Warcrimes and media bias

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Israel bomb 'kills UN observers'

Four United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on an observation post in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.

A bomb struck the post occupied by the peacekeepers of the Unifil force in the Khiam area, it said.

The attack came as Israel announced it would keep control over an area in southern Lebanon until a new international force could be deployed.

The story broke on BBC News 24 when the studio gimp was interviewing Jim Muir.

"We're getting reports that the Israeli air force has bombed a UN observation post; Jim, this will be a little embarrassing for Israel won't it?"

Embarrassing? Is that a sick joke? Saddam Hussein denied the UN access to his palace and his country is bombed back to the stone age; the BBC cheering them all the way to Baghdad. Yet the slaughter of 4 unarmed UN observers by Israel is merely embarrassing. It can only be a matter of days before the BBC on-screen logo is replaced by a star of David. Maybe only hours.

You can complain to BBC News here. Please do so. I have and will post the reply as soon as I receive one. If, of course I receive one.

United in peace

Although you would barely know it from today’s media, over 20,000 people marched through London yesterday to show support for the Lebanese people and demand an end to Israeli aggression in the Middle East. It is shameful that the British media chose to largely ignore this event, although it will have been well covered in the Middle East, which is of greater importance. (For pictures see Lenin’s Tomb.)

Several things struck me about yesterday’s demonstration. The first was the open support for Hezbollah. Despite being the legitimately elected government of Lebanon, the UK and the US both have Hezbollah on their list of terrorist organisations. But in spite of this there were many banners, flags and t-shirts displaying the Hezbollah flag; many speakers pledged their solidarity and support to Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and his organisation and each received rapturous applause form the gathered thousands, including many from Britain’s Jewish Community. Hasidic Jews marching along side Hezbollah supporters. No there’s something I never thought I would see. Also of note was the raw, naked anger displayed by the march as it passed the American Embassy. The British prime minister may be Bush's bitch, but the British people can think for themselves.

Is the tide turning though? Last night the BBC were leading on Foreign Office minister Kim Howells' criticism of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, the first sign of a deviation between the UK and US. The BBC News website presently has as its top story UN emergency relief chief Jan Egeland’s comments that Israeli air strikes in Beirut are a violation of humanitarian law. ITV News’ top story about a mini-bus full of civilians fleeing southern Lebanon being attacked by the Israeli army killing at least 3. This despite the fact that it was the Israeli Army who told civilians to leave. Channel 5 News are also leading on the Lebanese victims of the Israeli war machine.

The protests will of course continue for as long as the Israeli aggression does. Keep an eye on the Stop the War Coalition’s website. Write to your MP, the local and national press asking why their condemnation of Israel is so muted. Make your voice heard.

Shout for peace.

The USA and Israel, joined in blood

With Bliar, the obedient lap-dog wagging his tail in approval.

United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah

Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources
Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Patrick Wintour
Wednesday July 19, 2006

The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

Continues...

From CNN though, his may not be the wind of change, but the breeze is getting a little stronger.

Not so smart when it comes to the Middle East

By Lou Dobbs

NEW YORK (CNN) -- We Americans like to think we're a pretty smart people, even when evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. And nowhere is that evidence more overwhelming than in the Middle East. History in the Middle East is everything, and we Americans seem to learn nothing from it.

President Harry Truman took about 20 minutes to recognize the state of Israel when it declared independence in 1948. Since then, more than 58 years of war, terrorism and blood-letting have led to the events of the past week.

Even now, as Katyusha rockets rain down on northern Israel and Israeli fighter jets blast Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, we simultaneously decry radical Islamist terrorism and Israel's lack of restraint in defending itself.

And the U.S. government, which wants no part of a cease-fire until Israel is given every opportunity to rescue its kidnapped soldiers and destroy as many Hezbollah and Hezbollah armaments as possible, urges caution in the interest of preserving a nascent and fragile democratic government in Lebanon. Could we be more conflicted?

