Free Iraq

Video (4:19), Great rebuttal by CNN anchor against a Israel Spokeswomen
 

John Pilger, "To understand the power of indoctrination in free societies is also to understand the subversive power of the truth it suppresses."
 

News agencies stand by Lebanon photos
 

Lest we become confused . . .
Jerusalem Post, IDF can stay in Lebanon
 

Israeli envoy: US will not stop operation in Lebanon: US secretary of state declares in interview with Fox News that Hizbullah will surrender
 

Has the Second Front in the War Already Materialized?
 

Wayne Madsen, Aug. 2, 2006 -- Brothers versus brothers. Bush and his right-wing Cuban-American friends and donors engaged in a macabre Castro death watch in Miami. - The Bush brothers huddled at a Republican National Committee fundraiser with Jeb Bush's business mentor and partner, wealthy Cuban-American real estate developer Armando Codina, head of the Codina Group and close friend of George H. W. Bush. Codina sponsored the fundraiser at his Coral Gables home. ...

Joining the Bush brothers in Coral Gables were the Florida Cuban-American GOP congressional team of Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who best represents the fact that America's foreign policies on the Middle East and Latin America have been outsourced to two vocal and politically powerful special interests -- the Israeli and Cuban exile lobbies. Ros Lehtinen's mother was a Jewish-Cuban refugee from Cuba. ...

The brothers Bush and Balart and Ros-Lehtinen and Codina have their eyes set on lucrative real estate development schemes for post-Castro Cuba. The fact that oil has been discovered in Cuban waters has also earned the interest of the Bush-Cheney petroleum cartel. The Bush crime family and their associates see Cuba as a place where they can either force European and Canadian hotels to pay original land owners compensation for deals made with the Castro government or forfeit their properties to Miami-based Cubans working in concert with multi-billionaire non-Cuban GOP moguls, including another major Bush donor in Florida, real estate developer, GOP financier, pro-Israel activist, and former ambassador to Australia and Italy, Mel Sembler.

Like buzzards and hyenas waiting for the death of an old elephant, the Bush cartel and their Florida friends are anxiously awaiting the death of Castro in order to devour the self-sufficient nation he and his fellow Cuban revolutionaries took so long to build. ...
 

Spiegel, News on a Platter: Propaganda is part of every war, just like bombs and soldiers. Still, it's remarkable how professionally Israel deals with foreign journalists, catering conscientiously to all their needs. Lunch included.
 

Michel Chossudovsky, The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil


Steve Masterson, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the Coming Imperialist Re-Division of the World: The sheer brutality of the butchery of civilians by Israeli WMD – bombs and fighter planes provided by the United States – on Lebanon is firstly a warning to the rest of the world from the United States: ‘accept US global domination, or else’; and secondly, it is the beginning of a serious struggle for all-out control over Middle-East, Caspian Basin and Central Asian oil and gas. It is not the puppet Israel but the US itself who sets the tone of this purposefully brutal war, a war which opens up a qualitative change in US aggression and inter-imperialist conflict, a period that will draw the whole world into intensifying horrors and suffering. At the same time this new period opens a large window for the dramatic re-appearance of world-wide mass class struggle bringing workers and youth back into the centre-stage of global politics.

Increasing numbers of analysts and commentators now say the Israeli war against Lebanon was planned and prepared for in detail, in rooms in the White House, Pentagon and no doubt elsewhere. The Lebanon ‘war’ is definitely a proxy-war. In the first hours after Israel started bombing Lebanon on 12 July – the US’s Bush and Rice, the UK’s Blair and Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert, all started naming Iran and Syria as the real problem, the real backers of Hezbollah, even pathetically, declaring Iran had plans to dominate the whole Middle-East. The coolness and content of their language was almost identical. Only the US has the power to force the other parties to speak as one – but it should be said that Britain and Israel are willing junior partners in the slaughter. It should be mentioned, when I mention the US or Israel, or any country, I mean by this the ruling class of these countries and not the people.

