Winter Patriot Community Blog

February 20, 2012 - Article 55 of the Geneva Conventions states: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate...."....A crucial component of Article 55 would obviously be "To the fullest extent of the means available to it..." Some argue, not altogether convincingly, that in remote areas of Afghanistan where starvation is prevalent, the US lacks the means to meet the food and basic survival requirements of the occupied population. Mountain passes are snowed in for a good part of the year, and high altitudes and bad weather make airlift difficult. In Ghazni and other remote provinces it is not unusual to hear reports that villages have been reduced to eating grass, and lose many members over the course of winter. But it is in the Kabul refugee camps, in the most secure area of the country with constant NATO activity in and around it, where at least 23 children have been reported by the New York Times to have frozen to death since Jan. 15th, due to lack of simple items such as blankets, warm clothes, food, and fuel for heating the tents and mud huts that are now home to approximately 35,000 Afghans. The winter which has hit Kabul is the coldest in 20 years. Millions of tons of commodities and cargo destined for US military bases pass through and around Kabul regularly....

February 20, 2012 - Article 55 of the Geneva Conventions states: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate...."....A crucial component of Article 55 would obviously be "To the fullest extent of the means available to it..." Some argue, not altogether convincingly, that in remote areas of Afghanistan where starvation is prevalent, the US lacks the means to meet the food and basic survival requirements of the occupied population. Mountain passes are snowed in for a good part of the year, and high altitudes and bad weather make airlift difficult. In Ghazni and other remote provinces it is not unusual to hear reports that villages have been reduced to eating grass, and lose many members over the course of winter. But it is in the Kabul refugee camps, in the most secure area of the country with constant NATO activity in and around it, where at least 23 children have been reported by the New York Times to have frozen to death since Jan. 15th, due to lack of simple items such as blankets, warm clothes, food, and fuel for heating the tents and mud huts that are now home to approximately 35,000 Afghans. The winter which has hit Kabul is the coldest in 20 years. Millions of tons of commodities and cargo destined for US military bases pass through and around Kabul regularly....

February 20, 2012 - Reuters has reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is negotiating with all parties in Syria to allow them to bring aid to the most affected areas in Syria. As the whole world now knows, one of the most affected areas is Baba Amro in Homs, subject to shelling and destruction on a daily basis. However, upon contacting our Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) colleagues in Baba Amro, we were informed that the no one from the ICRC had contacted them or representatives of the Free Syrian in order to bring aid to them. The ICRC's statement indicates that there is a war in Syria between two armies which are equal in strength fighting each other, and this is completely removed from the reality of Syria and only works in favor of the Syrian regime. There are dozens if not hundreds of tanks and heavy artillery, as well as thousands of soldiers from the Syrian regime's army equipped with weapons surrounding civilians and shelling the people of Baba Amro for over 18 days continuously. On the other hand, there is a Free Syrian Army with only dozens of defected soldiers, hiding inside the Baba Amro district to protect women from being raped, men and children from being killed, and homes from being looted by the Syrian regime's security forces...

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. There's still no confirmation, despite some media reports, that Adnan has agreed to end his hunger strike, but 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 20, 2012 - "Jesus is the son of a whore," "we will crucify you," "Jesus is dead" and "death to Christianity" were the messages left behind by vandals who attacked the Baptist Narkis Street Congregation in West Jerusalem today. The tires of several cars parked in the compound were slashed as well...The phrase "price tag" was spray-painted on the property several times, referring to "retribution settlers say they will exact for any attempt by the Israeli government to curb settlement in the occupied West Bank," as Reuters reported today. Reuters added, "Two weeks ago, similar graffiti was scrawled on the 11th-century Monastery of the Cross which is also in west Jerusalem," but no one had been apprehended for that attack....

February 20, 2012 --With around 2.4 million incarcerated, America has by far the world's largest prison system. Two-thirds in it are Black or Latino. Most held are non-violent. Over half are for drug related charges. Around 75% are Blacks or Latinos. On all charges, many are persecuted political prisoners. In her book titled, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," Michelle Alexander called today's Jim Crow a modern-day elitist-designed racial caste system. Believing poor Blacks (and Latinos) are dangerous and economically superfluous, America's gulag became an instrument of social control....

February 20, 2012 - Khader Adnan is on hunger strike for the 65th day to protest against detention and imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians held captive in inhumane conditions. Since 1967: over 750,000 Palestinians were held captive in Israeli dungeons. During the First Intifada: over 116000 Palestinians were held captive in Israeli dungeons. During Al-Aqsa Intifada: over 70000 Palestinians were held captive in Israeli dungeons. Currently, over 4500 Palestinians are held captive in Israeli dungeons. Khader Adnan is on hunger strike for the 65th day to protest against administrative detention, which is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret evidence without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.... Currently, there are 309 administrative detainees in Israeli dungeons.

February 20, 2012 - Lawyer of detainee, Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike since 65 days, stated that the Israeli Supreme Court decided to hold a session to look into Adnan's case on Tuesday. The court also decided that Adnan does have to attend the session due to his bad health condition. The court will be deliberating an appeal filed by his lawyer, on Tuesday at 2 in the afternoon. It will be deciding whether to keep him under administrative detention, without any charges, or to make a decision into his case, including the option of releasing him....

