Winter Patriot Community Blog

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." ...

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....