Topic: human rights
The bigoted and criminal illegal squatter movement in Israel who no doubt exist within the Israel Defence Force are well reported here:
IDF soldier like this one possibly?
And this alleged war crime here:
This story immediately above was also well covered by the ABC TV prime time news last night 28th Jan 2009.
This great protest effort was hardly reported anywhere except the local suburban freebie:
We noticed the following story on New Matilda ezine by the insightful Antony Lowenstein here:
israel/palestine 28 Jan 2009 Gaza: Where To From Here?
http://business.smh.com.au/business/the-quiet-benefactor-lowys-close-tie…
How many noticed the Lowy Institute’s complete silence during the 22 day slaughter, including Hugh White former secretary of defence dept here in Australia. Bad form Hugh, reduced to an apologist by ommission in your recent piece in The Oz?
"Tell the US ‘No, we can’t’ | The Australian
23 Jan 2009"http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24949759-7583,00.html
Here is an important quote in The Oz referring to the new CIA director on fear given the 314 million population of Arabic countries proximate to Israel:
In "Beyond torture lies a great hope | The Australian
12 Jan 2009""Leon Panetta is well known to everyone who is anyone in Washington, DC. Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff is a huge player in Californian Democratic politics and was a congressman for many years. A centrist, his expertise is in managing bureaucracies and budgets, not intelligence. But he served on the 9/11 commission and knows his way around the federal labyrinth.
Getting solid intelligence to the president’s desk outside other pressures and departments is the key task for a CIA director. With the heavyweights Hillary Clinton at the State Department and Bob Gates at the Pentagon, a CIA officer promoted from within to run the agency would never have stood a chance. Panetta is a real political operator with great connections. Sometimes that matters more than being marinated in CIA culture for decades.
But Panetta’s core qualification at this particular moment was his public statements on the Bush-Cheney torture program. This is what Panetta wrote in The Washington Monthly last year: "How did we transform from champions of human dignity and individual rights into a nation of armchair torturers? One word: fear. Fear is blinding, hateful and vengeful. It makes the end justify the means. And why not? If torture can stop the next terrorist attack, the next suicide bomber, then what’s wrong with a little waterboarding or electric shock? The simple answer is the rule of law. Our Constitution defines the rules that guide our nation… "
…………………..Who doubts Gaza is not being tortured with a seige right now motivated by fear?
Also who doubts the fascist extremists within the illegal squatter movement as per this:
"Settlers lash out at Palestinians after eviction | The Australian" Dec 6-7 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24757350-15084,00.htm…Noting too the implicit 30% support in Israel says Haaretz, for pardon of Yigal Amir assassin of Israeli Labour PM Yitzak Rabin?:
Yigal Amir’s thousands of sons
By Haaretz Editorial (6 July 2007)http://new.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArtStEngPE.jhtml?itemNo=920701&co…
and
02.11.2008 | 00:00 By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Settlers preparing for war, says Shin Bet chief
