Friday! The Cure- Boys Don’t Cry

Goff! Could post GerBillions of Cure songs but this one worked with the poster below which I liked, it’s Friday, relax everybody.

From CrimethInc. (ht2 Earwicga)

Shock Doctrine: The Motive

Money.

(CBS) Several financial giants that received federal bailout money in the last year paid out bonuses to employees in 2008 that greatly exceeded the amount of profit generated by the banks, according to a study on executive compensation released by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday. Despite claims by bank executives that bonuses are tied to the company’s performance, the report states that “there is no clear rhyme or reason to how the banks compensate or reward their employees.” Cuomo’s investigation “suggests a disconnect between compensation and bank performance that resulted in a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ bonus system.”

According to the report:

• Goldman Sachs, which earned $2.3 billion last year and received $10 billion in TARP funding, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses in 2008 – more than double their net income.
• Morgan Stanley, which earned $1.7 billion last year and received $10 billion in bailout funds, handed out $4.475 billion in bonuses, nearly three times their net income.
• JPMorgan Chase, which earned $5.6 billion in 2008 and received $25 billion from the government, paid out $8.69 billion in bonus money.
• Citigroup and Merrill Lynch lost a combined $54 billion last year. They received a total of $55 billion in bailouts and paid out $9 billion in combined bonuses. ($5.33 billion for Citigroup; $3.6 billion for Merrill Lynch, which was subsequently acquired by Bank of America.)

If you haven’t read Matt Taibi’s exposé of Goldman Sachs, what’s stopping you!?!?!?!

Whitewash Manufacturers Say Recession Is Over

An independent inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq war has opened in London, with its chairman promising to call Tony Blair, the UK prime minister at the time of the 2003 invasion, as a witness. Sir John Chilcot, a former civil servant, said he would “not shy away” from criticising decisions taken about the war and insisted the probe would not be a whitewash.

Chilcot stressed that the inquiry will be heard in public wherever possible, adding that it could be televised and streamed live on the internet. But some evidence will be taken in private for national security reasons and to ensure “complete candour”, he said, adding that although witnesses could not be compelled to give evidence, he did not expect anyone to decline.

Just as L/Cpl Joe Glenton delivers a letter to Gordo-

A serving soldier who is refusing to return to Afghanistan has delivered a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to “bring our soldiers home”. L/Cpl Joe Glenton, of the Royal Logistic Corps, delivered his letter to 10 Downing Street on Thursday. He said: “I know that the Afghan people are very resilient. I can’t see us getting much further.” The soldier, who lives in York, faces a preliminary court martial on Monday for refusing to go back to Afghanistan. In his letter he claims the war in Afghanistan is being fought in the interests of US foreign policy.

Fellow soldiers who have come to this blog from a link posted @ ARmy Rumour SErvice are less than enthused. May I suggest they read ‘Raising My Voice’ by Malalai Joya (review coming soon!) and reflect upon the misuse of soldier’s professionalism and comradeship by ruling classes with a taste for imperialism. To aid you in your revery-

John Singer Sargent at War

You forge of your self a dull weapon

Information for Members of the British Armed Forces

Thugs & Child Kidnappers Charge Gray Lady of Bagram

Several former detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have said they heard the screams of a woman, who’s been dubbed “The Gray Lady of Bagram.”

Ok, quick recap, are you ready?- Aafia Siddiqui is taken by US forces and disappeared for FIVE YEARS, she then miraculously reappears in the US where she is being charged with trying to kill American interrogators in Afghanistan. So first this current report (in)complete with memory hole-

(Reuters) – A Pakistani woman charged with trying to kill American interrogators in Afghanistan is fit to stand trial, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday after months of examination of her mental state. The U.S. government says Aafia Siddiqui, 37, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist, had links to al Qaeda.

“The Court finds that Dr Siddiqui is competent to stand trial by a preponderance of the evidence,” U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan federal court said in a written order. “Dr Siddiqui has sufficient present ability to consult with her lawyers with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and she also has a rational as well as a factual understanding of the proceedings against her.” Prosecutors say Siddiqui grabbed a U.S. warrant officer’s rifle in mid-2008 while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan and fired it at the interrogation team, which included two FBI agents, but no one was hit. The warrant officer then shot and wounded her with his pistol. Siddiqui was transferred to the United States and charged with attempted murder and assault of U.S. soldiers. She has pleaded not guilty. No one has been able to verify her whereabouts for the five years before her arrest. At a hearing this month Siddiqui, wearing a white hijab covering all but her eyes, interrupted a doctor’s testimony to say, “Please take me seriously, I am not psychotic.” Judge Berman found that Siddiqui “understands the nature of the charges and can assist counsel with her defense.”

