PEACE NEWS

Image: gaza boat with legislators

LATEST NEWS

Israel rebuffs a plea by the UN to open crossings
into Gaza for humanitarian supplies and continues
barring international media from reaching the strip.
Will they open the crossings? Ehud Barak: "No.
There needs to be calm in order for the crossings to be opened."

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UK's "PREFERENTIAL" TREATMENT

Israel accuses Britain of a "painful attitude"
for urging the EU to make sure that goods made
in Jewish settlements are not allowed into the
bloc on preferential terms.

" It's not a serious move, but a painful attitude,"
Israeli President Shimon Peres tells a news conference in London.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband calls
for an EU-Israel trade agreement to be strictly enforced.

The agreement allows goods made in Israel to be imported
into the EU at reduced or nil rates of customs duty.

The Palestinian movement says the agreement
to give Israel "preferential" treatment
encourages Israel's criminal behaviour.

Products of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank
must pay the full rate of duty.

A Foreign Office spokesperson says there have
been reports that the agreement was being
circumvented and that some settlement goods
may have been labelled as made in Israel.

Miliband, who visited Israel and the West Bank this week,
is quoted as calling during the trip for "the
fair and proper implementation of the agreements
on produce from this region."

Israel regards this as "painful".

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"JOB DONE" in DR CONGO as MINERALS CONTROLLED BY ???

Renegade general Laurent Nkunda's forces are
- after "withdrawing" - in control of most
of Eastern Congo - rich in mineral resources.

The UN says it is now moving armoured vehicles with
its forces into the area to protect civilians.

Women and children walk in a line stretching for miles.
Many are now camped in stadia, without food or water.

The UN peacekeeping mission, which did not intervene
as massacres were committed, despite its mandate
to protect civilians, says it is now "investigating".

A ceasefire continues to hold around Goma.
The UN describes the defence of Goma as a "red line"
and says it will use "all the force at its disposal",
including helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles,
to protect the town. UN peacekeepers are dug in.

Adolphe Muzito, Congo's prime minister:
"The government is ready to listen to all the armed groups.
I am ready to listen, to receive the grievances
of other groups ... including those of the CNDP."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is asking the
Security Council to approve a "surge" of more
than 3,000 troops and police.

Ban urges the 15-nation council to consider the request
"expeditiously" given the possibility of an escalation
of fighting in Congo. But there is no sign that
the divided Security Council is going to discuss
Ban's request any time soon.

The U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
is the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world,
with 17,000 troops and police across a country
the size of western Europe. But Ban's letter says
it is now not enough.

"The current crisis emanating from CDNP's recent offensive
clearly underscored that the resources available to MONUC
are not commensurate to the security challenges on the ground."

Aid agencies say tens of thousands of civilians
are still roaming the countryside in eastern Congo
in need of shelter, food, water and medical care.

Some of the displaced accuse MONUC of failing to
protect them from violence and looting, not just
by armed rebel groups like renegade Congolese
Tutsi Gen. Laurent Nkunda's CDNP, but also by
Congolese government forces.

Top U.N. officials reject suggestions that MONUC
is failing in its duty to protect Congolese civilians.

Ban warns the UN council that the need to help
protect Goma from the CNDP means that the U.N.
presence across eastern Congo is "uneven".

"The priority to protect Goma through a series of
reinforcements has significantly reduced MONUC's
presence in other critical areas of the country,"
the letter says.

A January peace deal collapsed in August, after
the 1998-2003 war and resulting humanitarian disaster
ended up killing some 5.4 million people, mostly
through hunger and disease.

Ban's letter spells out what additional forces
the U.N. peacekeeping department wants -
two infantry battalions, two companies of special
forces, 18 utility helicopters with 260 personnel
and two C-130 Hercules aircraft with 50 staff.

MONUC would also like a company of engineers,
intelligence experts, military trainers and two
police units. Ban said this "surge capacity"
would be needed for around nine months and would
add 3,085 police and military personnel to MONUC.

The Security Council is not scheduled to discuss
MONUC until Nov. 26, though Costa Rica, the
current council president, says it will probably
hold an emergency council session on the Congo
crisis before that.

However, "there is no consensus" Costa Rica says,
on the issue of Moon's request for more troops.


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PACT PROGRESS PARRIED

Legislators loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, have
shouted down a parliamentary debate over the
security pact that would keep US troops in Iraq
for three more years.

The session on Wednesday was adjourned until the following day
by Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the parliamentary speaker.

This happened after Ahmed al-Massoudi, a
politician loyal to al-Sadr, approached a
legislator from the ruling coalition who
was reading aloud the text of the agreement.

Al-Massoudi appeared to be about to grab the document,
the Associated Press reports.

Personal guards of Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi
foreign minister, stopped al-Massoudi from
snatching the document.

Hassan al-Shimari, the head of the Shia Fadhila party,
says he will vote against the deal.

"We hope that the political powers will deal with
this matter with pure patriotism, far from party
and personal interests."

Al-Maliki says the Iraqi cabinet has "reservations"
about the pact, but sees it as the best way
to return Iraq's sovereignty.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, signals that he
will not oppose the pact if it wins consensus
across Iraq's sectarian political divides.

Al-Sadr's office interprets al-Sistani's position
as meaning that all blocs in parliament must back it,
effectively giving opposition groups a veto.

Hazim al-Araji, a senior aide to al-Sadr:
"Sistani said in his statement it is necessary
to have a national consensus on this agreement
and not a simple majority."

Iran, which also has much influence among Iraqi
Shia politicians, opposes the pact.

Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, urges
Iraqi legislators to resist the deal, saying
Washington's main aim is "strengthening
comprehensive US hegemony in Iraq".

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DANGER TO PALESTINIAN UNITY "HIGHEST PRIORITY"

The Arab League leadership is “frustrated and angry”
at the collapse of Palestinian reconciliation talks
the League helped to organize earlier this month.

Mohammed Sbeih, the Assistant to the Secretary
General on Palestine Affairs at the Arab League,
says restoring Palestinian political unity is a
higher priority than ending the Israeli occupation.

Talks between Hamas and Fatah were cancelled when
Hamas withdrew, protesting at a campaign of
arrests against Hamas members in the West Bank.

“We believe that this is the most dangerous
situation Palestine has ever faced,” Sbeih says.

“The Arab League sees no other option besides
dialogue and the Secretary General, Amr Moussa,
had previously met with the factions and he
frequently meets with President Mahmoud Abbas.
Frankly, such disagreements are not convincing.
The boat is sinking deeper in the sea and still
[Palestinian] brothers are feuding.”

**************************************

ETHIOPIANS OUT

Ethiopian troops based in the town of Afgoi near
Mogadishu have mostly pulled out, according to residents.

Residents say that troops and more than 15 vehicles
left the Abdirahman farm area and entered Mogadishu.
The reports say that a small number of Ethiopian troops remain.

It is unclear why the Ethiopian troops have gone.
Hundreds of refugees are returning to their homes.
Most of Afgoi town's vicinity has been taken over by Al shabab fighters.

Armed insurgents yesterday attacked Burundian troops
based in a new army base in the Somali capital.

The two sides pounded each other with different
kinds of weapons including artillery shelling
that created great fear in nearby residents.

More than 3,400 AU peacekeeping forces are in Mogadishu,
but they do little.


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DICK INDICTED

Vice President Cheney is charged with engaging
in an organized criminal activity related to the
vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group,
which holds financial interests in the private
prison companies running federal detention centres.

It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and
"at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees
because of his link to the prison companies.

Megan Mitchell, a spokesperson for Cheney,
declines to comment today, saying that the
vice president has not yet received a copy.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position
while in office to stop an investigation in 2006
into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.


*********************************


IRAQ INVASION "SERIOUS VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW"

Legal advice given to Mr Blair prior to the
invasion of Iraq was fundamentally flawed,
a former senior law lord says.

Lord Bingham, who stepped down in July, describes the Iraq invasion
as a "serious violation of international law".
He says advice by the then-Attorney General Lord Goldsmith
failed to acknowledge the lack of hard evidence
implicating Iraq's non-compliance with UN resolutions.
It also neglected to make clear that only the
Security Council can authorise further action, Lord Bingham states.
Lord Goldsmith says he stands by his ruling.

Lord Bingham's comments come in a speech on the rule of law
at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
He refers to a statement made by Goldsmith in
March 2003 as Britain prepared for the invasion.

"This statement was flawed in two fundamental respects.
It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply
in a manner justifying resort to force
and there were no strong factual grounds
or hard evidence to show that it had.
Hans Blix and his team of weapons inspectors had
found no weapons of mass destruction, were making
progress and expected to complete their task in a matter of months."

Lord Bingham says Lord Goldsmith's advice
rests on the mistaken belief that a decision
over whether Iraq had not complied with UN resolutions
can be made by anyone other than the UN Security Council.
Governments are bound by international law
as much as by their domestic laws, he says.

"The current ministerial code, binding on British ministers,
requires them as an overarching duty to 'comply with the law,
including international law and treaty obligations'."

"If I am right that the invasion of Iraq by the US, the UK,
and some other states was unauthorised by the security council
there was, of course, a serious violation of
international law and the rule of law.

"For the effect of acting unilaterally was to
undermine the foundation on which the post-1945
consensus had been constructed: the prohibition
of force (save in self-defence, or perhaps, to
avert an impending humanitarian catastrophe)
unless formally authorised by the nations of the world
empowered to make collective decisions in the security council ..."

The moment states treat the rules of international law
as binding on others but not on themselves,
the compact on which the law rests is broken, he states.
He adds: "It is, as has been said, 'the difference
between the role of world policeman and world vigilante'."

Lord Goldsmith: "I stand by my advice of March 2003
that it was legal for Britain to take military action in Iraq.
I would not have given that advice if it were not genuinely my view..."


************************************************


Israel blocks deliveries of fuel for Gaza’s power
plant for the ????? consecutive day.

Kan’an Ubeid, deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority,
says in a press conference in Gaza that in addition
to the shutdown of the diesel-fueled power plant,
the electric network bringing in power from Israel
has collapsed due to increased pressure on the system.

There have been rolling blackouts in Gaza since
the power station shut down on Thursday.
Israel has sealed its borders with Gaza virtually
every day since 4 November, blocking deliveries
of food, fuel, and medicine. The United Nations
was forced to suspend a food program serving 750,000
Palestinians on Friday due to the blockade.

Ubeid says that as a part of its strict blockade,
Israel is also preventing the import of equipment
and spare parts, including generators, cables, meters
and wires, needed to repair the power lines
bringing electricity from Israel.

He says that a lack of cooking gas is forcing
residents living in areas supplied with Israeli
electricity to rely more on electric heating,
increasing pressure on the network.

The lack of spare parts also means that repairs
cannot be made to generators powering hospitals
and other key infrastructure. The main generator
at the European Hospital in Khan Younis has already
shut down, as has the backup generator at Ash-Shifa
Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s largest medical centre.

The power cuts also mean that local water utilities
cannot pump water with sufficient pressure,
meaning that high rise buildings are without water.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli border police prevent 15 trucks
loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip,
according to a de facto Health Ministry representative.

Emergency and Ambulance Services Director General
Mu’awiyya Hassanein says the Health Ministry
lacks over 300 types of necessary medication,
yet the 15 trucks are stopped at the Karem Shalom
crossing into Gaza. Hassanein says Gaza hospitals
will also soon run out of several other medications.

Hassanein: "A health disaster will occur if Israel
continues to prevent the shipment of medicine to Gaza."

