In A Crowded Theatre

The Age

It's strange that our terror laws, enacted to protect life and limb against violent fanatics bent on the destruction of life and limb, are used on doctors who give sim cards to their cousins. Mentally disturbed fire-bugs who kill at least 84 people will instead have to be caught and prosecuted under normal laws, if they are ever caught at all. The final toll will almost certainly be higher than the Bali bombings. Fire bugs are elusive prey and it's difficult to collect evidence against them, exactly the reasons we're told we need special laws to catch terrorists. What a strange set of priorities we have as a society.

UPDATE
Apparently the arsonists could be charged with murder, but only if it's proved they showed reckless criminal intent. WTF?

Documenting more Israeli war crimes

A pattern of behaviour. From The Weekend Australian:

THREE witnesses have claimed that Israeli soldiers shot in cold blood two civilians who had their hands in the air on the second day of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

In an investigation by The Weekend Australian in Gaza, the three people making the claim were on a tractor that was stopped by Israeli soldiers about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of January 4 in northern Gaza - the second day of Israel's ground operation.

Two of the witnesses were on a trailer being pulled by the tractor and the third was sitting on one of the wheel coverings.

They say Israeli soldiers who had taken over a house they were driving past shouted from a balcony for them to pull over.

When two of the men, Matar Abu Halima, 18, and Mohammed Abu Halima, also 18, got off the tractor with their hands in the air, they were shot several times in the chest. One died instantly, the other shortly after. A few minutes later, two others on the tractor, Nabeela Abu Halima and Omar Abu Halima, were also shot, but did not die - a woman says she was shot in the arm because she refused to leave the scene, saying she wanted to help the injured, and a man says he was shot through the arm because he refused to strip naked.

Israeli Defence Forces are investigating the allegations, but said the two people shot dead had been terrorists.

The tractor was taking to hospital two injured people and the body of a 15-month-old girl who had died shortly before in a fire following an attack by an Israeli rocket.

The witnesses say following the incident with the tractor, the charred body of the girl lay by the side of the road for eight days. Her legs and stomach were eaten by dogs.

The Weekend Australian has seen a picture of the girl taken by medics who finally picked her up - her head and torso are recognisable, although black with burns, while her legs are stumps with only the bones remaining.

Her brother is keeping a copy of the photograph in his mobile phone.

The incident occurred outside a primary school in the northern village of Beit Lahiya, which the IDF had taken over as a base for tanks.

The woman, Nabeela Abu Halima, says soldiers also violated her house, defecating in her pots and pans by cutting the seats out of furniture and placing pans underneath.

She says they wrote graffiti on the walls, including, in Hebrew, "Next time it's going to be harder" and "You have chosen Hamas!!!", a map of Israel with a fist next to Gaza and the drawing of a naked woman.

Twenty-four hours after The Weekend Australian put the allegations to the IDF, spokesman Captain Benjamin Rutland said the IDF was investigating the matters raised. "They are working on this .. issue. It is more important to the IDF to conduct a very thorough investigation than to complete it speedily."

Captain Rutland added: "The IDF trains its soldiers to minimise injuries to civilians and to respect all civilians on the battlefront."

Later, the IDF issued a statement saying: "In this incident, two armed militants were spotted riding a tractor along with an infant's body. The militants opened fire on IDF troops, and both the terrorists were killed in the following exchange of fire."

An IDF spokesman would not provide an answer to why, if there were two armed militants on the tractor, four people were shot - two shot dead initially and two shot through the arms later - and why the body of an infant was left by the side of the road for eight days.

And he would not say what the preliminary investigation found about whether the soldiers had defecated in Nabeela Abu

Halima's kitchen utensils, drawn graffiti and stolen her money.

Human rights investigators have begun working on the incident, which they say fits the definition of a war crime.

The two who survived both say they would give evidence about the incident to any official inquiry.

Nabeela Abu Halima is the mother of Matar. She said that as well as watching her son shot dead, her other son, Ali, 15, who was in the tractor, also saw his brother killed.

She said they had been travelling to the hospital when Israeli soldiers shouted from a balcony, "Stop! stop!"

"So we stopped," she said. "We raised our hands. Mohammed and Matar raised their hands too and got off the tractor, but Israeli soldiers shot them."

She said most of the bullets were in the chest of the two men; Matar appeared to die immediately but Mohammed was still alive.

He died some time later.

