Muslim American Society - New Jersey

"Human rights association “Breaking the Silence” has published more pictures of Israeli soldiers posing with shackled and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners, pointing out that the latest scandal is not an isolated incident. 

Photos of an Israeli army officer posing with Palestinian prisoners can hardly be shocking to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), according to human rights association Breaking the Silence (BtS), which says such pictures are taken almost every day. 

Former IDF Lieutenant Eden Abargil made headlines round the world Monday after publishing pictures of her posing with blindfolded and shackled Palestinian prisoners on Facebook. The IDF insists the pictures are an isolated incident. 

Not so, according to BtS, an organisation of former IDF soldiers and veterans who collected and provided testimonies about their military experience in the occupied territories during the Second Intifada. 

The association on Tuesday published a number of other pictures showing other IDF soldiers posing with blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinians on its Facebook page.." 

To see the rest, including some of the photos, go here.

The author, God bless her pseudo-heart, never mentioned that her husband is "... a board member of an Afghan government minister's $100 million project advocating foreign investment in Afghanistan, and has run two companies, Digistan and Ora-Tech, that have solicited and won development contracts with the assistance of the international military, including private sector infrastructure projects favored by U.S.-backed leader Hamid Karzai." ~ taken from Jason Linkins's report.

For the Taliban, who don't seem to shy away from taking credit for their work, they not only deny their involvement, they also state nothing of the sort happened in Badghis Province. 

The Taliban's statement partly reads "..In sacred Islamic law, cutting of human ears and noses whether the human is alive or dead is illegal and prohibited. Under Shariate law, if someone carries out this heinous act, the same thing will be done to the criminal who has perpetuated the act..." 

'Tucked into this massive Army report on suicide is an interesting fact: Since 2004, the number of soldiers going AWOL, deserting, and "missing movement" -- that is failing to deploy when they're supposed to -- has gone up a shocking 234 percent.

The Army includes this fact on page 92 of the 350 page document, in a section on misdemeanor crimes -- alongside motor vehicle violations, substance abuse, and other crimes -- which collectively have been rising at the rate of more than 5,000 a year for the last five years.

"Good order and discipline are on the decline," the report says.

Alternatively, one could say that after seven years of war in Iraq and nearly a decade in Afghanistan, American soldiers are increasingly unwilling to risk their lives for unpopular wars with an unclear path to victory. "

Remember me?

From Huffington Post: "George W. Bush pushed back publication of his memoirs, "Decision Points," out of fear that a public reminder of his presidential legacy would hurt Republicans heading into November's midterm elections, Bush's friends tell the Financial Times.

The FT reports that Bush refused to allow publication in September, which would have been a better time to unveil his book from a sales perspective. Instead, it's slated to hit stores on Nov. 9, one week after Election Day. Bush isn't scheduled to give any interviews for the book tour until Nov. 8...."

Click this if you want to read the rest, including the Republican excuse for this move

Click for original article by "edward" here 

The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who potentially faces sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop.  In a trend that we've seen across the country, police have become  increasingly hostile to bystanders recording their actions.  You can read some examples here, here and here.

However, the scale of the Maryland State Police reaction to Anthony Graber's video is unprecedented.  Once they learned of the video on YouTube, Graber's residence was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated.  Graber was arrested, booked and jailed.  Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation.  Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute.

The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties.  According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber's case, "To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist."

* * *

Here is the videotape of that tainted cop.

Actually it's worse than a prison camp. Prison camps have rights. Anyway, from the new PM:

David Cameron used a visit to Turkey to make his strongest intervention yet in the intractable Middle East conflict today when he likened the experience of Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip to that of a "prison camp".

Although he has made similar remarks before, his decision to repeat them on a world stage in Turkey, whose relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply since it mounted a deadly assault on the Gaza flotilla, gave them much greater diplomatic significance.

Cameron's comments, in a speech to business leaders in Ankara, prompted the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to issue another strong condemnation of how Israel dealt with the flotilla.

Erdogan likened the behaviour of Israeli commandos, who shot dead nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists, to Somali pirates.

Cameron's criticism of Tel Aviv came when he called for Israel to relax its restrictions on Gaza. "The situation in Gaza has to change," he said. "Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."

He strongly condemned Israel after the assault on the Gaza flotilla. "The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable," he said. "I have told prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. "Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change."

Cameron defended his remarks at a press conference with Erdogan. "My description of Gaza is something I said in the House of Commons several weeks ago. Perhaps this is final proof that if you want to keep something completely secret you should announce it in the House of Commons."

Hansard, the House of Commons' official record, shows Cameron said on 28 June: "Everybody knows that we are not going to sort out the problem of the Middle East peace process while there is, effectively, a giant open prison in Gaza."

His choice of the words "prison camp" instead of "open prison" is likely to be seized upon. But a Downing Street source later tried to play down Cameron's comments. "This is not an elevation of the rhetoric. This is equivalent language. The prime minister remains concerned."

Read the rest here

From Wrap.com: A furious Haim Saban has mounted a campaign to get Showtime to cancel its planned airing of Oliver Stone’s 10-part series, "A Secret History of America," in the wake of anti-Jewish remarks by the outspoken director.

Stone's apology “is transparently fake,” Saban said in an interview with TheWrap. “He has been consistent in his anti-American and anti-Semitic remarks. I respect his First Amendment rights. I hope he respects mine.”

The billionaire and outspoken media mogul told TheWrap he had contacted CBS chief Leslie Moonves to urge him to pull the series.

He said that WME chairman Ari Emanuel had also called CBS privately to urge the series be pulled. update: WME had no comment.

Saban said he considers Stone to be "clearly an anti-Semite and an anti-American.

Read the rest

Mongolian neo-Nazi group the Tsagaan Khas ('White Swastika') salute on the streets of the capital Ulan Bator Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian

Guardian.co.uk:

Their right hands rise to black-clad chests and flash out in salute to their nation: "Sieg heil!" They praise Hitler's devotion to ethnic purity.

But with their high cheekbones, dark eyes and brown skin, they are hardly the Third Reich's Aryan ideal. A new strain of Nazism has found an unlikely home: Mongolia.

Once again, ultra-nationalists have emerged from an impoverished economy and turned upon outsiders. This time the main targets come from China, the rising power to the south.

Groups such as Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, portray themselves as patriots standing up for ordinary citizens in the face of foreign crime, rampant inequality, political indifference and corruption.

But critics say they scapegoat and attack the innocent. The US state department has warned travellers of increased assaults on inter-racial couples in recent years – including organised violence by ultra-nationalist groups.

Dayar Mongol threatened to shave the heads of women who sleep with Chinese men. Three years ago, the leader of Blue Mongol was convicted of murdering his daughter's boyfriend, reportedly because the young man had studied in China.

Though Tsagaan Khass leaders say they do not support violence, they are self-proclaimed Nazis. "Adolf Hitler was someone we respect. He taught us how to preserve national identity," said the 41-year-old co-founder, who calls himself Big Brother.

"We don't agree with his extremism and starting the second world war. We are against all those killings, but we support his ideology. We support nationalism rather than fascism."

Read the rest here