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HalVit™ is the first COMPLETE (from Vitamin A to Zinc ) Multivitamin Multimineral Brand with LUTEIN & LYCOPENE, CERTIFIED HALAL by IFANCA (Islamic Food & Nutrition Council of America), and carries their Halal certification symbol, Crescent M

Christian Terrorists Hijack Boeing 737 to Mexico

Passengers rush off the plane and are escorted onto the runway by troops

Mexican police have freed more than 100 people unharmed after a jet flying from Cancun to Mexico City was hijacked by a man claiming to be on a divine mission.
Bolivian-born Jose Flores Pereira threatened to blow up the plane unless he could warn Mexican President Felipe Calderon of an "impending earthquake".
Mr Flores told flight attendants that a canned drink he had was a bomb.
Police stormed the Aeromexico plane after it had landed in Mexico City and women and children were allowed off.
Several people were initially arrested and taken away in handcuffs as Mr Flores said he had accomplices, but police later said there had been only one hijacker and no bombs on board.
'Divine revelation'
Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said Mr Flores, who told police he was a Protestant pastor, carried out the hijacking after having "a revelation that Mexico was facing a great danger, and was threatened by an earthquake".

Jose Flores Pereira was shown to reporters after his arrest

Mexican armed police stormed the plane and initially made several arrests

Source: BBC

The jewel bride of madinah

Muslim extremists jailed for arson attack on Mohammed book publisher's home

Sentencing Ali Beheshti, 41, and two accomplices to four and a half years, Mrs Justice Rafferty told them: 'If you choose to live in this country, you live by its rules.'

'There is no such thing as "a la carte citizenship" and, in your case, there is no such thing as "a la carte obedience" to the law.' 

Notorious: Ali Beheshti, posing with a gun in this Metropolitan Police photo, admitted conspiracy to endanger life

Beheshti achieved notoriety three years ago at a protest against Danish cartoons of Mohammed when he was photographed with his 18-month-old daughter, Farisa, whom he had dressed in a pink bonnet celebrating Al Qaeda.

Beheshti, who has a previous conviction for the attempted murder of his father, described her to reporters as the youngest member of the network.

Accomplices: Abrar Mirza, Abbas Taj and Ali Beheshti (l-r) were sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail each
Last September, with accomplices Abrar Mirza, 23, and Abbas Taj, 30, he attacked the five-storey home and office of Mr Rynja in Islington, North London. 

A small fire began but nobody was hurt because police and fire crews arrived in time to smash down the door and put it out. 

The defendents used diesel as an accelerant, causing damage to the front door of the publisher's house

Yesterday Andrew Hall QC, for Beheshti, said it was 'an act of protest born of the publication of a book felt by him and other Muslims to be disrespectful, provocative and offensive'.

Beheshti and Mirza had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to recklessly damage property and endanger life at a hearing in April. Taj was convicted of the same offence at Croydon Crown Court in May.

At a sentencing hearing yesterday Mrs Justice Rafferty, sitting at London's Royal Courts of Justice, praised Mr Rynja as a 'principled man' who had exercised critical judgment on a literary work, and stood up to be counted, knowing that publishing it put him at risk.

Mr Rynja's publishing company, Gibson Square Books, bought the rights to the novel after Random House dropped plans to publish it, fearing it could 'incite acts of violence'. 
Miss Jones said her book was respectful to Islam, and Mr Rynja said last October that he felt its publication was part of a liberal democracy.

Before his arrest Beheshti lived with his family in a smart semi detached house in Ilford, east London, where a 2007 Mitsubishi 4x4 sits on the drive. He described himself as a pilot on Farisa¹s birth certificate.

His wife, Hannah, 28, is the daughter of a  sales consultant for an engineering firm who grew up in a smart home in a Bristol suburb.

Beheshti and Mirza, a mobile phone salesman of Walthamstow, North East London,  pleaded guilty to conspiracy to recklessly damage property and endanger life.

Cab driver Taj of Forest Gate, East London was convicted of the same offence at Croydon Crown Court in May .  

They were sentenced at the Royal Courts of Justice for administrative reasons.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198111/If-choose-live-country-live-rules-says-judge-jails-Muslim-extremists-arson-attack-publishers-home.html

Roommates at University of Texas Austin

We are three brothers in a 2-2 apartment and have space for one more person. The apartments are around Rio Grande and 29th (the 1M/1L bus runs from 29th and Guadalupe to UT). Rent is $1100, of which you will pay 1/4. If you're interested please contact me at 817-715-3161. Jazakallah.

Roommate needed at Meadows Point.

Muslim or Pakistani roommate!!
I will atend A&M in Fall 2009 as a freshmen. I am looking for a Muslim, pakistani, or indian roommate. Meadows Point Apartments 800 Marion Pugh Dr College Station, TX 77840 www.meadowspointapts.com rent: $826/month (we can split it) cable tv, internet, not furnished but it can be included for $ 35/month or $ 70/month. kitchen included with stove microwave.
Phone: 281-944-9007

Texas A&M University Muslim Roommates

Cyrus Grill

Nasa 1 Road and El Camino Real
League City, TX
Phone: No phone available

UN torture investigator: Obama has broken International law

UN torture investigator: Obama has broken International law

UN official suggests US courts can still try accused torturers

US Army soldier convicted over 2007 Iraq deaths

US Army soldier convicted over 2007 Iraq deaths
 
By GEORGE FREY, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 15, 5:09 pm ET

VILSECK, Germany – A U.S. Army soldier was convicted Wednesday of murder in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees.

The prosecution said Master Sgt. John Hatley acted as "judge, jury and executioner" to hatch the plot and carry out the killings in spring 2007. Hatley and two others took the detainees to a canal in Baghdad's West Rasheed neighborhood where they shot them in the back of the head with 9mm pistols, the prosecution said.

An eight-strong military jury found Hatley guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder after a three days of proceedings.

But the jury found him not guilty of obstruction of justice in the incident and not guilty of premeditated murder in a separate January 2007 death of an Iraqi insurgent.

