One Year After Cairo, Obama's Speech: Promises Made; Promises Unkept By ESAM AL-AMIN
Yes, folks, it was one year ago that Obama was making his famous speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. One year later, VP Joe Biden is saying "What's the big deal?" about Israel machine gunning 70 unarmed activists on a humanitarian aid mission.
There's a scorecard in the article. Obama's 0 for 10 in keeping the promises he made in that speech.
This is the problem with Obama. He speaks wonderful words sometimes. But he doesn't mean them. You judge where someone is by their actions, and look at Obama supporting Israeli piracy and murder.
Obama speaks wonderful words. Just don't listen to them. Or, if you listen to enjoy the craft of his excellent speechwriters, then fine. Just don't believe them.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
American shot 4 times to the head
American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead from ABC.
Shot at close range, with four bullets to the head and one in his chest. Anyone who's ever watched anything from "CSI" to "Law and Order" to "The Sopranos" knows that's an assassin's kill. One to the heart, one to the head, from close range of course, that's the classic assassin's kill. Maybe the Criminal Minds at the BAU would tell us that the 4 to the head instead was a sign of rage towards the victim. Or maybe it was an young Israeli assassin's first kill, and he just got over excited and wasted bullets?
People who are defending themselves in a fight don't usually take the time to aim at the head. Its a smaller target than the body, and if someone is attacking you, what you want to do is stop them. So you aim for the big target. If you deliberately try a head shot and miss, the attacker might be on top of you.
Its very unlikely that a killing in self defense involved four shots to the head. What, the first three didn't stop him so the soldier had to fire a fourth time?
And look at the overall numbers. 19 dead, 60 wounded. That's not an accident. That's not somebody struggling for a gun and getting hurt. That's people opening fire on a crowd of unarmed people with a machine gun. Or multiple people firing with multiple machine guns. The typical American gun nut in a mall usually can't rack up scores that high, so this is most likely multiple people with machine guns firing into a crowd.
There are huge holes in Israel's story that any thinking person can see.
But don't expect it to get any better .... the official investigation of this is left to the Israelis. Now there's a deal even Tony Soprano could never get. Being named the head investigator on one of his own hits.
PS ... note how the early testimony from eye-witnesses, such as below, and which was denied by Israel's apologists, now turns out to be true once Israel can no longer hide at least some of the evidence ... his body.
A U.S. citizen who lived in Turkey is among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, officials said today. The victim was identified as Furkan Dogan, 19, a Turkish-American. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, according to the Anatolian news agency.
Shot at close range, with four bullets to the head and one in his chest. Anyone who's ever watched anything from "CSI" to "Law and Order" to "The Sopranos" knows that's an assassin's kill. One to the heart, one to the head, from close range of course, that's the classic assassin's kill. Maybe the Criminal Minds at the BAU would tell us that the 4 to the head instead was a sign of rage towards the victim. Or maybe it was an young Israeli assassin's first kill, and he just got over excited and wasted bullets?
People who are defending themselves in a fight don't usually take the time to aim at the head. Its a smaller target than the body, and if someone is attacking you, what you want to do is stop them. So you aim for the big target. If you deliberately try a head shot and miss, the attacker might be on top of you.
Its very unlikely that a killing in self defense involved four shots to the head. What, the first three didn't stop him so the soldier had to fire a fourth time?
And look at the overall numbers. 19 dead, 60 wounded. That's not an accident. That's not somebody struggling for a gun and getting hurt. That's people opening fire on a crowd of unarmed people with a machine gun. Or multiple people firing with multiple machine guns. The typical American gun nut in a mall usually can't rack up scores that high, so this is most likely multiple people with machine guns firing into a crowd.
There are huge holes in Israel's story that any thinking person can see.
But don't expect it to get any better .... the official investigation of this is left to the Israelis. Now there's a deal even Tony Soprano could never get. Being named the head investigator on one of his own hits.
PS ... note how the early testimony from eye-witnesses, such as below, and which was denied by Israel's apologists, now turns out to be true once Israel can no longer hide at least some of the evidence ... his body.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Some of them shot in the passengers' heads. Many people were murdered – it was unimaginable."
Gaza flotilla raid: 'We heard gunfire – then our ship turned into lake of blood' from the Guardian(UK).
Israel tried to control the story for a day by detaining these people. But, now they've been released and its becoming possible to hear eye-witness accounts of the raid. You really should go read this .... and its ok to cry.
and
To hear that she expected to be shot in the legs is horrifying. Shooting in the air to do a Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation and scare people is one thing, but just shooting people in the legs for the heck of it, that makes me shudder. Then, the true horror comes as you read on and realize that this is just setting up that they were directly shooting people in the heads instead.
