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By Vacy Vlazna

When I was a kid we had fun letting off firecrackers. Most had quite an impact – going off with a mighty bang. A few were weak, feeble and fizzled out. We called them ‘fizzers’. The pope’s tour was a fence-sitting fizzer for truth and for Palestinian justice.

Still, Palestinians were warned in advance by the Vatican that the tour had “no political agenda” it was simply a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage, apart from the usual Christian holy sites, to the grave of Theodor Herzl where, flanked by two war criminals, Netanyahu and Peres, Francis, the Vicar of Christ, laid a giant wreath in honour of the mastermind of Zionism that unleashed the atrocities of the Nakba committed by Jewish terrorist militia; the massacres, rapes, looting, demolition of 500 Palestinian villages and the forced deportations and dispossession of 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from their beloved land…a paltry three years after the holocaust.

What a feather in the Zionist cap! A Catholic pope honouring Herzl the Zionist atheist! Francis’ rabbi friend, Abraham Skorka was spot on when he noted that it ‘could be understood as a nod to Zionism’. It was much more than a nod. For the gleeful Netanyahu gang, it was an imprimatur on the expansionism of Greater Israel negating Francis’ two-state solution.

Coincidentally? On the very same day, ten bills were submitted to the Knesset that “could lead to the annexation of Area C which “makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank, including all Jewish towns and settlements.”

In Bethlehem, the pope made an impromptu stop at the illegal Annexation/Apartheid WAll saying a quiet prayer. Vatican officials assured the Israeli Foreign Ministry that Francis “didn’t pray against the security barrier, but he prayed against the situation that forces such a wall to be built.”

So,tit-for-tat, it was agreed that Francis make an impromptu stop at the Israeli Memorial for the Victims of Terror (curiously Palestinian victims were not mentioned on its tablets). Afterwards, the pilgrimage dutifully arrived at the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem where Francis uttered the apogee of irony, “Never again, Lord, never again” and kissed the hands of 6 holocaust survivors.

He made no pilgrimage, laid no wreath to mourn the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered by the terrorist state of Israel.

Neither was a papal plea of “Never again, Lord, never again” heard nor even a single flower was laid at the simple graves, of young Muhammad Abu al-Thahir and Nadim Nuwarah shot in the back ten days previously by the peace-loving Israeli military. Of course, the cavalcade avoided the old Muslim cemetery defaced and desecrated to make way for Israel’s Museum of Tolerance.

Franicis’ speeches give the distinct impression that the Palestinian and Israeli narratives are equal i.e. that the Palestinian state which has no army, navy, airforce nor nuclear armaments is a match for Israel which is the fourth largest nuclear military in the world;

“To this end, I can only express my profound hope that all will refrain from initiatives and actions which contradict the stated desire to reach a true agreement.”

To President Abbas, he talked on and on about the importance of religious freedom perchance unaware that not Abbas, but Netanyahu’s government imposed restricted access at Easter for Palestinian Christians to the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or that it was Jews not Muslims who perpetrate hate-crimes against churches as well as sealing plans to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

While expressing his “closeness to those who suffer most from this conflict” the pope glaringly omitted mention of Gazan families who really do suffer the most, living, correction, barely surviving 46 kilometres away from His Holiness; perhaps not close enough.

Out of habit, though Abbas is in the middle of negotiations with Hamas for a unity government, he also neglected mention of Gaza and its severe humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s illegal and cruel blockade.

Much has been made of the pope’s acknowledgement of ‘the state of Palestine’ in his speeches. It’s nothing to get excited about; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, made the referencing to Palestine as a state (no longer a territory) official in March 2013 after Palestine was overwhelmingly voted into the United Nations as an Observer State in November 2012.

Despite the clichéd content of the speeches all round, there were standup comedy moments albeit black black comedy:

Pope Francis lauded President Peres as, “a good and wise man”; the same Peres who supplied arms and offered to sell Israeli nuclear warheads to apartheid South Africa violating international embargoes, launched in 1996 ‘Operation Grapes of Wrath’ causing nearly half a million Lebanese to flee their homes, promoted war against Iraq, Iran and Syria and repeats his “denial of the native Palestinians and his reselling in 2013 of the landless people mythology …he denies the existence of approximately twelve million people living in and near to the country to which they belong.” (Ilan Pappe)

The pope said to Abbas, “You are known as a man of peace.” Seriously? Abbas, the head of the American trained Palestinian Authority security forces that brutally suppress Palestinian resistance to Israel ?

Now here’s a doozy from Netanyahu: “Your Holiness, in the heart of the Middle East, the turbulent and violent Middle East, where Christians are often persecuted, Israel is an island of tolerance. We safeguard the rights of all faiths. We guarantee freedom of worship for all and we are committed to maintaining the status quo at the Holy sites of Christians, Muslims, and Jews.” LOL.

The pope’s speeches, infused with diplomacy-speak and euphemisms that inoculate against reality, against the truth, diminished the potential influence for justice and peace he could have wielded not only in the Holy Land but globally. Then again popes are not known for having the courage of true Christ-like convictions.

Francis’ tepid understatement, “I wish to state my heartfelt conviction that the time has come to put an end to this situation which has become increasingly unacceptable.” recalls the tepid statement of the WWII pope, Pius XII:

“Defenders also point to his one public statement as evidence of his concern for the Jews. This is a reference to his 1942 Christmas message, which said, “Humanity owes this vow to those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or gradual extinction.” The statement conspicuously fails to mention the word “Nazi” or “Jew.”

Guenter Lewy, quoted by Cornwell: “A public denunciation of the mass murders by Pius XII, broadcast widely over the Vatican radio and read from the pulpits by the bishops, would have revealed to Jews and Christians alike what deportation to the East entailed. The pope would have been believed, whereas the broadcasts of the Allies were often shrugged off as war propaganda.” Mitchell Bard

Sure, Francis’ speeches contained ambiguities (whom is he addressing) such as;

“[Shoah] enduring symbol of the depths to which human evil can sink when, spurred by false ideologies”

“Who led you to presume that you are the master of good and evil? Who convinced you that you were God? Not only did you torture and kill your brothers and sisters, but you sacrificed them to yourself, because you made yourself a god.

“So I express my hope and prayer that this blessed land may be one which has no place for those who, by exploiting and absolutizing the value of their own religious tradition, prove intolerant and violent towards those of others.”

But Palestinians in real-time suffering under Israeli apartheid and occupation do not glean hope from ambiguities and diplomatic neutrality. However the truth can set them free.

