israel's use of chemical weapons and the Us/israeli 'plans' for the region ...

israeli loading chemical artillery shell


doctor in lebanon examining civilian victims of israeli chemical attack
corpse of burnt little girl--sidon lebanon


While the members of Us congress , in blind fear of losing jewish votes , trip all over themselves fighting to make the best , "we support israel's right to destroy whomever they want " statement --jockeying for position to get their faces in the lapdog mainstream media's nightly propaganda broadcasts for mouthing the day's 'winning' most pro-israeli sound-byte -- back in the middle east , the izzies get away with targeting civilians , targeting red cross ambulances , deliberately targeting a clearly marked UN facility that israel knew has been in the region for 40 years --targeting that Un facility despite 6 urgent warnings that they were in the process killing Un personnel-- the izzies also get away with refusing to let up on the bombing of lebanon in order to allow rescue workers to go in and save the many civilians believed trapped and still alive in bombed out buildings --AND as if that weren't enough rotten stuff for one military campaign , to top it off --as we have said previously , the izzies are using chemical weapons





http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10393282


Israel bombs cause wounds 'never seen before'

1.00pm Thursday July 27, 2006

BEIRUT - Lebanon is investigating reports from doctors that Israel has used weapons in its 15-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon that have caused wounds they have never seen before.

"We are sending off samples tomorrow, but we have no confirmation yet that illegal weapons have been used," Health Minister Mohammed Khalife told Reuters. The Israeli army said it had used only conventional weapons and ammunition in attacks aimed at Hizbollah guerrillas and nothing contravening international law.

Blackened bodies have been showing up at hospitals in southern Lebanon two weeks into the war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas that has seen at least 418 people, mostly civilians, killed in Lebanon and at least 42 Israelis.

Killed by Israeli air raids, the Lebanese dead are charred in a way local doctors, who have lived through years of civil war and Israeli occupation, say they have not seen before.

Bachir Cham, a Belgian-Lebanese doctor at the Southern Medical Centre in Sidon, received eight bodies after an Israeli air raid on nearby Rmeili which he said exhibited such wounds.

He has taken 24 samples from the bodies to test what killed them. He believes it is a chemical.

Cham said the bodies of some victims were "black as shoes, so they are definitely using chemical weapons. They are all black but their hair and skin is intact so they are not really burnt. It is something else."

"If you burnt someone with petrol their hair would burn and their skin would burn down to the bone. The Israelis are 100 per cent using chemical weapons."

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has repeatedly accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs in its offensive.

Human Rights Watch, which has accused the Israeli army of using cluster bombs in populated areas of southern Lebanon

, said it had not verified claims that Israel had used phosphorus.

"We are investigating but we haven't confirmed anything yet. We have seen phosphorus used before and we have seen it in the artillery stocks of the Israeli army in the north," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

"Phosphorus shells do have a legitimate use in illuminating the battlefield at night. The offensive use of phosphorus would be a violation of international conventions."

Television footage shows some bodies, such as those of 20 civilians killed when an Israeli missile hit the van in which they were fleeing the border village of Marwaheen, blackened in the way Cham describes. No one knows what killed them.

"We are seeing abnormal burns, different from wars we've seen in the past. The corpses of these victims are shrinking to half their normal size. You think it is the corpse of a child at first but it turns out to be a grown man," said Raed Salman Zeinedine, director of Tyre Government Hospital.

"We've never seen anything like it but what the causes are I don't want to speculate. We have no scientific answer."
(* note from deskRat editor --as news of israeli casualties have shown , israeli troops are only in southern lebanon near the lebanon/israel border not in these cities where these horribly burned victims of israeli chemical attacks have been discovered.

the bottom line is that israel would have no need to use white phosphorous bombs to "light up a battle field" where they have no troops on the so-called battlefield , and no "battle " taking place --these are air bombardments killing lebanese civilians not battles on the ground --also one can be reasonably sure that the high-tech israeli aircraft are equipped with night vision and infra-red targeting--thus NO NEED TO LIGHT UP A BATTLEFIELD FOR YOUR PILOTS AND NO NEED TO LIGHT UP A BATTLEFIELD SO THAT YOUR TROOPS ON THE GROUND CAN SEE AT NIGHT , IF YOU HAVE NO TROOPS THERE ON THE GROUND --IF THE ISRAELIS ARE USING WHITE PHOSPHORUS , IT IS BEING USED AS AN OFFENSIVE WEAPON AND IS BEING USED AGAINST HELPLESS CIVILIANS --CLEARLY TWO WAR CRIMES , AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!!!)

The Israel Army said it did not target civilians at all.

"We use only weapons and ammunition which will best hit our targets and cause least collateral damage," said army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal.

"It could be that a body is burned from fire or the force of an explosion, but between that and suggesting we do something illegal under international law are two different things."

from wayne madsen report


July 16, 2006 -- EXCLUSIVE TO WMR. Our intelligence sources in Lebanon have reported to us exclusively that Israel is now using poison gas and depleted uranium shells on towns in the south of Lebanon. Residents of the small village of Kasarshoba became violently ill, experiencing severe vomiting, after the Israelis hit the village with poison gas. In other cases, underground shelters in southern Lebanon were hit by Israeli depleted uranium shells. Our sources also report that the entire southern suburbs of southern Beirut, with a population of 800,000, have been totally depopulated. Israel has targeted thousands of civilian homes for destruction.

