Sources: Egyptian steel wall along Gaza borders almost completed

PIC


[ 07/02/2010 - 11:31 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Egyptian authority was about to complete the steel wall it was erecting along its borders with the besieged Gaza Strip despite the waves of condemnation to that wall, sources told the PIC.

Eyewitnesses revealed that at least 45 trucks loaded with steel boards have arrived at the construction area, and that the construction of the wall south and north of Rafah city was totally completed leaving small portion along the Salahuddin axis not finished yet.

In Cairo, the administrative court decided to adjourn to the 16th of this month the ruling on a petition filed by ambassador Ibrahim Yusri questioning the legality of the barrier and urging an immediate halt to the construction.

Big numbers of Egyptian intellectuals and national figures joined their voice with Yusri drawing the support of more than 172 activists, including six foreigners among others backing Yusri's move.

According to Yusri's petition, the wall violates international law that organizes relations between countries, in addition to breaching the Hague basis and the articles of the fourth Geneva convention.

Cairo ignored religious edicts issued by respected Muslim scholars forbidding the construction of the wall.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Hezbollah FPM Understanding Marks Four Years of Success

Almanar

Mohamad Shmaysani Readers
Number : 354

06/02/2010 Four years have passed on what most politicians and monitors in Lebanon describe as a phenomenal event that had taken place in a symbolic place, one year after a catastrophic incident that put the country on the verge of war...civil war and five months before a destructive Israeli war was launched on Lebanon.

On the 6th of February 2006, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement General Michel Aoun signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Saint Michael church; a symbol for the civil war era (1975-1990) when the church and the adjacent “green line” used to separate between Muslims and Christians in western and eastern Beirut. The event took place almost a year after former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut; a schemed murder that split the Lebanese and pushed the country to the verge of a new civil war.

THE RIOTS OF FEBRUARY 5

Lebanon was divided between the March 8 and the March 14 (named by then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the Cedars Revolution) blocs.
The ambitions of the Christians had shattered after the so called “Cedars Revolution” monopolized power and turned against its own allies.

On the eve of the 5th of February 2006, one day before the MOU was signed, then Interior Minister Hasan Sabaa, held a security meeting and announced that a demonstration was going take place outside the Danish embassy in Ashrafiyyeh. He also said that the orders were not to confront the demonstrators. Sabaa also banned the use of live bullet rounds by police in the area. The demonstration was aimed at protesting against the publication of insulting cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) in a Danish newspaper. It was called for by Muslims affiliated with the March 14 bloc.

The morning of February 5 saw the destruction of private and public properties including churches and the torching of the some building near the embassy. The head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea urged his supporters through media outlets not to confront the demonstrators, given the fact that they are “allies” from the Mustakbal (Future) movement of then MP Saad Hariri.
The riot and the havoc continued for several hours. Geagea had to retreat his morning statement with another calling on minister Sabaa to resign.
The interior ministry announced later in the evening that police had arrested 160 rioters. Most of them were later released under a “special pardon” and pressure by the Future Movement. March 14 Christians expressed disappointment at how their leaders had handled the March 5 riots. Christians in Ashrafiyyeh realized that it was the first time that the performance of allies (Future – Lebanese Forces) could cause that much damage.

MOU RESULTS IN NEW REALITY OF COEXISTENCE
The MOU however, resulted in a new reality of coexistence in Lebanon.

It was not before the historical event that most of the Lebanese really felt that civil war in Lebanon was over. The MOU introduced a patriotic model of a freewill agreement, between different political groups, on a project to build a community and a strong, capable, and fair state for free compatriots.

THE UNDERSTANDING SURMOUNTS CHALLENGES
The first challenge was the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006. After the resistance captured two Israeli soldiers, General Aoun declared that Hezbollah had engaged in “pure military action,” not a terrorist attack, at a time so called moderates inside and outside Lebanon were slamming the resistance as a group of adventurers. Hezbollah took over defending Lebanon militarily while Aoun, a former army commander, backed the resistance politically and socially. FPM supporters shared their houses, food and clothes with their displaced compatriots from south Lebanon and Dahiyeh (Beirut’s southern suburb.) The MOU was against the interests of both Israel and the United States. The FPM understanding with Hezbollah made General Aoun, according to intelligence reports, a main target for Israeli warplanes during the war.

Like Hezbollah, Aoun also earned the ire of Israel and Washington by publicly calling for the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to their homeland Palestine in line with their internationally recognized right of return.

The second challenge emerged right after the 33-day war ended; this time with an illegitimate government. Muslim Shiite ministers resigned from their posts to protest the PM Fouad Saniora’s handling of post-war efforts to compensate people and rebuild devastated areas, thus rendering Saniora’s government inconsistent with the National Charter and the constitution that stipulates main sects be represented in any cabinet.
Hezbollah, the FPM and other opposition parties held a 537-day sit-in in downtown Beirut to demand the government step down and improve living conditions in Lebanon. Eventually, Saniora did not resign.

Then came June 7, 2008. On that day, zero hour was set to embark in an action aimed at distorting the image of the Islamic Resistance, the armed wing of Hezbollah. After long hours of deliberations, in the absence of the five Shiite ministers, the Cabinet decided to consider the resistance’s private communications network illegal, knowing it played a major role in repelling the 2006 Israeli war. News reports said that Saniora’s government was reluctant to take such controversial decision and that pressure from Washington was behind adopting it.
The Cabinet decision developed into armed confrontations in Beirut, but the understanding between Hezbollah and the FPM prevented the bid to take the country into the abyss. The anti-resistance attempt backlashed and March 14 bloc leaders agreed to a Qatari initiative that later became known as the Qatar Agreement.

When feuding parties returned from Qatar after having agreed on a set of long waited measures, a government was formed and Aoun’s party was part of it. Three and a half years after the understanding, the March 14 bloc tumbled down, parliamentary elections were held and a new government was formed. Al-Mustakbal’s leader Saad Hariri was named Prime Minister and the new Policy Statement underlined the necessity and legitimacy of the resistance. The remnants of March 14 were dealt a severe blow when MP Walid Jumblatt withdrew from the bloc and when PM Saad Hariri paid a visit to Syria crowning regional reconciliations and rapprochements mainly between Riyadh and Damascus.

