Car bomb kills 15 in village north of Baghdad

Car bomb kills 15 in village north of BaghdadA car bomb outside a Shiite mosque in a village north of Baghdad killed 15 people Wednesday, the third deadly attack in the region in as many days, while a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bombing in the same province, Iraqi officials and the U.S. military said.

The blast in a shopping area in the village of Abu Sayda also left 21 wounded, Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala province said. Diyala was once an insurgent stronghold, and the three consecutive days of violence there underscores the fragile nature of Iraq's security as insurgents persist in trying re-ignite sectarian bloodshed.

Taliban stage daring jail break

Taliban stage daring jail breakTaliban fighters have freed 14 inmates from a jail in western Afghanistan after staging a daring prison break, police have said. Mohammad Faqir Askar, a provincial police chief, said the fighters blew up the main gates of the prison in Farah city after planting a bomb on Sunday.

"Twenty prisoners escaped but we arrested six of them soon after the incident and 14 are still at large," Askar said.

Leading Israeli figures accuse police of targeting leftist East Jerusalem protesters

East Jerusalem protesters A number of prominent jurists, intellectuals, writers and leftist public figures have co-signed a letter that accuses the Jerusalem District police of "illegal and inequitable" conduct toward protesters in the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.

In the letter, which was sent yesterday to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, the signers demand an investigation against what they believe is unequal enforcement of the law "that is based on political leanings."

UN lauds Venezuela's achievements on fighting drug trafficking

During a meeting with Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami and National Anti-Drug Office Director Nestor Luis Reverol, Treki said a UN analysis last week indicated that the country's fight against drug trafficking and organized crime had achieved positive results.

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

As CNN is now reporting, the U.S. government has issued a new rule that would make it a felony crime for any journalist, reporter, blogger or photographer to approach any oil cleanup operation, equipment or vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. Anyone caught is subject to arrest, a $40,000 fine and prosecution for a federal felony crime.

5 NATO troops, including 1 American, die as attacks rise

5 NATO troops, including 1 American, die in AfghanistanFive NATO troops including one American died Tuesday, continuing a grim trend that could make June among the deadliest months of the nearly 9-year-old Afghan war.

Five Afghan policemen and a district governor were also killed Tuesday in separate fighting across the country, which has seen an uptick in attacks by insurgents in response to increased offensives by the international coalition.

Pakistan: 9 killed by drone airstrike

Pakistan: 9 killed by drone airstrikeA suspected U.S. drone strike killed nine people in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, local officials said.

The airstrike in North Waziristan Friday night allegedly killed two children, two women and five men, Pakistani intelligence and administrative officials said.

Noam Chomsky denied entry to Israel

May 16, 2010

JERUSALEM --An Israeli official says academic and polemicist Noam Chomsky, who is a fierce critic of Israel, has been denied entry to the country.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said Chomsky was turned away for "various reasons" but declined to elaborate. Chomsky was trying to cross the Allenby Bridge from Jordan. He was scheduled to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.

Haddad said her ministry was looking into allowing him to enter only the West Bank.

Chomsky told Channel 10 TV from Jordan Sunday: "I've often spoken at Israeli universities."

Chomsky is one of Israel's harshest academic critics. After Israel's 2009 war in Gaza, he was quoted as saying, "supporters of Israel are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration."

Russian dancer ordered freed in Guantanamo habeas case

Russian dancer ordered freed in Guantanamo habeas caseA federal court on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to set free from Guantáaamo a former Russian Army ballet dancer turned devout Muslim whose plight captured the imagination of a Massachusetts college town.

Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. ordered the Obama administration to take ``all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps . . . forthwith'' to release Ravil Mingazov, 42, an ethnic Tartar who was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and turned over to U.S. forces.

Thursday's midday ruling raised to 35 the number of Guantánamo detention cases the U.S. government has lost since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the war-on-terror captives can sue for their freedom in federal courts.

The Justice Department has so far successfully defended the indefinite detention of 13 Guantánamo captives.

With the Pentagon still holding 181 foreign men at Guantánamo, dozens more habeas corpus petitions are yet to be heard.

ISRAEL IMPOSING OCCUPATION TACTICS ON ITS PALESTINIAN CITIZENS
By Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 11 May 2010

Several examples, including the arrests of Ameer Makhoul
and Omar Said, now point to an uncomfortable reality for
the self-proclaimed "only democracy in the Middle East":
practices that have long been routine in the military
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza are being used in
Israel to suppress dissent and limit civil liberties. The
green line is increasingly blurry. Ben White comments.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11261.shtml


ISRAEL INCREASINGLY RESEMBLING A POLICE STATE
By Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 13 May 2010

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Israeli nuclear
whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has been sentenced to
another three months imprisonment for allegedly refusing
to perform community service in West Jerusalem. His arrest
follows the detention of Palestinian leaders in Israel.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11263.shtml

Report: IAEA to discuss Israel's nuclear activities for first time

Israel's nuclear reactor in DimonaIsrael's secretive nuclear activities may undergo unprecedented scrutiny next month, with a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency tentatively set to focus on the topic for the first time, according to documents shared Friday with The Associated Press.

