Court martial for US soldier

US soldier faces court martial for Afghan murdersA US soldier who allegedly killed three Afghan civilians for fun will face a full court martial. Jeremy Morlock, one of the group of 12 accused soldiers, faces charges of premeditated murder, military authorities said Friday.

The case has drawn intense media scrutiny because Morlock and fellow soldiers are accused of taking ghoulish photos of corpses and taking body parts as war trophies. The charge sheets include macabre allegations of dismembering corpses. Authorities have not specified if the bones they say some men took were from the bodies of slain civilians.

Israeli troops shooting children in Gaza

At least 10 Palestinian children have been shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the past three months while collecting rubble in or near the "buffer zone" created by Israel along the Gaza border, in a low-intensity offensive on the fringes of the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Israeli soldiers are routinely shooting at Gazans well beyond the unmarked boundary of the official 300 metre-wide no-go area, rights groups say.

According to Bassam Masri, head of orthopaedics at the Kamal Odwan hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of Gaza, about 50 people have been treated for gunshot wounds suffered in or near the buffer zone while collecting rubble in the past three months; about five have been killed.

He estimates that 30% of the injured are boys under 18.

Defence for Children International (DCI) has documented 10 cases of children aged 13 to 17 being shot in a three-month period between 50 and 800 metres from the border. Nine were shot in a leg or arm; one was shot in the stomach.

The creation of the no-go area has forced farmers to abandon land and residents to leave homes for fear of coming under fire. Last month a 91-year-old man and two teenage boys were killed while harvesting olives outside the official zone when Israeli troops fired shells. Forty-three goats also died in the attack.

In another case a mother of five was killed by a shell outside her home near the zone in July.

Israel declared the buffer zone inside Gaza after the three-week war in 2008-9, saying it was intended to prevent militants firing rockets. It has dropped leaflets from planes several times warning local people not to venture within 300 metres of the fence that marks the border or risk being shot.

However, the UN, aid agencies and rights groups say that Israel has unofficially and without warning extended the zone to up to 1km from the fence, leaving residents and farmers uncertain whether it is safe to access their land or property.

"The army knows the kids are there to collect. They watch them every day and they know they have no weapons," said Mohammed Abu Rukbi, a fieldworker with DCI. "They usually fire warning shots but the kids don't take much notice."

Mohammed Sobboh, 17, was shot just above the knee on August 25 when he was 800 metres from the border, he said. The 12 people in his family have no other income and are not entitled to aid from the UN as they are not refugees.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a horse and a donkey used by Mohammed and his brothers to carry the rubble, he said.

His brother, Adham, 22, said children as young as eight collect debris from former settlements and demolished buildings for 30-40 shekels (£5.20-£7) a day. "The price has gone down because a lot of people are collecting," said Adham.

According to Dr Masri, the number of shootings has increased as more impoverished Gazans turn to collecting rubble to sell as construction material, which is still under Israeli embargo. "Every day we have one or two cases. Some kids are facing permanent disability. Most of the injuries are to the legs and feet, suggesting the soldiers did not aim to kill. That means they know that the people aren't militants."

Ziad Tamboura, 27, lying in a hospital bed with a heavily bandaged foot, was shot last week while collecting 500 metres from the border. X-rays showed the bones in the foot to be smashed by the bullet. He collected rubble in order to feed his wife and child. "If I am able to walk again, I will go back. There is no other work."

The Gaza City-based Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights is to mount a legal challenge jointly with the Israeli groups Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights to breaches of the official buffer zone. "The area [the Israelis] announced is not the same as what exists on the ground," said the centre's Samir Zaqout.

He criticised the Israelis for shooting and shelling unarmed civilians. "They know everything. They have the technological capacity to monitor the area. They have drones in the sky all the time. They are observing and screening everything."

According to the UN, about 30% of Gaza's arable land is contained within 300 metres of the 50km border. The difficulty farmers face in reaching their land had had an impact on the availability of crops in Gaza, Zaqout said. "Tomatoes are now 10 shekels a kilo, whereas the price used to be one or two shekels."

