J Street scam

By Philip Giraldi

J Street is seductive. The Americans have been bombarded with propaganda about Israel since the founding of the country over 60 years ago. Recently, the United States been designated by the media and the chat ring classes as patron of the Jewish State with little regard to the implementation of these measures, near Tel Aviv which have a negative impact on us interests. It is because Israel Lobby is by far the most powerful foreign lobby in the United States. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has become the ugly side of the lobby, has rightly drawn criticism for its bullying tactics and its adaptation to the extreme right-wing parties in Israel. Progressives and some conservatives in the United States which supports Israel as a homeland for the world's Jews have been eager to find a more respectable alternative lobby. This alternative is J Street.

J Street, which recently completed its third annual Conference in Washington, is a self-proclaimed kinder and gentler proponent of isrælske interests. It favours peace on reasonable terms with the Palestinians and with Arab neighbours Isræls. It opposes the enlargement of the isrælske settlements in the West Bank, because they are an obstacle to peace. It calls itself "calmly, pro-American and Declaration of independence." If one judges by enemies it has attracted, including almost all the leading neoconservatives, J Street must be regarded as a breath of fresh air and the best chance for lasting peace in the Middle East.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  But in a way that does not quite add parts.

J Street really only differs from that AIPAC in tone, not in substance. It recommends continued and unlimited United States support for Israel, militarily, economically and politically. J Street wants Israel has an overwhelming military advantage over its Arab neighbours, and margin, which Washington. It wants Republicans and Democrats together to provide political cover for Israel when it attacked Lebanon or bombs in Gazans. It is opposed not when Israel carries out a military solution against its neighbours. In spite of the fact that the United States is deeply problems with economically while Israel is one of the richest countries in the world and enjoying an economic boom, was J Street one of the first organisations to complain when Senator Rand Paul called a halt to all foreign assistance.

J Street also believe that Israel is, and should be a Jewish State with unlimited right of return "for the Jews throughout the world and no such rights for Christians or Muslims, which is fine in the country before 1948. A Jewish State, would by definition have limited rights for 20% and growing segment of the current isrælske population are Christians or Muslims. J Street quixotically supports a two-State solution in Israel-Palestine conflict, even though it by half a million isrælske Jews live in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank cannot be moved and impossible to make two States. It does not accept a one-State solution, the only, will be able to work, would make the followers of all religions equal citizens in a unitary State embracing both Arabs and Jews. J's Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami has called a one-State solution a "nightmare".

J Street seems much better than AIPAC, but much of it sounds familiar recommends. Ben-Ami has criticized the highly acclaimed John Mearsheimer-Stephen Walt book on the Israel lobby for its scholarship and refers to writers such as anti-Semites. J Street against Isræls bloody incursion into Gaza, but only because it was disproportionate, and then rejected the UN Goldstone report detailed the war crimes that were committed. When isrælske commandoes killed nine Turkish citizens on Mavi Marmara ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza, J Street mourned the loss of life but to blame the victims of a deliberate "use media coverage further harm Isræls standing in world opinion." J Street supports military action against Iran as a "last resort" to paralyse the country's nuclear programme and refuses to Tehran, the right to enrich uranium for any purpose.

Supporters of J Street claims that its positions will become more nuanced, as its influence is growing, but one of the panels on the just-concluded the Convention discussed "Is Destroying disputes Enterprise Isræls democracy?" You may ask why there was a question mark at the end, because it is well-documented that the settlements bring with every imaginable evil. Fifteen months ago, sponsored J Street a speaking tour by a isrælske-General Danny Rothschild, as an advocate of a two-State solution with the Palestinians. He made rounds in Washington argue that demography and common sense dictate that Israel must come to a kind of settlement. But then he added, there is "islamofascism" and also Iran, genuine threats, which must be dealt with by the force. What was the real message, peace with the Palestinians (on Isræls conditions, it can be added), or Expand the war against extremism while bombs Iran?

But the real problem with J Street is that it is such a thing. Why there should be a new and powerful lobby in Washington consists of American citizens argue in favour of a special relationship with any country? Why should the United States provide unlimited support for a nation which claims to be a democracy, but which restrict rights based on religion? If J Street really wants to solve the Israel it should work in Israel, not in the United States, because settlers and hardline right-wing parties are isrælske problems. J Street knows perfectly well that the Congress, the White House and the media, Israel would not challenge the status quo therefore at best it is a bit of scam designed to support Israel at the same time make progressive feel more comfortable in lining up behind the effort.