On Sunday, the siege’s death toll rose to 258,
when a seven-month-old baby died at the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

Meanwhile, about 400 patients suffering from cancer
and heart diseases are awaiting treatment in Israeli
and West Bank hospitals. Israel has only allowed
270 other Gaza patients to receive treatment
since the blockade was imposed in early November.

Hassanein appeals for international health organizations
to intervene to "save Gaza Strip hospitals from
the health disaster, which has already begun."

*****************************************

HEADLINES AND IGNORANCE
War is openly being declared

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC),
an armed Palestinian group based in Gaza,
announces that the truce with Israel is “over.”

The PRC’s official spokesperson, Abu Mujahid,
vows to retaliate for Israel’s killing of
four of its members earlier on Sunday.

"The price Israel will have to pay will not only
include projectiles and mortar shells; it will
include more things that will make Israel regret
starting such atrocities," says Abu Mujahid.

An Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza killed four men
affiliated with the PRC's An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades
on Sunday morning. The attack was the latest in
a series of Israeli attacks that have thrown the
five-month-old ceasefire into question.
The truce is set to expire on 16th December.

"There is no such thing called "truce" after those crimes
and resistance sides have a right to respond."

“The truce is over with this ongoing Israeli
aggression and blockade and resistance factions
have to get ready for revenge."

"Israel left any truce with such crimes.
Retaliation is a matter of time and Israel
is responsible for all consequences."

Food is reported to be so short in Gaza,
it will "run out in three days"; and Gaza's economy
- heavily reliant on agriculture and tourism -
is described as "ruined".

Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz urges Israel
to assassinate leaders in the Hamas-controlled Gaza government,
as a response to the launch of homemade projectiles from Gaza.

Mofaz says his country must "stop talking
and launch a personal targeted killing policy
against the Hamas government."
The remarks are carried by Israeli news website Ynet.

If implemented, the assassinations would be an escalation
of a present Israeli assault on Gaza which began with
a truce-breaking incursion on the 4th of November.

Sunday morning's Israeli airstrike kills four
Palestinian fighters in Northern Gaza, bringing
the death toll in Gaza to 15 since November 4th.

Two homemade rockets also land in Gaza on Sunday,
causing no damage. According to the Israeli military,
Palestinian resistance groups have launched 170
projectiles into Israel since the aggression began.
There are no injuries reported as a result of
the projectiles, and no damage to any building.

Mofaz, a member of the ruling center-right Kadima party,
also advocated assassinations when he served as
defense minister and military chief of staff.

Mofaz explains, "It turns out that Israel's policy
– cutting the supply of goods, electricity and water -
is failing to yield the desired results.
Moreover, it appears that we are the ones acting
like the ones interested in a truce, not Hamas.
This approach and policy is wrong.”

"We must convene immediately, form a policy and
bring it to the cabinet's approval as soon as possible."

At a cabinet meeting outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
says that Israel is not afraid to use force.

Addressing other Israeli leaders at the meeting
he is quoted by the Israeli press as saying
"we will hurt anyone who tries to violate the truce."

The four young "militants" blown up in Gaza Sunday morning
were killed by an Israeli military drone.

*********************************************
The Nativity Square in Bethlehem erupts in
celebrations, as the one millionth tourist
for 2008, arrives in the city.
(see Shalom Page for full details)
*********************************************

HOW MANY ROADS... ?

Another British soldier is dead in Afghanistan
after his armed patrol is struck by a bomb,
the Ministry of Defence says.

The soldier, from 2nd Battalion the Royal Ghurkha Rifles,
is killed Saturday in Musa Qala, Helmand.
Next of kin have been informed.

His death brings the number of British service personnel
killed in Afghanistan since operations began, to 125.

The MoD says the vehicle he was travelling in
struck an explosive device.

Commander Paula Rowe of Task Force Helmand:
"Everyone in Task Force Helmand is saddened
by the death of this soldier. While there are no
words to ease their loss, our heartfelt sympathies
go to his family, friends and fellow soldiers
at this difficult time."

His death is the second from the battalion
in just over a fortnight.
Yubraj Rai, 28, died on November the 4th, when a
patrol came under attack, also in Musa Qala.

Last week two Royal Marines were also killed in Afghanistan,
taking the British military toll in Afghanistan
and Iraq to 300 before Sunday's announcement.

The latest fatalities come as the Government is,
according to some reports, preparing to send
more troops to Afghanistan.


********************************************

NO PEACE FOR US ? - NO PEACE FOR YOU !!!

The Islamic Hamas movement vows not to allow
the Israelis to live in peace, unless residents
of the Gaza Strip enjoy it.

"The Israelis will not enjoy peace while the
Palestinian people live in bloodshed," says Hamas
spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum.

On November the 4th, Israeli paratroopers kill
six Hamas gunmen in a Gaza operation and Hamas
responds with a barrage of rockets.

Afterwards, over 10 Palestinian militants are killed
and Israel is struck by dozens of rockets.

Barhoum says Hamas will not use the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire
as a tool to restrain Palestinian fighters.
"The lull cannot be a paper in the face of resistance."

He praises the rocket attacks against Israel,
saying the "response to the aggression must be
firm and strong to force the occupation to stop its crimes."

The unwritten ceasefire agreement expires
on December the 19th.

************************************

Azerbaijan's parliament votes to withdraw
its peacekeeping force from Iraq.

Lawmakers vote 86-1 to back President Ilham
Aliev's request to withdraw the 150 troops.
They have served in Iraq since 2003, working
mostly as sentries, on patrols and protecting
dams near the city of Hadid. It is unclear
when the pullout will be completed.

***********************************************

FREEDOM ! FREEDOM !! FREEDOM !!!

On Saturday, Palestinians marked the 20th anniversary of
the Declaration of Independence for the State of Palestine,
signed in Algiers in 1988.

20 years ago, Yasser Arafat addressed the
Palestinian National Council (PNC)
and officially declared Palestinian independence.

The end of the declaration, written by the
renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish,
who died this year, reads:

"Therefore, we call upon our great people to
rally to the banner of Palestine, to cherish
and defend it, so that it may forever be
the symbol of our freedom and dignity in that homeland,
which is a homeland for the free, now and always...."

More than 100 countries recognize the existence
of a Palestinian state in exile, and host offices
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
acknowledged as Palestinian embassies.

On Saturday, schools and government institutions
were on holiday to commemorate Independence Day.

In Gaza, Fatah asserts that the Palestinian people
"call upon all world countries, and all other organizations,
including the International Quartet, to exert pressure on Israel
to adhere to international treaties and UN resolutions."

Fatah says it expects "more support for the
Palestinian struggle and resistance" against the occupation.

"We expect more from other countries," Fatah says in a statement.
"We expect more, to influence the course of international policies
and support the Palestinian people in their demands
to return to their homeland."

The movement calls for independence and a
sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.

****************************************

CUBA JOINS RIO GROUP

• Foreign ministers meeting in Zacatecas
agree to consider Cuba as a full member

The 27th Ministerial Meeting of the Río Group
has taken place in Zacatecas, Mexico, during
which foreign ministers agree in a communiqué,
that, from now on, they consider Cuba to be a full member.

According to that document, members are convinced
that the inclusion of Cuba "will be a central element
in strengthening the Río Group and will enrich its
diverse and plural nature and project its pronouncements
with renewed authority."

This refers to a body that genuinely belongs to
Latin America and the Caribbean, with no "extra-
regional" presence, and is yet another symbol
of changes taking place on the continent and the
failure of U.S. policy – now alone – to isolate Cuba.

Over the last few years numerous member countries
of the Río Group have reiterated their willingness
for Cuba to join the group.

They insist that Cuba’s membership is necessary
to complete the Group as a Latin American and
Caribbean organization.

The Río Group was founded in December 1986,
deriving from the search for peace in Central America.
It has held 20 summits and opened up its membership
on four occasions to all of Latin America
and the majority of the Caribbean nations,
with the exception of Cuba, until today.

This Friday, Cuba records its 2 millionth visitor
- the fifth year in succession it has done so.
But this year, the target is reached MUCH earlier !


******************************************

ISRAEL TELLS PROTESTORS
Nil’in is a "CLOSED MILITARY ZONE"

The Israeli military turns away demonstrating
Palestinian, international and Israeli activists
from a planned march against the Israeli built
West Bank separation barrier on Friday.

Soldiers declare the area a "closed military zone,"
presenting a Hebrew document and non-specific map as evidence.

Members of the press are turned away as well,
despite at least one reporter presenting
press credentials to the officer on duty.

*******************************************

J'ACCUSE !!!

Switzerland accuses Israel of wantonly destroying
Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem and near Ramallah
in violation of Geneva Conventions rules on military occupation.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry demands that Israel
immediately halt the demolitions.

Switzerland — as guardian of the Geneva Conventions —
can call meetings of the treaty's signatories
if it finds problems with its implementation.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lars Knuchel says
the demolitions violate the 1949 Geneva Conventions,
regarded as the cornerstone of international law
on the obligations of warring and occupying powers.
The Fourth Convention states that occupying powers
must respect the property of civilian populations
under their control.

Switzerland says it is lodging a formal protest
with the Israeli Foreign Ministry over recent demolitions,
which now total more than 600 destroyed homes in east Jerusalem
and 1,600 in the West Bank since 2000.

The Swiss statement, using unusually harsh language,
says Switzerland "regards recent incidents as
violations of international humanitarian law"
and notes "no military need to justify the
destruction of these houses."

The Swiss statement calls east Jerusalem an
"integral part of occupied Palestinian territory".
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war,
but Palestinians claim the territory as the
capital of their hoped-for state.

The Jerusalem-based Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
says that so far this year dozens of Palestinian
homes have been pulled down in east Jerusalem,
and activists say the city is issuing orders
against 90 more homes.

******************************************

ISRAEL STOPS GAZA AID BEING DELIVERED

The UN is to suspend its food distribution effort
to the Gaza Strip after Israel says it will not
allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory.

Israel had initially permitted the UN Relief and Works Agency
to send 30 lorries of supplies to Gaza on Thursday
but later reversed the agreement, citing a
barrage of mortar fire by fighters in the enclave.

"They have told us the crossings are closed today.
At the end of today we will suspend our food distribution,"
Chris Gunnes, a spokesman for Unrwa, said on Thursday.

"Our warehouses are effectively empty."

Unrwa usually distributes emergency food rations
to about 750,000 people in the Gaza Strip, half
the population of the territory.

"Pushing people to the brink of desperation every
few months and forcing Unrwa into yet another cycle
of crisis management, is not in the interest of
anyone who believes in peace, moderation and stability," Gunness says.

The passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza has
repeatedly been stopped over the last few days,
aid agencies say, marking a turning point on
Israel’s grip on the territory.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC)
says that Israeli border authorities have turned
back its lorries from the Kerem Shalom crossing.

A six-month truce between Israel and Hamas has
come under increasing strain in the last week,
after Israeli forces entered Gaza in a move
against a tunnel network used by Palestinian fighters.

At least 11 Palestinians have been killed by
Israeli forces in recent days, while more than
130 rockets have been fired from Gaza.

"The rockets are a natural response to aggression,"
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, says.

Israel also now cuts off European Union-funded
fuel supplies to Gaza's only power plant on Thursday.

"It is completely shut down," Qanaan Obeid, an
official from the Palestinian Energy Authority, says.

Katharina Ritz, mission leader for the ICRC:
"every day the situation is getting more and
more precarious for Gazans".

She says medical equipment is in particularly
short supply in the coastal territory.


