Israel Incursion Into GAZA Militarily-2006:

June 29-2006:

ATTENTION:

The un-warranted scale of the Israeli attack on Gaza just validates the aggressive and wantonly fierce policies of that government. To send that volume of firepower, military hardware in the skies and on the ground, to free ONE SOLDIER, is beyond my ability to understand.

But the western nations sit by idly as this monstrous specter takes place on a people who are merely claiming what was un-lawfully taken from them, and the freeing of their own from the clutches of this demonic nation.

Palestine, your day will come soon, and justice will be done according to KARMIC LAW. No nation or individual will go un-punished for any injustice/s dealt upon another nation or individual.

That is the law of this universe, and it will be done AMEN:

Om Shanti.
Derryck.
Educator-Advocate & Blogger.

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Israelis Batter Gaza and Seize Hamas Officials
George Azar for The New York Times

Israeli forces destroyed bridges throughout Gaza today, in the first day of its incursion into the Gaza Strip, following the capture of one of its soldiers in a Palestinian raid.


Article Tools Sponsored By
By IAN FISHER and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 29, 2006

GAZA, Thursday, June 29 — Israel stepped up its confrontation on Wednesday with Palestinian militants over the capture of an Israeli soldier, battering northern Gazan towns with artillery and sending warplanes over the house of the Syrian president, who is influential with the Palestinian leader believed to have ordered the kidnapping.

George Azar for The New York Times

Israeli Army vehicles advanced toward Gaza. Military officials said the operation was to rescue a soldier, not a bid to reoccupy Gaza. In the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Thursday, Israeli forces detained 8 ministers of the 24-member Hamas-led cabinet and 20 lawmakers, including Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer and Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, security officials said.

The crisis seemed to be tipping toward escalation as Israeli tanks hunkered down inside southern Gaza at the airport on Wednesday after warplanes had knocked out half of Gaza's electricity and pounded sonic booms over houses. The Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, approved an extension of the incursion into northern Gaza, where Palestinian militants have been firing crude Qassam rockets into Israel. As of early Thursday, though, Israel denied reports that it was moving tanks into northern Gaza. About 9 p.m. Wednesday, after saying they would drop leaflets urging citizens of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya to leave their homes, Israeli artillery batteries began to shell.

On Thursday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile in Gaza City that an Israel spokeswoman said hit a soccer field near the pro-Hamas Islamic University. Reuters reported that the missile hit inside the university. Political leaders of Hamas on Wednesday joined the militants to demand the release of Palestinian women and minors from Israeli jails in exchange for the soldier — a condition that the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, rejected. The choice, Israeli officials said, was the soldier's unconditional release or an escalation that could widen the conflict regionally: Haim Ramon, Israel's justice minister, raised the possibility of a strike in Syria to kill Khaled Meshal, the exiled political leader of Hamas; the men who hold the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, are believed to be following his orders.

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Mr. Olmert said of the soldier, who was captured Sunday in an attack near Gaza led by Hamas. In what the Israelis said was a message to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, four Israeli warplanes on Wednesday flew over his residence in Latakia, in northwest Syria, where he was believed to be staying. Syrian state television said Syrian air-defense systems had fired on the planes and forced them to flee. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Wednesday condemned Israel's attacks on infrastructure in Gaza, which disabled its only power plant and knocked down three bridges. In a statement, Mr. Abbas said he considered "the aggression that targeted the civilian infrastructures as collective punishment and crimes against humanity."

The crisis also spilled over into a second and possibly third kidnapping. In Gaza, the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group with ties to Hamas, displayed the identity card of an 18-year-old Israeli settler, Eliahu Asheri, whom it claimed to have kidnapped in the West Bank. Militants said they would kill him if Israel did not halt operations in Gaza, and early Thursday his body was found near Ramallah. Israeli media carried unconfirmed reports that a 60-year-old Israeli missing for two days had also been abducted. Two Palestinians, ages 2 and 17, were reported killed Wednesday while playing with an unexploded Israeli shell in the town of Khan Yunis. But there were no reports of casualties in Israeli airstrikes.

There have been no reported skirmishes between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants, though the Israelis stayed largely out of reach at the airport. The airport, Israeli military officials say, will act as a staging ground for an operation that will escalate until Corporal Shalit, reported to be wounded, is freed. For the Israelis, the operation is aimed at deterring Hamas, which now leads the Palestinian government, from carrying out similar attacks in the future. Israeli newspapers carried articles on Wednesday speaking of the attacks on the infrastructure as a way to extract a concrete longer-term cost for the actions of the Palestinian leaders.

