207


Aus: LabourNet, 8. August 2006

The government has said its case includes three paratroopers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division who will testify they saw Passaro beat Wali with his hands, his feet and a flashlight in June 2003.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/news/ci_4145837


From Information Clearing House

A Peak Oil Theory of the US-Israeli war on Lebanon (and by proxy on Iran). I say, "consider" the "theory".

http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/one-ring-to-rule-them-wholesale.html


From Information Clearing House

Though we believe in the universal principal of the right to self-defense we condemn the indiscriminate and disproportionate response from the State of Israel and the deliberate targeting of civilians from both sides.

http://lubnan-alkawi.com/jewsoflebanon/?m=200607


From Information Clearing House

Turkey, through its military alliance with Israel and the US, is a de facto partner in the "terrible global war" alluded to by Prime Minister Erdogan.

http://tinyurl.com/llfme


From Information Clearing House

As the war in Lebanon approaches the one-month mark, and amid the destruction of much of Lebanon, Hezbollah appears to be gaining strength within the country and around the Arab world.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14402.htm

"It's a real row that started with Bolton's statement that you couldn't compare the deaths of Lebanese to the deaths of Israelis," the official said. "He implied that because Lebanon harbored Hezbollah, Lebanese lives were forfeit. It was a stupid thing to say. It tore the scab off the wound."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH08Ak01.html


From Information Clearing House

By Neil Mackay

THE Lebanese government is working behind the scenes to bring Tony Blair before the Scottish courts, charged with war crimes for aiding and abetting the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14393.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14404.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14406.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14399.htm

About 110,000 barrels of oil poured into the Mediterranean two weeks ago after Israeli warplanes hit a coastal power plant. Oil has slicked one-third of Lebanon's coast, and threatens beaches in Syria, Cyprus, Turkey and Greece, yet no cleanup can begin until the fighting is over, says the UN. Meanwhile in northern Israel, huge swaths of forests and fields have been scorched by thousands of Hezbollah rocket strikes.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080706EA.shtml

More than 50 Events Planned Across the U.S.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0807-03.htm