"An Israeli soldier shouted 'Leave! leave!' and I said 'Just let me take Mohammed and Matar.' They kept telling me 'Leave! leave!' and I said again, 'Just let me take Matar and Mohammed.'

"After that, they ordered Mohammed (a second Mohammed on the tractor, the brother of Omar Abu Halima) to take off his clothes. He tore his clothes off and was completely naked."

Nabeela Abu Halima said they then ordered Omar Abu Halima to strip naked and he refused. She said they then shot him through the arm. When she again refused to leave, she says they then shot her in the arm.

She said other people in the village said after they left, a tank turned the tractor on its side then ran over it, crushing it.

She said the incident and what she said Israeli soldiers did in her house have turned her from opposing Hamas to supporting them.

Apart from the graffiti, she says Israeli soldiers broke a cupboard and stole her life savings - about 30,000 Israeli Shekels (about $12,000).

She said she kept the money at home because "we don't know how to deal with banks or investments".

She said only a year ago she confronted Hamas fighters in her street who wanted to fire rockets into southern Israel, saying they should not because it would bring retribution upon her neighbourhood and that it would be people like her who suffered the consequences, not the fighters who would leave the area.

She said Hamas had threatened her when she had said this.

She added: "Now if Hamas members come back, I swear to god I will help them fire rockets into Israel."

Is there anyone who thinks they wouldn't, in her shoes?

Again, this is happening on our watch. We are in league with a government, the US, that actively supports the government of Israel, financially and militarily. Australia abstains from votes condemning Israeli war crimes in the UN. Why? What kind of monster do you have to be to be ambivalent about whether the kind of actions detailed above constitute gross crimes against humanity?

Happy January... Gaza

While we were sleeping drinking...

Apologies for the posting drought- I came down with a virus a couple of days after Christmas and have mostly been too tired to do anything (and I'm now back at work) and Gam has been back at work since the 2nd. So, a belated happy new year to everyone... Well, everyone except the poor sods stuck in the hellhole called Gaza. We all have a responsibility to stay aware of what's happening there. The world still pretends people didn't know what was going on during the first Holocaust, but there should be plenty of people alive to call the bastards liars when they finally claim not to have known the true extent of the humanitarian catastrophe being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people this time around.

People who actively supported the killing of these small children:

• George W. Bush, President of the United States of America
  
• Dick Cheney, Vice-President of the United States of America
• Harry Reid, Democrat Senator, Nevada
• Dick Durbin, Democrat Senator, Illinois

... god the list would be a long one if I included everyone who has voiced support for Israel's actions in its war on Gaza. The entire staff of The Australian, it seems, for one.

If I were to include everyone who has tacitly supported the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians- women, children and men, despite the apparent assumption by Israel and every member of the western media that every male over the age of 14 is a terrorist- the list would be even longer. Most members of the Rudd government would be on it, most members of Malcolm Turnbull's Opposition would be on it. Barack Obama, who has also failed to condemn the state-sanctioned mass murder of Palestinians, would be on it.

The excuse de jour for Israel's 'collateral damage' seems to be the old 'Hamas are hiding in civilian areas' bullshit. What no-one in the western media sees fit to point out is that Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. There are no wide open spaces, Hamas has no tanks, no planes with bombs to drop on Israeli houses or troops- they have ordinary guys with guns and pathetic rockets that kill one or two Israelis per year. Complaining that Hamas is 'hiding' behind civilians when they exist in this tiny, densely populated ghetto created by Israel, is a bullshit excuse for blowing up children. Those deaths can never, ever be justified, and it takes a special kind of inhuman scum to even try it.

UPDATE: Good article from Online Opinion by Greg Barns, who comments on the rank hypocrisy of the Australian and US governments in their positions against Hamas and the Palestinian people:

In Australia you can go to jail for donating money to a cause like Hamas, which runs the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians on the Gaza Strip.

However, it is not an offence for you to support organisations in Israel, which actively disrupt the lives of Palestinians by ripping up their olive groves or financing illegal settlements in areas of clear dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hypocritical? You bet.

Israel's latest assault on humanity

I'd been thinking that the media coverage of Israel's war on Gaza was rather woefully inadequate, and figured maybe it would take a few days for Gaza's side of the story to start trickling out. Stuff like this.

Tonight, however, I discovered why the coverage has been so damn poor. According to the BBC:

Israel is not currently permitting international journalists to cross into Gaza

Now, you'd think that that particular fact would be a pertinent one for, say, the Sydney Morning Herald to mention in the news articles on its website that pertain to Israel's attack on Gaza. Apparently not.