Much of everything has changed in Lebanon since the Hezbollah-FPM understanding in 2006. It is no longer seen as an understanding between two wide popular movements, but it has become an effective model to enhance confidence and hope among the Lebanese and to build a prosperous, indivisible Lebanon that is immune from occupation or schemes of appropriation. It is an understanding that constitutes a much needed entrance to any broader national understanding.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Christmas Day Crotch Bomber Tied to Israel, FBI

Criminal State

February 7, 2010 by Jeff Gates ·

The Christmas Day “terrorist” is the latest in a series of staged incidents meant to make The Clash of Civilizations appear plausible and “the war on terrorism” rational.

The storyline does not hold together. Not even a little bit. As usual, the source of this media-fueled fear campaign traces directly to Tel Aviv—with a supporting role by the FBI.

How did a young Nigerian Muslim without a passport “slip through” security at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport? Not only did his itinerary feature an illogical travel route, he paid cash for a high-priced last-minute ticket and boarded without checked baggage. How?

ICTS International, the security screening company at Schiphol, was founded by former members of Shin Bet, Israel’s civil security agency, and Israeli executives in charge of El Al security. ICTS had already proven its expertise in mounting this type of operation.

In December 2001, Richard “The Shoe Bomber” Reid “slipped through” ICTS security at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Huntleigh USA, an ICTS subsidiary, shared responsibility for security at Logan International Airport in Boston where hijackers for two of the four 911 jets “slipped through” airport security. It gets better.

The Crotch Bomber told U.S. authorities that radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki counseled him on the incident. Born and raised in New Mexico, Al-Awlaki moved to Yemen in 2004 after advising the two 911 hijackers who trained in San Diego. He also advised U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan who is charged with shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009.

It’s not yet clear whether FBI agents were monitoring the Nigerian while he too was advised by Al-Awlaki. If not, that would be an anomaly in a repetitive pattern of FBI complicity.

FBI agents not only monitored Major Hasan and Al-Awlaki before the Fort Hood shootings, they also monitored the San Diego hijackers while they were advised by Al-Awlaki. It gets better.

Though the Nigerian was foiled while trying to ignite 80 grams of PETN, an explosive sewn into his underwear, that amount was barely enough to dislodge the arm on his seat – of course that assumes it could have been ignited.

Without a blasting cap, this “terrorist incident” was doomed to failure even before he “slipped through” security. Could this get even better? Oh yeah.

We were told about his father alerting the C.I.A. station chief in Lagos However we were not informed that his father, a banker, oversaw a Nigerian defense firm that hired Israeli Defense Forces personnel to train Nigerians—in security.

Nor were we told that, for decades, Nigeria has been a central hub for Israelis laundering the proceeds of their transnational organized crime. That’s not all.

The Iraq War Connection

Four days after 911, San Diego special agent Steven Butler came to the San Diego home of Iraqi-American Munther Ghazal, the Iraqi closest to Saddam Hussein then living in the U.S.

That’s the same day Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz proposed in a principal’s meeting at Camp David that the U.S. should invade Iraq. Iraq?!

Agent Butler paid rent and cashed checks for the two San Diego hijackers while they were being advised by Al-Awlaki. What did Butler want to know? Was Ghazal funding Mel Rockefeller with whom he had traveled to Iraq in 1997.

While in Baghdad, they confirmed that Saddam Hussein had mothballed Iraq’s WMD program after the 1991 Gulf War—and was prepared to negotiate his departure without this war. That was four years before 911. The FBI has yet to interview Mel Rockefeller.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects are once again profiting off the misery of both sides in a “Clash” that they played a key role in creating. It was Jewish Zionist Bernard Lewis who first coined the term, The Clash of Civilizations.

Only later was Harvard professor Samuel Huntington branded with that premise when his book by that name was published in 1996, five years before 911.

Israeli-American Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security (aka the rabbi’s son), now promotes firms that manufacturer highly intrusive body scanners that are terrific for spotting crotch bombers unless, of course, an Israeli firm is in charge of security.

News reports suggest that the stock of body-scanning firms soared $3 billion in value after this latest “terrorist” incident. Imagine the glee among clients of the Chertoff Group.

Meanwhile the U.S. has been transformed from the wealthiest nation to the world’s largest debtor. Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz projects a $3 trillion tab for a war based on fixed, flawed and outright fabricated intelligence—every cent of it borrowed, including $700 billion in interest.

Tel Aviv: The Common Source of Terror

That’s not all. Controlling shares in ICTS are held by Menachem Atzmon, board chairman since 2004. While treasurer of Israel’s long-dominant Likud Party, Atzmon was convicted of campaign finance fraud. His co-treasurer, Ehud Olmert, resigned as Prime Minister in 2008 after being acquitted of fraud amid multiple corruption charges.

Did I forget to mention that ICTS was also handling security for London’s bus system when the U.K. was targeted for its terrorist attack? Did I neglect to note that six months prior to the Shoe Bomber’s flight on American Airlines, Richard Reid was stopped at Schiphol while boarding an El Al flight to Tel Aviv. Shin Bet allowed him to board so he could be monitored in Israel.

Did the Israelis inform their loyal ally about Richard Reid? What do you think?

Remember the October 1983 truck bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut that left 241 Americans dead? A former Mossad case officer conceded they had a description of the truck. Did our ally tell us? What do you think?

Our withdrawal from Lebanon left the field open to those who specialize in displacing facts with what targeted populations (including our own) can be deceived to believe.

Recall our belief in Iraqi WMD? Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda? Iraqi mobile biological weapons laboratories? Iraqi yellowcake uranium from Niger? Iraqi meetings in Prague? All were false. All were traceable to Tel Aviv. Are you still having trouble connecting the dots?

