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By Countercurrents.org

24 October, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

With tax payers money the UK is going to expand its drone operations in Afghanistan while its citizens’ wellbeing is below financial crisis level. A “strange” state!

Nick Hopkins’ report [1] said:

The UK is to double the number of armed RAF [Royal Air Force] “drones” flying combat and surveillance operations in Afghanistan and, for the first time, the aircraft will be controlled from terminals and screens in Britain.

In the new squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), five Reaper drones will be sent to Afghanistan. It is expected they will begin operations within six weeks.

Pilots based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire will fly the recently bought American-made UAVs at a hi-tech hub built on the site in the past 18 months.

The UK’s existing five Reaper drones have been operated from Creech air force base in Nevada because Britain has not had the capability to fly them from UK.

After “standing up” the new squadron on October 19, 2012, the UK will soon have 10 Reapers in Afghanistan. The government has yet to decide whether the aircraft will remain there after 2014, when all NATO combat operations are due to end.

“The new squadron will have three control terminals at RAF Waddington, and the five aircraft will be based in Afghanistan,” a spokesman confirmed. “We will continue to operate the other Reapers from Creech though, in time, we will wind down operations there and bring people back to the UK.”

The use of drones has become one of the most controversial features of military strategy in Afghanistan. The UK has been flying them almost non-stop since 2008.

The CIA’s program of “targeted” drone killings in Pakistan’s tribal area was last month condemned in a report by US academics.

The most recent figures from the Ministry of Defense show that, by the end of September, the UK’s five Reapers in Afghanistan had flown 39,628 hours and fired 334 laser-guided Hellfire missiles and bombs at suspected insurgents.

While British troops on the ground have started to take a more back-seat role, the use of UAVs has increased over the past two years despite fears from human rights campaigners that civilians might have been killed or injured in some attacks.

The RAF bought the drones as an urgent operational requirement (UOR) specifically for Afghanistan, and the MoD confirmed that their purpose after 2014 was unclear. Under rules imposed by the EU and the Civil Aviation Authority, UAVs can be flown only in certain places in the UK, including around the Aberporth airfield in mid-Wales.

If the air-exclusion zone restrictions are not lifted by the end of 2014, the UK may have to relocate the drones to the US, or perhaps even to Kenya, sources said.

In the first three-and-a-half years of using the Reapers in Afghanistan, the aircraft flew 23,400 hours and fired 176 missiles. But those figures have almost doubled in the past 15 months as NATO seeks to weaken the Taliban ahead of withdrawal.

The MoD insists only four Afghan civilians have been killed in its strikes since 2008 and says it does everything it can to minimize civilian casualties, including aborting missions at the last moment.

However, it also says it has no idea how many insurgents have died because of the “immense difficulty and risks” of verifying who has been hit.

The MoD says it relies on Afghans making official complaints at military bases if their friends or relatives have been wrongly killed – a system campaigners say is flawed and unreliable.

Heather Barr, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, has said: “There are many disincentives for people to make reports.

“Some of these areas are incredibly isolated, and people may have to walk for days to find someone to report a complaint. For some, there will be a certain sense of futility in doing so anyway. There is no uniform system for making a complaint and no uniform system for giving compensation. This may not encourage them to walk several days to speak to someone who may not do anything about it.”

In December 2010, David Cameron claimed that 124 insurgents had been killed in UK drone strikes. But defense officials said they had no idea where the prime minister got the figure and denied it was from the MoD.

A high court hearing on October 23, 2012 may shed light on any support the UK is giving to the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan. The case has been brought by Noor Khan, whose father was killed in an attack on a local council meeting in 2011. He is asking the foreign secretary, William Hague, to clarify the government’s position on sharing intelligence for use in CIA strikes, and is challenging the lawfulness of such activities.

His lawyer, Rosa Curling, said: “This case is about the legality of the UK government providing ‘locational intelligence’ to the US for use in drone strikes in Pakistan.

An off-the-record GCHQ source stated that GCHQ assistance was being provided to the US for use in drone attacks and this assistance was ‘in accordance with the law.’

“We have advised our client that this is incorrect. The secretary of state has misunderstood the law on this extremely important issue and a declaration from the court confirming the correct legal position is required as a matter of priority.”

On the high court hearing Ian Cobain reported [2]:

The British government’s support for US drone operations over Pakistan may involve acts of assisting murder or even war crimes, the high court heard on October 23, 2012.

This is the first serious legal challenge in the English courts to the drones campaign.

Noor Khan, 27, is said to live in constant fear of a repeat of the attack in North Waziristan in March last year that killed more than 40 other people, who are said to have gathered to discuss a local mining dispute.

The British government has declined to state whether or not its signals intelligence agency GCHQ passes information in support of the CIA drone operations over Pakistan, although the court heard that media reports suggest that it does.

Martin Chamberlain, counsel for Khan, said that a newspaper article in 2010 had reported that GCHQ was using telephone intercepts to provide the US authorities with locational intelligence on leading militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The report suggested that the Cheltenham-based agency was proud of this work, which was said to be “in strict accordance with the law”.

On the contrary, Chamberlain said, any GCHQ official who passed locational intelligence to the CIA knowing or believing that it could be used to facilitate a drone strike would be committing a serious criminal offence.

“The participation of a UK intelligence official in US drone strikes, by passing intelligence, may amount to the offence of encouraging or assisting murder,” he said. Alternatively, it could amount to a war crime or a crime against humanity, he added.

Chamberlain said that no GCHQ official would be able to mount a defense of combat immunity, but added that there was no wish in this case to convict any individual of a criminal offence. Rather, Khan was seeking a declaration by the civil courts that such intelligence-sharing is unlawful.

With the number of drone strikes increasing sharply under the Obama administration, the London case is one of several being brought by legal activists around the world in an attempt to challenge their legality of the program.

In Pakistan, lawyers and human rights activists are mounting two separate court claims: one is intended to trigger a criminal investigation into the actions of two former CIA officials, while the second is seeking a declaration that the strikes amount to acts of war, in order to pressurise the Pakistani air force into shooting down drones operating in the country’s airspace.

During the two-day hearing in London, lawyers for Khan are seeking permission for a full judicial review of the lawfulness of any British assistance for the US drone program.

Lawyers for William Hague, the foreign secretary, say not only that they will neither confirm nor deny any intelligence-sharing activities in support of drone operations, but that it would be “prejudicial to the national interest” for them even to explain their understanding of the legal basis for any such activities.

For Khan and his lawyers to succeed, they say, the court would need to be satisfied that there is no international armed conflict in Pakistan, with the result that anyone involved in drone strikes was not immune from the criminal law, and that there had been no tacit approval for the strikes from the Pakistan government – another matter that the British government will neither confirm nor deny.

The court would also need to consider, and reject, the US government’s own legal position: that drone strikes are acts of self-defense. It would also need to be satisfied that the handing over of intelligence amounted to participation in hostilities.

The government also says that Khan’s claim would have a “significant impact” on the conduct of the UK’s relations with both the US and Pakistan in an “acutely controversial, sensitive and important” area, and also impact on relations between the US and Pakistan.

The case continues.

Citing a report by US academics, about a month ago, a press report said drone attacks in Pakistan are counterproductive [3]:

The CIA’s program of “targeted” drone killings in Pakistan is politically counterproductive, kills large numbers of civilians and undermines respect for international law.

The study by Stanford and New York universities’ law schools blames the US president, Barack Obama, for the escalation of “signature strikes” in which groups are selected merely through remote “pattern of life” analysis.

Families are afraid to attend weddings or funerals, it says, in case US ground operators guiding drones misinterpret them as gatherings of Taliban or al-Qaida militants.

“The dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling ‘targeted killings’ of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. This narrative is false,” the report Living Under Drones states.

The authors admit it is difficult to obtain accurate data on casualties “because of US efforts to shield the drone program from democratic accountability, compounded by obstacles to independent investigation of strikes in North Waziristan”.

The “best available information”, they say, is that between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed in Pakistan between June 2004 and mid-September this year – of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176 children. The figures have been assembled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which estimated that a further 1,300 individuals were injured in drone strikes over that period.

The study said: “Publicly available evidence that the strikes have made the US safer overall is ambiguous at best … The number of ‘high-level’ militants killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low – estimated at just 2% [of deaths]. Evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks … One major study shows that 74% of Pakistanis now consider the US an enemy.”

Coming from American lawyers rather than overseas human rights groups, the criticisms are likely to be more influential in US domestic debates over the legality of drone warfare.

“US targeted killings and drone strike practices undermine respect for the rule of law and international legal protections and may set dangerous precedents,” the report says, questioning whether Pakistan has given consent for the attacks.

“The US government’s failure to ensure basic transparency and accountability in its targeted killings policies, to provide details about its targeted killing program, or adequately to set out the legal factors involved in decisions to strike hinders necessary democratic debate about a key aspect of US foreign and national security policy.

“US practices may also facilitate recourse to lethal force around the globe by establishing dangerous precedents for other governments. As drone manufacturers and officials successfully reduce export control barriers, and as more countries develop lethal drone technologies, these risks increase.”

The report supports the call by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN’s special rapporteur on countering terrorism, for independent investigations into deaths from drone strikes and demands the release of the US department of justice memorandums outlining the legal basis for US targeted killings in Pakistan.

The report highlights the switch from the former president George W Bush’s practice of targeting high-profile al-Qaida personalities to the reliance, under Obama’s administration, of analyzing patterns of life on the ground to select targets.

“According to US authorities, these strikes target ‘groups of men who bear certain signatures, or defining characteristics associated with terrorist activity, but whose identities aren’t known’,” the report says. “Just what those ‘defining characteristics’ are has never been made public.” People in North Waziristan are now afraid to attend funerals or other gatherings, it suggests.

Fears that US agents pay informers to attach electronic tags to the homes of suspected militants in Pakistan haunt the tribal districts, according to the study. “[In] Waziristan … residents are gripped by rumors that paid CIA informants have been planting tiny silicon-chip homing devices that draw the drones.

“Many of the Waziris interviewed spoke of a constant fear of being tagged with a chip by a neighbor or someone else who works for either Pakistan or the US, and of the fear of being falsely accused of spying by local Taliban.”

Reprieve’s director, Clive Stafford Smith, said: “An entire region is being terrorized by the constant threat of death from the skies. Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups.

“George Bush wanted to create a global ‘war on terror’ without borders, but it has taken Obama’s drone war to achieve his dream.”

On the issues Clive Stafford Smith wrote [4]:

Nick Hopkins’ Guardian article [mentioned above] gives further proof of our leap into an opaque drone age.

Consider David Cameron’s claim that British drones have killed 124 insurgents in Afghanistan; Hopkins reports that “defence officials said they had no idea where the prime minister got the figure and denied it was from the MoD”. Does this mean that our kill-numbers are being conjured up by politicians?

There are many more questions that beg for an answer. One is the degree to which drones are to be used simply as a weapon of terror. In British Air and Space Power Doctrine, the MoD informs us that “air power is not employed solely for kinetic purposes. The psychological impact of air power from the presence of a UAV … has often proved to be extremely effective in exerting influence, especially when linked to information operations.” In plain English, the circling drones are used to terrify the citizens below into providing intelligence. Did not the Geneva conventions forbid such a war against civilians? Did we forget so soon how the material frightened out of people in the “war on terror” proved so suspect?

