GORDON DUFF: UNCONSTITUTIONAL, TIME TO END THE SCANNER SCAM

November 28, 2010 posted by Gordon Duff ·

SCANNERS AREN'T LEGAL, NOT IN AMERICA ANYWAY

AIRPORT SCANNERS ARE, IN EVERY WAY, RACKETEERING

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Let’s begin with one fact.  We are using expensive, dangerous and illegal scanners in our airports for one reason.   A year ago, single “terrorist,” really a moronic dupe with a defective bomb in his crotch was escorted onto a plane for Detroit, no search, no passport, not even a ticket, placed on a plane by an airport security officer who is a former IDF “commando.”

These are the facts, plain and simple.  The government depends on you not knowing this so you will let them either radiate you or grope you, you get to choose, next time you fly.  In order to get away with this affront to decency and common sense, they hid the fact that their “terrorist act” never really happened.  Everyone involved, airline personnel, security, all the video, the statements, the names of those who smuggled the “Crotch Bomber” through Shipol Airport, all missing, vanished into thin air, along with the civil rights of over 300 million Americans.


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All we have is a story, more comedy than reality, the scraps of a bomb that could never work, could never damage a plane, a bomb we are supposed to believe traveled 15,000 miles from Yemen through Ghana, Nigeria, the Netherlands to Detroit to burn a hole in someone’s pants.  We know security escorted our criminal mastermind onto the plane.

There is a 99.9% chance that they also gave him the bomb.  Maybe it was in a Duty Free bag.  Nobody ever asked, nobody checked, nobody is asking, nobody is reporting about it.  Who has that kind of power?
The evidence that could prove me wrong mysteriously disappeared including the arrest record of the second terrorist picked up in Detroit Metro Airport.  All video, names of all airline and security personnel in Amsterdam, all statements, all no longer exist.  The “authorities” insist that the “Crotch Bomber” appeared on a plane, perhaps by teleportation, something out of science fiction.  This is exactly what they are telling us to believe and nobody is calling their bluff.  Who has that kind of power?

This is why you are getting x-rays, this is why your children are having their underwear invaded and their private areas groped, this is why your wife’s breasts and pubic areas are being photographed.  See that group around the scanner display?  Is that your teenage daughter going through?

Senator Lieberman, Chairman of
Homeland Security and Unnamed Associate

IS AIRPORT SECURITY AN AIRPORT CONSPIRACY?

Another thing that could be established with a cursory investigation is the direct relationship between the owners of the security company that handles, not only Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, but Detroit as well, and the former Director of Homeland Security, Israeli citizen Michael Chertoff.  What are the inter-relationships between the companies that failed so horribly in dealing with the “Crotch Bomber” and the companies now making billions of dollars selling scanners.  Do you think we could create a big circle, scanner peddlers, government security agencies, airport security “failures” and the politicians who have been peddling the ‘war on terror’ while raking in cash?

The relationships are there and under any normal circumstance with any “normal” group of criminals, we would have a grand jury dealing with these “relationships.”  The usual term for such things is “racketeering.”

SCANNERS AREN’T JUST ILLEGAL, THEY’RE UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Airport scanners are illegal.  They emit cancer causing radiation, no doctor will tell you different.  Such devices are prohibited by the exact same laws that prohibit the use of “dirty bombs.”  An airport scanner is a similar device and using one against another without medical necessity is, in fact, a form of terrorism.
However, the law that declares the use of such devices illegal was given an exception.  The government may, if it wishes,  expose citizens do dangerous and cancer causing radiation because they are planning to travel on airplanes.

For those of us who believe in the constitution, listen carefully.  The federal government does not have the authority to expose anyone to radiation.  Why?

The constitution prohibits it under the theory of “equal protection.”

One could also look on TSA activities as “cruel and unusual punishment” but, as yet, air travel isn’t official a crime, and only criminals can be punished.  Innocent travelers are either sexually assaulted or given cancer.
Back during the Cold War, the military exposed soldiers and sailors to radiation from nuclear weapons, ionizing radiation just like the scanners emit.  They kept it secret for years but, when those exposed started dying of cancer, the government was forced to admit they broke the law.  Yes, they broke the law, exposing humans to radiation is illegal, it was then and it is now.  No group has fewer rights than people in the military but even that wasn’t allowed.  Now we are being told that the government has even more power over air travelers than they do over the military?  We know of no legal precedent for this as none exists.

Yes, air travelers are a “class” of citizen, a group that cannot be subjected to punishment, unlawful search or threats to their life and person, and scanners are absolutely just that, a threat.  Congress may pass no law that modifies or limits any constitutional right, no matter how much money they get from lobbyists or how little five Supreme Court justices seem to care about our laws.  Police can’t go into schools and x-ray children, shopping malls can’t x-ray customers, the military can’t even x-ray soldiers but, for some odd reason, a purely financial reason, airline passengers are unique.

WHY DOESN’T ISRAEL USE SCANNERS?

Oh, you didn’t know this?  Israel, the country that tells us every day that they are plagued with continual terrorism has no airport scanners.  They are illegal in Israel.  They are considered dangerous and a violation of civil rights, even for Palestinian terrorists.

A “Palestinian terrorist” inside Israel has more rights than a pregnant woman in America.

When I think about Israel not having scanners, something I recently saw on Fox News comes to mind.  A week ago, my favorite Israeli-American, yes, my absolute favorite, Geraldo Rivera said something curious.  He was on the Judge Napolitano show, Freedom Watch.  Geraldo had just finished discussing the 9/11 Truth movement and the families of the victims who are demanding a new investigation.  He admitted his errors in the past and expressed, with reservations, support for their efforts.  We thank Geraldo for that and, whatever his motive, he has done something good.

However, before leaving the show, Napolitano asked Geraldo to comment on airport scanners.  Geraldo said that he preferred the “choice” of using “profiling.”  Normally, when a comment is made on Fox, I simply ignore it as I recommend for everyone, not just the comments but what is supposed to pass for news itself.
Geraldo is a different kind of animal, as it were.  He sits closer to the top of the feeding chain than Glen Beck or Sean Hannity.  We actually examine what Geraldo says, the new Geraldo at least, and do so with discernment.  Geraldo has “access” and goofs like Beck and Hannity do not.

Israel uses “profiling” and, theoretically, America doesn’t.  We all know better, of course.  In fact, both governments maintain, not only “no fly lists” but massive secondary “watch lists” and “person of interest” lists which are activated upon purchase of an airline ticket.  This is why tickets that are purchased less than 48 hours before a flight or are purchased with cash guarantee extensive security screening.  We also know America profiles.

PROFILING, IF ONLY I WERE MAKING THE LISTS…..