************************************


In Nicaragua, the Sandanistas, who suffered cruelly
under Reagan's illegal "Contra" death squads,
win the latest election there.
The opposition is reduced to cries of "fraud" !

Zimbabwe, smashed by sanctions inspired by the UK,
STILL has a ZANU/PF government, and President Mugabe
is now asked to form a government of his choice.

South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
says the EU and US could help Zimbabwe develop
its agriculture and attract investment rather
than imposing sanctions which hurt Zimbabweans.

"They hurt the ordinary people ... if you have
sanctions against the government then obviously
investors will not want to deal with that government,
and tourists get frightened off."


*******************************************

VIOLENCE UP IN IRAQ

Ten Iraqi insurgent groups are escalating attacks
after signing up to a strategy to derail the proposed
U.S.-Iraqi security pact, an Internet monitoring service says.

The declaration against "the agreement of disgrace"
was announced on November the 4th in an audio
speech by Sheik Abu Wael, a top leader of the
Sunni militant Ansar al-Sunnah, who invited other
insurgent groups to join, the SITE Intelligence Group says.

"Such kinds of agreements are not negated by mere
statements of condemnation and denunciation,"
the sheik says. "Rather, there is necessity for
work, jihad, fighting those forces the enemy and
those who are loyal to them to recant this agreement"

The sheik invited over 15 factions to join.
Most of them posted statements accepting.

The groups include the Jihad and Change Front,
Islamic Army in Iraq, Hamas-Iraq, and the Mujahedeen Army in Iraq, SITE says.

If there is no agreement or new UN mandate,
the U.S. military will have to cease operations in Iraq.

**************************************

TWO US TROOPS KILLED BY ONE IRAQI SOLDIER

Two U.S. servicemen are dead - shot on Wednesday
- by an Iraqi soldier after a quarrel ends with a
shooting, an Iraqi interior ministry source says.

Six other U.S. troops are wounded in the shootout
during a joint patrol in the northern city of Mosul,
the source says on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, a local security source said that four
U.S. soldiers were shot dead and three others injured.

The Iraqi soldier, identified as Brzan Mohammed,
opened fire at U.S. troops after he was beaten
in the face, the security source says, adding
that he was killed by U.S. soldiers returning fire.

The U.S. military in Iraq confirms two dead troops
and six wounded after an exchange of fire with an
Iraqi soldier. They do not give details.

Mosul is still an insurgent stronghold.


********************************************

ISRAELI FORCES RAID HOUSE OF MOAMMAR URABI,
A MEMBER OF NEWS AGENCY MAAN's BOARD,
AND THE DIRECTOR OF WATAN TV.

We all know Israel limits food and fuel shipments into Gaza.
It now appears to be preventing journalists
from entering, or even leaving, the area.

On Tuesday Dirk Jan Visser, foreign news service photographer,
is denied entry into the Gaza Strip.
On Monday BBC journalist Aleem Maqbool and his colleague
are denied entry into Gaza, and a French journalist,
“V” is denied permission to leave.

Security officer for UNRWA Andrew Pollock says
the number of journalists allowed in and out of Gaza
has dropped, and adds that this has been the case
since the 4th of November when security changed.

Spokesperson for UN Media in Gaza (OCHA) Hamada Al-Bayari,
confirms that there are now restrictions on
internationals wishing to enter and exit Gaza,
and adds that the case is worse for Gazans.
"Since the Israeli invasion that saw the killing
of the six Hamas activists, crossing activity has been limited.”
Al-Bayari says only severe humanitarian cases are being allowed to leave.

Given the change in Israeli security procedures
since Monday, Al-Bayari says we will have to
“wait and see” if reports of barring journalists
now represent strict Israeli policy.

Israeli army officers in charge of the Erez crossing,
the only point of entry or exit for human traffic,
refuse to comment.

Israeli journalists are barred from Gaza
and have been barred for more than two years.

***************************************

The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees
condemns an Israeli attack on one of their clinics
in the village of Al-Mugher, near Ramallah.

The Vice President of the organization, Jihad Mash’al
says in a statement that Israeli troops broke
through the gate of the clinic, ransacking the
facility and destroying equipment.

He calls on international organisations to intervene
and stop attacks against medical workers and the clinics.

********************

Israeli forces seize a Palestinian university student
while raiding the village of Al-Ubeidiya, east
of Bethlehem yesterday morning.

Palestinian security sources report five
military vehicles invading the village at 2am.

Israeli troops, he says, searched a house
owned by Jamal Mahmoud Rabay’ah, then detained
his 22-year-old son Ra’fat, a student at Hebron University.

****************************************

TWO UK SOLDIERS, ONE US SOLDIER
AND MANY AFGHANS DIE IN ATTACKS

Two Royal Marines are dead after an explosion
in southern Afghanistan, the MoD says last Thursday.

They were killed Wednesday, the MoD says.
Next of kin are informed.

Thursday, at least 20 people are killed in an attack
on a US convoy passing through a busy Afghan market.
More than 55 civilians are injured in the attack
in the eastern province of Nangarhar thursday morning, officials say.

One 13-year-old child dies in hospital from his injuries
and the toll is expected to rise.
A US military spokesperson says one US soldier also dies.

Al Jazeera's David Chater:
"The Taliban says the attack was carried out by
the Tora Bora Mujahidin. This is unusual because
this whole area has not been subject to these sorts
of attacks before, but this time the Taliban has
opened up another front near Jalalabad."

"It seems the Taliban is proving much more resilient
than anybody thought. It is showing its reach and depth
in this latest attack. Everybody admits that the strategy
here in Afghanistan is a failure and the country
is, in effect, spiralling downwards."


*******************************************


Israeli outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
says confrontation with Hamas is unavoidable
and that the Israeli army is prepared for it.

"The situation between us and Hamas
is one of an inevitable clash.
It's only a question of 'when' not 'if,'"

Olmert says during a visit to the headquarters
of Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Gaza Division.

Israeli defence officials say their military
is deploying remote-controlled machine guns
along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The system allows female soldiers watching television screens
in control rooms in the rear to spot targets and open fire.


****************************************

WAR IN GAZA

Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers invade
the Gaza Strip east of the town of Al-Qarara
Wednesday morning, sparking clashes with Palestinian fighters.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly attack fighters
in the same area, causing no injuries.

Witnesses say the invading forces approach houses
approx. 300 meters away from the border line.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas,
confirms that its forces have clashed with the
Israeli military in that area.

Israeli military vehicles usually avoid
direct clashes with Palestinian fighters.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce in June.
This was thrown into question last Tuesday night
when Israeli forces killed six Palestinian armed men.
Palestinian military organizations respond
by firing dozens of homemade rockets into Israel.


**************************************

SOMALI INSURGENTS TAKE KEY PORT NEAR MOGADISHU.

Somalia's Shabab group has taken over the port of
Elasha, 18km southwest of the Somali capital.

The Shabab briefly occupied three small towns on
the outskirts of Somalia's capital Mogadishu on
Thursday, before fleeing as Ethiopian forces
headed south from the city to confront them.

The Shabab is the armed wing of the Islamic Courts' Union,
which in 2006 seized most of the country before being
ousted by an Ethiopian military intervention.

The heavily armed fighters contol most of southern Somalia
and on Wednesday seized Marka, a strategic port
located 100km south of the capital Mogadishu,
after pro-government forces fled.

In Elasha, Said Sahra Sheik, a resident, says
more than 100 heavily armed fighters entered the town
on Wednesday night after the pro-government forces fled.

"The Islamic militia are patrolling in the streets,''
Fadumo Hussein Dahir, a shopkeeper in Elasha, says.

"They have dismantled a roadblock, where pro-government militia
used to take extortion money from passing vehicles.''

The group now controls most of the country's south,
with the exceptions of Mogadishu and Baidoa,
where the parliament sits.

The new seizures give the group a strategic base
in central Somalia, where it controls Kismayo,
the third-largest city.

Al-Shabab, which means "the youth," is the
military wing of the Union of Islamic Courts.

Local human rights worker Mohamed Gule Hassan:
"The town seems to be under the full control of
al-Shabab. After 24 hours of tension and fear
in the town, which forced hundreds of people to
flee from their homes, the fighting ended."

About 1,000 insurgents seize Qoryoley in southern Somalia
from militias loyal to Somalia's crumbling government.


********************************************

HUGE EXPLOSION AT AFGHAN INTELLIGENCE CENTRE.

At least three people are dead as a bomb rips
through a compound of government offices
in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

The attack Wednesday wounds more than 30 people
and appears to target the city's intelligence
agency and provincial council offices.

A police officer at the scene says that it looks
as if a car bomb was used to carry out the attack.
It is not clear whether it was driven by a suicide attacker.
The explosion could be heard across the city.

The blast apparently occurs near a house owned by
Hamid Karzai's brother. Afghan MPs and local officials
are among the injured.

Zemarai Bashary, spokesperson, Afghan interior ministry:
"There has been a blast in Kandahar city.
At this stage we have no details.
Police are at the scene."

************************************

The Foreign Policy of an Obama Administration
by Rodrigue Tremblay
[http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/author.html]

"Either man will abolish war,
or war will abolish man."
Bertrand Russell

"In the field of world policy I would dedicate
this nation to the policy of the good neighbor —
the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and,
because he does so, respects the rights of others."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (March 4, 1933)

"I believe in a whole lot of things that make me
progressive and put me squarely in the Democratic camp."
Sen. Barack Obama, (July 8, 2008)


President-elect Barack Obama is a nice guy and a
fresh political face. His election on November 4 (2008),
as president of the US, is a great personal achievement.
At the very least, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Indeed, President-elect Obama has received from the
American electorate an unequivocal public mandate for change.
It is fair to say that his election creates an opportunity
for the United States to tackle a number of systemic problems
that have beset this proud nation for a long while.

The most important revision that could be made is
the way Americans see their country in the world.
Is the U.S. an old-style empire that uses empty phrases
to advance imperialistic interests through military force?
Or is the U.S. rather the first country truly founded
on the Enlightenment principles of equality of all human beings,
of individual freedom and responsibility, and of the
democratic system of government, as embodied in the U.S. Constitution?
Which is it going to be under an Obama administration?

Since World War II, the US has been obsessed with
its military power. The fact that the U.S. played
such a central role in defeating Nazi Germany and
imperial Japan went to the head of most American
politicians and of many American citizens.
Suddenly, the U.S. saw itself as grander than nature,
a messianic, self-appointed “leader of the free world”.
It was a mission that the military-industrial complex
was eager to embrace with enthusiasm.

Towards the end of World War II, General Motors CEO
Charles Wilson advanced the fateful idea of a
permanent war economy with ever increasing military
expenditures, and with military bases all around the world.
On April 14, 1950, Wilson's ideas were officially
adopted by the U.S. government when National Security
Council Document 68 was issued by the Truman administration.
It was the framework for an amoral and costly
foreign policy that propelled the US upon a
dangerous path and which, nearly sixty years
later, is threatening to push it toward financial
and moral bankruptcy. Indeed, it is because of this
far-reaching policy that the US today spends more
on the military than all the other nations of the
world combined and has been willing, under George
W. Bush, to engage in a war of aggression.

Even before, however, numerous foreign military
adventures, beginning with the Korean War,
followed the adoption of this militaristic policy.
The worst blunder was undoubtedly the ill-advised
and gratuitous Vietnam War, in which some 55,000
young Americans and more than one million Vietnamese
lost their lives, all for naught. It was also a
major component of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

The obsession with anything military turned tragic
in the 1980s, under Ronald Reagan, when propagandists
began to present the US as the “good empire”
as compared with other “evil empires”.
Of course, the most grotesque rendering of this
delusion reached its zenith under George W. Bush,
when the US perceived itself as being above
international law, in its self-appointed “mission”
or “crusade” to impose American-style democracy
and promote U.S. economic interests around the
world with tanks and bombs.

