03/15/12

Permalink In 'highly unusual' move, Marines asked to disarm before Leon Panetta speech

In a highly unusual move, around 200 U.S. Marines were asked to leave their weapons outside the tent where U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to speak during his trip to Afghanistan on Wednesday. - Although the military said the order was not given in response to Sunday's shooting of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by an American soldier, it possibly underlined how high tensions were running after the incident. "You've got one of the most important people in the world in the room," Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus told reporters at Camp Leatherneck, dismissing concerns related to the shooting. "This is not a big deal." He said he had given the order because the two dozen Afghan soldiers also there were unarmed and he did not want to treat them differently.


Permalink Obama’s personal role in a journalist’s imprisonment

As we now know, on December 17, 2009, President Obama ordered an air attack — using Tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs — on the village of al Majala in Yemen’s southern Abyan province; the strike ended the lives of 14 women and 21 children. At the time, the Yemeni government outright lied about the attack, falsely claiming that it was Yemen’s air force which was responsible. [...] There is one reason that the world knows the truth about what really happened in al Majala that day: because the Yemeni journalist, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, traveled there and, as Scahill writes, “photographed the missile parts, some of them bearing the label ‘Made in the USA,’ and distributed the photos to international media outlets.” He also documented the remnants of the Tomahawks and cluster bombs, neither of which is in Yemen’s arsenal. And he provided detailed accounts proving that scores of civilians, including those 21 children, had been killed in the attacks. It was Shaye’s journalism that led Amnesty International to show the world the evidence that it was the U.S. which had perpetrated the attack using cluster bombs, and media outlets to reveal the horrifying extent of the civilian deaths. [...] Despite that important journalism — or, more accurately, because of it — Shaye is now in prison, thanks largely to President Obama himself. [...] Shaye’s real crime is that he reported facts that the U.S. government and its Yemeni client regime wanted suppressed. But while the imprisonment of this journalist was ignored in the U.S, it became a significant controversy in Yemen. Numerous Yemeni tribal leaders, sheiks and activist groups agitated for his release, and in response, President Saleh, as the Yemeni press reported, had a pardon drawn up for him and was ready to sign it. That came to a halt when President Obama intervened. According to the White House’s own summary of Obama’s February 3, 2011, call with Saleh, “President Obama expressed concern over the release of Abd-Ilah al-Shai.”


Permalink Top Goldman Sachs executive quits over culture of 'toxic' greed

Greg Smith, who leaves Goldman Sachs today after 12 years at the company, rising from summer intern to executive director and head of its US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, slammed colleagues who “callously” talk about ripping their clients off, stating he had also seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets”. In an article titled ‘Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs’, Smith said: "I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money."

"I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them. If you were an alien from Mars and sat in on one of these meetings, you would believe that a client’s success or progress was not part of the thought process at all."

Andre Damon & Barry Grey: An insider’s view of Wall Street criminality


Permalink USDA plans to keep feeding 'pink slime' to kids

After garnering nationwide attention for being secretly added to processed hamburgers and beef products, including those served in school lunchrooms, "lean finely textured beef," aka "pink slime," is reportedly on its way out from the menu offerings of McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King. But according to Mother Jones, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to keep ordering this imitation, ammonia-laced product for use in its National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a taxpayer-funded government food program that serves low-income students.

Pink slime gained much notoriety after being featured in the acclaimed 2008 documentary Food Inc.. Robert Kenner, the film's director, revealed an inside look into Beef Products International (BPI), a South Sioux City, Neb.-based processing plant that produces most of the nation's supply of pink slime. The product, which is composed of bovine connective tissue and random beef scraps doused in ammonia and formed into a paste, is commonly used as a beef filler because it is low-cost and supposedly less risky compared to conventional ground beef.


Permalink Syrian envoy to UN: External parties seek to disintegrate Syria

The Syrian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, says “external parties” are fueling the crisis in Syria and seek to disintegrate the Middle Eastern state.

"The crisis is not due to peaceful protests or demands for reform. The crisis is due to the influence of external parties bent on afflicting my country, waging a media war against Syria and imposing economic sanctions against the Syrian people," Hamui said in a UN Human Rights Council session on Monday. "Civil war is being ignited ... this is a prelude to partition of Syria, this is the aim of Israel and those supporting the endeavor, the prolonged colonization of Arab territories," he told the session.

The Syrian envoy’s remarks came in response to a UN Human Rights Council’s report on the Syrian crisis, which blamed the Syrian government for the crisis in the country.

PressTV: Russia slams bid to mislead international community on Syria - The Russian Foreign Minister has condemned efforts by certain Western countries for a regime change in Syria by misleading the international community and manipulating the UN Security Council.

James Petras: The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State - There is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria is a violent, power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.


Permalink Israelis warned about potential ‘terror’ attacks in Turkey [There may be an Israeli terror attack on Turkey soon]

The Israeli regime has issued a warning, advising Israelis not to travel to Turkey, citing alleged potential of attacks against them in the country. - “Terror groups" are planning to carry out attacks against Jewish and Israeli sites inside Turkey in the coming days, read the announcement made on Tuesday. Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel have tarnished since May 2010 when Israeli forces attacked an Ankara-backed Gaza Strip-bound aid flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, killing nine Turkish activists and injuring about 50 others. Tel Aviv has so far refused to either apologize for the attack or compensate the families of the victims.


Permalink Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine


A Palestinian family mourn their son who was killed by
an Israeli air strike east of Khan Yunis on 10 March 2012

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (08 – 14 March 2012). Shooting: Israeli Offensive on the Gaza Strip

On Friday evening, 09 March 2012, IOF initiated a new offensive on the Gaza Strip, which continued until Monday evening, 12 March 2012, as a new Egyptian-brokered Tahdey’a (lull) was reached between IOF and Palestinian resistance groups. During this offensive, IOF killed 24 Palestinians, including the Secretary-General and a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, who was extra-judicially executed by an air strike. The victims include also 4 civilians (two old men, a woman and a child). Additionally, 74 Palestinians were wounded, 59 are civilians, including 16 children and 7 women. During this offensive, IOF launched a series of air strikes targeting Palestinian resistance activists and civilian facilities. In the West Bank, on 08 March 2012, IOF killed a Palestinian child and seriously wounded and arrested another one in Yatta town, south of Hebron. IOF moved into the town to arrest a Palestinian who was released from Israeli jails in the recent prisoners swap between IOF and Palestinian resistance groups. IOF claimed that soldiers opened fire “after a Palestinian had stabbed a soldier.” 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, two Palestinian civilian were wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. IOF also arrested a Palestinian civilian and an international human rights defender.


Permalink Gaza: Boy Dies of Wounds Sustained on Monday; Jetfighters Bomb Gaza City

Gaza: Boy Dies of Wounds Sustained on Monday; Jetfighters Bomb Gaza City. - The latest round of escalation started after the Israeli army assassinated, on Friday, leader of the armed Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza and his assistance. Palestinian sources announced today that among those 26 killed were five elderly men, two women and five children. 80 people in total were injured some lies in critical conditions. Meanwhile on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning Israeli jet fighters violated the Egyptian meditated truce and conducted air raids targeting a number of locations in Gaza city. One of the targeted buildings was a wood factory. The factory was totally destroyed, no injuries reported. Cairo announced on Tuesday that a ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza ending five days of escalation in the costal enclave. According to Cairo Israel will stop attacks and extra judicially assassinations while Palestinian resistance will halt home-made shells fire from Gaza. Meanwhile Israeli army officials dobbed the Egyptian meditated truce “fragile” adding that Palestinian groups may violate the truce deal. Yesterday Palestinian groups announced that they will resume firing home-made Qassam shells into Israeli towns near Gaza if Israel does not keep its end of the deal.

PressTV: Israeli warplane attacks northern Gaza Strip
Stephen Lendman: Israeli-Style Ceasefires + Israel's Latest Ritual Slaughter


Permalink Israeli study shows: Plants 'talk' through the roots

The Ben-Gurion University team discovers plants can transmit distress signals to each other through their roots.

The Ben-Gurion University team discovered that plants can transmit distress signals to each other through their roots. An injured plant "communicates" to a healthy one, which in turn relays the signal to neighboring plants, possibly enhancing the other plants' ability to deal with stress in the future, according to the study, recently published in the periodical PLoS (Public Library of Science One).

The researchers, headed by plant biologist Ariel Novoplansky of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, exposed five garden pea plants to drought conditions. They found that the stressed plant closes its leaves to prevent water loss. Meanwhile its roots release signals that caused neighboring plants, which were not exposed to drought conditions, to react as if they had been. The study, "Rumor Has It ...: Relay Communication of Stress Cues in Plants," shows the unstressed plants transmitted the information on to other healthy plants. Preliminary results indicate that plants that receive the distress signals will survive better if exposed to drought at a later stage in their life. Novoplansky and his team found that the distress signals are passed on not only from the injured plant to the adjacent healthy one, but also from the healthy one to its neighbors, which transmit it onwards, all through the plants' roots. Previous studies have shown that plants communicate through their leaves or stems, but the Israeli team revealed "underground" communication through roots. Novoplansky believes the signals released by plants are generic and capable of passing from one plant species to another.


Permalink Greek health service faces catastrophic cuts

Massive cuts to the public health care service were passed by the Greek parliament on March 1. - The reduction of €1 billion euros in health spending was the final domestic legislation required under the “prior action” agreement with the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank to allow Greece access to the second 130 billion euro loan. Measures include the extension of pharmacy opening hours, cuts in drugs spending by state pension funds and legislation mandating generic drug prescriptions. The cuts have led to widespread protests from medical workers. The day before the vote, workers at state hospitals held a 24-hour strike. A common sight throughout Athens prior to the vote was a poster outside pharmacies in which Health Minister Andreas Loverdos was portrayed as a gravedigger.

WSWS/AWIP: Hunger and homelessness on the rise in Greece


Permalink Leaked map reveals Ethiopia’s mass evictions plan

Ethiopian authorities have inadvertently revealed the existence of highly ambitious plans to resettle Lower Omo Valley tribes who stand in the way of a massive plantations scheme. - The map was included in an internal report by the country’s Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), into the environmental impact of planned sugarcane plantations in the Omo. Leaked to Survival International, the map shows where Ethiopia intends to resettle tribes whose land and communities stand in the way of their ‘development’ plans. It reveals the huge ambition of the project, which is already destroying the land of tribes such as the Mursi, Bodi and Kwegu. Reliable sources have confirmed to Survival that construction has already begun on at least three resettlement camps on Bodi land in the north of the Lower Omo Valley.


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