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Friday, September 18, 2009

Scientists find meteorite that came from innermost asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

Washington, September 18 : In a very rare finding, scientists have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered that it came from the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorites are the only surviving physical record of the formation of our Solar System.

However, information about where individual meteorites originated, and how they were moving around the Solar System prior to falling to Earth, is available for only a dozen of around 1100 documented meteorite falls over the past two hundred years.

According to Dr Phil Bland from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, the lead author of the study, “We are incredibly excited about our new finding. Meteorites are the most analysed rocks on Earth, but it’s really rare for us to be able to tell where they came from.”

The new meteorite, which is about the size of cricket ball, is the first to be retrieved since researchers from Imperial College London, Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic, and the Western Australian Museum, set up a trial network of cameras in the Nullarbor Desert in Western Australia in 2006.

The researchers aim to use these cameras to find new meteorites, and work out where in the Solar System they came from, by tracking the fireballs that they form in the sky.

The new meteorite was found on the first day of searching using the new network, by the first search expedition, within 100m of the predicted site of the fall.

The meteorite appears to have been following an unusual orbit, or path around the Sun, prior to falling to Earth in July 2007, according to the researchers’ calculations.

The team believes that it started out as part of an asteroid in the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

It then gradually evolved into an orbit around the Sun that was very similar to Earth’s.

The new meteorite is also unusual because it is composed of a rare type of basaltic igneous rock.

According to the researchers, its composition, together with the data about where the meteorite comes from, fits with a recent theory about how the building blocks for the terrestrial planets were formed.

This theory suggests that the igneous parent asteroids for meteorites like today’s formed deep in the inner Solar System, before being scattered out into the main asteroid belt.

Asteroids are widely believed to be the building blocks for planets like the Earth, so the new finding provides another clue about the origins of the Solar System.

Syed Ali Geelani gets passport for visiting ailing son in Pakistan

SRINAGAR: With his son ailing in Pakistan, the government has issued a passport to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for the first time since militancy broke out in Jammu and Kashmir.

Highly-placed sources said chief minister Omar Abdullah personally intervened in the matter and saw that 79-year-old Geelani, who was recently released from custody, gets his travel document for visiting Pakistan to see his son.

The passport of the erstwhile Jamaat leader was seized in 1981 for his ani-India activities and since then he was given a country-specific travel document in 2006 for performing Hajj pilgrimage.

The Geelani camp had approached the state government through backdoor intermediaries for issuance of passport to the leader. After assessing the case, Geelani was handed over his passport for a period of one year and according to sources close to him, he would be traveling to Pakistan to meet his son Nayeem, who had suffered two consecutive heart attacks last month and continued to be in hospital there.

The government also issued a passport to moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq who is expected to attend contact group meet of Organization of Islamic Conference's foreign ministers in New York later this month.

He may also be traveling to Pakistan.

Hamas to Create ‘Martyrs Ministry’

Gaza City, Gaza Strip (TML) – The ousted Hamas government in the Gaza Strip is considering setting up a Martyrs’ Ministry, which will be tasked with supporting families of Palestinians killed in conflict with Israel, Hamas Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyya said.

He announced this in Al-Tuffah, west of Gaza City, where he was visiting families of killed Palestinians, together with two government ministers and other senior Hamas members.

The Palestinian government is proud of its martyrs and their families, Haniyya said. “We will stand by you, sons of our people, in the path of jihad and resistance, and until we complete the path of the martyrs we will maintain their good achievements.”

Ihab Ghussein, a spokesman for Hamas’ Interior Ministry said the idea had still not been finalized.

“We have thousands of families whose fathers and brothers were killed as martyrs and we need people to take care of them. The efforts are not united at the moment,” he said. “So as a government we’re thinking of creating a new ministry but it’s still a thought that needs a lot of discussion, it hasn’t been approved yet.”

There are also discussions as to whether the beneficiaries of the new planned ministry will include families of Palestinians killed by other Palestinians in internal factional fighting, or whether it will only apply to Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Naji Shurab, a political science professor at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University said the announcement was probably a public-relations stunt, due to Hamas’ plummeting popularity in Gaza.

“I don’t see any reason for this ministry,” Shurab told The Media Line. “They want to concentrate on this because this is an important subject for the Palestinians and many Palestinians lost their sons.”

This is especially important for Hamas, as talks between the hard-line religious movement and their main rival Fatah are focusing on a date for elections, set for some time next year.

There are indications that Hamas’ popularity in the Gaza Strip is waning, and setting up a Martyrs Ministry, a move that is relevant to many Gazans, is an effort to revive its image.

In a survey conducted in February 2009 by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University in Nablus, 23% of the Gazan interviewees said they supported Hamas, but in a similar poll conducted in July, only 18.6% of Gazans said they supported the organization.

Ghussein dismissed claims that the announcement was a publicity stunt.

“It’s not like that. We are always thinking about the families and we have thousands of martyrs and many families can’t afford to live and don’t have work, especially under the siege. We’re thinking how we can help these people.”

Several administrations, including the Ministry of Social Affairs, are tasked with caring for families of Palestinians who have been killed, but the creation of a ministry will put all these efforts under one roof, and in Shurab’s words, “show the Palestinians they’re doing something.”

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a violent coup in June 2007. Since then, it has been running its own government in Gaza, separate from the Western-backed government in Ramallah, but Hamas’ cabinet is not recognized by the international community.

During his visit to Tuffah, Haniyya praised the Palestinians who were killed during Israel’s 22-day operation in Gaza in January. He singled out one Mahmoud A-Rifi, who tried to capture an Israeli soldier before he was killed by Israeli warplanes.

Thousands rally in Gaza on Quds Day

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Thousands of Palestinians joined protests across the Gaza Strip on Friday organized by the territory's Hamas rulers to mark the Iranian-inspired Quds (Jerusalem) Day.

Demonstrations were held after the weekly Friday prayers in several cities of the besieged territory where Iranian-backed Hamas seized power in June 2007.

"Jerusalem is ours and the Zionists are destined to disappear," Ahmad Bahar, a deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament told the crowd in Gaza City.

Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.

It is marked by mass demonstrations across Iran to denounce the Jewish state and its main ally, Washington.

During Friday's Quds rally in Tehran, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad once again called the Holocaust a "myth" in comments that have sparked outrage around the world.

Algeria launches project to fight satellite dish blight

To rid Algeria of the millions of satellite dishes that mar the urban landscape, the government is launching a pilot project to deliver phone, internet and cable TV services via fibre-optic cable.

"The damage caused to our cities through the unrestrained proliferation of satellite dishes, which are mushrooming on balconies and building terraces, proved that it was time to put this to a stop and make our facades more presentable," Minister of Post, Information Technology and Communication Hamid Bessalah said last Thursday (September 10th) at the project's official launch.

The new service is being offered by Djaweb, a subsidiary of Algérie Télécom, and aims to gradually eliminate Algeria's estimated 12 million household satellite dishes.

The pilot project centres on the "Triple Play" system, a name which refers to the trio of services on offer, and is getting under way in the capital's Mokhtar Zerhouni housing complex. Residents will be able to access phone, internet, and TV channels via a socket in their flat.

"I'm really happy this is being launched where I live," said Mohamed, a tech-minded student who lives at Mokhtar Zerhouni. "Getting all these services with no hassle is such a relief. No more rushing about, getting satellite receivers flashed or downloading codes illegally. With this service, we can finally watch the channels we want."

Roughly 60 TV channels will be available through "Triple Play", including the French ones, which are the most popular among Algerians.

But the system comes at a price. The project has cost 80 million dinars for Mokhtar Zerhouni's 69 buildings, which contain 1,008 homes. While the price tag has not yet officially been fixed, local press reports indicate that subscribers will have to pay 42,000 dinars annually for Triple Play, which will be set up on demand.

Some members of the public find that price too high.

"I agree that it's nice to get rid of individual satellite dishes," says Mokhtar Zerhouni resident Fatiha. "They certainly don't look nice. But the service we're being offered is way too expensive."

"I work and have two children," she says, adding that Triple Play "would really make a hole" in her budget if added to her other expenses.

The government plans to spread the project across the capital, particularly in housing complexes, and wants an eventual expansion that encompasses other cities and towns. As the project is widened, local authorities will be responsible for the gradual removal of private satellite dishes.

"This operation is aimed at improving living conditions for the public [by] getting rid of individual satellite dishes, which spoil our urban and village landscapes," said Bessalah. "We'll then move on to roll out this system across the country, and we'll be putting this proposal to the government."

A second project to combat the satellite blight is in the works, involving the re-grouping of individual satellite dishes into three common dishes per building. These receivers will distribute Nilsat, Hotbird and Arabsat content to all the building's residents who purchase or rent a decoder.

That project is being developed at 1,000 dwellings in the capital's Aïn Benian area, and will cost 13.5 million dinars.

Beijing chocolate theme park to open next year

BEIJING (AFP) – China plans to cater to the country's rising number of chocoholics with the opening next year of a Willy Wonka-style theme park in Beijing, complete with a replica Great Wall, state media said Thursday.