I was disgusted to read this piss-poor piece of reporting in the SMH yesterday, containing a quote from Israeli PM Ehud Olmert:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged Israel will do its utmost to avert a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"The people in Gaza do not deserve to suffer because of the killers and murderers of the terrorist organisation,'' he said, referring to Hamas.
He insisted that Israel had only hit Hamas targets, including command structures and rocket manufacturing installations.

I have two things to say about that:

A) There already is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza because of Israel's blockade of food, fuel and medical supplies. Something like 50% of children are malnourished, people are dying unnecessarily because of a lack of access to proper medical care, and there is running water only once per week. Israel has created a ghetto full of Palestinian people and is slowly starving them. 'Never again'? It's happening right under our noses and we're doing nothing to stop it because Israel uses the mantle of the Holocaust to deflect criticism for its crimes against humanity.

B) Bullshit only Hamas targets are being hit. In these situations there is always what the Americans like to call 'collateral damage'. The only reason we don't yet know about Israel's little 'whoopsies' that have ended in the bloody deaths of innocent civilians and children is because Israel is doing its best to keep journalists from the scene of their crimes. Here's something from a better-than-average article on the issue in the Guardian:

Ali Abu Rabia was a student at a UN vocational college for Palestinian refugees in the Rimal district of Gaza City. He sat an exam on Saturday morning, his father said, and after the first Israeli air strikes decided to go home. He was standing in the street with others when an Israeli missile struck, at around 1.30pm. Reportedly it had been aimed at a policeman seen nearby with a walkie-talkie.

"It was a place full of students. It was not a military base. But in spite of this they still attacked, all because of one policeman," said Ali's father

A single Hamas policeman in a public area filled with people certainly doesn't sound like a valid target to me. Nope. What Israel is doing is committing yet another round of crimes against humanity, with no regard for civilian life. Already it is being reported by the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency that at least 57 of the 300-odd victims were civilians.

The reporting on Israel's attack on Gaza is fucking disgraceful, as has been their way for years. Journalists who fail to do their job bear moral responsibility in the crimes they help cover up.

UPDATE 31/12/2008: At least 25% of all fatalities (390 and counting) in Israel's war on Gaza have been civilians. 42 children have been killed by Israel so far. God knows how many more are going to die unnecessarily because Israel continues to prevent medical supplies from reaching Gaza.

Judged by what you read?

Imagine if all the lefty bloggers who read and critique the writings of wankers like Andrew Bolt were deemed to believe every word he had ever said, just by virtue of having read his rantings. That appears to be part of the basis for the 'terror' trial currently underway in NSW. Oh, and apparently reading articles by John Pilger might get you into hot water if you're a muslim:

...among the so-called extremist material found during a police raid on Mr Hasan's home was an article by journalist John Pilger that said if people got their news only from the TV they would have no idea of the roots of the Middle East conflict.

Also, get a load of this: the prosecution has attempted to manipulate the jury (which is easy to do, because juries are made up of your average idiots) by accusing the defendants of possessing 'ammunition' and 'chemicals', including dangerous 'hexamine tablets'. Hexamine tablets? You can buy them at Bunnings or the frigging supermarket. They're otherwise known as firestarters- something you might use at a barbeque. Doesn't sound so scary when you put it that way, does it?

British fascist attempting to visit Australia

From the Brisbane Times:

Fascist backers fear racial riots

Connie Levett | November 15, 2008

DENYING a visa to British fascist leader Nick Griffin, who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred, would only increase the likelihood of Cronulla-style racial conflict, his supporters say.

This piece has a very poorly chosen headline. Hard-core racists don't 'fear' a racist riot like Cronulla at all- they view Cronulla as a high point and incidents like it as prime recruiting opportunities. What's more, I reckon that sounds like a threat and they should be arrested on terrorism charges.

I'd also like to know why Holocaust denial seems to be viewed as the best reason to deny people like this Griffin sicko a visa when their other views on race and immigration (of non-white people, of course) are equally abhorrent. Who else with views like his are we letting in just because they haven't been busted publicly denying the Holocaust?

God I hope they deny that visa.

American military censorship of soldier-death photos

In November 2004, Stefan Zaklin, a photographer then working for the European Pressphoto Agency, was embedded with a United States Army company. Mr. Zaklin photographed this soldier, who was shot and killed in Falluja, in a house used as a base by insurgents. The photograph ran in several European publications, and Mr. Zaklin was immediately banned from working with the unit.