The Abu Said family, whose land lies outside the buffer zone, felt confident that their faces were well known to Israeli troops monitoring the area. "Every day six or seven members of my family are there [on the land]," said Mohammed Abu Said.

But on 12 September, 91-year-old Ibrahim Abu Said, his 17-year-old grandson, Hussam, and a family friend, Ismail Abu Owda, 16, were killed by a shell fired from a tank on the Israeli side of the border. "This was a very old man taking care of his goats," said Mohammed, Ibrahim's son. "Our land used to be like a heaven. Now it's like a desert."

He blamed Palestinian militants for firing rockets as well as the Israeli military.

In a statement, the Israeli military said the 300-metre buffer zone was created in response to "many incidents of hostile terrorist activity" close to the security fence, often made "under a civilian disguise".

It added: "The IDF acts in order to prevent harm to civilian populations in its operations and any complaint expressed regarding its soldiers' conduct will be … examined according to the existing policy."

Two Israeli troops guilty of using human shield in Gaza

An Israeli military court has convicted two Israeli soldiers for using a Palestinian child as a human shield during an offensive in Gaza in 2009. The soldiers were found guilty of reckless endangerment and conduct unbecoming for forcing the nine-year-old boy to check suspected booby-traps.

It is reportedly the first such conviction in Israel - where the use of civilians as human shields is banned. The sentencing will be decided at a later date, the court said.

Not guilty. The Israeli captain who emptied his rifle into a Palestinian schoolgirl

· Officer ignored warnings that teenager was terrified
· Defence says 'confirming the kill' standard practice

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.

The soldier, who has only been identified as "Captain R", was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago.

The manner of Iman's killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.

After the verdict, Iman's father, Samir al-Hams, said the army never intended to hold the soldier accountable.

"They did not charge him with Iman's murder, only with small offences, and now they say he is innocent of those even though he shot my daughter so many times," he said. "This was the cold-blooded murder of a girl. The soldier murdered her once and the court has murdered her again. What is the message? They are telling their soldiers to kill Palestinian children."

The military court cleared the soldier of illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and perverting the course of justice by asking soldiers under his command to alter their accounts of the incident.

Capt R's lawyers argued that the "confirmation of the kill" after a suspect is shot was a standard Israeli military practice to eliminate terrorist threats.

Following the verdict, Capt R burst into tears, turned to the public benches and said: "I told you I was innocent."

The army's official account said that Iman was shot for crossing into a security zone carrying her schoolbag which soldiers feared might contain a bomb. It is still not known why the girl ventured into the area but witnesses described her as at least 100 yards from the military post which was in any case well protected.

A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.

In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post's operations room and describes Iman as "a little girl" who was "scared to death". After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot.

Although the military speculated that Iman might have been trying to "lure" the soldiers out of their base so they could be attacked by accomplices, Capt R made the decision to lead some of his troops into the open. Shortly afterwards he can be heard on the recording saying that he has shot the girl and, believing her dead, then "confirmed the kill".

"I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over," he said.

Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body.

On the tape, Capt R then "clarifies" to the soldiers under his command why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the [security] zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed."

At no point did the Israeli troops come under attack.

The prosecution case was damaged when a soldier who initially said he had seen Capt R point his weapon at the girl's body and open fire later told the court he had fabricated the story.

Capt R claimed that he had not fired the shots at the girl but near her. However, Dr Mohammed al-Hams, who inspected the child's body at Rafah hospital, counted numerous wounds. "She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs," he told the Guardian shortly afterwards. "The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face."

The army's initial investigation concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically". But after some of the soldiers under his command went to the Israeli press to give a different version, the military police launched a separate investigation after which he was charged.

Capt R claimed that the soldiers under his command were out to get him because they are Jewish and he is Druze.

The transcript

The following is a recording of a three-way conversation that took place between a soldier in a watchtower, an army operations room and Capt R, who shot the girl

From the watchtower [three-way conversation between watchtower soldier, the operations room in another location, and finally, Captain R, the officer on the ground near watchtower "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward." "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?" "A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death." "I think that one of the positions took her out." "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."

From the operations room "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"

Watchtower "A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."

A few minutes later, Iman is shot from one of the army posts

Watchtower "I think that one of the positions took her out."

Captain R "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."

Capt R then "clarifies" why he killed Iman

"This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."

• This article was amended on 1 September 2010, to make explicit that the opening watchtower conversation is between three participants.

U.S. soldiers face murder charges in death of Afghan civilians

U.S. soldiers face murder charges in death of Afghan civiliansIn one of the most serious war crimes cases to emerge from the nine-year war in Afghanistan, five U.S. soldiers from a Stryker brigade in the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division have been charged with murder for allegedly killing three Afghan civilians.

While they were on patrol, the soldiers threw grenades at two of the Afghans and shot them, according to charging documents. The third civilian also was shot, and anyone who dared to report the events was threatened with violence, according to statements made to investigators.

The accused soldiers are with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash., Some 3,700 soldiers in the brigade were deployed throughout southern Afghanistan, involved both in combat and in wide-ranging efforts to open schools, train Afghan forces, improve agriculture and take other measures to win the support of civilians.

All five accused soldiers are awaiting court-martial proceedings, and their families have retained civilian attorneys to aid in their defense. If convicted, they face the possibility of life imprisonment or death.

The Seattle Times has reviewed court documents filed by a defense attorney with a U.S. Army magistrate that summarize some of the evidence in the case. The Times also has interviewed attorneys for three of the defendants. The documents provide new insight into how the alleged murder plot may have evolved, but they offer few clues about the soldiers’ motives.

Israeli tank fire kills three in Gaza

At least three Palestinians have been killed by tank fire near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, reports say.

Medical staff and witnesses said Israel fired shots across the border near the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

One report said the two of those killed were a 91-year-old man and his 33-year-old grandson.

Militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip earlier fired a rocket into Israel but no casualties or damage were reported.

Adham Abu Salima, a spokesman for medical services in Gaza, told AFP news agency that the 91-year-old victim had been a caretaker at a farm.

His grandson died shortly afterwards from his wounds, he said.

The identity of the third victim was not yet clear.

Israeli army radio described the people killed as "terrorists" and said that at least one of them was armed.

The BBC's Jon Donnison in Ramallah says there has been an increase in rocket fire from Gaza in the past week, although it is nearly always ineffectual.

One Thai farm worker in Israel has been killed by rocket fire from Gaza in the past 18 months while scores of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed over the same period.

Taliban attacks Nato supply convoy

Taliban attacks Nato supply convoyTaliban fighters have attacked and burned 24 trucks carrying fuel and supplies to US troops in southern Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack on the Nato convoy destined for southern Helmand province, and said the assault prompted US forces to evacuate the Singin military base.

"Twenty-four fuel and supply trucks on their way to Qalat Mousa in the southern province of Helmand have been burnt," spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said. "Our fighters have forced the US forces to leave their bases. Seventy per cent of the province's organisations have stopped their activities," he said.

150 Irish artists announce Israel cultural boycott

Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign signs artists to pledge saying they will refrain from performing in Israel as long as it abuses Palestinian human rights. The artists signed a statement, pledging that they refrain from engaging in cultural activity with Israel "until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights”.

Casualties in Afghanistan soar to record highs

Casualties in Afghanistan soar to record highsIn a summer of suffering, America’s military death toll in Afghanistan is rising, with back-to-back record months for U.S. losses in the grinding conflict. All signs point to more bloodshed in the months ahead, straining the already shaky international support for the war.

Six more Americans were reported killed in fighting in the south — three Thursday and three Friday — pushing the U.S. death toll for July to a record 66 and surpassing June as the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly nine-year war.

U.S. companies transferred funds to suspects in Dubai hit

U.S. companies transferred funds to suspects in Dubai hitInvestigators in the United States probing the assassination of a senior Hamas official have drawn links between U.S. companies and suspects in the case, bringing them closer to identifying them, according to an American press report Saturday.

The findings show U.S. authorities playing a great role in the probe than previously revealed, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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