Shadia Mansour featuring M1 from Dead Prez, Al-Kufiyyeh 3arabeyeh video
Lyrics
Good morning cousins, y’all welcome, come in
What would you like us to serve you, Arab blood or tears from our eyes?
I think that’s how they expected us to receive them
That’s why they got embarrassed when they realized their mistake
That’s why we rocked the kuffiyeh, the white and black
Now these dogs are startin to wear it as a trend
No matter how they design it, no matter how they change its color
The kuffiyeh is Arabic, and it will stay Arabic
The gear we rock, they want it; our culture, they want it
Our dignity, they want it; everything that’s ours, they want it
Half your country, half your home; why, why? No, I tell em
Stealin’ something that ain’t theirs, I can’t allow it
They imitatin us in what we wear, wear; from this land enough, what else do you want?
About Jerusalem, Jerusalem, would they be worried, how can you humans?
Before y’all ever rocked a kuffiyeh, we here to remind em who we are
And whether they like it or not, this is our clothing style
That’s why we rock the kuffiyeh, cuz it’s patriotic
The kuffiyeh, the kuffiyeh is Arabic
That’s why we rock the kuffiyeh, our essential identity
The kuffiyeh, the kuffiyeh is Arabic
Come on, throw up the kuffiyeh (throw that kuffiyeh up for me)
The kuffiyeh, the kuffiyeh is Arabic
Throw it up, come on “Bilad Al Sham” (Greater Syria)
The kuffiyeh is Arabic, and it will stay Arabic
There’s none yet like the Arab people
Show me which other nation in the world was more influential
The picture is clear, we are the cradle of civilization
Our history and cultural heritage testify to our existence
That’s why I rocked the Palestinian gear
From Haifa, Jenin, Jabal al Nar to Ramallah
Let me see the kuffiyeh, the white and red
Let me throw it up in the sky; I’m
Arab, and my tongue creates earthquakes
I shake the words of war
Listen, I’m Shadia Mansour, and the gear I’m rockin is my identity
Since the day I was born raisin people’s awareness been my responsibility
But I was raised between fear and evil; between two areas
Between the grudging and the poor, I seen life from both sides
God bless the kuffiyeh; however you rock me, wherever you see me
I stay true to my origins, Palestinian
and other news from today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing
Construction in Judea and Samaria Up a Whopping 660%
About 75,000 new homes are under construction in all of Israel right now, a government agency said Wednesday. With the end of the building freeze, construction has started up in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) communities. In fact, said the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), building jumped 660% in Judea and Samaria during the first half of 2011, as compared to the previous year.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147431#.TmOhRo6wUUV
EU ‘concerned’ by Israel’s separation wall route at Walaja
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — EU representatives said Friday they were “deeply concerned” by the impact of Israel’s separation barrier on the historic West Bank village Al-Walaja. The 2,500-strong community lost an appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court on Aug. 22, requesting the re-route of a portion of the wall they say cuts off the village from vital resources. European Union missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah said in a statement that the barrier “will cut off much of the village’s land, preventing many residents from accessing their land, including agricultural land.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417335
Israeli settlement expansion in Ramallah signals isolating Palestinian towns
The Israeli ministry of war has signed a contract with the municipality of Beit Arye settlement to construct an additional 100 units to the settlement, the Israeli Peace Now organization has reported.
link to Palestinian Information Center
U.S. aiding Ethnic Cleansing
How US “charities” break tax laws to fund Israeli settlements, Mike Coogan
In spite of US government statements about its displeasure with the expansion of Israeli settlements, US based organizations are abusing the 501(C)3 section of US tax codes to provide billions in subsidies to do exactly that. There are hundreds of these tax-exempt, so-called charities funneling money to illegal Israeli settlements, often with the names no more creative than “American Friends of name an Israeli settlement.”
link to Electronic Intifada
Settlers
Jewish settlers storm Aqsa plaza
Jewish settlers stormed the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem under Israeli police escort at dawn Sunday, eyewitnesses said.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Settlers attack Jalud village as Israeli soldiers stand guard
Armed Jewish settlers attacked in the Palestinian village of Jalud southeast of Nablus city in the West Bank as Israeli soldiers stood guard, Palestinian officials reported.
