11-year-old seized from playground by undercover officers is now ‘under investigation’

 

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian Authority security forces require regular armaments and supplies in order to keep peace and order in the West Bank, a Fatah official said Friday. Jamal Muheisin told Ma’an that weapons used by security forces naturally wear out after a period of time and, like police forces in other countries, need to be replaced. A large portion of arms used by Palestinian security forces were destroyed in the second Intifada during Israeli incursions into the West Bank, Muheisin said.

After three years of utter disconnect, Jerusalem and Ramallah are starting to talk. Both sides stress, however, that the talks cannot yet be considered peace negotiations.

Palestinian officials said Saturday that statements made by PA President Mahmoud Abbas a day earlier in Paris did not signal he was willing to return to negotiations.

According to Pentagon, Admiral Paul Bushong, who currently serves as a commander in Guam, will be responsible for building the security infrastructure of the PA.

Palestinian political prisoner Ameer Makhoul provides an insider’s take on the historic mass hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

 

American Jews are extremely sensitive to the charge of dual loyalty.  That is, that they might see their loyalty to Israel as equally or superseding their loyalty of the United States.  This charge makes me uncomfortable as well for obvious reasons. But I have to say that Israel advocacy groups like The Israel Project and StandWithUs practically invited these charges since they not only support Israel, they act as extensions of the Israeli government in this country.  And yes, in effect, they are acting as agents of Israel.   Presumably these groups are smart enough not to violate U.S. law and accept actual funding from the Israeli government.  That would force them to register as Israeli agents.  But they do everything short of this. n fact, deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon, in acknowledging that the Israeli government officially supported StandWithUs’ lawsuit against the Olympia food coop, which was dismissed in Superior Court recently, called StandWithUs and other advocacy groups, Israeli “force multipliers.”

 

 

Palestine: a History of Nonviolence
The recent hunger strikes of almost 1,600 Palestinian prisoners represent a watershed juncture in nonviolent resistance in Palestine. While Palestinians have long utilized methods of nonviolence—dating back to Mandatory Palestine of the thirties and epitomized by the First Intifada of the eighties—only recently has a truly international effort appeared. In the midst of the Arab uprisings, the international attention on the region provides a moment of focus for civil resistance, and the nascent coalition of actors utilizing these methods is growing. While the groups have different agendas and tactics, their notable successes in recent months show that, regardless of divisions among them, strategic nonviolence is gaining powerful momentum in Palestine.

http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/06/07/palestine-history-of-nonviolence/b7hw 

West must recognize peaceful Palestinian resistance movement
The West has been largely silent on Palestinian nonviolent resistance, which is unifying groups like Fatah and Hamas. Unless the West recognizes these peaceful initiatives, some Palestinians may question whether civil protest is any better than its violent alternative.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0607/West-must-recognize-peaceful-Palestinian-resistance-movement

Real Story of the Six-Day War
Last Tuesday was the 45th anniversary of the outbreak of a war between Egypt and Israel that would reshape the Middle East. At 7.30am, on June 5, 1967, 200 Israeli fighter jets took off in a massive surprise attack, neutralizing Egypt’s air force before advancing ground troops to occupy Sinai, Golan Heights and the West Bank. Drumming up the pilots, Israeli Air Force Commander Mott Hod proclaimed: “The spirit of Israel’s heroes accompany us to battle… From Joshua Bin-Nun, King David and Maccabees… scatter him [the enemy] throughout the desert…”
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19342

Not on the Other Side of the Wall
About a third of the city’s residents are excluded from the celebrations, speeches and promises that speak of: “(Jerusalem) forever and always…freedom of religion… equality…” and other such hollow catchphrases. In addition, and much more importantly, those same residents aren’t granted their civil rights. Ever since the creation of the metropolis sphere called: “Greater Jerusalem”, which is the result of the intention to annex as much territory as possible with as few residents as possible, the basic rights of three hundred and sixty thousand Palestinians living in it, are not recognized. The city that had stretched its body like a spring up to the end of its reach, extending to the outskirts of Ramallah, has left the Palestinians who reside within it discriminated against by the actual classification given to them. Their blue identity card doesn’t provide them with citizenship (due to the ideology to preserve the Jewish majority), but only permanent residency, which in spite of the title doesn’t ensure them permanence as it might be removed through biased legislation or whim of the Minister of Internal Affairs.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19340

Peled: Israel Chose to Fight in 1967, Laid Foundations of One State
In his op-ed in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times (6 Days in Israel, 45 Years Ago), Israeli-American activist Miko Peled contradicts common wisdom regarding the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.  Drawing on the experiences of his father, General Matti Peled, Mr. Peled asserts that Israel was not forced to preemptively strike due to an immediate, existential threat from its Arab neighbors.  Instead, he suggests that the Egyptian military was far from ready to attack Israel in 1967 and that Israel instigated the war based on the logic of “opportunity.”
http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2012/06/peled-israel-chose-to-fight-in-1967.html

 

Why Obama Will Free Jonathan Pollard, Grant Smith
The US Department of Justice has released new files about convicted spy Jonathan Pollard’s bid for presidential clemency.  Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 after passing more than a million highly classified documents to Israel while working as an intelligence analyst for the US Navy.  Documents in the Freedom of Information Act response (PDF) reference 32 pages of government agency deliberative communications and 37 pages of new communications between Pardon Attorney Ronald Rogers and Pollard’s legal team — all produced since July of 2011. While the contents have been withheld, their existence signals that the Pollard commutation request may be nearing a conclusion within the Obama administration.  June 18 could mark the culmination of a massive lobbying campaign for release.  Obama’s dismal record on Israeli accountability suggests Pollard will soon walk free.

http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2012/06/08/why-obama-will-free-jonathan-pollard/ 

Exposing Arab Bodies
In an exhibition than will run until 15 July, the Arab World Institute in Paris is tackling the stereotypical portrayal of Arab society in Western art, mobilizing the works of more than 200 Arab artists from the nineteenth century up until today.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/exposing-arab-bodies?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Bahrain
 

 

Bahrain police forcefully disperse Shiite rally
Bahraini police wounded several people on Saturday morning when they fired sound bombs, tear gas and bird shot to disperse dozens who protested across several Shiite areas, witnesses said.

Detained, Tortured Bahraini Boy to his lawyer: I want to go home

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2012/06/targeting-bahraini-human-rights-lawyer.html 

Media on Bahrain: An Interview with Alaa Shehabi, Adel Iskandar
Bahrain’s protracted and intransigent political deadlock remains one of the paradoxes of the Arab uprisings. At the nexus of regional influence, global political power, and economic interests, the human rights and democracy movement there face colossal challenges to realizing its goals. Not the least of these is a complicated network of media that both advantages and disadvantages the regime and its adversaries. In this video interview, we speak with Alaa Shehabi, a British-born Bahraini who is an economics lecturer, activist and writer on the varied aspects of media in this ongoing conflict. From the hyperbolic narratives of pro-government state media and the deafening silence of the Arabic media such as Al-Jazeera, to the growing dominion of cyberactivism and the increasing rhetoric of sectarianism. Shehabi explores the global media’s attention to the F-1 Formula race offering a chilling account of her arrest alongside a British journalist who was reporting on protests that coincided with the race. She gives a deeply unsettling description of what is effectively a media blackout on the small island kingdom and the struggle of a small population to break out of a soundproof enclosure. Shehabi is a human rights activist whose husband is a political prisoner in Bahrain. She holds a PhD from Imperial College London.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5874/media-on-bahrain_an-interview-with-alaa-shehabi

Egypt

Jerusalem to become Egypt’s capital under Mursi’s rule, says Muslim cleric
If Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi became president, Egypt’s new capital will no more be Cairo, but the new capital will be Jerusalem, a prominent Egyptian cleric said at a presidential campaign rally, which was aired by an Egyptian private TV channel.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/07/219272.html

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/06/egyptian-tv-warns-against-israeli-spies.html 

 

 

For many years, the Egyptian regime allowed Israel to have it both ways: to enjoy the benefits of peace with the most important Arab country while perpetrating a reality in the occupied territories that even the United States, Israel’s closest ally, believes to be illegal. The Israeli leaders adopted Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s perception that the Palestinian chapter in the Camp David Accords was just a fig leaf for the Egyptians. The Al Jazeera TV network will bring into the living rooms of millions of Egyptians the next images of Israeli soldiers chasing Palestinian demonstrators. And the Egyptian populace isn’t likely to let its leaders keep business as usual vis-à-vis the Jewish State.