United States already has too many special interest lobbies to promote policies that are doing something good for the American people. If Israel has become a rogue State as it has, the issue is resolved by isrælerne himself and diaspora Jews who believe that they have an equity stake in the outcome. If the latter is really going to have an impact, they should turn in their U.S. passports and move to Israel. From the American perspective, which should be the only thing that matters to us citizens, not the isrælske one, the best policy for the United States is to withdraw from the Arab-Israel conflict not to become even more deeply involved from another, slightly more palatable perspective offered J Street.

-Philip Giraldi is Executive Director of the Council of the national interest. He is a former CIA terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served 18 years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany and Spain. He was the Commander of the Base in Barcelona from 1989 to 1992, designated as the Agency's chief officer for the Olympic Games support. He is a contributing editor to the American conservative, a columnist for AntiWar.com, and his frequent media appearances include 60 minutes, al-Jazeera TV, National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corporation. (This article was published in www.cnionline.org)

Libya: a No Fly Zone, or a Spin Zone

Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 8901. Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 8766.

By Mohamed Khodr

While Gaddafi's planes are flying to kill, Libyans are dying in the plains of the desert. Since oil is thicker than blood the Europeans and Americans are deliberating and divided on whether to save Libyans from an almost guaranteed mass slaughter by establishing a No Fly Zone to ground Gadaffi’s fighter jets that can determine the outcome of the conflict between a ruthless dictator and a people fighting for their freedom from his rule and the politics of oil.

Only two European nations thus far, France and Britain, have taken the principled and humanitarian position that an immediate No Fly Zone is necessary to stop Gadaffi’s slaughter of his people. Germany under the pretext of non military intervention in Libya has nevertheless sent thousands of its troops as part of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan where civilians on a daily basis are murdered by fighter jets and drones. Recently nine innocent boys were killed by NATO helicopters (March 2) who mistook the boys collecting firewood for insurgents.  Yet the Conservative Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, who knows first hand of life under the brutal Soviet regime, by her opposition to the no fly zone, is surrendering and sacrificing the lives of innocent Libyans to a blood thirsty dictator thereby denying them the freedom they cry for. Merkel’s policy is not only hypocritical but goes against the German public’s support for a No Fly Zone.

Russia opposes establishing a No Fly Zone over Libya because it fears another Western intervention and perhaps occupation of an African nation having already invaded and occupied Iraq, Afghanistan, with enormous influence over Pakistan. It does not wish to see a western presence in Libya with its vast oil reserves, the largest in Africa. 

Libyan oil is not only coveted but it has the highest quality “sweet” crude oil in the world making it easily refinable into gasoline and diesel due to its lower content of sulfur, an environmentally safer and cleaner oil to burn. Saudi oil has a higher content of sulfur and thus is more expensive to refine.

President Obama, as is customary in his execution of foreign policy, has shown weak leadership in the E.U. and the U.N. in establishing a No Fly Zone over Libya despite Congressional support, even from the Republican Party that has never shied away from U.S. foreign military interventions to project U.S. power worldwide.  Although he’s demanded Gaddafi step down he’s taken no steps to facilitate the end of his dictatorial rule that has lasted for forty two years.

Perhaps Obama prefers the devil he knows to the freedom fighters he doesn’t know lest they be “Islamists” and spread their violent ideology to neighboring Algeria, another oil producing Arab nation, or even use their new found oil wealth to destabilize Saudi Arabia ad the Gulf nations.

When the U.S perceives its interests are threatened it doesn’t resort to the United Nations Security Council or seeks any approval from the E.U., NATO, Russia, or China for it to act unilaterally and militarily as it did in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other Asian, Central and South American nations.

Yet in Libya the U.S. is caught between exporting freedom, importing oil, and the private vociferous objections of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Israel lest the No Fly Zone sets a precedent for interference in other Arab oil exporting nations whose populace may rise demanding their freedom, most importantly Saudi Arabia that unilaterally invaded Bahrain to shore up its Monarchy in contravention of the U.N. Charter, yet has not faced any U.S., E.U., Russian, or Chinese condemnation much less a U.N. Security Council Resolution akin to when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Obviously U.N. Security Council Resolutions led by the U.S. are passed and implemented depending on who the violators and victims are.  