For many Palestinians in Gaza, the refusal to back down seemed a collective effort to highlight their own sense of grievance. The economy has broken down under an embargo of Western aid since Hamas took power in January. The Palestinians contend they remain under siege, even after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza last year, with their borders often closed and encircled by Israeli warplanes and ships. And there remains widespread approval for the capture of Corporal Shalit and Hamas's demand for an exchange, given that there are nearly 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, among them 95 women and 313 people under age 18.

"There is support for this because I am not safe when I walk on the street," said Mustafa Raghib, the director of Gaza's largest flour mill, forced to shut for several hours after the electricity was cut. "Give me a good life and I will not support actions like this." The White House on Wednesday called for the release of the soldier. Mr. Bush's spokesman, Tony Snow, said that Hamas had been "complicit in perpetrating violence" and that Israel had the right to defend itself. Mr. Snow said the Bush administration was urging Israel to ensure "that innocent civilians are not harmed" and to "avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure." But he chose his words with precision, steering clear of questions about whether the Israeli response had been appropriate.

Israeli leaders said Wednesday that they had ordered the military forward after seeing little progress on diplomatic efforts including by Egypt and France to win Corporal Shalit's release. Amid sonic booms that shattered windows, Israeli military planes hit the three bridges, as Apache helicopters attacked all six of the transformers at the power plant — an attack that Israeli officials said was necessary to make it harder to move the corporal around. "Nobody understands the logic," Rafik Maliha, the plant's manager, said. "They want to keep people in the dark so kidnappers don't move? What's the relationship?

"If there is no electricity, there is no water," he added. "It is more than collective punishment."
The plant provided 42 percent of the power to Gaza's 1.3 million residents, and now Gaza is completely dependent on Israel for power. Mr. Maliha said it would take as long as a year to replace the transformers. On Tuesday, Palestinian negotiators from Fatah, Hamas and other factions rushed to finish a draft of a unified political program, based on a document issued in May by Palestinian prisoners. It contains new language that senior Israeli officials said represented a defeat for President Abbas.

They said they hoped he would walk away from it because, one official said, "it takes him out of the game" and "further alienates him from Israel." The document now represents, the official said, "the basis for future negotiations with Israel, and for us, this is a total nonstarter." The Israeli analysis, by the Foreign Ministry, focuses on language, inserted in negotiations with Hamas, that insists on the right of return, "without discrimination," for all Palestinian refugees "to their homes and properties from which they were evicted and to compensate them."

The Israelis argue that this stronger language gives the lie to any claim that Hamas has recognized the right of Israel to exist, implicitly or otherwise, because such an interpretation of refugee rights would eliminate Israel as a Jewish state by flooding it with Palestinians. The document has always been silent on the statehood of Israel, but has been interpreted to give it an implicit recognition because it calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, "on all territories occupied in 1967," presumably with Israel next door.

But a senior official, who has also briefed European diplomats, argued that the failure to mention Israel's right to exist speaks more loudly. "We don't see any implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas," the official said. "The most significant reason is that this right of return takes out the two-state solution." Israel, the official said, is concerned that the document is being praised by European officials, without having yet been read. The document, Israel says, accepts previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements only in so far as they do not "affect the rights of our people," which Israel says means "cherry-picking" previous agreements.

The draft also calls for a new legislature of the Palestine Liberation Organization to be organized by the end of 2006 in a way that favors Hamas, the official argued, and for a "national unity government" that Hamas will still dominate. Mr. Abbas also appears to be giving up the right he had insisted upon to be able to call a referendum by presidential decree, without a law passed by the Hamas-dominated Palestinian legislature, the Israeli official said.

Ian Fisher reported from Gaza City for this article, and Steven Erlanger from Jerusalem.

* Israeli Troops Move Into Gaza; Bridges Are Hit (June 28, 2006)
* In Gaza, Defiantly Awaiting Israeli Retaliation (June 27, 2006)
* Israel' s Defense Minister Is Faulted by Left and Right (June 26, 2006)
* Militants' Raid on Israel Raises Gaza Tension (June 26, 2006)

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Israel Incursion Into GAZA:

June 26-2006:

David & Goliath-A Threat Of Willpower:

The Israeli government has amassed overwhelming firepower on the borders of Gaza, to intimidate the Palestinian government-Hamas, to free the Israeli soldier (Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19), it is alleged to have kidnapped.

What the Israeli government is doing here, is saying indirectly to Hamas, that they have the firepower to achieve their objective if, when, and where they choose.

