Stephen Lendman

"Whenever deaths or serious injuries result, Israel denies responsibility, blaming peaceful protesters for provoking violence, when, in fact, thuggish police, military or other security forces alone are to blame."

Daily accounts can be followed on important sites such as Palestine Chronicle, Palestine Telegraph, and the Electronic Intifada as well as others like Israel's oldest daily newspaper, Haaretz, available online in English.

They and others document harrowing crimes virtually ignored in the West, especially by America's media offering one-sided pro-Israeli reports with imperfect exceptions like Isabel Kershner's January 7 New York Times article headlined, "Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian, 65, in His Bedroom," saying:

"Israeli soldiers shot and killed an unarmed 65-year-old Palestinian man....in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. The man's wife said he was sleeping and she was praying when soldiers burst into the apartment before dawn, entered the bedroom and immediately opened fire."

Without explanation, "(t)he Israeli military expressed regret," she said, and promised "a speedy investigation, with conclusions to be presented as early as next week." In fact, all Israeli "investigations" whitewash crimes to absolve guilty commanders, troops, and top government officials who sanction occupation, violence and wars of aggression.

Rarely ever do US media journalists report anything less than fully supportive of Israel. Even Kershner's account wasn't fully accurate or candid, suggesting "mistaken identity" when killings, assaults and other abuses happen regularly against targeted individuals and others who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - "collateral damage" for the Pentagon and Israel when, in fact, it's willful, at times, indiscriminate cold-blooded murder, a US and Israeli specialty.

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Andre Damon
WSWS

Birgitta Jónsdóttir

The US Department of Justice has issued a court order to Twitter, the social networking site, demanding that it hand over information on WikiLeaks and its collaborators. WikiLeaks said that the subpoena, if not blocked, will grant the government access to the names of the more than 600,000 people who “follow” WikiLeaks over the network.

The subpoena, issued December 14, covers all official Twitter accounts of WikiLeaks, as well as the personal accounts of Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic parliament, and WikiLeaks collaborators Rop Gonggrijp and Jacob Appelbaum. The order also requests all information on Pfc. Bradley Manning―who the US government claims leaked information through WikiLeaks―and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The government is demanding that Twitter hand over mailing addresses and billing information, IP addresses used to access Twitter, as well as bank records and credit card information.

The subpoena provoked an uproar in Iceland, where the foreign minister summoned the US ambassador for an explanation. “[It is] very serious that a foreign state, the United States, demands such personal information of an Icelandic person, an elected official,” said Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson in a press interview with the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

This concern is heightened, Jonasson said, when “put [in] perspective and concerns freedom of speech and people's freedom in general.”

Ms. Jónsdóttir denounced the subpoena in a telephone interview with the WSWS on Sunday.

“There is no criminal case against me because I have done nothing in violation of any law,” she stated. “The US government is trying to criminalize whistleblowing and publication of whistleblowing,” [Jónsdóttir added.] “They want to make it tantamount to spying, and if they succeed in doing that, journalists could be prosecuted just for doing their jobs.”

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Stephen Lendman

From inception, most Guantanamo detainees were uncharged. On January 5, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said:

"....the vast majority of the men at Guantanamo should never have been detained in the first place, and that over 550 have been released and are peacefully rebuilding their lives." Most of the 800 captured and brought there were lawlessly "seized in broad sweeps and sold to the US (for) substantial bounties." From the Pentagon's own records, "most (have) no link to terrorism."

For over seven years, CCR "organiz(ed) and coordinat(ed) more than 500 pro bono lawyers across the country" to represent detainees, and helped to resettle about 60 others still at Guantanamo "because they cannot return to their country of origin for fear of persecution and torture."

Obama promised to close Guantanamo, yet nothing followed up to assure it. Moreover, early in 2011, an Executive Order (EO) will authorize indefinite detentions for longstanding uncharged detainees the administration won't release.

Guantanamo and other US torture prisons are blights on democratic values and fundamental international law that prohibits all forms of torture and abuse at all times with no allowed exceptions.

Yet closure for none are planned, including Guantanamo, symbolically representing the worst kind of cruel and unusual punishment. It's prohibited under international and US law, including the Constitution's Supremacy Clause (Article VI, clause 2), designating federal statutes and treaties automatically "the supreme law of the land," including international laws to which America is a signatory. Nonetheless, Washington systematically violates them.

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Khalid Amayreh

Tony Blair (right) joins Barack Obama and the Israeli and Pale-
stinian leaders for dinner at the White House. Photo: AP

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is quite optimistic these days. He is even nearly euphoric about the recent recognition by a number of South American states of Palestine. His Fatah organization cites these "diplomatic successes" as a proof for the correctness of Abbas's approach.

However, it is crystal clear that his optimism in this regard is unwarranted and nearly totally unjustified.

It is always good to be optimistic and hopeful, and it is nice to receive diplomatic support or any kind of support from foreign states. In fact, all Palestinians, irrespective of their political orientation, applaud and appreciate the courageous steps taken by major South American states in recognizing Palestine.

These steps do represent a direct challenge to American hegemony in the western hemisphere as well as a clear diplomatic failure to the thuggish state, known as Israel, especially its hoodlum foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

None the less, things shouldn't be blown out of proportion since doing so could be disastrous for our national cause and interests.

I'm in no way trying to belittle the laudable and courageous steps taken by our friends in South America. I am trying rather to have a careful reading and objective assessment of the possible impact these steps are going to have on the situation in occupied Palestine where Israel, with effective American acquiescence, is carving more and more of our homeland and carrying out more ethnic cleansing against our people.

We in Palestine have never suffered from the dearth of international support for our cause. Nearly all countries represented at the United Nations General Assembly, with the exception of the US and Israel , support our right to self determination, independence and freedom. Most of these states seem more or less willing to lend recognition to a Palestinian state within the 1967-borders. But this is not the problem.

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