The most harrowing histories I heard in my recent trip to the Pakistan border regions involved the fear factor – 800,000 concededly innocent men, women and children in the region terrified by the sounds of drones overhead, 24 hours a day. To what extent is this to be an intentional policy? Is it regulated? Or even debated?

The British people need to be told the true reasons for this shift. One, no doubt, is the US predilection for what is called “chopping”, a 21st-century euphemism that means a “change in operational control”. A NATO or British drone might be on the Pakistan border when the US decides to kill someone in Waziristan – just another international war crime to the CIA, but an act that the UK would rather was committed with no British fingerprints. So the machine metamorphoses into an American drone and the US “pilot” slips into the comfy chair to let loose the Hellfire missile. Moving the controls to RAF Waddington may make this kind of blurred line easier to define, but it does not erase the moral and legal issues.

The blurring of lines is a drone speciality. The US could not fly F16s to bomb an unwilling ally but – for a number of reasons – the CIA feels no compunction about sending drones over Pakistan. A recent MoD paper called Future Air and Space Operational Concept speaks of a world that is “free of the constraints of physical barriers and national boundaries”. In other words, might give us the right in our robot world. Perhaps the UK does not yet run its Reaper drones across the Durand Line, the indistinct border between Pakistan and Afghanistan concocted by the British in 1893.

On Tuesday, we have a case in the high court about British fingerprints at the crime scene. The judges will decide whether the government may blithely refuse to reveal its “policy” when it comes to sharing intelligence with those who commit international war crimes – for that is surely what the US is doing in Pakistan. The government is paying three QCs to assert its right to silence – every time they share a cup of coffee it costs the taxpayer hundreds of pounds.

Why, you may well ask, should politicians, military men and corporations make these decisions in such secrecy when we will all live with them in the decades to come?

While this war-reality dominates scene, on the opposite, in the UK, the citizens’ wellbeing is below financial crisis level. Citing government data Larry Elliott, economics editor, and Randeep Ramesh reported [5]:

A mix of deep recession and high inflation has left national wellbeing in Britain more than 13% down on its level before the global financial crisis.

The Office for National Statistics said the hit to real living standards caused by the worst downturn of the postwar era had been almost double the fall in national output as measured by GDP.

Data released in the report on wellbeing showed that net national income per head (NNI) – considered the best guide to real living standards – held up in the early stages of the recession but has continued to drop as a result of the squeeze on family budgets from rising prices.

The ONS said that NNI per head fell by 13.2% between the first three months of 2008 – when the economy peaked – and the second quarter of 2012. Over the same period, GDP per head fell by 7%.

According to the study, the decline in living standards has been more pronounced and longer lasting than in the UK’s two previous recessions in the early 1980s and early 1990s.

NNI dropped by around 6% in the slump of the early 1980s but was back to its pre-recession peak within three years. In the early 1990s, the decline was a more modest 4% fall, and the lost ground had been recouped in two-and-a-half years.

Even if the data is adjusted to include the welfare state – especially important in Britain with the NHS – it still reveals a bleak picture. This figure, known as real household actual income per head, dropped in the second quarter of 2012 by 2.9% below its peak in the third quarter of 2009.

The data release marks a significant shift in the way Britain sees how economic changes affect people’s wellbeing.

Since 2008, when a report for the French government by three eminent economists – Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi – argued that when evaluating people’s “wellbeing”, governments should look at people’s income and consumption rather than at production to assess progress, countries have begun to use such measures to size up a nation’s happiness.

Source:

[1] The Guardian, “UK to double number of drones in Afghanistan”, Oct. 22, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/22/uk-double-drones-afghanistan

[2] guardian.co.uk, “UK support for US drones in Pakistan may be war crime, court is told”, Oct. 23, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/uk-support-us-drones-pakistan-war-crime

[3] The Guardian, Owen Bowcott, September 25, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/25/drone-attacks-pakistan-counterproductive-report

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/23/truth-uk-drones-policy?intcmp=239

[4] guardian.co.uk, “We need to know the truth about UK drones policy”, Oct. 23, 2012,

[5] guardian.co.uk, “UK wellbeing still below financial crisis levels”, Oct. 23, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/23/uk-wellbeing-fails-to-recover-financial-crisis

By Dirk Adriaensens

24 October, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Biggest Iraqi mass-kidnapping mystery solved. Disappeared Ministry of Higher Education officials, arrested by the Iraqi National Police in November 2006, end up in mass grave.

* US Occupation authorities: guilty . They created, trained and armed the National Police and controlled the Ministry of Interior, responsible for death squad policies.

* Maliki government: guilty . They acted as local US stooges. They carried out the US counterinsurgency strategy, protected the kidnappers and prevented an investigation.

* UN Human Rights Bodies: guilty by negligence . They refused to nominate a special Human Rights rapporteur for Iraq . They refused to investigate this crime against humanity.

On 22 October 2012 , Shafaq, an Iraqi News Agency, reports: “An official security source revealed on Monday that a mass grave was found in Sada area on the outskirts of Sadr City , belonging to the staff of the Department of missions of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research who disappeared in 2006.”

“A security force found 16 bodies buried in a mass grave in Sadr City in Baghdad belonging according to the confessions of one of the detainees of the staff members of the Department of Missions of the Ministry of Higher Education. The available intelligence reports that the bodies belong to employees of the Department of Missions who were abducted in 2006 and buried in a mass grave. The competent authorities are conducting DNA tests on the bodies to make sure of their identities and inform their families”.

Summary of Events 

On Tuesday 14 November 2006 paramilitary gunmen in the uniforms of Iraqi National Police commandos raided a building belonging to the Ministry of Education in Baghdad ‘s Karrada district and arrested around 100 members of staff from two departments and around 50 visitors, according to lists compiled by the Minister of Education.

The raid took place in broad daylight, 1km from the Green Zone, in an area that contained several high-security compounds, including the department where passports are issued. According to a BBC correspondent the Karrada area, occupying an isthmus in the River Tigris, is ‘well protected with a heavy presence of Iraqi troops and several checkpoints’. The paramilitary force estimated at between at least 50 and 100 arrived in a fleet of some 20-30 camouflage pickup trucks of the kind employed by the Interior Ministry and rapidly established a cordon of the area. They stated that they were from an anti-corruption unit and were carrying out arrests ahead of a visit by the US ambassador. The paramilitaries made their arrests according to lists, confirming the identities of those present by their ID cards, then handcuffed and blindfolded the detainees and put them into the backs of pickups and into two larger vehicles.

The paramilitaries then made their exit through heavy traffic without opposition, despite the reported presence of a regular police vehicle. According to some witnesses, the paramilitaries made off in the direction of Sadr City .

The Iraqi government quickly declared that the number of detainees was far lower (18 guards, 16 members of staff and five visitors) and by Wednesday claimed that all of the detainees had been released after a series of dramatic police raids. A number of senior policemen, including the district police chief and the commander of a National Police paramilitary commando brigade and three other officers were reportedly detained for questioning over possible complicity. According to one report, an Interior Ministry spokesman claimed the senior police commanders ‘should be held responsible’.

Prime Minister Maliki declared that this was not a case of terrorism, but a dispute between ‘militias’.

The Education Ministry insisted that both Sunnis and Shiites were among those illegally detained.

US commanders stated that they would support all efforts to free the detainees.

By Thursday the Education Minister stated that around 70 of 150 detainees had been released and reported that some of those released had been tortured (some legs and hands had been broken) and that there were allegations that others had been killed.

On Friday 17 November Mowaffak Rubiae, the National Security Advisor, stated that all of the detainees had been released, although an Interior Ministry spokesmen claimed that all of the Education Ministry personnel had been released but some of the visitors detained were still missing.

One of the detainees, who refused to reveal his actual name, said that his arm had been broken while in detention. He also described seeing three security guards suffocated to death and hearing a number of senior academics who had been put in a separate screaming in agony; according to the witness their cries were cut off abruptly.

The witness also said that he had not been released as the result of a dramatic police raid. His captors had simply dragged him and others from the building where they were held, put them back into trucks and dumped them at various locations around Baghdad . His account is confirmed by earlier reports, which stated that those released had been blindfolded and deposited in various parts of Baghdad .

Five more detainees were reportedly released on Friday. They had been tortured.

On Saturday 18 November the Education Ministry continued to insist that 66 people were still missing.

The Interior Ministry spokesman said that all of the detainees had been released and the matter was now closed.

Joint US and Iraqi forces conducted a raid on a mosque in Sadr City on Saturday. None of the detainees were found.

On Sunday 19 November a further four detainees were released, who reported seeing one Ministry official, Hamid al-Jouani, killed.

On Monday 20 November joint US and Iraqi forces conducted another raid in Sadr City . None of the detainees were found.

The B Russell s Tribunal issued a statement on 22 November 2006 : “ Action Needed Over Detention of Iraqi Education Ministry Officials. Unknown numbers murdered, dozen still illegally held ” http://www.brussellstribunal.org/PressRelease221106.htm

The B Russell s Tribunal requested clear answers from the occupation forces and Iraqi authorities and formulated relevant questions:

Unanswered Questions 

From the above description of events drawn from mainstream media sources (please see references at end) making use of government statements and eyewitness testimony it is clear that the raid on the Interior Ministry was carried out as a complex military operation requiring detailed intelligence, careful preparation and extensive training. In fact, everything about this raid conforms with what we should expect of an operation conducted by Iraq’s new US-trained, armed and supported specialist counterinsurgency paramilitary National Police commandos, who are specifically trained to conduct cordon and search operations of this kind.

It is impossible to believe that any forces but officially sanctioned ones could have made such a daring daylight assault in one of the most secure areas of Baghdad . It is equally impossible to believe that any forces but Interior Ministry ones could have assembled a fleet of Interior Ministry camouflage pickup trucks. The designation of the paramilitaries responsible for this outrage as Interior Ministry commandos is fully confirmed by eyewitness testimony, which specifies that at least some of the raiders were wearing blue camouflage uniforms of a type very recently introduced to National Police commandos, specifically intended to prevent any other parties from masquerading as National Police commandos. The digitally designed uniforms are supplied by the US . A US Army spokesman was so convinced that the uniforms would have been impossible to replicate that he stated that the raiders could not have been wearing such uniforms. Of course, he was not at the scene. Eyewitnesses contradict him.

The fact that the raid was conducted by Interior Ministry forces was in fact confirmed by Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who claimed the mass detention was the work of militiamen who had infiltrated the Interior Ministry.

Since it is almost certain that the raid was carried out by National Police commandos, it is imperative that the following questions are answered immediately and publicly.

·           Which National Police or other Interior Ministry force carried out the raid?

·           Under whose authority was the raid authorised?

·           From whom did the Interior Ministry force obtain the lists of names that were used to select individuals for arrest?

·           Where were the international advisers (Special Police Transition Teams) that are embedded with each battalion of National Police Commandos and work with them on a daily basis?

·           Where did the police commandos take the detainees?

·           Why were aerial surveillance assets not immediately deployed to follow a fleet of pickup trucks through heavy traffic in Baghdad ? How many such aerial assets were operating over the Green Zone and other parts of Baghdad at that time?

·           Who operates the facility where the detainees were held?

·           If detainees were freed as a result of police raids, why have no large scale arrests been made and why has the only detainee to speak on record stated that no such police raid occurred?

·           What are the names of the individual police officers who have been held for questioning?

·           Have they been charged and if so what have they been charged with?

·           Why is the Interior Ministry insisting that the case in now closed, when the Education Minister has provided a list of the name of further detainees and the subsequent release of additional detainees demonstrates that he is wrong.