Imposing sanctions has been a historical joke and failure. They have not impacted any nation or leader to change course. From Cuba, to Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, North Korea, and Gaza, the sanctions have only been a mild challenge to countries and corporations wishing to do business with these nations. Even Vice President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton oil company did business with Iran despite U.S. sanctions.

The U.N. imposed sanctions on Libya only to ignore the open violation of the sanctions by Greece as it sent a large oil transport ship bound to Gaddafi’s Tripoli only to be intercepted by Libya’s freedom fighters. (1)

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet Wednesday, March 17, to discuss and possibly vote on establishing a No Fly Zone to save Libyans from the continuing slaughter and advancement of Gaddafi’s foreign mercenary forces who depend on air power to overwhelm the freedom fighters. Both the Libyan people and the entire Arab League have asked the U.N.S.C. to establish the no fly zone over Libya.

Yet Europe, the U.S. and Russia are playing the spin game blaming each other on the feasibility and potential outcome (s) of such a decision.  Without strong U.S. leadership it’s difficult to ascertain the outcome of the U.N.S.C. vote.

To the Arab world Obama was late in recognizing and supporting the revolutions in Tunis and Egypt. To them it’s apparent that when U.S policy deals with the Arab world America’s position is that oil is thicker than Arab blood, but when it comes to Israel its support is immediate and without question.  It is this hypocrisy and double standard that has lost America the Arab and Muslim street and accounts for the animosity they adopt against U.S. foreign policy, but not toward the American people or culture that they deeply admire and emulate. 

Such an assessment was expressed by the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Council:

“Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.” -- (Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication, September 2004 (Also reported in Christian Science Monitor November 29, 2004.)

Until the U.S. can demonstrate a fair and balanced approach to the Arab and Muslim world that their lives, humanity, human rights, independence, sovereignty and freedom are as equal and valuable as that of Israelis and the rest of humanity, America’s oil based economy will be threatened and could lead the country into a spiral depression. The free Arab street will be unforgiving of America if it fails to protect the Libyan people from an eventual slaughter. A failure to establish a No Fly Zone will only empower Al Qaida and all extremist elements in the Muslim world that America is indeed an enemy of Islam and Muslims and can never be trusted. In the Arab and Muslim world the U.S. has long been on the wrong side of history in its blanket support of Israel’s military hegemony and occupation of Arab land and its self centered support of Arab Tyrants.

If the U.N. Security Council does not immediately adopt and establish a No Fly Zone over Libya which will save the lives of countless Libyans and allow Gaddafi to continue his rule which will even be more ruthless and merciless against his people then the value and mission of the United Nations, which already suffers in the Arab world, as well the exhortation of the West that their goal is to free humanity from tyranny and establish democracies of the people, by the people, and for the people rings as hollow as the Declaration of Independence’s noble idealism “that all men are created equal”; when in practice it only rang for white men in power and not for oppressed.

With Libya under tyrannical siege the world in the body of the United Nations once again faces a crossroad to destiny. Whether it has learned the lessons of history that Tyrants left to their will are prone to war and genocide, or whether it will meet the reasonability of its Charter and existence as phrased by President Harry Truman who said:

“The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.”

What is Libya’s fate? Is it freedom or tyranny? We will soon learn the monumental outcome that Obama and the United Nations will make in not only determining the future of Libya but for all people’s who seek the freedom endowed to them by their Creator but are often denied by the powers that be.

- Mohamed Khodr M.D contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Notes:

(1) Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication, September 2004. http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/ADA428770.pdf

God-King and the rise of the world citizen

Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 9097. Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 8754.

By Khalil Elayan

'Thou marveledst at that which befell thee… yet there betided the Kings of the Chosroes before thee greater mishaps and more grievous than that which hath befallen thee; and indeed I have set forth unto thee that which happened to caliphs and kings and others… but the relation is longsome and harkening growth tedious, and in this is all-sufficient warning for the man of wits and admonishment for the wise.' -- from The Thousand and One Nights

If we understand Shahrazad correctly, then we know that even the greatest of kings were beset with troubles so great that you could always find one whose troubles were greater than another. This is one of the many lessons that Sultan Shahrayar learns from the first great feminist. Shahrazad is a woman who actually changes a man or, more philosophically, helps him to change himself. Within the spectrum of today’s stereotypes, this feat is nigh impossible even on the smallest scale. She helps her husband, a man who had previously legitimized rape and murder to appease his vengeful and lustful appetites following his first wife’s infidelity. Assassination is out of the question; there will be no bloodstained dagger glistening in the marriage bed; rather, the marriage bed becomes a vessel to past, near and far off lands of kings and heroes who have suffered more and learned much.