[Section Headings]
- US TRYING TO REVERSE ITS GLOBAL LOSSES
- SYRIA AND THE EAST MEDITERRANEAN COAST-LINE
- IRAN IS THE MAIN TARGET
- PREPARING TO RE-DIVIDE THE WORLD
- THE US-LED NORTH AMERICAN BLOC
- THE ASIAN (CHINA-RUSSIA-INDIA) BLOC
- WHY THE SUDDEN RUSH TO IMPERIALIST RE-DIVISION
- FUTURE TRENDS, ALLIANCES, WARS AND REVOLUTIONS
 

Believe him -
Israeli PM Olmert: 'There is no ceasefire. There will not be any ceasefire'
 

Heavy Equipment Used to Bury the Dead
 

U.N. Again Postpones Peacekeeper Meeting


A toothpaste salesman speaks . . .
Olmert: Peacekeepers Needed in Lebanon: Olmert dismissed criticism of President Bush's refusal to talk to Syria or any other regime it dislikes.

"He (Bush) is doing the most obvious thing. He's fighting the enemies of freedom, he's fighting the enemies of democracy and he's fighting supporters of terror."

"Every time we kill a civilian we consider it as a failure and we are very sorry for it," he said.

"I'll surprise you," Olmert said. "I genuinely believe that the outcome of the present (conflict) and the emergence of a new order that will provide more stability and will defeat the forces of terror will help create the necessary environment that will allow me ... to create a new momentum between us and the Palestinians."
 

This is so sad.
What in god's name is our country doing?
Why are these bush people not yet impeached?
All of those in Congress who are sitting by not doing anything but staying the course in Iraq and in Lebanon and god only knows where else need to be tried for War Crimes. Same for the Media.
They are all complicit in the crimes.
Will they only speak out when it is too damn late?
And how about the churches and synagogues and mosques -- where are they -- we need to hear from the religious leaders -- all of them, not just the Pope who has spoken.
I cannot remember ever feeling so deeply and incredibly sad and disgusted with my country and the people who are silent.
 

IRAQ: 12 Killed in Soccer-Field Attacks
 

Thousands of Shi'ites civilians march in Baghdad
 

(Reproduced in full)
MIRA AL HUSSEIN, Open letter to Bush from an Arab girl
President Bush,

It has become extremely difficult to give you the benefit of the doubt on Lebanon, for you have left no doubt in our minds. We are now certain — like many of us have always been — that your foreign policy is completely biased towards Israel, and you have made no effort to hide this fact. Just out of curiosity: are they also drafted in Tel Aviv?

It is your choice, Mr Bush, to support Israel, just like it is our — the entire Arab and Muslim world’s — choice to support Lebanon. You insist that Israel has the right to defend itself. Defending oneself, I believe, is a universal right, not exclusive to Israel.

"The first Qana massacre did not quench the Israeli thirst for blood," it is said, graphically describing yet another Israeli crime against the innocents of Lebanon. In Qana, 57 armless, defenseless civilians died in an Israeli air strike, 37 of them were children. Maybe these numbers don’t matter to you, Mr Bush; they are mere numbers of the nameless Lebanese dead. But they matter to more than 200 million Arabs in the Middle East.

I quote our late president, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who in 1973 had said, "Arab oil is not dearer than Arab blood." But it seems that Iraqi oil is dearer than American blood. I am somewhat relieved to arrive at this conclusion. At least there’s no racism against a certain group of people. Everybody is a potential sacrifice to secure US interests, even if it means sacrificing a whole nation.

No, Mr Bush, we will not accept, nor will we allow the sacrifice of more Lebanese civilians. A ceasefire should have been enforced two weeks ago. Was there a need for 37 children to die before you decided it was time for a ceasefire? How many more, Mr Bush, should die before you decide to stop sending those bloody weapons to Israel? Perhaps we can afford a sacrifice that will rein in your generosity towards Israel permanently.

We have a dream for a new Middle East. Not the "New Middle East" that you’ve been brainstorming in your Oval Office. It is the new Middle East that Middle Easterners have been dreaming of; a Middle East with no violence, and no US-made weapons to fuel that violence. It is a dream only we, Middle Easterners, are allowed to dream and realise it.

