In a shocking indication of a split between the White House and the Pentagon over the war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes that the U.S. military will never leave the war-torn country. During a dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Afghan President Hamid Karzai in May, Gates reminded the group that he still feels guilty for his role in the first President Bush's decision to pull out of Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, according to Bob Woodward's new book, "Obama's Wars." And to express his commitment to not letting down the country again, he emphasized:

"We're not leaving Afghanistan prematurely," [Gates finally said.] "In fact, we're not ever leaving at all."

A district government official in Afghanistan’s Ghazni Province is confirming today that NATO attack helicopters targeted a group of civilians in an orchard near the town of Andar, killing four children and wounding three other civilians. Civilian deaths have been on the rise for months in Afghanistan, with fighting between insurgent and occupation forces taking an increasing toll on those caught in between them. The Afghan government has repeatedly complained about civilian killings by NATO troops, but the recent trend has been toward relaxing the rules of engagement amid claims it was harming morale.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that most Americans have grown too detached from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and see military service as "something for other people to do." To attract and retain recruits, the Defense Department finds itself spending more money, including handsome recruiting and retention bonuses and education benefits. The money spent on personnel and benefits has nearly doubled since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, from $90 billion to $170 billion. "That is our sacred obligation," Gates told the audience of compensating troops. "But given the enormous fiscal pressures facing the country," the nation must devise "an equitable and sustainable system of military pay and benefits that reflects the realities of this century." [How would a mass murderer know anything about "sacred obligations"?]

Stars & Stripes: Study: Wars could cost $4 trillion to $6 trillion.

Seven servicemen with the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have lost their lives in a militant attack in volatile southern Afghanistan. The ISAF service members were killed following an attack in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday. Roadside bombs, or Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs), are by far the most lethal weapon Taliban militants use against foreign troops, Afghan forces as well as civilians.

The latest deaths bring to 59 the number of fatalities among foreign troopers in war-ravaged Afghanistan this month. June, nonetheless, remains the worst month for foreign military casualties with a death toll of 103. A total of 549 foreign soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war so far this year. The American army has lost 1,307 soldiers since October 2001 when Washington unleashed the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban militants. Thousands of civilians have died and many others sustained injuries in US-led operations in Afghanistan.

Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the world wide web, warned Tuesday of the "blight" of new laws being introduced across the globe allowing people to be cut off from the Internet. "There's been a rash of laws trying to give governments and Internet service providers (ISPs) the right and the duty to disconnect people," he told a conference on web science at the Royal Society in London. The "current blight" includes a French law that comes into effect this year that threatens to cut people off if they illegally download from the Internet, and a new British law passed in April which could see similar action, he said.

"If a French family can be forcibly disconnected from the Internet by law for a year because one of their children downloaded something that some company asserts that they should not have downloaded, without trial -- I think that's a kind of inappropriate punishment," [Berners-Lee said.] [He added:] "I'd like to go on using the Internet. If it gets cut off, or for some reason things go wrong, in some cases, for me, my social life would disintegrate, for other people it may be access to medical information."

AWIP: U.S. should be able to shut Internet, former CIA chief says
(AWIP: POLICE STATE: White House Seeks Broad Powers to Wiretap Internet)

The Next Stage: Global Naked Body Scanners - U.S. DHS boss Napolitano will urge 190 nations to adopt the dangerous machines. The U.S. Homeland Security chief will urge 190 nations today to improve aviation security with body scanners and other innovations to stop terrorists from carrying plastic and powdered explosives onto airplanes.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the push aims to counter terrorists who might use international flights for attacks by smuggling explosives through overseas metal detectors. Such devices can't stop suicide bombers from hiding unconventional weapons under their clothes. A Nigerian man is under federal indictment for trying to blow up an international flight headed for Detroit in December by igniting powdered explosives in his underwear.

US intelligence services would be allowed to tap text messages, emails and networking websites under new powers being considered by Barack Obama's administration. The FBI says "extremists" and "drug cartels" [This is not about extremists and drug cartels. It's about you.] are increasingly communicating online rather than using telephones, leaving US investigators struggling to keep track of them. A new bill requesting the additional powers to investigate suspected criminals and terrorists will be presented next year. It is likely to face stiff opposition from civil liberties advocates who say the security services have historically abused extensions of power.

Tracy Molm sometimes has a hard time paying rent, so it came as a surprise when American security forces banged on her door at 7am one morning, and searched her apartment under suspicions she provided "material support to a terrorist organisation". Warrants indicate that investigators believe Molm and at least seven other activists from the Minnesota anti-war committee and other groups provided material support to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), groups the US considers terrorist organisations.

"My assumption is that material support means money and guns, but they [police] wouldn't explain anything," Molm told Al Jazeera. "I think the real thing is that they are trying to intimidate those of us who are standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Colombia."

Activists from Minneapolis and Chicago have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigation in October, after coordinated police raids on September 24.

Toronto -- Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley issued a 60-page ruling today that slams the federal government for attempting to ban former British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. The ruling vindicates Galloway and his Canadian supporters who argued that Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney made a political decision to try to keep Galloway out of Canada, not one based on national security claims. According to Justice Mosley, "the main reason why the respondents [the Federal government] sought to prevent Mr. Galloway from entering Canada was that they disagreed with his political views."

rabble.ca: New information surfaces on Minister of Citizenship and Immigration's involvement in George Galloway banning

rabble.ca: U.K. politician George Galloway flies to Toronto on Saturday after court decision. Former British MP George Galloway will now arrive in Toronto on Saturday, Oct. 2, to resume his pan-Canada speaking tour after being prevented from entering the country in March 2009. A welcome rally will assemble at 5 p.m. at the Terminal 1 arrivals gate at Lester B. Pearson International Airport, where Galloway will hold a 15-minute press conference. On Sunday, Oct. 3, at 3 p.m., Galloway will address a public meeting at Trinity-St. Paul's United Church, 427 Bloor Street, in downtown Toronto. This event is sponsored by rabble.ca, and will be livestreamed on rabbleTV.

So what if they don´t know how many sides a triangle have? Or who Tony Blair is? That is not fair...just because their president is as intelligent as a door...

[This video was made during the Bush presidency, so here's a question for you: What president is being referred to here as "intelligent as a door"? - Difficult, you say? If you don't know the answer to that question, you must be an American...].

U.N. rights body backs critique of Gaza flotilla raid. United States is the only country voting "No". The United Nations Human Rights Council Wednesday endorsed a fiercely critical report on Israel's raid on a Gaza aid flotilla in May but stopped short of pressing for an international criminal inquiry. It also renewed the mandate of separate investigation team that has been looking into whether Israelis and Palestinians have been properly investigating alleged rights abuses during the 3-week Gaza conflict in 2008-2009. But there was no indication in two separate resolutions tabled at the 47-nation council by the Organisation of Islamic States (OIC) that Israel's critics were aiming to have it taken soon before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Locals in an Israeli-occupied neighborhood find traces of banned weaponry, used by Israeli forces in their crackdown on a recent wave of protests. The Silwan neighborhood of East al-Quds (Jerusalem) has been swept with outrage at a curfew imposed following the troops' killing of two Palestinians on September 22, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. The order prevented movement between al-Quds' neighborhoods. The area of the clashes was scattered after the suppression with expired and oxidized tear gas canisters. Medical staff said those injured in the incidents displayed signs of poisoning. Residents, meanwhile, reported an increase in the symptoms of fatigue, high fever, vomiting and shortness of breath. A 14-month-old infant has also died due to its inhalation of tear gas fired by Israeli forces, confronting the protests in East al-Quds that followed the recent killings. A preliminary probe has been launched into the use of the weapons, while further investigation is planned.

With the resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank yesterday, Israel’s powerful settler movement hopes that it has scuttled peace talks with the Palestinians. It would be misleading, however, to assume that the only major obstacle to the success of the negotiations is the right-wing political ideology the settler movement represents. Equally important are deeply entrenched economic interests shared across Israeli society. These interests took root more than six decades ago with Israel’s establishment and have flourished at an ever-accelerating pace since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the 1967 war. Even many Israeli Jews living within the recognised borders of Israel privately acknowledge that they are the beneficiaries of the seizure of another people’s lands, homes, businesses and bank accounts in 1948. Most Israelis profit directly from the continuing dispossession of millions of Palestinian refugees.

For me the deportation process was humiliating. Jew against Jew is totally against the dreams of so long ago, what we imagined how our beloved Israel would evolve. That dream was for me a safe haven, a country of compassion. Tolerance for all, and a completely open society. I can imagine that Israel would have become a beacon of light for the world to follow. In this dream there would be tolerance for political difference. Now sadly, Jews have become divided against one another and it is no longer a safe haven. We from the Jewish boat were treated as traitors and people to get rid of. We were not "good Jews," but "bad Jews to deport without being allowed to enter Israel again." Only in Fascist regimes are people forced to think the same. I experienced humiliation when arrested. I was not physically mistreated but suffered emotionally. I suffered when the immigration person asked me if I was Jewish after I told him I was a refugee from the Nazis, the last generation to be able to tell the heinous story. He wanted me to prove that I was Jewish. How was I to do that and yes, how deeply humiliating. When I witness the Israel of today, I feel enormous pain. I was deported because of my human rights beliefs and non violent actions. In detention I no longer felt safe or cared about. I don't even think it mattered that I am Jewish. Now I will not be allowed to return to Israel as the cycle of hate and fear goes on and on. Those of us who dreamed of a different kind of Israel can only weep.

Nathan Thrall has a great article in the current issue of the New York Review of Books on an issue that has received scant attention in the US press - US support for Salam Fayyad's anti-democratic crackdown in the West Bank. US support has come mainly through the work of Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, who has been training the Palestinian security forces being used to round up, arrest and intimidate the Palestinian Authority's opponents. One of the most notable, though understated, points of the article is the continuity from the Bush to Obama administrations in supporting this misguided and dangerous policy.

This project has more or less amounted to an US attempt to instigate a Palestinian civil war, similar to the contra policy in Nicaragua during the 1980s (Elliott Abrams ring any bells?). The result, as Mustafa Barghouti describes it in the last line of Thrall's article, is that Palestinians are now having to live "not [under] one occupation but two."

Ynet reported today that The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday criticized rock star Roger Waters for simply conveying the truth.

During Waters’ performances of “Goodbye Blue Sky,” in Toronto, an animated scene projects images of planes dropping bombs in the shape of Jewish Stars of David followed by dollar signs. It should be noted that the clip also displays bombs in the shape of crosses, Muslim crescents and a fuel company's logo.

We had better face it once and for all: artists are often significantly far ahead of our corrupted ‘liberal’ politicians, who, for some reason, keep silent instead of confronting the Jewish State. The truth needs to be told: Israel is the Jewish State and, actually, it does drop bombs from airplanes decorated with Jewish symbols, and those planes are flown by Jewish pilots.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued a statement saying that "it is outrageous that Roger Waters has chosen to use the juxtaposition of a Jewish Star of David with the symbol of dollar signs.…the use of such imagery in a concert setting seems to leave the message open to interpretation, and the meaning could easily be misunderstood as a comment about Jews and money.”

I am perplexed by Foxman’s comment. There is not actually much room for interpretation here: the facts are well established. The U.S. is providing Israel with at least $7.0 million each day. This is a lot of money -- especially when it converted into bombs and white phosphorus. The Israeli war crimes are also established : I advise Foxman to read the Goldstone Report.

If Foxman is really concerned about anti-Semitism, he would do far better to tackle the real root causes of anti Semitism, by confronting Israel and its lobbies about their policies, and he might think of leading world Jewry to do the same.

The Florida Democrat manipulates video to make his opponent seem to urge wives to 'submit' to husbands. He didn't. We thought Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida reached a low point when he falsely accused his opponent of being a draft dodger during the Vietnam War, and of not loving his country. But now Grayson has lowered the bar even further. He’s using edited video to make his rival appear to be saying the opposite of what he really said.

The Norwegian police said Tuesday that three suspected militants arrested in July had been planning an attack on a Danish newspaper whose publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 ignited fury in much of the Muslim world the following year. The claimed link to the cartoons in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper underscored the enduring impact of the 12 drawings as a focal point of militant action. Earlier this month, Danish police said a Chechen boxer had been planning to send a letter bomb to the same newspaper when the explosives went off accidentally at a hotel in Copenhagen. While the two cases were not believed to be directly linked, they “illustrate that there is a priority among militant Islamists to carry out acts of terror against Denmark and symbols connected” to the drawings, The Associated Press quoted Jakob Scharf, the head of Denmark police intelligence service, as saying.

[Editor's Comment:] There are alternatives to killing people because of the Muhammed cartoons...THIS is one of them. (WARNING: Sexually explicit cartoon involving the Danish royal family).

All across Europe, right-wing populist parties are enjoying significant popular support. Led by charismatic politicians like Geert Wilders, they are exploiting fear of Muslim immigration and frustration with the political establishment -- and are forcing mainstream parties to shift to the right.

[9 September 2010] Soldiers face charges over secret 'kill team' which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war. Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians. In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

Christopher Bollyn: Afghan War News Shock - Norwegian and U.S. Soldiers Kill for Thrills.
Information Clearing House: Killing For Sport: Confession Video -US Soldier Describes Thrill Kill of Innocent Afghans (Video)
The Olympian: Grisly details in charges against soldiers
Seattle Times: Stryker soldiers allegedly took corpses' fingers

WSWS: Military hearings on Afghanistan “kill team” begin Testimony Monday centered on Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 22, who faces three charges of premeditated murder. Along with the four other soldiers who participated in the killings, he could face the death penalty if convicted. All five of the soldiers deny the charges. According to the Army charge sheet, Morlock was involved in murders committed in a four-month period earlier this year. On January 15, Gul Mudin was killed “by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle,” which Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes, 19, carried out under the direction of Gibbs. Morlock is also charged with involvement in the murders of Marach Agha on February 22 and Mullah Adahdad on May 2, along with Gibbs, 22-year-old Spc. Adam Winfield, and 29-year-old Spc. Michael Wagnon II. After the victims were killed, “drop weapons” not of US origin were placed at the scene to make it look as though the men were insurgents. Morlock faces five other charges, including conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, assaulting another soldier, using hashish, violating a lawful general order, and trying to impede an investigation. (See, “The twelve soldiers charged in atrocity and cover-up”)

It's enough to make you re-think ordering that dessert next time: a new report has found that over two-thirds of the U.S. population is currently overweight. The report, released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), says that "soaring obesity rates make the US the fattest country in the OECD." More alarmingly, the problem of obesity in the U.S. is not limited to adults: America also has the highest rate of child obesity among developed nations.

The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground. The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.

The controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and video. Founder Julian Assange, who's reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED's Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished -- and what drives him. The interview includes graphic footage of a recent US airstrike in Baghdad.

The firm that supplies Tasers to police forces across the UK has had its licence revoked after supplying the weapons used by officers in the stand-off with gunman Raoul Moat, the Home Office said today. Pro-Tect Systems breached its licence by supplying the X12 Tasers and XRep ammunition, which were still being tested by the Home Office, directly to two police forces, the Home Office said.

Germany will finally clear its First World War debt by repaying nearly £60million this weekend. The £22billion reparations were set by the Allied victors – mostly Britain, France and America – as compensation and punishment for the 1914-18 war. The reparations were set at the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, by the Allied victors - mostly Britain, France and America. Most of the money was intended to go to Belgium and France, whose land, towns and villages were devastated by the war, and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging it. The initial sum agreed upon for war damages in 1919 was 226billion Reichsmarks, a sum later reduced to 132billion. In sterling at the time this was the equivalent of some £22billion. The German Federal Budget for 2010 shows the remaining portion of the debt that will be cleared on Sunday, October 3.

Israeli leaders are trying to distance themselves from remarks by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman about the unlikelihood of peace in the Middle East. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Lieberman said he believed that Israel must arrive at an interim agreement with the Palestinians that "could take a few decades," and that an ultimate agreement would require population and territorial exchanges. The comments enraged Palestinian delegates, who reacted by walking out of the session. After his UN speech, Lieberman spoke to Israel's Channel 2 news where he accused the Palestinians for lacking interest in peace, saying that Israel should stop blaming itself for failing to achieve it.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak emphasized late on Tuesday that the comments did not reflect the Israeli regime's stance and certainly not the Labor party's attitude, confirming his party believed in a continuation of talks and finding a breakthrough, the Jerusalem Post reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had disassociated itself almost immediately from the minister's UN remarks by informing the media that his speech had not been coordinated with the premier.

The origins of Political Correctness can be found in the early part of the 20th Century.

AWIP: Organized Jewry as a Nation Dispersant

Campaigner Mairead Maguire was detained in Tel Aviv airport after arriving in the country as part of a women’s peace delegation. The Nobel Women’s Initiative, an organisation co-founded by Ms Maguire and five other Nobel peace laureates, planned the trip to meet women involved in peace initiatives in Palestine and Israel. Professor Jody Williams, who is due to travel to Tel Aviv as part of the delegation later, said the group was concerned over her detention. “We are very concerned that a committed fellow activist is being refused into the country,” she said. “Mairead’s dedication to peace should not be considered a threat to national security.”

Israel on Tuesday prevented an aid ship carrying Jewish anti-blockade activists bound for the Gaza Strip from reaching its destination, the Israeli military said. There was no violence or incidents as naval forces boarded the ship, the ‘Irene’, as it approached the Gaza coast. The vessel was being towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, about 38 kilometres north of Gaza city. The military statement said the ‘Irene’ was boarded after its captain ignored two warnings that it was breaking Israeli and international law. The ‘Irene’, sailing under a British flag, left Cyprus on Sunday and was en route to the Gaza Strip, which has been subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007.

On board are 10 left-wing Jewish activists, including a Holocaust survivor and a man whose daughter was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing in 1997. Organisers say they are bringing “symbolic aid” to Palestinians in Gaza — textbooks, prosthetic limbs, toys, musical instruments and fishing nets.

PressTV: 'Israel's Gaza boat takeover violent' Passengers onboard a Jewish aid boat, which was intercepted by Israeli warships en route to the Gaza Strip, refute Israel's claims of non-violent takeover. On Tuesday, around 10 Israeli warships surrounded the aid vessel Irene nearly 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the Gaza coast, forcefully diverting it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. Following the incident, Israeli army officials insisted that the takeover was carried out without any use of force, but the civilian activists onboard the vessel begged to differ. "There are no words to describe what we went through," Israel's Ynet news website quoted passenger Yonatan Shapira as saying.

The European Commission may prosecute France for breaching EU laws after the French government drove thousands of Roma migrants out of the country. The commission will meet behind closed doors on Wednesday to deliberate whether or not it will sue France for breaching EU freedom of movement rules. France triggered a wave of criticism after French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered a crackdown against illegal traveler camps in July and deported more than 1,700 Roma migrants. The European body described the actions as a disgrace.

AWIP: The persecution of Roma—under the Nazis and today

So many 9/11 witnesses or people who would seem to have knowledge of the cover up have been mysteriously dying. This all can't be a coincidence.

Bill Would Demand Every Online Service to Be Capable of Wiretapping. Though the administration is also on the verge of getting broad powers to destroy the entire Internet on national security grounds, President Obama is also seeking Congressional approval for a bill that would grant him virtually limitless power to wiretap online communications as well. The bill would require every single online service with even a peripheral capability of allowing for communication to provide technology to allow the federal government to intercept messages and unscramble any encryption. The emphasis for many analysts is the impact of allowing the government broad wiretap powers over websites like Facebook, but the ability of sites to comply with the decryption requirement might be even more interesting than the former.

WSWS: Big Brother Obama: US to spy on Internet messaging: Regulations to target Skype, Facebook, Blackberry. The Obama White House is backing new regulations that would compel popular Internet messaging services like Facebook, Skype and Blackberry to open up their systems to FBI surveillance, the New York Times reported Monday, citing federal law enforcement and national security officials. The threat to democratic rights goes far beyond anything envisioned by the Bush administration. The goal is to make all forms of electronic communication that use the Internet subject to wiretapping and interception by federal police agencies. In the past few years there has been a large-scale shift from conventional telephone communication to Internet-based messaging, which is both cheaper and more secure.

Although no final decision has been made because of family considerations, ABC News has learned that White House officials are preparing for Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to announce on Friday -- as Congress adjourns for recess -- that he is leaving his post to explore a run for mayor of Chicago. White House officials expect that President Obama will also name an interim chief of staff, perhaps senior adviser Pete Rouse, at the announcement. Sources close to Emanuel cautioned that he has yet to pull that last trigger on the decision. Emanuel's likely departure is not a surprise; his mayoral aspirations are well known.

Tapes obtained by CNN of interrogations of a group of U.S. servicemen charged with unprovoked killings of Afghan civilians describe gruesome scenes of cold-blooded murder. "So we met this guy by his compound, so Gibbs walked him out, set him in place, was like standing here," says Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, detailing how, on patrol earlier this year and under the command of his sergeant, Calvin R. Gibbs, he and others took an Afghan man from his home and killed him.

Pakistan reacted angrily today after Nato said US helicopters had crossed into its territory from Afghanistan to attack "militants", claiming to have killed more than 50 Taliban fighters. The admission that two incursions had taken place over the weekend by helicopters from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), and possibly a further cross-border raid today, came after recent reports of a covert CIA military force in Afghanistan that crosses into Pakistan to kill Taliban and "al-Qaida" fighters. Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned the incursions as a "clear violation and breach of the UN mandate under which Isaf operates", saying it had made a formal protest to Nato. "In the absence of immediate corrective measures, Pakistan will be constrained to consider response options," said Abdul Basit, the foreign ministry spokesman.

Jason Ditz: Pakistan Lodges Official Protest Over US Incursion: At Least 60 Said Killed in US Raid.
Jason Ditz: CIA Dramatically Escalating Drone Strikes Against Pakistan: At Least 20 Separate Attacks Launched in September.

The Israeli military’s murderous assault in December 2008-January 2009 on the Palestinian population of Gaza is the subject of a powerful documentary by Norwegian director Vibeke Løkkeberg. The searing footage of a bombardment that lasted 22 days shook audiences at the festival. It is not easy to watch. Why should it be? Løkkeberg and producer-husband Terje Kristiansen explained to us in a conversation that Tears of Gaza was assembled primarily out of frontline footage taken by numerous Palestinians.

AWIP: Tears Of Gaza (Gazas Tårer) - Trailer

Israeli warships have intercepted a Jewish aid boat bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip, forcefully diverting the aid vessel to the Israeli port of Ashdod. "Ten Israeli warships forced the boat to head for (the Israeli port) of Ashdod by force, but without raiding the ship," Amjad al-Shawa, a Gaza-based organizer told AFP. "They surrendered because they were surrounded. They had no choice," he further explained.

The British-flagged aid vessel Irene was carrying seven Jewish activists from Israel, Britain, Germany and the United States, and two journalists, one of whom is an Israeli. Earlier, Yonatan Shapira, one of the Israeli activists on board, said the navy had contacted the boat and ordered the crew to change course. "They said we were approaching an area under naval blockade and told us to change course," Shapira told AFP by satellite telephone, saying the boat was about 20 miles from the Gaza coast. The Israeli forces also warned that the passengers and crew would be held "legally liable" if they insisted on heading to Gaza, especially those with Israeli nationality.

Summary: http://wideshut.co.uk - After just a small amount of research it is my belief that the much hyped Islam4UK group that proposed a march on Wootton Bassett, is actually a British Intelligence group hired by our corrupt government in order to cause further conflict between Muslims and Brits, to keep support for the wars high and to continue the trumped up threat of terrorism. Anjem Choudary is a unislamic fraud linked to Al-Mujaharoun, a group created by British Mi6 to fight the Serbians in the Kosovo war. Either it came back to bite us on the ass or he is still controlled by our own government! BNP and EDL supporters, and Islam4UK supporters are both dupes, being played like puppets by the new world order (global governance) agenda.

GISS US temperature data is based on the USHCN2 historical network, which adjusts recent thermometer readings upwards by a substantial amount before releasing the data to the public. The before/after blink comparator above shows that before adjustments, most of the US has seen cooling or neutral (blue) nighttime temperatures since 1895. (Some global warming eh?) But after adjustments, more than two thirds of the US shows warming (red) nighttime temperatures.

A number of Jewish settlers, working as security guards, opened fire on Saturday at night at a number of Palestinian homes in Al Sa’diyya neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem; no injuries were reported. A local woman was wounded in a separate attack. The Israeli police arrived at the scene and closed the neighborhood preventing the residents from leaving their homes.

Furthermore, clashes were reported after a group of Palestinian youths took off to the streets and burnt tires. The Israeli Police claimed that a Molotov cocktail was also hurled at a settlers’ home in East Jerusalem.

In related news, a 35-year-old Palestinian woman was wounded while standing on her balcony in Al Esawiyya town in East Jerusalem.

The woman was hit in the head by a rubber-coated bullet fired by the army; her condition was described as mild-to-moderate. She was moved to Hadassah Israeli hospital in the city. A Palestinian infant died on Friday after inhaling gas fired by the army in East Jerusalem. The 12-month-old infant was identified as Mohammad Abu Sneina.

IMEMC: Israeli airstrike kills three in central Gaza.
Ma'an: Israel soldiers injure and detain Hebron child.
My Palestine: No Justice for Jerusalem: Murdering Palestinian Jerusalemites in Cold Blood

Yesterday, the Viva Palestina 5 convoy arrived in Ancona to end the first leg of their land journey, and sail closer to the final destination. We all think the destination is Gaza, Palestine, but actually, it’s freedom for all of us. Nobody among us is really free if we allow the atrocities against the Palestinian people to continue, and breaking the siege, while not in our power, is just one of the most urgent things that needs to be done. Until that moment arrives, bringing aid to Gaza is a human duty. Those words are not in any way rhetorical. If Palestine is suffering such injustice in our day and age, we are all doomed. Yesterday, passing through our part of Italy was a convoy that will grow in size and strength, hopefully it will achieve its goal without a single hitch. If good intentions determined it, they would sail directly through and into Palestine. I’d like to share just a few of the many impressions I had as a witness to their passage.

The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos. The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground. The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.

AWIP: US emboldens Israel to kill Americans.
NECDP: The Heroes of the Mavi Marmara: a Turning Point for International Solidarity
Justin Raimondo: This Says It All: Israelis kill American – Joe Biden says: "What's the big deal?"
David Lindorff: US Media Hide Evidence: Did Israeli Troops Execute or Murder the Mavi Marmara Victims?

Si pensabas que la leyenda del caballo Whisperer fue impresionante, aquí está un cuento de animales con más mordida. "Pocho es mi mejor amigo. Esta es una rutina muy peligrosa, pero tenemos una buena relación. Él me mira a los ojos y no me ataque. "Es demasiado peligroso para cualquier otra persona a entrar en el agua. Es sólo nosotros dos". Chito hecho amistad con el cocodrilo después de encontrarlo con una herida de bala en las orillas de la América Central del Estado Parismina río hace 20 años. Le habían disparado en el ojo izquierdo por un ganadero y estaba a punto de morir. Sin embargo, Chito alistó la ayuda de varios amigos para cargar la enorme reptil en su barco. Él dice: "Cuando me encontré en el río Pocho estaba muriendo, así que lo puso en mi casa. "Estaba muy flaco, con un peso de sólo alrededor de 150 libras. Le di pollo y el pescado y la medicina durante seis meses para ayudarle a recuperarse. "Me quedé del lado de Pocho mientras estaba enfermo, durmiendo junto a él en la noche. Sólo quería que él se siente que alguien lo amaba, que no todos los seres humanos son malos. "Esto significa mucho sacrificio. Tenía que estar allí todos los días. Me encantan todos los animales - especialmente los que han sufrido." Tomó años antes de Chito consideró que Pocho había servidumbre con él lo suficiente como para acercarse a los animales.

"It is too dangerous for anyone else to come in the water. It is only ever the two of us." Chito made friends with the croc after finding him with a gunshot wound on the banks of the Central American state's Parismina river 20 years ago. He had been shot in the left eye by a cattle farmer and was close to death. But Chito enlisted the help of several pals to load the massive reptile into his boat. He says: "When I found Pocho in the river he was dying, so I brought him into my house. I stayed by Pocho's side while he was ill, sleeping next to him at night. I just wanted him to feel that somebody loved him, that not all humans are bad. "It meant a lot of sacrifice. I had to be there every day. I love all animals - especially ones that have suffered." It took years before Chito felt that Pocho had bonded with him enough to get closer to the animal.

Crocodile Man
Chito and Pocho Costa Rica
The story of Chito and Pocho (Pictorial)
Chito and his best mate (Video + Photos + Story in English)

According to documents obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act, the aide complained that the heating costs had doubled to £1 m a year and that the government grant to maintain the Queens palaces was inadequate. The requests for replacement of four combined heat and power units at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle had been turned down along with an email sent to the Palace, Department for Culture, Media and Sport explaining that the handouts were to assist low income families. The email also expressed concern that if the Queen was handed money from the poverty fund, it would lead to probable adverse press coverage.

A spokesman for Republic, a campaign group calling for the end of the monarchy, said that “it was the most crass thing he had ever heard. The antipoverty grant is meant for the needy people and the idea that the Palace can take money from the poor to bankroll the rich is disgusting.” A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the application which had been refused.

Les Visible: The Queen and Sexy Sady need some Heat

A senior Israeli commander has threatened that the military would not hesitate to use any of its means of engagement in the next war against the Gaza Strip.

"We have less performance constraints there than in other areas, and we will not hesitate to use the many tools in our possession," the commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Gaza Division, Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, said about possible Israeli offensives on the coastal sliver. The next war would be a "more painful, complex, and powerful round," he was quoted as saying by Israeli website Ynetnews on Friday.

Eisenberg was among the top military brass to command the Operation Cast Lead, the codename for Israeli army's onslaught on Gaza at the turn of 2009. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), the Israeli act of aggression killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including 313 children and 116 women.

[Illustration: 2010 © The People's Voice] At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets":

in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality.

Cyberterrorism is such a threat that the U.S. president should have the authority to shut down the Internet in the event of an attack, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said. [There is no 'cyberterrorism'. There is some cybercriminality however and the CIA itself is behind a lot of it.] Hayden made the comments during a visit to San Antonio where he was meeting with military and civilian officials to discuss cyber security. The U.S. military has a new Cyber Command which is to begin operations on October 1. Hayden said the president currently does not have the authority to shut down the Internet in an emergency. [Nor should he ever have it. -By what right?]

How well did the White House react to the Gulf oil spill disaster? A federal panel appointed by President Barack Obama starts its investigation Monday. The two-day meeting of the presidential oil spill commission will look at the controversial use of chemical dispersants, a moratorium on deep-water drilling and Obama's plans to make the Gulf's environment better than it was before the huge spill. It will also examine who was in charge of making critical decisions — BP PLC or the federal government. The April 20 explosion and fire killed 11 workers, sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and unleashed 206 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. It also tested the oil industry's and government's capabilities to respond to a massive blowout in deep water.

Bulldozers began operating this morning in Jewish settlements on the West Bank in direct defiance of a plea from the Israeli Prime Minister. Residents of the town Ariel wok to hear construction work beginning on more than 50 new housing units, the Jerusalem Post reported. A moratorium on building in Israeli settlements elapsed at midnight this morning, threatening the recently resumed peace talks. Bejamin Neanyahu had pleaded for restraint from his people, although wild right-wing celebrations greeted the expiry of the government's 10-month ban. Bulldozers, cement mixers and other construction equipment have been moved into some areas overnight, although he said 'nothing spectacular is happening'. Citing money problems, he predicted that only a few hundred homes would be built in the next few months.

The United States will now wait for the next move from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has kept peace hopes alive by saying that his team would not withdraw from the negotiating table. One settler leader, Dani Dayan, said land-moving equipment would begin laying the groundwork for new Jewish homes in West Bank settlements straight away.