02/04/12

Permalink Russia, China veto U.N. resolution on Syria

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down amid escalating violence. - The other 13 members of the council, including the United States, Britain and France, voted in an unusual weekend session favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria. The rare double-veto was issued following days of negotiations aimed at overcoming Russian opposition to the draft resolution. Several European envoys said before the session that they felt compelled to call for the vote despite Russia's attempts to seek a delay because of the escalating violent crackdown by Assad's regime. The urgency was heightened by an assault by Syrian forces firing mortars and artillerey on the city of Homs. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.

NYT: Deadly Attack on Syrian City Adds to Push for U.N. to Act


Permalink US terror drone crashes in Somalia

A non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone has crashed into a refugee camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Press TVreports. - Refugees and soldiers in Mogadishu's Badbado camp say they watched the unmanned aircraft crash into a hut on Friday. Shortly after the incident, forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) closed down the refugee camp, which is in the Dharkenley district of southern Mogadishu, the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported. Somali government officials and African Union forces found the drone after the crash and took it away. The US is using a new kind of drone, called a kamikaze drone, in Somalia. It functions both as a missile and an intelligence-gathering reconnaissance aircraft.


Permalink Anonymous Leaks Huge Cache of Emails From Iraq War Crimes Case

Anonymous is on a rampage today. Just hours after leaking a confidential phone call between the FBI and Scotland yard, members have released a huge archive of emails and documents related to the 2005 Haditha Massacre, which left 24 Iraqi civilians dead.

Just a few minutes ago, Anonymous announced they had stolen 2.6 gigabytes of email belonging to the law firm Puckett Faraj. Neal Puckett represents Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who was accused of leading the group of Marines who killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November, 2005—what later became known as the Haditha Massacre. Last month, Wuterich struck a plea deal where he'll be demoted from Staff Sergeant to Private, but will serve no prison time.

Anonymous promises the emails contain "detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records" about the Haditha case, and other cases Puckett Faraj handles.

Russia Today: Anonymous reveals Haditha massacre emails
Naomi Spencer: No prison time for Marine charged in Haditha massacre
Russia Today: Department of Homeland Security website hacked by Anonymous


Permalink Charges dropped against U.S. soldier in Afghan murder case

The U.S. Army has dismissed all charges against the last of five soldiers to face a court-martial in the slaying of unarmed Afghan civilians, officials from their home base near Tacoma, Washington, said on Friday. - Army Specialist Michael Wagnon had been charged with premediated murder in the death of a villager in Afghanistan during a tour of duty in February 2010. "As of right now, he's pretty much a free man," said Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord. "He is still in the Army but a free man." Wagnon, 31, was released from military detention and placed under home confinement in April.


Permalink Syrian Forces Kill More Than 200 in Homs - Videos

In a barrage of shelling, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds early Saturday in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said. - The offensive was reported in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition to the regime during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Two main opposition groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the death toll was more than 200 people. More than half of the killings — about 140 — were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood. "This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March until now," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground. The reports could not be independently confirmed.


Permalink Death Toll Is Said to Rise in Syrian City of Homs

Syria opposition leaders raised the death toll to 260 in a military assault Saturday on the ravaged central city of Homs, an attack that opposition leaders described as the government’s deadliest in the nearly 11-month-old uprising. - Reports were contradictory, given the difficulty of communications with Homs, and the Syrian government flatly denied the toll, calling it an attempt at propaganda ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting Saturday on Syria. But videos smuggled out of the city and reports by opposition activists showed a harrowing barrage of mortar shells and gunfire that left hundreds more wounded in the city. “It’s an unprecedented attack,” said Mohammed Saleh, an opposition activist from Homs who recently fled to a nearby town to escape the mounting strife there. As word spread of the barrage, opposition protests broke out Saturday at Syrian embassies around the world, including Egypt, Germany and Kuwait. Accounts by activists, independently basing their information on what they described as contacts in Homs, said the barrage was apparently unleashed after defectors attacked two military checkpoints and kidnapped soldiers. One activist put the number of abducted soldiers at 13, another 19. They suggested that enraged commanders then ordered the assault, which lasted from about 9 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday, focusing on the neighborhood of Khaldiya. Five other neighborhoods were also assaulted. The precise number of dead was almost impossible to obtain.

USA Today: Syrian activists: 200 dead in government assault


Permalink Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine


A photojournalist wounded when Israeli troops used
force to disperse a peaceful demonstration in Bil’ein
village, west of Ramallah.

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period.

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 3 Palestinian civilians, including 2 cameramen, in the West Bank. In the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, Muhib Mohammed Asaad al-Barghouthi, 46, photographer of al-Hayat al-Jadida Newspaper, sustained wounds by two bullets to the feet. Al- Barghouthi was transferred to Palestine Medical Compound in Ramallah for treatment. Also Mohammed Ateya al-Tamimi, cameraman of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlement in Nabi Saleh village, sustained wounds by a tear gas canister to the right foot. A third Palestinian demonstrator also sustained wounds by a bullet to the right leg. PCHR fieldworker was unable to get the personal information of the third wounded person as he came from another village and he was not transferred to any hospital or medical center for treatment. On 31 January, Imad Ahed Khalil Abu Hashem, 21, sustained shrapnel wounds by a sound bomb when IOF used excessive force against a peaceful demonstration in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. Additionally, dozens of Palestinian civilians and human rights defenders participating in peaceful demonstrations suffered from tear gas inhalation. [...] Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 56 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and a university professor. In the Gaza Strip, on 29 January 2012, IOF, backed by military vehicles and apaches, moved into Gaza International Airport, in the far southeast of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip amid indiscriminate firing. IOF arrested Hajjaj Yousif Ehmeid al-Soufi, 21, who is a university student and Ahmed Hussein Awad Abu Athra, 20, who is a member of the Palestinian National Security Service. Al-Soufi and Abu Athra are from al-Shouka village in the east of Rafah. Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.


Permalink US Senate seeks to shut Iran out of global banking system

US Senate's latest package of sanctions against Iran seeks to eject the Iranian financial sector form a global banking system used to transfer money between banks across the world. - On Thursday, Senate's Banking Committee passed a bipartisan bill that targets Tehran's energy and telecommunications sectors. If passed into law, the bill will require the White House to press the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to shut out the Iranian Central Bank and financial institutions from the system. The motion would authorize the US Treasury to impose sanction against SWIFT and its affiliated financial institutions, unless the Belgium-based body excludes Iranian banks. In response, SWIFT has announced that it will comply with any future sanction laws. The new bill would also give the US legal authority to sanction foreign companies that buy oil from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), have oil shipped by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), or supply Iran with telecommunications equipment.

AWIP: Petrodollar pumping US policy on Iran, backfire looms


Permalink UK sends nuclear submarine to Malvinas

The UK is sending a nuclear submarine to the Malvinas Islands amid growing tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed territories. - According to media reports on Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved the deployment of the Trafalgar-class vessel, believed to be either HMS Tireless or HMS Turbulent, in the South Atlantic. However, a British Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on submarine deployments." The heavily-armed submarine is set to be in the Malvinas waters in April for the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war which the two countries fought over the islands also known as the Falklands. The Royal Navy has already revealed it is sending HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, to the Falklands. Britain's Prince William arrived in the Malvinas on Thursday for a six-week training mission as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF).


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