Hatley and his wife, who sat directly behind him in the gallery, were unmoved as the jury foreman read out the decision. They hugged and smiled after the court adjourned and his friends and comrades in court wished him well.

The 40-year-old career soldier, who has served in the first Gulf War, Kosovo and in Iraq, will be sentenced Thursday at the U.S. Army's Rose Barracks in southern Germany. He faces the possibility of life in prison without parole.

Hatley, who has been in the Army for 20 years, had denied the charges. He could see any sentence reduced through a future military clemency process. Military cases also go through an automatic appeal process.

Army prosecutor Capt. Derrick Grace said Wednesday that testimony had pointed to "a complete breakdown of discipline and crimes that are among the worst of a soldier."

"On two separate occasions, the accused became the judge, jury and executioner," he said.

Prosecutors said Hatley oversaw the shootings of detainees and had told his comrades they were going to "take care" of the Iraqis.

Hatley's lawyer David Court told the court-martial Wednesday there was no physical evidence that the killings ever happened: no witnesses, family members, bullet casings, blood or witnesses.

According to testimony this week and at previous courts-martial, the four Iraqis were taken into custody in spring 2007 after an exchange of fire with Hatley's unit and the discovery of weapons in a building where suspects had fled.

Two soldiers in Hatley's unit, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo and then-Sgt. Michael Leahy, have been convicted of the killings at separate courts-martial earlier this year.

Another two soldiers pleaded guilty in the spring incident, one to conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and one to accessory to murder, and were sentenced to prison last year. Two others had charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder dropped this year.

All were with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in Baghdad. The unit is now part of the Germany-based 172nd Infantry Brigade.

Guantanamo Bay detainee calls al Jazeera from prison

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Muslim Girl Gets $400G From Nevada School District in Head Scarf Bully Case

Muslim Girl Gets $400G From Nevada School District in Head Scarf Bully Case

Wednesday, April 08, 2009


A Nevada school district agreed to pay $400,000 to a Muslim girl and her friend over allegations that other students threatened to kill her in the stairwell for wearing a religious head scarf and the staff did nothing to stop it.


The Washoe County School District in the Reno area will give Egyptian former student Jana Elhifny $350,000 and her non-Muslim friend and supporter Stephanie Hart $50,000 as part of the civil settlement.
Elhifny and her family came to Reno from Egypt in 2003, and the girl enrolled as a freshman at North Valleys High School.
She didn't finish the year after she told teachers and administrators that someone had threatened to kill her in the stairwell because of her Muslim hijab or head scarf, the district's independent attorney in the case, Robert Cox, told FOXNews.com.
Shortly afterwards, Cox said, Elhifny filed the lawsuit and returned to Egypt, where she married her fiancé.
The lawsuit, handled by U.S. District Court in Reno, alleges that Elhifny faced death threats and harassment and school administrators did nothing to stop the abuse.
Cox said that wasn't true, and the teen was unable to give any description of her tormenter — including his or her gender, size and tone of voice.

He said the high school tried to investigate her claims but was unsuccessful because of the lack of information.
"The district did an incredibly thorough investigation," Cox told FOXNews.com in a phone interview. "They could never identify the person who perpetrated these acts. ... The district did everything it could do to try to help this young woman who is an Egyptian and of the Islam faith."
Cox said school officials couldn't confirm the stairwell death threat story.
"They tried to prove that, tried to track down who it was, but without a description ... that couldn't be done," he said. "The district did watch her constantly and had people in the hallway."
He said the settlement was agreed upon to end lengthy and "expensive litigation." The case has been fought in the courts for the past four years, according to Cox.
Lawyers for the girls praised them for their bravery in bringing the suit in a joint press released issued by counsel for both sides.
"Ms. Elhifny and Ms. Hart had the courage to stand up for themselves and defend their right to a safe education," said Peter Obstler, a San Francisco attorney who handled the young women's lawsuits with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
Hart, a non-Muslim who says she was ostracized when she befriended Elhifny at North Valleys High School and also dropped out, will receive $50,000. Cox said she was a supporter of Elhifny's rather than a victim and never complained to school officials before getting involved in the lawsuit.
The settlement was announced early Wednesday. The monetary award will be paid by the district's insurance carrier.
The district also agreed to work with lawyers on harassment and discrimination policies.
Attempts to reach Elhifny in Egypt and Hart, who now has a child and resides in California, weren't immediately successful.


FOXNews.com's Catherine Donaldson-Evans and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

League City Islamic Center

118 McKibben Ln,
League City, TX 77573, USA

Phone: 832-217-0027

http://leaguecityislamiccenter.com

Directions: Intersection of Calder Rd and 518. Coming from North of Houston going toward Galvestion, exit 518, make left under Fwy, go about 1 mile. Look for Farley Appliance store on left and Dairy Queen on right. Masjid is behind the Farley Appliance store. 
General Information: Masjid is old house. 
Activities 1: 1:00pm -2:00pm: Friday,Jumma Prayer,Iquma at 1:30pm

SETON HALL LAW students reveal that generals knew Guantanamo Detainees were Tortured

SETON HALL LAW STUDENTS REVEAL THAT GENERALS KNEW 
GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES WERE TORTURED
 

FBI Agents Repeatedly Reported on Inhumane Interrogation Techniques at
GTMO Resulting in Unreliable and Counterproductive; Information

General Schmidt's Investigation Uncovered Numerous Abuses Which Were Omitted from Both His Report and His Congressional Testimony

Newark, NJ - Today Seton Hall Law delivered a report establishing that military officials at the highest levels were aware of the abusive interrogation techniques employed at the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay (GTMO), and misled Congress during testimony. In addition, FBI personnel reported that the information obtained from inhumane interrogations was unreliable. 

Professor Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research, commented on the findings: "Who knew about the torture at GTMO? Turns out they all did. It's not news that the interrogators were torturing and abusing detainees. We've got FBI reports attesting to this. But now we've discovered that the highest levels knew about the torture and abuse, and covered it up. 