America has cancer causing scanners and intrusive body searches because Americans refuse to submit to profiling, not because gangster profiteers put a bomb carrying terrorist on one of our planes.  I keep having to remember this, not that any of it is true, but it is what I am told to believe.  Welcome to America.
I shouldn’t blame Michael Chertoff, no, not him, it’s the ACLU, they did it.  America has no profiling and, thus, requires billions of dollars of scanners.  This is what I am told to believe.  However, it is simply not credible.

Does America have profiling?

One of my friends is British but was born in Pakistan.  We went to university together.  He teaches at one of those colleges in Britain we see on TV mysteries, the ones where everyone is murdering everyone else.  He teaches, among other things, American History.  He also heads a security “think tank” that advises, and you will love this, the US Departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security.

We were at The Trout, having lunch with our wives.  “The Trout” is the pub made famous by Inspector Morse (played by actor John Thaw), a well known “watering hole” on the Thames outside Oxford.  While knocking off bottles of Prosecco (an Italian dry sparkling wine made from the Glera grape variety) he told me of the near impossibility for anyone of his ethnicity traveling in the United States.  Notwithstanding his British passport, academic credentials or relationship with the “organs of state security,” he told us that travel to America, even travel around America is intolerable, searches, questioning, confrontations, even threats.
In fact, it is a reasonable statement that only certified terrorists can get through American airports at all, when taking into account ethnic origin.  They seem to glide right through as though they were on magic carpets.

“Going to Yemen for training, look forward to having you back.” ….”Back from terrorist training in Yemen?  Didn’t stop off in Tel Aviv this time?  Good to have you home sir!”

America profiles, not only does it profile but it maintains, as stated, no fly lists but also accesses passport databases and airline records to track, not only foreign travel but use of credit cards as well.  Not only are all “Muslim types” profiled but single males, those who travel to Asia on business and oddly, or should we say “especially,” former and current members of America’s armed forces.  Nobody is more unreliable than someone who has fought for their country.

MY LIST

Ah, but if I were making the lists, it would include a few more categories:

Members of “conservative” organizations that call themselves “patriotic,” whether tied to former military service, gun ownership or beverage choice.  This is where the angry folks who want to blow things up come from, time we all admitted that.

Anyone who has been trained by or served in a foreign military organization.

Any politician who has sworn allegiance or loyalty to a foreign government.

Anyone with a second passport from another country, no matter how “special” that country thinks it is.

Anyone who has a record of traveling in and out of Washington DC.

Anyone who believes in “the rapture”

Anyone who advocates war but has never actually fought in one.

AND THOSE DANGEROUS AIRLINE PILOTS, PROTECT US FROM THEM..

This is logic.  Strip search and radiate an airline pilot then, 5 minutes later, hand him a loaded gun and a jet aircraft with 300 passengers that he can do anything he wishes with.

Ah, for those of you who remember the 70s television show, All In The Family, the irascible “Archie Bunker” (played by actor Carol O’Connor) had a solution to airline hijacking….


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AS USUAL, FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE

When America turned airport security and so much more over to organizations that profit, not just from the “war on terror’ but from America being beset or certainly seeming beset by enemies, does there seem to be a conflict of interest?  When the Secretary of Homeland Security leaves his job and starts peddling airport scanners and then, quite mysteriously, a bizarre and improbable, almost comic terror attack happens, should we wonder?

When the answer we have to a less than credible threat is a solution which may kill thousands, do we suspect those we elected and those we pay to protect and serve?  Do we perhaps consider that they do not have our best interests at heart and, just perhaps, may never have?
Do we finally begin to follow the money?


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

'Vote rigging' mars Egypt election

Low turnout, isolated protests, clashes and claims of vote rigging mark opening of country's parliamentary election.



Slow voting, isolated protests, clashes and claims of vote rigging have marked Egypt's parliamentary election, which is expected to strengthen the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) grip on power and further weaken the opposition.

The NDP is expected to win a solid majority of the 508 elected seats and to make further gains when Hosni Mubarak, the president, fills the 10 remaining seats with his appointees.

The Muslim Brotherhood-  the only serious organised opposition, is predicted to win far fewer seats than the fifth of parliament it secured in the last election in 2005.

The group, which registers its candidates as independents to avoid a ban on religious parties, has 130 members on ballots after more than a dozen were disqualified.

Polling stations opened at 8am (0600 GMT) on Sunday across the country's 254 districts, with around 41 million Egyptians eligible to vote.

Initial indications showed a low voter turnout and protests and skirmishes have been widely reported.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correpondent in Cairo, said that Egypt's High Election Commission had ordered 16 polling stations across five governorates across the country closed due to reports of violations and violence.

In one of Cairo's key districts, the candidate from the Taggammu party told Al Jazeera that more than 2,800 voters were allowed to cast their ballot twice, in two separate polling stations, because they were voting in favour of the ruling NDP candidates.

Meanwhile, witnesses said armed men dispersed a crowd outside a polling station in the city of Mansoura, before a local NDP candidate falsified 150-300 ballots.

Mohyeldin said there were reports of casualties across the country.

"In the city of Mena there are reports that voters in support of the Muslim Brotherhood were attacked by unidentified assailants," he said.

"We also heard a report of supporters of a National Democratic Party candidate and supporters of an independent candidate exchanging gunfire in an area south of Cairo."


'Entry denied'

Mohyeldin said there were also reports that several independent candidate representatives, affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, were being denied entry to polling stations.

"One of the people we've been speaking to, who is an officially licensed monitor to go in on behalf of one of the candidates, went to the school where he was supposed to be a monitor and was turned back," he said.
In Suez, witnesses said hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition candidates demonstrated outside police headquarters to protest at not being allowed to enter the polling station.
Police said they used teargas to disperse clashes between supporters of rival candidates outside polling stations in Qena, 475km south of Cairo.

Witnesses said teargas was also used to clear supporters of independent candidates in Gharbiya, in the Nile Delta, after their delegates were prevented from entering polling centres to monitor voting.

More than 1,000 of its supporters have been arrested while campaigning or in clashes with police in past weeks.

Eleven of them were sentenced this week to two years in jail for handing out the group's leaflets and campaigning.

Egypt bans using religious slogans in campaigns.

Fraud accusations

Rights groups say Egyptian elections, which consistently reproduce NDP-dominated parliaments, are routinely spoiled by fraud at the ballot box, a claim denied by the government, which has pledged to hold a fair vote.

Local civil society groups have complained that the authorities rejected requests for thousands of permits to monitor the vote and the count, but the electoral commission says it granted more than 6,000 permits.

Only 10 per cent of observers who applied were granted permits to watch the voting and those who got them will be under tight restrictions, said rights activist Bahey-eldin Hassan.

