Winter Patriot Community Blog

February 21, 2012 - Some 500 Palestinians are demonstrating in Gaza City in solidarity with Syrian anti-government protesters. The group of mostly Islamic University students hoisted Palestinian and Syrian flags and burned images of President Bashar Assad on Tuesday. They shouted "Bashar go to hell" to protest his violent crackdown on opponents... One of the organizers, Hamas activist Muhammad Rayyan, said the protest was against Assad and those in Syria who are "killing their own people."...

February 21, 2012 - A few years ago, in a series of posts about the economic unraveling of the United States, I cited Mike Whitney a number of times.... But as the ruling class's grip on those who are not favored by wealth and power grows constantly tighter, as the ruling class throttles the little remaining life out of those of us struggling merely to survive, laments of this kind grow more and more wearisome... The title of his article emphasizes the question: "Why Hasn't Anyone Gone to Jail?" The question assumes that "the law" exists in a manner separate and independent from particular actors in our corporatist-authoritarian system of government -- that "the law" will in some unspecified manner root out wrongdoing and punish it. That particular assumption will reliably be found in fifth-grade civics textbooks. It has no place in discussions conducted by adults about politics in the real world. To conceive of "the law" in the fashion Whitney does is to embrace the State's own propaganda...

February 21, 2012 - ...His administrative detention order, as is the case with all other administrative detainees, is based on the alleged threat he poses to the "security of the State of Israel." However, if Israeli officials agree that he will not be a threat on 17 April, as clear from today's deal, he surely does not pose any threat today and his case provides further proof of Israel's policy of arbitrary detention. Addameer reiterates its call for his immediate and unconditional release and the release of the 308 other administrative detainees. Addameer's main concern remains Khader's health, in critical condition after over two months of hunger strike. Whether or not Khader continues his hunger strike, he must receive proper arrangements for observing his health condition, which will likely now have irreversible consequences. If he does decide to end his hunger strike, the potential complications from such a protracted hunger strike will require urgent and trusted care, which can only be provided if he is released....

February 21, 2012 - At any given moment, hundreds of Palestinians are held by Israel without charges or trial. Of the Palestinians currently under administrative arrest, 88 have been held for more than a year. One has been held for more than five years. Some advocacy groups and Israeli officials have recently claimed that Khader Adnan, the 33-year-old Palestinian on a hunger strike for more than two months now, "is no saint," and that real security concerns led to his arrest. But we can never know for sure, since Adnan is held under administrative arrest, a measure that contradicts the logic at the heart of the rule of law: it aims to put people in prisons not for what they did or conspired to do, but for what they might do. In other words, he is guilty until proven innocent. And there is no way to try and prove he is innocent, since Adnan won't face trial....

February 21, 2012 - ...The Addameer Prisoner Support group reported Adnan's announced deal on Twitter, but said: "For the sake of his family, we will not release any additional information until we have confirmation from Khader Adnan." Addameer also said his attorney Samer Sam'an is outside his Safad Hospital detention location "being denied permission to see" him. Israeli government spokesman Ofir Gendelman spuriously Twittered: Adnan "will finish his sentence on April 17, if there's no new evidence. If he returns to violence & and terror, he will be arrested again." Adnan, of course, committed no crime and wasn't charged. Suggesting it highlights Israeli oppression against millions of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs....

February 21, 2012 - - Authorities in and around Misrata are preventing thousands of people from returning to the villages of Tomina and Kararim and have failed to stop local militias from looting and burning homes there, Human Rights Watch said today. The abuse mirrors the treatment of roughly 30,000 displaced people from the nearby town of Tawergha, who have also been blocked from returning home for at least five months, Human Rights Watch said...

February 21, 2012 - Fierce clashes between two tribes in Libya's remote southeastern desert have killed more than 100 people over the past 10 days, tribal sources said on Tuesday. At least 113 people from the Toubu tribe and another 23 from the Zwai tribe have been killed in the town of Kufra since fighting erupted on 12 February, the sources said. "We are under siege since a week. Since the start of the clashes, 113 people (from our side) have been killed, including six children," Toubu chief Issa Abdelmajid told AFP by telephone...