Ok, so from this you might think ‘what an evil woman’, that is what the US authorities want you to think, or maybe her five years in a ghost site made her mentally ill, but you certainly won’t be informed of the different story of the incident-

The complaint says that she got hold of an officer’s M-4 rifle in an interrogation room and fired two shots, which missed. The officer used his pistol to fire back and hit her at least once in the torso, according to the charges.

Afghan police, however, said that U.S. soldiers demanded that local police hand over Siddiqui, but they refused, according to a report from Ghazni by the Reuters news agency. When the Americans disarmed the Afghan police at gunpoint, Siddiqui approached the Americans, complaining of mistreatment by the police, according to this account.

The U.S. troops, according to an unnamed Afghan police officer, “thinking that she had explosives and would attack them as a suicide bomber, shot her and took her,” Reuters reported.

Sounds a lot like when cops brutalise someone they then charge them with resisting arrest just in this context it’s amplified by The War on Terror™ to five years in secret prison then renditioned to the US to be charged with attempted murder. Is this a woman fearing torture (including rape) being shot by US forces then held for five years in secret before being charge with crimes, not say- the shooter and the people who held her for five years being charged- this is state gangsterism. While in US custody she is repeatedly sexually assaulted-

Aafia remains in a US detention facility in New York, in poor health, subjected to degrading and humiliating strip searches and cavity searches whenever she receives a legal visit or appears in court. She has subsequently refused to meet with counsel. It has been reported that she may suffer from brain damage and that a part of her intestine may have been removed. Her lawyers say her symptoms are consistent with a sufferer of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

She might have also been distraught at the time of her arrest kidnapping because they also kidnapped her three children…

All 3 of her children were detained by a shadowy mix of ISI/US forces-

2008 Human Rights Network president, Intikhab Alam Suri had filed the petition in SHC through Iqbal Aqeel Advocate, making a plea that Aafia Siddiqui along with her three children was abducted and they were being kept at separate unknown places and tortured, while Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in sub-conscious state was handed over to US although no evidence against her exists. The petition further said, “She is a Pakistani citizen, her security was the government’s responsibility and, therefore, the respondents—federal interior and foreign ministries and the federation should be ordered to recover and bring back Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and her three children by fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities.

The FBI admitted they held Ahmad since 2003-

2008 The United States has confirmed that Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s 12-year-old son has been in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2003, reported Channel Five. Michael G Garcia, the US attorney general of southern region, in his letter addressed to Dr Aafia’s sister Dr Fozia Siddiqui, has revealed that Dr Aafia’s son was in the FBI’s custody.

Ahmed is now under the care of his aunt-

Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui sister of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has refused to allow media to talk to Ahmad Siddiqui son of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui saying that he was yet in a state of shock. While talking to Private TV Channel she expressed Ahmad’s profound happiness on return of Ahmad Siddiqui and said that Aafia’s son name was changed many times. “Though, Ahmad had matured but he was mentally disturbed, therefore, Ahmad cannot be allowed to talk to media, “ She maintained. In response to a question she said that Ahmad Siddiqui would be shifted from Islamabad within two or three days and government was also assisting them in this connection. She also thanked the government for making efforts for return of Ahmad Siddiqui, and expressed her gratitude to media, civil societies and people for projecting the issue, hoping that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui would soon return to Pakistan along with her two other children. Similarly, in letter addressed to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, Interior Minister and other officials she has thanked them for helping Siddiqui family at all fronts.

No one knows where the other two children are. More at Caged Prisoners

Exit & Re-entry

UK out (for now)-

Britain will withdraw its remaining forces from Iraq to Kuwait by the end of the month because the Iraqi parliament failed to pass a deal allowing them to stay to protect oil platforms and provide training, a spokesman said Tuesday. Britain already has withdrawn its combat forces according to a previous agreement. The British Ministry of Defense said the new announcement related to between 100 and 150 mostly navy personnel left to train the Iraqi navy. U.S. troops would be standing in for the British while they were out of the country, according to the ministry. An agreement reached with the Iraqi government would have let some British troops stay in Iraq to train after most had left their bases around the southern city of Basra.

British Embassy spokesman Jawwad Syed said Tuesday it’s a procedural delay and that the remaining British forces will pull back to Kuwait until the issue is resolved. The troops’ existing mandate expires on July 31. “The guys who were doing the training are temporarily moving out to Kuwait while we talk to the Iraqi government about what we might do in the interim,” Syed said. “We have general broad support for our agreement … we’re hopeful that when we have the next parliamentary session, we should achieve a ratification.”

While the US creeps back in-

Nearly a month after American troops officially withdrew from urban areas in Iraq, they are quietly going back in again, patrolling the streets of towns and cities where, despite improvements in security, violence remains an everyday occurrence.

(ht’s2 Raed Jarrar & 99)

Some Released

Iranian authorities have released 140 people detained during a crackdown on protesters following last month’s disputed presidential election. The detainees were freed on Tuesday during a visit to the Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, by a parliamentary committee investigating prisoners’ conditions. The protesters were among at least 500 people believed to have been arrested during demonstrations…

The move on Tuesday followed an order from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to close a second detention centre where opposition protesters were detained. Iranian state media said the Kahrizak centre was closing because authorities there were unable to preserve detainees’ rights. Alireza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran, said the parliamentary committee was initially motivated to launch its investigation after reports of mistreatment and abuse of the prisoners.

“But what appears to have been the main reason for the investigation was the death of the son of a highly respected conservative politician,” he said. Mohsen Rouhalamini, who was arrested on July 9, was said to be killed in prison. Authorities said he had died from meningitis, but there were reports that his teeth were smashed. The news was taken very seriously by the conservatives as it revealed that the violence was spiraling out of control.”

In a roundabout way it’s testament to the lack of empathy/imagination/ethics of conservatives, it took the death of one of their children to change their response.

Class War With Your Rations Sir?

Eleven workers taking part in a sit-in protest over job cuts at a wind turbine blade factory on the Isle of Wight have been dismissed. Vestas Windsystems said it had sacked 11 employees who it had identified as being inside the office.

Mike, one of the workers, told the BBC that dismissal letters – telling them they had lost their jobs and their redundancy packages – were delivered with their evening meal, a slice of pizza.

Go- savevestas.wordpress.com

Obviously blogs lend themselves to endless pointless words….which might be why some still engage in debate even when events like this prove the words of the three main political parties are utterly worthless. Wank off on Red Toryism or Purnell’s new gig all you like, it’s all bullshit for people with comfortable incomes and lives, policy wonks and careerists, problem is you can only buy yourself out of a degraded environment for so long. Judge by actions, New Labour betrays workers in green jobs -period- Cruddas can talk he likes, but check his voting record. Fuck words, we need actions.

Prisoners Being Moved To Revolutionary Guard’s Own Facilities

From Naj, help Saeed Hajjarian-

Click image to send email to Supreme Leader Khamenei

Americans Arrested for Plotting Violence Abroad

Federal agents arrested seven men in North Carolina on Monday and charged them with plotting to wage “violent jihad” outside the United States, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Raleigh, N.C. …The government charged Daniel Boyd, a 39-year-old American who traveled to Afghanistan two decades ago to fight the Soviets, with recruiting six young men, including two of his sons, to take part in a conspiracy “to advance violent jihad, including supporting and participating in terrorist activities abroad and committing acts of murder, kidnapping or maiming persons abroad.”

Quite apart from the fact that I will believe the evidence when I see it (or lack thereof)… So if a person is going to commit violence abroad they are to be arrested, yet I doubt all the world’s militaries are worrying about incarceration. These chumps mistake (if the Feds are to be believed…*cough*) … is not doing the war crimes in the correct uniform, US or UK fatigues and they’re heroes! Drop the ‘Jihad’ call it a ‘Surge’ and bingo! Homecoming parades and a lifetime of creeping PTSD you are not encouraged to get treated for until you whack your partner and then maybe your jail might have a psych program that hasn’t been cut. Glory!

So They’re Admitting We’re Under Occupation?

Independent Northern Ireland-style go-betweens could ease tensions between police and protesters, say MPs. The Joint Committee on Human Rights said poor communications lay at the heart of problems at the G20 protests on 1 April.