For the sake of justice, it is beholden of Pope Francis to imitate the plain-spoken Jesus who cleansed the temple with, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” or, at the very least, take a skyrocket from the feisty Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s box of pyrotechnic authenticity:

“I have witnessed the systematic violence against and humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation and pain is all too familiar to us South Africans.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our democracy without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. My conscience compels me to stand with the Palestinians as they seek to use the same tactics of non-violence to further their efforts to end the oppression associated with the Israeli occupation.”

“‘Those who turn a blind eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle.

29 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

By Nicholas Kristof

SITTWE, Myanmar — Minura Begum has been in labor for almost 24 hours, and the baby is stuck. Worse, it’s turned around, one tiny foot already emerging into the world in a difficult breech delivery that threatens the lives of mother and child alike.

Twenty-three years old and delivering her first child, Minura desperately needs a doctor. But the Myanmar government has confined her, along with 150,000 others, to a quasi-concentration camp outside town here, and it blocks aid workers from entering to provide medical help. She’s on her own.

Welcome to Myanmar, where tremendous democratic progress is being swamped by crimes against humanity toward the Rohingya, a much-resented Muslim minority in this Buddhist country. Budding democracy seems to aggravate the persecution, for ethnic cleansing of an unpopular minority appears to be a popular vote-getting strategy.

This is my annual “win-a-trip” journey, in which I take a university student on a reporting trip to the developing world. I’m with this year’s winner, Nicole Sganga of Notre Dame University, spotlighting an injustice that some call a genocide.

There are more than one million Rohingya in Rakhine State in the northwest of Myanmar. They are distinct from the local Buddhists both by darker skin and by their Islamic faith. For decades, Myanmar’s military rulers have tried systematically to erase the Rohingya’s existence with oppression, periodic mass expulsions and denials of their identity.

“There are no people called Rohingya in Myanmar,” U Win Myaing, a spokesman for Rakhine State, told me. He said that most are simply illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

This narrative is absurd, as well as racist. A document as far back as 1799 refers to the Rohingya population here, and an 1826 report estimates that 30 percent of the population of this region was Muslim.

Since clashes in 2012 claimed more than 200 lives — including children hacked with machetes — the authorities have confined Rohingya to internment camps or their own villages. They are stripped of citizenship and cannot freely go to the market, to schools, to university, to hospitals.

Tens of thousands have made desperate attempts to flee by boat, with many drowning along the way.

This year, the Myanmar authorities have cracked down even harder, making the situation worse. First, the government expelled Doctors Without Borders, which had been providing health care for the Rohingya. Then orchestrated mobs attacked the offices of humanitarian organizations, forcing them out.

Some kinds of aid are resuming, but not health care. That’s a sterile way of putting it. I wish readers could see the terrified eyes of Shamshida Begum, 22, a mom whose 1-year-old daughter, Noor, burned with fever.

Shamshida said that at home the thermometer had registered 107 degrees. Even after damp cloths had been placed on Noor to lower her temperature, the thermometer, when I saw it, still read 105 degrees. What kind of a government denies humanitarians from providing medical care to a toddler?

Noor survived, but some don’t. We visited the grief-stricken family of a 35-year-old man named Ba Sein, who died after his tuberculosis went untreated.

“He died because he couldn’t get medicine,” said his widow, Habiba, as friends made a bamboo coffin outside. Now she worries about her four small children who, like other children in the camp, haven’t been vaccinated. The camp is an epidemic waiting to happen.

Minura, the woman with a breech delivery, survived a 28-hour labor and hemorrhaging, but lost her baby. The infant girl was buried in an unmarked grave — one of a large number of achingly small graves on the outskirts of the camp.

“Because I am Rohingya, I cannot get health care and I cannot be a father,” Minura’s husband, Zakir Ahmed, a mason, said bitterly after the burial.

The United States has spoken up, but far too mildly; Europe and Asia have tried to look the other way. We should work in particular with Japan, Britain, Malaysia and the United Nations to pressure Myanmar to restore humanitarian access and medical care.

President Obama, who visited Myanmar and is much admired here, should flatly declare that what is happening here is unconscionable. Obama has lately noted that his foreign policy options are limited, and that military interventions often backfire. True enough, but in Myanmar he has political capital that he has not fully used.

As a university student, Obama denounced apartheid in South Africa. As president, he should stand up to an even more appalling apartheid — one in Myanmar that deprives members of one ethnic group even of health care.

Myanmar seeks American investment and approval. We must make clear that it will get neither unless it treats Rohingya as human beings.

25 May 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/

By Gulf Times

Saudi Arabia has arrested nine university professors for their alleged links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, media reported yesterday.

Investigators found the professors, two Saudis and the rest from neighbouring countries, had been involved with “foreign organisations” based on “voice recordings and e-mails” linked to them, Okaz daily reported.

It identified the organisation as the Muslim Brotherhood, designated by the interior ministry in March as a “terror” group.

The investigation should be completed by mid-June, said the daily which is close to the government.

If convicted, the group could be jailed for 10-15 years, after which the foreigners would be deported, it added.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have cracked down on Islamists accused of links to the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

Riyadh had hailed the Egyptian military’s ouster of Mohamed Mursi, the Islamist president who hails from the Brotherhood. It has also pledged billions of dollars to the army-installed government in Cairo.

But in the past Saudi Arabia gave refuge to many Brotherhood members who suffered repression in the 1960s under the regime of Egypt’s first modern military ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Traditionally, members of the group were active in academic institutions in the kingdom.

On Sunday, Saudi Education Minister Khaled al-Faisal was quoted by media as saying that this was the reason behind the “spread of extremist ideology” in the kingdom.

“We offered them our children and they took them hostage… The society left the stage for them, including schools,” he said.
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for shooting at security forces in the kingdom’s Eastern Province with a machinegun, a local newspaper said yesterday.

Shia Muslims have staged sporadic protests in the province for years. The latest wave of demonstrations coincided with the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and 2012.

The man, who activists said was a Shia, was also found guilty of buying weapons and harbouring rioters, Okaz reported, without giving his name.

The paper said he shot at security forces in the towns of Tarout and Darin, both east of the Qatif governate, which has been at the heart of recent protests.

At least 21 people have been shot dead in the Eastern Province since early 2011. Most Saudi Shias live in the region and some say they suffer discrimination in the kingdom, a charge authorities deny.

27 May, 2014
Gulf Times

 

By Thalif Deen

The United Nations, which is trying to help resolve the widespread shortage of water in the developing world, is faced with a growing new problem: the use of water as a weapon of war in ongoing conflicts.