Local monitors are not allowed to question election officials or voters.

The government has barred international observers as an infringement of its sovereignty.

"The elections are already fatally compromised," Tom Malinowski, part of a delegation from the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said.

"It is not going to be a fair and free election," he said.

The NDP is running about 800 candidates. Legal opposition parties, the majority of which have no representation in the outgoing parliament, are running about 450 candidates.

The election is being closely watched for an indication of how the government will conduct the more important presidential election in 2011.

Mubarak, 82, has not yet said whether he will run in the next election. But the former air force chief's eventual successor will most likely come from his ruling NDP or the military.


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BDS in action...

Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 4:19PM Gilad Atzmon

BDS 27 novembre 2011
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Egyptian Election: to be rigged or not to be. That is the question

Egyptian Election

 

The ruling party has put a great deal of effort and resources into revamping its image, but internal squabbling threatens to make it all an exercise in futility

NDP Posters in a country whose means of transportation is still as shown above because the country is run by nobody but donkeys. 

What a shame!

Egyptian voters head to the polls tomorrow to cast their ballots in what is expected to be the fiercest battle over electing a new People’s Assembly — Egypt’s lower house of parliament — in the country’s modern history. The number of candidates hit an unprecedented 5,120, up from 4,243 in 2005 and 4,250 in the 2000 election. The candidates will be competing for 508 parliamentary sears, 64 of them reserved for women.

Upon the orders of the Higher Elections Commission (HEC), the semi judicial body in charge of supervising the polls, the two-week election campaigns were brought to an end late Friday. Although fierce, the campaigns were relatively peaceful in a country with a history of violence around polls, claiming the lives of two citizens.

As most political analysts, and even ordinary citizens, agree, two formidable rivals will dominate the 2010 election battle scene tomorrow: the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement.

















The ruling NDP has mobilised to win the majority of seats, thus retaining its grip on political and parliamentary life in Egypt for the next five years and maintaining its upper hand in selecting the candidate for the presidency in next year’s election.

For senior NDP leaders, especially Gamal Mubarak, the 47-year-old son of NDP Chairman President Hosni Mubarak and the head of the party’s influential Policies Committee, the 2010 election for the People’s Assembly is the first serious test for his reformist initiatives adopted since 2005. Many also believe that the election is a test for Gamal Mubarak’s popularity on the street, and for his presumed presidential ambitions in the future.

 Like father like son: the-fourth-Pharaoh-to-be, Gamal Mubarak (above), and the third clown; Honey Mubarak (below). Egypt, beware of the fourth clown!!!! Please read my post  

Noor: My detailed answer to your questions regarding Egypt

"

 

According to NDP’s Secretariat for Organisational Affairs, led by Ahmed Ezz, a steel magnate and associate of Gamal Mubarak, the ruling party has put together a three-pronged strategy aimed at utilising its two million-member voting bloc and winning no less than one third of the total seats in contest in the first round. More than 200,000 NDP officials all over Egypt will be available to make sure that the party’s members vote for its candidates. Besides, the NDP's central operations rooms in Cairo and other governorates will contact members by phone and SMS messages to instruct them to go out and vote for the party’s candidates.

The party is also fielding multiple candidates in 125 of Egypt’s 222 districts, each of which returns two deputies. Two NDP candidates will compete against each other in 41 districts, and more than two in 84 districts. In total, the NDP is fielding 839 candidates, rather than the 508 it initially announced. This includes 770 candidates competing for 444 seats in 222 districts, and 69 female candidates competing for 64 women-only seats in 32 districts. Meanwhile, more than 2,500 candidates are in fact NDP members who have decided to run independently. Senior NDP officials believe that the party’s large number of candidates — either official NDP candidates or so-called NDP-independents — will ensure that it retains the majority of seats and brings a new parliament clean of Muslim Brotherhood deputies.

 Rigged, rigged, rigged

For its part, the NDP’s archrival, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, does not appear intimidated. Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie told Aljazeera on 24 November that the group has developed its own strategy for countering the NDP’s electoral tactics. “Our voting bloc will be also mobilised via the internet and SMS messages,” said Badie, estimating that “more than 500,000 mobile phone messages will be sent to the group’s members tomorrow morning to go out and vote.” The SMS message will tell Brotherhood members “Together we will change”, “You should vote because it is a religious duty” and “Your vote is a trust you shouldn’t waste.”

As was the case in previous elections, the Brotherhood’s women members — or "sisters" — will be also amassed to urge members to vote for the group’s women candidates. In Badie’s words, “I do not expect that we will win a large number of seats, but we are determined that the people should vote for the candidates they wish and that Muslim Brothers are ready to sacrifice their lives to ensure that the voting is fair and free.” The Brotherhood is fielding 130 candidates, including 17 women candidates. Political observers, however, believe that like the NDP, there are other Brotherhood candidates running without declaring their ties to the group. Amr Hashem Rabie, an Ahram political analyst, estimates that 180 Brotherhood candidates are running in the election in total.

The two-week election campaigns witnessed the NDP and Brotherhood engaged in legal and political warfare. The NDP asked the HEC to bring Brotherhood supporters who raise the slogan “Islam is the Solution” under judicial investigation. The NDP also filed a lawsuit with the prosecutor-general, asking him to begin interrogating “all those who run as candidates of a banned group in violation of the amended Article 5 of the constitution, which imposes a ban on those who exercise politics under a religious foundation.” Mohamed Dakrori, the NDP’s legal adviser, also indicated that Article 22 of the 1977 Political Parties Law states that those who mix politics and religion should be censured.

In response, hundreds of Brotherhood candidates were able to get rulings from administrative courts stating that they should be allowed to run. Administrative courts even ordered that elections in two governorates — Alexandria and Kafr El-Sheikh — should be postponed until rulings allowing Brotherhood and other candidates to run are implemented.

Cairo University professor of political science Hassan Nafaa believes the result of the election is a foregone conclusion. “As expected,” argued Nafaa, “the election will be manipulated in favour of the NDP and I do not think that the next parliament will be different in any way from previous ones.” Others, like chairman of the NDP Media Committee and Cairo University professor of political science Alieddin Hilal, contend that “the coming election will see tough competition and it will lead to a strengthening of Egypt’s multi-party system.” Above all, Hilal added, it will offer new proof that those who believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is the largest opposition force in Egypt are wrong.

Alexandria is expected to be the stage of the fiercest battles between the NDP and Muslim Brotherhood candidates. Violence is expected to erupt in the district of Al-Raml where Minister of Local Development Abdel-Sallam Al-Mahgoub, the NDP candidate, will be fighting the Brotherhood’s veteran MP and candidate Sobhi Saleh.