And furthermore is it admitting the police do not work for us but for the government/ruling capital? Also in the reports no one mentions Tom Brake MP’s observation of the Met’s use of agent provocateurs.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards. Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

So in summation, yes this is class war and yes the police are not on the people’s side and at last they have decided to admit this?

Anyways, ‘poor communications’ oh no I think the comms worked fine, what went wrong was we got them on film killing a man. There was no ‘failure’ they just got caught doing what they do under orders from on high.

The Monsters of Empire

Colorado Springs Gazette
Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning signs

Excerpts-

Marquez, who was arrested before the latest programs were created, said he would never have pulled the trigger if he had not gone to Iraq.

“If I was just a guy off the street, I might have hesitated to shoot,” Marquez said this spring as he sat in the Bent County Correctional Facility, where he is serving 30 years. “But after Iraq, it was just natural.”

More killing by more soldiers followed.

In August 2007, Louis Bressler, 24, robbed and shot a soldier he picked up on a street in Colorado Springs.

In December 2007, Bressler and fellow soldiers Bruce Bastien Jr., 21, and Kenneth Eastridge, 24, left the bullet-riddled body of a soldier from their unit on a west-side street.

In May and June 2008, police say Rudolfo Torres-Gandarilla, 20, and Jomar Falu-Vives, 23, drove around with an assault rifle, randomly shooting people.

In September 2008, police say John Needham, 25, beat a former girlfriend to death.

Most of the killers were from a single 500-soldier unit within the brigade called the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, which nicknamed itself the “Lethal Warriors.”
…
The battalion is overwhelmingly made up of young men, who, demographically, have the highest murder rate in the United States, but the brigade still has a murder rate 20 times that of young males as a whole.

The killings are only the headline-grabbing tip of a much broader pyramid of crime. Since 2005, the brigade’s returning soldiers have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides.

Like Marquez, most of the jailed soldiers struggled to adjust to life back home after combat. Like Marquez, many showed signs of growing trouble before they ended up behind bars. Like Marquez, all raise difficult questions about the cause of the violence.

Did the infantry turn some men into killers, or did killers seek out the infantry? Did the Army let in criminals, or did combat-tattered soldiers fall into criminal habits? Did Fort Carson fail to take care of soldiers, or did soldiers fail to take advantage of care they were offered?

And, most importantly, since the brigade is now in Afghanistan, is there a way to keep the violence from happening again?
…
“After being in Iraq, it feels like everyone is the enemy,” he said. “You feel like you need a gun so they don’t come to get you.”

His friends all felt the same way.

Nash slept with a loaded .45 under his pillow.

Butler kept a Glock .40-caliber with him all the time, even when he rocked his newborn baby.

Marquez bought three pistols, a riot-style shotgun and an assault rifle like the one he carried in Iraq. He carried a pistol constantly, he said, even when he went to church.

His buddy, Freeman, said he bought himself a “big, scary” snub-nose .357 revolver.
…
In a December 2007 letter to the Inspector General’s Office of Fort Carson, which investigates crimes within the Army, Needham told of the atrocities he saw. His father provided a copy to The Gazette.

One sergeant shot a boy riding a bicycle down the street for no reason, John Needham said. When Needham and another soldier rushed to deliver first aid, the sergeant said, “No, let him bleed out.”

Another sergeant shot a man in the head without cause while questioning him, Needham said, then mutilated the body, lashed it to the hood of his Humvee and drove around the neighborhood blaring warnings to insurgents in Arabic that “they would be next.”

Other Iraqis were shot for invented reasons, then mutilated, Needham said.

The sergeants particularly liked removing victims’ brains, Needham said.

Needham offered a photograph of a soldier removing brains from an Iraqi on the hood of a Humvee and other photos as evidence. His father supplied copies to The Gazette.

The Army’s criminal investigation division interviewed several soldiers from the unit and said it was “unable to substantiate any of his allegations.”

Honduras Coup (and the General & the Christian Fundamentalists)

I learned at Al Giordano’s The Field that Honduran coup General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez (two-time graduate of SOA/WHINSEC) is the special guest of the Miami Covenant Church at a special convention (at Miami convention centre) titled- The Kingdom Government in Miami, in association with IV Congress MIGA partners, July 22-25.

Erin Rosa– MIGA in Spanish iniatials stands for Ardent Glory Intercontinental Ministry, founded in 1995 by Jaime Chavez, who bills himeslef as the “spiritual counselor” to the Honduran Armed Forces and General Romeo personally.