"Abu Ghraib was the flashpoint and provoked the FBI to formally hand its reports to the DOD, which in turn forced the DOD to respond with what became known as the Schmidt Report. Schmidt's investigation was essentially a whitewash, but, ironically, the abuse was so pervasive that his team turned up still more incidents. To conceal the problems documented by both the FBI and the military, the DOD published an incomplete, sanitized report, culminating in Schmidt testifying before Congress that there was no torture or abuse at GTMO.

"Five generals were either complicit in the abusive interrogation techniques or were central figures in their cover-up. They concealed these practices from Congress, to which they are ultimately accountable. They undermined our democracy, and undercut America's claim to the moral high ground in the fight against terror." 

TORTURE: WHO KNEW: An Analysis of the FBI and Department of Defense Reactions to Harsh Interrogation Methods at Guantánamo, the Center's 13th Guantánamo Report is based, like all preceding Center reports, entirely upon the careful study of over 100,000 pages of the government's own documents, most of which were procured through Freedom of Information Act suits.

Among the report findings:

FBI field agents repeatedly reported detainee abuses during interrogation by DoD interrogators between 2002 and mid-2004: 

FBI personnel stationed at GTMO submitted a series of unsolicited reports describing at least 118 improper interrogation techniques: physical harm to the genitals--to a degree punishable by life imprisonment as sexual assault under military law; forced viewings of homosexual pornography; denial of food and water; disorientation techniques such as sleep deprivation; and religious abuse such as forced "satanic baptisms."
 

FBI agents reported at least 20 times that these interrogation techniques produced unreliable intelligence, at least 8 times the methods were counterproductive, and at least 6 times the information extracted through the use of abusive techniques was likely to be inadmissible in court.
 

U.S. SOUTHCOM commander calls for investigation based on December 2004 FBI Report; General Schmidt presented his findings in June 2005:

In December 2004, General Bantz J. Craddock, then U.S Southern Command leader, commissioned Generals Furlowe and Schmidt to investigate an FBI report and publish a report in response. 
 

Independent of the FBI findings, the Schmidt investigation uncovered 79 additional incidents of improper interrogation techniques which included 15 allegations of sexual abuse. 
 

Once submitted to Congress, however, the Schmidt Report asserted that there is "no evidence" that "torture or inhumane treatment occurred at Guantánamo." General Schmidt then reiterated these misleading findings to Congress.

Joshua Denbeaux, senior research fellow and co-author of the report, commented, "Our military engaged in the same kinds of torture that revolt us when we hear of it taking place in other countries. The entire GTMO system was engineered to pervert our justice system, and when that didn't prove popular, to conceal it from the public and from Congress. It's disingenuous for our military leaders to act surprised that GTMO detainees were subjected to inhumane treatment tantamount to torture." 

TORTURE: WHO KNEW. An Analysis of the FBI and Department of Defense Reactions to Harsh Interrogation Methods at Guantánamo, may be read at http://law.shu.edu/center_policyresearch/Guantanamo_Reports.htm.

Seton Hall University School of Law, New Jersey's only private law school, and a leading law school in the New York metropolitan area, is dedicated to preparing students for the practice of law through excellence in scholarship and teaching, with a strong focus on clinical education. The Center for Policy and Research enables students to gain practical experience while engaging in research and analysis that promotes respect for the rights of individuals worldwide. The students examine primary sources pertaining to national security law and practices of the U.S. government, as well as the reliability of forensic evidence for criminal investigations and prosecution. Seton Hall Law is located in Newark, NJ and offers both day and evening degree programs. For more information, visit http://law.shu.edu.

Bomb at Pakistani mosque kills at least 48 during Friday prayers

Bomb at Pakistani mosque kills at least 48

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded Pakistani mosque during prayers on Friday, killing at least 48 people, a government official said. "So far we have counted 48 bodies," Tariq Hayat Khan, the top administrator in the Khyber region in the northwest of the country, told reporters.

Picture: AFP

Pakistani paramedics give treatment to injured suicide blast victims at a hospital in Peshawar on March 27, 2009. A suicide bomber attacked a packed mosque in northwest Pakistan at prayer time, killing 48 people and wounding dozens more.

A Letter from a Christian to a Muslim Woman By Joanna Francis

 A Letter from a Christian to a Muslim Woman By Joanna Francis-

 Writer, Journalist - USA

Between the Israeli assault on Lebanon and the Zionist "War on Terror," the world is now center stage in every American home. I see the carnage, death and destruction that have befallen Lebanon , but I also see something else: I see you. I can't help but notice that almost every woman I see is carrying a baby or has children around her. I see that though they are dressed modestly, their beauty still shines through. But it's not just outer beauty that I notice. I also notice that I feel something strange inside me: I feel envy. I feel terrible for the horrible experiences and war crimes that the Lebanese people have suffered, being targeted by our common enemy. But I can't help but admire your strength, your beauty, your modesty, and most of all, your happiness. Yes, it's strange, but it occurred to me that even under constant bombardment, you still seemed happier than we are, because you were still living the natural lives of women. The way women have always lived since the beginning of time. It used to be that way in the West until the 1960s, when we were bombarded by the same enemy. Only we were not bombarded with actual munitions, but with subtle trickery and moral corruption.

Through Temptation They bombarded us Americans from Hollywood , instead of from fighter jets or with our own American-made tanks. They would like to bomb you in this way too, after they've finished bombing the infrastructure of your countries. I do not want this to happen to you. You will feel degraded, just like we

do. You can avoid this kind of bombing if you will kindly listen to those of us who have already suffered serious casualties from their evil influence. Because everything you see coming out of Hollywood is a pack of lies, a distortion of reality, smoke and mirrors. They present casual sex as harmless recreation because they aim to destroy the moral fabric of the societies into which they beam their poisonous programming. I beg you not to drink their poison. There is no antidote for it once you have consumed it. You may recover partially, but you will never be the same. Better to avoid the poison altogether than to try to heal from the damage it causes. They will try to tempt you with their titillating movies and music videos, falsely portraying us American women as happy and satisfied, proud of dressing like prostitutes, and content without families. Most