Today’s answer to such great men who have much sinned ranges from the following: “Hang em!” “Blow up his palace!” “Let somebody assassinate him.” We live in a world in which blood never equalizes blood, and no one is ever completely satisfied by legal justice. Shahrazad’s justice was an emotional, spiritual, and psychological justice. Her husband changed on all fronts. He learned humility. Also, Shahrazad shatters the illusion that all women were not to be trusted and that all would, sooner or later, defile their husbands’ marriage beds. The mist of vain power cleared and before him stood an educated, chaste, humble, yet determined and enthusiastic hero, his own wife. She is the hero of the Middle East’s greatest epic. She exemplifies what it means to be a world citizen through four major aims: save the kingdom, save the women, save the king and to be successful in these endeavors, she must save herself.

It is not uncommon for such great men as Shahrayar to envision that god is on their side, that he guides their moves, that he gives them the power to decide who lives and dies, why and how, when and where. Without healthy democratic elections, these modern sultans aspire to the role of the God-Kings of old. They imagine they are the direct links between god and the average citizen. And that’s how these God-Kings view the people, as average, as the great mass of mediocrity that may occasionally imagine a revolution, but would never realistically pursue one. Yet when they do, as we are currently seeing in Libya, blood becomes the equalizer. The average citizen who suddenly and without warning transforms into the democratic revolutionary just as suddenly for the God-King becomes the unchaste and ungrateful wife. So, Gaddafi’s actions should be no surprise; he’s killing his own people. He blames their desire for liberty on drugs and al-Qaeda. Again, this is no surprise, for the God-King cannot ever imagine that what he does could be wrong or misconstrued as wrong. He is too close to god. He is too close to becoming god. In his mind, what he does and what he has done is absolutely and unequivocally necessary.

In the Analects, Confucius states that a man must have a sense of shame in order to be a gentleman. Behavior according to the rites was essential in one’s development and maturity. If one errs then one must atone. And it is atonement that propels one into maturity, into adulthood, and, finally, into a much wiser state. The God-King, on the other hand, switches blame when the former object of his blame no longer seems realistic. This contradiction is also normal for the delusional autocrat, as we again see in the actions of Gaddafi. When drugs and al-Qaeda no longer work, he blames the United States and Israel (strange, considering these countries are two of the least eager supporters) for fomenting revolution in his country, a country in which he believes the majority of sober and moderate citizens “love” him: “If you love me, protect me,” he says to them. Now, it seems, he is back chanting the original mantra: “They’re on drugs or working for al-Qaeda.” He also promises everyone who interferes an endless and bloody war. Sound familiar?

If we take a long look at any one of Gaddafi’s portraits, as with his fellow God-Kings, ousted  Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and the “high-tailed it” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, we see an obvious desire to stay young by all three men. These men are old, very old. They will die soon, yet all three look eerily similar, at least if we were to imagine Gaddafi with a haircut. They have jet black hair and wear garments all the way up to their chins, as if mummifying themselves from the natural cycle of age. The desire for the fountain of youth is nothing new. The Conquistadors sought it, but even before its myth reached the ears of the Europeans in the New World, the God-Kings always hoped to attain immortality through indomitable and unlimited power. They betray themselves into believing that they have become both omniscient and omnipotent. There is no desire among them to be the philosopher-king, advocating the ideology that the one who is least desirous of power is fittest to rule.