·           Why is the Interior Ministry insisting that none of the detainees were killed when eyewitnesses reported seeing people brutally murdered in front of them?

·           How is it that paramilitary/militia death squads can operate from the Interior Ministry, making full use of US-supplied government equipment, without the knowledge of embedded international training teams and advisors within the Interior Ministry?

It is absolutely clear that neither in this case nor in any of the multitude of other equally harrowing cases that show Interior Ministry involvement with extrajudicial killing can the Iraqi government be trusted with carrying any sort of investigation. In the case of the Jadiriyah torture facility discovered in November 2005, the government has still to make public findings that were promised within weeks. It should also be noted that at that time, US officials promised to increase their efforts to oversee Iraqi detention facilities and police commando units, stating that they would double the number of embedded trainers. Since that promise, extrajudicial killings at the hands of Interior Ministry forces, mostly inside detention facilities, appears to have grown exponentially.

It is equally clear that US authorities in Iraq have no interest in carrying out an investigation or restraining the killers.

It is therefore imperative for teams of international investigators to take on the task with the full cooperation of British and American forces. Manfred Novak, the UN rapporteur for torture has indicated his willingness to undertake such a mission. Such a mission must be immediately supported by all those who honestly claim to seek to halt the genocidal violence in Iraq ; those who will not support such a mission must be considered accomplices to crimes against humanity.

Nothing happened. Now they’re dead.

As usual nothing has been done, nor by the occupation authorities, nor by the UN official Human Rights Bodies. And certainly not by the Iraqi authorities.

On 27 April 2011 the Iraqi government has set up a committee to trace thousands of Iraqis missing since the 2003 US-led invasion, said an official. The government committee includes representatives from the ministries of defence (Islamic Dawa Party), interior (Islamic Dawa Party), national security (Islamic Dawa Party), health (Al Sadr bloc), justice (Islamic Virtue Party) and human rights (Islamic Dawa Party), in addition to intelligence services and anti-terrorism forces.

Many of those Ministries were involved or are leading the very militias that have been suspected of carrying out most of the ferocious crimes of extrajudicial assassination, inciting sectarian violence, torture and enforced disappearance, in conjunction with the occupying forces. So how can one expect this committee to investigate the very crimes that their militias are responsible for?

Human Rights Council: it’s time to ACT

So now we finally know part of the terrible truth. Will the Human Right Council finally wake up and start to investigate the thousands upon thousands of war crimes, committed by the Anglo-American occupation forces and their local Iraqi stooges? Will the ICC finally do what it is created for: persecute war criminals? Investigate the US genocide in Iraq ? Please? After more than one million deaths, and millions of refugees?

2013: the commemoration of 10 years of US occupation. It would be only fair if this and other clear cases of crimes against humanity would be put on the agenda of International Human Rights bodies. It would be only fair if the full truth of this dirty counterinsurgency war is finally revealed.

2013: the year of “Accountability and Restoring Justice For Iraq”. DO something !

Dirk Adriaensens is coordinator of SOS Iraq and member of the executive committee of the B Russell s Tribunal. Between 1992 and 2003 he led several delegations to Iraq to observe the devastating effects of UN imposed sanctions. He was a member of the International Organizing Committee of the World Tribunal on Iraq (2003-2005). He is also co-coordinator of the Global Campaign Against the Assassination of Iraqi Academics. He is co-author of Rendez-Vous in Baghdad , EPO (1994), Cultural Cleansing in Iraq , Pluto Press, London (2010), Beyond Educide, Academia Press, Ghent (2012), and is a frequent contributor to GlobalResearch, Truthout, The International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies and other media.

References 

Five police chiefs arrested after mass kidnapping

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20761611-401,00.html

Fate of Iraq Education Ministry abductees remains unclear

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1115/dailyUpdate.html

Desperate search after mass-kidnapping of Sunnis ends with hostages found alive

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1984455.ece

Iraq hostages ‘freed by police’

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6149110.stm

Iraq : Kidnapped People Have Been Freed

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2655349

Iraq minister says some hostages tortured, killed

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-11-16T123016Z_01_IBO132069_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&src=rss

Iraq ministry hostages ‘tortured

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6153316.stm

Arrest of Sunni Leader Sought in Iraq

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6219741,00.html

US warns Iraq against sectarianism

http://timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=243588

Coalition Forces Conduct Raid in Iraq

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6227509,00.html

Bloodshed piles pressure on Iraq govt

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3867624a12aT,00.html

Iraq police rebrand to foil fakes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6034975.stm

New uniforms to tackle Iraq killings

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/archive?ArchiveId=36667

Iraq : Fresh effort to trace missing persons

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,IRIN,,IRQ,,4dbe609c1e,0.html

Iraq : UN calls for immediate action to free kidnapped education ministry workers

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20593

Mass Grave found in Sadr city

http://www.shafaaq.com/en/news/3871-mass-grave-found-in-sadr-city-.html

By Jonathan Cook

24 October, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Nazareth: Six and a half years go, shortly after Hamas won the Palestinian national elections and took charge of Gaza, a senior Israeli official described Israel’s planned response. “The idea,” he said, “is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

Although Dov Weisglass was adviser to Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of the day, few observers treated his comment as more than hyperbole, a supposedly droll characterisation of the blockade Israel was about to impose on the tiny enclave.

Last week, however, the evidence finally emerged to prove that this did indeed become Israeli policy. After a three-year legal battle by an Israeli human rights group, Israel was forced to disclose its so-called “Red Lines” document. Drafted in early 2008, as the blockade was tightened still further, the defence ministry paper set forth proposals on how to treat Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Health officials provided calculations of the minimum number of calories needed by Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants to avoid malnutrition. Those figures were then translated into truckloads of food Israel was supposed to allow in each day.

The Israeli media have tried to present these chilling discussions, held in secret, in the best light possible. Even the liberal Haaretz newspaper euphemistically described this extreme form of calorie-counting as designed to “make sure Gaza didn’t starve”.

But a rather different picture emerges as one reads the small print. While the health ministry determined that Gazans needed daily an average of 2,279 calories each to avoid malnutrition – requiring 170 trucks a day – military officials then found a host of pretexts to whittle down the trucks to a fraction of the original figure.

The reality was that, in this period, an average of only 67 trucks – much less than half of the minimum requirement – entered Gaza daily. This compared to more than 400 trucks before the blockade began.

To achieve this large reduction, officials deducted trucks based both on an over-generous assessment of how much food could be grown locally and on differences in the ”culture and experience” of food consumption in Gaza, a rationale never explained.

Gisha, the organisation that fought for the document’s publication, observes that Israeli officials ignored the fact that the blockade had severely impaired Gaza’s farming industry, with a shortage of seeds and chickens that had led to a dramatic drop in food output.

UN staff too have noted that Israel failed to factor in the large quantity of food from each day’s supply of 67 trucks that never actually reached Gaza. That was because Israeli restrictions at the crossings created long delays as food was unloaded, checked and then put on to new trucks. Many items spoiled as they lay in the sun.

And on top of this, Israel further adjusted the formula so that the number of trucks carrying nutrient-poor sugar were doubled while the trucks carrying milk, fruit and vegetables were greatly reduced, sometimes by as much as a half.

Robert Turner, director of the UN refugee agency’s operations in the Gaza Strip, has observed: “The facts on the ground in Gaza demonstrate that food imports consistently fell below the red lines.”

It does not need an expert to conclude that the imposition of this Weisglass-style “diet” would entail widespread malnutrition, especially among children. And that is precisely what happened, as a leaked report from the International Committee of the Red Cross found at the time. “Chronic malnutrition is on a steadily rising trend and micro-nutrient deficiencies are of great concern,” it reported in early 2008.

Israel’s protests that the document was merely a “rough draft” and never implemented are barely credible – and, anyway, beside the point. If the politicians and generals were advised by health experts that Gaza needed at least 170 trucks a day, why did they oversee a policy that allowed in only 67?

There can be no doubt that the diet devised for Gaza – much like Israel’s blockade in general – was intended as a form of collective punishment, one directed at every man, woman and child. The goal, according to the Israeli defence ministry, was to wage “economic warfare” that would generate a political crisis, leading to a popular uprising against Hamas.

Earlier, when Israel carried out its 2005 disengagement, it presented the withdrawal as marking the end of Gaza’s occupation. But the “Red Lines” formula indicates quite the opposite: that, in reality, Israeli officials intensified their control, managing the lives of Gaza’s inhabitants in almost-microscopic detail.

Who can doubt – given the experiences of Gaza over the past few years – that there exist in the Israeli military’s archives other, still-classified documents setting out similar experiments in social engineering? Will future historians reveal that Israeli officials also pondered the fewest hours of electricity Gazans needed to survive, or the minimum amount of water, or the smallest living space per family, or the highest feasible levels of unemployment?

Such formulas presumably lay behind:

* the decision to bomb Gaza’s only power station in 2006 and subsequently to block its proper repair;

* the refusal to approve a desalination plant, the only way to prevent overdrilling contaminating the Strip’s underground water supply;

* the declaration of large swaths of farmland no-go areas, forcing the rural population into the already overcrowded cities and refugee camps;

* and the continuing blockade on exports, decimating Gaza’s business community and ensuring the population remains dependent on aid.

It is precisely these policies by Israel that led the United Nations to warn in August that Gaza would be “uninhabitable” by 2020.

In fact, the rationale for the Red Lines document and these other measures can be found in a military strategy that found its apotheosis in Operation Cast Lead, the savage attack on Gaza in winter 2008-09.

The Dahiya doctrine was Israel’s attempt to update its traditional military deterrence principle to cope with a changing Middle East, one in which the main challenge it faced was from asymmetrical warfare. The name Dahiya derives from a neighbourhood of Beirut Israel levelled in its 2006 attack on Lebanon.

This “security concept”, as the Israeli army termed it, involves the wholesale destruction of a community’s infrastructure to immerse it so deeply in the problems of survival and reconstruction that other concerns, including fighting back or resisting occupation, are no longer practicable.

On the first day of the Gaza offensive, Yoav Galant, the commander in charge, explained the aim succinctly: it was to “send Gaza decades into the past”. Matan Vilnai may have been thinking in similar terms when, months before Operation Cast Lead, he warned that Israel was preparing to inflict on Gaza a “shoah”, the Hebrew word for Holocaust.

Seen in this context, Weisglass’ diet can be understood as just one more refinement of the Dahiya doctrine: a whole society refashioned to accept its subjugation through a combination of violence, poverty, malnutrition and a permanent struggle over limited resources.

This experiment in the manufacture of Palestinian despair is, it goes with saying, both illegal and grossly immoral. But ultimately it also certain to unravel – and possibly sooner rather than later. The visit this week of Qatar’s emir, there to bestow hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, was the first by a head of state since 1999.

The Gulf’s wealthy oil states need influence, allies and an improved image in a new Middle East wracked by uprisings and civil war. Gaza is a prize, it seems, they may be willing to challenge Israel to possess.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His new website is

www.jonathan-cook.net

Khamenei ‘incensed’ meeting was revealed

23 October 2012

By Reza Kahlili

@ www.wnd.com

The revelation on WND of the secret meetings between the Obama administration and Iran has caused confusion and anger for those who were taking part – and has derailed the previously agreed-to plans of an announcement for a breakthrough on the nuclear-weapons crisis prior to the U.S. elections.