This transformation of a law-abiding American
republic into a somewhat rogue empire above the
law was bound to have many dire consequences,
for both itself and for the world.

In the past, the myth of a so-called U.S.
"Manifest Destiny" under a divine authority,
and of American exceptionalism, has often surfaced
in American history, but rarely as intensely as
it was witnessed during the last quarter century.
Used initially by the Jacksonian Democrats to
justify the extermination of the Indians and the
conquest of the American West, the myth was promoted
by the Republicans in the 1980s to pave the way
for the ideology of an American world hegemony.

As if to corroborate historian Arnold Toynbee's
100 year cycle of imperial wars, the same myth
had been used in the 1890s by members of the
Republican Party to justify their seizure and
occupation of former Spanish foreign colonies
during the Spanish-American War of 1898. At that
time, the US embraced a policy of imperial conquests,
with the occupation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Panama.

Recently, the powerful neo-conservative movement
adopted the same ideology of American moral superiority,
presenting the policy of militarism and of imperialism
as something "good". The neocons, indeed, have
been the principal proponents of total global
military domination by the US. They have been
the main driving force within the Bush-Cheney
administration behind the American-led war of
aggression against Iraq.

Soon, in January 2009, a new Obama administration
will be inaugurated. Normally, if it really wants
to change things, a new administration must spell
out clearly its agenda during the first 100 days,
before everything becomes “business as usual”.
This is a moment to be seized and not be wasted,
especially with the type of widespread mandate
the incoming administration has received.

Will President Barack Obama deliver on his
promise of change and adopt new and bold
progressive policies? Indeed, will he have the
wisdom and courage to revisit a more than half-
century old foreign policy that has outlived its
pertinence, and dare bring forward a new vision
and a necessary change of direction? — At the
very least, the question deserves to be raised.

______________________________________

Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics
at the University of Montreal and can be reached at
rodrigue.tremblay@ yahoo.com.
He is the author of the book 'The New American Empire'.[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0741418878/
qid=1088897483/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-6665916-
6565553?s=books&v=glance&n=283155]

Visit his blog site at http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.

Author's Website: http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/

Check Dr. Tremblay's coming book "The Code for Global Ethics" at: http://www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/


*********************************************

THE US FORGES AHEAD

Documents linking Iran to a nuclear weapons push
may have been fabricated !!?!!

In an article by investigative journalist Gareth Porter,
published on Monday November 10, the "lap top"
papers come under increasingly critical review.


http://rawstory.com/news/2008/IAEA_suspects_
fraud_in_evidence_for_1109.html


*************************************


MOMENT FOR PEACE IS NOW - OR "LOTS OF BLOOD".

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says
that Israel must be willing to give up
parts of Jerusalem in return for peace.

"If we are determined to maintain a Jewish and democratic Israel,
we must concede parts of the homeland we have prayed for
and dreamed of for generations, as well as Arab neighborhoods
in Jerusalem, and return to the State of Israel in 1967 with amendments,"
Olmert is quoted by local daily Yedioth Ahronoth as saying.

"The decision must be made now. The moment of truth is here.
There is no escape. It can be missed. If, God forbid, we stall,
we will lose the support for the two-state idea."

Olmert repeats - the moment of truth has arrived -
warning that "It can be postponed for many years
in which a lot of blood will be spilt.

"But we must face it with integrity; uprightly and responsibly.
The bullets that killed Rabin cannot stop the historic path he led.
Rabin will win even after his death," he claims.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, speaking of extremist Zionists:
"They hurt Palestinians, just because they are Palestinians,
and challenge the law enforcers, police and soldiers,
who are protecting the country, and also protecting them."

Olmert speaks during a special session of the Knesset,
marking the 13th anniversary of the assassination
of the late prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin.

"This violent and dangerous minority must be condemned
and isolated, and we must not remain silent in the face of
their words of incitement and blasphemy.
We must not ignore acts of vandalism and damage,
as they were a state within a state," says the president.

Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 before
being shot dead in 1995 by a right-wing radical
opposed to his signing of the Oslo Accords which
recognize Palestinians' right to their own statehood
in exchange for acceptance of Israel's existence.

*************************************

Two Palestinian students are injured as
Israeli forces disperse a commemorative ceremony
in villages south of Bethlehem commemorating the
fourth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat.

The ceremony sees hundreds holding photos of Arafat
and signs attesting that those who gather
are committed to walking in his footsteps.
The ceremonial procession walks up the main road
near Efrata settlement, where Israeli soldiers
disperse the group of mourners.

Another commemoration ceremony in Tuqu south of Bethlehem
also sees confrontations with Israeli forces,
though here, no injuries are reported.

**********************************

Israel partially renews fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip,
ending a week-long suspension of supplies that led to
blackouts in the homes of Palestinian families.

Palestinian workers say the first delivery
is sent on to Gaza's only power plant.

The plant shut down on Monday due to what
Palestinian officials say was a lack of fuel,
leaving about half of Gaza's 1.5 million residents without power.

Witnesses say the result of the restriction has been
an almost complete blackout across the territory.

Israel blocked shipments of EU-funded fuel for a week
in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters,
who say they are responding to an Israeli raid
that killed six people on November 4th.
The violence is disrupting the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Only a limited supply of fuel is sent in.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister:
"The fuel supply will be resumed completely
when rocket fire from the Gaza Strip has ceased."


**********************************

STIFF UPPER CHROMOSOMES

We Brits love this US openness now showing under
Obama... they're admitting to "dozens" of Aghan
civilian casualties, and that Georgia - not
Russia - started the recent war. US troops are
also open about the "thousands of dollars" each
is losing on the collapsing funds in Wall street.
Silly rich, brash Americans, we say.

And we Brits - with our stiff upper lips - know
very well how to keep quiet. Our civil servants
can always show us how...
The Ministry of Defence is now accused of
"a cover-up of a cock-up" for failing to investigate
genetic damage among the veterans of Britain's
nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s.

Confidential correspondence from 1984 reveals that
the Medical Research Council (MRC) discovered DNA defects
in a test veteran that were characteristic of radiation damage.
But the council was never asked to look for
similar problems in other veterans.

This revelation could bring justice for veterans,
who have been campaigning for decades for compensation
for illnesses they blame on radiation.
They are launching legal action against the MoD,
which is promising them "an inquiry".

Britain exploded 46 nuclear bombs between 1952 and 1962
  into the atmosphere in the Pacific Ocean area.
These explosions were witnessed by 21,000 servicemen,
many dressed just in shorts and sandals.

Sue Roff, an expert from the Centre for Medical Education
at Dundee University: "The scientists and military leaders
who conducted the tests knew there were hazards.
But few safety measures were put in place and no
proper blood studies were done after the men returned.
It has always seemed to me to be a cover-up of a cock-up.
And that's the kinder interpretation."

The under-secretary of state for defence, Kevan Jones,
met with test veterans two weeks ago, and agrees now
to investigate the health of their children and grandchildren.

Dennis Hayden, of the Combined Veterans' Forum International:
"Any advanced technology showing the mark of the bomb
in the DNA of veterans does not suit the government's agenda."

******************************************

Taliban targets Isaf troop convoy

At least two Spanish soldiers are dead and three
others injured after a suicide attacker crashes
an explosive-laden vehicle into their convoy,
an ISAF spokesperson says.

The Taliban claims the attack - in the town
of Azizabad in northwestern Herat province.

General Ikramudin Yawar, an Afghan police commander,
says the troops are attacked in the Shindand district
as they travel in a convoy with Afghan soldiers.

Earlier reports said the dead and injured were
Italian soldiers in the Nato-led International
Security Assistance Force.

Violence is increasing steadily in Afghanistan
in recent months as the Taliban, who were in
government between 1996 and 2001, grow in strength.


******************************************


PARLIAMENTARIANS TO GET "SPECIAL PRESENTATION"
OF GAZA HOSPITALS AND REFUGEE CAMPS.

The third Free Gaza ship, the SS Dignity,
anchors in Gaza harbor Saturday morning, after
setting sail from Cyprus on Friday evening.
Aboard are several European Parliamentarians
from England, Italy and Switzerland, as well as
several Arab leaders, human rights activists and journalists.

This marks the fourth ship within three months
to successfully arrive in Gaza. The voyages,
organized by the Free Gaza movement, aim at
breaking the Israeli siege on the area by
opening the coastal border, so Gazans can move
freely in and out of the country.

The crew reports that a few kilometers off the
Gaza shore, an Israeli naval gunboat approached,
cutting across the bow of the boat, then
"falling back and tracking it for about an hour."

Then the gunboat radioed the ship and "asked who
they were and where they were going," then asked
for the passenger list. One crew member responded:

"Our passengers are listed on our Free Gaza
website for everyone to see. You're welcome to
visit it any time. And… while you're there, feel
free to make a donation." After a pause, then a laugh,
the voice on the other end said, "Have a nice day."

The Gazan government committee against the siege,
which is affiliated with the de facto government,
announces that a special agenda is prepared
for the solidarity delegation. They are being given
tours of some of the hardest hit areas in the
Gaza Strip, particularly camps and hospitals.

The crew of the latest voyage bring with them
one metric ton of medicines, most of which are
varieties of basic pain killers and aspirin.
These medications are in desperately short supply,
and mostly unavailable in local pharmacies.

*****************************

DIVIDE AND RULE - WORKS EVERY TIME !

The mass arrests of Hamas activists in the West Bank continues,
as Palestinian Authority security services arrest
26 Hamas affiliates across the West Bank, the
party says in a statement.

Most of those arrested are from the Hebron area
in the southern West Bank. In Bethlehem several
employees from the As-Subani centre for stationery
services are detained.

There are also arrests in Salfit in the northern
West Bank and in the Jericho district to the east.
Hamas officials tell Cairo that they will not
attend conciliation talks scheduled to start Sunday.

Meanwhile delegations from the Palestinian People’s Party,
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and the Arab Liberation Front arrive at Rafah crossing
and are refused entry into Egypt.

Egyptian border officials tell the delegations,
according to security reports, that they are
denied entry for “technical reasons.”
The delegations are turned away and told to go home.

Hamas announces now that it will not attend
the meeting in protest at arrests of its members
by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Muhammad As-Sudi says;
“Unity should be restored and no obstacles
and preconditions must be set.
National interests should be prioritized
over narrow partial interests.”

As-Sudi also applauds Egyptian efforts to
heal the rift in Palestinian political society
and achieve Palestinian unity. He describes the
suggested Egyptian document as good grounds for
reconciliation, saying it contains many points of
common interest for all Palestinian factions.


Talks to reconcile rival Palestinian factions
cancelled this week are to resume in under a fortnight,
a senior Fatah official says.
Egypt on Saturday announced the postponement
after Hamas said it would boycott the meetings.

"Based on available information we have from the Egyptians
I expect the resumption of Palestinian talks in Cairo
in 10 days, or two weeks at the most,"
Nabil Shaath - an advisor to Mahmud Abbas -
tells reporters in Cairo.
An Egyptian official says Egypt is in contact
with the Palestinian factions and the meeting
will take place "soon". He doesn't provide a date.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ahmed Abul Gheit says Egypt's proposal
must remain the basis for talks.

Hamas says its reservations about the plan
have been dismissed and that the Fatah movement
is detaining its members in the West Bank.