Update: Tahrir protest grows as marchers reach the square
Protesters marching from mosques in Giza arrived in Tahrir Square on Friday afternoon carrying a 6-meter long banner bearing photos of the 25 January revolution martyrs. The number of participants in the protest has reached the thousands, Al-Masry Al-Youm estimated. Two marches, one from Istiqamah Mosque in Giza and one from Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandiseen, had merged in Dokki. Marchers carried banners with sarcastic statements, such as “Urgent: Mubarak acquitted in retrial.” They also chanted for the fall of military rule and handed out flyers criticizing Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister who will compete in the upcoming presidential runoff. Earlier, dozens staged a march from Fatah Mosque in Ramses Square to Tahrir after Friday prayers to join a protest calling for the retrial of former regime members and the application of the Political Isolation Law, which would disqualify Shafiq from the election.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/dozens-flock-tahrir-participate-determination-friday-news1

Hundreds protest Shafik candidacy in Egypt poll
Hundreds of people gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday to demand that Hosni Mubarak’s last premier be banned from standing in a run-off election to replace the ousted president. The crowd also protested against what they consider lenient verdicts in the trial of Mubarak, his ex-interior minister and six police chiefs charged over the murder of demonstrators in the 2011 uprising that forced the president to resign.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hundreds-protest-shafik-candidacy-egypt-poll?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/904661

Blood money: Saudi Arabia approves $430 million in new aid to Egypt
Saudi Arabia said on Friday it had approved $430 million in project aid to Egypt and would allow Cairo to use a $750 million line of credit to import oil products.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/08/219433.html

Egypt Transition on Brink of Collapse, Sharif Abdel Kouddous
As Egypt enters the final days of its so-called “transition,” the entire political process is on the verge of collapse. The essential foundations of a post-Mubarak government that were supposed to have been lain over the past 16 months – the legislature, the presidency, the constitution – each suffer a crisis of legitimacy, the result of a military-managed transitional process so deformed that it barely make sense anymore. Meanwhile, the lack of any semblance of reform within key state institutions – most notably the security forces, the judiciary and the media – was reconfirmed in the most dramatic of ways this month with the verdict in the trial of Hosni Mubarak, his sons and other top regime officials.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egypt-transition-brink-collapse?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

The Mubarak Verdict and Its Discontents
With all eyes on the highly contentious Egyptian elections over the past several weeks, last week’s verdict in the trial of ousted Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, and Habib al-Adly, Mubarak’s former Interior Minister, seemed to come almost out of the blue. The verdict against Mubarak and Adly: guilty. The sentence: life imprisonment.
http://muftah.org/the-mubarak-verdict-and-its-discontents/

Protests in Tahrir; Drones in Turkey’s Skies
This week we talk to Egyptian journalist Ahmad Shokr about the political landscape in his country after the pivotal verdict on Hosni Mubarak and members of his regime announced on Saturday, 2 June 2012. We’ll also discuss Turkey’s plans to purchase US armed drones with University of Indiana researcher, Burhan Althuran. Last year, the United States had moved four of its Predator drones from Iraq to Turkey, and now that country is trying to acquire armed drones of its own—the kind used by the US in Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. 
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5908/protests-in-tahrir;-drones-in-turkeys-skies-

Iraq

Attacks in Iraq kill four: officials
Shootings and bombings in Iraq on Friday killed four people, including a parliamentary official and a senior emergency officer, officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/attacks-iraq-kill-four-officials-165435906.html

 

Iraq: Kurdish Politician Predicts No Regime Change: 11 Killed in Attacks
Qadir Aziz, general secretary of the Kurdistan Future Party, said that he doubts a no-confidence vote will take place because of disunity and lack of support from the U.S. Meanwhile, at least 11 Iraqis were killed and 7 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, a series of bomb and mortar attacks against oil pipelines failed to stop the flow.        

Amnesty condemns ‘alarming’ Iraq execution rate
Amnesty International on Friday condemned the “alarming” increase in executions in Iraq, which has put at least 70 people to death this year, and urged Baghdad to stop using the death penalty.
http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-condemns-alarming-iraq-execution-rate-175054862.html

Critics say politics tainting trial of Iraqi VP
Iraq’s first major trial dealing with the country’s savage Sunni-Shiite sectarian killings is tainted by politics, critics say — an ominous sign for those hoping for justice for tens of thousands of victims of street executions, bombings and kidnappings.
http://news.yahoo.com/critics-politics-tainting-trial-iraqi-vp-185447878.html

 

The veteran politician fears heightened political and sectarian tensions, intra-Shia rivalry, and external meddling could combine to “detonate the situation.” 
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hassan-al-alawi-iraq-danger-re-igniting?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29 

Iraqi Oil: The Tug-of-War Continues
As the Iraqi government announced the winners of a series of new contracts for oil and gas exploration and extraction in the country last week (May 30-31), a new clause was quietly inserted into all deals. It stipulated that all contracts offered would bind the winning parties to recognize Baghdad as Iraq’s sole oil authority. It might as well be dubbed the “Exxon clause,” as it was a reaction to a deal made between the US oil giant and the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). To say the deal — which granted Exxon access to Kurdistan’s oil without the agreement of the central government — infuriated Baghdad is an understatement of the highest variety.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-oil-tug-war-continues?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Lebanon / Lebanese hostages held by Syrian rebels

Lebanese man killed in Tripoli gunfire
One person was killed on Friday and three others were wounded when gunfire hit an Alawi neighborhood of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a security official said. He said the man who died was killed by sniper fire in the port city’s mainly Alawi district of Jabal Mohsen, which faces the majority Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tebbaneh. The security official said gunfire between the two neighborhoods erupted after the shooting, prompting the army to intervene. Three people were wounded in the shootout. There were conflicting reports on how the shooting started.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanese-man-killed-tripoli-gunfire?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Qabalan asks Turkey to intensify efforts in Lebanese kidnapping case
BEIRUT: Vice President of the Higher Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul-Amir Qabalan urged Turkey Wednesday to intensify efforts to release 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria last month.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jun-06/175931-qabalan-asks-turkey-to-intensify-efforts-in-lebanese-kidnapping-case.ashx

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh5shraUWSI&feature=related 

 

The story did not matter. It did not get much coverage in the Western press – if at all. Western press has daily section about developments in Syria, but the story that innocent Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped by Free Syrian Army (FSA) thugs did not warrant a story. No correspondent was assigned to the story (except in some Lebanese media). Western human rights organizations have been silent about the matter. If the innocent hostages had been kidnapped by the Syrian regime, the UN Security Council would have met in an emergency session.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/lebanese-hostages-syria?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29 

Syria

Syrian cities endure intense shelling
Activists report severe bombardments in Homs and Deraa as Russia says situation in country is becoming “more alarming”.

Rebels battle in Assad stronghold of Damascus
Bullets and shrapnel shells smashed into homes in the Syrian capital of Damascus overnight as troops battled rebels in the streets, a show of boldness for rebels taking their fight against President Bashar Assad to the center of his power.

 

More than 20 killed in Syria: NGO
Rebels and regime troops clashed in a district of the Syrian capital as scores of protests were held across the strife-torn country and more than 20 people killed on Friday, monitors said.
http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-blast-rocks-damascus-10-die-syria-ngo-115427573.html

Video reportedly leaked from Syrian Army in Idlib
A Video posted online by an activist is said to show Syrian soldiers mocking the dead. They appear to be piling up corpses in a building in the town of al-Hammama in Idlib. Activists say it was shot on March 21 this year. Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqEMZQhmti4&feature=youtube_gdata

 

 

Video uploaded to a social media website purports to show a bomb being detonated by Free Syrian Army rebels in Damascus on Friday. The target was a bus carrying Syrian army soldiers. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/jun/09/syrian-army-bus-bomb-damascus-video?newsfeed=true

Reporter Accuses Syrian Rebels of Luring Him Into Death Trap
A British television journalist attempting to gain access to the site of a reported massacre in Syria accused rebel fighters on Friday of trying to get him and his colleagues killed by the Syrian military in an effort to draw condemnation against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. “I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army,” the reporter, Alex Thomson, wrote in a first person account. “Dead journos are bad for Damascus.”
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/reporter-accuses-syrian-rebels-of-luring-him-into-death-trap/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Set up to be shot in Syria’s no man’s land?
I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus. That conviction only strengthened half an hour later when our four friends in the same beaten-up black car suddenly pulled out of a side-street, blocking us from the UN vehicles ahead. The UN duly drove back past us, witnessed us surrounded by shouting militia, and left town. Eventually we got out too and on the right route, back to Damascus.
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/hostile-territory/1863

 

 

Syrian National Council elects Kurd as its new leader
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, elected Kurdish activist Abdelbasset Sida as its leader at a meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, a council statement said. Sida, who has been living in exile in Sweden for many years, was the only candidate for the three-month presidency of the SNC at a meeting of 33 members of the councils’ general secretariat. The 56-year-old succeeds Burhan Ghalioun, a liberal opposition figure who had presided over the council since it was formed in August of last year. 

Free Syrian Army steps up training
Many of the opposition fighters in Syria are part of the so-called Free Syrian Army, which was founded last July when a group of military officers deserted.   And as Al Jazeera’s Tarek Bazley reports, the army is growing in strength.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4WZSkucRrE&feature=youtube_gdata

Ban: UN monitors shot at trying to reach massacre
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says U.N. monitors were shot at trying to get to the scene of the latest Syrian massacre.
http://news.yahoo.com/ban-un-monitors-shot-trying-reach-massacre-145749872.html

UN monitors in Syria reach ‘massacre site’
Observers arrive in Mazraat al-Qubayr as activists say Syrian forces are preparing to storm rebel-held district of Homs.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/201268132741809850.html

Red Cross: Syria “extremely tense”
The International Committee of the Red Cross, whose relief workers are on the ground in Syria, on Friday described the situation as “extremely tense” in many parts of the country. The ICRC said it was attempting to bring humanitarian aid to 1.5 million people affected directly or indirectly by the bloodshed. “Currently the situation is extremely tense, not only in Houla and in Hama but in many, many places around the country,” spokesman Hicham Hassan told journalists.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/red-cross-syria-extremely-tense?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Syria peace plan not working, U.N. envoy Kofi Annan says
Kofi Annan tells the United Nations that Syria is headed toward civil war. Diplomats consider involving Iran in negotiations with Bashar Assad’s government.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/Uvbl0FvbVWY/la-fg-syria-violence-20120608,0,2547845.story

China against ‘outside armed intervention’ in Syria
China said Thursday it was firmly opposed to “outside armed intervention” in Syria or “any attempt to forcibly promote regime change” amid mounting violence in the country, Xinhua reported.
http://news.yahoo.com/china-against-outside-armed-intervention-syria-190411580.html

Russia: Syrians must decide Assad’s fate
Russia would accept a Yemen-style power transition in Syria if it were decided by the people, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, deflecting Western calls for President Bashar Assad to yield power. The United States is seeking Russia’s support in getting Assad to step aside, but Mikhail Bogdanov said the president’s fate was “not a question for us” but for the Syrian people. “Application of the so-called Yemen scenario to resolve the conflict in Syria is possible only if the Syrians themselves agree to it,” Bogdanov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/russia-syrians-must-decide-assads-fate?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Sadr says his followers not fighting in Syria
Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday insisted that claims his supporters were involved in fighting in Syria were false, but said members of “splinter” groups could be involved in the violence.
http://news.yahoo.com/sadr-says-followers-not-fighting-syria-133214216.html

Saudi religious authority forbids ‘jihad’ in Syria
A member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority prohibited on Thursday any acts of jihad in Syria. Sheikh Ali al-Hikmi of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars issued a fatwa forbidding jihad after calls for such action have increased in recent months. Al-Hikmi warned, in a statement to the Saudi daily Alsharq, against the calls for jihad in Syria on online social networks, adding that different methods can be used to support Syrian people.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-religious-authority-forbids-jihad-syria?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Syrian woman blogger gets human rights award
Syrian woman blogger Razan Ghazzawi has been honoured with this year’s Human Rights Defenders at Risk award by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders foundation, the group announced on Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-woman-blogger-gets-human-rights-award-000819722.html

Syria’s Creative Resistance, Layla Al-Zubaidi
Bashar al-Assad snores, his head twitching on a large white pillow. Suddenly, he wakes up. “The people want to overthrow me!” he screams, the pompom on his nightcap bouncing.  A military officer approaches, pats him on the head and whispers gently, as if comforting a toddler: “Don’t worry, my dear Mr. President, nobody wants to bring you down. Go back to sleep.” “But I dreamed that the people don’t love me anymore!” “We all love you, Mr. President”, says the officer, “but you have to rest. Tomorrow is Friday and we have a lot of work to do!” Bashar lies back on his pillow and dozes off. “Sleep…sleep…let nothing disturb your dreams”, the officer croons: “You will see how we deal with terrorists, Salafis and conspirators. We’ll get rid of them for you…”
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5920/syrias-creative-resistance

Spare Us the Western Morality on Syria, Antoun Issa
As news of yet another massacre in Syria surfaces – this time in the farm village of Al-Kubeir near Hama – we can only imagine the moral outrage expressed by Western governments that will soon inundate media outlets. Much of Western identity centers on a pillar of high civility, and by extension, high morality. It is a lingering legacy from colonialism where the West re-invokes its perception of the current world, where it is the civilized, and those beyond, hapless barbarians. It re-invoked that perception after the Houla massacre, where it once again reminded the world of its high moral authority and self-righteousness in lecturing others on their inhumane ways.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/spare-us-western-morality-syria?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Syria Crisis: Less Lebanon, More Turkey
As diplomatic deadlock ensures that the conflict in Syria is set to drag on, officials say the US wants to see opposition enclaves established on the borders with Turkey rather than Lebanon.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-crisis-less-lebanon-more-turkey?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

The Euro crisis will look like a walk in the park if Syria explodes
If the violence in Syria escalates, with or without Assad, and outsiders intervene, it will be almost impossible to confine the turmoil within that country’s borders.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-the-euro-crisis-will-look-like-a-walk-in-the-park-if-syria-explodes-7827751.html

Other World News

NATO apologizes for killing Afghan civilians
The US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has apologized over the deaths of civilians in an air strike this week, a spokesman said Friday. General John Allen flew to Logar province “to see local leaders and the population to apologize and offer condolences to the families”, Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told AFP. This is the first public acknowledgement by NATO that civilians died in the air strike on a home in the province in the early hours of Wednesday. Afghan officials said 18 civilians, including women and children, were killed.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/nato-apologizes-killing-afghan-civilians?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

“Private”: Bradley Manning’s Story, From Difficult Childhood to Alleged Whistleblower on World Stage
The new book, “Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History,” tracks Manning’s trajectory from growing up as a gay teen in small-town Oklahoma to joining the U.S. Army, where he found success as an intelligence analyst before being charged with the largest U.S. intelligence breach on record. We speak with the book’s author, Denver Nicks. “In many ways Bradley Manning’s story is the story of the United States in the post-9/11 era,” Nicks says. “[His] life is sort of quintessentially American, in that he’s gay at a time when gay rights goes mainstream. He joins the Army — and as an intelligence analyst, no less — at a time when the national security state really starts to metastasize into something that we have never seen before. … We have more people with more access to more secret information than ever before, while we are living in the post-9/11 era of foreign policy conducted, as Dick Cheney said, in the shadows. We are more dependent than ever on leaks to know what our government is doing. Leaks are not only inevitable, but necessary. … Bradley Manning had access to an extraordinary amount of classified information — more, in fact, than he leaked.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/8/private_bradley_mannings_story_from_difficult

Ahead of September Trial, Bradley Manning Seeks Withheld Gov’t Evidence and Dismissal of 10 Charges
For just the third time since he was arrested over two years ago, alleged Army whistleblower Bradley Manning was seen by the public this week at a pretrial hearing in a military court at Fort Meade, Maryland. The 24-year-old private is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, including secret files on the Iraq and Afghan wars. Manning’s attorneys are seeking the dismissal of 10 of the counts against Manning as well as the release of hundreds of thousands of documents relating to the alleged leak. We speak with Kevin Gosztola, a civil liberties blogger at Firedoglake.com who has been attending Manning’s pretrial hearing.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/8/ahead_of_september_trial_bradley_manning

Muslim Group Files Landmark Suit Challenging NYPD Surveillance in Northeast
Eight American Muslims from New Jersey have filed a federal lawsuit calling on the New York City Police Department to stop its surveillance and intelligence-gathering program that targets Muslim and Arab communities. Under the controversial program, New York City police officers monitored the daily life of Muslims in the tri-city area and across the Northeast — including where people ate, prayed and even where they got their hair cut. We speak to Glenn Katon, legal director at Muslim Advocates, the group that filed the lawsuit. “When the NYPD says basically all Muslims are suspect, it seems clear to us that that violates equal protection of the law,” Katon says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/7/muslim_group_files_landmark_suit_challenging

 

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