February 20, 2012 - A year ago, Islam Dar Ayyoub was a sociable ninth grader and a good student, according to his father, Saleh, a Palestinian laborer in this small village near Ramallah. Then, one night in January 2011, about 20 Israeli soldiers surrounded the dilapidated Dar Ayyoub home and pounded vigorously on the door. Islam, who was 14 at the time, said he thought they had come for his older brother. Instead, they had come for him. He was blindfolded, handcuffed and whisked away in a jeep....

February 20, 2012 - Each year, the U.S. State Department, as required by law, issues a "Human Rights Report" which details abuses by other countries. To call it an exercise in hypocrisy is to understate the case: it is almost impossible to find any tyrannical power denounced by the State Department which the U.S. Government (and its closest allies) do not regularly exercise itself. Indeed, it's often impossible to imagine how the authors of these reports can refrain from cackling mischievously over the glaring ironies of what they are denouncing (my all-time favorite example is discussed in the update here)...

February 20, 2012 - An Israeli official has described 63-day Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan as an "Islamic Jihad terrorist" without producing any evidence to prove his claim. Adnan, a 33-year-old baker, has been on hunger strike since shortly after he was detained in a late-night raid on December 17.nHe is being held under what Israeli law calls administrative detention, meaning he can be held without trial or charges indefinitely. The case has drawn widespread condemnation of the Israeli policy, with rights groups urging the Jewish state to release Adnan or charge him with an offense....

February 20, 2012 - An Israeli official has described 63-day Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan as an "Islamic Jihad terrorist" without producing any evidence to prove his claim. Adnan, a 33-year-old baker, has been on hunger strike since shortly after he was detained in a late-night raid on December 17.nHe is being held under what Israeli law calls administrative detention, meaning he can be held without trial or charges indefinitely. The case has drawn widespread condemnation of the Israeli policy, with rights groups urging the Jewish state to release Adnan or charge him with an offense....

February 18, 2012 The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported Friday that Palestinian political detainees held at the Ramon Israeli prison, are being punished for protesting abuse against their families, who are being ordered to undergo humiliation and strip search before they visit their detained family members. The PPS stated that these punishments include depriving them from their visitation rights for a month, removing all electric equipment they have, and preventing them from buying food from the prison canteen...

February 18, 2012 The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported Friday that Palestinian political detainees held at the Ramon Israeli prison, are being punished for protesting abuse against their families, who are being ordered to undergo humiliation and strip search before they visit their detained family members. The PPS stated that these punishments include depriving them from their visitation rights for a month, removing all electric equipment they have, and preventing them from buying food from the prison canteen...

February 19, 2012 - The High Court of Justice decides to postpone to Thursday the urgent appeal in the case of hunger striker Khader Adnan - and may not reach a decision even then. Khader Adnan is on his 64th day of a hunger strike, and today the High Court of Justice (HCJ) decided to postpone to Thursday dealing with the urgent appeal in his case. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, which supports the appeal, noted that would be Adnan's 68th day of his hunger strike, and there is no guarantee that the justices will bother to make their decision then. It's a Thursday, you know, and the weekend is so close, and this is just a Palestinian in administrative detention, and he must be held for a reason. Irrecoverable dying begins on the 70th day of a hunger strike. That would be Friday....

February 19, 2012 -- Israeli forces on Sunday detained a man from Gaza who was seeking medical treatment in Israel. Witnesses told Ma'an that Kamal Hikmat al-Taramsi, 23, was detained at Beit Hanoun checkpoint while reportedly on route to an Israeli hospital for treatment. Al-Taramsi, from Jabalia refugee camp, suffers from thyroid cancer....

February 18, 2012 - The number of martyrs has risen to 21 among them 3 women and 2 children: 8 in Homs, 4 in Idlib, 3 in Hama , 3 in Daraa, 2 in Mazzah (the heart of Damascus city) and one martyr in Aleppo...Damascus: Mazzeh: Two sfell as security forces shot them during the funeral procession of the martyrs...Damascus: Mazzeh: A large number of mourners were arrested on Mazzeh highway and they are detained in the Iranian Embassy.Hama: Two children were martyred: Mohammad Ahmad Bakeer and Ahmad Zafer Assaye in addition to one who was injured in a shooting from a tank's machine-gun that is stationed at Al-Mazareb Bridge. The shooting targeted a car they were riding. Security forces arrested the one who was injured and another one who was also with them in the car... Homs: Sahar Abdulkader Atasi was martyred when she died from her injuries. Security forces had shot her in the neighborhood of Inshaat when she was trying to flee from the neighborhood with her husband and his sister, who were martyred right away...

February 18 , 2012 - Mu'min Najar drags open the massive door to the goods depot of his father's furniture factory, the Modern Industrial Group (MIG), in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. "Everything you see here is waiting to be sold abroad," he says On the left side of the depot, writing desks are piled up several metres high. Further towards the back, hundreds of chairs have been waiting to be sold for more than a year now, and are covered in dust. Encouraged by Israeli announcements in 2010 of an ease in restrictions on exports, the factory owner, Mohamed Najar, produced furniture worth about US$150,000 for orders from abroad. But he has little hope he will be allowed to export these items any time soon. "I am ready to export tomorrow," he told IRIN, adding: "The Israelis made us prepare with positive announcements. But in the end, nothing has happened." ....

February 18, 2012 - Obama recently defended his controversial "drone campaign" in Pakistan as a "targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists," adding that it "has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties." Now, a shocking new report not only disputes that claim, but also reveals that the CIA has been using drones to deliberately target civilians, including rescuers and mourners at funerals. Since Obama took office in 2009, "between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed, including more than 60 children," writes Chris Woods of the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism...