How Drone "Signature Strikes" Kill Civilians • Unmanned • BRAVE NEW FILMS

The firing of a drone is based on intel that is not fact checked.  If a group of people are doing jumping jacks then they are considered doing a military exercise.  Cultural differences are not considered, as I have seen when I was on the ground covering the Iraq war.  It is not understood that the tribal protocol is to have meetings to come to agreement on an issue, such as water.  In turn, when intel sees a meeting taking place, they bomb it.  All the tribal leaders are killed, the women who are in the homes cooking and serving tea, the children who are playing in the yards and trees.  All killed.

Nothing is working with this and one wonders why the entire world is mad at America.  One wonders why we have created so many enemies that we cannot know where they will come from.  One wonders why we are considered the enemy.  Not only has America spent trillions of unlimited dollars in war, but we have induced a non countable amount of global deaths.  We put immigrants who are running from their wars into our country for safety and hope into dormitory type living for an unlimited amount of time with less hope.  Drones the new war.

"U.S. Militarism Brings Chaos": As Obama Plans a War on ISIS, a Call for...

Susan Robens Photography

As we train foreigners and provide weapons for war, we are creating more chaos into the Middle East Region and spending more of our tax money on the Syrian incursion.  I feel that this is likened to our war into Iraq.  Think about it.  Think about the preparation for the acceptance from American's to go yet into another war and destroy another country.  Oh!  So we can rebuild!  Who benefits?  Ask yourself that question.

Cult of the Chameleon - Al Jazeera 10/17/2007

"high-ranking former U.S. officials have given speeches to MEK-friendly audiences since December of last year as part of more than 22 events in Washington, Brussels, London, Paris and Berlin. While not every speaker accepted payment, MEK-affiliated groups have spent millions of dollars on speaking fees, according to interviews with the former officials, organizers and attendees." HuffPost
Here is the list:
former FBI director Louis Freeh sat Ed Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and current MSNBC talking head; former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean; former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton; former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West; former State Department Director of Policy Planning Mitchell Reiss; former Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James T. Conway; Anita McBride, the former chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush; and Sarah Sewall, a Harvard professor who sits on a corporate board with Reiss.

Israels Political Big Bang

Israels Political Big Bang
By WILLIAM SAFIRE Published: September 15, 2004
Washington — In Hebrew, physicists call the theory about the formation of the universe the hamapatz hagadol - the "big bang." In Israeli politics, that phrase is used today to describe the potential realignment of parties and power. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from Palestinians now under the spell of terrorist leaders brought this simmering pot to a boil.
Sharon 's plan calls for completing a security fence to protect almost all Israelis and pulling back into the well-defended territory the remainder of those now most vulnerable in Gaza and the West Bank . Once a divisive figure, the former general is supported in this plan by an overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens. Like him, they are realists: Israel needs defensible borders and cannot absorb Palestinians nearby. But 7,000 deeply religious and courageous Jewish settlers - who live amid the 1.2 million Arabs in Gaza - see this as a double-cross. Within the Likud Party that Sharon founded three decades ago, they are an admired force of pioneers. As a result, though Arik wins landslides in national elections, he loses to supporters of settlers in referendums within his rightist party. The day of decision in the Knesset to adopt his disengagement plan is near. (Coincidentally, it will be in the first week in November, as elections are held in the U.S. ) The level of fury and viciousness is worse than in the days before the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. Sharon , the lifelong embodiment of Israeli security, is being reviled as a traitor and threatened with death. Members of the Israeli Defense Forces are urged to disobey orders to dislodge settlers when moving day comes. Febrile minds in the settler minority even warn of civil war. At a tense moment like this, Sharon expects members of his coalition cabinet to speak out for his government's plan. They vote his way - 9 to 1 in the cabinet this week to richly compensate the settlers being moved - but some of the Likudniks are keeping mum, lest they upset the hardest-line members of their own party. Benjamin Netanyahu, who as Sharon 's strong finance minister is becoming the Jewish Alexander Hamilton, has found a way to hedge. On the one hand, he votes in the cabinet for disengagement, even as his family loudly denounces it; on the other, Bibi proposes delaying the November disengagement vote until a national referendum can be held. That straddle has Sharon seething. He knows the momentum of battle, and sees delay as destructive. A referendum requires legislation, with lengthy debate, a probable filibuster and a wrangle over whether Arabs can participate. He believes that deviation from his timetable - surrendering to threats of violence from within - would mean six months of paralysis and a loss of the initiative. I sent in a single query to Arik about Bibi's suggestion. An aide passed back his response: "I hear all sorts of suggestions, but not one word from him about the incitement to civil war. Not one word." I think there will be no referendum or election before the Knesset vote to disengage. Sharon 's plan will carry with the support of either the Shimon Peres or the Ehud Barak faction of Labor, the centrist Shinui Party and Arik's followers. Now let's consider the possibility of a political big bang. That convergence of forces on the disengagement vote could be the genesis of "New Likud." The anti-Arik faction of Likud would go its own way, hitching up with several of the religious parties. My unsourced guess is that Bibi would choose the New Likud, which would reflect the Israeli majority. After Arik retires, like Cincinnatus, to his farm - and with a new Palestinian leader ready to become a partner in creating a peaceful neighborhood - the Hamiltonian Bibi would compete for leadership with the Sharon loyalist Ehud Olmert, former mayor of the still-undivided Jerusalem . Thus, the Israeli system would have the gall to divide into three manageable parts, with the center party making deals for a majority with left and right. Not a bad way to run a parliamentary democracy. Having had the chutzpah to predict from afar the coming hamapatz hagadol, let me wish a sweet and peaceful Rosh Hashana to one and all. http://nytimes.com/2004/09/15/opinion/15safi.html Dear Editor, I find Mr. Safire's words both offensive and indeed quite misleading as he describes the settlers who live on lands that were stolen from their rightful owners, the Palestinian people. There is NOTHING religious or remotely “courageous” about these fanatics. Would Mr. Safire call a thief that sneaks into his home during the night to steal his home, land, and property a “courageous and religious” person? I really doubt it! I think that he would be calling for the return of what is legally his and that the perpetrators be bought to justice, BUT then again, it is indeed a rare occasion that one finds the words “justice and Palestinians” used in the same sentence… The settlements, which are heavily subsidized by the Israeli government, using the American tax payer's money, were built and CONTINUE to be built as we speak, make ANY talk of a 2 state solution a mere charade meant to confuse and mislead. Israel 's occupation, settlements, and now the wall they are building, is meant to accomplish one thing and one thing only: to negate any possibility of a future just and lasting peaceful solution in the Holy Land ! Mike Odetalla Canton , Michigan Subject: Re: Israel 's Political 'Big Bang" by William Safire at least the times, printed the letter. letters@nytimes.com