July 21, 2006 -- The current Israeli assault on Lebanon was stage-managed between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and neocons in the Bush administration, according to well-connected sources in the nation's capital. The Bush administration had prior knowledge of and supported Israel's planned attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, the sources have revealed. In addition, there was no move by the Bush administration to warn Americans in the Occupied Palestinian Territories or Lebanon to leave the areas before the Israeli invasions. No travel warnings were issued to U.S. citizens in an attempt to mask Israeli attack plans, an action that resulted in last-minute Dunkirk-like sea evacuations of foreigners from Lebanon.

The first indication that Israel pre-planned its assault on the Palestinians came early this month when the Israelis began denying entry to the West Bank to Palestinians holding U.S. passports. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem refused to intervene with Israel, claiming it was the decision of a sovereign nation. The denial of entry to Palestinian-Americans was a violation of the Oslo Accords and the Geneva Conventions. The United States does not officially recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Washington insiders report that the Bush administration's coordination with Israel in the attacks on Hamas and Hezbollah involve the official adoption of the white paper, "A Clean Break: New Strategies for Securing the Realm," as U.S. policy. The "Clean Break" document, authored in 1996 by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and other neocon operatives, was written at the same time the program for the invasion and occupation of Iraq was drawn up by the same neocon players.



Carrying out the next phase of the neo-con "Clean Break": Netanyahu, Perle, and Ledeen still call the shots on U.S. and Israeli policies. First it was Iraq, then Palestine and Lebanon, next is Syria and Iran.

The current U.S.-Israeli strategy of bombing and invading Lebanon is a follow-up to four years of covert activities by the Pentagon, White House, and Mossad in Lebanon that involved the car bombing assassinations of top Lebanese officials in order to clear out Syrian forces from Lebanon. The assassinations of Elie Hobeika, George Hawi, and Rafik Hariri were all carried out to destabilize Lebanon and force the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon. Syria was blamed by the Bush administration for all the car bombing assassinations in Lebanon.(*note --we at deskRat had said from the start we believed mossad and cia were behind the assassination of former lebanese prime minister rafik hariri and had murdered hariri in order to create an outrage in world opinion to force syrian troops to withdraw from lebanon --leaving hezbollah to face israel alone when israel felt ready to resume the war it had fought against hezbollah since the 82 israeli invasion---also note that wayne madsen agrees that the two israeli soldiers captured by hezbollah WERE ON THE LEBANESE SIDE OF THE BORDER and not in israel as the israelis claim--so who attacked who first and ignited --like a white phosphorus incidiary bomb-- this new war?)


Israel's border exercise that saw the capture by Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese side of the border and the contingency plans involving the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas in Israel, near the Israeli-Gazan border, provided a pre-text for the Israeli attack on Gaza and Lebanon. Similar plans have been drawn up to respond to a Syrian "capture" of Israeli troops in Lebanon near the Syrian border or from the Golan Heights. That will be used to justify a joint Israeli and American attack on Syria, with Israel entering from Lebanon and the U.S. entering from Iraq.

The carrying out of the joint Israeli-U.S. attack plan for Lebanon, Syria (and eventually, Iran) is the reason why the United States has stymied UN attempts to seek an immediate cease-fire. The intent of the Bush administration is to see a widening of the conflict. Unconfirmed UN ambassador to the UN John Bolton, appearing on Fox News, laid out the future blueprint for the joint U.S.-Israeli regionalization of the war in the Middle East when he stated, "I think that if you look at the support that Iran and Syria have given groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad that really the reckoning we need here is a reckoning, not just with the terrorist groups, but with the states that finance them."

WMR has also learned that top Israeli and U.S. military officers are adamantly opposed to the Clean Break policy. Many Israeli generals, remembering Israel's bloody occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, favored negotiating a prisoner swap with Hezbollah. The Olmert government is purging the last remnants of the Yitzhak Rabin elements who favored negotiations from the Israeli military and intelligence agencies much in the same way that opponents of the Bush regime have been purged from the U.S. military, CIA, and State Department.

--wayne madsen

the deskRat chronicles' coveted , "this job's gonna be a little tougher than i thought " award goes to ...

the israeli defense forces for their assault on lebanon's civilians and infrastructure in order to destroy hezbollah.
israeli soldiers cry over buddy killed by hezbollah



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060726/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel_462 *( deskRat chronicles condensed version featured below)

14 Israeli troops killed by Hezbollah By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 26, 9:31 AM ET

Hezbollah inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli troops as they battled for a key hilltop town in southern Lebanon for a fourth day Wednesday, with as many as 14 soldiers reported killed. Lebanese officials, meanwhile, confirmed that four U.N. observers were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their post Tuesday night.



Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israeli lawmakers that he wants to establish a strip of a little more than a mile wide in south Lebanon that will be free of Hezbollah guerrillas, giving the dimensions of a new "security zone" for the first time.