The most recent examples are largely in the Middle East and Africa including Iraq, Egypt, Israel (where supplies to the occupied territories have been shut off) and Botswana.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [in mid-May] expressed concern over reports that water supplies in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo were deliberately cut off by armed groups for eight days, depriving at least 2.5 million people of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation.

“Preventing people’s access to safe water is a denial of a fundamental human right,” he warned, pointing out that “deliberate targeting of civilians and depriving them of essential supplies is a clear breach of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

In the four-year Syrian civil war, water is being used as a weapon by all parties to the conflict, including the government of president Bashar al-Assad and the multiple rebel groups fighting to oust him from power.

The conflict has claimed the lives of over 150,000 people and displaced nearly nine million Syrians.

The violation of international humanitarian law in Syria includes torture and deprivation of food and water.

Maude Barlow, who represents both the Council of Canadians and Food and Water Watch, told IPS water is being increasingly and deliberately used a weapon of war in recent and ongoing conflicts.

During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the Mesopotamian Marshes were drained, she said.

Iraqi president Saddam Hussein drained them further during the 1990s in retribution against Shias who hid there and the Marsh Arabs (Ma’dan) who protected them, she pointed out.

The Nile in Egypt. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS.

The privatization of water in Egypt and its diversion to the wealthy was a major factor in the “Arab Spring” uprising, said Barlow, a former senior advisor on water to the president of the General Assembly back in 2008/2009.
Thousands suddenly had no access to clean water and “thirst protests” were partial catalysts for the large uprising.

Also, more than four decades of Israeli occupation have made it impossible to develop or maintain infrastructure for water in Gaza, causing the contamination of drinking water and many deaths, she declared.

Barlow also said Botswana used water as a weapon against the Kalahari bushmen in an attempt to force them out of the desert, where diamonds had been discovered.

In 2002, the government smashed their only major water borehole, a terrible act that was only overturned in court years later, she noted.
A group of Kalahari Bushmen acting out their hunting techniques. Credit: Stuart Orford/CC By 2.0

Last week, Anand Grover and Catarina de Albuquerque, two U.N. experts on water and sanitation, said interference with water supplies even in the context of an ongoing conflict is entirely unacceptable.

They said the city of Aleppo has had intermittent access to water from the beginning of May 2014, with a total cut in supply on May 10, resulting in many, perhaps a million people, left without access to safe water and sanitation.
This affected homes, hospitals and medical centers, the two UN experts said.

The cuts appeared to come about as a result of deliberate interference with the water supply, with conflicting allegations suggesting that some armed opposition groups and the government of Syria have both been responsible at different times and to differing degrees, they pointed out.

Barlow told IPS the al-Assad government’s denial of clean water is consistent with its history of using water to punish its enemies and reward its friends.

In 2000, the Syrian regime deregulated land use and gave vast quantities of land and water to its wealthy allies, severely diminishing the water table and driving nearly one million small farmers and herders off the land, she added.
Ironically and tragically, many of them migrated to Aleppo where they are being targeted again, said Barlow.

She also said water has also been deployed as a weapon of “class war.”

Many thousands of inner city residents unable to pay their water bills have had their water services cut in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, and more recently, as a result of Europe’s austerity program, in Spain, Greece and Bulgaria.

“Water as a weapon of war is a strong argument to governments and the UN they must make real the human right to water and sanitation, regardless of other conflicts taking place,” said Barlow.

Meanwhile, since 1990, almost two billion people globally have gained access to improved sanitation, and 2.3 billion have gained access to drinking water from improved sources, according to a new UN report released [in mid-May].

The joint report by the UN Children’s Fund and the World Health Organisation said about 1.6 billion of these people have piped water connections in their homes or compounds.
Titled “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2014 Update,” the report said more than half of the global population lives in cities, and urban areas are still better supplied with improved water and sanitation than rural ones.
“But the gap is decreasing.”

In 1990, more than 76 percent of the people living in urban areas had access to improved sanitation, as opposed to only 28 percent in rural ones.

By 2012, 80 percent urban dwellers and 47 percent rural ones had access to better sanitation.

“Despite this progress,” the report warned, “sharp geographic, socio-cultural, and economic inequalities in access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities still persist around the world.”

27 May, 2014
Inter Press Service

 

By Countercurrents

Domestic buildings have been hit by drone strikes more than any other type of target in the CIA’s 10-year campaign in the tribal regions of northern Pakistan, finds a new research by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

The research finds: More than 61% (three-fifths) of all drone strikes in Pakistan targeted domestic buildings, with at least 132 houses destroyed in more than 380 strikes.

Its finding says: At least 222 civilians are estimated to be among the 1,500 or more persons killed in attacks on such buildings.

The report says:

“In the past 18 months, reports of civilian casualties in attacks on any targets have almost completely vanished, but historically almost one civilian was killed, on average, in attacks on houses.”

The research reveals that on average more civilians die when a building is targeted than when a vehicle is hit.

It says:

“At least a quarter of drone strikes in Pakistan hit vehicles – cars, motorbikes and pickup trucks, according to the research, and these attacks were significantly less likely than average to harm civilians. There have been no confirmed civilian casualties in strikes on vehicles at night.”

The researchers analyzed thousands of reports including contemporaneous media reports, witness testimonies and field investigations to gather the data on drone strikes in Pakistan ‘s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The TBIJ’s report by Alice K Ross and Jack Serle says:

“[A] new investigative project by the Bureau, Forensic Architecture, a research project based at London ‘s Goldsmiths University , and New York-based Situ Research, reveals that in Pakistan , domestic buildings continue to be the most frequent target of drone attacks.”

The project examines, for the first time, the types of target attacked in each drone strike – houses, vehicles or madrassas (religious schools) – and the time of day the attack took place.

The May 23, 2014 datelined report says:

“The CIA has consistently attacked houses throughout the 10-year campaign in Pakistan .

The time of an attack affects how many people – and how many civilians – are likely to die. Houses are twice as likely to be attacked at night compared with in the afternoon. Strikes that took place in the evening, when families likely to be at home and gathered together were particularly deadly.”

It cites Mansur Mahsud of the FATA Research Center . Mansur said: “Civilians usually avoid going out at night, because Taliban militants do not allow people to venture out of their homes at night without a valid reason.”

The Bureau’s analysis finds that strikes on mosques and madrassas – religious schools – are the deadliest. At least eight strikes have hit such targets, killing over 17 people on average in each attack. At least 99 civilians have reportedly been killed in total.

