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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Jordan king calls on Israel to move for peace

Jordan King Abdullah II to Israel: stop illegal settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM - The impasse in the Middle East peace process is sending the region back "into the darkness," Jordan's King Abdullah II said in an interview with an Israeli daily, parts of which were published Thursday.

"We're sliding back into the darkness," Abdullah told the left-leaning Haaretz, which is due to run the entire interview on Friday.

The monarch, who heads one of only two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, said that establishing a Palestinian state was key to a wider peace deal to end the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict.

"Is Israel going to be fortress Israel or is it going to be part of the neighborhood? Because if there is no two-state solution, what future do we all have together?

"Show me the future of Israel 10 years from now. Where do you want Israel to be vis-a-vis its relationship with Jordan and other Arab countries?

"I understand that you tend to live in the here and now. You are worried about the next threat. It is difficult for an Israeli to look into the future because of the security aspect. But if there is peace and stability, then people can look into the future."

Abdullah also warned Israel to stop illegal settlement activity in Palestinian East Jerusalem, which it occupied in its 1967 war against its neighbors.

Jerusalem is "a tinderbox that will have a major flashpoint throughout the Islamic world," he said.

"It is important to understand the need of ending all settlement activities and other unilateral actions that threaten the identity of the Holy City."

Israel's extremist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman waved aside Abdullah's comments.

"For King Abdullah, the Palestinian question is of utmost importance, which is not the case for Israel," Lieberman told public radio. "I would have liked a more objective approach from him on the dangers threatening the region.

Palestinian East Jerusalem has been under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967.

Under international law, neither East nor West Jerusalem is considered Israel's capital. Tel Aviv is recognized as Israel's capital, pending a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.

East Jerusalem is considered by the international community to be illegally occupied by Israel, in contravention of several binding UN Security Council Resolutions.

In these resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has also called for no measures to be taken to change the status of Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached between the sides.

Declaring Jerusalem as Israel's capital is an attempt to change this status, and is thus a violation of these Security Council resolutions.

Israeli highschoolers choose jail over occupation army service

Nora Barrows-Friedman

The Electronic Intifada - October 6, 2009

As US-made Hellfire missiles and white phosphorus rained down on the entrapped people of the Gaza Strip earlier this year, a number of "refuseniks," young Israeli men and women who refuse to serve mandatory military conscription after high school, along with anti-occupation activists attempted to shut down the Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv. It was from this base that airborne weapons of war, flown by their former classmates, took off to kill Palestinians just miles down the beach in Gaza.

From chronic checkpoint beatings, to the use of Palestinian children as human shields during invasions, to widespread use of torture and interrogation in detention camps, to the killing of unarmed civilians during incursions and wide-scale massacres that spur international condemnation, Israel's soldiers are the face of the state's expanding and illegal occupation and colonization of Palestine. And a new generation of conscripts have just finished boot camp, eager to carry on this vicious tradition of occupation.

Within mainstream Israeli Jewish society, mandatory conscription into the military is regarded as a rite of passage; a normalized violent adventure meant to codify nationalism and Zionist supremacy while carrying out Israel's policies of aggression. (Paradoxically, a few thousand non-Jewish, "Arab-Israeli" citizens have also served in the army -- see Jonathan Cook's recent article "False promise of integration for Palestinian soldiers in Israel.") Recently, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman repeated an oft-heard mantra as he attempted to defend the state's criminal massacres in Gaza earlier this year. "Israel," Lieberman claimed, "has the most moral army in the world."

However, a growing number of Israeli Jewish youth facing mandatory military conscription -- the Shministim -- are breaking the chain of conventional cooperation with the occupation. Refusing to participate in a system they agree to be immoral as well as illegal, these young people exemplify complicity with their ethical values rather than their state's colonialist policies.

The Shministim have also started linking up with American military resisters to strategize and build an international movement of opposition to the state-sponsored violence of occupation -- from the West Bank and Gaza to Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, these young people are speaking directly to Jewish audiences across the US who may romanticize Israel's perceived "need" for an aggressive military system, hoping to inspire critical thought centered on the actual reality for Palestinians affected by Israel's actions.

Since 1970, groups of Shministim -- Hebrew for 12th-graders -- have emerged, turning against the overwhelming current of generational militarism. Writing public letters to Israeli heads of state, Shministim cohorts refuse to participate in the system of occupation, and, more broadly, vociferously challenge a national attitude of supremacy and racist entitlement over historic Palestine's indigenous population.

Though personal stories of revelatory tenacity are wholly unique for each young person who stands up, the shock of collective reality and personal responsibility is a common theme. After witnessing brutal violence carried out by Israeli occupation soldiers against Palestinians in the West Bank village of Bilin, 19-year-old Shministim member Maya Wind says that "the only moral option for me was to refuse."

Not surprisingly, the Israeli government does not concur with Wind's revelation. Shministim refuseniks face draconian jail sentences in repeated cycles until they reach 21 years old or manage to secure a discharge on the basis of medical or mental health.

Israeli youth who refuse to cooperate with Israel's military occupation are sent into a lengthy and relentless labyrinth of court martials and consecutive jail terms in what Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard, representing Shministim, calls a "price tag" meant to deter other young Israelis from non-participation. "Otherwise," he says, "[the Israeli government's] argument says, everyone -- of ideological or personal reasons -- will refuse to serve."

I recently interviewed Wind and her Shministim cohort, Netta Mishly, during their tour in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Wind says that the political and ultra-religious environment in her high school led her to question the reality behind the ideologies of her government and her fellow students. "A lot of my classmates were settlers, including extremists from [settlements in] the West Bank ... there were a lot of questions that surfaced for me. I didn't even use the word 'occupation' back then." Through a discussion group with Palestinians in Jerusalem, Wind says that she awakened to a different reality than the one offered to her inside Israeli-Jewish society. "I figured I needed to learn more. Through a conversation with a Palestinian girl, I started to question more. I started going to the West Bank."

Wind was sent to jail during the third week of the Gaza massacres, and spent several weeks behind bars. Sentenced four times, she spent a cumulative two months in detention and another 42 days in a military prison altogether. She was subjected to a "humiliating" array of psychiatrists and psychologists sent by the military to determine her mental fitness, required to serve in the army. Wind says that all of the Shministim were labeled mentally unfit by these health professionals, therefore giving Israel the excuse that the problem was not with the policies or the morality of the military, but with the Shministim themselves.

Netta Mishly, also 19 years old and from Tel Aviv, was active in several political groups from early adolescence and supported by parents who encouraged her to think critically. She said that her decision to refuse was made clear during her activity against Israel's wall in the West Bank. "After I was there, and I saw how the soldiers attack civilians without any security justification, after I saw how the state steals land from [Palestinians] ... For me, not going to the army was a decision I came to after visiting the West Bank for the first time."

She says that her life changed completely after returning to school. "I kept hearing the same line [in class] -- that we need to defend ourselves, and we need to go to the army. I couldn't believe this anymore because I saw how the soldiers act on the ground. I connected with other activists and we started thinking about how we were going to take this difficult step, and we decided to keep working in the same tradition that started before us. We drafted a letter to the government, saying that we wouldn't take part in the terrible crimes that Israel is doing in our name. After that, one by one, each one of us went to jail."

Mishly was sentenced to a week in detention at the military base because there was "no room" in the regular prison (during the December-January attacks on Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel who participated in protests were rounded up and thrown into Israeli jails, on charges of treason and incitement). After the trial, one of the highest-ranking Israeli military justices decided they could re-try Mishly and she received another 20 days. "When you make the decision not to go to the army, you don't know where [the punishment] is going to end," she says.

Meanwhile, as US President Barack Obama readies another "troop surge" to entrench the interminable American occupation of Afghanistan, Wind and Mishly are meeting with US military resisters in order, Wind says, to expand international rejection of militarism. "I think that's why Netta and I have come to the US. It's not just about the Israeli occupation. It's not just an Israeli thing. The US is occupying. And there are all forms of racism, prejudice and violence ... these are not just phenomenons particular to the Middle East, you have this in the US as well. It's towards immigrants, Mexicans, towards Iraq and Afghanistan. I think we're trying to show that these are global phenomenons and we all have to create a broader justice movement."

Sarah Lazare of the Bay Area-based GI Resistance support organization Courage to Resist is helping to organize an upcoming delegation of US war resisters to Palestine-Israel, she says, to connect with Israeli refuseniks. Calling itself Dialogue Against Militarism, the group intends to discuss similar experiences and learn from each other's strategies for confronting war and occupation, while engaging with the effects of militarism in their respective societies.

"It is extremely powerful that war resisters in Israel are connecting with war resisters in the US," says Lazare. "Given the close relationship between the so-called 'War on Terror' and the Israeli occupation, it is vital for resisters in these two countries to join forces, in order to build a movement strong enough to take on the forces we're up against. Israeli and US war resisters are having exciting discussions, sharing experiences, and showing direct solidarity with each other, and I think this is a powerful step towards stopping US and Israeli-led occupations."

In January, upon her sentencing, Maya Wind offered her declaration of conscience to the military court. "We can no longer term our military a 'Defense Force,'" she asserted.

"A defense force does not conquer lands of another people. A defense force does not assist in the building of settlements on those lands. A defense force does not permit settlers to throw stones at Palestinian civilians, nor does it deny them access to their lands and source of livelihood. None of these are acts of a defense force."

"The occupation has no defensive advantages. On the contrary, the pointless occupation of millions of people only leads to radicalization of opinions, hatred and the escalation of violence. Violence is a cycle that feeds into itself. This cycle will not stop until someone stands up and refuses uncompromisingly to take part in it. This is what I am doing today."

Several other Shministim are gearing up for a similar speaking tour in South Africa during October.

Statement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the occasion of the Eighth Anniversary of the American Attack on Afghanistan

Afghan Resistance Statement
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

October 7, 2009

On October 7 falls the day that completes the eighth anniversary of the American aerial attack on Afghanistan. This invasion occurred for clandestine colonialist motives under the pretext of the 9/11 event in New York,
flagrantly in a time that the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and its ambassador in Islamabad in a press conference had announced IEA readiness to help in a neutral investigation of this event. But the new conservatives clique in the White House, the war-mongering generals in Pentagon and the pro-Jewish lobby in USA started blaming the Islamic Emirate forthwith from the beginning. However, impartial investigation of such events to reach the depth of the issue needs time. But even they did not wait for the resolution of the extra-ordinary meeting of the Islamic Conference Organization so that it would have helped in mediation and would have offered their cooperation in this regard.

Since then until now, eight years have passed during which the American invaders and their allies of crusaders have killed, wounded and driven from homes hundreds of thousands of Afghans including children, women and old men. This sanguinary spree of killing has been continuing. All these Afghans were not involved in the event of New York. The invaders unleashed atrocities on the Afghans and other Muslim freedom-lovers in Guantananmo, Bagram and the Abu Gharib jails that have no precedence in the history.

At the beginning, they were promising, they will withdraw within three months, in their words, after eliminating the so-called terrorism. Contrarily, today eighth years from that times have passed, but they have built up hundreds of military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. They say that they will raise the level of their troops to almost 110000 troops. It is clear from this, that they have occupied Afghanistan for the execution of their expansionist plans in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Southeast Asia.

We believed from the day one, that this is not a war between democracy and the so- called terrorism but rather a war between the western colonialism and the freedom-loving nationalist and Islamist forces. In this unequal war, the one side have before them expansionism, colonialism and exploitation as their plans of objectives which they want to achieve by dent of military power through brutality and atrocities. On the other hand, the other side of the war have their objective of independence, Islamic social justice, human dignity and national identity which they want to achieve through sacrifices and the shedding of their pure blood. We believe in this war between truth and evil, the truth will surely prevail.

We call on the American rulers and their allies of the coalition once again to put an end to the game of occupying Afghanistan and killing the Afghans under unsubstantiated pretexts. The Afghans are no more ready to believe your empty slogans, nor the world would like to see the globe, plunging into instability and various problems because of your wrong policies. We announce to all the world, our aim is obtainment of independence and establishment of an Islamic system. We did not have any agenda to harm other countries including Europe nor we have such agenda today. Still if you want to turn the country of the proud and pious Afghans into a colony, then know that we have an unwavering determination and have braced for a prolonged war. Have a glance at the history, the Afghans are the people characterized by historical distinction of always sacrificing in the way of their religion and country. Today, we will not fall short of this.

The Gaza War's Effect on Women

Stephen Lendman

October 7, 2009

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' (PCHR) new report, titled "Through Women's Eyes," highlights "the Gender-Specific Impact and Consequences of Operation Cast Lead" and the ongoing siege, including 12 case study examples "through the victims' words." Several are discussed below.

In patriarchal Palestinian society, women traditionally are caregivers while men typically head households and are the main breadwinners. As a result, when widows are thrust into this role, they're often victimized by cultural, social and economic discrimination and marginalization. In Gaza today, it's hard for women to get by alone, so widows must either live with family members or remarry. The alternative is a hard struggle alone, something most Palestinian women try to avoid, but post-conflict many have no choice.

Besides the vast destruction from Operation Cast Lead claiming over 1,400 lives and thousands more wounded, 118 women were killed and 825 injured, in many cases severely enough to make it hard for them to get by. The majority of victims were in Northern Gaza and Gaza City where the heaviest fighting and bombardment occurred. PCHR listed the names of the dead by age, their address, date and place of attack, and date of death.

Israel said the death toll was an unavoidable part of its military operations during which efforts were made to minimize civilian casualties. PCHR debunked this as baseless by documenting numerous indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians and their property.

Individual testimonies bear witness that 83% of all fatalities were civilian, and so weren't most of the injured. "These crimes constitute serious violations of international law; they demand judicial redress." The September 25 Goldstone Commission's findings confirmed that Israel committed grievous war crimes that must not go unaddressed.

Israel's Imposed Closure of Gaza

The ongoing siege is a form of collective punishment, in direct violation of Fourth Geneva's Article 33 stating:

"No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."

The siege restricts everything and makes reconstruction and recovery impossible. Homes can't be rebuilt. Families are forced to stay in camps, find temporary shelter with relatives, or get rented accommodation if available and they can afford it. Around 600,000 tons of rubble remain. It can't be cleared, and enough concrete for tombstones can't be found.

The situation is increasingly desperate with over 60% unemployment, at least an 80% poverty level, and according to a new UN Conference on Trade and Development report, the figure is 90% with the few jobs available almost solely in government, public administration, and small service industries along with the tunnel economy.

Health services "are in a state of imminent collapse due to shortages of electricity, medicine, and other vital, life-saving equipment," and the siege prevents most of those needing emergency care from leaving to get it. As a result, PCHR found that at least 61 patients died. It also cites a lack of safe drinking water as electricity cuts prevent pumps that supply it from operating. Even basic foodstuffs and other essentials are in short supply or not available, except for what UNRWA and other relief agencies supply in inadequate amounts.

As an occupying power, Israel is obligated under international law to fulfill what Fourth Geneva's Articles 55 and 56 require.

Article 55 states:

"To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."

Article 56 states:

"To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties."

Article 69 of Fourth Geneva's Additional Protocol I requires the occupying power to:

"ensure the provision of clothing, bedding, means of shelter, other supplies essential to the survival of the civilian population of the occupied territory and objects necessary for religious worship."

Protection of Women Under International Law

As especially vulnerable non-combatants, they're afforded particular protection and remain so notably under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

As a result, their lives, physical, and moral integrity are protected against willful killing, coercion, collective penalties, reprisals, and the destruction of objects indispensable to their survival.

As a signatory to the major international human rights laws, Israel is required to obey them. Under the Hague Regulations and Geneva's Common Article 3, they include the principles of distinction and proportionality:

-- distinction between combatants and military targets v. civilians and non-military ones; attacking the latter ones are war crimes except when civilians take direct part in hostilities; and

-- proportionality prohibitions against disproportionate indiscriminate force likely to cause damage to or loss of lives and objects.

In addition, parties to a conflict must take all precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to non-military sites. Civilians must also be given "effective advance warning," and "neutralized zones" must be available to protect them as much as possible. Further, using human shields is strictly prohibited.

By committing egregious war crimes throughout its history, Israel is a serial scofflaw with a record few countries anywhere can match.

Case Study 1: Wafa Al-Radea

On January 10, 2009, she and her sister, Ghada, were hit by two rockets fired from an unmanned Israeli drone. In clear site, they were the only people on the street at the time.

Nine months pregnant, Wafa was going to her doctor as she was close to delivery. It was a period of declared hudna (a temporary ceasefire), and no fighting was ongoing in the area. Both women were seriously hurt. Wafa lost her right leg above the knee and suffered extensive injuries to the rest of her body. The attack fractured Ghada's legs. In the hospital, they became infected, and it was feared at least one would be amputated. In a coma, Wafa gave birth to a son by caesarean section.

They later managed to reach Egypt for over five months of additional treatment, but require extensive followup care and physiotherapy. On July 1, 2009, PCHR interviewed Wafa and her brothers at their home in Beit Lahiya. She nearly died but managed to survive in intensive care. Six or seven operations performed skin grafts and saved her leg. She was so severely hurt, the Egyptian medical team said she was the hardest case in the hospital, but she survived and was fitted to a prosthesis. Even so, she can't bend her leg at the knee and "still can't walk."

Case Study 2: Hala Al-Habash

On January 4, 2009, an unmanned Israeli drone fired a missile killing Hala's daughter (age 10) and niece (age 11). Three other children were injured in the attack, including Hala's daughter (age 14) and two nephews (ages 15 and 16).

One daughter lost both legs above the knee and a nephew had one leg amputated half way up his shin. The Al-Habash home was the only house targeted in the immediate area. On June 29, PCHR interviewed Hala and her husband at their home.

On the day of the attack, "the area was very quiet, we weren't really afraid at all. There was no resistance and we felt safe. We let the children play outside." They were on the roof. Hala was so distraught, she couldn't attend her daughter's burial. "I refused. I only wanted to remember her alive."

When she visited her other daughter in the hospital, there was chaos. "There were so many injured, so many dead, so much suffering. The situation was horrible...the smell of blood and the injured. There weren't enough doctors and nurses. It was like a market, not a hospital."

Al Jazeera interviewed her daughter in the hospital, and afterward, Saudi Arabia arranged for further free treatment in the Kingdom. Hala kept in contact daily and said:

"My family is everything in my life. I have no father, no mother and no one but my husband, children, and close relatives....Once I woke up crazy, thinking why did this happen" to people she loves? "The Israelis came to fight Hamas, but they fought us. Why did they do it?"

Case Study 3: Majeda and Raya Abu Hajjaj

On January 4, Israeli forces shot and killed them. They were part of a group of 27 civilians fleeing the Johr Ad-Dik area following the ground invasion. They were killed with no warning or provocation. Majeda and another group member were carrying white flags.

On May 25, PCHR interviewed Raya's son, Salah, and Majeda's brother. "A fire broke out, so we decided to leave the house," said Salah. "We walked through the trees to a neighbor's house about 300 meters away. There were 27 of us hiding in the Assafadi stairwell. We were trying to call an ambulance....we called the Red Cross, but we couldn't get coordination. They told us there was a military operation and they couldn't reach the area."

The attack was so extensive he didn't recognize his neighborhood. After the ceasefire, he returned home and "was looking at the place where the Israeli had shot us. I found a piece of Majeda's foot and took it to the hospital....There was no resistance here. Nothing. The area is too open....This is a quiet area. It is an agricultural area. We have never had any troubles here, It was beautiful, and in a moment it was gone."

Case Study 4: Ghalya Nimr

"All of their bodies were cut in pieces and burned. They were wearing their Eid clothes. I saw their brains, all their pieces. I tried to carry them, but they were too hot, they were burned. You can't imagine what it was like," said Ghalya.

On January 4, an Israeli helicopter fired a rocket at the roof of Ghalya's home in south Gaza City. It killed three of Rahlea's children and her daughter's fiance. Ghalya's nephew was also hurt. At the time, 21 civilians, including Ghalya's brother's family, were sheltering in the house. The attack traumatized them.

The family moved in with Ghalya's brother-in-law. "It was very cold," she said. "We had no clothes, no blankets, no money. We left without taking anything. I didn't even have shoes....All the clothes were burnt. The house was very badly damaged. It was full of rubble."

Ghalya told PCHR they have no work or income. Their situation is desperate like many in Gaza.

Wafa Awaja was Case Study 7. After Israeli soldiers destroyed her home, she and her husband were shot in the legs. They kept firing as her husband Kamal explained:

"I was in the street along with my son. I was talking to him all the time, saying it would be OK. Ibrahim told me not to die. I told him, 'it is OK, the Israeli soldiers are coming. They will save us.' They shot me again in the chest, and Ibrahim in the head. They were about ten meters away. Ibrahim died instantly....I pretended to be dead. I thought that if the Israelis thought I was alive they would shoot me again. Pieces of Ibrahim's brain and skull were all over my shoulder."

Wafa told PCHR: "now we have no life."

Leila Al-Ir was Case Study 8. She told PCHR that for six days "we were away from the world, we had no connection to anyone. I slept with my dead children." On January 3, Israeli bombardment killed three of them, her daughter-in-law, and her husband. As a result, she suffered severe psychological trauma. For a month, she couldn't speak. She's now being treated by Medeciins Sans Frontiers, but she won't go home because it's too dangerous she believes.

Salah Abu Halima was Case Study 9. She told PCHR:

"I used to think I was the happiest woman in the world, now I have lost my daughter, my sons, my husband. I'm the saddest woman in the world, I am afraid to sleep. I am so scared in this house."

On January 4, Israeli bombardment killed her husband and four of her children. Four others were injured, including from severe burns from white phosphorous. As family members tried to bring their dead and wounded to the hospital, Israeli soldiers killed two of them and shot two more. Terrified, the others left their dead and fled for their lives.

Masouda Al-Samouni was Case Study 10. She told PCHR: "I have no hope, no future, I lost everything in the offensive."

On January 5, about 150 members of her extended family were sheltering in her house when Israeli forces shelled it and the adjacent area killing 29, including her husband and son. Her home was completely destroyed.

"I was in the corner with my children just watching," she said. "I was screaming and crying, I saw everything, the blood and the brains. There was smoke everywhere. I saw my brother-in-law falling down, and my mother-in-law. I realized that my three brothers-in-law and my mother-in-law were dead....I was injured in the chest and couldn't move....I was bleeding and five months pregnant."

The attack on the Al-Samouni family was widely publicized on numerous media outlets worldwide, yet the survivors got no real help. What little they received has now stopped except for limited assistance from local organizations. The family now lives in deep poverty with no source of income, and no publicity about their plight.

This case was the most egregious, but it highlighted what thousands of Gazans endured and still do under siege and the threat of new Israeli attacks against individually selected targets, including on farmers on their land, fishermen at sea, school children playing, and civilians trying to rebuild their lives.

Direct Targeting and Destruction of Civilian Objects

Testimony 8 of the Breaking the Silence Report on Operation Cast Lead read:

"houses - if the deputy battalion commander thought a house looked suspect, we'd blow it away. If the infantrymen didn't like the looks of that house - we'd shoot. Everything."

Testimony 9 read:

"All the time. Houses were demolished everywhere."

Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as codified in Article 8(2)(b)(ii), targeting civilian objects is strictly forbidden under customary international humanitarian law. Doing so constitutes a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

International law states that "in case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as places of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used."

PCHR states that "the direct targeting of a civilian object, resulting in the death of civilian inhabitants, constitutes the crime of willful killing, a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. It could reasonably be expected that attacking a civilian house would result in the injury or death of its civilian inhabitants."

Israeli forces also violated Fourth Geneva's Article 16 by preventing ambulances from entering affected areas. Another family told PCHR that on the morning that their home was demolished, "There was no warning, no loudspeakers. We were sleeping. (They were awakened by their daughter saying) the Israelis were destroying the outside wall." Just as they left, "the ceiling fell down. It is God's will that (they) are still alive."

Homeless, they hid in an empty area of land near their house. In mid-winter, they were frozen in the pre-dawn morning and too traumatized to return. They then tried to retrieve some clothing, but Israelis shot their son and others in both legs. Two Bedouin women brought them to Odwan hospital. After being released, they lived in a tent, still injured. "We couldn't do anything. There was no water in the camp. If I wanted to wash our clothes, I had to go back to (our) old house."

For three months in the camp with no cooking gas, the family was forced to use an open fire. They had a hard time adjusting and got very little aid.

Indiscriminate Attacks

Testimony 6 from the Breaking the Silence Report read:

"There were days when we fired only into built-up areas, inside Gaza City itself."

Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions' Additional Protocol I states that:

Indiscriminate attacks are those that are "of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians and civilian objects without distinction."

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross' Customary International Humanitarian Law, Rule 12, indiscriminate attacks are those which:

-- are not directed against a specific military target;

-- employ a method or means of combat that cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or

-- employ a combat method or means that can't be limited as international humanitarian law requires.

According to Additional Protocol I:

Disproportionate attacks are indiscriminate and "may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the direct military advantage anticipated."

Under Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the ICC Statute, intentionally launching an indiscriminate attack is a war crime.

Insufficient Precautions in Attack

Testimony 8 from the Breaking the Silence Report read:

"Why fire phosphorous? Because it's fun. Cool."

It's also an illegal weapon against civilians who were willfully targeted according to IDF commanders. Yet international humanitarian law requires protecting them and civilian objects. According to Article 57 of Additional Protocol I:

"(a) those who plan or decide upon an attack shall:

(i) do everything feasible to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects and are not subject to special protection but are military objectives....;

(ii) take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack with a view to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects;

(iii) refrain from deciding to launch any attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated."

Additional Protocol I also states that attacks "shall be canceled or suspended" if it's clear that it's against specially protected civilians or their property. Also, that "effective advance warning shall be given of attacks which may affect the civilian population...."

With regard to munitions, the principle of distinction, prohibition of indiscriminate attacks, and use of illegal weapons apply, such as shelling a civilian area, others not of a military nature, and using white phosphorous. It's an incendiary chemical dispersed through bombs, shells and rockets. On contact with oxygen, it ignites and can burn human flesh to the bone. After initially denying its use in Gaza, Israel later admitted that 155mm shells were fired, each containing 116 wedges soaked in the chemical. They inflicted severe burns on those struck, unseen before by doctors who treated them.

The Siege's Effect

Expressly prohibited by Fourth Geneva's Article 33 as a form of collective punishment, for over two years it's taken a terrible toll on Gaza's 1.5 million residents affecting all aspects of their lives, including their right to life, to an adequate standard of living, free movement, employment, education, good medical care, their emotional well-being, and what free people take for granted everywhere because they don't live under military occupation in Gaza.

Since June 2007, dozens have died by being forbidden to seek life-saving treatment abroad, unavailable in Gaza. This is in violation to Fourth Geneva's Article 17 that requires "Parties to (a) conflict (to) endeavor to conclude local agreements for the removal from besieged or encircled areas, (the) wounded, sick, infirm, and aged persons, children and maternity cases."

Investigations into Operation Cast Lead

Testimony 3 from Breaking the Silence read:

"But if I look at (what was done), there are people who deserve to go to jail."

As the Israeli media later revealed, Israel's Military Attorney General (MAG) and the Attorney General (AG) were heavily involved in planning and executing Operation Cast Lead by crafting the legal framework even though no legitimate one is possible.

As a result, Israel obstructed human rights organizations' demands for an independent investigation and full account of the killing, maiming, and vast destruction from the conflict. Yet several extensive ones were conducted, all concluding that Israel committed grave war crimes for which those involved to the highest levels should be held accountable.

On its own, Israeli authorities conducted two sets of internal investigations that PCHR called "inadequate and inappropriate, inter alia, on the basis of the fundamental flaws (that whitewashed crimes and) concluded that Israeli forces acted in accordance with the law."

On March 30, 2009, Military Advocate-General Avichai Mandelblit closed the official inquiry after 11 days even though numerous IDF soldiers made serious allegations of war crimes and other grave international law violations, based on their own firsthand observations and from what commanders ordered them to do.

On April 22, Israeli military authorities announced the conclusion of five internal investigations, supervised by the IDF Chief of Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi. In an extreme example of chutzpah, deceit, unaccountability, and hypocrisy, he claimed there were few incidents of intelligence or operational errors, and that "throughout the fighting in the Gaza Strip (Israeli forces) operated in accordance with international law."

According to PCHR, such behavior:

"has been a long-standing feature" of Israel's 42 years of occupation. Despite repeated, grievous war crimes of all kinds, "neither the State of Israel, nor individuals suspected of committing (them) have been brought before a court and prosecuted in accordance with the norms of international law. (This unaccountability) encourage(s) continued violations of international law (and serves) to undermine respect for the rule of law itself."

The result is that for decades Palestinians have paid the price and still suffer "at the hands of a brutal and illegal occupier." No state or individual is above the law. But that hasn't deterred Israel up to now while calling itself a free and open society surrounded by hordes of hostile Arabs.

Human Rights Organizations Condemn Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

Independent investigations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, others, and, of course, the September 15 released Goldstone Commission report concluded that Israel committed grievous war crimes in violation of international humanitarian law and must be held accountable.

In addition, in July 2009, former UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, John Dugard, presented the results of his "investigations of Israeli conduct during the war in Gaza." As head of the "Independent Fact-Finding Committee (IFFC) on Gaza of the League of Arab States, Member, United National International Law Commission, The Hague," he revealed his findings at a UN international meeting in Geneva with regard to the:

"Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza."

He concluded that "states and their political and military (must) no longer (be) beyond the reach of the law, (and that) Israel's offensive in Gaza - Operation Cast Lead - must be seen in this context." He stressed that independent investigations found "a clear prima facie case that Israel committed very serious international crimes in the Gaza offensive."

Dugard's Independent Fact Finding Committee (IFFC) visited Gaza from February 22 - 27 and met with "a wide range of persons, including victims of" the conflict, "witnesses, members of the Hamas authority, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, journalists and member of NGOs and United Nations agencies."

IFFC members saw destruction of hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, factories, businesses, police stations, government buildings, UN facilities, private homes, agricultural land, and more. They asked Israel for cooperation, got none, but collected extensive evidence of great loss of life, injury, and vast indiscriminate destruction of targets unrelated to a military mission.

They heard "disturbing accounts of cold-blooded killing of civilians by (IDF) members, accounts which were later confirmed by Israeli soldiers...." They and civilians inside Israel suffered minor casualties by comparison.

Israel's actions were indefensible despite official government claims. The IFFC concluded that "the IDF was responsible for the crime of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians" and wanton destruction of property" - clear evidence of crimes of war and against humanity. "Considerable evidence" confirmed it enough for IFFC members to consider the "crime of crimes," namely genocide.

They "found Israel's actions met the requirement for the actus reus (guilty act) of the crime of genocide contained in the Genocide Convention, in that the IDF was responsible for killing, exterminating and causing serious bodily harm to members of a group - the Palestinians of Gaza," most of whom are non-combatants.

Members "rejected the argument that Israel had carried out operation Cast Lead in self-defense." Whether or not Israel's motive was genocide, individual commanders, soldiers, and rabbis who encouraged them "may well have had such an intent and might therefore be prosecuted for this crime."

As a result, IFFC members "found that members of the IDF committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly, genocide in the course of operation Cast Lead." In their judgment, they and Israel's political leaders must be held fully accountable under the law.

Unfortunately, "no serious attempt is being made to (do it). As far as the EU and the United States are concerned, Israel is beyond the reach of the law, above the law. What is the consequence? (It's) that the rules of international law on accountability for international crimes are not only undermined, their very existence is brought into question. (For Dugard), the position seems clear. Either the international community holds Israel and its leaders accountable for their actions or it abandons its efforts to secure international justice."

Consider also that on October 4, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, called Israel the "the number one threat to (the) Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," its refusal to allow inspections for over 30 years, and its stated intention to use all weapons at its disposal as it chooses in future conflicts.

So does America, of course, yet who in the international community dares hold it accountable for its many decades of grievous crimes, both before, during, and after the Korean war that slaughtered many millions. Who remembers, cares to, or speaks out publicly if they do.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Complicit in Gaza War Crimes Cover-up

Abbas is a notorious, longstanding imperial tool, so it's no surprise that despite clear evidence of Israeli crimes, he decided to delay action on the Goldstone Commission report by agreeing to defer a UN vote to condemn Israel's failure to cooperate with the investigation.

He thus risks buying it, and in so doing encourages the continued killing, repression, and occupation that benefits him, his cronies, and his sons' business interests, including the "Abbas-backed (Wataniya phone) company" in which one of his sons is closely involved, as revealed in an April 24 Reuters report. It said:

"US aid in the form of loan guarantees meant for Palestinian farmers and other small to mid-sized businesses has been given to a mobile phone firm backed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Gulf investors." Abbas' son, Tarek, is a vice president, and his elder son, Yasser, belongs to the US-based Aspen Institute, a right wing think tank, with prominent members like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Dennis Ross, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and former CIA Director John Deutch that supported the project.

Speaking for all Palestinians, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Abbas of having "justified" the war, and added that his decision "cannot be seen as a conciliatory act. (It reflected an attitude that) would perpetuate internal conflict" and continued Israeli oppression. More than ever, Abbas exposed himself as an imperial tool on the side of the dark forces that perpetuate occupation and conflict and deny his people redress, justice, and the freedom they deserve.

Hundreds of West Bank protestors condemned him. Syrian officials postponed a scheduled meeting to express their displeasure. In Europe, 32 Palestinian groups demanded he immediately resign. Members of his own Fatah party were angered, and human rights groups accused him of acceding to Israeli and Washington pressure, a familiar tactic by him, yet he continues illegally as the Palestinian Authority (PA) president even though his term expired in January.

On October 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) planned to vote on a draft resolution condemning Israel for not cooperating. It would also have endorsed Goldstone's call for the Security Council and/or General Assembly to follow up on his findings.

On September 23, JTA, The Global News Service of the Jewish People, reported that:

"A top White House official told Jewish organizational leaders in an off-the-record phone call (September 23) that US strategy was to 'quickly' bring the report - commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council and carried out by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone - to its 'natural conclusion' within the Human Rights Council and not allow it to go further, Jewish participants in the call told JTA."

In the same article, JTA said the White House stands by ambassador Susan Rice's statement that the report is "unbalanced, one sided and basically unacceptable. We have very serious concerns about many of (its) recommendations."

It's now deferred, and given America's Security Council power, it may be buried unless the world community unites for accountability, redress, and justice. With that unlikely, Israel looks able to keep reigning terror freely by claiming threats to its security, even though it's the sole one in the region, aided and abetted by Washington and corrupted Fatah officials, headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

Pakistan Targets Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Waziristan Assault

Pakistan's army is preparing to launch an assault on the Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold of South Waziristan as the military fights a rearguard political action against the civilian government over a contentious $7.5 billion U.S. aid package.

The Waziristan operation is expected to target the Taliban network of Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last August, as well as thousands of Uzbek fighters who have been sheltering in the tribal belt since 2001.

The military said it could be Pakistan's most important battle since clashes with India in the mountains of Kashmir a decade ago. "It will be the toughest of fighting," said one senior official.

But the operation comes against a background of civil-military tension over a proposed American aid package that imposes strict conditions on the army. In an unusually strong statement Wednesday, Pakistan's military leadership expressed "serious concern" over the Kerry-Lugar bill, which triples non-military assistance to $1.5 billion a year over five years.

The military spokesman, Athar Abbas, was not available for comment after the meeting of generals, but earlier he said troops attacking Waziristan expect to encounter "stiff resistance". Abbas did not give a start date for the operation but officials in districts adjoining Waziristan reported heavy troop movements and a flood of villagers abandoning their homes. Wednesday security forces imposed a curfew and detained suspected Taliban sympathizers in Tank, a town at the gateway of the tribal belt.

The army is expected to encircle Mehsud's mountain lair in South Waziristan. On Monday a suicide bomber disguised as a soldier killed five people inside a United Nations office in Islamabad. Mehsud's TTP claimed responsibility.

A day earlier, Mehsud's successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, held a press conference for a small number of local journalists, dispelling U.S. reports of his death and attempting to quell reports of disarray in the Taliban ranks.

An assault on Waziristan has been looming since the army's successful operation in Swat this summer. The military hope to bolster its drive by exploiting divisions between tribal groups. In neighboring Lakki Markwat, community leaders said a tribal militia was being raised to seal off the Mehsud territory.

The extent of the military's ambition in Waziristan remains unclear. The army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, told Pakistani journalists that dislodging Uzbek fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden, estimated at between 2,000 and 5,000 men, was at the heart of his strategy. "He said that if we can take the Uzbeks out of Waziristan then the dynamic of politics in South Waziristan will change," said Imtiaz Gul, the author of The al-Qaeda connection: The Taliban and Terror in Pakistan's Tribal Areas.

Analysts and tribal elders said they expected the assault would take at least six months, including a pause of several months during the bitter winter months.

The new national sense of resolve against the Taliban has been diluted by the acrimonious national debate over the U.S. aid package. The Kerry-Lugar bill, which recently passed through Congress, triples non-military aid to $1.5 billion per year over the next five years‘ the largest American assistance package to a civilian government in Pakistan.

But the bill, which has not yet been signed by President Obama, requires Pakistan to co-operate in dismantling illegal nuclear proliferation networks, forbids the army from subverting the judicial process, and includes provisions to stop civilian aid being diverted to the military.

The army's criticism of the bill comes amid a media-fueled backlash against plans to expand the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, and conspiracy theories that the expansion is part of a plot to seize the country's nuclear weapons.

'Israel not after real peace with Palestine'

The Israeli Foreign Ministry's documents suggest Tel Aviv is not after a real peace deal but rather a shelter from international frustration and Palestinian armed response.

An unapproved document outlining Israel's future foreign policy states that the government should not attempt to reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinians but should focus instead on a temporary accord to prevent US and European frustration.

The draft, handed to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday, was composed by Naor Gilon, Lieberman's former counselor for political affairs, and is scheduled to be presented before the ministry's directorate within the coming days in order to be approved as Israel's official foreign policy.

Gilon argues that 'the attempt at imposing a settlement with the Palestinians has failed in the past', warning that future attempts would lead to more disappointment on the part of Israel's Western allies and a harsh Palestinian response.

"We need a realistic attitude - the arrival at a temporary accord without dealing with the core issues. This is the maximum that can be achieved, if we want to be realistic," Ynet news website quoted the document as saying.

It also advises Lieberman to reestablish ties with African, Latin American, Balkan, Asian, and moderate Arab nations, countries which Israel has abandoned for many years.

Gilon has also urged Lieberman to employ a zero tolerance policy for instances of anti-Semitism and international isolation, suggesting that Israel should focus on environmental and economic issues in order to improve its global image.

Israel turns to face-saving measures amid mounting challenges it faces from the international community over war crimes committed during Tel Aviv's 23-day military onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which left more than 1,400 people — mostly civilians — killed.

Tel Aviv's Western allies are also pushing for a freeze on its illegal settlement construction activity in the occupied West Bank to pave the way for resuming long-stalled peace talks with Palestinians.

Police investigate Indonesia blast

A big blast has rocked Indonesia's South Sulawesi Island, as the country is gripped by flash floods inundating hundreds of houses.

Police said on Thursday that they were investigating the cause of the explosion, Reuters reported.

Police chief Abunawas told Metro TV it appeared to be a big blast and authorities were checking the source of the explosion near the district capital of Bone.

The blast comes as flash floods smashed through about 500 houses in Tolitoli in Central Sulawesi province on Thursday.

A policeman told AFP news agency that there were no immediate report of casualties, adding that about 1,500 people had been forced to leave their homes.

Huge blast hits India embassy in Kabul

A huge blast has hit the center of the Afghan capital city of Kabul, killing at least 12 people and injuring 83 others, says Afghanistan's Interior Ministry.

Police said on Thursday that the explosion took place outside the Indian embassy in central Kabul.

The blast came from a bomb placed inside a car at the scene, police said, but it was not immediately clear if it was a suicide attack.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash confirmed that all embassy personnel were safe

"There has been some damage to the embassy property. We are closely monitoring the situation," Prakash was quoted as saying by Reuters.

He added that it was too early to speculate who could be behind the attack.

Last year, a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked the Indian embassy and killed 58 people, including two senior Indian diplomats, and wounded 141 others.

Indian authorities blamed the Pakistani intelligence service for last year's blast.

N Korea angered over US 'hostility'

North Korea has accused the US of continuing its hostile policy after President Barack Obama nominated a special envoy on Pyongyang's human rights record.

The nomination 'testifies that the US is not confining its hostile policy towards our republic to the nuclear area, but is trying to extend it to the human rights area', the cabinet newspaper Minju Joson said on Thursday.

Two weeks ago, Robert King was named Obama's special envoy on North Korean human rights issues.

"It is not a secret that the US has used its 'human rights diplomacy' as an important policy tool to interfere with internal affairs of other countries and to achieve its goal to invade and control them," said the article which was carried by the North's official website, Uriminzokkiri.

The paper described what it called US human rights offensive as 'nothing but a euphemism for its policy to stifle' Pyongyang and insisted there were no human rights problems in the country.

King replaced Jay Lefkowitz, who left his post in January after serving under former president George W. Bush.

Once confirmed by the Senate, King will work as part of a team headed by the special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth.

Opposition says US aid package will enslave Pakistan

Pakistan's opposition has expressed concerns about a US aid package that would provide the country with 7.5 billion US dollars over the next five years.

Last week, the US Congress approved the bill to give Pakistan 1.5 billion dollars annually in aid for the next five years.

However, the opposition as well as the army say some parts of the legislation might have negative impacts on Pakistan's national security.

Lawmakers from the main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-N believe the bill would push the country into US enslavement.

The bill demands Pakistan "to take action against nuclear proliferation networks."

The Pakistani parliament has started a debate on the bill upon a request by the opposition to discuss amendments to it. The government, however, has backed the bill.

"It is the Parliament that represents the will of the people of Pakistan, which would deliberate on the issue, enabling the government to develop a national response," Pakistani army commanders also said in a statement on Wednesday after a meeting with Military Chief General Ishfaq Parvez Kayani.

Many analysts including former intelligence officials have raised doubt about the intentions of that the US in Pakistan. They believe that Washington is seeking to take the control of the country's nuclear arsenals.

Defend Al-Aqsa against Israeli takeover: Larijani

Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani speaks out against Israeli acts of sacrilege in the holy Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

In a letter to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Larijani called for legal action against Israel's repeated violation of Muslim sanctities.

"First, they resorted to the illusion that Solomon's temple is located beneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to build a vast interconnected network of tunnels," read Larijani's letter.

"Now they have gone so far in their allegations that they intend to force Muslims share their Al-Aqsa Mosque so that they can dominate this holy place once and for all," he added.

Larijani said the Tel Aviv government's recent measures in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) are closely akin to those of former prime minister Ariel Sharon.

He was referring to Sharon's visit to Al-Aqsa in 2000, which triggered the seven-year Al-Aqsa Intifada.

"This is the same policy that Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Sabra and Chatila, was pursuing when he broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2000, an action that resulted in the second Palestinian intifada," he continued

According to statistics obtained by the Palestinian News Network (PNN), more than 6,000 Palestinians have been killed with nearly 50,000 wounded since the beginning of the second Intifada.

Sixty-nine thousand Palestinians, meanwhile, have been arrested, including 7,800 children.

"This is also the same policy that the Zionist regime was following when it separated the al-Buraq wall, Magariba Gate and the Kanisat al-Qiyama," he explained.

"I would like to call upon all my honorable colleagues to further their valuable actions in defending this heavenly site and other sacred placed of Al-Quds and spare no effort in this regard," Larijani pleaded.

Larijani called for an end to the gradual Judaization of Jerusalem (Al-Quds), which was occupied in 1967 and annexed later in 1981 in a move not recognized by the international community.

The status of the city is among the thorniest issues of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, who insist that any Palestinian state must include the city as its capital.

Jordan urges UN to rein in Israel

Jordan has called on the UN to immediately take steps in a bid to halt ongoing Israeli aggression in the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

During a meeting between Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and UN Special Envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry, the country urged the UN to halt Israel's "violations" of al-Aqsa Mosque's sanctity, DPA reported on Wednesday.

"Judeh underlined the importance of the UN role, particularly within the Middle East Quartet, and the need for all parties to shoulder their responsibilities by putting immediate pressure on Israel to stop its dangerous aggression and violations in East Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque," said an official statement.

Jordan has reportedly sent an official to al-Aqsa Mosque as a move to foil a plan by Israeli troops to storm the holy site for the third time over the past couple of weeks.

Judeh told the UN envoy that his government was in touch with Islamic and European states as well as the permanent members of the UN Security Council to end Israeli aggression in the site.

Israel deployed thousands of troops in the area after it closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound to Palestinians to allow a Jewish religious ceremony to be held in the compound. The closure of the site, however, caused clashes in the holy city.

Under a peace treaty signed in 1994, Israel recognized Jordan's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem al-Quds, which is considered by the United Nations as to be an occupied territory.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem Al-Quds during the 1967 aggression and later annexed it.

Likud tells Obama keep his hand off Israel

Members of Israel's Likud party say US President Barack Obama has no 'jurisdiction' to put pressure on the regime to halt construction work in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Supporters of the right-wing faction held a demonstration in the northern West Bank on Wednesday to back the regime's settlement construction in the occupied territory.

Some 3,000 members of Likud, as well as thousands of its supporters attended the rally, Haaretz reported.

Samaria Regional Council leader Gershon Mesika, meanwhile, warned Obama that "Keep your hands off of Israel."

Regarding the US calls for a freeze in the illegal construction in the West Bank, Mesika said "It is outside of your jurisdiction. (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu should stand rock solid to protect his country."

Knesset member Danny Danon also passed on a message to the US president in a live interview on CNN and said Israel has no partner for peace.

He claimed US pressure to halt settlement construction is causing problems for the Jews.

Netanyahu had earlier reiterated that a complete settlement freeze which is expected by the Palestinians will never happen.

Amid Israel ire, Swedish author receives death threats

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:53:09 GMT

The Swedish author of a controversial article accusing the Israeli Army of harvesting organs from wounded or killed Palestinians says he has received several death threats.

Freelance journalist Donald Bostrom who published the article in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet has raised Israel's ire.

Bostrom, who spoke to CNN from Stockholm, said he had received several death threats about the article.

"I have an e-mail here… 'The Nazis should die and you will be next; we will meet you outside, you will be the next news very soon. Meet you outside'," Bostrom said.

Bostrom said he wrote the article in reaction to a recently discovered crime syndicate in New Jersey, which was involved in organ smuggling.

He said the purpose of his opinion article was to call for an investigation into numerous claims in the 1990s that such activity was going on.

The report has sparked outrage among Israeli officials who have been calling on Stockholm to condemn the article.

Although the Swedish Embassy in Tel Aviv called the report "as shocking and appalling to us Swedes, as it is to Israeli citizens", Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt refused to condemn the report, saying a free press is an integral part of his country's democracy.

Israeli MP backs organ theft reports

Israeli lawmaker Mohammad Barakeh has backed organ harvest allegations against Tel Aviv over its practice of keeping the dead bodies of slain Palestinians.

"We have the right to question the reasons why Israel is keeping the bodies of martyrs and what secret they seek to preserve," the chairman of far-left Hadash party said in Nablus on Tuesday.

"Is it that the bodies were mutilated? My answer is yes until proven otherwise. Is it that their bodies have been stolen? My answer is yes, until proven otherwise," he added.

The outrageous scandal was laid bare last month by Sweden's best-seller tabloid, Aftonbladet, which printed an article on how the Israeli army kidnapped Palestinian youths and returned their bodies mutilated a few days later.

The revelation infuriated Israeli officials and prompted them to ask the Swedish government to condemn the article and its author, a demand Sweden flatly rejected.

Speaking at a conference, Barakeh called on Israel to return bodies of Palestinians buried in the occupied territories, and said why Tel Aviv continues to hold the bodies while "there is no worse way to punish a man and his family than with his death."

"The burden of proof falls on Israel, and as long as it refuses to say what the status of the bodies is or return them, it is hiding something awful," he warned.

The Palestinian Authority officials have demanded that Israel return the bodies of the Palestinians it killed.

They said "the world must be careful regarding what Israel does," describing Tel Aviv's efforts to hide bodies of Palestinian victims as aimed at distorting evidence of its crimes, including organs trafficking.

According to Palestinian human rights organizations, Israel is holding 275 bodies which it refuses to return to their families.

Sweden flatly rejects Israeli request for media quiet

Sweden has turned down a demand that it condemn the recent publication of an article that links Israeli soldiers to the death of Palestinian civilians with the motive of obtaining their organs.

In an article published earlier in the week, Sweden's best-selling daily Aftonbladet recounted grotesque incidents dating as far back as 1992 in which Israeli soldiers allegedly abducted Palestinian youths and returned their bodies mutilated a few days later.

The publication infuriated Israeli officials who labeled the news piece as 'blatantly racist' and full of 'vile anti-Semitic themes'.

In response to the publication, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, to officially rebut the 'shocking and appalling' piece.

Tel Aviv's envoy to Sweden, Benny Dagan, was to make a similar request during a Friday meeting with the kingdom's deputy foreign minister.

Bildt, however, responded that he would not condemn the article, asserting that such a measure would be in violation of freedom of expression and counter to the Swedish constitution.

Condemnation of anti-Semitism is "the only issue on which there has ever been complete unity in the Swedish parliament", the Swedish minister wrote in a blog post on Thursday, apparently rejecting the idea that disapproving criminal conduct amounts to anti-Semitism.

The Swedish refusal to denounce the allegations against the Israeli army by the high-circulation daily may shake diplomatic ties between Tel Aviv and Stockholm.

There is media speculation that Israel might respond by canceling the Swedish foreign minister's visit to the occupied West Bank scheduled for the next 10 days.

Israeli foreign minister: No peace deal now

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Israel's powerful foreign minister declared Thursday that there is no chance of reaching a final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, casting a pall over the U.S. Mideast envoy's latest effort to get peace talks moving again.

Peacemaking policy in Israel is decided by the prime minister's office, and not the foreign ministry. But Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman carries significant weight in Israeli decision-making, and his is a sentiment common among confidants of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Barack Obama brought Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together in New York last month in an effort to jumpstart talks that broke down months ago. So far, no breakthroughs have been announced.

Since the New York summit, U.S. envoy George Mitchell met with representatives of Netanyahu and Abbas in the United States, and returned to the region this week. He was to meet with Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday and has sitdowns planned with Netanyahu and Abbas for Friday.

Israeli media reported that a Mitchell aide told Israeli journalists Wednesday that the enovy's visit was not likely to conclude with an announcement on talks resuming.

Lieberman told Israel Radio on Thursday that anyone who thinks the two sides can soon reach a deal ending their decades-old conflict "doesn't understand the situation and is spreading delusions."

What the two sides should do, he said, was to come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure prosperity, security and stability, and leave the tough issues "to a much later stage."

This approach runs counter to U.S. efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal quickly. Obama has declared that establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel is a vital U.S. interest. Also, Israel would not find a Palestinian partner for putting off a resolution to the conflict indefinitely.

Lieberman's view does not bode well for U.S. attempts to restart negotiations.

Mitchell has been laboring for months to pressure Israel to curb settlement construction. Israel has agreed to limited and temporary restrictions on building in the West Bank, but has resisted a total freeze. It has rejected any limitations on construction in east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want the West Bank and east Jerusalem for part of their future state, along with the Gaza Strip, now ruled by Islamic Hamas militants.

Abbas has said repeatedly that he wouldn't go back to the negotiating table without a freeze. He also demands that talks begin where they broke off, with a promise from Israel that all issues will be on the table. Netanyahu has said he wouldn't be bound by the previous Israeli government's actions.

Abbas could be hard-pressed to back down now that he's dropped efforts to bring Israel before a war crimes tribunal in connection with its winter war in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the war, including hundreds of civilians. Israel, which lost 13 civilians and soldiers in the war, launched the campaign to end years of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border towns.

Emir meets head of Islamic Jihad

HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday received at the Al Wajbah Palace the visiting secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Dr Ramadan Abdullah Shallah. The meeting was attended by, among others, the Chairman of the Qatar Media Corporation HE Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir al-Thani and Director of HH the Emir’s office HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Source: Gulf Times.
Link: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=318965&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16.

Egyptian named MINURSO chief

2009-10-07

UN chief names Hany Abdel-Aziz to head UN mission in Western Sahara, succeeding Harston of Britain.

UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Ban Ki-moon has named Hany Abdel-Aziz of Egypt to head the UN mission in the disputed Western Sahara (MINURSO), according to a letter seen here Wednesday.

In a letter to the Vietnamese presidency of the UN Security Council, Ban said he was appointing Abdel-Aziz as his special representative to Western Sahara and head of MINURSO with immediate effect.

The Egyptian, a former army officer who has served with the United Nations since 1981, is currently head of mission support at the UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo.

He is to succeed Julian Harston of Britain, who quit as MINURSO chief at the end of February.

Abdel-Aziz's post is distinct from that of Christopher Ross, an American who is Ban's special envoy to Western Sahara tasked with reviving stalled talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement.

Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich northwest African territory after the withdrawal of colonial power Spain in 1975, leading to a bitter guerrilla war with the Polisario Front. It ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

Rabat has proposed considerable autonomy for the Western Sahara, but argues that its sovereignty is a non-negotiable historical fact. The Algerian-backed Polisario demands a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=34801.

Somalia's two main rebel groups agree truce

* Rebels to resume joint attacks on government

* Disputes to be solved via dialogue, sharia law

By Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Somalia's two main insurgent groups agreed a truce on Wednesday to end days of clashes between them in the south of the failed Horn of Africa state.

Fighters from al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in the country, drove rival Hizbul Islam gunmen out of Kismayu port last week then the two rebel groups battled each other in surrounding districts.

On Tuesday, Hizbul Islam's leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys called for an end to the bloodshed. [ID:nL6052340]

On Wednesday, al Shabaab said rebel officials met on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu and agreed three points.

"All conflicts, including what happened in Kismayu, must be resolved through dialogue," Hussein Ali Fidow, a senior al Shabaab official, told reporters, reading a joint statement.

"Any disputes in the future should be referred to a sharia court, and we should also continue our attacks together against the government and African Union peacekeepers." A Hizbul Islam commander confirmed the details of the deal.

Until last week's battle for Kismayu, the country's two main insurgent movements had controlled Kismayu port and much of southern and central Somalia in an uneasy alliance.

Western donors had long hoped hardliners in al Shabaab could be isolated by a deal between more moderate Hizbul leaders and President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government.

Ahmed has had little luck luring Aweys to his side, but a worsening rift between the insurgents could have provided his fragile administration with some much needed breathing space.

Fighting in Somalia has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L7081011.htm.

JSF Could Have Tiny Mideast Clientele

LONDON [MENL] -- The U.S.-led Joint Strike Fighter appears to have lost most of its potential clients in the Middle East.

A report for the parliament of the Netherlands has asserted that most U.S. allies in the Middle East have rejected the F-35 fighter-jet. The report, titled "Market Analysis JSF: How Many JSF's Will Be Produced?" said such U.S. allies as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were no longer in the market for JSF, which would result in a rise in per unit costs.

Source: Middle East Newsline.
Link: http://menewsline.com/article-1173,4770-JSF-Could-Have-Tiny-Mideast-Clien.aspx.

Humanitarian Disaster in the Philippines. In the Cruel Aftermath of Tropical Storm Ketsana

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, October 6, 2009

I arrived in Manila barely a week after the disaster struck, affecting the lives of more nearly 4 million people, devastating more than 700,000 households, creating a public health disaster, destroying the lives of population groups, which were already living well below the poverty line.

During my visit to Manila, I was hosted by the Ibon foundation and the CDRC, one of the main NGOs involved in relief efforts, in close liason with people's organizations in the affected areas.

Under the auspices of CDRC and other NGOs involved in relief work, I visited Marinika, one of the main disaster areas in Metro Manila, where an entire urban area was devastated by the floods, with water levels reaching the second floor of people's homes. There was no government presence, no medical or public health officials on location, no electricity, no drinking water. Toxic waste, garbage, piles of mud have accumulated.

The WHO is present in providing medicine first aid kitsinncluding 10,000 water containers. What we are dealing with is one of south east Asia's a largest natural disasters.

The international media has casually focussed on the climatic event without providing indepth coverage of an impending humanitarian crisis.

In a follow-up report, I hope to provide more information on the disaster. Below is the initial report of the CRDC which hosted me during my stay in Manila.

Global Research has contributed to the appeal for financial support.

We invite our readers to support the CRDC in its endeavors. We hope that in the next week or so we will be able to have an online donation form, wehich will be sent out to our readers and members.

Michel Chossudovsky, Manila, October 7, 2009

* * * * *

CITIZENS’ DISASTER RESPONSE CENTER

72-A Times St., West Triangle Homes, Quezon City, Philippines

Fax: (632) 929-9822

Tel. No. (632) 929-9820

E-mail: cdrc_1984@yahoo.com

Website: www.cdrc-phil.org

Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana), which caused the Philippines' worst flooding in four decades, left Php8.3 Billion worth of damages to infrastructure (P2.7B) and agriculture (P5.5B), the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.

Ondoy battered Metro Manila and parts of Luzon after it made landfall near the boundary of Aurora and Quezon last September 26. Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Batangas, Laguna and Rizal were the most affected by the massive floods.

Ondoy also left 797,404 families of 3.8 million people affected. The total number of casualties has already reached 335. Of this number, 288 were killed, 5 injured and 42 missing.

In Metro Manila alone, over 100,000 people from over 900 barangays were evacuated after incessant rains caused heavy flooding in Manila, Marikina, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Makati, Pasay, Pasig, Valenzuela, San Juan and Quezon City. Flood water in some areas have already reached the second and third floors of buildings, forcing residents to seek refuge on the roof of their houses. Other areas such as Pasig and Cainta remain flooded up to this day.

In Bulacan, 113 baranggays in Marilao, Meycuayan, San Miguel and Bocaue Sta Maria, Calumpit, Bustos and Norzagaray were heavily flooded. In Pampanga, 64 barangays in San Simon, Guagua, Masantol, Apalit, Lubao, Porac, Sto Tomas and San Fernando were flooded as well.



In Rizal, several barangays were flooded and 5,000 families were affected by rising floodwater. Many villages were not accessible to the rescue teams, leaving several families trapped on rooftops for hours.



Landslides occurred in Mt Province-Cagayan via Tabuk in CAR; Brgy. San Juan-Banyo, Arayat, Pampanga in Region III; Brgy. Bongalon, Sangay, Camarines Sur in Region V; Tagaytay-Taal Road, and Tagaytay-Talisay Road in Cavite; and Antipolo-Teresa Road and Sumulong Highway in Rizal.

Appeal for assistance

Right after the typhoon, CDRC and its Regional Centers immediately conducted a Damages, Needs and Capacities Assessment (DNCA) in the affected areas.

Of the total number of affected families, the most vulnerable were carefully identified, taking into account the gravity of destruction, their economic capacity to cope, their accessibility to relief services conducted by other agencies, and their willingness to help themselves.

On the basis of these criteria, 100,000 families have been identified as the most vulnerable families from among the total affected. They were among the worst affected by the typhoon and floods. Their houses were destroyed, and many of these areas are still difficult to access and therefore receive very little assistance if any. Immediate needs are food supply augmentation and other essential non-food items.

Needs include:

*
food provisions
*
water supply
*
medicines (for common colds and diarrhea)
*
clothes
*
bedding (mats, blankets, mosquito nets)
*
plastic sheet
*
kitchen utensils
*
sanitary napkins
*
construction materials (plywood, corrugated metal roof, etc)

Donations for the evacuees may be sent through the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center at 72-A Times St., West Triangle Homes, Quezon City. Concerned individuals and donors can easily reach us at (632) 929-9822 / (632) 929-9820. Donations may also be sent through the following bank accounts:

Dollar Account

Account Name: Citizens’ Disaster Response Center
Account Number: 2-63600158-3

Bank: Metrobank, Examiner Branch

Bank Address: Corner Examiner and Quezon Avenue, West Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines

Swift Code: MBTCPHMM

Peso Account

Account Name: Citizens’ Disaster Response Center
Account Number: 3-63600741-3

Bank: Metrobank, Examiner Branch

Bank Address: Corner Examiner and Quezon Avenue, West Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines

References:

NDCC
PAGASA
Reports from:

Community Response for Enlightenment, Service and Transformation (CREST)

Alay Bayan Incorporated (ABI)

Southern Tagalog People's Response Center (STPRC)

France 'suspects Guinea leader'

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has accused Guinea's military leader of possibly ordering the shooting of protesters last week.

Mr Kouchner said Capt Moussa Dadis Camara was "strongly suspected... to have participated in the decision" to launch the bloody crackdown in Conakry.

Human rights groups say 157 people were killed in the incident, while the government puts the figure at only 57.

Earlier, Capt Camara said Guinea was "not a district of France".

On Sunday, Mr Kouchner had said France, Guinea's former colonial ruler, could no longer work with the captain and called for the international community to intervene.

'Red berets'

Mr Kouchner's latest comments on Capt Camara's government came after he was asked about the crackdown by the French parliament's foreign affairs committee.

"The least we can say is that we strongly suspect the interim president to have... taken part in the decision," he said.

Human rights groups and witnesses say Guinean soldiers fired on an unarmed crowd that gathered inside a stadium in Conakry to protest against the government. They also say many women demonstrators were raped.

Capt Camara, who came to power in a military coup last year, insists he was not responsible for his troops' actions.

"Was Captain Dadis responsible or not for this savage intervention by the Guinean army in the stadium where the opposition was protesting?" Mr Kouchner asked.

"It's hard to say, because obviously he and everyone else denies it.

"Nevertheless, it was red berets, the forces that surround the leader of the coup d'etat," he said, noting that the captain still lived "in the military camp and not in the presidential palace".

Mr Kouchner said many of the soldiers responsible were "Foresters" - residents of the Guinee Forestiere region of south-eastern Guinea - and that he had heard they were "recently reinforced by Liberian troops, former mercenaries".

Last week, an opposition leader said some of the troops had been former members of the Liberian paramilitary group, the United Liberation Movement. Liberia is investigating the allegation.

The French foreign minister's comments came amid a wave of international condemnation about the crackdown.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier said Washington was appalled and outraged by the violence and intended "to pursue appropriate actions" against Guinea's military rulers.

The opposition coalition in Guinea meanwhile said it would not participate in talks to resolve the political crisis unless Capt Camara stepped down. He has indicated that he may run in January's elections, having initially ruled himself out.

Palestinian U-turn on Gaza report

The Palestinian Authority has backed UN Security Council talks on alleged war crimes in Gaza, days after seeking the deferral of a UN debate on the issue.

The UN Security Council is set to discuss whether to hold an emergency session on the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes.

A senior PA politician has said last week's request to defer discussion of the report was a "mistake".

The PA decision sparked an outcry among Palestinians.

Libya, the only Arab state on the 15-member body, will request the UN session in a closed-door meeting.

Palestinian officials voiced their "full support" for the proposed discussion - after leaders were excoriated for requesting a deferral of a UN debate last week.

PA politician Yasser Abed Rabbo, has said the leadership had erred by seeking the deferral of the debate at the Human Rights Council until next March.

"We must say a mistake has been made. This mistake should not be underestimated or concealed," he said in a radio interview.

Many Palestinians have expressed anger at PA President Mahmoud Abbas for seeming to let Israelis off the hook following Goldstone's trenchant criticism of Israel's blockade of Gaza and attacks on its citizens.

Mr Abbas himself has ordered an "investigation" into how his own government made the decision, in an apparent attempt to head off a wave of criticism.

Academics and rights workers held a street protest on Monday.

The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, has lashed out at the decision as "shameful and irresponsible", and posters saying "to the trash heap of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas" have appeared in the Strip.

And an Israeli-Arab political party has called on the PA leader to resign.

The UN panel led by eminent South African judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harming civilians.

It urged the UN Security Council to refer allegations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if either side failed to investigate and prosecute suspects.

Israel has rejected the evidence and said it had already investigated its troops' conduct, clearing most of the subjects of wrongdoing.

'Bad for peace'

Palestinian delegates in Geneva reportedly came under intense pressure from the US and Israel to seek the delay of the Human Rights Council debate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the report's conclusions would "devastate the peace process", although peace talks are currently stalled anyway over Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.

Hamas, the militant rival to the Fatah-dominated PA which administers Gaza, is also accused of indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians. It too has rejected the Goldstone report.

Any Libyan-proposed resolution at the UN Security Council can be vetoed by the US, which has in the past used its blocking powers dozens of times to prevent action against its closest ally in the Middle East.

A Libyan spokesman at the UN headquarters in New York said the meeting was necessary "because of the seriousness of the report and because we think it's too long to wait until March".

Israeli military action destroyed thousands of homes, hundreds of factories and 80 official buildings.

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed in the violence between 27 December 2008 and 16 January 2009, more than half of them civilians.

Israel puts the number of deaths at 1,166 - fewer than 300 of them civilians. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Car bomb kills at least 12 in Afghan capital

By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A powerful car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in the busy center of Afghanistan's capital early Thursday, killing at least 12 civilians, destroying vehicles and blowing off the walls of shops, officials said.

At least 84 people, including members of Afghan security forces, were wounded in the attack, which struck a shop-lined road between the Indian Embassy and the Interior Ministry, said Health Ministry spokesman Ahmad Farid Raaid, spokesman for the Health Ministry.

The blast hit shortly after 8:30 a.m., just as residents were arriving to work. It shattered glass and rattled buildings more than a mile (kilometer) away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible in the air as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded.

In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the Indian embassy was the target.

"I believe the suicide bomb was directed at the embassy since the suicide bomber came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives," Rao told reporters.

Three Indian paramilitary soldiers on guard duty at the embassy's watchtower were wounded by shrapnel, Rao said.

She said the intensity of the blast was similar to the one that occurred outside the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008 which killed dozens of civilians. The road in front of the embassy has been barricaded since then. The Afghan Interior Ministry is just across from Indian Embassy.

The explosion hit a day after the Afghanistan war reached its eighth anniversary and as President Barack Obama considered a request for between 10,000 and 40,000 additional troops prepared by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.

The Afghan capital has been hit numerous times by suicide bombers and roadside bombs, several since the run-up to the country's disputed Aug. 20 election. The attacks usually target international military forces or government installations, but Afghan businesses and civilians are also often killed or injured.

In the most recent attack in mid-September, a suicide car bomber rammed into an Italian military convoy on a road leading to the airport. That blast killed six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said Thursday's explosion was also a suicide car bomb, but he had no details and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Indian news channel CNN-IBN cited Jayant Prasad, Indian ambassador in Kabul, as saying there has been "extensive damage to the chancery." He said that the vehicle-borne bomb was so powerful that it blew off the some doors and windows of the embassy.

President Hamid Karzai's office condemned the attack.

AP Television News footage from Kabul on Thursday showed local residents and soldiers pulling a charred, severed leg out of a destroyed vehicle. Others carried an apparently lifeless body on a stretcher to an ambulance.

On another stretcher, a man lay face down, one arm hanging downward, his back left leg covered in blood.

One 21-year-old man named Najibullah said he had just opened his shop when the explosion went off, knocking him unconscious.

When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything.

"Dust was everywhere. People were shouting," said Najibullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name. "You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust."

His white clothes were covered in blood after helping load four injured onto ambulances.

Two sport utility vehicles nearby were badly damaged, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. One of them had U.N. markings on its side.

U.N. spokesman Dan McNorton confirmed two of the world body's vehicles were near the blast and one was damaged. Both vehicles had only a driver inside, and neither was wounded. The United Nations typically uses armored vehicles in Kabul that are designed to withstand such attacks.

The blast could be heard miles away. Windows in dozens of surrounding shops at the scene of the blast were shattered, and walls of buildings were badly damaged in the blast, though none of the multistory buildings along the commercial thoroughfare had collapsed.

One injured man said the force of the explosion threw him into the air. Mohammad Arif said he was leaving the Indian Embassy when the blast tossed him against a concrete barrier. The left side of his head was bleeding as he spoke.

Obama, advisers weigh Afghanistan shift, Pakistan

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON – The Afghanistan war reached its once-unthinkable eighth anniversary Wednesday as President Barack Obama, seeking a revamped strategy for the increasingly unpopular conflict, focused more closely with his war council on neighboring Pakistan's role in the fight against al-Qaida.

The White House also revealed that Obama has in hand — and has for nearly a week — the troop request prepared by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. It is said to include a range of options, from adding as few as 10,000 additional combat troops to — McChrystal's strong preference — as many as 40,000.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama asked for McChrystal's request last Thursday, before he flew to Copenhagen where he lobbied for Chicago's bid to host the Olympics and met with the general on the sidelines. The numbers could become the focus of concentrated White House attention as soon as Friday, Gibbs said.

When former President George W. Bush launched the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan less than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the country's Taliban government was providing safe haven for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorists. Eight years later, the Taliban regime is no more and al-Qaida is scattered and weakened. But the Afghan government is considered corrupt and ineffective, Taliban insurgents hoping to retake control are gaining strength and terrorists continue to plan attacks.

This uncertain progress has come at a cost of nearly 800 U.S. lives.

With this and Americans' dwindling patience in mind, Obama is engaged in a methodical review of how to overhaul the war.

Wednesday's nearly three-hour meeting in the Situation Room between Obama and more than a dozen of his top advisers on the war was the third of five currently scheduled. The next is Friday, concentrating on Afghanistan — though it could also include McChrystal's report. The final discussion is slated for next week, though aides have said more could come.

Gibbs said Obama's decision is still weeks away.

Wednesday's focus on Pakistan, the suspected hiding place of bin Laden and other al-Qaida terrorists as well as Taliban leaders, could provide a hint into the president's leanings.

Obama and some of his key aides are increasingly pointing to recent successes against al-Qaida through targeted missile strikes and raids in Pakistan but also in Somalia and elsewhere. Obama said Tuesday that al-Qaida has "lost operational capacity" as a result.

Also, serious doubts about the Afghan government that only deepened with the questionable Aug. 20 presidential election make a true counterinsurgency mission there difficult. Intense poverty and other troubles in the "graveyard of empires" make it an even more complicated pursuit.

In Pakistan, though, the government has shown new willingness to battle extremists, with most believed to be operating from the largely ungoverned terrain along the border with Afghanistan. But these operations, as well as the strikes by unmanned U.S. aircraft, continue to stoke fiery controversy throughout the country — causing problems for the already weak U.S.-backed civilian government.

Further, the vast majority of the U.S. aid to Pakistan is believed to be diverted from its intended purpose of battling militants. A bill awaiting Obama's signature would triple U.S. aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year while attaching conditions aimed at stopping that diversion. Those protections, however, have prompted fresh complaints in Pakistan about Washington meddling — including a rejection by the country's powerful military of links between aid and increased monitoring.

All this makes the U.S.-Pakistan relationship fraught, and asking for additional cooperation extraordinarily delicate. Regardless, U.S. officials believe they can neither win in Afghanistan nor succeed more broadly against al-Qaida without it.

Wednesday's White House meeting began with intelligence and political assessments from key players. The ensuing discussion focused on possible ways to gain additional help from Pakistan, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal details. That includes efforts on diplomatic and civilian fronts, as well as military.

A senior government official, also talking on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the talks, said the discussion continued a genuine debate among advisers in which Obama remains undecided.

McChrystal's recommended approach calls for additional troops in Afghanistan for a counterinsurgency campaign to defeat the Taliban, build up the central government and deny al-Qaida safe haven. McChrystal, whose plan is somewhat reminiscent of Bush's Iraq troop "surge" in 2008, says extra troops — preferably at the higher end of his option range — are crucial to turn around a war that will probably be won or lost over the next 12 months.

On roughly the opposite end of the spectrum, an alternative favored most prominently by Vice President Joe Biden would keep the American force in Afghanistan at around the 68,000 already authorized, including the 21,000 more troops Obama ordered earlier this year, but increase the use of surgical strikes with Predator drones and special forces.

Shrinking the number of troops in Afghanistan and turning the effort into a narrow counterterror campaign is not on the table, and neither is drastically ballooning the footprint.

In weighing whether to follow McChrystal or Biden or land somewhere in between, Obama faces a stern test and difficult politics.

Many lawmakers from his own Democratic Party, aware of rising anti-war sentiment in their ranks and the war protests that have dotted Washington this week, do not want to see additional U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan. According to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, public support for the war has dropped to 40 percent from 44 percent in July.

Republicans, meanwhile, are urging Obama to heed the military commanders' calls soon or risk failure.

In giving McChrystal's request to Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates bypassed the commander's direct bosses in the military chain of command who would ordinarily have a chance to add their own comments first.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell denied the unorthodox move provides evidence of a divide between the uniformed military and its civilian bosses over management of the war. He said Gates and Obama wanted to prevent a leak to the news media, as McChrystal's underlying war assessment was last month.

And though Gibbs had said previously that Obama didn't want to see the request until he had decided strategy, aides said the president decided it had simply become absurd to wait to read it.

Attending the White House meeting Wednesday was a now-familiar cast of characters including Biden; Gates; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Afghanistan/Pakistan special envoy Richard Holbrooke; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the region including Iraq and Afghanistan, and McChrystal by videoconference.