February 21, 2012 - Lawyers for Khader Adnan have reached a deal with Israel for Adnan to be released on 17 April, Addameer announced today via Twitter. Khader Adnan has agreed to end his hunger strike. Addameer said the deal appears to meet minimum conditions Adnan had previously communicated to lawyers. Adnan has been on hunger strike for 66 days against his "administrative detention" by Israel without charge or trial. Addameer is a Palestinian prisoners rights group whose lawyers have been closely following Adnan's case...

February 21, 2012 - Lawyers for Khader Adnan have reached a deal with Israel for Adnan to be released on 17 April, Addameer announced today via Twitter. Khader Adnan has agreed to end his hunger strike. Addameer said the deal appears to meet minimum conditions Adnan had previously communicated to lawyers. Adnan has been on hunger strike for 66 days against his "administrative detention" by Israel without charge or trial. Addameer is a Palestinian prisoners rights group whose lawyers have been closely following Adnan's case...

February 21, 2012 - Iraq has already executed at least 69 people this year. Al Rafidayn reports that Iraq's presidency council signed off on 33 more executions Sunday. If all are conducted in the next weeks, Iraq will have executed over 100 people before 2012's half-year mark... It can't provide potable water or reliable electricity or even basic jobs, but Nouri's 'leadership' can provide executions. Lots and lots of executions...

February 21, 2012 - More than 2,000 angry Afghans rallied Tuesday against the inadvertent burning of Korans and other Islamic religious materials during trash disposal at an American air base. They demanded to meet the country's president over the issue and threatened to demonstrate again if their demand was not met. U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, apologized and ordered an investigation into the incident, which he was "not intentional in any way." The incident stoked anti-foreign sentiment that already is on the rise after nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and fueled the arguments of Afghans who believe foreign troops are not respectful of their culture or Islamic religion...

February 21, 2012 - An official Palestinian report has accused the International Committee of the Red Cross of failing to protect Palestinian prisoners "who are exposed to massive violations of their rights and dignity in Israel's prisons and interrogation centres". The report was issued on Monday 20th February. In it, the Ministry of Prisoners and Freed Detainees in Ramallah said, "Since the beginning of the [Israeli] occupation, the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able to commit the Israelis to apply international humanitarian laws to Palestinian prisoners. Thus, Israel has succeeded in limiting the organisation's role."...

February 20, 2012 - Monday began with the martyrdom of Suleiman Salem Haj Qaddour from the Madiq Citadel in Hama due to wounds sustained when the regime's army fired on homes... Homs: Regime's army is shelling randomly Ashira neighborhood using RBG and nail bombs, and more than 9 shells fell on residential buildings, while Shabiha are trying to enter the neighborhood to assault the residents...Homs: Seven people were martyred in the neighborhood of Baba Amr, five of them from the continuous shelling and two were shot by snipers... Homs: Martyrdom of Mohamed Radwan Algizawi from Karm Alzaiton after disappearing for more than 20 days. His family received the body from the National Hospital and the effects of torture are obvious on his body and the number 348 is written on his stomach for unknown reasons...Homs: An entire family of four, 3 women and a man, called the Jeniyat were martyred after targeting their home with two artillery shells in Malaab Baladi neighborhood near the Shoes Factory...

February 20, 2012 - In Bashar al-Assad's Syria, it is not just forbidden to speak, demonstrate and protest: it is also forbidden both to give medical treatment, and to receive treatment yourself. Since the beginning of the uprising, the regime has been waging a merciless war against any individual or institution capable of bringing medical aid to the victims of repression... The men torturing him weren't even trying to get information, they just insulted their victims: "Ah, you want freedom, well here's your freedom!" His nephew died from the torture; finally, R was transferred to the operating room for surgery. Afterwards, he was imprisoned, without any post-operative follow-up: his leg got infected, and six days later it was summarily amputated by a military doctor. I am shown a picture of him upon his release: his skin sallow, his cheeks sunk, skeletal, but softly glad to be alive...