A copy of the restricted provisional agenda of the IAEA's June 7 board meeting lists Israeli nuclear capabilities as the eighth item - the first time that that the agency's decision-making body is being asked to deal with the issue in its 52 years of existence.

CIA allowed to kill terrorist suspects without identification

CIA HeadquartersThe CIA received secret permission to attack a wider range of targets, including suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan's border region, current and former counter-terrorism officials say.

West Bank blaze damages mosque

A mosque near the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus has been damaged by fire, officials say.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says the fire was caused by Jewish settlers, and that it could jeopardise Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israeli media reports reports said an electrical short circuit may have started the blaze.

But Israeli security officers investigating the fire have not yet determined its cause, police say.

The mosque was gutted by the fire, which also destroyed holy books.

Lubban al-Sharqiya, the village where the mosque lies, is close to three Jewish settlements, AFP reports.

The attack comes as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has returned to the region, attempting to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"This criminal attack threatens efforts to revive the peace process," said Mr Abbas in a statement.

He pointed the finger of blame at Israel, adding that "the Israeli army protects the settlers".

'Pointless negotiations'

Israeli Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the fire was probably caused by arson.

"I have no shadow of doubt their aim was to ignite fire in the region and this is lamentable," he was quoted as saying by Israel's army radio.

Hamas, which is opposed to peace talks with Israel, said the mosque attack is "the first fruit of the pointless negotiations," Reuters reports.

Israel warned Palestinians in the West Bank that there was a risk of local settlers attacking homes in the area after the Israeli army demolished houses in a settlement near Nablus, Palestinian officials say.

"We had an official warning yesterday that settlers may try to attack Palestinian homes because of the demolition of houses built without a permit", Nablus governor Jibril al-Bakri was quoted as saying by AFP.

The West Bank has seen a series of attacks on mosques in recent months.

Last month, another mosque in the village of Huwara near Nablus was vandalised by Hebrew graffiti. Palestinian residents blamed activists from three nearby Jewish settlements.

In January, Israeli police arrested settlers as part of investigations into an arson attack on a West Bank mosque in 2009.

QUARTET EX-ENVOY'S INVESTMENT HELPS ISRAEL GREENWASH SETTLEMENTS

By Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 6 May 2010

Former World Bank president and Middle East Quartet envoy
James D. Wolfensohn is an investor in an Israeli company
that is developing transport infrastructure for
Jewish-only settlements built in the occupied West Bank in
violation of international law, an investigation by The
Electronic Intifada reveals.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11238.shtml

ISRAEL'S REPRESSION OF ITS PALESTINIAN CITIZENS UNITES US IN STRUGGLE

By Ameer Makhoul, The Electronic Intifada, 6 May 2010

Ameer Makhoul, director of Ittijah and chairman of the
Popular Committee for the Defense of the Political
Freedoms, was arrested by Israeli forces today during a
raid of his home, two weeks after a travel ban was imposed
on him by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. Makhoul, a
Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, submitted the
following op-ed to The Electronic Intifada prior to his
arrest.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11250.shtml

US Says No to Indigenous Rights

The US, the self-proclaimed protector of human rights, has failed to vote in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) at the UN, Kenneth Deer, the representative of US and Canada Mohawk Indians, said that Washington had refrained from recognizing the UN declaration on indigenous rights.

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18866

Why does the IDF allow officers to live in illegal outposts?

Strangely, in all this no one has wondered how it is possible that the IDF, the body charged with imposing the law on the West Bank, never lifted a finger against its officers who settled in an illegal outpost in the first place.

Moreover, how can an officer in the career army who breaks the law and ignores a court order serve as a model for his soldiers?

Abu Ghraib a "picnic” compared with secret Baghdad prison

Rusafa: Report details torture at secret Baghdad prisonThe torture of Iraqi detainees at a new secret prison in Baghdad was far more systematic and brutal than initially reported, Human Rights Watch reported on Tuesday. The existence of the prison, which housed mostly Sunni Arab prisoners, has created a political furor in Iraq, prompted government denials and fanned sectarian tensions.

Al Qaeda in Yemen, fortified with diverted US funds, strikes British embassy

The British embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa shut down Monday, April 26, after an al Qaeda suicide attack on the ambassador's convoy and a clash with gunmen outside the embassy. According to first reports, one person was killed, but Ambassador Tim Torlot is safe. debka file 's counter-terror sources report that al Qaeda recently received an extra boost from secretly diverted US funds which Yemen president Abdullah Ali Salah used to try and bribe the Islamists to relocate in Somalia - without success .

German court drops Afghan air raid probe

Afghan raid killed 142 - many of whom were civiliansGerman prosecutors dropped a criminal case against a Bundeswehr colonel who ordered an air raid in Afghanistan that killed 142 people, many of them civilians. The prosecution office in Karlsruhe concluded Col. Georg Klein and his fellow officers didn't know civilians were at the target site.