"We want a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) space from the border in which it will not be possible to fire rockets toward soldiers and civilians' houses and in which there will not be contact with military border patrols," Olmert told parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, according to participants at the closed meeting.

Israeli soldiers patrolled a "security zone" during Israel's 18-year occupation of south Lebanon, but Olmert indicated the new buffer zone would be different. "We do not have any intention of returning to the security zone but want to create an area where there will be no Hezbollah," he was quoted as saying.

The Israeli public currently overwhelmingly supports the army's broad offensive in Lebanon, but is not likely to support any reoccupation.

Israel has faced fiercer resistance than expected as it advances across the border in its two-week campaign against the Islamic militant group.

Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based satellite TV channel, said 14 Israeli soldiers had been killed. Hezbollah's chief spokesman Hussein Rahhal said of the battle: "What I can tell you is that 13 Israelis have been burned alive in their tanks on our land."

The Israeli military said there were 20 Israeli casualties, but it would not say if any soldiers had been killed.

Israeli army commanders also have presented a more limited agenda, saying Israeli ground troops would not push deep into Lebanon and the objective is to kill as many Hezbollah fighters as possible and push others away from the border.


A new volley of Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel on Tuesday, killing a teenage girl. Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, issued a taped television message saying guerrillas would start firing rockets deeper into Israel.

As the Israeli incursion continued, the senior Hezbollah leader said the guerrillas had not expected such an onslaught when they killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two others during a cross-border raid on July 12.

"The truth is — let me say this clearly — we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," Komati told the AP.

___

previous winners of the , "this job's gonna be a little tougher than i thought" award include :


george w. bush --hurricane katrina relief --"brownie you're doin a great job "
george w. bush --invasion of iraq--"mission accomplished!"
george w. bush --invasion of afghanistan --"the taliban has fallen"
george w. bush --invasion of the pretzels --"i'll just get some snacks and watch some football on tv "

george w. bush -- visiting florida school children on 9-11-01-- "mr. president america is under attack--DO SOMETHING! "

posthumous award winners include :

adolph hitler--world war two--"from where the german soldier sets foot , there is no such thing as retreat !"

general custer --custer's last stand --"looks like we caught em napping ,boys !" *general custer was also the unanimous posthumous winner of deskRat chronicles , "i got a right to defend myself by murdering civilians who never attacked me " award

napoleon bonaparte -- invasion of russia--"i did experience a few difficulties in moscow."

julius caesar --ides of march -- "so what if brutus and the senators are pissed off at me? they're my friends . we'll do lunch . we'll eat , drink some wine , talk and i'll smooth all this stuff over."

this was a little girl...

until israel decided to exercise its ad nauseam mentioned "right to defend itself" ---but defend itself from what? little children ?

according to the article found at "what really happened.com" the 2 israeli soldiers hezbollah captured were on the wrong side of the border and israel started all "this shit" when its soldiers violated lebanese territory !

if so , then this whole war on lebanon's infrastructure and its civilians is being fought for totally obvious bullshit reasons --like the Us neocon war on iraq that was fought over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction...and the israelis are as much full-of-shit liars , war criminals and mass murderers as george dumbya-ass bush, phoney blair , dickhead cheney , don dumbsfeld and bitch-oleeza rice



THE TWO ISRAELI SOLDIERS
WERE CAPTURED IN LEBANON



http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html

The Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement announced on Wednesday that its guerrillas have captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

"Implementing our promise to free Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, our strugglers have captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon," a statement by Hezbollah said.

"The two soldiers have already been moved to a safe place," it added. The Lebanese police said that the two soldiers were captured as they "infiltrated" into the town of Aitaa al-Chaab inside the Lebanese border. [Hindustan Times 7/12/06]


The Lebanese Hezbollah movement announced Wednesday the arrest of two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. Lebanese police said that the two soldiers were arrested as they entered the town of Aitaa al-Chaab inside the Lebanese border. Israeli aircraft were active in the air over southern Lebanon, police said, with jets bombing roads leading to the market town of Nabatiyeh, 60 kilometers south of Beirut. [Bahrain News Agency 7/12/06]


TRANSLATION: According to the Lebanese police force, the two soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory, in the area of Aïta Al-Chaab close to the border, whereas Israeli television indicated that they had been captured in Israeli territory. [fr.news.yahoo 7/12/06]


In the afternoon, the scene changed in the streets of southern Lebanon, which was the target of 32 Israeli raids that mainly targeted areas near the area where the two soldiers were captured in Aita al Chaab, close to the border with Israel. [news.monstersandcritics.com 7/12/06]


It all started on July 12 when Israel troops were ambushed on Lebanon's side of the border with Israel. Hezbollah, which commands the Lebanese south, immediately seized on their crossing. They arrested two Israeli soldiers, killed eight Israelis and wounded over 20 in attacks inside Israeli territory. [Asia Times 7/15/06]


TRANSLATION: In a deliberated way, Tsahal sent a commando in the Lebanese back-country to Aïta Al Chaab. It was attacked by Hezbollah, making two prisoners. [voltairenet.org 7/18/06]


