Today's 'Islamic Fascists' Were Yesterday's Friends

Over the past 80 years, Western governments and their allies have supported radical Islamist groups. However, this was not merely opportunism, a bad case of "my enemy's enemy is my friend." As part of this process, Western governments seriously denigrated popular secular and democratic movements. Indeed, from the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s to Israel's role in the forging of Hamas in the 1980s, the explicit aim of Western support for radical Islamism was to isolate, weaken, and ultimately destroy popular political movements that very often were based on Western ideas of democracy and progress. Thus, many of these radical Islamist groups – the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah – have a built-in suspicion of and hostility toward secular democracy.

Brendan O'Neill

Blackadder General Hospital

Blackadder firing squad

Ball, or aerosol?

Remember the Holocaust

"[A] growing majority of voters in Europe and elsewhere... simply cannot understand how the horrors of the last European war can be invoked to license or condone unacceptable behavior in another time and place. In the eyes of a watching world, the fact that the great-grandmother of an Israeli soldier died in Treblinka is no excuse for his own abusive treatment of a Palestinian woman waiting to cross a checkpoint. "Remember Auschwitz" is not an acceptable response."


US mother & son beaten by Israeli security guard

When I was younger my family used to travel a lot around Africa. To do so we needed to transit through Johannesburg international airport. I won't ever forget how white customs inspectors treated my parents. To say that it made me angry would be an understatement. How do you describe it to someone who has no idea, and will never have any idea, what it feels like to be casually dehumanised? Will you, can you ever understand? It's been over 20 years and it still fills me with rage, imagine what it must feel like for people who have to go through that every single day of every single year.

Hearts and minds

Make friends and influence people, ask me how!

" Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah ordered Hezbollah militants to canvass damaged neighborhoods and begin repairs at once. Hezbollah gives out "decent and suitable furniture" and a year's free rent to all Lebanese who lost their homes. Unlike the racist government officials who managed the botched response along the Gulf Coast last year, where whites were rescued while blacks were shot, the Shiite terrorist group's offer also applies to Sunnis, Christians and even Jews.

"Hezbollah's reputation as an efficient grass-roots social service network," reported the Times, "was in evidence everywhere. Young men with walkie-talkies and clipboards were in the battered Shiite neighborhoods on the southern edge of Bint Jbail, taking notes on the extent of the damage. Hezbollah men also traveled door to door checking on residents and asking them what help they needed." With terrorists like that, who needs FEMA?

A year after Katrina, officials are still pulling bodies out of the rubble. Dozens of corpses remain unidentified; the president, governor and mayor continue to pass the blame for their willful inaction. George W. Bush still refuses to accept responsibility. Just one day after the Lebanese ceasefire, however, Sheikh Nasrallah had already delivered a thorough accounting of the damage caused by Israel's bombing campaign and launched a comprehensive rebuilding program. "So far," said the Hezbollah leader, "the initial count available to us on completely demolished houses exceeds 15,000 residential units. We cannot of course wait for the government and its heavy vehicles and machinery because they could be a while."

As often occurs during emergencies in the U.S., price gouging for housing, water, gasoline and other essentials was rampant during and after Katrina. Bush did nothing. Nasrallah, by contrast, warned businesses not to exploit the situation: "No one should raise prices due to a surge in demand."

Never argue with a man who buys AK-47s by the boxcar.

Ted Rall

Doomed to repeat it

Phan Thi Dan’s husband was carrying her wedding ring the day he was slain. One of the soldiers involved was reportedly wearing it later.

Tufts' agents found that military interrogators in the 173rd Airborne repeatedly beat prisoners, tortured them with electric shocks and forced water down their throats to simulate the sensation of drowning, the records show.

Soldiers in one unit told investigators that their captain approved of such methods and was sometimes present during torture sessions.

In one case, a detainee who had been beaten by interrogators suffered convulsions, lost consciousness and later died in his confinement cage.

Investigators identified 29 members of the 173rd Airborne as suspects in confirmed cases of torture. Fifteen of them admitted the acts. Yet only three were punished, records show. They received fines or reductions in rank. None served any prison time.

Deborah Nelson and Nick Turse LA Times

That's from 30 years ago, in Vietnam. The documents were only declassified in 1994. When the US military found out the LA Times was investigating the documents they hastily reclassified them. What do you think we'll learn about Iraq and Afghanistan in 30 years time?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it

Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who've employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace, like the seven angels of God's wrath pouring out their bowls full of pestilence and pain.

