Free Iraq

Will the REAL Jimmy Carter please stand up.

- Carter tells West Bank settlers that he envisions their settlement to be in Israeli hands for ever: Carter, normally known for his critical stance on Israel's policy regarding Palestinians, said that his visit to the settlements has given him a fresh perspective on the issue.

International law and UN resolutions take a different stance on the issue of Israeli settlements, as all settlements on occupied Palestinian land are illegal and Israel should withdraw to the pre-1967 borders.

During his visit, Carter repeated that he remains committed to Israel ... .


- Disturbing News from Jimmy Carter: Former US President Announces Support for Illegal Israeli Settlers of Gush Etzion: Carter tells West Bank settlers that he envisions their settlement to be in Israeli hands for ever

During his visit, Carter repeated that he remains committed to Israel, adding that enabling the state to exist in peace and security has been the most important project he has taken on in the last 30 years.

Just one day before Carter stated "I have been in love with the Palestinian people for many years," adding that this is a feeling shared by members of his family.
 

Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?: That Israelis simply take property belonging to Palestinians is not a right. That is theft. That Israel cut off the movement of food, medicine and other basic goods to the Gaza strip, causing massive malnutrition, economic collapse and misery because Palestinians elected particular leaders is not a right. That is an affront to humanity. That Israel rains death from the skies on an already battered and starved Gaza, murdering over 1000 human beings and maiming thousands more in a single month is not a right. It’s a war crime. That Israel has employed every imperialistic tactic to subjugate, humiliate, break, and expel an entire nation of principally unarmed civilians because of their religion is not a right. It is a moral obscenity. That every Jew from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia be entitled to dual citizenship, one in their native country and one in Israel, while the rightful heirs to the land linger as refugees without citizenship anywhere is not a right. It is an outrage.
 

I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your Al Jazeera interview, and hope you will be able to give other similar interviews. What you have to say should be heard and studied.
 

In Iraq, prisoners go on hunger strike over abuse: "The violations against some prisoners went as far as rape. Some of them have spent more than a year in these prisons and so far haven't been brought to trial."

On Friday, Iraqi lawmakers televised a request for an independent inquiry into reported cases of abuse and death in the country's prisons.

Sunni lawmaker Salim al-Juburi from the National Concord Front lawmaker said thath "there were violations that resulted in the deaths of detainees" in two prisons in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

"Eleven prisoners were victims of torture and sexual abuse in a building run by the Interior Ministry," claimed Falah Shanshel of the Sadrist bloc.
 

Agent Orange Continues to Poison Vietnam: From 1961 to 1971, the US military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which contained large quantities of Dioxin, in order to defoliate the trees for military objectives. Dioxin is one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects).

Between 2.5 and 4.8 million people were exposed to Agent Orange. The spraying covered 1.4 billion hectares of land and forest - approximately 12 percent of the land area of Vietnam.

Vietnamese who were exposed to the chemical have suffered from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity, and skin and nervous disorders. Children and grandchildren of those exposed have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases and shortened life spans. The forests and jungles in large parts of southern Vietnam have been devastated and denuded. They may never grow back and if they do, it will take 50 to 200 years to regenerate. Animals that inhabited the forests and jungles have become extinct, disrupting the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water in some areas have also been contaminated. Erosion and desertification will change the environment, contributing to the warming of the planet and dislocation of crop and animal life. [ . . . ]

Our government must know that it cannot continue to use weapons that target and harm civilians. Indeed, the US military is using depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will poison those countries for incalculable decades.
 

Netanyahu's Speech: The 13 September 1993 Oslo Accords specifically provided that all issues would be on the table in the Final Status Negotiations, that were to commence within five years. Netanyahu has just backtracked on that commitment made by Prime Minister Rabin, who was assassinated by his own people because of his movement towards peace. In addition, Netanyahu has now shifted the goal-posts on the Palestinians by demanding that they recognize Israel as a "Jewish State."

The Palestinians recognized Israel as a State as part of the Oslo Accords. That is all international law and practice requires. It would be as if the United States demanded that Iran recognize it as a "White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant State" as part of any peace process. Of course this demand is racist. It would de-nationalize the 1.5 million Palestinians who are already second-class citizens of Israel and set the stage for their mass deportation to the Palestinian Bantustan envisioned by Netanyahu in this speech.

Basically, Netanyahu has tried to move the Middle East Peace Negotiations back to where they were before the convening of the Madrid Conference in 1991 by the Bush Sr. administration, in order to stall and delay for another two decades while Israel continues to develop and expand its illegal settlements in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which is a war crime funded in substantial part by United States taxpayers.
 

See either of these pieces Evelyn? Bombshells IMHO.
De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire

The Yekaterinburg Turning Point
by Prof. Michael Hudson
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13969


The American Empire Is Bankrupt
By Chris Hedges
This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090614_the_american_empire_is_bankrupt/

Man, that "New Iraq Death Squad" peace was chilling.
Here is an audio of the author talking about it. God, these warmongers never stop. Not even for a zillionth of a moment!

Shane Bauer, freelance journalist and Arabic speaker living in the Middle East, discusses civilian abuse claims against the Iraq Special Operations Forces (ISOF), the actual Salvadoran paramilitary trainers in Iraq that made the “Salvador option” more than analogy, the plight of Iraqi refugees abroad and how Maliki is using the ISOF - which is accountable only to him - to consolidate his power.

MP3 here http://dissentradio.com/radio/09_06_09_bauer.mp3

Shane Bauer is the author of the article “Iraq’s New Death Squad” in The Nation.
 

Curt:
Apologies. I see I called you Chris a few days back. Presume you didn't suffer an identity crisis!!!!

Yes. Have seen both (excellent) articles.