Do you get it yet? Israel sent troops across the border into Lebanon. They then claimed the captured invaders were "kidnap victims" and launched their attacks.

israel's kidnappings

*israel systematically destroys civilian infrastructure kills civilians and systematically ravages the economy of lebanon while expressing outrage over its 3 'kidnapped soldiers' is like the salt calling the sugar white --excerpts from "game over " an article by sam bahour and an editorial from genevieve cora fraser , "israeli and Us barbarians on the march"

arabic media internet network


http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/july/july17-3.html




Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian city of El-Bireh, currently visiting his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. He is co-author of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994) and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com



The official Israeli and US government lines are that the destruction of Lebanon and Gaza are happening because Israeli combat soldiers were taken prisoners, 3 in total. The international community’s state of amnesia seems to forget the 9,000 Palestinians that are currently lingering in Israeli prisons, of which over 1,000 had no charges brought against them. If so many civilians were not being killed in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel, the Israeli and US positions would be laughable. Even small town USA newspaper editorials are becoming aware of the US being on the wrong side of history in this conflict. The editorial of the Youngstown Vindicator of July 14 noted, “…the United States should have thought longer and harder before giving Israel unqualified support.”

The words of Arik Diamant, an Israeli military reservist and the head of the Courage to Refuse organization, sheds light on a growing sentiment within Israeli ranks that mainstream media is refusing to cover. Mr. Diamant recently wrote of his experience in arresting one of the thousands of Palestinians that the Israelis have illegally imprisoned over the years, he said, “No one wrote about it in the paper. European diplomats were not called to help him. After all, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the kidnapping of this Palestinian kid. Over the 40 years of occupation we have kidnapped thousands of people, exactly like Gilad Shalit was captured: Threatened by a gun, beaten mercilessly, with no judge or jury, or witnesses, and without providing the family with any information about the captive.”

Provocation clearly comes in many sizes and shapes. Israel’s mere refusal to end its military occupation of Palestinians is a level of provocation that most of the world could never even imagine. Taking prisoners of war, if this can even be called a war, is yet another provocation. There was no international outcry in 1989 when Israeli commandos crossed the Lebanese border and snatched Sheikh Abd al-Karim Obeid, a Hizballah leader of south Lebanon, and imprisoned him in Israel. The Israeli government even introduced legislation to maintain his imprisonment and called him a pawn to be used later. Israel repeated this again in 1994 when Mustafa Dirani was kidnapped from his home in Lebanon by Israeli commandos during the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha. Although provocations vary and are made by all sides in this conflict, no action, whatsoever, justifies the destruction of a civilian population’s infrastructure and wonton killing of civilians. Such acts only breed more violence and more hatred.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0607/S00299.htm

Israeli & US Barbarians on the March


By Genevieve Cora Fraser


Along with hundreds of civilians killed, thousands wounded, and over 500,000 fleeing for their lives, Israel has launched a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout Lebanon and is "dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure," according to the Daily Star of Beirut.

The production facilities of the largest dairy farm have been destroyed as well as a pharmaceutical plant. It will take decades to restore the country. Israel is also bombing apartment buildings, churches and gas stations - anything and everything in its gun sights.

Israel is bombing Lebanon and Gaza to kingdom come because of three Israeli soldiers (who kill Arabs) that Hamas and Hizbullah abducted in an attempt to secure the release of 400 Palestinian children and over 100 women who were abducted by Israeli Occupation Forces and are kept in Israel jails, without charge, where they are tortured and abused.

There are 10,000 political prisoners in Israeli jails vs. 3 Israeli political prisoners. The USA has given the green light for the barbaric attacks to continue - because Hizbullah dares to fight back.

Past president of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists, Jacques Sarraf remarked, "Israel is the enemy and they are doing everything they can to destroy the country, economically, socially, politically." Israel, the USA are pursuing a scorched earth policy towards Arabs and Islam just as Hitler once pursued the Jews.

Resistance fighters are not terrorists, countries using overwhelming force are.

images from lebanon --israel has truly lost its mind...and its soul...

To The Concerned Citizen of The World:

"Killing innocent civilians is NOT an act of self-defense. Destroying a sovereign nation is NOT a measured response."

Lebanese civilians have been under the constant attack of the state of Israel for several days. The State of Israel, in disregard to international law and the Geneva Convention, is launching a maritime and air siege targeting the entire population of the country. Innocent civilians are being collectively punished in Lebanon by the state of Israel in deliberate acts of terrorism as described in Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.

The Lebanese people feel left out by the world that is turning a blind eye on the savagery of the Israeli state. Israel does not seem to be capable of approaching any problem outside the realm of the military power bestowed on it by the government of the United States of America and other western governments.

We are writing you this letter in the hope that this massacre is immediately stopped. It is the universal duty of each individual to defend the innocents and expose the truth. The numerous civilian victims of the Israeli operations are increasing by the hour. The viciousness of the attacks has attained terrifying levels where a child has been cut in three while another was half burned.