link to Palestininian Information Center
Settlers beat up child in Al Khalil (Hebron)
In the city itself, Jewish settlers assaulted a 15-year-old child in Shuhada street, downtown Al-Khalil, near his family home, locals said, adding that the child was carried to hospital with minor injuries.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Gaza Siege
Egypt begins destroying border tunnels
Al Masry Al Youm 3 Sept – Smuggling tunnels at the border with Gaza are likely being destroyed, eyewitnesses have said. Eyewitnesses added that even though there are around 1400 tunnels, only 300 are used. Many of these tunnels have not been affected by machines used to destroy them since they are internally lined with wood. Other tunnels have been dug in a way to resist attempts at destroying them. Some sources have said that the destruction is being carried out in conformance with a deal between Egypt and Gaza to destroy all tunnels which Palestinians have failed to control. An official source said that tunnels accessed from houses in Rafah will be destroyed. These tunnels, he said, have been the hardest to shut due to their location in residential areas.
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/491879
Turkey says it will challenge Gaza blockade (AP)
AP – Turkey is preparing to challenge Israel’s blockade on Gaza at the International Court of Justice, the foreign minister said Saturday, ratcheting up tensions between the once close allies.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110903/ap_on_re_eu/un_israel_turkey
Report: Turkey navy to escort aid ships to Palestinians in Gaza
The Turkish navy will significantly strengthen its presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as one of the steps the Turkish government has decided to take following the release of the UN Palmer report on the 2010 Gaza flotilla, Turkish officials told the Hurriyet Daily News. “The eastern Mediterranean will no longer be a place where Israeli naval forces can freely exercise their bullying practices against civilian vessels,” a Turkish official was quoted as saying. As part of the plan, the Turkish navy will increase its patrols in the eastern Mediterranean and pursue “a more aggressive strategy”.
link to Haaretz
Gaza: Registration to cross Rafah border opens Sunday
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Gaza residents can register to travel via the Rafah crossing on the Egypt border from Sunday, the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior announced. Registration is only open for students, foreign passport holders and those with referrals for medical treatment abroad, the ministry said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417538
Palestinian protests & Israeli regime attacks on protesters
IOF troops crack down on marchers
Armed Jewish settlers attacked in the Palestinian village of Jalud southeast of Nablus city in the West Bank as Israeli soldiers stood guard, Palestinian officials reported.
link to Palestininian Information Center
Beit Ommar Residents Protest In Solidarity With Majde Za’aqiq
Today in Beit Ommar, around twenty-five demonstrators marched towards the illegal Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur in protest of the imprisonment of Beit Ommar school teacher Majde Za’aqiq. Demonstrators held signs protesting Majde’s imprisonment, advocating Palestinian membership of the UN, and ending the occupation.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2011/09/03/beit-ommar-residents-protest-in-solidarity-with-majde-zaaqiq/
Activism / Solidarity / BDS
The end of civilization: no ‘dignity’ in remaining silent at BBC Proms, Eleanor Kilroy
In a Guardian review of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) at the BBC Proms, and referring to the boycott protests that disrupted their concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall on Thursday, classical music critic Erica Jeal praises IPO conductor, Zubin Mehta, as ‘the model of composure’. In the comment thread she clarifies that ‘the only ones who came out of this with any dignity intact were Mehta, Shaham and the orchestra’. This reverence for Mehta’s physical control is echoed in the right-wing, establishment paper, the Telegraph: the ‘supremely unflappable conductor-for-life Zubin Mehta, kept going… unflappable dignity is clearly his default mode’.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/the-end-of-civilization-no-dignity-in-remaining-silent-at-bbc-proms.html
Apartheid Art Not Welcome
Congratulations to BRICUP, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, and the Boycott Israel Network for disrupting a performance of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra at the London Proms to such an extent that the BBC was forced to take its Radio 3 live broadcast off the air. The IPO has a ‘partnership’ with the murderous Israeli Defence Forces and acts as a key element of ‘Brand Israel’, whitewashing the crimes of the apartheid state. Below, a letter from concerned musicians to the Independent explains why apartheid art is not welcome here.