The research reveals “a continued policy of targeting buildings throughout the CIA’s campaign in Pakistan, despite an instruction in Afghanistan from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the body which commands foreign operations in the country, that forces operate under the rule that ‘all compounds are assumed to house civilians unless proven to be clear’.”

 

The report says:

“The data shows the constantly shifting nature of the drone campaign, as the CIA and their targets adapt their tactics and behavior in a game of cat-and-mouse.

It is also possible that more civilians die in attacks on buildings than the reporting indicates. The Bureau’s Naming the Dead project has found that the deaths of women are particularly vulnerable to being underreported.

Women and children

The report says:

“Women and children are more likely to stay indoors and therefore less likely to be seen ‘by [a] drone operator monitoring the structure,’ says Susan Schuppli, senior research fellow at Forensic Architecture and the project coordinator. Women and children’s ‘relative seclusion within private space makes them particularly vulnerable to becoming an unknown casualty when a strike occurs’, she said.”

Everything was burned, pieces of flesh

Forensic Architecture interviewed a woman who survived a 2010 drone strike. It says:

“Originally from Germany , she had moved to Pakistan with her husband and his brother.

“She and a female friend were in the house one evening, when a group of men sitting in the courtyard was attacked. Her son, aged two, was outside the compound walls with his father, who had gone to smoke a cigarette.

“‘While we were eating, we heard a very loud bang. The house shook and a lot of earth fell on us from the roof… everything was covered in thick smoke,’ she told researchers. In the courtyard, she saw ‘a big black hole where the rocket hit’, where the men had been sitting to eat.

“Everything was burned, she continued. There were ‘pieces of cloth, and metal from the rocket … everywhere there were bits similar to the pieces of flesh of the three men, which were scattered everywhere.’

“Her brother-in-law was killed, along with at least four others.”

Mosques and madrassas

The report says:

“The figures for strikes on mosques and madrassas are skewed by a particularly bloody strike that hit a religious school in Chenegai, Bajaur on October 30 2006 that reportedly killing 81 people.

“But even excluding this incident, strikes on madrassas and mosques remain far more deadly – including to civilians – than those reported to have hit other targets. Excluding the Chenegai strike, the civilian casualty rate is nine times that of strikes on vehicles – 2.7 for each strike on average.

“But here, again, the care taken over the past year to avoid civilian casualties appears to be bucking these historic trends.

“The Chenegai attack flattened the building and killed scores of civilians.

“By contrast, last November a drone strike targeted a madrassa in Hangu, in the first drone strike to hit beyond Pakistan ‘s tribal regions. The attack took out a single room.

“Although there were reportedly up to 80 students in the building, the strike killed at least six men, allegedly militants.

“An unnamed US official later denied to the Washington Post that the strike hit a madrassa, saying it targeted ‘a compound associated with the Haqqani Network’ near the madrassa.

“The difference between these two strikes hints at how the US has adjusted its tactics over the course of the campaign.”

Drone-firepower

Discussing drones’ firepower the report says:

“US drones fire Hellfire missiles and the much more powerful GBU laser-guided bombs. The Hellfire is a product of the Cold War, designed to destroy Soviet tanks. But the US has adapted the drone-mounted versions, lowering the explosive yield twice, according to Chris Woods, investigative journalist and author of forthcoming book Sudden Justice: America ‘s Secret Drone Wars

“Reducing explosive power ‘makes a great deal of sense’, Woods adds. ‘A missile designed to bore through thick Soviet armor when used against mud-brick houses in Pakistan is going to have pretty catastrophic effects.’

“The US has added new Hellfire variants to its drone arsenal, according to a former drone pilot. These new variants include specialized missiles for attacking vehicles, others with a delayed fuse designed to smash through walls and detonate inside buildings, and anti-personnel missiles with a metal sleeve that splinters on detonation.

“When drone strikes started in Pakistan , the CIA only had access to small fleet of slow Predator drones, carrying up to two Hellfire missiles. But when the CIA acquired larger, more powerful Reaper drones, larger and more powerful bombs was added to their armory.

“Meanwhile, the GBU-12 and GBU-38 laser-guided bombs have at least five times the explosive power of a Hellfire and, according to Woods, are ‘used when they want to be sure of a kill,’ particularly ‘when high-value targets are involved’.

“‘When vehicles used by militants began to be targeted frequently, militants decreased their use of vehicles to avoid drone strikes,’ Mahsud says. ‘Now in many areas, militants travel on foot from one place to another.’

“The Bureau has not recorded a similar change in Yemen where vehicles are the most common target.”

Yemen and Afghanistan

Making a comparison between Pakistan- , Yemen- and Afghanistan-drone strikes the report says:

“By way of contrast, since 2008, in neighboring Afghanistan drone strikes on buildings have been banned in all but the most urgent situations, as part of measures to protect civilian lives.”

Comparing to drone strikes in Yemen the report said:

“The drone strikes on vehicles in Yemen do kill civilians. However, they are generally targeted when in sparsely populated areas, outside urban spaces. This appears to be a conscious effort to reduce collateral damage. In general the attacks in Yemen are reportedly less lethal for civilians. In Yemen on average one civilian is killed in every other strike whereas in Pakistan , on average more than one civilian is killed in each strike.

“‘As we’ve seen in Yemen, the CIA is careful in what it chooses to target – for example the deliberate focusing on moving vehicles between towns to limit the potential for collateral damage,’ said Woods. ‘What is so shocking to think about in Pakistan is that the CIA has continued to target homes in villages even up until 2013.’”

Referring to Afghanistan-drone strikes the report says:

“This rule has been in place since at least September 2008 when, according to a leaked classified report, ISAF introduced a Tactical Directive that ‘specifically called for limiting airstrikes on compounds to avoid civilian casualties when ISAF forces are not in imminent danger’.”

A definition

The report provides definition of “compound”:

“In both Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan people tend to live in buildings that are often described as ‘compounds’.”

Quoting Mahsud it describes the way people live in these areas:

“One compound is used by many families, like brothers and first cousins, although every family has their own portion or space in the compound. The compounds in these agencies are quite big – most would measure half an acre or more.

“Normally you will find 20-25 people living in one compound, and in some cases you will find more than 50.’

“When drones attack buildings in Pakistan , the target is typically described in media reports as a ‘compound’ – and often as a ‘militant compound’. But these are usually domestic structures, which are often rented or commandeered by militant groups.”

The report also cites a British commander:

“A British commander told the Daily Telegraph in 2012 that the UK had stopped using the word ‘compound’: ‘We’re trying to get it into the guys’ heads that this is not compound no 28, it’s 34 Acacia Drive – so you don’t hit it,’ he said.”