The Israeli war machine, in its blind savagery, is destroying not only our lives but the foundations that could help the civilians survive beyond their massacre. The Israeli Defense Forces are destroying in few hours what Lebanon has spent years and billions of dollars to rebuild.

Up until now more than 100 Lebanese civilians have been killed, hundreds wounded, bridges and infrastructure destroyed, refugees are leaving Beirut in droves and worst of all the enforced siege might lead to a human catastrophe in the next 48 hours. There must be an end to this cycle of violence and continuous violation of international laws and basic ethical behavior.

Between the blindness of the international community and the deafness of the Arab one, the besieged Lebanese population has no way out.

Peace begins with justice


SIGN THE PETITION

epetitions.net/julywar/





A List of UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS against Israel

1955-1992:
• * Resolution 106: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for Gaza raid".
• * Resolution 111: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people".
• * Resolution 127: " . . . 'recommends' Israel suspends it's 'no-man's zone' in Jerusalem".
• * Resolution 162: " . . . 'urges' Israel to comply with UN decisions".
• * Resolution 171: " . . . determines flagrant violations' by Israel in its attack on Syria".
• * Resolution 228: " . . . 'censures' Israel for its attack on Samu in the West Bank, then under Jordanian control".
• * Resolution 237: " . . . 'urges' Israel to allow return of new 1967 Palestinian refugees".
• * Resolution 248: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for its massive attack on Karameh in Jordan".
• * Resolution 250: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to refrain from holding military parade in Jerusalem".
• * Resolution 251: " . . . 'deeply deplores' Israeli military parade in Jerusalem in defiance of Resolution 250".
• * Resolution 252: " . . . 'declares invalid' Israel's acts to unify Jerusalem as Jewish capital".
• * Resolution 256: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli raids on Jordan as 'flagrant violation".
• * Resolution 259: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to accept UN mission to probe occupation".
• * Resolution 262: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for attack on Beirut airport".
• * Resolution 265: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks for Salt in Jordan".
• * Resolution 267: " . . . 'censures' Israel for administrative acts to change the status of Jerusalem".
• *Resolution 270: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon".
• * Resolution 271: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's failure to obey UN resolutions on Jerusalem".
• * Resolution 279: " . . . 'demands' withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon".
• * Resolution 280: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli's attacks against Lebanon".
• * Resolution 285: " . . . 'demands' immediate Israeli withdrawal form Lebanon".
• * Resolution 298: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's changing of the status of Jerusalem".
• * Resolution 313: " . . . 'demands' that Israel stop attacks against Lebanon".
• * Resolution 316: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for repeated attacks on Lebanon".
• * Resolution 317: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to release Arabs abducted in Lebanon".
• * Resolution 332: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's repeated attacks against Lebanon".
• * Resolution 337: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for violating Lebanon's sovereignty".
• * Resolution 347: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli attacks on Lebanon".
• * Resolution 425: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon".
• * Resolution 427: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon.
• * Resolution 444: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's lack of cooperation with UN peacekeeping forces".
• * Resolution 446: " . . . 'determines' that Israeli settlements are a 'serious
• obstruction' to peace and calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention".
• * Resolution 450: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacking Lebanon".
• * Resolution 452: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories".
• * Resolution 465: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's settlements and asks all member
• states not to assist Israel's settlements program".
• * Resolution 467: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's military intervention in Lebanon".
• * Resolution 468: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to rescind illegal expulsions of
• two Palestinian mayors and a judge and to facilitate their return".
• * Resolution 469: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's failure to observe the
• council's order not to deport Palestinians".
• * Resolution 471: " . . . 'expresses deep concern' at Israel's failure to abide
• by the Fourth Geneva Convention".
• * Resolution 476: " . . . 'reiterates' that Israel's claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'".
• * Resolution 478: " . . . 'censures (Israel) in the strongest terms' for its
• claim to Jerusalem in its 'Basic Law'".
• * Resolution 484: " . . . 'declares it imperative' that Israel re-admit two deported
• Palestinian mayors".
• * Resolution 487: " . . . 'strongly condemns' Israel for its attack on Iraq's
• nuclear facility".
• * Resolution 497: " . . . 'decides' that Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan
• Heights is 'null and void' and demands that Israel rescinds its decision forthwith".
• * Resolution 498: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon".
• * Resolution 501: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacks agains 0

live from gaza ( thus far...)

*not satisfied with kicking around and brutalizing the million plus "captured" residents of gaza over one israeli soldier taken prisoner of war by militias of the palestinian resistance , israel invades lebanon over two more of its soldiers taken prisoner in lebanon by hezbollah's fighters...

"Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz warned the Lebanese government that the Israeli military will target infrastructure and 'turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years,' if the soldiers were not returned, Israeli TV reported." --associated press

lebanese officials report 6 israeli soldiers killed --three in the raid that captured the israeli soldiers and three more killed when hezbollah destroyed an israeli tank as it crossed into lebanon. israeli military has called up reserve units and has already begun destroying bridges and other infrastructure in lebanon , by combined air sea and land assaults .

meanwhile back in gaza , israel continues it f-16 and helicopter gunship attacks on a people whose armed forces have little more than rifles to defend themselves with due to decades of israeli blockades and a relentless israeli stranglehold on palestinian borders-- once again israeli air and artillery attacks are violating international law by cutting off electrical power water and sewage treatment facilities vital to civilian life .

also , israel continues its policy of targeting hamas leaders for assassination . palestinians reported that a wednesday pre-dawn israeli airstrike on a house in gaza city dropped a quarter-ton bomb on the home , yet failed to kill the head of hamas' military wing , mohammed deif.

instead nine members of a palestinian family were killed in the assassination attempt by jet including a woman and 7 of her children aged 4 to 18.

palestinian officials charge that since this invasion began that israeli bombings and artillery fire have killed at least 60 people --mostly civilians .

doctors in gaza are reportedly describing in some victims of israeli bombings strange wounds that burn and tear the body from the inside --which sounds like white phosphorus --"whiskey pete" as american troops in the criminal assault that brutally leveled the city of fallujah , iraq , reportedly called it .

white phosphorus burns flesh on contact and does not stop burning until the flesh is completely destroyed--palestinian doctors have reportedly resorted to amputation of limbs to save some victims from this inhumanly vicious form of chemical warfare
* suspected victim of white phosphorus--Us chemical warfare -fallujah




article and picture below courtesy of electronic intifada.net

Dear friends: Gaza is in darkness
Cherifa Sirry, Live from Palestine, 12 July 2006
*6-11-06 mourners in the town of rafah , gaza carry the body of kaled abdel kareem --age one and a half--who died from wounds received in israeli air strike

July 12 -- Its nearly 4 a.m. here and I decided to go back to my computer to com municate to my friends around the world what every single mainstream media channel, whether American, European or Arab, is failing to in regards to what is happening right now in Gaza, Palestine. I have been in front of the television for the past few hours, monitoring the news and I was shocked to see nothing on Gaza except for on two local Arab channels and one Arab satellite channel. Even Al-Jazeera, to my utter shock, didn't so much as mention Gaza in its last two news broadcasts! Let me tell you what I have been seeing and hearing:

Southern Gaza is in total darkness. Three quarters of Gaza is pitch-black while northern Gaza has a few lights. About an hour ago, Israel bombed with F-16's the only power station left in Khan Younis, also plunging it into total darkness. Do you know what it means to be without electricity for 10 days in today's world? No water, no sewage system, no cooling, no storing of whatever food is left, no communication, etc.

As though this were not sufficient enough, tonight, like every night, Israel has been bombing and raining missiles on Gaza and flying over it all night, conducting sonic booms to scare the people -- especially terrifying the children. Yesterday, a one-and-a-half year old child died of injuries sustained by Israeli bombing. Yet instead of covering the child's death, the mainstream media is allowing the criminal Ehud Olmert to take the microphone and tell the world that Israel never targets civilians. However, Israel's operation in Gaza has lasted ten days and all evidence points to the contrary. One of the strongest armies in the world has declared war on a population that does not even have a single tank or plane.

Water is lacking, food is scarce, medicine and fuel have run out and Israel refuses to let trucks carrying supplies enter Gaza to save a civilian population which was already condemned to live in refugee camps because of Israeli colonialism and aggression. Palestinian hospitals are hardly able to operate. When Israel first bombed Gaza's power station, hospitals resorted to using their generators. But generators can only keep going if there is fuel. Those sick and elderly sustained on machines are slowly perishing. Babies in incubators are dying. With the growing piles of rubbish that can no longer be picked up from the streets, disease is festering. A humanitarian disaster is taking place in Gaza now and the world community refuses to act, afraid of offending Israel.

The world is silent. And mainstream media are behaving as though nothing were happening. All it cares about is an Israeli soldier amid 1.4 million innocent civilians being punished despite that they had nothing to do with his capture!

Of course, none of this would be happening were it not for the American tax-payer who for decades financed and is still financing every bullet and missile being shot from Israel. What will it take for the American tax payer to understand what he or she is funding?

While I am writing this, I am watching the recovery of victims from a building that collapsed in Gaza about an hour ago after it was bombed by Israeli F-16's. I see panicked and scared Palestinians illuminating the collapsed building with their torches and digging with their hands in the rubble to find survivors. I see a hand sticking out the rubble and it is still moving.

I am writing this to my internet friends because it is my duty to relay what I am seeing. I cannot just go to sleep as though nothing were. Mainstream media world wide is obviously complicit in the new world order and I am hoping that the internet community will stand out and will spread the news of Gaza, like we spread the news of Iraq.

I have recorded the horrible events of this evening and those of the past few days and I shall find a way to get this footage out. The world must find out what a criminal country Israel is.


Cherifa Sirry is an Egyptian producer based in Cairo

american tax dollars at work...

A Palestinian carrying the body of a murdered boy after Israeli mobile artillery fired shells at Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip July 6, 2006. (MaanImages/Mohamed al-Zanon)

Are Israeli lives worth more than Palestinian?
Press Release, Arab Media Watch, 7 July 2006


Arab Media Watch expresses its concern at the amount of coverage given to Israel's killing yesterday of almost two dozen Palestinians, including civilians, compared with the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier on 25 June, as well as the continued portrayal of the current crisis as being triggered by the kidnapping.

Comparing the initial report of each incident in the British national dailies, the Daily Mail, the Guardian and the Sun devoted more words to the kidnapped soldier than the Palestinian deaths, with the Times devoting around the same amount of coverage. The Daily Express and Daily Star report nothing today on yesterday's deaths.

The Mail devoted 4 times as many words to the kidnapping (661, compared with 167), the Sun devoted just 79 words to the killings (105 for the kidnapping), and the Guardian devoted more than twice as many words to the kidnapping (826, compared with 393).

The Times devoted 514 words to the kidnapping and 553 words to the killings, though the headline today says nothing of the deaths ("Israeli tanks roll back into abandoned settlements").

Furthermore, the media is continuing to portray the current crisis as being triggered by the kidnapping, which is not the case.

Besides the issue of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails (including women and children) that the Palestinian kidnappers have been trying to highlight, and the well-documented humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's near-total control of the Gaza Strip (despite its withdrawal last September), Israel has been shelling the territory ever since, intensively so for weeks before the kidnapping.

This caused UN monitor John Dugard to state that "there has been a substantial deterioration in respect of human rights," and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to remind Israel "to respect international law."

On 12 April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that Israel had "fired more than 2,300 artillery and tank shells into the Gaza Strip since 29 March, more than 150 shells a day." It added that "the continuous firing of artillery shells and launching of…missiles are causing immense psycho-social strain on the Gaza population, especially on children. There are also additional risks from unexploded shells.

In April, five human rights organisations (three Israeli and two Palestinian) said that "the massive artillery fire causes disproportionate harm to the civilian population...subjects Israeli army officers and soldiers to war crimes charges," and constitutes "a blatant violation of the Basic Rule of the laws of armed conflict whereby civilians and civilian objects must be distinguished from military objectives. The fact that Israel is confronting illegal firing of Qassam missiles at its own civilian population does not legitimize disproportionate responsive measures, which will knowingly lead to civilian casualties."

From the start of June to the kidnapping of the soldier on 25 June, 49 Palestinians were killed and 170 injured, including women and children, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, causing great concern among human rights groups and threats of revenge from militant groups:

"We have decided to tell the occupier 'no more truce from today' in response to the bloodletting of our women, our children and our elderly. We will not suffer your repeated crimes in silence."

Furthermore, the tank base from where the soldier was kidnapped is one of the locations from which Israel has been relentlessly shelling the Gaza Strip, and just one day earlier, Israeli commandos had raided Rafah and captured two brothers, Mustafa and Osama Muamar.

"All of this is well known but did not make it to the front page," wrote Naftali Lavie, who served in an Israeli tank unit near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. "Can it be that Palestinian lives are nothing, Israeli lives everything? That Palestinian captives are nothing, Israeli captives everything?"


Arab Media Watch is an independent, non-profit organization set up in 2000 to monitor and analyse the British media's coverage of Arab issues.

it's only wild , unsubstantiated 'conspiracy theory' but it could have been 'natural causes'...it really could have been...

Enron ex-chief Kenneth Lay dies
Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chief executive and chairman convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges, has died.

According to US press reports, Mr Lay suffered a heart attack early on Wednesday morning in Aspen, Colorado.

Together with former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, Mr Lay was convicted last May of hiding huge debts in the run-up to Enron's financial collapse.

Enron went bankrupt in 2001 with debts of $31.8bn (£18bn), leaving 4,000 people out of work.

Innocence maintained

After America's most high-profile corporate fraud trial, Mr Lay was found guilty on 25 May on all six fraud and conspiracy charges that he faced.


ENRON TIMELINE
1985: Enron formed
Oct 2001: Enron reports $638m third quarter loss and $1.2bn fall in shareholder equity
Oct 2001: Securities and Exchange Commission begins inquiry into firm
Nov 2001: Enron shares sink to 10-year lows as buyout deal falls through and further losses are revealed at the firm
Dec 2001: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
2002: Criminal investigation launched
2004: Skilling and Lay charged. Former finance chief Andrew Fastow pleads guilty to criminal charges and agrees a 10-year jail term
Jan 2006: Enron trial begins
May 2006: Skilling and Lay found guilty of fraud and conspiracy, with sentencing to follow in October
June 2006: Lay files motion with US District Court in Houston seeking to have his conviction overturned
July 2006: Lay dies of heart attack at 64

He had posted a $5m bond to avoid custody until October when he would have been sentenced - to up to 45 years behind bars.

Mr Lay had always proclaimed his innocence, saying the company was brought down by a lack of investor confidence triggered by revelations that Enron's chief financial officer Andrew Fastow had stolen millions from the company.

He described Enron's collapse as "the most devastating and heartbreaking tragedy of my life".

The 64-year-old had led Enron for 15 years from its birth in 1986 after the merger of two Houston-based gas pipeline firms.

From this small beginning, Enron went on to become America's seventh biggest company and the world's largest energy trading firm.

Mr Lay handed the chief executive's role over to Jeffrey Skilling in 2001.

Mr Skilling was convicted on 19 counts of fraud and conspiracy and is expected to face a lengthy prison term.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/5151140.stm


*meanwhile , from deep within the bowels of the 'war room' a statement is issued to 'FAUX' News:

"hey , you never know , it coulda really been natural causes that kept kenny from spilling his guts...ummm , lemme re-phrase that ... i meant to say that it coulda really been natural causes that 'caused kenny's heart attack' and silenced a great friend of this administration...and i might add that it was quite patriotic for kenny not to spoil our holiday by waiting till AFTER the 4th of july and BEFORE his sentencing FOLLOWING his recent conviction --TO DIE SO CONVENIENTLY...kenny was a true friend of ours who was instrumental in deregulating the energy industry and helping to bring back 'big coal' into the energy picture --in spite of whining environmentalists always complaining and cry-babying about global warming , massive new amounts of air pollution ,the industry ripping up mountain tops and landscapes to mine coal ,this administration's lax safety standard enforcement killing a few more coal miners , increased acid rain ,huge amounts of mercury released into rivers , streams and the oceans by coal mining and the increased amounts of lung cancer from breathing more coal smoke found in all of the citizenry...good ole kennyboy was a true patriot"



"and georgie and dick , let me add that it was ken lay who helped me into the governor's chair in the great state of 'kalifor-nee-yah'...and all he asked in return for his support was to let ken and his buddies keep the $9 billion that the energy companies stole from the state by deliberately causing the power shortages and electricity 'brownouts' which outraged the citizens and resulted in the $8 billion budget deficit that directly led to the recall election that removed democrat grey davis from office and put a republican bodybuilder/actor and humble son of a nazi ss officer into the governor's mansion...today 'kalifor-nee-yah' , tomorrow the whitehouse and one day , the whole world...thank you for your help kenny..."

http://www.alternet.org/story/16902/

"In Venezuela, we were tired of all our oil going to Count Dracula"--hugo chavez

"winning most of the votes doesn't make chavez's government legitimate" --idiot whitehouse spokesperson

democratically elected venezuelan president hugo chavez, calls for joint energy development , joint banking projects and joint media projects between africa , the carribean and latin america.

we at deskRat have long called for such economic and technical ventures between africa and the african diaspora of the western hemisphere as well as africa and its diaspora in asia and the pacific rim in order to end the bonecrushing poverty the Children Of Africa find themselves in all over the globe...to us it seemed just basic common sense...

for hugo chavez ,who often cites his 'negro y indio' heritage--black and indian bloodlines-- we guess the idea of building greater economic and technical ties to africa seems like common sense too...as the ball gets rolling , we congratulate the beginnings of this worthy enterprise and hope that the ball doesn't get dropped --or deliberately burst by our enemies both within and without...

*btw , according to BBC journalist greg palast , chavez sponsored laws venezuela's legislature passed that increased venezuela's cut of the oil pie from about 16 percent to about 30 percent--what a communist government!

in other words the big oil companies were taking 84 percent of the profits made from the sale of venezuela's oil until chavez rewrote the contract and reduced the oil companies' share to a mere pittance -- only 70 percent. the poor oil companies must be starving ...how can they live on only 70 of the profits garnered from an entire nation's deposits of oil ?

anything less than a 50/50 arrangement between oil companies and the hosting nation , seems to this observer somewhat UNFAIR and EXPLOITATIVE...




Chavez urges Africa to unite against U.S.
Sat Jul 1, 2006 8:38 PM BST



By Daniel Flynn

BANJUL (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Africa on Saturday to forge closer ties with Latin America to combat what he called a threat of U.S. hegemony.

Chavez, whose repeated criticism of America has raised hackles in Washington, called on an African Union summit to cooperate with Latin America in everything from oil production to university education to counter "colonial" meddling in developing nations.

Citing the example of Venezuela and Bolivia, he urged Africa to seize greater control of its energy resources. He described the low royalty payments made by some foreign oil companies as "robbery".

"We should march together, Africa and Latin America, brother continents with the same roots ... Only together can we change the direction of the world," he told the opening day of the AU summit, to applause.

"The world is threatened by the hegemony of the North American empire," said the former paratrooper, following speeches from African leaders which had criticised colonialism.

Africa's abundant natural resources -- ranging from precious metals to iron ore and oil -- should make it a wealthy continent if it were freed from outside exploitation, Chavez said.

"Africa has everything to become a pole of world power in the 21st century. Latin America and the Caribbean are equipped to become another pole," he said.

In a nod to another outspoken opponent of U.S. foreign policy, Chavez hailed Iran's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also attending the summit in the Gambian capital Banjul.

The Venezuelan leader called for a commission to evaluate joint energy projects between Africa and Latin America, as well as a media venture dubbed Telesur (TeleSouth) and a joint bank Banco del Sur (Bank of the South).

"In Venezuela, we were tired of all our oil going to Count Dracula," said Chavez, referring his government's decision to raise taxes on U.S. oil companies. "Now Venezuela is free and we have recovered control over our oil."

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter.