Politics

January 2, 2011December 11, 2020

This Year, The Illegal, Malicious Israeli Occupation Must End

To those who dwell in Palestine and Israel who oppose injustice and are working in solidarity to end Israel’s cruelty, salutations, and greetings to the people of the world who support their struggle. The appalling death yesterday of Jawaher Abu Rahmah from inhalation of tear gas fired by the Israeli Occupation Forces at a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in protesting the apartheid wall and Israeli land theft is an unwelcome beginning to the year.

The Israeli IOF spokesman attempted to muddy the waters and smear Palestinians by suggesting they created a false story about Jawaher’s death.

An Israeli military statement issued Saturday evening said Palestinians initially reported that Abu Rahmah was released from hospital Friday and died at home. “Subsequently the Palestinians changed their version of events, claiming that she died in the hospital,” the statement continued.

A military spokesman did not immediately know who the Palestinians quoted in the statement were, but said he would look into it.

Bil’in popular committee spokesman Jonathan Pollak said the statement was a “shameless lie aimed at distorting reality.”

Abu Rahmah arrived at the hospital unconscious and doctors were unable to revive her, Pollak said. She did not die because of a lack of medical treatment, but because Israeli forces used a lethal tear gas banned in several European countries, he added.

More IOF lies have bubbled up through the zionist swamp. Jewish Voices for Peace @jvplive tweeted at the time from the protest : “One eye injury and jawaher – sister of bassem who was killed last year at a demo -was taken to the hospital for gas inhalation.”

Journalist Lisa Goldman, who was also present at the protest, has translated Jonathan Pollak’s collection of witness statements.

Ali Abunimah @avinunu also notes on twitter: In report on Jawahir Abu Rahmah BBC World Service just lied that Israel’s wall is “built around the West Bank” (it’s built through it) #

Jawaher’s funeral:

Hundreds of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv also to protest Jawaher’s murder. Lisa Goldman, who was also present at the Bil’in protest, reports:

The demonstration to protest Jawaher’s death by tear gas asphyxiation was announced mid-morning on Saturday, via Facebook and Twitter. Despite the short notice, it attracted at least 200 people. The crowd was sufficiently large to block traffic across from the Ministry of Defense (Kirya) on Kaplan Street, a main traffic artery that connects to the Ayalon Highway.

Waving poster-size mourning posters emblazoned with photos of Jawaher Abu Rahmeh and carrying placards with slogans in Hebrew and English, demonstrators chanted in Hebrew: “Citizens, awake! Fascism is already here!” “Barak! Barak! Minister of Defense! How many demonstrators have you killed today?!” ; in English: “Apartheid! Fight back!”; and in Arabic: “Min Ghaza el Bil’in, hurra hurra Falasteen!” (from Gaza to Bil’in, freedom, freedom for Palestine).

Haaretz notes that former MK Musi Raz is “reportedly arrested and beaten by Israeli police” at the Tel Aviv protest against Jawaher’s murder.

According to Joseph Dana, another participant in the Bil’in protest, there’s a new form of BDS arisen in Israel.

Israeli activists protesting the killing of Bil’in’s Jawaher Abu Rahmah ‘returned’ spent tear gas canisters to the residence of the American ambassador to Israel late Saturday evening.
…
The tear gas used by the Israeli forces in Bil’in is manufactured by Combined Systems Inc.; a United States company based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. This is the first protest where empty tear gas canisters have been returned to an ambassador’s home.

Approximately twenty five Israeli protesters gathered in front of the residence of American ambassador to Israel, James B. Cunningham around 1am local time. The protesters ‘returned’ loads of spent tear gas canisters collected in the West Bank village of Bil’in in protest of the murder of Bil’in’s Jawaher Abu Rahmah. The demonstrators also made noise throughout the Ambassador’s neighborhood informing residents of how American military aid to Israel is being used to kill unarmed and nonviolent demonstrators in the West Bank. They chanted, “one, two, three, four stop the occupation stop the war. Five, six, seven, eight end the funding (US) end the hate.”

Meanwhile, as Israel bombs and terrorises them, the besieged people of Gaza await the arrival of the Asia to Gaza convoy.

Egypt yesterday gave permission for the Asia to Gaza Caravan — or Asia1 — to pass through Egypt to Gaza, according to Khaled Abdel Megid, a member of the Palestinian National Congress.

He said the Egyptian embassy in Damascus informed the convoy of the permit that allows only 120 activists entry to Egypt and then Gaza. It denied entry to 46 activists from Iran and Jordan.

Egypt will not allow 10 generators donated by the Iranians to enter to the besieged Gaza Strip. This will decrease the size of the humanitarian aid convoy to below 300 tons, which will be limited to food and medical aid in addition to toys, according to Abdel-Meguid.

The Asia to Gaza Caravan consists of approximately 160 people from more than 15 countries, including Iran, India, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Kuwait. It was scheduled to reach Gaza by 27 December, in time for the second anniversary of Israel’s 22-day war on the Strip that started on 28 December 2008.

Approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 5,000 injured or maimed in the three-week war. Half of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed and remains unrepaired as a result of Israel’s siege, which includes a ban on the entry of building materials into the Strip.

The time has come for justice, an end to the lies and crimes of those who consider themselves privileged and above others, who maintain their privilege by stepping on and stealing from those whom they oppress. Justice is for all, equal rights are for all. Please boycott, sanction and divest from apartheid Israel until the Occupation is ended and Palestinians have attained their just rights.

Happy new year to everyone! I am blessed with the best online friends one could imagine, sources of joy, knowledge and companionship largely absent from the elitist, white-privileged area of Queensland, Australia in which I live. Thank you 🙂

UPDATE January 7

From Mondoweiss:

It may be a nonlethal weapon, but tear gas can have serious effects. A 2003 article published by four Israeli army doctors in Archives of Toxicology noted that CS gas — the type used by the IDF at these protests — causes tearing and burning for about 15 to 30 minutes, and this is lessened if people are moved into fresh air. The army has insisted on the safety of CS beyond these immediate effects. But the Israeli army doctors’ article noted, “At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths from lacrimating [tearing] agents have been reported.”

A 2009 article in the British Medical Journal came to similar conclusions, noting that tear gas is “not a gas at all, but a toxic chemical irritant.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Bilin protestor’s mother ‘not seeking revenge’
Gazan youth issue manifesto to vent their anger with all sides in the conflict
Demonstrators ‘return’ tear gas canisters to US ambassador home over the killing of a Bil’in protester
The teargas grenades that killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah were most likely ‘made in the USA’
Hundreds rally in Tel Aviv to protest Bil’in woman’s death
Police clash with leftists at Tel Aviv demonstration of Bil’in protester’s death
Gazans face cooking gas shortage
WikiLeaks cable: UN Goldstone resolution: NZ is watching Europe
Army investigating death of Bil’in protester
Protesters Breached the Wall in Bil’in
The first martyr of 2011 and where we go from here
Abbas: Latest Palestinian death another Israeli crime against our helpless nation
Israeli Forces Kill Female Protester in Bil’in
IMAGES: funeral of Bil’in protester Jawaher abu Rahmah
The death of Jawaher Abu-Rahma is a direct result of occupation and the inhumane violence and brutality against the nonviolent demonstrators in Bilin
Settlers set fire to home as seven Palestinians sleep inside
Sister of Bilin victim dies in anti-fence protest
How many israeli police officers does it take to guard a locked door? Four…
Report: U.S. in secret talks with Syria over peace accord with Israel
Use this site to know which Israeli products to boycott 🙂
What options exist for Netanyahu next time on the high seas?
An open letter from Gaza to Thomas Quasthoff: Do not Forget the Gaza Concentration Camp and “Tell It like It Is!”
NY Times Isabel Kershner Wasn’t At Bil’in Demo–But Still Wrongly Reports On It
More Israeli lies : Israel says direct negotiations best path to peace
Boston says: Break the Siege of Gaza!
Holocaust survivors warn of stirrings of neo-fascism
Israeli forces arrest 2 children in Jerusalem
WikiLeaks: Israel has only 12-minute warning if Iran attacks
Netanyahu Wants Nonstop Talks With Palestinians

Wikileaks Links

The Anti-Empire Report Wikileaks, the United States, Sweden, and Devil’s Island
Coming to terms with the information age : Mark Pesce
On the double-o licence of the powerful
Announcing ScienceLeaks
Invasion of privacy in Paraguay : US Collects DNA And Data On Foreign Presidential Candidates
US government knew about human experiments : Pfizer tested drugs on children
Tortured Until Proven Guilty: Bradley Manning and the Case Against Solitary Confinement
My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website
WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
Wikileaks: Israel preparing for ‘large scale war’

Other Links

Egypt church bombing: Why some point to Al Qaeda-linked group
Who is Behind The Alexandria Explosion !!?
Fahem Boukadous and Tunisia’s War on Press Freedoms
US at War Since 1950: A New Year’s Meditation

December 30, 2010December 11, 2020

Global Military Industrial Disease

The US Military Industrial spiderweb, with the Pentagon trillion dollar budget at its disposal, makes the Israel lobby look like a corner shop. Nearly every US state hosts significant MIC plant and associated jobs -.no potential or incumbent political candidate can afford to ignore this. The Pentagon is enmeshed incestuously with the armaments and associated industries.

As Andrew Sullivan relates:

“In some years, the move from general staff to industry is a virtual clean sweep. Thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who retired in 2007 are now working in defense roles — nearly 90 percent. And in many cases there is nothing subtle about what the generals have to sell — Martin’s firm is called The Four Star Group, for example. The revolving-door culture of Capitol Hill — where former lawmakers and staffers commonly market their insider knowledge to lobbying firms – is now pervasive at the senior rungs of the military leadership.”

It is in the interests of US defence industries, though not the US people, to provoke conflict between nations and within civil societies including within the US itself. In the US, covert rule by the military industrial plutocracy seems accepted as a bearable consequence of imperial dominance – the military and its ventures are a primary focus for super-nationalistic reverence. Americans are conditioned to support their troops without questioning whose bidding they are actually doing and for what ends. Sometimes, those in denial of the involvement of wealthy WASPs, the ‘Establishment’ and the Pentagon in the MIC plutocracy blame the Israel lobby or “the jews”.