of us are not happy, trust me. Millions of us are on anti-depressant medication, hate our jobs, and cry at night over the men who told us they loved us, then greedily used us and walked away. They would like to destroy your families and convince you to have fewer children. They do this by presenting marriage as a form of slavery, motherhood as a curse, and being modest and pure as old-fashioned. They want you to cheapen yourself and lose your faith. They are like the Serpent tempting Eve with the apple. DON'T BITE. Self-Value I see you as precious gems, pure gold, or the "pearl of great value" spoken of in the Bible (Matthew 13: 45). All women are pearls of great value, but some of us have been deceived into doubting the value of our purity. Jesus said: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend [slit, rip] you" (Matthew 7: 6). Our pearls are priceless, but they convince us that they're cheap. But trust me; there is no substitute for being able to look in the mirror and seeing purity, innocence and self-respect staring back at you. The fashions coming out of the Western sewer are designed to make you believe that your most valuable asset is your sexuality. But your

beautiful dresses and veils are actually sexier than any Western fashion, because they cloak you in mystery and show self-respect and confidence. A woman's sexuality should be guarded from unworthy eyes, since it should be your gift to the man who loves and respects you enough to marry you. And since your men are still manly warriors, they deserve no less than your best. Our men don't even want purity anymore. They don't recognize the pearl of great value, opting for the flashy rhinestone instead. Only to leave her too! Your most valuable assets are your inner beauty, your innocence, and everything that makes you who you are. But I notice that some Muslim women push the limit and try to be as Western as possible, even while wearing a veil (with some of their hair showing). Why imitate women who already regret, or will soon regret, their lost virtue? There is no compensation for that loss. You are flawless diamonds. Don't let them trick you into becoming rhinestones.

Because everything you see in the fashion magazines and on Western television is a lie. It is Satan's trap. It is fool's gold. A Woman's Heart I'll let you in on a little secret, just in case you're curious:

pre-marital sex is not even that great. We gave our bodies to the men we were in love with, believing that that was the way to make them love us and want to marry us, just as we had seen on television growing up. But without the security of marriage and the sure knowledge that he will always stay with us, it's not even enjoyable! That's the irony. It was just a waste. It leaves you in tears. Speaking as one woman to another, I believe that you understand that already. Because only a woman can truly understand what's in another

woman's heart. We really are all alike. Our race, religion or nationalities do not matter. A woman's heart is the same everywhere. We love. That's what we do best. We nurture our families and give comfort and strength to the men we love. But we American women have been fooled into believing that we are happiest having careers, our own homes in which to live alone, and freedom to give our love away to whomever we choose. That is not freedom. And that is not love. Only in the safe haven of marriage can a woman's body and

heart be safe to love. Don't settle for anything less. It's not worth it. You won't even like it and you'll like yourself even less afterwards. Then he'll leave you.

Self-Denial Sin never pays. It always cheats you. Even though I have reclaimed my honor, there's still no substitute for having never been dishonored in the first place. We Western women have been brainwashed into thinking that you Muslim women are oppressed. But truly, we are the ones who are oppressed; slaves to fashions that degrade us, obsessed with our weight, begging for love from men who do not want to grow up. Deep down inside, we know that we have been cheated. We secretly admire and envy you, although some of us will not

admit it. Please do not look down on us or think that we like things the way they are. It's not our fault. Most of us did not have fathers to protect us when we were young because our families have been destroyed. You know who is behind this plot. Don't be fooled, my sisters. Don't let them get you too. Stay innocent and pure. We Christian women need to see what life is really supposed to be like for women. We need you to set the example

for us, because we are lost. Hold onto your purity. Remember, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. So guard your "toothpaste" carefully!

I hope you receive this advice in the spirit in which it is intended; the spirit of friendship, respect, and admiration.

From your Christian sister "With Love".

Guantanamo 'Brit' was offered freedom only if he promised not to sue the British Government

Guantanamo 'Brit' was offered freedom only if he promised not to sue the British Government

Former Guantanamo Bay 'torture' prisoner Binyam Mohamed was offered freedom only if he pledged not to sue the British Government, it has emerged.
The 'deal' put to Mohamed, who claims he was abused during seven years of captivity with the help of British secret agents, was revealed by two High Court judges.
Mohamed was told by his U.S. military captors at the Cuban base he could go back to Britain only if he:

• signed a statement saying he had never been tortured;
  
• promised never to speak to the media; promised never to sue the United States, or any U.S. ally, including Britain;
  
• and pleaded guilty to terror charges.
  

Free: Binyam Mohamed arriving back in the UK last month

And MPs demanded to know what part Britain had played in trying to hush up Mohamed's alleged torture.
Clive Stafford Smith, who has represented 30-year-old Mohamed for four years, said: 'He was being told he would never leave Guantánamo Bay unless he promised never to discuss his torture, and never sue either the Americans or the British to force disclosure of his mistreatment. 

'Gradually the truth is leaking out, and the governments on both sides of the Atlantic should pause to consider whether they should continue to fight to keep this torture evidence secret.'
Details of the desperate lengths to which the Americans were prepared to go emerged in a previously-secret court judgment released yesterday by the High Court.

They were held back until negotiations were complete to agree Mohamed's release, but have now been made public.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said Mohamed had been asked to agree the plea despite not being allowed to know the charges against him.
Since his release, Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed has given numerous interviews accusing MI5 of supplying '70 per cent' of the questions used by his CIA tormentors in a Moroccan prison where he said he was held for 18 months, beaten and had his genitals slashed.

He was later flown by 'extraordinary rendition' by the CIA to Guantanamo Bay for four years.
His claims have put mounting pressure on Foreign Secretary David Miliband to admit the Government either knew about his torture, or colluded in it.

Mr Miliband has refused to give evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry into what the UK knew.

The Foreign Office has insisted it does not condone the use of torture and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has referred Mohamed's claims to the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, to consider whether any criminal prosecutions should be brought.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davey said: 'This looks like a clumsy attempt to intimidate Binyam into silence.

'If the British Government, at any level, prove to have known about such an attempt, then that would seem yet another case of British complicity in torture.'
Mr Stafford Smith added: 'After the years of suffering he had been through, Binyam was willing to do just about anything to get out of there, but he would not plead guilty to something he did not do, nor would he lie about the fact that he had been tortured.
'Likewise, the "condition" that he agree not to speak about his torture is absolutely shameful.
'The truth about what happened to Binyam needs to come out and our government should do all it can to make that happen.'
His colleague Clare Algar added: 'By early 2009, the U.S. military was still desperately trying to get Mr Mohamed to plead guilty to something - anything - in order to save face.

'The final "offer" was that this man, originally alleged to be a most dangerous terrorist, should plead guilty and receive a sentence of only 10 days in prison, less than one might expect for many driving offences.

'Mr Mohamed rejected this offer, as he continued to insist that he was not guilty. Offering a man who is protesting his innocence freedom on the condition that he pleads guilty to something and serves a 10-day sentence is face-saving on an horrific scale.'
It has emerged that Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, is to tell MPs that the British Government has an official policy of accepting intelligence obtained by torture.

Mr Murray, who was sacked after exposing appalling human rights abuses, will give evidence to the Parliamentary joint committee on human rights next month.

Mr Murray has long claimed he was aware of intelligence passed on to MI6 by the CIA which had been obtained by the torture of suspects by the Uzbek regime.
Mr Murray said: 'As British ambassador, I was told there is a very definite policy to accept intelligence from torture abroad.'

Israeli soldiers use 11-year old palestinian boy as shield

First Published 2009-03-23 Celebrating 'victory', Israeli style  UN: Israel used 11-year old as human shield   UN human rights experts verify atrocities committed by Israeli army during war on Gaza.   GENEVA – Israeli soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during the war on the Gaza Strip, UN human rights experts said Monday. The Israeli Defense force ordered the boy to walk in front of soldiers being fired on in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa and enter buildings before them, said the UN secretary-general's envoy for protecting children in armed conflict. The boy also was told to open the bags of Palestinians — presumably to protect the soldiers from possible explosives — before being released at the entrance to a hospital, Radhika Coomaraswamy said. She said the Jan. 15 incident, after Israeli tanks had rolled into the neighborhood and during "intense operations," was a violation of Israeli and international law. It was included in a 43-page report published Monday, and was just one of many verified human rights atrocities during the three-week war that ended Jan. 18, she said. Coomaraswamy accused Israeli soldiers of shooting Palestinian children, bulldozing a home with a woman and child still inside, and shelling a building they had ordered civilians into a day earlier. "Violations were reported on a daily basis, too numerous to list," said Coomaraswamy, who visited Gaza and Israel for five days in February. Israel criticized the report as "unable or perhaps unwilling" to address Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. An Israeli army spokesman rejected the UN claim. "We are an army to which morals and high ethical standards are paramount," said Capt. Elie Isaacson. Coomaraswamy said her list of Israeli violations constituted "just a few examples of the hundreds of incidents that have been documented and verified" by UN officials who were in the territory. She was the only one of the nine UN experts who compiled the report that was allowed into Gaza following the war. The experts covered issues ranging from health and hunger to women's rights and arbitrary executions. The report called for Israel to investigate human rights abuses that occurred during the conflict. Last week Israel's military ordered a criminal inquiry into published reports from soldiers that some troops had knowingly killed Palestinian civilians, including children.

source: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=31129

Court Rules Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Can Sue Contractor CACI, According to Legal Team for Former Detainees

Court Rules Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Can Sue Contractor CACI, According to Legal Team for Former Detainees

Gaza war crime claims gather pace as more troops speak out

• Peter Beaumont
• The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009
• Article history

Israeli soldiers stand together at a military staging area before moving towards the northern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

An investigation by a group of former Israeli soldiers has uncovered new evidence of the military's conduct during the assault on Gaza two months ago. According to the group Breaking the Silence, the witness statements of the 15 soldiers who have come forward to describe their concerns over Operation Cast Lead appear to corroborate claims of random killings and vandalism carried out during the operation made by a separate group of anonymous servicemen during a seminar at a military college.
Although Breaking the Silence's report is not due to be published for several months, the testimony it has received already suggests widespread abuses stemming from orders originating with the Israeli military chain of command.
"This is not a military that we recognise," said Mikhael Manekin, one of the former soldiers involved with the group. "This is in a different category to things we have seen before. We have spoken to a lot of different people who served in different places in Gaza, including officers. We are not talking about some units being more aggressive than others, but underlying policy. So much so that we are talking to soldiers who said that they were having to restrain the orders given."
Manekin described how soldiers had reported their units being specifically warned by officers not to discuss what they had seen and done in Gaza.
The outlines of the evidence gathered comes hard on the heels of the disclosure by the Oranim Academy's pre-military course last week of devastating witness accounts supplied by soldiers involved in the fighting, including the "unjustified" shooting of civilians.
The claims appear to add credence to widespread claims of Israeli soldiers firing on civilians, made by Palestinians to journalists and international investigators and lawyers who entered Gaza at the end of the conflict and in its aftermath.
With Israeli newspapers threatening new disclosures, the New York Times has weighed in with an interview with a reservist describing the rules of engagement for the Gaza operation. Amir Marmor, a 33-year-old military reservist, told the newspaper that he was stunned to discover the way civilian casualties were discussed in training talks before his tank unit entered Gaza in January.
"Shoot and don't worry about the consequences" was the message from commanders, said Marmor. Describing the behaviour of a lieutenant-colonel who briefed the troops, Marmor added: "His whole demeanour was extremely gung-ho. This is very, very different from my usual experience. I have been doing reserve duty for 12 years, and it was always an issue how to avoid causing civilian injuries. He said that in this operation, we are not taking any chances. Morality aside, we have to do our job. We will cry about it later."
These are not the first allegations of war crimes levelled at the Israeli military. Last Thursday, the special rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council, Richard Falk, said that the assault on Gaza appeared to be a "war crime of the greatest magnitude" and called on the UN to establish an experts' group to investigate potential violations.
Attempts by the Israeli media to publish the rules of engagement for the Gaza campaign have been blocked by the military censor, but in the past couple of weeks the contents of those rules have begun to to emerge in anecdotal evidence - suggesting strongly that soldiers were told to avoid Israeli casualties at all costs by means of the massive use of firepower in a densely populated urban environment.
Worrying new questions have also been raised about the culture of the Israeli military, indicating a high level of dehumanisation and disregard for Palestinians among the chain of command and even among the military rabbinate.
An investigation by reporter Uri Blau, published on Friday in Haaretz, disclosed how Israeli soldiers were ordering T-shirts to mark the end of operations, featuring grotesque images including dead babies, mothers weeping by their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques.
Another T-shirt designed for infantry snipers bears the inscription "Better use Durex" next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A shirt designed for the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion depicts a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills".
The claims have sparked a bitter debate within Israel's defence forces and wider society over the "morality" of the IDF and its behaviour in Gaza.
Since the first claims appeared, other Israeli media have run articles criticising the head of the military academy who revealed the soldiers' testimony, while others have run interviews with soldiers denying that the IDF had been involved in any wrong-doing and questioning the motives of those who had come forward.
"I don't believe there were soldiers who were looking to kill [Palestinians] for no reason," 21-year-old Givati Brigade soldier Assaf Danziger was quoted by Yedioth Aharonot. "What happened there was not enjoyable for anyone; we wanted it to end as soon as possible and tried to avoid contact with innocent civilians."