As the U.S. sinks into bankruptcy, we are ridiculed abroad for failing to acknowledge the obvious: Americans have long been the target of a fraud operated by Israelis, pro-Israelis and those supportive of their goals for the region.

What better way to wage war on the U.S. than from within? How else can Israel expand except by duping its super power ally to wage wars for Greater Israel? Never mind the cost in blood and treasure. As an ally, the U.S. is easily portrayed as guilty by association.

Those promoting the Crotch Bomber scare are part of the problem. In the Information Age, this latest false flag operation is typical of how treason proceeds in plain sight yet, to date, with impunity. Those media outlets marketing this latest lie are an enemy within.

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

OPEN LETTER TO BONO: “ENTERTAINING APARTHEID ISRAEL… U 2 BONO? “

DesertPeace

February 7, 2010 at 8:33 am (Boycott Israel, Culture, Divestment, Entertainment, Israel, Palestine)

PACBI Issues Open Letter to Bono: “Entertaining Apartheid Israel…U 2 Bono? “
Dear Bono,

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)was deeply disturbed to learn that that you are scheduled to perform in Israel this coming summer. Two years ago, you were invited by Israeli President Shimon Peres to attend a conference in Israel marking Israel‘s contributions to medicine, science, and conservation; we urged you then, as a prominent activist on issues of global inequality and a campaigner for basic human rights, to say no to Israel, especially since the invitation coincided with celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state.[1] You did not go to Israel then; we call on you now not to grant legitimacy to a state that practices the most pernicious form of colonialism and apartheid.

Performing in Israel would violate the almost unanimously endorsed Palestinian civil society Call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.[2]  This Call is directed particularly towards international activists, artists, and academics of conscience, such as yourself. Moreover, it would come a year and a half after Israel’s bloody military assault against the occupied Gaza Strip which left over 1,440 Palestinians dead, of whom 431 were children, and 5380 injured.[3] The 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, the overwhelming majority of whom are refugees who were expelled from their homes by Zionist forces in 1948,[4] were subjected to three weeks of relentless Israeli state terror, whereby Israeli warplanes systematically targeted civilian areas, reducing whole neighborhoods and vital civilian infrastructure to rubble and partially destroying Gaza’s leading university and scores of schools, including several run by the UN, where civilians were taking shelter.

This criminal assault comes after three years of an ongoing, illegal, crippling Israeli siege of Gaza which has shattered all spheres of life, prompting the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Richard Falk, to describe it as “a prelude to genocide”. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, headed by the highly respected South African judge, Richard Goldstone, found Israel guilty of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, as did major international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The Goldstone report concluded that Israel’s war on Gaza was “designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”[5]

In a recent New York Times op-ed[6], you wrote of your hope “that the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and elsewhere are taking note of the trouble an aroused citizenry can give to tyrants.” You went on to further elaborate on the hope that “people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.” Rather than shifting the blame from the violence of the colonial oppressor to the resistance of the indigenous oppressed and characterizing the Palestinians as a population filled with “rage and despair,” it is more apt to consider them among the “aroused citizenry” responding to tyranny – Israel‘s regime of occupation and apartheid.

As to your hope that the Palestinians will soon find their own leading figure to champion nonviolent resistance, the Palestinian civil society Call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions against Israel is one of the largest nonviolent, morally consistent movements for ending Israel’s system of apartheid and colonial oppression. It is endorsed by a majority of Palestinian civil society. As a leading artist who is concerned about human rights, it is your moral obligation to honor this call and not to cross our “picket line.”

A whole generation was affected by your musical activism, when you sang of the civil rights movement in America, the everyday human heroes in El Salvador and the brave struggles in Ireland – you filled a space that forced political morality into pop culture. Entertaining apartheid Israel despite all the injustice it is committing against the Palestinians would significantly smear this great legacy of yours.

Through systematic repression and incarceration of human rights defenders without due process, Israel has made sure that those Palestinian “Gandhis” and “Kings” do not rise to prominence. Activists such as Mohammed Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahma, and Jamal Jum’a, to mention only a few recent examples, have been imprisoned without charge or trial, a practice that has been harshly condemned by Amnesty International.[7] Historically, successive Israeli governments went even further in suppressing civil and popular resistance: one of Yitzhak Rabin’s strategies in the First Intifada, for instance, was to “break the bones” of young Palestinian protestors, often “preemptively;” more recently, Israeli military forces have brutally dispersed weekly nonviolent Palestinian protests against Israel’s Wall—which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004—by firing rubber bullets, teargas canisters, and sometimes live ammunition onto protestors. Such methods have resulted in the injury of hundreds of peaceful protesters, including some internationals and Israelis, as well as the death of several Palestinian civilians. American human rights activist, Tristan Anderson, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile while protesting peacefully in the village of Ni’lin against the Wall.

Your appearance in Israel would lend to its well-oiled campaign to whitewash all the above grave violations of international law and basic human rights through “re-branding” itself as a liberal nation enjoying membership in the Western club of democracies. Above everything else, it would serve to deflect attention away from Israel‘s three forms of oppression against the Palestinian people: the legalized and institutionalized system of racial discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel; the military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; and the continuous denial of the Palestinian refugees’ UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes and to receive just reparations.

As a promoter of peace and justice, you are a distinguished member and co-founder of the ONE Campaign to end extreme poverty in Africa. The international patron of this campaign, South African Nobel Laureate and celebrated anti-apartheid activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, remarked[8] that “the end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure– in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s…a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation.” He concluded that “if apartheid ended, so can this occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.”

We urge you to heed the wise words of Archbishop Tutu and to honor the Palestinian Call. Your performance in Israel would be tantamount to having performed in Sun City during South Africa’s apartheid era, in violation of the international boycott unanimously endorsed by the oppressed South African majority. We call on you not to entertain Israeli Apartheid!

PACBI

www.PACBI.org
PACBI@PACBI.org

---

[1] http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=674&key=bono
[2] http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=66
[3] http://www.ochaopt.org/gazacrisis/index.php?section=3
[4] Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2007.
[5] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html?pagewanted=3
[7] http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/israeli-detention-palestinian-activists-must-end-20100108
[8] http://www.counterpunch.org/tutu1017.html

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

The Hollow-Ghost and the Juices.........