What the world citizenry has learned is that this cycle of god-kings is so repetitive that it is now generic, and so is the God-King. The God-King’s paid-for, brainwashed, or meek enough citizenry still chant (as of Sunday, March 20th 2011, following U.S. and European aerial bomb attacks), “God, Moammar and Libya, that’s it.” These Gaddafi supporters are themselves just as delusional as the object of their worship. This kind of behavior is more than just the “herd mentality” but, rather, the worst kind of social devolution. We have seen this before too, as Hitler’s Leader of the German Legal Profession declared to a roaring and applause-filled Nuremberg audience in 1934: “Our Supreme Fuehrer is our Supreme Judge!” Looking back now, we see what a frightening power this is for one human to possess. We also saw it in our own citizenry and almost the entirety of the United States’ Legislative and Executive branches in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq. The dissenting voices were either the faintest of murmurs or immediately labeled as unpatriotic liberals and troublemakers, Americans who love terrorists more than freedom. What occurs is a war both in Iraq and Afghanistan longer than our involvement in both World Wars and the Korean War combined. By now, we know that unilateral invasions with hegemonic designs are the keys to imperialistic footholds in the Arab and Muslim world. The support and backing of pre-established democratic movements, as we have seen in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Jordan, and other countries do not get the vote of unequivocal confidence, only a kind of seesaw rhetoric from a government that has the best constitution at its core. Former President Bush even claimed he talked to God and was told to go to war. The gift of being a God-King, it seems, is not racially discriminatory. But the majority of American citizenry are tired of war in countries that are tired of us. Americans are beginning a new era of respect for Arabs who are proclaiming their world citizenship and representing themselves as democracy-loving humanists.

People are tired of endless repetitive and destructive cycles even if their own leaders decree them. The God-King knows this but still tries to manipulate the mass of mediocrity with repetition that easily becomes liturgy. This idiocy of redundancy manifests itself through circuitous, contradictory, and fallacious rhetoric. The God-King is convinced that the people need and deserve redundancy because that is all they are capable of fathoming. He does not count on the world citizen who has been disillusioned by having no freedom of expression or any sense of autonomy, that the absence of freedom creates a more authentic sense of it, as Sartre describes in his essay “The Resistance.”

What separates the mass of mediocrity from the world citizen is that the former is content in its complacency, ambivalence, and resignation, whereas the world citizen is willing to die for the mere possibility of an actuality, namely freedom. This is resistance at its core. Socrates rebuffs Athenian complacency and criticizes it for its self-assuredness and hypocrisy. And when given the option of death or a “quiet” life elsewhere, he chooses hemlock over silent mediocrity. This kind of courage is the New Age’s hearth fire, bred in the homes of families who want their children fed, educated, healthy and, relatively, happy. Is this not the American Dream? The American Dream is now, more than ever, a worldview (weltanschauung), held by the world citizen. The rise of the world citizen is imminent, and we are seeing it in the Arab World. Americans everywhere should feel joyous and celebratory in seeing their fellow world citizens arise in self-determination with the will to conquer subjugation, dogma, and redundancy.

- Khalil Elayan, Ph.D. teaches Composition, American Literature, World Literature, and Middle Eastern Literature at Kennesaw State University. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Gaddafi's secret ' Killing Fields '

By Shafiq Morton – Benghazi

Ajdabiya district, eastern city and opposition stronghold, will get bombed during the night. Well, landing a shell in the city. Not much damage, but plenty of fear.

We all know, there is worse to come.

And that is precisely how Gaddafi like it: raw terror. Here is a man who has no respect for his people, a man who is bombing them from the air with the former Soviet Union supplied fighter aircraft.

With its larger than the African continent ego deals with a a modern Pharaoh. Forget about Islam and the third universal theory or the Green Book.

Gaddafi is about itself. He is his own first God. Gaddafi is God. Traitors are these misguided who do not worship at his feet.

Except that this time his bullied topics are no longer frightened him. After 42 years the miserable is tired of being beaten, tortured, burned and killed.

His poor, dusty and undeveloped Libya-a country which should be as rich and convenient as any State Gulf oil will be reduced to ash.

And like so many Libyans have told me; Gaddafi take care not if he ends of a conviction leading to a blank State. He continues to just killing and murder. He has done it in four decades, so why stop now?

The fact that each Government building, all facilities, security, every Army Barracks and each Gaddafian pleasure palace has been purified from Tobruk to Tripoli is irrelevant for him.

The Libyan population has finally risen and said ' no ' with a resounding vote means only him, that they are disobedient movable property, which must be punished.

A doctor who used to be a part of Gaddafi's personal medical staff tells us that the Libyan leader, with the exception of dabbling in the Jewish kabbalah and occult-suffering from asthma, increased blood pressure and insomnia.

Another medical man, Dr. Zaruh Nabus Harawi Hospital in Benghazi, believe that the brother leader is schizophrenic.

"I've seen dictators and Gaddafi is not a dictator," he says, "he is schizophrenic."