NDP = more corruption, more American and Zionists infiltration and influence, more deterioration of the already deteriorated situation. NDP is a witch concocting potion for nothing but self-interest so that the rich get richer. Egyptians, beware of the fourth Pharaoh!!!!

Posted by Aadel M Al-Mahdy at 7:17 PM

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Mishaal calls for resistance in the West Bank

[ 28/11/2010 - 11:03 AM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Chairman of Hamas's political bureau Khaled Mishaal said that his movement was facing big challenges in the occupied West Bank.

Mishaal, speaking at a meeting for politicians and notable opposition writers and intellectuals on Saturday night, said that the resistance was being targeted by the Dayton-trained Fatah security forces in the West Bank.

He warned that Palestinian constants were in danger in the event resistance against occupation was restrained.

The Hamas leader said that only armed struggle would retain the Palestine cause alive despite western aid to Abbas and his forces.

Mishaal said that Hamas opposes the settlement talks sponsored by the USA because it would entail big compromises in Palestinian lands occupied in 1967 in addition to the refugees right of return.

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Iran offers to protect Lebanon and Hezbollah defense needs

Haartez

Lebanon PM visits Tehran amid mutual efforts to deepen relations, will also hold talks with Ahmadinejad.

By News Agencies

Iran is prepared to cover the defense needs of both Lebanon and the anti-Israel Hezbollah movement, the ISNA news agency reported on Sunday.

"Iran has constantly said that it would be beside the Lebanese army and resistance [Hezbollah] and ready to cover the country's defense needs," Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said at a military fair in Tehran also attended by visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, according to ISNA.

Hariri welcomed the Iranian offer and called for a closer cooperation between the two countries' defence ministries, ISNA said.

Hariri arrived in Tehran on Saturday and is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later Sunday.

As a symbol of Iran's solidarity with Lebanon, Vahidi presented Hariri an Iran-made machine-gun.

In a meeting earlier Sunday with Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, the two sides urged a deepening of relations in all fields.

But Hariri's visit has been overshadowed by Iran's support for Hezbollah, which leads the opposition against his Western-backed government.

The rift between the two factions has widened after (ISRAELI) reports that the United Nations-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former premier Rafik Hariri, was ready to indict Hezbollah members for the murder.

Iranian media quoted Hariri as saying Sunday that he was the leader of the "unity government" and hence represented all political parties and groups in Lebanon.

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Detainees in Jericho jail on hunger strike to death in protest at violations

[ 28/11/2010 - 10:51 AM ]

JERICHO, (PIC)-- Palestinian detainees from Hamas Movement in the Jericho prison administrated by the Palestinian authority (PA) went on open hunger strike until death in protest at the serious violations committed against them by interrogators and jailers.

Sources close to the families of these prisoners said that the brutal practices used against them over two years and the humiliation they are exposed to prompted them to take such step.

In a statement on Saturday, the families held de facto president Mahmoud Abbas and his security apparatuses fully responsible for the lives of their sons and appealed to Palestinian human rights organizations to intervene to have them released from PA jails.

In a separate context, head of the association of Palestinian scholars Marwan Abu Ras described the violations committed by the PA security militias against Palestinian women in the West Bank as a humanitarian, national and religious crime, which causes damage to the Palestinian unity.

Abu Ras added in a press release on Saturday that the lies fabricated by the PA security militias against Palestinian women can deceive nobody because they are notorious for distorting the facts and had an ugly history in Gaza.

He stated that the PA security apparatuses follow the Zio-American dictates and were established only to protect the security of the Israeli occupation.

In this context, the PA militias kidnapped four Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas in the cities of Tulkarem and Bethlehem, according to local sources on Sunday.

For their part, a number of Palestinian recently released from Nablus jails reported that the PA interrogators in Juneid prison use brutal torture methods in order to force them to make false confessions about the alleged attempt to assassinate the governor of Nablus city.

They confirmed they heard PA interrogators threatening prisoners to confess they wanted to kill the governor or they would be killed in a fabricated way similar to what happened previously to other Hamas detainees.

In a related context, PA minister of interior Sa'eed Abul Rab told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that the ongoing security cooperation between the PA and Israel is between an authority under occupation and the occupation authority.

Abu Rab claimed that this cooperation is intended to organize the daily life in the occupied Palestinian territories and not to exchange information.

The PA official added that this coordination helps facilitate the movement of Palestinians in the occupied lands where there are more than 460 Israeli military checkpoints, noting that even PA chief Mahmoud Abbas cannot move outside Ramallah city without prior coordination with Israel.

Prisoner Abul Haseen on hunger strike again because of delaying his due release

[ 27/11/2010 - 01:47 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abul Haseen, from Gaza Strip, declared his intention to resume his hunger strike next Tuesday in protest at not releasing him after he finished serving his sentence in August 2010 at the pretext he has no Palestinian ID.

Director of the prisoners' center for studies Rafat Hamdouna condemned the Israeli occupation authority for delaying the release of Abul Haseen and keeping him in prison without justification.

Hamdouna appealed to all parties concerned about prisoners' affairs, especially the Red Cross to follow up the legal position of prisoner Abul Haseen and work on releasing him from Israeli jails.

For their part, the Palestinian prisoners in Nafha prison went on hunger strike on Friday for only one day to protest the persistent search raids that are carried out by Israeli military units on their sections.

Spokesman for the high national committee for the support of prisoners Riyadh Al-Ashqar said that Israeli troops stormed on Thursday morning the sections 10 and 14, assembled the prisoners in another section and embarked on ransacking things inside their rooms before they found a cell phone used by the prisoners to contact their families as a result of the restrictions imposed on family visits.

In a separate incident, the high national committee said that the Israeli troops stormed section C5 in Negev prison and carried out a thorough search inside it at the pretext of looking for banned stuff.

The prison administration confiscated prisoners' belongings in this section and decided to deprive them of seeing their families for one month.

The committee also reported that the Israeli administration of Nafha prison transferred Gazan prisoners Fahd Al-Zaqzaq and Bassim Al-Kurd to the jails of Eshel and Ramon. Both of them are serving life imprisonment.

For its part, the Israeli administration of Hadarim prison extended the solitary confinement of Mohamed Arman, a prominent leader of Al-Qassam Brigades, after it summoned him for interrogation once again, according to the high national committee.

The committee said that prisoner Arman was subjected to a new round of interrogation sessions that started last week.

Arman was captured eight years ago in occupied Jerusalem on a charge of leading what was described then as the most dangerous cell of Al-Qassam Brigades and now he is serving 36 life sentences.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Sayyed Nasrallah Delivers Decisive Speech 1230 GMT

28/11/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah delivers a speech Sunday at 1230 GMT during a ceremony organized by Hezbollah’s educational mobilization at the Sayyed Shouhada’ compound in Beirut’s southern suburb.

The annual ceremony will mark the graduation of 2950 university students.

Media sources said that Sayyed Nasrallah’s speech will be “very decisive.” They added that the Hezbollah chief will continue his “five chapters” speech, in which he illustrated the five methods used to target Hezbollah so as to draw the outlines of the “new phase.”

The head of the University Division in Hezbollah, Bilal Laqqis, told Al-Manar Website that “Sayyed Nasrallah’s speech on such an occasion comes in very extraordinary circumstances in Lebanon and on the eve of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) indictment [expected to accuse Hezbollah in PM Rafiq Hariri’s assassination].”

According to media reports, the STL indictment could be issued within days or weeks, and probably before mid December.

Al-Manar Website ran an article by Dr. Franklin Lamb last week relating US Undersecretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffery Feltman’s plan to destroy Hezbollah, and how he told US Ambassador to Lebanon Mora Conelli that destroying the party [through the STL indictment and other means] will be his “gift to Lebanon for Christmas.”

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Haneyya receives Road to Hope activists in Gaza

Haneyya receives Road to Hope activists in Gaza

[ 28/11/2010 - 09:53 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya received Saturday the participants in the European Road to Hope convoy that arrived in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Premier Haneyya expressed thanks on behalf of the government and the Palestinian people to all members of the convoy for their struggle to reach Gaza.

"We keenly followed the journey of the convoy, and your arrival in Gaza confirmed, with unequivocal messages, that the world cannot tolerate the unjust siege on the Palestinian people," the premier told the activists during his meeting with them at the cabinet headquarters.

"We consider the convoy not only humanitarian but also political par excellence intended to support the Palestinian people who have been suffering from the occupation for more than 63 years as well as their just demands for the establishment of the Palestinian state with holy Jerusalem as its capital," he added.

For his part, head of the aid convoy Ken O’Keefe opined that the goal of the convoy was only humanitarian and explained the hardships the convoy encountered during their trip.

He noted that there are two kinds of blockade on Gaza, a partial Egyptian siege and a comprehensive Israeli siege and expressed his thanks to Algeria and Morocco for facilitating the passage of the convoy through their borders.

For his part, coordinator of the convoy Saeb Sha'ath stated that the main goal of the convoy was purely political aimed at breaking the siege and strengthening the steadfastness of Gaza people.

"We are aware that Gaza is the stronghold of the Palestinian cause because if Gaza achieved a victory, Palestine and the whole nation would triumph too, and if it was defeated, the whole nation would be routed," Sha'ath added.

Visiting European parliamentary delegation demands an end to Gaza siege

[ 28/11/2010 - 09:29 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The European parliamentary delegation that arrived in the Gaza Strip on Saturday has called for international solidarity with the people of Gaza and for lifting the siege on the Strip without any conditions attached.

The chief delegate said on Saturday evening that the delegates want to follow up developments in Gaza personally to write reports on its conditions.

He explained that the team, which includes seven European MPs and assistants, would visit all institutions and factions and would also tour Jerusalem and the West Bank.

For his part, Hamas MP Ismail Al-Ashqar told the visitors that the Palestinian people in Gaza were still suffering due to the repeated power failures, ban on entry of construction material, and lack of necessary materials.

He also asked the foreign dignitaries to pressure Israel to revoke its decision to banish Jerusalemite deputies.

For his part, minister of prisoners MP Mohammed Al-Ghoul called for ending the suffering of 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

He also championed implementing international resolutions including lifting the siege and reconstruction of Gaza. He also said that Israeli leaders should stand trial for war crimes against the Palestinian people.


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"Hariri walks into the Iranian web abandoned by US, Israel, Saudi Arabia"

Comment:

I am aware DEKA is a Zionist (Mossad site)- We should know our enemy, and to know we should read. Zionists, outraged with Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon, are mad at Hariri's so called "suicidal trip" to Tehran. I assume Ahmad Abu-Alghait is outraged.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

November 27, 2010, 12:52 PM (GMT+02:00)

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri begins a suicidal trip to the Iranian capital Saturday, Nov. 27, to the accompaniment of falling Western holdings across the Middle East, debkafile's military analysts report.
 
Finding the US, Israel and the Arab world unwilling to rescue him from Syria and Iran he, like Samson in Philistine captivity, decided to take them with him when he is crushed by Hizballah.
 
During his two-day stay in Tehran, a month after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad turned up in Beirut, Hariri will give more ground – as he did in his cap-in-hand interviews with Syrian President Bashar Assad. But he has no illusions he can save himself from being pushed out by a puppet regime.

Nothing Hariri can do now will stop Hizballah seizing control of Beirut and other strategic regions of the country including the Lebanese-Syrian border crossings in early December to prevent the Special Lebanese Tribunal indicting the Shiite radicals for complicity in his father's assassination five years ago.

The Lebanese prime minister's uncharacteristic verbal onslaughts on Israel will not help him - any more than his declared refusal, as an Arab League member, to join the radical axis led by Tehran Hizballah and Turkey or sign a military treaty that would violate UN sanctions against Iran.

debkafile's military sources point out that Lebanon's membership of the Arab Leaguehas no bearing on whether or not it falls into the clutches of Iran, Hizballah and fellow-member Syria, because the League is politically and militarily toothless. In fact, some of its members believe non-Arab Iran and Turkey should be invited to join and the body expanded into a Muslim League for a concerted fight against Israel.

The anti-Israel element dominated Turkish Prime Minister Reccep Erdogan's call in Beirut, Wednesday, Nov. 13 for the establishment of a global Islamic bloc.

Ankara, he said, would not stand aside in any new conflicts between Lebanon and Israel, or Israel and the Palestinian Hamas government of the Gaza Strip.

It was the first time that Erdogan had explicitly committed Turkey's armed forces to intervening in a war against Israel and its Defense Forces.

Although this pledge and other hostile steps consistently chip away at Israel's military supremacy, Washington and Jerusalem have not found the words to say or the action to pursue in response. They seem to be treating a succession of setbacks inflicted by Middle East radicals as occurring far away on a distant planet.

Their limpness will lead to three potential consequences:

1. The Obama administration is letting things slide in Lebanon because it cannot cope with that crisis while deciding what to do about the Korean clash of arms. There, too, Washington is showing military weakness and turning to China for help. But on Dec. 5, when the six powers and Iran sit down for nuclear talks, the Americans will find a delegation representing a regime much empowered by Its success in dominating Lebanon instead of debilitated by sanctions as expected.

2. Israel has mislaid its teeth most of all because of the breach between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Obama administration on the terms for reviving talks with the Palestinians. It widens every time he says he is waiting for a letter of guarantee from Washington before he asks the cabinet to approve a three-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction - knowing full well the administration does not plan to send one any time soon.
Secondly, the Israeli public is too caught up in lurid disclosures of sex and corruption scandals in high places to pay attention to much else. Departing Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin's comment about Israel's deterrent strength Nov. 23, in the past tense would normally have made news headlines. Not these days.
Yadlin was not the first to voice concern about Israel's shrinking military edge over its enemies. Uzi Rubin, one of the heads of Israel's missile industry and a father of the Arrow missile interceptor, has warned: "The enemy has achieved aerial supremacy without even having aircraft." He spoke of Syria and Hizballah being allowed to pile up 1,500 surface missiles with guidance systems which are pointed at Tel Aviv.

3.  Saudi Arabia, which stepped up as a responsible moderate Arab force capable of saving Western influence in Lebanon, opted out of this role when King Abdullah left the scene and travelled to New York for surgery.

It now turns out that the Saudi ploy led by the king's son Prince Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah for defusing the Lebanese crisis by enlisting Syria was cynically exploited by Damascus, Tehran and Hizballah. It gave them extra time to perfect their conspiracy for bringing Lebanon to heel.

Finding himself defending Lebanon alone at the barricades, Hariri threw in the sponge and decided to fly to Tehran and bow to his fate. 

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Khatib: Release of Sheikh Salah early next month

[ 28/11/2010 - 09:14 AM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Deputy leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib has said that the leader of the movement Sheikh Ra'ed Salah is to be released from Israeli detention next month.

Khatib told the PIC on Saturday night that Sheikh Salah is till being held in solitary confinement and suffering from the "cruelty" of Israeli jailors.

He added that the Sheikh is expected out of jail by 12/12 or a few days later, adding that a hero's welcome is awaiting him.

The Islamic leader underlined that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) had extended its ban on entry of Sheikh Salah into Jerusalem while he was in jail.

Khatib said that the IOA wanted to keep Sheikh Salah away from the holy city in a bid to isolate him from the city and its inhabitants.

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Israeli soldiers on 'Human Shield' trial

Friday, November 26, 2010 at 1:04PM Gilad Atzmon

 

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GORDON DUFF: WIKILEAK PREDICTIONS, STICKING MY NECK OUT

November 27, 2010 posted by Gordon Duff

WIKILEAKS, A TOUCH OF ASSANGE AND THE STENCH OF AIPAC

“recent admissions that the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, routinely receives masses of classified information makes them suspect #1 for being the source of Wikileaks”
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Wikileaks is like a TV show that never gets off the ground.  We started with a “shoot ‘em up” in Iraq, the helicopter slaughter soon forgotten and move on to, well, what?  We got a deluge of material from Afghanistan, carefully gleaned to point fingers at Pakistan.  When it came down to backing any of it up, it went nowhere.

Considering the massive corruption and drug scandals, even the revelations that President Karzai has been in negotiations with pranksters pretending to be the Talbian, all the really juicy stuff from Afghanistan must have been in another drawer. Then we got Iraq.  Ah, Iraq.  There, we could check.  We know the people who wrote the leaked material.  They told us Wikileaks edited it, altered it, redacted it more than the Pentagon.

The “Iraq War Log” was, well…phony. There is one thing that has been consistent about Wikileaks and our prediction is that this next batch, reputed to be millions of highly sensitive documents, will prove our point. Wikileaks is Israel.

Wikileaks is an intelligence operation to weaken and undermine the American government, orchestrated from Tel Aviv, using dozens of operatives, dual citizens, some at the highest authority levels, spies for Israel.   Through leaking carefully selected intelligence along with proven falsified documents, all fed to a controlled press, fully complicit, Wikileaks is, in fact, an act of war against the United States.

HOW CAN ISRAEL SIFT THROUGH DEFENSE DOCUMENTS?

This last week, in a lawsuit over an AIPAC, (Israel’s lobby) employee reputedly fired for being caught spying against the US, news stories across the United States reported that, as part of that $20 million civil case, evidence will be presented that masses of classified material come to AIPAC and Israel continually.  Is AIPAC Wikileaks? The only evidence of any massive leak discovered in the Pentagon is AIPAC.  Last week’s Washington Post story was buried quicker than a carp in a playground: Jeff Stein, at the Washinton Post, reports the following:

Rosen says his actions were common practice at the organization. He said his next move is to show that AIPAC, Washington’s major pro-Israeli lobbying group by far, regularly traffics in sensitive U.S. government information, especially material related to the Middle East. “I will introduce documentary evidence that AIPAC approved of the receipt of classified information,” he said by e-mail. “Most instances of actual receipt are hard to document, because orally received information rarely comes with classified stamps on it nor record’s alerts that the information is classified.”
But Rosen said he would produce “statements of AIPAC employees to the FBI, internal documents, deposition statements, public statements and other evidence showing that [the] receipt of classified information by employees other than [himself] … was condoned … for months prior to being condemned in March 2005 after threats from the prosecutors.”

How does this apply to Wikileaks?  The answer, if we bother to put the pieces together, is staring us in the face.  The proof, the ultimate proof, however, will be in the current batch of documents that have already been prepared, weeks of work by dozens with access to classified documents, and only one group has that access and can operate with impunity, as was shown in a recent story in Veterans Today:

AIPAC is a sham.  The group has, over the years, destroyed anyone who has tried to have it named what it really is, a dangerous foreign lobby and nest of spies.  AIPAC is the most feared organization in Washington and most powerful, above any law.  A former employee of AIPAC, Steve Rosen, who AIPAC claims was a spy, more appropriately a “caught” spy, now claims his former employer does nothing but spy. Rosen stands to get $20 million in his defamation lawsuit against AIPAC.
He isn’t without motive but we have also learned that Rosen has considerable documentation of AIPAC receiving and disseminating classified information, received from, well, we have to call them traitors, inside the US government. We know that a vast spy ring operates in Washington and that Israel is the center of it.
We also know that Israel, Turkey, India, Pakistan, China and Russia trade American secrets back and forth like baseball cards.  We know that AIPAC is deeply involved in this spying. We know that AIPAC claims to hold signed letters of unconditional support from 80% of the members of congress, all of whom received campaign contributions arranged by AIPAC, with many elections financed almost entirely by AIPAC, a group involved, according to the Washington Post and Steve Rosen, in spying on the United States with seeming complicity by the FBI itself.

WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR, HOW CAN WE PROVE ISRAEL OR AIPAC MAY BE BEHIND WIKILEAKS?

Were we to ask author Jeff Gates, he would point to the “storytelling” aspect of Wikileaks, Assange and his “on again-off again” rape charges or that someone that manages to make it to continual television interviews can’t be found by police or security services. We call this “storytelling” and Jeff Gates tells us that Israel, the power behind Hollywood and the American press, is the “storyteller” of all time.

There are better ways to “prove,” a word as subjective as any of the storytelling around the Wikileaks myth itself.  The proof, always depending on who accepts the proof, and as is almost always the case, dependent on whether the press itself chooses to report it, which if Israel is involved, is more than a bit predictable itself. Lack of reporting potential Israeli complicity in Wikileaks, knowing AIPAC and Israel have the longest history of accessing classified information and, by far, the strongest agenda for leaking information, could be seen as conclusive proof itself.

WHAT WILL BE IN WIKILEAKS?

If dual citizens who make up much of the Pentagon’s leadership are working with Israel or AIPAC to formulate Wikileaks, as seems to be the case, then the upcoming leak will serve a pro-Israeli agenda, even if it damages the United States, as other Wikileaks have.  These are Israeli agenda items:

• Discrediting Obama foreign policy in order to weaken the president’s influence with congress to push for a halt on new settlements in Palestine and the forced removal of Islamic property owners.
• Accusations involving Turkey, now feuding with Israel over the killing of Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara, now recognized as a purely humanitarian mission.  These accusations against Turkey may include weapons being supplied to terrorists in Iraq, a fanciful abuse of reality.  What will not be reported, if this story is “leaked” either through Wikileaks or the other Israeli sources, “Debka”..”Stratfor”..”FamilySecurityMatters.org”..or the infamous “IsraelNationalNews.com” is Israel’s 40 years of complicity in the very acts they now accuse Turkey of.
• More importantly, is the issue of blaming Turkey for the actions of the terrorist group, PKK, long funded by Israel and now claimed to be allied to Al Qaeda, is vital to Israel’s strategy against Turkey.
• Expect Pakistan to be hit, as usual.  An Islamic nuclear power with a top rate million man army that outclasses Israel hands down, Pakistan, primary competitor for US aid dollars, a country that actually has agreements with the United States and real troops fighting alongside Americans, will get their usual Wikileaks bashing.

WIKILEAKS IS CHICKENFEED MEANT TO COVER ISRAEL’S TAIL

Is it a coincidence that documents regarding Israel, their spying, influence peddling, suspicions of complicity  in terrorism, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, across Europe and even the Detroit bombing, those reports are there, they are classified but you will never see one on Wikileaks.  In fact, they are the only classified information that never gets out to the news.  Is that because, as we have learned, the borders of Israel extend well into Washington DC, well into the Pentagon?  What won’t we see in Wikileaks:

• Nothing in Wikileaks will accuse anyone, even Pakistan or Afghanistan, or complicity in narcotics trafficking nor mention the huge new narcotics industry operating in Iraq.  Ask yourself why.
• One of the biggest areas of complaint in the Pentagon, more classified White Papers have been written on this than anything else:  “How Israel is Endangering the United States“
• In fact, the biggest “classified” debate in America is what supporting Israel, a nation with incredible wealth and utterly obnoxious leaders costs the United States.  Rumors of such issues aren’t rumors at all.  When General Petraeus presented his now famous power-point presentation to Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlining how Israel is undermining American foreign policy, he wasn’t operating without tens of thousands of pages of intelligence behind him.  Not one page, not one word of these studies will be in Wikileaks.
• When Vice President Joe Biden said the following to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu:    

“This is starting to get dangerous for us, what you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”

Are we to believe these statements were taken out of thin air?  In fact, Petraeus, Mullen and Biden are only the tip of the iceberg.  Admiral Mullen, America’s top military leader under the Commander in Chief, has repeatedly cited Israel and America’s relationship, as, not only a liability but something far worse, so much worse that:

As public statements by Admiral Mullen, Vice President Biden, General Petraeus and others, citing America’s relationship with Israel as a military disaster, are obviously “watered down” for public consumption, can you imagine what classified reports are saying?

WHY PRESIDENT OBAMA IS AFRAID AND WHY AMERICA IS PARALYZED

The greatest fear any president has, even more than impeachment, is the fate of Jimmie Carter.  Carter, now pegged as an “Antisemite” and “enemy of the state” in Israel, is still being sold to Americans as something quite the opposite of reality.  Friends in Israel, if they want to start a row, something not too difficult in Israel as you might guess, will walk around carrying one of Jimmie Carter’s books under their arm.  A Yasser Arafat t-shirt and suicide vest are considered only marginally worse. Carter left office under mysterious circumstances.  Several disasters, high interest rates, the hostage crisis and the failed rescue attempt showed signs of conspiratorial meddling.  His real crimes were:

• Pushing Israel for a durable and lasting Middle East peace
• Monetary policies that kept America out of debt…
• Support of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid
• Unwillingness to engage in military adventure

When the defense and oil lobby joined with Israel and Wall Street to crush the Carter presidency, the writing was on the wall.  Interest rates, the “October surprise” and the military sabotaging the hostage rescue attempt, these things destroyed President Carter who might, otherwise, have suffered an “accident” like the Kennedy brothers.  Today, millions of Americans who should be praying to return to Carters foreign policy and fiscal conservatism, are taught to look on him as a failure.  However, more and more, historians are seeing Carter as the last American president.  Every leader since has been dictated to by Israel.


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Washington Worried About the Rising Role of Sadr’s Movement in Iraq

27/11/2010 By Yusuf Fernandez

Exclusive to Al-Manar

A main feature of the last Iraqi parliamentary election, held on March 7, was the rise of Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement. Sadr, a Shiite cleric and son of Mohammad Baqir al Sadr, one the most prominent Iraqi Shiite scholars, has been a fierce opponent of the US occupation of the country. The Sadrist forces and Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) make up the bulk of the Iraqi National Alliance, which has supported Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki for a second term of premiership. Maliki hailed the deal with these parties, casting it as a decisive breakthrough to put an end to the political stalemate that the country reached after the election.

In these seven months, the Barack Obama administration claimed that it would “not interfere” in Iraq’s internal political process. However, it tried to promote the creation of a pro-Western government coalition between Maliki and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a former “CIA asset.” The US Administration demanded that a quick agreement be worked out. “We have been under tremendous pressure by the Americans … in clearly asking President (Jalal) Talabani to step down,” a Kurdish official told Jane Araf of the Christian Science Monitor. Both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden personally called Talabani to demand the resignation in order to let Allawi become the new President, he said. However, the Kurdish parties showed no desire to accept that US demand.

However, the Iraqiyya bloc, led by Allawi, reached under pressure a coalition agreement with Maliki’s State of the Law bloc. Under the agreement, the job of Speaker of parliament went to Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni member of al-Iraqiya, who, along with his brother, controls the northern city of Mosul. The surprise came when the Iraqi lawmakers massively abandoned a parliamentary meeting where Maliki was going to be again appointed Prime Minister. Allawi then denounced the agreement and warned about more violence in Iraq.

Therefore, the new political equation in Iraq is that Maliki will remain in power - thanks to support by the Sadrist bloc. The Los Angeles Times called the agreement with the Sadrists “a stunning victory” for Maliki and “a strategic defeat for Washington, which had pressed for a prominent role for Maliki’s rival, and appeared to be caught flatfooted by the rapid developments.”

A HISTORY OF RESISTANCE

Sadr’s Madhi Army launched two rebellions in April and August 2004 against US occupation in Iraq. There were more clashes in the years 2007-2008. Muqatada was then described as “the most dangerous man in Iraq” by US media. However, for Iraqis and more particularly for Shiite Iraqis he was a hero; a man who dared to oppose to the hateful occupiers not only with words but also with acts. The new political agreement between Sadr and Maliki both provide fresh evidence that General David Petraeus's war against the Mahdi Army in 2007-2008 was a futile exercise.

Sadr had up until recently opposed a second term for Maliki. Backed by US forces, Maliki in 2008 launched an offensive against Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Baghdad’s Sadr City as well as in the southern city of Basra. Both sides then reached a deal and Sadr called his supporters to put down their arms, but he continued to denounce the US occupation and to call for the total withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

In 2007, Sadr settled in the Iranian holy city of Qom where he started religious studies in order to strengthen his religious status among the Iraqi Shiites. In Iran, he established a network of important relations with political and religious leaders. According to several sources, Iran has helped Maliki and Sadr to overcome their past problems and political differences in order to reach the government agreement.

Sadr's political comeback was the result of careful planning. A year before the March elections, he and his top aides set up an election strategy committee they dubbed the "machine." The goal was to use the electoral system as best as they could. A team of experts built an extensive database of voters in every province and designed a bright electoral campaign.

Actually, it was not difficult. Sadr’s anti-occupation posture, his trend of religious nationalism and his image as the defender of the Shiite community made his party, the Free Movement party, become the only one that gained new seats in the election. The Free Movement won 39 of the 325 positions. In the election, the Iraqiyya bloc got the most seats, 91, while Maliki’s State of Law bloc won 89. However, both Allawi and Maliki fell far short of the overall 163 majority. However, the Shiite religious parties, including Maliki’s own party, Ad-Da’wa, had a clear majority.

WASHINGTON FEARS AN “IRAQI HEZBOLLAH”

Some US officials now fear the Sadrist movement can duplicate the success of Hezbollah, a resistance movement which has developed a strong armed organization as well as a network of advanced social programs. The language Sadr uses when discussing the US presence in Iraq -resistance and occupation- is similar to some of Hezbollah´s statements against Israeli occupation.

Patrick Cockburn, author of the book “Muqtada”, wrote that Sadr represented “the only grassroots movement in Iraq.” He explains in his work that that while US media and government “demonize and belittle” Sadr, he has developed a “solid strength stemming from the Shiite faith.” “Muqtada and his followers are intensely religious and see themselves as following in the tradition of martyrdom in opposition to the tyranny established when (Imams) Hussein and Abbas were killed by the Umayyads on the plains of Karbala fourteen hundred years ago,” said Cockburn.

According to Los Angeles Times, there is no doubt that the agreement with Maliki will give Sadrists increasing influence over Iraqi security forces, governors' offices and even its prisons. In recent months, Maliki's government has freed hundreds of members of the Mahdi Army and handed security positions to veteran commanders of the militia who fought against US forces. Senior Sadr supporters are being brought into the Interior Ministry at high-level positions, Mahdi Army members and Iraqi officers told the Times. The group has secured political gains also. The Sadr camp won the deputy speaker position in Parliament and is said to be vying for the post of deputy prime minister too.

US DECLINING INFLUENCE

Los Angeles Times added that Sadr movement's prominence will surely make it harder for the United States to keep its waning influence in Iraq. Washington is very worried about the increasing Sadr role in Iraqi politics and demanded Maliki to oust him from the ruling coalition.

US officials initially encouraged the Iraqis to form a government quickly, but then started pushing for a slowdown after it became apparent that Sadr’s Free Movement was poised to play a major role. The US clearly hoped to stall the formation of a new government long enough to undermine the deal between Maliki and Sadr. US Ambassador James Jeffries repeatedly said that Sadr's inclusion in an Iraqi government was unacceptable to Washington. London's pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported that the US Administration had called on Maliki to abandon the Sadrists and expressed reluctance over dealing with a Baghdad government in which Sadrists were holding key Cabinet positions.

However, Jawad al-Hassanawi, a leading figure in the Sadrist movement, told the Times that Maliki was “strongly committed” to the Sadrists. Iraqi lawmakers and political leaders are openly saying that they no longer follow Washington's advice on political issues. Instead, Iraqis are turning to neighboring nations, and especially Iran, for guidance casting doubt on the future of the US role in this strategic country after a bloody war that killed more than 4,400 US Soldiers. Leaders from rival political coalitions in the last several months have been to Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia on official visits.

“The Iraqi politicians are not responding to the US like before. We don't pay great attention to them,” Shiite lawmaker Sami al-Askari, a close ally of Prime Minister Maliki told Associated Press. “The Americans have their view on how to form an Iraqi government. But it does not apply to the political powers on the ground and it is not effective. The weak American role has given the region’s countries a greater sense of influence on Iraqi affairs.”

In an effort to push back, the Obama administration has dropped hints that it wants to prolong the US military occupation. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently said that he would welcome a request from the new government in Baghdad for an extension of the December 2011 withdrawal deadline negotiated between Maliki and George W. Bush two years ago.

Nevertheless, as a recent article in the New York Times hinted, a major concern of the US is that the strong presence of the Sadrists in the Iraqi Parliament and government would complicate its plans to maintain a substantial US troop presence in Iraq after the end of 2011, when all American troops are supposed to be removed under the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between the two countries.

While some Iraqi political and military leaders have expressed support for the plan, the Sadrists remain opposed to the foreign occupation. Tens of thousands of Sadr’s supporters have been taking to the streets in the Iraqi cities to protest against the SOFA. “Sadrists in government will not meet with any US officials. We will not make any deals with them. We will abandon the Americans,” Khadem al Sayadi, a Sadrist MP, told the UAE newspaper “The National.”

“We have been consistent in our opposition to the US occupation of Iraq and we will refuse any attempt to get the occupation to continue (beyond the 2011 pull-out date).”

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