In Monday night’s presidential debate, President Obama again denied reports in “newspapers” but later contradicted himself and admitted to the possibility of bilateral meetings with Iran.

In the heat of the moment and in response to Gov. Mitt Romney’s criticism of his handling of Iran’s nuclear program, the president said, “I’m pleased that you now are endorsing our policy of applying diplomatic pressure and potentially having bilateral discussions with the Iranians to end their nuclear program.”

Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department expert on proliferation and now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, stated that, “I have been hearing for some time that they had been having private discussions, and now it is starting to become public.”

The British newspaper the Guardian reported the same on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Obama is open to having bilateral talks with Iran about its nuclear program, but the United States has not scheduled any negotiations.

As reported on Oct. 4 and again on Oct. 18, a three-person delegation representing the Obama administration secretly met with their Iranian counterparts about Oct. 1 in Doha, Qatar.

The source who provided details of that meeting and who remains anonymous for security reasons because he is highly placed in Iran’s regime, added that after the WND revelation of the secret meeting, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was incensed.

The Iranian supreme leader demanded the Americans explain about the leak, which prompted the White House to leak a soft version of the story to the New York Times and deny the facts.

With that, the source said, the Obama administration tried damage control, first by indicating that the story revolved around an agreement for after the elections so no pre-election political motive could be ascribed, and second to ease the mind of the Islamic regime’s leaders about any leaks on the actual event.

The White House, which originally gave a “no comment” to the WND story, responded to the Times story. “It’s not true that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks or any meeting after the American election,” Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Saturday.

The source pointed to the clever response by the White House in denying any agreements for future talks rather than any previous meeting and agreement.

According to the source, who provided new information, the Qatar meeting lasted for about 11 hours, requiring two breaks so the Iranian delegate could do daily prayers.

Besides the woman who led the American team, the source said, there were two American men, one of whom, in his early 60s with slightly darker receding hair, had spent time in Iran before the Islamic revolution. The other, in his 30s, had a military haircut and carried a briefcase so he could report back to Washington live through encrypted messages.

The American woman had met the Iranian delegate, Ali Akbar Velayati, several times before and was trusted by him. Velayati, a close adviser of the supreme leader on international affairs, met privately with the woman for four hours before both groups continued talks.

The source identified the other Iranian present as Asghar Hejazi, a cleric who heads the intelligence and security divisions in the supreme leader’s office.

The presence of Velayati, who makes the international decisions for the regime, and Hejazi, with final authority over all intelligence and security of the country, shows that Khamenei is in direct talks with the Obama administration, the source said.

The source emphasized that the Americans requested an announcement on an agreement to partially halt enrichment temporarily before the U.S. elections to help with Obama’s re-election, but the revelation of the meeting caused both sides to re-evaluate the announcement’s timing.

The revelation has also aggravated both Russia and the European Union, which have been participating in multilateral talks of 5+1 on the Iranian nuclear program.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov is rushing to Tehran to warn of any back-channel dealings with America, the source said. So is a delegate from the European Union arriving to strengthen its economic position.

According to the source, in the past five months, four meetings were held in the U.S. with the Islamic regime’s surrogates (two of whom have green cards and travel to America routinely) to hash out what was to be discussed at the Qatar meeting. The source identified Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser, as the head of the U.S. effort to engage Iran.

The Qatar agreement would have Iran announce a partial halt to enrichment, ensure the regime’s right to peaceful enrichment, quickly remove much of the sanctions, accept that Iran’s nuclear program does not have a military dimension, and relieve international pressure on the regime while it continues its nuclear program.

Khamenei has asked for a written guarantee from Obama to ensure the U.S. would abide by its promises. He once threatened to reveal the contents of a previous Obama letter if threats (referring to Israel) were carried out against the regime. The source said Obama’s letter urged the Islamic regime to avoid giving any reason to Israel to attack and urged collaboration on a peaceful nuclear program.

The news of the revelation of the secret meeting was reflected widely in Iranian media without any official statement by regime officials, although they denied any agreement on future one-on-one meetings, as the White House did.

Reza Kahlili served in CIA Directorate of Operations, as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, counterterrorism expert; currently serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board authorized by Congress. He is the author of the award winning book “A Time to Betray” and regularly appears in national and international media as an expert on Iran and counterterrorism in the Middle East.

 

Army Forces Kill Tens of terrorists, Confiscate Their Weapons and Destroy DSHK-Equipped Cars in Different Syrian areas

Oct 22, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)- Armed Forces units on Monday eliminated tens of terrorists during their operations to clear Aleppo and its countryside from terrorists groups.

An Armed Forces unit carried out a series of operations against terrorist gatherings enar Jamal Mosque, Souq al-Jalloum and Souq Sukkar in al-Kallaseh area in Aleppo city, killing tens of terrorists including a sniper.

Other units destroyed terrorist hideouts near the old impound lot in Bustan al-Qasser, Bab Antakya, al-Aqaba, Haret al-Shahadin and al-Marje roundabout, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.

Terrorist Adnan Farroukh who commands a terrorist group was killed as he was attempting to flee to Turkey after sustaining injuries in Sleiman al-Halabi area in Aleppo. His entire group was eliminated by the Armed Forces.

In the town of Qabtan al-Jabal in Aleppo countryside, an Armed Forces Unit eliminated a terrorist group which was attacking locals and their properties.

Explosive planted by armed group under a car at East Rukn al-Dina neighborhood in Damascus detonated, causing no causalities

An explosive planted by an armed terrorist group under a car at East Rukn al-Dina neighborhood in Damascus was detonated today, causing no causalities.

A source at Damascus Police told SANA reporter that the explosion caused material losses to the car.

Army Foils Terrorists’ infiltration attempt to Harem, Idleb Countryside

In cooperation with the families of Harem region in Idleb countryside, a unity of the Syrian Army foiled an infiltration attempt by an armed terrorist group to enter the region, killing all the terrorists.

A source in Idleb told SANA reporter that big quantities of weapons were confiscated from members of the armed group.

It added that other Army units destroyed terrorist gatherings at al-Alani town in Salkin, dismantling tens of explosives planted by the terrorists in the surroundings of Ma’arat al-Numan.

Armed Forces Target Terrorists and Eliminate Them in Deir Ezzor

A unit of the Armed Forces on Monday targeted terrorists’ gathering in al-Hussainieh in Deir Ezzor countryside, killing a number of the terrorists and wounding others.

An official source told SANA reporter that the army personnel destroyed two cars which the terrorists were using for transporting ammunition and weapons.

Another unit of the Armed Forces clashed with terrorists who attempted to infiltrate al-Jbeileh neighborhood and Fouad Cinema Street in the city of Deir Ezzor .

The clash resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists and the injuring of others.

A unit of the Armed Forces clashed with terrorists in Ali Beik neighborhood in Deir Ezzor and killed a number of them and injured others.

A unit of the armed forces killed terrorists in al-Jbeileh and Ghassan Abboud roundabout in Deir Ezzor. Terrorists Eliminated and Their Vehicles Destroyed in Abukamal Area

An Armed Forces unit targeted a terrorist group in Abukamal area in Deir Ezzor countryside.

An official source told SANA that the operation resulted in killing and injuring a large number of terrorists and the destruction of the vehicles they were using, adding that one of the injured terrorists is Ahmad Abdelrazzaq Mattar who is one of the most dangerous terrorists.

Armed Forces Units Eliminate Terrorist Groups in Damascus Countryside

During its pursuit of terrorists in Erbin area in Damascus Countryside, an armed forces unit eliminated a terrorist group, killing all its members and confiscating their weapons and ammunition.

An official source told SANA that a unit of the armed forces destroyed two cars equipped with machineguns with the terrorists inside them.

Another Armed Forces unit eliminated an armed terrorist group which was terrorizing locals in the town of Harasta in Damascus countryside.

An official source told SANA’s correspondent that one of the most dangerous wanted terrorists in the area was killed in the operation.

On a relevant note, terrorists fired RPG rounds at the Police Hospital in Harasta, firing four RPG rounds at the hospital’s 7th floor. There were no casualties among patients or the medical staff, and only material damages were caused.

Armed Forces Inflect Heavy Losses Upon Terrorists in Homs

Units of the Armed Forces targeted terrorists’ gatherings in al-Sultanieh neighborhood in  Homs and in al-Bahsat neighborhood near Qattineh Lake in the province countryside, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.

SANA reporter quoted a source in the province as saying that a number of terrorists were killed and others were injured, adding that their weapons were seized or destroyed.

Terrorists Rob Ghabagheb Dispensary in Daraa Countryside, Loot its Contents

An armed terrorist group  robbed a dispensary in Ghabagheb town in al-Sanamin area in Daraa countryside and looted its contents.

SANA reporter quoted a source in the province as saying that the armed group looted all the contents of the dispensary including medicine and medical equipment and supplies.

Authorities Seize Israeli-Made Weapons in Hasaka Countryside

Authorities confiscated various types of Israeli-made rifles and machineguns used by an armed terrorist group on the Hasaka-Deir Ezzor Highway.

An official source told SANA that authorities clashed with members of the terrorist group, killing many of them and arresting others , adding that they seized Israeli-made machineguns and rifles, an RPG launcher and a large amount of ammunition.

Authorities Arrest Terrorists, Confiscate Weapons and Ammo in Hama Countryside

The authorities raided a terrorist hideout in the village of al-Qaramtah in Mhardeh area in Hama countryside, arresting a number of wanted terrorists and confiscating weapons and ammo.

The confiscated items include pump-action shotguns and a hunting rifle, in addition to a communication device.

Similarly, the authorities raided another terrorist hideout in the town of Maazraf in Mhardeh area, confiscating munitions.

Terrorists Kidnap Daraa Attorney General

An armed terrorist group kidnapped on Monday the Attorney General in Daraa, Tayseer al-Smadi.

A source in the province told SANA that six terrorists kidnapped al-Smadi near the Civil Court of First Instance and took him to an unknown place.

People’s Assembly Condemns the Canadian Foreign Ministry’s rejection to Give Entry visa to the Syrian delegation to IPU Assembly

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-People’s Assembly on Monday condemned the stance of the Canadian Foreign Ministry’s rejection to offer entry visa to the Assembly’s delegation to participate in the activities of the 127th session of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) being held in Quebec between the 21st to the 26th of October.

At a press conference, members of the delegation considered that the Canadian Foreign Ministry’s rejection to offer visa indicates to plotted intentions by the Canadian authorities to make Syria absent from this important international meeting and give no opportunity to show the Syrian viewpoint towards the terrorists acts in the country.

The MPs underlined that this stance is a dangerous precedent in the dealing of a host country with members of the IPU which will result negative repercussions on the process of the IPU.

For his part, MP Arkan Nasr said that the People’s Assembly hoped that the IPU deal in responsibility and objectivity with the developments of events in Syria, condemn the terror practiced by the armed terrorist groups and the misleading media campaigns of a number of mass media.

“The People’s Assembly has indented to present a draft resolution which asserts the respect for Syria sovereignty, independence and keeping its territorial integrity as well as realizing an international parliamentary understanding to achieve security, stability in the country, stop bloodshed and terrifying the innocents,” Nasr added.

Other MPs stressed that the attempts of a number of countries to suspend Syria membership at the IPU is a dangerous precedent in the process of the Union’s work which will have negative repercussions on the mechanisms of its work and the goals which it was found for, represented by boosting cooperation among the parliaments to achieve security and peace among the world nations.