So let my people go, or else!

We will see how this all plays out in the next few days.

Derryck.
New York City.



June 28-2006:

Israeli Incursion Into GAZA:

By IAN FISHER and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 28, 2006

GAZA, Wednesday, June 28, Israel sent troops into southern Gaza and its planes attacked three bridges and a power station early Wednesday, in an effort to prevent militants from moving a wounded Israeli soldier they abducted Sunday, Israeli Army officials said.

Palestinian children gathered on a destroyed bridge following an overnight Israeli air strike on Gaza City. Israeli soldiers prepared to enter the southern Gaza Strip early Wednesday from their base near Kerem Shalom on the Israeli side of the border. Israeli airstrikes hit bridges in Netzarim and Deir al Balah. An undated photograph of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured Sunday by Palestinian gunmen.


Israeli soldiers prepared to cross the Gaza border.
Mian Khursheed/Reuters

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Islamabad, said that she called Palestinian and Israeli leaders in an effort to defuse the situation. Israeli troops and tanks began to move in force in an effort to rescue the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, who is believed to be held there. Witnesses said Israeli troops had taken over the old Gaza airport and were heading toward Rafah on the road that marks the border between Gaza and Egypt, as Egyptian troops watched.

Electricity was knocked out through much of Gaza after a complex of electronic transformers, south of Gaza City, was struck by Israeli planes. Witnesses said that the station was hit by numerous missiles and that it was burning brightly against the night sky. The Israeli Army said the operation was limited to an effort to rescue the corporal and was not an attempt to reoccupy Gaza.

"If we need to, we continue on," said Capt. Noa Meir, an army spokeswoman. "It's all about getting him home." The airstrikes hit bridges on the coastal and interior roads near the old Israeli settlement of Netzarim, which divides Gaza between north and south, and near Deir al Balah. Israeli tanks and ground forces massed in staging areas along the border fence with Gaza, especially around Kerem Shalom and Nahal Oz.

On Tuesday, as Palestinians tried to block roads with dirt mounds and barbed wire against any Israeli armored assault, their political factions completed a draft agreement aimed at a national unity government that could include an implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas. The prospect of an invasion, threatened by Israel if Corporal Shalit was not released, seemed to have pushed the Palestinians toward agreement after months of internal fighting.

The draft agreement between the Fatah faction of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and the Hamas faction of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya is based on a document outlined by Palestinian prisoners. It is described as containing an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist, because it calls for the creation of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders, presumably next to Israel.

Such an accord would move Hamas closer to recognition of Israel a significant change and would raise the possibility of renewed Western aid to the Palestinians, which was severely curtailed after the Hamas victory in January. If the accord backing what would amount to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is completed, it will represent a victory for Mr. Abbas, who had threatened to put the issue to a referendum next month. But Saeb Erekat, a senior Fatah official close to Mr. Abbas, said that the document was incomplete, and that Mr. Abbas wanted to review it and consult further.

Israeli officials dismissed the draft agreement as an internal Palestinian matter irrelevant to the current crisis over the fate and return of Corporal Shalit. "We are at the edge of the cliff, and everyone is asking the Palestinian leadership to help avert this crisis and release our serviceman," said Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. "Yet energy and time is being put into this prisoners document, and it's in many ways tragic."

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator in Gaza, said the current crisis had united Fatah and Hamas to hammer out the accord. "It is natural that Israeli threats will unite Palestinians more and more," he said. "It will push us to put our differences aside and unite against a bigger threat." Mr. Erekat said Mr. Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, and Mr. Haniya were working together to try to free the Israeli soldier. "Abu Mazen has ordered a house-to-house search for the Israeli soldier," Mr. Erekat said. "If we knew exactly where he was, we would go get him ourselves."

Fatah negotiators like Samir Masharawi were eager to describe the document as a big Hamas concession. "It has recognized a state in the '67 borders," Mr. Masharawi said. "It means indirectly recognizing another state." But Salah al-Bardawil, a Hamas legislator, told Reuters, "We said we accept a state in 1967 but we did not say we accept two states." Mr. Masri said in an interview: "They do exist. It's tangible, they exist, we recognize the fact they exist. What we don't recognize is the legitimacy of the occupation."

By the last phrase, Hamas normally means the occupation of historic Palestine by an Israeli state of any kind; the Hamas charter explicitly says that Palestine is Islamic waqf — land given by God to Muslims, who cannot cede it or sell it. The draft document also contains a clause that supports armed action against Israel, which it says should be "concentrated" in areas occupied by Israel in 1967 but not limited to them. In Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinians worked to make any arrival of tanks and Israeli soldiers as treacherous as possible. In the town of Jabaliya, big berms of sand were piled up on a main road.