It was clear right from the beginning of the US war on Iraq that the US military was going to keep a tight rein on the content of the images released by journalists. Experience from past wars shows that the reality of death and the trauma that war wreaks on its survivors actually undermine popular support for a war. Funny, that. This article in the New York Times outlines the sanctions the US takes against journalists who work even within the guidelines set by the censorship-happy military.

If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.

Wow. Half a dozen. Six. Fewer than six. I'd say that's a notable success for the US military.

Journalists say it is now harder, or harder than in the earlier years, to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. Even memorial services for killed soldiers, once routinely open, are increasingly off limits. Detainees were widely photographed in the early years of the war, but the Department of Defense, citing prisoners’ rights, has recently stopped that practice as well.

I think we all know why they stopped photographs being taken of detainees, and it has nothing to do with prisoners' rights- it has more to do with ensuring there's no evidence of US abuses of prisoners' rights.

What struck me most of all about the article was this quote from Captain Esteban T. Vickers of the First Regimental Combat Team:

“Mr. Miller’s complete lack of respect to these marines, their friends, and families is shameful,” Captain Vickers said. “How do we explain to their children or families these disturbing pictures just days after it happened?

How do you explain that their deaths were horrible, bloody and completely in vain, rather than heroic, peaceful and painless, and in pursuit of a greater good? Well, maybe explaining former would be the honest thing to do, rather than carrying on the falsehood of the latter. Each and every death, Iraqi or US, is a loss to someone's family, and a complete and utter waste.

The NYTimes notes the response of the journalist to have created the latest uproar, being effectively banned by the military after publishing a photo of unidentifiable dead US soldiers. Nothing like what we saw from Vietnam- Zoriah Miller's photograph is milk and cookies by comparison:

Mr. Miller, who returned to the United States on July 9, expressed surprise that his images had ignited such an uproar.

“The fact that the images I took of the suicide bombing — which are just photographs of something that happens every day all across the country — the fact that these photos have been so incredibly shocking to people, says that whatever [the US military] are doing to limit this type of photo getting out, it is working,” he said.

US conducts terrorist activities in Iran

When you read the following article, switch the word 'Iran' with 'US' and vice-versa, and then imagine how such actions would be described in the western media if this were the case. From the Guardian:

The Bush administration has significantly increased covert military operations inside Iran aimed at destabilising the country's government, according to a US report published yesterday.

The report, in the New Yorker magazine, quotes military, intelligence and congressional sources as saying that CIA and special forces operations were ordered by George Bush in a "presidential finding" in the past few months. It said Bush sought - and congressional leaders from both parties approved - $400m (£200m) for the secret war, which includes abductions and assassinations.

The operations described by Hersh involve support for Baluchi and Arab separatist groups in Iran, "seizing members of al-Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of 'high-value targets' in the president's war on terror, who may be captured or killed".

There have been reports from Iran of assassinations of military officers, which Tehran has sometimes blamed on US and British operations.

Mandela not a terrorist

Nelson Mandela has just been taken off the terrorist watch-list in the US. Of course, everyone these days is all too happy to say what a travesty it is that he was ever on there (except for the odd dead-ender like our recent former PM John Howard). But let's not forget that many of those right-wing Americans who now say that Mandela never should have been called a terrorist also refer to Ronald Reagan as the 'greatest president' the US has ever had. Ronald Reagan, the man whose regime labelled Mandela a terrorist. Go figure.

Israel shits all over human rights- #893

From the Guardian:

Morad Asonah's honeymoon ended abruptly when he returned home to Israel with his bride, Abir, to discover they - and thousands of other Israeli-Arab and Palestinian couples like them - had been banned from living together.

[...]

After their forced separation, Abir managed to return to Israel, following a three-month court battle and a lengthy security check, to build a family, raising two children on a "permit to stay" that expires every six months.

Abir is banned from working, studying, driving or buying a house with her husband. She is excluded from national health insurance and social security even though Asonah, as a married man with a family, pays a higher rate of tax. And if a family member is involved in an attack on Israel, her permit will be revoked and she will be deported to the West Bank.

"She has no status at all," says Asonah, a lawyer working for Adalah, a human rights group that has challenged the law in Israel's high court.

Torture first-hand: from a western perspective

I was tortured: Les Walker

So can we believe that it's torture and not just "intensive interrogation techniques" when it happens to a white guy at the hands of some brown guys? Can we listen to what he has to say about it, and maybe learn a lesson or two about the behaviour western political leaders, and, by default, we have been all but openly endorsing for the last 6 years?

India persecutes human rights activist 'terrorist'

Dr Binayak Sen

This is the sort of thing I'd usually expect to see from China, Saudi Arabia or Burma, not India:

Twenty two Nobel laureates have called for the release of India's best-known "barefoot doctor" from jail, where he has languished for almost a year on terrorism charges. If convicted he faces the death sentence.

Binayak Sen, 58, an award-winning paediatrician who shot to prominence a quarter of a century ago by treating tribal communities for free in the forest region of India's Chhattisgarh state, was arrested last May charged with carrying notes from a member of a Naxalite Maoist rebel movement, who was his patient in prison.

Sen, a human-rights activist who frequently visited jails to treat inmates, protests his innocence. He is now accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation and conspiring to wage war against the government. He has been denied bail and his trial began last month.

Shame, India.

Guantanamo inmate becomes suicide bomber

Well... the US wrongfully imprisoned someone and fucked with his head to the extent that he felt a desire to enact some kind of vicious revenge. Is this really a surprise?

A spokesman for US military's Central Command told The Associated Press today that Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul.

US Navy Commander Scott Rye says authorities don't know the motive for the attack, which was reported last week by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. Iraqi security forces were apparently targeted.

The US transferred al-Ajmi to Kuwaiti custody from Guantanamo in 2005. A Kuwaiti court later acquitted him of terrorism charges.

The US uses Guantanamo to mentally, if not physically, destroy the people they imprison there. The only surprise is that something like this hasn't happened sooner.

UPDATE 09/05/2008:

From the SMH:

In portions of the recording translated by the American SITE Intelligence Group, a voice is heard decrying the conditions at Guantanamo as "deplorable" and urging others to fight.

"Whoever can join them and execute a suicide operation, let him do so. By God, it will be a mortal blow. The Americans complain much about it. By God, in Guantanamo, all their talk was about explosives and whether you make explosives. It is as if explosives were hell to them."

The suicide bombing is the first such attack in Iraq linked to a former Guantanamo detainee, although the Defence Intelligence Agency has estimated that as many as three dozen former Guantanamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of having returned to terrorist activities.

Human rights groups and lawyers for Guantanamo detainees have disputed that estimate, saying only a handful of former detainees have left custody and gone on to fight US forces.

How can they say 'returned to terrorist activities' when they clearly had no proof that they were participating in terrorist activities prior to being imprisoned?

Ajmi was held in Guantanamo until late 2005, when he was transferred to the custody of the Kuwaiti Government as part of a diplomatic arrangement. At hearings in Guantanamo he maintained his innocence and said he never fought with the Taliban or meant anyone any harm. In 2006 he was tried in a Kuwaiti court, with a group of other alleged terrorists, and acquitted.

Thomas Wilner, a Washington lawyer who represented Ajmi in seeking a habeas corpus hearing when he was held at Guantanamo Bay, said on Wednesday that Ajmi was young and not well-educated and he appeared deeply affected by his jailing there.

Bush's war on Iraq

“This is a wider war. And whether we have democracy in Iraq or not, it doesn’t mean a tinker’s damn if we end up with the result we want, which is a regime over there that’s not a threat to us.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Rumsfeld said, taking notes.

From Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand, on the New York Times website today.

Interesting article. What's scary is that what appears in the American media filters down to us, too, through our 'independent' and 'unbiased' media.

Why I could be a terrorist

This story from Brisbane's toilet paper newspaper, the Courier Mail, serves to remind us of just how ridiculous Australian society has become, and just how our freedoms were undermined during John Howard's reign as Prime Minister. The fear of 'terror' is so pervasive that people can't carry out perfectly normal activities without having someone jump up and threaten them with arrest under some 'anti-terr' law or another. Apparently Brisbane's ABC breakfast radio announcer Spencer Howson was busted by some Queensland Rail ticket inspectors for snapping a photo of one of the new Go-Card machines and forced to delete the pic from his camera. Pre-fucking-posterous.

Anyway, the story made me realise I've done my fair share of 'potential terrorist acts' by snapping photographs of various pieces of infrastructure and important buildings around Brisbane. I also had a photo somewhere of a view from one of the platforms at Toowong train station, with graffiti on the wall, but I can't find it. Never mind- to make up for it I've also taken a picture on a train- while in the company of a suspiciously swarthy person, no less (oh noes!). Had no idea at the time that I could be arrested for it, but who would suspect that our laws could be so damn stupid?

