Pffugee Camp - Front Page

1 Pixel = $1 million

Revisionist — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:43:50 GMT

Just a quick drive by. Just caught this graphic that really puts some shit into perspective. Its too large to post with out breaking the margins...

http://i.imgur.com/C5hAo.gif

NO 2 IDF Chief, YES 2 Gaza & Corrie, Today 5pm NYC

fairleft — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:26:21 GMT

(Details on where, when, why of march/protest at bottom of diary)

Hundreds set to turn out for anti-Israel Defense Forces demo in NY
Protesters plan to march outside Waldorf Astoria, where Friends of the IDF will host dinner for IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi
By E.B. Solomont
Jerusalem Post
March 9, 2010
. . . The protest is being sponsored by a broad coalition of about 25 left-wing groups, including American Jews for a Just Peace, Codepink, Gaza Freedom March and Jewish Voice for Peace. Organized by Jews Say No!, the protest was endorsed by the Israeli groups Coalition of Women for Peace and BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS From Within.
"We think it's inappropriate for an American organization to be feting the Israeli army, when the Israeli army is implicated in violations of international law," said Rebecca Vilkomerson, director of Jewish Voice for Peace. She said Operation Cast Lead opened up people's eyes to the role that the Israeli army plays. The Goldstone Report also made people consider the notion that the IDF is fallible, she added.
"Definitely, it has opened up a big conversation in the Jewish community," she said, observing that in the past year more Jews have begun "questioning the idea that Israel is always right."

Okay, I admit, the actual Jerusalem Post headline was "Hundreds set to turn out for anti-Israel demo in NY." I.e., equating support for Israel with support for its the criminal actions of its military, like labeling an anti-Iraq war protest an anti-U.S. protest. But, okay, par for the Jerusualem Post course, and we move on. . . . to more important positive news out of Israel/Palestine from a basic humanitarian perspective. Note btw the efforts by Israel to avoid a fair verdict:

Israeli Defense Ministry goes on trial for Corrie death
March 9, 2010
Ma'an News

Jerusalem - On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Ministry will go on trial as a court hears a case filed by the parents of an American woman run down by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza, in March 2003.
A civil suit seeks to hold Israeli forces responsible for the death of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist who was crushed to death as she protested a Palestinian home from demolition in the Gaza Strip.
"We claim that her assassination was intentional," or, at the very least, that the army is guilty of "huge negligence," Hussein Abu Hussein, the attorney who filed the petition on behalf of Corrie's parents, commented.
Abu Hussein cites the state's acknowledgment of the fact that Corrie and other members of the International Solidarity Movement-a Palestinian-led peace organization that advocates non-violent means of resistance to the Israeli occupation-were demonstrating in the area for several hours before Corrie was struck by the bulldozer. He also points out that Corrie was wearing a fluorescent orange vest to increase her visibility.
At the time of her death, the Israeli military response was that the driver of the machine did not see Corrie.
"If you see people, you should stop and think of all the needed steps not to harm [them]. Instead of stopping the D9, which weighs 64 tons, they continued. And due to that, [Corrie] was killed," Abu Hussein said.
Four of Corrie's fellow activists who witnessed her death were initially denied entry into Israel where they were asked to testify at the trial, but US pressure reportedly changed the Israeli position. A US citizen and three UK nationals will now be able to speak at the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.
Israel will not issue an entry permit to Dr Ahmed Abu Nakira, the Gazan physician who saw Corrie after she was injured and declared her dead. The state rejected the request for his entry on the grounds that there is no coordination between Israel and Gaza, due to the Israeli blockade that began after Hamas rose to power in 2007.
"It's an obstacle to justice," Abu Hussein said. "On the one side, [Israel] won't give permission [for Dr Abu Nakira] to come; on the other they won't allow him to testify by videoconference, which is used daily by courts everywhere in the modern world."