A Timeline of Al Quada's Attacks

A Timeline of Al Quada's Attacks
A list of attacks that the American government feels is linked to the Al Quada.
February 26, 1993  A powerful car bomb explodes in a garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York , killing six and wounding hundreds more. Six followers of radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman are convicted in the bombing. Rahman once led an Egyptian group that later merged with al Qaeda, and two of his sons are al Qaeda members.
June 25, 1996  A bomb kills 19 U.S. Air Force members at Khobar Towers , a military housing complex in the Saudi city of Dhahran . Although al Qaeda has not been conclusively linked to the attack, U.S. officials blame Osama bin Laden and pressure Sudan to expel him; he moves to Afghanistan . August 7, 1998  Simultaneous bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill 224 people, mostly Kenyans. In retaliation, U.S. cruise missiles strike al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a factory in Sudan that U.S. officials say was linked to bin Laden. October 12, 2000  A massive bomb explodes in an attack on the Navy destroyer USS Cole during a port call in Yemen , crippling the vessel, killing 17 sailors and injuring 33. September 11, 2001  Suicide hijackers commandeer four U.S. commercial flights in order to crash them into American landmarks. They crash two jumbo jets into the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington . The fourth attempt fails after passengers learn of the other flights and rush the hijackers. The incident ends when the plane, headed toward Washington , crashes into a field in Pennsylvania . The impact and fire at the World Trade Center cause the towers to collapse. By day's end, nearly 3,000 people have been killed. April 11, 2002  A suicide truck bomber detonates his explosives near the entrance of a tourist-packed synagogue on the resort island of Djerba in Tunisia , killing 18 people, including a dozen German tourists. Authorities initially say the blast was an accident, but later call it a terror attack. Statements on a Web site believed linked to al Qaeda claim credit for the attack. October 12, 2002  Deadly explosions rip through two popular nightclubs in Kuta on the Indonesian resort island of Bali , killing 202 people, most of them young Australians, and injuring more than 300. Dozens of victims are burned beyond recognition or blown to pieces. The attack is attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian group affiliated with al Qaeda. Trials of the suspects are pending. November 28, 2002  Shoulder-launched missiles are fired at an Israeli charter plane leaving Mombasa , Kenya . The missiles miss their target, but minutes later, three suicide bombers strike the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa , killing ten Kenyans and three Israelis. A statement believed to be from al Qaeda claims responsibility. May 12, 2003  Suicide truck bombers attack three secured residential compounds occupied mainly by Westerners in the Saudi capital, Riyadh , killing at least 21 and causing extensive damage. No evidence immediately ties al Qaeda to the attacks, but the tight coordination of the strikes raises suspicions. May 16, 2003  Five near-simultaneous suicide bombings shocked the peaceful town of Casablanca , Morocco , killing 32 bystanders at targets including a downtown hotel, a Jewish community center and a Spanish restaurant. Moroccan authorities contend that the bombings were carried out by Moroccan citizens from poor slums around Casablanca , members of the clandestine al Qaeda-linked group, Salafia Jihadia. August 5, 2003  A suicide car bomber detonates his explosives at the JW Marriott Hotel in central Jakarta , Indonesia , an American-owned hotel popular with expatriate business executives. The suicide blast causes heavy damage to the Marriott, kills 10 and injures more than 100. A few days later, al Qaeda claims responsibility for the bombing in an unsigned statement released to Arab media sites. Indonesian authorities believe al Qaeda's Southeast Asian arm, Jemaah Islamiyah, carried out the attack. November 8, 2003  Seventeen people, including five children, were killed and 122 people were wounded in a suicide car bombing in a mostly Arab neighborhood in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia , the Saudi Press Agency said. The attackers stormed the affluent neighborhood near Riyadh 's diplomatic quarter, first firing on security guards and then driving their explosives-laden cars through the gates. The Saudis blamed al Qaeda for the attack and pledged to track down those responsible.