http://pulsemedia.org/2011/09/03/apartheid-art-not-welcome/
Letter to International Participants of the “Welcome to Palestine” Campaign
Sep 1, 2011– The “Welcome to Palestine” initiative took place July 8-16, 2011. In response to an invitation put forth by Stop the Wall along with 40 other Palestinian civil society organizations, popular resistance committees, and political factions, hundreds of international visitors reserved flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport for July 8th, 2011.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2594.shtml
Letter to the Students Protesting for Equal, Affordable Education in Chile
This summer has seen massive protests in Chile on a variety of issues: student movement, Mapuche defense of resources, and demonstrations against damming projects. Tens of thousands of youth have taken to the streets to demand equality in affordable, public education. Our Palestinian youth express their solidarity with the demonstrators, especially because it is often our youth that, because of their courage, face disproportionate repression.
http://stopthewall.org/communityvoices/2595.shtml
Video: Keszler Gallery, NYC allegedly removes Banksy’s West Bank stencils for unsanctioned show
HuffPost 1 Sept — An unauthorized Banksy show at the Keszler Gallery in New York City has angered arts commentators for apparently removing original works from their West Bank walls for display in the gallery. Arrest Motion first reported the removal on August 31st, saying that “the Keszler Gallery in association with the Bankrobber Gallery where unnamed individuals traveled to Palestine and boldly removed some of the well known and much beloved work Banksy created for the Santa’s Ghetto event held in the West Bank in 2007.” According to the Keszler Gallery, the show consists of “Unique street works and prints acquired from their original locations in Bethlehem, Brighton, London & Los Angeles.” See some of the works displayed in the controversial exhibition in the video, courtesy of Justin Sutcliffe/Polaris Images NY.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/banksy-keszler_n_944178.html
Two Banksy pieces from the West Bank are now for sale in the Hamptons
NY Mag 2 Sept — How did a Hamptons art gallery come to show several Banksy works, including two pieces originally stenciled in Palestine? It’s not completely clear, actually, but Wet Dog, which originally appeared on a bus stop, and Stop and Search, which originally appeared on the wall of a butcher shop, are now among the works for sale at the Keszler Gallery. None of the harvested pieces in the show have been certified by Pest Control, Banksy’s authentication office, though the firm does not authenticate works that have been removed from their original locations. According to ArtNet, a rep for the U.K.’s Bankrobber Gallery, which partnered with Keszler to bring the works out of the Middle East, says a Palestinian entrepreneur originally removed the paintings, and that the galleries stepped in only after discovering that the works were sitting in a stone mason’s backyard for years.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/09/banksy-hamptons-west-bank-wet-dog-stop-search.html
Artnet News: Galleries defend controversial Banksy show / Rachel Corbettt
Artnet.com 1 Sept — Yesterday, Artnet Magazine reported on the controversy surrounding the decision by Keszler Gallery and Bankrobber Gallery to bring two Banksy stencils from Bethlehem to the Southampton Village Power Plant, where an exhibition of reconstituted street works and prints opened Aug. 20, 2011. Banksy fans argued that the artist intended the works for the West Bank and the galleries had no right to remove them.
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/corbett/keszler-gallery-on-banksy-controversy-9-1-11.asp
Israeli regime attacks against Palestinians
IOF fires flare bombs in Jenin raids
Israeli occupation forces fired flare bombs and deployed in the plains and open areas in a massive raid operation in the West Bank city of Jenin and its environs.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Detentions
Report: Israel arrested 15, deported 30 pro-Palestinian activists in August
Some 15 activists were arrested and 30 were deported last month in a wave of incitement against pro-Palestinian activists, a French rights group said in a report marking the end of August.
link to Palestinian Information Center
IOF soldiers arrest 3 Palestinians including young woman
Israeli occupation soldiers (IOF) rounded up three Palestinian citizens on Sunday, two young men in Al-Khalil and a young woman in Ramallah.