Of course the fact that the Israelis were deliberately shooting at the heads of their victims will not surprise anyone in Gaza.
There's more than that ... follow the link. I can't copy any more of it right now.
Israel tried to control the story for a day by detaining these people. But, now they've been released and its becoming possible to hear eye-witness accounts of the raid. You really should go read this .... and its ok to cry.
"I can promise there was not a single weapon aboard the ships," he told a reporter who was returning to Sweden with him after the writer had been deported by Israel.
and
Iara Lee, a Brazilian filmmaker who was also on the Mavi Marmara, claimed the Israeli troops had invaded the ship after cutting all communications and "started shooting at people". She spoke to Brazil's TV Globo from the prison in southern Israel where an estimated 600 foreign activists, including around 40 Britons, were being held. Israeli officials said tonight that they would all be freed immediately.
Lee said: "[The attack] was a surprise, because it happened in the middle of the night, in the darkness, in international waters, because we knew there would be a confrontation but not in international waters. Their first tactic was to cut all of our satellite communications and then they attacked. All I witnessed first hand was the shooting. They came on board and started shooting at people."
She said the commandos then sent the women to a lower level of the ship.
"They said we were terrorists – it was absurd. They came into the part where the women were, lots and lots of them, dressed in black and with gigantic weapons as if they were in a war. They confiscated all of our telephones and all of our luggage and took everything out of the bags and put it on the floor."
"We expected them to shoot people in the legs, to shoot in the air, just to scare people, but they were direct," she said, in a separate interview with the Folha de São Paulo newspaper. "Some of them shot in the passengers' heads. Many people were murdered – it was unimaginable."
To hear that she expected to be shot in the legs is horrifying. Shooting in the air to do a Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation and scare people is one thing, but just shooting people in the legs for the heck of it, that makes me shudder. Then, the true horror comes as you read on and realize that this is just setting up that they were directly shooting people in the heads instead.
Of course the fact that the Israelis were deliberately shooting at the heads of their victims will not surprise anyone in Gaza.
There's more than that ... follow the link. I can't copy any more of it right now.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
What my Congressperson really thinks.
This is the bottom left corner of my Congressperson's web page.The message seems rather unmistakable.
Felony Murder
The Flotilla Massacre - Israeli Commandos Fired Unprovoked Into Sleeping Civilians: Eyewitnesses By Nafeez Ahmed
Of course, I have no idea what happened out in the Med. I wasn't there. But, since major corporations will be blasting the Israeli version of events at you a thousand times today, I thought I'd post what the other side is saying.
If they were shooting the moment they hit the deck, which the Israelis deny, then that's premeditated murder.
I'd love to get a CSI team on that ship. What do the gunshot patterns look like? Do they look like they were fired by someone descending on a rope from a helicopter? Do the locations of the gunshot impacts agree with the stories of struggles with the passengers? Or do they look like someone who'd just hit the deck opened fire?
Israel is denying all access to the ship, and to any videos or pictures that they don't release? It seems as if the last thing they want is to have any of these questions answered.
If someone dies when you commit a crime, that's felony murder. The boarding was definitely a crime. It was a ship of unarmed people and building supplies who'd been videoed ever since they'd assembled. It was 40 miles off the coast. There is no claim of Israeli self defense because Israel was under no immediate threat from a floating pile of lumber forty miles off its coast.
If someone commits armed robbery, and if the victim struggles for the gun and it goes off, the robber is still held responsible. It doesn't matter who struggled or who resisted. These are not justifications of murder.
No US court would accept from a defendant the claim that he had to kill a jewelry store clerk in self defense because he resisted his attempt at armed robbery. There is no reason to accept this from Israel.
Then, the following shocking account at 6:30 yesterday morning, from Greta Berlin - an account which not only explains why whatever the crew of peace activists did, they were doing it in self-defence, amidst an unfolding massacre:
Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck. They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep... Streaming video shows the Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians, and our last SPOT beacon said, "HELP, we are being contacted by the Israelis."
Of course, I have no idea what happened out in the Med. I wasn't there. But, since major corporations will be blasting the Israeli version of events at you a thousand times today, I thought I'd post what the other side is saying.
If they were shooting the moment they hit the deck, which the Israelis deny, then that's premeditated murder.
I'd love to get a CSI team on that ship. What do the gunshot patterns look like? Do they look like they were fired by someone descending on a rope from a helicopter? Do the locations of the gunshot impacts agree with the stories of struggles with the passengers? Or do they look like someone who'd just hit the deck opened fire?