Maria Sa’ada, for her part, read the speech of the delegation that was decided to attend the meetings of the IPU which calls upon it to support the Syrian people, defend their rights and freedom, adding that evaluating the legitimacy of any elected parliament is considered as a flagrant intervention in the principle of sovereignty.

The People’s Assembly said in its speech that Syria recognizes the opposition powers as the constitution offers the right of the parties’ legitimacy and political pluralism.

It wondered “is that a revolution which encourages the killing of the Syrian to his brother, instigates sedition, fund or arm the armed terrorist groups.”

Al-Halqi: Government Working to Maintain Economic Situation and Provide Basic Needs to Citizens

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Members of the General Council of the General Federation of Trade Unions on Monday focused on the necessity of working as one team to overcome the difficulties facing Syria and its people, particularly as the crisis affected all life junctures.

During the concluding session which was attended by Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection Kadri Jamil, in addition to other ministers, members of the General Council stressed appreciation of the great sacrifices offered by the Armed Forces to protect the homeland and citizens.

Prime Minister al-Halqi said in a speech that the Government is currently working to maintain the economic situation and provide basic and living needs to citizens.

Al-Halqi pointed out to the Government’s care for the displaced citizens concerning the provision of housing, schools and food and health baskets.

He added that the Government allocated SYP 1,2 billion to compensate the affected buildings, and the Government will allocate SYP 30 billion next year.

For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Kadri Jamil pointed out that the Government is working according to its governmental statement as it focuses on the urgent issues which require a solution.

He added that the government is working to defend the purchasing value of the Syrian pound and to cut down on its deterioration.

He stressed the necessity of enhancing the role of the working class in the Syrian society to serve the current circumstances, calling for citizens’ participation in sponsoring markets.

Lavrov: President al-Assad Enjoys the Support of the Majority of Syrian People

Oct 22, 2012

MOSCOW, (SANA) –Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov said that President Bashar al-Assad enjoys the support of the majority of the Syrian people, and constitutes a guarantee of security and stability in Syria.

The Russian Russkaya Gazeta newspaper quoted Lavrov as saying that “the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is supported by the majority of the Syrian people, and he is the guarantee of the safety of minorities in Syria who have been living there for hundreds of years.”

He added that the Europeans admit that more than a third of the Syrian people back President al-Assad ”because he won’t allow Syria to become a place where minorities cannot live side by side with their fellow Syrian citizens.”

Lavrov considered the accusations leveled at Syria and President al-Assad as a cover-up of a big geopolitical game that seeks to redraw the Middle East map, through which various players are trying to secure their geopolitical positions, with Iran more in mind than Syria.

He reiterated necessity of commitment to Geneva communiqué, saying ”The principles of Geneva communiqué include a simple agreement that has no alternative,” reminding that Syria has announced its agreement to the communiqué, and the ball now is in the opposition’s court.

Lavrov said that the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi will visit Moscow next week for consultations with the Russian leadership, hoping that Brahimi will ”endow the principles of Geneva communiqué with an effectual meaning in his current mission.”

Lavrov expressed Russia’s understanding of and support to the rights of the Middle East peoples to a better life and that the citizens enjoy respect in their countries , which has been Russia’s stance since the outset of developments in the Middle East.

Lavrov: Russia Supports Ending Violence in Syria, Reaching Peaceful Solution without Foreign Interference

Lavrov expressed Moscow’s total support to ending violence in Syria and reaching a peaceful solution for the crisis without foreign interference.

In a statement released Monday, Lavrov described the initiative of the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, on ceasing violence as “important”, adding that Russia always supports stopping violence and reaching peaceful solution without foreign interference.

Lavrov called upon all the sides to respond to Brahimi’s suggestion as it is a very important step to stop violence and launch the political process that contributes to creating renewable Syria and serving the interests of its people.

Pushkov: What is Happening in Syria Similar to US Misdirection in Iraq

Chairman of the Russian Duma’s International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, said that what is happening currently in Syria is similar to the misdirection carried out by the United States regarding Iraq, and that the US Administration is assuming the same unilateral position and all its media acts as an ideological tool for the administration.

Russia and Iran Call for Unifying Efforts to Solve Crisis in Syria based on Respecting Sovereignty and Independence

Russia and Iran on Monday called on the international community to unify efforts exerted to solve the crisis in Syria based on respecting Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and according to Geneva meeting statement and the principal stances of the Non-Aligned Movement which stipulate for ending bloodshed and launching comprehensive Syrian political dialogue.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russian President’s Special Envoy to Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, exchanged views in Tehran on the urgent issues listed on the international and regional agendas focusing on the situation in the Middle East and southern Africa.

The statement said that the two sides expressed deep concerns over the continuation of violence in Syria which has caused victims among the civilians.

The statement added that the participants in the talks held in Tehran supported UN Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi on announcing a truce in Syria during al-Adha Eid.

Earlier, Bogdanov started a visit to Tehran to discuss the latest developments in the region, particularly the crisis in Syria.

Brahimi Meets National Democratic Bloc: Exerting Pressure on Countries that Support Terrorists

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, met on Monday the National Democratic Bloc delegation at Dama Rose Hotel in Damascus.

Secretary-General of the National Youth for Justice and Development Party, Barwin Ibrahim, pointed out in a statement to journalists after the meeting that the National Democratic Bloc presented its point of view on the crisis in Syria and the vision of its parties for dealing with the crisis.

Ibrahim said that the bloc criticized the international community for not listening to the voice of the opposition inside Syria and adopting the point of view of the outside opposition which does not represent the Syrian people and calls for foreign intervention.

She said that the international community considers the political solution of the crisis in Syria as a compromise and reconciliation among the superpowers.

For his part, Secretary-General of the National Democratic Solidarity Party, Salim Abdul-Wahab al-Kharat, said that the bloc is searching for a roadmap to deal with all national opposition powers inside Syria, calling for halting violence by all sides.

Secretary-General of the Syrian Democratic Party, Firas Nadim, stressed the importance of lifting the suffering of the Syrian people because of the oppressive economic sanctions, calling on the UN envoy to Syria to play a bigger role in exerting pressure on the countries which are supporting the armed terrorist groups to end bloodshed in Syria.

Premier al-Halqi: Government Seeks Full Healthcare Coverage

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Activities of the National Forum of NGO’s Working in the Health Sector kicked off on Monday with the participation of 30 NGO’s and several international organizations under the title of ‘Better Participation for Better Health’.

The two-day forum discusses the health reality within the current challenges, the Ministry of Health’s directives to provide healthcare , in addition to NGO’s role in development and local and international organizations’ response to the public health needs in the society.

Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi stressed during the inauguration the government’s efforts to reach a full coverage of health services all over the country, underscoring the importance of boosting partnership among all bodies of the society in light of the current conditions and unprecedented difficulties facing the service sectors in the country, particularly the health sector, due to the systematic sabotage carried out by the armed terrorist groups.

“We can overcome challenges through the active participation by all society spectra according to a joint action plan to upgrade health conditions in the country by its devoted citizens,” Premier al-Halqi said.

He clarified that holding the forum stems from the great attention paid by the Syrian leadership for the health sector, as it has adopted partnership with NGO’s considering their significant role in building the society.

Premier al-Halqi pointed out that NGO’s such as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, in addition to all relevant international organizations such as UN Population Fund, UNICEF and Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have widely provided support to the Syrian people.

The Prime Minister highlighted that the government is going hand in hand with the national reconciliation project in order to protect the national fabric of the Syrian society through adopting national dialogue towards a democratic and pluralistic Syria.

Syrian Communities in Brazil, Bulgaria, Armenia and Belarus Express Support to Homeland, Condemn Terrorism

Oct 22, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)- Members of the Syrian community in Brazil on Sunday organized a solidarity stand to support their homeland, its leadership, people and army in the face of terrorism.

The participants in the stand, which coincides with the “International Campaign in Solidarity with Syria against Terrorism” stressed commitment to their national unity against the heinous campaign led by the US, the West and their allies in Turkey and some Arab countries.

They also condemned the acts of terrorism perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups in Syria with the aim of undermining Syria’s stability, unity and coexistence.

In a statement, they thanked the friendly countries for supporting Syria in the face of the conspiracy hatched against it, calling on the countries involved in supporting terrorism to stop their support and to stop interfering in Syria’s internal affairs.

 

Syrian Ambassador in Brazil Mohammad Khadour stressed that Syria will overcome terrorism , hailing the expatriates’ support to their Homeland.

In the same context, the Syrian community in several Brazilian cities expressed support to Syria in the face of the conspiracy hatched against it, voicing commitment to national unity as the fortress in face of the foreign and regional agendas and interference.

They also appreciated the role of the Syrian army in confronting terrorism and in protecting Syria’s security and stability.

They also thanked the friendly countries that stand by Syria in the international circles, particularly the Brazilian government in the face of the conspiracy against it.

Syrian Students in Armenia, Bulgaria Reiterate Rejection of Foreign Interference in Syria’s Affairs

The Syrian students in Bulgaria and Armenia reiterated their rejection of foreign meddling in the Syrian internal affairs and solidarity with their homeland in the face of the global imperialist and terrorist attack targeting it.

In a solidarity march carried out by the Syrian students in Armenia, the participants stressed their standing by the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad in confronting the imperialist conspiracy against Syria.

The participants, raising national flags and pictures of President al-Assad, highlighted their adherence to national unity and support to the Syrian people and leadership in the face of the plot that aims at undermining the national stances of Syria.

In Sofia, the National Union of Syrian Students ‘Bulgaria Branch’ organized, in cooperation with Arab communities and Bulgarian organizations, a march in solidarity with the Syrian leadership and people.

The participants chanted slogans saluting President al-Assad and the Syrian army, stressing their rejection of foreign interference in the Syrian internal affairs.

The march started from the Bulgarian capital’s downtown and headed for the Presidential Palace, where the Bulgarian parties and organizations participating in the event delivered speeches expressing their total support to the Syrian government in the face of terrorism, denouncing the policies of the Turkish PM, Recep Tayyib Erdogan in using the Turkish lands as a platform to launch terrorist acts against Syria.

The speeches stressed that Bulgaria will never support the terrorists and Jihadists who entered Syria from the Turkish lands with Erdogan’s knowledge and support.

Syrian Students  in Belarus Stress Support to Syria in Face of Conspiracy

The Syrian students and members of the Syrian community in Belarus stressed their support to their homeland in the face of the plot led by the west and supported by Arab and regional countries against Syria.

In a sit-in in solidarity with Syria in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, staged in front of the Syrian Embassy, the participants expressed their support to the reform process led by President al-Assad, denouncing the misleading media campaign against their country.

The participants expressed gratitude for the countries which supported Syria, particularly Russia and China, voicing rejection to the sanctions imposed by the European Union against the Syrian people.

Hotbird Suspends Broadcasting Syrian Satellite Channels.. Journalists’ Union condemns Step

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- In implementation of the unjust sanctions against the Syrian national channels, Hotbird suspended broadcasting the Syrian satellite channel and Syrian Drama Channel.

Viewers of these channels can watch their broadcasting on the Russian satellite Express AM-22.

Journalists Union Denounces Suspension of Syrian Channels on Hotbird

The Syrian Journalists Union denounced the decision to suspend the broadcasting of Syrian channels on the Hotbird satellite, saying that this step aims at preventing Syria’s voice from reaching Arab and global public opinion.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Journalists Union said that this step is a blatant violation of the principles of journalism and freedom of expression and opinion, and that it constitutes a part of the hostile campaign targeting Syria.