We see the real measure of Gaddafi when we visit Katib al-Fadil security compound in the coastal city of Benghazi. It is, how many died during the uprising, Gaddafi's African mercenaries shooting unarmed civilians with anti-aircraft guns.

Personal injuries and fatal accidents was horrific. ACK ACK gun fire shells with explosive heads. Dr. Nabus ' eyes fill with tears. He says that it was heartbreaking to collect body parts from the road.

Katib al-Fadil, a history of being a Libyan epic.

It is unlikely hero is Mahdi Zeiw, a mild-mannered oil engineer. Born year Gaddafi overthrew King Idris, Zeiw put two domestic gas cylinders in his car and carried out a detonator from fisheries explosives. He then ran into the gates, blowing them open.

It was a turning point for the Benghazi and Katib al-Fadil decreased by approximately 200 mercenaries fled to neighbouring villages Maghouri and Algouarsh, where some were taken prisoner.

I hear by more than one source, Zeiw was not an extremist or fanatic. Libyans, as I have learned, not that way inclined.

Dr. Nabus says that it was an accumulation of grief, anger and frustration boiling as a volcano, which saw him do what he did.

"He just could not take children will be killed".

We drive into compound feedingstuffs, walls 4-metre breach sites. All buildings, including Gaddafi's place of residence, have been purified. Wreck of burned out cars and army vehicles are strewn everywhere.

We are led to a small building, the word "prison" sprayed on the walls. We enter through his ripped off doors and discover a massive Chamber.

It is gloomy inside and big enough to park a Mac truck. Leading away from the main hall is two rooms. They are dark, and only via a mobile phone light we can see inside.

I trøde first, that I look at an ammunition dump. But Benserti of Benghazi's Seraj 17 February Media Center, tells me that when they broke into the compound they had heard banks and screaming coming from the Earth.

"We found 20 live prisoners down here," he said. This had been an ammunition dump, but a Dungeon, where humans had been locked in total darkness.

Were these fingernail scratches in one wall? None of us spent enough time in this hell hole to find out.

Benserti points to a number of craters in compound feedingstuffs. They are, where the demonstrators had searched for a number of Chambers.

"We used bulldozers to search for entries, but we could not find any as warders had fled," he said.

He noted that not even the soldiers guarding outside Khatib ul-Fadil knew what horrors were committed behind its walls.

"We gold salmon rotting bodies but could not find them," said Benserti, adding that they had found more equal most burned beyond recognition.

Dr. Musbach Abdullah, an anesthetist shows me a video at the hotel later in the evening. In it repeals a man charred body such as the guerrilla fighting in his hands.

Then it is that I think of an explanation for me earlier in the day Dr Nabus:

"The difference between the tsunami in Japan and Libya is that Libya's killing fields may be stopped".

-Shafiq Morton is a presenter on voice of the Cape of the radio station. He was South African Vodacom community Journalist years in 2008 and was recently voted among the world's 500 most influential Muslims Jordanian Royal Islamic strategies Study Centre is headed by Prof. John Esposito of Georgetown University. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Dershowitzs radioactive Plume

By Belén Fern ndez

While some friends in the Jewish State is busy with the possibility of sushi shortage in Israel thanks to disaster in Japan, Harvard's law professor Alan m. Dershowitz more important things on his mind.

His last dispatch, with the title "Israel now has the right to attack Iran's nuclear reactors," begins with the assertion that "Iran's recent attempts to supply weapons to Hamas in Gaza is an act of war committed by the Iranian Government against the isrælske Government".

As we know, it is not necessary for Harvard law professors to indicate that Israel only has alleged that Iran attempted to supply arms to Hamas, or the credibility of the isrælske weapons allegations has been questioned, that the photos published by the isrælske Foreign Ministry to "weapons cache", found on board the Mavi Marmara ended last year, consisting of topics as a metal pail and bullets.

In the meantime, it is unclear why Dershowitz has chosen to include the word "Now" in its title, that he immediately Announces: "is also not the first act of war, which would justify a military response from Israel, according to international law." Other acts are said to include the bombing of the isrælske Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992: "bombardment, which was carried out by Iranian agents, constituted a direct armed attack on the State of Israel, because its Embassy is a part of its sovereign territory."