The report says:

“A Ministry of Defense spokesman told the Bureau this is not official policy, but is ‘very much aligned to our teaching and thinking’. The UK does not carry out drone strikes in Pakistan .”

It says:

“While over the 10 years of the drone campaign in Pakistan, strikes on houses have been more dangerous for civilians, in the past 18 months there have been no confirmed reports of civilian casualties in any attacks – despite a rise in the proportion of strikes that hit houses.

“Mahsud says this is partly due to changes in behavior on the ground. In the early years of the drone campaign, sympathetic locals would sometimes host the militants as their guests, he said, and carry on living in their properties. But the threat of drone strikes means that now, when militants come to stay, civilians usually leave.

There is little locals can do about the prospect of their buildings being damaged, he adds: ‘You cannot say no to the Taliban in FATA.’”

US version

The TBIJ report refers to a US official:

“A US official told the Bureau: ‘ US counterterrorism operations are precise, lawful, and effective. The United States takes extraordinary care to make sure that its counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable domestic and international law, and that they are consistent with US values and policy.’

“The US official told the Bureau: ‘The US government only targets terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people. Period. Any suggestion otherwise is flat wrong. Furthermore, before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.’”

The report says US drones have been hitting Pakistan since June, 2004. However, the attacks largely increased since 2010 when 128 strikes killed at least 751 people, of whom 84 were civilians.

Earlier in 2014 BIJ informed that at least 2,400 people across the Middle East have been killed by drones.

Further info:

“Where Drones Strike: new Pakistan drone mapping tool” from @ForensicArchi @SituResearch & @TBIJ http://t.co/rGKpoLwAtI pic.twitter.com/xTKVqjQxBw
27 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents

Italian journalist torn to pieces, grenade attack on truck with wounded, ambulance fired, air strike, residential areas shelled, about 40 dead

Ukraine armed power is carrying on atrocities as reports by news agencies including AP said. The atrocities include air strike and shelling on residential areas. Reports of death of Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and former dissident Andrey Mironov have emerged. The grisly murder torn into pieces the journalist’s body.

There were also reports of grenade attack on a truck carrying wounded. An ambulance with injured was also fired on.

The fighting in Donetsk is continuing around the airport and the railway station.

A Donetsk datelined AP report by Peter Leonard and Nataliya said:

The Kiev government launched an air strike on militants who occupied a major airport in the eastern capital of Donetsk .

In Donetsk , a city of one million, sustained artillery and gun fire was heard from the airport. Fighter jets and military helicopters were seen flying overhead, and dense black smoke rose in the air.

An Associated Press journalist saw several vehicles full of dozens of heavily armed men arrive to the area adjacent to the airport. Half an hour later, several flatbed trucks full of reinforcements came in.

The military operation has caused civilian deaths and destroyed property — angering many eastern residents — while still failing to crush the rebellion.

In the eastern region, less than 20 percent of the polling stations were open.

Other media reports said:

Witnesses have revealed new details of the killings in Ukraine of an Italian reporter and his Russian interpreter, Andrey Mironov – who was also a veteran human rights activist, a journalist and a Soviet dissident.

Mironov’s body was in a morgue in Slavyansk and might soon delivered to Russia .

Mironov, 60, was killed along with Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli, 30, by mortar fire on Saturday near the village of Andreevka , a couple of kilometers from Slavyansk , eastern Ukraine . French journalist, William Roguelon was wounded in the attack.

The journalists were in the area to report on fighting between local self-defense squads and Kiev forces amid an ongoing military operation launched weeks ago by the coup-imposed government to suppress protesters who seek more autonomy.

Following the tragedy, Kiev put the blame for the deaths of the journalists on “terrorists,” as the new Ukrainian authorities refer to opposition activists.

Nikolay Goshovsky, a senior official from Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said that a criminal case on “aggravated killing” was opened, reported UNN agency. He also stated that the journalists got killed as armed forces “responded” to actions of self-defense rather than during Kiev ‘s “anti-terrorist” operation.

Witnesses’ accounts, including Roguelon, claim the opposite and accuse the military of the armed assault.

Evgeny, a taxi driver who also survived the attack, told RT’s video agency Ruptly that the journalists left his car, “raised their hands and started taking photos when machine gun shooting began.”

The driver said that he got frightened and jumped into a nearby ditch where he was then joined by the Italian and French journalists and the Russian interpreter.

“We were sitting there when the mortar shelling started. The first shells fell near the ravine but then one shell reached us,” Evgeny said. “I saw that the interpreter was not moving at all [after the shelling]. The [Italian] correspondent, who was sitting next to him, crawled to me and then stopped moving too.”

The one surviving correspondent, apparently the Frenchman, the driver said, ran after him towards the car.

“When we got out on the road he ran but then fell on the ground being shot. I thought he was dead. There was no time to think, as mortar shelling went on, I dropped into the car and drove away to the city,” Evgeny added.

Roguelon reportedly managed flee the site and was then taken by locals to a hospital where he received treatment.

The bodies of the Italian journalist and his Russian interpreter were found on Sunday morning by local self-defense, witnesses told Ruptly.

“Apparently, one [of the attacked journalists] got hit into the head, because the head is absent. The other it seems was cut by shell splinters,” they said. The witnesses added that the head of one of the bodies was “torn to pieces” and “only scull” was left at the site. Documents – Mironov and Rocchelli passports – were in the pockets of the dead and parts of two photo cameras were found nearby, they told the agency.

So far, no official details of the incident have been made public. Ukrainian law enforcers said Sunday that they could not examine the site of the deadly incident since the area, according to their information, was controlled by self-defense forces.

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday that the Italian reporter was killed during the attack, adding though that final confirmation can only be made after his body is identified by relatives.

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov “exchanged condolences” with his Italian counterpart over the deaths of “Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter Mironov,” it said in a statement.

On Monday, Ukrainian acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa assured his Italian counterpart Federica Mogherini that Kiev is ready to investigate the circumstances of the tragedy and assist in organizing the transportation of the Italian reporter’s body to his homeland.

Mironov

Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Civic Assistance Committee and a member of Memorial rights organization, confirmed that Mironov, their “colleague and friend” was killed near Slavyansk .

Mironov “knew several European languages including Italian” and “often accompanied journalists, politicians and members of international rights organizations as an interpreter,” she said in a statement published on the committee’s website.

“But never and nowhere had the rights activist and former political prisoner Andrey Mironov been simply an interpreter,” Gannushkina said.