The statement said that this unjust step comes at a time when Arab and world public opinion began to learn directly from the Syrian media about the truth of the lies and fabrications carried out by biased misdirection channels regarding what is happening in Syria.

The Union saluted Syrian journalists and media workers and technicians, voicing confidence in their ability to find alternatives to keep Syria’s voice heard, reiterating that the aforementioned step contradicts the human right to reach information from its source.

 

By Simeon Kerr in Dubai

23 October, 2012

Rising regional political tensions and a flurry of recent cyber attacks have raised fears about the growing use of viruses to target critical national infrastructure in the Middle East.

Recent attacks on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar bear the hallmarks of so-called “hacktivists”, say information security researchers. About 30,000 computers at Saudi Aramco were disabled in August by a virus known as Shamoon, which also damaged systems at Qatari natural gas company RasGas.

“There are only two known Shamoon victims – but all I can say is this was not the first, nor will it be the last, time this virus will be used,” says Costa Raiu, director of global research and analysis at Kaspersky Labs, the Russian information technology security company.

US officials have hinted that Iran – reacting to what is believed to have been the US and Israeli-led Stuxnet attack on its nuclear facilities – may be behind the Shamoon virus, either acting on its own or in concert with cyber activists.

A group calling itself the Cutting Sword of Justice claimed responsibility for the Aramco attack, blaming the Saudi government for crimes in neighbouring states such as Syria and Bahrain.

Leon Pannetta, US defence secretary, has said the threat of co-ordinated cyber attacks against critical national infrastructure could unleash an attack akin to a “cyber Pearl Harbor”.

Security experts discovered the Stuxnet virus, used to disable systems at an Iranian nuclear facility and widely believed to have been created by the US and/or Israel, in 2010. Since then, five more variants of the virus have been discovered, including another sophisticated cyber-espionage virus last week.

Dubbed Mini-Flame, it has been used to snoop on a relatively small number of high-value targets, its geographical spread spanning Lebanon and the Gulf.

Kaspersky has warned that, with the rise of cyber weapons, knowledge of how to write computer viruses will expand exponentially. Industrial computer systems that control power plants and other pieces of critical national infrastructure are often old, making them vulnerable to attack.

Working with governments and authorities, Kaspersky is aiming to develop a new, industrial-scale operating system with security embedded in the hardware, rather than using security envelopes to protect the systems.

Gulf governments are becoming increasingly attuned to the issue of cyber security as the threats proliferate. The United Arab Emirates in September announced the creation of a new agency, the National E-Security Authority, to implement a national plan to ward off threats to online security.

Experts say sharing information is necessary to boost defences against cyber crime. Ideally, networks would instantaneously share information about new attacks with other systems, creating a more effective defence against these threats.

“There has been a belief that the less said about breaches, the less attackers will know – but that’s not the case,” says Michela Menting, senior analyst at ABI Research, a technology market research firm.

“Lots of sharing is needed, especially at the government level, even if it opens up the risk of where potential vulnerabilities lie.”

Bader al-Manthari, executive in information security for Oman, says the government is working to improve information flow across the sultanate’s public and private sectors. The six Arab countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council are also working together more closely to ward off cyber threats, he says.

Mr Manthari concedes that forging co-operation in the sensitive area of IT security is tricky, as most institutions are secretive about confidential information.

But he says: “There is much better co-operation now. As more engage, the value add will push co-operation to the next level.”

President al-Assad: Any Initiative or Political Process Should Be Essentially Based on Principle of Halting Terrorism

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday stressed that Syria supports the efforts of the UN envoy to Syria and is open to any sincere efforts seeking to find a political solution to the crisis based on respecting Syria’s sovereignty and rejecting any foreign interference.

The President’s stress came during his meeting with the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, which tackled the developments in Syria and the efforts exerted by Brahimi and the outcomes of his latest tour to a number of countries in the region.

President al-Assad clarified that any initiative or political process should be essentially based on the principle of halting terrorism and what is required in this regard from the countries involved in supporting, arming and harboring the terrorists in Syria to halt such acts.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem, Presidential Political and Media Advisor, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Fayssal Mikdad, Assistant Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Ahmad Arnous, and Head of Foreign Media Department at the Ministry, Jihad Makdissi.

Brahimi: Meeting Was Open and Responsible as Usual

Later, in a statement to the journalists following his meeting with President al-Assad, Brahimi described the meeting as “open and responsible as usual”.

He said the meeting tackled the issues related to the Syrian situation “with us looking forward to the future which we hope will end up in solving the crisis in Syria and restoring peace and security to it.”

“I talked with President al-Assad about halting the fighting during the Eid, and I also talked with all those whom I met inside and outside Syria about this personal initiative which isn’t an advanced project or part of the peace process which we seek for this country,” the UN envoy told the journalists.

Brahimi: My Only Agenda Is Serving the Syrians

He considered that “if each of the parties would take a decision on its own, then there would be a collective decision on the non-use of arms during the Eid.”

Brahimi noted that this idea of his had the support of the opposition parties abroad and the officials in the neighboring countries whom he met.

He said that being in charge, he hasn’t got any other agenda except that of serving the Syrian people, wishing them a blessed Eid.

“I’ll come back after the Eid. If there was calm during it, we would build on it, and even it there wasn’t, we would work to realize calm,” Brahimi pointed out, expressing hope that the door to ease for the Syrian people will open.

Answering a question regarding him having a long-winded plan or a ready paper, Brahimi said “We are working on getting this paper prepared with the various internal and external parties.”

He added that the Syrian people expects something more than this days-long armistice and they have the right to this, noting that “What we can promise to do is to work tirelessly to achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

Asked on whether he had guarantees from the armed groups on commitment to halt fighting, the UN envoy said “this call doesn’t require prearranged guarantees as guarantees are promises by the people to halt the fighting. Therefore, they either commit themselves and their conscience to do so, or otherwise if they didn’t, then it is the Syrian people who would hold them accountable.”

Thirteen People Martyred, 29 Injured in Bab Touma Terrorist Blast 

Oct 22, 2012

DAMASCUS, ALEPPO, (SANA) – Thirteen people were martyred and 29 others were injured when an explosive device planted by an armed terrorist group under a car went off on Sunday in Bab Touma Square in Damascus.

A source at the Interior Ministry told SANA that the blast resulted in great material damages to the residents’ houses and nearby cars.

Bab Touma Residents: Terrorist Crimes Won’t Break our Will

The terrorist bombing that ripped through Bab Touma Square in Damascus, claiming the lives of 13 people and injuring 29, incurred the rage and condemnation of the locals and owners of shops overlooking the historical square that is thronged with people around the clock.

Father Gabriel Dawood, from the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate, said ”The terrorists behind this coward act have targeted safe citizens inside and outside their homes…In this place there were children on their way to their schools and people going about their business, Where is justice and amity? People behind this don’t have a shred of humanity.”

Maher Khouli, a local, said that the terrorist bombing happened as worshippers were leaving Churches, describing it as ”awful”, but one that won’t diminish the will of the Syrians.

Raef Fallouh, another resident, said that minutes before the exposition, he was paying the electricity bill nearby, then he heard a sound of big explosion.

”These are the terrorists’ gifts to the Syrian people for Eid al-Adha, but we are determined to remain unbowed, and we will always be one hand in defense of our country against terrorism, ” he said.

”It was a horrible scene…Bodies of martyrs scattered everywhere…One of the martyrs was a dustman…I saw him just before the explosion.”

George Hnein, a waiter in a nearby restaurant said ”I heared a loud explosion and rushed to see what’s up…I saw women, children and men drowned in their blood. Is this the kind of freedom the Gulf sheikhdoms want?” he asked, pointing to his blood-stained shirt.

Safwan al-Taweel, a shop keeper, expressed shock at the sight of Syrian blood being shed in Bab Touma square.

”Just yesterday, they torched historical souks in Aleppo, attacked Krak des Chevaliers Citadel in Homs and the Great Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, today, they’ve targeted one of the most renowned historical squares in Syria, but their terrorist acts will make us even stronger,” Safwan said.

Syrian Network for Monitoring Human Rights condemns the Heinous Act

The Syrian Network for Monitoring Human Rights condemned the terrorist explosion which claimed the lives of 13 citizens and injured 29 others in Bab Toma neighborhood in Damascus, stressing that it was a low way adopted by the armed terrorist groups.

In a statement today, the Network considered that the crimes carried out by the armed groups through planting explosives on the public roads, streets and among the houses which cause causalities among the civilians are flagrant violations of the human rights’ principles and international justice.

It called on the countries which sponsor terrorists to stop supporting and harboring them.

Armed Forces Target Terrorists in Aleppo, Foil Terrorists’ Infiltration Attempts from Lebanon

Oct 21, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)_Units of the Armed Forces on Sunday continued cleansing neighborhoods in Aleppo and its countryside of terrorists.

The army units carried out qualitative operations in Sheikh Khodr and Suleiman al-Halabi neighborhoods.

A source told SANA that the operation caused the death of scores of terrorists and the injury of others, and inflicted heavy material losses on them.

The Armed Forces destroyed 4 booby-trapped cars while heading for Aleppo city near the Reclamation Institution in Deir Hafer area in Aleppo countryside.

The army also destroyed two machineguns-equipped cars in the area of al-Bab.

An army unit targeted a terrorists’ gatherings in the areas of Aziza, Khan al-Asal, Mare’ and al-Aoyja, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.

Another army unit destroyed 3 cars loaded with weapon and ammunition near al-Nayrab Bridge.

The army carried out qualitative operations in the areas al-Layramoon, al-Zahrawi Souk, Bani Zaid, Bab al-Hadeed roundabout, Asyla Square, al-Milh Square and al-Sakhour Square, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.

Armed Forces Foil Terrorists’ Infiltration Attempts from Lebanon

A unit of the Armed Forces on Sunday repelled several infiltration attempts by armed terrorist groups trying to cross the border from Lebanon into Syria in the countryside of Talkalakh in Homs.

A source in the province told SANA reporter that the Armed Forces clashed with armed terrorist groups which were attempting to enter the Syrian territories from Lebanon through the areas of al-Ramel, al-Masamek and Harmoush, inflicting heavy losses upon their members while others fled back to the Lebanese territories.

IEDs-Manufacturing Factory Explodes in Homs

Eight terrorists were killed and others were injured after a factory to manufacture explosive devices exploded in al-Warsha neighborhood in Homs.

A source in the province told SANA reporter that the warehouse where the explosion took place was used by an armed terrorist group to manufacture explosive devices.

A unit of the Armed Forces clashed with an armed terrorist group in Bab Hood neighborhood in Homs, killing and injuring large number of the terrorists.

Car Bomb Blast near a Hospital in Aleppo

A suicide terrorist blew up his booby-trapped car in front of the Syrian-French Hospital in al-Zohour Street in Aleppo city, causing material damage only.

A source in the province told SANA reporter that the blast resulted in several injuries among the passers-by and caused material damage to the hospital and the nearby residential buildings and cars at the site.

Material Damage Only Caused by Explosive Device Blast in Damascus Countryside

An explosive device planted by terrorists on a road in Mneen town in Damascus Countryside blasted, causing the injury of a number of passers-by at the site of the blast.

A source at Damascus Countryside Police Command told SANA reporter that the blast resulted in material damage to the surrounding houses and shops.

Armed Terrorist Group Eliminated in Harasta, Weapons Seized

A unit of the Armed Forces pursued an armed terrorist group in Harasta in Damascus countryside as the terrorist group was terrifying citizens and committing sabotage and killing acts.

A source in the province told SANA reporter that all members of the armed terrorist group were killed and their weapons were seized.

Weapons’ Storehouse Destroyed, Terrorists killed in Deir Ezzor

The Armed Forces targeted a terrorist group in al-Jandool neighborhood in Deir Ezzor city, killing and injuring most of its members.

In al-Rashidyeh neighborhood, an army unit destroyed a storehouse for weapons and ammunition and a car, killing the terrorists in it.

Another army unit targeted a terrorist group in Sheikh Yaseen neighborhood, killing and injuring scores of its members.

Prime Minister Stresses Need to Bolster the Steadfastness of Syrians and Palestinians in the Face of Conspiracies

Oct 21, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Prime Minister Dr. Wael al-Halqi affirmed that Syria is facing an international conspiracy aiming to destabilize and fragment it and deviate it from its resistant role in the region to achieve the goals of western countries, primarily the US and Israel.

During his meeting on Sunday with a delegation from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command headed by its Secretary General Ahmad Jebril, al-Halqi stressed the need to bolster the steadfastness of the Syrians and Palestinians in the face of the conspiracies targeting them, underlining the need to provide the requirements of steadfastness particularly in light of unjust embargos and sanctions imposed by the west on Syria which affect citizens’ livelihoods and needs.

The Prime Minister said that these sanctions are supported by Arab and regional countries that are involved in the conspiracy against Syria, mainly Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, asserting that Syria will emerge victorious and more determined thanks to the steadfastness and unity of its people and its valiant army.

He noted that the political situation improving in terms of global understanding of the nature of the conspiracy against Syria and the considerable efforts exerted to strengthen national economy.

For his part, Jebril affirmed that the Palestinian people support their Syrian brethren in confronting the conspiracy which targets them both, stressing the need to persist in standing fast and fighting to achieve victory.

Al-Halqi: All Basic Food and Provisions Supplies Available at Reasonable Prices

Later, al-Halqi chared a meeting at the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, during which he stressed the importance of the government’s strategic development programs and plans and the role of the Ministry in supporting national economy.

He said that the government will work to overcome all obstacles affecting establishments of the Internal Trade Ministry by amending laws and legislations and restructuring the Ministry and its establishments to reduce squandering and control spending.

Al-Halqi stressed the need to curb faults and corruption in state establishments, finish each establishment’s annual budgets and accounting on time, ending financial entanglement and accumulation, and using positive intervention to provide goods at reasonable prices across Syria.

He noted that the methodical sabotage affecting Syria’s establishments and infrastructure drains the country’s strategic reserves and causes the loss of billions, adding that despite that, Syrian economy is growing and has all the components of sustainability and endurance due to the presence of a strategic reserve of various provisions.

Afterwards, Deputy Prime Minister and Internal Trade and Consumer Protection Minister, Dr. Qadri Jamil, reviewed the state of work at the Ministry’s establishments and the challenges facing it.

Syrian Students in India, Belgium and Luxemburg Reiterate Support to Syria

Oct 21, 2012

NEW DELHI, (SANA)_The Syrian students at the Indian universities and members of the Syrian communities gathered outside the Syrian embassy in New Delhi to express solidarity with and support to motherland Syria against the conspiracy targeting it.

The participants raised the Syrian flags and chanted slogans saluting the Syrian Arab army in his battle against terrorists and extremists, voicing support to the Syrian leadership and President Bashar al-Assad.

They also lashed out at Arab and foreign interference in the Syrian domestic affairs, and planted a fig tree symbolizing amity among the Syrian people in the soil of the Syrian embassy in New Delhi.

The participants observed a minute of silence in honor of martyrs and blasted the terror attacks targeting the Syrian people, especially that which ripped through Bab Touma on Sunday.

In a statement issued by the National Union of Syrian Students-India Branch, the Syrian students expressed backing to the reforms process in Syria and resolve to foil seditious conspiracies hatched by colonial countries, especially the US and Western countries, and their tools in the region, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

The students renewed rejection of foreign interference and the forceful imposition of solutions, denouncing the economic sanctions on Syria that reflected negatively on the lives of citizens.

They expressed trust in the Syrians’ ability to solve their own problems, saluting the Syrian Arab army who is valiantly confronting terrorist groups and offering the dearest of sacrifices for protecting the homeland.

Syria’s Ambassador to India, Riyad Abbas, gave a detailed account of the conspiracies targeting stability and security in Syria, assuring the Syrian community that Syria will succeed in bringing terrorists to their knees.

He thanked the Syrian community for their high morale and solidarity with their country, urging them to unite for defending the country.

In the same context, the Syrian students in Belgium and Luxemburg condemned the terrorist crimes and the imperialist conspiracy against Syria.

The students gathered at the Stock Exchange Square in Brussels on Sunday and raised the Syrian flags and President al-Assad’s posters, and banners blasting terrorism.

They chanted slogans for national unity, voicing resolve to foil the conspiracy and conquer terrorism.

Culture Minister Discusses with Heads of Cultural Centers Ways of Promoting Cultural Activities

Oct 21, 2012

TARTOUS, (SANA) – Minister of Culture Dr. Lubanah Mshaweh on Sunday discussed with Heads of cultural centers from all provinces ways of activating and promoting the work of the cultural centers.

In a statement to SANA, Minister Mshaweh stressed the need to establish workshops and symposiums attended by specialists with the aim of spreading awareness on the events in Syria and facing the cultural and intellectual invasion of the misleading media outlets.

She urged the Directorate of Antiquities to create an environment that embraces cultural activities, calling upon heads of cultural centers to communicate with the National Campaign to Protect Antiquities in Syria with the aim of holding symposiums and workshops on the importance of antiquities in the cultural centers.

Minister Mshaweh asked the Culture Directorate to allocate a building for holding plastic and fine arts exhibitions, stressing the need to adopt a mentality that could contribute to enhancing the cultural movement in the country and benefitting from the experiences of other countries in this regards.

Raqqa Governor: We Provide Basic Needs to All Newcomers

Oct 21, 2012

RAQQA, (SANA) – Governor of Raqqa Hassan Jalali on Sunday said that the province is providing all services and needs, especially in the fields of health and residence, to all the families that fled to the province from other provinces becasue of the acts of the armed terrorist groups.

Jalali briefed the delegation on the situation of the displaced people and the services provided by the province to them, pointing out that all newcomers are living in fixed institutions such as schools, makeshift centers or houses.

 

For his part, Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Ben Parker said that the team’s mission is restricted to the humanitarian aspect, adding that several organizations are represented in the team, comprising WHO, WFP, UNICEF and UNFPA with cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Organization.

Agriculture Ministry and FAO Mark World Food Day

Oct 21, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Ministry, in cooperation with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), marked the World Food Day which coincides this year with un unprecedented rises in food prices around the world and an escalation global hunger, with more than 800 millions suffering from hunger around the world.

This year’s marking of World Food Day comes under the slogan “agricultural cooperations… key to feeding the world” to shed light on how agricultural cooperations can help provide food security and job opportunities and free people from poverty.

Minister of Agriculture Subhi al-Abdullah said that the World Food Day comes at a time when changes, repercussions and wars have drained many local, regional and international efforts that could have been better used to prevent the deterioration of the issue of food around the world, with these factors limiting the availability of agricultural products leading to an increase in their prices.

He pointed out that Syria realized the importance of agricultural cooperations decades ago, as the first agricultural cooperative society was established in Damascus Countryside in 1943, noting that Syrian governments made farmers organizations their partners in realizing food security and self-sufficiency.

Al-Abudllah pointed out that the government implemented a program for increasing agricultural production and introduced advanced irrigation projects, working to increase the working force in the agricultural sector and improving the living conditions in rural areas, in addition to supporting farmers and livestock breeders through a fund for reducing the effects of droughts and natural disasters.

In turn, FAO representative in Syria Abdullah Bin Yehea underlined the importance of agricultural cooperations in providing food as they are capable of overcoming restrictions and mitigating the effects of crises.

He affirmed that the FAO will continue its work to revitalize and support agricultural cooperations to achieve the goal of a world that enjoys food security and sustainability.

For his part, Chairman of the Farmers General Union Hammad al-Sauud said that agricultural cooperations achieve agricultural clustering which reduces fragmentation of agricultural properties, in addition to reducing production costs through group work which in turn reduces prices and better results in terms of quality and volume.

The World Food Day is marked on October 16th.

Losses of Printing Establishment due to Terrorist Acts Estimated at SYP 100 Million

Oct 21, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- Director of the General Establishment for Printing, Zuhir Kamel Sleiman, estimated the losses of the Establishment due to the attacks of the armed terrorist groups at SYP 100 million.

In a statement to SANA, Sleiman said the practices of the terrorist groups against the Establishment included burglarizing and burning its storehouses and targeting its cars, causing problems in distributing school books which have so far been denied access to many schools after a month has passed since the beginning of the study year of this season.

He however affirmed that work is going on to complete the provinces’ needs of books, with 16 cars are transporting books from Adra storehouse in Damascus to the rest of the provinces.

Sleiman said that the actual needs of Quneitra, Tartus, Sweida, Lattakia, Raqqa, Hasaka and Damascus have been met, noting that work is underway to open additional storehouses and provide books to the rest of provinces including Aleppo, whose 50 percent of its needs were already secured over the past period, and Damascus Countryside, which will be supplied with all its needs in the coming few days.

The Director of the Establishment stressed that the distribution of books is being carried out according to certain rules to prevent exploitation by middlemen, highlighting that those who violate the laws in this regard are subject to fines and legal accountability.

By Countercurrents.org

21 October, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

The Associated Press reports: Israeli troops on Saturday commandeered a Gaza-bound ship that tried to break through Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled seaside strip, the military said. European lawmakers and other pro-Palestinian activists aboard did not resist, and the Finnish-flagged vessel was diverted to an Israeli port.

The voyage by the ship, Estelle, marked the latest challenge to the air, land and sea embargo of Gaza that Israel imposed after the Islamic militant Hamas group seized the territory in 2007. Israeli officials say they need to enforce the blockade to prevent weapons smuggling.

Six Israeli naval vessels stopped the Estelle when it was about 30 nautical miles from Gaza, and masked soldiers boarder the ship and ordered it to sail to Israel’s Ashdod port, said Victoria Strand, a spokeswoman for the activists.

The Swedish-owned Estelle left Naples, Italy, on Oct. 7 with about 30 people from eight countries, including lawmakers from Norway, Sweden, Greece and Spain, as well as Israeli activists and a 79-year-old former legislator from Canada.

NEWS UPDATE #ESTELLE | -Israeli Estelle passengers report extreme violence. 2 Greek parliamentarians severely attacked. Blackhawk helicopters and hundreds of soldiers.

-The Israeli Estelle passengers were in the courtroom for 3 minutes. Once they started telling media about Israel army violence they were taken out, and brought back only when the judge came in. The judge decided to leave them in custody for an additional 48 hours

-Judge decided to leave Israeli #Estelle passengers in custody for an additional 48 hours

-The Israeli activists arrested on the Estelle are being charged with violating Disengagement Law, incitement, incitement to rebellion and aiding the enemy. International activists were taken to Hulon and there a reports coming through that Israel has already started to “deport”/”expel” them

~SPECIAL THANKS to Israeli Activist Tali Shapiro for providing these updates from Ashkelon Courthouse~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWjbP_8nllE&feature=player_embedded

Paul Manly Writes On His Father’s Behalf

Dear members of the media

I am writing to follow up on my last email. My father, Jim Manly is in Israeli custody. The Estelle was attacked in International waters around 4:30AM EDT. My dad, a retired United Church minister and former Member of Parliament is 79 years old (he turns 80 in 9 days). While he is in good health for his age, he is not as resilient as he was in his youth and has medication he needs to take daily. I hope that the Israeli Defence Forces respect his human rights and legal rights and treat him with the respect and dignity he deserves. Press release below.

