News: Like last week, only matters of longer term and greater importance will be deemed important, and the daily brutality propagated against the Palestinian people will be there to read, but not noted.
1) Israel's anti-boycott law.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/the-boycott-law-and-bullshit-1.373465"http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/the-boycott-law-and-bullshit-1.373465
Update: How the anti-boycott law has led to greater attention to the boycott.
http://adam-keller2.blogspot.com/2011/07/balaams-curse-2011.html
2) New settlement construction, intended to cut off Jerusalem from the West Bank, will end chance of of peace.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-ariel-construction-destroys-remnants-of-peace-efforts-1.378762">http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-ariel-construction-destroys-remnants-of-phttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeace-efforts-1.378762">http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-ariel-construction-destroys-remnants-of-peace-efforts-1.378762
Update: US issues words to condemn Ariel construction, but no deeds.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-israeli-construction-in-ariel-deeply-troubling-1.378781"
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Update 2: Envoy: World must act against 'colonization campaign'
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour on Friday urged the international community to compel Israel to end its colonization campaign if it really believes in thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife two-state solution, reports said. In letters to the UN secretary-general and the presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly, Mansour said "the international community must compel Israel to end its illegal occupation," a Kuwaiti news outlet reported. This includes Israel's "colonization campaign and must seriously begin to take further effective measures to end the Israeli occupation which began in 1967 to salvage the possibility of the two-state solution." The letter came in reaction to Israel's "arrogant" and "shameless" announcement to develop 1,600 settlement units in East Jerusalem
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412717&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 3: Quartet condemns Israel's illegal building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mideast-quartet-greatly-concerned-by-israel-s-recent-settlement-plans-1.378948
3) In Israel, it you justify hitting Palestinians you control, you get promoted.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-promotes-colonel-who-justified-hitting-palehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifstinian-detainees-1.378749
4) Can Israelis have social justice and the Occupation of Palestine?
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-social-protesters-mustn-t-forget-the-occupation-1.378512
5) Netanyahu plans to punish the Palestinians for declaring that they are a state.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-will-use-palestinian-un-bid-to-restore-status-quo-1.378664
6) Nabi Saleh consumed with raids while fasting http://palsolidarity.org/2011/08/19743/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
ISM posted 11 Aug -- Following the unusually short demonstration on the first Friday of Ramadan, the Israeli army raided the village of Nabi Saleh just before Iftar, the Muslim time for breaking fast during Ramadan, resulting in the detaining of a 14 year old boy for approximately two hours and an excessive amount of tear gas in the village ...Manal Tamimi’s child was sleeping in the living room alone where he inhaled a large amount of tear gas for half an hour resulting in him vomiting for over an hour while the army was still in the village. Tamimi states in an interview with ISM that she was scared of the thought that she may have been outside of her home, visiting her mother, and no one would have heard the scream of her child. Without her presence at home, she says, this invasion might have ended with a fatality within her family.
Update: Videohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif interview with Manal Tamimi: They try to steal our history, not just our land
ISM posted 11 Aug -- The demonstrations in Nabi Saleh started the 21 of November 2009, after the illegal settlement of Halamish expanded, costing locals in land and their source of water for home and agricultural use, a spring declared holy by the settlers ... More then 220 people have been injured since the beginning of their peaceful resistance to illegal Israeli occupation of their land. Some of the injured include an 11 year old boy who was shot with a rubber coated steel bullet in his head and is still paralyzed. http://palsolidarity.org/2011/08/19747/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: Throwing rocks at the occupation -- and Western prejudice too
By Linah Alsaafin, Nabi Saleh, 11 August 2011
I asked a few Nabi Saleh children why they throw rocks. Their responses were simple: We don't want the army here.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/throwing-rocks-occupation-and-western-prejudice-too/10263
7) Area C feels the effects of Israel's power
The Australian 13 Aug -- ONLY 5km separates the offices of two mayors on one of the planet's most contested pieces of land, but they may as well be at opposite ends of the earth. Next month, the 193 countries of the UN are set to vote on a Palestinian state. Any decision will not be binding on Israel but any pressure point that does arise will be here, in the heart of the West Bank's "Area C", which is deemed under the Oslo accords to be under full Israeli control ... David Elhaiini is a Jewish settler who is Mayor of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, which covers 21 settlements ... Area C amounts to 60 per cent of the West Bank. Israel has complete power over which Palestinian homes will be built or demolished in the area. Far more Palestinian homes are demolished than approved. Asked what he thinks about the demolitions, Elhaiini replies: "I believe in law." ... Palestinian Mayor Abed Kassab says when Israel took control of his village, Jiftlik, in 1967, the population was more than 25,000. It is now 5,000. He gives a range of reasons: lack of water and electricity; Israelis killing some of the villagers' animals; Israelis taking sheep from villagers, putting them into Jewish settlements and presenting the villagers with fees for feeding them.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/area-c-feels-the-effects-of-israels-power/story-e6frg6so-1226114006692?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
8) Racism in the Galilee Part 1: Caging in Palestinians / Sophie Crowe
PalMon 11 Aug -- Many Palestinians have been forced to leave Nazareth, the primary Palestinian city in Israel, and its satellite villages due to the absence of planning and lack of resources allotted by the government, which prohibits development and results in overcrowding. ... Upper Nazareth, the fastest growing town in the north of the country, illustrates clearly the disparity in development of Israeli and Palestinian towns. The largely Jewish city is home to fifty thousand people and was able to quadruple in size since its establishment in the late fifties by appropriating surrounding lands. According to a 2010 report by Middle East Monitor, a British-based news source, the number of Jews living in thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Galilee tripled between the sixties and nineties. ‘The whole city is built on land confiscated from the Palestinians of Nazareth,’ explains Sawsan Zaher, a lawyer with Adalah, a Palestinian rights NGO. Nazareth has seventy thousand people living on half the area of land as the new city and is prevented from expanding. The new town flourishes and thrives at the expense of the original Palestinian one and its villages, which are in contraction.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/?p=1415&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: Racism rampant among Israeli youth. http://electronicintifada.net/content/video-survey-racism-rampant-among-israeli-youth/10286?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=63d2de8e2e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
9) On patrol in the streets of Hebron
PalMon 10 Aug -- A car stops in front of a house in Beit Hadassah, a part of the Israeli settlement inside the Old City of Hebron. Three settlers get out. Observers from Temporary International Presence in the City of Hebron (TIPH) stand nearby and watch closely. This is part of TIPH’s daily foot patrol of the city. In Hebron, settler violence could strike any time. Settlers are steadily expanding into new parts of Hebron, Per Enerud, an observer with TIPH says. Due to the Israeli occupation of the area, many Palestinian families have been forced out of their homes and shops and cannot return to their land. Settlers then move into their vacant property. Standing on the hillside with a good view of the Israeli settlement, Enerud points out a group of Israeli children playing on top of anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif empty building. While seemingly harmless, Enerud explains, this is a new method of the same, aggressive settler expansion that’s been happening in Hebron since 1967. "Even though the deed to the house is Palestinian," Enerud says, "the settlers build their way into the empty houses."
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/?p=1393
10) Fanatic Jewish settlers regularly attack Palestinians at iftar time
AL-KHALIL/HEBRON (PIC) 12 Aug -- Fanatic Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian homes in the old city in al-Khalil on Wednesday evening for the second time in two days. The attacks take place when families gather at sunset to break their fast (Iftar) ...A Palestinian resident who lives at Jabal al-Rahma said that a group of settlers from the Yeshai settlement crossed lands belonging to local residents, threw stones at Palestinian homes in the vicinity and chanted anti-Arab slogans. Meanwhile, settlers in Tel al-Rumaida attacked the home of Muhammad Abu Eisheh with stones and destroyed a support wall belonging to the family of Sayyed Ahmad.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Update: Increased Palestinian displacement as Israeli settler violence intensifies
AIC 15 Aug -- As dozens of Israeli MKs petition Netanyahu to endorse increased settlement construction in the West Bank to address the Israeli housing crisis and the surrounding tent protests, Israeli settlement policy continues to perpetuate a housing crisis of a very different sort in the Palestinian territory. Over the past seven months, nearly 900 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, as opposed to 606 during the whole of 2010. 755 of those were displaced due to home demolitions, while the remaining 127 were forced from their homes due to settler violence ... While settlers are burning Palestinian crops, damaging property, and throwing rocks at shepherds and children, the Israeli government is using a system of permitting processes, military zones, and fines to prevent Palestinians from establishing any structural claim to their own land.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/settlers-violence/3744-increased-palestinian-displacement-as-israeli-settler-violence-intensifies?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=6c411275a8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: Israeli settler violence report, May-June 2011
AIC 15 Aug -- By Ahmad Jaradat & Nikki Hodgson -- During the months of May and June, settler attacks against Palestinian civilians continued, with most of the attacks targeting agriculture land in the northern West Bank. The attacks, including damage to agriculture property, burning of olive trees and destruction of wheat crops, appear to be systematically targeting land near settlements, and many Palestinian farmers fear that the settlers are organizing attacks in order to confiscate land for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Numerous attacks also occurred in Hebron, resulting in at least three Palestinians needing medical attention, including a six-year-old boy. Details:
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/settlers-violence/3745-israeli-settler-violence-report-may-june-2011-?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=6c411275a8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
11 PCHR weekly report : Israeli forces injure 3, abduct 35 Palestinians this week
IMEMC 12 Aug -- In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 04-10 Aug. 2011, Israeli forces wounded three Palestinians with gunfire, and injured dozens more with tear gas at non-violent demonstrations. One of those injured was a Palestinian woman herding sheep in Gaza. The Israeli troops also killed some of her sheep. Two Palestinian resistance fighters were wounded by Israeli forces in the east of Gaza City. Israeli warplanes bombarded a number of civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip. Two bird farms were completely destroyed and a third one was damaged, 500 chickens were killed and a room was destroyed. Israeli attacks in the West Bank: Israeli forces conducted 31 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they abducted 31 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children. 17 of the detainees were abducted in Hebron....[details follow]
http://www.imemc.org/article/61831?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
12) USAID halts aid to Gaza
AFP 12 Aug -- The US Agency for International Development is halting humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip over alleged meddling by the enclave's rulers, Hamas, a US official said Friday ... "We deeply regret that USAID-funded partner organisations operating in Gaza are forced by Hamas's actions to suspend their assistance work," the official said on condition of anonymity. "USAID assistance programs were put on hold effective August 12," he added ... Another official in Washington said he understood that Hamas has been demanding access to physically search files and records of NGOs, which would be unprecedented ... Hamas insisted on Friday that it should be able to verify the accounts of NGOs financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Palestinian territories..It has since been restored.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-warns-hamas-could-pause-aid-official-141133718.html
13) Yearning for work in a Gaza under siege / Eva Bartlett
[photos] It’s a weekday morning, the beach is yet to fill with crowds seeking a break from the heat, but already the odd-jobbers are at work selling toys, clothes and food along the coast. Shariff Abu Kass, 27, walks the stretch of seaside in Sheik Rajleen every day from morning to evening with two armfuls of lightweight sports pants to sell. "I have two young children and no other work, so I do this every day. Usually I earn around 40 shekels (13 dollars) a day, but Fridays are better because so many come to the sea." ... In Gaza’s municipal park, Issa Ghoul, 19, sells chips and chocolates to park-goers to support his family. “I quit school and started working when I was 14. My father died when I was young and no one else works in my family,” says Ghoul. Many children younger than Ghoul zig-zag between cars at traffic stops selling one-shekel items like gum, cheap chocolates and fresh mint in order to add to their families’ incomes. "I can’t find any other jobs,” says Ghoul. "My mother is ill, my three-year-old sister is ill, what can I do but hope people will buy from me?" Most Palestinians take pride in their education, and Ghoul is no different, except that his impossible situation denied him the opportunity to study. "I would have liked to have finished school like everyone, I would have liked to have been a teacher." Update: Sources of fun dwindle for Gaza's children By Eva Bartlett, Gaza City, 10 August 2011
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/yearning-for-work-in-gaza-under-siege/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update:By Eva Bartlett, Gaza City, 15 August 2011 Throughout Gaza, children take on responsibilities of adults to help their families, and adults revert from skilled labor to doing nearly anything to bring in a salary.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/odd-jobs-help-gaza-families-scrape/10277
Update 2: Palestinian families in Gaza are keen for a change and some leisure activity in their lives encaged and under siege.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/sources-fun-dwindle-gazas-children/10253
14) Electricity crisis, heat disturb Ramadan atmosphere in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Xinhua) 12 Aug -- As soon as a hot summer day ends and the sun goes for sunset, dozens of Palestinian families set on the clean off-white sands of Gaza City's beach, not only for recuperation or enjoying a soft breeze, but also to break the fast of one of Ramadan month of fasting days. Going to Gaza seaside is like hitting two birds with one stone; first is to enjoy the beach and the less warm weather, and second is to avoid the daily ongoing electricity blackouts. The heat and the blackout had obliged the Gaza residents to temporarily flee their homes and go to Gaza beach.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-08/12/c_131046380.htm?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
15) Frustration simmers over Egypt-Gaza border closure / Jared Malsin
[with video] EI 11 Aug -- In late April, Egypt’s acting foreign minister Nabil el-Arabi promised to ease the closure of his country’s sole border crossing with the Gaza Strip, reversing years of policy set by the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak. But Palestinians in Gaza are still waiting for that promise to materialize.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/frustration-simmers-over-egypt-gaza-border-closure/10265?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
16) Israeli troops attack West Bank anti-Wall protests; 3 children injured
Ramallah – PNN - On Friday three children were injured and many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked anti-wall protests organized in a number of West Bank communities. Protests took place in the central West Bank villages of al-Nabi Salleh, Bil‘in, and Ni‘lin in addition to al-Ma‘ssara in the southern West Bank. Three children were lightly wounded as Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti-wall protest at the village of al-Ma‘sara, southern West Bank. As soon as people marched to the land where Israel is building the wall troops attacked people with rifle butts and batons injuring Abada Brijiyah, 11, Osama Brijiyah,9, and Hareth Brijiyah,10, witnesses reported.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10583&Itemid=56&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: Demonstration in Kafr Qaddum
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Palestinians inhaled tear gas which the Israeli forces shot to disperse the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum east of Qalqiliya on Friday, activists and witnesses said. The demonstration started after Friday prayer toward the eastern entrance of the village. Eyewitnesses told Ma‘an the Israeli forces who were on the entrance fired tear gas toward the demonstrators. The grenades started a fire in the lands of the villagers which caused damage, they said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412661&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: September rallies to avoid confronting Israel army
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- All rallies in support of the Palestinian bid for UN membership in September will be confined to areas where the Palestinian Authority has security control, thus avoiding confrontation with the Israeli army, high-ranking Palestinian Authority sources told Ma'an Thursday. "Ramallah rallies will be carried out in Manara square, Bethlehem rallies will be carried out in yard of the Nativity Church and so on," the sources said, adding "we will not give the [Israeli] occupation any excuse to abuse our children or to kill our residents." The locations are in the heart of urban areas that were designated "Area A" under the 1993 Oslo agreement -- and thus formally under full Palestinian Authority civil and security control, making up 17.2 percent of the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412593&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 3: Land stolen from Bil'lin and partly returned by Supreme Court to be reclaimed. http://www.bilin-village.org/english/videos/8697-Land-Reclamation-Project-in-Bilin-After-the-Resiting-of-the-Apartheid-Wall?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=6c411275a8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
17) Hamas: Reconciliation committees will start in September
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said Friday that committees established to progress the reconciliation deal between his party and Fatah would not begin work until September ... Radwan told a Ma‘an correspondent in Gaza that only the issue of freeing political prisoners, imprisoned during the years of rivalry by factions in their respective territories, is set for conclusion by the end of the month.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412604&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: Fatah holding up reconciliation with Hamas to keep Western money.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/fatah-hamas-reconciliation-stalls-over-palestinian-statehood-bid-1.379153
18) Trying to put a price on Middle East peace / Elizabeth Dwoskin
Business Week 11 Aug -- Israeli and Palestinian economists look for solutions in hard numbers -- In July 2002 a small group of Israeli and Palestinian economists sat down for a rare meeting in the idyllic French village of Aix-en-Provence. It was the height of the violent Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada ...The economists believed they could help. They concluded that translating the conflict into the data-driven language of economics might enable the two sides to cut through the rhetoric and begin to think dispassionately about the details of what peace would look like and cost in actual shekels. The leaders of the Aix Group, as it came to be known, were two economists -- a Palestinian and a Jewish Israeli ... In the decade since, despite spotty economic data and a political environment that changes month to month, they have slowly set about trying to put a price tag on peace. Every two years, Bamya and Arnon select a new problem for the group to sort out. They meet at least twice a year to discuss their findings. The future of the 5 million Palestinian refugees recognized by the United Nations was among the most difficult issues the group tackled.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/trying-to-put-a-price-on-middle-east-peace-08112011.html
19) The greatest elected body that money can buy / Stephen Walt
Foreign Police 11 Aug -- Just when you think your contempt for Congress could not get any higher, our elected representatives manage to do something to ratchet it up another notch. After congressional shenanigans helped spark a major market sell-off and sparked fears of a double-dip recession, you'd think every single one of them would be heading back to their districts to figure out what their constituents wanted and to try to explain how they were going to help make things better. Or maybe a few of them would even spend the recess taking a crash course in macroeconomics and public finance, so that they could start exercising their public duties more responsibly. But what did 81 of them decide to do instead? You guessed it: they are off on junkets to Israel, paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, an AIPAC spinoff that has been funding such trips for years. That's right: during the August recess nearly a fifth of the U.S. Congress will visit a single country whose entire population is less than that of New York City.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/08/11/the_greatest_elected_body_that_money_can_buy?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
20) Hundreds of international activists at Nablus peace rally
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Hundreds of international activists descended on the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday to hold a peace rally. Around 1,200 people from over 22 countries gathered in the city center, wearing white with peace written in Arabic, English and Hebrew emblazoned on their clothes. They sang songs about freedom and peace, raised Palestinian flags and were joined by Nablus governor Jibril Al-Bakri, his deputy Anan Al-Ateera, heads of security and local organization directors.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412501&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
21) Israeli intelligence tried to recruit Al-Jazeera journalist
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 12 Aug -- Samer Allawi, who is detained by the Israeli occupation authorities said that the Israeli intelligence tried to recruit him but he refused and that he was threatened with being accused of something serious. Allawi, a Palestinian journalist who works as al-Jazeera’s correspondent in Afghanistan, was visited by the lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Betah Tekva detention centre where he is being detained. Allawi told the lawyer that his detention is to do with his work as a journalist in Afghanistan and called on human rights organisations and international journalist bodies to pressure the Israeli occupation to release him ... He was detained on Tuesday at the Allenby Bridge on his way to Jordan after the end of a visit he made to his family in the village of Sabastya near Nablus.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
22) Families of [PA] political prisoners rally in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Relatives of political prisoners organized a sit-in and rally in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, protesting an escalation in arrests by Palestinian Authority security forces. Hamas officials said the rally demanded the release of prisoners and an end to arrests, particularly as Palestinian factions meet in Cairo to discuss ending the politically motivated harassment ... "With each session of conciliation, arrests and summonses increase in the West Bank," said another protester. "It’s shameful how security departments chase after the participants of peaceful sit-ins." Children of several prisoners chained themselves together during the rally, which was attended by Palestinian lawmaker Samira Halayqa and other representatives of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412543&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
23) UNRWA operations in Jenin suspended indefinitely
JENIN (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- UNRWA announced on Thursday the suspension of its operations indefinitely in the West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp beginning Friday. The organization called the step "regrettable" and said it came in response to "continued threats to our employees and staff in the area" without elaborating on the nature of the threats. The statement added that suspension of its operations includes relief and social services. An employment assistance office and the office of its refugee camp manager will also close.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412510&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: UNRWA suspends services in Jenin
JENIN (WAFA) 12 Aug -- A decision by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to suspend services in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Friday had upset local activists. Adnan Hindi, head of the popular services committee in Jenin refugee camp, condemned UNRWA’s decision, saying it was unjustified. UNRWA suspended its operations in the Jenin area refugee camps following allegation of threats received by its staff. It said that while it was suspending services as of Friday in most of its offices, this will not affect the health services. Hindi denied allegations that UNRWA staff had been threatened, stressing that UNRWA had been serving Jenin refugee camp and its 16,000 registered refugees for many years and no one had attempted to attack or harm its staff. He said, however, that camp residents have been complaining that UNRWA stopped hiring them through a special work fund that provides temporary jobs to thousands of refugees.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16972&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
24) Abbas tells US lawmakers: NATO role in Palestinian state
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told visiting US Congressmen on Thursday that the security of the future Palestinian state will be handed to NATO under US command, his adviser said Friday. The Palestinian state must also be "empty of [Israeli] settlements," the President said, according to official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA. Members of the US Congress and Senate delegation, headed by Democratic Senator Steny Hoyer, met with the President in Ramallah on Thursday, and quizzed Abbas on Israel's designation as a Jewish state, the status of refugees, and reconciliation between the President's Fatah party and rival Hamas, Presidential adviser Nimir Hamad said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412599&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e434f3a3c0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: Hizb ut-Tahrir accuses PLO of betrayal
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 13 Aug -- The Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir movement has slammed as "betrayal" President Mahmoud Abbas' remarks about a possible NATO presence in a future Palestinian state. The president's "call for international forces would bring a new crusader occupation," the movement said Friday in a statement saying the plan would lead to "colonizing Palestine and desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412772&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
25) Leader of Gaza youth group said arrested by Hamas authorities on return from France
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/leader-gaza-youth-group-said-arrested-hamas-authorities-return-france
26) Unexplained Gaza communications "blackout" highlights Israeli control of networks
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/unexplained-gaza-communications-blackout-highlights-israeli-control-networks
27) French journal of record peddles Zionist propaganda
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/david/french-journal-record-peddles-zionist-propaganda
28) BDS activists in Israel stand with Australian counterparts facing repression
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/bds-activists-israel-stand-australian-counterparts-facing-repression
29) Sweden, Israel and the banalization of evil
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/david/sweden-israel-and-banalization-evil
30) Netanyahu imposes harsher conditions on Palestinian political prisoners
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/adri-nieuwhof/netanyahu-imposes-harsher-conditions-palestinian-political-prisoners
Update: Israel uses "primitive, racist" policies against Palestinian prisoners By Mel Frykberg, Ramallah, 11 August 2011
The conditions for Palestinians held without charge under administrative detention are harsh, just as they are for all political prisoners.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-uses-primitive-racist-policies-against-palestinian-prisoners/10256
Update 2: Gazans vent anger as Israel deprives prisoners of education By Mohammed Omer, Gaza City, 12 August 2011
Access to education for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is getting worse. The 1,800 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to complete their secondary school exams were not permitted to do so by the Israeli Prison Service.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/gazans-vent-anger-israel-deprives-prisoners-education/10268
31) Irish activists plan protest aimed at Riverdance's upcoming performances in Israel
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/nora/irish-activists-plan-protest-aimed-riverdances-upcoming-performances-israel
32) Palestinian issues shouldn't be excluded from J14
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/jalal-abukhater/palestinian-issues-shouldnt-be-excluded-j14
33) AIPAC's European cousin evades scrutiny
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/david/aipacs-european-cousin-evades-scrutiny
34) Preserving Palestinian heritage one stitch at a time By Emily Lawrence, Hebron, 15 August 2011
Palestinian women in Hebron have formed a traditional handicrafts cooperative to preserve cultural heritage and provide stable income for dozens of families hit hard by the economic effects of Israel's occupation.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/preserving-palestinian-heritage-one-stitch-time/10273
35) Film review: women footballers struggle to play (and win) By Michelle Gyeney, 12 August 2011
Sawsan Qaoud documents how the idea for a Palestinian women's football team was brought to life -- and recounts the difficulties the players face on a regular basis just to play -- in Women in the Stadium.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/film-review-women-footballers-struggle-play-and-win/
36) US Senator want to cut US financial support to 3 Israeli Army units in West Bank guilty of crimes against Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-senator-seeks-to-cut-aid-to-elite-idf-units-operating-in-west-bank-and-gaza-1.378800
37) IDF raids same West Bank town 5 times in last 2 weeks / Alex Kane
Residents of Beit Ommar have already gotten used to military incursions and prevention of access to land, but some residents believe the increase in recent raids is connected to the army’s effort at deterrence ahead of the anticipated popular unrest in September -- Beit Ommar, West Bank 14 Aug -- The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is meant to be a time for reflection and spirituality. But for the 16,000 residents of this rural, agricultural village near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, it has been an unusually tense one. A spate of Israeli army raids at night and arrests of young Palestinians have occurred since the beginning of August, shattering any hope for calm during Ramadan ... Witnesses to the raids and local activists say that the Israeli army has been shooting tear gas, sound bombs and flares into residential areas -- in some cases causing injuries -- and have arrested fifteen young Palestinians under the age of eighteen this month ... "It just looked like a training exercise. It just looked like they were practicing coming into town tear gassing people back and practicing flares," said one international activist with the Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) ... The Israeli army’s repression in the village has not been limited to night raids, though....
http://972mag.com/idf-raided-same-west-bank-town-5-times-in-last-2-weeks/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: Israeli forces arrest 4 youth in dawn raids
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 13 Aug -- Israeli forces arrested 4 minors at dawn on 10 August. They are reported to have been charged with participation in demonstrations against Israeli policy in the district. The 4 arrested are brothers Mohammed Abu Sanad, 17, Alla Abu Sanad, 15, from al-Bustan neighborhood, and Ahmed Abu Nab, 17, from al-Ein al-Fouqa and Ameer al-Qaraeen from Wadi Hilweh
http://silwanic.net/?p=19054&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: Israeli forces build up heavy presence in Silwan
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 13 Aug -- A build-up of Israeli forces in Silwan has been underway since early this morning. Soldiers, deployed to all districts, have been reported to be harassing residents and stirring unrest. Several youth confronted troops this morning, with confrontations now erupting on a daily basis between local youth and Israeli forces. Tensions continue to mount as authorities pursue their policy of home demolition and settlement expansion in the region.
http://silwanic.net/?p=19052&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Updae 3: Israeli police arrest 3 children in Silwan
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 14 Aug -- An undercover unit of the Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian children and one teenager from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sunday, a local committee member and Israeli police spokesman said. Abed Al-Karim, member of a local Silwan committee which protects land from annexation, said that Israeli forces arrested Musellem Mousa Auda, 11, Mohamad Auda, 13, and Kathem Abu Shafee, 17. Undercover units raided Silwan at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, Al-Karim told Ma‘an radio, arresting the three boys without providing any justification.
http://silwanic.net/?p=19052&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
38) Night Video: Army invades Beit Ommar for third time in a week
2:44 minutes PSP 12 Aug -- At around 10pm on the night of the 11th August, the Israeli army once more invaded the town of Beit Ommar. Around eight jeeps and more than twelve soldiers entered the town and advanced along the main road, closing off the entrance to the village behind them, preventing residents returning to their homes. The soldiers proceeded to fire dozens of rounds of teargas into highly residential areas, accompanied by concussion grenades and flares. Several families inside their homes suffered the effects of teargas inhalation and required medical treatment, some being taken by ambulance to hospital in Hebron. The soldiers remained in the town until 1am, during which time they continued to fire rounds of teargas regularly. No arrests were made, and there remains no apparent reason for the raid. The Abu Maria family were one such household affected by the raid. Their family home was struck by two teargas canisters, forcing the family to flee the building with their 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. The ground floor of their house remained uninhabitable for the night due to the lingering gas.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2011/08/12/army-invades-beit-ommar-for-third-time-in-one-week/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: VIDEO: One Palestinian arrested and beaten at Beit Ommar demonstration
6:28 minutes PSP 13 Aug -- Around 40 demonstrators – comprising residents of the village of Beit Ommar, and Israeli and international activists – gathered for a demonstration against the illegal Karmei Tsur settlement. The demonstrators, carrying flags and banners commemorating the anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were met by a large and heavily armed military presence. As the protesters marched through Beit Ommar fields, the soldiers reacted violently, pushing several protesters to the ground, and others down steep rocky drops. After a short speech, the protesters decided to end their demonstration. At this point, local resident Sakhar Abu Maria was arrested by the military, for no apparent reason. He was then blindfolded for 20 minutes, placed in the back of a jeep, and driven to the Karmei Tsur settlement. Once there, he was beaten by soldiers, who threatened to raid his family home, and taunted him by repeatedly offering him food and drink after learning he was fasting for Ramadan, pouring glasses of coca cola and pushing them towards him. He was released after 90 minutes.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2011/08/13/one-palestinian-arrested-and-beaten-at-beit-ommar-demonstration/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
39) Israeli forces conduct military training in Jordan Valley, continue harassing its residents
JENIN (WAFA) 14 Aug -- Israeli forces are conducting large-scale military training on Palestinian lands adjacent to residents’ houses in the northern Jordan Valley areas, in Tubas Governorate, Sunday said Ahmad Asaad, in charge of settlements file in Tubas. Witnesses said that Israeli artillery enforcements raided al-Boke’a area and al-Aqaba, a village in the valley, and carried out surveillance and inspection campaigns in addition to repeated extensive military trainings, which lead to the destruction of the infrastructure and fields as well as prevent shepherds from herding their cattle
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16984&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
40) Israel army plants new mines along Syria border
JERUSALEM (AP) 13 Aug -- Israel's army is planting new land mines along its border with Syria in an attempt to dissuade protesters from rushing into the Golan Heights, according to a report in an Israeli military magazine. The preparations come as part of Israel's beefed-up measures ahead of rallies that Palestinians are planning to hold in September, the magazine Ba'mahaneh reported over the weekend ... The army decided to go ahead with the move after older mines failed to detonate when the Syrians crossed in June, the magazine reported ... The magazine reported that the military was taking other measures, including reinforcing fences along the Golan border, increasing infantry troop numbers, posting more snipers and digging trenches.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110813/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_syria?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: VIDEO: Lebanon's female cluster bomb disposal team
6:09 minutes Guardian 12 Aug -- Five years after the Israel-Hezbollah war, southern Lebanon is still riddled with thousands of unexploded cluster bombs. A group of extraordinary women is helping to rid the countryside of this deadly legacy - formerly teachers, nurses and housewives, they have been trained by the NGO Norwegian People's Aid to clear unexploded ordnance from the fields
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/aug/12/lebanon-cluster-bomb-disposal-video?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
41) Otherwise Occupied: I'm not a cop but I play one in Jerusalem / Amira Hass
Haaretz 14 Aug -- In Walajeh, officially part of the capital, the IDF arrested a number of protesters, even though it did not have jurisdiction to act within the city ... Col. Alalouf and his soldiers apparently committed a double violation: sealing an area inside Jerusalem where they do not have jurisdiction, and arresting citizens inside the capital. The IDF spokesman: "The claim is being reviewed."