Persons who must comply with the truth and logic, as investigative historian and journalist Gareth Porter, has noticed that in 1992 the Iranians clearly viewed with optimism about the prospect of the resumption of the transfer of nuclear technology from Argentina to Iran — thus removing the suspected motive for the attack. This suggests that the bombing may have instead been orchestrated by groups opposed to the Iranian acquisition of such technology.

Employ the basic question, Dershowitz on spam prevention early warning system:

"Two other recent events reinforce the Isræls the right to use military means to prevent Iran from continuing to arm Isræls enemies. The recent disaster in Japan has shown the world the extraordinary dangers of nuclear radiation. If anyone ever doubted a dirty bomb power to destroy a nation, both physically and psychologically, are these doubts removed by what is now happening in Japan. If Iran was developing nuclear weapons, the ship's next destined for Gaza can contain a dirty atomic bomb, and Israel could intercept that one. A dirty bomb detonated tiny Isræl would be harmful to unforeseeable civilian life.

"In addition, the recent killings in inspired by a family, including three children, show how the weapons used by the Isræls enemies against civilians in conflict with the law of war. Even babies are targeted the armed by Iran. "

First and foremost, if anyone ever doubted a dirty bomb power to destroy a nation, both physically and psychologically, their doubts would probably removed by the events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 rather than current radiation emissions from nuclear power stations. Secondly, apparently, civilian life currently suffer a greater threat incalculable damage not from a hypothetical Iranian dirty bomb, but rather from Isræls measurable nuclear arsenal — not mentioned by Dershowitz — which is in violation of the same nuclear Treaty Review Conferenceinvoked as an excuse to attack Iran. Finally, indicates the fact that Israel slaughtered 300 children in Gaza during Operation Cast lead in the 2008-09, them armed by United States rather than of Iran exceedingly capable of targeting babies.

After stressing Isræls the right to prevent its citizens are murdered, concludes our law guru:

"This is not to say that Israel should attack Iran's nuclear reactors now. That it has the right to do this does not mean that it should not wait for a more convenient time. The law of war does not require an immediate military response to an armed attack. The nation the attack can postpone his counterattack without sacrificing his right. "

That the Palestinians do not enjoy the same right to response to military attacks are obvious. A note to the Chinese, but: remember when NATO mistakenly bombed their Embassy in Belgrade? You can still retaliate!

And as for the United Nations, if you feel like attacking Israel ever, only rely on the 1996 bombing of your compound in Qana or 2006 bombing of your outpost in This.

-Belén Fern ndez is an editor of PULSE Media and author of coffee with Hezbollah, a satirical political travelogue about hitchhiking through Lebanon in the wake of the July war. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact her at: belengarciabernal@gmail.com.

Kuwait's shame: the stateless Bidoun

By Elizabeth Warkentin

Most of us take the right to citizenship for granted. It is a fundamental human right after all. In Kuwait, this is, however, is questionable.

In the midst of the vociferous demands for democratic changes that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa in recent weeks, Bidoun-Arabic for "without", as in "without citizenship" – of Kuwait also jumped onto the revolutionary car. At the end of February staged around 1000 Bidoun peaceful protest to demand citizenship and basic human rights. Police dispersed demonstrators with rubber bullets and water cannons. Although the Government has promised reforms, is stateless Arabs not yet convinced. Last Friday, a few hundred Bidoun gathered on the street again, only to be shot at with tear gas.

When I worked at a school in Kuwait between 2007 and 2008, I would like to see some of these unfortunate souls on their way to school. Each morning, men, their faces unsmiling, their eyes such as lead, would remain in their dirty galabeyas around a derelict mass of sand and rubble waiting for someone to offer them menial work.
In my first months in Kuwait, I do not have legal status. It took three months to get my civil ID gives me an official residence permit status. Without a civil ID, could not get a mobile phone contract or internet connection, open a bank account or travel outside Kuwait. At times it felt I could hardly go to the toilet without a civil id.

This is the case of the wretched Bidoun, which, despite having lived and died beside the Kuwaitis generations live their entire lives without this document. Conversely, my Canadian colleagues and I got a civilian ID within a period of three months, but griped about on a daily basis, how long it took and which gene was. Little I knew then about stateless Arabs regrettable situation.

Approximately 100,000 Bidoun are descendants of nomadic herders, not be registered for the citizenship of the Union, when the independent State was formed in 1961. Human rights organisations say Bidoun either understands the significance of citizenship or, where their traditional nomadic lifestyle, preferred not to belong to a country. Others were living outside the city walls or were illiterate, so that they did not or could not apply for nationality. The majority has, however, legal documents, proving the settlement in Kuwait earlier than 1961.