Yet there is no contradiction between the interests of the US and Israeli ruling classes. US and Israeli society are both diseased with militarism. While Israel is voraciously expansionist with designs for regional preeminence, the US is preoccupied with maintaining ‘global security’, code for strategic placement of military force at 900 plus bases and several conflict zones to support current or potential resource exploitation and contain the rise of any competing power. The US has not relinquished the doctrine of full spectrum dominance.

Despite Netanyahu’s protestations that he, and Israel, are for peace, Israel’s ruling Likud party retains its opposition to a Palestinian state within its platform.

Self-Rule

The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.

The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state. Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology, their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel’s existence, security and national needs.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem, including the plan to divide the city presented to the Knesset by the Arab factions and supported by many members of Labor and Meretz. The government firmly rejects attempts of various sources in the world, some anti-Semitic in origin, to question Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital, and the 3,000-year-old special connection between the Jewish people and its capital. To ensure this, the government will continue the firm policies it has adopted until now:

No diplomatic activity will be permitted at Orient House. The government stopped the stream of visits by heads of state and ministers at Orient House, begun under the left-wing government.

The presence of the Israeli police in eastern Jerusalem will be increased. This in addition to the new police posts and reinforcements in the neighborhoods.

The Likud government will act with vigor to continue Jewish habitation and strengthen Israeli sovereignty in the eastern parts of the city, while emphasizing improvements in the welfare and security of the Arab residents. Despite protests from the left, the Likud government consistently approved the continuation of Jewish living within the Old City and in ‘City of David’.

The Jordan River as a Permanent Border

The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty. The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel. The Kingdom of Jordan is a desirable partner in the permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians in matters that will be agreed upon.

Security Areas

The government succeeded in significantly reducing the extent of territory that the Palestinians expected to receive in the interim arrangement. The government will insist that security areas essential to Israel’s defense, including the western security area and the Jewish settlements, shall remain under Israeli rule.

Israeli expansionism in the form of land theft in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Negev is facilitated further by associating the peace process facade with Palestinians toward a fictitious two state solution with an equally fictitious ‘existential threat’ from Iran. The rightwing and extremist settler dominated Knesset continues to pass oppressive, racist laws which undermine the prospect for human rights and peace. The PA and Hamas are both tasked by Israel with official and unofficial de facto collaboration respectively for security in the West Bank and Gaza. Thus both major Palestinian factions support the Israeli Occupation and ensure the Israeli milsec incubator is perpetuated.

Military industrialism is a common, complementary denominator between Israel and the US. Israel’s manufactured conflict with the people of Gaza and occupation in the West Bank incubates imported US and local milsec which is then used in barrios and on reservations in the US. Israel also serves as a milsec incubator for other countries, including “China, which imports Israel’s methods of propaganda and repression”.

The number one export for the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy is armaments – and as David Cronin documents, the EU is in bed with the Israeli arms industry alongside the US.

… senior EU figures have consistently shown “cowardice” in refusing to pursue the Israeli military for the cost of European-funded infrastructure projects which have been damaged or destroyed in repeated Israeli invasions. “Privately, EU officials acknowledge that the aid policies they are implementing have become hugely problematic. ‘Are we subsidizing activities that should fall on Israel as a consequence of its responsibilities as an occupying power?’ a well-placed Brussels source said to me. ‘The answer is unquestionably yes,'” writes Cronin.

While the EU’s continued aid to the PA is said to be part of a “tacit division of labor” with the US, whereby Washington holds the political reins and Europe the financial ones, Cronin provides examples of US refusal to allow joint donor statements which criticized Israel for damage to donor-funded projects illustrating the EU’s junior role in that relationship. In the meantime, the EU’s “aid” is also revealed by Cronin’s writings — both in the book and for The Electronic Intifada — to include the far-from-benign training given by European police organizations to PA security forces.

With its snout well and truly in the military industrial trough, the global ruling class is an auto-immune disease of human society.

UPDATE

Considering Israel’s nuclear posture, pursuant to a release from the British archives revealing that the British feared Israel would nuke the Arabs, Paul Barratt, past Secretary of Defence, Primary Industries and Energy Departments in Australia shared some insights:

@phbarratt : Israelis mobilised nuclear force in ’73. Americans petrified, airfreighted previously unreleased weapons out of Wiesbaden. #

@phbarratt : That is something US has had to weigh up ever since whenever Israelis demand access to latest weaponry. #

@Jinjirrie : so in essence, the qualitative military edge law is just icing on the cake #

@phbarratt : Alternative to unconditional US guarantee of Israeli security is more ready reliance by Israel on its nuclear force. #

@phbarratt : You will not that US does not get anything by way of gratitude, acknowledgement or cooperation for this guarantee. #

@Jinjirrie : how realistic though really is the samson option? any use of nukes by israel will blowback on them hard #

@Jinjirrie : physically as well as metaphorically #

@phbarratt : Nuclear weapons a very blunt instrument. Israel and Iran have gone for studied ambiguity – implied deterrence all round. #

@Jinjirrie : Threats make better threats when implied 🙂 i see israeli nuke posture as defiant symbolism against europe as well #

@Jinjirrie : yes, implied deterrence plays into militarisation by other means in the region, suits US/EU defence industries fine #