"I believe that against the Israelis, who have tanks and Apaches and all their technological machines, it's not that important," said Abu Raed, 30, a shopkeeper, sitting next to one of the berms. "But the fighters should have something to hide behind." In anticipation of Israeli military action, the militant group Islamic Jihad called reporters in Gaza on Tuesday to film them, battle-ready, in two fields near the now-abandoned Israeli settlement of Netzarim. At one field, 11 fighters in black masks and camouflage held automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and an antitank mine. Several also held up what they described as inserts for suicide-bombing belts: thin plastic bottles made to hold antiseptics that were filled with ball bearings.

Many in Gaza believed that the Israeli strike had begun shortly before 6 p.m., when a huge explosion tore apart a car in downtown Gaza, not far from the offices of both Mr. Abbas and Mr. Haniya. But it turned out to be a car bomb, which heaved half the car, bits of shrapnel and body parts dozens of yards. While several bystanders were injured, and nearby windows shattered and walls collapsed, the only death appeared to be that of the driver of the car, identified later as Hamza Abu Mukharreb, 21, a member of Hamas's military wing.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday called on Israel to give diplomacy more time. "There really needs to be an effort now to try and calm the situation, not to let the situation escalate, and to give diplomacy a chance to work to try to get this release," Ms. Rice told reporters during a refueling stop in Scotland en route to Pakistan. Before the incursion began, Israeli officials on Tuesday had said time for diplomacy would also help their parallel efforts to plan a rescue mission. One intermediate step, an official said, might be to cut off electricity and water to Gaza, which Israel had already sealed from the movement of goods or people, as an effort to increase pressure on those groups holding the corporal.

Those groups are the military wing of Hamas, in particular the Khan Yunis group; the Popular Resistance Committees, made up of militants from various factions; and a new group called the Army of Islam, believed to be close to Hamas. They carried out the raid into Israel on Sunday, emerging from a long tunnel dug for many weeks beneath the border, 300 yards behind Israeli lines. The attack killed two Israeli soldiers and led to the seizure of the corporal, who was said to be slightly wounded. The Hamas military wing is considered by Fatah and Israel to be under the control of the exiled Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshal, who is in Syria. Even a statement from Mr. Abbas's office on Tuesday, calling for Israeli patience, described "kidnapping the Israeli soldier by forces loyal to Khaled Meshal."

A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, Muhammad Abdel Al, said the corporal was being held "in a secure place that the Zionists cannot reach." The groups have refused to release him, despite efforts by Egyptian, French and other diplomats, and Mr. Haniya, the Hamas prime minister, to end the crisis. Mr. Al also said his group had kidnapped a Jewish civilian settler in the West Bank. The police said that Eliyahu Asheri, 18, who lives in the settlement of Itamar, near Nablus, had been reported missing since Sunday. They said they were trying to see if there was a connection.

Ian Fisher reported from Gaza for this article, and Steven Erlanger from Jerusalem.

Governmant Asserts It Is Above The Law In AT&T Case:

June 20-2006:


From: eff.org

Government Asserts It Is Above the Law in AT&T Case!


Late last Friday night, the Government filed its reply brief, providing a last round of written briefing in advance of this week's hearing in our case against AT&T for collaborating with the Government's surveillance program. Finally the Administration has come out and flatly said what
it has hinted at throughout its arguments: that the program is above the law.

The Government wrote that "the court -- even if it were to find unlawfulness upon in camera, ex parte review -- could not then proceed to adjudicate the very question of awarding damages because to do so would confirm Plaintiffs' allegations."

Essentially the Government is saying that, even if the Judiciary found the wholesale surveillance program was illegal after reviewing secret evidence in chambers, the Court nevertheless would be powerless to proceed. The Executive has asserted that the Program, which has been widely reported in every major news outlet, is still such a secret that the Judiciary (a co-equal branch under the Constitution) cannot acknowledge its existence by ruling against it. In short, the Government asserts that AT&T and the Executive can break the laws crafted by Congress, and
there is nothing the Judiciary can do about it.

We intend to vigorously oppose this radical assertion of power. Please consider donating to EFF and help stop the illegal spying.

Learn more about the case and read case documents:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/

FeedBlitz News: On Bloglet

FeedBlitz News: On Bloglet

Military Desertion In The Vietnam Era-To Iraq & Afghanistan:

June 14-2005:

Military Desertion In The Vietnam Era-To Iraq & Afghanistan:


Thousands of military personnel have deserted before and after the Vietnam War. Most of these persons have sought asylum in Canada. Currently thousands more have fled there since the war on terror, Afghanistan & Iraq begun.

The Canadian government is very concerned about the humongous influx of illegal Americans on it's shores, and has made it publicly known that they will not tolerate, encourage, make legal, or harbor any deserters in their country.

But on the other hand, Canada has to thread a very thin line with her neighbor, and partner in the War On Terror currently. Most of these deserters can never return home to the USA, because they will be arrested, Court-Marshalled, and imprisoned for desertion. So they have to permanently remain in Canada, regardless of whether the Canadian government gives them legal residence status or not. And they cannot be repatriated because no such agreement with the USA is in place.


So we talk about illegal Mexicans who are coming here mostly illegally, seeking honest employment to feed their families, and are willing to take the risks involved to remain here. And yet Americans are prone to refer to these illegals as CRIMINALS. Well, if these Mexicans who came here to seek honest work, broke no local laws, and is willing to assimilate legally into this culture. They must be given the opportunity to do so legally.

Unlike their American born counterparts, who has cowardly deserted their military posts, because they cannot take the HEAT, are too SCARED, and are not in step with their Commander In Chief's Political Agenda. Yet no one is talking about these desertions, much less about punishing them for their desertion!

Should The National Guard also take up vigilance along the Canadian border to prevent any further desertions?

Should the Canadian government deport those deserters back to American shores?

Or should these military deserters be arrested and handed over to the US military authorities?


I Report-You Decide!


Derryck S. Griffith.
Educator-Advocate & Blogger.

The Current Situation In Darfur-Sudan-June-2006:

June 06-2006:


The Current Situation In Darfur-Sudan-June-2006:


The Janjaweed Militia in the Sudan is an un-official group Arab Sudanese, who are contracted by the Sudanese government, to ferret out the Blacks or Non-Arab Sudanese from the Darfur region of the Sudan.

This militant, armed band of state sponsored thugs, get their funding and directions from the government, thus making it difficult for any Peace-keeping forces to intervene in Darfur. The OAU (Organization Of African Unity), refuse to send more troops to help maintain the recent Peace Accord, established with some of the warring factions, and the Sudanese government.

The OAU claims that the cost for maintaining such troops is too much for them to afford indefinitely. So all eyes are looking to the UN for assistance in this regard. But the Sudanese government, is not mindful of any US Peace-keeping force to intervene, unless it is just observatory, and not military.

Any UN military intervention in the affairs of Darfur, is a "No-No" for the Sudanese government at this time.

Meanwhile, some of the warring factions who did not sign on to the recent peace agreement, are still fighting each other. They feel the peace accord does not fully provide for their needs and expectations.

Derryck S. Griffith.
Educator-Advocate & Blogger.

http://my.opera.com/BringBaka/
http://www.myspace.com/derryck_mimbari
http://Mimbari.neatvibe.com
http://SpeakUpOrShutUp.neatvibe.com
http://bringbakamoney.proboards77.com/

Thousands Have Deserted From The Get-Go!

June 02-2006:

Thousands Have Deserted From The Get-Go:


IRAQ:

Thousands of American military deserters/soldiers have deserted from the inception, from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soldiers are not supposed to have any political agenda as individuals. But they are also HUMAN, and feel pain, loss, grief, sorrow, and are on the frontline of fire, in this so called War On Terror in Iraq & Afghanistan.

And these claims of misconduct in Iraq & Afghanistan, the killing of civilians, and other allegations against America & her coalition allies are not helping either. These military men and women are fighting an enemy who cannot be easily identified. This enemy is among civilians, dressed in most cases like civilians, and do their fighting in civilian hangouts, and territories. Thus making it easier for mistaken deaths, frustrating at not being able to respond skillfully against targets, thus causing the needless deaths of many civilian personnel.

Pointing the finger to some military personnel who may have ignored the Geneva conventions for Warfare, and captured military personnel/combatants, may not be fully applied in a combat zone of terrorists, who use the element of remote controlled explosives, suicide bombers, civilian assistance in carrying out certain terrorist acts, in an un-conventional nature. Which makes it even more difficult to maintain any semblance of military discipline, much less adhere to The Geneva Conventions.


It Is Time To Bring Our Military Personnel/Soldiers Back Home
Permanently!

Derryck S. Griffith.
Educator-Advocate & Blogger.