Hamas says on its website that four Palestinian
groups are accusing Cairo of favouring Fatah.

Abul Gheit: "There can be no abandoning the
Egyptian paper. Egypt exerted efforts. It made
a proposal and presented it to the factions
for discussion. It was apparent in the last few
days there was no political will yet."

Abbas says the cancellation of the talks is "regretful."
"I ask Egypt to continue its efforts,
which would lead to a transitional government."


*************************************

US ARMY RECRUITERS KILLING THEMSELVES

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says the Army is appointing
a brigadier general to investigate allegations
of a cover-up among commanders of a recruiting
battalion after a string of recruiter suicides.

Five Army recruiters from the same Houston battalion
have committed suicide since 2001, including two since August.
Cornyn last month called for an independent investigation
in a letter to Secretary of the Army Pete Geren.
Geren responded in a two-page letter dated Nov. 3,
writing that he shared Cornyn's concern about the suicides
and reports of "undue command influence within
the Houston Recruiting Battalion investigations."

Brig. Gen. Frank Turner of the U.S. Army Accessions Command
is assigned to lead the investigation and make recommendations.

The U.S. Army Recruiting Command is conducting
investigations into the two most recent suicides.


*****************************

BURNED BY RED HOT METAL

A Danish woman is shot with a tear-gas canister
during the weekly anti-wall protest in Ni’lin on Friday,
and dozens of others suffer tear gas inhalation.

Protesters heading towards the site of the construction
of the separation wall, are accosted by Israeli soldiers
who try to prevent the protesters from accessing
the confiscated village lands.

As the protesters near the construction site
Israeli forces open fire from close range, with
tear-gas canisters shot directly at protesters,
as well as firing rubber-coated steel bullets.

According to the International Solidarity Movement
the Danish woman was shot in the upper-arm with a burning hot canister.
She was taken to the Sheikh Zaide hospital in Ramallah.

****************************************

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN IRAQ ?

Shell thinks it can sneak an agreement past the
Iraqi parliament, enraging the Fadhila party in Basra,
while Washington and the Green Zone government
believe they are finalizing details on an "accord"
to replace the expiring U.N. mandate for Iraq.

Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani says
he will speak with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani
as his representatives speak against it, and says
he will also talk to Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-
general of the Lebanese Hezbollah, after a
prominent Lebanese cleric also voices opposition.

Lebanese Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah
sets a variety of conditions for Iraqi lawmakers
to consider when assessing the agreement;
that it assures national sovereignty, and includes
full military responsibility.

"There will be no stability in Iraq without
a full withdrawal by the occupier," he says.

Grand Ayatollah Kadhim al-Husseini al-Hairi
issues a statement from Najaf that the SOFA
"must not be signed" by Iraqi lawmakers.

Moqtada Sadr says through a statement issued by
his officials in Baghdad that Iraqi lawmakers
should vote against the agreement in earnest.

"The decision on the pact is in your hands, and
therefore the fate and reputation of Iraq
is in your hands. So beware of voting for the pact;
in fact, you must all vote against it,"
the statement reads.


*************************************

JUSTICE IS NOT NEGOTIABLE

Anti-war protesters are going to gather outside
the Department of Justice next week to urge
Attorney General Michael Mukasey to indict
President Bush and Vice President Cheney
on war crimes charges.

The protesters, organized by The National Campaign
for Nonviolent Resistance say they are willing
to risk jail to urge Bush and Cheney's indictment.
The campaign is gathering signatures for a petition
to urge Mukasey to meet with them.

The protest at the Justice Department is scheduled
for Monday at noon at the department HQ in Washington.

A copy of the group's petition is reprinted below.

I am writing on behalf of the National Campaign
for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR), concerned citizens
who tried to prevent the illegal invasion of Iraq.
NCNR members would like to meet with you to discuss
the indictment of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney
for crimes including the fraudulent case for war,
warrantless spying, torture, and denial of
due process to prisoners.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson,
appointed by President Truman to be the Chief
Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals following
World War II, stated, "let me make clear that
while this law is first applied against German
aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to
serve a useful purpose it must condemn,
aggression by any other nations, including
those which sit here now in judgment."

There is a well-established law in our jurisprudence
which places an affirmative duty on all of us to expose
any treasonous or criminal act which comes to our attention.
Failure to do so is defined as "misprision."
As good citizens, we are writing to you out of duty,
knowing that if felonies have been committed
we are to inform a magistrate.
Silently to observe the commission of a felony,
without endeavoring to apprehend the offender,
is a misprision.

Please schedule a meeting with NCNR
at your earliest convenience.

And in Britain ? Where are OUR principled legal eagles ?
Turkeys, more like !!!

******************************************

COALITION OF THE UNGLUING

Bulgaria is withdrawing its 155 troops from Iraq
at the end of 2008, the defence ministry says.

"The mandate of the troops expires at the end of the year.
We do not plan to extend it," a spokesperson
cites the defence minister as saying.

Bulgaria's 120 soldiers and 35 support troops
are guarding detainees undergoing a "reintegration"
program at U.S. Camp Cropper near Baghdad's airport.

***

Romania's defense minister says the country's 501
soldiers in Iraq will all leave by the end of this year.

Teodor Melescanu says some Romanian military personnel
will work in 2009 as counselors to local authorities
and "support the civilian population".
Melescanu says he is awaiting clarification of
their new role from the Iraqi government.

The moves must be approved by Romania's Supreme Defense Council.

Two Romanian soldiers have died in Iraq since 2003.
Romania has 644 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Hungary and South Korea will also withdraw their
troops from Iraq by the end of 2008, a spokesperson
for Iraq's Ministry of Defence tells the Voices
of Iraq news agency yesterday.

***********************************

GEORGIA's ACCOUNT REJECTED BY OSCE MONITORS.

Newly available accounts by independent military observers
of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia
question the longstanding Georgian assertion that
it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Not only did Georgia fire far more Cluster Bombs
on civilian areas than they have said they did,
but these new accounts suggest that Georgia’s
military attacked Tskhinvali on August 7th with
indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire,
exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and
unarmed monitors to death and injury.

The accounts raise questions about the accuracy
and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its
shelling of Tskhinvali was a defensive operation.

According to monitors' observations, documented
August 7th and August 8th, Georgian artillery
rounds and rockets were falling on the city at
intervals of 15 to 20 seconds between explosions,
and within the first hour of the bombardment
at least 48 rounds landed in a civilian area.
The monitors also say there is no evidence that
ethnic Georgian villages were under bombardment
that evening, calling into question one of Mr.
Saakashvili’s main justifications for his attack.

The Kremlin welcomes the monitors’ observations,
which, according to a written statement from
Grigory Karasin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister,
reflect "the actual course of events prior to
Georgia’s aggression." He adds that the accounts
refute allegations by Tbilisi of Russian bombardments,
which he calls "mythical".

The monitors were members of O.S.C.E., a European
multilateral organization with 56 member states,
and which has monitored the conflict since a
previous cease-fire agreement in the 1990s.

Mr. Saakashvili, who has compared Russia’s incursion
into Georgia to the Nazi annexations in Europe
and the Soviet suppression of Prague in 1968,
faces domestic unease with his leadership and
skepticism about his judgment from Western governments.

According to the monitors, an O.S.C.E. patrol at
3 p.m. on Aug. 7 saw large numbers of Georgian
artillery and grad rocket launchers massing on
roads north of Gori, just south of the enclave.

At 6:10 p.m., the monitors were told by Russian
peacekeepers of suspected Georgian artillery fire
on Khetagurovo, an Ossetian village; this report
was not independently confirmed, and Georgia
declared a unilateral cease-fire at about 7 p.m.

During a news broadcast that began at 11 p.m.,
Georgia announced that Georgian villages were
being shelled, and declared an operation "to
restore constitutional order" in South Ossetia.
The bombardment of Tskhinvali started soon after the broadcast.

According to the monitors, however, no shelling
of Georgian villages could be heard in the hours
before the Georgian bombardment. At least two of
the four villages that Georgia has since said
were under fire were near the observers’ office
in Tskhinvali, and the monitors there would have
heard if there had been artillery fire nearby.

At 12:15 a.m. on Aug. 8, Gen. Maj. Marat M. Kulakhmetov,
commander of Russian peacekeepers in the enclave,
reported to the monitors that his unit had casualties,
indicating that Russian soldiers had come under fire.

By 12:35 a.m. the observers recorded at least 100
heavy rounds exploding across Tskhinvali,
including 48 close to the observers’ office,
which is in a civilian area and was damaged.

Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a spokesperson for
the Russian Defense Ministry, says that by morning
on August 8th two Russian soldiers had been killed
and five wounded. Two senior Western military officers
stationed in Georgia, speaking on condition of
anonymity because they work with Georgia’s military,
say once Georgia’s artillery or rockets struck
Russian positions, conflict with Russia was all
but inevitable. This clear risk, they say, made
Georgia’s attack dangerous and unwise.

Senior Georgian officials have said that much of the
damage to Tskhinvali was caused in combat
between its soldiers and separatists, or by
Russian airstrikes and bombardments.

Georgia’s account is disputed by Ryan Grist, a
former British Army captain who was the senior
O.S.C.E. representative in Georgia when the war
broke out. Mr. Grist says he was in constant
contact that night with all sides, with the
office in Tskhinvali and with Wing Commander
Stephen Young, the retired British military
officer who led the monitoring team.

"It was clear to me that the attack was completely
indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if
indeed there had been any, provocation," Mr Grist says.
"The attack was clearly, in my mind, an
indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town."

Mr. Grist has served as a military officer or
diplomat in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Kosovo and
Yugoslavia. In August, after the Georgian foreign
minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, who has no military
experience, assured diplomats in Tbilisi that
the attack was measured and discriminate, Mr. Grist
gave a briefing to diplomats from the European Union
that drew from the monitors’ observations and
included his assessments. He then resigned.

A second briefing was led by Commander Young in
October for military attachés visiting Georgia.
At the meeting, according to a person in attendance,
Commander Young stood by the monitors’ assessment
that Georgian villages had not been extensively
shelled on the evening or night of August 7th.
"If there had been heavy shelling in areas that
Georgia claimed were shelled, then our people
would have heard it, and they didn’t," Commander
Young said, according to the person who attended.
"They heard only occasional small-arms fire."

The O.S.C.E has turned down requests to interview
Commander Young and the monitors, saying they work
in sensitive jobs and will not be publicly engaged.
A critical and as yet unanswered question is what
changed for Georgia between 7 p.m. on August 7th,
when Mr. Saakashvili declared a cease-fire,
and 11:30 p.m., when he ordered the attack.
The Russian and Ossetian governments say the cease-fire
was a ruse used to position rockets and artillery for the assault.

That view is widely held by Ossetians. Civilians
repeatedly report resting at home after the cease-fire
broadcast by Mr. Saakashvili.

These O.S.C.E. observations put USUK in a difficult position.
Mr. Saakashvili’s principal international supporters,
have for years accepted the organization’s conclusions
and praised its professionalism.

**************************************

ISRAEL PLANS MUSEUM FOR TOLERANCE
...ON ISLAMIC CEMETERY !

A rally to save the Ma’man Allah Islamic cemetery
took to Jerusalem's streets on Thursday in protest
at the Israeli high court’s decision to allow
the building of a "museum for tolerance" on the
historic Islamic cemetery in East Jerusalem.

