Targetkillings Lawsuit: US Boy Killed By U.S. Drone

Published on Jul 18, 2012 by acluvideos : The ACLU and CCR have filed a lawsuit challenging the government's targeted killing of three U.S. citizens in drone strikes far from any armed conflict zone.

In Al-Aulaqi v. Panetta (Al-Awlaki v. Panetta) the groups charge that the U.S. government's killings of U.S. citizens Anwar Al-Aulaqi, Samir Khan, and 16-year-old Abdulrahman Al-Aulaqi in Yemen last year violated the Constitution's fundamental guarantee against the deprivation of life without due process of law.

The killings were part of a broader program of "targeted killing" by the United States outside the context of armed conflict and based on vague legal standards, a closed executive process, and evidence never presented to the courts.

German intelligence: al-Qaeda all over Syria

German intelligence estimates that "around 90" terror attacks that "can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups" were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July, as reported by the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This was revealed by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question. 

In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified "by reason of national interest", Like many other Western governments, Germany expelled Syria's ambassador in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, holding the Syrian government responsible for the violence. 

Meanwhile, at least three major German newspapers - Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild - have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario. 

Writing in Bild, longtime German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer accused the rebels of "deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government". He described this "massacre-marketing strategy" as being "among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict". Todenhofer had recently been to Damascus, where he interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Germany's ARD public television. 

Violence against Muslims in Myanmar

Published on Jul 27, 2012 by presstvmobile : Indonesians call for end...

Destroying Afghanistan's gene pool ?

water and food chain with depleted uranium

The United States' use of radioactive munitions (Depleted uranium is radioactive and extremely destructive to humans - with a half-life of 4.5 billion years) in Afghanistan has destroyed the people's health and mutilated the genetic future of the country, Press TV reports.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi under fire for silence on Rohingya massacre

Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, who tried to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence, are kept under watch by Bangladeshi security officials after disembarking from an intercepted boat in Teknaf on June 18, 2012.

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has come under fire for her silence on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims.

The Noble Peace laureate has refused to speak out against abuses committed by Myanmar’s military on Rohingyas, described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted people in the world. 

Ironically, just days after she received a peace prize, Suu Kyi told reporters she did not know if Rohingyas were Burmese.

Activists, who used to support the world famous symbol of human rights through her years of imprisonment and isolation, now accuse her of ignoring the most pressing human rights issue in her country today. 

“It’s disappointing, she is in a difficult position, but people have been disappointed she hasn’t been more outspoken,” said Anna Roberts, executive director of the Burma Campaign UK. 

“She passed up opportunities to say good things on this,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. 

“This was all blowing up when she was travelling in Europe and she didn’t confront it,” he added, referring to her recent foreign tour to London, Dublin, Paris and Oslo. 

Suu Kyi is under fire as she also refused to criticize President Thein Sein, a former military general, for endorsing policies of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority.

Thin Sein said the 800,000 Rohingya population should be put in camps and sent across the border to Bangladesh. 

Some analysts say her inaction is politically motivated. 

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy looks ahead to elections in 2015. They say Suu Kyi fears that expressing support for the Muslim minority could jeopardize her campaign. 

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, who it claims are not natives and classifies as illegal migrants, although the Rohingya are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century. 

The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services. 

Reports say 650 Rohingya Muslims were killed as of June 28 alone during clashes in the western region of Rakhine. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced. 

original report | Fri 27 Jul 2012

US assassination drones kill 12 in northwestern Pakistan

A US Predator drone firing a Hellfire missile (file photo)

At least 12 people have been killed in a US assassination drone strike in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border. In the attack, which occurred on Monday, US drones fired several missiles at a private compound in the Shawal area in the North Waziristan tribal region, Reuters reported. 

 The targeted compound is in Dray Nashtar village, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan. Local residents said that the airstrike sparked a huge fire in the building. Most of the bodies have been recovered from the rubble. Some local media reports said five drones were still hovering over the area, creating panic among the people in the tribal region, and hampering the rescue work.

 Despite Pakistani government’s repeated calls on Washington to end the drone attacks, the US government continues its strikes on the tribal regions of the country. Washington claims its drone strikes target militants, although casualty figures clearly indicate that Pakistani civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks. Some 200 people have died in drone attacks in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions since the beginning of this year. 

 The killing of Pakistani civilians, including women and children, in the US drone strikes has strained relations between Islamabad and Washington, prompting Pakistani officials to send warnings to the US administration over the assaults. On January 31, US President Barack Obama confirmed that the United States uses the unmanned drones in Pakistan and other countries. 

 In reply to questions about the use of the assassination drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, the US president said, “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA” -- Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The aerial attacks were initiated by former US President George W. Bush but have been escalated under Obama.

Original : July 23, 2012 

Human rights disaster unfolding in Libya

By Derek Ford | JULY 21, 2012

Armed militias, previously employed by the NTC to fight against Gaddafi’s supporters, continue to roam the country, looting villages and engaging in abductions, killings and torture.

Nine months after the U.S./NATO-led overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi government in Libya, the country remains entrenched in violence and disorder; human rights abuses are rampant.

In fact, according to Nasser al-Hawary of the Libyan Observatory for Human Rights, “The human rights situation in Libya now is far worse than under the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi.” (Inter Press Service, July 14) This statement is telling, especially given that its source is a political opponent of the former government.

The National Transition Council, the pro-imperialist governing body in Libya, has been unable to establish any authority over the country. Armed militias, previously employed by the NTC to fight against Gaddafi’s supporters, continue to roam the country, looting villages and engaging in abductions, killings and torture.

Full Report : 

'Burma Muslims'

Palestine in same boat
 Published on Jul 21, 2012 by presstvmobile :

Israel continues illegal settlement expansion.

Published on Jul 16, 2012 by presstvmobile:

17th Anniversary - Srebrenica massacre

Published on Jul 11, 2012 by aston79suara : More victims found using DNA

ICC jails DRC warlord over child soldiers

Published on Jul 10, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish : Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by the ICC. He was convicted for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003. It is the first sentence handed down by the ICC in the Hague since it was established 10 years ago.

Mossad murdered at least four Iranian nuclear experts: Journalists

The cover of the book “Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars” by CBS national correspondent Dan Raviv and Israeli journalist Yossi Melman.

A new book has identified the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, as the culprit in the assassination of at least four Iranian nuclear scientists as part of a campaign to sabotage Iran's nuclear energy program.

In their book, entitled Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars, CBS national correspondent Dan Raviv and Israeli journalist Yossi Melman said that Israeli spies have killed at least four Iranian nuclear scientists. 

The Mossad agents are well-trained in shooting and placing “exquisitely shaped sticky bombs" and consider it their hallmark, the Associated Press quoted Raviv as saying on Friday.The book also says the assassinations were part of a campaign aimed at preventing Iran from developing its nuclear energy program.

"They don't farm out a mission that is that sensitive," so sensitive that Israel's prime minister has to sign off on it personally, Raviv said. 

"They might use dissidents for assistance or logistics but not the hit itself. The methodology and training and use of motorcycles is all out of the Mossad playbook. They wouldn't trust anybody else to do it." 

Iran had already announced that Iranian scientists Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Daryoush Rezaeinejad, Professor Majid Shahriari, and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi were all assassinated by Israeli agents. 

Ahmadi Roshan and his driver (Reza Qashqaei) were assassinated in January 2012 after a motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to their car in Tehran. 

On July 23, 2011, gunmen killed Rezaeinejad outside his house in Tehran. Rezaeinejad and his wife were on their way to their child's kindergarten when they were approached by two men on a motorbike. The gunmen called him by name and shot Rezaeinejad, 35, in the neck when he turned around. 

On November 29, 2010, terrorists attached bombs to the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi and detonated the explosives. Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi and his wife only sustained minor injuries. 

Professor Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010. The bombing took place near the professor's home in the Qeytariyeh neighborhood of northern Tehran.  

Israel panel backs legalizing West Bank outposts.

JERUSALEM -- A government-appointed committee is recommending that Israel legalize dozens of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts.

Committee member Alan Baker says the panel believes Israel has the right to settle the West Bank because the territory is not occupied.

The international community does not accept that view and says settlements hinder peacemaking.

Baker said Monday the outposts were not authorized because government officials froze approvals under international pressure. He said the panel thinks the approval process should be completed.

Baker says the committee concluded the West Bank is not occupied because it has no sovereign power.

Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. Jordan had annexed it in 1948 in a move not recognized by most of the international community, but renounced all claims to the territory in 1988.

Original Report : Jul. 8, 2012