Here’s the promo vid, Romeo appears at the 19 second mark-

And here’s the poster with him  in his military uniform (second row, at left)-

Click to enlarge

So what is this Christianist Kingdom government stuff, well it is how it sounds, it’s theocracy, rule by fundies- government according to God’s Law (and of course it has its white supremacist offshoot). So another example of Christianists chumming up with the military to impose their rule. If the general appeared at the loony fest it would mean the US allowed him entry and did not arrest him….It might not be Obama’s coup but it is looking to be Washington’s coup. More at this DK diary, hopefully someone can confirm whether he was in Miami or not. Also via a comment there-

Truthout– On July 9, US Ambassador Hugo Llorens in Tegucigalpa told an emergency School of the Americas (SOA) Watch delegation that the US had suspended military aid to Honduras as of the moment that Micheletti swore himself in as president. However, three members of the delegation had stopped by the Palmerola military base where over 500 US soldiers are based and “witnessed an apparently normal buzz of activities, including helicopter flights and interchange of Honduran and US soldiers.” The delegation spoke with a US official on duty at the base who told them that nothing had changed since the coup.

About that base, because of air safety issues with the civilian airport Zelaya wanted to use the US base as a civil airport-

Throwing fuel on the fire Assistant Secretary of State John Negroponte, a former U.S. ambassador to Honduras, said that Honduras could not transform Palmerola into a civilian airport “from one day to the next.” In Tegucigalpa, Negroponte met with Zelaya to discuss Palmerola. Speaking later on Honduran radio the U.S. diplomat said that before Zelaya could embark on his plans for Palmerola the airport would have to receive international certification for new incoming flights. According to Spanish news agency EFE Negroponte also took advantage of his Tegucigalpa trip to sit down and meet with the President of the Honduran Parliament and future coup leader Roberto Micheletti

Oh yes Negroponte! Chavez said Obama was a prisoner of empire, is it not time a President asserts his authority and stops those in Washington from fomenting coups if he is really against such activity?

However the people of Honduras are perhaps not going to to so easily misruled-

Al Giordano:- There is a three-ring circus distracting the global media from the authentic struggle – the one waged by the Honduran people, from below – and today none of the ringmasters dressed themselves in glory.

In ring one, we had Coup “president” Roberto Micheletti, who blinked when his troops did not arrest President Manuel Zelaya, who set foot on his country’s soil today at the border crossing – Los Manos – where we suggested he would yesterday.

In ring two, we had Zelaya, who himself blinked – inexplicably, from this community organizer’s lens, objectively viewed, a setback for his cause and his people – by not continuing his walk toward Tegucigalpa after the coup regime blinked. A few more steps forward and he would have either called the regime’s bluff, and continued marching, or he would have ended up in prison, inspiring the people to go the extra yardage necessary to topple the coup.

And in ring three, we had US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who claimed that Zelaya’s actions today were “reckless.” Today Clinton proved, once and for all, that she is not competent to do the job of foreign minister. What an asshole. It is Clinton who demonstrated that she is reckless about democracy. The actions she called “reckless” were those of a Honduran citizen and elected president doing no more than trying to rejoin his own feet with his own land. What makes her behavior today so obviously inept and deserving of eternal contempt is that she used such strong words to criticize a guy who, when push came to shove, did exactly what she had recommended, when Zelaya backed down. The only reckless thing he did was shrink from putting the next foot in front of the other.

Obscured from view by the circus: the mobilizations of an increasingly organized Honduran people. Today’s saga underscores that, in the end, the outcome is up to them, and from this pen we will redouble our efforts to make sure that their courage and sacrifice do not go unseen or unheard.

And he also reports the latest revelations on Radio Globo, is the coup unravelling?

Earwicga has a statement from Central America Women’s Network (CAWN), excerpt-

Honduran women’s organisations and individual women from rural and urban areas have come together to resist and protest peacefully in response to the coup and the events that followed. On 29 June they released a public statement calling for the return of the rule of law and respect for human rights by peaceful means, and they have not stopped their communications, despite frequent power cuts. The mainstream news channels are strictly controlled, so their reports provide crucial information by their immediacy and by giving a voice to ordinary people, especially women.

