A Global Civil Society Campaign to De-Legitimise Israel?

A Global Civil Society Campaign to De-Legitimise Israel?

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5, 2010 (IPS) - If, as expected, the U.N. Security Council remains politically impotent and refuses to penalise Israel for the killings of nine pro-Palestinian civilians on a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, what is the next course of action? A global civil society campaign to de-legitimise Israel? Formal or informal sanctions by individual states? Worldwide arrest warrants? All of these - and more - are in the realm of possibility, say two leading constitutional experts, Professor Richard Falk, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Michael Ratner, president of the New York- based Centre for Constitutional Rights. The gridlock in the Security Council is likely to remind civil society forces that justice for the Palestinians will depend on bottom-up conflict resolution, and a global delegitimising campaign that worked so well in the struggle to defeat South African racism, Falk told IPS. Asked how Israel could be punished and/or penalised for its atrocities - if action is to be taken outside the Security Council chambers - Falk said there are two sets of punitive responses outside of the U.N. system. First, by strong diplomatic initiatives, as for instance, the deterioration of Israeli trade and security relations with Turkey, and others; and by some governments adopting informal or formal sanctions - again the South Africa analogy is relevant, he said. Secondly, by civil society initiatives that move toward further de-legitimisation of Israel, such as a citizen tribunal on Israeli aggression on the high seas or slow genocide in Gaza; an intensifying campaign fueled by outrage, including the failure of the United Nations to uphold international law in relation to Israel, said Falk, who is also professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. Ratner told IPS the injured citizens from various countries can and should begin criminal prosecutions in their home countries against Israeli officials who ordered this attack in international waters. "Worldwide arrest warrants should be issued. Israeli officials should understand that they may have impunity in Israel, but that they leave Israel at their peril," he said. The Israeli attack on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid, which resulted in the killings of nine Turkish nationals, has provoked anger and protests worldwide. According to news reports, there were more than 600 civilians from 32 countries on board the six ships which flew the flags of Turkey, Greece and Comoros. But after a 12-hour session Monday, the Security Council issued a tame "presidential statement" condemning what has been described by critics as "high seas piracy and banditry". The United States, which has traditionally thrown a protective arm around Israel - whether the Jewish state is right or wrong - was primarily responsible for "watering down" the statement and refusing to adopt a formal resolution against Israel. Secure under a protective U.S. umbrella, Israel is unlikely to be singled out for condemnation or even subjected to Security Council sanctions or resolutions. "Yes, it is likely that Israel will continue to enjoy de facto impunity as a result of Euro-American geopolitical protection," Falk told IPS. But he predicted that European support for Israel is likely to be under strain "after such a flagrant disregard of international law and such a cruel and arbitrary use of force". Ratner told IPS that "at some point – [and] we may be reaching that point - the anger at Israel by Muslim populations of countries like Turkey and Pakistan, and by extension their anger at the U.S., UK. and France for their continued support in the Security Council for Israeli lawlessness, may force a change." This is not because those countries care a whit about Palestinians, he said, but because their security depends on not alienating millions in an area they deem crucial to their economic and physical security. "So I have not given up hope for increased pressure on Israel from the Security Council," he said. The Security Council's failure to condemn this attack is also part of its failure to act on prior occasions when Israel has violated international law, such as in Gaza, said Ratner. At a minimum, the Security Council should refer this matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, he added. "The Security Council overlooking lawlessness in the past has led to more lawlessness in the future. It has given Israel impunity to carry out horrendous human rights violations," he noted. As the Security Council, controlled on this issue by the U.S., the UK and France, protects Israel, "We are seeing the emergence of a remarkable phenomenon: militant activism by thousands from all over the world taking action that is the best hope for forcing a change that could end the blockade, end the settlements and has the potential to bring peace," he said. Addressing parliament Wednesday, a visibly angry Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that, "Even despots, gangsters and pirates have specific sensitiveness, (and) follow some specific morals." "But those who do not follow any morality or ethics, those who do not act with any sensitivity, to call them such names would even be a compliment to them," he said. "This brazen, irresponsible, reckless (Israeli) government that recognises no law and tramples on any kind of humanitarian virtue, this attack by the Israeli government must by all means be punished," he added. Referring to the Israeli version of the attack, Erdogan said the government in Tel Aviv, "has made lying its state policy and does not blush about the crime it commits". Instead of expecting the Israelis to open an investigation, "the international community must investigate this incident in all its dimensions and must give the legal response", he added.