While the United States provides about $2.5 billion in military and economic aid to Israel each year, U.S. aid to Lebanon amounts to no more than $40 million. This despite the fact that the per capita GDP of Israel is among the highest in the world at $24,600, nearly four times as high as Lebanon's GDP per capita of $6,200.

Lebanon's lack of wealth is matched by the Palestinians -- three out of every four Palestinians live below the poverty line. Yet the vast majority of our giving in the region flows to Israel. This kind of geopolitical inconsistency and shortsightedness has contributed to the Arab-Israeli conflict that the Western world seems content to allow to perpetuate endlessly.

After a week of escalating violence, around two dozen Israelis and roughly 200 Lebanese have died. That has been sufficient bloodshed for United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to join in the call for an international security force, ignoring the fact that a U.N. force is already in Southern Lebanon, having failed to secure the border against Hezbollah's incursions and attacks and the murder and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

As our airwaves fill with images and sounds of exploding Hezbollah rockets and Israeli bombs, this seven-day conflict has completely displaced from our view another war in which 10 Americans and more than 300 Iraqis have died during the same week. And it is a conflict now of more than three years duration that has claimed almost 15,000 lives so far this year alone.

An estimated 50,000 Iraqis and more than 2,500 American troops have been killed since the insurgency began in March of 2003, which by some estimates is more than the number of dead on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict over the past 58 years of wars and intifadas.

Yet we have seen no rescue ships moving up the Euphrates for Iraqis who are dying in their streets, markets and mosques each day. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has not leaped to Baghdad as he did Beirut. And there are no meetings of the Arab League, and no U.S. diplomacy with Egypt, Syria and Jordan directed at ending the Iraqi conflict.

In the Middle East, where is our sense of proportion? Where is our sense of perspective? Where is our sense of decency? And, finally, just how smart are we?

Show your solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine in London this Saturday.

"What did you do

at school today?"



"It was great mum. We got to write messages on missiles just before the army launched them into Lebanon. I hope some Arab schoolchildren were killed by mine!"

"That's wonderful dear. I hope so too."

While Israel schools the next generation of bigots, if you want to see an end to the bloodshed on both sides, please come to London on Saturday.



Picture from The Sydney Morning Herald via lenin.

Quelle Surprise

It's too hot for a proper moan isn't it? But a couple of things have to be commented upon.

Firstly, it was announced to day that no police officers are to be prosecuted over the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at a Tube station last July. Instead the Met Police are to be prosecuted under Health and Safety legislation for "failing to provide for the health, safety and welfare" of Mr Menezes. I wish I was surprised, I really do, but there was never a chance of Mr de Menezes' family receiving anything approaching justice. Within 24 hours of the shooting it was already clear that Sir Ian Bliar was a liar. The shit poured out of his mouth in torrents, there was a bulky coat, wires sticking out, he leapt over the barrier, he ran when challenged by officers. All lies. Yet he remains in his job. It is sickening. Truly sickening.

I'm also moved to vomit wondering just what Israel has to do before anyone criticises it. Only today Israel has killed at least 10 Lebanese innocents, yet the UN and Bliar talk about sending an international force to Lebanon but NOT to Israel. Israel is a rogue nation. It is proud of its war crimes. The Israeli Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Dan Halutz said today; "nothing is safe (in Lebanon), as simple as that". Can you imagine any other country in the world making such a blatant threat to destroy its neighbour and there being NO international outcry? It is Israel that has escalated this crisis for its own ends, not the Lebanese, not Syria, not Iran.

If you want to redress the balance, here's something you can do.

URGENT APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH LEBANESE CIVIL SOCIETY

The Israeli offensive against Lebanon is an act of aggression against the whole Lebanese people. The IDF claims to be attacking an "infrastructure of terror", but the attacks on bridges, roads, airports and ships are cutting the country into pieces, threatening to create a disastrous situation by impeding the transportation of food and medicines, and terrorizing everyone.

Besides the hundreds killed and injured, thousands of people are fleeing the country, and thousands of people are fleeing from the areas where the bombing is heaviest into central Beirut. Even here in the "safe" parts of the city we can hear the bombs throughout the day and night, and electrical and water supplies are tenuous. Political and civil society organizations here are organizing to help people deal with the effects of the invasion, but there is only so much we can do on our own.

We are calling on our brothers and sisters in the rest of the world to do two things to help us. First we call on you to protest at Israeli embassies and consulates, as we hear some groups are already doing. The Israeli government must be held accountable for its criminal and terroristic actions here and in Palestine. We also ask you to send us information about any such protests you carry out.

Secondly we are asking you to help us with our work with displaced people here in Beirut. The group we are part of, the Relief Center - Spears, is working in 23 schools in the central areas of Beirut, which were housing more than 5,000 people as of the night of July 15th (we don't know how many thousands more are in other areas). People there are sleeping 10 or 15 to a room without enough mattresses, and they are only receiving food and water irregularly from the government.

Many are children or elderly, and except for trauma centers the only medical care is being provided by volunteers organized by the Relief Center. These volunteers are lacking the medicines and other supplies they need to care for people. Media activists here will shortly be distributing videos documenting the situation in these schools, which will only get worse if nothing is done.

Besides the humanitarian aspect of the situation, helping displaced people is crucial to the reconstruction of Lebanon after this crisis ends. One aspect of the Israeli offensive is an attempt to foment tensions between different cultural groups in Lebanon. This is the only way they can hope to achieve their goals without an all-out war, but in the end it would do more damage to Lebanese society than any amount of physical destruction. A broad relief effort is an essential part of avoiding such a disaster.

We urgently need money to buy the supplies we need to help the internally displaced population here. We ask everyone who can to send donations, however small, the Relief Committee - Spears in the care of the following two people by bank transfer. Please contact your bank to find out how to do this.

c/o Georges Azzi:
- Bank Name: Credit Libanais SAL Beirut - Agence Sassine
- Swift Code: CLIBLBX
- Client Name: M. Al Azzi Georges Chaker
- Account Number: 0430012080006817356

c/o Bassem Chit:
- Bank Name: Société Générale de Banque au Liban - Hamra Branch
- Swift Code: SGLILBBX
- Client Name: Bassem Chit
- Account Number: 007004362092875014 or 007004367092875014

These are difficult days for everyone in Lebanon, but we are confident that with your support we can overcome this situation as we have others before.

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

Philip Larkin

With the world seemingly on the brink of another war, with the governments of both the UK and the US mired in the stinking filth of corruption, sleaze, nepotism and incompetence, we - you and I, the people who have to take all this shit really should be kind. To those we love and especially to those we hate.

A victory

It would appear that someone in Whitehall has woken up to the unpopularity of ID cards. After rumours over the weekend that senior civil servants were casting doubts on the scheme, the BBC are today reporting

Doubt cast over ID cards' future

The ID card plan which Tony Blair has said is central to tackling terrorism could be scaled down as part of a "face saving exercise", leaked documents say. Officials say ministers are setting themselves up for failure and are "ignoring reality" by pressing ahead. The Sunday Times published documents suggesting ministers are engaged in a rethink, but the Home Office denies claims the plans are being ditched. Conservative spokesman David Davis says the whole scheme should be scrapped. But a Home Office spokesman said: "We're still committed to the introduction of the scheme.
"Any suggestion that we have abandoned ID cards is wrong. We've always made it clear that the introduction will be staged."

According to weekend press reports, ministers are being forced to rethink the plans in order to meet the deadline of phasing in the cards by 2008. Shadow home secretary Mr Davis said: "These are all the classic signs of a Whitehall IT project about to go disastrously wrong. These civil servants can see plainly what the government refuses to accept. The prime minister's obsession with this project will actually weaken our security and cost at least £20bn."

Of course, Mr Bliar doesn't want to lose face over the issue and will use all sorts of euphemisms, blaming IT for example

the process of putting contracts to establish the scheme out to tender - which software suppliers expected in March - has been put back indefinitely.

but down on planet earth is there really any doubt that a major factor has been the thousands of people who have pledged to resist the scheme? People power my friends, never underestimate it.

A note of caution though. The NO2ID campaign point out that, although we may not have ID cards the plans for a 'national database' continue. Renew your passport now and continue to be a thorn in the side of this fascist government.

Shine on

Genius is an overused word. Syd Barrett was exactly that. And an understated legend.

Pink Floyd's Barrett dies aged 60

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes.
He was born Roger Barrett in Cambridge and met future bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour at school there. The guitarist was invited to join Pink Floyd by Waters in 1965 but left three years later after only one album with his mental state affected by drugs.

"He died very peacefully a couple of days ago," said the band's spokeswoman. "There will be a private family funeral."

Barrett was the band's first creative force and an influential songwriter - but his drug intake soon began to affect his place in the band. Often he would be seen standing on stage with his guitar dangling from his neck, staring into the crowd.

'Mental breakdown'

At one stage he was unhappy about appearing on Top of the Pops and walked out of a session recording in July 1967 after "freaking out". "That really was the first sign of his complete mental breakdown," producer Richard Buskin wrote later. "He never did come back into the studio any more after that, meaning that I had a hell of a hard time with the recordings".

He did turn up again, ironically on the day the other band members were recording a tribute to him, Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Just as Pink Floyd were about to achieve worldwide success, he retreated from public life to return to Cambridge. Members of the band felt his breakdown might have happened even if he had not used drugs but felt that along with the pressures of fame, the substances he took probably acted as a catalyst. After he finally drifted out of the music scene, his whereabouts were unknown for two decades, until he turned out to be living with his mother.

Don't do drugs kids. Unless you want to of course. Hell, I'm not going to stop you.

An Effervescing Elephant
with tiny eyes and great big trunk
once whispered to the tiny ear
the ear of one inferior
that by next June he'd die, oh yeah!
because the tiger would roam.
The little one said: "Oh my goodness I must stay at home!
and every time I hear a growl
I'll know the tiger's on the prowl
and I'll be really safe, you know
the elephant he told me so."
Everyone was nervy, oh yeah!
and the message was spread
to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus
who wallowed in the mud and chewed
his spicy hippo-plankton food
and tended to ignore the word
preferring to survey a herd
of stupid water bison, oh yeah!
And all the jungle took fright,
and ran around for all the day and the night
but all in vain, because, you see,
the tiger came and said: "Who me?!
You know, I wouldn't hurt not one of you.
I'd much prefer something to chew
and you're all to scant." oh yeah!
He ate the Elephant

Syd Barrett.

A minute

If you stop for the minute of silence this morning, please open your thoughts beyond London’s 52 innocent victims of Mr Bliar’s imperialist Middle Eastern adventure.

Think of the thousands of nameless Iraqis who have died and who have no memorials; think of those who have died in the concentration camp at Guantanamo; think of the thousands of UK and US troops who face death every day fighting a war they should not be fighting in a place they should not be. And think of Jean Charles de Menezes, gunned down by the Met police as he went about his business. And think about our leaders in Washington and London; think about the blood on their hands.

Pray for peace.

Racism

With the anniversary of last years London bombings fast approaching, the British media, and indeed our government are indulging in some terribly predictable covert racism. The BBC and most of the tabloids are making a big deal out of Mr Bliar's demand that Muslims 'root out extremism'. Of course they must, but where are the demands to the other religions? The christian fundamentalists who peach hate and intolerance or the Jewish extremists fermenting conflict in the Middle East? Shouldn't they be rooting out extremism? The BBC also report that "13% of UK Muslims believe the 7/7 bombers should be regarded as martyrs". Enlightening. I wonder what percentage of catholics in Belfast think Padraig Pearse or Bobby Sands a martyr? I wonder because no one to my knowledge has asked.

Is unbiased, non-racist reporting too much to ask for?