In 1985 Mironov was arrested for distributing ‘the samizdat’ – the underground press and books banned in the USSR and a year later sentenced to four years in prison in for “anti-Soviet propaganda,” his colleague recalled.

However, as Mikhail Gorbachev launched perestroika, Mironov along with other political prisoners was released.

As a rights activist – independently or together with colleagues – he visited many flashpoints, and repeatedly traveled to Chechnya during the conflict in the Russian Caucasian republic, according to Gannushkina.

“A man of a crystal-clear soul was killed,” she said.

Novaya Gazeta (NG) daily published the last report by Mironov with photos taken by Rocchelli in Ukraine

The paper applied to Russian Foreign Ministry asking diplomats to help organize transporting the body of the killed Russian journalist – who worked for them as a freelancer – to his native soil.

Mortar attack on Slavyansk

At least three civilians including a woman have reportedly been killed and several wounded when the Ukrainian Army launched a mortar attack on the town of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine . One of the shells fell near a local teachers college. About 10 persons were injured in the attack.

Residential blocks were ruined as a result of the assault by Kiev ‘s forces on Monday. At least two apartment blocks were damaged.

The dead woman of about 60 years age was lying on the grass with a large blood stain on her back.

People were running out of their homes in Slavyansk with their children, half-dressed.

There were around six or eight shell craters near the college where the woman’s body was found.

Reports of gunfights on the outskirts of Slavyansk , in the villages of Vostochny, Semyonovka and Slavkurort also came.

Ukrainian army launched several artillery salvos from the mountain of Karachun near the town.

Ukraine ‘s likely president-elect Poroshenko, announced Monday that Kiev is not going to stop the military operation in the east of Ukraine neither will it hold negotiations with armed people.

“They don’t want to talk to anyone,” he told a media conference.

Poroshenko said the “anti-terrorist” operation in the south-eastern regions will be held in a more efficient way, with soldiers getting better ammo and their lives and health being insured.

Grenade attack on truck with wounded

A rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Ukrainian army has hit a truck carrying wounded self-defense fighters near the Donetsk airport, killing a driver.

There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties from the latest attack. Earlier people’s governor of Donestk Region, Pavel Gubarev, said in a post on Facebook that 35 people were killed and 15 were wounded in the strike. The truck carrying the wounded was marked as an ambulance, he added.

According to Itar-Tass citing a correspondent of St. Petersburg ‘s Fifth Channel, at least 24 people were killed.

It is hard to verify these reports.

Few hours later self-defense forces reported that Ukrainian military opened fire at an ambulance transporting two injured from the Donetsk airport. The doctors inside the ambulance were unharmed, deputy of Donbass’ self-defense forces, Sergey Tsypakov, told RIA Novosti. The two wounded remain in the ambulance and it is not possible to evacuate them at this point, he added.

This comes as the Ukrainian military is broadening its offensive against anti-Kiev forces in the southeast of the country.

On Monday morning, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic forces came to the airport demanding that Ukrainian troops leave.

In response, Ukrainian fighter jets and helicopters were unleashed at the armed self-defense occupying the airport.

A video posted on YouTube reportedly shows Ukrainian jets attacking the area around the airport on Monday:

Air strikes started after the self-defense forces failed to comply with the ultimatum put forward by Kiev ‘s troops, which was to surrender by 1pm local time, Vladislav Seleznyov, the head of the counter-terror operation said on his Facebook page.

Donetsk self-defense forces regained control over the airport.

Loud explosions and gunfire were reported from Donetsk throughout the day, with Ukrainian army aircraft occasionally circling around the airport.

Reports of fighting outside the city airport also emerged. A private housing area was being shelled by mortar fire “for over an hour.”

The clashes in Donetsk began just a few hours after the early results of the elections were announced.

A missile launched in one of the air raids reportedly hit the nearby Tochmash machinery plant, injuring at least one person.

At the Donetsk central railway station a fire broke out and gunfire was heard, the area evacuated. One civilian was killed and two, including an 8-year-old boy, sustained injuries in the shooting.

An ANNA News reporter streaming a live broadcast from the airport area came under helicopter fire together with local and foreign journalists. According to the streamer, fortunately, only one female journalist suffered mild shock.

28 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

 

 

By Thomas Gaist

Oligarch Petro Poroshenko was declared the winner of presidential elections held in Ukraine on Sunday. According to exit polls, the billionaire pro-European Union “chocolate king” had about 56 percent of the vote, far ahead of fellow oligarch and former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.

The aim of the poll was to provide a semblance of political legitimacy to the right-wing regime installed three months ago with US and EU support, and backed by fascistic forces. Wide sections of the population boycotted the elections, particularly in the east and the south, where many polling stations were closed. The poll was conducted under conditions of mounting violence and intimidation directed at opponents of the Kiev government.

While the Ukrainian regime and its supporters declared the election a great success, turnout was low, at only 55 percent across the country.

In an effort to guide the election, the Obama administration sent observers, led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. On Friday, a US Navy missile cruiser arrived in the Black Sea, underscoring the active involvement of US military and intelligence agencies in the country.

US President Barack Obama quickly declared the election a success, calling it an “important step forward in the efforts of the Ukrainian government to unify the country”—a reference to the new government’s hostility to the separatist and pro-Russian movements in the east, where the population is majority-Russian speaking.

In the weeks preceding the election, Poroshenko emerged as the consensus candidate among forces in the Ukrainian ruling class favoring closer relations with the EU and the imposition of deep austerity measures against the working class. He received the endorsement of former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who was elected mayor of Kiev.

Poroshenko is a veteran political operator in Ukraine who served for five years as the head of the Council of Ukraine’s National Bank. He is the owner of the Roshen Confectionary Corporation, with a net worth of some $1.3 billion, and was also a chief financial supporter of the 2004 western-backed “Orange Revolution.”

Poroshenko’s task will be to continue the integration of Ukraine into the EU, the issue that made previous President Victor Yanukovych a target of US and German imperialism. Poroshenko has vowed to complete an economic and political association agreement with the EU initiated in March, committing the country to harsh austerity measures in the guise of “reforms.” Signing the second part of the agreement was deliberately put off until after the polls so that the unpopular measures it mandates would not become an election issue.

Before casting his ballot, Poroshenko stressed the importance of fostering “a very good investment climate” in Ukraine, and adopting “all the necessary things to attract business.”

While saying that stability in Ukraine requires some sort of dialogue with Russia, Poroshenko also insisted that he does not recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia or the independence of the eastern provides of Donetsk and Lugansk, which have declared themselves to be autonomous.