Flotilla Raid Fires Up Israel Lobby

Flotilla Raid Fires Up Israel Lobby

Analysis by David Cronin

BRUSSELS, June 5, 2010 (IPS) - Within three days of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Monday, the pro-Israel lobby in Brussels was already seeking to deflect attention from the killing of nine peace activists in international waters. The European Friends of Israel, a grouping of parliamentarians, issued a statement Jun 3, which made no reference to the assault earlier in the week. Instead it highlighted the findings of a survey published by the Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, which named Israel as the economy most resilient to variations in the global economy and as a top spender on scientific research and innovation. These findings might help explain why the collective response of the European Union’s 27 member states to the attacks has been weak. For despite growing revulsion at Israel’s occupation of Palestine among ordinary people throughout the world, the EU has been so impressed with the robust performance of the Israeli economy that it has integrated it into many of its activities in recent years. While some individual EU governments made plain their displeasure with the attacks by summoning Israeli ambassadors to an urgent meeting, the Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton merely described the attacks as a "tragedy", a term usually reserved for accidents. Initially Ashton called on Israel to conduct its own investigations. When she released a subsequent statement – during a visit to Russia – urging a "full and impartial enquiry of the events and circumstances", she did not specify if this should be undertaken by Israel or by a United Nations-appointed team. Over the past decade Israel has been integrated into several EU programmes, ranging from satellite navigation to business promotion. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, administers many of these programmes. Yet José Manuel Barroso, the Commission’s president, would not comment when asked if he would be seeking a review of Israeli participation in the EU’s activities. "I fully agree with the position taken by the EU High Representative Cathy Ashton," he told IPS, declining to elaborate. Barroso is one of several top-level politicians in Brussels to have cultivated strong links with the pro-Israel lobby. Last year, he was guest of honour at the opening of a new EU affairs office for the European Jewish Congress (EJC), where he praised the organisation for "being fully committed to the resumption of the peace process" in the Middle East. The EJC has subsequently mounted an intense campaign designed to convince the European Parliament not to approve motions critical of Israel’s conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories. The EJC responded to Monday’s massacre perpetrated by Israeli troops on board the Turkish-owned vessel the Mavi Marvara by calling on the EU to officially declare one of the key groups in the Free Gaza campaign as a terrorist organisation. Moshe Kantor, the EJC’s president, accused the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (known by the acronym IHH) as having links to al Qaeda. The Israeli government has made similar claims recently, but these have been fiercely contested by international peace activists and supporters of the Palestinian solidarity movement, who insist the allegations are baseless. Scientific research has been among the largest areas of cooperation between the EU and Israel. The EU has become a major provider of research grants to Israeli firms and research institutes over the past decade, thanks to Israel’s status as the main foreign partner for the EU’s multi-annual research programme, which has been allocated 53 billion euros (64 billion dollars) for the 2007-13 period. Companies such as Motorola Israel, Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries are taking part in the programme’s activities. Although these companies have manufactured weapons and components used in attacks on Palestinian civilians, Israel’s war against Lebanon in 2006 and by the US-led alliance in Afghanistan, Janez Potocnik, the EU’s research commissioner between 2004 and 2009, expressed no regrets about the firms’ involvement in a programme financed by the European taxpayer. "What we have tried to provide is something that is of benefit of European partners," he told IPS. "We are talking about research itself and nothing more than research." The EU, meanwhile, would not support a motion brought before the United Nations Human Rights Council Jun 3 condemning Israel’s attacks. Most European states on the council abstained from the vote, with Italy and the Netherlands siding with the US in voting against the resolution, which was carried by 32 votes to 3. The resolution demanded that Israel lift the blockade of Gaza and that it immediately allow food, medicine and other essential supplies to be delivered there. Maysa Zorob, Brussels representative with the Palestinian human rights group Al Haq, said she was a "bit sick" of how the EU has been willing to call for Israel to conduct its own investigations into human rights abuses by its armed forces. "This whole 'let’s ask for investigations’ approach is getting us nowhere," she added. "Nothing concrete is being done by the EU or anyone else."