In Arabic we have a saying that goes, "They murder the murdered and walk in his funeral." Allow me to interpret this for you, Mr Bush: Your precision-guided missiles shipment has arrived in Tel Aviv. These missiles will "precisely" fall onto Lebanese villages; kill hundreds; and displace thousands more. (Evidently, we’ve just witnessed the first "precise" target in Qana.)

Yet you have "compassionately" been able to send aid to Beirut, at the same time, with supplies for the thousands of people directly and fatally affected by your vocal, (im)moral and military support for Israel. Please include US flags in your aid shipment to Beirut; they must have burned all the US flags in stock.

Mr Bush, Lebanon can and will be rebuilt, but lost lives cannot be restored. Your credibility and your government’s credibility have long been lost — irretrievably lost like those lost innocent lives. People will not forget this though. They will not turn the other cheek; they will retaliate — just like you had chosen to retaliate after 9/11. Retaliation is a value you have successfully promoted by putting it into practice, always.

I was born too late to see how the British Empire had collapsed, but right on time to see how the American Empire is falling apart. Mr Bush, You will surely be remembered in history for hastening that process.

With no more respect to offer,

Mira Al Hussein
 

William Rivers Pitt, Banking on War: Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
 

Randa Takieddin, Lebanon's Children and Israeli Phosphorous Bombs: Did the American people see on CNN the child whose face was burnt by Israeli phosphorous bombs in Lebanon? Did they hear him screaming in pain at Sidon Hospital, with his mother falling to pieces in agony beside him because of the injury he sustained from the terrible bombs?
(Answer: NO, we certainly did not.)
 

Saul Landau, Peace in the Middle East? End the Occupation!: While US TV tends to elicit empathy with Israelis who have lost loved ones or homes, Arab TV portrays a heroic Hezbollah and its images bring forth sympathy for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of Israeli bombings. The US media uncritically accepts Bush's version of Syria as a source of terror. In the Arab world, Syria has emerged as the place that offers refuge to more than 100,000 Lebanese fleeing from Israeli aggression. On top of that, Syria has taken in some 450,000 escaping Iraqis.

"The terrorists are afraid of democracies," Bush declared. "And what you've witnessed in Israel, in my judgment, is the act of a terrorist organization trying to stop the advance of democracy in the region. People fear democracy if your vision is based upon kind of a totalitarian view of the world. And that's the ultimate challenge facing Iraq and Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, and that is, will the free world, and the neighborhood, work in concert to help develop sustainable democracy?"

Huh?

Perhaps, Bush needs a sticker pasted on his forehead. Every time he looks in the mirror he would see, "It's the occupation of Palestine, stupid!"
 

David Himmelstein, Pulling the Plug on Israel; No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Truth: Whether or not it has reached critical mass, there exists a heterogeneous agglomeration of Jewish people around the world-- e.g., moi--for whom the state of Israel has come to represent an 800-pound albatross that needs to be pried from our necks before it drags us over a cliff. A sense of urgency is propelled by the U.S.-sanctioned bloodletting in Lebanon and Gaza (which now seems to have been planned in advance) and the evident flimsiness of its official justification. With Israeli adventurism on the march, there are well founded fears concerning the general threat that country poses to the peace of the world. [ . . . ]

There will be no peace in the Middle East without justice, and no justice without truth.
 

LARA MARLOWE, The Total Destruction of Srifa: Mangled Bodies in the Wake of Israeli Bombs and Missiles - "The Ones Who Are Buried Alive Are Usually Safe From the Dogs": It was an unseemly end for 80- year-old Manaheel Jabr, flung over a bloodstained walll, grey hair falling around her shrunken black face, a collapsed ceiling pinning her down at the waist.

"It's the grandmother," one of the onlookers gasped when the civil defense bulldozer finally pierced a hole in the rubble of what was until two weeks ago a three-storey house.

Mrs Jabr's corpse presented a terrible dilemma to the Lebanese Red Cross yesterday. Should they cut her in two, put the pieces in a body bag and take her to the hospital morgue, or leave her behind, in the hope that more powerful equipment could lift the concrete slab from her back and would reach her before the dogs did?
[ . . . ]

Mahmoud Nejbi (66) keeps returning to the rubble of another house, at the far end of the devastated neighbourhood. "My 27-year-old son was smoking the narguileh and drinking tea with his friends when the airstrike happened," he said.

"He was a mechanic in Dubai and he brought his wife home to have their baby . . . I would like to make a suicide attack on the Israelis . . . either the Israelis kill us or we kill them."
 

NASEER ARURI, UN Approaches the Dustbin of History; Does the United Nations Have the Capacity to Intervene?
 

U.S. Military Academies Welcoming Iraqis: Upon graduation, the students will become officers in the Iraqi military and must serve for a minimum of 10 years. (In the Green Zone, perhaps?)
 

Israel starts 30km push in Lebanon, sending in up to 20,000 troops
 

Troops Fight to Expand Foothold in Ramadi: U.S., Iraqi Forces Move Block-by-Block To Retake Western City From Insurgents
 

Guardian: Qana Bomb Made in the US
 

Excerpt -
Kurt Nimmo, So Much for Israel’s 1.2 Kilometer “Security Zone”: It certainly does not come as a surprise. First we were told Israel’s IOF only wanted to clear a “security zone” of 1.2 kilometers to prevent Hezbollah from rocketing northern Israel. Now Deputy IOF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky tells us Israel will not only push to the Litani River, but “might also try to send troops north of the Litani,” according to the neocon-infested Jabotinsky Post, otherwise known as the Jerusalem Post. “IAF fighter jets dropped tens of thousands of leaflets over villages north of the river on Tuesday calling on the residents to flee further north in anticipation of IDF operations in the area.” In other words, villages north of the Litani will be carpet bombed and residents ethnically cleansed as well.

The IOF “is still nearly 20 miles from the Litani and even after reaching the river there will still be concentrations of Hezbollah units in and around the Palestinian refugee camps of Tyre. Here Israel will encircle the city, lay siege to it, instead of a frontal assault and use artillery and air attacks to eliminate any enemy rocket fire,” reports Willard Payne for News Blaze, quoting the pro-Likudite DEBKAfile. Translation: in standard Zionist fashion, the IOF will engage in a medieval siege of the ancient Phoenician city with a history going back to 2700 BC, according to the Ionian traveler and storyteller Herodotus. Its 117,100 inhabitants will be ethnically cleansed and those who remain will be exterminated, a now well established Israeli modus operandi.

But never mind. Israel is not only the master of double standards but also relies on the corporate media spin machine, sworn to secrecy, or at least omission, and will never mention Israel’s long and sordid history of warmongering, ethnic cleansing (beginning with 800,000 Palestinians), false flag terrorism, and religiously sanctioned kleptomania, the latter not only including land but water as well.

If there is a constant in the current situation, it is that we can expect Israel to steal both land and natural resources, especially water, from its neighbors—and invent absurd excuses (and lies) to do so, and thus kill thousands of Arabs.

However, this time around, Hezbollah presents formidable resistance to this brazen homicide and thievery. Israel may employ its U.S. provided weaponry to push beyond the Litani, and may even besiege Tyre, reducing it to ruin. But by no means, this time around, will they be allowed to keep the territory they have repeatedly attempted to ethnically cleanse and steal.

Indeed, Hezbollah will resist and nothing short of turning southern (and apparently parts of northern) Lebanon into a Stalingradesque wasteland will slow down the tenacious and well-trained resistance group, now arguably one of the more effective in the world.

Of course, it should be remembered, the people of Stalingrad, although decimated, eventually won out against the Nazis, as Hezbollah will eventually win out against Israel’s once vaunted IOF.
 

U.S. Insists Cease-Fire Must Await Plan to Disarm Hezbollah
 

Karma Nabulsi, The refugees' fury will be felt for generations to come: From June to August 1982, Israeli aircraft flying over Lebanon dropped "smart bombs" on children's hospitals in Shatila camp, Gaza hospital, Acre hospital and 11 of the country's orphanages, killing dozens of disabled children. They had nowhere else to shelter. The roofs had been painted with huge white crosses visible from the sky.

That war did not give Israel the security it claims to seek, and nor will this one. ...