For Immediate Release

Shortly after 4:00AM EDT when the Estelle was in international waters approx. 17 Nautical Miles north of Arish, Egypt (as per the last coordinates we have) Israeli war ships surrounded it and the assault on the peaceful ship started.

Communications were lost at that time and all reports we got from the ship were choppy.

Among others, the following individuals were on board:

Former Member of Parliament Manly James, Canada

Member of Parliament Hagen Aksel, Norway

Member of Parliament Britton Sven, Sweden

Member of Parliament Kodelas Dimitios, Greece

Member of Parliament Sixto Ricardo, Spain

Member of Parliament Diamantopoulos Evangelos, Greece

Full list of individuals onboard: http://shiptogaza.se/en/news/sailors-onboard-estelle

See Jim Manly’s pre-recorded video message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8egYBdf-Zo&feature=player_embedded

As pre his request please contact the Prime Minister and your local member of parliament and ask them to insist that the Israeli government respect the human rights and legal rights of those aboard the Estelle.

 

– Stephen Harper (Prime Minister of Canada)

613-992-4211

stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca

– John Baird (Minister of Foreign Affairs)

613-996-0984

john.baird@parl.gc.ca

 

Thanks

Paul Manly

paul@manlymedia.com

250 729-1254

THESE ARE THE SAILORS ON BOARD ESTELLE:

Member of Parliament Hagen Aksel Norway 10/04/1953

Member of Parliament Britton Sven Sweden 14/06/1938

Member of Parliament Kodelas Dimitios Greece 02/01/1979

Member of Parliament Sixto Ricardo Spain 07/01/1967

Member of Parliament Diamantopoulos Evangelos Greece 20/04/1980

Former Member of Parliament Manly James Canada 29/10/1932

Opperdoes Joel Arvid Alexander Sweden 1983-06-20

Andreasson Charles Bertil Sweden 1965-03-10

Särner Daniel Karl-Erik Sweden 1985-12-16

Uddebrant Johan Lars OS Sweden 1981-06-28

Widell Anders Nils Olof Sweden 1986-07-11

Reksten Herman Elias Norway 1989-10-06

Elhanan Elazar Israel 1977-04-01

Sjøstrøm Nils Johan Norway 1963-11-10

Koivisto Velimati Finland 1968-03-01

Hammervold Jan Petter Norway 1944-27-03

Feiler Dror Sweden 1951-31-08

Svenberg Kristian Sweden 02-07-1947

Boethius Maria-Pia Sweden 09/04/1947

Mor Reut Israel 09/08/1982

Jämiä Mika Finland 1959-09-06

Arau Crusellas Laura Spain 02/05/1980

Ramazzotti Stockel Marco Italy 17-09-1947

Shapira Yonathan Israel 12-02-1972

Tiktopoulos Mikhalis Greece 24/12/1946

Zabale Gouzalet BegoÒa Spain 09/01/1950

Stamellos Loukas Greece 22/06/1979

Piassas Evangelos Greece 02/04/1947

Gardell Mattias Sweden 10/08/1959

Vinthagen Stellan Sweden 13/10/1964

 

 

 

October 20, 2012

The Asia Pacific Anti-U.S. Bases Network condemns in the strongest possible terms the raping of a Japanese woman in Okinawa by two U.S. sailors last October 16, 2012.

The woman was walking to her home when she was allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted by the two. One of the suspects, Able Seaman Christopher Daniel Browning, 23 years of age, admitted to the crime while his cohort, Third Petty Officer Skyler Dozierwalker, denied it. Both belong to the Fort Worth Naval Air Base in Texas, U.S.A.

Such a crime is unconscionable and both servicemen deserve to be punished and put to jail, if proven guilty. A swift and independent investigation is in order and the authorities of the Okinawa prefecture should carry this out while ensuring the suspects do not flee Okinawa or the country in the course of the investigation.

We in the network, composed of organizations and individuals across Asia Pacific calling for the removal of all U.S. military bases outside the U.S. soil, demand also that the U.S. government should not interfere but instead respect the Japanese authorities in conducting the investigation or resolving the case.

We express grave concern that the rape case will not be resolved and the victim will not get justice if both the Japanese and American authorities once again resort to dropping the case and allow the U.S. military officials to “enforce official discipline” on the suspects.

This long-running “agreement” between the two governments has caused many frustrations and anger among the people of Okinawa and Japan as many crimes committed by U.S. military servicemen in the past remain unresolved. Who will not be affronted when the victim of the October 14, 2007 gang rape in Hiroshima and the Filipina woman raped in Okinawa in February 2008 still call for justice until now?

We fear that more crimes will be committed and more women, children and people will be victimized if the meting out of the justice will be placed in the hands of the U.S. military forces. Such an agreement is truly unacceptable and unjust.

The Asia Pacific Anti-U.S. Bases Network is one with the people of Okinawa and Japan who are continually demanding the Japanese government to immediately remove the 47,000-strong military naval base in Okinawa.

The Asia Pacific Anti-U.S. Bases Network raises the call to having all U.S. military bases in Japan and everywhere in the world to be pulled out. With continued presence and basing of the U.S. military forces in Asia Pacific, the rape and abuse of our women will only worsen. Furthermore, nations and peoples in the region will only be dragged to the war of aggression that U.S. imperialism has been intensifying.

Justice for the victim of the October 16 gang rape!

U.S. military troops and bases out of Okinawa and the rest of the world!

*For reference: Ramon Bultron, Tel. No. 852-27237536

By Chris Marsden

20 October, 2012

@ WSWS.org

On Friday, Gold Fields boasted that threats of mass sackings had succeeded in forcing the 9,000 workers at its Beatrix mine and 90 percent of the 14,300 workers at KDC West back to work. But a new strike by platinum miners at Lonmin’s operation in Marikana delivered a blow to efforts to stem the working class upsurge, with tens of thousands of workers remaining in struggle.

Marikana workers struck Thursday in defence of colleagues subjected to police persecution and arrest. Miners in Marikana began the present strike wave in August and refused to return to work after police killed 34 strikers and wounded 78. The strikes spread after Lonmin agreed a 22 percent pay hike to settle the Marikana dispute, fuelling demands for similar rises throughout the mining industry. Reports are unclear, but it is believed that between 80,000 and 100,000 miners have been on strike at various points.

In the most detailed account of recent events, the Daily Maverick notes that just one week before an official inquiry into the Marikana massacre, police have embarked on a wave of arrests of militants and strike leaders.

On October 15, workers at the Marikana mine managed to prevent the arrest by security guards of strike leader “Rasta” Thembele Sohadi when he clocked in at Three Shaft. The police were waiting outside the main entrance. On October 17, Xolani Nzuza, a leader of the ad hoc strike committee, and a striker known as Mzet were arrested and held at an unknown location. They are reportedly to be charged with two murders, including of an official from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

Several other miners, witnesses to what happened at the August 16 massacre, are among those arrested. The Daily Maverick focuses on the case of Bangile Mpotye, who was arrested October 14 on charges of fraud, even though no charges have been officially laid by Lonmin.

Mpotye was first arrested August 20 and accused of shooting and killing a police officer. Four days of beating and torture followed before he was released.

“What is astonishing is that Mpotye claims the police transported him to Lonmin mine every day, and his beatings happened at Lonmin,” the Daily Maverick reports. “A lawyer working on Marikana cases says it is obvious that this is a wave of terror to intimidate witnesses who would otherwise give evidence at the Farlam Commission.”

The intimidation at Marikana is the most blatant example of a broad campaign involving tens of thousands being sacked or threatened with the sack, as well as mass arrests and police violence.

Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest bullion producer, has also threatened to sack 8,500 strikers at its KDC East facility. A spokesman for the company declared, “The raiding of hostels and disarming of strikers gave workers the confidence to return to work.”

Anglo American Platinum Ltd (Amplats) said it intended to go ahead with the sacking of 12,000 miners at its Rustenburg facility, but would discuss their status with recognised trade unions. It reported only 20 percent attendance at its facilities.

Atlatsa Resources fired 3,000 employees at its Bokoni platinum mine.

The Mail & Guardian described October 18 how striking workers at Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine gathered near the Kathu Magistrate’s Court in solidarity with 47 workers arrested two days earlier. The detained workers’ appeal for bail was denied by the court and a second hearing was delayed until October 26 in violation of a law preventing anyone being held for more than 48 hours without charge.

Strikes have hit Lonmin, Aquarius, Impala, Anglo American Platinum, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Xstrata, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Gold One, Harmony Gold, Kumba Iron Ore, Petra Diaminds, Forbes, Manhattan Coal and Samancor. In addition to miners, 180,000 municipal workers and bus drivers are beginning strike action this week. Toyota halted production at its Durban facility Wednesday due to a strike at a parts supplier.

The mood in mining areas has an insurgent character, with mine buildings, scabs, police officers and police stations coming under attack. Mini-buses and taxis carrying scabs have been torched.

The unrest is directed in particular against the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is viewed as the labour police force for the companies. NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni recently boasted that his organisation has spent one million rand on a campaign to end wildcat strikes. This was “money well spent” to “get people to understand the risk they’re putting themselves and the country in,” he said, denouncing “people who are organising anarchy and economic sabotage”.

“You need just one mine to break this strike,” he added.

The Mail & Guardian writes of an organisation suffering a “slow, sure, violent implosion”. It notes that the NUM claims that so far this year 13 of its local officials have been killed by strikers, and hundreds of Amplats workers marched on the NUM’s regional headquarters in Rustenburg this month demanding the immediate cancellation of their union membership.

At Lonmin and Implats, the NUM has lost at least 20,000 members. NUM membership at Implats has now dropped from 70 percent to 13 percent and the real figure could be even lower because workers neglect to officially leave. The union is rapidly approaching extinction.

Reporters from the Daily Maverick visited Gold Fields KDC West mine in Carletonville prior to the end of the strike there. Strikers explained that some 1,500 of them had not returned to work Thursday because they had been waiting for NUM President Senzeni Zokwana to formally move the offer made by the Chamber of Mines, as promised when he visited the mine on Wednesday. They then found out they had been sacked.

Jeffrey Mphahlele, general secretary of the breakaway Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), stepped in to convince workers to return to work on Friday while ripping up their NUM cards and switching to the new union. The workers are now demanding, in addition to equalisation of pay and the withdrawal of all sackings, that NUM leaders at KDC West resign. They are threatening to resume their strike if these demands are not met.

The AMCU was also reportedly instrumental in stopping the strike at Marikana developing into an indefinite wildcat action. According to another Daily Maverick report, an “AMCU representative and the union’s lawyer managed to convince the people that another strike wasn’t the sensible way to reach their objectives.”

AMCU membership is near the 50 percent-plus level at both Implats and Lonmin that is required for the AMCU to be recognised as the official negotiating body. It is benefiting from the widespread hatred of the NUM, but using the confidence placed in it to restore order. Many strikes, however, are being led by ad-hoc strike committees.