The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't.

Now we have news of the recent, supposedly real-world, terrorist plot to destroy commercial airplanes by smuggling onboard the benign precursors to a deadly explosive, and mixing up a batch of liquid death in the lavatories. So, The Register has got to ask, were these guys for real, or have they, and the counterterrorist officials supposedly protecting us, been watching too many action movies?

The Register

MC Riz - Post 911 Blues

This guy was arrested and questioned for playing an innocent man imprisoned in Guantanamo in a UK doco. He's also quite a good rapper.

Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land

All you ever wanted to know about Israel Palestine and the rest of the Arab world but were afraid to ask. This (longish) documentary takes a look at various factors influencing media coverage of Israel and the middle east.

An imperfect introduction to Hezbollah

An interesting comparison

Dan Halutz

Senior sources in the Israel Defense Forces General Staff and field officers who took part in the war in Lebanon said on Tuesday that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, who went to his bank branch and sold an NIS 120,000 investment portfolio only three hours after two soldiers were abducted by Hezbollah on the northern border, cannot escape resignation . . .

As the country's political and military echelons met urgently to discuss the possible declaration of war, Halutz went at 12:00 P.M. to sell an investment portfolio, the Ma'ariv newspaper reported on Tuesday.

In response to the report, Halutz confirmed to Ma'ariv that he sold the portfolio on that date and at that time, but denied it had anything to do with the possibility of an imminent war.

Thief and a warcriminal

Pop Quiz

IMPORTED Indonesian workers have allegedly been paid as little as $40 a day to dig ditches in the South Australian desert.

Drilling company Halliburton Australia employed a team of Indonesians for labouring jobs at its gas extraction operations in the Cooper Basin late last year. Australians who worked alongside the Indonesians have now told The Advertiser the imported staff worked 80 days straight, were housed in poor work camp accommodation and had some meals laced with pork so they were unfit for the Muslim employees to eat.

Halliburton last week confirmed the global company employs imported workers from Indonesia, Europe and the U.S. for their operations throughout Australia.

CFMEU

This situation:

A) Wouldn't have happened under Howard's new floating prison system.

B) Is an example of just the kind of rampant, job stealing immigrant behaviour John Howard is opposed to.

C) Is an example of a hypocritical attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of a fatted electorate being lead to economic slaughter.

D) Kim Beazley is fat.

E) OHMIGODTERRORISTRIGHTBEHINDYOU!!!111!1!!!ONE!!1

F) C and D only.

Hello Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is an interesting place.

If you plan to visit, make sure to shave first.

In the capital, Aşgabat many wonderful sights can be seen. Most of them seem to be of the president, Saparmurat Niyazov. They include:















Gold figure of saviour President Niyazov as a child held high by his mother, Mrs Niyazov, having thrust herself out of a despairing world on the back of a bull - in black granite.































Gold statue of a fully grown President Niyazov revolving 24 hours a day to face the sun.



































President Niyazov's portrait sits above the Turkmen Offices of Humanitarian Law.

There's apparently even a melon named after the great Turkmenbashi. Say hello to Turkmenistan, it's good to have their assistance in the war against tyranny and 'islamofacism'.

R-e-s-p-e-c-t don't know what it means to me

Clueless Sky TV interviewer walks into the whirling propeller that is George Galloway and is distributed into a fine mist. Poor lass, no one told her what to do when your guest won't play by your rules and instead insists on making a case based on equality and a sense of history longer than a month. Unfortunately most TV is aimed at people with the memories of goldfish. Go watch.



Every political system needs a Galloway, someone to stand on the table and yell, "That's crap, and you know it is!" every so often.

Human Shields

22 April 2004
"A photograph of a Palestinian boy tied to an Israeli police jeep has been handed to justice officials charged with investigating complaints over the use of "human shields" against demonstrators.

The boy, 13-year-old Mohammed Bedwan, and three adult protesters were tied to border police vehicles last week during one of what have become almost daily demonstrations against the routing of the Israeli government's barrier through Palestinian land.

The photograph, taken by human rights activists in the village of Biddo, north-west of Jerusalem, shows Mohammed tied by an arm to a mesh on the jeep windscreen - a mesh intended to protect the vehicle and its driver against stones and rocks. Police said last night that the Justice Ministry's police complaints unit was investigating the case."