Story Related Links

Australian Defence White Paper 2009 Appraisal
Clausewitz vs. Sun Tzu
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – Arms Trades
Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from Iran and Iraq
Andrew J. Bacevich on Douglas Feith
Exercises – Central Command
Choke Point : The Straits of Hormuz
Closing Time: Assessing the Iranian Threat to the Strait of Hormuz
International Security
Military Resistance 9A 2 : “Why We Fight”
WikiLeaks cables: Mauritius sues UK for control of Chagos islands
The Big (Military) Taboo
The Tyranny of Defense Inc. (Andrew J. Bacevich)
The US Senate is a complete joke (and what to do about it)
Lockheed Martin’s Shadow Government
“Washington Rules” is a tough-minded, bracing and intelligent polemic against some 60 years of American militarism.
The Tyranny of Defense Inc.
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel Jeremy M. Sharp, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, September 16, 2010

Palestine / Israel Links for Today

Rotim Settlers Seize Land Near Tubas; Minister Arrested in Hebron
Hatem, 17, was shot in the head while purchasing strawberries to sell at market in the Gaza Strip, about 800 metres from the border fence with Israel.
Israel’s Qassam strikes on Gaza : Amira Hass
Several rabbis from Tiberias have called for a boycott of the Poriya hospital following a decision by the hospital to establish a mosque on its campus
Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the most senior deciders of Jewish law in religious Zionism, has determined that Jewish women are not allowed to obtain a sperm sample from non-Jewish men. Rabbi Lior said that the resulting infant would suffer adverse genetic traits.
Ex-President Katsav guilty of two counts of rape and sexual assault
Israeli society is falling into a deep, dark pit of racism and xenophobia
A report by the Central Bureau for Statistics shows that the school drop-out rate of students in the South is 16% higher for Arabs than for Jewish students. However, the report also shows a 20% fall in the drop-out rate of Arab students from schools between 1980 and today.
Israeli leftists have a racist past, too
Knesset Member Yariv Levin (Likud), chair of the Knesset Committee, has proposed a new law that would permit the Minister of the Interior to expel from Israel any foreign citizen who calls for the boycott of Israel of of anything produced in a settlement, and any person who calls for international trials for soldiers who will be involved in carrying out war crimes. Under the proposal, the Minister of the Interior will be able to bar such people from entering the country or expel them from Israel.
Gaza Youth Breaks Out
Diamond Exchange expels member over blood stones
Warped EDL psycho incites violence towards a Pro-Palestine protest.
Book Review: Europe’s Alliance with Israel
Shlaim shills for empire
SJP statement on FBI intimidation: ‘We live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal – we shall, therefore, make as much noise as we can’
British feared Israel would nuke Arabs: archives
Selective Law Enforcement Against Activist for Bedouins
Israeli Troops Arrest Seven Overnight, Allegedly Beat Woman
Am I allowed to be a Palestinian Jew?
Judaization of Jerusalem includes “defacing walls of the Old City”
Palestine Today: A Reality of Justice Denied

Wikileaks Links for Today

Sweden, Assange and the USA : It is almost a certainty that the editor of WikiLeaks will be turned over to the United States if he is extradited to Sweden [.pdf]
From Ion Cannon to BotTorrent: Potential new paradigm in hactivism
2010-12-30 Updated New Whistleblowing Sites and Games
Corruption combating online project is officially released
Untouchables swoop on Anonymous network
The Julian Assange Investigation — Let’s Clear the Air of Misinformation
Omar Bongo pocketed millions in embezzled funds, claims US cable
Leaked: Cuban Government Fears Bloggers More Than Activists
How Is Leaking Like Getting a Job?
2010-12-29 Amnesty: Sweeping new media law threatens freedom of expression in Hungary
NPR Apologizes for WikiLeaks Mistake; Nina Totenberg and Teena Marie
Christmas With Julian
[AFP] WikiLeaks seulement à “un cinquantième” de sa mission selon Assange

Other Links for Today

Poll: Vast Majority of Americans Oppose Attacking Iran
US refuses to co-operate in probe over alleged CIA secret prisons
‘Pentagon enjoys US unemployment’
Australia’s Business Council self-defines as anti-democratic
Davis resigns Ivory Coast contract
US military investigates ‘death squad’ accused of murdering Afghans
Tunisia : Arabic Pinochet Government Respond to Peaceful Protests by Live Ammunition Orchestrating AlJazeera and Seizing AlMowqef Newspaper
Israel: the next war : The US’s failure under Barack Obama to impose peace between Israel and the Palestinians makes a new war likely
No country should be immune from war crimes prosecutions, including Sri Lanka
Britain always sees its role as imperial power
The “Family” – Who Really Is Behind This Secret Organization?
Research links rise in Falluja birth defects and cancers to US assault
The Final Chapter… : Poem by Layla Anwar
End human rights imperialism now
Israel is not able to endure a long war with a powerful regional opponent due to its geographical restrictions, Director of IGA (Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs) Ali al-Ahmed says.