Undercover Israeli police were deployed around
the thousands of demonstrators, and prevented
hundreds from wearing the traditional Palestinian
Kyffeieh on their heads, or carrying Palestinian
flags or protest banners. The group did, however,
manage to finish its planned march from the Sa’d
and Sa’eed Mosque to the cemetery, accompanied
by Islamic and Christian leaders.

The Al-Aqsa foundation of Waqf and heritage says
they are "disappointed" that Israeli officers
attempted to halt the protest, since the group
had obtained official permission to hold the protest.

Hatem Abed Al-Qader, President Mahmoud Abbas’
advisor on Jerusalem calls the protest a part of
the popular Palestinian reaction against the
relentless attacks carried out by Israel
against the Palestinian people in East Jerusalem.
He calls the decision to build over an historic
cemetery a decision that affects the entire community,
which "crowns" the myriad other decisions to
demolish Arab homes across the city.

Mufti of Palestine Sheikh Mohammad Husein urges
Palestinians to stand by Jerusalem, saying
"harming the cemeteries means harming our religion
and the dignity of the dead not only for Muslims
but in the wider sense of respecting the human
race and its religions.”

Father Issa Musleh spokesperson of the Orthodox Church
expresses his disapproval of Israeli attempts to
build synagogues on Islamic Waqf lands in a bid
to take the city away from its citizens.

*****************************

20 EUROPEAN CONSULS STOPPED BY ISRAEL.

As the bodies of six men are laid to rest in Gaza,
the French Consulate to Jerusalem says the Israeli
authorities prevented 20 European consulate officials
from entering the Gaza Strip on wednesday.

The diplomats were attempting to enter at the
Erez crossing, the consul says.

Sources confirm that the visitors had hoped to enter Gaza
in order to investigate Palestinians’ living conditions
in light of the Israeli blockade. They were prevented
by soldiers under the pretext of the security situation.

**********************************


ISRAELI SOLDIERS GIVEN JUICE BY SETTLERS
AFTER BEATING WALL DEMONSTRATORS NEAR BETHLEHEM.

Two Palestinians are beaten by Israel soldiers
during a demonstration against the separation
wall in the West Bank village of Al-Ma’sara south of Bethlehem.

About 200 demonstrators including international
and Israeli peace activists march between the
villages of Juret Ash-Sham’a and Al-Ma’sara.
As the protesters reach their destination Israeli
troops attack them with batons.

Those injured are Ibrahim Ali Taqatqa and Nidal
Mahmoud Zawahreh, who sustain light injuries
after being struck repeatedly with wooden batons.

The popular committee to resist the wall dedicates
today’s march to the memory of Yasser Arafat,
who died four years ago next week.

Several demonstrators report seeing dozens of settlers
from the nearby Efrat settlement approach the
area of the demonstration. The settlers yell curses
at the demonstrators and give the soldiers food and juice.

********************************

UK soldier killed in Afghanistan named.

The soldier is named by the MoD as Rifleman Yubraj Rai.

The 28-year-old, from Khotang district in eastern Nepal,
is the first Gurkha to die during the conflict.

The soldier was from 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.

He was killed by enemy fire in the Musa Qala area of Afghanistan,
the MoD says. His family have been informed of
his death.

This latest death means that the number of UK troops
killed on operations in Afghanistan since they
began in 2001 now stands at 122.

Brigadier General Richard Blanchette:
"Our deepest sympathies are with the soldier's
family and friends as they deal with their loss."


******************************************

PAKISTAN FACES WAR, POVERTY AND NO JUSTICE.

Thousands of lawyers across Pakistan held protests on Monday,
for the failure of the government led by Zardari's party
to reinstate Chief Justice Chaudhry.

About 3,000 lawyers, political party workers and
rights activists, many chanting "Go Zardari, go"
gathered in the city of Rawalpindi to mark the
anniversary of Musharraf's emergency with a
fresh call for Chaudhry to be reinstated.

Lawyers' leader Ali Ahmed Kurd:
"Don't compel us to knock on the doors again.
We want the independence of the judiciary and
the rule of law in the country and if that doesn't happen,
the power of 100,000 lawyers and members of civil society
will emerge like a storm."

Chaudhry also spoke to the rally, recalling
the events that led to his dismissal.

Pakistan's leaders now face a country-wide protest
like the campaign that dogged Musharraf until his
resignation under threat of impeachment.

*****************************************

IN AMERICA... YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE IN THE ARMY
...TO FIGHT IN THE WAR !!!

Russia’s rivalry with the US is leading most
western media to concentrate on Medvedev's proposal
to increase presidential terms to six years.

But it is the financial markets and Russia's
hoped for victory of the ruble over the dollar
which they might better look to for their future.
Medvedev says in his speech that Russia will
sell its oil and gas for rubles, not US dollars.

Medvedev: "One should take practical steps to
strengthen the ruble as one of the currencies
for international settlement and finally launch
ruble-based settlements for gas and crude."

Both Medvedev and Putin have been pushing the idea
for the Russian ruble to become a regional currency
since the beginning of this year.
In October Putin put forward a suggestion to
begin trade in rubles with Belarus, China and Vietnam.
Similar suggestions were made to Ukraine, Moldova,
Mongolia and Ukraine in the summer of 2008.

It was Saddam Hussein's move to drop the dollar
which meant an invasion of Iraq became necessary
to prevent the fall of the US economy.

*********

Researchers writing in "Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine"
say that the children of US soldiers on multiple placements
have more problems with aggressive behavior, inattentiveness
and impulsiveness, than those whose parents are "home" more.

"We have to realize that it's not just the people
on the field of battle who are suffering from these wars
but their families and their young children."

The US has 152,000 troops in Iraq and 31,000 in Afghanistan.

Army soldiers are deployed for at least a year at a time
and Marines for seven months at a time.
Many are being deployed repeatedly.

"It's the multiple deployments that are really
starting to get to kids," says Joyce Raezer,
executive director of the National Military
Family Association, which provides resources
and support to spouses and children of military personnel.

"Maybe a family makes it through the first deployment
fairly well, but they don't fully recover from
the first deployment before that service member
is into the second or third or whatever deployment.
How do you measure that cumulative effect?"

*********

US SOLVES ITS HOMELESS PROBLEM

Five homeless people are found shot dead in Long Beach,
about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Los Angeles
on Sunday, police say. An anonymous call led to the discovery.

*****************************************

UK NEEDS TO APOLOGISE

Several Palestinian resistance factions issue statements
Sunday, denouncing the 1917 Balfour Declaration
in which a British official promised Palestine
as a homeland for individuals of Jewish descent.

In 1917 Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary,
sent what is known as the Balfour "Declaration"
to Lord Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild),
a leader of the British Jewish community.
The letter stated that British leaders "view with favour
the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

Palestinians consider the declaration a major
factor in the creation of the state of Israel,
and part of a system that ignored Palestinian
communities in the area and promised the land to
Jewish people at their expense.

"Balfour’s declaration was a pledge to give away
something which was not his," says a statement
released by the military wing of the Popular
Resistance Committees, the An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades.
They demand an official apology from the British
government to the Palestinian people and call on
Palestinian leaders and Arab countries to stop
all negotiations with Israel.

Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades reiterate these sentiments
against the Declaration in a statement that says
Palestinians remain attached to their ancestral lands
and remember their loss on this anniversary of
the issuance of the Balfour Declaration.
The statement holds Britain responsible for what
happened to the Palestinians and demands that the
British government work to remedy its mistake.

Other military groups such as the Eagles of Palestine
and Al-Mujahidin Brigades issue similar statements
condemning the Balfour Declaration and affirming that
Palestine is a historic right of the Palestinian people.
They also urge Palestinian rivals to take the
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration to achieve unity.

***************************************

CARING WITH FOOD

A local Gaza Strip organization, the Palestinian
civil association for family care, opens the area’s
first Food Bank run and supported by Palestinians.

The bank is distributing free basic food items to
needy families, the elderly and disabled Gazans
on a need-basis. The organization’s staff carries
out community assessments in order to assure that
they have an accurate list of those most in need
throughout the area, says executive director of
the association, Adel Rizq.

The food bank is coordinating with other organizations
to ensure that services are not duplicated, and
that truly needy families are not left without assistance.

Rizq calls on different institutions and businessmen
in Palestine to support the organization, which
is working with the recipients of food aid in order
to educate them in proper nutrition, economical
cooking and creative ways of using leftovers.
The project hopes to eliminate malnutrition,
particularly in the elderly and young populations in Gaza.

In addition to providing food and nutrition education,
the bank is also providing jobs for community assessors,
cooks and administrative assistants to help organize
the programs. The organization did a test-run during
the month of Ramadan, which Rizq says was a “great success.”

******************************************

JUSTICE !!!

The leader of N. Ireland's SDLP is asking the UK to stop
pushing the appointment of a senior lawyer to
the UN's International Court of Justice because
he provided dubious legal backing for the attack on Iraq.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has tabled a motion in
the House of Commons urging MPs to persuade Brown
to stop pushing for the appointment of Professor
Christopher Greenwood to the court.

Greenwood gave legal opinion to the then Attorney General,
Lord Goldsmith, in the run-up to the Iraq war.

"Professor" Greenwood argued then, that the two original
resolutions passed against Saddam Hussein after
the Kuwait war of 1990 provided a legal basis
for action in 2003, an assessment that critics
say was a minority legal view. Durkan says it is
"regrettable that the British government is
promoting Professor Greenwood" to be elected as
Judge of the International Court of Justice.

Mark Durkan: "After all, it is worth remembering
his contribution to the government's false assertion
that a military attack on Iraq in 2003 was legal.
He provided the government and Parliament with
the flawed and untenable argument that war with Iraq
was justified on the grounds that the UN Security
Council had authorised the use of force.

"In reality, the Security Council rejected the
"second resolution" proposed by the US and UK.
Furthermore, it is concerning that Professor Greenwood
is widely identified with the questionable doctrine of
"pre-emptive self-defence" and with the contrivance
of "continuing authority" relying on previous UN resolutions,
which did not authorise the use of force.

"Therefore, it would be particularly inappropriate
for the UN General Assembly and Security Council
to elect to the International Court of Justice
a candidate with such a questionable record
on fundamentals of international law and the
responsibilities and reputation of the UN."


*****************************************


IT'S YOU HAMAS WOMEN TELL WEST

Dozens of Hamas-affiliated women rally near the
Rafah crossing in protest at the closure of the
crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Protestors raise posters and placards calling on
Egypt to open the crossing, and for Arab and
Islamic countries to exert pressure on Israel to
help ensure the opening of commercial terminals
which have been closed for months.

The protesters also condemn the decision to
keep borders locked until Hamas recognizes Israel.

Many of the women say they hold the "international
community" responsible for the dire economic situation
in the Gaza Strip, and say that the people will remain
steadfast amid the chaos despite the crippling siege.


********************************


WORDS WORDS WORDS

The European Union condemns settlers’ escalating
violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"The European Union once again condemns in the
strongest possible terms the acts of violence and
brutality committed against Palestinian civilians
by Israeli settlers in the West Bank," a statement says.

It adds that the EU "would point out that it is
up to the Israeli government, which has itself
condemned these acts, to take the necessary
measures to stop them immediately, in accordance
with its international obligations."

The latest condemnations by the EU come amidst
increasingly frequent settler attacks against
Palestinians and, more recently, against Israeli
occupation forces operating in the West Bank.

************************************

Seven protesters including two French peace activists
are injured by Israeli soldiers who fire live ammunition
at a group of protesters at an anti-wall demonstration
in the West Bank city of Bil’in near Ramallah.