More from the Corrie family, Cindy and Craig, here:

Call to Action: Corrie Trial in Israel, March 10-24, 2009
Friends,
As many of you know, a civil lawsuit in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie is scheduled for trial in the Haifa District Court beginning March 10, 2010. A human rights observer and activist, Rachel, 23, tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition by the Israeli military. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza.
The lawsuit is one piece of our family's seven-year effort to pursue justice for our daughter and sister. We hope this trial will illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost, or indelibly injured, by occupation-in a besieged and beleaguered Gaza and throughout Palestine/Israel; bring attention to the assault on nonviolent human rights activists (Palestinian, Israeli, and international); and underscore the fact that so many Palestinian families, harmed as deeply as ours, cannot access Israeli courts.
In order to deliver these interconnected messages as effectively as possible, we are asking for large-scale participation in the trial itself as well as in the events surrounding it. We hope you will join us for all or some of the events listed below and help us to put the call out to others. . . .
Craig and Cindy Corrie

Their PDF press release is here: Family Seeks Accountability Seven Years After An Israeli Military Bulldozer Crushed Their 23 Year Old Daughter To Death

Okay, let's give you the details on today's protest/march:

PROTEST THE ANNUAL FUNDRAISING DINNER OF THE FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES & KEYNOTE IDF CHIEF OF STAFF GABI ASHKENAZI
WHEN: Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: New York City, 53rd St and Lexington Ave. Signs and procession route provided. (The dinner is at the Waldorf Astoria)
WHAT: The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a registered 501-(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that provides support and services to members of Israel's national army, will be holding a $1,000 a plate fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria, New York City. The keynote speaker will be Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF Chief of General Staff, who was responsible for the prosecution of last year's Operation Cast Lead against the people of Gaza. At the same time as the dinner, a broad coalition of local groups will stage a mobile protest outside the hotel to highlight the crimes committed by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead as well as Israel's ongoing illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.
WHY:
NO TO THE IDF's BRUTALITY!
NO TO THE OCCUPATION AND SIEGE OF GAZA!
YES TO THE GOLDSTONE REPORT!
YES TO JUSTICE FOR THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!
Please wear black if you can. We will provide dynamic signs!

Co-sponsored by Jews Say No!, Adalah-NY, Gaza Freedom March, Judson Church, Women In Black Union Square, Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism, Codepink, Brooklyn For Peace, Women of a Certain Age, Center for Immigrant Families, Wespac, Middle East Crisis Response, Regeneraci?n Childcare NYC, National Lawyers Guild-NY Chapter, Post Road, American Jews for a Just Peace, Jewish Voice For Peace, Woodstock Veterans For Peace, A.R.T. (Activist Response Team), Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, Progressive Democrats of America, NYC Anti-War Coalition, and New York Collective of Radical Educators
Endorsed by Coalition of Women for Peace, and BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS From Within

Finally, other news you may not have seen about the ongoing injustice in Palestine/Israel. Yup, consider it semi-official, it's apartheid:

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine on March 3rd concluded the EU should sanction Israel until violations stop, ruling in Barcelona, Spain on six questions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The jurists were assembled from around the world and issued their conclusions, among them stipulating that Israel practices a form of apartheid. The Tribunal's judgements are not judicially binding but are meant to examine the complicity of the European Union in perpetuating what the Tribunal called Israel's "policy of war, occupation, and colonization for 60 years."

Open Tehrad

Laura — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:22:28 GMT

Muzio Clementi
Died March 10 1832

'Avatar' Robbed at Academy Awards

donkeytale — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:51:15 GMT

In yet another stinging rebuke of internet pwoggiedom, 'Avatar' failed to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards this evening.

Predictably, the Whiteysphere was in full metal uproar.

"Clearly, a conspiracy," said noted film critic Stu Piddy. "The American people are simply too depressed and confused to realize that War shortens the useful lifespans of drones. And a locker gets wounded slaughtering millions of Iraqis and wins the Oscar for best picture? Life is good, very good for inanimate objects, indeed."

Piddy cut short the interview, stating that he was late for an evening tete a tete with his newest gal pal, an enigmatic, online seductress who goes by the name of "Miep".

Ormond Otvos registered anger when informed of "Avatar's" rejection by the joooish dominated Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences.

"'Avatar' is the greatest anti-corporate movie of alltime," thundered the rotund grey beard in a video posted to youtube just moments after the result was announced, #12 in a video series entitled "Jooos, its wahts for dinner."

"Ah well, back to my chemistry set. Did you know that blue litmus paper turns red when you dip it into a testube of liquid Owsley?"

Meanwhile, Avatar, the "greatest anti-corporate movie of all-time" has earned nearly $60 gazillion at the worldwide box office for its producers, the 20th Century Fox Corporation.

Perhaps the most disappointed pwoggie of them all tonite was Fail Yayhoo Reft, the American-born radical Muslim cleric who recently posted another of his interminable cut 'n paste online fatwas urging US soldiers to study "Avatar" and absorb its deep lessons before laying down their weapons and deserting their posts.

But in an exclusive interview, Imam Reft seemed undaunted by this latest in a series of consecutive defeats that has alternative pundits comparing his record favourably with that of the 1972 Philadelphia 76'ers, who finished 9-73.

"Keep readin' Dean Baker!" he exhorted his followers from inside his Chicago based ~~mosque~~ cubicle Sunday night, before heading out to catch a late New Jersey Nets game.

Open Thread

Laura — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:53:09 GMT

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyuub
Died March 4, 1193

Eighty-two percent of our expenses are personnel issues ... The only thing we can control is employment numbers, which we don't want to reduce. We have to make sure we keep people in Reed City, when you lose teachers you lose students.

Choosing not to fight the fight

fairleft — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:46 GMT

When did American politics start to feel particularly hopeless and depressing? Now I realize it was January 27, after Obama's State of the Union address. Because that was when we found out that the President had decided, no matter how much sense it made economically, not to fight the economic fight for the rest of us. Last year's stimulus package would be 'it', economic populist policy was all played out as far as he was concerned. Dean Baker summarized immediately after the SOTU (emphasis added):

President Obama['s] agenda is not bold enough to address the severity of the problems facing the economy and the country's workers.
The unemployment rate is currently in double-digits. The newest projections from the Congressional Budget Office show the unemployment rate staying above 8.0 percent until well into 2012 and not falling back to normal levels until 2014. This is a crisis for tens of millions of workers who will face unemployment solely as a result of bad economic policy and Wall Street greed.
We know the mechanisms through which we can expand the economy and bring the unemployment rate down: a much larger stimulus, more expansionary monetary policy from the Fed, and a lower dollar to bring down the trade deficit. . . .
All of these policies face serious political obstacles, but it is the President's responsibility to tell the truth to the country and to press for the policies necessary to right the economy. President Obama has apparently chosen not to fight this fight. If it is not possible to get the policies needed to restore full employment back on the political agenda, then tens of millions of people will suffer needlessly for years to come.

Instead of leading the fight that needed to be fought, Obama attempts at least rhetorically to be the nation's number one deficit hawk. Baker comments (emphasis added):

There would be no short-term or long-term benefit from reducing the current deficit. . . . If the budget deficit were smaller we would see higher levels of unemployment.

This is all very depressing for anyone keeping even approximate track of our country's politics. Deficit hawk economic 'thinking' dominates the salons of the Washington elite, and entirely predictably Obama gives voice to it, trying to do some old-fashioned Clinton-style triangulating. This even though deficit reduction will have a catastrophic impact on the U.S. economy in the midst of its worst downturn since the Great Depression. I mean, come on. We know we need much more stimulus and ferchrissake not cut backs, but Obama seems confidently ignorant of that fact. Or just doesn't care, not gonna fight that fight.

Of course, the news these days is all broke state govts and massive cutbacks. Not just depressing in its own right, but depressing as hugely NOT what governments need to be doing in a country with 10% official unemployment and real unemployment over 16%.

Adding news from the states to the deficit hawkism coming from the White House, the national mood is understandably depressed and fatalistic. I don't see any way out myself. Okay, yeah, long term mebbe, but this year can we the rabble impact national economic policy, turning it toward basic rationality? Well, no, not unless things quickly get far worse economically, which probly won't happen and nobody wants.

The Purpose-Driven Goose-Step

Ormond Otvos — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:50:07 GMT

Rick Warren sells his book,"The Purpose-Driven Life" by the millions. Do you think it's because the average American has actually figured out that there is no real purpose in life other than staying alive?

That's pretty thin gruel for the high-powered intention analyzer called our mind, the one of yours that's reading this and trying to scope out why I'm writing this.

Suppose the "patriots" hijack all these weakly motivated layabouts and teach them to mentally goose-step all over our indecisive progressive asses?

It's how Hitler worked it out, in "Mein Kampf" and you know the corporate parasites that run this world will use any means to stay on top. How you gonna defend yourself when the neighbors come for you because you have an Obama sticker on your bumper?

Afghanistan bans coverage of Taliban attacks

fairleft — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:06:53 GMT

So, if the Afghanistan government has its way, these might be the last published photos of what's really going on there:

AP - Kabul, a couple days ago.

AP - Kandahar yesterday.