However, Bidoun remains stateless, and as such is not in a position to get the correct jobs, Register their children in public schools or have access to Kuwait's free health care system. Not being registered as citizens or legal residents also means they cannot hire or buy real estate, travel outside the country or obtain birth, marriage and death certificates. In other words, they do not exist.

Share a common language and culture, Bidoun indistinguishable from those of Kuwaiti citizens. Apart from the fact that in contrast to the Kuwaitis, most living in squalid, tin-roof shacks, a jarring contrast an oil-rich nation, where the majority live in ostentatious luxury.

In the mid-1980s, after decades of enjoy the same rights as citizens, the Government decided to declare the Bidoun "illegal residents", claiming they are actually citizens of neighbouring countries to conceal their identity to deceive the Government and reap the benefits of its generous welfare system. It is hard to imagine anyone could believe something so ridiculous, let alone to say.

Kuwaitis wonder, why not just leave the Bidoun, therefore they spend their lives with nothing. With no nationality, no passports, how can they leave? Where will they go?

How dispiriting must be excluded and invalid as Bidoun. To be denied citizenship must be like being denied a life.

Citizenship is a right not a privilege. Democratic Nations in the world should work with the United Nations to put pressure on Kuwait to guarantee, to be granted Kuwaiti nationality, Bidoun.

-Elizabeth Warkentin contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Libya, hypocrisy and betrayal by the UNITED NATIONS

By Felicity Arbuthnot-London

' If you want to get a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever. '--George Orwell.

Bombing of Libya will begin or almost on the day of the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the destruction of Iraq, 20 March, in Europe. Libya will also be destroyed-its schools, the education system, water, infrastructure, hospitals, municipal buildings. There will be several "tragic mistakes", "collateral damage", mothers, fathers, children, babies, grandparents, blind and deaf schools and on and on. And wonders of the world of Roman remains and a former predominantly enduring and revered in all of history as Iraq, turmoils the country's history and humanity, again as Iraq and Afghanistan, will be gone, forever.

The infrastructure will be destroyed. Embargo remains in place, so rebuild will be impossible. United Kingdom, France and the U.S.., decides the country needs to "stabilize", "help with reconstruction." They will move in, secure the oil installations and oil fields, the Libyan population will be incidental generation and quickly become "the enemy", "insurgents" will be shot, imprisoned, tortured, abused-and U.S.-friendly puppet "Government" will be installed.

The attackers will reward businesses rebuilding contracts, money-probably taken from Libya's frozen assets without accounting-will disappear and the country will remain largely in ruins.

And highest cheerleaders, such as Iraq, want to run round the tv and radio stations in London, Europe and the United States then returning to their safe apartments and their UK/United States/Europe paid tenures, in the knowledge that no bombs to drop them. their children will not shake the uncontrollable and soiling himself with terror at the sound of approaching aircraft.

And this Libyan "shock and Awe"? Shame shame on France, United Kingdom and the United States and the UN's acknowledged: "... to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." Each shattered body each child maimed or blown to bits, each widow, widower, rare diseases, will have their name on these countries and the UN., written in their blood in their place of death.

And the public of these murderous, marauding Western ram raiders, will know that we bring democracy, liberating Libya from a tyrant from "New Hitler", "the butcher in Bengazi."

Those countries which have ganged together these last days, in order to overthrow a sovereign Government has, once again, arguably, conspired in Nürnbergs: "... Supreme international crime, differs only from other war crimes, contains in itself the whole accumulated evil", and once again plotted to overthrow a sovereign Government, with a fig leaf "legality" from an arm twisted UN. We have seen it all before.

In time, it will emerge as a stirring, bribe, de-stabilizing-and probably a few will be surprised by the results. But before then, Libya is broken for a long time and its population, refugees, displaced persons, in despair.

When it comes to handling the usual "liberators", be careful what you want. In six months or so, most Libyans, notwithstanding the deficiencies in the last 40 years of rule, regret the day.

-Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist, who has visited the Arab and Muslim world on numerous occasions. She has written and broadcast on Iraq, her cover was nominated for several awards. She was also senior researcher to John Pilger award-winning documentary film, "Pay the price: killing the children of Iraq". She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.