link to Palestinian Information Center
IOF soldiers arrest 3 Palestinians in Al-Khalil village
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up three Palestinians in the village of Doura, southwest of Al-Khalil city, at dawn Saturday, local sources said.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Hamas lawmaker sentenced to 6 months in administrative detention
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — An Israeli court Sunday sentenced Hamas-affiliated lawmaker Anwar Zuboun to six months in administrative detention, Hamas officials said. The sentence was condemned by Hamas lawmakers as part of Israel’s “arrogance and systematic crime.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417638
Family of MP Yousuf slams Israeli attempts to fabricate charges against him
The family of lawmaker Hasan Yousuf strongly denounced the Israeli intelligence agency for trying to fabricate charges against him and avenge him after failed attempts to undermine his high morale.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Egypt releases 2 Palestinian brothers from Rafah
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Egyptian authorities on Saturday released two Palestinian brothers after two years in detention, relatives told Ma’an. Ammar and Arafat Abu Nima, from Rafah on the Egypt-Gaza border, were detained with their father on the Egyptian side of the city two years ago. They were sentenced to three years on charges of smuggling and entering Egypt illegally.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417511
Family says Palestinian sheik detained at Cairo airport
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Egyptian authorities detained a Palestinian sheik on Saturday at Cairo International Airport, his family told Ma’an. Abdul Aziz Odeh was detained at the airport as he returned from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, relatives said. The Palestinian ambassador to Egypt was unable to secure his release. Odeh was one of the first Palestinians to be deported to the Gaza Strip during the first intifada, or uprising, in 1987.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417516
Turkey & Israel UN Flotilla Report
Turkey to take Israel to UN court
Turkey says it will challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza in a UN court after rejecting a UN report into the killing of nine of its citizens on a ship.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-14777558
Turkey talking tough to Tel Aviv, Ira Glunts
The Turks say they plan to challenge Israel over its naval blockade of Gaza. Turkish officials claim they will take legal, diplomatic, as well as military action to force an Israeli retreat from its refusal to permit ships from bringing aid to the Israeli- occupied territory. The Turks are mad as hell about the Israeli refusal to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish citizens during the IDF assault on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. They also are angered by the UN report which characterized the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza as legal and justifiable based on the Israeli right of self-defense. Ironically, the report was intended to be a vehicle to assist Israel and Turkey in mending their strained relations, but instead has become the immediate cause of a serious diplomatic breach.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/turkey-talking-tough-to-tel-aviv.html
Palestinian Reactions to UN Report
Palestinian Authority criticises UN flotilla report
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — The Palestinian Authority on Saturday condemned a UN report into a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish-led aid flotilla as a political document not based on international law. “This report is terrible and negative. It’s a purely political report, it’s not legal,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said of the report on the May 2010 raid which killed nine Turkish activists. “It’s a political report that is not based on international law, but on the contrary, it violates international law, because the Gaza Strip is still under Israeli occupation,” he told AFP.
link to Google News
UN flotilla report provokes angry reactions in Gaza
Gaza resident Jamal Zarra told Ma’an that no people in the world were besieged like the unarmed population of the Gaza Strip. “How can the blockade be legal while we don’t have medicines in hospitals, and our movement is restricted?” He said international law had become subordinate to the permanent member states of the UN Security Council, while the rest of the world was “helpless.” Meanwhile, Popular Committee against the Siege spokesman Ali Nazli asked if international law “would allow besieging and starving 1.7 million people in Gaza, depriving them of medicine and humanitarian needs?” He urged the international community to pressure Israel to end the occupation and to hold Tel Aviv accountable for its aggression on the coastal enclave.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417439
Radwan: Palmer report ‘biased and illegitimate’
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said Sunday that a UN report on Israel’s deadly raid of a Gaza-bound aid boat was illegitimate and biased to Israel. The report, released Friday, was written by a panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer. It found that Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, but that Israel used “excessive and unreasonable force” when its commandos raided the ship and killed nine Turkish civilians on board.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417547
Racism / Discrimination
‘State’s discrimination between terror victims unacceptable’
Arab family of east Jerusalem man killed by Yaakov Teitel petitions State to grant family of Jewish teen injured in incident terror victims’ benefits.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117641,00.html
Wikileaks Palestine/Israel
WikiLeaks: Israel irked by West Bank protests
Minutes from 2010 meeting between Israeli, US officials reveal IDF commanders frustrated with non-violent Palestinian protests; claim Israel ‘not good at dealing with Gandhi’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117301,00.html
Israel favoured brute force against West Bank protesters
NEW DELHI: “We don’t do Gandhi very well.” The political-military chief of Israel’s ministry of defence, Amos Gilad, had told US interlocutors in February, 2010, that the Israeli forces would be compelled to take more strong-arm methods against protesters in the West Bank.
