VENEZUELA
NEWS
BULLETIN
PRÁXIS AND THEORY AND
EMANCIPATION
Cosmos AND
Einai
AND Nothing
SEE -- VER
In
Times of Universal Deceit, Telling
the Truth will be a Revolutionary Act.
(George
Orwell)
No.
1218
July 27, 2006
BIENVENIDOS!!
WELCOME!! WILLKOMMEN!!
| 16-25 C |  |
| Weather | ||
| Merida* | ||
En cuanto a la visita de Presidente
Chávez a Vietnam
**** United States-Israeli UN Resolution hypocrisy...
By: Stephen Lendman.
**** Spotting a successful suicide bomber: a paradox, a conundrum ... for what?
VHeadline.com Editor & Publisher Roy S. Carson
**** Esta es la única manera real y verdadera de
desearle un Felíz Cumpleaños a un Presidente del Pueblo
Por: Franz J. T. Lee.
Letters to the Editor
**** "You put a wonderful human face on this most
magnificent man"
(Mary MacElveen).
**** This is the only real, true way to say Happy Birthday to a People's President
By: Franz J.T. Lee*** Venezuela Eyes Foreign Donations With New Law
*** Bush Told to Plan for Chávez Oil Shock
By Andy Webb-Vidal****
USA expresses concern over Russia's plan to sell fighter jets
to Venezuela
By: Xinhuanet.
*** Venezuela's President tours Kalashnikov
factory; meets regional Russians.
| Ultimos artículos |   |
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Publicado: Lunes,
31 de Julio de 2006
Articulo por: AP
(AP) - LA HABANA (AP) _ El presidente cubano Fidel Castro dejó de manera provisional su cargo en la noche del lunes a su hermano Raúl Castro, luego de someterse a una cirugía intestinal, señaló un mensaje firmado por el propio mandatario y leído por la televisión cubana.
Castro, quien está a punto de cumplir 80 años, indicó que durante varias semanas se mantendrá alejado tanto de sus funciones de gobierno como de líder del Partido Comunista.
http://espanol.news.yahoo.com/s/060801/1/1fasf.html
http://espanol.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=64813
BREAKING
NEWS: FIDEL CASTRO HAD INTESTINES BLEEDING, IS BEING OPERATED,
DELEGATED CUBA´S PRESIDENCY TO HIS BROTHER RAUL CASTRO ...
"Hence,
let us
wish our President Hugo Chavez Frias many happy returns, and we should
not forget the reality of the brutal world in which we toil, where the
life of our other Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz was already threatened by
the CIA, 600 times within 45 years, and they wish him dead at every
possible opportunity." (Franz J. T. Lee).
TOP STORY AT THIS HOUR!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Stephen
Lendman: United States-Israeli UN Resolution hypocrisy... It's also voted against dozens of
others overwhelmingly supported by the rest of the world in the UN
General Assembly. By its actions and with 6% of the world's
population, the US has thus arrogantly ignored the will of nearly the
other 94% to support its client state even when Israel had committed
war crimes or crimes against humanity the rest of the world demanded it
be held to account for. In the words of one UK observer using a
baseball analogy: "Only the USA could have a World Series and not
invite the rest of the world."
The Israeli record
on UN resolutions over that same period is far worse. With full US support for its actions, it's
flagrantly and with little or no pretense routinely ignored over five
dozen UN Resolutions condemning or censuring it for its actions against
the Palestinians or other Arab people, deploring it for committing
them, or demanding, calling on or urging the Jewish state to end them. Israel never did or intends to up to the
present, including the mass slaughter and destruction it's now
inflicting on the people of Lebanon and the Palestinians in their
Territories that Israel illegally occupies and attacks whenever it
wishes. It does so with impunity using any contrived pretext it
can
get away with to deny the Palestinians any chance ever for a viable
sovereign independent state and to avoid a political solution with them
it won't ever tolerate. UN Resolutions as
examples of US and Israeli hypocrisy Consider now three UN Resolutions
as examples of gross hypocrisy ... one Israel and its US paymaster and
benefactor support and two others both countries do not so they ignore
them. In September, 2004, the Security Council passed
UN Resolution 1559, co-sponsored by the US and France, that called on
Syria to withdraw its military forces from Lebanon and stop intervening
in the Lebanese political process. It also demanded all Lebanese
and
non-Lebanese militias (aimed mainly at Hezbollah, of course)
disarm and disband (meaning surrender). Following the assassination of former Lebanese
Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, in February, 2005, Syria bowed to
international pressure and complied fully with the resolution by
April. In so doing, it ended its 29-year occupation of the part
of the
country it controlled which excluded the rest in the South under
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) control that Israel maintained after its
invasion of Southern Lebanon in 1978 and again in 1982. Hezbollah's military resistance wing did not
comply. Had it done so, it would have left itself and the Shia
third
of the Lebanese population dependent on it defenseless against the
Israelis. The Lebanese government and its small and weak security
forces had no power to force Hezbollah's compliance and were unable to
do it. Hezbollah was born out of the Israeli invasion
of Lebanon in 1982 and the oppressive occupation that followed.
It was
a popular resistance movement, much like and in the same spirit as the
French Resistance freedom fighters the Nazis called 'terrorists,'
formed to resist their illegal occupiers and expel them. Ever since, it's continued as an effective
resistance force against the Israelis that finally withdrew from
Lebanon in May, 2000 but maintained its occupation of the 25 square
kilometer area of South Lebanon known as Shebaa Farms it never
relinquished after seizing it in the 1967 war. Hezbollah, the Lebanese people and its
government demand Israel give it back as well as cease its frequent
hostile cross-border incursions, unjustifiable abductions, repeated
violations of the country's airspace as well as end its current brutal
assault and invasion of their country once again. To continue being an effective
resistance force, Hezbollah remained armed, has every right to do so in
its own self-defense whatever resolutions the UN passes, and will
continue resisting Israeli oppression until it ends. Now consider UN
Resolutions 465 and 476. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted UN
Resolution 465 in March, 1980 that addressed Israel's illegal
occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza, East
Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights. Among other provisions in
it,
it condemned Israel's policy of "setting parts of its population and
new Immigrants in those territories (and said doing so constituted)
a flagrant violation of the fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
protection of civilian persons in time of war and also constitute a
serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting
peace in the Middle East." It called on the government of Israel
to
"dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease....the
establishment, construction and planning of (new) settlements in the
Arab territories since 1967, including Jerusalem." In the last 26 years, Israel has
flagrantly violated this resolution and still continues to build new
settlements illegally in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. The US supports and funds the Israeli
government enabling it to do it, and the UN and world community have
taken no action to bring Israel into compliance which it could do by
imposing sanctions severe enough to force Israel to stop new settlement
construction, dismantle the existing ones and make restitution to the
Palestinians and Syrians for the harm caused them. The Security Council also passed Resolution 476
in June, 1980 ... like Resolution 465, it, too, reaffirms the necessity
to end the Israeli occupation of Arab territories ongoing since the
1967 war. It went on to condemn Israel for its continued refusal
to do
it or to comply with the relevant Security Council and General Assembly
resolutions demanding it does. It repeated provisions detailed in
Resolution 465 and reaffirmed its determination in the event of Israeli
non-compliance to examine practical ways to get it to do so. Israel never complied, and
the UN never took action to see that it did. Also, by its reinvasion of Lebanon now and its
unending occupation of the Shebaa Farms area it's held since 1967,
Israel is also in violation of UN resolution 425 and nine additional
ones demanding the withdrawal of its forces from South Lebanon.
The
net effect of UN action - many relevant and high-sounding words
and
speeches amounting to nothing, at least when it concerns Israel. The Hypocrisy of
the US Congress Now consider a further gross
hypocrisy. On
July 20, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly 410 - 8
to unconditionally endorse Israel's illegal aggression against the
Palestinians and people of Lebanon. Earlier in the week, the US
Senate
passed a similar resolution by voice vote, but added a worthless and
outrageous clause that "urges all sides to protect innocent civilian
life and infrastructure." The House version showed no such
disingenuous delicacy, and in language Orwell would love, actually
praised Israel for "minimizing civilian loss" ignoring the obvious
evidence to the contrary. Along with its arrogance, the Congressional
resolution violated the UN Charter by unjustifiably claiming Israel has
the right of self-defense guaranteed it under Article 51 and thus has
the right to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure and kill innocent
civilians to do it. Once again, Orwell would approve. These House
and
Senate resolutions are compelling evidence of both parties'
unconditional support for Israel whatever it does and the Bush
administration's utter contempt for all international laws and norms
and its unconditional endorsement of Israel when it violates them. The Congressional resolution also unjustifiably
accused, and by implication condemned, Lebanon for failing to observe
UN Resolution 1559 by not disbanding and disarming Hezbollah and
allowing it instead to amass thousands of rockets and other
weapons.
It also criticized the legitimate integration of Hezbollah into the
Lebanese government where it's represented by 11 democratically elected
lawmakers in the Parliament and two ministers in the country's cabinet. For Lebanon's failure to enforce UN Resolution
1559, including provisions not even in it, the US Congress, in effect,
gave Israel its approval to destroy the country and kill many hundreds
of its people. At the same time, Israel never complied with UN
Resolutions 465 and 476 demanding it withdraw from the Occupied
Territories and Golan Heights it holds illegally, UN Resolution 425 and
nine others making the same demand it remove its forces from all
Lebanese territory, and all the dozens of other UN resolutions Israel
routinely violates or disregards. The US Congress, UN, world leaders and most
Arab states remain committed to Israel overtly or tacitly. They've done
it despite Israel's many violations including the crime of aggression
in its ongoing brutal assaults on Lebanon and the Occupied Territories
that it falsely and disingenuously claims to be a justifiable response
to the capture (not kidnapping) of three of its soldiers, a
minor provocation at most. At the same time, the Congress and world
leaders remain silent refusing to condemn Israel for its failure to
comply with UN Resolutions 465, 476, 425, nine similar ones. and all
the other UN resolutions against it for the past half century. The message is clear.
When it comes to the UN, the US runs the show, and no substantive or
significant action can be taken with teeth unless it approves ...
especially when it applies to Israel, in part, because of the power of
the Israeli lobby in the US. Also, all actions of a valued US
client
state are quite acceptable, even when they violate the UN Charter and
international law, so long as they serve Washington's interests. In the kind of world Orwell understood,
Israel's mass killing and destruction is in the US's imperial interest,
especially in the strategically important Middle East where oil is
central to all else, so its scorched-earth policy is quite acceptable
and may go on unabated and end only when the two allies decide to stop
it. It doesn't matter what the law is
or that the innocent are paying the supreme price for its violation. Peacekeeping Hypocrisy
A brief word about still more
hypocrisy... The US, UK and Israel have called for a
robust international military force (Israel appears to want a NATO
run one)
to serve as "peacekeepers" in South Lebanon once Israel ceases its
aggression and allows it to come in. No one is considering the
wishes
of Hezbollah, the people of South Lebanon it serves or the Lebanese
government. It's also un-discussed publicly what Israel
really has in mind, how oppressive the Christian South Lebanon Army
(SLA) was when it acted as Israel's occupying enforcer after 1978 or
how ineffective the current UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has
been since it was first put in place in 1978 and never succeeded in
establishing peace or security. So what's really going
on? After just days on the ground inside Lebanon,
the IDF is finding the going very rough. It's already admitted to
taking significant losses with dozens of its soldiers killed and
hundreds more injured in intense fighting with a determined and
resilient Hezbollah force as committed now to expelling an invading
Israeli force as it was in the 1980s and 1990s when it succeeded in
doing it. Clearly the IDF is struggling and taking more
losses than it's willing to continue sustaining. So it wants
instead
to have a proxy army it can control come into South Lebanon, again act
as its enforcers, engage Hezbollah in confrontation if necessary and
have it do its killing and dying for it. Will Hezbollah and the people
of
South Lebanon now allow it in when they were unwilling to accept their
SLA and UNIFIL occupiers in the past? Once the fighting ends, the IDF
likely will withdraw and an occupying force acceptable to Israel will
move in to serve in its place. It will be as unwelcome as the
others
that preceded it and eventually it will be driven out. But before it is,
many more will die and suffer, and the long struggle of the Lebanese
people and Palestinians as well in the Occupied Territories will go on
unresolved. Stephen Lendman http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=64701
VHeadline.com commentarist
Stephen Lendman writes: Two
nations stand out above all others as notorious serial abusers of UN
resolutions ... the US and Israel. Over the last half century, the US
has used its Security Council veto many dozens of times to prevent any
resolutions from passing condemning Israel for its abusive or hostile
actions or that were inimical to Israeli interests.
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net
Spotting a successful suicide bomber: a paradox, a conundrum ... for what?
VHeadline.com Editor & Publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Spotting a successful suicide bomber is a paradox often reserved for intelligence services sent to sift through the latest stench of exploded guts and assorted body parts; seen as a conundrum for psychiatric researchers worldwide attempting to probe the whys and wherefores of the ultimate act of self-destruction ... for what?
British spooks have wracked their brains for just over a year attempting to understand why a seemingly innocuous group of young men chose to converge on the London underground network to end their own existences in a 7/7/2005 atrocity which, while causing immediate mayhem to a busy city, only served to steel British stiff upper lips in grim determination never to surrender ... to what?
The WHAT lurks out there in the vast uncertainty of everyday grassroots life, deep-rooted frustrations and unfulfilled ambitions that could be catalysts to the raison d'etre of shaking off one's mortal coil in the insanity of a bomb blast in an impersonal crowd of unknowns.
By definition a successful suicide bomber is an unstoppable self-destruct who, had s/he been even marginally less successful, would have survived (even momentarily) to see the ultimate futility and tragic consequences.
Do successful suicide bombers really imagine that what they do will influence the blowhards of international politics to modify their own heinous criminality ... fat chance?
All that's left behind are mangled corpses, severed limbs and lasting traumas for which the likes of Bush and Blair care not a jot or tittle as they conveniently conspire to greedy manipulation of the world's resources.
The history books condemn Genghis Khan and scores of blood thirsty conquerors for the savagery of what they did, but little is learned by modern leaders as they pile more and more pitiful corpses of their own soldiers on the mounds of the innocent dead, men, women and children who momentarily find themselves in the 'collateral damage' vicinity of their rain of 'smart' bombs and lethal missiles.
Yet the world's intelligence services, with varying competence and incompetence, continue to seek out potential 'threats' where the primary cause is more properly laid at the threshold of their political masters against whom those labeled 'terrorists' are simply a reaction to the legal terrorism of a government apparatus beyond democratic control.
Be mindful of the fact that what is now the Israeli government is the update descendant of 'terrorists' against British rule in Palestine, every bit as much as American 'terrorists' committed acts of 'terrorism' against the rule of King George in Boston harbor so many years before ... even Venezuela's own Simon Bolivar was the ultimate 'terrorist' to the Spanish throne when he sought liberty and independence for the South American continent at the threshold of the 1800s.
Yet this is why democracy was invented ... not as a means to the subjugation of often disaffected minorities' to a numerical majority's demands but rather to the successful coexistence of consensus in which each citizen's participation is a vital key to culling the dictatorial ambitions of some who, self-deluded believe that their Truth is the only Truth and that the rest of us had better believe and do as we're told (not necessarily synonymous with what the 'Truth-teller' himself does or says!) ... or else!
Perhaps it is this that is the ultimate motivation for the successful suicide bomber inasmuch as having been routed in his or her conviction of the supremacy of his/her own version of the Truth, the reality of participatory democracy is simply too much of a personal burden to contemplate and thus an already superficially sick mind goes into self-destruct believing that martyrdom will be the final fulfillment of the lunacy.
Roy S. Carson
Editor@VHeadline.com
Por:
Franz J. T. Lee | Latest |   |
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Published: Friday, July 28, 2006
Bylined to: Franz J.T. Lee
This is the only real, true way to say Happy Birthday to a People's President
University of Los Andes (ULA)
professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: In
1985, in San Cristobal, Tachira, in the "Círculo Militar," the
University of The Andes, founded a special center of investigation to study a
possible Latin American Integration and the current border conflicts.
Instead of going to the infamous Yankee "School of the Americas," for military students a Master's Degree was offered directly at the "Centro de Estudios de Fronteras e Integracion Jose Manuel Briceno Monzillo" (CEFI).
Together with other colleagues, I had the honor to teach the group around President Hugo Chavez Frias and Francisco Arias Cardenas about the historic background of the Essequibo problem, a territory in reclamation, currently forming an integral part of Guyana. (See: Franz J. T. Lee, La Evolución e Involución del "Socialismo Cooperativista" en Guyana, Escuela de Ciencias Políticas, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, 1987.)
This was my earliest indirect revolutionary contact and relation with the future President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez Frias.
In fact, to my greatest surprise, many of these military students had an excellent knowledge about history, political economy and socialism, and, very soon, I was giving them a scientific and philosophic introduction to revolutionary Marxism ... which was most daring in those puntofijista days.
This was very easy, because the majority of them came from a humble background, had experience about the oppression and misery of the absolute majority of the Venezuelan population, who were sighing under the yoke of neo-liberal exploitative and oppressive mechanisms.
I realized that this was a completely new generation of members of the Venezuelan military ... even different from other armed forces in Latin America. They related their experiences to us, and it became very clear to me that something revolutionary was cooking somewhere.
Certainly, President Chavez knows about my revolutionary existence ... and about our socialist "work" in Merida where with a Cuban comrade, I am assessing and guiding a group of 200 students of the "Frente Francisco de Miranda" (decisive as reserves for the defense of the country) ... on their way to Cuba, for socialist cooperative training ... informing them about revolutionary praxis and theory, and about the trans-historic international context of the Bolivarian Revolution.
As Che Guevara said, the duty of a revolutionary is to make the revolution. In this case, the best way to say: Happy Birthday, Chavez! ... is to make, think and surpass the Bolivarian Revolution, of, by and for ourselves.
I have already dedicated my latest work: "Venezuela: De la Revolucion Bolivariana a la Emancipacion Humana (IMMECA, Merida, Dec. 2005)" as birthday present, a priori, to our comandante. In fact, publicly, Chavez has himself thanked me for it already.
The next scientific and philosophic contribution to the Bolivarian Revolution is already on its way, planned to appear in September this year: Franz J. T. Lee & Jutta Schmitt, Venezuela: sobrepasando el Rubicón, IMMECA, Merida.)
Three years ago, we launched our "Mision Marx y Engels"; many comrades have been reaping theoretical fruits from this project, the abovementioned works are the creative results of this campaign of revolutionary politicization, launched by our Bolivarian Circle of Studies, El Momoy, Chiguara.
Once more, the only real, true way to say Happy Birthday to a People's President, to a President of the People: Is to be a shining star, a vanguard of the working masses, an emancipatory paradigm against political corruption and treachery, against global fascism. No matter how humanist, how humane, how human, how religious we may be, it is a verified historical truth that the corporate vampires will not step down from their imperialist golden oil thrones freely, peacefully.
In the liberatory spirit of Frantz Fanon, we will have to topple them, throne and all, "chavistas without Chavez" and all.
President Chavez: Please sound our "Diana" immediately again!
Hence, let us wish our President Hugo Chavez Frias many happy returns, and we should not forget the reality of the brutal world in which we toil, where the life of our other Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz was already threatened by the CIA, 600 times within 45 years, and they wish him dead at every possible opportunity.
It seems that Bush has never heard anything about Phoenix, even if the USA itself has a city called by that name.
Hence, in conclusion, long live the spirit of CEFI, where a group of conscientious students, and excellent professors twenty years ago were yearning for class consciousness, for "con ciencia," and are now making world history!
Franz J. T. Lee
franz@vheadline.com
The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil
by Michel
Chossudovsky
GlobalResearch.
Wednesday July 26, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/e6lhr
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
[Great analysis from Michel Chossudovsky showing the need for Israel to militarily protect the Eastern Mediterranean potion of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, which was inaugurated the same day Israel invaded Lebanon.
The pipeline completely bypasses Russia, having been built south of the Caspian Consortium Pipeline. Will this pipeline ever be safe from attack? Fighting Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon now is an attempt to lay the groundwork for protecting a critical Caspian oil pipeline for Israel that is outside of Russian control. Currently Russia supplies Israel with a lot of natural gas and oil.
Follow the hydrocarbons. - MK]
Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World's largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?
Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of Lebanon.
One day before the Israeli air strikes, the main partners and shareholders of the BTC pipeline project, including several heads of State and oil company executives were in attendance at the port of Ceyhan. They were then rushed off for an inauguration reception in Istanbul, hosted by Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the plush surroundings of the Çýraðan Palace.
Also in attendance was British Petroleum's (BP) CEO, Lord Browne together with senior government officials from Britain, the US and Israel. BP leads the BTC pipeline consortium. Other major Western shareholders include Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, France's Total and Italy's ENI. (see Annex)
Israel's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was present at the venue together with a delegation of top Israeli oil officials.
The BTC pipeline totally bypasses the territory of the Russian Federation. It transits through the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of which have become US "protectorates", firmly integrated into a military alliance with the US and NATO. Moreover, both Azerbaijan and Georgia have longstanding military cooperation agreements with Israel. In 2005, Georgian companies received some $24 million in military contracts funded out of U.S. military assistance to Israel under the so-called "Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program"
Israel has a stake in the Azeri oil fields, from which it imports some twenty percent of its oil. The opening of the pipeline will substantially enhance Israeli oil imports from the Caspian sea basin.
But there is another dimension which directly relates to the war on Lebanon. Whereas Russia has been weakened, Israel is slated to play a major strategic role in "protecting" the Eastern Mediterranean transport and pipeline corridors out of Ceyhan.
Militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean
The bombing of Lebanon is part of a carefully planned and coordinated military road map. The extension of the war into Syria and Iran has already been contemplated by US and Israeli military planners. This broader military agenda is intimately related to strategic oil and oil pipelines. It is supported by the Western oil giants which control the pipeline corridors. In the context of the war on Lebanon, it seeks Israeli territorial control over the East Mediterranean coastline.
In this context, the BTC pipeline dominated by British Petroleum, has dramatically changed the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean, which is now linked , through an energy corridor, to the Caspian sea basin:
"[The BTC pipeline] considerably changes the status of the region's countries and cements a new pro-West alliance. Having taken the pipeline to the Mediterranean, Washington has practically set up a new bloc with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Israel, " (Komerzant, Moscow, 14 July 2006)
Israel is now part of the Anglo-American military axis, which serves the interests of the Western oil giants in the Middle East and Central Asia.
While the official reports state that the BTC pipeline will "channel oil to Western markets", what is rarely acknowledged is that part of the oil from the Caspian sea would be directly channeled towards Israel. In this regard, an underwater Israeli-Turkish pipeline project has been envisaged which would link Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon and from there through Israel's main pipeline system, to the Red Sea.
The objective of Israel is not only to acquire Caspian sea oil for its own consumption needs but also to play a key role in re-exporting Caspian sea oil back to the Asian markets through the Red Sea port of Eilat. The strategic implications of this re-routing of Caspian sea oil are farreaching.
In April 2006, Israel and Turkey announced plans for four underwater pipelines, which would bypass Syrian and Lebanese territory.
"Turkey and Israel are negotiating the construction of a multi-million-dollar energy and water project that will transport water, electricity, natural gas and oil by pipelines to Israel, with the oil to be sent onward from Israel to the Far East,
The new Turkish-Israeli proposal under discussion would see the transfer of water, electricity, natural gas and oil to Israel via four underwater pipelines.
“Baku oil can be transported to Ashkelon via this new pipeline and to India and the Far East.[via the Red sea]"
"Ceyhan and the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon are situated only 400 km apart. Oil can be transported to the city in tankers or via specially constructed under-water pipeline. From Ashkelon the oil can be pumped through already existing pipeline to the port of Eilat at the Red Sea; and from there it can be transported to India and other Asian countries in tankers. (REGNUM )
Water for Israel
Also involved in this project is a pipeline to bring water to Israel, pumping water from upstream resources of the Tigris and Euphrates river system in Anatolia. This has been a long-run strategic objective of Israel to the detriment of Syria and Iraq. Israel's agenda with regard to water is supported by the military cooperation agreement between Tel Aviv and Ankara.
The Re-routing of Central Asian Oil
Diverting Central Asian oil and gas to the Eastern Mediterranean (under Israeli military protection), for re-export to Asia, serves to undermine the inter-Asian energy market, which is based on the development of direct pipeline corridors linking Central Asia and Russia to South Asia, China and the Far East.
Ultimately, this design is intended to weaken Russia's role in Central Asia and cut off China from Central Asian oil resources. It is also intended to isolate Iran.
Meanwhile, Israel has emerged as a new powerful player in the global energy market.
War and Oil Pipelines
Prior to the bombing of Lebanon, Israel and Turkey had announced the underwater pipeline routes, which bypassed Syria and Lebanon. These underwater pipeline routes did not overtly encroach on the territorial sovereignty of Lebanon and Syria.
On the other hand, the development of alternative land based corridors (for oil and water) through Lebanon and Syria would require Israeli-Turkish territorial control over the Eastern Mediterranean coastline through Lebanon and Syria.
The implementation of this project requires the militarisation of the East Mediterranean coastline, sea ways and land routes, extending from the port of Ceyhan across Syria and Lebanon to the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Is this not one of the hidden objectives of the war on Lebanon? Open up a space which enables Israel to control a vast territory extending from the Lebanese border through Syria to Turkey.
"The Long War"
Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert has stated that the Israeli offensive against Lebanon would "last a very long time". Meanwhile, the US has speeded up weapons shipments to Israel.
There are strategic objectives underlying the "Long War" which are tied to oil and oil pipelines.
The air campaign against Lebanon is inextricably related to US-Israeli strategic objectives in the broader Middle East including Syria and Iran. In recent developments, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice stated that the main purpose of her mission to the Middle East was not to push for a ceasefire in Lebanon, but rather to isolate Syria and Iran. (Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2006)
At this particular juncture, the replenishing of Israeli stockpiles of US produced WMDs points to an escalation of the war both within and beyond the borders of Lebanon.
Venezuela Eyes Foreign Donations With New Law
[The game of chess between Caracas and Washington continues. The Venezuelan Congress is considering imposing limitations on foreign donations to opposition political parties. Undemocratic? Maybe. But what would you do if placed in Chavez' s shoes?
The U.S. already attempted to overthrow his democratically elected rule, and Washington continues to escalate its saber rattling toward Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia. With the fear of Venezuela cutting off oil to the U.S., it must be assumed by Chavez that the U.S. is plotting regime change in Venezuela. But can they pull it off? -MK]
Venezuela Eyes Foreign Donations With New Law
by Brian
Ellsworth
Reuters
Caracas
Thursday, July 13, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/zpm6e
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
When the White House released a report this week recommending a multimillion dollar aid package to opposition groups in communist Cuba, one of the angriest reactions came not from Havana but from Caracas.
President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, responded by saying Castro was "stronger than ever" and calling the U.S. an "obscene, immoral and genocidal empire."
But when it comes to foreign financing for Venezuela's opposition groups, the world's No. 5 oil exporter is preparing more than just another volley of insults with Washington.
Venezuela's Congress is discussing a law that would increase state oversight of non-government organizations (NGOs) receiving foreign funding, a move analysts called a response to Washington's confrontation with President Hugo Chavez.
A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Caracas estimated U.S. aid to Venezuelan NGOs at around $3.5 million a year, though government supporters say this figure is closer to $5 million -- considerably less than the $40 million a year that the White House is proposing should go to Cuba.
Chavez is promising a socialist revolution to curb U.S. influence, end poverty and unite Latin America. But the State Department says Chavez is weakening Venezuelan democracy and has promised to continue financing for non-government organizations.
The International Cooperation Law -- still pending final approval from Congress -- would create a state fund to support non-government organizations (NGOs) and a registry of groups receiving foreign financing.
"This is a very unfortunate step for the 'chavistas' to take, but unfortunately the U.S. is waging a total war against Chavez," said Larry Birns, director of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, a left-of-center think tank in Washington. "In a sense this (law) is a defensive gesture."
The proposed law makes no direct reference to the United States, but supporters have justified it with much of the same rhetoric Chavez uses to describe the United States.
Legislator Saul Ortega said the law would "break with traditional imperialist criteria of cooperation based on dependence and neocolonialism."
NGOs CONCERNED
But critics say the legislation is simply meant to increase Chavez' control over NGOs.
"With this law the government intends to regulate civil society, to control and monitor it in a way that is unacceptable in a democratic society," said Hector Faundez, director of the Human Rights Center at Venezuela's Central University.
A letter to the legislature signed by 72 Venezuelan NGOs said the bill is based on "the erroneous idea that ... associations receiving donations through international cooperation are negative for Venezuelan society."
Chavez' home-grown model of socialism dubbed the "Bolivarian Revolution" seeks to increase direct ties between citizens and government, and Chavez has at times presented NGOs as tools of foreign intervention.
But several analysts agreed the law is in part a response to U.S. support for the opposition-affiliated electoral group Sumate, which was crucial in helping Chavez adversaries convoke a recall referendum on Chavez' rule in 2004.
Sumate accepted $31,000 from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. organization founded in 1983 that receives most of its funding from the U.S. government, for electoral education workshops that the government said were actually used for political campaigning. This prompted state prosecutors to charge Sumate with treason, which critics -- including the State Department -- have called political persecution.
Responding to an inquiry about U.S. support for Venezuelan NGOs, the State Department said in a statement that "support for civil society in Venezuela is no different from anywhere else in the world."
TENSIONS WITH U.S.
However, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this year said the international community needs to be "more active in supporting and defending the Venezuelan people" in response to Chavez' "particular brand of Latin American populism that has taken democratic governments down the drain before."
Chavez accuses the United States of plotting to invade Venezuela, and he charges some U.S. financing went to organizations involved in the 2002 coup that toppled him briefly with tacit White House approval.
A recent NED report entitled "Backlash Against Democracy Assistance" says Venezuela is not the only nation working to curb foreign aid. The report cites Venezuela, China and Russia among many nations using "new restrictive measures of a legal and extra-legal nature, specifically directed against democracy promotion groups."
For Riordan Roett, director of the Latin American Studies program at Johns Hopkins University, the International Cooperation Law represents "a slight ratcheting up of tensions between Caracas and Washington."
"If the United States is going to use democracy assistance as a major policy vehicle, I would expect the Venezuelan reaction would to be to try to stop it," he said.
Bush Told to Plan for Chávez Oil Shock
By Andy Webb-Vidal[There is no plan for a Chavez oil shock because there is no spare capacity on the market to replace what the U.S. would lose. The only possible plan is that of regime change or war. That is what Senator Lugar is referring to when he says the U.S. must "abandon a passive approach" to energy diplomacy with Venezuela. - MK]
Bush Told to Plan for Chávez Oil Shock
Monday
July 24, 2006
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14001903/
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Richard Lugar, chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, has urged the Bush administration to adopt specific "contingency plans" for a potential disruption to oil supplies from Venezuela.
In a letter sent to Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, last Friday, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, Mr Lugar warned the US that it needed to "abandon" reliance on a "passive approach" to energy diplomacy.
Mr Lugar's warning follows the release last month of an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the US was ill-prepared for an oil embargo by Venezuela, the world's fifth largest exporter.
President Hugo Chávez, whose government has been emboldened by a torrent of oil revenues, has several times warned that he would "cut off" oil supplies to the US if Washington persisted in allegedly plotting his overthrow.
"Venezuela's leverage over global oil prices and its direct supply lines and refining capacity in the US give Venezuela undue ability to impact US security and our economy," Mr Lugar wrote in his letter to Ms Rice.
The GAO study, commissioned by Mr Lugar, a Republican, estimated that a Venezuelan oil boycott would raise oil prices by $11 (EUR9, £6) per barrel over a six-month period and reduce US economic output by $23bn.
Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the US, dismissed as "absurd" the GAO study's premise that Mr Chávez would purposefully shut off oil supplies, citing the economic impact it would have on his own country.
Venezuela ships two-thirds of its oil to the US, or about 1.5m b/d and oil accounts for about 80 per cent of export revenue and half of fiscal revenue.
Mr Lugar, while acknowledging that an embargo seemed unlikely, said that it would be "negligent" of the US to rely on "ad hoc" responses, such as use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
"However unrealistic Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's repeated threats to disrupt oil supply may be, we have a responsibility to plan appropriate contingencies that protect the American people," he wrote.
Mr Lugar added that there was a "real risk" that Venezuela could "act in concert" with other countries to disrupt oil supplies. Mr Chávez is due to visit several countries in Asia over the next two weeks, including Iran.
Myles Frechette, a former US ambassador and now a consultant on Latin American affairs, said: "Lugar believes that when an opportunity presents itself, Chávez will try to break his oil links with the US."
Venezuelan oil exports to the US fell six per cent in the first four months of 2006 to 178m barrels, compared with the same period last year. One of Mr Chávez's policy goals is to reduce dependence on the US as its main market and send more oil to China.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/members/T17/072706_world_stories_
P.shtml#0
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Published: Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Bylined to: Xinhuanet
USA expresses concern over Russia's plan to sell fighter jets to Venezuela
China's Xinhua: The United States on Tuesday expressed its concern over Russia's plan to sell fighter jets and helicopters to Venezuela and urged the latter to reconsider the deal.
The US State Department said in a statement that the US side has raised the issue several times with Russia and maintains its opposition to the deal, which, it said, is not "in the interests of the Russia or Venezuela."
Last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced that Russia and Venezuela has signed a defense contract worth more than one billion US dollars, in which Russia will provide Venezuela with 30 Sukhoi SU-30 jets and 30 helicopters.
Chavez said last month that his visit to Russia could also see a deal on building a Kalashnikov assault rifle factory in Venezuela.
Venezuela is seeking to acquire SU-30 jets to replace its fleet of US-made F-16 jets, citing maintenance problems due to the weapon embargo imposed by the Bush administration on the country.
The US government has forbidden US manufacturers to sell arms to Venezuela, accusing the country of not being "a reliable partner in the war on terror."
US urges Russia to reconsider jet deal with Venezuela
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Published: Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Bylined to: RIA Novosti
Venezuela's President tours Kalashnikov factory; meets regional Russians
RIA Novosti: Venezuela's President arrived in one of Russia's leading defense-industry cities Wednesday morning to tour the home plant of the Kalashnikov assault rifle and meet the regional leadership, a spokesman for the local authorities said.
Hugo Chavez touched down in Izhevsk, the capital of the Republic of Udmurtia about 700 miles east of Moscow, and will meet with regional leader Alexander Volkov and gun-maker Mikhail Kalashnikov later in the day, Denis Loginov said.
The outspoken South American leader, who was elected President in 1998, is on a tour of eastern Europe in a bid to expand ties with the region, which is home to some of the world's leading defense-industry plants and has considerable mineral wealth.
Loginov said the Venezuelan leader's agenda would start with a tour of a shooting range, where he would watch test-firing of the arms produced by the plant.
A plant's official refused to disclose what Chavez would discuss with the management, but said the plant had already delivered to Venezuela over 30,000 AK-103 automatic rifles in late June under a contract for the supply of 100,000 automatic rifles.
Oil-rich Venezuela is a major purchaser of Russian weapons and hardware. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said last week that Russia had signed a contract on supplies of military planes and helicopters to Venezuela worth over $1 billion.
Izhevsk is the second stop of Chavez during his Russia tour. On Tuesday, he visited the southern Russian city of Volgograd, where he paid a visit to the Volgograd Tractor Plant, which produces tanks and other military vehicles.
Venezuela's Chavez arrives in home city of Kalashnikov rifle
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=64297
(VIDEO) Chávez: EEUU no tiene moral
para criticar venta de armas de
Rusia a Venezuela
Por: Agencia Bolivariana de
Noticias (ABN)
Caracas, 26 Jul. ABN.- El presidente
de la
República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, aseguró que el
Gobierno de Estados Unidos (EEUU) no tiene moral para criticar la venta
de armas que realizó Rusia, porque es el imperio más inmoral y
sanguinario de la historia.
Tal afirmación fue hecha este miércoles por el Jefe de Estado
venezolano a su llegada a la base aérea Vnukovo, en la ciudad de Moscú,
capital de la Federación Rusa, a las 2:30 de la tarde (hora venezolana).
El presidente Hugo Chávez agradeció la firmeza de su homólogo Vladimir
Putin, que ha permitido desmoronar el intento del imperio
estadounidense por desarmar a Venezuela.
Recordó que desde hace dos años, aproximadamente, este país bloqueó el
suministro de repuestos para el mantenimiento de armas defensivas y
citó como ejemplo el mantenimiento de los aviones F16, refirió Prensa
Presidencial a través de un boletín.
De acuerdo con el Primer Mandatario, simultáneamente EEUU está
presionando a empresas y gobiernos para evitar que provean a Venezuela
de un material mínimo de defensa, incluso el armamento individual de un
soldado.
«Ellos, que no practican la democracia, acusan a Venezuela de violar la
democracia. Ellos, que han producido y utilizado armas de destrucción
masiva. Una muestra es Hiroshima. Ellos, que lanzan bombas contra
ciudades enteras, critican que Venezuela comprará armas meramente
defensivas. Esta actitud es un ejemplo de la locura que hay en
Washington», expresó el presidente Hugo Chávez.
De igual modo, el Dignatario venezolano señaló: «Hay un intento por
colocar el tema de los equipos militares como lo único importante,
cuando esta visita comprende otros temas de sumo interés. Entre ellos,
el propósito de ampliar una alianza estratégica que abarca
cooperaciones energéticas y comerciales».
Video fuente: VTV
http://www.aporrea.org/venezuelaexterior/n81348.html
El
reciente genocidio salvaje del gobierno sionista de Israel en contra
del pueblo palestino y libanés no es más que la
intensificación descarada de una masacre que se ha venido
llevando a cabo sistemáticamente durante sesenta años
con apoyo del poderío armamentístico del gobierno de
los EEUU y bajo la mirada cómplice de los gobiernos europeos,
temerosos de su pasado genocida en contra del pueblo judío.
La excusa de que la guerra contra el pueblo libanés es producto de la captura de dos militares hebreos por parte del Hezbolá, corona la sordidez del descaro de los líderes israelíes, quienes hoy día representan la amenaza real extrema a la que puede llegar un gobierno que, bajo el manto del fundamentalismo religioso encubre su política de estado basada en el afán de poder.
La racionalidad criminal de la política asesina del gobierno israelí se manifiesta en el odio racista hacia los antiguos ocupantes de un territorio que les fue otorgado por los europeos y norteamericanos para resarcir los daños ocasionados por las matanzas causadas por el odio en contra de los judíos que fueron patrocinadas por el poderío del cristianismo europeo durante siglos, y de la que el holocausto nazi fue sólo una de sus expresiones recientes más salvajes.
Cuando los primeros colonos ingleses llegaron a las costas de Virginia en el Mayflower, adoptaron la actitud característica del moderno colonialismo, cuando asumieron que Dios les había llevado a una tierra desocupada en la cual se esparcirían como el Pueblo Elegido. Por supuesto que la tierra a la que llegaron no estaba desocupada, sino que estaba habitada por grupos indígenas que habían vivido allí desde tiempos inmemoriales, de modo que de acuerdo al mandato divino se procedió a destruir -literalmente- a la población originaria dell territorio Norteamericano. Sobra decir que esta destrucción fue concretada con un vergonzoso éxito y que hoy por hoy es verdaderamente poco lo que queda de los pueblos indígenas norteamericanos.
Tal vez inspirados en el exitoso ejemplo de los EEUU –Hitler manifestó alguna vez su admiración por los campos de concentración de indígenas norteamericanos- los nazis masacraron a los judíos con la complicidad del pueblo alemán, en el cual el nazismo encontró siempre elevados niveles de apoyo, y cuyos ciudadanos presenciaban de manera indulgente la masacre pública del pueblo judío. Porque es necesario señalar que a los judíos se les trataba mal en público, y cuando eran subidos a los trenes que los dirigirían a los campos de concentración, eran subidos en un acto público, no encubierto a los ojos del pueblo alemán, que por miedo o complicidad no se pronunciaba en contra del horror que sucedía ante sus ojos.
Tal vez apoyados por estos horrorosos ejemplos, hoy Israel repite la historia, cuando el actual territorio israelí les fue otorgado a los judíos sin tomar en cuenta que era un territorio ocupado, en el que vivían mujeres y hombres que fueron libres y hoy son destruidos por el gobierno sionista con la complicidad indulgente de un pueblo que les apoya.
El mundo resiste hoy a un intento de hegemonización de los valores de la moderna ideología liberal. La globalización neoliberal conducida por los representantes de esta ideología esgrime como una de sus principales banderas a los avances tecnológicos en materia de comunicación, que permiten unificar los acontecimientos globales en un tiempo real. Sin embargo, es necesario aclarar que esta es un arma que la globalización no ha podido apropiarse del todo, y que los medios noticiosos alternativos nos permiten tener una visión crítica de los acontecimientos. Lo que sucede en el otro lado del mundo tarda sólo segundos en llegar a nuestros sentidos, y hoy los interesados en escapar a la hipnosis de las grandes trasnacionales noticiosas globales tenemos acceso a una gama de información cada vez más amplia.
En este marco, es verdaderamente grotesca la actitud asumida por las grandes agencias noticiosas privadas, quienes tratan de encubrir la realidad de los acontecimientos para ocultar la verdadera magnitud del crimen que el gobierno de Israel comete contra los pueblos palestino y libanés, que no poseen la cantidad ni la calidad de herramientas de destrucción del gobierno sionista israelí.
Pero más detestable aún es la actitud de los medios de comunicación nacional privados de ultraderecha, quienes genuflexos ante el poderío económico del lobby judío tergiversan la cruda y grotesca realidad que nos llega a tiempo real por los medios de comunicación alternativos.
Tomemos un artículo al azar de cualquiera periódico representante de esta ideología, referente a los acontecimientos en el medio oriente. Por ejemplo, el día jueves 20 de abril, El Nacional tituló en primera plana: “Hay que parar este odio”. El artículo hace referencia a declaraciones emitidas por dos ciudadanos latinoamericano-judíos que residen al norte de Israel, en las cuales relatan su temor “por el potencial bélico de Hezbolá”. El artículo parte de las declaraciones de Eran Landau y Leandro Goldman para analizar el supuesto trasfondo de la guerra contra el Líbano. Más adelante, estos ciudadanos declaran que a pesar de todos los sufrimientos, el pueblo israelí apoya a su gobierno porque entiende que se trata de un sacrificio necesario para deshacerse del terrible peso del Hezbolá, que, como afirma Landau “La tenemos como una mochila pegada a la espalda”.
De este modo, el artículo se dedica a acusar a Hezbolá de ser la gran amenaza para la estabilidad del Medio Oriente y de poseer una gran capacidad bélica destructiva ante la cual se debe reaccionar antes de que cause mayores daños. No se hace mayor mención a las razones por las cuales el Hezbolá resiste como puede al poderío armamentístico Israelí, que ha venido humillando y masacrando a su pueblo durante muchos años.
Igualmente, el tratamiento de las cifras es deplorable. Cuando El Nacional se refiere a las víctimas libanesas, las invisibiliza bajo la insensatez de los números, sin hacer referencia a cómo fueron asesinadas: “72 personas murieron el Líbano”; mientras que cuando se refiere a las víctimas israelíes, apunta a la sensibilidad de los lectores señalando que “Hezbolá lanzó misiles sobre Nazaret que mataron a dos hermanos, de 3 y 9 años de edad”. ¿Hasta cuando tendremos que presenciar avergonzados cómo para estos medios de comunicación existen muertos poco importantes que son sólo cifras, y muertos importantes, que tienen edad, localización, fotografías y nombres?
Otra reseña del mismo periódico, del día 18 de julio, referido a la polémica conversación off-line del presidente de los EEUU y su colega británico Tony Blair, titula que “A Bush se le escapó una mala palabra”. Como todos saben, el presidente Bush en otra de sus famosas metidas de pata, pensando que los micrófonos se encontraban cerrados le comentó a Blair en la cumbre del G-8 que “la ironía es que lo que realmente se necesita hacer es que Siria consiga que Hezbolá pare este mierda, y se acabó”. Es decir, que según el análisis de El Nacional, lo relevante del acontecimiento es la “mala palabra” usada por el presidente Bush, la cual además, “se le escapó” en un momento emotivo, y no lo es el contenido del comentario, en el que acusa al Hezbolá de ser el responsable de provocar la matanza del gobierno israelí sobre el pueblo libanés, y que la solución al conflicto no es parar el genocidio de Israel sobre sus vecinos, sino detener a la resistencia que lucha por la soberanía de sus pueblos.
Mientras tanto, el embajador de Israel en Venezuela afirma que las acciones emprendidas por su gobierno sionista son “justas” y su pueblo “saldrá victorioso porque le asiste la justicia”. En 11 días de bombardeos contra objetivos civiles, más de 350 personas han muerto en Líbano. Más de 1000 heridos y desplazados que ya superan el millón de ciudadanos árabes. 29 fallecidos en Israel, entre ellos 14 soldados. No hay ninguna distinción(1) entre las víctimas libanesas… (Recordemos el detalle del artículo publicado sobre los hermanos judíos de 3 y 9 años de edad). Y se supone que debamos creer que la guerra es justa.
Es difícilmente defendible el carácter justo de esta guerra, en ningún plano, ni militar, ni histórico, ni mucho menos comunicacional. La acción genocida del Estado de Israel contra el pueblo libanés y contra Palestina en la franja de Gaza, son sólo defendibles bajo la doctrina sionista y su pretensión de apropiarse de territorios árabes.
Así como los medios de comunicación forman parte de esta guerra, nosotros, los que habitamos este planeta también. El silencio y la indiferencia fortalecen al imperio y debilitan el espíritu de los pueblos. Seguramente mañana nos pedirán silencio, nos amenazarán con sus armas para callarnos, pero nos negamos a repetir la atrocidad de los pueblos cómplices de matanzas injustas. Apoyar esta guerra es dar un gigantesco salto atrás en la evolución de la sociedad humana, es echar al traste toda victoria lograda en materia de derechos humanos, y peor aún, es darle una poderosa arma a un enemigo que si bien hoy está representado por el estado de Israel que ataca al pueblo del Líbano, mañana podría tener el rostro de nuestro propio enemigo, que nos tratará como simples cifras y que nos conducirá a la muerte con la complicidad atroz de un pueblo indulgente ante nuestra muerte.
Hoy más que nunca, conscientes de la magnitud de las consecuencias de la matanza israelí en el medio oriente nos negamos a ser cómplices ni a sucumbir ante las amenazas. Como dijo el poeta: el sueño se hace a mano y sin permiso, así que sin miedo ni vergüenza nos solidarizamos con las víctimas del holocausto Israelí en el medio oriente.
_________________________________________
Notas:
(1) Sólo la Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias publicó que Unicef denunció este viernes que la tercera parte de las víctimas mortales y 50% de los desplazados por los ataques del ejército israelí contra el Líbano son niños.
* liz_adriana_bravo@yahoo.es ; martinezenitram@yahoo.es
After Israel bombed a U.N. shelter near Khiam, Lebanon, killing four observers, Daniel Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to the United States, had the audacity to tell Wolf Blizter of CNN he expects an apology from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for complaining.
Of course, this is nothing new, as the Israelis routinely attack the United Nations and little if anything comes of such murderous crimes against humanity.
For instance, on April 18, 1996, in the Lebanese village of Qana, during Israel’s “Operation Grapes of Wrath” invasion, the IOF killed 106 Lebanese refugees seeking protection at a Fijian UNIFIL compound. As usual, the Israeli government expressed regret, but words are cheap, especially considering the fact the IOF consistently issues such meaningless apologies after slaughtering innocents. The Zionist state added insult to injury, or rather mass murder, by not paying compensation to the victims.
A few days earlier, on April 12, an IOF attack helicopter fired a missile at an ambulance in the village of al-Mansuri, killing two women and four young girls. On the same day the Israelis killed refugees at Qana, a “helicopter gunship attack on a house in the village of Upper Nabatiyeh on April 18, 1996 … killed nine civilians, including a newborn baby, six children under thirteen years old, and their mother,” according to Human Rights Watch.
No word if Daniel Ayalon or his counterpart at the time expected an apology from the families of the victims.
Israel’s IOF has engaged in numerous massacres in Bint Jbeil, Khan Yunis, Maaraka, Jibaa, Qibya, Saida, Trqumia, Homeen al-Tahta, Seer al-Garbiah, Yohmor, Sabra and Shatila, on and on, ad nauseam, killing thousands of Arabs, massacres so common we rarely hear about them here in America, what with our “fair and balanced” corporate media.
The numbers of United Nations personnel killed by the IOF pales in comparison. However, on 3 December 2002, sixty-four U.N. workers issued a petition demanding the Israeli military stop “beating and killing” them, according to the Memory Hole, an appropriate venue, as the corporate media ignored the petition.
“You might think that such a strongly-worded statement sent by more than five-dozen United Nations workers to the ‘Middle East’s only democracy’ would be highly newsworthy. Apparently not. Among the very few media outlets to cover it were Reuters, the BBC, the Independent (London), Ha’aretz (Jerusalem), and the Jerusalem Post. Notice that all these sources are British or Israeli. Not one American media outlet has covered the story.”
“[F]or two years United Nations staff have been subject to escalating harassment and violence by Israel’s military, so that the protection supposed to be afforded by the blue letters of the UN is being steadily eroded,” the petition explains. “UN staff—international and Palestinian alike—have been verbally abused, stripped, beaten, shot at, and killed by Israeli soldiers.”
Tragically Iain Hook was not the first person working with the UN to die at the hands of the IDF this year. In March, Kamal Hamdan was shot and killed while travelling in a clearly marked UNRWA ambulance in the West Bank. In April, Husni Amer died in Israeli military custody in Jenin after, according to witnesses, receiving a brutal beating by the soldiers at the time of his arrest. From its silence, we presume the Israeli authorities have ignored UN requests for an investigation and report of these two incidents, and have not seen fit to take any disciplinary action against the soldiers involved. To us, this seems to confirm a pattern of utter contempt on the part of the Israeli army for the lost lives of these men, the safety of UN staff or the minimum standards imposed by international law which should protect UN staff and other humanitarian workers.
Again, no word if Daniel Ayalon demanded an apology.
Addendum
It appears the IOF targeted UNIFIL for a very specific reason, namely to send the message the Zionist state doesn’t need no stinkin’ peacekeepers, especially peacekeepers who mostly evacuate citizens from Israel’s killing fields. More specifically, it was a message sent in regard to the prospect of yet another multinational peacekeeping force sent to Lebanon. As Bush, or rather the neocons, tell us, Israel must be left alone to go after Hezbollah, that is to say Lebanese resisting invasion and occupation.
It didn’t take long for the corporate media to shellack the murder of the UN observers with sickening excuses. In addition to excuses, the Chicago Tribune felt compelled, as a standard lickspittle for Israeli crimes, to powder puff the invasion:
“The experience for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, has not been a good one. In place since 1978 and comprising soldiers from France, Poland, India, Italy and a few other countries, UNIFIL was unable to stop the July 12 Hezbollah border raid that resulted in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. It was also unable to block retaliating Israeli troops from entering Lebanon a few days later.”
As we know, the Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanon, as reported by Forbes, the Associated Press, ABC News, the Boston Herald, the Hindustan Times, the Bahrain News Agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, AFP, Asia Times, and others. For more on the ever-morphing story, see this blog entry.
But then, naturally, the Chicago Tribune would be bucking the pro-Israel corporate media stampede if it told the truth. Imagine Winston Smith rewriting historical documents so that they match the current party line, which changes on a daily basis, over at the Ministry of Truth, and you’ll get a good idea of what’s going on here.
One wonders what the response would be if the Palestinians and Lebanese “retaliated” against Israel for kidnapping their citizens, numbering in the hundreds.
Finally, according to the Washington Post, the IOF continued firing on the targeted shelter, even as rescue workers attempted to clear the rubble. But then this should not be surprising, as the surviving members of the USS Liberty, the intelligence ship attacked by Israel on June 8, 1967, will likely tell you. In that instance, our “friends” attacked lifeboats with torpedoes and machine gun fire, a war crime.
It seems the Israelis are mighty fond of war crimes.
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=480Israel
used cluster grenades on civilians
by: US-based human rights watch group
Tuesday
25 July 2006 12:03 AM GMT
A
US-based human rights group has accused
Human Rights Watch said on Monday that it had taken
photos of cluster grenades stored by Israeli artillery teams on the
Israel-Lebanon border.
It also said that a cluster grenade attack on Wednesday killed one and
wounded at least 12 civilians in the village of Blida.
"Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons
when used around civilians," Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive
director, said in a statement.
"They should never be used in populated areas."
An Israeli army statement said: "The use of cluster munitions is legal
under international law and the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] uses such
munitions in accordance with international standards. We are checking
the specific details of the incident mentioned in the report."
Violating a ban?
Human Rights Watch said it had photographed M483A1 artillery shells
stored on the Israeli side of the border, which deliver 88 cluster
sub-munitions per shell and have a failure rate of 14 per cent, often
leaving behind dangerous unexploded shells.
It said it believed the use of cluster grenades in populated areas
could violate a ban on indiscriminate attacks contained in
international humanitarian law.
"Our research in Iraq and Kosovo shows that cluster munitions cannot be
used in populated areas without huge loss of civilian life," Roth said.
"Israel must stop using cluster bombs in Lebanon at once."
Reuters
By
You can find this
article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7BE824EC
-6574-457D-A77D-2DD1B2EDFCCA.htm
Mérida
conocerá este domingo en las instalaciones del hotel La Pedregosa, las
razones por las que es necesario dar un paso al frente hacia un nuevo
tiempo, hacia un nuevo gobierno que sea para 26 millones de venezolanos.
Para las 10 de la mañana del domingo 30, está previsto el gran
encuentro de los merideños con Manuel Rosales, quien visita la entidad
en el marco del recorrido nacional que ha venido realizando para dar a
conocer el proyecto que pondrá en marcha desde Miraflores, con miras a
un país donde la justicia social no sea una utopía.
Se prevé el arribo del precandidato presidencial a las 9 de la mañana
por el aeropuerto Alberto Carnevali, donde se reunirá con los
representantes de los medios de comunicación.
Posteriormente se trasladará hasta el hotel La Pedregosa donde se tiene
prevista la realización de este encuentro con los merideños, evento al
que concurrirán sectores diversos, amplios, variados, pero orientados
todos a un mismo norte, la necesidad de un cambio sociopolítico en
nuestro país.
Al finalizar este evento, Rosales se trasladará en horas del mediodía
hasta la ciudad de El Vigía, donde también participará en una serie de
actividades previstas para esta zona del Sur del Lago.
Rosales compartirá con los merideños su visión de que “la bandera más
importante en la elección de un Presidente, es que sea para todos los
venezolanos y las venezolanas, sin discriminación alguna, sin
privilegiar a unos ni perjudicar a otros. El primer magistrado tiene
que ser un estadista de visión larga, de grandeza, no puede ser un jefe
político-partidista de grupos”, mensaje que ha difundido en los estados
que ha visitado hasta el momento.
Manuel Rosales se atrevió a brindar una alternativa a los venezolanos y
su trayectoria en la administración pública, y en el mundo político de
este país, ha permitido que su candidatura cada día sume más
partidarios.
Educador, presidente de la Junta Comunal y concejal en su pueblo natal,
Santa Bárbara del Zulia; luego alcalde de Maracaibo y exitoso
gobernador reelecto del estado Zulia, Rosales quien se perfila como
inminente ganador de las elecciones primarias, se presentará a las
presidenciales del 3 de diciembre con las mejores credenciales de
cualquier otro político que aspire a conducir los destinos del país
como Presidente de la República.
Por tanto, se extiende una amplísima invitación a todos los sectores de
Mérida, sin sectarismos ni divisiones, para que concurran a este acto,
a este gran encuentro de los merideños dispuestos a brindarle a
Venezuela un cambio, para este domingo 30 de julio en el salón
Barquisimeto del hotel La Pedregosa, donde Mérida dirá presente y dirá
que sí se atreve. (E.P./ Prensa MR)
http://www.diariodelosandes.com.ve/pages/index.php/printerr/2006/07/25/merida/538991567/
THE fanfare marking yesterday’s arrival of the first American aid to Lebanon was scorned by Esam Haider and 2,000 fellow refugees living in an underground car park after their homes were bombed by Israel.
Mr Haider, aware of recent reports that the US was accelerating the delivery of new missiles to Israel, was furious. “Why does President Bush send billions of dollars of weapons to Israel and hands the Lebanese a few boxes of food and blankets?” the 24-year-old chef asked.
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The Haiders live close to the office of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, so their apartment block has gone and parking bay B4 has been their home for the past fortnight. It is airless, stifling and unsanitary but, as Mr Haider notes, it at least offers protection from the airstrikes.
On Monday the US promised $30 million (£16million) in immediate humanitarian aid to Lebanon, and US military helicopters yesterday flew in emergency medical kits to the American Embassy. There they sat, covered by a Stars and Stripes, until they were handed over to Red Cross officials in a brief televised ceremony.
Jeffrey Feltman, the US Ambassador, said that he was not embarrassed at donating aid to those injured by American-made munitions.
“None of us like seeing pictures of destruction and civilians suffering but we are very proud to hand over this first shipment to help victims of the conflict and we will carry on working for a durable ceasefire,” he said.
Andreas Wigger, the Red Cross director, said: “We care about what is in the box, not who it comes from. Lebanese patients in hospital will not ask who sent these supplies.”
But one senior aid official told The Times: “The US flies in its aid as it pleases, but has yet to get Israel to agree safe corridors so other countries can bring in supplies and the UN and Red Cross can deliver it. I’m not sure American aid is very welcome.”
In the underground car park Mr Haider’s derision at America’s aid was widely shared.
On level 3 of the Beirut Mall car park a group of youngsters chanted Hezbollah slogans and shouted that they would rather starve than accept US food supplies. Sarra Fawaz, who gave birth to a daughter 11 days ago, said she too would shun any US aid.
Her baby, Julia, was born prematurely during a bombing raid and has yet to see daylight. She lay on a stained sheet with a copy of the Koran propped up beside a pink pillow. “It is to bring my baby luck. The Americans have just brought us misery,” said her mother.
Shortly after the aid ceremony at the US Embassy, Israeli jets dropped four more 500lb bombs on the southern suburbs, shaking the underground car park as its inhabitants prepared for another nervous night.
AID LEAGUE TABLE
Saudi Arabia:
$1 billion to prop up Lebanese currency
$500m for reconstruction
$50 million emergency humanitarian aid
USA: $30 million
Kuwait: $20 million
UAE: $20 million
EU: $12.6 million
Britain: $9.2 million
Sweden: $5.5 million
Morocco: $5 million
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