The second-place position in the election went to Yulia Tymoshenko, the billionaire natural gas oligarch, who received about 13 percent of the vote according to preliminary results. Tymoshenko, whose 7 year-prison sentence was commuted in the wake of the US-backed February putsch, responded to Poroshenko’s victory by calling for national unity and for a referendum on Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

In the weeks preceding the poll, Right Sector forces beat, intimidated and killed members of the Borotba (“Struggle”) group and the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU). Oleg Tsarev, of Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions, was beaten by right-wing forces as well. Both Tsarev and the KPU candidate withdrew from the elections and called for a boycott.

While the new regime has relied on fascistic forces as the shock troops of the “revolution” and to terrorize political opposition, popular support for these groups is very low, in both the east and the west. Svoboda Party leader Oleg Tyahnybok received only 1.3 percent of the vote, and Right Sector head Dmitry Yarosh received 1.1 percent.

The election was held under deepening civil war conditions, particularly in the east. The sham character of the election was exposed by the mass boycott by millions in the industrial and largely Russian-speaking sections of the country. There were also reports of separatist forces taking control of ballots or shutting down polling stations.

The Ukrainian Central Elections Commission found that turnout in the Donetsk region was barely more than 12 percent. According to sources cited by Ria Novosti, elections did not take place at all in 23 of Donetsk’s cities.

Even as the elections have proceeded, these areas have been subjected to occupation and bombardment by regime forces. Video footage surfaced on Friday showing Ukrainian ultranationalist forces attacking Ukrainian regulars who had refused to fire on civilians and separatist groups. Clashes were still occurring near Slavyansk on Saturday, with an Italian journalist and his Russian colleague killed in the crossfire.

Prime Minister Arsieniy Yatsenyuk made clear that repression against the population in the east, where hostility to the quasi-fascist regime in Kiev is especially strong, will continue in the days ahead. “I would like to assure our compatriots in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who will be prevented from coming to the polling stations by the war waged against Ukraine: The criminals don’t have much time left to terrorize your land.”

Fearing that the increasingly explosive situation in Ukraine may catalyze an upsurge of opposition against his own government, Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to the elections with a number of conciliatory statements.

Putin declared that he is prepared to work with whoever wins the election, despite what he described as “chaos and full blown civil war.”

Putin signaled his desire to forge a compromise with US imperialism and de-escalate the crisis. “Despite our varying, maybe diametrically non-overlapping approaches in assessing critical situations, we nevertheless continue cooperation,” Putin said. “They [the US] have not suspended military cargo transit to and from Afghanistan via our territory, because it is convenient for them. As a matter of fact, we have not refused it, either,” he added.

26 May, 2014
WSWS.org

 

By Mazin Qumsiyeh, Bethlehem

The children of Al-Rowwad from Aida Refugee Camp delivered a message to the Pope when he stopped to pray at the apartheid and annexation wall. They emphasized prisoners plight and the right to return home. This impromptu stop was in my opinion the most memorable part of the Pontiff’s visit to Bethlehem. The Pope recognized “The State of Palestine” (Google just did it too!) and also met with refugee children at Dheisheh and shared food with some family members who each had a story to tell him about horrific suffering under Israel’s colonial occupation. Christians and Muslims here were all genuinely touched by the visit of this more humble Pope and his gestures of understanding and solidarity. But most said they wished he would use his influence more to pressure the Zionist regime. The Western Zionist dominated media tried to hide things including the Pope’s gestures of solidarity with us but social media was prominent and the story could not be ignored. See pictures here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.662587883813204.1073741947.409078369164158&type=1

The Pope later went on to Tel Aviv to be was sandwiched between two Zionist Polish liars who continue to build walls of hate and destruction: Persky (aka Peres) and Mileikowsky (aka Netanyahu). The Pope had to listen as both atheists said that God gave this land to the Jews and that Israel was “the land of the Jewish people” and is a “democracy that guarantees freedom of religion”! Unfortunately, the Pope is also forced to lay a wreath at the tomb of Theodore Herzl (in addition to the obligatory stops at “Yad Vashem” and Herod’s retaining wall). Herzl is another atheist who is “credited” with organizing a world-wide Zionist movement that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths (not counting those crimes committed by its subservient armies like the US army killing Iraqis etc). It is a movement that has created millions of refugees and continues to commit crimes against humanity as it consolidates an apartheid system here while money laundering billions of illicit financial gains money. Israel continues to demolish homes and lands. Just to welcome the Pope: Israel murdered Palestinian youth, imprisoned many, destroyed over 1500 trees in the Land of the Nassar family (called Tent of Nations) and more. Israeli Jewish “activists” even distributed flyers calling for destruction of Churches (claiming Christians worship idols according to Jewish law), and some sprayed graffiti on Churches that “Mary is a Cow” and “Jesus: a son of a Whore”! Who are these Zionist leaders that brilliantly brainwashed Jews to support racist Zionism and pressured some Gentiles to do the same? Shimon Peres was born as Shimon Perski in Vishniva, Poland (now Belarus). He and his parents came to Palestine in 1934 (under British rule). He joined the underground terrorist group the Haganah, and served as a chief of its manpower division in the 1940s and participated in the ethnic cleansing of 1948-1949. He is the architect of Israel’s nuclear program. Appointed in 1953 as director general of the ministry of defense, he immediately started exploring the nuclear development. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Israel developed its nuclear program primarily with the help of France while maintaining the Peres doctrine of “ambiguity.” The US and Britain and other countries looked the other way. He is known as a slick politician able to lie with ease claiming wanting peace but rejecting any responsibility for his ethnic cleansing of Palestine and rejecting the rights of refugees to return to their homes and lands. He was awarded (with Rabin and Arafat) the Nobel Peace Prize for their disastrous Oslo accords. Many Nobel committee members later signed a letter regretting their awarding Perski the Nobel Peace Prize (based on his actions as member of the Sharon government during its war crimes spree).