Frusrtated Arab's Diary

Juices-only .

A hollow-ghost

The Hollow-Ghost that came to the juices was unjustified
and this is the case of all the Hollow-Ghosts. .....
which are all non-human !!

Nevertheless it happened also to the non-juices,
therefore those juices cannot claim any exclusivity
nor claim the rights to any special-treatments.

Hollow-Ghosts are an unfortunate- component of each man´s history
and they should be equally and totally condemned.

Juices are simply what they are ,
and should not be considered more than a part of the fruits
out of which they came out.

One cannot claim that an Orange-juice
is superior to an Orange.


After all ,juices are not to be kept separated but they should merge in
a multi-fluid- cocktail to produce a drink which suits all tastes of humanity.

Gone are the days of the chosen-separated-exclusive-juices !!
whereas the juices are an excuse for racism.

Humanity, if it does not mix ,
shall end up in ugly apartheid's
and in some islands of isolated-nations. .........
called it Ghettos, or pure-nations. .

If and when the juices do mix-around , next time ,
the Hollow-Ghosts will not be able to isolate and to find them .


But we should put this Hollow-Ghost in its own context
and no more assume that it is unique, nor that it is
anyone´s exclusive-property. .....
nor that it comes only to the Juices !!

What if the Hollow-Ghost has never existed ??
which is also a possibility !!
some believe what they like ...

and others like what they believe .
some do not like to believe.....

because they do not like what they see .

Some hate all the juices fundamentally ,
some others pity them blindly,
others suffer from an inferiority , once they encounter them........

I do not mind the juices ,
as long as they do not steal my national-rights
or when they steal my holy books ,
nor would they steal anyone´s rights.


Raja Chemayela juice-lover

Posted by Тлакскала at 11:45 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Labels: holocaust, jews



River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian

Hamas: We are keen on achieving national dialogue and on easing obstacles

PIC

[ 07/02/2010 - 11:25 AM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas Movement has confirmed Saturday that it was and still is keen on achieving national reconciliation, but blamed Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah faction, for the continued political rift in the Palestinian arena. The Movement also explained that despite the keenness on the reconciliation, which is based on the Movement's national duty, Hamas doesn’t beg to meet anyone.

"We in Hamas are indeed keen on the dialogue and on achieving national reconciliation and on easing all obstacles blocking that goal, however, we don’t gasp behind meeting anyone at the expense of our national constants", the Movement asserted in a statement it issued in reaction to the statements of Abbas in Egypt.

While in Egypt, Abbas said he won't meet with Khalid Mishaal, Hamas's supreme political leader, unless Hamas signed the Egyptian paper without modification or further discussions.

According to Hamas, Abbas's statements were nothing but a submission to the US and Israeli veto that rejects any Palestinian reconciliation without Hamas accepting the conditions of the Quartet Committee, including recognizing the Israeli occupation of 78% of Palestine among other conditions which Hamas firmly rejected.

In this regard, Hamas held Abbas solely responsible for derailing the national reconciliation, underlining it would immediately sign the Egyptian paper based on the understandings between Hamas Fatah no less and no more.

"The present Egyptian paper doesn't completely reflect what had been truly agreed upon between Hamas and Fatah, and thus the paper must be examined and compared to the drafts that had been signed between the two factions", Hamas noted in the statement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian lawmaker MP Dr. Yahya Mousa of Hamas Movement blamed Sha'ath for issuing a statement that attempted to portray Hamas Movement as if it has two wings, one moderate in Gaza, and another radical in Damascus, stressing that Hamas leadership is one and its decision is united.

He described the statements as "mistaken" on the part of Sha'ath who shouldn’t destroy the hope he created by his visit to Gaza and meeting with Hamas leaders there.

In Gaza Strip, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas Movement in the Strip, pointed out that Abbas's statements prove that neither he nor his Fatah faction were serious in ending the Palestinian political rift.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel Saturday, Abu Zuhri said that the statements of Abbas don’t provide positive atmosphere to push the reconciliation efforts forward, underscoring that leaders of Hamas Movement in Palestine and abroad publicly expressed their readiness to achieve national reconciliation and to find a "solution" to the Egyptian paper.

"The ball now is in the Egyptian court as we urged Cairo to invite both factions to discuss Hamas's reservations on the modified Egyptian paper, and we are still waiting for that invitation", Abu Zuhri explained.

In the West Bank, the armed militias of Abbas continued their campaign against Hamas supporters a couple of days after Sha'ath's visit to Gaza and the warmed welcome he was accorded to by Hamas leaders there.

According to a statement issued by Hamas Movement in the West Bank, at least 50 supporters of the Islamic Movement, most of them ex-prisoners in Israeli jails and the jails of Abbas, were summoned to the PA security departments in different parts of the West Bank. Six other supporters were arrested in Al-Khalil, Nablus, Tulkarem, and Qalqilia.

Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli warships on the wat to Gulf through the canal.

Press TV

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:48:11 GMT



As Israel keeps threatening the regional countries with war, Egyptian maritime sources say the Israeli navy has deployed two missile ships to the Persian Gulf.

Citing the sources, Yediot Ahronot reported Saturday that two Israeli missile ships passed through the Suez Canal en rout to the Red Sea on Thursday morning.

The sources said the ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf within the next four days.

According to the report, Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli ships through the canal.

The waterway, which had not previously been used by Israeli vessels for intelligence reasons, was traversed for the first time in June 2009 when a Dolphin-class submarine (a nuclear German-made submarine) reportedly sailed from the Mediterranean to reach military exercises in the Red Sea.

River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian

We need an honest commission of inquiry to establish the truth

PIC

[ 06/02/2010 - 09:29 PM ]

By Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah

The recent visit to the Gaza Strip by Fatah leader Nabil Sha’ath should be a welcome first step toward Palestinian national reconciliation.

Unlike many Fatah fanatics, who openly advocate an unending war on Hamas, Sha’ath has repeatedly displayed a great deal of moderation vis-à-vis Hamas, refusing to view the Islamic liberation movement as “the enemy” as many of the anti-Islamist elements within Fatah have been insisting.

To his credit, the veteran Fatah leader never harbored any illusions as to boundaries between inter-Palestinian troubles, such as the rift between Fatah and Hamas, and the fundamental conflict between the Palestinian people and Israel .

Unfortunately, it is these boundaries that some high-ranking Palestinian Authority (PA) operatives have sought to blur and obliterate in the service of Israel.

For example, one high ranking military official in the PA security apparatus was quoted as telling his Israeli “colleagues” over two years ago that “we are allies and have a common enemy, and the name of that common enemy is Hamas).

This is why Sha’ath’s visit and the series of meetings he held with Gazan leaders, including the elected Prime Minister Ismael Haniya, should be lauded and welcomed by all sincere Palestinians keen on seeing an early end to the 30-month strife between Hamas and Fatah.

The Gaza Strip doesn’t belong solely to Hamas any more than the West Bank belongs solely to Fatah. But both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the rest of occupied Palestine, belong to the Palestinian people, including the followers of Fatah and Hamas.

Having said that, it is imperative for the sake of genuine national reconciliation that the two sides stop mutual recriminations. Fatah, in particular, should stop its often poisoned propaganda discourse, which claims that Hamas carried out a coup and killed hundreds of Fatah militiamen and supporters.

Fostering obscene lies will not serve the dear cause of national reconciliation. Eventually, Fatah, like Hamas, is a party to the contention, and as such can’t be foe and judge at the same time.

But if Fatah is truly and sincerely interested in knowing the truth, Hamas should show no objections to the creation of a genuine Inquiry Commission consisting of judges and jurists of implacable credentials.

Such a commission might be necessary for effecting a durable national reconciliation as it would be based on truth and honesty.

Many sensitive questions would have to be answered satisfactorily. These would include the following:

1- What was the nature of the relation between the CIA, e.g. Gen. Keith Dayton and Fatah-dominated PA militias in Gaza prior to the events of July 2007?
2- Did the PA security agencies in Gaza collude with the Americans and possibly the Israelis against the democratically elected government of Hamas?
3- Did the PA security agencies, especially the Preventive Security Force, plan to carry out a coup against Hamas prior to the July, 2007 events?
4- Did the security agencies receive American-funded truckloads of weapons via Israel in order to topple the Hamas government?
5- Did the security agencies try knowingly and deliberately to foster insecurity and instability in Gaza in order to embarrass and undermine the government of national unity?
6- Who murdered the three children of Baha’a Balusha?
7- Who murdered Professor Hussein abu Ajwa?
8- Who broke the ceasefire every time one was reached through Egyptian mediation?
9- Was Fatah planning to crush the Hamas government, aided by the Americans and Israel and probably some Arab regimes?
10- Who are the culprits in the assassination attempt on the life of Prime Minister Haniya on his way back to Gaza from Egypt in December, 2007?
11- Finally, when Israel launched its Nazi-like onslaught against Gaza last year, in which thousands of innocent Palestinians were killed, maimed or seriously incinerated, there were reports that certain circles with the Fatah organization (and also within the PLO) colluded and connived with the Israelis, with some figures reportedly begging the Israelis to destroy entire Palestinian population centers “because they deserved it since they voted for Hamas.” Hence, these serious accusations and allegations must also be thoroughly investigated in order to establish the truth.

More to the point, Fatah can suggest any set of issues it thinks warrant serious investigation, such as the claim that Hamas fighters killed a Fatah operative by throwing him off the rooftop of a multi-story building. I am revisiting this particular issue because a meticulous investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident showed that the victim, Husam abu Gneis, was actually pushed to his death mistakenly by a Fatah operative who had mistaken him for a Hamas operative as the victim grew a beard.

I am not suggesting that Fatah is guilty until proven innocent. However, both Fatah and Hamas should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, which necessitates the creation of an authentic commission of inquiry.

The establishment of justice and truth, by honest, neutral and professional judges, should put an end to all the bickering and mutual incriminations between Fatah and Hamas. More over, lessons would be learned from such a daring and wise act as truth would finally be laid out naked to all those interested in it.

As to the more immediate issues pertaining to the so-called Egyptian document, it is amply clear that this document has lost much if not most of its appeal following the manifestly hostile action by the Egyptian regime against Hamas, namely the construction of the Israeli-envisaged wall of shame along the borders between Gaza and Sinai.

This colossal shame has effectively placed the Mubarak regime firmly in the circle of hostility to Hamas. Hence, a neutral third party ought to be found in order to ensure that any reconciliation agreement would be genuine and durable.

Finally, in order to organize elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, security and other guarantees would have to be given in order to avoid the repetition of the scandalous violations which took place prior and after the 2006-elections. Then Israel rounded up the bulk of Islamist candidates who won or were poised to win the elections while the West and its Arab puppet regimes, probably with the acquiescence and tacit encouragement of leading elements within Fatah, imposed a deadly blockade against the new Palestinian government on the ground that they didn’t like the outcome of the elections.

Indeed, organizing elections under the present circumstances is tantamount to telling voters that they will be starved and blockaded if they voted for Hamas and that only by voting for Fatah will they be able to receive salaries at the end of the month.

The same thing applies to the current political situation in the occupied territories, especially the West Bank where an aggressive, even rabid, inquisition against Hamas has been going on unabated since the summer of 2007.

In this context, as many as 10,000 people have been arrested, hundreds of Islamic institutions seized and handed over to Fatah, and thousands of innocent people fired from their jobs because of suspected affiliation or association with Hamas.

Moreover, over a dozen Hamas supporters have been tortured to death, while others suffered lifelong handicaps as a result of the harsh physical torture to which they were subjected to at the hands of Fatah interrogators.

Hence, it is really difficult to even imagine that true and transparent elections can be organized under the prevailing conditions in the West Bank.

True elections require a healthy atmosphere where citizens can exercise freedom of expression and speech and hold rallies in support for their respective political party. This essential requirement doesn’t exist now in the West Bank and to a lesser extent in the Gaza Strip as well.

This means that the current police state apparatus in the West Bank must be immediately dismantled.

Otherwise, holding elections under the present circumstances, when people are arrested and tortured even for holding the green Islamic flag, will be a prescription for disaster.

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Friends of humanity: 2009 the worst ever in the history of Palestinian detainees

PIC


[ 06/02/2010 - 05:05 PM ]

VIENNA, (PIC)-- Friends of humanity organization reported Saturday that 2009 was the worst year ever in the history of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, during which Israel escalated its arbitrary measures and decisions against them.

The organization said in a report that the Israeli prisons authority used during the year new ways to increase the psychological and physical pressure on those detainees so that they could not live a normal life if they were released one day.

It explained that more than 1,000 prisoners suffering chronic diseases are medically neglected and more than 1,500 others, 775 of them from Gaza, are deprived of seeing their loved ones for long periods of time.

The report noted that at the end of last year, the number of prisoners amounted to 7,286 prisoners including 36 women, 20 ministers and lawmakers and 250 children under age 18.

The report also focused on the prisoners of occupied Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands, saying that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) marginalized their issue and still refuses to release any one of them as part of a swap deal with the Palestinians.

For its part, Hossam society for detainees and ex-detainees said Saturday that the administration of Negev prison stepped up its repressive policy against the Palestinian prisoners and their families at all levels, especially depriving them of visits.

During a telephone call, one of the prisoners told Hossam that the health and incarceration conditions in this jail started to worsen in recent days because of the freezing weather.

He also appealed to the Red Cross and the ministry of detainees to work on providing the prisoners with more blankets and winter clothing.

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Syria won in both Gaza and Lebanon

انتصرت سوريا في غزة ، ولبنان / بقلم د. فايز أبو شمالة

السبت 06-02-2010 09:04 صباحا

الجديد في التهديد المتبادل بين سوريا وإسرائيل هو : اللغة السورية ، والصمود أمام عنجهية " ليبرمان " ، وعدم الانكفاء ، وكأن عدوى الكرامة التي رفع لواءها أردوغان ضد إسرائيل عبرت أجواء سوريا ، وكأن عدوى انتصار حزب الله في الجنوب اللبناني قد مست عصب الشعب السوري ، وكأن صلابة غزة قد انتزعت عن الجيش السوري رداء التردد ، والتفكير مرتين في الرد على العدوان الإسرائيلي .

فما دامت غزة الصغيرة المحاصرة قد صمدت ، فمن باب أولى أن تقاتل سوريا العربية ، وأن تنتصر ، وأن لا تنتظر حتى يقهر حزب الله وحده جيش يهود إسرائيل في المواجهة القادمة ، وهذا ما تضمنته كلمات وزير الخارجية السوري وليد المعلم ، الذي تحدث لأول مرة بتحدٍ، وقوة ، وثقة ، واستعداد ، ورغبة صارخة في تغيير قواعد اللعبة التي سيطرت عليها إسرائيل ، منذ تلك الأيام التي أعلن فيها الرئيس المصري أنور السادات شعار : " لا حرب بعد اليوم " .

لتصرخ بيروت ، وغزة ، والجنوب اللبناني ، وسوريا ، وكل أمة العرب ، والمسلمين ، الحرب هي الحرب ، ما دام عدونا هو عدونا ، ومغتصب أرضنا هو عدونا ، وأي سلام مع المغتصب هو استسلام ، وأي هدوء مع حكومة وجيش وشعب لا يعرف إلا تحقير العرب ، وسحق كرامتهم تحت قذائف دباباته وصواريخه ، أي هدوء هو خنوع ، ومذلة ، ولا يرتضي المذلة إلا ذليل، والعربي ليس ذليلاً .

ضمن هذا السياق جاء تدخل " نتنياهو "، ولجمه لوزير خارجيته " ليبرمان " لأنه غير راغب بالتورط في حرب مع سوريا في الوقت الذي يراكم الحطب حول إيران ، ولاسيما أنه من قال في مؤتمر هرتسليا : " لا مكان للضعيف في الشرق الأوسط ، وتعزيز القدرات هو الطريق الأقرب للسلام " .

وهذا ينطبق على تراجع " إيهود باراك " عن تصريحاته بمحاربة سوريا ، وهو القائل في مؤتمر هرتسيليا : " إن الشرق الأوسط مكان صعب ، ولا رأفة فيه للضعفاء ولا فرصة ثانية " .

وهذا ينطبق على تلك الأصوات التي برزت داخل الكيان الصهيوني ، والتي تنادي باستقالة ليبرمان لتصريحاته العدوانية ضد سوريا ، فهذه الأصوات لا تشي بمزاج إسرائيلي قد تعدل باتجاه السلام ، على العكس من ذلك ، فإن إسرائيل ما زلت تدق طبول الحرب ، ولكن هنالك سببان يمنعان تقريبها؛ .

أولاً : العجز ـ  كما قال الخبير الإسرائيلي بالشأن السوري واللبناني البروفسور " إيال زوسر " لصحيفة يديعوت أحرنوت: لقد حاولت إسرائيل الإطاحة بحزب الله، وهو أقل قدرات من سوريا، في حرب لبنان الثانية، وانظروا كيف كانت النتائج؟.
ثانياً : هنالك إيران ـ وأزعم أن مصلحة إسرائيل تقوم على تجنب المواجهة المباشرة مع إيران، وتعمد على توريط الآخرين للموت فداء إسرائيل، لذا كان تدخل الإدارة الأمريكية لتهدئة الأجواء بين سوريا وإسرائيل، كي تظل الحرب ضمن حدود إيران الجغرافية.

ومثلما تحرص أمريكا ، وحلفاء إسرائيل على تجنب الحرب المباشرة مع سوريا، فإنهم يرتعبون من مشاركة غزة في حرب شاملة، وذلك ليس لقوة غزة العسكرية القاهرة، وإنما لأن غزة قد صارت عنوان المقاومة الفلسطينية، وهي نقطة التقاء الوطني، والقومي، والإقليمي، والإسلامي، وهي الشرعية التي تحدد أبعاد المعركة، ومصداقيتها، واتجاهاتها .

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Al MABHOUH…chain of assassination attempts

Al MABHOUH

07-02-2010,10:47

Al Qassam website - Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, the leader in Al-Qassam brigades who was assassinated two weeks ago in Dubai, revealed in a previous interview shortly before his assassination, that the Zionist occupation had attempted to assassinate him three times, pointing out that "life is in Allah's hands and he know the end of his path", and expressed the hope that the Palestinian resistance could stay steadfast in the face of the Zionist crimes and massacres. "

Al Mabhouh, one of the founders of "Al-Qassam Brigades", was assassinated on the twentieth of last month (January) in a hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Three assassination attempts

In a recorded interview with "Al Jazeera" channel, Al Mabhouh revealed that the first assassination attempt was in 1991, following the capture of two Zionist soldiers in 1989, pointing out that he had exposed to the second assassination attempt with the martyr Ezzedeen Sheikh Khalil in Damascus in April 2004.

Al Mabhouh said: "The third assassination attempt was about a month after the assassination of the military commander of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February 2008, afterthought: "Thank God, I enjoy a high sense of security, but Life is in Allah's hands, and who choose this way know its end."

He reviewed his relationship with Commander General of "Al Qassam" Salah Shehadeh, and the beginnings of operations against the occupation, noting that Shehadeh was observing the operations that were carried out and issuing orders even from inside the prison, including the capture of the soldiers.

The martyr expressed his hope that the Palestinian resistance could restore the Palestinians rights and could defend its people against the Zionist crimes and massacres.

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Uprooted Palestinian

UN report: Israel continues violations against Palestinians

PIC


[ 06/02/2010 - 04:15 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a report Saturday accusing the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) of violating human rights of the Palestinian people and destroying tens of their homes without justification.

The report said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) wounded at least 16 Palestinian citizens in different parts of the West Bank over the past week raising the number to 67 casualties since the start of this year.

It also accused the IOA of deliberately demolishing 20 Palestinian homes and buildings, including medical clinics and water reservoirs among other constructions alleging they have no building permits.

In addition, the report pointed out that the Israeli settlers' assaults against Palestinian civilians increased noticeably, as they seized by force one Palestinian home in Sheikh Jarrah suburb in occupied Jerusalem prompting clashes with the Palestinian owners of the house.

The settlers also wreaked havoc on Palestinian farms and olive trees in the villages of El-Baqa in Al-Khalil and Abbod in Ramallah under the protection of the fully geared IOF troops, the report underscored.

The report also highlighted the electricity crises in the besieged Gaza Strip, adding that the IOA reduced the amount of diesel needed to run generators of the lone electricity plant in the Strip.


According to the report, 40,000 Palestinian individuals have no electricity supply after the IOF soldiers destroyed all electricity lines and equipments during the war on Gaza and banned the entry of the spare parts needed to restore the damaged electricity supply.

In a related matter, Palestinian lawmaker Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi warned, in a lecture he delivered before Palestinian students in the Arub college in Al-Khalil city, that the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian people are exposed to an unprecedented Zionist conspiracy.

He explained that the IOA practices racial cleansing in the occupied city of Jerusalem and continues building settlements across the West Bank without paying any attention to international calls to halt such activities.

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 Uprooted Palestinian

International Criminal Court complaint filed against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales

Intifada Voice

Bush to The Hague ?

Request for international arrest warrants

6 February 2010
A leading US professor of law has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court prosecutor against former US President George W. Bush and a number of his senior lieutenants alleging crimes against humanity for their policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” and requesting that the ICC prosecutor obtain international arrest warrants against Mr Bush and his co-accused.

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, USA, has filed a complaint with the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against US citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.

“Extraordinary rendition” is a euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitutes crimes against humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of actions considered as crimes under the ICC statute within the respective territories of many ICC member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their ICC statutory crimes under Rome Statute Article 12(2)(a) that affords the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute for ICC statutory crimes committed in ICC member states.

The complaint requests:

1. That the ICC prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and
2. That the ICC Prosecutor also formally “submit to the [ICC] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute Article 15(3).

For similar reasons, the highest level officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up complaint with the ICC if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition, which the Obama administration has continued to implement.
The complaint concludes with a request that the ICC prosecutor obtain international arrest warrants for the Accused from the ICC in accordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), 58(1)(b)(i), 58(1)(b)(ii), and 58(1)(b)(iii).

Please contact the ICC prosecutor by letter, fax or email – contact details below – to demonstrate your support for this complaint.

The Honourable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int

A copy of the submission to the ICC prosecutor is below and is also available here.

*******************
Bush to The Hague
International Criminal Court complaint filed against

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales
Request for international arrest warrants

19 January 2010


Dear Sir,
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honour hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against US citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition.” This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and people of colour. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 white Judaeo- Christian men.

The Accusedʼs criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” are both “widespread” and “systematic” within the meaning of Rome Statute Article 7(1).
Therefore the Accused have committed numerous “Crimes against Humanity” in flagrant and repeated and longstanding violation of Rome Statute articles 5(1)(b), 7 (1)(a), 7(1)(e), 7(1)(f), 7(1)(g), 7(1)(h), 7(1)(i), and 7(1)(k).

Furthermore, the Accusedʼs Rome Statute Crimes Against Humanity of enforced disappearances of persons constitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues even as of today.

The United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused ordered and were responsible for the commission of these ICC statutory crimes on, in, and over the respective territories of several ICC member states, including many located in Europe. Therefore, the ICC has jurisdiction over the Accused for their ICC statutory crimes in accordance with Rome Statute Article 12 (2)(a), which provides as follows:
1. Article 12

Preconditions to the Exercise of Jurisdiction

…
2. In the case of Article 13, paragraph (a) or (c), the Court may exercise its
jurisdiction if one or more of the following States are Parties to this Statute or have accepted the jurisdiction of the Court in accordance with paragraph 3:
(a) The State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred…
So, the fact that United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute is no bar to the ICCʼs prosecution of the Accused because they have ordered and been responsible for the commission of Rome Statute Crimes against Humanity on, in, and over the respective territories of several ICC member states.
Consequently, I hereby respectfully request that the Court exercise its jurisdiction over the Accused for these Crimes against Humanity in accordance with Rome Statute Article 13(c), which provides as follows:
Article 13

Exercise of Jurisdiction

The Court may exercise its jurisdiction with respect to a crime referred to in Article 5 in accordance with the provisions of this Statute if:
…
(c) The Prosecutor has initiated an investigation in respect of such a crime in accordance with Article 15.

Pursuant to Rome Statute Article 13(c), I hereby respectfully request that you initiate an investigation proprio motu against the Accused in accordance with Rome Statute Article 15(1): “The Prosecutor may initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.” My detailed Complaint against the Accused constitutes the sufficient “information” required by Article 15(1).

(2) Furthermore, I respectfully submit that this Complaint by itself constitutes “a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation” under Rome Statute Article 15

(3). Hence, I also respectfully request that you formally “submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute Article 15(3) at this time. Please inform me at your earliest convenience about the status and disposition of my two requests set forth immediately above.

Based upon your extensive human rights work in Argentina, you know full well from direct personal experience the terrors and the horrors of enforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture. According to reputable news media sources here in the United States, about 100 human beings have been subjected to enforced disappearances and subsequent torture by the Accused. We still have no accounting for these Victims. In other words, many of these Victims of enforced disappearances and torture by the Accused could still be alive today. Their very lives are at stake right now as we communicate. You could very well save some of their lives by publicly stating that you are opening an investigation of my Complaint.
As for those Victims of enforced disappearances by the Accused who have died, your opening an investigation of my Complaint is the only means by which we might be able to obtain some explanation and accounting for their whereabouts and the location of their remains in order to communicate this critical information to their next-of-kin and loved-ones. Based upon your extensive experience combating enforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture in Argentina, you know full well how important that objective is. The next-of-kin, loved-ones, and friends of “disappeared” human beings can never benefit from psychological “closure” unless and until there is an accounting for the fates, if not the remains, of the Victims. In part that is precisely why the Accusedʼs enforced disappearances of about 100 human beings constitutes ongoing criminal activity that continues as of today and will continue until the fates of all their Victims have been officially determined by you opening an investigation into my Complaint.

Let us mutually suppose that during the so-called “dirty war” in Argentina the International Criminal Court had been in existence. I submit that as an Argentinean human rights lawyer you would have moved heaven and earth and done everything in your power to get the ICC and its Prosecutor to assume jurisdiction over the Argentine Junta in order to terminate and prosecute their enforced disappearances and torture of your fellow Argentinean citizens. I would have done the same.

Unfortunately, the ICC did not exist during those darkest of days for the Argentine Republic when we could have so acted. But today as the ICC Prosecutor, you have both the opportunity and the legal power to do something to rectify this mass and total human rights annihilation, and to resolve and to terminate and to prosecute the

1. “widespread” and “systematic” policy and practice of enforced disappearances and consequent torture of about 100 human beings by the Accused. Unfortunately, the new Obama administration in the United States has made it perfectly clear by means of public statements by President Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder that they are not going to open any criminal investigation of any of the Accused for these aforementioned Crimes against Humanity. Hence an ICC “case” against the Accused is “admissible” under Rome Statute article 1(complementarity) and article 17. As of right now you and the ICC Judges are the only people in the entire world who can bring some degree of Justice, Closure and Healing into this dire, tragic, and deplorable situation for the lives and well-being of about one hundred “disappeared” and tortured human beings as well as for their loved-ones and next-of-kin, who are also Victims of the Accusedʼs Crimes against Humanity. On behalf of them all, as a fellow human rights lawyer I implore you to
   open an investigation into my Complaint and to issue a public statement to that effect.

Also, most regretfully, the new Obama administration has publicly stated that it will continue the Accusedʼs policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition,” which is really their euphemism for enforced disappearances of human beings and consequent torture by other States. Hence the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration fully intend to commit their own Crimes against Humanity under the ICC Rome Statute – unless you stop them!

Your opening an investigation of my Complaint will undoubtedly deter the Obama administration from engaging in any more “extraordinary renditions” – enforced disappearances of human beings and having them tortured by other States. Indeed your opening of an investigation into my Complaint might encourage the Obama administration to terminate its criminal “extraordinary rendition” program immediately and thoroughly by means of issuing a public statement to that effect.

In other words, your opening an investigation of my Complaint could very well save the lives of a large number of additional human beings who otherwise will be subjected by the Obama administration to the Rome Statute Crimes against Humanity of enforced disappearances of persons and their consequent torture by other States, inter alia.

The lives and well-being of countless human beings are now at risk, hanging in the balance, waiting for you to act promptly, effectively, and immediately to save them from becoming Victims of Rome Statute Crimes against Humanity perpetrated by the Highest Level Officials of the Obama administration as successors-in-law to the Accused by opening an investigation of my Complaint. Otherwise, I shall be forced to file with you and the ICC a follow-up Complaint against the Highest Level

(4) Officials of the Obama administration. I certainly hope it will not come to that. Please make it so.
Finally, for reasons more fully explained in the Conclusion to my Complaint, I respectfully request that you obtain ICC arrest warrants for the Accused in accordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), article 58(1)(b)(i), article 58(1)(b) (ii), and article 58(1)(b)(iii). The sooner, the better for all humankind.

I respectfully request that you schedule a meeting with me at our earliest mutual convenience in order to discuss this Complaint. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

This transmission letter is an integral part of my Complaint against the Accused and is hereby incorporated by reference into the attached Complaint dated as of today as well.

Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.

Francis A. Boyle

Professor of International Law
***********

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River to Sea  Uprooted Palestinian