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/22/israel-palestinian-territories-war-crimes

FBI planting spies in U.S. mosques, Muslim groups say

By Eliott C. McLaughlin

(CNN) -- Ten U.S. Muslim organizations threatened this week to cease working with the FBI, citing "McCarthy-era tactics" by the agency, including efforts to covertly infiltrate California mosques.

Stephen Tidwell, then of the FBI's Los Angeles office, speaks at the Islamic Center of Irvine in 2006.

The groups claim the FBI has sent undercover agents posing as worshippers into mosques, pressured Muslims to become informants, labeled civil rights advocates as criminals and spread misinformation.

The FBI declined to comment on specific allegations but called the proposed move unproductive.

"Limiting honest dialogue, especially when complex issues are on the table, is generally not an effective advocacy strategy," spokesman John Miller said in a statement. "The FBI has continued our outreach efforts, across the board, with a number of concerned groups and where we agree -- or disagree -- most have concluded the best results are achieved through continued conversation. We believe that, too."

The group's statement, dated Tuesday, said several incidents of the FBI "targeting Muslim Americans lead us to consider suspending ongoing outreach efforts." 

The statement was issued by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections, whose director, Agha Saeed, couldn't immediately comment because of a family emergency.

The FBI has sent "agents provocateur" into California mosques, according to the statement, which says an FBI agent threatened to make one mosque member's life a "living hell" if he did not become an informant.
Statement's Signatories

The following groups signed the statement threatening to cut ties with the FBI: 

• American Muslim Alliance 

• American Muslims for Palestine 

• Council on American-Islamic Relations 

• Islamic Educational Center of Orange County 

• Islamic Circle of North America 

• Muslim Alliance in North America 

• MAS Freedom 

• Muslim Student Association-National 

• Muslim Ummah of North America 

• United Muslims of America 

Though the statement does not name the mosque member, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said last month it would seek an investigation into the February 21 arrest of Ahmadullah Niazi, an Afghanistan native.

"Mr. Niazi previously reported to [CAIR's Los Angeles office] and other community members that, during a raid of a friend's house, an FBI agent urged Mr. Niazi to work with the agency, saying that if he refused to cooperate his life would be made a 'living hell,' " a news release said.

Niazi, a member of the Islamic Center of Irvine, told CAIR his arrest was retaliation for his refusal, the release said.

The FBI directed questions about Niazi's arrest to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, California, which declined comment.

Niazi, 34, was indicted last month on charges of perjury, procuring naturalization unlawfully, using a passport procured by fraud and making false statements. A search warrant for Niazi's Tustin, California, home said Niazi became a naturalized citizen in 2004 and made false statements about his past aliases and international travel.

He also made false statements about contact with his brother-in-law Amin ul-Haq, the indictment said. Ul-Haq is said to be Osama bin Laden's security coordinator and has been labeled a "specially designated global terrorist" by the U.S. government, the indictment said.

An FBI agent said in open court that Niazi also had discussed terrorist plots with an undercover informant, according to media reports. Niazi has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

CAIR's problems with the FBI began before Niazi's arrest. Last year, the FBI discontinued its "formal contact" with CAIR.

The Tuesday statement said the FBI unjustly designated CAIR and other organizations as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the Holy Land Foundation case. A jury convicted Holy Land Foundation leaders last year of conspiring to support terrorism and launder money for a terrorist group.

"Making this unjust designation public violates the Justice Department's own guidelines and wrongly implies that those listed are somehow involved in criminal activity," the statement said.

The FBI's Miller declined to comment on specifics, but said the FBI wants to avoid "formally constructed partnerships" with CAIR.

"Our concerns relate to a number of distinct narrow issues specific to CAIR and its national leadership," Miller said.

Before the FBI severed formal ties, CAIR officials had met with the FBI to discuss hate crimes targeting Muslims. On occasion, CAIR offered assistance in investigations. The group also held training sessions for FBI agents on Islamic culture and ways to improve interactions with the Muslim community.
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CAIR this week called the FBI allegations a "campaign of smears and misinformation," a remnant of the Bush administration.

"It is not surprising that we would be targeted in a purely political move by those in the previous administration who sought to prevent us from defending the civil rights of American Muslims," said a statement from the group's national communications director, Ibrahim Hooper.

Tuesday's group statement also mentioned "a flourishing of anti-Muslim activity" during the previous administration and expressed fear that "counterintelligence programs are quelling lawful dissent."

Unless the FBI affords fair treatment to all mosques, Muslims and Muslim groups, the statement said, Muslims should consider suspending ties to the agency.
"This possible suspension, of course, would in no way affect our unshakable duty to report crimes or threats of violence to our nation," it said.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/20/fbi.muslim.groups/index.html

Re: Body of Mohammad Usamah Marfani found

Police try to retrace victim's steps
UH student went missing while he was in Midtown
By DALE LEZON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
March 20, 2009, 9:15AM

Sugar Land Police Department 

Mohammed Marfani, 25, disappeared on March 6 after going to a bar in Houston's Midtown.