‘the law does not require you to intervene’

A businessman who was held and mistreated in the United Arab Emirates following the London bombings believes he has evidence that British consular officials asked permission from the UK’s own security services to visit him while he was detained. Heavily redacted documents seen by the Guardian appear to indicate that the request to visit Alam Ghafoor was made to an unidentified British intelligence officer and not to officials in the UAE.

Ghafoor is one of several British men who allege there has been British complicity in their detention and torture while abroad. The businessman, who is 38 and from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was detained and tortured while on a business trip to Dubai following the London bombings in July 2005.

Ghafoor and his business partner, Mohammed Rafiq Siddique, flew to the UAE on 4 July. They were dragged out of a restaurant as they dined on 21 July. The two British Muslims say they were threatened with torture, deprived of sleep, subjected to stress positions and told they would be killed and fed to dogs.

Ghafoor has obtained copies of correspondence from consular officials to the Foreign Office in London while he was in custody that show those officials were asking someone other than the UAE authorities for permission to see him. Who that person is, and who they represented, is unclear, as their name was censored before the copies were handed over. Some of the reports were so heavily redacted by the time Ghafoor received them that the only words not blanked are his name.

MI5 and MI6 officers who question terrorism suspects they know are being tortured, are acting in line with a secret government interrogation policy, drawn up after the 9/11 attacks. The policy states: “we cannot be party to such ill treatment nor can we be seen to condone it” and that “it is important that you do not engage in any activity yourself that involves inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners.” It also advises intelligence officers that if detainees “are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene” to prevent torture.

The Solidarity of the Colonised

The Indigenous Youth Delegation to Palestine, the first-ever delegation of its kind, is scheduled for August 2009. Youth leaders from grassroots indigenous groups in the US, namely Seventh Native American Generation (SNAG) Magazine, Huaxtec, and Native students at Haskell University, will travel to Palestine at the invitation of five Palestinian youth centers. After more than two years of communicating through the internet, these young people will have the opportunity to learn firsthand from each other by sharing tools of empowerment and education.

The trip to Palestine is part of an ongoing process to connect the shared experiences of Indigenous peoples across the world, to build solidarity, justice and peace. The group will create print media, blogs, video, photo essays, and other forms of media to share their stories and involve their communities in building a national and international movement for indigenous rights.

The US young people, all of who are from low-income, urban, Native American communities have already done a remarkable thing: They have raised all the money for their plane fares.

MECA has given the Palestinian organizations in YSN $18,000 for the youth training they are doing, and to prepare for the delegation.

Now, just one month from the start of the delegation, YSN still needs to raise $12,000 more for food, transportation and accommodations in Palestine.

Click here to make a contribution.
Be sure to put YSN in the “on behalf of” field in the form.

War Is The Atrocity Generator

Bear in mind this is police investigating military/military police so not exactly an independent of the establishment process (and the GMP have their own secrets of involvement in torture)-

A military investigation into one of the most notorious incidents of the Iraq conflict, in which British soldiers allegedly murdered and mutilated unarmed Iraqis, has been severely criticised by police called in to assess its credibility.

A new inquiry has found that the Royal Military Police – who are responsible for investigating claims of wrongdoing by soldiers – failed to collect forensic evidence, ignored key witnesses and did not ask Iraqi witnesses relevant questions as they investigated the “Battle of Danny Boy” and its aftermath.

The 120-page Greater Manchester police report into the RMP’s Special Investigation Branch (SIB), which has been obtained by the Observer, concludes that some interviews with Iraqi detainees may have been conducted in an effort to justify their arrest, not to probe human rights abuses. The report is expected to be significant for a judicial review that will examine the Iraqi claims next week.

The army investigation centred on a firefight between soldiers from the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (PWRR) and insurgents at a road checkpoint known among the troops as Danny Boy, near Majar al-Kabir in Maysan province, on 14 May 2004. The next day the bodies of 20 Iraqis were returned to their families.

Several Iraqi witnesses claimed that some of the 20 were taken as prisoners to Camp Abu Naji, an army base in Amara, to be interrogated and tortured, before being killed. Evidence of torture and mutilation allegedly included close-range bullet wounds, the removal of eyes and stab wounds, according to evidence presented by human rights lawyers.

And this is the week seven years ago when-

Matthew Rycroft, aide to Blair foreign policy guru David Manning, was taking minutes at the Downing Street meeting on July 23, 2002, minutes he immediately circulated to Blair and other participants. The minutes observed quite bluntly that “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”