Israel has failed to understand that it cannot expel a people and call itself the victim; that it cannot conquer its neighbours and treat any and all resistance to that conquest as terrorism; that it cannot arm itself as a regional superpower and annihilate the institutional fabric of two peoples without incurring the fury of their children in the years that follow.
 

FRANCIS A. BOYLE, Prosecuting Israel - A War Crimes Tribunal May be the Only Deterrent to a Global War
 

How very handy -
White House Proposal Would Expand Authority of Military Courts: A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.

The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. ...
 

Video, Uncensored News Reports From Across The Middle East: News reports for 08/01/06 - Produced By Link TV
 

Blair flies back to a gathering storm against his Mideast stance
 

Probe backs allegations that American Marines deliberately shot 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November: A decision on whether to press charges ultimately will be made by the commander of the Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

A parallel investigation is examining whether officers in the Marines' chain of command tried to cover up the events.
 

Tyros.Leb.net, Qana Massacre: Photographic Evidence
 

Ahmed Amr, Mahathir Calls For A Boycott Of The Dollar: The Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad has taken the lead in stating the obvious. "If the world is sincere in helping the Lebanese and Palestinians, they should reject the use of the dollar in international trade. When the demand for the dollar falls, America will be weakened and it will lack the ability to act as a bully in the global stage."

One of the biggest political taboos in the Middle East is to ask questions about Saudi Arabia's unnatural attachment to the United States. If a citizen of the Kingdom of oil so much as inquires about why Gulf crude is priced and sold in American dollars and only in American dollars - they get an immediate invitation to the hangman's noose. Should they be impertinent enough to ask how much of the oil revenue is off shored - they risk inviting the rest of their family members to the gallows.

The dirtiest little secret in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia's role in enabling American and Israeli aggression against the native people of the region. The secret agenda of the ruling clan in Riyadh has always revolved around maintaining a permanent romance with her American knight in shining armor. To prove the depth of her passion, the lovesick Saudi puppy is even willing to collaborate with America's other muse - Israel.

America's relationship with Israel is a public affair. It is based not so much on love - but on the vulgarities of financing campaigns and winning elections. If you want a chance to become a player in Washington, meet Tel Aviv's pimps in the lobby. AIPAC brothels are open 24/7 to cater to a politician's every need. (emphasis added)

But why leave matters to the Saudis. Why not make it a public issue. A boycott of the dollar is a very legitimate way to peacefully express disdain for the American imperial project in the Gulf, for Washington's unconditional support of Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian and Lebanese people and for the Saudi clan's looting of the revenues from the oil plantations. It is a way to confront the many oppressive forces in the Middle East without ever having to resort to a violent collision.

Without firing so much as a broken arrow, the Arab monarchs in the Gulf have in their hands the power to instantly change American foreign policy in the region and alleviate the suffering of the people of Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq. Doctor Mahathir knows this. He also knows that the Saudis and Kuwaitis will never take the initiative to use that power until they are forced to by popular demand. To generate a mass movement demanding an end to America's dollar hegemony - we need to listen to the diagnosis and cure recommended by the good Malaysian doctor. Let's do it for the victims of Qana and let's start the boycott now. Boycott the dollar for the sake of peace, justice and honor. (emphasis added)
 

Busy man . . .
Rumsfeld, in reversal, to attend public hearing on Iraq war: At the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said that "my calendar was such that to do it in the morning ... would have been difficult."
 

MonaBaker.com, DID YOU KNOW . . .

Did you know that cars owned by Palestinians are colour coded to distinguish Jews from non-Jews?

Did you know that Israel allots 85% of the water resources for Jews and the remaining 15% is divided among all Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of the water is given to about 400 Jewish settlers, while 15% must be divided among Hebron's 120,000 Palestinians?

Did you know that Sharon's commando unit in 1953 razed the Palestinian village of Qibya killing all its citizens and bombed all the houses, mosques and schools?

Did you know that since between 1967 and early 2002 Israel demolished or sealed over 8500 homes, of which 2500 were in East Jerusalem alone? Houses are demolished as punitive measure or under the pretext of 'lack of building permit' - permits are rarely granted.

Did you know that since 1967, (and of course not counting the atrocities committed since March 2002) over 600,000 Palestinians have been jailed in Israeli jails and over 200 have died while in Israeli jails? During the first year of the second intifada alone, Israel arrested over 1900 Palestinians, of which 600 were children under 16.

Did you know that Israel uses torture routinely in jails (only against non-Jews of course) despite the Israeli High Court outlawing it?
 

Robert Fisk, Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital
 

Nasim Zehrah, Illogical, illegal and ill-fated: Doesn't the secretary [Condoleezza Rice] know the world is not clamouring for instantaneous change? Instead it is clamouring against a US policy that is illogical, illegal and ill-fated.

How so? ...
 

When Prayer Is Not Enough -

Dear Friends,

For the past forty years we have been largely alone on this desert fighting a predator that not only has robbed us of all but a small piece of our historic homeland, but threatens the traditions and holy sites of Christianity. We are tired, weary, sick, and wounded. We need your help. [ . . . ]

As I write to you, I am preparing to leave with other bishops for Nablus with medical and other emergency supplies for five hundred families, and a pledge for one thousand families more.

On Saturday we will attempt to enter Gaza with medical aid for doctors and nurses in our hospital there who struggle to serve the injured, the sick, and the dying.

My plan is that I will be able to go to Lebanon next week – where we are presently without a resident priest – to bury the dead, and comfort the victims of war. Perhaps as others have you will ask, “What can I do?” Certainly we encourage and appreciate your prayers. That is important, but it is not enough. If you find that you can no longer look away, take up your cross. It takes courage as we were promised.

Write every elected official you know. Write to your news media. Speak to your congregation, friends, and colleagues about injustice and the threat of global war. If Syria, Iran, the United States, Great Britain, China and others enter into this war – the consequence is incalculable. Participate in rallies and forums. Find ways that you and your churches can participate in humanitarian relief efforts for the region. Contact us and let us know if you stand with us. I urge you not to be like a disciple watching from afar.

2 Corinthians 6.11
“We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians, our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in your. In return – I speak as to children – open wide your hearts also.”

In, with, and through Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Riah H. Abu El-Assal
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem
 

The Islamic world's largest organization of countries demanded on Thursday that the U.N. implement an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and investigate what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
 

Israeli Warplanes Hit Beirut Suburbs
 

Human Rights Watch, Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians: Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices.

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.
 

Arab American Institute Condemns Israeli Attack on Qana; Criticizes Bush Administration’s Tacit Green Light to Israel
 

(Following, a critically valuable resource for others like myself emerging from the fog & poison of American / Western propaganda.)
Prof Lara Deeb, Hizballah: A Primer - Historical analysis of the Shi‘i movement whose militia is fighting the Israeli army

Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi‘i movement whose militia is fighting the Israeli army in south Lebanon, has been cast misleadingly in much media coverage of the ongoing war. Much more than a militia, the movement is also a political party that is a powerful actor in Lebanese politics and a provider of important social services. Not a creature of Iranian and Syrian sponsorship, Hizballah arose to battle Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon from 1982-2000 and, more broadly, to advocate for Lebanon’s historically disenfranchised Shi‘i Muslim community. While it has many political opponents in Lebanon, Hizballah is very much of Lebanon -- a fact that Israel’s military campaign is highlighting.

[Section Headings]
- THE LEBANESE SHI‘A AND THE LEBANESE STATE
- STRUCTURE AND LEADERSHIP
- HIZBALLAH AND THE UNITED STATES
- RESISTANCE, POLITICS AND RULES OF THE GAME
- HIZBALLAH’S NATIONALISM
- SOCIAL WELFARE
- WHO SUPPORTS HIZBALLAH?
- THE CURRENT VIOLENCE
 

Charges: 'State Sponsored Terrorism' . . .

- Israel: Guilty
- U.S.A.: Guilty
 

Linda S. Heard, Israel has lost the war on every front
 

(Reproduced in full)
Wayne Madsen, Aug. 3, 2006 -- On July 30, WMR reported that CIA and Mossad agents in Lebanon, working with forces loyal to Israeli ally and convicted murderer Samir Geagea, were stirring up trouble among refugees streaming into northern Lebanon from the south of the country. Geagea, who was once allied with former pro-Israeli Prime Minister Gen. Michel Aoun, has lost the support of his one time ally. According to informed Lebanese sources, the one-time fervently anti-Syrian Aoun continues to honor the memorandum of understanding drawn up between him and his Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Hezbollah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Aoun controls the largest bloc of Maronite seats in the Lebanese parliament. After Hezbollah took two Israeli soldiers prisoners, Aoun said Hezbollah had engaged in a "pure military action," not a terrorist attack. Aoun also earned the ire of Israel and Washington by publicly calling for the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to their original homes, something strongly resisted by Israel.

One of the reasons Israel is attacking Christian targets in Lebanon is to show its opposition to the tactical agreement between the FPM and Hezbollah. The attacks on Christian targets are a way to punish Israel's one-time allies. The FPM, as well as most other Lebanese political parties, are also acutely aware of Israeli and American involvement in a series of "false flag" assassinations of Lebanese politicians and journalists in order to stir up resentment against Syria.* Israel and the United States can only rely on Geagea and Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader. One of the men arrested by Lebanese police for working with an Israeli assassination team involved in killing Lebanese politicians is a Lebanese Druze.

Aoun's MOU with Hezbollah is dangerous for Israel and the United States. Last November, Aoun was feted in Washington by neo-con members of the Bush administration and pro-Israel members of Congress for his leadership of the so-called "Cedar Revolution," the movement to chase Syria out of Lebanon after it was falsely accused of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.* It was a tactical agreement between Hariri and Hezbollah, similar to that between Aoun and Hezbollah, that largely contributed to Jerusalem's and Washington's decision, and Saudi Arabia's acquiescence, to eliminate Hariri.

Aoun, as a one-time Israeli military ally, is well aware of Israel's tactics. Israeli military forces have discovered that entering Lebanon is not the cake walk it was during the Lebanese civil war. Aoun is also extremely knowledgeable about the pro-Israeli cells operating within the Bush administration and the neo-con think tanks and contrivances in Washington.* These are the very same elements that supported the Cedar Revolution and include the American Enterprise Institute, where Michael Ledeen and Richard Perle nest; the neo-con supported US Committee for a Free Lebanon; Heritage Foundation; Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Hudson Institute; Hoover Institution; Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP); and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).
--------------
* emphasis added
 

A Plan Comes Together -
Christian Science Monitor, Leaked memo: Civil war most likely outcome in Iraq - Outgoing British ambassador to Iraq also predicts the country will break up along sectarian lines
 

Blair 'must go and go now' as pressure mounts


'I Love It Dept' !!!, State Department Condemns Rice Cartoons


IslamOnline.net, Iraq Resistance Gains Steam
 

Photos, US-SUPPLIED DEPLETES URANIUM WEAPONS GIVEN TO ISRAEL
 

Soldier accused of Iraqi civilian murders confirms 'target list' competitions: In an interview with ABC's Nightline to be broadcast tonight, a soldier "accused of deliberately releasing three Iraqi men they had captured, in order to kill them" defends his actions as just following orders.
 

America will attack Iran, Syria in October: Maj. Gen (R) Hameed Gul - He analyzed that Israel would soon be "forced" to stop its land strikes but would continue its horrific and heinous air strikes against Lebanon, converting it to ruins.

He also "predicted" that after Iran and Syria, Saudi Arabia would also meet the same fate, followed by Pakistan.
 

Aziz Huq, We're All Enemy Combatants Now: Most American residents would be shocked to hear that the military has power to lock them up without an opportunity to prove their innocence before an independent judge.
 

Jonathan Cook, Israel, not Hizbullah, is putting civilians in danger on both sides of the border
 

(See 8:57 AM, above)
Kurt Nimmo, IOF War Crimes: HRW Issues a Meaningless Report - Once again, in predictably worthless fashion, Human Rights Watch has complained about “serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. ...

It should be common knowledge Israel is an outlaw, criminal state and has violated every humanitarian law on the books since its inception in 1948. ...

HRW is clueless because it fails to report that these “war crimes” (actually crimes against humanity) are cours de rigueur, an established policy of the criminal and racist state of Israel. HRW fails or refuses to make the obvious connection—in Israel, not only killing Arabs but starving them, preventing them from obtaining medical assistance, demolishing their homes and orchards, locking Palestinians in a huge open-air prison, torturing prisoners, etc., is the very essence of the state, its raison d’etre, as should be obvious after reading a few paragraphs of Zionist literature, spanning back over more than a century.

HRW tells us its finding is not comprehensive and “further investigation is required to document the war’s complete impact on civilians and to assess the full scope of the IDF’s compliance with and disregard for international humanitarian law.” ...

As an exercise in futility, HRW cites the “applicable law,” that is to say Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, “to which Israel is a party.” Again, HRW misses the point—for Israel and its patron, the United States, the Geneva Conventions are less than meaningless, ...

Finally, HRW suggests the United States “[i]mmediately suspend transfers to Israel of arms, ammunition, and other materiel that have been documented or credibly alleged to have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, as well as funding or support for such materiel, pending an end to the violations” and “[c]onduct a full investigation into Israel’s use of U.S.-supplied arms, ammunition, and other materiel in violations of international humanitarian law.” Again, fat chance of this happening, as the United States government was long ago hijacked by Israel First Zionists of the most obstreperous sort (including Betar fascists), unashamed of their plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians and Lebanese and “reshape” the Middle East—that is to say carpet bomb and destroy its civilian infrastructure—and realize the historical objective of “Pax Americana and pax Israelica,” as Naseer H. Aruri notes in his preface to Livia Rokach’s Israel’s Sacred Terrorism (mandatory reading for those who want to understand the historical roots of Israeli crimes and uninterrupted predation).
 

Kurt Nimmo, Son of Osama: Demonizing Hezbolla - “A son of Osama bin Laden has gone from Iran to Lebanon with the mission to organize terror attacks against Israel,” reports the New York Post, a reliable source for neocon nonsense.

If we are to believe the latest in a long line of absurd fairy tales, Saad bin Laden “was released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard” and tasked with killing Israelis. ...


Kurt Nimmo, Making the Rubble Bounce in Lebanon: According to a report posted on the Reuters site, Israel has threatened to “destroy Lebanon’s infrastructure if Hizbollah fires rockets at Tel Aviv as Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened on Thursday, a senior Israeli defense source told Israel’s Channel One television.”

Excuse me, but it seems Israel has already done a mighty effective job of destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure. ...

Of course, considering what the Israelis did to the Palestinians—and continue to do—the threat by “a senior Israeli defense source” should be taken seriously. Following the United Nations handing Palestine over to the Zionists in 1948, more than 400 Palestinian villages were destroyed by the Israelis. Major urban areas—Nazareth, Baysan, Beersheba, Acre, Ramla, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, and others—were systematically “depopulated,” a polite word for ethnic cleansing. See a list of the destroyed villages here.

Israel is now in the process of denuding the landscape of Arab villages in southern Lebanon—or at least pancaking them and stampeding residents, or those physically able to be stampeded—and sending in thousands of troops to establish a “security zone,” a repeat of its 1978 invasion, when it grabbed 850 square kilometers containing 85 villages. “Only 100,000 of the original 250,000 residents from 1978 remain today,” Nicholas Blanford wrote prior to Israel’s retreat in 2000.

Thus Hezbollah’s salvos of rickety rockets are providing Israel with a perfect excuse to continue its habitual pathology of murder and ethnic cleansing. It’s not so much about an eye for an eye—or rather 100 eyes for an eye—but rather bringing Israel’s long planned invasion to a bloody and criminal fruition.
 

Truth-About-Iraqis, In the mind of the idiot: Take the recent ramblings of Condi and Rummy.

Today, after admissions from US Generals that Iraq was in civil war, or on the verge, they come out with this:

The United States plans to help train and equip the Lebanese army so it can take control of all of the nation’s territory when warfare between Israel and Hezbollah eases, the State Department said Thursday. [ . . . ]
 

Robert Fisk, Slaughter in Baalbek; The Family That Stays Together Dies Together