Photo: An Israeli soldier leans his hand on the back of a handcuffed unidentified Palestinian resident as he is made to enter before the soldiers inside a building during a search operation in the Old City of the West Bank town of Nablus, in this Sunday, Aug. 24, 2003 file photo.








































17 May 2005
Sixteen-year-old Fadi Sharha of Dura, used as a human shield after being arrested by Israeli soldiers during a clash with Palestinian youths in Hebron. Photo: Nayef Hashlamoun, and B'Tselem.


Israelis accused of 'human shields' tactic

The three brothers were blindfolded, says Hazem, and their hands tied behind their backs. He shows me the wounds on his wrists from the plastic handcuffs - still sore and infected, but beginning to heal over.

He shows me where the soldiers positioned them: outside the entrance to his flat on the third floor, in the stairwell, facing down the steps.

"I think they put us here because they were expecting suiciders to come into the flat because none of the soldiers were on the stairs - they were all inside the flat. They put us here so we'll be shot first."

Inside the flat, the soldiers punched holes in the walls of his living room, and bedroom. Through them, snipers exchanged fire with Palestinian militants. Hazem and his brothers heard it all, but could see nothing. Hazem says he had little idea at the time exactly how long he was kept there. All he remembers was listening to the heavy gunfire around him, and counting the calls to prayer as they echoed over the area: one at lunchtime, one at tea-time, and one in the evening as the sun set. Twelve hours in all.

He says he expected to die any second. He still can't understand why, as civilians, they couldn't be kept in a room somewhere inside the house, where they would have been safer. But they put us in the middle of the clashes, he says. "There was no need for that."

25 July 2006

BBC

If Hezbollah are using civilians as human shields, and I can find no substantiated reports that they are, quite the opposite in fact, it would appear that they certainly don't have a monopoly on the tactic.

The death of Harat Hurayk

This is a satellite image of the Beirut neighbourhood of Harat Hurayk before Israeli bombing.
























This is the same place after.

























Those were apartment buildings. People's homes. How is bombing an entire neighbourhood flat not deliberately targeting civilians?

The why of Qana

What the Israelis set out to do, if they intended to "destroy" or even substantially attrite Hizbullah, was completely impractical. What they have done is to convince even Lebanese formerly on the fence about the issue that Hizbullah's leaders were correct in predicting that Lebanon would again be attacked in the most brutal and horrible way by the Israelis and that an even more powerful deterrent is needed. I.e more silkworms, not fewer. . The days when the Israelis could lord it over disconnected unmobilized Arab peasant villagers with their high tech army are coming to a close. The Arabs are still very weak, but are throwing up powerful asymmetrical challenges (e.g. party-militias with silkworm missiles!). Israeli alarm about the new connectedness of their foe explains the orgy of destruction aimed at bridges, roads, television and radio facilities and internet servers. But it is too late to disconnect the south Lebanese, who can easily and quickly rebuild all those connectors.

One hope the Israeli hawks appear to entertain is that they can permanently depopulate strips Lebanon south of the Litani river. Since most Shiites vote Hizbullah and offer political support and cover to it, fewer people means fewer assets for the party-militia. This project would require the total destruction of large numbers of villages and the permanent displacement of their inhabitants north to Beirut.

That is why the massacre at Qana occurred. The Israelis had bombed Qana 80 times. They were destroying all of its buildings. Therefore, of course, they destroyed the building where dozens of children and families were hiding. This tactic is both collective punishment and ethnic cleansing all at once. It is not only a matter, as the Israelis claim, of hitting Hizbullah rocket launchers. They are destroying all of the buildings.

Juan Cole

Defending your Sovereignty

Interim report of the secretary-general on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, April 30, 2001:

"Since the resolution was adopted [i.e., since Israel's withdrawal], the situation has remained essentially unchanged, although there were further developments in the dispute over Shab'a farms area. As before, there were frequent minor ground violations of the Blue Line. There were, in addition, almost daily violations of the line by Israeli aircraft which penetrated deeply into Lebanese airspace. I have been in touch with the parties concerned and other interested parties to urge respect for the Blue Line and to avert further escalation."

Report of the secretary-general for the period from July 18, 2000, to Jan. 18, 2001:

"Israeli violations of Lebanese air space, which had resumed after Hizbollah's attack on 7th October, continued on an almost daily basis."