Commuting in the West Bank

Aljazeera Commuting in the time of occupation By Laila El-Haddad in Gaza  Thursday 09 September 2004, 19:05 Makka Time, 16:05 GMT
The Rafah crossing is now the Gaza Strip's only exit point It is well known that getting in and out of Gaza is not for the faint-hearted. But who could have known that this would take five taxis, four buses, one donkey cart and a combined total of 35 hours?
If tortuous is the word that best describes the route, then torturous is the word that perhaps comes closest to describing the journey. I needed to renew my US visa, but the Americans, like many Western countries, have closed their offices in Gaza . Tel Aviv is off limits to all Palestinians, and the next closest consulate is in Cairo , Egypt .  Israeli forces destroyed Palestine 's only airport in the southern Gaza Strip at the start of the present intifada, and have not given Palestinians access to their own facilities. The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Israel is now Gaza 's only exit point. So like thousands of other Palestinians, we had to make the gruelling 18-hour trip to Cairo by land, after first running a gauntlet of Israeli checkpoints and the attendant humiliating, long- drawn-out procedures. I was not enthusiastic about the prospect of making the trip across the dreaded Rafah crossing, but prepared myself nonetheless. It was just before dawn, our bags were packed, and my six-month-old son, my mother and I girded ourselves for the journey ahead. A ride with a view We had barely begun our journey only to discover the coastal road connecting Gaza city to the central and southern Gaza Strip had been closed off to all vehicles by Israeli troops. Armoured Israeli bulldozers backed by Merkava tanks rumbled off into the distance after having just completed their job. To our east lay the illegal settlement of Netzarim, its 400 inhabitants living in a world within a world. A little more than 8000 settlers occupy approximately 40% of the land in the Gaza Strip; about 1.3 million Palestinians live on the remaining 60%.   Riding carts or walking along the coast is often the only option In front of us is a three-metre-deep pit, with towering mounds of sand behind it.  We stood with tens of other perplexed Palestinian travellers, wondering what to do next. Some, with no suitcases, risk crawling over the mound under a hail of Israeli fire. Others waited for the next best alternative - donkey cart, Gaza 's latest mode of travel. We waited until the first of the donkey carts arrived. Having been given word of the coastal closure, many local farmers had taken advantage of the supply and demand market to make a few extra shekels. Along with an elderly couple and our luggage, we held for dear life - and my son on to me - as the driver steered the rickety wooden vehicle down Gaza 's hilly coast and on to the shore. The journey was three kilometres through water, sand and gravel. Most travellers take it by foot, unable to afford the relative luxury of the $2 donkey ride. The invisible soldiers Ten minutes and several bruises later, we were back on the main road, a little wetter and a little wiser (wearing white pants while riding a donkey is a not so smart an idea, I realised). We waved down our second taxi, which transported us a kilometre south to our next hurdle: the Abu Huli checkpoint, dividing southern and northern Gaza .  This checkpoint was set up in the middle of some of Gaza 's most fertile farmland at the start of al-Aqsa Intifada. Several hundred donoms of land, including some belonging to my own family, were confiscated and razed in the process. Long wait at checkpoints makes travelling a daunting proposition Cars had backed up along the main road, and our driver told us we were better off waiting for it out without him, as it could be quite a long wait. We took shelter at a makeshift cafeteria. Along with a herd of stray goats and hundreds of other Palestinians, we waited for what stretched into four hours.  In Gaza , our occupiers are rarely seen. They hide behind military machines and heavily fortified sniper towers. They are cocooned in tanks behind massive pillboxes, or hover far above in US-built Apaches helicopters. They operate their checkpoints by remote control, and shout out their orders to us via megaphone.  The invisible soldier manning the Abu Huli checkpoint used the opportunity to taunt us. "Go back!" he shouted in Hebrew from behind a blackened window, with only the tip of his rifle showing. "We are not opening up for you today."  Impulsive and cruel Experience has taught us never to trust the invisible soldiers behind the blackened windows. Suddenly, without warning, the red light near the checkpoint turned green. The milling crowds of Palestinians stuck at Abu Huli scurried to find a seat in the waiting overloaded cars and make it through the checkpoint as quickly as possible. Lesson number two: soldiers behind blackened windows are as impulsive as they are cruel. The heat and dust are especially hard on infants and the elderly "Move along, cows," bellowed the voice behind the window, this time in broken Arabic. We took our third taxi to the Rafah crossing, only to learn that we had lost our place in line - new regulations require that you "make a reservation" for your date of travel.  They do not, of course, take into consideration travel conditions through the Gaza Strip.  The Israelis only allow one taxiload at a time of people to cross the fence dividing us from the heavily fortified border. We were bumped from car one to car 36. After haggling our way up to car 18, we found ourselves in a filthy surrounding with no shade and no chairs.  