February 20, 2012 - ... Nine Palestinian very young children were killed and 40 other children injured (some severely) in one horrific fiery traffic accident today and another child was killed in a separate traffic accident. The day started with me breaking a glass and then having to talk to a lawyer about a notice I just received to go to military court on 1 April (more on this later as it becomes clear what I will be charged with). Then I am rushing to do interview live on an international TV station then driving to Ramallah for an important meeting and then to my afternoon classes at Birzeit University. Well, I never made it to the Ramallah meeting because the road was blocked for this horrific accident; an Israeli licensed trailer truck (driven by an Israeli Arab citizen) carrying fuel hit the Palestinian bus carrying children on a trip head on and the bus turned over and burst in flames (the bus burned not the trailer!). This happened near the Palestinian village of Hizma and the villagers rushed to save the children. The Israeli cars could double back and go through the wall on the Israeli only roads. We in the Palestinian cars had to wait as ambulance after ambulance took the dead and injured away...

February 20, 2012 - ...Something much more dangerous is in process. Both Hamas and Palestinian President Abbas' Fateh movements are in dire need to unite to save themselves, after totally decimating anything resembling a national liberation movement or an operating political system. The average Palestinian in Jerusalem, Haifa, Shatila, and Santiago is without voice, without representation, and further away from freedom, return and independence than they have ever been. Hamas' Khaled Meshaal looks more like someone preparing to enter and take over the secular PLO than someone begging to take over a Palestinian Authority that has been emptied of any serious authority (if it ever had any). Israel may be laughing away at all this, proud that they destroyed all remnants of a peace process, but history has lessons for he who laughs last...

February 20, 2012 - ... We ask: Would the United States of America accept what these NGOs were doing here - undermining the nation's sovereignty - on U.S. soil? It would absolutely refuse. So why should we have to accept it? Why does the U.S. want revolutionary Egypt to become a breeding ground for conspiracies against Egypt's national and societal security, its territorial integrity and the unity of its people? Should Egypt accept such a situation in return for aid which is given in return for favors the previous regime performed for the U.S. in Iraq, the Gulf and Afghanistan, all at the expense of our Arab nation?...We have a right to ask: What does charity work and spreading democracy have to do with taking photographs of churches, noting their locations and numbers? How is this related to identifying the bases of the Egyptian Armed Forces in cities along the Nile canal? Isn't this an act of espionage against our national security for the benefit of foreign parties? Or does this qualify as charitable work in your lexicon?...

February 20, 2012 - Yesterday we went to Beit Lahia to visit the family of the two other fishermen, arrested on Monday morning, while fishing in the waters north of Gaza. Jamal Ramadan Al Sultan is a 58 year old man. His eyes are intensely expressive. With him is also another fisherman arrested on Tuesday morning, Ahmed Mohammed Zayed, 27 years. In spite of the veil of sadness covering their eyes, they tell us their story with a sense of humor, their strength. Ahmed starts sharing with us his experience. He was alone on his rowing boat. He was arrested on Tuesday morning at 6.00 AM. He was collecting his nets on his boat before coming home...

February 20, 2012 - The breeze block homes that cling to the sides of the cliffs above Piraeus harbour are painted typical Greek colours: cream and pink. The bare twigs poking out of hanging baskets and trellises stand ready to sprout, as soon as some warmth arrives. At the clinic, on the corner, people hang around the doorway. Some have sunken cheeks. Others emerge carrying that international brand identifier of poverty - the multicoloured plastic sack - filled with old clothes and basic food. Volunteer doctors and nurses set the clinic up for migrants who fall through the Greek social security net. But since the crisis, something startling has happened. Greeks have started to turn up here, in ever larger numbers....

February 20, 2012 - Today Iraq's Sunni Vice President delivered a speech from Erbil denouncing charges against him and stating he would not be tried in Baghdad, that the trial should be moved to Kirkuk and that, if it wasn't, international observers should take over... Pakistan's Daily Times noted the speech was a half-hour and that he called on "all honest Iraqi people" to join him in rejecting the charges. Yara Bayoumy, Ashmed Rasheed, Patrick Markey and Alastair Macdonald (Reuters) quote al-Hashemi declaring, "All of these accusations against members of my protection detail are a black comedy." He repeated his belief that a trial should be held in Kirkuk and stated if that did not happen the his next move would be to "turn immediately to the international community." ...Tareq al-Hashemi not only again repeated that his bodyguards had been tortured but stated he was in possession of photos demonstrating the torture. Al Jazeera quotes him stating, "We have pictures of bruises on their faces and bodies." ...