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/idf-forces-arrest-12-people-protesting-for-social-justice-in-west-bank-1.378662?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_source=Mondoweiss%20List
42) Gaza's sole power plant at risk of closure
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Aug -- Gaza's electricity company may have to turn off the sole power station in the coastal enclave, a company official warned Sunday. Chief Executive Officer Walid Sad Sayel said the company would delay switching off the station until Sunday even though it needed repairs and should have been shut down on Wednesday. The company had reached an agreement with power authority officials in Gaza to delay the closure after the Hamas officials agreed to transfer $4 million to pay for spare parts, Sayel said in a statement. A further $1 million was needed to pay Ashdod port authorities to release the parts, Sayel added. He warned that if the clearance money wasn't paid in the coming hours, the generators would be shut off individually and the plant would be closed until the end of August. The electricity company official added that the management of Ashdod port were threatening to auction off the spare parts at the end of August if the storage bill and port fees for the equipment remained unpaid.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413073&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
43) 'UNRWA Watch' looks to improve refugee agency
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 13 Aug -- Palestinian academics and others have announced the establishment of a watchdog group to observe UNRWA’s performance in the Gaza Strip, the head of the body said Saturday. At a news conference in Gaza City, Hossam Adwan said 'UNRWA Watch' would prioritize observing the performance of the Palestine refugee agency with the hope of guaranteeing refugee rights. The committees are specializing in education, healthcare, the environment, housing, projects, emergency operations, relief projects, and works, Adwan explained. They will staff six offices throughout the enclave ... UNRWA has defended itself against a series of complaints and accusations in recent months, as staff joined strikes and the heads of the West Bank and Gaza Strip divisions resigned early this year.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412854&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
44) Israeli gunboats target Palestinian fishermen in Gaza
PalTelegraph 11 Aug -- Gaza Strip, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli gunboats opened fire on Thursday morning at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of central Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported. Local sources said that Israeli gunboats targeted Palestinian fishermen despite being in a close area off Gaza shores, forcing them to leave the sea in order not to be hurt by Israeli intensive fire.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/gaza-strip/9812-israeli-gunboats-target-palestinian-fishermen-in-gaza.html?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: Palestinians: Fisherman injured by Navy fire off Gaza coast
Ynet 15 Aug -- Palestinian sources reported that the Navy opened fire on a fishing boat off the Gaza Strip coast. According to the sources, a Palestinian fisherman was moderately injured in the incident, and was transferred to a local hospital. The IDF stated in response that the Navy fired a warning shot in the air, in order to ward off the boat.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4109088,00.html?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=6c411275a8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: Why Gaza doesn't need Monsanto's Wonder Seeds
Mother Jones 15 Aug -- ...So what are Palestinian farmers doing? According to The Guardian, they're turning to a technology that has been proven to conserve water, recycle crop nutrients, and generate robust yields: diversified organic agriculture ...Already, concrete steps are being made. According to The Guardian, Palestinian farmers are barred by the blockade from buying synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, which could be used to make explosives. All they have access from the import market is "fertilisers made from Israeli waste water run-off," which is expensive—$200 per metric ton—and of "uncertain safety." But a local initiative called Palestinian Environmental Friends (PEF) is generating a homegrown fertilizer from manure and crop waste collected from local farms. It costs just $100 per metric ton to make, and profits from it stay within Gaza. Farms are also solving the fertilizer problem by setting up closed-loop aquaculture/crop systems that recycle nutrients and generate bounties of food
http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/08/gaza-monsanto-wonder-seeds?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=6c411275a8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
45) In photos: Boycott activists rally in Ramallah
Ma‘an 12 Aug -- Protesters in Ramallah's Manara square call on businesses and shoppers to boycott Israeli goods, holding signs reading "Don't pay for their bullets" and "Boycott their goods, boycott their terrorism." The campaign is part of a nationwide effort throughout the occupied territories during Ramadan to educate Palestinians about local efforts to boycott Israeli products and what they can do to help.
link to www.maannews.net
46) VIDEO: BDS brides boycott SodaStream and Ahava sales at Bed Bath & Beyond
12 Aug -- In August, 2011 a group of concerned brides held a mock wedding inside Bed Bath & Beyond in Los Angeles, CA to affirm their commitment to peace, justice, and avow to boycott SodaStream and Ahava, both illegally-made Israeli settlement products. Do you cherish human rights? Sign the pledge to boycott at: www.stolenbeauty.org
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412531&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
47) Free to be human: visit to the Aida refugee camp / Alexandra Salomon
AIC 13 Aug -- The Aida refugee camp lies between Bethlehem and Beit Jala, in Area A of the West Bank. The entrance to the camp is marked by an arch with a model of a large key propped on top. While it is difficult in most ways to differentiate between the refugee camp and its surrounding residential area, numerous plaques on the camp walls detail the villages from which the refugees came, the Israeli army units that displaced them and the number of residents exiled. We started the day, driving through the main checkpoint into Bethlehem. I observed the yellow sign warning 'No entrance to Israelis' with apprehension, but flashed my European passport like a seasoned pro, attempting not to betray the nervousness I felt inside. And then it hit me. It was like someone had just punched me in the stomach. The Separation Wall with all its weight bears down, the impact of everything it stands for immediate and overwhelming ...We were then taken to meet Faizeer, a woman who was about 12 years old when Israeli soldiers entered her village in 1948 and who now lives not far from the local UNRWA office. Faizeer is a survivor from the Ajjur village. Ajjur is now the site of the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL) British National park. For me, this word, survivor always had connotations attached to those who survived the Nazi holocaust in Europe. This was a new reality I was experiencing
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3740-free-to-be-human-visit-to-the-aida-refugee-camp-?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
48) BDS action at Palestinian-Israeli controlled Bethlehem checkpoint / Emma Mancini
AIC 14 Aug -- Checkpoint 300, separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem, worsens. On the second Friday of Ramadan, Palestinian police join the Israeli army in controlling the movement of Palestinian residents from the Bethlehem district who are allowed to reach an armored Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque. In a shocking atmosphere of normalisation and uncritical acceptance, Palestinian policemen monitor the queue and communicate easily with the Israeli soldiers on the other side of the checkpoint. During Ramadan, the Palestinian security forces are the watchdog and perform the job usually done by Israeli forces ... A man, about 40 years old, bursts into tears while facing the Palestinian policemen: "I just want to pray in Al-Aqsa, I just want to pray freely".
link to www.alternativenews.orgisraeli-controlled-bethlehem-checkpoint-
49) UN bid coincides with Lebanese presidency
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 13 Aug -- The leadership in Ramallah chose to submit their bid for statehood in September to coincide with Lebanon's presidency of the UN Security Council, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister said Saturday. "We chose to submit it in September because the Lebanese envoy will be president of the Security Council and plays a pivotal role," Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said. The minister told reporters at his office in Ramallah that President Mahmoud Abbas would submit the bid personally, adding that he would visit Lebanon on Tuesday to discuss the campaign.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=412878&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update: West Bank: Palestinians determined to get more recognition
LA Times 13 Aug -- The Palestinian Authority is doubling its efforts to get as many countries to recognize it before September, when it plans to officially ask the United Nations for recognition and membership. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said on Saturday that “we have made very important breakthroughs, but we need to do more and build on what we have achieved so far.” Malki was talking about 19 countries in Central America and the Caribbean who still have not made up their mind regarding recognition. He had recently visited most of these countries, including Caribbean Sea islands with a population not exceeding 45,000 people but nevertheless sovereign U.N. member states, in an attempt to persuade them to recognize Palestine as a state. He has to wait until the Caribbean Common Market and Community (CARICOM) and the Central American SICA group convene their joint meeting Aug. 19 before he gets their final answer. So far, the situation does not look good since El Salvador, seat of SICA, has refused to place Palestine’s request on its agenda, nor invited the Palestinian Authority to attend the meeting.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/08/west-bank-palestinians-determined-to-get-more-recognitions.html?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: Ambassador: Abbas to discuss UN bid in Beirut
BEIRUT (Ma‘an) -14 Aug -- President Mahmoud Abbas will coordinate efforts to seek membership of the UN during his upcoming visit to Lebanon, Palestinian ambassador in Beirut Abdullah Abdullah said ... Abbas' visit is important as Lebanon will take over presidency of the UN Security Council in September, when Palestinians will submit their bid for membership of the world body, the ambassador said. Abdullah said the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should also be discussed during the president's visit. "We respect Lebanese sovereignty […] The Palestinian presence in Lebanon is indeed temporary and we are determined to return back.
link to www.maannews.net http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413074&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d7be7fc726-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
50) Israel refuses to apologize to Turkey for murdering its citizens on the Mavi Marmara.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lieberman-israel-s-rejection-of-apology-to-turkey-came-too-late-1.379178
Update: Turkey says no improvement of ties to Israel if Israel refuses to apologize
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkey-pm-israel-ties-won-t-improve-without-apology-for-gaza-flotilla-raid-1.379145
51) Hamas will not allow students to leave Gaza to study in the USA.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/hamas-bans-gaza-students-from-studying-in-u-s-1.379169
52) Living hell in Tel Rumeida / Alessandra Bajec
[photos] PNN 15 Aug -- ...Guiding me along the path, Hashem stopped before the access to his house noting that, between 2000 and 2007, that passage was totally blocked by military order forcing him to go via a steep climb in order to reach his home. While his wife was pregnant, Hashem had to carry her from up down that climb and put her in an ambulance to make it to the hospital. Four years ago, the main path was opened under some interesting circumstances. At that time, Hashem’s father had passed away, and holding a funeral there or inviting relatives and friends was sadly out of question, given the obstructed access to his home. Hashem then called on internationals and media to join his family and help, some of the activists were prevented to go but others managed. After carrying the father’s body down the steep path to the main street, Hashem and his supporters proceeded to a checkpoint where Israeli troops detained him for an hour and a half, and scanned the dead body. When Hashem was then let through the checkpoint, an electronic device rang and the soldiers ordered him to turn back, so he was held up for another half an hour and his father’s body was scanned again. One of the soldiers finally noticed the father had a watch around his wrist so, with the back of his gun, he destroyed the watch and also broke the bones of the dead body. Following that incident the Israeli army, to stop Hashem from filing a complaint against the soldier, ‘awarded’ him by opening the regular access to his home.
[long article, much of it nearly unbelievable - in any sane place, that is.]
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10594&Itemid=56&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=6c411275a8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
53) Reading "Anne Frank" in Gaza
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/mohammed-suliman/reading-anne-frank-gaza
54) Why was the PA hosting American Kabbalah tourists in Nablus? By Michelle Gyeney, Nablus, 17 August 2011
The Palestinian Authority cooperated with Israeli forces to host a fabricated “Peace and Freedom Day” rally in Nablus, while prohibiting local Palestinian tour guides from discussing politics with Kabbalist tourists from the US.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-was-pa-hosting-american-kabbalah-tourists-nablus/10285
55) Donors help keep Palestinians in cages By Charlotte Silver, Ramallah, 16 August 2011
International aid donors are using Palestine as a laboratory for a neo-liberal economic experiment.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/donors-help-keep-palestinians-cages/10283
56) UK bans Israeli settler rabbi who called for killing of non-Jews By Asa Winstanley, London, 15 August 2011
The UK has banned Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, who has incited the murder of non-Jews, including civilians and children from coming to the country. But the timing is curious.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/uk-bans-israeli-settler-rabbi-who-called-killing-non-jews/10280
57) Adam Keller on how the terrorist atttack in the Sinai helps Netanyahu avoid the big issues.
http://adam-keller2.blogspot.com/2011/08/changed-agenda.html
Update: Egypt closes Rafah crossing
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 18 Aug 18:58 -- The interior ministry in the Gaza Strip said Thursday that Egyptian authorities have closed the Rafah crossing amid a sharp increase in violence in Gaza and southern Israel. [End]
lhttp://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414226&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e0eab95958-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 2: Army bombards Rafah killing six Palestinians; child killed in Gaza City
IMEMC 18 Aug 20:51 -- Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Thursday evening that six Palestinians, including a senior resistance leader, and a child, were killed when the Israeli Air Force fired missiles into a home in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. A child was also killed and five residents were injured when the army bombarded Gaza City. The sources stated that the Israeli Air Force fired a missile at the house of one of the leaders of the Popular Resistance Committees in Al Sho’outh neighborhood in Rafah, killing six Palestinians. Three of them are leaders of the Popular Resistance committees, while one of the three was identified as Awad An-Nairab, the Secretary-General of the Committees. Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Emergency and Medical Services in Gaza, reported that the bodies of four of the slain residents were severely mutilated due to the blast, and that one of them is a 2-year-old child. Besides An-Nairab, the slain residents were identified as Imad Hammad, leader of the Salah Ed-Deen Brigades, Khaled Shaath, and his son Malak, 2 years old, Imad Nassr, and Khaled Al Masry. In another Israeli military escalation, a 13-year-old child was killed, and 18 other civilians were injured when the army bombarded several areas in northern Gaza and in Gaza City. The child was identified as Mahmoud Abu Samra. [Photo of Mahmoud in school] Children and women were among the wounded; they were all moved to the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61854?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e0eab95958-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 3: Video of Gazans carrying victims to ambulances amid fire and wreckage from bombing 18 Aug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdPLmjA3pL4&feature=channel_video_title&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e0eab95958-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 4: Initial photos of the bombing in Gaza tonight
uploaded about 5am 19 Aug -- Muaz Khaled -- These photos of the Israeli bombing of civilian homes in the Gaza Strip -- 1 child was killed more than 15 injured
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.143940412361477.36940.100002365566031
Update 5: Victims of Israeli strike on Gaza - in pictures
[WARNING: graphic!] Uruknet 18 Aug -- Six Palestinians were killed and two injured on Thursday in an Israeli airstrike, targeting a house in Al- Shauth, a neighborhood in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses. Medical sources said that six Palestinians arrived to Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital dead; bodies of four of them were torn into pieces.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=80602&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=e0eab95958-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Update 6: More on Israel retaliation
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/30-rockets-strike-israel-day-after-coordinated-terror-attacks-kill-8-1.379518
Update 7: Arab League condemns Israel's strikes on Gaza which killed 15 including children.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-league-condemns-israel-air-strikes-on-gaza-1.379838
Update 8: Cease fire agreed by militant groups in Gaza and Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-gaza-militant-groups-agree-to-cease-fire-with-israel-1.379852
Update 9: Israel must not escalate violence in Gaza. Hamas was not responsible for the terrorist attacks, but will fight back.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-must-not-escalate-the-situation-in-the-south-1.379818
Update 10: Uri Avnery on the significance of the terror attacks in the Sinai onIsraeli politics. Does it give netanyahu an out from the social problems of Israel?