My son broke out in hysteric wails. He was hot, tired, and confused. I began to worry about heat stroke, and eventually a kind passenger offered his place in line. The worst of the first half of our journey was over. After a few more hours, we were on our way to Cairo . We arrived in the Egyptian capital at 11 pm . Back to Gaza After successfully getting my visa issued a few days later, we wasted no time and were back on the road to Gaza . We sped through the star-lit Sinai desert, a five-hour journey by night, to make it to the crossing in time - Israel has strict hours of operations: 8- 6pm .  After swiftly finishing with Egyptian passport formalities, we were asked to line up and waited for the first of two buses we would take that day within a distance of less than 200 metres. This first one would transport us only a few walkable metres away to the Israeli side.  A Palestinian lifts his shirt to be checked by Israeli border guard As with the taxis leaving the Gaza Strip, the Israelis give specific orders to the Egyptians that only one busload of people at a time may be sent over their way. And this busload is not to be unloaded on the other end until the last person has exited the customs area.  And so we waited in the blistering heat for our bus to arrive. But the bus didn't arrive. The first two buses could be seen at a distance stalled ahead of the Israeli side. One hour became two, then three, then five. The place was infested with flies that buzzed around, eager to feast on the daily influx of exhausted, sweaty travellers. I hadn't slept in more than 26 hours, and dozed off listlessly on some cardboard boxes. My son did the same - crying himself to sleep in my arms as I shielded him with a mosquito net.   Overflowing crowd When our bus finally arrived five hours later, we indulged in a fleeting moment of euphoria, as if its appearance would somehow change the reality of what awaited us. About 100 people and hundreds of bags were then crammed into a 60- seat bus, which sluggishly moved ahead to the Israeli side of the crossing.  Again we waited.  There was a refreshing breeze outside, but the driver relayed orders from the Israelis: We won't let you through until everyone is in the bus. I half-sat on piles of bags with my head squashed against the ceiling, my face strategically positioned towards the window - a small foot-long crack. Rafah can test the endurance of even the most patient commuter The woman next to me offered to hold my son. Soon I felt the air thinning. We were literally breathing in the smell of 24 hours of exhaustion.  One woman ripped off her headscarf and began banging on the bus door, "Open it ... please open it. I'm going to faint." And then she did. We splashed water on her face and fanned her with a cardboard box.  Soon another young woman fell to the floor. My mother, a physician, examined her and found her pulse nearly gone. The entire bus erupted in protest and finally the driver opened the door. We shouted to the Egyptians for some help: We have two women down here and there is no more water. "What would you have done if you waited on the border for 20 days?" said the officer, alluding to the 3000 Palestinians who were stranded at the crossing in August. The Egyptians are powerless by their own admission. Everything here happens according to Israeli orders, and the Egyptian officers are accomplices in an elaborately orchestrated act of humiliation.  Also with us were two children, accompanied by their parents, suffering from cerebral palsy. The father of one of them spotted the Egyptian officer and ran out of the bus towards him. "Can't you do something about this?" he shouted. "Look at my son, for God's sake. This is inhumane. Please!" The passengers saw his pleas for intervention as futile and wrestled him back to the bus. He broke down in tears.            Collective punishment The Israelis didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that a busload of human beings were practically suffocating to death before their eyes. Instead, they let pass truck after truck carrying gravel and cement, being used to build the Rafah "buffer zone" and the West Bank separation wall.  As if perfectly timed to maximise the bus passengers' suffering yet minimise the chance of fatalities, the Israelis gave our bus the green light to pass through, nine hours after we arrived. I felt an uncharacteristic urge to lash out at the first Israeli soldier I saw.  Two Palestinian women savour the joy of finishing the journey Alas, we were met by machine-gun-toting Israeli border police officers dressed in civilian clothes. Along with our stamped passports, they handed us the latest weapon in the Israeli armoury: a propaganda publication entitled "The Truth".  Stop firing Qassam rockets, and we'll stop collectively punishing you, it told us. You suffer at checkpoints and are stalled at the Rafah crossing as a result of your own actions; as a result of your "terrorist organisations". At the back of the booklet was a cartoon showing an evil-looking Arab firing a missile that backfires into "Palestinian society". "Terrorism kills you," said the caption. Now it all makes sense, I thought to myself. We force them to punish us; to humiliate us; to trap our handicapped and elderly and young in small, rundown buses in the midday heat for hours as a time until they faint and, sometimes, miscarry if pregnant. Now I clearly understand the Israelis' logic: their cruel, illegal occupation of our land is a result of our own actions. Aljazeera