For the period from Jan. 23, 2001, to July 20, 2001:

"As reported in April, Israeli aircraft violated the line on an almost daily basis, penetrating deep into Lebanese airspace. These incursions, particularly those at low level breaking the sound barrier over populated areas, were especially provocative and caused great anxiety to the civilian population. The air violations are ongoing, despite repeated démarches to the Israeli authorities."

For the period from July 21, 2001, to Jan. 16, 2002:

"Israeli air violations of the Blue Line, however, continued on an almost daily basis, penetrating deep into Lebanese airspace. These incursions are not justified and cause great concerns to the civilian population, particularly low-altitude flights that break the sound barrier over populated areas. The air violations are ongoing, although démarches to the Israeli authorities […] have been made repeatedly by me, other senior United Nations officials and a number of interested Governments."

For the period from Jan. 17, 2002, to July 12, 2002:

"Unjustified Israeli air incursions into sovereign Lebanese airspace continued on an almost daily basis throughout most of the reporting period, often penetrating deep into Lebanon and frequently generating sonic booms. In the latter half of April, a pattern emerged whereby the aircraft would fly out to sea and enter Lebanese airspace north of the UNIFIL area of operation, thus avoiding direct observation and verification by UNIFIL. In January Hezbollah began responding to the overflights with anti-aircraft fire. This activity has continued through the present. On a number of occasions […] shells crossed the Blue Line. Calls on Israel to cease the overflights […]"

For the period from July 13, 2002, to Jan. 14, 2003:

"There were sporadic Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, with periodic lulls in such activity punctuated by abrupt increases over periods of several days. On two occasions in November, Israeli overflights exceeded any recorded number since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Many of these air violations penetrated deep into Lebanon, often generating sonic booms over populated areas. The pattern identified in my last report continued, whereby the aircraft would fly out to sea and enter Lebanese airspace north of the UNIFIL area of operation, thus avoiding direct observation and verification by UNIFIL."

For the period from Jan. 15, 2003, to July 23, 2003:

"The most significant sources of tension were the persistent Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and instances of Hezbollah antiaircraft fire directed across the Blue Line towards Israeli villages. […] Israeli air incursions into Lebanon increased overall during the reporting period, though the numbers have declined since early July. UNIFIL recorded almost daily violations across the Blue Line in some weeks. As in the past, Israeli overflights penetrated deep into Lebanon, often generating sonic booms over populated areas."

For the period from July 24, 2003, to Jan. 19, 2004:

"The recurrent Israeli air incursions into Lebanon continued. The numbers abated at times but periods of little or no activity were invariably followed by an intensification of the flights. […] Hezbollah continued to react […]"

For the period from Jan. 21, 2004, to July 21, 2004:

"A cycle of disruptions and armed exchanges across the Blue Line commenced on 5 May. Israel carried out more than 20 air sorties over Lebanon, a number of which generated sonic booms. Hezbollah subsequently fired several antiaircraft rounds […]"

"Israeli air incursions were on the whole less frequent than in the previous period, although they were notable for their intensity and the large number of aircraft involved. Israeli officials maintained that there would be overflights whenever Israel deemed them necessary. As in the past, Israeli aircraft often penetrated deep […] sonic booms over populated areas […] fly out to the sea […] avoiding direct observation […]"

For the period from July 21, 2004, to Jan. 20, 2005:

"Israeli air incursions into Lebanon continued throughout the reporting period. […] Israeli officials maintained the position that there would be overflights whenever they deemed them necessary. […] As in the past […]"

For the period from Jan. 21, 2005, to July 20, 2005:

"Violations of the Blue Line continued throughout the past six months, most often in the form of recurring air violations by Israeli jets, helicopters and drones as well as ground violations, from the Lebanese side, primarily by Lebanese shepherds. […] The Israeli Air Force continued their air incursion […] deep into Lebanon […] sonic booms […] whenever Israel deemed […]"

For the period from July 22, 2005, to Jan. 20, 2006:

"The Israeli Air Force violated Lebanese airspace on many occasions during the reporting period, disturbing the relative calm along the Blue Line. […] [I]n November, overflights by jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles or drones were numerous and particularly intrusive and provocative. […] There were no instances of Hezbollah antiaircraft fire across the Blue Line […]."

For the period from Jan. 21, 2006, to July 18, 2006:

"Persistent and provocative Israeli air incursions […] remained a matter of serious concern. […] A reduction in the number of air incursions in April contributed to an atmosphere of relative calm along the Blue Line, but this trend was reversed in May."

Antiwar.com