link to Times of India
WikiLeaks: Avigdor Lieberman
Unlike Beilin, Lieberman was described as a staunch Jewish nationalist who does not trust Israel’s Arab neighbors as well as many of Israel’s Arab citizens. The former ambassador also commented on Lieberman’s legal situation, saying that the Yisrael Beiteinu chairman used the legal proceedings against him to boost his political career by portraying himself as a victim who is being targeted by political opponents.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117370,00.html
Wikileaks drip drip drip
All the wikileaks cables have been released and are now accessible. Whether others prove to be as horrific as the massacre of women and children in Iraq brought to our attention this week, or as drearily predictable as PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY SECURITY OFFICIALS ON COORDINATION WITH ISRAEL remains to be seen.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/wikileaks-drip-drip-drip.html
Press Freedom
Gaza journalists rally for release of Al Jazeera reporter
Dozens of Palestinian journalists held a non-violent protest Saturday in Gaza City outside the offices of the United Nations. They called on UN officials to pressure Israel to release their colleague, reporter Samer Allawi, who has been held in Israeli detention since August 10.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61939
Israeli, Palestinian reporters urge Israel to uphold journalists’ rights
The Israeli-Palestinian Journalists’ Forum has called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to uphold the rights of journalists reporting in the region. “The Palestinian Authority is currently working toward the recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations. This is a matter of interest to the region and the world, but moreover, to every person living in Israel and the Palestinian Territories,” the press group said. “That is why journalists working for Palestinian and Israeli media must be allowed to do their work without restriction,” the letter added.
link to Haaretz
Statehood Bid
U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood
The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state from the United Nations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html
U.S. tries to stall Palestinian statehood bid: report (Reuters)
Reuters – Washington has launched an effort to avoid a clash stemming from plans by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing senior U.S. officials and foreign diplomats.
link to Yahoo News
France Warns Against Palestinian UN Bid
French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, warned the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank of heading to the United Nations this month, and claimed that “heading to the UN to seek international recognition of statehood, could lead to a serious diplomatic crises”.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61936
Tony Blair’s key role in Mideast talks
Former British PM plays central but largely unheralded role in reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, perhaps helping to avert Palestinian push for full UN membership.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117221,00.html
Other news
Iranian president affirms support for resistance in a call with Mishaal
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has affirmed in a telephone call with Hamas political bureau chairman Khaled Mishaal that Tehran would continue to support the Palestinian people.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Turkey to sign strategic alliance with Egypt
Ankara-Cairo relations receive boost as crisis with Israel worsens: Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan slated to visit Cairo and possibly Gaza soon to sign strategic cooperation agreement with Egypt. Meanwhile, recently expelled Israeli ambassador Gaby Levy says there’s no chance he will return to Ankara.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117727,00.html
Barrier erected to secure Israeli embassy in Cairo
A barrier was erected in Cairo’s University Bridge area designed to protect the Israeli embassy against massive protests demanding the embassy’s removal.
link to Palestinian Information Center
Report: Gadhafi offered Israel Shalit, peace for NATO halt
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli and Austrian politician claiming to be at the center of negotiations with Moammar Gadhafi have gone public to the press, a week after the former strongman’s compound was captured by rebels. The defeated Libyan leader had offered a peace agreement with Israel, and to secure the release of captured Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, if NATO raids on Libya were halted, they said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417353
Lebanon jails ex-general for leaking info to Israel
Military court sentences Fayez Karam to two years in prison for providing Israel with ‘political information’ on Hezbollah, Christian party.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4117366,00.html
Analysis/Op-ed
Israel objects to Palestinian statehood to avoid war crimes investigations / John Glaser
Antiwar 2 Sept — A secret State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks has revealed that one of the primary reasons behind Israeli objections to Palestinian statehood is that lack of statehood keeps Palestinian territories outside the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes war crimes … The dialogue is unusually blunt, since Israel’s public objections to Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, to be voted upon this month, have been mundane and political in nature.