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1313774705/
58) Best analysis I have seen of Israeli protests, their origins, their goals, their failures, and their possible futures.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/4/Social-Origins-of-the-Tent-by-Max-Ajl-110819-999.html
59) One "social democratic" candidate for leadership of Labour is an Israeli Zionist with no conscience.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/labor-s-shelly-yachimovich-represents-the-fake-left-1.379751
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
A Father's Plea: The Persecution of John Walker Lindh
America's 'Detainee 001' – The Persecution of John Walker Lindh
Frank Lindh, father of 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh, explains why his son is an innocent victim of America's 'war on terror'
By Frank Lindh
July 11. 2011 "The Guardian" -- John Phillip Walker Lindh, my son, was raised a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam when he was 16 years old. He has an older brother and a younger sister. John is scholarly and devout, devoted to his family, and blessed with a powerful intellect, a curious mind, and a wry sense of humour.
Labelled by the American government as "Detainee 001" in the "war on terror", John occupies a prison cell in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has been a prisoner of the American government since 1 December 2001, less than three months after the terror attacks of 9/11.
John is entirely innocent of any involvement in the terror attacks, or any allegiance to terrorism. That is not disputed by the American government. Indeed, all accusations of terrorism against John were dropped by the government in a plea bargain, which in turn was approved by the US district court in which the case was brought.
Despite its proud history as a stable constitutional democracy, the US has, for 10 years, been affected by post-traumatic shock, following the horrific events of 11 September 2001. I can find no other explanation for the barbaric mistreatment and continued detention of a gentle young man like John Lindh.
John is blessed with a calm and curious nature. As a child, he was more sceptical than our other two children about such things as Santa Claus. When he was 12 years old, he saw the film Malcolm X, and was moved by its depiction of the pilgrims in Mecca. He began to explore Islam and, four years later, decided to convert.
What attracted John to Islam, I think, was the simplicity of its beliefs, and the authenticity of its source documents – the Qur'an and Hadith. It appealed to his intellect as well as his heart. To me and to John's mother, his conversion was a positive development and certainly not a source of worry. I once told him I felt he had always been a Muslim, and only needed to find Islam in order to discover this in himself. He remained the loving son and brother he had always been. There was never a breach of any kind between us.
John had always been a good student, but his study habits improved after his conversion. He immersed himself in Islamic literature, and quickly came to the conclusion that he needed to learn Arabic in order to continue his studies.
In 1998, at the age of 17, John left home in California and travelled to Sana'a, the ancient capital of Yemen, where he embarked on a rigorous course of study. He was determined not only to become fluent in Arabic, but also to pursue an education in the old traditions of Islam. He returned home briefly in 1999, and then returned to Yemen in February 2000, just before his 19th birthday. John's mother and I supported him, emotionally and financially. He remained in close contact with us and with his sister and brother while overseas.
In September 2000, John told me he intended to continue his studies in Pakistan, focusing on Arabic grammar and Qur'an memorisation. I wrote back: "I trust your judgment and hope you have a wonderful adventure." He arrived in Pakistan in November 2000 and enrolled in a Qur'an memorisation programme in a madrasa.
John's letters home showed passionate enthusiasm for both Yemen and Pakistan. He loved the cultures he discovered in both countries. He was a Muslim in a Muslim world.
In late April 2001, John wrote to me and his mother, saying he planned to go into the mountains to escape the oppressive summer heat. We had no further contact from him for seven months. Unbeknown to us, he crossed the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, with the intent of volunteering for service in the Afghan army under the control of the Taliban government.
John's mother and I grew increasingly worried as the summer passed. John had warned us that there might be gaps in his contact with us, as there were no internet cafes in the mountains of Pakistan from which to send emails. But we did not anticipate such a complete lapse in correspondence from him. We also never guessed he was in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan. John's mother, especially, was frantic with worry as the months passed with no word from him.
At that time, the Taliban governed most of Afghanistan, and were engaged in a long-running civil war against a Russian-backed insurgency known euphemistically as the Northern Alliance. John was quickly accepted as a volunteer soldier, and received two months of infantry training in a Taliban military camp before being dispatched to the front lines.
Rohan Gunaratna, an international terrorism expert and author of the book Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, conducted a lengthy interview with John, and prepared a written report for the American court to which John was brought for trial. Gunaratna is an expert consultant to the US government itself on terrorism matters. "Those who, like Mr Lindh, merely fought the Northern Alliance," he wrote, "cannot be deemed terrorists. Their motivation was to serve and to protect suffering Muslims in Afghanistan, not to kill civilians."
John described his motivation in similar terms. "I felt," he later explained to the court, "that I had an obligation to assist what I perceived to be an Islamic liberation movement against the warlords who were occupying several provinces in northern Afghanistan. I had learned from books, articles and individuals with first-hand experience of numerous atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance against civilians. I had heard reports of massacres, child rape, torture and castration."
To the western world, and to me as John's father after I learned where he had been, this was misplaced idealism. John's decision to volunteer for the army of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban was rash, and failed to take into account the Taliban's mistreatment of its own citizens. But his assessment of the Northern Alliance warlords was neither exaggerated nor inaccurate. The brutal human rights violations committed by the Northern Alliance were thoroughly documented in the US department of state's annual human rights reports throughout the 90s. They did indeed include massacres, rape (of both women and children), torture and castration.
John's impulse was to help. In doing so, he was responding not only to his own conscience, but to a central tenet of the Islamic faith, which calls upon able-bodied young men to defend innocent Muslim civilians from attack, through military service if necessary. This is not "terrorism" at all, but precisely its opposite.
From the time of the Soviet invasion in 1979, tens of thousands of young Muslim men from all over the world had volunteered, as John did, for military service in Afghanistan. It was comparable to the influx of young volunteer soldiers in support of the republic of Spain during the Spanish civil war.
These young soldiers performed heroically in the defeat of the Soviet Union. Their cause was openly supported by the American government itself, particularly during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, who took office two weeks before John's birth in early 1981.
In March 1982, President Reagan declared: "Every country and every people has a stake in the Afghan resistance, for the freedom fighters of Afghanistan are defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability." In March 1983, he cited "the Afghan freedom fighters" as "an example to all the world of the invincibility of the ideals we in this country hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence". In a March 1985 speech, he said: "They are our brothers, these freedom fighters, and we owe them our help… They are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers and the brave men and women of the French resistance. We cannot turn away from them."
Given the history of US involvement in Afghanistan, it would seem absurd to suggest that John Lindh was being disloyal to America when he went into Afghanistan in 2001 and joined the army there. If the march of history could be arrested in the spring or summer of 2001, John's odyssey might be regarded as quixotic and unusual for a young American, but not in the least bit sinister, and certainly not criminal in nature. In fact, John's concern about the suffering of people in Afghanistan was shared by his own government. On 21 July 2000, for example, the US department of state issued a "fact sheet" that reported that the US was "the largest single donor of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people".
The US also provided substantial economic assistance directly to the Taliban government. In May 2001, for example, the American government under President George W Bush announced a grant of $43m to the Taliban government for opium eradication. Secretary of State Colin Powell personally announced the grant himself in a press release and pledged: "We will continue to look for ways to provide more assistance to the Afghans." The New York Times called this "a first, cautious step toward reducing the isolation of the Taliban" by the new Bush administration.
This is not to suggest the US was entirely friendly with the Taliban. In 1999, President Clinton placed the Taliban government under economic sanctions as a consequence of its human rights violations, particularly against women. But there were no hostilities between the US and the Taliban, and by 2001 relations were improving.
In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell describes a nightmarish world of perpetual war, in which two massive nations, Oceania and Eastasia, are aligned against a third nation state known as Eurasia. The alliance between Oceania and Eastasia ends, and Eastasia then begins fighting alongside Eurasia against Oceania. In what Orwell famously called "doublethink", the population of Oceania then is taught to believe "we have always been at war with Eastasia".
Something eerily similar happened in the US after 9/11. Thirty years of American policy abruptly changed and America swung to the opposite side. The Taliban became our enemy. "They have always been our enemy" is what people in America came to believe.
In October 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and aligned itself with the Northern Alliance in order to oust the Taliban government. Colin Powell's April press release was quietly removed from the state department's website.
In early September 2001, days before the 9/11 attacks, John arrived at his military post in the province of Takhar in the far north-eastern corner of Afghanistan, near the border of Tajikistan. This was the frontline in the civil war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. John was issued with a rifle and two hand grenades – standard issue for an infantry soldier. He performed sentry duty and did some cooking for the Taliban troops. He never used his weapons. He served with a number of other foreign volunteer soldiers. They were called Ansar, an Arabic term meaning "helpers".
The training camp in Afghanistan where the Ansar received their infantry training was funded by Osama bin Laden, who also visited the camp on a regular basis. He was regarded by the volunteer soldiers as a hero in the struggle against the Soviet Union. These soldiers did not suspect Bin Laden's involvement in planning the 9/11 attacks, which were carried out in secret. John himself sat through speeches by Bin Laden in the camp on two occasions, and actually met Bin Laden on the second such occasion. John has said he found him unimpressive.
After 9/11, America's intelligence agencies came under intense scrutiny for their failure to anticipate and prevent the attacks, and their apparent inability to track down Osama bin Laden. It is a curious fact of history that John Lindh, an idealistic 20-year-old Californian, suspecting nothing of bin Laden's connections to terrorism, was able without difficulty to meet this notorious figure in the summer of 2001. Why American intelligence agents were unable to do so remains unexplained. John himself did not believe he was encountering a terrorist. John knew only that bin Laden had been generous in funding the military camp, and he was able to discern that Bin Laden was not a legitimate scholar or leader in the traditions of Islam.
The American invasion of Afghanistan commenced in October 2001. Few American troops were deployed in the northern reaches of Afghanistan. The Americans relied on Northern Alliance forces as their proxy, combined with aerial bombing, to displace the Taliban forces.
The front between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in Takhar where John was stationed quickly dissolved after the bombing commenced. Taliban troops fled in panicked retreat to Kunduz. They marched without stop for two days, covering a distance of 50 miles of harsh, desert terrain. The conditions were hellish. The Northern Alliance troops killed all stragglers who fell behind, often castrating them before killing them.
The soldiers at Kunduz who wished to surrender faced a terrible dilemma. For years it had been the practice of the Northern Alliance to torture and murder prisoners of war. These crimes were legendary and well known to both the Taliban soldiers and the US government.
John's lawyers later obtained from the American government an unclassified cable sent from the US embassy in Kunduz on 20 November 2001, to Colin Powell and the joint chiefs of staff. The cable was labelled "priority". It bore the subject line: "Kunduz representatives appeal for a bombing halt during surrender negotiations." It said that, according to local authorities in Kunduz, Taliban soldiers trapped in Kunduz "wanted to surrender to someone who would not kill them". This was described as a "sticking point" in the surrender negotiations. The Taliban, according to the cable, had "proposed surrendering to the US or the UN". The cable confirmed that the American authorities had informed their counterparts in Kunduz that "neither was a realistic option and suggested that they seek the [Red Cross's] involvement if they had not done so already".
On 21 November 2001, the regional Taliban military leader, Mullah Fazel Mazloom, entered into face-to-face surrender negotiations with General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance. The pact was destined not to end well. Dostum was a notorious figure who had served as an officer in the Soviet occupation government. Troops under Dostum's command were believed responsible for the mass execution of an alleged 2,000 Taliban prisoners captured near Mazar-i-Sharif in 1997. The New Yorker magazine has referred to Dostum as "perhaps Afghanistan's most notorious warlord", a man who is "viewed by most human rights organisations as among the worst war criminals in the country".
Nonetheless, a bargain was reached in which Dostum demanded and received a large cash payment, then agreed to grant approximately 400 disarmed Taliban soldiers safe passage through Dostum-controlled territory to the city of Herat. John, in haggard condition after the march through Takhar, was among those 400 troops.
The Taliban soldiers had no sooner laid down their arms when Dostum breached the agreement. Instead of the safe passage they had been promised, the soldiers were loaded into trucks and diverted to the ancient Qala-i-Jangi fortress on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif. As the prisoners were being unloaded in the courtyard, John heard a loud explosion when one of the prisoners detonated a grenade that he had concealed. Two of Dostum's men were killed in the blast.
Dostum's soldiers quickly regained control, but they were infuriated. The prisoners were crowded into the basement of a sturdy, pink Soviet-built classroom building adjacent to a horse pasture. The "pink building", as it became known, was at the centre of the events that unfolded over the next seven days. It was dark in the basement rooms into which the 400 men were crowded. To retaliate for the earlier attack, Dostum's men dropped a grenade down an air duct that wounded or killed several prisoners, narrowly missing John, who spent the night crouched in a corner unable to sleep.
The next morning, Sunday 25 November, was sunny and warm at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress. Video footage shows a seemingly calm scene as the prisoners, with arms tied behind backs, are led out of the basement and made to kneel in rows in the horse pasture beside the pink building. The main sound on the film is the chirping of hundreds of birds. Dostum's men were rough. Some prisoners were kicked and beaten with sticks. John was hit in the back of the head and nearly knocked unconscious. Nonetheless, he hoped they would be released for the agreed upon journey to Herat.
Although there were no US or British troops at the fortress that morning, two American intelligence agents were present, dressed in civilian clothes. They circulated among the prisoners, occasionally giving instructions to Dostum's guards. One of them, Dave Tyson, was dressed in a long Afghan shirt and carried a large gun and a video camera. The other, Johnny "Mike" Spann, a former marine, was dressed in a black shirt and jeans. He was also armed. As they moved among the prisoners, they singled out captives for interrogation. They never identified themselves as American agents, and so they appeared to John and the other prisoners to be mercenaries working directly for General Dostum.
John was spotted and removed from the body of prisoners for questioning. The moment was recorded on video and later seen by millions on television.
In the video, John sits mutely on the ground as he is questioned about his nationality.
"Irish? Ireland?" Spann asks.
John remains silent.
American Among Taliban Prisoners John Walker Lindh at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress on 3 December 2001, awaiting treatment from the Red Cross, having been captured by US forces. Photograph: James Hill/Getty Images
"Who brought you here?… You believe in what you are doing that much, you're willing to be killed here?"
Still no reply.
Tyson to Spann [for John's benefit]: "The problem is, he's got to decide if he wants to live or die, and die here. We're just going to leave him, and he's going to [expletive] sit in prison the rest of his [expletive] short life. It's his decision, man. We can only help the guys who want to talk to us. We can only get the Red Cross to help so many guys."
I think it was apparent that Spann and Tyson were American agents, but because they were in the company of Dostum's forces, unaccompanied by American troops, it clearly was not safe for John to talk to them. They meant business when they said John might be killed by Dostum, and that the Red Cross could only "help so many guys". John was in extreme peril at that moment, and he knew it.
John was then returned to the main body of prisoners, while others were still being brought out of the basement and forced to kneel in the horse pasture. Then, suddenly, there was an explosion at the entrance to the basement, shouts were heard, and two prisoners grabbed the guards' weapons. According to Guardian journalist Luke Harding's account: "It was then… that Spann 'did a Rambo'. As the remaining guards ran away, Spann flung himself to the ground and began raking the courtyard and its prisoners with automatic fire. Five or six prisoners jumped on him, and he disappeared beneath a heap of bodies."
Spann's body was later recovered by US special forces troops. He was the first American to die in combat in the American–Afghan war. He was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington.
As soon as the uprising began, the Northern Alliance guards turned their weapons on the 400 bound prisoners, killing or severely wounding scores of them. Some prisoners tried to stand and run; they were gunned down. It was a slaughter. John tried to run, but he was shot in the right thigh and fell to the ground. For the next 12 hours he lay motionless, pretending to be dead.
There were two groups of Taliban prisoners in the fortress: those who chose to fight and those who hunkered down in the basement of the pink building and tried to survive. John was in the latter group. The prisoners who fought put up a fierce resistance, looting buildings for weapons and ammunition, firing from windows, rooftops, and ditches. Using a satellite phone, Dave Tyson, who had just seen his colleague killed, telephoned the US embassy in Tashkent, shouting: "We have lost control. Send in helicopters and troops." US air controllers stationed outside the fortress walls called in air strikes, which struck with devastating impact inside the fortress.
More air raids were staged the next day, Monday, when a massive 2,000lb bomb was dropped. It missed its intended target, the pink building, and hit Dostum's soldiers. This "friendly fire" incident brought an end to the air strikes. For John and the other Taliban soldiers holed up in the basement of the pink building, the percussive effect of the bomb shook them to their bones and left them trembling.
By Wednesday, the last of the resisting Taliban fighters had been killed, and Dostum's soldiers were once again in full control of the fortress. Luke Harding was allowed into the compound along with some other journalists, and he found a horrific scene: "We had expected slaughter, but I was unprepared for its hellish scale… It was hard to take it all in. The dead and various parts of the dead… turned up wherever you looked: in thickets of willows and poplars; in waterlogged ditches; in storage rooms piled with ammunition boxes." Harding observed that many of the Taliban prisoners had died with their hands tied behind their backs.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Dostum's troops engaged in a sustained effort to kill the Taliban survivors who remained in the basement of the pink building, which they were afraid to enter themselves. More grenades were dropped down the air ducts and RPGs were fired directly into the basement. John received shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, back, ankle and calf, in addition to the bullet still lodged in his thigh. At one point, fuel was poured down the air ducts and a fire was ignited in which some fuel-drenched prisoners were burned to death. John, choking on the black smoke, lost consciousness. He awoke with the taste of gasoline in his mouth and loud explosions in the hall, as more rockets and grenades ricocheted through the basement.
On Friday, Dostum's troops tried yet another tactic. They flooded the basement with cold water. Unable to stand on his own, John braced himself on a stick and a fellow soldier for the next 24 hours to avoid drowning in the waist-deep water, which was full of blood and waste. The next morning no one inside the fortress thought it possible that anyone was still alive in the pink building, but 86 of the prisoners had managed to survive the week-long ordeal. One of them was John Lindh.
On Saturday 1 December, the Red Cross arrived at the fortress and the survivors, who for several days had been trying to surrender, were finally allowed to exit the basement. When they emerged into the bright sunlight, they encountered a confusing horde of journalists, Red Cross workers, Dostum's soldiers, and British and American troops.
That evening John and the other survivors were taken to a prison hospital in Sheberghan. Although wet and cold from the flooding of the basement, they were transported in open bed trucks in the frigid night air. At Sheberghan, John was carried on a stretcher and set down in a small room with approximately 15 other prisoners. CNN correspondent Robert Pelton came in accompanied by a US special forces soldier and a cameraman. Despite John's protests, Pelton persisted in filming John and asking questions as an American medical officer administered morphine intravenously. By the time he departed a short time later, Pelton had captured on videotape an interview in which John said that his "heart had become attached" to the Taliban, that every Muslim aspired to become a shahid, or martyr, and that he had attended a training camp funded by Osama bin Laden.
The CNN interview became a sensation in the US. By mid-December, virtually every newspaper in America was running front-page stories about the American Taliban, and the broadcast media were saturated with features and commentary about John. Here was a "traitor" who had "fought against America" and aligned himself with the 11 September terrorists. Newsweek magazine published an issue with John's photograph on the cover, under the caption "American Taliban".
Beginning in early December, President Bush, vice-president Dick Cheney, members of the cabinet and other officials then embarked on a series of truly extraordinary public statements about John, referring to him repeatedly as an "al-Qaida fighter", a terrorist and a traitor. I think it fair to say there has never been a case quite like this in the history of the US, in which officials at the highest levels of the government made such prejudicial statements about an individual citizen who had not yet been charged with any crime.
I will offer only a small sample of these statements. In an interview at the White House on 21 December 2001, President Bush said John was "the first American al-Qaida fighter that we have captured". Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defence, told reporters at a press briefing that John had been "captured by US forces with an AK-47 in his hands". Colin Powell, secretary of state, said John had "brought shame upon his family". Rudy Giuliani, New York mayor, remarked: "I believe the death penalty is the appropriate remedy to consider."
John Ashcroft, the US attorney general, staged two televised press conferences in which he accused John of attacking the US. "Americans who love their country do not dedicate themselves to killing Americans," he declared.
A federal judge took the unusual step of writing to the New York Times criticising the attorney general for violating "Justice Department guidelines on the release of information related to criminal proceedings that are intended to ensure that a defendant is not prejudiced when such an announcement is made".
Even the ultra-conservative National Review thought Ashcroft had gone too far in making such prejudicial comments about a pending prosecution. It criticised the comments as "inappropriate" and "gratuitous", stating that in the future "it would be better for the attorney general simply to announce the facts of the indictments, and to avoid extra comments which might unintentionally imperil successful prosecutions".
I am a lawyer, trained in the law, with more than 25 years of experience. Never have I seen or read about a case in which a person accused of a crime was so conspicuously deprived of what we call "the presumption of innocence". On the contrary, my son was presumed guilty, not only by government officials but by the entire mainstream journalism and media establishment in America. It was – and still is – widely reported in America that John Lindh is a "terrorist" who fought against the US.
Our lives back home were completely upturned by the sudden and pervasive notoriety of John's case. We found ourselves dodging television cameras and reporters. In the first couple of days after John's capture, I appeared on several news programmes in an effort to explain who John was and to ask for mercy. My sense of privacy and anonymity were at least temporarily destroyed.
All of us in John's family also were wracked with anxiety about John's own physical and emotional wellbeing. We had no source of information about John from within the government itself. They were holding our son incommunicado, even as President Bush and other officials made repeated statements about him. Anything we were able to learn about John came from the news media, not from the government.
Happily, our neighbours, friends, co-workers and even strangers in California were uniformly warm and supportive towards me, John's mother and our other children. One Sunday, on my way to church, a friendly stranger stopped his car and shouted to me: "How's John?"
John Walker Lindh’s father and mother John Walker Lindh’s father, Frank, and mother, Marilyn, outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, 2002. Photograph: Hillery Smith Garrison/AP
Another enormous source of comfort to us came from James Brosnahan, a distinguished and courageous trial lawyer in San Francisco who agreed to represent John. On 3 December, Brosnahan took up his case, and from that day forward we had a valiant defender in him and the other lawyers who worked on the defence team. It felt as if a protective shield had been constructed around John and all of us in the family.
Once John was in the custody of the US military, the US government had to decide what to do with him. The FBI has estimated that during the 90s as many as 2,000 American citizens travelled to Muslim lands to take up arms voluntarily, and that as many as 400 American Muslims received training in military camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. None of these American citizens was indicted, or labelled as traitor and terrorist. They were simply ignored by their government, which made no attempt to interfere with their travel. But the 9/11 attacks changed everything, and it was the timing of John's capture that contributed to his fate. It soon became apparent to me that, rather than simply repatriate my wounded son, the government was intent on prosecuting him as a "terrorist".
In the days and weeks that followed, John endured abuse from the US military that exceeded the bounds of what any civilised nation should tolerate, even in time of war. Donald Rumsfeld directly ordered the military to "take the gloves off" in questioning John.
On 7 December, wounded and still suffering from the effects of the trauma at Qala-i-Jangi, John was flown to Camp Rhino, a US marine base approximately 70 miles south of Kandahar. There he was taunted and threatened, stripped of his clothing, and bound naked to a stretcher with duct tape wrapped around his chest, arms, and ankles. Even before he got to Camp Rhino, John's wrists and ankles were bound with plastic restraints that caused severe pain and left permanent scars – sure proof of torture. Still blindfolded, he was locked in an unheated metal shipping container that sat on the desert floor. He shivered uncontrollably in the bitter cold. Soldiers outside pounded on the sides, threatening to kill him.
After two days in these circumstances, John was removed from the shipping container and taken into a building at Camp Rhino. When his blindfold was removed, John found himself in front of a man who identified himself as an FBI agent and then read from an advice-of-rights form. When the agent reached the part that concerned right to counsel, he said: "Of course, there are no lawyers here." John was not told his mother and I had retained an attorney for him who was ready and willing to travel to Afghanistan. Worried that he would be returned to the shipping container if he did not sign the form, John signed the waiver.
A lengthy interrogation followed, after which US military personnel put John back in the metal shipping container, although this time his leg restraints were loosened and he was no longer bound by duct tape or blindfolded. On 14 December, he was placed on board the USS Peleliu, where navy physicians observed that he was suffering from dehydration, hypothermia, and frostbite, and that he could not walk. On 15 December, the bullet was finally removed from his leg in a surgical procedure – more than two weeks after he had been transferred to the custody of the US military. The doctor who removed the bullet later told John's lawyers there had been little or no healing of the wound, which he attributed to malnutrition and cold.
In June 2002, Newsweek obtained copies of internal email messages from the justice department's ethics office commenting on the Lindh case as the events were unfolding in December 2001. The office specifically warned in advance against the interrogation tactics the FBI used at Camp Rhino, and concluded that the interrogation of John without his lawyer present would be unlawful and unethical. This advice was ignored by the FBI agent who conducted the interrogation.
Interestingly, in an 10 December email, one of the justice department ethics lawyers noted: "At present, we have no knowledge that he did anything other than join the Taliban."
The government brought 10 counts against John in its overblown indictment. "If convicted of these charges," attorney general Ashcroft boasted, "Walker Lindh could receive multiple life sentences, six additional 10-year sentences, plus 30 years." The most serious count was a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the death of Mike Spann. The charge was groundless: the prisoner uprising at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress had been spontaneous and John was also a victim, not a participant.
John arrived back in the US on 23 January 2002 in chains aboard a military plane that landed at Washington Dulles International airport. The government selected Dulles so they could bring charges against John in northern Virginia, near the Pentagon (one of the 9/11 targets), where hostility against John was assured. He was flown by helicopter to the Alexandria City Jail. John's mother and I tried to visit him that night, along with the lawyers we had retained for him, but we were turned away. We finally were able to see our son the next morning in a holding cell on the first floor of the US courthouse. His lawyers met him only briefly before his first appearance in the court that morning.
The case of United States of America v John Philip Walker Lindh was set for trial before Judge T S Ellis III. On 24 January, the judge announced he was setting a trial date for late August. We were horrified, as this would ensure that John would be on trial on the first anniversary of 9/11. It would be hard to conceive of a more prejudicial circumstance for a criminal defendant, especially in the wake of the intemperate statements attorney general Ashcroft had made in his two press conferences.
John's lawyers filed a motion to "suppress" the statements that had been extracted him under duress at Camp Rhino. A hearing was scheduled in July 2001, which would have included testimony by John and others about the brutality he had suffered at the hands of US soldiers. On the eve of the hearing, the government prosecutors approached John's attorneys and negotiated a plea agreement. It was apparent they did not want evidence of John's torture to be introduced in court.
In the plea agreement John acknowledged that by serving as a soldier in Afghanistan he had violated the anti-Taliban economic sanctions imposed by President Clinton and extended by President Bush. This was, as John's lawyer pointed out, a "regulatory infraction". John also agreed to a "weapons charge", which was used to enhance his prison sentence. In particular, he acknowledged that he had carried a rifle and two grenades while serving as a soldier in the Taliban army. All of the other counts in the indictment were dropped by the government, including the terrorism charges the attorney general had so strongly emphasised and the charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Mike Spann.
At the insistence of defence secretary Rumsfeld, the plea agreement also included a clause in which John relinquished his claims of torture.
The punishment in the plea agreement was by any measure harsh: 20 years of imprisonment, commencing on 1 December 2001, the day John came into the hands of US forces in Afghanistan. The prosecutors told John's attorneys that the White House insisted on the lengthy sentence, and that they could not negotiate downward.
On 4 October 2002, the judge approved the plea agreement as "just and reasonable" and sentenced John to prison. Before the sentence was pronounced, John was allowed to read a prepared statement, which provided a moment of intense drama in the crowded courtroom. He spoke with strong emotion. He explained why he had gone to Afghanistan to help the Taliban in their fight with the Northern Alliance, saying it arose from his compassion for the suffering of ordinary people who had been subjected to atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance. He explained that when he went to Afghanistan he "saw the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance as a continuation of the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets".
John strongly condemned terrorism. "I went to Afghanistan with the intention of fighting against terrorism and oppression." He had acted, he said, out of a sense of religious duty and he condemned terrorism as being "completely against Islam". He said: "I have never supported terrorism in any form and never would."
After a brief recess, the judge granted a request by John Spann, the father of Mike Spann, to address the court and express his dissatisfaction with the plea agreement. He began by saying that he, his family, and many other people believed that John had played a role in the killing of Mike Spann. Judge Ellis interrupted and said: "Let me be clear about that. The government has no evidence of that." Spann responded: "I understand." The judge politely explained that the "suspicions, the inferences you draw from the facts are not enough to warrant a jury conviction". He said that Mike Spann had died a hero, and that among the things he died for was the principle that "we don't convict people in the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt".
Osama bin Laden is dead. John Lindh, now 30 years old, remains in prison. He spends most of his time pursuing his study of the Qur'an and Islamic scholarship. He also reads widely in a variety of nonfiction subjects, especially history and politics. He remains a devout Muslim.
As a father, I am grateful that John survived his ordeal, and I am pleased that he maintains his good-natured disposition. I am especially proud of the dignity he displayed throughout his ordeal overseas and in court.
Other than his lawyers, the only visitors John has been permitted during all his years in prison are those of us in his immediate family. We treasure these visits. We are not allowed any sort of physical contact with John, and are kept separated from him by a glass partition. We must speak via telephones, and everything we say is monitored and recorded by a government agent who sits in an adjoining room. Despite these constraints, our conversations are free-flowing and punctuated with humour.
A commentator at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University called this "a petty prosecution" that was "unworthy of a great country". But it was more than petty, in my view; it was brutally inhumane.
My hope and prayer is that at some point rational, fair-minded officials in the American government will see the wisdom in releasing John from prison, rather than making him serve the entire 20-year sentence. His continued incarceration serves no good purpose. Releasing John from prison would help restore America's image in the world, and particularly among Muslim people, as a humane country committed to the rule of law.
The author has donated the fee for this article to charity.
Frank Lindh, father of 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh, explains why his son is an innocent victim of America's 'war on terror'
By Frank Lindh
July 11. 2011 "The Guardian" -- John Phillip Walker Lindh, my son, was raised a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam when he was 16 years old. He has an older brother and a younger sister. John is scholarly and devout, devoted to his family, and blessed with a powerful intellect, a curious mind, and a wry sense of humour.
Labelled by the American government as "Detainee 001" in the "war on terror", John occupies a prison cell in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has been a prisoner of the American government since 1 December 2001, less than three months after the terror attacks of 9/11.
John is entirely innocent of any involvement in the terror attacks, or any allegiance to terrorism. That is not disputed by the American government. Indeed, all accusations of terrorism against John were dropped by the government in a plea bargain, which in turn was approved by the US district court in which the case was brought.
Despite its proud history as a stable constitutional democracy, the US has, for 10 years, been affected by post-traumatic shock, following the horrific events of 11 September 2001. I can find no other explanation for the barbaric mistreatment and continued detention of a gentle young man like John Lindh.
John is blessed with a calm and curious nature. As a child, he was more sceptical than our other two children about such things as Santa Claus. When he was 12 years old, he saw the film Malcolm X, and was moved by its depiction of the pilgrims in Mecca. He began to explore Islam and, four years later, decided to convert.
What attracted John to Islam, I think, was the simplicity of its beliefs, and the authenticity of its source documents – the Qur'an and Hadith. It appealed to his intellect as well as his heart. To me and to John's mother, his conversion was a positive development and certainly not a source of worry. I once told him I felt he had always been a Muslim, and only needed to find Islam in order to discover this in himself. He remained the loving son and brother he had always been. There was never a breach of any kind between us.
John had always been a good student, but his study habits improved after his conversion. He immersed himself in Islamic literature, and quickly came to the conclusion that he needed to learn Arabic in order to continue his studies.
In 1998, at the age of 17, John left home in California and travelled to Sana'a, the ancient capital of Yemen, where he embarked on a rigorous course of study. He was determined not only to become fluent in Arabic, but also to pursue an education in the old traditions of Islam. He returned home briefly in 1999, and then returned to Yemen in February 2000, just before his 19th birthday. John's mother and I supported him, emotionally and financially. He remained in close contact with us and with his sister and brother while overseas.
In September 2000, John told me he intended to continue his studies in Pakistan, focusing on Arabic grammar and Qur'an memorisation. I wrote back: "I trust your judgment and hope you have a wonderful adventure." He arrived in Pakistan in November 2000 and enrolled in a Qur'an memorisation programme in a madrasa.
John's letters home showed passionate enthusiasm for both Yemen and Pakistan. He loved the cultures he discovered in both countries. He was a Muslim in a Muslim world.
In late April 2001, John wrote to me and his mother, saying he planned to go into the mountains to escape the oppressive summer heat. We had no further contact from him for seven months. Unbeknown to us, he crossed the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, with the intent of volunteering for service in the Afghan army under the control of the Taliban government.
John's mother and I grew increasingly worried as the summer passed. John had warned us that there might be gaps in his contact with us, as there were no internet cafes in the mountains of Pakistan from which to send emails. But we did not anticipate such a complete lapse in correspondence from him. We also never guessed he was in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan. John's mother, especially, was frantic with worry as the months passed with no word from him.
At that time, the Taliban governed most of Afghanistan, and were engaged in a long-running civil war against a Russian-backed insurgency known euphemistically as the Northern Alliance. John was quickly accepted as a volunteer soldier, and received two months of infantry training in a Taliban military camp before being dispatched to the front lines.
Rohan Gunaratna, an international terrorism expert and author of the book Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, conducted a lengthy interview with John, and prepared a written report for the American court to which John was brought for trial. Gunaratna is an expert consultant to the US government itself on terrorism matters. "Those who, like Mr Lindh, merely fought the Northern Alliance," he wrote, "cannot be deemed terrorists. Their motivation was to serve and to protect suffering Muslims in Afghanistan, not to kill civilians."
John described his motivation in similar terms. "I felt," he later explained to the court, "that I had an obligation to assist what I perceived to be an Islamic liberation movement against the warlords who were occupying several provinces in northern Afghanistan. I had learned from books, articles and individuals with first-hand experience of numerous atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance against civilians. I had heard reports of massacres, child rape, torture and castration."
To the western world, and to me as John's father after I learned where he had been, this was misplaced idealism. John's decision to volunteer for the army of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban was rash, and failed to take into account the Taliban's mistreatment of its own citizens. But his assessment of the Northern Alliance warlords was neither exaggerated nor inaccurate. The brutal human rights violations committed by the Northern Alliance were thoroughly documented in the US department of state's annual human rights reports throughout the 90s. They did indeed include massacres, rape (of both women and children), torture and castration.
John's impulse was to help. In doing so, he was responding not only to his own conscience, but to a central tenet of the Islamic faith, which calls upon able-bodied young men to defend innocent Muslim civilians from attack, through military service if necessary. This is not "terrorism" at all, but precisely its opposite.
From the time of the Soviet invasion in 1979, tens of thousands of young Muslim men from all over the world had volunteered, as John did, for military service in Afghanistan. It was comparable to the influx of young volunteer soldiers in support of the republic of Spain during the Spanish civil war.
These young soldiers performed heroically in the defeat of the Soviet Union. Their cause was openly supported by the American government itself, particularly during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, who took office two weeks before John's birth in early 1981.
In March 1982, President Reagan declared: "Every country and every people has a stake in the Afghan resistance, for the freedom fighters of Afghanistan are defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability." In March 1983, he cited "the Afghan freedom fighters" as "an example to all the world of the invincibility of the ideals we in this country hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence". In a March 1985 speech, he said: "They are our brothers, these freedom fighters, and we owe them our help… They are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers and the brave men and women of the French resistance. We cannot turn away from them."
Given the history of US involvement in Afghanistan, it would seem absurd to suggest that John Lindh was being disloyal to America when he went into Afghanistan in 2001 and joined the army there. If the march of history could be arrested in the spring or summer of 2001, John's odyssey might be regarded as quixotic and unusual for a young American, but not in the least bit sinister, and certainly not criminal in nature. In fact, John's concern about the suffering of people in Afghanistan was shared by his own government. On 21 July 2000, for example, the US department of state issued a "fact sheet" that reported that the US was "the largest single donor of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people".
The US also provided substantial economic assistance directly to the Taliban government. In May 2001, for example, the American government under President George W Bush announced a grant of $43m to the Taliban government for opium eradication. Secretary of State Colin Powell personally announced the grant himself in a press release and pledged: "We will continue to look for ways to provide more assistance to the Afghans." The New York Times called this "a first, cautious step toward reducing the isolation of the Taliban" by the new Bush administration.
This is not to suggest the US was entirely friendly with the Taliban. In 1999, President Clinton placed the Taliban government under economic sanctions as a consequence of its human rights violations, particularly against women. But there were no hostilities between the US and the Taliban, and by 2001 relations were improving.
In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell describes a nightmarish world of perpetual war, in which two massive nations, Oceania and Eastasia, are aligned against a third nation state known as Eurasia. The alliance between Oceania and Eastasia ends, and Eastasia then begins fighting alongside Eurasia against Oceania. In what Orwell famously called "doublethink", the population of Oceania then is taught to believe "we have always been at war with Eastasia".
Something eerily similar happened in the US after 9/11. Thirty years of American policy abruptly changed and America swung to the opposite side. The Taliban became our enemy. "They have always been our enemy" is what people in America came to believe.
In October 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and aligned itself with the Northern Alliance in order to oust the Taliban government. Colin Powell's April press release was quietly removed from the state department's website.
In early September 2001, days before the 9/11 attacks, John arrived at his military post in the province of Takhar in the far north-eastern corner of Afghanistan, near the border of Tajikistan. This was the frontline in the civil war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. John was issued with a rifle and two hand grenades – standard issue for an infantry soldier. He performed sentry duty and did some cooking for the Taliban troops. He never used his weapons. He served with a number of other foreign volunteer soldiers. They were called Ansar, an Arabic term meaning "helpers".
The training camp in Afghanistan where the Ansar received their infantry training was funded by Osama bin Laden, who also visited the camp on a regular basis. He was regarded by the volunteer soldiers as a hero in the struggle against the Soviet Union. These soldiers did not suspect Bin Laden's involvement in planning the 9/11 attacks, which were carried out in secret. John himself sat through speeches by Bin Laden in the camp on two occasions, and actually met Bin Laden on the second such occasion. John has said he found him unimpressive.
After 9/11, America's intelligence agencies came under intense scrutiny for their failure to anticipate and prevent the attacks, and their apparent inability to track down Osama bin Laden. It is a curious fact of history that John Lindh, an idealistic 20-year-old Californian, suspecting nothing of bin Laden's connections to terrorism, was able without difficulty to meet this notorious figure in the summer of 2001. Why American intelligence agents were unable to do so remains unexplained. John himself did not believe he was encountering a terrorist. John knew only that bin Laden had been generous in funding the military camp, and he was able to discern that Bin Laden was not a legitimate scholar or leader in the traditions of Islam.
The American invasion of Afghanistan commenced in October 2001. Few American troops were deployed in the northern reaches of Afghanistan. The Americans relied on Northern Alliance forces as their proxy, combined with aerial bombing, to displace the Taliban forces.
The front between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in Takhar where John was stationed quickly dissolved after the bombing commenced. Taliban troops fled in panicked retreat to Kunduz. They marched without stop for two days, covering a distance of 50 miles of harsh, desert terrain. The conditions were hellish. The Northern Alliance troops killed all stragglers who fell behind, often castrating them before killing them.
The soldiers at Kunduz who wished to surrender faced a terrible dilemma. For years it had been the practice of the Northern Alliance to torture and murder prisoners of war. These crimes were legendary and well known to both the Taliban soldiers and the US government.
John's lawyers later obtained from the American government an unclassified cable sent from the US embassy in Kunduz on 20 November 2001, to Colin Powell and the joint chiefs of staff. The cable was labelled "priority". It bore the subject line: "Kunduz representatives appeal for a bombing halt during surrender negotiations." It said that, according to local authorities in Kunduz, Taliban soldiers trapped in Kunduz "wanted to surrender to someone who would not kill them". This was described as a "sticking point" in the surrender negotiations. The Taliban, according to the cable, had "proposed surrendering to the US or the UN". The cable confirmed that the American authorities had informed their counterparts in Kunduz that "neither was a realistic option and suggested that they seek the [Red Cross's] involvement if they had not done so already".
On 21 November 2001, the regional Taliban military leader, Mullah Fazel Mazloom, entered into face-to-face surrender negotiations with General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance. The pact was destined not to end well. Dostum was a notorious figure who had served as an officer in the Soviet occupation government. Troops under Dostum's command were believed responsible for the mass execution of an alleged 2,000 Taliban prisoners captured near Mazar-i-Sharif in 1997. The New Yorker magazine has referred to Dostum as "perhaps Afghanistan's most notorious warlord", a man who is "viewed by most human rights organisations as among the worst war criminals in the country".
Nonetheless, a bargain was reached in which Dostum demanded and received a large cash payment, then agreed to grant approximately 400 disarmed Taliban soldiers safe passage through Dostum-controlled territory to the city of Herat. John, in haggard condition after the march through Takhar, was among those 400 troops.
The Taliban soldiers had no sooner laid down their arms when Dostum breached the agreement. Instead of the safe passage they had been promised, the soldiers were loaded into trucks and diverted to the ancient Qala-i-Jangi fortress on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif. As the prisoners were being unloaded in the courtyard, John heard a loud explosion when one of the prisoners detonated a grenade that he had concealed. Two of Dostum's men were killed in the blast.
Dostum's soldiers quickly regained control, but they were infuriated. The prisoners were crowded into the basement of a sturdy, pink Soviet-built classroom building adjacent to a horse pasture. The "pink building", as it became known, was at the centre of the events that unfolded over the next seven days. It was dark in the basement rooms into which the 400 men were crowded. To retaliate for the earlier attack, Dostum's men dropped a grenade down an air duct that wounded or killed several prisoners, narrowly missing John, who spent the night crouched in a corner unable to sleep.
The next morning, Sunday 25 November, was sunny and warm at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress. Video footage shows a seemingly calm scene as the prisoners, with arms tied behind backs, are led out of the basement and made to kneel in rows in the horse pasture beside the pink building. The main sound on the film is the chirping of hundreds of birds. Dostum's men were rough. Some prisoners were kicked and beaten with sticks. John was hit in the back of the head and nearly knocked unconscious. Nonetheless, he hoped they would be released for the agreed upon journey to Herat.
Although there were no US or British troops at the fortress that morning, two American intelligence agents were present, dressed in civilian clothes. They circulated among the prisoners, occasionally giving instructions to Dostum's guards. One of them, Dave Tyson, was dressed in a long Afghan shirt and carried a large gun and a video camera. The other, Johnny "Mike" Spann, a former marine, was dressed in a black shirt and jeans. He was also armed. As they moved among the prisoners, they singled out captives for interrogation. They never identified themselves as American agents, and so they appeared to John and the other prisoners to be mercenaries working directly for General Dostum.
John was spotted and removed from the body of prisoners for questioning. The moment was recorded on video and later seen by millions on television.
In the video, John sits mutely on the ground as he is questioned about his nationality.
"Irish? Ireland?" Spann asks.
John remains silent.
American Among Taliban Prisoners John Walker Lindh at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress on 3 December 2001, awaiting treatment from the Red Cross, having been captured by US forces. Photograph: James Hill/Getty Images
"Who brought you here?… You believe in what you are doing that much, you're willing to be killed here?"
Still no reply.
Tyson to Spann [for John's benefit]: "The problem is, he's got to decide if he wants to live or die, and die here. We're just going to leave him, and he's going to [expletive] sit in prison the rest of his [expletive] short life. It's his decision, man. We can only help the guys who want to talk to us. We can only get the Red Cross to help so many guys."
I think it was apparent that Spann and Tyson were American agents, but because they were in the company of Dostum's forces, unaccompanied by American troops, it clearly was not safe for John to talk to them. They meant business when they said John might be killed by Dostum, and that the Red Cross could only "help so many guys". John was in extreme peril at that moment, and he knew it.
John was then returned to the main body of prisoners, while others were still being brought out of the basement and forced to kneel in the horse pasture. Then, suddenly, there was an explosion at the entrance to the basement, shouts were heard, and two prisoners grabbed the guards' weapons. According to Guardian journalist Luke Harding's account: "It was then… that Spann 'did a Rambo'. As the remaining guards ran away, Spann flung himself to the ground and began raking the courtyard and its prisoners with automatic fire. Five or six prisoners jumped on him, and he disappeared beneath a heap of bodies."
Spann's body was later recovered by US special forces troops. He was the first American to die in combat in the American–Afghan war. He was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington.
As soon as the uprising began, the Northern Alliance guards turned their weapons on the 400 bound prisoners, killing or severely wounding scores of them. Some prisoners tried to stand and run; they were gunned down. It was a slaughter. John tried to run, but he was shot in the right thigh and fell to the ground. For the next 12 hours he lay motionless, pretending to be dead.
There were two groups of Taliban prisoners in the fortress: those who chose to fight and those who hunkered down in the basement of the pink building and tried to survive. John was in the latter group. The prisoners who fought put up a fierce resistance, looting buildings for weapons and ammunition, firing from windows, rooftops, and ditches. Using a satellite phone, Dave Tyson, who had just seen his colleague killed, telephoned the US embassy in Tashkent, shouting: "We have lost control. Send in helicopters and troops." US air controllers stationed outside the fortress walls called in air strikes, which struck with devastating impact inside the fortress.
More air raids were staged the next day, Monday, when a massive 2,000lb bomb was dropped. It missed its intended target, the pink building, and hit Dostum's soldiers. This "friendly fire" incident brought an end to the air strikes. For John and the other Taliban soldiers holed up in the basement of the pink building, the percussive effect of the bomb shook them to their bones and left them trembling.
By Wednesday, the last of the resisting Taliban fighters had been killed, and Dostum's soldiers were once again in full control of the fortress. Luke Harding was allowed into the compound along with some other journalists, and he found a horrific scene: "We had expected slaughter, but I was unprepared for its hellish scale… It was hard to take it all in. The dead and various parts of the dead… turned up wherever you looked: in thickets of willows and poplars; in waterlogged ditches; in storage rooms piled with ammunition boxes." Harding observed that many of the Taliban prisoners had died with their hands tied behind their backs.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Dostum's troops engaged in a sustained effort to kill the Taliban survivors who remained in the basement of the pink building, which they were afraid to enter themselves. More grenades were dropped down the air ducts and RPGs were fired directly into the basement. John received shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, back, ankle and calf, in addition to the bullet still lodged in his thigh. At one point, fuel was poured down the air ducts and a fire was ignited in which some fuel-drenched prisoners were burned to death. John, choking on the black smoke, lost consciousness. He awoke with the taste of gasoline in his mouth and loud explosions in the hall, as more rockets and grenades ricocheted through the basement.
On Friday, Dostum's troops tried yet another tactic. They flooded the basement with cold water. Unable to stand on his own, John braced himself on a stick and a fellow soldier for the next 24 hours to avoid drowning in the waist-deep water, which was full of blood and waste. The next morning no one inside the fortress thought it possible that anyone was still alive in the pink building, but 86 of the prisoners had managed to survive the week-long ordeal. One of them was John Lindh.
On Saturday 1 December, the Red Cross arrived at the fortress and the survivors, who for several days had been trying to surrender, were finally allowed to exit the basement. When they emerged into the bright sunlight, they encountered a confusing horde of journalists, Red Cross workers, Dostum's soldiers, and British and American troops.
That evening John and the other survivors were taken to a prison hospital in Sheberghan. Although wet and cold from the flooding of the basement, they were transported in open bed trucks in the frigid night air. At Sheberghan, John was carried on a stretcher and set down in a small room with approximately 15 other prisoners. CNN correspondent Robert Pelton came in accompanied by a US special forces soldier and a cameraman. Despite John's protests, Pelton persisted in filming John and asking questions as an American medical officer administered morphine intravenously. By the time he departed a short time later, Pelton had captured on videotape an interview in which John said that his "heart had become attached" to the Taliban, that every Muslim aspired to become a shahid, or martyr, and that he had attended a training camp funded by Osama bin Laden.
The CNN interview became a sensation in the US. By mid-December, virtually every newspaper in America was running front-page stories about the American Taliban, and the broadcast media were saturated with features and commentary about John. Here was a "traitor" who had "fought against America" and aligned himself with the 11 September terrorists. Newsweek magazine published an issue with John's photograph on the cover, under the caption "American Taliban".
Beginning in early December, President Bush, vice-president Dick Cheney, members of the cabinet and other officials then embarked on a series of truly extraordinary public statements about John, referring to him repeatedly as an "al-Qaida fighter", a terrorist and a traitor. I think it fair to say there has never been a case quite like this in the history of the US, in which officials at the highest levels of the government made such prejudicial statements about an individual citizen who had not yet been charged with any crime.
I will offer only a small sample of these statements. In an interview at the White House on 21 December 2001, President Bush said John was "the first American al-Qaida fighter that we have captured". Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defence, told reporters at a press briefing that John had been "captured by US forces with an AK-47 in his hands". Colin Powell, secretary of state, said John had "brought shame upon his family". Rudy Giuliani, New York mayor, remarked: "I believe the death penalty is the appropriate remedy to consider."
John Ashcroft, the US attorney general, staged two televised press conferences in which he accused John of attacking the US. "Americans who love their country do not dedicate themselves to killing Americans," he declared.
A federal judge took the unusual step of writing to the New York Times criticising the attorney general for violating "Justice Department guidelines on the release of information related to criminal proceedings that are intended to ensure that a defendant is not prejudiced when such an announcement is made".
Even the ultra-conservative National Review thought Ashcroft had gone too far in making such prejudicial comments about a pending prosecution. It criticised the comments as "inappropriate" and "gratuitous", stating that in the future "it would be better for the attorney general simply to announce the facts of the indictments, and to avoid extra comments which might unintentionally imperil successful prosecutions".
I am a lawyer, trained in the law, with more than 25 years of experience. Never have I seen or read about a case in which a person accused of a crime was so conspicuously deprived of what we call "the presumption of innocence". On the contrary, my son was presumed guilty, not only by government officials but by the entire mainstream journalism and media establishment in America. It was – and still is – widely reported in America that John Lindh is a "terrorist" who fought against the US.
Our lives back home were completely upturned by the sudden and pervasive notoriety of John's case. We found ourselves dodging television cameras and reporters. In the first couple of days after John's capture, I appeared on several news programmes in an effort to explain who John was and to ask for mercy. My sense of privacy and anonymity were at least temporarily destroyed.
All of us in John's family also were wracked with anxiety about John's own physical and emotional wellbeing. We had no source of information about John from within the government itself. They were holding our son incommunicado, even as President Bush and other officials made repeated statements about him. Anything we were able to learn about John came from the news media, not from the government.
Happily, our neighbours, friends, co-workers and even strangers in California were uniformly warm and supportive towards me, John's mother and our other children. One Sunday, on my way to church, a friendly stranger stopped his car and shouted to me: "How's John?"
John Walker Lindh’s father and mother John Walker Lindh’s father, Frank, and mother, Marilyn, outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, 2002. Photograph: Hillery Smith Garrison/AP
Another enormous source of comfort to us came from James Brosnahan, a distinguished and courageous trial lawyer in San Francisco who agreed to represent John. On 3 December, Brosnahan took up his case, and from that day forward we had a valiant defender in him and the other lawyers who worked on the defence team. It felt as if a protective shield had been constructed around John and all of us in the family.
Once John was in the custody of the US military, the US government had to decide what to do with him. The FBI has estimated that during the 90s as many as 2,000 American citizens travelled to Muslim lands to take up arms voluntarily, and that as many as 400 American Muslims received training in military camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. None of these American citizens was indicted, or labelled as traitor and terrorist. They were simply ignored by their government, which made no attempt to interfere with their travel. But the 9/11 attacks changed everything, and it was the timing of John's capture that contributed to his fate. It soon became apparent to me that, rather than simply repatriate my wounded son, the government was intent on prosecuting him as a "terrorist".
In the days and weeks that followed, John endured abuse from the US military that exceeded the bounds of what any civilised nation should tolerate, even in time of war. Donald Rumsfeld directly ordered the military to "take the gloves off" in questioning John.
On 7 December, wounded and still suffering from the effects of the trauma at Qala-i-Jangi, John was flown to Camp Rhino, a US marine base approximately 70 miles south of Kandahar. There he was taunted and threatened, stripped of his clothing, and bound naked to a stretcher with duct tape wrapped around his chest, arms, and ankles. Even before he got to Camp Rhino, John's wrists and ankles were bound with plastic restraints that caused severe pain and left permanent scars – sure proof of torture. Still blindfolded, he was locked in an unheated metal shipping container that sat on the desert floor. He shivered uncontrollably in the bitter cold. Soldiers outside pounded on the sides, threatening to kill him.
After two days in these circumstances, John was removed from the shipping container and taken into a building at Camp Rhino. When his blindfold was removed, John found himself in front of a man who identified himself as an FBI agent and then read from an advice-of-rights form. When the agent reached the part that concerned right to counsel, he said: "Of course, there are no lawyers here." John was not told his mother and I had retained an attorney for him who was ready and willing to travel to Afghanistan. Worried that he would be returned to the shipping container if he did not sign the form, John signed the waiver.
A lengthy interrogation followed, after which US military personnel put John back in the metal shipping container, although this time his leg restraints were loosened and he was no longer bound by duct tape or blindfolded. On 14 December, he was placed on board the USS Peleliu, where navy physicians observed that he was suffering from dehydration, hypothermia, and frostbite, and that he could not walk. On 15 December, the bullet was finally removed from his leg in a surgical procedure – more than two weeks after he had been transferred to the custody of the US military. The doctor who removed the bullet later told John's lawyers there had been little or no healing of the wound, which he attributed to malnutrition and cold.
In June 2002, Newsweek obtained copies of internal email messages from the justice department's ethics office commenting on the Lindh case as the events were unfolding in December 2001. The office specifically warned in advance against the interrogation tactics the FBI used at Camp Rhino, and concluded that the interrogation of John without his lawyer present would be unlawful and unethical. This advice was ignored by the FBI agent who conducted the interrogation.
Interestingly, in an 10 December email, one of the justice department ethics lawyers noted: "At present, we have no knowledge that he did anything other than join the Taliban."
The government brought 10 counts against John in its overblown indictment. "If convicted of these charges," attorney general Ashcroft boasted, "Walker Lindh could receive multiple life sentences, six additional 10-year sentences, plus 30 years." The most serious count was a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the death of Mike Spann. The charge was groundless: the prisoner uprising at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress had been spontaneous and John was also a victim, not a participant.
John arrived back in the US on 23 January 2002 in chains aboard a military plane that landed at Washington Dulles International airport. The government selected Dulles so they could bring charges against John in northern Virginia, near the Pentagon (one of the 9/11 targets), where hostility against John was assured. He was flown by helicopter to the Alexandria City Jail. John's mother and I tried to visit him that night, along with the lawyers we had retained for him, but we were turned away. We finally were able to see our son the next morning in a holding cell on the first floor of the US courthouse. His lawyers met him only briefly before his first appearance in the court that morning.
The case of United States of America v John Philip Walker Lindh was set for trial before Judge T S Ellis III. On 24 January, the judge announced he was setting a trial date for late August. We were horrified, as this would ensure that John would be on trial on the first anniversary of 9/11. It would be hard to conceive of a more prejudicial circumstance for a criminal defendant, especially in the wake of the intemperate statements attorney general Ashcroft had made in his two press conferences.
John's lawyers filed a motion to "suppress" the statements that had been extracted him under duress at Camp Rhino. A hearing was scheduled in July 2001, which would have included testimony by John and others about the brutality he had suffered at the hands of US soldiers. On the eve of the hearing, the government prosecutors approached John's attorneys and negotiated a plea agreement. It was apparent they did not want evidence of John's torture to be introduced in court.
In the plea agreement John acknowledged that by serving as a soldier in Afghanistan he had violated the anti-Taliban economic sanctions imposed by President Clinton and extended by President Bush. This was, as John's lawyer pointed out, a "regulatory infraction". John also agreed to a "weapons charge", which was used to enhance his prison sentence. In particular, he acknowledged that he had carried a rifle and two grenades while serving as a soldier in the Taliban army. All of the other counts in the indictment were dropped by the government, including the terrorism charges the attorney general had so strongly emphasised and the charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Mike Spann.
At the insistence of defence secretary Rumsfeld, the plea agreement also included a clause in which John relinquished his claims of torture.
The punishment in the plea agreement was by any measure harsh: 20 years of imprisonment, commencing on 1 December 2001, the day John came into the hands of US forces in Afghanistan. The prosecutors told John's attorneys that the White House insisted on the lengthy sentence, and that they could not negotiate downward.
On 4 October 2002, the judge approved the plea agreement as "just and reasonable" and sentenced John to prison. Before the sentence was pronounced, John was allowed to read a prepared statement, which provided a moment of intense drama in the crowded courtroom. He spoke with strong emotion. He explained why he had gone to Afghanistan to help the Taliban in their fight with the Northern Alliance, saying it arose from his compassion for the suffering of ordinary people who had been subjected to atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance. He explained that when he went to Afghanistan he "saw the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance as a continuation of the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets".
John strongly condemned terrorism. "I went to Afghanistan with the intention of fighting against terrorism and oppression." He had acted, he said, out of a sense of religious duty and he condemned terrorism as being "completely against Islam". He said: "I have never supported terrorism in any form and never would."
After a brief recess, the judge granted a request by John Spann, the father of Mike Spann, to address the court and express his dissatisfaction with the plea agreement. He began by saying that he, his family, and many other people believed that John had played a role in the killing of Mike Spann. Judge Ellis interrupted and said: "Let me be clear about that. The government has no evidence of that." Spann responded: "I understand." The judge politely explained that the "suspicions, the inferences you draw from the facts are not enough to warrant a jury conviction". He said that Mike Spann had died a hero, and that among the things he died for was the principle that "we don't convict people in the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt".
Osama bin Laden is dead. John Lindh, now 30 years old, remains in prison. He spends most of his time pursuing his study of the Qur'an and Islamic scholarship. He also reads widely in a variety of nonfiction subjects, especially history and politics. He remains a devout Muslim.
As a father, I am grateful that John survived his ordeal, and I am pleased that he maintains his good-natured disposition. I am especially proud of the dignity he displayed throughout his ordeal overseas and in court.
Other than his lawyers, the only visitors John has been permitted during all his years in prison are those of us in his immediate family. We treasure these visits. We are not allowed any sort of physical contact with John, and are kept separated from him by a glass partition. We must speak via telephones, and everything we say is monitored and recorded by a government agent who sits in an adjoining room. Despite these constraints, our conversations are free-flowing and punctuated with humour.
A commentator at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University called this "a petty prosecution" that was "unworthy of a great country". But it was more than petty, in my view; it was brutally inhumane.
My hope and prayer is that at some point rational, fair-minded officials in the American government will see the wisdom in releasing John from prison, rather than making him serve the entire 20-year sentence. His continued incarceration serves no good purpose. Releasing John from prison would help restore America's image in the world, and particularly among Muslim people, as a humane country committed to the rule of law.
The author has donated the fee for this article to charity.
Monday, July 04, 2011
Missouri Rages, Threatening Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Facilities
Bombed levee, major flooding event above Cooper Nuclear Site (Video)
by Deborah Dupre
Human Rights Examiner
The bombed levee near Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station in Nebraska Friday caused a more than significant flood event downriver according to County Attorney Matt Wilbur, as it rose the swollen and raging Missouri River three to four inches when only "a half-inch rise is significant." Downriver 70 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska is Cooper Nuclear Facility, still online and posing a bigger threat than Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, but no Fukushima according to CNN's interview with veteran nuclear expert, Arnie Gundersen.
Private citizens representing Vanman #30 levee detonated the privately owned levee, according to News 6 WOWT that reports that the bombing breached a half-mile stretch of the levee from river mile marker 637 to 637.5, around 10 a.m. Friday. As long as the bomber was properly licensed, it appears no laws were broken since the land is private.
Before Friday, as reported by the Examiner, "officials' efforts failed to prevent flooding the farmlands in the area. Then the levee there broke. Crops were flooded."
In the week that followed, there had been discussions with local government about lowering the new levee according to KETV News, but "no clear answers" had been forthcoming.
"These levees are saturated," said County Attorney Matt Wilbur on News 6 WOWT News, Friday evening. "We have the most water on them for the longest period of time we've ever had.
"This levee gets blown and we saw a several inch rise in the river shortly thereafter, so even a three or four inch pulse coming down the river when we're looking at every half inch as being significant, is a fairly big event."
Because of decay heat at Cooper Nuclear Plant, Gundersen told CNN Thursday that it poses a bigger threat than Fort Calhoun Nuclear. Both nuclear energy facilities are on the banks of the now swollen and raging Missouri River. (See video on page left)
Although believing Cooper Nuclear facility to be safe on Thursday, Gundersen also said on CNN that if a dam north of the facility broke, causing extra water to come downstream to Cooper, "all bets are off."
Gavin Dam - 'High risk operation'
North of Cooper Nuclear Plant is one of the nation's largest reservoir systems comprising six Army Corps of Engineer dams, each swollen and feeding into the now raging Missouri River. Eyes are on Gavin Point Dam in Yankton, South Dakota the last dam downstream. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants to know what locals downstream, especially near the two nuclear energy plants fear, "What if Gavin's Dam breaks?"
Advertisement
Gavin Point Dam has been "experiencing water levels three and one half feet higher than they should be."
"Since Gavin's Point is the last dam on the Missouri before the St. Louis area – it's a high risk operation," reported Operations Manager David Becker. (KCAUTV )
"It is really important right now because we are one of the major components, we are probably the major river, so our releases are important to try and minimize flood damage," said Becker, who then explained that the flooding will last longer than previously predicted.
According to Becker, the dam releases will alleviate flooding, the public needs to expect "high waters on the Missouri until at least this fall."
Because of issues with the dams, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regional office issued an official request on Wednesday to the Corps for its 2009 and 2010 analyses of what would happen if a dam fails, as reported by Nancy Gardner for World-Herald. (Gardner's article had been reported by Omaha World-News and was online but now, "can not be found.")
Gardner reports that Anton Vegel, director of the division of reactor safety for Arlington, Tex. office of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requested that Col. Robert J. Ruch, commander of the Omaha District of the corps supply the "what if a dam fails" information. Omaha district oversees the dams.
"The dams themselves have had some issues, according to the corps, but nothing that affects their integrity, said John Bertino, head of dam safety for the Omaha district. While the amount of water being released from them is a record, the amount of water being held behind the is not, he said."
As for the deliberately breached levee and the extra water pulse it sent downstream, it appears no law was broken since the levee is private according to County Attorney Matt Wilber reporting to News 6 WOWT.
"There are tens of thousands of citizens on both sides of the river who are affected by the flooding on the Missouri River and private activities such as this, which have the potential to affect those lives should not be undertaken without a full consideration of the consequences," Wilbur said.
Video: Arnie Gundersen Discusses Situation at flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
Gundersen Discusses the Situation at the flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
Video: Arnie Gundersen Discusses Situation at flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
By Deborah Dupre
Human Rights Examiner
Deborah Dupre' holds American and Australian science and education graduate degrees plus thirty years human rights, environmental and peace...
Continue reading on Examiner.com Bombed levee, major flooding event above Cooper Nuclear Site (Video) - National Human Rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/bombed-levee-major-flooding-event-above-cooper-nuclear-site-video#ixzz1RB38VyR3
by Deborah Dupre
Human Rights Examiner
The bombed levee near Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station in Nebraska Friday caused a more than significant flood event downriver according to County Attorney Matt Wilbur, as it rose the swollen and raging Missouri River three to four inches when only "a half-inch rise is significant." Downriver 70 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska is Cooper Nuclear Facility, still online and posing a bigger threat than Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, but no Fukushima according to CNN's interview with veteran nuclear expert, Arnie Gundersen.
Private citizens representing Vanman #30 levee detonated the privately owned levee, according to News 6 WOWT that reports that the bombing breached a half-mile stretch of the levee from river mile marker 637 to 637.5, around 10 a.m. Friday. As long as the bomber was properly licensed, it appears no laws were broken since the land is private.
Before Friday, as reported by the Examiner, "officials' efforts failed to prevent flooding the farmlands in the area. Then the levee there broke. Crops were flooded."
In the week that followed, there had been discussions with local government about lowering the new levee according to KETV News, but "no clear answers" had been forthcoming.
"These levees are saturated," said County Attorney Matt Wilbur on News 6 WOWT News, Friday evening. "We have the most water on them for the longest period of time we've ever had.
"This levee gets blown and we saw a several inch rise in the river shortly thereafter, so even a three or four inch pulse coming down the river when we're looking at every half inch as being significant, is a fairly big event."
Because of decay heat at Cooper Nuclear Plant, Gundersen told CNN Thursday that it poses a bigger threat than Fort Calhoun Nuclear. Both nuclear energy facilities are on the banks of the now swollen and raging Missouri River. (See video on page left)
Although believing Cooper Nuclear facility to be safe on Thursday, Gundersen also said on CNN that if a dam north of the facility broke, causing extra water to come downstream to Cooper, "all bets are off."
Gavin Dam - 'High risk operation'
North of Cooper Nuclear Plant is one of the nation's largest reservoir systems comprising six Army Corps of Engineer dams, each swollen and feeding into the now raging Missouri River. Eyes are on Gavin Point Dam in Yankton, South Dakota the last dam downstream. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants to know what locals downstream, especially near the two nuclear energy plants fear, "What if Gavin's Dam breaks?"
Advertisement
Gavin Point Dam has been "experiencing water levels three and one half feet higher than they should be."
"Since Gavin's Point is the last dam on the Missouri before the St. Louis area – it's a high risk operation," reported Operations Manager David Becker. (KCAUTV )
"It is really important right now because we are one of the major components, we are probably the major river, so our releases are important to try and minimize flood damage," said Becker, who then explained that the flooding will last longer than previously predicted.
According to Becker, the dam releases will alleviate flooding, the public needs to expect "high waters on the Missouri until at least this fall."
Because of issues with the dams, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regional office issued an official request on Wednesday to the Corps for its 2009 and 2010 analyses of what would happen if a dam fails, as reported by Nancy Gardner for World-Herald. (Gardner's article had been reported by Omaha World-News and was online but now, "can not be found.")
Gardner reports that Anton Vegel, director of the division of reactor safety for Arlington, Tex. office of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requested that Col. Robert J. Ruch, commander of the Omaha District of the corps supply the "what if a dam fails" information. Omaha district oversees the dams.
"The dams themselves have had some issues, according to the corps, but nothing that affects their integrity, said John Bertino, head of dam safety for the Omaha district. While the amount of water being released from them is a record, the amount of water being held behind the is not, he said."
As for the deliberately breached levee and the extra water pulse it sent downstream, it appears no law was broken since the levee is private according to County Attorney Matt Wilber reporting to News 6 WOWT.
"There are tens of thousands of citizens on both sides of the river who are affected by the flooding on the Missouri River and private activities such as this, which have the potential to affect those lives should not be undertaken without a full consideration of the consequences," Wilbur said.
Video: Arnie Gundersen Discusses Situation at flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
Gundersen Discusses the Situation at the flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
Video: Arnie Gundersen Discusses Situation at flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
By Deborah Dupre
Human Rights Examiner
Deborah Dupre' holds American and Australian science and education graduate degrees plus thirty years human rights, environmental and peace...
Continue reading on Examiner.com Bombed levee, major flooding event above Cooper Nuclear Site (Video) - National Human Rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/bombed-levee-major-flooding-event-above-cooper-nuclear-site-video#ixzz1RB38VyR3
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Omega Air Crash at Mugu Air Force Base
Minor injuries reported in plane crash at Point Mugu
http://m.vcstar.com/news/2011/may/18/plane-down-pt-mugu-no-injuries/
By John Scheibe
Updated Thursday, May 19, 2011
A Boeing 707 burns after crashing during takeoff at Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu, Wednesday afternoon. Three people on board escaped with minor injuries, authorities said.
Photo by Stephen Osman
A military contractor's Boeing 707 military tanker carrying 150,000 pounds of fuel crashed and burned on takeoff at the Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu late Wednesday afternoon, sending a thick plume of smoke into the sky visible from miles away.
The three civilian crew members on board, including the pilot and co-pilot, suffered minor injuries in the 5:25 p.m. crash, according to base officials. The crew members were taken to a local hospital, where they were treated for their injuries, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
The plume of smoke stretched southward toward Malibu and Santa Monica. A helicopter dumped several loads of water on the plane as the flames and black smoke filled the air. The fire was knocked down at 9:09 p.m., according to the base.
Base spokeswoman Teri Reid said the tanker is used for fleet operations support and transporting fuel.
County firefighters were called to the base about 5:30 p.m. to assist base crews in putting out the flames. The two agencies have a mutual aid agreement, said Bill Nash, a spokesman for the county fire department. The county sheriff's department also provided a fire helicopter to the base to help fight the blaze.
FAA records show Omega Air as the plane's owner.
The plane went off the south end of the runway, authorities said. The plane came to a rest within a few hundred feet of the Pacific Ocean, though it was not clear whether any fuel had gone into the ocean.
Omega is a civilian company under contract by the Navy to provide fleet operations support on Point Mugu's sea test range, base officials said.
The National Air Transportation Board was investigating the cause of the crash on Wednesday, base officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration also was investigating the crash, since the plane was a civilian one, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA. A local FAA investigator was on the scene on Wednesday night, Gregor said, and another FAA investigator from Washington, D.C., is scheduled to serve as the agency's lead investigator today.
A person working at the Navy Exchange on base said he noticed something might be amiss when he saw customers taking pictures of something with their phones. When he went outside about 5:50 p.m., he saw the smoke and could smell fuel burning.
The smoke drew curiosity seekers to Missile Park, located just outside Mugu's northern perimeter. The plume of smoke was still clearly visible at 8 p.m., hours after the crash.
Officials at Omega could not be reached for comment. But according to its website, the 7-year-old company has corporate offices in Virginia and provides refueling services to the U.S. armed forces and its allies. Key management at the company include former naval aviators, and many crew members and other employees have a background with the Air Force, the company's website says.
The 707-321B aircraft that crashed was manufactured in 1969 by Boeing, according to an FAA registry.
Omega's fleet includes two 707 tankers and a DC-10, each capable of flying up to 1,200-plus hours each year, according to the company's website. Omega can carry from 156,000 to 160,000 pounds of fuel, depending on type and temperature, the website says.
The two 707s fly the majority of the company's missions. Seven Q Seven, a subsidiary of Omega Air, is responsible for maintaining the planes, the website says. Planes are based out of Seven Q Seven's facility at the San Antonio International Airport.
It's not known where the tanker was headed at the time of the crash.
According to Boeing's website, the 707 series was based on a prototype that ushered America into the jet age when it made its maiden flight on July 15, 1954.
"Much larger, faster and smoother than the propeller airplanes it was replacing, it quickly changed the face of international travel," the Boeing website states.
After Pan Am inaugurated trans-Atlantic 707 jet service between New York and Paris, jetliners rapidly entered service throughout the world, the website states.
Staff writer Cheri Carlson and The Associated Press contributed to this article
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