Defending Israel: A How-To Guide

Defending Israel: A How-To Guide

Eli Clifton

June 1, 2010 Today’s op-ed by the Wall Street Journal editorial board offers a fairly comprehensive list of the talking points which are de rigueur in defending Israel’s attack on civilian ships in international water. 1.) Mention the Gaza war in 2008 as an example of what happens when weapons get into Gaza. Example from the WSJ: Since [Hamas seized power in 2007], both Israel and Egypt have imposed a partial blockade on the Strip, mainly to prevent Hamas from arming itself with the kinds of weapons it used to spark a war with Israel in December 2008. It’s interesting that Israel should bring up the Gaza war as an example of Hamas viciousness.  This was a war where between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinians were killed and 13 Israelis died.  It’s hard to argue that Israel’s response to Hamas’s "spark" was proportional but we’ll talk about proportionality later. 2.) Emphasize that food, water and other necessary supplies enter Gaza on a daily basis through Israeli checkpoints. Example from the WSJ: Food, medicine and electricity continue to flow to Gaza. World Health Organization reports have found that Israel is blocking vital medical supplies from entering Gaza and that building a well-functioning health care system is impossible without the regular delivery of supplies. Furthermore, mortality rates are 30-percent higher in Gaza than in Palestinian populations in the West Bank and chronic malnutrition is now over 10-percent. As to electricity, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on May 9th that: "(A)lmost all of the 1.4 million Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip, with the exception of those who live in the Rafah area, must cope with scheduled electricity cuts of 8-12 hours daily, compared to 6-8 hours prior to January 2010. These power cuts exacerbate the already difficult living conditions in Gaza and disrupt almost all aspects of daily life, including household chores, health services, education and water and sanitation services." 3.) Claim that the international community is biased against Israel, denies Israel its sovereign right to defend itself and constantly complains about Israel’s "disproportional" use of force.  If possible, belittle the concept of proportionality. Example from the WSJ: The Gaza war also elicited international protests against Israel, which time and again is told what it can do in its own self-defense, with its critics deeming nearly every effective military action "disproportionate". It is true that Israel is frequently accused of using disproportionate force.  From the wildly disproportionate death toll in the Gaza war to the killing of nine human rights activists this weekend, there is no shortage of Israeli disproportionality. But none of that matters if you argue that disproportionality works and that discussions about "proportionality" are a waste of time. Editorial writers and bloggers have been busy dusting off the argument that a disproportionate response is the only way to deal with terrorists that threaten our western values. (I blogged earlier today about Michael Rubin’s defense of Israel’s disproportional use of force.) 4.) Insist that the IDF was just defending itself against an armed, bloodthirsty mob. Example from the WSJ: It was only after the humanitarians aboard the ship assaulted the commandos with clubs and knives that the Israelis used live fire. If the Internet videos of the commandos being viciously attacked as they descended from a helicopter are accurate, they were acting to defend themselves. This characterization of events totally ignores the context in which the raid and the shooting of nine flotilla members occurred. The IDF commandos had to fly seventy miles offshore, into international waters, before rappelling onto a Turkish- flagged passenger ship.  Then, when not greeted with open arms, they shot nine people dead.  An ambush would suggest that the Israelis were tricked into boarding the ships. No account of the events from either flotilla members or the IDF suggests that this was the case.  Israel attacked a ship sailing in international waters. At what point did those aboard the vessel forfeit their own right of self-defense? Craig Murray, a human rights activist and former British ambassador to Uzbekistan writes: A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare. Because the incident took place on the high seas does not mean however that international law is the only applicable law. The Law of the Sea is quite plain that, when an incident takes place on a ship on the high seas (outside anybody’s territorial waters) the applicable law is that of the flag state of the ship on which the incident occurred. In legal terms, the Turkish ship was Turkish territory. There are therefore two clear legal possibilities. Link: www.lobelog.com/defending-israel-a-how-to-guide/ Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls under international jurisdiction as a war crime. Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorized Israeli military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under Turkish law. In brief, if Israel and Turkey are not at war, then it is Turkish law which is applicable to what happened on the ship. It is for Turkey, not Israel, to carry out any inquiry or investigation into events and to initiate any prosecutions. Israel is obliged to hand over indicted personnel for prosecution. 5.) Set the stage for future conflicts which will derail the peace process. Example from the WSJ: We suppose Israel could have allowed the flotilla to pass to avoid the political fallout it is now enduring.  Had it done so, however, it would have merely created a channel through which Hamas could be supplied with ever-more advanced weaponry (much of it courtesy of Iran) thus setting the stage for an even bloodier war in Gaza. Israel knows exactly what risk it runs when it commits provocative acts such as the recent raid on the flotilla.  Editorial writers and sympathetic journalists dutifully repeat the message that the Palestinian response to Israel "defending itself" could lead to a "new Intifada".  What better way to derail peace talks than to provoke violence before the parties have even gotten to the table? The pressure is on Netanyahu to cease settlement expansion and make a meaningful attempt to negotiate borders and security arrangements with Hamas.  Pressure from the White House might be difficult to completely ignore, but, with a loyal group of sympathetic journalists and bloggers, Netanyahu can try to drown out the voices of his international critics.  That’s as long as his friends in the media stick to their talking points.

Serving the U.S. Empire, Killing for Lies

Serving the Empire, Killing for Lies

by Sheldon Richman

The Future of Freedom Foundation, June 5, 2010 We made it through another Memorial Day. Thankfully, most people think of it as just the start of summer. They don’t seem to use it as America’s political leaders have long wanted: as a day of reverence for America’s world domination. In his radio address this past Saturday President Obama urged all Americans to "serve" the members of the armed forces "as well as they served us." He called on us to remember the 5,400 Americans "who laid down their lives in defense of their fellow citizens" in Iraq and Afghanistan. He assured us that "the men and women serving this country around the world have the support they need to achieve their missions and come home safely" (emphasis added). He also praised every war in American history as a hallowed effort to protect the nation. Once again an American president lies to sanctify war. Some questions should be obvious: how exactly are the armed forces today serving us or the country? And what are those men and women of the military doing "around the world"? Why didn’t Obama mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis killed by American forces in the latest operations? Don’t say that American forces are protecting us. Those troops may be serving the government and the "private" component of the military-industrial complex, but that has nothing to do with average Americans, who would be far safer — not to mention richer — if the trillion dollars spent every year on military-related matters were simply left in the taxpayers’ pockets. It is way past time that the American people started seeing through the nonsense. That isn’t rocket science. Consider recent events: Fact 1: The U.S. government is using robot Predator planes to shoot Hellfire missiles into Pakistan (and Afghanistan). Innocent men, women, and children are being killed or maimed regularly. Fact 2: A Pakistani-American tries to blow up a car in Times Square. How much effort does it take to connect those two dots? Can we really comfort ourselves by thinking that Faisal Shahzad was just a fanatical Muslim — counseled and trained by bad guys "over there" — bent on killing innocent Americans because he hates our way of life? You have to be a damned fool to keep believing such balderdash. Presidents and secretaries of State want us to believe that the U.S. government (which they conflate with "the country") did nothing to provoke the crimes known as "terrorism," which they then use to excuse all manner of violence and violations of liberty. (Strangely, Predator attacks don’t meet the official definition of "terrorism.") But the facts refuting that ridiculous claim are readily available. Any curious American — an oxymoron? — can easily find out just how much U.S. regimes have done to create hostility and a desire for revenge in the hearts of Muslims. Start with the CIA operation in Iran in 1953. The apologists for U.S. policy will say it was all done for peace, democracy, and prosperity. Then why does it always bring war, death, broken bodies, torture, misery, starvation, and disease? The war planners are not stupid. They see the results. They know what they are doing. Then they dupe others — too willing to be duped — into following orders and rationalizing their acts as necessary to national security. Maybe this deadly con will never cease, but if it does it will be because we finally refused to pay respect to those who lead and fight the wars. We will have stopped believing that dying and killing for the empire is noble. In the movie The Americanization of Emily, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky has his protagonist say, "We shall never end wars ... by blaming it on ministers and generals or warmongering imperialists or all the other banal bogies. It’s the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers, the rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widows’ weeds like nuns and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.... May be ministers and generals who blunder us into wars, but the least the rest of us can do is to resist honoring the institution." Remember that next Memorial Day. Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, author of Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State, and editor of The Freeman magazine. Visit his blog "Free Association" at www.sheldonrichman.com.

BP cap captures '10,000 barrels' a day in US Gulf

Page last updated at 13:13 GMT, Sunday, 6 June 2010 14:13 UK

A containment cap on a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is now funnelling off 10,000 barrels of oil a day, BP's chief executive Tony Hayward says.

The amount has risen since Saturday, and implies more than half the estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels leaking each day is now being captured.

The spill has been described as the biggest environmental disaster in US history.

Mr Hayward told the BBC that BP would restore the Gulf to its original state.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hayward said: "As we speak, the containment cap is producing around 10,000 barrels of oil a day to the surface."

Asked what amount of the estimate that represented, the BP chief executive said it was expected to be "the majority, probably the vast majority" of the oil gushing out.

His company, he said, was going to stop the leak and take care of the consequences."We have a further containment system to implement in the course of this coming week which will be in place by next weekend so when those two are in place, we would very much hope to be containing the vast majority of the oil."

"We're going to clean-up the oil, we're going to remediate any environmental damage and we are going to return the Gulf coast to the position it was in prior to this event. That's an absolute commitment, we will be there long after the media has gone, making good on our promises."

But the man in charge of the federal efforts to cope with the spill said no-one should be pleased "as long as there's oil in the water".

Coast Guard Adm Thad Allen told CNN the spill was "an insidious enemy that's attacking our shores".

'Nightmare'

The Deepwater Horizon rig sank on 20 April after an explosion, killing 11 workers.

Both BP and the US government have been criticised for the response so far.

President Barack Obama has pledged to stand with the residents of Louisiana unitil they are "made whole".

Mr Obama has said he will ensure that BP is financially accountable for the damaged caused.

The containment cap is designed to funnel most of the leaking oil to a boat on the surface. It will be followed by a further containment system that involves using the pipes of a failed, previous operation to divert more oil to another vesse; and by a separate method - due to be in place by the end of this month - which is expected to be able to operate in hurricane conditions.

BP is also digging two relief wells which it hopes will provide a permanent solution to the leak - but they are not due to be completed until August.

The estimates for the total amount of oil that has leaked since the spill began vary widely from 20 million to 45 million gallons.

Four states have so far been affected by the spill - Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The oil risks affecting some of the famous white beaches of Florida, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism.

One-third of the Gulf's federal waters remain closed to fishing, and the spill has killed and injured birds and marine animals.

"These waters are my backyard, my life," boat captain Dave Marino from Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, told AP news agency. "It's a nightmare. It looks like it's going to be wave after wave of it and nobody can stop it."

The oil has steadily spread east, and there are fears it could devastate the shoreline with the hurricane season coming up.

BP, whose share price has dropped by a third since the accident, has been coming under fire for spending a reported $50m on TV advertising to improve its image while the crisis was still going on.

BP says it has spent more than $1bn so far on clean-up and containment efforts since the Deepwater Horizon rig accident.

ATTEMPT TO CAP OIL LEAK

BP is attempting to siphon oil from the top of the blowout preventer (BOP), the set of failed valves on the seabed. The operation involves lowering a cap onto the top section of the BOP known as the lower marine riser package (LMRP).

BACK1 of 4NEXΤ

USA-Somali Refugee Sentenced in Vermont for Child Rape

ΤΑ ΚΑΛΑ ΤΑ ΔΙΚΑ ΜΑΣ!

Somali Refugee Sentenced in Vermont for Child Rape

By Brenda Walker
Somalis are among the most undesirable, culturally inappropriate immigrants you could find. Yet Washington keeps them coming — more than 83,000 in 25 years as counted by Refugee Resettlement Watch.
Why is that? Fraud was the ticket some used until DNA testing was brought in.
Let’s review some of their behaviors and cultural traits: they are unassimilated Muslims who follow violent sharialaw, practice polygamy and slice off the private parts of their little girls (aka FGM, with a prevalence of 98% in Somalia).
Some young men have returned to their homeland to pursue jihad against the impure, and astute members of the Senate have recognized that a Somali fifth column is a terror threat to this country.
With that background in mind, consider the crime committed by Ali Abdi(pictured), that of raping a nine-year-old girl, for which he was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Man sentenced for Burlington assault, Burlington Free Press, June 3, 2010
A Burlington man who jumped bail and fled Vermont the night before a jury found him guilty of aggravated sexual assault on a 9-year-old girl was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years to life in prison for the assault.
Ali Abdi, a Somali Bantu refugee, was sentenced by Vermont District Judge Patricia Zimmerman.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan said the sentence responded to a “horrific crime” against a girl who has “really been ostracized from her community.” The conviction is a deportable offense, Donovan said, but his understanding is that Abdi will likely serve his sentence in a U.S. prison before the federal government brings any deportation action.

The comment that the girl has “been been ostracized from her community” indicates the victim was Somali also.
Another report noted how crimes against girls are accorded little importance in Somali society.

Somali refugee leader sentenced, WCAX News, June 2, 2010
Ali Abdi, a leader in the Somal Bantu community in Burlington, was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years to life in prison for sexual assault on a nine year old girl, despite pleas to the judge from two of his children.
Abdi had taken off during his trial, and was captured out of state. The jury was not told he ran away. He was convicted.
Abdi’s lawyer argued that the case has to be viewed as different from others, because Abdi comes from a different cultural background. Erik Smart told the judge that Abdi fled Somalia and spent thirteen years in a refugee camp before arriving in Burlington. Smart says the Somali Bantu community has forgiven Abdi.
“I would venture to say this community views this crime differently than our own community would,” Smart told the court.
Prosecutor Susan Hardin argued that cultural differences do not excuse a crime.
“It is critical that the Somali Bantu community and all the others in Chittenden County be sent a very clear message: if you sexually assault our children, there will be severe consequences,” Hardin said.

One example of the disrespect women and girls face in Somali culture is how rape victims may be executed under sharia law…

Somali Girl Raped and Stoned to Death UN Dispatch, November 12, 2008
It doesn’t get worse than this. Last week, 13-year old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was stoned to death in Somalia by insurgents because she was raped.
Reports indicate that was raped by three men while traveling by foot to visit her grandmother in conflict capital, Mogadishu. When she went to the authorities to report the crime, they accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death. Aisha was forced into a hole in a stadium of 1,000 onlookers as 50 men buried her up to the neck and cast stones at her until she died.
When some of the people at the stadium tried to save her, militia opened fire on the crowd, killing a boy who was a bystander.

So how exactly is Somali diversity supposed to benefit American society? I must be missing something.
If you want to email or print out, format by clicking on this permanent URL:
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2010/06/04/somali-refugee-sentenced-in-vermont-for-child-rape/

P. Buchanan: Lift the Siege of Gaza

June 03, 2010

Lift the Siege of Gaza

By Patrick J. Buchanan

In June 1948, our wartime ally imposed a blockade on Berlin, cutting off and condemning to death or Stalinist domination 2 million Germans, most of whom, not long before, had cheered Adolf Hitler.

Harry Truman responded with the Berlin airlift, in perhaps the most magnanimous act of the Cold War.

For nine months, U.S. pilots flew into Tempelhof, carrying everything from candy to coal, saving a city and earning the eternal gratitude of the people of Berlin, and admiration everywhere that moral courage is admired.

That was an America that lived its values.

And today, President Obama should end his and his country's shameful silence over the inhumane blockade of Gaza that is denying 1.5 million beleaguered people the basic necessities of a decent life.

Time to start acting like America again.

That bloody debacle in the Eastern Mediterranean last Sunday was an inevitable result of Israel doing what it always seems to do: going beyond what is essential to her security, to impose collective punishment upon any and all it regards as hostile to Israel.

Israel claims, and film confirms, that its commandos rappelling down onto the Turkish ship were attacked with sticks and metal rods. One was tossed off a deck, another tossed overboard into a lifeboat.

But that 2 a.m. boarding of an unarmed ship with an unarmed crew, carrying no munitions or weapons, 65 miles at sea, was an act of piracy. What the Israeli commandos got is what any armed hijacker should expect who tries to steal a car from a driver who keeps a tire iron under the front seat.

And the response of these highly trained naval commandos to the resistance they encountered? They shot and killed nine passengers, and wounded many more.

But we have a blockade of Gaza, say the Israelis, and this flotilla was a provocation. Indeed, it was. And Selma was a provocation. The marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge were disobeying orders of the governor of Alabama and state police not to march.

Yet, today, liberal Democrats who regard Martin Luther King as a moral hero for championing nonviolent civil disobedience to protest injustice are cheering not the unarmed passengers trying to break the Gaza blockade, but the Israelis enforcing the blockade.

Where were these fellows when "Bull" Connor really needed them?

Comes the retort: Israel is a friend and ally, and we stand with our friends.

But is not Turkey a friend and ally of 50 years, whose soldiers died alongside ours in Korea and who accepted Jupiter missiles targeted on Russia, even before the Cuban missile crisis? Was it not Turkey whose citizens were wounded and killed in the bloody debacle?

Why are we not at least even-handed between our friends?

On the trip to Israel where he was blindsided by news that Israel would build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, Joe Biden told Shimon Peres, "There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security."

And that is the problem.

America is a superpower with interests in an Arab world of 300 million and an Islamic world of 1.5 billion -- interests Israel treats with indifference if not contempt when it comes to doing what she regards as necessary for her security.

While Israel had a right to build a wall to protect her people from terror attack, did she have a right to build it on Palestinian land?

While Israel had a right to go after Hezbollah when her soldiers were shot on the border and several kidnapped, did Israel have a right to conduct a five-week bombing campaign that smashed Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians and creating upward of a million refugees?

While Israel had a right to go into Gaza to stop the firing of crude rockets on Sderot, did she have a right to smash utilities and public buildings and kill 1,400 people, most of them civilians?

Is whatever Israel decides to do in the name of her security fine with us, because there is "absolutely no space"between our interests and hers, our values and Israel's values?

Even with Winston Churchill's Britain, there was "space" between us on strategic goals and national policies.

Israel has a right to secure Gaza to deny Hamas access to weapons, especially rockets that could reach Israel. But that does not justify denying 1.5 million people what they need to live in decency.

According to The Washington Post, "80 percent of the population (of Gaza) depends on charity. Hospitals, schools, electricity systems and sewage treatment facilities are all in deep disrepair."

With our silence, we support this. And we wonder why they hate us.

Obama should tell the Israelis that Joe got it wrong. There is space between us. The Gaza siege must end. And America will herself be sending aid, but will also support Israel's right to inspect trucks and ships to see to it no weapons get through to Gaza.

Let's start behaving like who we once were.

Image of the Day: The Ghost Snake of the Milky Way

June 04, 2010

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/06/image-of-the-day-the-ghost-snake-of-the-milky-way.html#more

Image of the Day: The Ghost Snake of the Milky Way

 

A cosmic snake appears to slither across the plane of our Milky Way galaxy in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The snake-like object  located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems and may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming. 

"The snake is an ideal place to hunt for massive forming stars as they have not had time to heat up and destroy the cloud they are born in," said Dr. Sean Carey, of NASA's Spitzer Science Center. 

Spitzer was able to spot the sinuous cloud using its heat-seeking infrared vision. The object is hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes. Because its heat, or infrared light, can sneak through the dust, it first showed up in infrared images from past missions. The cloud is so thick with dust that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of it, you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky.

Spitzer's new view of the snake provides the best view of what lurks inside. The yellow and orange spots located on and around it are massive stars just beginning to take shape. The bright red spot located on its belly is a monstrous stellar embryo, with about 20 to 50 times the mass of our sun. 

Astronomers say these observations will ultimately help them better understand how massive stars form. By studying the clustering and range of masses of the stellar embryos, they hope to determine if the stars were born in the same way that our low-mass sun was formed -- out of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust -- or by another mechanism in which the environment plays a larger role.

The Mystery of Mars' Moon Phobos

June 03, 2010

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/06/the-mystery-of-mars-phobos-deepens-experts-ask-a-captured-asteroid-or-artificial-object-1.html#more

You Couldn't Make This Up Dept: The Mystery of Mars' Moon Phobos Deepens

The origin of Mars' tiny moon, Phobos (fear in ancient Greek), is a mystery, but three theories are considered plausible. The first is that the moon is a captured asteroid; the second is that it formed in-situ as Mars formed below it, and the third is that Phobos formed later than Mars, from debris flung into martian orbit when a massive meteorite struck the Red Planet. A fourth, far more speculative and controversial (although thoroughly intriguing) theory is one that has been kicking around for decades: that Phobos is a artificial object in Mars orbit -in short, a 1.5-mile-long, extremely ancient and battered spacecraft. 

The European Space Agency Mars Express past and future Phobos flybys are designed to provide clues that might solve the mystery of its origins.  

A small, odd shaped object, Phobos orbits about 9  km from the center of Mars, closer than any other known planetary moon. Phobos is one of the least-reflective bodies in the solar system, that appears to be 1/3rd hollow and features a large impact crater, Stickney crater. It orbits so close to the planet that it moves around Mars faster than Mars itself rotates. Phobos's orbital radius is decreasing and it will eventually either impact the surface of Mars or break up into a planetary ring.

The next Phobios Mars Express flyby will come in August 2010, with nine flybys within 1200 km from Phobos. The closest approach will be about 403 km over Phobos' night side, on 24 August 2010. Then, between December 2010 and January 2011, 10 flybys are planned, with the closest one coming within 96 km of the moon's dayside, on 9 January 2011.

The powerful cameras, spectrometers and other instruments on Mars Express can glean amazing details; repeated flybys will augment coverage of the surface of Phobos, help confirm or improve previous findings, complement existing data sets, and possibly even make new discoveries.

In describing the internal geometric structure of this "moon" as revealed by MARSIS,  ESA sources repeatedly emphasized that "several of these interior Phobos compartments also appear to still be holding some kind of atmosphere ...."

The source repeated this several times ... raising all kinds of fascinating questions regarding "how" the radar could, in fact, determine this -- that some of the vast "rooms" inside Phobos (remember "from a quarter to half-a-mile in diameter ...") were "maintaining an internal pressure."

Image from the recent flyby of Phobos, on 7 March 2010 is shown above. The images show Mars’ rocky moon in exquisite detail, with a resolution of just 4.4 metres per pixel. They show the proposed landing sites for the forthcoming Phobos-Grunt mission.

ESA's Mars Express spacecraft orbits the Red Planet in a highly elliptical, polar orbit that brings it close to Phobos every five months. It is the only spacecraft currently in orbit around Mars whose orbit reaches far enough from the planet to provide a close-up view of Phobos.

Like our Moon, Phobos always shows the same side to the planet, so it is only by flying outside the orbit that it becomes possible to observe the far side. Mars Express did just this on 7, 10 and 13 March 2010. Mars Express also collected data with other instruments.  

Phobos is an irregular body measuring some 27 × 22 × 19 km. Its origin is debated. It appears to share many surface characteristics with the class of ‘carbonaceous C-type’ asteroids, which suggests it might have been captured from this population. However, it is difficult to explain either the capture mechanism or the subsequent evolution of the orbit into the equatorial plane of Mars. An alternative hypothesis is that it formed around Mars, and is therefore a remnant from the planetary formation period.

In 2011 Russia will send a mission called Phobos–Grunt (meaning Phobos Soil) to land on the martian moon that will enable to make in-situ observations with an important payload which should operates on the surface for one year. Moreover, it will collect samples which will be sent back on Earth for precise analyses. 

 

The mission main objectives are to solve the following :

-the origin of Phobos in relation with the study of the primitive matter,

-its evolution in relation with Mars,

-the role of the asteroids impacts in the formation of the planets and in the evolution of their  atmosphere, their crust and in the inventory of the volatile elements.

Some of the more fascinating, and wild speculative theories swirling around the Phobos Gunt Mission at sites like EnterpriseMission.com  see it as  "the single most important scientific mission in the history of  the past half-century of modern solar system exploration .... with Phobos as an ancient solar system relic from an extraordinarly distant, pre-human, apparently solar-system-wide ancient high-tech civilization. One that could ultimately turn out to be directly related to our own.

It is expected that Earth-based ESA stations will take part in controlling Phobos-Grunt, receiving telemetry and making trajectory measurements, including implementation of very long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). This cooperation is realized on the basis of the agreement on collaboration of the Russian Federal Space Agency and ESA in the framework of the Phobos-Grunt and ExoMars projects (see post above). 

In the late 1950s and 1960s, the unusual orbital characteristics of Phobos led to speculations that it might be hollow. Around 1958, Russian astrophysicist Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky, studying the secular acceleration of Phobos' orbital motion, suggested a "thin sheet metal" structure for Phobos, a suggestion which led to speculations that Phobos was of artificial origin. Shklovsky based his analysis on estimates of the upper Martian atmosphere's density, and deduced that for the weak braking effect to be able to account for the secular acceleration, Phobos had to be very light.

The density of Phobos has now been directly measured by spacecraft to be 1.887 g/cm³,[4] which is inconsistent with a hollow shell. In addition, images obtained by the Viking probes in the 1970s clearly showed a natural object, not an artificial one, and the "hollow Phobos" speculations have been relegated to the status of a historical curiosity

However, mapping by the Mars Express probe and subsequent volume calculations do suggest the possible presence of vast caverns within the moon and indicate that it is not a solid chunk of rock but a porous body instead. The porosity of Phobos was calculated to be 30% ± 5%, or a quarter to a third of the moon being hollow, likely in the form of large voids.

In a July 22, 2009 interview with C-Span U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin said: "We should go boldly where man has not gone before. Fly by the comets, visit asteroids, visit Phobos, a moon of Mars. There’s a monolith there. A very unusual structure on this potato shaped object that goes around Mars once in seven hours. When people find out about that they’re going to say ‘Who put that there? Who put that there?’ The universe put it there." 

Casey Kazan via ESA

 

New NASA Mars Discovery: Evidence of an Ancient Environment Favorable for Life

June 04, 2010 - 

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/06/new-nasa-mars-discovery-evidence-of-an-ancient-environment-favorable-for-life.html#more

New NASA Mars Discovery: Evidence of an Ancient Environment Favorable for Life

The image left was taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Rover Spirit shows the rock dubbed "Pot of Gold" (upper left), located near the base of the "Columbia Hills" in Gusev Crater. Scientists were intrigued by this unusual-looking, nodule-covered rock and investigated its detailed chemistry. To the right is a set of rocks referred to as "Rotten Rocks" for their resemblance to rotting loaves of bread. 

The "Pot of Gold" rock outcrop that Spirit Mars Rover examined in late 2005 revealed high concentrations of carbonate, which originates in wet, near-neutral conditions, but dissolves in acid. The ancient water indicated by this find was not acidic; hence, it was favorable as a habitat for life.

"This is one of the most significant findings by the rovers," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is principal investigator for the Mars twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and a co-author of the new report. "A substantial carbonate deposit in a Mars outcrop tells us that conditions that could have been quite favorable for life were present at one time in that place." 

Spirit inspected rock outcrops, striking a bonanza at one the NASA scientists named Comanche, along the rover's route from the top of Husband Hill to the vicinity of the Home Plate plateau. Magnesium iron carbonate makes up about one-fourth of the measured volume in Comanche. That is a tenfold higher concentration than any previously identified for carbonate in a Martian rock.

"We used detective work combining results from three spectrometers to lock this down," said Dick Morris, lead author of the report and a member of a rover science team at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston."The instruments gave us multiple, interlocking ways of confirming the magnesium iron carbonate, with a good handle on how much there is."

Massive carbonate deposits on Mars have been sought for years without much success. Numerous channels apparently carved by flows of liquid water on ancient Mars suggest the planet was formerly warmer, thanks to greenhouse warming from a thicker atmosphere than exists now. The ancient, dense Martian atmosphere was probably rich in carbon dioxide, because that gas makes up nearly all the modern, very thin atmosphere. It is important to determine where most of the carbon dioxide went. Some theorize it departed to space. Others hypothesize that it left the atmosphere by the mixing of carbondioxide with water under conditions that led to forming carbonate minerals. That possibility, plus finding small amounts of carbonate in meteorites that originated from Mars, led to expectations in the 1990s that carbonate would be abundant on Mars. However, mineral- mapping spectrometers on orbiters since then have found evidence of localized carbonate deposits in only one area, plus small amounts distributed globally in Martian dust.

"It was like looking through dirty glasses," said Steve Ruff of Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., another co-author of the report. "We could tell there was something very different about Comanche compared with other outcrops we had seen, but we couldn't tell what it was until we developed a correction method to account for the dust on the mirror."

Spirit's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer instrument detected a high concentration of light elements, a group including carbon and oxygen, that helped quantify the carbonate content.

The rovers landed on Mars in January 2004 for missions originally planned to last three months. Spirit has been out of communication since March 22 and is in a low-power hibernation status during Martian winter. Opportunity is making steady progress toward a large crater, Endeavour, which is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) away.

Casey Kazan via NASA