To many on the outside, the disappearance of 25-year-old Mohammed U. Marfani seemed like another crime mystery. 

The University of Houston student was reported missing after leaving a nightclub near downtown earlier this month. Nearly two weeks later, he was found a few blocks away, dead in a sport utility vehicle that was partially burned inside.

But on Thursday, the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death was accidental and caused by smoke inhalation. Police ruled out foul play in his disappearance.

Why he was in the SUV, which did not belong to him, and how the fire started are questions his family can’t answer.

“Anything’s possible at this point,” said Marfani’s brother, Rizwan Marfani.

Marfani’s family said he was last heard from March 6. The third-year nutrition student called his mother about 8:30 p.m., told her he was leaving school and would be back at their Sugar Land home in about 30 minutes.

He never arrived. His family reported him missing to Houston and Sugar Land police.
Credit card used

He had gone that night to a bar in the 2400 block of San Jacinto. Transactions on a credit card he was using had been made at the club that night, and friends said they were with him there.

Also, a surveillance camera at the club “showed he appeared to be intoxicated,” said John Cannon, a Houston police spokesman.

Sugar Land police investigators, who also reviewed the tape, said it showed him sitting alone on the curb outside the club, and then he stood and walked away.

Nothing in the tape, police said, suggests foul play.

A few days after Marfani was reported missing, volunteers with Texas EquuSearch began looking for him.

The effort was suspended the next day, however, because they had no clues to his whereabouts.

Also, police discovered that Marfani was wanted in Fort Bend County on warrants issued after he missed a court appearance March 9. He was arrested for burglary last year, police said.

Marfani's body was found Tuesday in the driver’s seat of a dark green Ford Explorer parked at the curb in the 2200 block of Austin, a few blocks from the nightclub, police said. The SUV’s owner and her friend discovered the body when they opened the door to retrieve something inside, police said. 

The driver’s seat was largely undamaged, but the passenger seat was burned to the springs, and plastic parts around the door frame were melted. The charred remnants of a booklet or manual were on the passenger seat.

The body apparently went unnoticed for some time because the SUV’s windows were blackened by smoke.

The owner had parked the SUV on the street several weeks ago in front of an auto repair shop where she wanted to have it repaired.

Police initially said they did not suspect foul play and believed Marfani had voluntarily disappeared.

Yet, his family said he had been making his scheduled court appearances for a year and was not concerned about the March 9 hearing. He had not seemed depressed in the days before his disappearance, Rizwan Marfani said.

“I’ve always said it was a coincidence that he left when he had a court date and that something wasn’t right,” his brother said. “It definitely needs to be investigated further.”

Chronicle reporter Mike Glenn contributed to this story.

The war on Terror is a Hoax

The War on Terror is a Hoax 

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS 

According to US government propaganda, terrorist cells are spread throughout America, making it necessary for the government to spy on all Americans and violate most other constitutional protections. Among President Bush’s last words as he left office was the warning that America would soon be struck again by Muslim terrorists.  

If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly. 

The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated. 

I do not approve of assassinations, and am ashamed of my country’s government for engaging in political assassination. The US and Israel have set a very bad example for al Qaeda to follow. 

The US deals with al Qaeda and Taliban by assassinating their leaders, and Israel deals with Hamas by assassinating its leaders. It is reasonable to assume that al Qaeda would deal with the instigators and leaders of America’s wars in the Middle East in the same way.  

Today every al Qaeda member is aware of the complicity of neoconservatives in the death and devastation inflicted on Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Gaza. Moreover, neocons are highly visible and are soft targets compared to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Neocons have been identified in the media for years, and as everyone knows, multiple listings of their names are available online.  

Neocons do not have Secret Service protection. Dreadful to contemplate, but it would be child’s play for al Qaeda to assassinate any and every neocon. Yet, neocons move around freely, a good indication that the US does not have a terrorist problem. 

If, as neocons constantly allege, terrorists can smuggle nuclear weapons or dirty bombs into the US with which to wreak havoc upon our cities, terrorists can acquire weapons with which to assassinate any neocon or former government official. 

Yet, the neocons, who are the Americans most hated by Muslims, remain unscathed.  

The “war on terror” is a hoax that fronts for American control of oil pipelines, the profits of the military-security complex, the assault on civil liberty by fomenters of a police state, and Israel’s territorial expansion.  

There were no al Qaeda in Iraq until the Americans brought them there by invading and overthrowing Saddam Hussein, who kept al Qaeda out of Iraq. The Taliban is not a terrorist organization, but a movement attempting to unify Afghanistan under Muslim law. The only Americans threatened by the Taliban are the Americans Bush sent to Afghanistan to kill Taliban and to impose a puppet state on the Afghan people. 

Hamas is the democratically elected government of Palestine, or what little remains of Palestine after Israel’s illegal annexations. Hamas is a terrorist organization in the same sense that the Israeli government and the US government are terrorist organizations. In an effort to bring Hamas under Israeli hegemony, Israel employs terror bombing and assassinations against Palestinians. Hamas replies to the Israeli terror with homemade and ineffectual rockets. 

Hezbollah represents the Shi’ites of southern Lebanon, another area in the Middle East that Israel seeks for its territorial expansion. 

The US brands Hamas and Hezbollah “terrorist organizations” for no other reason than the US is on Israel’s side of the conflict. There is no objective basis for the US Department of State’s “finding” that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations. It is merely a propagandistic declaration. 

Americans and Israelis do not call their bombings of civilians terror. What Americans and Israelis call terror is the response of oppressed people who are stateless because their countries are ruled by puppets loyal to the oppressors. These people, dispossessed of their own countries, have no State Departments, Defense Departments, seats in the United Nations, or voices in the mainstream media. They can submit to foreign hegemony or resist by the limited means available to them. 

The fact that Israel and the United States carry on endless propaganda to prevent this fundamental truth from being realized indicates that it is Israel and the US that are in the wrong and the Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Afghans who are being wronged. 