Among the protesters are Italian Euro-MP Luisa Morgantini
and British Liberal Democrat Chris Davies,
who is beaten by Israeli soldiers.

Morgantini expresses European solidarity with
Palestinians who have the right to struggle
against the construction of the separation wall
and the right to live in freedom.
Both Morgantini and Davis are attacked by Israeli soldiers,
and Davis sustains mild injuries.

Soldiers close the gate installed in the wall to
prevent the demonstrators from passing onto
village lands. When they proceed towards the gate
Israeli soldiers open fire with live bullets,
sound bombs, tear gas canisters
and rubber-coated metal bullets.

Dozens suffocate on the tear gas and seven are
injured including two French nationals,
journalist Maysun Azzam, correspondent of Al-A’rabeya
Satellite channel in Palestine, Iyad Burnat,
Adeeb Abu Rahmah, Kamal Kamel Abu Rahmah
and Abdallah Abu Rahmah.

The protest is also attended by delegations from
France and Belgium, who listen to explanations
from the popular committee of Bil’in’s anti wall experience.

***************************************

Major Sebastian Morley, commander of the SAS in Afghanistan
has resigned over the equipment available to British troops
in Afghanistan, it is revealed.

Major Sebastian Morley is resigning after four soldiers
were killed when their lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover
hit a landmine in Helmand province earlier this year.

Defence sources insist his departure is for
"purely personal reasons". However, it is known
that he was unhappy at the continued use of the
Snatch, despite its obvious vulnerability.

According to the Daily Telegraph, he believes
Corporal Sarah Bryant - the first female soldier
to die in Afghanistan - and three SAS officers,
Corporal Sean Reeve, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin
and Paul Stout, all died needlessly.

In his resignation letter, Major Morley, the
commander of D Squadron, 23 SAS, is said to
blame "chronic under investment" in equipment
by the MoD for their deaths.

The paper says he believes the MoD is guilty of
"gross negligence" and that its failure to supply
better equipment is "cavalier at best, criminal at worst".

It quotes one soldier who served with Major Morley:
"We highlighted this issue saying people are
going to die and now they have died.
Our commanding officer and Regimental Sergeant Major
tried everything in their power to stop us using Snatch.
The point of failure here lies squarely with the MoD.
The boys nicknamed Snatch the mobile coffin."

Now, the MoD announces it is spending £700m to
buy 700 new armoured vehicles for operations in Afghanistan.

The "defence" secretary, John Hutton, refuses
to withdraw the Snatch Land Rover, saying it
is regarded as "mission critical" to the operation,
though he does promise it will be upgraded to
a new, more powerful model, called the Snatch Vixen.

*********************************************

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is asking the
UK attorney general to investigate possible
"criminal wrongdoing" by MI5 and the CIA over
their "treatment" of a Briton held in Guantánamo Bay.
The allegations of collusion in torture and inhuman treatment
follow a high court judgment that an MI5 officer
participated in the unlawful interrogation of Binyam Mohamed.
The MI5 officer "interrogated" Mohamed while he
was held in Pakistan in 2002.

Lawyers acting for Jacquie have sent the attorney general,
Baroness Scotland, evidence about MI5 and CIA
involvement in the case, which was heard behind closed doors.
They ask Scotland to investigate "possible criminal wrongdoing".
The move could lead to a criminal prosecution.

The evidence was suppressed with "gagging orders"
by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and the US.
Jacquie Smith's action ( she is the minister
responsible for MI5 activities ) is "unprecedented".

Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve,
which represents Guantánamo detainees, welcomes
the move: "This is a welcome recognition that
the CIA cannot just go rendering British residents
to secret torture chambers without any consequences,
and British agents cannot take part in American
crimes without facing the music".

"Reprieve will be making submissions to the attorney general
to ensure that those involved in these crimes
– from the US, Pakistan, Morocco, Britain, and elsewhere –
are held responsible."

Richard Stein of Leigh Day, acting for Mohamed in British courts:
"Ultimately the British government had little choice
in the matter, once they conceded that a case
had been made out that Binyam Mohamed was tortured."

"The Convention Against Torture rightly imposes
an obligation on signatory states to investigate
cases of torture, and we look forward to a full
and open airing of the crimes committed against
Mr Mohamed and a thorough investigation by the
Police and Crown Prosecution Service into this case."

Reprieve argues that the case against Mohamed
be dropped by the US government, and that he
is returned to the UK, as the UK government requested
in August 2007. It says Mohamed is a victim of
"extraordinary rendition" and torture.

Mohamed was seized in Pakistan and later secretly
rendered to Morocco, then Afghanistan, and then
to the US base in Cuba. He claims that while in Morocco
he was tortured by having his penis sliced with a razor.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones
have condemned as "deeply disturbing" a refusal
by the US to disclose evidence. They say claims
by Mohamed's lawyers that the US is refusing to
release papers as "torturers do not readily hand
over evidence of their conduct", requires an answer.

Charges against Mohamed have been dropped,
allegedly to stop the US from revealing torture evidence.
US authorities now plan to charge him with other offences, the judges note.

************************************************

KILLERS ARRESTED IN COLUMBIA

President Uribe of Columbia has seen 27 soldiers
arrested for pretending civilians were insurgents
and killing them for gain. The soldiers are ranked
from colonels down.

*********************************************

ONE MILLION FLEE CONGO FIGHTING !!!

Ban Ki-moon warns that the conflict in D R Congo
"is creating a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions,
and threatens dire consequences on a regional scale".

US officials were among those who pulled out of the capital
and the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs
arrived in D R Congo's capital on Saturday.

Jendayi Frazer:
"I should say, they should not go into Goma,
they will be held accountable for actions taking place.

France is sending a "high-level envoy soon"
to support an initiative by Ban
to "facilitate dialogue between Rwanda and Congo".

Ban is reportedly "alarmed" by reports that Rwandan soldiers
are involved in the fighting against Congolese government forces,
while the UN Security Council expresses concern at
"reports of heavy weapons fire across the
Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda border".

The Kinshasa government accuses neighbouring Rwanda
of supporting Nkunda, an ethnic Tutsi.
Kigali denies the charges.
What is clear now, is that the "West" is stealing
the resources of BOTH countries... the region is
the source of coltan, an essential element for cell-phones,
and this is almost certainly behind the war.
The French are being taken to court for genocide in Rwanda,
which is rich in a mineral needed to run YOUR computer !

A "few hundred" UN troops are "protecting" a million people.

*********************************************

The UN General Assembly again approves by an
overwhelming majority a resolution demanding
an end of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, a vote
passed by the Assembly every year for 17 years.

Of 192 UN member states, 185 vote in favor of the resolution,
and three vote against (the US, Israel and Palau)
Two abstain (Marshall Islands and Micronesia).

With this result, Cuba has gained another vote this year
in relation to 2007, when 184 voted in favor,
four against (the US, Israel, Palau and Marshall Islands),
and Micronesia abstained.

The resolution calling for an end to the blockade
has been approved on 16 occasions with a backing
that has grown from 59 votes in 1992 to the 185 today.

Before the vote, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque
notes the situation in which this resolution is taking place,
an economic crisis that is being internationally felt
and above all, the imminent U.S. elections which,
he observes, will produce a new president who
"will have to decide whether the blockade is a failed policy."

"You are alone, isolated," says the foreign minister,
addressing President George W. Bush.
Pérez’ speech is loudly applauded by the Assembly.

"Seven out of every 10 Cubans have spent their
entire lives under this irrational and useless
policy which attempts, with no success, to bring
our people to their knees," Perez Roque says.

The new president "should decide whether he will
admit that the blockade is a failed policy that
... causes greater isolation and discrediting of
his country" or whether the United States will continue
"to try to defeat the Cuban people through hunger and disease."

****************************************

Iran has started constructing new naval bases
along the coast of the Sea of Oman for an
"impenetrable line of defense," the English-
language daily Tehran Times reports.

The new bases will extend from Bandar Abbas, a
major Iranian seaport on the Strait of Hormuz,
to Pasa Bandar near Pakistan's border,
Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari says.

"The new mission of the Navy is to establish an
impenetrable line of defense at the entrance to
the Sea of Oman," Sayari says, adding that the
new bases will be constructed rapidly.

"If the enemy goes insane, we will drown them
at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman
before they reach the Strait of Hormuz and the
entrance to the Persian Gulf," he vows.

On Monday, Iran's Armed Forces inaugurated a new
naval base in the strategic port of Jask, east
of the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.

Iran's Deputy Army Commander Brigadier General
Seied Abdolrahim Moussavi says that the aircraft
carriers of the enemy, "like the elements of
computer games," are under the gaze of Iran's Armed Forces.

The semi-official Fars news agency quotes Moussavi
as saying that the new naval base in Jask will
function as a "protective barrier in the eastern
parts of the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman."


********************************************

Germany's cabinet agrees to scale back the army's
contribution to U.S.-led counterterrorism missions
in Afghanistan and off the Horn of Africa.

The mandate is separate from one allowing normal
German soldiers to participate in the NATO
"peacekeeping" force in Afghanistan.

Under the cabinet decision, Germany will no longer
allow up to 100 of its special forces soldiers to
support missions in Afghanistan under the
"Operation Enduring Freedom" (OEF) mandate.

Left-wing politicians have long called for an end
to Germany's involvement in OEF, the name given
to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks which was later expanded
to cover a wider fight against terrorism.
Critics blame OEF forces for the deaths of many civilians.

The cabinet also agreed to reduce the number of
German soldiers allowed to protect the seas off
the Horn of Africa to 800 from 1,400.

****************************************

You might think that an outbreak of tetanus A, and
severe floods which kill several is enough misery
for Palestinians suffering a humiliating "siege".

Thursday morning, invading Israeli soldiers shot and
killed an unarmed 67-year-old Palestinian farmer
in the northern West Bank town of Al-Yamun, witnesses say.
Witnesses say the man, Muhammad Abahra, heard noise
near his agricultural storehouse, and as he went
out with a hand lantern to check, he saw Israeli
forces besieging the area and ransacking his
neighbors’ homes. They immediately shot him dead.
The witnesses add that Israeli forces stormed
several homes leaving Abahra to bleed to death.

Abahra’s son, Warrad was also killed by
Israeli forces on 9 July 2005.

Separately Israeli forces seize 11 Palestinians
during overnight raids in Nablus, Qalqilia, Jenin
and Ramallah in the West Bank. They claim a
Kalashnikov machinegun was found with one of the
arrestees in Salfit in the northern West bank.

************************************

US military says insurgent fire brings down
a helicopter in central Afghanistan.

Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter after
exchanging fire with its crew in central
Afghanistan on Monday, while a suicide bomber
in the north killed two American soldiers inside
a police station, officials say.

The crew of the helicopter, forced down in a
province neighboring Kabul, are all rescued and
troops are "in the process of recovering" the
aircraft," says Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthew,
a U.S. military spokesperson.

"The helicopter crew exchanged fire with the enemy
before the damage brought the helicopter down," Matthews says.

At least four militants are dead after the exchange,
says Fazel Karim Muslim, the chief of Sayed Abad district.

Wardak province has seen an increase in insurgent
activity the last two years, and its main highway
is now extremely risky to travel on, particularly at night.
The suicide bomber, wearing a police uniform,
blew himself up inside a police station in northern
Afghanistan, killing two American soldiers
and wounding five other people, officials say.

The bomber entered a police station in Pul-e-Khumri,
the capital of Baghlan province, while Afghan officials
were meeting with U.S. troops advising a police
training program, provincial police chief Gen.
Abdul Rahman Sayed Kheil says.