Benyamin Mileikowsky (aka Netanyahu) was born to Benzion Mileikowsky (later changed names to Netanyahu), a polish immigrant. His Americanized father became secretary to terrorist leader Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky (aka Zeev Jabotinsky) founder of “revisionist” Zionism and supported groups like Irgun terrorist organization during the mandate in Palestine. His son continues to idolize these early Jewish terrorists. Both Benjamin and his brother served in units of the Israeli forces responsible for assassinations on foreign lands (in violations of international law) and committed war crimes. Benjamin Miliekowsky (Netanyahu) is known both among Israelis and globally as a consummate liar who refused to accept the Oslo accords (even though they were partial to Israel) and has gotten rich off of his political activities. Here is a video of him thinking the camera was off explaining his true contributions during his first stint as Israeli prime minister in the 1990s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrtuBas3Ipw .
see also this http://972mag.com/netanyahu-clinton-administration-was-%E2%80%9Cextremely-pro-palestinian%E2%80%9D-i-stopped-oslo/135/
This is after all the same terrorist who gave a speech to dozens of Likud. Party members in Eilat in which he admitted this is his strategy. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (15 July 2001): “…giving his audience a bit of advice on how to deal with foreign interviewers (Netanyahu said):’Always, irrespective of whether you’re right or not, you must always present your side as right.’ In 2011, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, described Netanyahu as a liar in a private exchange with US President Barack Obama at the G20 summit (it was inadvertently broadcast to journalists). “I cannot stand him. He’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama. The US president Obama responded by saying: “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/08/sarkozy-obama-netanyahu-gaffe-microphone
.

Other Zionist leaders have even more interesting backgrounds. See http://qumsiyeh.org/israelileaders/ But in very good news, and inspite of sending in legions of professional

propaganda men to DePaul University, the students there voted to support Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/depaul-students-vote-divestment-despite-israeli-government-interference

The BDS campaign must grow. Other forms of resistance must grow. Injustice
must end. Join the struggle.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
Bethlehem University
http://qumsiyeh.org

By www.ft.com/

China has ordered state-owned enterprises to cut ties with US consulting companies such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group because of fears they are providing secret commercial information to the US government, according to people close to senior Chinese leaders.

The instruction comes days after the US Justice Department indicted five People’s Liberation Army officers on charges of cyber-espionage and stealing trade secrets from US corporations including Alcoa, US Steel and Westinghouse. Beijing’s public response to the indictments was swift and vicious, with a co-ordinated propaganda campaign in Chinese state media describing the US as a “mincing rascal” and a “high-level hooligan”. China’s leaders added concrete action to their rhetoric by announcing on Thursday a new security screening process for all foreign IT products and services sold in China.

The vetting will focus on products and services used in communications, finance, energy and any other industries the government considers related to national security or “public interest”, officials said. Any company, product or service that fails the test will be banned from China. Windows 8, the latest operating system from Microsoft, has already been banned in China because of security concerns, state media reported last week. The decision to ban state enterprises from working with western consulting companies marks a further escalation in Beijing’s response to the indictments.

Management consultancies such as McKinsey, Bain & Company, BCG and Strategy&, formerly known as Booz & Co, have extensive operations in China, which remains a rapidly growing market for them. “The top leadership has proposed setting up a team of Chinese domestic consultants who are particularly focused on information systems in order to seize back this power from the foreign companies,” said a senior policy adviser to the Chinese leadership. “Right now the foreigners use their consulting companies to find out everything they want about our state companies.” McKinsey, BCG and Strategy& all declined to comment on the ban but people familiar with their operations said they all still have some Chinese state enterprises among their clients.

Private and multinational companies still make up a significant share of western management consultants’ clients in China so a ban on state business would hurt but probably not cripple their operations in the country. Likewise, China is unlikely to completely banish US technology companies from the country given how reliant it is on western software. “Windows is far too embedded in the Chinese economy for it to be banned completely, but certainly we should expect to see sensitive offices and systems reduce if not eliminate their use of it,” said Bill Bishop, an independent consultant based in Beijing. “Under President Xi Jinping, technology and implementation will look to be converging, so foreign tech firms should be very worried about their prospects.”

25 May 2014

By http://www.addameer.org/

Your holiness,

We, the mothers and wives of Palestinian administrative detainees in the Israeli occupation’s prisons, welcome you to occupied Palestine, and express our deep admiration of your personal humility and strong commitment to social justice. We consider you as the savior of our sons and husbands who are jailed as administrative detainees, and suffering from injustice andpersecution.

We, as mothers and wives, would like to express our deep concern for the lives of our sons and husbands who have been on hunger strike for more than four weeks to protest the policy of administrative detention. Our sons and husbands are suffering from grave health consequences as a result of their prolonged hunger strikes, as well as from cruel punishments perpetrated by Israeli prisons officials, including strip searches, solitary confinement, insults and humiliation during daily room raids, and denial of visits from their families and lawyers.

Israel has consistently violated its international obligations by arresting Palestinians without informing them for the reason of arrest, detaining them without charge, and denying them their right to a fair and public trial. Israel’s practice of detaining Palestinians from the occupied West Bank within Israeli borders violates articles 49 and 76 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit an occupying power from detaining members of the occupied population outside the occupied territory.

Israel exercises military law in the West Bank, which is used to hold Palestinians without charge or trial on the basis of evidence that is not accessible either to the detainees or their lawyers, a process called administrative detention. According to article 285, Israeli Military Order 1651, these administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely every one to six months.

In its concluding observations on Israel in 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, criticized Israel’s “frequent and extensive use of administrative detention,” and called on Israel to “refrain from using [it]” and to “complete as soon as possible” a review of relevant legislation.

The laws of occupation, which Israel is bound to respect as the occupying power in the West Bank, permit the use of administrative detention only in exceptional circumstances. Article 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides that an occupying power may legitimately order the detention of an individual only “for imperative reasons of security.” The International Committee of the Red Cross, in its “Commentary” to article 78, stresses that the “exceptional character” of such measures “must be preserved.” Israel is currently holding about 186 Palestinians as “administrative detainees” and has long used this measure to imprison Palestinians without trial.

Sarah Leah Whitson , Middle East director at Human Rights Watch stated “It is outrageous that Israel has locked these men up for months without either charging them with crimes or allowing them to see the evidence it says it has against them…The detainees evidently feel they have to put their lives in jeopardy through hunger strikes so that Israel will end these unlawful practices…Israel’s regular use of administrative detention, at the least, inverts international law and turns the exception into the norm, at the cost of the fundamental right to due process.”

We urgently need your blessed efforts to demand Israel immediately charge or release our sons and husbands who are detained without charge or trial. Israel has not charged any of them with any crime, and never allowed them to see or contest any evidence against them, instead placing them in administrative detention for renewed periods, which Israel contends is a preventive rather than punitive form of detention.

Israel should be forced to respect International Humanitarian Law, by the brave and honest leaders in the world, such as you. We need your help, in ending the policy of administrative detention forever, as this unlawful practice affects the detainees and their families and children negatively and severely.

Thank you for your vital role in revealing the truth on the ground to the world, and for your continuous efforts, which will contribute in achieving justice, and peace in the world, and especially to the oppressed Palestinian people.

(Press Release)