The 'world chocolate dream park', reminiscent of Roald Dahl's beloved book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", will feature a life-size edible Terracotta Army, Great Wall and versions of famous paintings, the China Daily said.

"Our 'chocolate wonderland' will be beyond the imagination," Tina Cheng, general manager of the company that will operate the park, was quoted as saying.

The park, due to open in January 2010, will be located in the Olympic Green, which also includes the iconic Bird's Nest stadium and the Water Cube aquatics centre used during the Beijing Summer Games last year.

The site will include five pavilions and two outdoor sites where chocolate-made objects, such as the replica Great Wall, will be on display, the report said.

Chocolate is not as popular in China as it is in Western countries, but the sweet treat is increasingly popular with the nation's younger generation.

Cheng was quoted as saying that a number of prestigious chocolate makers from Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland, wanted to participate in the project, but she would not reveal their names.

"There is the potential for a huge market in China with regards to chocolate consumption," she said, according to the report.

"That's why many overseas chocolate producers are vying to join our project."

Coldest place in the solar system? Right nearby

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON – Astronomers have found the coldest spot in our solar system and it may be a little close for comfort. It's on our moon, right nearby. NASA's new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is making the first complete temperature map of the moon. It found that at the moon's south pole, it's colder than far away Pluto. The area is inside craters that are permanently shadowed so they never see sun.

"It's sort of like a faint glow and that's your only source of heat," said David Paige, a University of California, Los Angeles, scientist who is part of the NASA team. "Right here in our own backyard are definitely the coldest things we've seen in real measurements."

Temperatures there were measured at 397 degrees below zero. That's just 62 degrees higher than the lowest temperature possible.

Pluto is at least a degree warmer even though it is about 40 times farther away from the sun.

The coldest temperatures on the moon were usually in craters that were within bigger craters, hiding farther from the sun, Paige said. Three craters where the cold temperatures were noted were Faustini, Shoemaker and Haworth. And some of the coldest places are so remote and unexplored they don't even have names yet, he said.

Soon, the moon's south pole will slightly warm up with the change of seasons and the north pole will get chillier, he said.

That ultra-cold temperature is important because it can trap volatile chemicals, such as water and methane, said NASA probe project scientist Richard Vondrak. Trapped volatiles would give any future astronauts resources to mine and could help scientists understand more about the origin of the early solar system, he said.

The moon probe, only a week into its science mission, has also found lots of indications of hydrogen, which could indicate trapped ice below the moon's surface, Vondrak said.

While NASA has been to the moon with astronauts and explored it many times decades ago, this is the first close-up look in about a decade and is focusing on the tantalizing south pole, where there is the best chance for hidden ice.

"It's unexplored," Paige said. "Nobody's seen what it's like in these areas before at this resolution."

And the closer, NASA's instruments look at the craters, the more nuanced they look.

"The moon is not just a billiard ball with dimples," Paige told The Associated Press. "It's got interesting cracks and crevices."

Zionists pressure YouTube over removal of pro-Islamic Videos

by Ammaar ibn Walid
Al-Darb Diya Writer

The 18th of September 2009, Friday
The 28th of Ramadan 1430

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful...

Today I've found out something really hateful. It's nothing new, but why it sparked my interest more than others is because of its type.

I'm talking about YouTube's unreasonable removal of certain videos and clips on its website. I can understand the Zionists pressuring YouTube to remove videos that are anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian. Not surprisingly the site responded and removed such videos... Videos which are sensitive...

The videos I'm mentioning here aren't sensitive videos. They are videos that I found out -only today- that have been removed. The only possible reason behind their removal is because the Zionists didn't like it.

The videos were parts of a BBC documentary about the Islamic History of Europe. The videos gave historical information -which happened centuries ago- in some countries in Europe that were once Muslim countries. It's important to mention that the accounts that uploaded such videos have been suspended.

I've downloaded some of the parts of the documentary onto my computer before they were removed, and I intend to spread the videos back onto the internet, but not back onto YouTube for sure. It's too clear that removal of such videos won't stop anytime soon.

YouTube isn't the only site on the internet being pressured by the Zionists. Another site that is being pressured by the Zionists, is being pressured in a similar method. The Zionists pressure this well known site to not only remove sensitive videos, but also sensitive photos and accounts.

Under numerous reports against certain groups on this site, a site admin had removed some groups reported. The groups are pro-Palestinian groups. Other things unreasonably removed on this site included fan pages.

The site I'm speaking about is Facebook, where over 100 million users are registered on. Besides the removals, Facebook was pressured by one group to change the location of some Israeli residents of Golan Heights to that of Israel.

The reaction from Syria is known too well. It decided to boycott Facebook because of it. Some Israeli citizens live in Syria, and this is something well known to me. In spite of all these kinds of removals and pressure from the Zionists, it appears that such pressure comes from them being threatened.

I don't think the Zionists would be threatened to go to such measures unless it was serious for them. The reason behind them being threatened is because of the revival of Islamic Umma (Nation).

The Zionists are trying to control the internet, but aren't succeeding -and won't succeed- in doing that! Such videos -whether they are sensitive or not- would eventually stay on the internet one way or another. The photos and groups would appear elsewhere as well.

NATO chief proposes linked US/Russian/NATO defense

By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press Writer



BRUSSELS – The head of NATO called Friday for the U.S., Russia and NATO to link their missile defense systems against potential new nuclear threats from Asia and the Middle East, saying that the old foes must forget their lingering Cold War animosity.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen appealed for unity a day after the U.S. shelved a Bush-era plan for an Eastern European missile defense shield that has been a major irritant in relations with Russia.

"We should explore the potential for linking the US, NATO and Russia missile defense systems at an appropriate time," Fogh Rasmussen said. "Both NATO and Russia have a wealth of experience in missile defense. We should now work to combine this experience to our mutual benefit."

Fogh Rasmussen said in a speech calling for a rethink of NATO-Russia relations that long-range ballistic missile technology in the hands of such countries as North Korea and Iran threatens the West and Russia in large part because it could lead to regional proliferation.

"If North Korea stays nuclear, and if Iran becomes nuclear, some of their neighbors might feel compelled to follow their example," he said. "The proliferation of ballistic missile technology is of concern not just to NATO nations, but to Russia too."

Fogh Rasmussen said NATO and Moscow have failed to jointly take on global security threats including terrorism.

"When the Cold War ended 20 years ago, NATO and Russia developed rather unrealistic expectations about each other," he said. "Those flawed expectations ... continue to burden our relationship."

He did not elaborate on how or to what extent the Russian, NATO and American anti-missile systems could be linked up.

The U.S. said the decision to abandon the Bush administration's plans came about because of a change in the U.S. perception of the threat posed by Iran. U.S. intelligence decided short- and medium-range missiles from Iran now pose a greater near-term threat than the intercontinental ballistic missiles the Bush plan addressed.

A new missile-defense plan would rely on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air as a bulwark against Iranian short- and medium-range missiles.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday praised Obama's decision and urged the U.S. to also cancel Cold War-era restrictions on trade with Russia.

Russian leaders had threatened to deploy short-range missiles to the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad near Poland if the U.S. moved ahead with the missile defense plan.

On Friday, the Interfax news quoted an unnamed Russian military-diplomatic source as saying that such retaliatory measures would now be frozen and, possibly, fully canceled in response to Obama's decision to scrap the missile defense shield.

In the past, Russia has said it is ready to jointly work on missile defense with the NATO and the United States.

But it views Iran being far from obtaining a long-range missile technology and says it's necessary to jointly analyze missile threats from that country and other nations before taking any further action.

In 2007, Putin who still was Russia's president at the time, offered the U.S. to use a Soviet-era radar in Azerbaijan as an alternative to the Bush administration's missile defense plan for Eastern Europe. The Bush administration said the facility couldn't replace the planned missile shield.

The NATO allies have done some technical work with the Russians on missile defense in the past. But this has slowed down in recent years as the relationship tanked over NATO enlargement and the Georgian war. Fogh Rasmussen's speech is a bid to revive such joint work.

Turkey's military said Friday that it was planning to spend $1 billion (euro680 million) on four long-range missile defense systems but denied it was buying missile interceptors for use against Iran.

Thousands march in Iran opposition protests

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Hard-liners attacked senior pro-reform leaders in the streets as tens of thousands marched in competing mass demonstrations by the opposition and government supporters. Opposition protesters, chanting "death to the dictator," hurled stones and bricks in clashes with security forces.

The opposition held its first major street protests since mid-July, bringing out thousands in demonstrations in several parts of the capital. In some cases only several blocks away, tens of thousands marched in government-sponsored rallies marking an annual anti-Israel commemoration.

The commemoration, known as Quds Day, is a major political occasion for the government — a day for it to show its anti-Israeli credentials and its support for the Palestinians. During a speech for the rallies, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against Israel and the West, questioning whether the Holocaust occurred and calling it a pretext for occupying Arab land. Quds is the Arabic word for Jerusalem.

But the opposition was determined to turn the day into a show of its survival and continued strength despite a fierce three-month-old crackdown against it since the disputed June 12 presidential election.

The four top opposition leaders joined the protests, in direct defiance of commands by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who barred anti-government demonstrations on Quds Day. That could provoke an escalation in the crackdown: hard-line clerics have been demanding the past week that any leader backing the protests should be arrested.

Tens of thousands joined the government-organized marches, starting in various parts of the capital and proceeding to Tehran University. Police and security forces, along with pro-government Basij militiamen, fanned out along main squares and avenues and in many cases tried to keep nearby opposition protesters away from the Quds Day rallies to prevent clashes, witnesses said.

But at one of the several opposition rallies around the city, a group of hard-liners pushed through the crowd and attacked former President Mohamad Khatami, a cleric who is one of the most prominent pro-reform figures, according to a reformist Web site. The report cited witnesses as saying the opposition activists rescued Khatami and quickly repelled the assailants.

Another reformist Webs site said Khatami's turban was disheveled and he was forced to leave the march.

Hard-liners tried to attack the main opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, when he joined another protest elsewhere in the city, a witness said. Supporters rushed Mousavi into his car when the hard-liners approached, and the vehicle sped away as his supporters pushed the hard-liners back, the witness said. He and other witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation.

In one of the main Tehran squares, Haft-e Tir, baton-toting security forces tried to break up one of the opposition marched, and were met with protesters throwing stones and bricks, witnesses said. Several policemen were seen being taken away with light injuries. At least 10 protesters were seized by plainclothes security agents in marches around the city, witnesses said.

The opposition claims that Ahmadinejad won the June election by fraud and that Mousavi is the rightful victor. Hundreds of thousands marched in support of Mousavi in the weeks after the vote, until police, Basij and the elite Revolutionary Guard crushed the protests, arresting hundreds. The opposition says 72 people were killed in the crackdown, thought the government puts the number at 36. The last significant protest was on July 17.

On Friday, opposition supporters poured out on the streets in green T-shirts and wearing green wristbands — the color of the reform movement — and marched with fingers raised in the V-sign for victory, chanting "Death to the Dictator."

Others shouted for the government to resign, carried small photos of Mousavi, while some women marched with their children in tow.

There were also chants of: "Not Gaza, not Lebanon — our life is for Iran" — a slogan defying the regime's support for Palestinian militants in Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla.

Two other opposition leaders appeared at the protests — Mahdi Karroubi, who also ran in the June election, and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. Rafsanjani is a senior cleric in Iran's leadership but has been a behind-the-scenes supporter of Mousavi.

His appearance at the rally is a rare overt show of backing for street protesters. It comes after Rafsanjani was banned this year from his customary role delivering the Friday prayers on Quds Day, which he has done the past 25 years. On Friday, the prayer sermon was delivered by a hard-liine supporter of Ahmadinejad, Ahmad Khatami.

In sheer numbers, the opposition turnout was far smaller than the mass pro-government Qods Day marches — not surprising given the state's freedom to organize the gathering. Customarily on Quds Day, Tehran residents gather for pro-Palestinian rallies in various parts of the city, marching through the streets and later converging for the prayers ceremony. The ceremony was established in 1979 by the leader of the Islamic Revolution and founder of present-day Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Just hundreds of yards (meters) away from opposition protesters on the main Keshavarz Boulevard, thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters marched carrying huge photographs of the president and Supreme Leader Khamenei. Some in the government-sponsored rally chanted: "Death to those who oppose the supreme leader!"

At the climax of the occasion, Ahmadinejad addressed worshipers before Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus, reiterating his anti-Holocaust rhetoric that has drawn international condemnation since 2005. He questioned whether the "Holocaust was a real event" and saying Israel was created on "false and mythical claims."

Death toll rises to 21 in Somalia suicide attack

By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya – The death toll from twin suicide car bombings at the African Union's main peacekeeping base in Somalia rose to 21 Friday, including 17 peacekeepers, an AU spokesman said. It was the deadliest single attack on AU peacekeepers since they arrived in 2007.

Islamic insurgents posing as U.N. personnel detonated suicide car bombs Thursday at the peacekeepers' main base to avenge a U.S. commando raid on Monday that killed a key al-Qaida operative, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. Al-Shabab, a powerful Islamist group with foreign fighters in its ranks, claimed responsibility.

About 40 others were wounded in attack, said Gaffel Nkolokosa (en-koh-loh-KOH-sah), the spokesman for the African Union Mission for Somalia. He said the toll could rise.

A counterstrike from the AU base killed at least seven people.

France said Friday it has evacuated 17 wounded people to Nairobi, Kenya, where they were hospitalized. It did not indicate the nationalities of the injured or the nature of their injuries.

Thursday's suicide attack underscored links between al-Qaida's terror network and Somalia's homegrown insurgency. Many fear this impoverished and lawless African nation is becoming a haven for al-Qaida — a place for terrorists to train and plan attacks elsewhere.

Suicide attacks were virtually unknown in Somalia before 2007, even though the nation has been wracked by war for almost two decades.

Al-Shabab controls much of Somalia and operates openly in the capital, confining the government and peacekeepers to a few blocks of the city. The U.S. and the U.N. both support Somalia's government and the African peacekeeping force.

The AU force has long lamented that it is undermanned. Out of a planned 8,000 troops, there are about 5,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and turned on each other. Piracy has flourished off the Somali coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.

Govt fatwa bans kissing to stop swine flu

Jordanians take no offense, kissing is a threat!

Jordanian authorities issued a religious edict on Thursday urging Muslims to avoid kissing each other, as the number of reported cases of swine flu in the kingdom reached 274.

"People should not kiss at social events and gatherings. Instead, they should just shake hands," the government's fatwa department said in a statement.

"If kissing spreads diseases, then it is forbidden."

The edict comes a few days ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festivities marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, when Muslims traditionally pay each other visits and hug and kiss.

In the conservative Arab world, rejecting a kiss on the cheek can be seen as offensive.

But the fatwa department insisted that Eid "should mark the beginning of the end" of cheek kissing.

Replace with handshaking

"We advise people to replace kissing with handshaking, particularly during Eid -- which is the case in many civilized Muslim countries," it said.

The statement was issued after Health Minister Nayef Fayez announced that 274 cases of the A(H1N1) virus have been recorded in Jordan, 82 of them among schoolchildren.

No deaths have been recorded and the government has repeatedly said the "situation is under control."

More than 3,000 have died from the A(H1N1) virus since it first appeared in April and rapidly spread around the world.

Analysis: Obama abandons view of Iran, not Europe

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is not abandoning missile defense in Europe, but it is junking the previous administration's view of the missile threat posed by Iran and what that means for Europe.

The old idea was that Iran was focused on building long-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Europe and the U.S., although it so far has none in its arsenal. So the defense plan inherited by President Barack Obama was based on interceptors and radar primed to shoot down a long-range missile.

The new view is that Iran has made slower progress on long-range missiles than previously estimated and is going faster on missiles of shorter range — the types that mainly threaten Europe and parts of Asia.

So Obama has torn up the old defense plan and replaced it with one the Pentagon says will be more effective.

It's a gamble, but so was the Bush approach.

Pentagon chief Robert Gates offered sound technical reasons Thursday for Obama's decision to scrap his predecessor's approach, which was unfolding slowly and causing diplomatic headaches for Washington.

If the assertions laid out by Gates prove correct — if, in particular, Iran is not developing a long-range missile as quickly as previously assumed — then the revised missile defense system in Europe makes military sense. Gates says it could be adapted later to meet a long-range missile threat if that emerges.

Gates' explanation did little to shield the administration from a barrage of political strikes by Republicans who portrayed Obama's shift as a weak-kneed capitulation to Russia and an abandonment of U.S. allies.

Before Gates had even finished his news conference, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio issued a statement accusing Obama of a "willful determination to continue ignoring the threat posed by some of the most dangerous regimes in the world." He said Obama had sold out the allies and empowered Iran.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., called the decision misguided and dangerous. She likened it to appeasement.

Those reactions, and other similar expressions of disappointment by missile defense advocates, say much about the ideological divide between supporters and skeptics of the missile defense push that began in earnest with former President Ronald Reagan's famous "Star Wars" speech in March 1983.

The Clinton administration quickly deep-sixed the Reagan program, but a scaled-down version was revived by President George W. Bush, leading to a decision in 2007 to go ahead with the system in Europe.

Bush also gave the go-ahead in 2004 for a U.S.-based system to defend against a long-range missile threat from North Korea.

As it happened, Gates was in charge at the Pentagon when Bush made the 2007 decision. Gates backed Bush's move in 2007, but now the holdover defense secretary is singing a different tune, telling reporters Thursday that two big changes since 2007 led him to conclude that the Bush approach is outdated.

The first change was the U.S. assessment of Iranian missile developments. The second was advances in U.S. missile interceptor and missile-tracking sensor technologies — improvements that Gates said allow the U.S. to pursue defensive capabilities in Europe six or seven years earlier than the Bush approach's timetable.

In place of the Bush blueprint, he said, is a less costly system that would provide defenses more compatible with NATO plans, while preserving flexibility to expand and improve as technology allows and the missile threat requires.

It would consist initially of anti-missile weapons based on U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean and the waters of northern Europe, plus land-based Patriot missile interceptors and a more advanced land-based interceptor known as the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense missile that has been largely successful in tests.

The ship-borne missile, known as an SM-3, gained international acclaim in February 2008 when a souped-up version was launched from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific and shot down a failing U.S. satellite in space.

By about 2015, a newer version of the SM-3 interceptor is to be available for basing on land in Europe, Gates said.

Still further improvements to the interceptor would allow more upgrading of the system by about 2018, and two years after that the U.S. could field a version of the SM-3 that would have "a substantial capability" to intercept not only missiles headed for Europe but also those targeting the U.S., according to Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Compared with the interceptor that Bush had planned for use in Europe, known generically as the ground-based interceptor, the smaller SM-3 is believed to be "the more effective killer," Cartwright said.

Foreign troops should quit Afghanistan says Berlusconi

ITALIAN Premier Silvio Berlusconi said it would be best for international troops to leave Afghanistan soon, after a bomb blast in Kabul killed six of his country's soldiers.

Mr Berlusconi insisted there was no timetable for withdrawal and said any decision would be made together with Italy's allies.

The attack, which made it Italy's deadliest day in the conflict, wounded another four troops.

"We are all convinced it's best for everybody to get out soon," Mr Berlusconi said.

Mr Berlusconi said Italy had already planned on bringing home some 400-500 soldiers, referring to extra troops who had beefed up Italy's contingent for the Afghan elections.

"We're obviously anxious to bring our boys home as soon as possible," he said.

Italy has about 2,800 soldiers in Afghanistan.

His comments came as the new head of the British Army, General Sir David Richards, warned defeat for the international coalition would have an "intoxicating impact" on global extremists.

U.S. judge orders Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo freed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered the Obama administration to release another Kuwaiti detainee held at the controversial U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered that Fouad Al Rabiah be released from the detention facility where he has been held for more than seven years on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The U.S. government has accused Al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti Airlines manager, of providing money to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and helping to coordinate and support Taliban fighters in the mountainous Tora Bora region in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden is believed to have escaped through the area as U.S. forces and their allies overran Taliban and al-Qaeda positions.

But Al Rabiah's lawyers said the case was based on mistaken identity and that their client was in Afghanistan in October 2001 coordinating deliveries of aid supplies from Iran to refugees.

A Justice Department spokesman said the agency was reviewing the decision.

A U.S. federal judge ordered in late July that another Kuwaiti, Khaled Al Mutairi, be released from Guantanamo. But last month a third Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi Al Odah, had his petition to be freed from the detention camp denied.

A lawyer for Al Rabiah and Al Mutairi called for the Obama administration to send them back to their home country.

"We need the administration to respect the federal court's decision and return our clients to the care and custody of the government of Kuwait," said David Cynamon, their attorney.

President Barack Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo prison by January 2010, with some detainees being released and others expected to be tried in U.S. courts or in military commissions. The prison currently holds 226 detainees.

Iran government supporters, opposition hold rally

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran — Tens of thousands of Iranian government supporters and dozens of opposition activists poured out Friday onto the streets of Tehran for coinciding marches marking an annual pro-Palestinian commemoration.

Baton-totting police and security troops, along with the pro-government Basij militia that helped crush mass street protests this summer against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, were deployed along main squares and boulevards but the rallies kicked off peacefully.

Ahmadinejad joined one of the government-sponsored marches heading to the Tehran University campus where he was to address supporters before a Friday prayers service.

The opposition has said it would also hold its own protest Friday, despite warnings by the clerical establishment against anti-government rallies. There has not been a mass opposition demonstration since mid-July, when authorities cracked down heavily on the opposition.

Both opposition leaders — Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karrubi — were to appear at the opposition rally, raising concerns for a showdown between security troops and opposition activists.

By midmorning in central Tehran, dozens of opposition supporters in green T-shirts and wearing green wristbands — a color symbolizing the opposition movement — marched with fingers raised in the V-sign for victory and chanting "Death to the Dictator."

Others shouted for the government to resign, carried small photos of Mousavi, while some women marched with their children in tow. There were also chants of: "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, but our life is for Iran" — a slogan defying the regime's support for Palestinian militants in Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla.

Just hundreds of yards (meters) away on the main Keshavarz Boulevard, thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters marched carrying huge photographs of the president and also the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Some in the government-sponsored rally chanted: "Death to those who oppose the Supreme Leader!"

The demonstrations mark Quds Day — an annual event dedicated to condemning Israel and expressing support for the Palestinians. Quds is Arabic for Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard warned opposition protesters against holding anti-government demonstrations, saying that if they attempted "any sort of violation and disorder" they will encounter "strong confrontation."

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, last week also warned the oppositions against using Quds Day for other purpose than demonstrating solidarity with the Palestinians.

The pro-reform camp claims Mousavi was the rightful winner of the June 12 presidential election and that the government faked the balloting in Ahmadinejad's favor. Since the vote, thousands of opposition supporters held street demonstrations against the alleged vote fraud but were met with a heavy government crackdown.

The opposition says at least 72 protesters were killed in the violence that followed the election, while government officials maintain that only 36 died in the unrest — the worst in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the current regime to power. Thousands were arrested, and the regime's opponents have charged some detainees were tortured to death in prison.

Customarily on Quds Day, Tehran residents gather for pro-Palestinian rallies in various parts of the city, march through the streets and later converge for the prayers ceremony. The ceremony was established in 1979 by the leader of the Islamic Revolution and founder of present-day Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

US military training Iraqi prison guards

By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer

CAMP CROPPER, Iraq – As the U.S. military prepares to hand over the remnants of its detention system to the Iraqi government next year, it is training Iraqi wardens and guards to ensure that changes it made after the Abu Ghraib scandal remain in place.

The military plans to teach Iraqi officers how to use non-lethal weapons like tasers, as well as how to handle riots at mock detention facilities and run vocational programs for inmates at a training academy just west of Baghdad that has been under construction since May.

The commander in charge of America's detention facilities in Iraq has spent the five years since the abuses at Abu Ghraib trying to change the doctrine guiding U.S. detainee operations.

He gave detainees better access to medical care, set up visitation centers and work programs and brought in approved clerics to lead religious discussions.

The military also hired teachers, offering illiterate detainees the chance to learn to read so they would not "have to take a radical imam's word for what the Quran says," said Brig. Gen. David Quantock, commander of detainee operations.

Now, the military is training wardens, midlevel supervisors and corrections officers in hopes they will keep those programs running at the two detention facilities near Baghdad that the U.S. will hand over to Iraqi control next year: Camp Cropper and Camp Taji. A third facility near the Kuwaiti border, Camp Bucca, closed shortly after midnight Wednesday.

Handing over prisons and detainees to Iraqi control has raised concerns for rights groups like Amnesty International, which says Iraqi authorities have held prisoners in appalling conditions.

Quantock said the transfer of the facilities could be delayed if Iraqi authorities are not ready.

"My red line is I do not want to be held responsible for turning over a facility that falls below humane conditions two months after we leave it," he said. "When we leave this behind, it will be the Iraqis running the system and we want to set them up for success."

Abu Ghraib, where abuses of prisoners by U.S. troops helped fuel anti-American sentiment in Iraq, has been handed back to Iraqi control. It reopened in February with a new name, Baghdad Central Prison. A week ago, inmates there rioted for two days to demand better conditions and the replacement of prison staff they accuse of mistreatment.

At Camp Cropper, which replaced Abu Ghraib as the main detention facility near the capital, detainees in yellow uniforms sat in the shade of their simple concrete living quarters on Thursday. Many of them read from Qurans. American guards paced back and forth on a catwalk above, armed with air-powered rifles that fire paint pellets intended to mark the instigators of any disturbances.

"Treat detainees with dignity and respect," reads a sign on a barbed-wire-topped fence.

Detainees at Cropper, like the other U.S. prisons in Iraq, are segregated based on threat risk, nationality and religious affiliation. Doing so, Quantock said, keeps more moderate detainees from being radicalized by extremists.

At Cropper, prisoners vetted to be a lesser threat are allowed to take classes in computers, art and sewing. Among the pictures in the tented art classroom is a portrait of President Barack Obama, which the Iraqi art teacher said was drawn by a detainee hopeful that he would pull troops out of Iraq.

Quantock wants Iraqi authorities to keep those programs in place when they gain control of the detention facilities.

There are about 3,780 detainees at Cropper. Among them are 39 former members of Saddam Hussein's government who are housed in separate quarters with a communal TV and a vegetable garden that some of them use to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs.

They include Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for the strikes he ordered against Kurds in the 1980s. Al-Majid has been sentenced to death for the killings of Kurds and other crimes, but it is not known when the sentence will be carried out.

Saddam, too, was held at Cropper before he was executed by Iraqi authorities in December 2006.

Not far from the prison, the nearly completed training academy will have a target range for non-lethal weapons, where Iraqi corrections officers will learn how to fire rubber pellets and use tasers and sting grenades, which are designed to subdue rioters with fragments of rubber.

Mock detention facilities as well as a model C-17 airplane will also be used for training in controlling and transporting prisoners.

Parts of the training center are already operational, and the entire facility is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

Iraqi prison authorities were also taken to visit prisons in the United States.

Another challenge in turning over the U.S. detention centers is trying to lower the enormous cost of running and maintaining them and ensuring the Iraqi government can afford it. The yearly cost of running the U.S. facilities reached half a billion dollars at one stage, Quantock said.

The Taji facility and its roughly 4,550 detainees is to be turned over to Iraqi authorities on Jan. 10. Cropper is to be handed over in August.

Algeria Orders Warships, Copters From Italy

CAIRO [MENL] -- Algeria, in its first major weapons deal with the West, has concluded a multi-billion-dollar agreement with Italy for military aircraft and warships.

Algerian sources said the Defense Ministry has concluded a four billion euro, or $5.9 billion, deal with Italy for submarines, helicopters and a range missiles. The sources said the deliveries, which would mark the end of a Western military embargo, were expected to begin in 2011.

He is an Arab, therefore he is scary!

Saed Bannoura

September 15, 2009 - IMEMC

Unfortunately, the title of this piece is not fiction and is based on real life stories and incidents in which armed Israeli settlers shot, wounded and killed several Palestinians in the occupied territories including in occupied East Jerusalem.

The reason I am writing this piece is an incident that took place Friday, September 11 2009. This incident involves an Israeli settler who shot and wounded two Palestinians in an East Jerusalem neighborhood just because he felt 'scared’, not because they were armed, and they weren’t, but only because he felt threatened by their presence.

The settler was apprehended by the Israeli police, and said that he just felt scared to see the Arabs in a parking lot in east Jerusalem.

The 'scary Arabs’ were a man and a 13-year-old child. They were in a parking lot in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday evening when the settlers opened fire at them.

The settler initially claimed that he was attacked by six persons, and that he opened fire at them using his personal rifle.

Later on, he clearly told the Israeli Police that he just felt scared and threatened by the simple fact that the two are Arabs and that they were near him. He just felt scared and threatened by the Arab man and child who happened to be at the parking lot.

The incident led later on to clashes between Palestinians residents and Israeli policemen.

The shooting itself and the statements of the settlers are not new, it is the same old story, "We don’t want Arabs", "Arabs out", "Arabs are terrorists"… and other racist slogans fundamentalists in Israel often shout during their protests.

This is how Arabs, not only the Palestinians in the occupied territories, but all Arabs in Israel and in Jerusalem are perceived.

This is why a settler like Avigdor Lieberman, who is currently the Foreign Minister, and the former member of the terrorist Kach movement, considers the Arabs and the Palestinians as a threat to the very existence of Israel.

Lieberman was previously appointed as the Minister of Strategic Affairs, a new post that was created to host him in the former Israeli government. A ministerial post that was created after Lieberman’s repeated statements and slurs against the Arabs, and the Palestinians, describing them as the 'Strategic threat’.

The danger, the new and yet very old danger, is that settlers are an armed population, well trained and fast in using automatic rifles, and are responsible for hundreds of casualties among the Palestinians.

This population was 'raised’ on the principle that 'this land in Jewish, for the Jewish people, and we must defend it by all means’.

Throughout the years since the creation of Israel in Palestine, the settlers were always encouraged by their consecutive governments, their weapons are all legal, all licensed and regulated by Israel, and they never hesitated in using them against unarmed Palestinians, women, elderly and children.

Settlers always received incentives from consecutive governments and their illegal acts were 'blessed’ by their governments as dozens of illegal outposts were eventually licensed by Israel and received services including paved roads leading to their outposts and hooking the outposts with water and power supplies.

Now, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has a government of settlers, fundamentalists and extremists, and even members of his own Likud party are moving against him just because he is holding some talks regarding 'evacuating’ some illegal outposts, outposts that are considered illegal by Israel itself.

Maybe Netanyahu should start realizing that the real scare here is not the Arabs, but the settlers and fundamentalists Netanyahu himself and previous Israeli Prime Ministers, armed and encouraged.

Several settler groups recently said that they will not hesitate in using force against Israel soldiers should they evacuate more illegal outposts. Several Israeli soldiers and policemen were wounded in previous evacuations of some illegal outpost and a few small settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Yet, Arabs and Palestinians remain the scary ones, although they are the ones facing daily attacks, if not by the soldiers, then by the settlers.

Dozens if not hundreds of women, children and men, were killed and wounded by the settlers throughout the years, not because they posed any threat, but because they are Arabs, and therefore they are scary!

My Flower to Bush, the Occupier

My Flower to Bush, the Occupier
The Story of My Shoe

By MUTADHAR al-ZAIDI

September 15, 2009

Mutadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi who threw his shoe at George Bush gave this speech on his recent release.

In the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful.

Here I am, free. But my country is still a prisoner of war.

Firstly, I give my thanks and my regards to everyone who stood beside me, whether inside my country, in the Islamic world, in the free world. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act.

But, simply, I answer: What compelled me to confront is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.

And how it wanted to crush the skulls of (the homeland's) sons under its boots, whether sheikhs, women, children or men. And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. And many millions of homeless because of displacement inside and outside the country.

We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shiite would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ, may peace be upon him. And despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than 10 years, for more than a decade.

Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. Until we were invaded by the illusion of liberation that some had. (The occupation) divided one brother from another, one neighbor from another, and the son from his uncle. It turned our homes into never-ending funeral tents. And our graveyards spread into parks and roadsides. It is a plague. It is the occupation that is killing us, that is violating the houses of worship and the sanctity of our homes and that is throwing thousands daily into makeshift prisons.

I am not a hero, and I admit that. But I have a point of view and I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated. And to see my Baghdad burned. And my people being killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, and this weighs on me every day and pushes me toward the righteous path, the path of confrontation, the path of rejecting injustice, deceit and duplicity. It deprived me of a good night's sleep.

Dozens, no, hundreds, of images of massacres that would turn the hair of a newborn white used to bring tears to my eyes and wound me. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Fallujah, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. In the past years, I traveled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and hear with my own ears the screams of the bereaved and the orphans. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.

And as soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies of the Iraqis, and while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the traces of the blood of victims that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.

The opportunity came, and I took it.

I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.

I say to those who reproach me: Do you know how many broken homes that shoe that I threw had entered because of the occupation? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? And how many times it had entered homes in which free Iraqi women and their sanctity had been violated? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.

After six years of humiliation, of indignity, of killing and violations of sanctity, and desecration of houses of worship, the killer comes, boasting, bragging about victory and democracy. He came to say goodbye to his victims and wanted flowers in response.

Put simply, that was my flower to the occupier, and to all who are in league with him, whether by spreading lies or taking action, before the occupation or after.

I wanted to defend the honor of my profession and suppressed patriotism on the day the country was violated and its high honor lost. Some say: Why didn't he ask Bush an embarrassing question at the press conference, to shame him? And now I will answer you, journalists. How can I ask Bush when we were ordered to ask no questions before the press conference began, but only to cover the event. It was prohibited for any person to question Bush.

And in regard to professionalism: The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism were to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.

I take this opportunity: If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I wish to apologize to you for any embarrassment I may have caused those establishments. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day.

History mentions many stories where professionalism was also compromised at the hands of American policymakers, whether in the assassination attempt against Fidel Castro by booby-trapping a TV camera that CIA agents posing as journalists from Cuban TV were carrying, or what they did in the Iraqi war by deceiving the general public about what was happening. And there are many other examples that I won't get into here.

But what I would like to call your attention to is that these suspicious agencies -- the American intelligence and its other agencies and those that follow them -- will not spare any effort to track me down (because I am) a rebel opposed to their occupation. They will try to kill me or neutralize me, and I call the attention of those who are close to me to the traps that these agencies will set up to capture or kill me in various ways, physically, socially or professionally.

And at the time that the Iraqi prime minister came out on satellite channels to say that he didn't sleep until he had checked in on my safety, and that I had found a bed and a blanket, even as he spoke I was being tortured with the most horrific methods: electric shocks, getting hit with cables, getting hit with metal rods, and all this in the backyard of the place where the press conference was held. And the conference was still going on and I could hear the voices of the people in it. And maybe they, too, could hear my screams and moans.

In the morning, I was left in the cold of winter, tied up after they soaked me in water at dawn. And I apologize for Mr. Maliki for keeping the truth from the people. I will speak later, giving names of the people who were involved in torturing me, and some of them were high-ranking officials in the government and in the army.

I didn't do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country, and that is a legitimate cause confirmed by international laws and divine rights. I wanted to defend a country, an ancient civilization that has been desecrated, and I am sure that history -- especially in America -- will state how the American occupation was able to subjugate Iraq and Iraqis, until its submission.

They will boast about the deceit and the means they used in order to gain their objective. It is not strange, not much different from what happened to the Native Americans at the hands of colonialists. Here I say to them (the occupiers) and to all who follow their steps, and all those who support them and spoke up for their cause: Never.

Because we are a people who would rather die than face humiliation.

And, lastly, I say that I am independent. I am not a member of any politicalparty, something that was said during torture -- one time that I'm far-right, another that I'm a leftist. I am independent of any political party, and my future efforts will be in civil service to my people and to any who need it, without waging any political wars, as some said that I would.
My efforts will be toward providing care for widows and orphans, and all those whose lives were damaged by the occupation. I pray for mercy upon the souls of the martyrs who fell in wounded Iraq, and for shame upon those who occupied Iraq and everyone who assisted them in their abominable acts. And I pray for peace upon those who are in their graves, and those who are oppressed with the chains of imprisonment. And peace be upon you who are patient and looking to God for release.

And to my beloved country I say: If the night of injustice is prolonged, it will not stop the rising of a sun and it will be the sun of freedom.

One last word. I say to the government: It is a trust that I carry from my fellow detainees. They said, 'Muntadhar, if you get out, tell of our plight to the omnipotent powers' -- I know that only God is omnipotent and I pray to Him -- 'remind them that there are dozens, hundreds, of victims rotting in prisons because of an informant's word.'

They have been there for years, they have not been charged or tried.

They've only been snatched up from the streets and put into these prisons. And now, in front of you, and in the presence of God, I hope they can hear me or see me. I have now made good on my promise of reminding the government and the officials and the politicians to look into what's happening inside the prisons. The injustice that's caused by the delay in the judicial system.

Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=57970&s2=17.

What next for Jordan?

by Rana Sabbagh-Gargour
17 September 2009

AMMAN - Jordan's King Abdullah II is holding his breath as US President Barack Obama pursues a strategy for comprehensive Middle East peace that promotes the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Obama is widely expected to define parameters for the "two-state solution" sometime later this month, and possibly set an agenda for final status talks. For Jordan, the best-case scenario would be a programme for the creation of a viable and geographically contiguous Palestinian state along the borders that existed prior to the 1967 war when Israel took the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian-run administration.

Such a scenario would help bury the notion of "Jordan is Palestine", an idea often voiced by Israeli right-wing politicians who believe that the Palestinians of the West Bank should relocate to Jordan. It could also enable King Abdullah to take carefully calibrated moves towards opening up Jordan's closed political system which currently favors native Jordanians (or East Bankers) over Palestinian Jordanians and thus pave the way for a modern meritocracy, which would better reflect the melting pot Jordan has become.

In this new Jordan, East Bankers, the traditional bedrock of support for the ruling Hashemite family, will remain a majority, assuming that many of the up to one million displaced Palestinians living in Jordan could return to live as full citizens in the new Palestinian state. Alternatively, many could maintain residence in Jordan while voting in Palestinian elections.

National identity politics has a long and tortuous history in Jordan, a desert Kingdom in which the present reality has to a large extent been shaped by successive Arab-Israeli wars. Half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin, many of them descendants of refugees who fled to the Kingdom in 1948.

Unlike the Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon, Palestinian refugees in Jordan became full citizens under a 1950 merger between Transjordan and whatever was left of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

That unity, however, did not, and does not, preclude their right to self-determination if or when a Palestinian state emerges, allowing them to make a final choice between possessing Jordanian or Palestinian citizenship.

The conservative "East Bank" establishment has long thwarted political reform, mainly to minimize Palestinian presence in the political mainstream pending a final settlement.

Dual nationality, or "dual political allegiance", remains a red line. Any premature effort to fully enfranchise half of the population, or give displaced Palestinians living in Jordan permanent nationality, will put the monarch in direct conflict with his traditional power base.

The prospect of regional instability coupled with Israeli statements advocating Jordan as an alternative homeland for the Palestinians have not helped relations between the two groups. Tensions were clearly visible in recent football matches between Jordan's two rival teams—“Al-Faisali” (a team supported by East Bankers) and "Al-Wihdat” (named after a refugee camp and composed of Jordanian Palestinians)—when supporters of the former team chanted anti-Palestinian slogans.

Perhaps more significantly, a few weeks earlier the vocal Jordanian-Palestinian elite, including journalists, criticized Interior Minister Nayef Al-Qadi for tightening residency measures in order to prevent Palestinians living in Jordan without citizenship from becoming citizens. Qadi later responded that his ministry was simply implementing regulations adopted by the late King Hussein to help the PLO set up an independent Palestinian state in the occupied territories of the West Bank. Regardless of the minister’s intentions, this incident demonstrates the extent to which tensions between East Bankers and Palestinians have increased in recent months.

Jordan could be seriously destabilized if the “two-state” solution were to disappear, or if the end result of the US plan were to be the imposition of a “fait accompli” on the Kingdom to set up federal links with Palestinians in the West Bank. It would mean a Palestinian takeover of Jordan either by forcing the king to become a constitutional monarch, or worse, through a complete regime change.

In a nutshell, Obama's new plan could be a double-edged sword—it could make or break the modern Jordan created in 1921.

Many officials and ordinary Jordanians remain skeptical about possible peace. Worsening inter-Palestinian rivalry between Fateh and Hamas, and the April election of a right-wing Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is complicating the situation. So far, Netanyahu is fighting US pressure to freeze settlement activity, wants Palestinian refugees to give up their right of return and recognize the Jewish identity of Israel: and all this before talks have even begun.

Weeks ago, King Abdullah, trying to reassure jittery East Bankers, said he would not allow anyone to change the identity of Jordan by solving the Palestinian problem at the expense of the Kingdom, nor would he be forced into fully integrating Jordanian Palestinians before a final settlement is reached.

Now, like his nation, he is waiting for Obama's plan to see where Jordan will go next.

Hamas slams Mitchell failure to get Israeli concessions on settlements

September 16, 2009

Gaza – Ma’an – The United States "can’t stop the Israeli attacks and can’t bring back Palestinian rights" Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said Wednesday following the failed efforts of US Envoy George Mitchell to persuade Israeli leadership to halt settlement activity.

"Palestinians are the ones to suffer from the weak position of the international community with respect to Israel, especially regarding the siege of Gaza, confiscated land, and the building and expansion of Israeli settlements," Barhoum added after news of Mitchell's second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to see the two reach an agreement on the issue of a settlement freeze, which Palestinians have set as a precondition for a tripartite meeting at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting later this month preempting peace talks between the sides.

Barhoum said Hamas considers it a "failure of the American administration in [not being able to] force Israel to freeze its settlement activity...[it is] proof of the failure of the Obama administration in helping the Palestinian people." He added that Obama has brought nothing new to the table regarding the separation wall and settlement activity.

Hamas called on the US to take stronger positions regarding Israel and said that any future calls for negotiations from the US would signal an "intention to keep the settlements and marginalize Palestinian legal rights."

US Sending 1,000 More Troops to Iraq As Officials Tout 'Drawdown,' Why Is US Adding Troops?

Jason Ditz

September 16, 2009

Though the Iraq War has long since become an after-thought amid Obama Administration claims that the "drawdown" in on track, the Pentagon is reporting today that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has approved a request to send about 1,000 additional troops to Iraq.

The latest report comes less than a week after it was revealed that the Pentagon has added thousands of additional contractors to Iraq, ostensibly to replace US troops during the drawdown.

But of course the drawdown isn’t actually happening. President Obama inherited a war with roughly 135,000 troops in Iraq, and today there are 131,000 and thousands of contractors. Officials have previously insisted there will be no meaningful troop level changes until at least 60 days after January’s parliamentary elections.

Now, over two and a half years after the "surge" in Iraq, troop levels are still above pre-surge levels and apparently will be rising in the near term. Ambassador Hill may claim the US is sticking to its timetable, but it seems that at some point such a highly touted withdrawal will have to involve the removal of some actual troops.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=58004&s2=18.

Afghan Taliban reject UN ceasefire offer

The News International

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

PESHAWAR: Rejecting the United Nations ceasefire offer on the occasion of Eid and World Peace Day, the Taliban on Tuesday said the world body should force foreign countries to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan if it was interested in peace in the war-ravaged country.

"Taliban do not trust foreigners as they saw last year that foreign forces violated ceasefire in several areas," Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for Taliban, told the Afghan Islamic Press in Kandahar.

He said the Taliban wanted peace throughout the year but foreigners had proved that they did not want peace in Afghanistan. "We are not aggressors rather fighting in defence. Afghans have not attacked a country rather these are the foreigners who came to Afghanis-tan and started war here," he said. He said if the UN really wanted peace in Afghanistan it should force foreigners to withdraw troops and let the Afghans decide their fate.

Is Bagram Obama’s New Secret Prison?

Andy Worthington

September 16, 2009

On Monday, one day after the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was planning to introduce tribunals for the prisoners held in the US prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, the reason for the specifically-timed leaks that led to the publication of the stories became clear.

The government was hoping that offering tribunals to evaluate the prisoners’ status would perform a useful PR function, making the administration appear to be granting important rights to the 600 or so prisoners held in Bagram, and distracting attention from the real reason for its purported generosity: a 76-page brief to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (PDF), submitted yesterday, in which the government attempted to claim that "Habeas rights under the United States Constitution do not extend to enemy aliens detained in the active war zone at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan."

The main reason for this brazen attempt to secure a PR victory before the appeal was filed is blindingly obvious to anyone who has been studying the Bagram litigation over the last five months. In April, Judge John D. Bates ruled that three foreign prisoners seized in other countries and "rendered" to Bagram, where they have been held for up to six years, had the right to challenge the basis of their detention in US courts.

Below, I discuss the government’s position regarding these men, and explain why introducing Guantánamo-style tribunals at Bagram is no substitute for the Geneva Conventions, and at the end of the article I also ask whether the government may not have an even darker motive, related to what I perceive to be comments from administration officials revealing Bagram’s ongoing use as a secret prison for foreign suspects "rendered" from other countries.

Why bringing Guantánamo to Bagram is intended to exclude the US courts

Despite fierce opposition from Obama’s Justice Department, which clung to the line taken by the Bush administration, Judge Bates ruled in April that Boumediene v. Bush — the Supreme Court ruling last June, which granted constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights to the prisoners in Guantánamo — extended to foreign prisoners "rendered" to Bagram, because "the detainees themselves as well as the rationale for detention are essentially the same." He added that, although Bagram is "located in an active theater of war," and that this may pose some "practical obstacles" to a court review of their cases, these obstacles "are not as great" as the government suggested, are "not insurmountable," and are, moreover, "largely of the Executive’s choosing," because the prisoners were specifically transported to Bagram from other locations.

Judge Bates was undoubtedly correct, for two reasons: firstly, because, as I explained at the time, "only an administrative accident — or some as yet unknown decision that involved keeping a handful of foreign prisoners in Bagram, instead of sending them all to Guantánamo — prevented them from joining the 779 men in the offshore prison in Cuba"; and secondly, because he refused to extend habeas rights to an Afghan prisoner "rendered" to Bagram from the United Arab Emirates in 2002 — and, by extension, to the rest of the Afghans in Bagram, seized in Afghanistan, who constitute all but 30 or so of the 650 men held in the prison — primarily because he agreed with the government’s claim that to do so would cause "friction" with the Afghan government regarding negotiations about the transfer of Afghan prisoners to the custody of their own government.

Reinforcing its hopes that offering tribunals to the prisoners would deflect attention from its desire to keep holding "rendered" prisoners at Bagram indefinitely, the government included an Addendum with its brief on Monday, outlining its plans for the new tribunal system. This is designed to replace an existing review system, which, in the words of Judge Bates, "falls well short of what the Supreme Court found inadequate at Guantánamo" in Boumediene, being both "inadequate" and "more error-prone" than the notoriously inadequate and error-prone system of Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs) that was established at Guantánamo to review the prisoners’ cases.

Reporters have been quick to spot that the new review system — far from providing an adequate system that would, presumably, satisfy the Supreme Court — is, in fact, little more than a carbon-copy of the CSRTs, which were severely criticized by the Supreme Court in Boumediene, and which were also savaged by Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a veteran of US intelligence who worked on them, who explained, in a series of explosive statements in 2007, that they were designed primarily to rubberstamp the administration’s insistence that the men were "enemy combatants," even though they had not been adequately screened on capture.

What has happened to the Geneva Conventions?

This omission of screening on capture — which has applied at Bagram ever since — came about because, under instructions from the highest levels of government, the military was obliged to shelve its plans to hold competent tribunals under Article 5 of the Geneva Conventions, despite the fact that they had been pioneered by the US, and had been used successfully in every war from Vietnam onwards. Held close to the time and place of capture, these tribunals (as opposed to the CSRTs, which mockingly echoed them), comprise three military officers, and are designed to separate combatants from civilians seized in the fog of war, in cases where it is not obvious that prisoners are combatants (when they are not wearing a uniform, for example), by allowing the men in question to call witnesses.

During the first Gulf War, around 1,200 of these tribunals were held, and in nearly three-quarters of the case, the men were found to have been wrongly detained, and were released. The failure to implement these tribunals in the "War on Terror" contributed enormously to the filling of Guantánamo with prisoners who had no connections to any form of militancy whatsoever, and these initial errors were not redressed when a skewed version of the tribunals — the CSRT system — was introduced two and half years later.

As a result, plans to introduce Guantánamo-style tribunals to Bagram — in which prisoners are assigned military representatives instead of lawyers, and may call witnesses and present evidence if "reasonably available" — may be an improvement on the existing system of Unlawful Enemy Combatant Review Boards at Bagram — in which the prisoners have no representation whatsoever, and are only allowed to make a statement before they hear the evidence against them — but it fails to take into account the fact that non-uniformed prisoners seized in wartime, like those at Bagram, should, under the terms of the Geneva Conventions, be given competent tribunals on capture, and then, if found to be combatants, held unmolested until the end of hostilities.

Despite being addressed in the DoD’s new proposals, these concerns are not mitigated by the fact that, according to these plans, new prisoners will be subjected, on capture, to cursory reviews by "the capturing unit commander" and by the commander of Bagram to ascertain that they "meet the criteria for detention," and the problem is underlined by the DoD’s insistence that it is not merely holding prisoners "consistent with the laws and customs of war," but also holding those who fulfill the criteria laid down in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (the founding document of the "War on Terror," approved by Congress within days of the 9/11 attacks), which authorized the President to detain those who "planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001," or those who supported them.

So is Bagram Obama’s new secret prison?

However, while this is a genuinely disturbing development, because it suggests that the Obama administration is essentially following President Bush’s lead by unilaterally rewriting the Conventions, presumably to allow it to continue exploiting prisoners of war for their supposed intelligence value (even though the DoD explained, in its proposal, that "intelligence value, by itself, is not a basis for internment"), only one major media outlet — the New Yorker — has picked up on a disturbing disclosure in the Times’ coverage of the story on Sunday. I reported this in an article yesterday, when I explained that there was something deeply suspicious about the officials’ statement that:

the importance of Bagram as a holding site for terrorism suspects captured outside Afghanistan and Iraq has risen under the Obama administration, which barred the Central Intelligence Agency from using its secret prisons for long-term detention.

As I explained yesterday, this "seems to confirm, in one short sentence, that, although the CIA’s secret prisons have been closed down, as ordered by President Obama, a shadowy 'rendition’ project is still taking place, with an unknown number of prisoners being transferred to Bagram instead."

In a blog post for the New Yorker, Amy Davidson also picked up on the statement, calling it a sentence "that doesn’t make much sense," and then asked:

So closing Guantánamo increases the need for a new Guantánamo, and barring the use of secret prisons just means that you need to find a new place to stash secret prisoners? Have we had it with Guantánamo because it’s unfashionable — like a played-out spring-break destination, now overrun with journalists and human-rights lawyers hopping on planes in Florida — or because we actually don’t like extrajudicial, indefinite detention?

While I await further developments, I recall that, back in April, CIA director Leon Panetta explained that, although the CIA "no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites," the agency "retains the authority to detain individuals on a short-term transitory basis." Panetta added that, although no detentions had occurred since he became director, "We anticipate that we would quickly turn over any person in our custody to US military authorities or to their country of jurisdiction, depending on the situation."

Is this what is happening now at Bagram? Shortly after Panetta made his comments, I noted that "the only logical conclusion" I could draw was that, "essentially, the Obama administration’s only real problem with 'extraordinary rendition’ is one of scale. The Bush administration’s industrial-scale rendition policies have been banished, but the prospect of limited rendition — to third countries rather than to the US court system, as would surely be more acceptable — is being kept as a possible option."

Whether hidden transfers to third countries are taking place is unknown, but from my reading of the officials’ comments to the Times, I infer that the CIA is now handing suspects over to the US military, including those captured outside Afghanistan, and that this is the reason, above all, that the government is anxious to prevent the US courts from having access to foreign prisoners in Bagram.

Moreover, as with the Bush administration, the indications are that this process focuses solely on the gathering of "actionable intelligence" — or with "decommissioning" suspects — and that those responsible for implementing it have, yet again, chosen to ignore the fact that terrorism is a crime, prosecutable in the US courts, and not an act of war requiring secret prisons and extra-legal detention, however much it may be dressed up in review procedures that include only the following "[p]ossible recommendations" for what will happen to those prisoners who "meet the criteria for internment": "continued internment" in Bagram, transfer to the Afghan authorities for prosecution, transfer to the Afghan authorities "for participation in a reconciliation program," and, in the cases of "non Afghan and non-US third-country national[s]," options "that may also include transfer to a third country for criminal prosecution, participation in a reconciliation program, or release." What, I wonder, are the options that were not included?

After the massacre: Sabra and Shatila, twenty-seven years later

September 16, 2009

Beirut - Ma'an - "That is the old Israeli watchtower and entrance to Sabra," a man on the street pointed, standing in front of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camps. Below the tower, quarantined like a civil war time capsule, where the camps left to fend for themselves on the outskirts of Beirut.

No more than 20 meters past the former Israeli watchtower, in an empty lot, is the memorial for the victims of the 1982 Lebanon Civil War massacre. Camp residents say the site was once a mass grave for the slain. The memorial was a single-track dirt path linking a series of billboards with images of the dead.

The massacres perpetrators were of the predominantly Christian Phalange party: supplied, supported and supervised by on-looking Israeli soldiers.

The Phalangist pogrom was clear. What was not, however, was the extent of the crime. At the time of the massacre, the Director of Israeli Military Intelligence said that between the days of September 16 and 18, 1982, a minimum of 700 "terrorists" had been killed. Yet, reporter for the Independent Robert Fisk wrote in his book, Pity the Nation, "Phalangist officers I knew in east Beirut told me that at least 2,000 'terrorists’—women as well as men—had been killed in Chatila." The real number, according to Fisk, is thought to be higher.

Leaving the mass grave memorial and moving into the open-air market of the Sabra camp, a bullet-ridden wall stands separating a camp dump from its market. In all likelihood the half-block dumping ground was once on the fringes of the camp, but not anymore. The camp had no urban planner, so it grew until the market fully encircled the awful collection of stench, sewage and a sore reminder that nobody really intended to be living in the Sabra camp some sixty-years after the Nakba- the Palestinian exodus of 1948.

At the far end of the bullet-chafed wall stood a child of about ten years, a refugee. With little hesitation he immersed himself into the filthy heap, heaving his woven sack of valued rubbish over the rotting mounds. For all the archetypes of the poverty-ridden Palestinian refugee that exists in a foreigner’s consciousness, this is surely it. There was to be no school for this boy. No passport, no rights and no state.

Beyond the heap hung layers of political propaganda posters: A keffiyehed militant with the bold letters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine plastered next to a green-tinted portrait of Hamas’ founder Sheik Yassin with the party logo "Martyrs of Freedom & Victory;" a weathered PLO poster of Arafat; even one of a masked fighter on a tank, clutching a Kalashnikov with the brand of Islamic Jihad. And the posters were not just of Palestinian parties, but of the Lebanese Amal and Hezbollah as well. As a nearby shopkeeper who sold Hezbollah DVD’s put it, "The camp is mixed now… mixed with Palestinians and [Lebanese] Shias… United by resistance..."

Despite appearances, however, inside the Lebanese Army’s encirclement of the camp a surprisingly calm business-as-usual air prevailed. The streets weren’t crowded, but populated. The buyers, the sellers, and of course the children, were everywhere, looking to relieve the gnawing boredom of a lifetime’s confinement to the camp. "We are not allowed to leave [the camps]," one of the sellers said, "No papers."

United resistance aside, the camp was in shambles. Everything the Lebanese government might do in Sabra and Shatila—urban planning, paving streets, coordinating an electrical grid, sewage—was left to the Palestinian residents. At the beginning, however, the camp played host to the bigwigs of the Palestinian leadership in the Palestine Liberation Organization, who organized camp life and connected the residents to the Palestinian struggle.

The powerful PLO, back in 1982, provided the motive of the massacre’s perpetrators, the Christian Phalange militia, who sought to take revenge against PLO leaders—which had in fact already fled Lebanon—for the alleged assassination of the Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel. But the only people who remained in the camps that summer of 1982 were unarmed Palestinians.

What happened at Sabra and Shatila is still considered the bloodiest single event in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is also among the most egregious and underreported aspects of the Palestinian calamity to date.

On the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, 16 September, the issue of the refugees and the right of return reaches again for the surface of Palestinian politics. With the newly-charged peace process being pushed by the United States, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s recently released strategy to establish Palestinian state in two years, the issue of returnees has been subsumed by talk of settlements in the West Bank.

American efforts, and Fayyad’s plan focus more on securing infrastructure and borders than focusing on the estimated 500,000 refugees without rights in Lebanon, or the hundreds of thousands of others in Jordan, Syria, Iraq and in the Gulf.

Palestinians in the camps have a precarious relationship with the current peace initiatives, particularly the older generation who still recall the villages they fled in 1948 and 1967.

"Sure I would support Obama’s plan," an old man reflects on the US President’s push for a two-state solution. "But what kind of solution is it? I have nothing in this West Bank… it would make me a foreigner in my own land… I would only go back to my village. And I don’t even know what is there now."

He picks up an old hatchet from his coffee table and continues, "They [the Zionists] chased us and hit us on the head with these. I left my small village near Acre [Akko] because of it."

Lebanon aims for Guinness records as part of bid to lay claim to hummus, tabouleh

BEIRUT: Lebanon will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest servings of hummus and tabouleh as part of a campaign to claim ownership of the traditional dishes. The attempt to break the world records will take place in the Saifi market in Downtown Beirut on October 24 and 25. The dishes are expected to stretch some 5,800 square kilometers. The two-day event will also see the participation of several Lebanese restaurants and artisans from the oil, souvenirs and craftsmanship industries, as well as a variety of entertainers, games and auctions.

The battle for national proprietorship of hummus and tabouleh began last year, when Fadi Abboud, the president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, said his group would file a lawsuit to stop Israel from marketing exported hummus and other dishes as Israeli.

Although the exact origins of hummus have not yet been proven, the dish is one of the oldest known prepared foods in the Middle East and is believed to have originated in the Levant.

But Hummus is currently marketed around the world as an Israeli dish and a Greek dip, as well as other variations.

In the summer of 2008, Abboud drew attention to the issue of food copyright, noting that millions of dollars were being lost each year in the lucrative hummus market.

“I first noticed this piracy during the many international food exhibitions that we attended: Lebanese producers would find out that most of our specialties, such as hummus, falafel and baba ghannouj, were marketed as Israeli,” Abboud said. “Our cuisine is being dishonestly used and Israel is appropriating our dishes.”

Abboud noted that the popularity of the chickpea dip has spread. “Today, the fame of hummus has reached around the globe. Upscale restaurants in New York and London are serving gourmet versions of hummus and falafel as traditional Jewish dishes,” he said.

“We are talking about colossal losses as the hummus market is a robust one worth over $1 billion with the 500,000 tubs eaten a day in the United Kingdom alone,” he added. “If we win this fight, there is huge potential for Lebanon.

“We have been researching and documenting data to prove that 25 traditional dishes hail from Lebanon and deserve the EU’s Protected Designated Origin status, meaning they can be marketed under their name only if they were made in the country,” he said. “It is time that Lebanon registered its main food trademarks to avoid substantial losses like these. We are preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for claiming ownership of traditional dishes that are believed to be originally Lebanese.”

George Nasrawi, head of the Syndicate of Lebanese Food Industries, said: “We endorse initiatives like these destined at protecting the Lebanese culinary heritage that we have exported to the world a while ago,” he said. “Moreover, the renowned Lebanese brand name Kortas was the first to can hummus and send it across the globe. We are keen on protecting our food and sustaining our position as pioneers.”

Ramzi Choueiri, manager of Al-Kafaat catering school, will be rallying support for the bid to break the records. “I am delighted and proud to be supervising this attempt. We are mobilizing some 250 young chef apprentices who will be preparing everything on site under the strictest hygiene regulations,” he said. “The general public will be able to taste safely the final product.”

“All of the ingredients that we are going to use are fresh with no chemical derivatives or substitutes. Imagine some 2.5 tons of lemon juice only! That says a lot concerning the colossal size of this event.,” he added.

Myriam Hoballah, regional product manager of ‘Waseet and official representative of the Guinness World Book of Records said: “Many tons are at stake here and we hope to successfully certify these attempts as Guinness World Records.”

Fady Jreissati, the vice president of IFP, which is organizing the event, said his group believed in the cause behind the “patriotic event.”

“Unfortunately the culinary aspect of our culture was long neglected,” he said. “Our goal is to return Lebanon to the culinary map and spread the Lebanese traditions and culture throughout the world.”

“Fight for your bite, you know you’re right” is the slogan for the campaign under which the record-breaking attempt will be held.

Israel warns of threats to India

Israel is warning that Islamist militants are preparing attacks in India similar to those in Mumbai last year, media and officials have said.

Israel's counterterrorism unit said the group that launched the Mumbai attacks was planning to target Western or Israeli tourists, AFP news agency said.

Israeli television also reported that a travel advisory would warn Israelis against traveling to India.

India has blamed Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attacks.

"The terrorist group that carried out the serious Mumbai attack in India is planning to carry out a number of attacks across India, particularly against concentrations of Western or Israeli tourists," AFP quoted the counterterrorism unit as saying.

The attacks last November left more than 170 people dead, including nine gunmen.

Targets included a Jewish centre run by the New York-based orthodox Lubavitch organization.

The Israeli statement said the planned attacks could target other Lubavitch centres in India.

The warning was based on "a concrete, very serious threat", it said.