The blast killed two American soldiers,
a U.S. military spokesperson says.

Four Afghan security officers were wounded, Kheil says.

It was not immediately clear if the bomber was a
policeman or just wearing the police uniform.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claims
responsibility for the blast. Mujahid says
the bomber's name was Abdul Had and that he was
from Baghlan province.

*************************************

ISRAEL - DO HEALTH WORKERS THREATEN YOU?

A group of 120 North American and European
physicians and health experts travel to
the Erez crossing at the northern end of the
Gaza Strip and knock on the gate after being
officially denied entry for a World Health
Organization conference on mental health
scheduled to take place in Gaza this week.
This is what happened, according to committee officials:-
the group of doctors gather at the Erez crossing
and ask to be let through. The group carries signs
reading "Does an academic conference threaten
the security of Israel?” and, “Do health workers
threaten you?” The group are then reportedly
pushed back forcefully by Israeli border guards and police

After being pushed far away from the gates of the Erez Checkpoint,
the physicians and their supporters hold an improvised rally
facing the walls around the Gaza Strip.
A doctor and a mental health nurse, who speak
on behalf of the group say that 120 doctors and
mental health personnel have come to the country
out of deep concern and anxiety about the
humanitarian disaster taking place in the Gaza Strip,
and towards which the International Community shows no concern.

"The fact that our entry was prevented by the
Israeli authorities further increases this
feeling of anxiety. It seems that there are
things happening there which they don’t want us
to see and to report about when we go back to our
countries," says one of the academics.

"We have been invited by the Palestinians, and
the Palestinians should be the ONLY ones to
decide whether or not we – or anyone else – goes
into the Strip. Israel should not be in control
of who goes in or out,” another conference presenter says.

The two women speakers reject out of hand the
claim of the military authorities, broadcast on
Israeli radio, that the conference is "organized by Hamas."
They say it is an academic conference organized
by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, a
medical association not affiliated to any government
or political party. Moreover, they add, the
conference is sponsored by the WHO.

The academics travel to Ramallah where they
participate in the conference via video link.

**************************************************
As Obama moves in, his approval rating is 75%.
Bush's is 24% - lowest of any US President, EVER !
**************************************************

Right wing Jewish settlers smash several head-stones
and splash paint over several others in the Ar-Ras
Muslim graveyard in Hebron last Sunday morning.

The settlers are from the illegal Israeli settlement
Kiryat Arba, which is close to the graveyard.
Several other Palestinian properties in the neighborhood
are also vandalized, and more than 25 car tires punctured.

According to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz,
the attacks come as retaliation for the evacuation
of a settlement outpost established by Noam Federman,
close to Kiryat Arba. The settlement, reportedly
a farm of sorts, is evacuated by several teams
of Israeli forces including military, police and
border guards early on Sunday.

Angry settlers throw stones, assault Israeli officers
and call for a counter attack.
Three are arrested during the incident.

Hebron resident Bassam Al-Ja’bari explains that
he, his family and neighbors are "assaulted by
settlers almost every day, especially those
settlers who occupy Ar-Rajabi building in our neighborhood."

Al-Ja'bari also notes that Israeli soldiers do
not protect Palestinians from the aggressive
settlers, but rather "partake in their assaults
on Palestinian citizens and their properties."

*******************************************

CRISIS = OPPORTUNITY IN EUROPE TOO

In an article in Granma, "A little light in the chaos",
Elsa Claro points out that crises often offer opportunities
- World War bringing the UN as a regulatory body
with its guiding principle to avoid wars.

Nicolas Sarkozy says that the current
"unprecedented financial storm that is shaking the world"
could provoke the birth of an era in which a new
link between the EU and Russia "will be essential."
The French president is talking about Dimitri Medvedev's call
to build new ties among states without anyone
trying to have supremacy over others.

"Why not begin again with the security of our continent,
why not modernize our way of thinking?", Sarkozy asks.
This presupposes organizing a new global security alliance.

"All along our borders we can see the deployment
of military bases… where does this come from,
what are the causes?" asks the Russian president,
who recalls that despite the fact that the Warsaw Pact
disappeared 20 years ago, the Alliance is still
being expanded and "naturally, we see these
actions as directed against us."

Medvedev argues that "nobody’s national security
can be based on the instability of others.
Actions weakening Europe and military alliances
that threaten member countries cannot be permitted."
And if a treaty is achieved it must have as a requisite
"strict confirmation of the principles of security
and international relations in the Euro-Atlantic."

To achieve that, explains Medvedev, it is necessary
to establish basic arms control parameters
and reasonable limits for military bases.
He also proposes the creation of better mechanisms
for confronting WMD proliferation, terrorism
and drug trafficking.
"I believe that the origins of the current situation
can be found in events that took place seven years ago.
Given the U.S. aspiration to consolidate its global domination,
the historic opportunity of de-ideologizing international life
and beginning to build an authentically democratic order
was lost," says Medvedev.

Historians and analysts believe that the implosion
of the USSR gave Europe the opportunity to liberate
itself from U.S. tutelage and avoid playing second fiddle
to Washington in politics that sometimes do not suit it.

The international consensus achieved after 9/11,
was another wasted landmark for establishing
links and joint efforts against terrorism,
which was converted into a pretext for egoistic
ambitions that misappropriated the solidarity received.
The invasion of Iraq exposed huge differences of focus
and made it clear that White House officials
have very little interest in what their partners think,
and, instead, impose their own interests.

The U.S. is trying to prevent Europe creating
a separate defense apparatus, because it would
be the death of NATO, which Washington insists
on further strengthening. "The imperial beast"
always acts on its own behalf, while pretending
"generous concerns". It is clear how much it is
doing to separate Russia from the rest of Europe
with its sly attempts to cause the euro to crash.
Without admitting it, the US cannot stand the
existence of another currency with a better
structured productive base, which could be used
as a shelter for oil countries or central banks,
or end up becoming a replacement for the dollar
– this is being forecast – above all, given the
current uncertain financial situation promoted
by U.S. speculative irresponsibility.

The White House takes advantage of Europe, but
acts against it in a sneaky way, "repeating the
kiss of Judas without an ounce of originality or shame."
Nicolas Sarkozy is adhering in principle to
Dimitri Medvedev’s proposal to reform Europe's
security system, and, intentionally or not,
the French leader is taking the well-founded principles
of French foreign policy advocated by de Gaulle,
who sought to make France independent of the US,
because, when he was in the Resistance, he saw
that the US put its own interests first,
and not the principles or needs of the rest.

Princeton University's recently released paper
urges the next U.S. president to work within
a multilateral framework because, only by
avoiding aggressive adventures like the war in Iraq,
cooperating with its allies from diverse continents,
strengthening the United Nations, recognizing
the role of Europe and channeling practical policies
with Russia and China can it maintain a leadership
now in evident decadence. "There is a small window
of hope in the midst of the present chaos.
Will it remain open and alive?"

****************************************

U.S. INSISTS ON ANTAGONISING RUSSIA

The US on Friday repeats its call for NATO
to grant membership to Georgia and Ukraine
as the alliance is due to meet in December.

"We see no reason that they shouldn't get MAP
(membership action plan) status," White House
spokesperson Dana Perino tells reporters.

The US has seen "growing support for Georgia
and Ukraine given what happened this summer
when Russia invaded Georgia," she says.

France and Germany say they do not favor Ukraine's membership,
partly out of concern it will unnecessarily antagonize Russia.

NATO has expanded eastward before, incorporating
former Warsaw Pact countries, including Poland and Hungary.
Russia expresses strong objections to letting
either Ukraine or Georgia join the alliance;
both were major components of the former Soviet Union.

********************************************

OFFENCE AGAINST GOD - WARNS GRAND MUFTI

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrima Sabri
warns East Jerusalem residents to beware of the
Absentee Property law of Israel, which gives the
state the right to confiscate the land or buildings
of any person who no longer resides in the city.

The warning comes after an East Jerusalemite
brought an unrelated property case before Israeli courts,
and information submitted for this case was then
used as justification for Israel to confiscate
the building of a Palestinian in East Jerusalem,
the Sheikh states in his Friday sermon at Al-Aqsa.

He re-affirms his earlier Fatwa (legal declaration
in Islam) that anyone responsible for losing property
in Jerusalem through the Absentee Property law
has committed a sin against god.

Sheikh Sabri praises the efforts of East Jerusalemites
who help settle property disputes in the community,
thus ensuring that matters can be kept out of Israeli courts.

**************************************

ALOHA TO PALESTINE

Members of the original Free Gaza ships announce
the establishment of Aloha Palestine,
a passenger shipping service running between Palestine
and Cyprus on a regularly scheduled route.

Original crew members Lauren Booth and Ken O’Keefe
spearhead the project, as a not-for-profit company.
Aloha Palestine seeks to repeat and build upon
the success of the Free Gaza campaign, which
landed the first international vessels in
the Gaza City port in 41 years.

According to the first press release from Aloha Palestine,
the mission statement of the new organization
is to "reflect the common values of hospitality,
generosity and desire for a just peace that are
found both in Hawaii and Palestine…
the exceptional spirit of welcome, of ‘Fadal’...
It is an invitation to all who come in peace,
to become not just friends, but family."

The organization offers a passenger service
between Gaza and Cyprus, as well as helping to
ensure the safe passage of students and patients
out of the area, and medicines into the Strip.

As with the first voyage, the priority of
each journey is humanitarian.

The project is raising funds and hopes to secure
£750,000 to purchase a ferry to run the service.
The boat will be able to carry 200-250 individuals.
The group is looking to raise additional funds
to provide services and a crew for the vessel,
as well as registration fees and legal costs.

The group states that after initial start-up costs
they hope the ship will pay for itself after a few years.
Once the service becomes regular, non-humanitarian
passengers will be asked to pay a fee for their ticket
and subsidize the travel of in-need Gazans.

Aloha Palestine will also transport impartial,
professionally trained international observers
to Gaza who will document abuses of Palestinian
human rights while working hard to see that
these are once again respected. As an "act of
good faith," Aloha Palestine proposes that
international observers are also sent into Israel,
to document the affect of the ongoing crisis in Israeli areas.

In order to be registered as a ferry service in Cyprus
the organization pledges to comply with all
rules of territorial and international law.
In their statement Aloha Palestine indicates
that they "fully respect this position."
Their statement adds that no weapons will ever
be allowed onto their vessels, and that they will
not "transport any persons without lawful
verification of their identity including the
correct travel documents as required..."

**********************************************

NEW LABOUR's UK BUILDS FOR NUCLEAR WAR -
AS US CALLS FOR DISARMAMENT

The world is walking into an age of more nuclear
weapons states, more nuclear materials, and more
nuclear facilities that are poorly secured -
making the job of terrorists seeking a bomb easier
and the odds that a nuclear weapon will be used greater.
UK Labour's response has been to up-grade Trident.
Yet a new world in which the ONLY rational reason
for nuclear weapons is to deter others from acquiring
them, is provoking - in the U.S., a vast rethink
on the whole approach to nuclear weapons. The vision
of a world free of nuclear weapons is now being
articulated by former Secretary of State George Shultz,
former Secretary of Defense William Perry,
former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,
and former Chair of the Senate Armed Services
Committee Sam Nunn. Their vision is now endorsed
by two-thirds of all living former secretaries
of state, former secretaries of defense, and
former national security advisers. Both Barack
Obama and John McCain have expressed their support.
The next U.S. president will have an opportunity
to make the elimination of all nuclear weapons
the organizing principle of U.S. nuclear policy.