1. Israel lies about killing Palestinians
Doctors who treated two Palestinian youths shot dead by Israeli troops in the West Bank have refuted the army’s claim that they had used rubber bullets and said the medical evidence showed that live ammunition had been fired.
The shooting of Mohammed and Osaid Qadus, both teenagers, in the village of Iraq Burin was followed yesterday by the deaths of another two youths shot by Israeli forces. The renewed violence came as it was confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Barack Obama in Washington tomorrow amid continued US efforts to relaunch indirect negotiations between the two sides in the conflict.
…The two Palestinians who died yesterday – said to be in their late teens – were from Awarta near Nablus and were on village farmland overlooked by the Jewish settlement of Itamar. Villagers said they assumed the pair were working the land. The Israeli military said they had tried to stab a soldier.
…
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had opened an investigation into the shootings but also insisted that soldiers had responded with tear gas and rubber bullets to a “violent and illegal riot” and added: “Live fire was not used.”
But a hospital X-ray released by the Israeli human rights agency Btselem and also shown to The Independent by doctors at Nablus’s private Speciality hospital show what appears to be a conventional metal bullet lodged in the brain of Osaid Qadus, who died there of his injuries at about 3am yesterday.
Dr Ahmad Hamad, the duty resident in the hospital’s accident and emergency department when the boys were brought in, said Mohammed Qadus had suffered a single shot in the chest. He said there was a small entry wound and a larger exit wound in his back.
Another doctor, Abdul Karim Hashesh, was on duty when the bodies of the youths shot yesterday arrived at Nablus’s Rafidia Hospital. He said that one, Mohammed Kuarik was hit by a total of seven bullets while the other, Saleh Kuaraik, was hit by at least three. Young Palestinians burned tyres and set up roadblocks of rocks across one of the main roads into Awarta in protest at the shootings yesterday afternoon.
2. tension may hasten attack on Iran. is that the point of the tension? to JUSTIFY hastening the attack on Iran?
WASHINGTON - A pro-Israel conference opening Sunday exposed fears that a row over illegal Jewish settlements built on Palestinian territories had left scars in US-Israeli ties but raised the risk of Israeli strikes against Iran.
Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — while he visits Washington this week for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) three-day annual policy conference — is now to meet President Barack Obama Tuesday….”I think that the impact of this crisis is to hasten Iranian efforts to achieve a nuclear weapons capability,” Satloff warned.
“And ultimately, because there are scars now in the US-Israeli strategic relationship,” the impact may be “even to hasten the clock on Israeli preventive action against that Iranian nuclear capability,” he said.
3. Syria to help with security in Lebanon refugee camps — “The West” warns of an outburst of violence in the camps & “demand” Syria’s involvement? seems suspicious to me.
Syria was reportedly set to make a comeback to Lebanon in its new role to help rein in the security situation across Palestinian refugee camps throughout the country.
The daily Al-Akhbar, which carried the report, said Syria, Lebanon as well as some Palestinian figures have received several messages from the West warning against the outburst of violence in refugee camps in Lebanon.
The letters, according to the daily, have demanded that Syria help contain the situation in Lebanon refugee camps.
Damascus expressed readiness to meet the West’s demand, but requested an amendment to the structure of Lebanon’s security in order to make security institutions “cooperative and responsive” to the Syrian leadership.
4. Naval Intelligence alert on al-qaeda attack in Red Sea similar to USS Cole, which might be linked to Iran? Hmm? What do you think?
DUBAI - THE US government has warned ships sailing off Yemen’s coast of the risk of al-Qaeda attacks similar to a suicide bombing of the US warship Cole in 2000 that killed 17 US sailors.
The US Office of Naval Intelligence said on its website that ships in the Red Sea, the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait between Yemen and Djibouti, and the Gulf of Aden along Yemen’s coast were at the greatest risk.
‘Information suggests that al-Qaeda remains interested in maritime attacks in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen,’ the office said in a statement, citing an advisory by the US Department of Transportation. ‘Although it is unclear how they would proceed, it may be similar in nature to the attacks against the USS Cole in October 2000 and the M/V Limburg in October 2002 where a small to mid-size boat laden with explosives was detonated.’
Yemen, at the forefront of Western security concerns since a failed December attack on a US-bound plane, boosted security on its coast earlier this year to prevent militants reaching its shores from nearby Somalia to reinforce al-Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based arm claimed responsibility for the failed December plane attempt. Western allies and neighbouring oil exporter Saudi Arabia fear al-Qaeda is exploiting instability on several fronts in impoverished Yemen to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.
The Transportation Department statement said more sophisticated methods of attack by al-Qaeda in the waters near Yemen could include missiles or projectiles. The US advisory, dated March 10, said more sophisticated methods of attack by al-Qaeda in the waters near Yemen could include missiles or projectiles.
‘Although the time and location of such an attack are unknown, ships in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen are at the greatest risk of becoming targets of such an attack,’ the statement added. ‘All vessels transiting the waters in the vicinity of Yemen are urged to operate at a heightened state of readiness.’ — REUTERS
5. meanwhile, India is supposedly really upset about Headley’s deal, but the Indian papers don’t have much to say about it, which isn’t that surprising, seeing as the Indian government is real tight with the Israelis, and Mossad and the CIA and RAW all work together. where is this “UPROAR” he’s talking about? the *families* get screwed, but don’t the families always get screwed? the links to US intelligence are now protected, but so are the links to RAW and Mossad. convenient all around, except for the families of the innocent people murdered by CORRUPT INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVES.
News that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had reached a plea bargain with David Coleman Headley, who played a key role in the planning of the terrorist strike in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, has caused an uproar in India.
The deal enables the US government to hold back from formally producing any evidence against Headley in a court of law that might have included details of his links with US intelligence or oblige any cross-examination of Headley by the prosecution.
Nor can the families of the 166 victims be represented by a lawyer to question Headley during his trial commencing in Chicago. Headley’s links with the US intelligence will now remain classified A spy unsettles US-India ties
By M K Bhadrakumar
News that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had reached a plea bargain with David Coleman Headley, who played a key role in the planning of the terrorist strike in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, has caused an uproar in India.
The deal enables the US government to hold back from formally producing any evidence against Headley in a court of law that might have included details of his links with US intelligence or oblige any cross-examination of Headley by the prosecution.
Nor can the families of the 166 victims be represented by a lawyer to question Headley during his trial commencing in Chicago. Headley’s links with the US intelligence will now remain classified information and the Pakistani nationals involved in the Mumbai attacks will get away scot-free. Furthermore, the FBI will not allow Headley’s extradition to India and will restrict access so that Indian agencies cannot interrogate him regarding his links with US and Pakistani intelligence.
…The plea bargain raises explosive questions. The LeT began planning the attack on Mumbai sometime around September 2006. According to the plea bargain, Headley paid five visits to India on reconnaissance missions between 2006 and the November 2008 strike, each time returning to the US via Pakistan where he met “with various co-conspirators, including but not limited to members of LeT”.
The plea bargain simply refers to the Pakistani handlers of Headley as A, B, C and D. But who are they? We will never know.
The LeT’s close links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are legion and it is inconceivable that such a massive operation - with huge international ramifications and the potential to trigger war with India - could have been undertaken without the knowledge of the ISI, headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, the present army chief, from October 2004 until October 2007.