*insert scary music here*

Photographed transport infrastructure while in the company of a suspiciously swarthy male, who was also taking photographs...

Photographed the interior of a train carriage while posing as a football fan.

Photographed more public transport infrastructure under the guise of complaining about public smoking.

Photographed communications infrastructure while pretending to be interested in the local wildlife.

Plotted to destroy North Bank...

... oh wait, Anna Bligh beat me to that one... Never mind, what the terrorists don't get, Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman are sure to ruin anyway!

Israel's reign of terror

I post the links to these stories not because I feel there's anything I can really add, but mainly to show our kids one day that Gam and I did know what was going on and we didn't approve. Because I bet in 20-50 years' time there'll be a whole lot of people saying they never knew or supported what Israel was doing to the Palestinians, and how terrible it was, if only someone had done something, rah rah rah... when they knew all along, supported Israel's crimes and did nothing to help the Palestinians. Much like people ignored the pleas of various important rabbis for attention to the what was happening to Jewish people in the build up to and during the Holocaust, really. Not a single person afterward would admit knowing about the situation and doing nothing, which is exactly what happened. We didn't care then and we don't care now. We have learned absolutely nothing.

"Everything I did in my life was for what's now inside this house and now it's going to be destroyed," said Suleiman. "It's very hard for me to find somewhere else to live."

The Israeli authorities argue that Suleiman's house was built in a part of the West Bank known as area C, a designation from the era of the Oslo Accords which means Israel has full military and administrative control. In order to build, a Palestinian must apply for a permit from the Israeli authorities. If there is no permit - as in Suleiman's case - the building is liable for demolition.

Illegal

Area C covers 60% of the West Bank, home to around 70,000 Palestinians. It is also the area in which most Jewish settlements, all illegal under international law, are built. Compelling statistical evidence shows that while it is extremely hard for Palestinians to obtain building permits, settlements continue to grow rapidly.

Research by the Israeli group Peace Now found that 94% of Palestinian permit applications for Area C building were refused between 2000 and September 2007. Only 91 permits were granted to Palestinians, but 18,472 housing units were built in Jewish settlements. As a result of demolition orders 1,663 Palestinian buildings were demolished, against only 199 in the settlements. "The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a 'silent transfer' of the Palestinian population from area C," Peace Now said.

This year there has been a marked increase in demolitions.

[...]

The problems of the village of Far'un, south of Tulkarm, are complicated by the vast West Bank barrier, which here runs away from the 1949 ceasefire line that divides Israel and the Palestinian territories. The wide, steel fence, which passes just a few dozen metres from Suleiman's home, cuts off the village from a slice of its agricultural land and underground water reserves and has turned this area into a dangerous no-go zone: in December 2006, a 14-year-old Palestinian girl playing nearby was shot dead by an Israeli soldier.

Suleiman's house and that of his neighbour Emad Hassahsi, which has also received a demolition order, were built before the barrier arrived, in an area they were told - and they have letters that appear to support their claim - was area B, in which Palestinians have administrative control and therefore somewhere they thought they could safely build. Only later did the Israeli military announce it was in fact area C.

One effect of the strict planning curbs is to limit the growth of Palestinian villages. "If you look at the way the Israelis are enforcing planning and construction regulations you see they are being enforced in a one-sided way," said Avi Berg, research director of the leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which has worked on the Far'un case.

Settlement growth continues apace despite the fact that the current peace talks are based on the US Road Map, under which Israel is required to freeze settlement activity. In another report, Peace Now said that since the talks began at Annapolis last November, Israel was still building 500 homes in West Bank settlements and had issued tenders for 750 homes in East Jerusalem settlements. Reports suggest another 1,400 homes will be built in two settlements in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank.

[...]

Not all the cases of demolition involve homes. In January, Israeli forces uprooted 3,200 trees, destroyed water cisterns and stone terraces in fields near Beit Ula, close to Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Again this was in area C. The civil administration said the demolition was an "enforcement activity" carried out after legal warnings.

But in this case the target was a €64,000 (£51,000) project from the European commission which began two years ago to provide a livelihood for the villagers, several of whom also put their own money into the planting.

"It was a tragedy for us," said Sami al-Adam, 46, a farmer who had put in 45,000 shekels. "They're tearing me out by my roots. They want to destroy Palestinian farmers psychologically and economically."

