POLITICS

Truly Disgusting - the West in Kosovo

Aleksandar PAVIC | 11.02.2012 |

In the tantrums thrown by the Western powers in the wake of the Russo-Chinese veto of their UN Security Council resolution on Syria, the US’s UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, expressed «disgust» at these two states’ behavior. In addition to these kinds of «hysterics» – as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov so aptly described them – being calculated to rally the global media further against the two Eurasian giants, they also serve the purpose of directing attention away from the West’s own disastrous intervention track record. On February 8, just four days after the failed Syria resolution, the UNSC had a chance to discuss another Western interventionist «success story» – Kosovo. Many might think that Russia’s and China’s reluctance to give a green light to foreign intervention in Syria is mostly based on the recent Libya (and Iraq and Afghanistan) experience. That is only partly true. For the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo has been under NATO/EU control for more than 12 years now – since June 10, 1999 – and offers a much better view of what Western intervention brings than the still-fresh, although already clearly disastrous, Libyan case. The first thing that struck attention was the fact that the Assistant Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet, referred to the situation in Kosovo at February 8 session as one of «fragile calm.» Remember – this is more than 12 years after Western powers have taken complete control of the territory, and almost four years since they have unilaterally recognized its «independence.» With tens of thousands of Western «peacekeepers» on the ground for over a decade and several billion dollars spent – we have nothing more than «fragile calm.» A «success story» – this is not. Vuk Jeremić, the Foreign Minister of Serbia, whose province Kosovo still is according to UNSC Resolution 1244 (as well as Resolutions 1160, 1199, 1203 and 1239, all of which the Western powers have trampled in their unilateral recognition of the breakaway province), characterized the situation in Kosovo as «ghetto and barbed wire,» with the Serbian population being «the most imperiled in Europe.» Practically none of the over 200,000 people expelled from Kosovo since NATO and the EU have taken over have returned. The 100,000 or so Serbs and non-Albanians that have remained are waging a daily battle, not just for survival but for basic human rights. Pointing to this state of affairs, the Serbian FM cited reports of international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, OSCE and Transparency International, which talk of rampant corruption, discrimination against non-Albanians, politically influenced judiciary, inadequate witness protection, etc., while the European Commission has qualified the fight against corruption and organized crime as «inefficient.» Economically as well, Kosovo is a basket case, to put it mildly. The unemployment rate is variously estimated at 40-60%, or even 70%. The territory has been identified by various international agencies as the main European center for the distribution of heroin originating in Afghanistan, as well as a center for money laundering and human trafficking. It has been referred to more than once as «Afghanistan in Europe.» In addition, the top of its ethnic Albanian leadership is currently under international investigation for human organ trafficking. A report by Council of Europe human rights rapporteur Dick Marty published in December 2010 named Kosovo «prime minister» Hashim Tachi as the head of a «mafia-like» group, responsible for smuggling human organs, drugs and weapons. Marty accused the international community [i.e., leading NATO/EU states] of failing to act on the intelligence they possessed. According to his report, Thaci and his accomplices carried out «assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations» dating back more than a decade. Some members of his group are also accused of smuggling unfortunate Serb prisoners into Albania after the 1999 Kosovo war, where they were killed and their organs harvested. At the February 8 UNSC session, Serbia, Russia and China renewed their calls to place the investigation of this morbid crime under the auspices of the UNSC. However, as has been the case for almost a year, the US and other Western Security Council members, rejected such calls, preferring to keep the investigation under EU, i.e., their own control. At a previous UNSC session in December 2011, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin was compelled to remark that Russia «does not understand why our Western colleagues in the UN refuse to implement» such a measure, while Serbia’s foreign minister, Vuk Jeremić added that «some [read Western] UN Security Council members are strongly opposed to the adoption of a resolution [calling for a UNSC-supervised investigation] proposed by Serbia,» calling it a «moral abdication before criminals and war criminals.» China has also backed Russia’s and Serbia’s efforts.  Certainly, one of the keys to this sort of «disgusting» behavior can be found in the startling admission made at the end of January by former Chief Prosecutor for the International Tribunal for war crimes in The Hague (ICTY), Carla del Ponte. In an interview given to the Serbian weekly «Nedeljnik,» she charged that «NATO and UNMIK [the UN’s civilian Kosovo mission] prevented an investigation of the organ trafficking charges» and that, in addition, someone in the hierarchy had ordered the evidence destroyed. Obviously, an independent investigation under UNSC auspices would open up a highly embarrassing can of worms for the Western «humanitarians.» In any case, Western «hysterics» regarding Syria are old hat to those who’ve been watching similar performances being played in the Balkans over the past two decades: first comes the Western media frenzy, followed by calls from Western capitals that «something must be done,» followed by threats, sanctions and, lastly, foreign [i.e., NATO/EU] intervention and the installation of dysfunctional, kleptocratic, incomparably worse regimes, such as Thaci’s «Kosovo» mafia-state. Thus, when one reads of «unverified reports» of atrocities allegedly committed by the Syrian authorities, the first reflex ought to be – let’s verify the reports first – especially as the Arab League Observer Mission had detected the presence of an unidentified «armed entity» (which is certainly one of the reasons why its report has been rejected not just by the West but by the very states that sent it) that was responsible for provoking armed response from government forces. However, on the heels of the first thought should come a second – who would do the verifying? Just before the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, Western «observers/verifiers» came into the Kosovo province under the auspices of the OSCE, led by another US diplomat, William Walker, whose previous experiences included (democratically?) suppressing investigations into death squad killings of Jesuits in El Salvador during the 1980s, and accompanied by Western reporters. The result? The targets that were subsequently bombed were precisely located and marked by the «observers» (a nice name for reconnaissance agents, as it turned out) – while the Western media, with the help of several fictional «massacre stories» helped prepare the pretext for the almost 80-day bombing that ensued a few weeks later. Can anyone doubt that something similar is being planned for Syria? Can anyone blame Syrians that do not wish to become «Afghanistan of the Middle East?» That is why it is vitally important for Russia, China and all the countries that support them, to succeed in ensuring a balanced and, above all, sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis, one that involves the active participation of the entire Syrian public, whose outcome will not be the simple installation of purportedly «pro-Western» thugs. It does not, however, appear that Western politicians and media are willing to give either Russia, China, or the Syrian people this opportunity.  As status quo states that respect international law – one of whose chief principles is non-interference in other countries’ affairs – Russia and China are once again at a clear disadvantage. They have been put on the defensive by the extremely aggressive Western global media apparatus. There is no country in the world – and there has never been – whose government does not have flaws. But there has never been a media force that is able to exploit them to such an extent as today’s Western global media – while simultaneously ignoring cases such as Kosovo, which no longer suit their immediate interventionist purposes. It seems, thus, that, if they do not draw a line in the sand on Syria – Russia and China will just be faced with a similar scenario elsewhere – closer to their own borders. So perhaps it’s time for them to be more active and aggressive not just in defending the status quo, but in pointing to the West’s own sordid interventionist track record. The «disgusting» case of Kosovo is just one of the good places to start. ----------------------------------------- POLITICS Will Kosovo organ trafficking case be put on wrong track? Pyotr ISKENDEROV | 12.02.2012 | 15:27   The situation in Kosovo was expected to become the key issue on the agenda of the UN Security Council’s meeting on February 8 in New York. Before the meeting the members of the Security Council received a report by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet. In his report Mulet notes that the resumption of the talks between the authorities of Belgrade and Kosovo has «eased the tensions» but the stakeholders are facing new «significant political challenges». Among such challenges the official names the situation in the regions populated by Kosovo Serbs, which remains unsolved.  Giving credit to the diplomatic assessments made by Mulet it is necessary to stress that the situation in Kosovo remains tense not because of the activities of Kosovo Serbs but because of the policy of the regional government headed by Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). For the Serbian government and Kosovo Serbs KLA is a terrorist organization while Thaci is the person who is involved in many crimes.  Thaci and other current political leaders of Kosovo are mentioned in the Kosovo organ trafficking report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). According to the report a criminal group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters had kidnapped and executed Serbian and Albanian prisoners and sold their organs on the international black market. It was expected that in the result the investigation initiated by the EU mission in Pristina all the details of the criminal activities of Kosovo separatists would become known.   So far this has not happened. The international representatives even did not demand that Thaci should suspend his office for the period of the investigation. The investigators are trying to narrow down the case to the activities of the Medicus clinic in Pristina (closed in 2008), where transplantation of kidneys to rich patients from Europe, the US and Canada were performed. But the Medicus is not an infamous «loony bin» in the north of Albania where in the early 2000-s traces of such operations were discovered. Ilir Recaj, the former Kosovo Healthcare Secretary, one of the persons involved in the case is not Hashim Thaci. It is not a coincidence that that the EU prosecutor Jonathan Ratel, who is busy with the investigation, said recently that the investigation did not have any item of evidence pointing at the link between the Medicus case and the accusations of KLA leaders.  Although in 2010, PACE’s member Dick Marty directly pointed at such a connection, the investigators are continuing to focus on Ilir Recaj, Israeli mediator Moshe Harel, Turkish surgeon Yusuf Soimez and Kosovo urologist Lutfi Dervishi, on anyone but not on the key actors without whose assistance the organ trafficking in Kosovo simply could not exist. Except for few cases Serbs are not mentioned among the victims. Russia insists that the investigation on the involvement of Kosovo leaders in illegal trade with human organs should be controlled of the UN Security Council. Russia’s permanent envoy in the UN Vitaly Churkin made such a statement at a meeting of the Security Council. According to him, the facts point directly at the involvement of Kosovo’s current leaders in those crimes. But the investigation is led by the governments of the countries which earlier helped those people to come to power. Churkin stressed that Americans are playing the main role there: «What a coincidence! It is a US citizen who now heads the investigation», he said meaning the US prosecutor John Clint Williamson. All the materials including KLA leadership’s worksheets for 1998-1999 are in Williamson’s disposal. These documents remarkable notes: «A middle aged Serbian woman detained, of no interest» or «A blonde man caught, must be sent to by-products. No matter who he is - Serbian or American».  The list of witnesses, made by the US and EU investigators, is also remarkable. First of all it is Raul Fain, a Canadian citizen, who was operated in the Medicus clinic in 2008. Somehow the prosecution managed to attach his evidence to the case unlike the claims of many local witnesses who had withdrawn their initial complaints or were «reported missing», like Jilma Altun from Turkey. In order not to let it happen to Raul Fain he was allowed to testify from Canada through video communications.  As we can judge from the evidence of the Canadian, who needed kidney transplantation, he had initial talks with Israeli mediators who introduced him to the administration of the Medicus clinic. The operation cost € 87,000. Fain transferred the money to the account of the mediator Moshe Harel and flew to Pristina via Istanbul where he was examined by transplant surgeon Yusuf Sonmez, who is now one of the main defendants in the case. After that the Canadian patient together with a patient from Germany was taken to the clinic where they received kidney transplants. According to the prosecution’s report, two women from the CIS countries served as the donors for the Canadian and German patients. According to information leakages in some mass media, one of them was Anna Rusalenko from Russia’s Far East. It was her kidney that was transplanted to the Canadian patient but she did not receive the promised compensation of €20,000 and was sent back to Istanbul.  Similar evidence was given by another international witness - Joseph Koralashvili, a manager from New York who in October 2008 accompanied his father, who needed a kidney transplant, to Kosovo. The safety of this witness was ensured directly by the FBI but his testimony was aimed only to confirm the EU’s official version of the events. Koralashvili said that during his six day stay in Pristina none of the local doctors had introduced himself/herself by name and he did not know whose kidney had been transplanted to his father.  The testimonies of Fain and Koralashvili definitely prove a high level of international coordination of «black» transplant surgeons’ activities. At the same time the materials of the case still lack the main facts which were stated by the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Carla del Ponte in her book and reported by Dick Marty - the involvement of the Kosovo leadership headed by Hashi Thaci in the organ trafficking business. Even taking into consideration serious accusations against Yusuf Sonmez and the officials of Kosovo Healthcare Ministry it is hard not to notice that the EU officials who supervise the investigation are trying to take the heat off the key persons involved in the case. Meanwhile in the materials collected and published by Carla del Ponte contain names of hundreds of Kosovo Serbs who were brought to Albania in the late 1990s and became victims of organ trafficking business. The report also states that KLA leaders headed by Thaci were involved in this criminal business. By all accounts, the EU investigators circumvent these episodes in their current investigation. The problem is not lack of evidence or West’s reluctance to put at threat the picture of the Kosovo crisis in which Albanians are seen as victims and Serbs as aggressors and criminals. This distortion of real facts served to justify bombings of Yugoslavia by NATO air forces in 1999 and the following recognition of Kosovo's independence by the US and the EU member states. It is not a coincidence that del Ponte published the materials on organ trafficking not in the early 2000s but in April 2008, after the West had recognized Kosovo's independence. If the truth on the terrible crimes had become known earlier Western public would not have made such a confession. Today the investigation led by the EU faces similar obstacles. That is why there is a probability that the court will confine itself to passing sentence upon Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez and all references to Serbian victims will be deleted.  In a recent interview with Belgrade’s daily Press Carla del Ponte noted that the current investigation is lacking political will. She said that the international society does not want to know the truth about those crimes. Human Right Watch’s experts agree with her. They think that neither the EU mission nor the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague are capable to investigate the organ trafficking case in which Kosovo regime leaders are involved and it is necessary to establish a new international institution for it. Fred Abrahams, a representative of the Human Right Watch, is convinced that the list of hundreds of Serbs who were executed and whose organs were sold on the international black market is far from being complete. According to the documents which have been recently released by France 24 TV channel, the UN high ranking officials knew about organ trafficking and the involvement of KLA commanders in it as early as 2003. In January, the European Commission decided to start talks with Kosovo authorities on granting its residents visa-free regime. Another transfer of financial aid to Pristina is next on agenda. I wonder how the European tax payers take such money consuming advances the EU make to the political leaders with such a dingy reputation like Hashim Thaci?  Is Serbia strongly interested in a full scale investigation into crimes committed in Kosovo? Belgrade and Pristina avoid this topic in their talks. Speaking in the UN Security Council Vuk Jeremic, Serbia’s Security Minister said only that the spirit of truth should prevail in the talks. That sounded encouraging especially considering that Pristina authorities were presented by the delegation of the government of Hashim Thaci, the boss of the Drenica group how he was called in the report by Dick Marti.   Here have been reports in Serbia that a personal meeting between Serbian President Boris Tadic and Hashim Thaci is to take place soon. In an interview with Alfa TV (Skopje) Thaci said that Tadic and he should shake hands. Taking into account that by March Serbia is to report to the EU on normalization of the relations with Pristina, the probability of this handshake is high. To punish Turkish doctor and an Israeli mediator for the crimes of «black» transplant surgeons, to narrow down the crimes of the Albanian leaders to tricks of a second ranking official and to make Tadic and Thaci seat at the negotiating table - the architects of the «new world order» could only dream about such a solution of the Kosovo issue... ---------------------------------------

POLITICS

Who Arms the Gang Called «Free Syrian Army»

Leonid SAVIN | 17.02.2012 |

The US Foreign Policy magazine said in an article devoted to the Syrian situation that NATO intervention in Libya in compliance with the UN sanctions and funded by Qatar can be repeated in Syria now; the USA and its allies are already on the way implementing the scenario by arming the Free Syrian army. The American author views it as pursuing the «responsibility to protect» (1) policy. He’s got enough common sense to conclude that in case of the Syrian situation one wrong decision may lead to really grave consequences. The European parliament adopted a resolution calling on Russia to immediately stop all arms supplies to Syria on February 16. At the same time the calls to openly deliver weapons to all those who fight to topple Bashar Assad are becoming louder in the USA. Indefatigable John McCain calls to start «arming the opposition». Elliot Adams, an influential American Foreign Policy Council’s member, says the same thing on CNN "I would give them money and I would give them arms». The calls are made to divert attention. Actually there is no doubt the Barack Obama administration pursues double policy concerning Syria. It supplies the Bashar Assad’s enemies with arms and money through the third countries. The USA has been the biggest arms supplier in the Middle East the recent 20 years, about half of US weapons and equipment export goes to the region. The most scandalous thing in this game is the connection of the «Free Syrian army» with Islamic terrorists and Western special services. The ‘Free Syrian army» is an armed wing of the Syrian National Council that is opposing the Bashar Assad’s regime and is already recognized by a number of states in the West. Though the ‘army» is presented by the opposition as an organization of deserters from the Syrian armed forces and defectors, it’s just part truth. The Arab mojahideen, who killed US and its allies soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as militants from other countries that went to Syria at the start of the conflict, fill its ranks. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who heads Al-Kaida since recently, called on the muslims of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and other countries to render any aid needed by their «brothers in Syria». About 600 «Allah warriors» from the Libyan Al Kaida wing joined the ranks of Turkey based «Free Syrian army» in November last year (2). They were headed by Abdelhakim Belhadj who is a suspect in the Madrid March 11 2004 terrorist acts according to former prime minister of Spain Maria Asnar (3). Al-Mahdi Hatari, a Libyan by origin, who had lived in Ireland till he joined the Al Kaida’s ranks, was seen near the Turkish border. He headed the Tripoli brigade and was number two after Belhadj in the Tripoli’s the Libya Military Council (4). Hatari resigned saying he wanted to return to his wife in Ireland, but went to Turkey instead to go to Syria as a militants group commander (5). Thierry Meyssan writes that Hatari has ties with a Libyan militant’s group that is included in the US terrorist organizations list. He was on board of the Mavi Marmara among pro Palestinian activists (US secret services agents were among the flotilla’s delegates) in June 2010 (6). He was wounded by the Israeli special forces attacking the ship and spent nine days behind bars in Israel. He was set free afterwards. The Jihadists internet forums provide a lot of information about militants and arms flow to Syria to be used against the government. It comes from neighboring countries and Turkey. For instance the Ansar al-Mujahedeen (7) website, an international militants voice (including Russian wahhabi militants videos), started to call for jihad in Syria. One of the forum writers nicknamed Nasr al-Din al-Hosni says emir Abu Usamah al-Mojahar (8) died at the Iraq-Syria border while involved in ammunition transfers. On February 12 Hamam Said representing the Muslim brothers in Jordan also called for jihad against the Syrian government, saying joining the ranks of the «Free Syria army» was an «Islamic duty». Efraim Halevy, former head of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, calls Syria an Achille’s heel of Iran (9) He says the country is a beachhead for spreading its influence. Kind of a «mini Comintern» is functioning there including Hezbollah, the main force in Lebanon now, and Hamas, the organization that controls the Gaza strip. On February 7 Andrew Quinn, a Reuter’s Washington correspondent, called Syria a place of conflict between the West and Arab countries on one side and Russia and Iran on the other (10). Militant terrorist groups are the main force of those who apply efforts to destroy Syria after doing the same thing in Libya. The Report of the League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria (11) made public in January 2012 and ignored by the West, says there is no government organized repression against peaceful protesters leading to losses of live but the armed gangs explode transport, state offices, bridges and communications. They are directly responsible for civilian deaths. On February 16 The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the Syrian city of Idlib was seized by armed gang. The information was received from Russia citizens living in the city that is situated in the North-West of the country not far from the Turkish border. _________________________________ (1) Rieff, David. Save Us from the Liberal Hawks.// Foreign Policy. Feb.13, 2012. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/13/syria_is_not_our_problem?cid=nlc-dailybrief-daily_news_brief-link5-20120214 (2) Libyan fighters join «free Syrian army» forces,» Al Bawaba, 29 November 2011. (3) Spain’s Former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on the Arab Awakening and How the West Should React,» CNBC.com., 9 December 2011. (4) Fitzgerald, Mary. Libyan-Irish commander resigns as deputy head of Tripoli military council. The Irish Times, 11 October 2011. (5) Meyssan, Thierry. Free Syrian Army commanded by Military Governor of Tripoli. 23 Dec. 2011. http://counterpsyops.com/2011/12/23/free-syrian-army-commanded-by-military-governor-of-tripoli/#more-3505 (6) Meyssan, Thierry. Freedom Flotilla: The detail that escaped Netanyahu. Voltaire Network, 8 June 2010. (7) http://www.ansar1.info/ (8) Wellen, Russ. Flow of Jihadists From Syria to Iraq Reversed.//FPIF. February 13, 2012 http://www.fpif.org/blog/flow_of_jihadists_from_syria_to_iraq_reversed  (9) Halper, Daniel. Syria as the Achilles Heel of Iran. Feb 3, 2012 http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/syria-achilles-heel-iran_620893.html (10) Andrew Quinn. Reuters, Feb 7, 2012. Syria raises specter of proxy conflict for U.S., Russia. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-syria-usa-proxy-idUSTRE8162FH20120208 (11) http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Report_of_Arab_League_Observer_Mission.pdf

POLITICS

Arab League As An Anti-Arab Weapon

Elena PUSTOVOITOVA | 21.02.2012 | 00:00

Elementary arithmetic routinely holds keys to much more complex political algebra. At the moment, for example, it appears that fairly simple regards explain the bizarre conduct of the Arab League which, contrary to reasonable expectations, aligned itself with the West in destabilizing Syria and keeping Bashar Assad under pressure.  It became clear immediately when protests erupted in Syria in March, 2011 that Washington would welcome serious arguments in favor of Assad's ouster. The unrest in the country came as a predictable – and by no means the last - phase in the sequence of revolts inspired by the US and other countries in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Bahrain with the aim of tailoring the maps of North Africa and the Middle East to the liking of global heavyweights. Later on, the slogan of regime change in the name of “democracy” similarly popped up in Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. It did not evade watchers that mass protests in Syria began in the southern city of Daraa and mostly took place on Fridays, at the Muslims' post-prayer time. Due to the clearcut tendency, Syria's brewing revolt was even dubbed “the Friday Revolution”. The unrest quickly spilled from Daraa to other Syrian cities, with the protesters' agenda – the abolition of the state of emergency law and the uprooting of the decades-old regime – borrowed with minimal adjustments from the Tahrir Square. Unlike Mubarak in Egypt, Syria's Assad lifted the state of emergency right away, but the protesters evidently had much more far-reaching goals in mind.  Syria, it must be noted, was among the founders of the Arab League: on October 7, 1944, the protocol of intentions with a pledge to create the organization was penned in Alexandria by representatives of Syria, Oultrejordain, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt. The list of the Arab League's stated objectives included political coordination and mutual assistance in maintaining sovereignty among its members. In line with the above, in 1948 the Syrian Army fought in the Arab-Israeli war which the Arab League declared on the Jewish state nurtured by Great Britain.  It is common knowledge that the relations between Arabs and Israel dominate the entire realm of Middle Eastern politics. They could still be perceived as a background theme in Europe or the US, but in fact Washington and the European capitals have made it the cornerstone of their strategy to skillfully capitalize on the region's enduring conflict.  From its birth date and on, Israel plays the role of the West's – mostly, Washington's – political instrument applied to fracture the Arab world. The pan-Arab unification in the Middle East proved to be a short-living process: Syria and Egypt merged within the United Arab Republic on February 22, 1958, with Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser as president and a number of Syrians holding key posts, but the marriage fell apart three years later under pressure from the US secret diplomacy. Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights became a reality six years later. In 1973, Syria, in concert with other Arab countries, started the Ramadan (alternatively, Yom Kippur) War in which the situations at the Syrian and Egyptian segments of the front differed beyond comparison. Israel suffered a considerable death toll in the ferocious Quneitra fight occasionally referred to as Syria's Stalingrad, but the Golan Heights remained under Israeli control even after 1974, when UN peacekeepers were deployed to the region and a demilitarized zone was established.  Inspired by the UN inability to reverse the occupation, in 1981 Israel passed a piece of legislation proclaiming its sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The same year the US Security Council annulled the annexation in a special resolution, and the UN General Assembly reiterated the point in 2008, but to no avail. As of today, the Golan Heights are an economically prosperous region in Israel which is practically free of unemployment and outputs over 50% of Israel's mineral water, around 25% of wines, and up to 50% of certain types of fruits and produce. Mild climate and historical landmarks attract a steady flow of tourists to the region which also supplies a third of Israel's potable water. That should, in particular, explain Israel's hate for Iran which has always been backing Syria.  President Assad was re-elected in Syria for another seven-year term slightly under four years ago, garnering 97.62% of the vote in a referendum. The pertinent question is: why Assad who is evidently popular in Syria is figure totally unacceptable to the Arabs at the helm in the Arab League? The Arab League lauded the West's new onslaught on the Middle East and volunteered a blessing to unspecified “peacekeeping forces” that would be dispatched to Syria to dislodge Assad. Who, under the scenario, would take his place? Either the Arab League is moving too fast while the Western intelligence services are unprepared to offer a candidate or those leave it entirely to the Arab League to dispose of Assad. “I don't see the way forward in Syria as being Western boots on the ground in any form, including in any peacekeeping form. I think they would need to come from other countries, rather than Western nations. Of course, if such a concept can be made viable, we will be supporting it in all the usual ways”, said British foreign secretary William Hague. Paris seems similarly unsure, considering that French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero was quoted as expressing “strong support for the Syrian opposition” and approving the decision to appoint a "special envoy" from the Arab League for Syria, but stopped short of mentioning an intervention under the peacekeeping flag.  Indeed, the Arab League's initiative to have third-party forces sent to Syria to induce the transfer of power in the country from the legitimate authority to the opposition should read as inviting an intervention. This is, by the way, how things are seen from Damascus. A statement released by the Syrian government said the people of Syria hoped that the Arab League's secretary general and Arab countries' ministers would condemn the blasts in Damascus and Aleppo and call for stopping the instigations campaign or the financial support of terrorists in Syria. The statement also made it clear that the Arab League's meddling in the Syrian domestic affairs was indicative of an anti-Syrian conspiracy and would not make the Syrian government abandon the efforts to restore stability and security in the country.  Unlike the Arab League, Damascus has no chance to get heard in the West. Considering that Syria was among the founders of the League, it would be interesting to get an idea from whose name the group might be speaking under current circumstances.  This is the point at which simple arithmetic should come into play. The Arab League is a motley assortment of 22 countries. It counts on board Qatar, the world's champion in terms of the per capita GDP drawing over 50% of it and 70% of the national budget from the oil and gas export. Qatar's top oil and LNG clients are Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, and all of them being US political allies. Kuwait, another Arab League country, holds 9% of the global oil reserves, owes around 95% of its budget revenues to the oil export, and ranks 7th in the world in per capita GDP. Kuwait's list of buyers is more or less the same as above: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the US, and Singapore. In Algeria, oil and gas export accounts for 60% of the budget revenues. The export is mainly absorbed by the US, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Canada. The core businesses of the United Arab Emirates are fuel re-export plus the sales of crude and natural gas. The country extracts 2.2 bpd of oil which mostly goes to Japan. The key trade partners of Morocco are Spain, France, the US, Belgium, and Italy. Overall, the biggest Arab League economies thrive on oil and, by virtue of energy export, depend entirely on the West and its oriental allies. It is an easy guess that the Arab interests do not top the priorities lists of those who sit on such energy riches. At the same time, countries like Mauritania, where the per capita GDP measures 185th on the global scale, most of the foodstuffs come from France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and the US, and 40% of the population are struggling below the poverty level, or Somalia, which survives on piracy and semi-nomadic cattle-breeding, naturally have almost no say in the Arab League's affairs. The survey gives a perfect picture of how easily Washington can direct the Arab League and use it as an anti-Arab weapon.

Wayne MADSEN - «Arab Spring» is Arab Socialism’s Fall

POLITICS

«Arab Spring» is Arab Socialism’s Fall

Wayne MADSEN | 07.03.2012 | 00:00

The fall of autocratic regimes in the Arab Middle East and North Africa, which had more to do with skyrocketing unemployment and inflation than in a desire to «democratize,» gave the circling vultures of Western «pro-democracy» think tanks and foundations the opportunity to put stakes in the hearts of governing pan-Arab socialist political parties long seen as a threat to the goals of «uber-capitalist» globalization. The Ba’ath socialist party of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was the first victim of a desire by the global forces of extreme capitalism to re-make the Middle East’s financial, demographic, political, and social construct.  Because the invasion and occupation of Iraq was such an unmitigated disaster, the neo-conservative and neo-liberal forces of corporatism decided that other traditional Arab socialist regimes would fall as a result of «soft power.» Soft power involves the use of foreign-funded domestic pressure groups, financed and organized by Western non-governmental organization (NGO) interests, to foment insurrections and «popular revolutions» by using street demonstrations, propagandized media – including social media – and false flag human rights violations intended to generate worldwide sympathy for the manufactured revolutions. After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq the first action of L. Paul «Jerry» Bremer, the de facto U.S. viceroy of occupied Iraq and close associate of Henry Kissinger, was to abolish the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party. In fact, Bremer’s first order, Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 1, totally banned the Ba’ath Party and all of its affiliated structures. Bremer ensured that pan-Arab socialism was dead in Iraq. Bremer’s propaganda against Ba’athism was supported by his press spokesman, Dan Senor, a longtime supporter of Israel and a former investment portfolio manager for the Carlyle Group. The Ba’ath Party of Iraq was the principal mechanism through which the Iraqi bureaucracy, which ensured payments of salaries to government workers, operated. Without the Ba’ath Party – public sector infrastructure, Iraqis in all walks of life saw and end to their paychecks. Popular discontent and rebellion against the Western occupiers ensued. An army of U.S. contractors arrived in Iraq to ensure the «de-Ba’athification» of the country, with right-wing Republicans at the forefront of trying to create a capitalist and privatized wonderland in Iraq that would not even sell to the public in the most conservative U.S. state. Naomi Klein summed up the West’s desire to turn Iraq into a neo-conservative capitalist theme park in her September 2004 article in Harper’s Magazine. Titled «Baghdad year zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia,» Klein wrote, «A country of 25 million would not be rebuilt as it was before the war; it would erased, disappeared . . . Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders. Minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions . . . Two months after the war began, USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) began drafting a work order, to be handed to a private company, to oversee Iraq’s «transition to a sustainable market-driven economic system.» The company that received the contract was Bearing Point, the follow-on firm of the accountancy firm KPMG. KPMG and USAID are also linked closely to U.S. intelligence operations. In her article, Klein detailed the planned future for Iraq: distribution rights for Proctor & Gamble products was seen as a potential gold mine in Iraq, a single 7-Eleven was forecasted to «knock out» thirty Iraqi stores, and «Wal-Mart could take over the country.» Plans were in place for McDonald’s to open in downtown Baghdad and HSBC branches to open all over the country.  Ba’ath Socialist Iraq, which guaranteed a social safety net and public services, including water, electricity, education, and health care to every Iraqi citizen, was dead. The capitalist utopia in Iraq never materialized. Iraq became a country split into Sh’ia, Sunni, and Kurdish zones, wracked by religious strife and almost daily terrorist attacks. The standard of living enjoyed by Iraqis before the Western invasion and occupation plummeted. Only Western military, security, and oil companies benefitted from the deposing of the Ba’ath Party. But for the greedy global «alchemists» huddled over their conference room tables in Washington, New York, and London, Iraq was merely the first of the old pan-Arab socialist countries to fall. Others would follow but without the full-scale military invasion and occupation strategy that had failed so miserably in Iraq. A new strategy would be needed, along with a new administration in Washington to implement it. After Barack Obama became president and lulled the Arabs of the Middle East into a fairy tale that suggested that Obama was a different kind of American president, one more interested in reaching out a hand of friendship rather than a clenched fist, the Obama team of «democracy engineers» set out to implement policies that would eliminate the Middle East’s remaining pan-Arab socialist regimes.  Now, history is repeating itself in Syria where another faction of the Ba’ath Party has been in power for decades. Syria is the birthplace of Ba’athist socialism. The chief founder of Ba’athism was Michel Aflaq, the Syrian who founded the ideology that combined elements of communism with strictly Arab principals of «Ba’ath» or «rebirth» with pan-Arab socialism under the motto of «Unity, Liberty, and Socialism.» Eventually, the Syrian and Iraqi factions of the Ba’ath Party broke with one another and the two Ba’ath-governed nations became bitter enemies. Today, in rejecting any negotiated settlement with the Bashar al-Assad regime the West is copying some of the same elements of «de-Ba’athification» carried out by the Kissinger/Carlyle Group cabal that took over Iraq temporarily from Saddam Hussein.  The overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Egypt and its replacement by a hybrid Salafist/Muslim Brotherhood reactionary parliament governed by a military junta also saw the eclipse of what remained of the pan-Arab socialist influence of Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Mubarak, who succeeded Anwar Sadat, was a political heir of Nasser and his brand of socialism. The new regime in Egypt has made it clear that the secular socialist policies of Nasser, Sadat, and, to a much lesser extent, Mubarak, have come to an end, with Salafist Islamist sharia law replacing secular governance and equal rights for minority religions throughout the country. One of Nasser’s political disciples was Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi. Qaddafi transformed Libya from a feudal backwater kingdom into a Socialist People’s Jamahiriyah, a country where all Libyans, regardless of race and skin color, were guaranteed a safety net of social services, not least of which was the benefit of popular revenue sharing from Libya’s royalties paid by Western oil firms. The new Salafist-linked regime imposed by the West in Tripoli has carried out revenge murders of Qaddafi supporters, totally dismantled any vestige of the Socialist Jamahiriyah, committed human rights abuses, including the killing of black African guest workers and black Libyans considered «kafirs» (unwashed disbelievers) by Libyan Salafist Berbers of a more European, rather than African, origin. Even the cemeteries of British and Commonwealth troops who died in World War II have been smashed and desecrated by the Western-imposed Salafists in Libya. Tunisia’s Socialist Destourian Party, founded by Tunisian nationalist leader and later president Habib Bourguiba in the 1930s, saw its legacy in Tunisia obliterated with the ouster in 2011 of the corrupt oligarch and Bourguiba successor, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the first victim of the so-called «Arab Spring.» The Palestinian socialism advocated by Yasir Arafat, George Habash, and Nayef Hawatmeh has been replaced by a kleptocracy shared by corrupt officials of Fatah and Hamas who are often more interested in enriching themselves than in breaking free from the Israeli yoke of occupation. Lebanon’s Arab socialist standard bearer, Kamal Jumblatt, was assassinated in 1977. Although it was the West that benefitted by the murder of the Arab socialist leader, Syria’s Ba’ath Party was blamed, as it would be later for various assassinations of Lebanese political figures. However, over the years, Israel and Western intelligence agencies have been discovered to have colluded in the assassinations of a number of Lebanese officials. The West has always sought to stamp out Arab socialism, beginning with the 1965 «disappearance» in Paris of Morocco’s Mehdi Ben Barka, called the North African «Che Guevara,» allegedly at the hands of the French intelligence service. The 1994 civil war between North Yemen and socialist-Nasserite South Yemen resulted in the defeat of South Yemen and its total absorption into a Western-supported Yemen led by Ali Abdullah Saleh, an anti-socialist reactionary. Only in Algeria does some semblance of the Arab socialist doctrine of the former president Ahmed Ben Bella continue to exist to some degree under the administration of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. But with more and more weapons being intercepted at the Algerian border with Libya, it is a matter of time before the anti-socialist juggernaut sweeps across the Sahara for Algiers.

Wayne MADSEN - Western-Supported Secessionism is Hypocritical

POLITICS

Western-Supported Secessionism is Hypocritical

Wayne MADSEN | 21.03.2012 | 00:00

The United States and its Western allies have championed the secession of certain aspirant nations whose independence is in the national and economic security interests of globalization. For example, the United States has cajoled, threatened, and incentivized nations around the world to recognize the independence of the artificial “Republic of Kosovo,” carved from historical Serbia, while refusing to support the national aspirations of a number of nations-in-waiting around the globe. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have received rather limited recognition after Washington, London, Berlin, and Paris threatened various African and Pacific nations with severe repercussions if they granted Abkhazia and South Ossetia the same diplomatic recognition the West has pressured a number of nations to confer on Kosovo. The United States, like a schoolyard bully who failed to get his way, cut off funding for the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) when it admitted Palestine as a full and sovereign member state. Similarly, the West, using propagandized celebrities like George Clooney and Angelina Jolie, led the charge for South Sudan’s secession from Sudan. South Sudan is now a virtual colony of Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are financed by the George Soros/U.S. Agency for International Development nexus, which are representing the interests of Western oil companies eager to exploit the new nation’s vast petroleum reserves. The NATO/Gulf Cooperation Council alliance that intervened to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has permitted, without military intervention, the eastern region of Libya, Cyrenaica, declared the “Emirate of Barqa” by Salafist Wahhabi Muslims on the payroll of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to declare its autonomy from the transitional government based in Tripoli. An autonomous or fully-independent Cyrenaica would be a coveted gem for the West since it contains two-thirds of Libya’s oil reserves. The Congress of the People of Cyrenaica, which declared the region’s autonomy, was led, in part, by a Libyan-American. The Cyrenaica Transitional Council is led by Ahmed Zubair al-Senussi, a member of the corrupt royal family ousted by Qaddafi in 1969. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the other Gulf Arab monarchies, as well as Jordan and Morocco, would like nothing more than to see the restoration of at least one Arab monarchy to justify their own regimes as popular stirrings for change have reached all the Arab monarchies. The United States, Britain, and other Western nations have turned a blind eye on Cyrenaica’s autonomy while paying lip service to appeals from Tripoli that Libya must remain united. There are now calls for autonomy for the Fezzan region of southern Libya, the third part, along with Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, of the old federal kingdom of Libya. While Washington and its allies are comfortable with independence for Kosovo and South Sudan and autonomy for Cyrenaica and Fezzan, they are as adamant as ever that there will be no recognition for South Ossetia or Abkhazia. Even more astounding, Britain has stymied the independence wishes of its former colony of British Somaliland, which was briefly independent for a few days in 1960 before uniting with the former Italian Somaliland in what would eventually become a failed state. In 1991, after years of being attacked by first, the Soviet, and then the U.S.-supported forces of Somali dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, Somaliland reverted to independence. The United States and Britain failed to recognize Somaliland’s independence and echoed the African Union’s stance that the nation should remain part of Somalia, a failed state.  Recently, Somaliland’s government, after years of refusing to participate in any talks with the U.S.-supported Transitional National Government in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, agreed to attend a conference on Somalia’s future held in London. Many observers worried that Somaliland walked into a trap and that it will be forced to re-enter a Somalia and be governed by an Anglo-American regime in Mogadishu, which is backed up by U.S., British, and South African mercenary “private security contractors,” U.S., British, and French special forces, and regular ground troops from Uganda and Burundi. The United States, Britain, and its allies have also shown no compunction to support the independence of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a member of the African Union, whose territory in Western Sahara, the former Spanish Sahara, has remained illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. With oil being discovered off the Western Saharan coast, Washington and London have curried favor with the Moroccan occupiers to be granted off-shore drilling rights. Meanwhile, the Sahrawis remain confined to squalid refugee camps on the Moroccan-Algerian border. The camps have also received the added indignation of being referred by the West as fertile recruiting centers for the dubious “Al Qaeda in the Maghreb,” which, like “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” “Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia,” “Boko Haram” in Nigeria, and “Al Shabaab” in Somalia, appears to be a hyped-up propaganda raison d’etre for continued Western military intervention in North Africa, the sub-Sahel region, and across the Red Sea in southern Arabia. In Pakistan, the West has been covertly supporting Baluchi separatists who have carried out terrorist attacks on Iran. However, the Baluchis are as intent on separating from Iran as they are in secession from Pakistan. Many regional observers have pointed out that an independent Baluchistan would further the interests of the United States, Britain, and Israel in the region. The. U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, a bastion of pro-Israeli sentiment and policy-making in Washington, has held hearings on a possible independent Baluchistan carved out of Pakistan and southeastern Iran.  Meanwhile, U.S. special operations teams have joined their Indian counterparts in helping to stamp out separatist guerrilla activity in the state of Kashmir, which, in a controversial move unrecognized by Pakistan, became a state of India in 1947. Pakistan argued that Kashmir, with its majority Muslim population, should have joined Pakistan or become independent. In addition to playing favorites in the Kashmir dispute, U.S. special forces have also provided training to and conducted anti-insurgency operations against tribal groups in northeastern India that have fought for independence ever since Britain put the region under Indian control upon Indian independence n 1947. It may come as a surprise to the evangelical neo-conservative power clique in Washington, which continues to dance to the tune of the globalists, that U.S. special forces in northeastern India are helping Indian troops kill Nagas, Mizos, and Meghayala tribal members who are mostly Christian. But such details matter not to the evangelicals who are awash in money thanks to their daily crusades on behalf of Wall Street, the Pentagon, and Israel. From the Franklin D. Roosevelt to the John F. Kennedy administrations, the United States supported decolonization of European colonies around the world. Beginning with the Lyndon Johnson administration and continuing ever since, the United States has supported the continuation of European colonialism abroad because colonies equal current and potential military bases: from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Aruba in the Caribbean and Tahiti in the Pacific to Greenland in the Arctic. As a result, the United States and its allies have sought to curtail the work of the United Nation’s decolonization committees and activities. With U.S. hypocrisy over the issue of self-determination and colonialism at an all-time high pitch, it is time to just simply call for every aspirant nation to become independent; Scotland, Wales, Cornwall (Kernow), Quebec, West Papua, Kurdistan, South Yemen, Brittany, Basque Lands (Euzkadi), Catalonia, Hawai’i, Northern Italy (Padania), Zanzibar, Cabinda, Ogoniland, Casamance, Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), New Caledonia (Kanaky), Bougainville, Nagaland, Khalistan, Guam, and Martinique. Such independence and a world of 500 nations would help curtail American globalist and imperialist goals. Having large swaths of the interior United States, including the Lakotah Sioux and Navajo nations, become independent and expelling U.S. military bases, including intercontinental ballistic missile silos and nuclear weapons sites, will do more to bring the world to peace than having CIA-influenced and -controlled NGOs and think tanks carve up the world for the selfish goals of Wall Street, the Pentagon, and Israel.

Photo Gallery - Butchery in Gaza

ΠΟΤΕ ΜΑ ΠΟΤΕ, ΔΕΝ ΕΧΟΜΕ ΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΕΙ "ΑΣΧΗΜΕΣ'' ή "ΣΟΚΙΝ" ΦΡΙΚΙΑΣΤΙΚΕΣ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ, ΣΕΒΟΜΕΝΟΙ ΤΗΝ ΨΥΧΙΚΗΝ ΓΑΛΗΝΗΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΛΟΓΟΚΡΙΝΟΜΕΘΑ, ΟΜΩΣ, ΜΕΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΑΝΗΘΙΚΗ ΚΑΙ ΑΙΣΧΡΗ ΕΠΙΘΕΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΕΒΡΑΙΩΝ ΕΝΑΝΤΙΟΝ ΤΗΣ β. Ashton (ΕΔΩ-ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΤΙ ΓΡΑΦΕΙ Ο Gilad Atzmon ΚΑΙ ΟΧΙ ΚΑΠΟΙΟΣ "ΑΝΤΙΣΗΜΙΤΗΣ"!) ΤΗΝ ΟΠΟΙΑΝ ΚΑΤΗΓΟΡΟΥΝ ΟΤΙ ΕΞΙΣΩΝΕΙ ΤΑ ΑΔΙΚΟΧΑΜΕΝΑ ΠΑΙΔΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΤΟΥΛΟΥΖΗΣ (ΚΑΘΩΣ ΚΑΤ' ΑΥΤΟΥΣ ΜΟΝΟΝ ΟΙ ΕΒΡΑΙΟΠΑΙΔΕΣ ΕΧΟΥΝ "ΨΥΧΗ" ΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΑΙΔΙΑ ΕΝΟΣ ΑΝΩΤΕΡΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΕΝΩ ΟΙ ΑΛΛΟΙ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΑΠΛΩΣ "ΓΚΟΫΜ") ΜΕ ΤΑ ΠΑΙΔΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΓΑΖΑΣ, ΑΥΤΑ ΠΟΥ ΟΙ ΕΒΡΑΪΚΕΣ ΒΟΜΒΕΣ ΦΩΣΦΟΡΟΥ ΤΑ ΚΑΝΟΥΝ ΦΙΛΟΥΡΙΔΙΑ (ΚΥΡΙΟΛΕΚΤΙΚΩΣ), ΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΟΜΕ ΟΛΙΓΕΣ ΑΝΑΤΡΙΧΙΑΣΤΙΚΕΣ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝΣΥΝΕΧΗ ΣΦΑΓΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΓΑΖΑ, ΝΑ ΤΙΣ ΙΔΗ Ο ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΝΑ ΣΚΕΦΘΗ ΕΠ' ΑΥΤΩΝ!

Photo Gallery
Butchery in Gaza

Kawther Salam

March 9, 2009 This album contains images which have been kindly provided to me by Dr. Mouneer Deeb, who entered Gaza together with some other surgeons from Europe during the last Israeli butchery, "Operation Cast Lead", in January 2009, to help the local doctors. The pictures are part of what he lived through during those weeks. The pictures were taken during a short stopover at Al-Quds hospital in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood in the south of the Gaza Strip in January 2009. Thousands and thousand of people are in conditions similar to these pictures, and almost all help is being withheld from them until now. Seeing these horrible pictures left me asking if it was not enough to kill these poor people. Did they have to disfigure them, to subject them and their families to this horror, this misery? What do these pictures tell us about the state of mind of the israelis, who are now going around presenting themselves as victims? Dr. Deeb is a native from Gaza who lives and works in Germany. The Israelis murdered 12 of the 17 members of his family. Two of the survivors are currently in critical condition, one female was transferred to Turkey to receive medical attention. Use of these pictures for commercial purposes, or in any way which could be understood as disrespectful of the victims and their families, is strictly forbidden. Please refer to the main page of this website ( http://www.kawther.info/ ) for further conditions of use. Blast injuries Typical injuries to the extremities as seen by Dr. Deeb. Burns, open bone fragmentation and total or sub-total amputations of the extremities caused by bomb blast. Blast injuries Typical injuries to the extremities as seen by Dr. Deeb. Burns, open bone fragmentation and total or sub-total amputations of the extremities caused by bomb blast. Rudimentary treatment A patient with rudimentary treatment of his lower legs broken by a blast. Phosphorous shell Paramedic at Al-Quds hospital showing the casing of a phosphorous shell which the israeli invaders shot into the pharmacy of the hospital, burning all the medical supplies. Al-Quds Hospital Al-Quds hospital in Gaza burnt out after the first night of the visit. Fires were caused by direct shelling of the hospital with incendiary phosphorous shells by the israeli invaders. Patients Patients and their relatives waiting in the corridors of the Al-Quds hospital. They had to be given masks because of the massive smoke development due to the shelling of the hospital with phosphorous. Patients Patients and their relatives waiting in the corridors of the Al-Quds hospital. They had to be given masks because of the massive smoke development due to the shelling of the hospital with phosphorous. Surgery Scene of emergency surgery at Al-Quds hospital. Midnight Evacuation The patients at Al-Quds hospital had to be evacuated to theb street due to massive smoke development from shelling with incendiary phosphorous grenades by the israeli invaders. This depite the fact that apache helicopters were shooting on groups of people on purpose. Blast injuries Massive injuries to soft tissues due to blast on a patient at Al-Quds hospital. This picture illustrates typical injuries observes in patients of all ages. Injuries Closeup of injuries caused by the blast of 'non-conventional' weapons. The doctor described phosphorous burns as 'deep burns through flesh, often reaching to the bones'. The leg appears to be amputated due to blast lesions. Amputation Here a leg stump is seen, which was effectively amputated due to an explosive blast. The femur bone is set free. A great majority of patients interned at the hospitals suffered grave injuries to the extremities, "total and sub-total amputations" due to the kind of explosives used by the israelis. Arm injury Injuries to an arm can be seen here, it is a typical injury caused by the bombs used by the israelis. Massive damage to soft tissues and open wounds. Amputation This is another amputation of a lower extremity caused by bomb blast. Amputated leg Another typical injury can be seen in this amputated lower leg. The soft tissues appear to have molten away due to the bombs used by the israelis. Blast Amputation This patient has both lower legs blasted away by an explosion, as well as massive burns and damage to soft tissues all over his legs and lower body. The genitals (covered) were effectively shredded. Peppered with holes This patient shows small external wounds peppered over all his body. Some of the holes appear to have been punched into his body. Such patients would show little external bleeding but symptoms of an unstable circulatory system. Upon opening the body cavities massive organ bleeding would be seen, which was at the same time not locatable to any visible wounds. Closeup of injuries Patient with typical injuries related to DIME explosives on torso. Typical pattern of punched holes randomly peppered, little other recognizeable injuries. Another victim Torso of another blast victim un surgery table. Blast victim Man with typical burns and injuries on head which are attributed by the doctors to 'non-conventional' weapons, probably experimental DIME weapons of USA manufacture. Blast victim Deceased girl with typical burns and injuries on head which are attributed by the doctors to 'non-conventional' weapons, probably experimental DIME weapons of USA manufacture. Phosphorus injuries Yet another injury pattern attributed to 'non-conventional' weapons, probably phosphorous burns. Injuries to arm Yet another injury pattern attributed to 'non-conventional' weapons, probably phosphorous burns.

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In Pictures: Massacre of Gazan Children

December 30, 2008 PNN -Israeli forces killed two girls in an air attack on Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip early Tuesday. Local sources report that a missile destroyed a house belonging to Talal Hamdan in Beit Hanoun today, killing his two daughters of 12 and 4 years old. A son is reported seriously injured. Yesterday Israeli forces killed four sisters and a four year old boy. Over 40 children have been killed since Saturday. The bodies of two girls, aged four and 11, who were killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip Strip December 30, 2008. Palestinians carry the body of 4-year-old Lama Hamdan during her funeral in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip December 30, 2008. Palestinians bury the body of 4-year-old Lama Hamdan at Beit Hanoun cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip December 30, 2008. Palestinians mourn beside the bodies of three children in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008. Three Palestinian children from the Balosha family, of five who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008 Palestinian children from the Balosha family, who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. Palestinian women mourn over the bodies of three Palestinian children from the Balosha family, of five who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. A Palestinian man buries the body of 4-year-old Dena Balosha at Beit Lahiya cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008. A Palestinian man carries the body of his 4-year-old daughter Dena Balosha during the funeral for her and her four sisters in Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008. A Palestinian mourner shouts as he lifts the body of a child from the Balosha family, of which three children and two teenagers, were killed in an Israeli missile strike,durng their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. A Palestinian man buries the body of 5-year-old Sodqi al-Absi in Rafah cemetery in the southern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008. A Palestinian mourner carries the body of 4-year-old Dena Balosha, foreground, one of five members of the same family including three children and two teenagers who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, during their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008 The father of Palestinian Dena Balosha, 4, left, one of five members of the same family including three children and two teenagers who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, carries her body during their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. bedroom of 5 killed girls Samera Baalusha (34) carries her surving child Mohamad (15 months) while she waits to see the body of her daughter Jawaher Baalusha (aged 4) during the funeral held for her and four of her sisters who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, on December 29, 2008 in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip Palestinian mourners bury 8 children killed in Israeli air strikes Dec 29 - Palestinian mourners on Monday (December 29) buried 8 children who were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip. In the northern Gaza town of Jabalya, hundreds took to the streets to attend a funeral procession for five girls of the same family who were killed in one Israeli strike. In this image taken from APTN video, Palestinian men carry two injured children into hospital after Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza in Gaza City on Saturday Dec. 27, 2008. A wounded Palestinian boy is carried by his father following an Israel air strike in Gaza December 28, 2008. A Palestinian boy is carried to al-Shifa hospital following an Israel air strike in Gaza December 28, 2008 A Palestinian security force officer carries a wounded girl into the emergency room at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. A Palestinian girl wounded in an Israeli missile strike is carried into the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. A Palestinian man carries his wounded child to the treatment room of Kamal Edwan hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. A wounded Palestinian boy is carried by his father at a hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli air strike Children Wounded - Image by Watan News Agency Shifa hospital ICU: a six year old down’s syndrom with brain trauma

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