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/09/02/israel-objects-to-palestinian-statehood-to-avoid-war-crimes-investigations/
Book Review: The Forgotten Palestinians / Khalil Nakhleh
Palestine Chron. 2 Sept — (The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel. Ilan Pappe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011) No doubt, hundreds if not thousands of articles, reports and books have been written about the Palestinians in Israel, “the forgotten Palestinians”, in Arabic, English and Hebrew, during the last sixty some years. To my knowledge, this is the first time a major, mainstream, US academic university press publishes a comprehensive and sympathetic narrative of the Palestinians in Israel, with a focus on their evolving Palestinianhood, by a well respected anti-Zionist, Israeli Jewish historian.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17078
U.S. Right Wing and GOP Presidential Candidates Spreading Paranoid Anti-Muslim Hysteria as Part of Take-Over Strategy, Max Blumenthal
The sudden rise of Islamophobia in the United States is alarming while the movement that advances anti-Muslim resentment seems bizarre and filled with eccentric, even dangerous characters. But when viewed in the context of a new, groundbreaking research document by the Center for American Progress and an obscure, decades-old political memorandum by a long-forgotten former Supreme Court Justice, the Islamophobic crusade raging across the country appears perfectly in line with longstanding goals and methods of conservative organizing, and is aimed at much more than demonizing Muslims.
link to Alternet
Frank Gaffney Thinks ‘We Need A New House Anti-American Committee’ For Islam, Ali Gharib
One of the featured “experts” in the new CAP “Fear, Inc.” report on Islamophobia, Frank Gaffney, appeared on a religious right program and called for renewed McCarthyism against not just American-Muslims but also those who support them or don’t do enough to stymie what Gaffney considers their pernicious influence.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/09/01/310121/gaffney-mccarthyism-muslims/
The All-Time 10 Worst Military Contracting Boondoggles
Welfare for warlords: The world’s most expensive road: Rent-a-ripoff: The Kabul bank bust: and more.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/contractor-waste-iraq-KBR
CIA or CKA – Central Killing Agency?
The Washington Post published a long article outlining new profile of the Central Intelligence Agency. By analyzing numerous examples from all parts of the world, the paper concludes that instead of collecting intelligence data, now the CIA is mostly engaged in finding and killing suspects without trial.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/09/02/55566607.html
NYT on WikiLeaks: Move Along, No Atrocity to See Here
Today’s Times includes a story about the WikiLeaks Iraq cable, under the somewhat strange headline “Cable Implicates Americans in Deaths of Iraqi Civilians.” Still very little in the rest of the press– nothing on television, according to a search of the Nexis database).
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/09/01/nyt-on-wikileaks-move-along-no-atrocity-to-see-here/
Time Magazine and the Fake Hezbollah Interview, Asad AbuKhalil
The fake interview by Nicholas Blanford of a supposed Hezbollah member allegedly implicated in Hariri’s killing was a journalistic scandal and a clear intelligence ploy. The interview published in Time Magazine presumably intended to bring the accused out—electronically speaking—in order to locate him. The story reveals a lot about the way in which the Western press operates. This is not the first time that coverage of the Middle East has been associated with scandals and propaganda. Western media have served as government tools since the US war on Iraq in 1990.
link to Al-Akhbar English
World News
More detainees join Bahrain hunger strike
Protest aimed at ongoing trials from the crackdown on demonstrations by the Gulf nation’s Shia majority.
http://english.aljazeera.net//video/middleeast/2011/09/201193161643416929.html
Yemeni capital braced for fresh protests
Security forces limit access to Sanaa amid calls for intensified demonstrations to shake Saleh’s grip on power.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/09/20119491244127622.html
Syria soldiers ‘killed in ambush’
Six Syrian soldiers and three civilians die as gunmen ambush a bus in central Syria, state media reports, while the bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests continues.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-14780087
Fresh deaths reported across Syria
Activists say at least 13 people killed as the Red Cross chief visits Damascus to demand access to prisons.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/09/20119483720229354.html
`Anti-`Alawite bigotry, As’ad Abukhalil
I have written this before: I am not surprised to read and hear anti-`Alawite bigotry from Hariri/Saudi media. Those are Wahhabi outlets, in the final analysis. But the other day I heard the correspondent of BBC News in Lebanon gives a platform to a guy (he was introduced as Syrian refugee but his accent seemed Lebanese, although it is possible he was Abraham Foxman) who vomited anti-`Alawite bigotry. It is the season. If a Palestinian ever expresses his/her views against Israel in a way that referred to his/her enemies as “Jews”, he is instantly rebuked in the media and calls for his/her arrest are heard (although Israel presents itself to the world as the state of all Jews for propaganda purposes). But then again: why is that surprising? The Saudi/Hariri tools in the Syrian opposition are fanatical extremists.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/09/anti-alawite-bigotry.html
New Lancet study says 12,000 Iraqis dead from suicide bombings
No one has taken much notice of the report. But as the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, it’s an important reminder of the failure of Al Qaeda and of the scars that will shape Iraq for decades.
link to Christian Science Monitor
More Afghan soldiers deserting the army
Between January and June, 24,590 soldiers walked off the job, compared with 11,423 who left in the same period last year, according to NATO statistics.
link to Washington Post
US Kills 30 People In Yemen
Thirty “suspected al-Qaeda militants” were killed Thursday in US airstrikes in southern Yemen, broadcaster Al-Arabiya reported quoting Yemeni military officials.
link to Monsters and Critics
CIA shifts focus to killing targets
Behind a nondescript door at CIA headquarters, the agency has assembled a new counterterrorism unit whose job is to find al-Qaeda targets in Yemen.
link to Washington Post
MI5 former chief decries ‘war on terror’
Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller uses BBC lecture to criticise ‘unhelpful’ term, attack Iraq invasion and suggest al-Qaida talks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/02/mi5-war-on-terror-criticism
Supreme Court declines to clarify rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees
Although delivered in broad strokes and powerful language, the ruling left the details of how to provide hearings for the detainees up to the (not entirely grateful) judges of the D.C. Circuit. The bottom line is that while Guantanamo’s population has declined from around 270 at the time of the decision to 172 today because of decisions of the executive branch, not a single release has come as the direct result of a judicial order. A string of rulings has gone against the detainees. For instance, the circuit court decided that because of the unusual nature of the hearings, the government may rely on hearsay evidence that would not be allowed in federal court. It has said that a preponderance of evidence, the lowest standard, is enough to make the case for continued detention.
link to Washington Post
Wikileaks
Gaddafi, Britain and US: A secret, special and very cosy relationship
Britain helped to capture one of the leading opponents of the Gaddafi regime before he was sent back to be tortured in Libya, according to a secret document discovered by The Independent on Sunday in the offices of Moussa Koussa, then Muammar Gaddafi’s spymaster.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/gaddafi-britain-and-us-a-secret-special-and-very-cosy-relationship-2349039.html
Qaddafi was a CIA Asset, Juan Cole
Human Rights Watch found documents in Libya after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi that it passed on to the Wall Street Journal, which is analyzing them. The WSJ reported today that the documents show that Qaddafi developed so warm a relationship with George W. Bush that Bush sent people he had kidnapped (“rendition”) to Libya to be “questioned” by Libya’s goons, and almost certainly to be tortured. The formal paperwork asked Libya to observe human rights, but Bush’s office also sent over a list of specific questions it wanted the Libyan interrogators to ask. Qaddafi also gave permission to the CIA from 2004 to establish a formal presence in the country.
link to Juan Cole
Kadhafi’s son got doctoral thesis help from Tony Blair: report
Two of Moamer Kadhafi’s sons were invited to the headquarters of the SAS special forces unit as former prime minister Tony Blair tried to build ties with the Libyan regime, The Sunday Times reported. In the latest revelations from intelligence documents obtained by media and rights groups in Tripoli, the paper said Blair had also helped another of Kadhafi’s sons, Seif al-Islam, with his doctoral thesis.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/03/kadhafis-son-got-doctoral-thesis-help-from-tony-blair-report/
US, Australia ‘schemed against the last IAEA chief’
THE US and Australia schemed unsuccessfully in 2005 to block Mohamed ElBaradei’s election to a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a newly leaked US diplomatic cable shows.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-australia-schemed-against-iaea-chief/story-e6frf7jx-1226126096923
www.TheHeadlines.org