We Have to Protect the Tubes

I love it when governments try to enact policy regarding the internet. It's always obvious that ministers who last had a full head of hair when Led Zeppellin was still together don't know the first thing about the internet. The federal government think that companies operating 'critical infrastructure' should be allowed to read their employees' email without their consent. This is to protect us against CYBERTERROR!!1111!!. It's obvious that whoever it is that checks Robert McClelland's email for him has tried to explain how the 'net works and has been less than successful.

"At least 90 per cent of networks exist outside government but there's no powers for corporate network supervisors to intercept such communications unless they have specific authority from the employee," he told the Herald.

"It's unquestionable that it's necessary from time to time for network supervisors to open emails addressed to people to identify viruses and the like …"

No. Wrong Robert. Your emails aren't checked by magical elves who open every email to examine it for viruses. All emails are scanned at some point to determine if they do carry viruses. No one actually reads them to see what's inside. Also why would someone send an email at work to carry out CYBERTERROR!!111? The person goes to work, uploads a virus in an email and then sends it where? Where is the mechanism for such an attack to cause more than mild annoyance seeing as how it happens all the damn time by accident.

"There's no question that breaches of both government and private sector computer networks have occurred already - in some instances as a result of mischief, in some instances to obtain security-sensitive information and in some cases to obtain commercial information."

He said it was difficult to track electronic attackers.

He cited an attack by hackers in Estonia last year that, in effect, shut down its Government for almost two weeks.

Checking peoples' email isn't going to help you contain a network breach. First of all your network wouldn't have been owned by someone sending an email at work. Secondly the attacker sure as hell isn't going to be sending you emails of doom. The attack he cites was a denial of service attack caused by government servers receiving so many fake requests for data that they couldn't serve legitimate requests. There was NO WAY checking emails would have prevented, ameliorated or caught the perpetrators who were probably in a different country. That's the thing about the internets, its tubes go all around the world, which means an attacker doesn't have to be at work sending an email. In fact the smh article goes on to say:

"They used thousands of computers controlled through viruses - known as botnets - to simultaneously access an Estonian Government website, overwhelming the server and crashing its entire network."
SMH

The computers in that botnet were probably spread out on every continent. Not one of them sent anyone an email. No one had to gain physical access to anything. McClelland's advice is also ignorant of the fact that it is trivially easy for an attacker to gain physical access to a site. All they have to do is drop a few usb sticks outside the front door of the office. I guarantee you that someone will pick one up and plug it into a windows machine, at which point the machine can be made to execute a bit of code. No emails sent. Robert wants to make legal a tool which will inevitably be abused to spy on and harass workers while proving to be utterly useless in preventing CYBERTERROR. Seriously man, whoever gave you this advice is making you look like an idiot. You should seriously consider talking to some people who know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to network security.

There's plenty of people in this country who crack networks for fun. Get ASIO to hire them and spend your time on legislative reform so we can have fewer laws not more overlapping ones.
You could also consider setting up an organisation to develop a linux based, custom OS for managers of critical infrastructure. If they're so important, why in fuck are they running windows, the vector for most of these attacks?

UPDATE: It is alleged [Club Troppo, via Slashdot] that this whole thing is a media beat-up.

A spade is a spade

About fucking time:

The next UN investigator into Israel conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.

Speaking to the BBC, Professor Richard Falk said he believed that up to now Israel had been successful in avoiding the criticism that it was due.

[...]

Professor Falk said he drew the comparison between the treatment of Palestinians with the Nazi record of collective atrocity, because of what he described as the massive Israeli punishment directed at the entire population of Gaza.

He said he understood that it was a provocative thing to say, but at the time, last summer, he had wanted to shake the American public from its torpor.

"If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison," he said.

That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel's ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality.

These and other comments from Professor Falk comments are, if anything, even harsher than the current UN investigator, John Dugard, who himself has been withering about Israel's actions.

John who? And if he was withering about Israel's actions, then why don't we get to hear about it in the media more often?

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Israel wanted the UN investigator's mandate changed, so that he could look into human rights violations by the Palestinians as well as Israel.

If that were not to happen, the Israeli government may consider barring entry to the new UN investigator.

Er... like Saddam Hussein barred entry to UN investigators, and even after he let them back in, his barring them was pretext enough for the US to invade and turn the whole country into a ruin? Sooo... this 'freedom' thing we brought to Iraq... I take it if Israel bar entry to the UN investigator then they will be next on the 'freedom' hitlist? Maybe if we draw a picture in crayon suggesting Israel has nukes and get Condoleezza Rice to present it to the UN... oh wait, we don't need to fake the evidence because they already bloody well do have nukes.

NOTE: 'terr' tag applies here because what Israel is doing is just as much terrorism as some individual who straps a bomb to their belt and tries to blow up a bus. Only Israel is carrying out its actions on a massive scale against millions of people. I'm strongly of the opinion that the latter is much, much worse and our society should be ashamed for ignoring it.

Venezuela cops it from the crazies

Old news, but no less preposterous for being a little stale:

US lawmakers want Venezuela on US list of terrorism sponsors - A bit rich given that the US-backed regime in Colombia recently conducted an illegal bombing raid over the Ecuadorian border and the only thing Chávez is really guilty of is not being a right-wing dictator willing to suck up to the US and bow to its every whim.

Peruvian leaders cry foul as Chávez exports healthcare- the headline says it all, really. I bet the average Peruvian wishes they had a government even half as good as the Venezuelan government. Tell a blind person whose eyesight has been saved that they have no right to their free operation because it was funded by a socialist government and they'd probably tell you to get bent.

'Success'

Noor Salman

From the BBC:

Iraq lives: Schoolgirl in Baghdad
Noor Salman is 16-year-old Iraqi girl living in Baghdad. She writes about her experiences of life in the five years since the US-led invasion.

LOST LIVES

The last five years have passed by so quickly and so much has happened. I can't believe it's been five years since this all began.

Noor at her father's grave
Noor lost her father in a militia raid on their home in August 2006
Baghdad has changed so much and so has my life. Up until two years ago we had a big house and had plenty of money and my father looked after us.

Now we live in a small rented two-bedroom house with my mother, my brother and his wife and my seven sisters.

But my dad is no longer with us. In August 2006 a group of militia men got out of a car and forcibly entered our home.

I cannot describe these people, they are not human beings. They broke the front door of our home and stormed into the house and kidnapped my dad.

They pulled him while aiming their guns at him. When he tried to defend himself they knocked him unconscious and put him in the boot of the car.

I was very frightened and I lost faith in everything and everyone. I wish they had taken everything, our car, our home, but left my father alive.

The next morning we were informed by the police station that they had found his body, it had been dumped in a side street with his hands tied behind his back. He had been shot in the head.

I could not believe that I had lost him forever. Many other teenagers like me have also lost their fathers in Baghdad, killed for no apparent reason.

REFUGEES

My dad used to do everything for us. He used to turn on the generator so that we had electricity at home and he would do all the hard jobs.

Even to this day we only have two hours of electricity a day so we need to get the extra energy from the generators. Now that my dad is gone we have to do these things ourselves.

After my dad was murdered the violence meant we had to leave our home
In early 2003, when I was in school, everyone was talking about the possibility of war. As school children we did not understand the implications.

The day Baghdad fell, I started to understand. We saw many of our relatives and friends getting displaced. Many fled to neighbouring countries.

My dad, however, was adamant. He said he would never leave his country and would prefer to die here rather than for us to live as refugees in another land.

After my dad was murdered the violence meant we had to leave our home and we became displaced and other people came and squatted in our house.

I lost my home, my childhood memories, my bedroom, my toys and my beautiful garden with all its flowers.

My dad used to call me Dr Noor when I was young - he wanted me to become a physician. I am still hoping to fulfil his dream.

Our city is not what it once was and studying is not easy. Walking to school became a dangerous journey, although recently things are better.

I wonder, how many school children in the world have to go to school fearing they may not make it home. That's what we had to do.

I'm so happy that things are better on that front - but we are all aware that they could easily change again.

COPING WITH FEAR

She says children have had to live with bombings and destruction
Today I had Dolma, one of my most favourite dishes, it's basically stuffed vegetables, it's a very traditional Iraqi dish.

After the war began, getting food was very difficult and people were living off the basics. Even to the go to the market was very difficult.

It's only recently that people feel it's a bit safer to go to the markets - there have been bombings in these places and that makes people think twice - but you have to live.

After the fall of Baghdad Iraqi children learnt very quickly the meaning of destruction and war.

I remember at dawn time, instead of hearing the call to prayer we woke up hearing the noise of blasts.

Baghdad became like a ghost city. There was no law and order and an increase in crime so people were afraid to go out.

We learnt to cope with fear and after time we started going back to school.

We got used to living in a city were violence was everywhere and random bombings could happen anytime and in every place. We experienced the brutal nature of this new Iraq when my father was murdered.

Noor Salman is sponsored by the charity Islamic Relief