Afghanistan bans coverage of Taliban attacks
Sayed Salahuddin and Hamid Shalizi (Reuters)
Monday, March 1, 2010 2:08pm EST
Kabul - Afghanistan on Monday announced a ban on news coverage showing Taliban attacks, saying such images embolden the Islamist militants, who have launched strikes around the country as NATO forces seize their southern strongholds. . . .

The announcement came on a day when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting the Taliban reported six of its service members had been killed in various attacks.
Journalists will be allowed to film only the aftermath of attacks, when given permission by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) spy agency, the agency said. Journalists who film while attacks are under way will be held and their gear seized.
"Live coverage does not benefit the government, but benefits the enemies of Afghanistan," NDS spokesman Saeed Ansari said. The agency summoned a group of reporters to announce the ban. . . .
"The government should not hide their inabilities by barring media from covering incidents," said Laila Noori, who monitors media issues for Afghanistan Rights Monitor, the country's main liberties watchdog. "People want to know all the facts on the ground whenever security incidents take place." . . .
Two blasts hours apart on Monday killed at least six people in the southern city of Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban whose fighters are being targeted in a renewed push by NATO-led troops.
One ISAF member was killed in one of the Kandahar strikes. In various attacks in the country, five other ISAF service members were also killed, the force said.

AP - Kandahar yesterday.

As always, us foreigners need to listen to Malalai Joya and then (imitating the Dutch) unceremoniously butt out of Afghanistan's civil war:

Joya condemns 'ridiculous' military strategy
By Glyn Strong
Monday, 15 February 2010
Afghanistan's "most famous woman" has voiced deep scepticism about Operation Moshtarak's [the NATO invasion/occupation of Marjah] aims and its impact on Afghan civilians.
"It is ridiculous," said Malalai Joya, an elected member of the Afghan parliament. "On the one hand they call on Mullah Omar to join the puppet regime. On another hand they launch this attack in which defenceless and poor people will be the prime victims. Like before, they will be killed in the Nato bombings and used as human shields by the Taliban. Helmand's people have suffered for years and thousands of innocent people have been killed so far." Her fears were confirmed when Nato reported yesterday that a rocket that missed its target had killed 12 civilians at a house in Marjah. . . .
Ms Joya believes that corruption is endemic, citing uranium deposits and opium as incentives for Nato and Afghan officials to retain a presence in Helmand. Operation Moshtarak is described as an inclusive offensive, depending for its longer-term success on involvement of Afghan forces. But Ms Joya said: "The Afghan police force is the most corrupt institution in Afghanistan. Bribery is common and if you have money, by bribing police from top to bottom you can do almost anything. In many parts of Afghanistan, people hate the police more than the Taliban. In Helmand, for instance, people are afraid of police who commit violence against people and make trouble. The majority of the police force in this province are addicted to opium and cannabis."

Open Thread

Laura — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:32:44 GMT

Wanted to comment on this loaded Yale ATROCITY posted over at mlw(yeah, I know, silly as hell) but it seems they've pre-banned me for the second time. I haven't logged on since last fall.

I know I should be gratefull for this happy aversion.

So, post the most outrageous scholarly claim/study you've ran across lately, below. Or just post bad music.

(Oh shit! Just found there actually exists an ~~anagram~~ acronym for this cadre of the intellectually depraved. If there's one thing americans are good at, it's useless ~~anagramming~~ acronyming.)

Student Revolt at the School of Authentic Journalism and Narco News

Stu Piddy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:04:07 GMT

I am not a journalist. But I was the first to write an expose about Markos Moulitsas as a person who applied to the CIA and the first and only person to discover that during his involvement with the CIA he was operating Daily Kos. I also wrote about the impossibility of his claims as a child to have witnessed communist guerillas killing students and professors in El Salvador.

I have recently written to students and others connected to Narco News and the School of Authentic Journalism both publicly and privately about the strong amicable associations and connections between the ICNC and right wing extremists like Michael Ledeen who has been justifiably accused as being the author of the Niger Forgeries, as he has been exposed as a forger using the same methodology in the past.

Today I read that there was an upheaval at the The School of Authentic Journalism about all the subjects that I wrote about just prior to the school opening in February.

http://narconews.com/lab/node/33

There is no mention of the upheaval in the Narco News bulletin. There is only positive news in the Narco News Bulletin about the school. Instead it's printed in some obscure website that is associated with the School.

I sent information about the queer associations publicly and privately. The only people that I know of who have written about these subjects are Eva Golinger a author and Venezuelan journalist who mentions the ICNC briefly as being anti-Chavez and Stephen Gowans. I discovered the connections independently and then read that Stephan Gowans had made the same discovery. His analysis is superior.

In any case, the Students attending the School of Authentic Journalism especially those from Venezuela's Telesur, wanted to know why one of the "professors" there, a Jack Duvall, had been part of an organization that attempted to overthrow the regime of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Apparently the Telesur students wanted an explanation as to why Jack Duvall was teaching there along with 3 other professors from the ICNC and demanded he be banned from the school.

This caused Al Giordano to ban the students from participating in the school in the future. He also banned anyone from Telesur from perhaps...ever coming to the School for Authentic Journalism ever. If they were to be accepted, they would have to sign an agreement to behave in a manner that Al Giordano would approve of.

Al Giordano:

"I do not plan, at present, to invite any TeleSur employees or correspondents to future schools, not as professors or as students, unless and until they either resign or are fired from TeleSur, or unless and until TeleSur takes affirmative steps to correct the sabotaging behavior of its correspondents at the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism."

The students from Venezuela were protesting that 4 of the professors teaching them were part of an organization, the ICNC, which had trained people to overthrow their government through strikes, mass civil disobedience, seeking high-ranking defectors from the armed forces and through journalism.

Al Giordano's response to this is that it's all about Money.

"Among those who received their air travel, room, board and other costs fully subsidized were three current correspondents of the media organization TeleSur, the international TV network that is funded by the governments of Venezuela and other left-leaning countries in the region. A total of $2,300 dollars was spent on air travel for the three of them, funding which they happily accepted to attend the school knowing full well that it in part came from ICNC. A TeleSur intern from Washington DC also attended the school as a student, at the urging of that news organization's Washington correspondent Reed Lindsay (who himself was unable to attend the school as he is reporting from post-earthquake Haiti)."

What Al Giordano is saying is you accepted the Money from the ICNC so you should do what other people who accept money do. Keep your mouth shut. The money is in effect then a bribe. It's used to influence behavior. I suspect the students knew nothing about the ICNC and it's connections to right wing organizations that seek the overthrow of democratically elected governments like the one in Venezuela until they read about it just before coming to the school.

Al Giordano then states that he believes that the Telesur students came to the school for the purpose of disrupting the school intentionally.

One thing that we have always taught at this School - it was the late Gary Webb who first said so at the 2003 School of Authentic Journalism - is that an Authentic Journalist must always be willing to be fired from his or her job (or internship) to do this work well. My own conclusion is that the TeleSur employees at the School behaved as if they had received a sudden pressure from their news organization to disrupt the School's work, and acted out of fear and panic. Whether or not TeleSur's chain of command was involved in creating that impression, I do not know. But the fact remains that they behaved that way and admitted as much to me and to others that they felt they had to proceed as they did in order to protect their careers at TeleSur.

In the above paragraph by Al Giordano we see that he is clearly Anti Chavez. He's attacking the Venezuelan state run media, Telesur. This is in complete compliance with the objectives of the ICNC, who seek to overthrow Chavez as admitted by Jack Duvall who some believe is connected to the CIA and who has served with neo con James Woolsey, former head of the CIA in a truly bizarre organization called "The Arlington Institute".

In any case, 22 people signed a letter of protest and only one of the signers is from Venezuela.

I am a little surprised that they did not pay attention to the connection between Michael Ledeen and Peter Ackerman. It's Ackerman's money that actually funds the School for Authentic Journalism in part. Ackerman and Ledeen are friends and write articles together. It's much more explosive than any connection between Jack Duvall and James Woolsey, who it is claimed don't know each other.
One of the particpants at the school, a Jesse Freeston had the following comment:

But unlike me, the people organizing that meeting clearly felt like the Chavez government is worth defending. So I am incapable of knowing what it must feel like to be in a room with someone who just admitted to providing help (however indirectly it might have been) to groups trying to overthrow that government. I'm not sure how I would respond, but I imagine I would be motivated to do something, something quick, something rash. Especially when the group in front of me (in this case ICNC) wasn't exactly forthcoming about the details of their participation, nor very understanding of my concerns (I am referring to the first plenary where the information came up, I was much more satisfied with their detailed responses during the 6-hour marathon meeting).

Maybe if they are looking for investigative journalists they should give me a call. I am looking for a new kind of employment and would be open to any offers. I have a lot of leads, too.