The retired American generals who serve as war propagandists for Fox “News” are forever claiming that Iran arms the Iraqi and Afghan insurgents and Hamas. But where are the arms? To deal with American tanks, insurgents have to construct homemade explosive devices out of artillery shells. After six years of conflict the insurgents still have no weapon against the American helicopter gunships. Contrast this “arming” with the weaponry the US supplied to the Afghans three decades ago when they were fighting to drive out the Soviets. 

The films of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza show large numbers of Gazans fleeing from Israeli bombs or digging out the dead and maimed, and none of these people is armed. A person would think that by now every Palestinian would be armed, every man, woman, and child. Yet, all the films of the Israeli attack show an unarmed population. Hamas has to construct homemade rockets that are little more than a sign of defiance. If Hamas were armed by Iran, Israel’s assault on Gaza would have cost Israel its helicopter gunships, its tanks, and hundreds of lives of its soldiers. 

Hamas is a small organization armed with small caliber rifles incapable of penetrating body armor. Hamas is unable to stop small bands of Israeli settlers from descending on West Bank Palestinian villages, driving out the Palestinians, and appropriating their land.  

The great mystery is: why after 60 years of oppression are the Palestinians still an unarmed people? Clearly, the Muslim countries are complicit with Israel and the US in keeping the Palestinians unarmed. 

The unsupported assertion that Iran supplies sophisticated arms to the Palestinians is like the unsupported assertion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. These assertions are propagandistic justifications for killing Arab civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in order to secure US and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East. 

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Re: Body of Mohammad Usamah Marfani found

A woman in the midtown area was shocked to find her SUV on fire with a dead body inside.

 

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Today, investigators may release the cause of death for a student whose burned body was found in an SUV in Midtown.

The victim's name is Mohammed Marfani. He was a 25-year-old student at the University of Houston who had been reported missing.
The owner of a Ford SUV discovered his burned remains inside of her vehicle off Austin near Hadley on Tuesday.

source: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6717816

Ex-Bush admin official: Many in Guantanamo Prison are innocent

Ex-Bush admin official: Many at Gitmo are innocent

AP – In this June 6, 2008 file photo, reviewed by the U.S. Military, a guard stands at a gate at the Camp …

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Many detainees locked up at Guantanamo were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush administration official said Thursday. "There are still innocent people there," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, a Republican who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, told The Associated Press. "Some have been there six or seven years."
Wilkerson, who first made the assertions in an Internet posting on Tuesday, told the AP he learned from briefings and by communicating with military commanders that the U.S. soon realized many Guantanamo detainees were innocent but nevertheless held them in hopes they could provide information for a "mosaic" of intelligence.
"It did not matter if a detainee were innocent. Indeed, because he lived in Afghanistan and was captured on or near the battle area, he must know something of importance," Wilkerson wrote in the blog. He said intelligence analysts hoped to gather "sufficient information about a village, a region, or a group of individuals, that dots could be connected and terrorists or their plots could be identified."
Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel, said vetting on the battlefield during the early stages of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan was incompetent with no meaningful attempt to discriminate "who we were transporting to Cuba for detention and interrogation."
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on Wilkerson's specific allegations but noted that the military has consistently said that dealing with foreign fighters from a wide variety of countries in a wartime setting was a complex process. The military has insisted that those held at Guantanamo were enemy combatants and posed a threat to the United States.
In his posting for The Washington Note blog, Wilkerson wrote that "U.S. leadership became aware of this lack of proper vetting very early on and, thus, of the reality that many of the detainees were innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, had little intelligence value, and should be immediately released."
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney fought efforts to address the situation, Wilkerson said, because "to have admitted this reality would have been a black mark on their leadership."
Wilkerson told the AP in a telephone interview that many detainees "clearly had no connection to al-Qaida and the Taliban and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pakistanis turned many over for $5,000 a head."
Some 800 men have been held at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, and 240 remain. Wilkerson said two dozen are terrorists, including confessed Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was transferred to Guantanamo from CIA custody in September 2006.
"We need to put those people in a high-security prison like the one in Colorado, forget them and throw away the key," Wilkerson said. "We can't try them because we tortured them and didn't keep an evidence trail."
But the rest of the detainees need to be released, he said.
Wilkerson, who flew combat missions as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and left the government in January 2005, said he did not speak out while in government because some of the information was classified. He said he feels compelled to do so now because Cheney has claimed in recent press interviews that President Barack Obama is making the U.S. less safe by reversing Bush administration policies toward terror suspects, including ordering Guantanamo closed.
The administration is now evaluating what to do with the prisoners who remain at the U.S. military base in Cuba.
"I'm very concerned about the kinds of things Cheney is saying to make it seem Obama is a danger to this republic," Wilkerson said. "To have a former vice president fearmongering like this is really, really dangerous."

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_guantanamo_wrongly_held

Haaretz: IDF killing innocent civilians in Gaza

IDF in Gaza: Killing civilians, vandalism, and lax rules of engagement

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, IDF, Hamas, Gaza

During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.

The soldiers are graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon. Some of their statements made on Feb. 13 will appear Thursday and Friday in Haaretz. Dozens of graduates of the course who took part in the discussion fought in the Gaza operation.

The speakers included combat pilots and infantry soldiers. Their testimony runs counter to the Israel Defense Forces' claims that Israeli troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation. The session's transcript was published this week in the newsletter for the course's graduates.

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"The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn't understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he ... he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders."

According to the squad leader: "The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.

"I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it .... The lives of Palestinians, let's say, is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way," he said.

Another squad leader from the same brigade told of an incident where the company commander ordered that an elderly Palestinian woman be shot and killed; she was walking on a road about 100 meters from a house the company had commandeered.

The squad leader said he argued with his commander over the permissive rules of engagement that allowed the clearing out of houses by shooting without warning the residents beforehand. After the orders were changed, the squad leader's soldiers complained that "we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."

The squad leader said: "You do not get the impression from the officers that there is any logic to it, but they won't say anything. To write 'death to the Arabs' on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them, just because you can. I think this is the main thing: To understand how much the IDF has fallen in the realm of ethics, really. It's what I'll remember the most."

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html