Israel is denying all access to the ship, and to any videos or pictures that they don't release? It seems as if the last thing they want is to have any of these questions answered.
If someone dies when you commit a crime, that's felony murder. The boarding was definitely a crime. It was a ship of unarmed people and building supplies who'd been videoed ever since they'd assembled. It was 40 miles off the coast. There is no claim of Israeli self defense because Israel was under no immediate threat from a floating pile of lumber forty miles off its coast.
If someone commits armed robbery, and if the victim struggles for the gun and it goes off, the robber is still held responsible. It doesn't matter who struggled or who resisted. These are not justifications of murder.
No US court would accept from a defendant the claim that he had to kill a jewelry store clerk in self defense because he resisted his attempt at armed robbery. There is no reason to accept this from Israel.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Self Defense
Israel claims a right to attack for its own self-defense. Israel make ridiculously large claims of self-defense, which basically amount to a right to attack anyone in the world at any time if the Israelis on their own decide to do so.
The latest example was of course the attacks on ships trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel claims the right to attack peaceful people on ships carrying building supplies, medicines, food and children toys as act of self-defense.
Any legitimate right is available to everyone. This is one of the basic principles of freedom. So, the flaw in Israel's claims quickly becomes obvious when they deny any right to self defense to anyone else.
For instance, think of the people who are ships peacefully sailing in international waters. Do they have a right to self-defense? In Israel's mind, none at all. Because as you read Israeli statements, they justify the murder of 16 or so people and the wounding of 60 more because the people on the ship gave the feeblest of resistance when suddenly attacked at night in the dark by Israeli commandos.
In Israel's mind, they have the right to attack anyone in the world and call it self-defense. And no one in the world has any right to ever defend itself against an Israeli attack.
This is of course insanity. Its an armed and violent insanity from people with nuclear weapons. An nuclear armed Israel that produces this sort of deranged reasoning to justify its constant violence against anyone around it seems a much greater threat to world security than any Iranian bomb. There's only speculation that Iran might use such a weapon, while Israel leaves stacks of dead bodies wherever it turns its evil gaze.
The UN should be debating sanctions. But they've got the wrong country. The UN should be debating sanctions against Israel. We as Americans need to change our government for that to occur.
At the very least, Americans should be demanding a government that does not put the interests of a foreign country ahead of its own. There is no American interest in backing a vicious country that just killed a bunch of people on a humanitarian mission. In fact, doing so puts America in a much worse position in the world and puts the lives of Americans in greater danger of some sort of blowback attacks.
We as Americans must insist that our leaders look out for the interests of our country first. Any politician who says they support Israel should be removed from office. If they want a seat in the Knesset, let them go try to get one. If they want to keep their seat in the American Congress, then they had better start looking out for American interests.
And at the very least, with a crashing economy and spiraling deficits, its very clear that America can not afford the $5 billion or more of aid we give Israel every year. We need that money for Americans. Its time to look out for ourselves, and to tell Israel that they are on their own.
The latest example was of course the attacks on ships trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel claims the right to attack peaceful people on ships carrying building supplies, medicines, food and children toys as act of self-defense.
Any legitimate right is available to everyone. This is one of the basic principles of freedom. So, the flaw in Israel's claims quickly becomes obvious when they deny any right to self defense to anyone else.
For instance, think of the people who are ships peacefully sailing in international waters. Do they have a right to self-defense? In Israel's mind, none at all. Because as you read Israeli statements, they justify the murder of 16 or so people and the wounding of 60 more because the people on the ship gave the feeblest of resistance when suddenly attacked at night in the dark by Israeli commandos.
In Israel's mind, they have the right to attack anyone in the world and call it self-defense. And no one in the world has any right to ever defend itself against an Israeli attack.
This is of course insanity. Its an armed and violent insanity from people with nuclear weapons. An nuclear armed Israel that produces this sort of deranged reasoning to justify its constant violence against anyone around it seems a much greater threat to world security than any Iranian bomb. There's only speculation that Iran might use such a weapon, while Israel leaves stacks of dead bodies wherever it turns its evil gaze.
The UN should be debating sanctions. But they've got the wrong country. The UN should be debating sanctions against Israel. We as Americans need to change our government for that to occur.
At the very least, Americans should be demanding a government that does not put the interests of a foreign country ahead of its own. There is no American interest in backing a vicious country that just killed a bunch of people on a humanitarian mission. In fact, doing so puts America in a much worse position in the world and puts the lives of Americans in greater danger of some sort of blowback attacks.
We as Americans must insist that our leaders look out for the interests of our country first. Any politician who says they support Israel should be removed from office. If they want a seat in the Knesset, let them go try to get one. If they want to keep their seat in the American Congress, then they had better start looking out for American interests.
And at the very least, with a crashing economy and spiraling deficits, its very clear that America can not afford the $5 billion or more of aid we give Israel every year. We need that money for Americans. Its time to look out for ourselves, and to tell Israel that they are on their own.
Candlelight vigils?
I think we should be holding candlelight vigils for the slain over the next few nights.
We should start tonight. But we should also be organizing and getting word out that we'll do this for the next few nights. Give them time to grow.
I've got an image of millions of people around the world expressing their revulsion at these acts by standing vigil with a candle for the fallen.
We got 30,000,000 out in protest against the Iraq War in 2002. Can we get that many out in candlelight vigils around the world the next few nights? What would that look like? I know I'd like to find out.
We should start tonight. But we should also be organizing and getting word out that we'll do this for the next few nights. Give them time to grow.
I've got an image of millions of people around the world expressing their revulsion at these acts by standing vigil with a candle for the fallen.
We got 30,000,000 out in protest against the Iraq War in 2002. Can we get that many out in candlelight vigils around the world the next few nights? What would that look like? I know I'd like to find out.
Emergency Protest against Israeli murders
If you are reading this in Denver, CO, there's an emergency protest outside the Denver Post. Email said starts at 11, didn't give an ending time.
If you are somewhere else, look around. Bet there's one in your area. Or maybe you need to start one?
To me, this was a murderous attack on people who were only bringing humanitarian supplies to desperate people. I happen to admire people willing to do that. And I'm horrified at their murder. Are we going to let this pass in silence?
If there are no Israeli government institutions in your area, targeting the local corporate media is a good idea. Be willing to bet that your local paper is reporting this like the Denver Post ... ie ...long statements direct from Israeli officials giving their justifications ... then maybe down near the end of the piece you might find a paragraph that says 'activists disagree'. In other words, they are directly pushing out the Israeli version of these events.
Which makes them accessories after the fact to the murder of humanitarians, and certainly worthy of a crowd of people with signs outside protesting their involvement.
If you are somewhere else, look around. Bet there's one in your area. Or maybe you need to start one?
To me, this was a murderous attack on people who were only bringing humanitarian supplies to desperate people. I happen to admire people willing to do that. And I'm horrified at their murder. Are we going to let this pass in silence?
If there are no Israeli government institutions in your area, targeting the local corporate media is a good idea. Be willing to bet that your local paper is reporting this like the Denver Post ... ie ...long statements direct from Israeli officials giving their justifications ... then maybe down near the end of the piece you might find a paragraph that says 'activists disagree'. In other words, they are directly pushing out the Israeli version of these events.
Which makes them accessories after the fact to the murder of humanitarians, and certainly worthy of a crowd of people with signs outside protesting their involvement.
OMG -- Israelis Murder 16 on Aid Boats.
Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet
The Israelis have now murdered 16 people who's only crime was to try to bring aid to people Israel wants to torture. Anyone could see from videos that the people on these boats were peaceful civilians. Instead, the Israelis storm the ships firing live ammunition. 16 dead.
When does the world say enough? When do Americans decide that we no longer support these murderers with $5 to $10 billion a year of our tax money? Why are we funding murderers and not jobs for Americans?
Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza.
Up to 16 people were killed and dozens injured when troops stormed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, the Israeli Army Radio said
The Israelis have now murdered 16 people who's only crime was to try to bring aid to people Israel wants to torture. Anyone could see from videos that the people on these boats were peaceful civilians. Instead, the Israelis storm the ships firing live ammunition. 16 dead.
When does the world say enough? When do Americans decide that we no longer support these murderers with $5 to $10 billion a year of our tax money? Why are we funding murderers and not jobs for Americans?
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Obama's legacy
Sometimes life has a way of intervening while one is making other plans.
Obama didn't plan for his legacy to be the world's worst oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But it is indeed his legacy. I'm sure he'll try to duck it. But this is Obama's oil spill.
Obama has been in office for a year and half. If he'd wanted to change policies on off-shore drilling, he had time to do so. For instance, a President could well have called for a moratorium if they felt safety issues needed to be reviewed. In fact, we know Obama knows that he could change policies if he wants to, because he's in the process of doing so .... to expand offshore drilling in the Gulf.How many Obamabots realized last election that they were voting for "Drill, Baby, Drill"? The key is to learn the lesson from it.
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