Winter Patriot Community Blog

May 22, 2012 - ...Now consider the situation in Afghanistan. Once again a war has been lost by the US, this time to forces far weaker and more poorly organized than the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army. Once again American troops are being asked to keep fighting for a mistake -- this time the 2001 fantasy of the Bush/Cheney administration that it could make a client state out of Afghanistan, a mistake that President Obama doubled down on after taking over the White House, when he called Afghanistan the "good war" and committed another 30,000 troops there, plus ordering up an aggressive kill campaign of night raids, assassinations and the heavy use of pilotless armed drone aircraft...

May 22, 2012 - ....That it was pronounced again at the end of the summit that most of the occupying forces will leave Afghanistan but some would remain as trainers and advisors to prolong the occupation, this is neither the solution for solving the problem nor is it an acceptable option to the Muslim Afghan nation. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the representative of its people, would like to state that the fundamental solution is that all the invading troops withdraw as quickly as possible. Leave the Afghans to their own decisions. Another thing worth lamenting is that the constant ongoing death of innocent civilians in Afghanistan caused by the American night raids was never even mentioned in the summit. The internal issues of Afghanistan such as the rampant corruption, state terrorism, insecurity and the plight of people due to increasing poverty were also not addressed....

May 22, 2012 - "Since 2004, the whole family did not gather, not even once. Someone is always missing," recounted Alexandra Halabi, a Christian mother of four sons imprisoned by Israeli forces. When Alexandra's eldest son Raed was detained in July 2004, she did not know it was only the beginning of a struggle that would scatter her family. Alexandra told Ma'an that Raed, 28, was given a two-year suspended sentence and released in 2005, but toward the end of his probation he was handed to Israel by a collaborator and ordered to serve two years plus two months in jail....

May 21, 2012 - The Emergency Relief Committee of the Arab Doctors Union has called for n urgent support for the Gaza Strip and supplying it with necessary medications in order to meet the large deficit in Gaza's hospitals caused by the Siege imposed since six years. The Committee asserted, in a statement issued on Sunday, that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are suffering from a serious health crisis that may lead to an imminent humanitarian disaster unless there is urgent intervention. It also revealed that the solution to overcome this crisis lies in mustering all efforts to immediately support Gaza's residents in order to save them....

May 17, 2012 - Doing away with the pretense that US troops in Yemen are exclusively there on a "training mission," officials are confirming that "about 20 US special forces" are on the ground and engaged in a "focused counter-terrorism campaign." With drones pounding southern Yemen on a near daily basis, the confirmation shows that the troops are not just in Yemen, but are actually directing the Yemeni military in their suddenly aggressive offensive against the Abyan Province....

May 17, 2012 - Doing away with the pretense that US troops in Yemen are exclusively there on a "training mission," officials are confirming that "about 20 US special forces" are on the ground and engaged in a "focused counter-terrorism campaign." With drones pounding southern Yemen on a near daily basis, the confirmation shows that the troops are not just in Yemen, but are actually directing the Yemeni military in their suddenly aggressive offensive against the Abyan Province....

May 18, 2012 - Throughout contemporary history, movement of people outside their own countries for long or short intervals has occurred for various reasons: education, work, marriage, family ties, fleeing hardships, and so on. Foreigners exist in every country in the world, forming their own sub-societies and clinging with varying degrees to their own cultures as they integrate into the new ones. Sometimes, the second or third generations that arise after this movement experience the drive to return to their home countries, find their roots and re-integrate into their societies of origin...

May 17, 2012 -The number of martyrs shot by the regime's security forces and army has reach 34 by the end of Thursday. Among them are 4 children,2 females, 2 defected soldiers. 10 martyrs were in Homs, 7 in Douma in Damascus Suburbs, 5 in Daraya in Damascus Suburbs, 4 in Daraa, 3 in Idlib, and 2 in the Aleppo (Atarb and Katad) and 1 in each of Raqa, Swaida and Dier Ezzor... Damascus Suburbs: Douma: Kahled Al-Shanwany, Basel Al-Shanwany, Kamal A;-Shanwany, Saad Edden Al-Shanwany, and Saleem Al-Shanwany were martyred and several wounded fell after a mortar fell between Thablath houses in Al-A'ab area.

17 May 2012 - Blessing Akachukneu was already looking for a new place to live when her south Tel Aviv apartment, which doubles as a day-care centre, was firebombed in April. Her Israeli neighbours, she explained, had complained to the landlord about the noise from the day-care centre and she had been asked to leave. Otherwise, she had not had any problems in Shapira neighbourhood. So Akachukneu was shocked when Molotov cocktails were thrown at her flat. Four other apartments - all home to African asylum-seekers - were targeted in the attack. Haim Mula, a 20-year-old Israeli man Shapira residents call "quiet" and "religious", was arrested in connection with the incident. Police believe the attacks were racially motivated; Mula had been detained recently for throwing eggs at a Sudanese refugee....

May 17, 2012 - This week, leading up to the NATO war criminals summit in Chicago, we are protesting, reaching out, and mobilizing people to oppose these crimes and focus on the victims - who so often go unnamed. We are inviting people everywhere to contribute the names of victims of NATO violence, using the hashtag #NATOvictims. We will recite the names as part of a Memorial for the Victims of US/NATO Wars on May 21, the second day of the NATO Summit...

May 17, 2012 - In this issue: Leaked EU report on settler violence; two boys attacked by settlers south of Hebron; boy injured in settler attack in old city of Hebron; boy beaten by settler in East Jerusalem; two brothers beaten by soldiers and settlers in East Jerusalem; and new DCI report: Recruitment and Use of Palestinian Children in Armed Conflict...

May 17, 2012 - In a tent at Checkpoint Sayrah Kalach in Afghanistan last February, a sergeant was found dead. Tests showed he had 10 different drugs in his system; the fatal cocktail included six types of opiates - including heroin - three types of benzodiazepines and a cough suppressant. It was unclear where the soldier, a squad leader in the 4th Infantry Division, had gotten the drugs that killed him, but witnesses said Afghan police on the post were known to possess heroin. He had also just returned from leave.

May 17, 2012 - On Thursday, 17th May, a report issued by Palestinian Prisoners' society revealed that three Palestinians still continue with their hunger strike since 17th April, despite the signed agreement between the Israeli prisons' administration and Palestinian prisoners. The striking-prisoners are: Mahmoud Sarsak, Akram al-Rekhawi and Mohammad Abdul Aziz, who are now in the hospital of al-Ramlah Israeli prison... Prisoners told the prisoners' centre for studies that yesterday, 16th May, Israeli prisons' administration had beaten Mohammed Taj, a Palestinian detainee, and immediately put him in the solitary confinement in al-Jalameh to pressure him to end his hunger strike, as he had spent 65 days on hunger strike protesting against the Prison Service for not treating him as a Prisoner of War...

May 16, 2011 - Israeli confidence that Nakba day, marked by The Great March on May 15 in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel and neighbouring Arab countries, would remain under control, has backfired badly.Nakba, or catastrophe day on May 15 commemorates the establishment of the State of Israel, during which hundreds of thousands of indigenous Palestinians either fled or were driven out of their homes by Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to make way for the fledgling state. Three days of mourning, marked by protests, demonstrations, marches and rioting culminated in a "The Great March Day" on Sunday...

May 17, 2012 - Stop the Wall has been prominent lately in organizing protests to support Palestinian hunger strikers, resisting their detention without charge by Israel. The group's strong opposition to Israeli apartheid has resulted in it becoming a target of repression. Earlier this month, its offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah were raided by the Israeli military. Hassan Kharajeh, a youth coordinator with Stop the Wall, has been especially active in mobilizing young Palestinians to oppose the occupation. He spoke to Eoin O'Ceallaigh, outreach coordinator with Stop the Wall, about the role of youth in the hunger strike demonstrations and why today's generation of youth has Israel scared...

May 17, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, a new political entity emerges in Iraq, the political crisis continues, Turkey and Iraq clash again, the VA speaks to unions about policy changes on veterans prosthetics but doesn't feel the need to seek input from veterans, and more... As the violence continues, so does the political crisis. May 28th is supposed to be the deadline for Nouri al-Maliki to announce he is implementing the Erbil Agreement or face a no-confidence vote...

May 17, 2012 - The administration imposed the most draconian police state legal structures in U.S. history before summoning the heads of NATO to Chicago. NATO accounts for 70 percent of military spending on the planet - combining the capacities of yesterday's imperialists and the current superpower. "The Black man in the White House is seen, ironically, as the last best hope of the old colonial racial order and the rule of capital."...

May 17, 2012 - Iraq is about to introduce a new law to cover the cyber world. Authorities hope it will help fight terrorism. Critics say when ordinary Internet users could face of life in prison, it goes too far - and curbs freedom of expression. The draft of the law on crime in the cyber world has only been read in Iraq's Parliament once so far. But already it has drawn its fair share of vehement detractors. On April 16, more than 40 organisations, both local and international, submitted a letter to Parliament demanding either changes, a re-write or an anullment of the law "because it threatens democracy in Iraq". Additionally 600 journalists, acting independently, plan to file a group lawsuit demanding the legislation be withdrawn...