December 30, 2010December 11, 2020

Tracking Lamo

History

File:Lamo-Mitnick-Poulsen.png (2001) (by photographer Matthew Griffiths)
Glenn Greenwald: Email exchange with Wired’s Kevin Poulsen (Jun 17, 2010)
Glenn Greenwald : The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks ( Jun 18, 2010)
Courtney Lambert: EXCLUSIVE: Former Hacker Lamo On Iraq Leaks (Jul 5, 2010)
Lamo: Blinded By Contempt (story tweeted by Lamo @6 #) (Jul 5, 2010)
Wired: Update: Ex-Hacker Denies Alleged WikiLeaker Gave Him Classified Documents (August 1, 2010)
Lamo: Wikileaks Whistle-blower Pushes for Assange Prosecution (Nov 28, 2010)

“Assange’s hubris in presuming to mediate global diplomacy unilaterally cannot be allowed to stand,” stated Lamo. “It is time for appropriate charges to be filed, and for Assange to be allowed to answer for them.” Lamo added.

“Mr. Assange has abused international sovereignty enough, and he should now be extended a firm invitation and comfortable transport to a court competent to hear a case based on his alleged criminal acts.”

Wired: U.S. Trying to Build Conspiracy Case Against WikiLeaks’ Assange
FDL: Bradley Manning and the Convenient Memories of Adrian Lamo (Dec 23, 2010) – this blog has an excellent annotated history of events prior to publication)
Empty Wheel: When Did Adrian Lamo Start Working with Federal Investigators?
FDL: Bradley Manning/Wikileaks Timeline
FDL: Merged Manning-Lamo Chat Logs
FDL: FDL’s Merged Version of Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Now Available (Dec 27, 2010)
WL Central: 2010-12-28 Wired Response to Glenn Greenwald (Dec 28, 2010)
Glenn Greenwald: The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired (Dec 27, 2010)
Wired (by Evan Hansen & Kevin Poulsen) : Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs (Dec 28, 2010)
Glenn Greenwald: Response to Wired’s accusations (Dec 29, 2010)

Ultimately, what determines one’s credibility is not the names you get called or the number of people who get angry when you criticize them. What matters is whether the things you say are well-supported and accurate, to correct them if they’re not, and to subject yourself to the same accountability and transparency you demand of others.

On Wednesday 29th December 2010, @manuel_pineiro said:

@ggreenwald Since my #wikileaks comments are censored by @kpoulsen, I’ll put it here. Furthermore, I’ve just finished setting up space on the web for me to help document more fully Wired’s journalism malfeasance + more. Here is the comment I posted on Wired:

Is this supposed to convince anyone who is halfway paying attention?

It has been clear for some time that Threat Level has acted almost at the level of junior high school maturity, coming out with slam pieces about Wikileak’s *HTML forms* during one of the most historic achievements in journalism’s history while kpoulsen and rsingel snicker and giggle like children on their Twitter accounts.

I, too, wondered about Greenwald’s assertions about whether manning allegedly discussed Assange or a secure server.

And, Kevin, you sure drew that out.

How about some other disclosures that have never been made on this website:

1- Adrian Lamo has been caught, repeatedly, lying to reporters by myself and others working on doing the volunteer legwork of finding out the ways and means that the public has been deceived by Wired.

2- What IS a chat log, Hacker Kingpin? I wonder if Glenn Greenwald even knows this — I doubt it. A “CHAT LOG” is an absurd way of making an ASCII TEXT FILE sound more important than it is. But the story doesn’t sound anywhere near as sexy when you tell the truth, right? “Chat log” sounds official, like it is a confirmed chat that had to have been a chat between two internet peers. In reality, you couldn’t have had anything more than a text file filled with dialogue that could have been WRITTEN BY ANYONE. Does AOL keep records of chat logs? Has Wired looked into it to confirm the ASCII text files handed over to them by a guy with absolutely no credibility whatsoever was telling the truth?

Kevin: in all your years as a hacker, did you ever run across the elite hacking tool known as vi? Isn’t it true that vi is all anybody would need to produce an exact replica of the so-called “Chat Logs” you refer to all the time?

Kevin: why arent YOU suspicious of Lamo? That’s the real clincher here. The biggest mistake you could make in attempting to smooth this over is your non-stop, absurd defense of the most indefensible source ever. Someone who is on videotape saying one thing one day to one reporter and saying another thing another day to another reporter. But he’s stalwart and historically courageous to you! Julian Assange? No– he’s a coward who has only faced off against the largest and most corrupt and most violent military/government industry to ever exist in human history. You whine for sympathy regarding your own pretrial detention while simultaneously joining in a mob attack on a man whose done nothing more than expose war crimes that your magazine and all other media outlets should have been covering, instead of blah blah Apple gadget this.

I don’t know why I even bother writing this here since Wired has had a policy of censoring my comments ever since I embarrassed them so thoroughly on the very first article they ran on this story. You can go find it and watch the tone of the comments change after I stated what should have been obvious to anyone. Since then, my comments have been censored via prior restraint. Cowards.

Glenn Greenwald, many many months ago, gave you the answer to your so-called desire to “protect PFC Manning” and his privacy: agree on a third-party, have that person review the chat logs under obligation of confidentiality, and let that independent party determine if there is anything relevant in there. And let’s go from there.

You have NO argument against that proposal which he made forever ago. NONE.

Furthermore, these refutations above ignore the most significant points raised by Glenn Greenwald and many others who are not even professional journalists … people like me who will continue following through on this and documenting it and detailing for all to see in perpetuity the manner in which Wired continues to spit in the face of its readership and everything that is noble about the tradition of journalism.

Glenn Greenwald: Wired’s refusal to release or comment on the Manning chat logs (Dec 29, 2010)

Boing Boing: Wired.com: Lamo/Manning Wikileaks chat logs contain no unpublished references to Assange or private servers (Dec 29, 2010)

Kevin and Evan both independently verified that in the unpublished portions of the chat logs between Adrian Lamo and Bradly Manning there is no further reference to private FTP servers, and no further discussion about the relationship between Manning and Assange.

That’s kind of a big deal, because the published portions of the logs do not support or back up the statements Adrian Lamo seems to have been making. And that would mean that his claims are based solely on opinion, not based on evidence in the chat logs.

IANAL, but this would not appear to be good news for anyone attempting or threatening to prosecute Julian Assange and/or Wikileaks.

What could have been a smoking gun now looks more like an empty water pistol.

HeyKevinPoulsen.com
Glenn Greenwald and Wired Magazine: “I see no reason to doubt Poulsen’s integrity or good faith”
Guardian: Wired journalists deny cover-up over WikiLeaks boss and accused US soldier : Pair with access to transcript of comments by Bradley Manning deny they could help prosecution against Julian Assange (Dec 30, 2010)
Greenwald: Email/comment to Ryan Singel

Today’s Wikileaks Links

Cuba puts WikiLeaks disclosures online in Spanish
WikiLeaks cables claim Vladimir Putin has secret wealth hidden abroad
CNN: Jessica Yellin’s response to last night’s Assange discussion
Fmr. US State Dept. official in Tehran Henry Precht on WikiLeaks – “Foreigners will be less forthcoming with our officers; the reports produced by those officers will be more restricted in circulation. It will be harder to conduct our business under those conditions.”
The merger of journalists and government officials : Glenn Greenwald
Many Arab officials have close CIA links: Assange
My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act — Here’s Why We Must Fight to Protect Julian Assange
HaikuLeaks – Cable is Poetry

December 30, 2010December 11, 2020

Israeli Courts Used As Instruments of Political Coercion

Two recent ‘show trials’ provide clear evidence that the course of justice is being perverted in Israel, with coercion applied purposefully to intimidate those who challenge zionist brutality, land theft and ethnic cleansing.

High profile Jewish activist, Jonathan Pollak, attended court two days ago. Bearing witness in court were a throng of journalists and supporters. Joseph Dana provides an excellent account of Jonathan’s trial.

Tel Aviv Magistrates court judge Yitzhak Yitzhak convicted Israeli leftist Jonathan Pollak of illegal assembly for his participation in a January 2008 Critical Mass ride against the siege on Gaza and then sentenced him to three months imprisonment that will begin on January 11th, 2011. Pollak was the only one detained at the said protest, and was accused of doing nothing other than riding his bicycle in the same manner as the rest of the protesters.
…

During the trial, an Israeli supporter of Pollak was violently removed from the courthouse for wearing a shirt that said “there is no pride in occupation.” After the verdict was handed down, supporters began chanting in the courtroom against Israeli fascism and the occupation. They were forcibly removed one by one from the courthouse and subsequently held a demonstration on the sidewalk.

Despite evidence of Israeli wrongdoing in the course of the Gaza war, the only Israeli sentenced to jail so far is a leftist who choose to ride his bike through Tel Aviv in non-violent protest. The state of Israel sent a clear message with this verdict: that it will not tolerate dissent from the left. In fact, the state persecutor asked for a severe sentence in order to ‘make an example out of Pollak and those who engage in similar anti-occupation work.” Pollak said that he will continue to work with Palestinians against the occupation and repeatedly cited the much harsher verdicts given to Palestinians involved in non-violent protests. The only remorse that he showed was that he did not do enough to express dissent about the siege of Gaza. If peacefully riding a bike against violent aggression is a crime, Pollak said that we will happily go to jail.

Less well-known, and unreported in the western media, was the trial yesterday of Nuri al-Uqbi, a 68 year old Bedouin father of 8 children. Like Jonathan Pollak, Nuri was arbitrarily charged with a petty offence. Nuri’s punishment was increased by the magistrate to ‘seven months in prison for “running a business without a license”‘ to send a deliberate, vicious political message to other Bedouins who might have the temerity to oppose their dispossession. Five years ago, Nuri commenced a legal challenge against the state to regain his family’s lands in the Negev.

al-Uqbi’s expert, Oren Yiftachel, of Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, has countered that there was a well-established system of Bedouin land ownership and crop cultivation in the Negev long before Israel’s creation.

He says Bedouin deeds — though never formally recorded — were recognized by the Ottomans, the British and even early Zionist organizations such as the JNF, which bought land from the Bedouin.

A 1921 document from the public records office in London unearthed by Yiftachel shows that Winston Churchill, the colonies minister, signed an agreement with Bedouin in the Beersheva area that exempted them from registering their lands and set up a special tribal court to settle land disputes.

Al-Uqbi has kept a large store of documents passed on to him, showing that his father cultivated crops on the land and paid regular tithes on the profits to the Ottoman and British authorities.

He also has a copy of the treaty signed in 1948 between 16 Bedouin tribes, including the Uqbi, and the new Israeli army, pledging loyalty in return for a guarantee that they could continue living on their lands.

Clearly, the magistrate’s intimidatory message to Nuri and the outrageously harsh sentence relays the racist, predatory concerns of the zionist state. Will Nuri’s sentence be used against him by the state in his pending land rights case?

The Negev, constituting nearly two-thirds of Israel’s territory, has been almost entirely nationalized by the state, with the land held in trust for world Jewry. But the Bedouin have outstanding legal claims on nearly 80,000 hectares of ancestral property.

In recent months, the Israeli government has ramped up demolitions of Bedouin homes in the Negev to clear the way for more Jewish colonialists and Jewish National Fund pine forests. The village of al-Araqib was bulldozed for the eighth time since July last week, along with homes of 20 people in al Sadier village. Bedouins say Israel is demolishing homes “on a daily basis”.

Below is a google translation of the original Hebrew piece relating Nuri’s trial, pending a better version.

The judge wrote in the verdict: “worsened with the Okbi to deliver a message for the Negev Bedouin
by Noa Levy on Tuesday, 28 December 2010 at 21:28

Nuri al Okbi, rights activist Negev Bedouin Arab residents

Sentenced to seven months in prison for “running a business without a license”

The judge wrote in the verdict: “worsened with the Okbi to deliver a message for the Negev Bedouin”

Nuri al Okbi, chairman of the Association to protect the rights of the Bedouins who is also active in defense of rights and Arab residents of Lod many of them Bedouin origin, was sentenced today to seven months in prison for possession of a business without a license. Judge Zachary Yemini Ramle Magistrate’s Court verdict explicitly wrote that he had decided to aggravate the sentence – Okbi for being active in the Bedouin rights, and that the sentence is intended to “send a message Bedouin diaspora.”

After which the – Okbi guilty guilty several weeks ago the court referred him to community service, and – Okbi already expressed willingness in this work for the public good in a soup kitchen in Ramla was interested to receive it. But surprisingly, the judge decided to worsen and cut him seven months in prison instead of six which can be converted to community service.

Attorney Avi Dubin, lawyer of the Okbi, asked the court to delay the execution to allow the filing of an appeal, but the judge conditioned the implementation delay immediate deposit of thirty thousand dollars the court fund, a sum that is in his hands – and he was taken immediately imprisonment. In addition to imprisonment imposed on the court Nuri al – Okbi fine of forty thousand shekels or four hundred days in prison for them.

Business without a license is accused managed to – Okbi is a garage that opened in 1964 to Okbi Hasmonean 11th Street in Lod, when passed, like many other Bedouins from the Negev, to live in it. Over the years, changed the policy of the Municipality of Lod, which some in the garage and gave license to – Okbi other years denied him. “I feel discrimination and intimidation taken against me for political reasons, to keep me open my mouth and fight against the policy of the municipality – for example the destruction of seven homes of Arab residents about a week ago. I received a certificate from the Police, Fire Department, the Ministry of Interior Ministry of the Environment workshop working properly, but City Hall deprived me of the license while the people around me got business licenses started many years after my garage. I am convinced that if I was ready to walk the line dictated by the Town Hall, I had no problem obtaining a license. My garage is not their real problem, but a public activity.

UPDATE

Nuri al-Oqbi was hospitalised with his heart condition shortly after the trial – he collapsed after sentencing.

Following the harsh verdict, al-Okbi – who is 68 years old and suffers from a heart condition – felt bad and was hospitalized at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where he is hospitalized under police supervision and his hands and feet handcuffed to the bed. The police also prevented al-Okbi’s son, who came to the hospital, from talking to him.

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Two years after Operation Cast Lead, Gaza remains imprisoned
How much racism can a “democracy” take?
Israel blocks essential medical supplies for Gaza hospitals
China imports Israel’s methods of propaganda and repression
Israeli politician urges “a shot in the head” for Bedouins
Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel
Cablegate – Mastercard numbers used by the Mossad Dubai killers 10ABUDHABI103
Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious
TIBI: The tragedy of a two-state solution
Christian extremists assist Israel in displacing Negev Bedouin
Gaza farmers pack strawberries and hope for export
Conspiracy Theories Linking Israel to WikiLeaks Circulate on the Internet
Israeli army: leave Khirbet Tana or else
Shelling Reported in Gaza City
Students for Justice in Palestine condemns US government witch hunt
Israeli leaders, soldiers fear arrest over Gaza War Crimes
Culture Group Rebuffs Bid To Condemn Boycotts
Barrier separates Palestinian farmers from their land
Detained journalist questions right to freedom of speech for Palestinians
CNN reports on racist letters emanating from ultra-orthodox rabbis or their wives in Israel.

Other Links

How thick is your grey matter? The grey matter was found to be thicker in people who described themselves as liberal or Left-wing and thinner in those who said they were conservative or Right-wing.
The Australian : A “serious” newspaper debases itself
Backing extremists is fine if you work for CNN

December 28, 2010August 24, 2022

The Death Throes of Israel’s Tyranny

Let’s count the triumphs for justice from the grassroots up – the bands, musicians, authors, filmmakers, speakers, unions, societies, academics, universities, cooperatives and corporations who have said NO to the iniquity of Israeli apartheid and genocide. Salute to the flash mobs in department stores and on the streets, activists in the weekly resistance protests at Bi’lin, Ni’lin, Nabih Saleh, Sheik Jarrah and elsewhere in the Occupied Territories and the courageous flotillas to Gaza.

Emphatic solidarity for Palestinian human rights resounds across social networks and blogs – boycotts, divestments and sanctions are burgeoning throughout the world despite the pernicious ziocolonial hasbara proliferated by Israel and its reactionary ziolobby groups. In the mainstream media too, there has been progress, with publication of high profile stories of Palestinian resistance and solidarity, peaceful flotillas to break Israel’s evil, illegal siege on Gaza, powerful visions for the only real solution – one state and support for BDS.

Ending the apartheid of South Africa took 34 years from 1960 to 1994, yet since 2005 when boycotts, divestments and sanctions were declared by Palestinian civil society, progress toward the end of racist Israel’s crimes against humanity is accelerating far more rapidly. Hanging on by a thread to their ethnosupremacist dreams, Israel’s vile leaders are increasingly dismayed, attempting desperately to hide their abominations behind the deceitful canard of ‘self-defence’, counter-productively ramping up oppression, land theft and ethnic cleansing.

Yet with every spiteful conniption, denial of responsibility for atrocities, new fascist law, repressive act toward human rights activists, torture of prisoners and detainment of peaceful resistance leaders, Israel’s repellent tyranny moves closer to self-extinction. Apartheid Israel is delegitimising itself, its cheerleaders and their supporters are caught in the paradox of fascism, unaware they are active participants who embrace an oppressor state as “normal”. In our irrevocably connected world, this paradox is unsustainable. The fulfillment of the Palestinian peoples’ legitimate claims are now within reach.

Let’s continue to hold the banner for justice high, intensify boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israeli apartheid, and remember Gandhi’s prescient words:

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Make no mistake – Israelis have always been racist
‘Shin Bet tortures prisoners and denies access to lawyers’
The invisible Palestinian liberation struggle
Ayalon Prison: Inmate commits suicide, then disappears
Israeli military targets Palestinian paramedics during clashes
GAZA: TWO YEARS AFTER THE HORROR – BY HAIDAR EID
Gaza Two Years Later: A little girl
Ethnic cleansing in Silwan
Karma – Racist Grinch ‘We’ll have No Christmas trees here’ Upper Nazareth mayor arrested on graft charge
PM: Israel won’t apologize to Turkey for Gaza flotilla raid
Activism roundup: world to commemorate Gaza massacre anniversary
Right-wing Israelis parade through East Jerusalem sparking clashes
Israel Set To Build And Market 5000 Units In East Jerusalem and the West Bank
Gaza families recall horror two years after Israel’s assault
ISRAEL: Neighbors watchful as Israel demarcates maritime borders with Cyprus
Palestine: Gaza aftermath – Photos
Israeli secret service targets Israeli BDS organizers, claiming “terrorist activity”
The Gaza “Cast Lead” Massacre
Iran, Syria stress support for resistance
20 Israeli contractors for construction of Rawabi effectively join settlements BDS
A Provocative Blueprint for Peace in the Mideast

Palestinians Reject Piecemeal Talks offered by Israel
Israeli navy tracks ship carrying aid for Gaza
Thug Lieberman has taken over the Israeli government
Britain risks Israeli anger by extending diplomatic recognition to Palestinians (why should the UK care about risking Israeli anger?)
BDS 2010: More Powerful Than the Sword
Nutanyahoo’s number 1 & racist demand for negotiations – that Israel be recognised as a jewish state
Israel disregards its legal obligation towards civilians, including patients in Gaza [Al Mezan]
Gaza Rubble and Scrap Collectors – Deliberate Attacks and Lack of Protection
The power of the alliance between Netanyahu and the religious extremists is an invitation to a dramatic change. But anyone who lifts their eyes from the peas scattered on the floor will see that a forest greater than Birnam Wood can move.

Wikilinks

Zimbabwe: Wikileaks Could Quicken Demise of GNU
Open letter to those inciting murder upon Julian Assange and/or members of his family
Morgan Tsvangirai faces possible Zimbabwe treason charge
Jailed Soldier Has Support of Resisters
The Embarrassment of the Wikileaks Links – cartoon
Belarus Updates: How Many Thousands Protested on 19 December?
Robert Fisk: WikiLeaks exposed US and Hillary’s hopelessness
The unofficial Wikileaks metawiki
Game Changer – Why Wikileaks will be the death of big business and big government.
The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired

Other Links

Dick Cheney’s $250-Million ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card
While it’s been raining cats and dogs here in Jinland and we’re cut off from anywhere, at least we haven’t had to chance the perils of a long car trip to nowhere. Derek Barry takes us for a ride through the floods of Queensland
Top Ten Myths about Afghanistan, 2010
The Rise and Rise of Super Fascism
Hitchens on Kissinger
The Norwegian government’s controversial but arguably predictable decision to buy new fighter jets from its most important ally, the US, has been hit with another major cost issue. Documents leaked to WikiLeaks and reported in newspaper Aftenposten indicate the price tag has jumped by 66 percent and may cost Norwegian taxpayers another NOK 12 billion.
The JSF program sets new benchmarks for exceeding initially intended Unit Procurement Costs in a weapon system being developed.